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ArgW * tnt * for the Endless Life of all Men .
4 .- Sir , : Apprehending that the controversy on future punishment , in yettc valuable Repository , may dose with t he present Volume , I decline making a direct reply , which I at ffest thought of doing , 4
t <* ihe * arguments for the destruct ion of the wicked" { p , 674 ) , && your correspondent might not fcaare opportunity of making a rejoinder ; a ^ d cboose rather to state aJiew arguments on the contrary
li 4 e without placing ( hem in the light of an answer ; and leave the reader to compare and weigh what i * said on both aides of this important -question . -All tlie arguments , thai can be ^ rived from the character and
perfection of God , the nature and powers of man , and the present Older of things under the -divine government , in favour of the probability of a future life , will equally favour the probability of
the endless existence of all roen . If the infinite wisdom and good - totes of God , the maker of a > H men , authorizes the conclusion , that ht will have a regard to the work of his hands , and not suffer his rational offspring to remain
eter-J ^ Hy in the grave , they must dually authorize the conclusion , 4 that , after he hath restored them <*¦ from > the grave , he will not suffer them to sink into nothing , and be k Eternall y lost . If it may be infer-** &r from * his being the Father of * U > that he will raise all mankind
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from the sleep of death , it may also be inferred that he-will a ) , ways cherish their existence ; for his character and perfections ca& never change . If ihe desire of immortality , which is natural jin all men , and their not attaining the intellectual and moral perfecr tion of which their nature is
capable , in the present life , be an argument in favour of their living again , they must likewise be an argument in favour of tfee probability of their endless existence ,: because , so far as we can judge , existence can never cease to be a
blessing , and they will be endlessly capable of attaining higher Intel * lectual and moral perfection , &i a future life be probable , because virtue has not its full reward , nor
vice its full punishment , in the present state , on this ground ^ f reasoning it is equally probable that , in a future state , every evil will be corrected , and complete moral order established , by the influence a full retribution will
ha \ e on all who expedience it : and if complete moral order be established , no cause can remain for the utter extinction of the existence of a single individual . I see not how the propriety of this
reasoning can be questioned , unless it be supposed that future punishment will be mere revenge , the infliction of evil merely for the sake of making those on whom it is inflicted feel it : which is a
supposition that never can be reconciled with the acknowledged character and perfections of God . Though we could not have had
the assured hope of a future life without a divine revelation , and though that revelation docs not give , us the same assurance that the wicked will be restored from
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z ^ mu&sfo r tfa EndUts Life of M Men . 7 « 3
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Itry and whether , as he expresses it , Jie had looked my arguments * &d my questions u > full i « the fat " . * " * " "' MMHM ^^ M ^^ fll ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ K
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1814, page 763, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2447/page/35/
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