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able to collect from nature concerning a fi * tfcufe state , provided there were any such thing-. " He expresses himself as follows : * ' Upon the supposition of our surviving the grave , we wei ^ e able , from the consideration of
the equity of God ' s moral government , to infer , that the event would be very desirable to good men , and much to be dreaded by the wicked , * ' &c . There was some hope that those who were hot reclaimed in this world might be effectually cured of their vicious
propensities by the more severe and durable punishments of another , &c . Thus much as to the light of nature * f * From Revelation , " Dr . Priestley adds , " we learn the actual certainty of a fiiture state , and have an absolute assurance of its being a state of exact
retribution , in which every man shall receive according to his works / ' In the second , ' on the nature of future rewards and punishments , he says , * ¦ * The punishment of the wicked is described in the Scriptures , in such a manner as , if the representation be
at all attended to , cannot but alarm our fears to the utmost , " and enumerates several particulars furnished by the New Testament in illustration of this awful subject . Let us turn to the work to which Phitadelpkus refers , the ** Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever . " Does not the whole tenor
of it , as well as many particular passages , indicate a firm persuasion in a future state of punishment as well as reward ? At the very outset , Letter I ., the venerable defender of Natural and Revealed Religion characterizes his system as " a system which threatens ¦
vice with future punishment ;" and maintains , in the 8 th Letter , that we are led ** to expect a more perfect retribution , than we see take place here , and consequently , to look for a state where moral agents will find
more exact rewards for virtue , and more ample punishments for vice than they meet with in this world . " And , not to multiply needless quotations , we have , in the second part , Letter V V .. the following' account of Letter . the following account of
, Christian' faith : " Christian faith implies a belief of all the great historical facts recorded in the Old and New Testaments , in whicHwe are informed concerning the creation and government of the world , the history of the
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discourses , miracles , death and resurrection of Christ , and his assurance of the resurrection of all the dead to a future life of retribution $ and this is the doctrine that is of the most consequence to . enforce the good conduct of men . "
We have now brought dawn our proofs to the time when Dr . Priestley wrote the expressions in question , and it is plain that he could not by those expressions intend to deny or doubt
the reality of future punishment * My assertion that his opinions on this subject underwent no change to the very close of life , is founded on his wellknown death-bed conversation .
"He desired me , " says his son , "to reach him a pamphlet which was at his bed ' s head , Simpson on the Duration of Future Punishment . ¦ * It will be a source of satisfaction to you to read that pamphlet / said he , giving it to me , ' it contains my sentiments ? " &c .
Are we then justified in applying the opinion which . Dr . Priestley expressed in his correspondence with Dr . Hartley , " the pains of this life may suffice for the whole of our future existence , " to those who live and die in the love and practice of sin > Did he not evidently mean that the pains of this
life , when they have operated effectually in destroying the love arid the power of vicious principles and habits , may suffice for the whole of our future being ; and was it not probably his object , ; by shewing this to be a fair deduction frpm the doctrine of
association , to prove the consonance of that doctrine with the plain and positive declarations of the New Testament ? Thus understood , —taken as expressing a belief , that the hope of the righteous is at once justified by scripture
and by reason—the language of the excellent Priestley on this occasion harmonizes with the general tenor of his works , and presents no such difficulty as Philadelphus appears to find in it . It coincides with the declaration
of the Apostle , " These light afflictions , which are but for a moment , are working out for us" ( i . e . for sincere Christians ) " a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory . " My object in this letter has been to shew that ^ your correspondent has no right to appeal to the authority of Dr . Priestley in support of the specu-
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S 9 Q Dr . Priestley ' s Opinion of Future Swff&Pmg-s .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 390, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/6/
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