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pages 297 and 299 ) on my account of a conversation on Catholic emancipation . They charge me with misrepresenting the Calyinistic doctrine . If I have done
| his , it has been unintentionally ; but I am not yet convinced that my statement dt it is erroneous . Your correspondents take for granted that I intended my remark as applicable to the whole body of Calvinists ; but I only stated it
as applicable to the person I was conversing with at the time , Vicinus acknowledges there may be some who reason in the manner I have described ; and though he will not admit them to be proper Calvinists , but calls them
Antinomians they certainly think and call themselves Calvinists , yea , the only proper Calvinists ; and many , who are not of their party , think them the most consistent Calvinists . It might be well for your correspondent to inform the world what proper Calvinism is . As he will not admit the statemerit given of it by Gill and Brine , is there not reason to think he will object to it as stated by Calvin
hi nisei f , and its most distinguished advocates , until the modern refiners of it began to reduce it to a new form and , retaining the
name , and , nominally , all the old doctrines , to present it to the world in an altered and improved edition ? It is pleasing te observe that persons of learning and
liber-. ality , while they professedly retain the ojid < j reed , are , by their new definitions and explanations of it , perhaps unintentionally and imperceptibly to themselves , underxniriihg its most offensive articles , and preparing the way for more r&tioA&l and liberal sentiments . ^ As youip correspondents ^ charge
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my statement with falsehood , to make good the charge ,, even so far , as themselves and their own improved views of the system are coq- * cerifed , they are require ^ to . give a direct answer to the ; following questions . 1 . Do they admit or deny that sinners are pardoned , and freed from all the penal con sequences of sin , on the ground of what Christ did and suffered for them , independently of their be scoming virtuous characters ? Itjs granted , they suppose , they wiJl become virtuous as a necessary consequence of their justification ; but that is not the point now in question , 2 . Do they assert or deny that the sinner is made righteous , stands righteous in the sight of God , and is placed in a safe state , on the ground of the righteousness of another , being
imputed to him , prior to , his becoming personally righteous , and that his personal righteousness is entirely consequent upon the former ? 3 . Do they maintain or deny , that the sinner , simply by believing that Christ made atonement for his sins , and was
righteous in his stead , or by the belief of either of these points singly , is freed from guilt and the fear of punishment , so as to feel himself
in a safe state in the sight of God ? It alters not these positions , how . ever much it may guard the / n from abuse , to say tha ^ t personal righteousness will naturally and necessarily follow , as the . effect of true faith , and that unless good works follow , the faith is not
genuine but useless . A pious C $ 1-vinist could , not retain the dojc trine he believes , unless he thought it to have a gop £ d > moral % p # det \ Qy :
nor could a pi # us * patfiqHcj retain the doctrines pf his church ,
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Further Remark * on the Cahinisti& Doctrine of Atonement : 445
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/37/
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