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in substance , is a just distinction . By regeneration also he would seem to understand a state of privilege , rather than of character ; wjrich privilege , he tells us , " takes place at baptism " Very different from the charges of the late Bishop Watson is this primary charge of Dr . Marsh ' s . In these pages
we find no manly , generous and eloquent appeals to the heart in favour of Religious Freedom and of our common Christianity , The writer contents himself with being the advocate of a church which is governed by parliamentary statutes : and this pamphlet breathes the spirit of a lawyer rather than of a divine . N .
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Art . V . — Eternal Punishment proved to be not Suffering , but Privation ; and Immortality dependent on Spiritual Regeneration . By a Member of the Church of England . 1817 . 8 vo . pp . 240 . Appendix , pp . 40 . fTlHE author of this singular work M describes himself as having been , ** from a very early age , employed in
* learning and labouring truly to get his own living in a state of life' incompatible with minute attention to the more polished refinements of language . The defect for which this apology is made , is amply
compensated by his apparent honesty and love of truth , his unwearied diligence in the accumulation , arrangement and comparison of scripture passages connected with his subject ; and a certain air of originality about his notions which , whether we admire their justness , wonder at their oddity , or laugh at their absurdity , makes us feel that they are completely and indubitably his own . His object is to prove that the wicked will be punished , at the day of judgment , by annihilation . The
reader is prepared for this proposition by a very energetic and successful attack upon the doctrine of eternal torments . The following extracts are specimens of the manner in which he shews its inconsistency with the attributes of God and the best feelings of
man : " Suppose a man to have been guilty , in his twenty or thirty years of active life , of an accumulation of crimes , more than the history of a whole kingdom for a century would parallel , —to have spread ruin and devastation over provinces and empires , ~ t * hare heem the < rau «« of murdering * , for
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his own immediate gratification , millions of his fellow-creatures : as with him every act was a crime , so , if for every breath he drew a year of torment was awarded , the most vindictive would cry , * Hold , enough . ' Six hundred millions of years would , if any duration could , expiate even guilt , like this : and if no duration could , what could justify the infliction ? But " this is an instance of a monster in the history of the world , and the punishment is threatened not only to him , biit to our nextdoor neighbour , and to ourselves- to all
that fall short of the righteousness that shall inherit the kingdom of heaven . But the worst still remains behind ; for even to this most heavy infliction infinite misery is added . Will it be said , as by the demons of the Inquisition , 6 for the love of God '? Call down fire from heaven and be blameless ; but pollute not , God ' s holy name byascribing to Him judgments like these . " Pp . 12 , IS . " If this be the light of scripture , enter with it a few steps into the dark profound see the bituminous lake thickly peopled with such things as we are ; see hatred and
malevolence pervading all and towards all ; see torturing agony filling every limb , every muscle , every nerve . To help your imagination , fancy you see all the inhabitants of this great metropolis assembled ; swell your idea to the whole population of the empire 5 add Europe ' s millions ; summon Asia n s myriads , and when Africa arid
America shall have augmented the tide , plunge them all into this state of thankless , thriftless misery for some short period ; contemplate them here , and if you have the heart to do it , wish their immortality . c Is thy servant a dog that he should do this great wickedness ? ' Can it be better then to fall into the hands of man than of God ?
Since you would abhor yourself if you could but wish this , can you love God whilst you think it is his pleasure ?" Pp . 15 , 16 .
It is right and useful thus to compel the believers in endless misery to look their creed fairly in the face , and see its tremendous horror and deformity . Humanity shudders and sickens at the contemplatidn . It would indeed be a " most strange and unnatural fruit of Almighty love . 11 Any other system must possess a comparative excellence which will recommend it to the benevolent mind ; and yet we must confess that we are not at all satisfied with the moral beauty , any more than with the alleged scriptural proofs , of that which our author would introduce in its place . His quotations are fair and numerous : comprehending
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756 Review . — Eternal Punishment not Suffering .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 736, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/40/
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