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I % J& $ Epistle to the Romans , viii . 19— -22 , there appears to be a sublime ; distinct and specific prophecy con * qerning final restitution- It strikes upon our view like lightning from heaven , or rather like a fixed
constellation * ,. \ yhtchy though iiadisceroed by the careless eye , is yet easily distinguished by the attentive observer , who , " in the glass of the word , " often descries objects which escape common observation :
" For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God . For the creature was made subject to vanity , not willingly , but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope , because { on , or that ) the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption , into the glorious liberty of the children of God : for we . know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now . " By the " creature" here , as Mr . Burkitt observes , " some understand the whole universe of rational , sensU tive and inanimate beings . " It is no less strange than true , that Calvin
himself alludes to this interpretation without censuring it ( Inst * Book iii . Ch . ix . Sect . 5 ) : " Shall brute beasts , yea , and lifeless creatures , stocks and stones , according- to Paul , knowing their present vanity , be earnestly
looking for the great day of the resurrection , that they may , with the children of God , be delivered from this state ; and shall we , that are endowed with the light of reason , and , above all , illuminated by the Spirit of God , not raise our minds above this scene of
vanity and corruption ? " But this appears to be too general a sense of the passage . It is true , the inferior creatures suffer by the sin of man , and their sufferings frequently exceed their enjoyinents , and as they are innocent , and possessing faculties ,
sensations and voluntary powers , which we justly admire but cannot explain , this may seem to require some remuneration : and , no doubt , if it be fit and proper , it will be so ; but these are matters which do not immediately epnj ^ rn us , and which we may safely leave in the hands of the God of
nature . But by " the creature" here , ( veno- ^) is generally understood the whole race of mankind , besides Chris-
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turns , vvho , in the next verse , aj ^ op * posed to the foniter class . Now 5 ^» o creature but man in this woridle&mbe said to be subject to ^ anity willingly or not miUmgly . " * Mankind is therefore hwe divided into two great
elmse& % professing Christians , and the rational world at large ; and the apostle is evidently making a digression and inviting the attention of those to whom he wrote to an important subject , which they either did not suffi - ciently attend to or duly apprehend . As if he had said , "We Christians
should not wonder at the peculiar sufferings to which we are exposed , which are for the most beneficial , purposes , and will terminate in a manner unspeakably glorious 3 since we see in the present constitution of things , that this is the case in some measure
of all the world , as well as of ourselves . * For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth , and the whole creation groaneth : ' . the good and the bad , for reasons partly different and partly similar . Good men groan under peculiar afflictions , under persecu
tion , on account of their own imperfections and the general infelicity of man . Bad men groan in their lucid intervals from the unsatisfying nature of present enjoyments , from the torment of ungoverned appetites and passions , and the shortness of human
life . And sometimes they unite in the general aspirations of the just , after a spiritual deliverance , though they have but confused ideas of its nature , and will not attend to the means by which it is to be accomplished . Thus every individual may
be considered as * travailing in pain / and in a state of * earnest expectation' for something better : * Like a poor prisoner , who often puts his head out of the window of his gaol and looks for relief , and longs to be enlarged into liberty and enjoyment / " * Now the creature was thus
originally subjected , " not willingly , " for it could not act or choose before it was , but by the appointment of Providence , who in his inscrutable wisdom did not think it fit that the
offspring of an apostate head should be favoured in the first instance with equal advantages to their progenitor . But this state of things is not irre-* Taylor in loco . - f Ibid .
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718 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 718, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/14/
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