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sect of Christians ( for , after all , it is hut a secty has produced rne ' ii whom -all who love the name of Christ will acknowledge to have been burning and shining lights : far be it from me to charge upon them all the consequences of the hideous error which
they maintain . They have been active in preaching the forgiveness of sins , and in displaying the comforts and joys of religion , in spite of tlieir errors . In fact , the general effect produced by the Scriptures at large , and by the glorious works of God in the world ,
has been such as to overpower and render , in a great measure , inoperative the horrid dogma of vindictive punishment . I should like very well to sit under a well-informed , pious Calvinist preacher , if I could be assured that he would confine his
discourses to the elect , and shew how all things shall work together for tlieir good ; but the moment he ventures beyond that circle , he gets out of his depth , and becomes an unsafe guide . He involves his own mind , and the minds of his hearers , in contradiction and darkness . As for the sect of
Christians which maintains the glorious doctrine of the restitution of all things ., their number , though increasing , is but small . They have hitherto been much engaged in controversy , which ( as it is usually conducted ) is not favourable to the growth of the peacectble fruits of righteousness : and
yet I have met among them men who have a deep sense of the importance , I should rather say of the indispensable necessity , of personal religion . For a reverence for the Deity and for the Scriptures , I never yet knew a human being * who manifested that feeling in the same degree as the late Mr . Winchester .
" Does not the genuine Calvinist exhibit true philanthropy by holding forth danger in the strongest terms , that his neighbour may be thoroughly roused and escape it altogether ?" A man who stands forth in the
character of a preacher , is undoubtedly bound to teach honestly and faithfully , what he himself believes to be true ; and , therefore , if a man really believes that future punishment will be endless , he cannot , of course , acquit his conscience if he does not declare ¦ that awful conviction . But I am fully
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persuaded that no man believes it . I have already given my reasons for so thinking . It is at most a momentary suspicion , which could not co-exist
five minutes with sanity . Those who profess to believe it , smile and talk about every-day matters like other inen . They sit at feasts , and attend at marriages and christenings , and congratulate fathers and mothers . on the
increase of their famihea . This is all very proper ; but it is wholly inconsistent with the idea , that of the children thus produced , the chances are that the majority is doomed to everlasting misery . Thus you see that the
doctrine which you are so anxious to inculcate , does not merely affect the dead , but the living , and . those who are yet unborn . I never heard a good man say that we should have no concern for posterity . I feel that I have undertaken a most arduous task in .
thus explaining the reason of the hope that is in me ; but I have no apprehension , feeble as my powers are , of being able to produce scriptural answers to all the objections which you can start . Of the effect of my endeavours to produce an alteration in your sentiments I cannot be sanguine . He who constructed our minds knows
what spring to touch ; and m his own good time he will assuredly lead us to the knowledge of all those truths which can add to our happiness . Meanwhile let us bear with each other . I
think I am possessed of an invaluable truth . Let me then be thankful , and by no means indulge an angry feeling towards a good man , who has not yet gained the same prize .
I must beg of you to refrain frojn putting any more queries till I have answered those before me . The next on the list will require much consideration on my part . Yours affectionately , I . Again I repeat , that if these communications have become disagreeable and unprofitable to you , they shall , as far as I am concerned , be discontinued at your bidding .
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336 A Friendly Correspondence between an Unitarian and a Calvinist .
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N to L 7 th October . The evil which you have described ought , as you say , to be " investigated fully / 7 for otherwise we cannot duly
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/16/
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