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720 Remarks on a "Friendly Correspondence , " fyc .
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. No . 2 . This is entirely begging the question * If the idea of c * interminable wrath" only tends to promote melancholy in the saint , and despair in the sinner ; and not to convince or to uadeit is not probable that the
pers , l > eity ever intended it should be received . Old authors , which may hereafter tye quoted , have contended that the high scheme is the readiest way to make men Deists , if not Atheists .
No . 3 . " . Feeling- the evil of sin . " This is certainly a private and personal concern ; as to which no man has any right to judge his neighbour . I suppose the writer would scarcely recommend auricular confession ! "
JFithout holiness no man shall see the Lordl * This , duly considered , is an effectual guard against the abuse of the doctrines of grace ; but suppose m ^ n will ab use them ? Shal l we therefore not contend that God is good ; that € c Mercy is his darling attribute , and judgment his strange work" ? f €
No . 4 . Genuine Calvinists offer the gospel freely to all , " &c . True : and for a very good reason ; because if they did not , such is the force of truth , that they would have np hearers ; at least nineteen out of twenty would quit their seats , though the majority might notionally adopt the scheme , and , as thousands do , mistake
acquiescence for belief . Therefore , they dare not , I repeat it , they dare not preach undisguised Calvinism , or the doctrine of unconditional Reprobation . They tell the people that we cannot search the book of the Divine
Decrees ; that offers of grace are made in the most general terms , and that in the use of means we may reasonably hope for the Divine blessing . Now , all this is very good as far as it goes , but nothing at all to the question in haad ; for to what purpose is it , that I cannot search the book of the Divine
Decrees , if a decree be actually gone out against nxe ? If through long habits of sin I # m almost ready to make €€ shipwreck of faith , and of a good conscience" and feel not as yet
any of those constraining impulses of the pivine Spirit , which I am told are necessary to form the ' * new creature ;" if I am already marked out as one of the myriads , determined by my Maker first to sin , and afterwards to suffer for ever , for the satisfaction of his justice and the eternal manifestation of
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his glory , I must submit to my fete i It is true the alternative impossible , but why should I pretend to forestall Providence ? He will-do it , no doubt , if be thinks fit , in his own time / In
short , these good men are perpetually contradicting themselves ; and it should seem that all schemes , which have necessity for their , basis , tend naturally to produce in their advocates a species of mental aberration in
different degrees , which renders them impenetrable to the plainest reasonings ; so that nothing is gained by contention in this case , as the parties proceed commonly upon different grounds . *
No . 5 . It is difficult to understand what is meant by * overrating the evil of suffering , " if eternal suffering be here spoken of . Th | s swely cannot be overrated : what would the pious f
writer require more . No . 6 . Tophet , or the Valley , of Hinnom ,. in Jerusalem , is alluded to by our Saviour as an a \ yful symbol of future punishment ; as crowns , thrones and sceptres are of the heavenly felicity ; and opening the books ,
marshalling the different charjapters > and -conferences between the : several parties , are of the universal j ^ gtnent . These are plainly accommodations to the human understanding-. On the supposition of the eternity of punishment ,
/• asks , "How could I be happy in contemplating it V * How , indeed I N . replies : The Deity will enjoin his favourites not to disapprove the sufferings of these victims , but to look on the sufferers " with abhorrence . "
Now , such a state of mind , from whatever cause , is one of the most painful which we can possibly experience , perhaps only lower than despair ; it unfits us while it lasts from tasting
any of the enjoyments or performing * any of the duties of life , aad is near akin to furious anger and deep-rooted malignity—it sometimes changes civilized man into a savage , and would transform the countenance of an angel into that of a fiend . David indeed
says , * ' I hate sinners with perfect hatred ; " but it is probable , notwith-* we may be allowed ^ pun upon , a serious subject , preachers of this class are under the necessity of proceeding iu their public services upon the principle * of liberty *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 720, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/16/
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