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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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Thus his revelatiou is opposed to every thing connected with death : it does not , like the dreams of the Heathens , rest our hopes and our feats ill the imaginary realms of the dead , the regions of Elysium and Tartarus ; nor does it suffer the former to wither in
despondency 9 by the dreafy prospects of endless insensibility ; but it dissipates all the shadowy and threatening clouds presented by the grave , and imparts- to mankind the assurance , not merely of renewed life , but of a
life of immortality . As this is the purport of the Christian revelation , so it is the design of the kingdom or government of Christ , or as it is often termed the Christian dispensation , to realize and establish such an event .
Nothing was so opposed to the objects of our Lord ' s mission , character and office , as human misery and death ; there was no object which he so incessantly laboured to accomplish as the mitigation and ultimate removal of these evils , and the promotion of the blessings of a renovated and immortal existence *
The present life , mingled as it is with evil and suffering , and transitory in its duration , has evidently for its primary object , use and enjoyment , not abuse and consequent dissolution . It is the-result of a most curious
organization , made not to produce pain , but to yield pleasure , to acquire knowledge , to effect objects of utility . Sickness , disease and death are the derangement and disorganization of the structure , arid consequently in their own nature opposed to the
purposes for which it was fashioned . When life is removed , it can only be restored by a renewed act of that creative power by which it was originally produced ; and in proportion as its new powers are of a superior and more durable kind to those we
now possess , they must be the result of a higher act of omnipotence , and all those evils which bring death in their train , must be proportionately further removed from their very
nature . To suppose destruction or suffering to be the very objects for which superior vital powers are imparted , appears scarcely any thing short of absolute contradiction . When an
assurance is given that the dead wrll be reanimated , and even exalted to thte condition of quickening spirits , accord-
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ing to a glorious pattern which is exhibited , can it be imagined that it has for its proper object , iu thq cases of numerous individuals , perpetual suffering ? Can-this newly-constructed aud most exquisite frame be fit only
to be torn and deranged ? Or is it reasonable to suppose that the Creator will re-edify the frames ; , and reproduce the vital powers of some persons so indifferently , or so wellfitted to live in misery or die in wretchedness , that perpetual suffering
or dreadful destruction will be all they have to anticipate , either through all eternity , or for a period of time so lasting that it may be compared to it ? Admitting this last supposition to be the truth , and that it is intended to terminate in the immortal felicity of
the sufferers , would not the expectation of such a result , from such a process , be like expecting to put a machine , constrijcted anew , but retaining some of its former defects , into the best possible order , by
exposing it to the most violent treatment ? Is it not infinitely more reasonable than either of these suppositions , to conclude that the great object and proper effect of' this resurrection from death , must be to destroy , and not in
any cases to impart new energies to this principle of destruction ? To suppose that while new vital powers are imparted to one grand division of mankind for use and felicity , the like new vital powers are imparted to another whole division of our race , to
be , sources of suffering , is such an opposition of ideas , as I feel assured can never have had its origin from the fountain of revealed truth . The many healing and life-restoring miracles which God wrought by Jesus , among a nation generally in
fixed enmity to his gracious designs , were evident blessings to all on whom they were effected . But if the re » - toratiou of this life , or its re-establishment in health and vigour , be a great blessing , its reproduction with
powers of far superior vigour and durability , must in its very nature be a blessing of proportionately greater magnitude-to all its partakers . And in this light it is clearly represented in the New Testament . The gospel is an annunciation of the universal resurrection of the dead , as I think may be clearly learned fro * u the tenor
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4 & 6 On the Design of Christianity in its Application to future Puniifiment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1819, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1775/page/26/
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