HARTLEY ON UNIVERSALISM. OF THE FINAL HAPPINESS OF ALL MANKIND IN SOME DISTANT FUTURE STATE. I. Ir is probable from reason that all mankind will be made happy ultimately. For, first, it has been observed all along in the course of this work, that all the evils that befal either body or mind in this state, have a tendency to improve one or both. If they fail of producing a peculiar, appropriated intermediate good effect, they must, however, necessarily contribute to the annihilation of that self, carnal or spiritual, gross or refined, which is an insuperable bar to our happiness in the pure love of God, and of his works. Now, if we reason at all concerning a future state, it must be from analogies taken from this; and that we are allowed to reason, that we are able to do it 'with some justness, concerning a future state, will appear from the great coincidence of the foregoing natural arguments for a future state, and for the rewards and punishments of it, with what the scriptures have delivered upon the same heads; also because a similar kind of reasonings in respect of the future states, which succeed in order from infancy to old age, is found to be just, and to afford many useful directions and predictions. We ought therefore to judge, that the evils of a future state will have the same tendency, and final cause, as those of this life, viz. to meliorate and perfect our natures, and to prepare them for ultimate unlimited happiness in the love of God, and of his works. . Secondly, the generation of benevolence, by the natural and necessary tendency of our frames, is a strong argument for the ultimate happiness of all mankind. It is inconsistent to suppose, that God should thus compel us to learn universal unlimited benevolence; and then not provide food for it. And both this and the foregoing argument seem conclusive, though we should not take in the divine benevolence. They are both supported by the analogy and uniformity apparent in the creation, by the mutual adaptations and correspondencies of things existing at different times, and in different places: but they receive much additional force from the consideration of the goodness of God, if that be first proved by other evidences; as they are themselves the strongest evidences for it, when taken in a contrary order of reasoning. |