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are so sophisticated by system as not to perceive that they resort to reason ing , even when they endeavour to prove that we ought not to reason . CJhrisdan liberty ^ however * after a long period of darkness , is now beginning to be prettjr generally understood . Men have the wit to discern that when
one mortal usurps authority over the mind and conscience of another \ he lays claim ton divine attribute . Why did Jesus and Paul reason ., or Calvin and Luther argue against the errors . and follies of Popery ? The omstver which justifies them will suffice for me . L
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NtoL l 4 th October . ** You have set ttie at ease in respect to one grand point , namely , that neither the state of the departed nor the decrees of God can be affected by what we can think , or fee ) , or speak , or do , with respect to the dead * But you
say justly , that the living are affected . I am perfectly satisfied in mjr mind that your doctrine doe » harm to your ^ self and those who hold it , and to ihose to whom it is preached * What you say with respect to reason strengthens n > y coiivlctions . The time for you and all of us to know the effects of
the fall , and to experience a fall knowledge of the evil of sin * is yet to come . As to the pleasure which you speak of , I consider it to be dangerously delusive , and I think the same with regard to the pleasing experiences of the great bulk of professed Calvinists . As to the true scriptural Calvinist , he possesses all the consummation- that
you can hold out to him . He is assured that every thing will be restored to its proper place—that he will find every thing in heaven any good being could wish for ; and he cannot have more . He soon is swallowed up in a sense of the love of God in Christ Jesus , brimfull , and can hold no more
—is immersed in an ocean without bounds . He will be of one mind with God to all eternity ; and all creature eonsideratioira will be resolved into the glory and sovereignty of God , which i ® , at all events , what it ought
to hb ; and W 6 shall be enabled to see that hereafter . Thfc true Calviftisfc , bowing to the sovereignty of God , receives vvha , t is said with respect to the character of the fttiatiy imnetltfeftt , as
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well as the nature and duration of the punishment , in such a manner as to give tb tile words employed the fullest meaning which they are able to bear . Consequently the texts you have quoted are , m their judgment , overruled . It is an act of submission and
obedience which clears God of every unfavourable imputation , gives the fullest allowance to the penitent , and instead of beguiling men into danger , warns them to flee from it . Penitents are not the subjects of the threat / and they are told so in the strongest terms . As to feeling for impenitent and unconverted fellow-creatures , God is the
judge which of the twp sects feels most the agony , the travailing in birth for souls , and gives the most impressive warnings . Every one will be ransomed who accepts the offered pardon with that feeling of repentance wliich God will accept . Wherever repentance is proved there will be salvation . All this will be known hereafter . You
assume that men will repent in a future state , but you cannot prove it . It is a great pity that while we are so anxious for the repentance of condemned spirits , we should be so little
anxious for our own . I verily believe that if we were fully etovine&i by th $ Holy Ghost in our ownselves , of sin and righteousness and judgment , we should not be anxious to prove that lost spirits repent and are saved . We should leave these matters in Gad ' s
hands , making use of Scripture Ianguage , and adopt the word ceonian if you please and the designation of the impenitent . We ought to be very careful how we encourage men to put off
repentance , by telling them they may repent savingly after death . All sects Of Christians appear to see the evil tendency of this doctrine , and many a worldly man sees it , or professed to see it .
The truei Calvinigt e *|> eriendes an increasingly deep conviction of the blindness and depravity of his heart by nature ; and * therefore , tongs for the light of iifev Such do& $ not ap * . pear to be the experience of four
sect . They look to distant perimlti md events ; and their pi ^ fe &sed sfet * fl& t > f the love of God , seeing to make tbem lose & \ ght and feelfog of what God has said with respect to si <* and the sifoftfc * , thosfe awful detwittciattoiis . Our sect ; under quteketungs utid awakenings ,
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A Frtendltf Correspondence between an Uniturianand a Culvintet . 459
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 459, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/11/
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