On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
On the Paper * of Philadelphus—relating to Future Punishment . 533
Untitled Article
Lordship ' s spirit , and borrow his Lordship ' s mode of reasoning , and I shall be able to shew that he has no just claim to this appellation . Christianity , I should say , teaches that God is one undivided essence or person ; but this fundamental doctrine the Bishop does not believe ; therefore the Bishop is no Christian .
Quam temere in nosraet legem sancimus iniquam I E . COGAN . w ^ l ^ -
Untitled Article
Srit , SepL 14 , 1824 . AS those of your correspondents who are more accustomed to diseussions of this nature , do not appear disposed to examine ' the papers
of " Philadelphus ;( pp . 15 , 283 , ) I feel compelled to resume the subject . It has been shewn , to the satisfaction , I should imagine , of Philadelphus himself , [ p . 389 , ] that he is mistaken in ascribing to Dr . Priestley the opinion that future suffering will not ( or
may not ) be necessary for the reformation of those who have passed through life in vicious courses . The readers of the Monthly Repository , however , although they may entertain a high veneration for Dr . Priestley ' s talents and excellences , will not be
satisfied that an opinion is unfounded merely because it was not held by him . The question must after all be tried on its own merits ; and lest any should suppose that it is easier to take away from this opinion the sanction of Dr . Priestley ' s authority , than to shew its intrinsic erroneousness , I
venture once more to solicit your notice . No one , I would hope , will be so unjust as to impute a want of benevolent feeling to him who , from a serious conviction that those who die
in impenitence must undergo grievous suffering in order to their purification , endeavours to impress his own belief on the minds of others . This persuasion respecting the future destiny of the wicked , is not to be confounded with a malignant wish for the misery of our fellow-creatures . If , indeed , it
be false , let its fallacy be pointed out , and whatever may be the immediate effects of its rejection among mankind , every rational person would in that case acknowledge its untruth . But if it be a true persuasion , docs not benevolence itself require that ,
Untitled Article
having impressed it deeply tin our own minds , we should labour to give it a due influence on the charaeteF of our fellow-creatures ? This course was adopted by the Apostle Paul . " Knowing / ' says he , * ' the terrors of the Lord , we persuade men . " Can any one justly charge him with a want of philanthropy ? Was not this conduct the best evidence of
a generous concern for the welfare of mankind ? Philadelphus acknowledges , and not without reason , that his " thoughts are thrown out with little regard to tf
logical precision ; he might have added , I apprehend , with little regard to coherence or consistency . Near the beginning of his first letter he declares himself " A believer in the doctrine
of Philosophical Necessity and an Optimist / 9 adding , "I will candidly confess that this view of the system of the universe , although , upon the whole , highly calculated to inspire confidence in the great Power that rules over us , has nevertheless , at
some seasons , suggested uncomfortable reflections . " He goes on to state the nature of these reflections , and then adds , " From such thoughts as these I have gladly fled for consolation to the exhilarating declarations of the sacred writers , that a period shall arrive when pain and death
and every description of evil will be abolished , and God shall be all in all /* Who would have expected to find this writer intimating in the same paragraph , that the prospect of future sufferings which is exhibited in scripture , even as interpreted on the scheme of Universal Restoration ( ' sufferings such as even Dr . Southwood Smith
supposes may be endured by some human beings" ) cannot be contemplated with composure - > and who would expect to find him endeavouring by a train of reasoning to prove , what he thinks to have been the opinion of
Dr . Priestley , that this prospect may not be realized , and concluding with a candid confession , p . 286 , " The Scriptures do appear to me to contradict the theory of the Divine Government which I have framed out of
the scanty stores of my analogical gleanings ; " evidently meaning by this confession , that analogical reasoning on the future condition of man , justifies hopes which the Scriptures appear at least to discourage ?
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1824, page 533, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2528/page/21/
-