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frible that he should . Has not God ordained that happiness shall be , the reward of virtue , and mi . sery the effect of vice ? If then the vicious are miserable , and though their vices should terminate in their final ruin , it will not follow that God did not design their happiness , or that he has altered his design or changed his mind ; he is of one mind and none can turn him- If he determine to bless , not a Balaam with all his multiplied sacrifices shall
ever induce him to curse ; and if it is his will and design to punish , a Noah , a Daniel , a Job , or all of them together shall interpose in vain to alter his purpose , or to cause him to change his rnind < -m When God made man he
designed him for happiness . Did he not then make a sufficient provision for his happiness ? Yet the fact is that man is depraved and miserable . How happens this ? Did this also enter into his design ? Did God when he made man
design that he should be happy and unhappy , that he should be virtuous and that he should be vicious , or has he altered his design or changed his mind ? Or if he intended man to be happy are his intentions frustrated ? The fact
of man ' s depravity and misery , I conceive , is only to be accounted for by a consideration of the mature and constitution of man as a rational , free and" accountable being , subject to the moral
government of his Creator . Under such a constitution , it does not , perhaps , come within the com * pass of Alinighty power to make man happy in spite of himself * Is moral character , are virtue and vice of God's creation ? if they *** e * what will becoji * e of the in o *
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Answer to the Questions an Universal Restoration * 477
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ral government of God , - and of the accountability of man ? If they are not , then they are riot the objects of power . To argue
then that all men must be happy , because God , being omnipotent , is able to accomplish his designs respecting them , is to destroy both the moral nature of man and his
capacity for happiness , and to convert him into a mere machine The Divine Being is frequently represented in the scriptures as desirous of the happiness of man . kind , and as labouring in a
variety of ways to promote it ; ds in the case of Israel his vineyard * and Judahhis pleasant plant J artel yet , notwithstanding he is in finite in wisdom , and almighty in power , we find him complaining that his iabours were ineffectual to
accomplish the purpose he had in vieww Respecting his vineyard he makes this strong appeal , *< And now , O inhabitants of Jerusalem , and men of Judah , judge , I pray you ,
betwixt me and my vineyard . What could have been done more to my vineyard , that I have not done ii * it ? Wherefore , when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes , brought it forth wild grapes?—He looked for judgment , but behold oppress sion ; for righteousness , but behold a cry . " Isa . v . 1—8 . See also chap . xlviiL 18 . Psa . lxxxi-13 , &c . &c . What then Was the
design of God in the pains and culture he bestowed upon his vineyard ? Was it not that it might be fruitful— fruitfql in judgment and righteousness ? If so , this
design was not accomplished . If it be fair from the design of God respecting man to infer his present or future happiness , it must be equally fair , from the condition of man , to itt&r the d&ign rif God
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 477, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/29/
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