Yet will we not cast the stone. All temptations, of course,
can be resisted, and ought to be overcome. But there are men born with
so peculiar a temperament, and who seem to have been so completely under
the dominion of circumstances, that they might well be supposed to have
been raised up for a warning. How far are such to be held accountable?
Let us refrain from this subject, remembering how grave and learned
theologians, earnest opponents of Predestinarianism, have been reduced
to the extreme of perplexity when confronted with the ensample of
Pharaoh.
It would neither be pleasant nor profitable to pry into the secrets of
the black darkness that lies beyond Royston's death-bed; in it few would
be able to distinguish the faintest glimmer of light. But we have no
more authority to fix limits to the long-suffering of Omnipotence, than
we have to dispute the justice of its revenge. Let us stand aside, and
hope
That Heaven may yet have more mercy than man
On such a bold rider's soul.
A strange doctrine, that; savoring perhaps of heterodoxy, and perilous
to be adopted by such as can not fathom it thoroughly.
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