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which th £ y are * as it were , parts and modification , % nd iti whteh t&ey are all comjj&eiiefoded . " In a relative view they are dll the 'effluxes of his eternal goodness , distinguished by several names , according to the objects about which it is exercised . When it
supplies the indigent , it is bounty ; when it relieves the miserable , it is mercy ; when it confers blessings on the unworth y * it is grace ; when it bears with rebellious sinners , it is
long-suffering ; when it bestows blessings on them to whom he hath obliged himself by promise , it is truth ; and when it succours the innocent , and by just punishment restrains those evils that are destructive to men , it is
justice and righteousness * It is the great inviting * attribute which inclines his wisdom to contrive and his power to act for us , and veils his holiness from alarming and terrifying us . We admire God Tor his other perfections , but this allures us ; this is the ground of all our converse with him , that he
is a good God . All creatures have a natural goodness in them , a goodness of being ; but God is sovereignly and infinitely good—the first Being , and therefore , as Plato says , the first Good . Moses having desired ( to see
his glory , is answered , I will make all my goodness pass before thee : ' and the Apostle , Rom . i ., calls his goodness his Godhead ; so that goodness is inseparable from the notion of God " *
Thirdly . As " God is love , " and as true religion consists in the imitation of the Being whom we worship , so especially in this sublime perfection of his nature , which constitutes both our highest duty and supreme felicity . Hence charity , in its scriptural sense ,
as including our duty to God and man , is said to be ** the fulfilling of the law , the end of the commandment , and the bond of perfeetness , " the standard of our present character , and the criterion of our future judgment . And this divine principle is to be exercised with the greatest intenseness , ** with all the heart and soul and mind
and strength ; " and in those that are duly possessed with it , it is said to " cast out fear , " that " against such there is no law / ' seeing that " they * Wisheart . 1716 .
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arie taught of God , " and are " & law unto themselves . " " ^ '¦ ¦ ^ " Who shall prescribe a law to $ * P « etfei £ ¦ love ? - : . ,-j , , ¦ ,. ' .:,. /' " , Love ' s a more powerf u l law '' ' W $£ i ? Ii doth them move / 9 ; , f
Now , from those ttfro fiiUdamemfal principles taken together , namely that " God is love , " aM tM ^ ehev&w lence is an indispensable qualification in his rational offspr ing , we are enabled to form a judgment of two arguments sometimes made use of in
defence of the popular scheme , arising from the supposition that the contemplation af future punishments mUy tend to preserve new beings in :- ' their allegiance , or to confirm and enhance the happiness of the righteous in heaven .
As to the first of these suppositions , it being only a conjecture , we shall leave it to itself . " Conjectures are endless , and the most dangerous of all auxiliaries ; " * and where we have no grounds to proceed upon , we had better confess our ignorance at once . Doubtless , " the unfathomed
space is ever teeming with new births ; " and in the immensity of the universe , the All-wise Creator may have a variety of methods whereby to govern , 4 ; o punish , or to restore his rational offspring . But we have no
example or knowledge of this kind , and can derive but an imperfect acquaintance from revelation with the history of those ( commonly supposed ) prior apostate spirits , whose fall and punishment , if alluded to at all , are marked out only in dark and distant adumbrations- Neither do we know
any thing of the inhabitants of Mars or Venus , Saturn or Jupiter , whether they are in states of trial , of punishment or of reward ; and certainly nothing of those countless myriads of
suns and worlds , revolving in the unfathomable depths of aether , invisible to mortal eyes , and beyond the stretch of human imagination . " We walk by faith , not by sight . " Let us then withdraw nearer home .
Now , as to the knowledge which glorified saints may ac < juire of future punishment , it is observed ( XIX . 721 )* that there can be no doubt of the fact , * Melampus . 1781 .
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714 A " Long-Lost Truth . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/10/
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