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Alton's Lectures. 823
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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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Acton's Lectures. *
immortality , and $ s displaying the love and mercy , as well as the holiness and justice of Gody without any thing to cloud or embarrass the convictions of the understanding . Unitarian Christianity embodies every motive and principle which w ^ e believe the gospel itself presented ^ without the admixtures which in our judgment make the waters of life less transparent and less salutary ; and why should it not be so offered to the Acceptance of ( the Christian world ? While it is our duty to avoid blending any thing with it
which is rncrely am accommodation to the sentiments , or a palliation to the fears of tfrose who oppose our doctrines , let us not render them needlessly repulsive .. We cannot perceive why those inspiring views respecting the redemption by Christ Jesus , which supported the Apostle Pawl in bis labours ^ which tie inculcated with glowing earnestness on his followers , and wMch suit the highest expansion of our intellectual powers , should be left , through apprehension of falling into enthusiasm , to those who adduce the language in winch they are presented in the Epistles as the support of opinions which to us seem alike unfounded and baneful .
These Lectures will cherish that tendency of which we spoke at the beginning of the last paragraph . There is scarcely any thing on which criticism could rest its accustomed severity , or which would excite its fastidiousness : and after perusing them , with doctrinal caution , we perceive that we have marked very few passages as requiring , in our judgment , even explanation . The position that the Heathen were liable to fall into the error of supposing Jesus Christ to be the one true God whom they were to worship ,,
is not established by the statements at the bottom of po 5 , and appears to us as we understand it , likely to be perverted by our opponents . The believers from the Heathens never could have derived it from any of Paul ' s discourses * In po 18 , occurs the expression , " In these instances , as must be evident to 5
a candid and reflecting mind '—which implies that those to whom the position is not evident , are not candid and reflecting . And in p . 16 and 144 , we observe some expressions too unqualified : in the former , * ' pure and lofty" should suieiy be " the purest and loftiest ; " and in the latter , from <* all these are delusions alikeJ" we would omit the last wotd . We
wish the author had explained what he means by the " benefits of Christ ' s intercession /* p * 46 : and we conceive that he did not mean ( p . 84 ) that the 6 ' sentence of eternal death" was ever passed on Adam . We are not sure that it might not have been well to treat more summarily the fundamental doctrine of the unipersonality of God , in the first Lecture . Logically speaking , the author is right ; but to avoid more stumbling-blocks than necessary
we should wish the opponents of Umtarianism on the first perusal of the course to pass by it to the second Lecture . In addition to these remarks , we wish strongly to recommend , in the next edition ^ the insertion of references to all the passages which are of weight in the discussions To those who are very familiar with the JNew Testament , it may be unnecessary ; but many must be checked by the omission in their desire to go to the source of
argument . We have no more to say in the way of censure : on some points we may hereafter endeavour to elicit explanation or conformation . As to passages whujh give us heartfelt satisfaction , we have marked so many that the insertion of them might prevent some from doing that which we strongly recaminend to them 9 reading the \ tfhole for thenoselves- But ; we must select two as specimens of the author ' s mode of discussion and interpretation ; and will conclude with one that develops views which wu think it probable will increasingly prevail among us .
Alton's Lectures. 823
Alton ' s Lectures . 823
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 823, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/23/
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