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Untitled Article
power of another ^ jn the strict and proper sense of the term * , to make any man a sinner ; he may be tempted , but in being tempted there is no sin : he can be made a sinner , in the original import of these terms , only by himself ; the intervention of his own will is necessary to constitute him such , and in that lies all the guilt . He may indeed be compelled to do those deeds which , had they been done by him voluntarily , from an evil principle ,
would have constituted him an atrocious sinner , but-which , having been done by him as the instrument , through the impulse of external violence , leave him as innocent , as virtuous , as holy , as acceptable in the sight of God , as if they never had been done . What then was the apostle ' s meaning , and iifc what sense can it be reconciled to truth and justice , that * ha was made sin , who knew no sin ?"
Jesus was made-sin inasmuch as he was made a sufferer ; and it appears not , that there is any other sense in which it is possible that innocence should be made sin . Pain and shame are the natural consequents , and the just desert of sin . Innocence has a title , if not to the enjoyment of happiness , at least to an exemption from suffering ; but innocence may suffer from the violence of wicked men , ai > d if the providence of God , who always has it both in his power and in his purpose to
indemnify his servants for all the * wrongs they undergo , should
permit the innocent to suffer from the violence of wicked men , or lead them into such scenes and circumstances , or employ them in such services as will bring upon them those calamities that are the proper portion of the sinner , and with which his crimes are righteously and ordinarily punished , in that case it may be said with justice and propriety , that God makes those sin who know no sin ; in regard to their character he cannot
make them so ; in regard to their condition , he puts no difference on this supposition between the innocent and the guilty ; they are made sinners as much as they can be made , they weaf those miseries which , if this were a state of retribution , would be one great and distinguishing characteristic of the sinner . It is hence most evident that it was thus only that God made or
could make the holy Jesus sin / But if it did not thus appear , we might learn ' the apostle ' s meaning from many other passages of Scripture , in which the reformation of mankind , or their restoration to righteousness , mid in consequence to the divine favour ( which is here stated to be the end or object of his Ci being made sin who knew no Bin" ) , is represented as the end or object of his sufferings ; from which the inference is very natural , easy , and undeniable , that jo be made sin is to suffer s or that Christ was made siij in
Untitled Article
¦ C hrist $ being made Sin * 2 §
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1806, page 29, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1720/page/29/
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