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cause ; and whatever benefit the supporters of what may well be termed a system of terror , may hope to arise from it , is most effectually done away by the easy mode , which is now so generally looked forward to , of escaping any
punishment at all . That the infinite mercy of the Creator will be extended to every thing that he hath made , is a prime article in my creed ; but to suppose that by a sort of theological legerdemain , of which those who call themselves
evangelical ministers are universally possessed , men of the worst description , the open profligate , the artful hypocrite , the base deceiver , the midnight robber , the cruel murderer ;—to suppose that a man , who for years has been plunged deep in the pit of vice , may , by the help of the chaplain of the jail , or the person who is called upon to attend his sick bed , in the course of a few days or hours , be brought into a state
which will entitle him to the blissful welcome promised to the" good and faithful servant , " is what I think no rational Christian can
Deneve . I would be farfrom discouraging all possible efforts to bring sinners to repentance , even at their latest
hour j and the more guilty they have been , the more strenuous these efforts ought to be : for every good idea that can be implanted , and
every evil one which can be rooted out , is a step towards Jight and blessedness , from darkness find condemnation ; but let us be careful that our desire to ease the mind
of the sick or condemned man , and to magnify what we call the mercy of God , does not lead us to flatter him with false hopes . TheapQstle pronounces " indigna-
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O ? i Death-bed Repentance , 3 . 03
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4 ) n -Death-bed Repentance . "Sift , I shall thank you for an opportunity of calling the attention of yont readers to what appears to
me one of the great evils of the present day , one principal source of its vices and crimes ; and this is , the notion which appears so generally to prevail in all ranks , and almost universally in the lower , that a few days or hours of prayer
and contrition , before death , may put the most atrocious sinner upon a complete level , with regard to future hopes and expectations , with the man , who , from his youth up , has sincerely endeavoured to conform his will and ways to the written word of God . I do not
pretend to be a deep casuist in theology , but am fully persuaded that this cannot be a scriptural doctrine , when I witness its baneful effects upon my fellow creatures . Judging it by the sure criterion which Christ himself hath
given us , By their fruits ye shall know them , " it surely falls to the ground ; nor can it be reconciled to the frequent and unequivocal declarations contained in the
sacred writings , that every one will be finally rewarded or punished * according to his works , " The belief that an infinitely powerful and good God will condemn any creature to exist in
never-ending torments , is too horrible , too irrational , and too contfdry to apd subversive of the most glorious of his attributes , to be , in these times , generally held bv
thinking men , though it is countenanced by many , as a useful check upon the evil propensities of the vulgar . Falsehood , however , never was , nor ever can be , useful to a good
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 303, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/19/
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