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all his pleasure . ' So that the wisdom of God is that perfection whereby he disposes and orders all things , so as best to advance and promote his own gioiy . " * Now , connecting these just and established ideas of the Divine knowledge
mid wisdom , how can we suppose or imagine the endless sufferings of any of his intelligent creatures to be compatible with either ? Were they guilty > efore they were created ? Or would le have created them if he knew they Would finally abusq their faculties , and lender themselves * for ever miserable ?
Would a wise architect , who had a consummate knowledge of parts and proportion , construct an edifice which he knew before-hand could never aibswer his purposes I And shall we affirm this of the great Architect of the universe ? Would a wise husbandman
plant a tree in a soil which he knew was utterly unfit for it , and where it could produce no fruit to perfection ? €€ It is not the will of your heavenly Father , " says the Saviour of the world , " that one of these little ones should
perish . " This , without any force , may be considered in a general view , as spoken of all mankind : and yet we have reason to believe that many will perish , in a scriptural sense , in the first instance , and receive the reward of their evil deeds $ but if they should perish ultimately and irreversibly , then , surely , if we can form any
rational judgment of this and other passages of Scripture , ( hereafter to be considered , ) something would take place in the universe contrary to the original will of the Supreme Being , and that for ever I € * But is the will of God to be
determined or restrained b y the peryerseness of his creatures ? Shall a King * so powerful , shall the Omnipotent Sovereign of the universe lose any part of his dominions , and Buffer rebellious subjects to continue so for ever , in an eternal eclipse , as to them , of his once manifested glories ? "f
? Wisheart . + Roach's Messiah Triumphant , 1724 , A strange visionary book , but like others of that class , containing a few valuable pearls , amidst a great heap of chaffwhich are not to be rejected on account of their concomitant absurdities .
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Partial evil and suffering are perfectly consistent with infinite jk > wer , trisdom and knowledge ; but we cannot reconcile our ideas of these perfections with the notion of evil and misery strictly everlasting . AN OCCASIONAL READER , ( To be continued . )
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Clapton , Sir , June 30 , 1820 . HAVE too long neglected to notice I a passage in Hylas ? s letter , ( p . 209 , ) where he has mentioned me in terms of which I cannot possibly complain . But I scarcely know how to
treat your Correspondent's animadversions on my regret ** that dungeon arguments should be employed in defence of our holy religion . " As only a few of your readers are likely to possess my edition of Dr . Priestley's Works , to which Hylas refers , I beg leave to shew in what connexion I used
that expression . At the close of the last year , while too many professed Christians were discovering that they could not only return railing for railing , but even retaliate on the person , family and fortune of an Unbeliever , his offences of the tongue and the pen , I was concluding the volume which contained the last of
the Notes on the Bible . Having quoted a passage from Le Clerc , as well fitted to describe €€ Dr . Priestley ' s feelings and desires , on finishing this work , " I
supposed that such were participated by * every pious and benevolent reader , especially when falPn on evil days ;" adding , " Nor is it the least portentous sign of evil days , that Stute-Christians are
now zealous to adduce what have been not unaptly called dungeon-arguments , in defence of Christianity ; while too many religionists rejoice that an Unbeliever , for no crime > but the crime of publishing the work of another Unbeliever , has been prosecuted , even to imprisonment , distress of his family , and ruin of ] bis fortune . / r FhUB secular
tribunals , as if sitting in the Temple of iSod , take Christianity under their protection , as part and parcel oi the lavir of Engird . " I theft congratulated myself , ' * that my author was a religionist df a very different description from those who may now be triumph-
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408- Mr . Rutt , in Reply to Hylas , on the Punishment of Unbelievers
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1820, page 408, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2490/page/28/
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