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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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Untitled Article
wisdom , skill , of man than beasts , and his capacity of pleasure in their enjoyments , we found another solution of the good man's care for the lower animals . Such a relation , in a far higher degree , God bears to us ; with this additional circumstance , that our existence , and that relation , are on his part wholly spontaneous . Are they feeble compared with us ? Much more are we compared with him . Does the consciousness of power dispose the good man to a kind use of it ? Much more does his absolute controul of our
destiny so dispose a good God . We are as "infants in his arms , or insects beneath his tread . At any instant can he wither our being . Were he malignant , he would torture us ; were he indifferent , we should survive or perish , enjoy or writhe , by chance , as worms in the path of the heedless . The union of power with benevolence makes Omnipotence itself only the pledge of absolute safety and final happ-iness . Is the consciousness of reason , of greater wisdom , with the good man , only a prompting to guide and correct and provide for the inferior tribes ?
What then are the promptings of benevolent Omniscience but to lead the blind by a way which they knew not , to correct the short-sightedness of man , and by the best adapted instruction and discipline , here or hereafter , train him for endless felicity ? The power which vainly shews itself in wanton inflictions , the interest which must be forfeited , or advanced by the pain of inferiors , the pleasure which consists in their sufferings , can by no possibility , by no supposition short of blasphemy , be ascribed to Him . He fights no battle with his helpless offspring . He has no glory to build on their destruction . He rejoiceth in the innnity of his bounties .
The plans of God , as they relate even to this transitory state , and including the short-lived beings that perish momentarily and for ever , are then benevolent . Strongly then may we infer that they are so , as relating to rational and immortal beings , and extending through futurity . Strongly may we infer that as here no animal is too mean to > be included in them , no man is so vile as to be excluded there ; but that the grand result will be the destruction of vice , the annihilation of misery , the universal , ultimate triumph of purity and bliss . Into such plans let us enter , and while they inspire our glowing devotions , may they form our characters also , and make us meet for
heaven , and agents for leading others there . Amply are these conclusions confirmed by revelation , through all its discoveries , from the promise to Abraham , that in his seed should all the families of the earth be blessed , to the vision of John , in which he heard every creature which is in heaven , and on the earth , and under the earth , and such
as are in the sea , and all that are in them , saying , Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne , and unto the Lamb for ever and ever . Amply are they sanctioned by every display of the Divine character , from the first revelation of the Jehovah of Moses to the glorious delineation of the Father of Christ . From what multitudinous sources ; like the noise of many waters , rise the declarations that God is Love ! This is the language of the laVidf nature , add this ^ he emphatic
teaching of miracl e ^ . ' This reasonjproves Ijjy demonstration , and revelation ateerta with heavenly authority . The sunbeams inscribe it wherever they fall , and the fl ^ werfe of earth are its lovely hieroglyphics . Inanimate being is its recordin g fjJHar , and vital existence is its living witness . From beasts to men , from riWh tb £ ng ^ ls , ascend the brightening illustrations of its truth . The Voice b / ' Time loiidly proclaims that God islx > vej and the echo rebounds in gladness through the long agi ^ s of eternity .
Untitled Article
Humanity to Animals . 325
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1830, page 325, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2584/page/37/
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