On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    from the manner of their death , which , of all the extravagancies of theological dreamers , is one of the most strange and unaccountable , but from the manner of their life . Now , how are we

    to determine between these two c . iframes ? If , according to the reasoning of this profound writer , we should form such exalted ideas of the divine benignity , in a general vieiv , as exercfeed in the character of Supreme Judge ; how is it conceivable , that , after the

    future awards of his justice , this benignity , as to the objects of it , should be dentally suspended ? It is difficult to ascertain precise ! v , what were the sentiments of Arch llshop King upon this important subject . In the Appendix to his Treatise

    on " The Origin of Kvil , * ' a work abounding with many weighty truths , lie adopts , in a great measure , the orthodox notion , and endeavours to obviate some of the arguments against it in the usual way : —such as the

    sufferings of the damned tending to enhance the blessedness of glorified - saints , by way of comparison and contemplation j t sentiment which , as applicable to the adequate and limited "suffering of transgressors in a future state , , may be allowed to have some weight \ but which , if applied to the doctrine of strictly eternal punishment , confutes itself . The

    eternity of this state , however , he observes , is not a doctrine of reason , but of pure revelation . "It appears from tfie light of nature that there shall be future punishments , but not that they fihall be eternal / ' He further informs

    us , that they *• do not proceed from Uje vengeance , but from the goodness of file Deity f and then proceeds to offer some opinions which seem to be peculiarly his own j *— < M to another objection , the matter is still in debate , whether it were better to be miserable than hot to be at

    all j and there are arguments on both * ides . 'Tis manifest , indeed , that those evils which overbalance * the deflire and happiness 0 fc > £ life , commonJ y put an end to life itself ; and that such

    objects as are hurtful to the sense , at length destroy it- The same seenis t& bold good in thinking substances , viz . * hoac things which aUect the mind to * higher degree than it can bear , may * £ likemanner put an end to it : for Micy . tniy be supposed either to drive 'TOtd madness ; or so far td disorder tlte ""i&ihg faculty , as to make us think * ¦ 9 t

    Untitled Article

    of nothing at all . Who can tell , then , whether the punishment of the wicked may not lead them into a kind of pkrenzv and tn&dness ? Thus they

    may indeed be very miserable , and heroine a sad spectacle to others > they may be sensible of their misery also , and strive against it with all their power ; but while thry do not observe or believe that it is founded in perverse

    election , they may hug thenisclves in the cause , ( he effects of ichich they abhor ; being still wise in their own opinion ; and , as it were , pleasing themselves in their miser u . " ** Thus , the more they labour under it , the more they embrace the cause of it , and thereby become their oton hinand

    drance from ever' getting free ^ will not suffer themselves to be any thing but what they are . This we 6 ee daily done by mad and frantic persons , and reckon it a part of their unhappiuess . The divine goodfiess , therefore , is not to be charged with cruelty for letting them continue in that existence ^ though it

    , be very miserable , when they themselves will not have it removed * , or , for not altering their coudition , which they utterly refuse to have altered . 'Tis better indeed for them not to be ; but this , in the opinion only of wise men , to which they do not assent ; for they indulge themselves in their obstinate

    election , and though every where surrounded and oppressed with woes ; yet will they not alter what they have once embraced , and had ratlur endure all than repent : as men that are desparately in lo ^ e , ambitious , envious , choose to bear torments , loss of estate ,

    and hazard of life , rather than lay aside these foolish and hi * ivitching affections . We niay easily conceive , then , how the wicked in hell may be in very great misery , upon tine increase of their obstinacy and folly , and yet unwilling to be freed from them . *

    The reader will make his own com ** ment upon these passages , and mote of the same kind , m the * "b riginal : fot the writer ' s part , he professes only to regard them as constituting an inextricable labyrinth , from which , it is probable , ne should jaot readily escape , and into which be hath ceftainlv no

    inclination to enter : he has , therefore , only to observe , that awful instances of the p revalence of evil habits in the p resent life , can furnish no criterion as to their influence in the next , where all the objects of sinful gratification

    Untitled Article

    Inconsistencies of Writers on Puture Punishment , 327

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 327, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/19/