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elect , whqm they once cherished as the apple of their eye , and loved a $ the sharers and heighteners of their joys ? Can heaven be heaven to them when their dearer self is banished from its joys and involved in endless perdition ? Yes 1 so says system—the theology , not of the Bible , not of nature , but of the schools and of darkness . If so , if such are the emotions the ransomed will then experience , how are all things changed , not for the better , but for the worse ! Mothers will become what would be called
monsters on earth * Fathers will exchange bowels of tenderness for dispositions to rejoice in the calamity of their own flesh and blood . The Deity will no longer bear with our imperfections , no longer wear the crown of mercy , no longer be encircled with a halo of benignity . The earth will no longer be * glad with the songs of happy myriads , the heavens no longer resplendent with cheering beams . All will be changed . The sun must witlxlraw its
light , the moon forget her rising , and the universal face of nature wear a funeral pall . And this is but preparatory to horrors inconceivable and endless * to be endured by an overpowering majority of all the creation . But it is not so . The voice of nature and the heart of man declare ; it impossible : and on the testimony of such witnesses we place much reliance . The frame of nature and the frame of man are what God made them , and their
teachings in consequence are , when clearly given , of infinite importance . And , in fact , the lapse of time has on this subject read a homily more impressive than any thing that man can utter ; for , owing to the opposition which they have received from the teachings of nature and the promptings of the heart , the doctrines of Calvin have almost from the time of their introduction been gradually wearing away—retiring from the bosom of man and the bosom of . society to silence and dusty oblivion in creeds and
confessions . The decline of genuine Calvinism proves beyond a question that no doctrine can maintain an influence that thwarts and opposes the essential principles of the human mind . Into the history of its decline we do not intend to go . At present , few need be told that in England it is little more , among the better-educated classes , than the name of a shadow . Amongst others , Dr . Whately comes forward to hasten its downfall , and valuable are the weapons he supplies . Before we advert to his excellent remarks in
confutation of evidence supposed to be afforded by the Scriptures , we must delay q moment to notice an observation which is not in unison with the appeal we have just made to the heart and soul of man in disparagement of this astounding system . Dr . Whately dissuades from the use of such objections to Calvinism as are " drawn from what is called natural religion . " Such weapons , he intimates , " may recoil upon ourselves . " Numbers , he tells us , are so educated that they must eventually fail of salvation ; and this and similar difficulties are merely branches of the one great difficulty , the
existence of evil , " which may be called the only difficulty in theology . " True , all this may be on any scheme which supposes the final loss of the chief part , or a great part , of the rational creation ; but if Dr . Whately was a believer in the doctrine of universal restitution , no difficulty of the sort he mentions would he find . The voice of nature , the promptings of the heart , and the teachings of revelation , all agree , all harmoniously combine to teach the pure and perfect love of God . The existence of evil is no longer a difficulty ; for under the teaching of the doctrine of universal salvation , sin has not only its remedy , but its benefits to each and to all of God ' s intelligent creatures . By its influence a greater good is brought forth , not to a favoured few , but to the whole family of man , than , cpuld otherwise have been effected . This
Untitled Article
610 WhtUehf ' s Essays on the Writings of St . Paid .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 610, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/10/
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