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planet affords . For this my reason evidently lays on all sides the foundation . Instead , however , of making me as happy as possible , it makes me as miserable as possible , if death is annihilation , for it gives me a foreknowledge of death which incessantly torments and renders me more wretched than any brute animal is capable of being . For this foreknowledge j
if I am to enjoy the least happiness , I must be compensated , and nothing can compensate me for it but the foreknowledge , on the other hand , that-1 shall continue to exist in death . It is true that I possess far too many faculties and powers , and am the most incongruously constituted of all beings , if this brief life is my whole destination . Very few of my higher faculties attain a considerable
degree of cultivation ; faculties , of which I am not even aware , lie dormant within me , and the more I exercise any of the powers of my mind the stronger it becomes . Here are unbounded , inexhaustible stores for me ; what else can they be but intrinsic capabilities of my nature for everlasting duration ? And if in the material world nothing is , strictly speaking , lost , how is it possible that these should be lost ? It is true that I know
no greater happiness than to perfect myself more and more by means of these faculties , and to advance in wisdom and virtue . It is the voice of my nature which cries , onward , aud onward still ! Here I give to my instinct of perfection precisely that direction which is most consonant with my higher nature and my moral being . Shall then every thing
else be in the nuogt beautiful harmony , my faculties and powers adapted to immortality , and my instinct to cultivate them apply for ever , and shall the main point be wanting ? Shall immortality itself be denied me ? For what purpose , then , would be these faculties , these powers ? For what purpose would be thin instinct ? Either man is destined to
be the most incongruous , the most contradictory of beings , or he must coutiuue to exist in death . It is true , that the mere sense of duty is not capable of keeping me virtuous in all the circumstances of life . If it shall be capable of doing this , if the continual regard to my moral nature shall cause me to act under all circumstances in a
strictly moral and virtuous manner , my moral nature must first acquire its true dignity by an everlasting existence . Nothing bat the hope of a future life supports me in my most arduous duties ; and if 1 am called to perfect virtue , 1 must also be called to immortality . WJhat
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good deed is there in which I am not strengthened by immortality ? The be ^ lief in it is the highest incitement tor virtue ; I must therefore hold it fast . It is true that there must be justice iii the moral world , and that at present it is not perfectly administered . Let me " strive as I will to justify fate , still there are imperfections and deficiencies , great *
imperfections and deficiencies , in its present government . Owing to circum ^ stances and the present connexion of things , indeed , it cannot be otherwise 5 but this ought riot to affect the ever- * lasting laws of moral beings , the everlasting laws of justice , which rewards and puuishes . Unfortunates without number die crying for justice , and it ? must be afforded them some time or
other . It is true that man is the final end of the whole terrestrial world . What higher end can be conceived than He , the sole species of being * which not only discovers order and beauty in the works of nature , ' but actually imitates that order and beauty , and by selecting and combining the beauties scattered throughout
natnre , that is to say by art , frequently surpasses his model ? if , then , man i £ the final end of the terrestrial world , he must continue to exist , even though he had to suffer a thousand deaths ; for the final end of a world must absolutely be something imperishable , Something everlasting , or a whole world would exist for no ultimate purpose , for nothing : ' and if the final ends of other worlds
were in the same predicament , the whole * universe and the whole scheme of existence of all things would be a mere juggle . Compressed into this narfow com- > pass , the arguments of reason in behalf of a future existence for man , possess a force that is irresistibly convincing . In brief , if there is no future state for man , death id annihilation for him ; and he who has consolation for every thing else ,
has not then the slightest comfort for the severest of all his afflictions ; his natural longing after immortality is then a cruel mockery ; his reason , which teaches him the knowledge of death , is then the most grievous' of punishments ; his stupendous faculties and powers are theu the most senseless waste ; he is then a fool to cultivate and apply them to any other purpose than sensual 3 every Incitement to the noblest actions is then ,
done away with j there is then no perfect administration of justice in the moral world , ' and the earth and every thing then exist for no ultimate end or pur- * pose whatever . But if death is not ati-
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Critical Nvtices . —Theological * 535
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 535, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/31/
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