On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Another instance , proving the fame thing , occurred soon after , when calling upon a poor man who was ill , a recent bad action of a very profligate person in the village happened to be mentioned , and I said , " What will he do , when he comes to your condi . tion ?** u O , when it comes to that , he will repent , " was the answer that he made me : and thus , I believe , it will pretty generally be found , that few are deterred from evil by ^ , ny strong apprehensions of future punishmeni .
What contributes greatly to spread this fatal delusion , is the frequent accounts we see in the public papers of the happy and even triumphant deaths of men with hands yet red with the blood of their fellow creatures . A most
atrocious raurdefer was , some months ago , executed within a few miles of my * place of abode , who , on ascending the scaffold * declared it to be the happiest day of his life ; that he was going to be ever with the Lord ; and called upon the crowd below to join him in a hymn of thanksgiving !! A short time before , I am shocked to say , Jive men were hanged upon the same spot for a burglary 5 and it was commonly reported , and I believe with truth , that the chaplain boasted of the pleasure he had experienced in attending upon them ;
as though they had led the wickedest of lives , they died the best of Christian ^ 1 heard this
repeated in a pjretty large cornpany , and no one expressed the least degree of disapprobation . xiiis is certainly giving all-possible encouragement to crimes ; I had almost said , it is holding out the
Kingdom of heaven as a premium for their comiptesipn , and pointing
Untitled Article
the gallows as thq open gats through which we may pa $ s to immediate possession . By thus grossly perverting the heart-cheering doctrine of mercy
and forgiveness to the truly penitent , we lose the two great restraints upon the violent passions of men , the two principal incitements to a holy and virtuous life , hope and year . Notwithstanding the numerous and plain declarations of
scripture to the contrary , we are taught that happiness may be attained and misery avoided , without the least regard being had to purity of heart or life . This fatal perversion of the truth counteracts , in a great degree , that powerful influence which the awful doctrine
of ^ , future just and merciful retribution must have upon the minds of believers , and accounts for the lukewarm insensibility of many , and the varied vices which infect ,
in different measures , so large a part of this enlightened and Christian nation . The terror of neverending torments , and no lessor degrees of punishment are held out to the vulgar , like the written
penalties of our own criminal code , is too severe and heavy for a just and merciful judge to execute ; and men are encouraged to transgress by the hope , and even expectation , of complete impunity *
This idea , too , operates upon the minds of those who attend upon the vicious in their last hours : they cannot believe it possible that God , who is infinitely good ^ will condemn the poor qreature before
them to a destiny more lncqnceivably dreadful than can enter into the heart of map to iqaagine ; therefore thiey pot only soqthe him wjth \ he hopes of ^ ardqn , but boweiver detestable tfte habits of hi *
Untitled Article
On Death + led Repentance . 305
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 305, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/21/
-