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Z 9 * # ¦ " . ' * *¦ fountain of all right lauis and reason iind justice . 'Tis an ill pretence for men to judge their Maker by , when
they-will not allow him that reasonable apology , nor make that construction of * bis wavs , according to common undeniable equity , as they will do of the ways of men . Right reason and the laws made therehv . are a
bjam of Ood ' s perfect wisdom and justice . Jeremy Taylor , that truly Chriitian bishop , or overseer of souls , "^ himself an host , the Homer among preachers , " though he appears in general to adopt
the common notions on this subject , ( especially in his Treatise " On Man , " probably the only weak book lie ever wrote , and some of the sentiments of which , if true , would almost justify the scheme of Anthropomorphiusm , ) yet , has many passages quite inconsistent with them . In his " Life of
Christ , " treating of temporal judgments he observes of Ananias and Sapphira , Uzzah the prophet slain by the lion , and other casei of sudden surprisals in the commission o ^ sinful acts , where the sufl ' erers were in the main upright characters , that ce \\ e must not conclude such persons perishing and miserable to all eternity ; it were a sad sentence to think God
would not impute the untimely death | br a punishment great enough to that deflexion from duty , and judge the num according to the constant tenor of iiis former life ; unless the act were of malrce enough to outweigh the former habits , and interrupt the whole
state of acceptation and grace . For as God takes off our sins and punishments /•?/ parts , remitting to some tbe sentence of death , and inflicting only the fine of a temporal loss r or the
gentle scourge of a lesser sickness ; so also , he lays it on by parts and suitable proportions ; and every transgression and lesser deviation from duty does not drag the soul to death eternal ; but he
suffers our repentance , though imperfect , to have an imperfect effect , knocking off the fetters by degrees , leading Us in some cases to tfie council , in some to judgment , ana m some to failure j but . xt is not always certain , that he who is led to the prison doors shall there lie entombed , and a man uiay by a judgment be brought to the gates of , hcli and yet thosejgrtes shall not prevail against ijuin /! . : This " passage w n « t cited as any
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s indirect argument against eternal punishment , hue only as proving bv the way , that this great divine did nol interpret too strictly those texts in Ezckiel , where it is said that the righteoii ? shall perish in his present sin , notwithstandmp ; his former attainments
and as proving , most unequivocally , that , like the favoured disciple , hu soul was so wrapt and absorbed in the contemplation of the divine character , as the God oj'lore , and probably , at the same time , so shocked , or at least
dismayed , by the common' notion of future punishment , that he could not allow himself to believe , that any would prove the victims of tfois dire , ineffable doom , but the most flagrant , enormous and incorrigible transgressors . This is further evident from another passage in the same work * where he tells us that there is " but
one" individual of the human race , Judas Jscariot , of whom we may affirm , without breach of Christian charity , that he is ' * ' certainly damned ;" nay , he goes farther yet > and says , even of this delinquent , ** his sin stuck close , arid it is thought to a sad
eternity / ' "But we do not insist upon this latter passage ; the good bi » noj > often indulges in a laxity of phrase common in his day , but which the literary taste of the present times , superior in . this respect , " will not admit of . The foregoing sentiment , however , is delivered m plain . and decided
terms : let us attend , far vt moment , to the singular idea , and to the instruction which it may afford us . If Christian charity will not allow us to affirm that any man but Judas J scar lot is " certainly damned / 1 it most assuredly will not require u ^ to believe , on the other nand ^ that every man besides him is certainly saved : taking salvation in the common sense ojf the word , for the state of happiness immet diately succeeding th ^ general judgment . This wxmld be enthusiasm * and not charity , or jpharity ^ carried to a degree of enthusiasm . * We cannot doubt , from the history of the worW and our . own ejg ^ erience ^ -UapP 3 f " we have no reason to fear it respecting
ourselves ! - —that many go out oi *» utterly unfit , as far as ai > pe * r 8 , without considerable degree Sf ^ purxfication , V * the Christian JheaverV't jitftfng , **
? « Enthtt ^ iaJitic doct ^ c ^^ -good tbin # straill ^ © ut of their wit s . * ' jrhiclmrtz ' ¦ fe ^ Ww
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¦ 320 Tnconsistcftcies ctf TPritrrs on future Punistimcjif .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 326, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/18/
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