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Book-Worm. No. XIX^ . 149
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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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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and that "it every Where agreed with itself as articles of faith . " This learned inquirer , had he been impartial , could not have failed , to discover many instances of disagree
mentfeven before the Jestiits and Jaiiseuists convinced the world , in spite of gossuet ' s eloquence and acuteness , that vari&tions were not peculiar to P ro testant churches * Nor ought he
to have been ignorant or to have forgotten that predestination , in its most rigorous form , with its systematic accutnpanyments of original or birth-sin reprobation , satisfaction , &c . had been advocated it * the Roman church long before the names of Protestant or
Calvin had any existence . Yet in his eighteenth consideration he quotes , as opposed by the Protestant to the Papal church the following sentiments from Calvin and Luther . ' « Nee absurdum videri debet quod dico , Deum non roodo primi hominis casum et in
eo postenorum rumam , praevidisse ; sedarbitrio quoque suo dispensasse . * Calvin Instit . 1 . 3 . cap . 23 . n . 7 . " Diciraus Deum in nobis operari bona et mala , nosque j mera necessitate passive subjici Dei operahti . —Hie est fidei
summus gradus , credere [ Deum ] justum , qui , sua volnntat ^ , nos necessario damnabiles facit . " Luther de Serv . Arbit V . ii . Fol . 429 and 434 . On the contrary , my author maintains that •« it were a repugnancy to God \ s sovereign goodness , before he had
foreseen a man ' s demerits , to destine and condemn him to everlasting fire and even to create him for that fatal end . " P . i 5 , j n another place he co mplains that " these religions ( of Luther and Calvin ) are so far from t
eac hing us to decline evil by the observa nce of God ' s commandments , that , on the contrary , they declare it a a £ im Pussible to observe them . * w instead of exhorting us to well-^ ng * they teach us that good works
Nor ought what ! say to appear extra-S ^ fi thut God not onl ^ foresaw the fall of jbefirst man and in him the ruin of his poser but also determined it by his sovcrei pleasure . We say that God works o-ood and evil P ¦— —y— *^(^ ¦«
a ^— ^^ - — - - »— ^ _ ^^^» ^—* ^ * ¦ ' ¦ ^ ta ^^ fc ^ ^ T ^" « s , and that we are subjected to tills s j t ratl ££ . ° f God hy a mere passive neces ^ fiitiTl ^ ^ tJi e "' g ^ ^ attainment of «• k k- ievc that God is i ust who made ef 4 ^ 0 Wa ^ il ^ n ^ essarily , in a state
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a , re no ways helpful towards th 6 g-aining of salvation , and what is yet wotse they say that good works are downright sins . " P . 25 . These charges are
sustained by the following sentiments from Lnther . " Si bonum operareutur propter regtium obtinendum , nunquam obtinerent . Opus bonum op * time factum , est veniale peccatuiai . " V . ii . fol . 453 and 110 .
The writer of the following passages might have been supposed to rank among those v ^ h om the Protestant church calls heretics , rather than to be returning to , the Mother-Church of the orthodox faith .
" The abettors of the pretended Reformation , among other errors , teach that all sins are equal—an idle word theii , according to the doctrine of our innovators , must be of equal enormity with any other sin . —But
our Saviour ( Mat . v . 22 , ) has given us $ i very different information , touching the punishment and pardon of sins . " P . 17 . The author thus proceeds , in the sixteenth and seventeenth Considerations :
* ' According to the same Sectaries , all good works are sins , and all sins are equally grievous , so that in . their principles every good work must have in itself the enormity of all sins whatsoever . Consequently to pray to God
is a crime of as T ) lack a dye as blasphemy , to give an alms to a poor person is no better than robbing him of what he has , and to restore ill-gotten goods to the right owner , is as blamable as to keep them against his will . What a pretence is this i
" To press this argument a little farther , I would gladly know what any of their preachers would advise a man to do , that should ask him , whether or no he were obliged in tlie last case above -mentioned to restitution ?
If he answer ^ the affirmative , the unjust possessor may ask him again ; whether it be a good work to restore another's goods '? If he say , it is , the other may reply unto him , you hold that all good works a re sins ; and again , that all sins are equal in themselves * so that , whether I restore or retain my neighbour ' s goods , it is all one , as to
3 If a g-ood work is performed , to obtain the kiiigdonn , ( of heaven ) it shall nevei he obtained . —Tke most righteous action is a venial sin .
Book-Worm. No. Xix^ . 149
Book-Worm . No . XIX ^ . 149
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 149, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/21/
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