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Untitled Article
He goes on afterwards to vindicate his tenet against the various objections derived from erroneous notions of divine sovereignty and justice , and more especially from the prevailing misconceptions with respect to its supposed moral tendency , as holding out too extensive a hope to mankind , as softening or setting aside the denunciations against sinners and relaxing the obligations to virtue . These he combats ably and , we think , successfully , in the following passage :
" It is also objected against final restoration , that it softens down , or sots aside , the tlireatenings against sinners . This is either a gross mistake , or a more gross misrepresentation of the doctrine . It denies , indeed , that there is one single threatening" of endless misery in all the Bible . It teaches that the strongest language and boldest figures which are applied to future punishment , have all a limited signification ; it shews , from the nature , character , and perfections of God , and his relation to man , that the end of all punishment is corrective , not vindictive : limited , and not eternal . But so far from
softening or setting aside the tlireatenings , it gives the most awful of them their full and scriptural meaning , without the least softening or palliation ; for it insists upon the fact , that no wilful sinner can escape punishment , nor any unrepented sin pass with impunity . Since Ood will bring every work into judgment with every secret thing , and will , in the most just , righteous , and impartial manner , reward every man according to his deeds ; that , as no wilful and unrepented crime shall be forgiven , so no substitute for personal righteousness shall be accepted Those who have done evil shall receive for the evil they have done tribulation and anguish upon every soul that hath done evil , and there will be no respect of persons with God ; but glory , honour , and peace , will be the reward of every one that worketh good . It further teaches , that the connexion between crime and punishment remains unbroken ,
and that so long as any one remains vicious , he must remain miserable : and that God ' s fatherly rebukes and merciful corrections will follow such , even iri . a future state , till every degree of enmity is subdued , and until they shall submit and accept of the just punishment of their crimes ; for , as I live , saith . Jehovah , every knee shall bow to me , and every tongue shall confess unto God ; and where this is not produced without punishment , punishment will be made the means"to produce it , either in this or in a future state , and the rod of correction shall rest on every stubborn son , until it drives sin and folly out of his heart , and humble and reconcile the whole rational creation * unto
God " . It is also objected against the final restoration that it relaxes the moral obligations of mankind . It is said , if all will be finally restored to happiness , and none consigned to endless misery * then men have little cause to fear sin * ning , and as little reason to regard the practice of moral virtue , since all will be equally saved at last . This might be a plausible objection , if , indeed , all would be equally saved at last ; but , before this is admitted , it must be proved , that the punishment that will follow all unrepented sin and the pains of the second death , are nothing" to fear or endure ; and that exemption from the second death , and the inheritance of eternal life and a part in the first
resurrection , are objects of so little importance , that it matters not whether we obtain them or lose them . Them , indeed , we might say , * Let us eat-and drink , for to-morrow we die . ' But the doctrine of final restoration teaches far different leseons . It does not , like the popular creed , teach that men may be saved by mere faith without good works ; that they may be pardoned through the sufferings of ft substitute ; that they are accounted righteous in . God ' s sight and justified before him , on account of the righteousness , merit * , and vircues of another . No , it insists on personal , practical , and positive virtue , holiness , and righteousness ; and that without holiness and obedience
to God , no man shall see the Lord . It does not , like the Antinomian tenet , teach that the believer la a certain creed i $ freed from aH obligation t * y the moral precepts of Gdd * s law ; freed froin its ttfrrse by the death of another , and from all obedience to its commands , because that other has obeyed them .
Untitled Article
Latham s Lectures 463
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 463, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/31/
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