2 Sept 1811

Jug Util

B.II Under Revelation

Ch.5. Mischief Weakning Natural

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 Quaere whether to observe in the inconsistencies of this reasoning?

(7) A child was to be pitched upon, a child within that age of innocence /before/ till the expiration of which the /inbred/ capacity of sinning has not /never/ yet ripened into act. This innocent was to be murdered. The soul of the nascent victim /[...?] of [...?]/ rise to heaven: the /slaughterer/ murderer, /found his way/ fell in due course of law into the hands of the executioner. Two birds were thus according to the familiar proverb, killed with one stone. The murderer, taking the primitive martyrs for his patterns, mounted the scaffold and made a glorious end. (8) Physical suffering and /psychological/ mental together, a quantity of pain and then of merit was accumulated to the virtue of which there was no bounds. Sufficient to atone not only for the chosen and voluntary /instrumentary/ sin by which the /injuring sinner/ murderer had been brought /conducted/ to the scaffold, but for all other /the/ sins of his former life /the former part of his life/ /anterior/. (9) In this rich compost of meritorious suffering, the grand /ingredient/ article was the repentance, the pain of the repentance: his business therefore and consequently his case was to inject /condense/ into the interval between conviction and execution or into whatever quantity of time, suppose the interval between conviction and execution, as large a portion of this pretious good as the whole force /strength/ of his mind could contrive to force into it.

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7. Display on the scaffold repentance, contrition in all its glory.

8. Thus your accumulated merit sufficient to atone not merely for the instrumental sin, but for all prior ones.

9. Of the suffering the repentance being the only meritorious part, inject of that as much as possible.