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what way they ought to direct their efforts ; but if the government acts too openly to favour this salutary direction , it will fail of its end . It is the libertv of examination which has
corrected the errors of the dark ages , and reconducted religion towards it * true object ; it is the liberty of examination which will complete its purification , and will conciliate it with public utility .
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the act is considered without the circumstances , the crime without the temptation ; and I Have never yet met with a writer on eternal tormentsi ' who did not write as if himself were without either part or lot in the matter . Now this surprises me . For if there be
eternal torments , why not for Mijl ? Am I so good as to be in no danger ^ from a Being who can inflict such punishment ? I may not have committed murder , nor adultery , nor perhaps direct theft . But . change my circumstances t-place me in the situation of those who have been thus
guilty ;—then , and not until then , if I avoid them , am 1 better than these . A man in easy circumstances , with all the wants of nature supplied , thinks himself very good , and thanks God that he is not as other men are ! He
ought to be thankful thst he is happy , —not that he is good ; for his trial is not yet come , and perhaps never may come ! He who prayed for nfeither riches nor poverty , was wise ; and all wise men put up the same prayer * But it is not answered , — poverty
comes , and with it its ten thousand trials ! There are in all our churches , honoured men , who have never met a severe trial of virtue : —let them y £ t be humble ! Let the perfect man , pure from the fiercest trials , thunder condemnation on his fellows : —let him
find consolation in eternal torments ; —but who is be ? I have never met with any thing so exquisitely fine as the expostulation with David , which God is made to speak by Nathan . God says ; " Have
not I given thee two kingdoms , and many wives into thy bosom , and if thou had asked it , I would have given thee yet more ? ' * and then is introduced his adultery and murder !! Who can read this , and not tremble that he is
a , man ! Who does not pray that his trials were over , and that he cfeased to be in the land of temptation ? HOMO .
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i S 62 Oh Mn * Tu 4 : ker . < --3 fhe &etoTte 4 ii&ii
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Sir , May 4 , 1818 . HAVING attributed to Mr . Tucker , [ p . 253 , ] the inimitable author of " The Light of Nature pursued , " the sentiment that Jesus Christ vVas by nature aud constitution as weak
and prone to evil a $ any other human being > you seem to . call upon me to point out the part of his work where he has expressed such an opinion . This is very equitable on your part . What he sajs on that subject , occurs in that division of his work , entitled , ' Christian Scheme . " Some , he says ,
have , to do honour to the baviour , contended that his soul Was by nature more pure than those of other men ; but he tfiin ks > that the more honourable supposition is , that he was by nature less perfect than the rest of Adam ' race ; for that that supposition appears to him to magnify the glory of both God and the Saviour , in his
victory over all temptation . And he concludes by observing that he was a descendant of Adam , and his soul , naturally , no better than ours . There is surely nothing in this sentiment dishonourable to Mr . Tucker ; for he is most virtuous , who resisteth
the most trying temptations / Where the religious principle has nothing to struggle against , its triumph must be less ! It is surely more meritorious for a poor man to be honest , " thsn a rich man ;—for a man who loves wine , to be sober , than a man who hates it ; and so of all the other virtues . If
Jesus was by constitution timid , hia triumph over himself in submitting to suffering and death , was by that circumstance made lno-re remitrkable ,. and the strength of the religious principle ino r ^ ignally illustrated .
Morals , the mo , st interesting of all subjects , seem generally to bie treated in the most superficial mannfei % Mr . Tucker is on . tbesftsttfrjects , the most judicious of $ 11 yvritfrs . Iji general ,
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Sir , May 15 , 18 ! fe-ILL you permit an old Cor-Wrespondent of the Theological Repository , [ Vols . IV * V ., VIV , ] to
address a few thoughts in your very useful . and entertaining Miscellany ; on a subject the rhtist awful and interesting imaginkble , especially as we see the day approaching f > There m ay ;
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/18/
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