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f > f direct aad miraculous commutation from God . But however men may have deceived themselves , I must be permitted to doubt , whether any rational
creature ever did seriously believe , at the same time , in the infinite benevolence of the Deity and in the endless torments of sinners . The fact is > that men have thought
Hide aboutitin the . point of viewin which it is here placed ; and when it is recollected how many ages it has been made one of the prime articles of the orthodox creed , and the source of so lucrative a trade
to the apostate church , for which their purgatory was introduced into the drama , is it to be wondered at that without enquiry , when men have taken it for gran ted ^ and parents have taught their children and perpetuated the belief , that the wicked would be burnt
everlastingly in hell fire , with the de . vil ' aml his angels , that it should have become the popular creed ? This is all the foundation on which it is built ; for I shall hereafter shew it is no doctrine of the New Testament .
As it is to be hoped in this enlightened period there is no rational Christian who believes in this doctrine , it will not be necessary here to enlarge upon it ; as my business chiefly lies with the second class of Christians who
are generally called Universalists , who avow their belief that the punishment of the wicked will be long and severe , but remedial and corrective , and that when they "Wfe been sufficiently punished
for theffr crimes here , they will be admitted 16 the ertjoyrtient of everlasting happiness . In support of |«^ x > pinion I have sought in vain fcr ***» y ** crmtftraft evidence . I
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have a small tract * on this subject now lying-before me , written by a most excellent man , who has evinced the zeal and labours of an apostle ; and as he has given sa summary of all the material arguments in support of this doctrine , J shall for the sake of brevity che from it such passages as seem suited to my purpose . " Those ( says he ) who contend that future punishment will be corrective ^ don ' t pretend ( o a knowledge of its limits ; they suppose the subject involved in such awful obscurity , that the impenitent sinner has ever } ' thing to fear ; and in con * tending that it will be corrective , they mean that it will produce the moral improvement of the
punished . " To these suppositions I have nothing to say they are supported by no evidence , they are
suppositions only ! . A grain— < c It is not now contended ( says he ) that the final restitution of all mankind is so clearly revealed in the Scriptures , as to be capable of being support *
ed otherwise than by inference and deduction , nor that it ought to be ? maintained as a leading or fundamental doctrine of Christianity ; it is presumed to be a fair deduction from the character and known perfections of God , and from various declarations in the sacred writings ; and that it is capable of being supported by just reasoning and fair inference , and on this
ground its advocates are willing to rest it . ' * And if this be its best ground , like all other
structures without a foundation , it must , I suspect , fall . If the scriptures had not cemtained positive declarations tyf the Wyiffht on Futura PfenUfeOKQA *
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On Future Punishment . - 641
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V YII * . 4 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1813, page 641, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2433/page/17/
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