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inferior iniquity * or b y tiie daring hand of the assassin . Divttie Justice would not smflfer him % o five . Yet , even fcf this flagitio « s character , reasoning upOn supposwioto , we « ttn * iot affirm , consistently wilili rational und well-groundeci ideas ^ f the Divine perfections , that it
would be just ae should be punished to all eternity ; because ( speaking with reverence ) we can eoaceive £ , limited degree of suffering sufficient to efiect every necessary moral purpose of the
I > ivine government ; and because any assignable period of existence and of transgression , however protracted mid aggravated , bears no proportion at all to an absolutely unlimited duration . And " what shall the man do that
cometh after the king ? " How can we affirm this of minor delinquents ? Perhaps it may be thought that simple justice regards only the punishment of the offender : this is not true , in many cases , as to human judgments ; but rather the reverse : and even when
the punishment is final , the soul of the victim is charitably recommended to the Almighty to obviate every idea of a vindictive sentence . Torture , thanks be to God , is nearly abolished in ail well-regulated communities . The necessity of final judgments in this world arises from the inherent
imperfection of human governments . None can deny that if muinJerers , highwaymen , midnight robbers , base assassins and treasonable rebels , could be effectually prevented from repeating
their atrocious crimes , by a more lenient sentence than that of death , it would be far more desirable , and accordingl y some states have adopted plans of this kind . But the extreme
uncertainty of accomplishing this ead , and the dreadful consequences to society arising from their repetition ; together with the permission of the Divine law in particular cases , have been generally regarded as sufficient reasons for a contarary practioe .
But such argument * appear to be not applicable to the Divine judgments in a future state ; because , though we are sometimes obliged to consider the attributes of tfw > Deity , as it were ,
mngty ; yet > t 6 fparm taapre correct and suitable ideas concerning them , we roust view them m their complex or relative BghV as * hey subsist m glorious mitafl amlliarmony in the Divine nature . .
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And in this view of the subject , and reasoning from received and acknowledged ideas of the Divhse perfections , it may further assist our reflections to observe , that an abstmvt proposition fe either in itself plain and self-evident , © r partly evident aiad partly
inconceivable or doubtful ; or , lastly , utterly repujrnant to all our ideas and appre hensions . When I read , «« There is no peace to the wicked , " tod «* without holiness no man shall see the I ^ ord /* I conceive truths which require no laboured deductions of reason to
establish them , and to produce a full conviction in the mind . When I read that God is eternal , omniscient and omnipresent , I perceive that it must be so , from the very nature of the subject ,
and because the contrary involves a contradiction ; for * ' since something now is , something always was , " and that must be > mind and not matter , unchangeable and independent : moreover , if there was a time when he did
not exist , he may also cease to exist ; and a God who is not omniscient and omnipresent , is no Deity at ail to any practical purpose ; he can neither be a moral governor nor a final judge . But how he is eternal , or in what
manner he is omniscient and omnipresent—these things I cannot comprehend . When it is inquired , Do the rewards and punishments of futurity commence immediately after death , or are they deferred till the resurrection ? I hesitate—the nature , of the soul is
little known ; revelation is not determinate upon this point ; it is of little consequence in a religious view ; pious , wise and inquiring men have differed much upon the subject . But when it it asked , Shall man be punished to all eternity b y an all-wise , righteous and merciful Creator , for the suis of time ? there is evidently nothing in the human breast consentaneous with this
supposition , no string that vibrates in unison with this sentiment ; on the contrary , when it is proposed , a divarication of ideas immediately takes place in the mind , which , the more they are attempted to be reconciled by
force < wr by persuasion , divaricate ? the more : that is , we have similar sensations to those we should experience , if a professed philosopher' were to arisure H 6 in the most sotenm maftner , that qoid wn& heart , while and black , were the same ; or a part of any thing equal
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Modern * Grthmfox" Nvtim wf Future Punishment , 339
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 339, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/15/
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