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slackening his speed as he comes nearer to the goal . But it only seems to be so . These weaknesses of nature do not affect character . Principle , habits , virtuous action , these are the things which will determine our -future lot : and when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption , and this mortal immortality , when the soul shall have ceased to sink with the pulse , to vibrate with every wounded nerve , and to be subject to all the skyey
influences , these dispiriting symptoms will vanish with their cause . These are not the faults that enter into the texture of the soul ; they do not even stain the wedding garment , but hang upon it as the dust which , when we have finished our toilsome journey , we lightly shake off , Happy period , when to the langour of a worn frame , and the dregs and darkness of exhausted nature , shall succeed fresh spirit and immortal vigour ; when we shall possess the
philosopher ' s wish , a sound mind in a sound body ; or , according to the Christian ' s more exalted phrase , when a glorified body will meet with a purified spirit ! Delightful state , which will be free from sin , as it will be free from sorrow ! How lovely a thing will human nature be when it is thus cleansed , refined , raised , exalted , presented to receive the high approbation of her Maker , like a bride adorned to meet the bridegroom ! Human
nature , as we see it in its fairest specimens , is very lovely even here ; but as dead flies make the most precious perfume to stink , so the unlovely mixture of sin and defect spoils the pleasure we take in the contemplation of excellence , and checks the full tide of love and admiration while it is warm and flowing . But there all will be uniform and of a piece . Each pure mind will be a fair tablet without a blot ; past transgressions will be done away for ever ; and for the future , for the long ages of futurity , they shall be without fault before the throne .
I would take occasion to observe , as the conclusion of the whole , that this hope contains one of the purest motives of aspiring after heaven . It is well when any motive operates upon a man so as to make him do his duty ; but the man who obeys through the hopes of heaven , and at the same time fashions that heaven according to the visions of a worldly or a sensual imagination , shews a low mind , that still grovels among the things of earth and sense—whereas to pant after a future state , where we shall sin no more ,
shews a person already far advanced in the paths of virtue ; to form the very idea of such a happiness does not belong to him who has but entered on the Christian life . He , indeed , begins with sacrificing his sins because he knows there is no other way to salvation , but he would be very glad if he might rather keep them ; to part with them is as the p lucking out of a right eye , the cutting off a right hand ; he can hardly conceive , if I may use the expression , how God will be able to make it up to him ; and he is very apt to image to himself a sort of Mahometan paradise where he shall be rewarded
for being abstemious here with a life of voluptuousness ever after . By degrees , however , if he persevere in the line of duty , the sacred love of virtue lays hold upon his heart ; he loves her now with a pure and disinterested passion . He is not tempted to inquire with casuistical niceness how holy and how blameless he must be to escape from perdition , but his most eager wishes press forward to the attainment of all moral excellence . These are wishes which strongly tend to their own fulfilment , for both in this life , partly , and more completely in the life to come , Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness , for they shall be filled .
Untitled Article
A Discourse , by Mr& Barbauld . 149
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/5/
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