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warded and punished according t& our deeds done ia the body ; but of the manner in which this
will be accomplished we are wholly ignorant ; and it does not become any of us to dogmatise on the subject . We should " Wait the great teacher death , and Cod adore . "
The doctrine of the necessity of human actions is anotb er accessory , of a nature to alarm and perplex men even of sound understanding , and therefore very improper to be urged . To reconcile the divine prescience with the liberty of human actions is difficult : but the
doctrine of necessity takes away all difference between right and wrang , vice and virtue . We all feel and believe , whatever the advocates * for necessity may say to the contrary , that our actions are under our own guidance ; that there is both vice and vif tue :
that they are most opposite to each other ; and that all morality and religion are founded on this dis * tinciion . I must act upon this belief . Why , then , puzzle the understandings of men with at *
tempts to explain what cannot be understood , and of which they who attempt to inform others are as ignorant as any among their hearers . The origin of the evil that
abounds in the world , some also pretend to account for ; but they leave us as much in the dark , on this difficult subject , as we were before . , * ,
Is the discussion of such dark and profound questions , which have foiled the sagacity of the greatest philosophers and the most leainsd and acute divines , before a ffii ^ edrcongregation , likely to be attended with any benefit to the hearers ? Will it conduce to make
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m ^ n more just and honest , more sincerely pious and benevolent ? Is it not rather likely to confound
their understandings , or to produce general scepticism ? Above all , does it become any men in their present state of ignorance , to be positive on such points , and to make them articles of faith ?
Such , Sir , are the particulars in the conduct of the Unitarian Fund Society , which must , while they exist , keep me at a distance from it . Nevertheless , with
sincere good-will , wishing them success in all that part of the design of which I have before expressed my approbation , I subscribe myself , Yours , X . X , A SECEDER .
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JOHN MILTON . Urvus patronus bonce causes satis est . Episcofius . No . XXV . Popular Preaching and Pulpit Training . But here it will be readily ob ~ jected , What if they who are to be instructed , be not able to mai n *
tain a minister , as in many villages ? I answer , That the scri p * ture shews in many places what ought to be done herein . First , I offer it to the reason of any man whether he think the
knowledge of Christian religion harder than any other art or science to attain . I suppose-he will grant , that it is far easier , ; both of itself , and in regard of God ' s assisting Spirit , not particularly promised us to the attainment of other knowledge , but of this only ; since it was preached as well to the shepherds of Bethlehem by angels
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John Milfott . 323 M- > '
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 323, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/39/
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