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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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the prospects of its possessor are pot ]> ouo 4 e < i by the narrow limits of time and sense ; lie regards this world ia its necessary connexion with anatt ^ , * _ to » * * m %
. and when disappointed in his expectations from sublunary objects , anticipates with joyful hope the important realities of futurity . His * faith is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen / 1
" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness , for they shall be filled I" - This beatitude evidently points out something astonishingly great and glorious in the future Condition of the righteous . The 6 e restless appetites of the animal frame
$ re frequently satisfied for the present , but they as frequently return $ but the " hunger and thirst after righteousness , " the spiritual desires of the truly good , shall hereafter be filled in a far more complete and emphatic manner ; they shall be abundantly
gratified in those ' * new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness—when the work of righteousness shall be peace , and the effect of righteousness , quietness and assurance for ever . "
To expatiate on all the passages m the Bible which appear , not only by fair inference , as above stated , but also by direct application , to designate this glorious termination of the Divine plans with respect to mankind , ( which the reader will recollect is all that
immediately concerns us , or that is within our reach , ) in terms sufficiently explicit , consistently with the general tenor of holy writ concerning remote events , and with the language of prophecy , would require a volume ; but
some of the most striking cannot be overlooked ; they appear as bright orbs in the celestial hemisphere , €€ having no part dark , " and guiding our feet into the way of peace .
we have seen that whatever God is , he is infinitely so . Now , to say that he is infinitely good , but partially long-suffering , is to deny in reality what we profess in Words . The branches must partake of the
excellency of the root - the streams of the fountain . When it is asked , " Will he draw out his anger unto all generations ? " This implies the strongest negation that he will not ; and this he hath also himself assured us of in the most positive terms— " I will not con-
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tend for ever , neither will I be always vfrttb ; to £ the spirit should fml h * £ ot £ me , aad the soota * ivhkrft I have made ! " To confine the import of these passages to the narrow limit * ot time and sense , is the most jegre ^ ys triflings-it is to degrade and limit the
attributes of the Deity * andto repte * sent him as , ip this view , ''gufckfa one as ourselves : " the decrees aad dispensations of the Almighty are never to be opposed to his nature . * no length of time , no degree of per * terseness in the creature , ( speaking vyith reverence , ) can literally , though
they may figuratively , weary out his patience , or extinguish his long-suffering . If the daring transgress or abuse this essential property of the Divine nature , either here ov hereafter , the fault is in himself alone , and not in the doctrine , as we may have occasion more fully to observe in the sequel . ,
* ' God sent not his Son into the world to condemn it , but that the world through him might be saved /' Christ is said " to give his flesh for the life of the world tfr and he is emphatically styled " the Saviour of the world . " These and other similar texts ,
which the reader ' s judgment will supply , may be properly considered together , and the lowest possible sense we can assign to them , either separately or in their respective connexions , is plainly this—that the Deity had an original intention of saving all mankind , and that , in this view , the benefits
resulting from the meritorious instrumentality of our Lord , in his labours and sufferings towards the accomplishment of this glorious end , as they were designed for all , so they are sujficient for all . But are we to restrain these
wonderful expressions to the lowest possible sense and to suppose that they will ultimately fail of their complete accomplishment ? Ancient and venerable divines tell us , that " the mercy of God , apprehended by an act
of true faith , can pluck a sinner from the very confines of hell" ! and that " one drop of the blood of Christ is sufficient to purify the guilt of ten thousand worlds" ! And shall the mercies of God , and the merits of
Christ , which in this life are represented as so gloriously and transcendently operative , prove in the next totally inert and inefficacious ? Isll
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716 A " trtng-Lost Truths
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 716, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/12/
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