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all the texts which bear upon the future state of the wicked , and in our opinion many which have no reference to that subject - but in his expositions the commentary does not always accord with the text ; and in his
reasonings , the inference is occasionally at , variance with the principle from which it is deduced . Many of the arguments against the eternal misery of the wicked apply with equal force to their destruction . For instance :
" We prove the goodness of God by the evidence we have that he intends the happiness of all his creatures ; and if it could be shewn in any case that he does not desire us to possess the
happiness of which he has made us capable , imperfection might be attributed to the Author of nature ; and it would be impossible to reconcile to that notion of his goodness which makes it to consist in the diffusion of
happiness , the opinion entertained by some , that God hath unconditionally imparted an immortal nature to creatures , whom his prescience must have foreseen would be rendered thereby eternally miserable . " P . 8 . Is it not equally difficult to reconcile that
notion of goodness with the destruction of millions capable of displaying exalted virtue , and of enjoying endless felicity } Where is the sinner whose reformation and consequent happiness is beyond the power of God ? It is neither good nor just to annihilate those who might live to make ample
atonement for their crimes , and to receive ample compensation for their sufferings , by an eternity of virtuous exertion and pure enjoyment . With similar inconsistency it is remarked that Paul " speaks of raising the dead as equivalent to deliverance , whilst , if a vast majority only rose to misery , he could not view it as such / ' And
what sort of a deliverance is it , to have life restored for the sole purpose of again dying £ ** By Christ comes the resurrection of the dead , and therefore , if at all , by him comes eternal
misery . " True ; and therefore , we may add , if at all , by him comes eternal death ; which is quite as good a reductio ad absurdum as the other .
It is extraordinary that a man should reason so cogently up to a certain point , and then , on a sudden , stop short and advocate conclusions as irreconcileable with the » principles on
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which he set out as those which he would explode . The texts urged on behalf of the doctrine of annihilation make a formidable appearance \ but the intelligent reader will at once
perceive that they are piled together by sound rather than by sense ; that many of them refer to the termination of the present life , many to the rejection of the Jewish nation , and a very few indeed to the future condition of
the wicked . If these few must be understood literally , they are of course sufficient to decide the question ; but this necessity ought not to be assumed until the arguments for Universal
Restoration from particular texts , from the spirit of Christianity , and from the attributes of God , be fairly disposed of . To these , we are sorry to observe , our author seems to have paid little or no attention .
That death , and not immortality in suffering , was the punishment threatened to Adam , as the head of his posterity , for the original transgression , and that death , not infernal misery , was endured by Christ to redeem mankind , are arguments , strongly urged in this book , and entitled to some consideration from those whose
opinion coincides with the writer ' these subjects . His main strength , however , is embodied in two propositions : That all punishment is privative ; and , That goodness is the principle of immortality . The finit principle brings out , of course , a good deal of verbiage and bad metaphysics . It is contended that all " God ' s sore
plagues ' are privative ; for instance , " famine , pestilence and the sword . * Famine , is a privation of " needful food" ; pestilence , of " healthful hud th dof the
mours "; an e swor , " continuity of the flesh , on which life depends . " The second is only a literal rendering of the easy metaphor by which knowledge , virtue , happiness , and whatever makes it ** life to live , ' *
is called life . The most piquant part of the book is a collection of texts with very quaint , brief interpretations or inferences . We * must make room for a
• ample : " Matt , xxiii . 27 , l Ye are like unto whited sepulchres , &c > Yet Gad is supposed to have endued these whited sepulchres with iwiittoitaUty ; the catacombs and the vyjuaxids bid fairer to attain it , for
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Revzew +- ~ JEternul Punishment not Suffering . 737
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VOL . XII . £ C
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1817, page 737, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2471/page/41/
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