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    as it is easy ia its application : it is neither more nor less than this ; Igjt every . doctrine \ v 4 ucb claims to be a doctrine of scripture be tried by the test of definitions ,

    axioms , and previously-acknowledged truths 5 and when two cotitr&dicLoxy . propositions ai ? e pre » seated to the mind * let that be

    admitted which will bear this test , $ nd the other be dismissed , though with the confession of a difficulty which further examination will pro . bably remove . Hoping that these tkree di ^ ectices will not be for *

    gotten by your readers , 1 hasten to the conclusion of my reply to the Strictures of Mr . Marsona on my Discourses *

    I cannot dismiss the subject without adding one word more respecting th e gentleman whose Strictures on rny Discourses drew from me these reflections . It is a

    circum&tance which forcibly struck me ia reading his book , as well as bis letters to you , that the doctrine which he advocates with so much zeal is not often alluded to , and is vsery seldom indeed presented with its features full in view to

    the mind ,. Is there not something within him which leads him to turn bis eyes from so loathsome a spectacle ? I doubt not that be inlisted in the cause under a deep

    impression of its justice . He has continued under that impression ; but I apprehend , like many others in actual service , he thinks less of the cause in which he is engaged than of the means which are to be

    made use of to harrass his enemy . From this circumstance I entertain some hopes that he may yet be brought to a change of opinion * I woujd , as a friend , advise him to take up the subject in a different manner , to look his hypothesis full

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    in the face * and , by latyfeg ^ t ildwu as the foundation of all his reason , ing , according to the method % f synthesis , to see fairly whither it will lead him * Will not every

    moral attribute of God , every text of scripture literally taken which should be taken literally , and *> very text figuratively taken which should be taken figuratively , and every

    first principle in morals and religion , present an insuperable bar to his proceeding , and compel him to relinquish his hypothesis f I would then advise him to take

    the doctrine of universal restitution as the foundation of his reasoning , and to proceed in the same method of synthesis . In this case ; if I may be indulged with a short allegory ,

    I would ask , Will he not find his hy . pothesis a fountain clear as crystal > which , overflowing , and fertilizing € 19 it flows , forms itself into « & river whose verdant baftks are beau tilled !

    by every flower * and with which every divine attribute , every text of scripture , and every moral and religious principle , uniting , as a tributary stream , swells with majestic grandeur until it mixes with the ocean of boundless love , by the exhalations from which it was

    formed at first and is constantly supplied . 1 wish him to experience , during the remainder o ( his life , all the happiness which results from the full persuasion of this delightful doctrine . I earnestly

    pray to God that he may experience that perpetual sunshine of the mind , that superiority to the passing events of this ever . varying scene , that universal philanthropy ,

    that joy in the Pivtne administration , that serenity through life * and that cheering prospect in the hour of death , which the belief of this doctrine only can inspire *

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    4 $ f Dr . BsUin % in Reply to Mr . Marsom , on Future Punisimeht .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1814, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2443/page/38/