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Untitled Article
$ tid efts of itself decisive , if capable of being established , in suppQjcX of the subject for which he contends . See p . I , and p . 6 ,
before referred to . In the preceding letter , the arguments he has adduced to prove this point , have been examined , and , I think , have been shewn to be altogether insufficient for the purpose .
We come now to examine the inferential evidence to which he appeals in support of the doctrine of Universal Restitution . We might here avail ourselves of the doctor ' s
own concession , without going into an examination of the passages from which his inferences are c | rawn , as a full and complete refutation of a doctrine which has nothing to support it but mere inferential evidence . His words
are ( p . 56 . ) y " Had this been a doctrine of revelation , it would have been , as it easily might have beeix , conveyed in unequivocal language . " The doctor ' s criterion then by which we are to determine whether a doctrine be a doctrine
of divine revelation or not 5 is , that every such doctrine must be conveyed in plain , clear ' * unequivocal language , " and that doctrines not so conveyed , but which
depend upon mere inference and reasoning from either texts of scripture , or from the attributes oi God , are not doctrines of revelation . Let us then try the dpctrine of the future restoration
of the wicked by this criterion . The doctor acknowledges that that doctrine is not conveyed to us in « ' unequivocal language /* orany
express declaration of scripture , bqt is " taught by necessary inference / ' ami he asks , ( p . 136 . ) *) Js matt always to be a . being of on ^ proposition ? Is nothing to
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be learned by reason or infer ^ nttt , when the mind becomes capable of pursuing a train of reasoning and of drawing inferences ? " Updri
the doctor ' s own statement then , the conclusion is inevitable , that the doctrine for which he contends is not a doctrine of revelation *
This argument , however , is adduced by the doctor in order to refute the doctrine of endless torment , but every one will see that if it be conclusive in the one case it must be equally so in the other . The doctor asks , " Is nothing
to be learned by reason or inference ? " Yes , very much ; every corrupt doctrine , which has disgraced Christianity ' , has been
learned in this way , and supported by the same mode of rea - soning ; and what is worse fi a ^ been imposed upon mankind ( as the Doctor would impose the dobtrine of Universal Restitutibri upon us ) as divine truth .
In the same page the Doctor plainly intimates , that he does not consider the doctrine of Universal Restitution to be a doctrine of Revelation contained in the scriptures ; but that the revelation bf
it was reserved to a period in the divine dispensations , subsequent to the third and fourth centurifcs , when the corruptions of Christianity began to prevail . His words are , " I can conceive of
no doctrine so likely to eradicate all these corruptions , and to restore the gospel to its original purity , as that of Universal Restitution . It was probably therefore
reserved for that particular period in the divine dispensation , when the human mind was capable of comprehending it , and when the belief of it would produce the most beneficial effects * If this was the
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% 7 B Mr * Marsom's Strictures on Dr . Estlirfs Discourses .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1814, page 278, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2440/page/22/
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