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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.
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-J 28 Original Letters from the Baxter Manuscripts in Dr . William ?* Library .
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¥ hie > from . XVtto . t from Aquinas & lato . And I understand death properl y as afore—dust- thou art ; unto w " such sense of lo ^ se as you speake of is not competible ; and as to y adult ,
I dge not absolutely determine , but I any apt to thinke y y : multitude of y » are not very bad r will goe y same way ; in extreme punishments * wch adpaitt not of degrees : if subjects somewhat different fare alike , it can * not Be helped , but I believe y * v fla ^
gitious wicked adult will be punished ia y next life with paine of sense according to their demerits . Although 1 Cor . xv . speakes only of y resurrection of believers ; to save being y ? natural , primary and proper intent of y gospell , and Mafcth . xxy . seein g to speake only of y * vv shall be found
alive at y last day ; if so great evill as y word hell useth to signifie with Us , was to come upon all men universally , it is much there was no more expresse warning * ' especially under ye Old Test ., itt w * temporal piinishmentis , as we call y , are expressed by eternal fire and wrath unquenchable , and that which we translate hell
13 y grave : Thou wilt not leave my soule in hell ; Le . my life in y grave but to dispute of this through all texts and reasons , is a large matter ; only upon y 9 whole I say y *• there are some te ^ ts w satisfie me y * there will be
a resurrection of such as are properly called y wicked , and so reason also doth require , viz . unto paine of sense ; but as for y imputed sinne of Adam , and such as faile of legal justification , y wages of such sinne will be only death eternal , ia a proper sense . — Rom . vi .
11 . P . 102 , / . 15 ; Only moral evil can deprive them of his favour . I have said enough to shew how and why infants are deprived of his favour ; but as to y torments w some infants suffer in this life , I am not bound to thinke y they proceed
from any especial disfavour to those little ones , but come to passe ex domznio—God is y potter , and we are y ^ clay— -ox for punishment of their parents , or according to y course of providence w God is not bound to alteiv as some beasts suff ' er torments
more than others . As to other things , nothing can be said properly to be deprived of what it is ineapeble ; if there
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be such an incapacity in tliem hot ^ s bruits , but by reason of their age there may be a seminal or radical indispose tion , which is more than malum
physicum , and less than malum morale , and onljr dispositive to it , w * , if It be in aay intense degree , and with tempters and circumstances , may justly be thought a cursed thing .
12 . Ergo , they ( infants ) cannot be incorrupt and innocent . I grauntthis in y sense before declared , bnt y ^ axiom , viz . a cause can produce no effect y better thaa iikelfe ^ may need
much limitation $ it holds here in essence and essential qualities , not in habits of virtue or vice , or acquired and accidental things : that vtch I say is judicially inflicted as a punishment from y decree , and a relative
foundation . 13 . I graunt such a corrupt inclination in the sense declared * and experience proveth it to be a cursed things w is much advanced by y wickedness of intermediate parents , who begett still progemem vitiosi&rern ; ^ as
Horace sayth ; especially amongst the Pagans , and barbarous people more than in others , are found chips of the old blocks , * most cursed , knurly knots ; but I doe not think y * y indisposition of these does absolutely necessitate ' them to commit any one sintte ^ if they
would make use of such helps a ^ God give th them , else it would not be sinne , but of some in y Indies . I have read y quite contrary of them , viz . as y sweetest natured people in y world . They who say y * such
dispositions are but splendida peccata * speake but rhetorically ; I should think such , with good teacheing , like ^ - ly to be splendidly virtuous ; though to overcome strong indispositions as abounding in choller & melancholy , &c , be more rewardable .
14 . Before actual volition ^ Adam liad moral good , but only dispositively , & not ia such degree as to preserve him from sinneing against expresse law ; such habits as are properly virtuous are acquired * by repeated acts , & if they be strong habits , they are not consistent with some sinne till
weakened . So Joseph , ** How can I < lo this great wickednesses * &e « John iii . J > , & he cannot sintte , because he is borne of God \ X * could aot sinne at all 15 . I number not infants with
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 728, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/24/
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