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state assumes the character of a school of discipline and a nursery of excellence , in which suffering , as in every other school , is conducive to the highest attainable happiness of each and of all . Ong adequate support For the calamities of mortal life
Exists- —one only—an assured belief That the procession of our fate , liowe ' ei JSad or disturbed , is ordered by a Being Of infinite benevolence dnd power , Whose everlasting purposes embrace All accidents , converting them to good .
The Universal ^ therefore , is in no danger of the recoiling of his arguments . His appeal to nature , to the attributes of God , to the feelings of the human mind , cannot be gainsayed on the ground of the loss of myriads of his fellow-men . The great question of the existence of evil loses its difficulty for him , for by proof in many instances —such proof as warrants faith in others—he knows that evil leads to good ^ and good again in infinite
progression . Moments , indeed , there may be in which a cloud comes over his horizon—pages in the book of Providence there are which he cannot fully understand ; but these are not of power nor of frequency sufficient to im- * peach or weaken his general principle , that all things work together for good * However severely in some moments his faith may be tried , he ascribes his vacillation rather to the weakness of his mind than to the
insufficiency of the proof of the essential goodness of the Creator ; and the discipline of life serves , under favourable circumstances , to affect the heart with an abiding conviction that all i £ well for all of God ' s creation , and with a chastened joy that a Being of perfect love and boundless power superintends the events , and will controul tne issues , of life , to universal happiness . The
Universalist only can make an effectual stand against the doctrines of Calvin ; for if , after all , myriads are lost , it matters little whether God permitted or decreed their ruin . If he permitted and had power to prevent , he practically foreordained the dreadful result ; if he permitted and had not power to prevent , then his power over his own creatures is limited , and the government
of the world is at least in part in other hands . In fact , the Arminian impeaches the power , the Calvinist the love of God ; the UniversaUst only unites love and power unimpaired and operating in a way worthy of the Deity , namely , to bless a world of intelligent beings . With the general tenor of Dr . Whately ' s remarks on Calvinism , however , we cordially agree . He begins by shewing at large , what is familiar to every well-informed Unitarian , that the language of the New-Testament writers
should be explained by a reference to the phraseology of the Old . This general principle he admirably well applies to the language of Paul supposed to favour the Calvinistic doctf ine of election ; and in reference to three particulars : 1 , whether the Divine election is arbitrary 9 or has respect to men ' s foreseen conduct ; 2 , who are to be regarded as the elect ; and 3 , in what does that election consist . Contrary to the usual method pursued by writers against Calvinism , he maintains , and we think effectually maintains , that the
elect are chosen arbitrarily ; but then all are chosen—and chosen , not to everlasting life , but to the privileges of Christianity and the means of final salvation . The Israelites , who were God ' s called , elect or chosen , holy and peculiar people , were , as Moses-clearly and repeatedly states , chosen , not for their good or bad deeds , but for the will and p leasure of God * The objects of this election were evidently the whole nation without exception . They were all brougfii * out of Egypt by a mighty hand , and received the Divine
Untitled Article
lVhately s Essays on the Writings of St . PaxiL 611
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1829, page 611, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2576/page/11/
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