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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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th $ blessed God designs to bestow such a favour on the human race , that he is * too wise and good a kdpg to publish it at present to such ignorant , feeble , imperfect and wicked creatures as many of them are , plainly foreseeing
that the information would be very injurious to them . For every thing there is a proper season . All this , be it observed , goes on the supposition tjiat the blessed Gq < 1 intends to bestow such a favour on man ; but that he
does intend it , I dare not assert . The Scriptures inform us of'the resurrection of all the dead ; of the righteous being taken to heaven , and the wicked sent down to hell , to suffer the second death . When Adam was threatened
with the first death , the serpent said , " Ye shall not surely die : " and so some persons now say concerning the wicked , that they will not for certain die a second time . But when I consider that the second death is
threatened in terms perfectly similar to . the first death , and that the first death is literally executed * I dare not say that the- second will not be so too . This is the end of the line of revelation as it respects the wicked ; all beyond is darkness , thick darkness , that may be felt
by every considerate person . Here , therefore , I stop ;—and he who dares to advance is a bold in an , and in very great danger of stumbling , at the first step , on the dark mountains of ignorance . —We cannot make Scripture , or positively say what the Supreme
Being will do with any of his creatures beyond what he has revealed to us . We had , therefore , better stop here , and wish and hope and pray , but assert nothing , but improve the light that we have , and wait patiently till the Father of Lights shall see proper to give us more .
Supposing we had been created on the , first day of the world , and had been informed bjr an angel from heaven that the first six thousand years of this world would be spent by man in the
manner we now "know it has been , 1 . e . that war , famine , pestilence , ignorance , error , idolatry , vice ; misery and death , woukl so rnueh prevail through them ; could , we have believed that the
infinitely wise , powerful and good God would eves hjaw permitted so ruany e vite to fake place , and ft ) continue so loog ? And if the evideace for the
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truth of the prophecy had been irresistible , should we not have stood aghast *—lost in wonder and awful amazement ? And shall we then , with this knowledge of our ignorance of the government of God , be so imprudent as to say what will hereafter take place
in cases of vast magnitude , which are not revealed to us ? " Who by searching can find out God ? " " His judgments are a mighty deep . " € s O the depth of the riches of the ^ wisdom- a&d knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are his judgments , a » d < his < way& past finding out I" Rom . xi . 33 *
Therefore , instead of preaching this doctrine , we should * if we take any notice of it , shew our hearers on what slight grounds it rests , and earnestly exhort them to improve their present
day of grace , for that the Sacred Scriptures say nothing about a second state of probation ; that " behold now is the accepted tune ; behold now is the day of salvation ; " and should excite them to consider how awful the
condition of those persons will be in a future state who were encouraged to sin here by the belief that there would be a second and a third state of trial hereafter , if they shall then discover that it was a fatal error ; and that such unhappy persons will have great reason heavily to blame those who buoyed them up with such groundless hopes
and unrevealed doctrines . — €€ When men tell us confidently such particularities as are not in the Sacred Story , we are to ask them whence they have their doctrine , and who revealed to them such particular supplements to the holy text . " * JOSEPH JEVANS .
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Sir , f 11 HE solemn scene exhibited Matt . JL xxv . 31—46 , evidently relates to a period when the dominion of Christ will be established . At , or
immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem , his sign is described as appearing in the heaven * and he is represented as sending " his angels to gather together his elect from the four winds , " or ,
as Ughtfoot interprets this passage * sending his disciples and selecting to 4 ^—^^* » " " " ' II ¦ I Ill f ¦ ¦ ¦ ll | ¦ HI ^ 1 t * Jolm WorOdagt&ik ^ the MHleidl *^ fv 275 ^
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342 Passages of Scripture supposed to relate to Future PKni&hment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1820, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2489/page/18/
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