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disorders of the mind . It is true , din i £ often progressive in this world , hi particular cases , as ivhen thfc f&riti& meets with ho pi ^ esettt impediment s but change the Circumstances , and yoii generally ehaftge the tnihd 6 f the agent . There ate , indeed , stubborn tempers that will persist , notwithstandin g the severest sufferings and the most bitter disappointments ; but w 6 must attetid to general rules , and not to particular exceptions .
Now , though we take for granted the expansion of the mental faculties in a future state , Math respect both to the righteous and the wicked , yet we must think strangely indeed as Christians , if we imagine there can be any capacity in the state of future punishment for the exercise or indulgence of the most of those evil passions and
propensities which torment us here , and which are summed up in that emphatic and comprehensive phrase , '• ' the deceiveableness of unrighteous-^ M ^ ^ V s ~« **¦ 7 7 * m ~ l-fc ^^ . , ^ " » - ^ w «^ «^ ' ^ v *^ f *» « J ^ V wm l ^» a ^ W ^ W ^ M f * *^» 4 4 ~* . The expansion of passion
^^ *^ * ^^ ness . " any or desire in the present lite , arises from the hope or expectation , well or ill-founded , of its future gratification * But this cannot justly be supposed of the criminal affections in a future sta 4 ; e .
As ** flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God , " so neither is it probable that they can inherit the kingdom of Satan . There must be peculiar and appropriate vehicles for both saints and sinners . What room there for sensuality and voluptuousness , where every alluring object and
extravagant suggestion shall be done away ? What motive to a daring and blasphemous impiety , where the messengers of Divine justice shall be actually present , inflicting the awful sentence of their hi g h commission ? What plea for unbelief , when €€ hell is open before them , and destruction hath no 9
covering VWhat food for coVfetc&sness , where there is nothing to dei&reT What incentive to envy or revenge , where the question is , not who is the most happy , but who is the least miserable ? What scope for a towering pride , a restless ambition , or an insatiate thirst of glory , falsely so called , where the vanity of human expectations shall be fully manifest ; where wicked tyrants and oppressors shall meet the due reward of their deeds , and the Universal Sovereign
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shall fulfil that signal demutdatiori ^ redoitfeid fcy th <* iiioritli of Bis htfty apostle , and * " destroy them ivb < y destroyed tftji fyftitirt Besides , tliis kSStfah contradicts itself .
To ? iti alwaiys liiipBes a cap&city hot to sin ; or to * epei ^ , ' iand consequently of becoming virtuous—contrary to the supposition . Will you , then ,, refer the fixed and eternal hate , -enmity and rebellion supposed to appertain to the wicked m this state , to the act " qf God ? This
you will scarcely venture to do . What ! hath he plunged a rational soul , originally made " in his own' image into a fathomless gulf , where it can be capable only of demerit , and that to all eternity ? Suret y ** he that is an essential enemy to sin , never made sin essential to man /** ** As it were
horrid blasphemy once to imagine him to be the author of it , so it cannot be conceived how he should be the author of what is so contrary to his own holiness , and infinitely abhorred and detested by him . 4 God cannot he tempted with evil , neither tempteth he
any man . '" He may tempt , indeed , by way of trial , as in the case of Abraham , biit he tempteth none by way of seduction . " We may sooner imagine that darkness should be the
offspring of a sun-beam , than that a hol y God can be the author of that which is so contrary to his nature /' + * ' And though God , in grace , may long suffer contradiction to his will , and
that which he abominates , in order to work out wonders of his power , wisdom and goodness ; yet , otherwise to suffer it to abide for ever , an offence unto him , within his own domirifons , who is * Lord af all ; yea , even in a
sense withtn himself , as * in whom all things live and move and have their being ; this the understanding of man , looking dosely into , would even startle at ; for who can think God will
thus eternally " cprlcur with those who would eternalljr frustrate and pervert the ends of tis concurrence , and oppose him with his own powers ? Is it not more reasonable to c 6 iifemde , if he had not a design of grade , that he would cease from such a fitaitless afct , and , by subtracting his part , reduce them * Bishop Taylor , t Wisheai t .
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466 Modern " Orth&doh" . Notion of Future Punishfbent .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 466, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/22/
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