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only Ut animates clod with misery /' but , as it were * . ** push into being a . reverse qf himself ! " What are w >§ to think of a , doctrine , which necessarily involves such consequences f Bat let us proceed . , The following lines exceed , perhaps , in horror , any thing that ever was
written : " Artd this toy help ! my God ! at tby decree , Nattnre is chang'd , and Hell should succour meV The sentiment , in plain prose , is this — ' Thefo undations are out of course % the ideas " which we have been led to form
ifi yotuJer world , of the divine character and government , are rooted in error ; and we must appeal ( horrendwn dictu i ) from the justice of Heaven to the justice of Hell ! / But we may be certain that the victim of divine justice , in any period of his existence , will never be able to
urge such a profane ptea as this . ** Is Ood unti ghteous ? Howthen sh al 1 God judge the world ? He is the rock , his work is perfect , for all his ways are judgment : a God of truth , and without iniquity ^ just and right is he : and though clouds and darkness are round about him , yet righteousness and judgment are the foundations of his throne . "
The succeeding lines , describe the ever blessed Deity as an infinite Tormentor , ( thus confounding vengeance -with justice , ) looking down from his seat of * ' perfect bliss , " and proclaiming his own " omnipotence , " at the expense of the pangs and artguish of a feeble mortal , " a speck of
wretchedness !" 41 Calling Thee Father ! in a sea of * five ; Or ppuring blasphemies , at Thy desire !" The first line implies penitence , which the advocates of this system , in general , deny , but which tne poet is nei ? e constrained to admit of . The other implies contumely , which , on the part of the transgressor , in a state of future punishment , seems to be highly improbable .
Cvtdumel y * as regarding pur Creator , in the present life , springs from absolute , op partial infidelity . , The greatest sinner fapon earth , when sensible of a present Deity , was never conlmrnclioos . We can draw no rules of judgment in this case , from the agitations or triumphs of a death-bed repentance , or the ravings of a death-bed « despuir ,
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many records of both w ^ cjfct \ vz p ^ with in books ; 3-nd _ Wliere , frequency the superstition , ignorance , or bi gotry of the priest , the overweening kincu ne . ss of the byvstanders , the mental imbecility ; of the dimck > and the
fiimes of deleterious medicines , may all conspire to produce an unreasonable confidence , or an unreasonable despot }< Jeucy- In the parable of Dives
and Lazarus , -which , besides its principal object , that of inculcating the folly of expecting new revelations , rnav he partly intended io designate somewhat of future punishment , we meet with
nothing but patient suffering and supplication . But if it be said , that , from the nature of the human mind , contumely > in these circumstances , must at length arise ; or , in the tremendous language of the poet , that the sinner will continue to ** poiar out
blasphemies at tpe desire . of his Maker I" then * tins is an irrefragable argument against the proper eternity of such a state , ( heretofore fully 4 ^ - cussed , ) as utterly inconsistent with all our ideas of < the majesty , holmes ^ and glory of God . . ,-...
, The same ideas are afterwards-pursued , in laiiiguage , which , had it not proceeded from a privileged writer , might , under some political administrations ^ have been thought worthy of a litttle ivJiclesonie correction ; and may
be considered , even by candid rnincl ^ as tending , in itself , rather to promote irrcligion and profaneness , tnan the contrary , though nothing could have been farther from the mind of the pious author . . *« Thou art , * H *«* e all mercy , all divine , And sbaU I make those glories cease f «
shine ? . . - Shall sinful mau grow great by his offence , And from its course , turn back Omnipotence /" The proper answer is—certainly itf * This is impossible . What proves t *> much , }> roves nothing . The only reply which the poet and divine condescends to give , to these objections against the < doctrine wJiicn he appears to espouse , is , that derive from the sovereignty of the jud ^ e , an the supposed certmntu of the doctrine itself : the latter is begging the q u £ tion , and , as we have seen , mcap ap of proof , d priori , by the confession * ks professed advocates ., The / onDCthough a legUinwttc ' arg ument tn W
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4 § & jQconsistenc m ' ofWrti 6 ?* & * £ ' * tM s J ^ Mmhmer ^ .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1816, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2455/page/30/
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