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this to have been the mind of Christ * If you do * you exclude from salva ^ tion none but blasphemers of the # bove ctess . Vou will undoubtedly insert , as understood , the words , * ' upon repentance / ' or words of the like import ; because we are expressly
told that it is he only who repentetb . and forsaketh his sin , that shall fipd mercy . To say that all men repent except they are guilty in some shape or other of the unpardonable sin , is to contradict those passages wherein our Lord declares that some sinners
who were cut off in the midst of their sins , such as those of the cities which were destroyed by fire from heaven , were inore excusable , and should experience a more tolerable doom than awaited the inhabitants of Jerusalem , of Capernaum , and those of other places who rejected the gospeh
9 th October . Seeing then that your people , in order to understand this saying of our Lord , are obliged to compare them with other passages of scripture , you cannot , without gross inconsistency , deny me the same latitude of judgment .
I have already referred you to passages wherein it is plainly declared that Christ died for all men ; that he is the propitiation for the sins of the world ; that he gave himself a ransom for all , a testimony for the proper for all , a testimony for the proper
time j that as in Adam all die , even so in Christ shall all be made alive ; that where sin abounded grace did superabound ; that mercy shall rejoice over judgment j that God will not be always , wrath , lest the Spirit should fail before him and the souls which
he has made 3 that he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner - > that he will have all men to be saved , and to come to the knowledge of the truth ; th&t his ways are equal , and that we ought to see , to understand , and to acknowledge the equity of all his dealings ,
past , present and to come , in order that thus knowing his name we may put our trust in him , and love him with all our hearts and minds , and sing praises to him with the understanding ; that , thus knowing the mind of the Lord and his declared will to
save all men , we are bound to pray jfor the final salvation of all men , npt with the interposition of qualifying
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particles , your Ifs and huts , but without wrath , and without doubting , a thing quite impossible to any man who believes tbat God will punish some men to all eternity . In further confirmation of the revealed design of God -to have mercy upon all men , we are told * m the dispensation of the
fulness of times he will gather together in one all things in Christ , both which are in heaven , and which are on earth , even in him ; that Christ is the head of every man ; and that as we have all borne the image of the earthy we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly , inasmuch as having made peace by the blood of his cross he will reconcile all things to himself ; and having been lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto him ; that the whole creation shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the g lorious liberty of the children of God ; that the tabernacle of God shall be with men , and he will dwell among them , and wipe away the tears from all faces , and that there shall be no
more pain , nor sighing , nor any more death , but all things shall be created anew , and every creature which is in heaven , and on the earth , and under the earth , and in the sea , shall unite in ascribing blessing and honour , and glory and power , unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb .
Are these wards of my invention ? Are they not those of men moved by the Holy Spirit ? And shall you presume to prohibit rne from listening to them—from meditating upon them , with a view to comprehend their full force and import— -from drawing
consolation from such exceeding great and glorious manifestations of the unbounded mercy and goodness of our heavenly Father ? You may prohibit , but the prohibition comes too late . The passages in question have been recited from memory , where , I trust , they are indelibly fixed . Can you think by your feeble voice to drown
the words of God ; or to scare me from listening to his gracious declarations ? He has made it my bouftdeu duty to think and care for the condition of my fellow- ^ reatures , to Jdvp
them as myself ; and I can do more divest myself of such thoughts , a » d cares , and anxieties , and deep-seated concern for their fate > * in d ardent aspirations for their happiness , than I
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398 / 4 Friendly Correspondence between an Unitarian and a Calvinist .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 398, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/14/
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