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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.
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Untitled Article
tlieix r ^ vAfd , though ypu Ihink in this * all seem willing to agree" ; for as the righteous will be reward . ed according to their works , they must be rewarded in different de .
grfces , Unless it can be proved they are all equal in piety 5 virtue and goodness ; but what degrees can there be in immortality ? No one who is raised to immortality can be more or less than immortal .
I know not that you are autho . rized to say eternal life will be properly a reward , though the jast will inherit it ; for it is corn - municated as a free gift . You contend that eternal death , a form
of expression no where to be found iti the scriptures , by which you mean endless loss of being , will be the punishment of the wicked hereafter ; yet as they will be punished according to their evil
works , and all are not guilty alike , yfcu must admit there will be degrees in future punishment ; but tkere can be no degrees in endless loss of being ; on this h ypothesis & 11 Criines and criminals
wilt be punished exactly alike ; Whiph is cpntfary to both scripture | and reason . If you say they will b < J ptinished in different degrees befpre they are destroyed ,
this is changing the ground , and giving up the notion for which y < m contend , that eternal death will be the punishment , and making it only that in which the punishment will issue .
Though tjiefmure existence and happiness of the righteous are plainly revealed , yoiv will not contend that none of the language applied in scripture to their future state is figurative ; you believe that ' * it does not yet appear what we shall be / ' This subject then is hot free from obscurity . We
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believe that the future punishnieht of the wicked is plainly revealedt and can you explain in what way ^ how long , or how much , thiejF will suffer ? Is there no figiUra *
tive language used in thedescrip * lions given of their punishment ^ Will you then &till say that it is supposition only , that their punishment is involved in awful ob * scurity ? The reasoning by whicfr
you attempt to reconcile your hypothesis with the character of God , comes not to the point . Though it is fully granted that God has an unquestionable right
to make what differences he please in the constitution of his creatures , and the period of their duration ' : yet it should ever be remembered that he is a righteous judge , and a merciful Father . You have not
shewn how it comports with his : character as a righteous governor and impartial judge , to hurl one of his subjects to endless destrucir tion , and raise another to endless life and happiness , wheti the shades of difference in their
character and conduct are comparatively slight : nor how it agrees with his character as a gracious Father to consign to endless cfestruction a part of his rational offspring ; to raise from the silent toinb those to whom he stands in
the endearing relation of a father that they may only suffer and be eternally lost . Reconcile your doctrine , if you can , with what the scriptures teach of the
paternal love and infinite goodness of God * You compare human beings to oaks and acorns , and reason as if their destruction or preservation was of no more
estimation with the Almighty than the destruction or preservation of an acorn : remember , Sir , the wprds
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Mr . Wrigbt on Future Punishment . g&
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1814, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2437/page/27/
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