On this page
-
Text (1)
-
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
phrase , denominates " the first flowings of the Scriptures ; " ) if we attempt this rapid ascent , the transition is so great , the idea so overwhelming , that we are momentarily lost and dismayed , rather than persuaded and convinced : a secret
infidelity sometimes stirs within us , and for a season interrupts our tranquillity and joy . Now , in such a state of mind , a plain but pious man , " holding the root / ' the belief in a Supreme Being of eternal and infinite perfections , and " the branch" from the
root , the divine mission of Jesus Christ , for the sake of argument , putting himself and his associates out of the question , if he take only the general history of the heathen world ,
or the outlines of the history of the Bible , may be naturally led to inquire whether it is reasonable to suppose that , under the jurisdiction of a Being of infinite power , wisdom and goodness , all the worthies of ancient time , or the worthies of the Old and New
Testament , besides a numerous host of saints and confessors of subsequent ages , considered merely as to their characters , should lie down in the clods of the valley , without recovery or restitution to eternal ages ; especially when he also considers the
mixed state of affairs here below ; the natural tendencies of things , and their frequent counteractions ; " the violent perversion of justice and judgmentoppression which maketh a wise man rnad ; " the virtuous set in low places , and the wicked unduly exalted ;
together with the powers and faculties of the human mind , capable of endless improvement in knowledge , virtue and happiness , and a moral government evidently begun , but not consummated : in a word , whether the present vacillating and transitory scene
be likely to prove the termination of the Divine plans with regard to such characters ? And if he must upon serious reflection be persuaded that this cannot be , but that they should live again , then it is easy to ascend one step higher , and he will readily
allow , without any laboured proof , that if there be a resurrection for one , there must be a resurrection for all $ and then , not to enter upon the promises of Scripture , the reasoning of a great Divine may come in to his aid ,
Untitled Article
namely , that " the life of the ri ghteous subsequent to the resurrection * cannot be Conceived to be limited in duration , but upon one of three suppositions—either from their apostacy when free from every evil , natural and moral , and under the peculiar ausp ices of God and the Redeemer ; or , that the Almighty should destroy them when most conformed to his Divine image and likeness ; or that the universe should be too narrow to contain them . The first is a moral , the second an absolute impossibility , and the last a complete and palpable absurd ity . "* So that , upon the supposition of any future state of happiness at all , it must needs be an eternal one , " not , " indeed , "of debt , but of grace !
Eternal life is the gift of God , through our Lord Jesus Christ . " But , is there any process of the understanding or concatenation of ideas which will lead us to form a similar conclusion with respect to the duration of future punishment ?—We trow not .
Having treated in some former numbers of the Repository on what may be styled the modern orthodox representation of this doctrine , namely , as a state of different degrees of suffering , but of a strictly eternal duration , and endeavoured to shew
that , even in this qualified view of the subject , the arguments urged in its favour appear to be invalid and unsatisfactory , whether we reflect on the nature of sin , the nature of man , the nature of eternity , and , as far as we are able to discover them , the Divine perfections and character in
a general view , and without an immediate regard to the attribute of goodness ; we might now proceed to consider the subject in a direct and
positive light , adverting more especially to this glorious attribute of the Deity , and to the general strain and current of Scripture , but that it may be proper to premise a few remarks
on some or those leading passages which are urged on behalf of the commonly-received notions on this head ; for though the Scriptures cannot be inconsistent with themselves , or with
right reason , they contain , nevertheless , certain dissonances , or apparent incongruities , which , as they often
* Duchal
Untitled Article
€ 62 A " Long-Lost Truth . "
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 662, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/22/
-