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324 - Inconsistencies t& Writers an future Punishment .
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whole , fora periodical work . If the present fragment be not out of time or tmacceptaMe , it is at your service . AiN OCCASIONAL HEADER . Apparent Inconsistencies of great Minds , , exemplified in a series of Extracts on Futtire Puh&hnicnt .
There yet remains one collateral argument , of great , weight and importance in tl > e writer ' s opinion , against both the . schemes already treated of , gamely , the indiscriminate- notion of future punishment , as represented by fcorae , or the doctrine of absolute .
eternal and unremitting torments ; and secondl y * tbat of punishment limited in degree ,, but strictly everlasting in duration—an argument , distinct in itself , and not much
adverted to in boqks ; and that is—the indeterminate and equivocal language employed by the advocates of eternal punishment , either in explaining their ideas of the doctrine itself , or of
cireumstances . connected with it . If a writer lays down a specific opinion , and presentl y shuns tne investigation of it , and elsewhere , perhaps in the next page , expresses a sentiment diametrically opposite , or utterly inconsistent with the former one ; we may fairly eonclude , either that he hath
not fo rmed any precise ideas upon the subject ; or that he means to compound-with different parties ; or wishes to retract in some measure what lie had before advanced . Nothing
ean be a surer proof of a weak argument , than a man ' s authority against himself , A prodigious mass of evidence might be furnished of this kind j at present we . shall produce
only a tew instances , without regard to chronology . Calvin , in his ^ I nstitu tions , B . III . Ch . 25 , Section 5 W- having slightly mentioned som& of the common arguments for eternal punishment ; as to the contrary opinions , only says , ** Let us leave these trifles , lest we should seem to consider such dotages
39 worthy of confutation . " No doubt many a zealous Romanist has said the- same , respecting any sentiments contrary to the , peculiar dogmas of his community ; nevertheless , of , the tttcjater part of these , this pious re ~ Wfri ^ r ) justly thought it necessary to en te ?; iatoi the nkost minute ¦ mud Jtebonffws investigation . . • . , v - 1 {) si ) % )^ Jfy& W * *> Wt * h&stt * aproftfturd
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divitie of the church of Scotland , in his «* Theologia" 1716 , a wofrk , which , allowing for some parts of the author ' s cyeed , contains ari inexhatis table fund of "theological matter , treating of the divine patience , sayst " Of all the other perfections of the divine nature , this of patience hatli
the shortest time to act its part , hav- * ing no other stage but this world t& act in t after the end of which , it will remain , shut up in the Deitv , without any further operation . "The time of this life is the only time of long suffer- * ? W . " Yet , he afterwards tells us . that the consideration of the divine
patience is to be used as an argument , " to manifest the gracious , merciful , and reconcileable nature of the Deity , and to clear and justify the divine judgments in a future world ;—an abundant patience , called the riches of forbearance andlong suffering , far beyond the patience of good men , of glorified saints , or angels . " Not to advert
here to the singular freedom of speech in the former part of this quotation , it may be observed , than which nothing can-be plainer , that the divine patience and long suffering are often very limited in their exercise in the present life . The Deity doth not often interpose , ' that we know of , by miracles , or by remarkable deviations froin the common course of
nature and Providence , to prevent the usual , or the accidental effects as they are called , of transgression . The pious author himself observes , " How many candles have we seen put out , before they were half burnt ! " War and pestilence , famine and intemperance , destroy their thousands and ten thousands in the nrdt acts of sin , and
many of them perhaps in the posses ^ sion of a previously moral , if not religious character : now-, to propose that , as a general argument , which at present applies only to particular cases , is a false and absurd method ov reasoning . Again , tinder the heaa of divine jnstiee , he tells us , " The justice of God , in a future state , 1 * inexorable S but afterwards , that
" This vindictive justice , thoug h essential to the nature of "God , is not natural to him , as heat is to the nre , though hi fee necessary that he should punish sin , because Sf hi * rig ht eoitf nature ; yety not lbjf ri . natural ° ? physic al ntecessityy H ^ df ^ fire burpfc but by * fHc * a < , * + afiohht liece ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/16/
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