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Untitled Article
whom he chiefly associates , naturally finds if difficult to persuade himself that the errors and follies of which he knows himself to be guilty are to lead to endless and inconceivable woe * He is , indeed , told so , by those whose representations he has allowed himself to receive with implicit , unexamining confidence as the true statement of revealed truth ; he knows that it forms a
part of the authorized creed of the most orthodox sects ; he hears this , and little else resounded from the pulpits of the most popular expounders of these creeds ; but their harrowing descriptions , and occasionally impressive appeals , though they may affright his imagination * rarely produce the desired effect on his understanding or his heart . Incredulus odit ; he cannot imagine either himself or those about him , whom he believes to be little better , if so good , as himself , but who , with all their faults , are the objects
of his love and regard , to be indeed destined to so tremendous a fate . All the inoral feelings of his nature rise up in anus against the supposition ; and though it may form a part of his theoretical creed , it forms no part of his habitual , of his practical religious principles * But the misfortune is , that having in spirit and in practice rejected this horrible tenet , the creed of his church , and the denunciations of his favourite preachers , present him with nothing to take its place . That the sins committed in a few years by a frail
mortal like himself , -whom yet he has not the false humility to think the lowest and most sinful of human beings , are deserving of eternal punish * ment , or will meet with it at the hands of infinite wisdom and justice , is what he does not and cannot believe , with whatever confidence it may be inculcated by those who pretend in this matte * to be interpreters of the word
of God . But having rejected this notion , the system of orthodoxy provides xao other alternative but impunity ; nay , admission to heavenly joys * All this leads inevitably to the evil consequence of injuring in the most serious manner the moral efficacy of those sanctions by which the Scripture morality is enforced , and the tendency of the promises and threatenings of the gospel to promote their great object of a holy and a well-spent life *
Of the superiority in moral effect of the doctrine of final restitution , when properly understood , the respectable author of the publications before us appears to be very sensible . He has stated the general argument in support of his position , as derived both from reason and from scripture , in such a manner as to shew that he has carefully studied the controversy ; and those who have recourse to his lectures with the hope of obtaining a distinct view of the nature and true strength of his case will not be disappointed . He
undertakes to prove , first , that there is nothing in the nature of sin that can merit or require eternal punishment , and that this is equally inconsistent With the nature and constitution of man , and with the character and perfections of God . Secondly , that no threatening in all the Bible , against sin or sinners , includes , when properly understood * a threatening of eternal torments ; and , thirdly , that the contrary doctrine of the final restoration of all men to purity and happiness is plainly taught both in the Old Testament and the New . On the first two points we cordially agree with him , and on
the third we differ only so far as to have some doubts as to the validity of some of the direct proofs on which his commendable zeal for an important principle has led him to lay perhaps an undue stress . But that the conclusion is countenanced by the whole spirit and tenor of Scripture , and by all the views which both reason and revelation encourage us to form of the perfections of the Divine nature , and that it may be collected from the brief hints occasionally presented of the object and tendency of future punishment as the instrument ^ moral discipline , we readily admit and firmly believe .
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4 t > 2 Latham ' s Lecture * .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 462, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/30/
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