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shall be done away , where * hell is open before them , and destruction hath no covering ! " that we shall search in vain for this system of insanity in the Bible ; and that we should receive with
caution some of the opinions of an author , however learned and pious , who could conclude his elaborate and iustlv celebrated work , in the following manner : — '
" But I offer all these things to the censure of the learned : I submit them entirely to the judgment of the Catholic church , especially to the governors of those parts of it , which constitute
the churches of England and Ireland . If there ^ e any thing herein which seems not perfectly agreeable to their Jaithy as I hope there is not , and would not have it ; I desire that may be looked upon as absolutely unsaid sand retracted ! " . «>
The only prose divine remaining , whose sentiments upon this subject we shall briefly consider , is the pious , learned and candid Dr . Dodaridge . In his Theological Lectures , Prop . l £ > 3 , Ed . 1776 , he proposes the question
with great fairness and impartiality . We cannot enter into all the arguments he has produced on both sides , which would be to repeat much of what hath already been offered : our inquiry here is only respecting his
consistency . He acknowledges that € t We cannot pretend to decide , a priori , or previous to the event , so far as to say , that the punishments of hell must and will cert ainl y be eternal ; " but gives it as his opinion , on preview of the arguments , ** jThat there is at least so much force on
the affirmative side of the question , and in the solution of the preceding objections , as to render it both imprudent and unsafe to go out of the way of scripture upon this head ; or to explain those expressions in such a manjier , as positively to determine that future eternal punishments , in strict propriety of speech , are not to be ap ,-<^ v ^ ^ a . ^^ . w ^ k J"k . v ^ ^ M ^ " ^* -m
. JlJClldlUC *! . Now there is evidentl y a chasm in this way of reasoning : for if we cannot decide that eternal punishments wilt take place ; and must not be persuaded or express our conviction ,- — that is , according to our conceptions of things , —that they will not ; we must remain all bur lives in a state qf tortuous sjuspense as to one of th& leading motives 6 F the gosbel , in one
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of its principal characteristics ; and be utterly unable , in this view , either to understand it ourselves , or to preach or explain it to others , and consequently unable , thus Jar , to believe it ; since we can believe nothing which we do not , in some measure , apprehend ; and this , in a question involving our ideas of the moral attributes of the
Deity , is a circumstance of prodi g ious importance . This is nqt a matter of mere abstract speculation , as to which it is of little consequence on which side the truth lies : —doubtfulness , in such a case , is death ! -
But it will be said , alas ! what can we know of the extent of the divine plans and operations in a future state ? " Who can by searching find out God , who can find out the Almighty to perfection ¦? " Shall the Omnipotent he arraigned at the bar of a worm ? Shall the delinquent sit in judgment upon the Judge himself ? - These objections are plausible , and the sentiments themselves founded in truth ;
but they do not altpgether apply in the present case . We are not to renounce our understandings in the contemplation of subjects in which we are so deeply interested , under a false notion of humility and self-abasement . " We may have true conceptions of God , though not full and adequate conceptions . " * JFor be it recollected , that in all our
reasonings concerning the Deity , we can reason only as to his perfections and attributes ; of his abstract nature and essence , we can , at present , know nothing : and moreover , . that if the ideas of those perfections which we derive from his works and his word ,
should be supposed to deceive us , there are no others to be had : we must begin anew , and launch out into a fathomr less ocean , without a pilot , without a helm , and probably without a shore ! But it has long been determined as the only legitimate criterion we have whereby to regulate our notions of the Divine Being , to consider the hig hest perfections of created natures , to subtract every thing imperfect from them , and then to add infinitude to those ideas : " It would , indeed , be -a high presumption to . determine , wheth er the Supreme Being has not many more attributes than those which enter into , our conceptions of him }
- "" ' ¦¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦;»¦¦ .. . * Wisheatt .
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328 Inconsistencies of Writers on Future Punishment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 328, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/20/
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