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do so , but your doctrine ; as far te it is received , renders it impossible * You menttoft the word reason . Reason is available to a certain extent , or else man would not be accountable .
But we are told thart reason is Winded by the fall , and the heart become deceitful above all things and desperately wicked . You evade every thing" that is said with respect to thorough
conviction of sin . The most godly persons I ever knew felt the deepest convictions , I have no doubt that your doctrine prevents every * one that receives it from feeling those convictions .
I see the strongest proof of the want of such conviction in all you write and speak on the subject . I therefore conclude that you are awfully hurt by it , and I should add , incurably , if I did not perceive that , independently of your doctrine , God has sown the
seed of eternal life , and therefore I am inclined to hope you may rank yourself among the elect , which right you disavow . " Rejoice with trembling / 5 Although engaged in controversy , I regard many of the passages you have quoted as delightful , taken in their due connexion . You do ~ not
prove to rne that the condition of the departed is affected by what we can think , feel or say on the subject . Do you or I pray to God to damn any man ? Do we not tell men to flee
from the wrath to come ? The greater the evil the stronger the excitement to flee from it , and the greater the probability of escape , speaking after the manner of men .
You think , perhaps , that I am hardening my heart against truth , because I look steadfastly at such passages as these : The ungodly called " cursed ;" the duration of happiness and punishment in the same words— €€ Fear him
who is ujjle to destroy both soul and body in hell ; " " Punished with everlasting destruction ; " . « ' Banished from the presence of God and the glory of his power , ?* I look lip to my Almighty Judge and ask him , if
continuing in impenitence , hardness of heart , and contempt of his authority and gospel , I am not warned by the words recited , to perceive no term to punishment , and an eternal exclusion irom a state of blessedness .
You do not tell me that if you met with a known sinner against the Holy tJJiQst , you would not lell such person
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he would not be forgiven in the world to eolne , artd he everlastiiBigly blessed ia contradiction to Christ ^ assertion to the contrary * / and yet that- very person may read your and your sect's words in print , telling him he will eventually be blessed to all eternity . advocat
You are an e for receiving the Scriptures literally . ; then yon must admit the word vengeance , so often mentioned in the , Scriptures , in the literal sense of the word , though you now say that that punishment is not vindictive . You add I ought togo to God to obtain thorough conviction of
sin , as vve cannot obtam full experience o £ gospel grace without it , leaving this discussion to be renewed after our discovery of the one and the otfier has become complete , leaving also God to manage what belongs tp him . Now / suppose that you or I should be totally deprived of our faculties , God would not be at a loss for want
of our advice . It is not said that any true penitent will go to hell . I admit that Calvinists harden their hearts by taking up the atonement lightly , and disconnecting duty and privilege . But conscience
will now and then interrupt their slumbers . With self-reproach I look at the constant stragglings of the true Calvinists ; their alternate victories ; their times of refreshings their ardent desires to die more atad more in Christ
daily , and to know- more of his life by the work of the Holy Spirit . These are things that I consider myself authorized to believe . Your people and high , that is Antinomian , Calvinists , are strangers to them , by what they communicate of their thoughts and
experience . I do , however , give your people ( not Antinomians ) credit for bearing with fortitude the trials of human life , aa men , whose spirits are not broken , do bear them . I therefore
consider myself authorized to conclude that your tenets do not promote such striving prayer , ardent longings , dyings and risings with Christ , which Christ and his apostles , and the most favoured of our people speak of .
. If we seek after these things , in our endeavours to attain unto , them , we shall be fully occupied as respects divine matters , all our lives ; and give judgment on the other > vhen God requires us > to do it .- But we are required now and hereafter , as far as
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A Friendly Correspondence betuteehJanv Umtamm ^ nd a Calmnfct . 487
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vol . xix . J n
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 457, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/9/
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