DOCTRINE OF UNIVERSAL RESTORATION AND THE OBJECTIONS TO THAT OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT CONSIDERED AND ANSWERED: Being a Heplp то THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTICULARS CONTAINED IN THE WRITINGS OF MESSRS. WINCHESTER, VIDLER, WRIGHT, BY D. ISAAC. MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. wwwww. It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance....Heb. vi. 4, 6. New-York: PUBLISHED BY J. SOULE AND T. MASON, FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. A. Paul, Printer. PREFACE. If the writer of the following pages had not believed that the interests of morality are materially involved in this controversy, he would not have recommended his thoughts upon it to the notice of the public. The immoral tendency of the Restoration System is shown in the course of this work. One of the most important doctrines of Christianity, the doctrine of atonement, has no place in the Universalist's creed, if consistency be regarded. It cannot be reconciled with his doctrine of corrective punishment. Mr. Weaver observes, "Divine justice is that perfection "in God, by which he endeavours continually to make all "intelligences just."* According to this representation, justice does not look backward, and punish "according to the deeds done in the body;" but forward, and disposes of her stripes in the way best calculated to correct the moral pravity of the mind. In this system, therefore, the doctrine of guilt has no place: no man need apply for "redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins," Eph. i. 7. but merely for "the renewing of the Holy Ghost," Titus iii. 5. since the recovery of the mind to virtue is the great point to which the exercise of divine justice is directed. If the blood of atonement be not counted, upon this scheme, an "unholy * Endless Misery Overthrown, p. 9. |
