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Untitled Article
* ttt * qfe $ tcf ak Vimil&rity with the schools of ti £ @ * # ife 2 ithefi philosophers . He will often impress upon their raffrids that the doctrines and duties b £ the gospel are few and simple , but thei 4 ð&ds of enforcing arid illustrating them , multiform and indefinite ; £ tfd hence the necessity and utility of
B * F order of men set apart ( primi inter P& res ) as < ministers of Divine things , ^ abject at all times to the authority i ^ the great and only head of the di | urch , and to the genuine dictates of J ^ e ^ acred writers ; together with the l $ 30 tuiful simplicity and fitness of the & $ b positive ordinances of the gospel , ^ B&a « lmirably calculated , in connection
jttcfthrpubljc worship and instruction , £ 0-preserve- and maintain it in the , frtjrtd . to f fc ^ uiy of these children . of nature , whosej spiritual wants we are now Jcbrttem p lating , more sagacious and itfqtiisitivfe than the rest , should ask ihowrfco snuch evil can arise , under the
dominion of an all-wise , gracious , and in finitely pjowerful Bei ^ g ? the faithful jmtrister will reply , th £ t natural evil is , incone view , a mark of the tjegeneracy 4 otfx * be ^ mundane system , on account Jmf fcherfla-atusgression of its , first inlia&fants , serving as a perpetual and aatr&i manifestation of the Divine
displeasure on that account ; of which -there appears striking and ample proof 5 tv < the disorders of the elements , the infhrmities of human nature , the geaxeral prevalence of death , the discord ufctbe lower orders o ^ beings around m % the peculiar sufferings of women , jthe necessity of extreme and painful -labour in some of the various
concerns and avocations of life , which often destroys the individual prematurely , and of animal food to the sustenance of man ; none of which circumstances we can reasonably suppose to have taken place in his first
state , or to have constituted a part of jthe original plan of Providence , and of which they will know more , when ? they shall have become acquainted ' , « wkfchr the history of the old world , ami Joctter understand the methods
t « tf ^? the Divine administration : that teVenJbere the Deity brings good out -of eviL : that by the increasing knowitedge of the laws of nature , and the -fMTogressirfc improvements in society , painful and excessive labour becomes much ^ diminished : that storms , tempests and Volcanoes purify the air and
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the sea : that frost and snow in th £ northern regions fructify the earth * and make it approach in the succeed ing seasons , to the paradisaical : api pea ranee of more genial and salubrkjUtf climes : * that earthquakes ^ . t hough dreadful in themselves , are rare and
partial , may render contiguous por * tions of ground mere stable and sc-s cure , sometimes expose new lanxi ^ more than they have taken away , and produce many valuable ends in the
moral world , by alarming the careless and inconsiderate , who are not affected by the common course of nature and Providence : that those who die by these calamities will be impartially dealt with in a future state , and that
their uncommon and painful lot may possibly serve to diminish the punish * ment of their iniquity hereafter : no * are we ever to judge of the character or future destination of individuals , by the nature or degree of their Sufier * ings in the present world , where , ia many respects , " all things come alike to all . "
That sometimes natural evil arise * from natural good , and that we can ** not enjoy the one , without danger of the other : that if the system of - fch * universe is maintained by the samat
law which causes a stone unsupported to fall from the top of a hill , this law may be the occasion of serious acci * dents or death in particular cases : that if the fire is to warm us at a dis >
tanee , and to dress our food , it must be something of prodigious forces and efficacy , and which will necessarily hurt or destroy those substances or beings which approach too near il * at unheedingly rush into its bosoxAi : that if the water is to assuage oulr thirst , to quench the raging flames ^ t ©
serve the . important purposes of nav | w gation and commerce , and to answer many other valuable ends , it wiil sometimes , from the effect of wrodfe and tides , overflow its banks , afc $ must needs suffocate those animals which are immersed in it , and whttte organs are not fitted to Hve jn * h U element :-f that in a s * ateof primitive
? ' * Though winter had been ncxn <* , \ sA man been true , ' "~ And earth be punished for its t 3 e * haiflA * sake <* Yet , not in vengeance !'" Co ^ hpfeftT *' t The reader may perhaps t * f $ hk tti ¥ 8 ^ cases are so pi a iny that there ^ ras- Ho ne ^ H of expatiating upoa them . How it 'U
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* &f Thoughts m Mtesuhiury Societies .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1817, page 28, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2460/page/28/
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