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Untitled Article
the poison of tenets , at which the understanding and the heart
naturally revolt;—but , if their tendency is bad , their aspect lowering , and the spirit wiiich they breathe more resembling his , who
was capable of burning alive an innocent inquirer , who differed from him in his conclusions , than the spirit of that compassionate saviour , who lived and died , not to destroy , but to save and to
bless ; surely we ought not to admit such doctrines , merely in consequence of allusive and figurative expressions , perfectly intelligible and natural to the
imagination of a Jew , who was in the daily habit of beholding altars blazing , priests attending and victims sacrificed ;— nay , even among ourselves , who are
happily freed from those bufthensome rites , in speaking of some great patriot who , in the discharge of his high duty , had met a , voluntary death , —might we not say without danger of being
misunderstood , ' lie died the victim of public safety , —he was sacrificed upon the altar of his country , he gave up hi ** life a ransom for the civil and religious liberties of mankind ! " Why then strain the glowing oriental language , the local , Jewish imagery of the scriptures , from a sense perfectly
rational , natural and conformable to their general tenor , into a sense utterly discordant and anomalous ? at which , to adopt the expressions of that elegant writer , the late Bishop of Litchfield , u Reason stands aghast , and faith itself is half confounded .
"—Perhaps he might have subjoined , — morality trembles to her base , — and real Christianity retires indignant . It is astonishing how such
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a hideous doctrine as the common Calvinistic satisfaction or atonement" could find admission into the minds of thinking men , but when reason and faith are set in opposition , the very strangeness and absurdity of any tenet becomes the strongest argument
in its favour ; and ihe plainest , strongest passages which compose the body of scripture , are set aside , when they oppose the incoherent reveries , which rest qpsn arbitrary interpretations of obscure figurative passages , and allusions to objects long out of date .
How little respect soever the Calvinist may shew for reason , is it not strange that he should maintain so little reverence for the scriptures , which he exalts above reason , as to involve them , by his comments , in the most
deplorable inconsistency ? The ic atonement ^ is founded in the inexorability of Divine justice , which justice is emblazoned by the pardon of the guilty , and the sacrifice of the innocent;—In the
confusion , mercy is forgotten , or excluded from amongst the attributes of God , and we are rea - dy to exclaim , that in this most divine of qualities , the Supreme Being has been infinitely exceed * ed , till we are told , that both the
victim and the offerer were no other than the Supreme Being himself!—And the benefit resulting from this self-immolation of infinite mercy to infinite justice ? belongs to those , and those only , who can bring their minds into such a state , as to credit the transaction , — thus the designs of unbounded goodness are confined within the narrow pale of an intolerant superstition , —the wise ,
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Statement of the Doctrine of Atonement . lfl £ -
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1809, page 199, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1735/page/23/
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