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every other doctrine give * efficacy to the preaching of the gospel . To oppose reason to such declarations has been and still is condemned , as
temerity and profaneness ; but the accusation ought rather to be laid against the bold theologian , who imagines divine proceedings , and finds iufinite wisdom in his own imaginations .
8 . According to the system , which is called evangelical , though exclusion is a grand feature in it , the offering of Christ , was of sufficient value to have expiated the guilt of all mankind , iu perfect consistency with divine justice , for its value was
infinite . If , then , by the decree of God the atonement was made but for a portion of that guilt , and salvation obtained but for a part of the race , the limitation was not demanded by
justice . If it was j ust to save a part , an equivalent to the penalty being paid , it could n 6 t be unjust to save all , an equivalent being paid for the guilt of all . But the ^ sacrifice was an
equivalent , for it was of infinite value : justice therefore did not forbid that it should expiate the guilt of all mankind . On the contrary , if justice had a voice at all in the dispensation , its decree must rather be , that there . should be no difference in treatment , " ** where there was none in moral
condition . AH » it is said , had sinned both in Adam , and in their own persons ; and since the latter is made a consequence of the former , if different de-. agrees of depravity exist , the cause of the highest as well as the lowest is
not in themselves , but in the law which suspended the moral quality of the species , each and all of them , upon the single act of the first man . If , therefore , equitable treatment is the dictate of justice , a universal , and not a partial atonement should be the
order of justice . Was , then , the limitation the demand of mercy ? Mercy could not forbid an extension of benefit , which even justice might allow . But goodness , proposing the advantage of all rational being , decreed , that the atonement should be
exclusive . This is gratuitously said , like many other dogmata of the metaphysico-theological school of American divines . No such proposition , direct or implied , can be jfounrd in the scriptures of the Old or New Testament . In * hem it is maintained , that Ged is infinitely just and good ; and
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that these attributes are displayed to his conduct towards man ; do where are we referred to other words for the elucidation of God ' s moral govern - ment of this world . The Athenian altar , inscribed to the unknown God would well become those worship ! ers , who caa fiud no consistent
between the attributes of God , and his dispensations to man , but in sup . posed explanation , derived from a presumed connexion between our world and worlds unknown . But the God , whom they ignorantly worship , the gospel has declared to
tigand instead of sending us through universal bein g , of which we know nothing , to learn what God is , it has , ( if I may use the phrase ) domesticated our thoughts of God , calling him the Father of all the inhabitants of the
earth , who will deal without respect of nations or persons , that is , equally , with all his offspring . It is the task of the preacher of a gospel of exclusion to reconcile this sci iptural , and truly evangelical view of the divine character with his doctrines of
universal depravation and partial regeneration , of infinite satisfaction and limited expiation , of the distribution of eternal life and happiness to one , and of interminable misery to another of two human beings , alike the creatures of God , and in the same moral
condition , whether of merit or demerit , and equally objects of the severity or mercy of God . Did , then , the holiness of God require , that th £ expiatory offering should be made but for a part of the human race > Oh every definition of holiness it would be a contradiction to affirm * that
holiness required the perpetuity of sin and guilt and misery , of which justice allowed the extinction- It remains then that the exclusivenesis of the dispensation be resolved into art attributer which , being put in the place of goodness and justice and mercy and all moral attributes , would , in every thing but theology , be called tyranny ( sic volo sic jubeo , &c )> P for which , orthodox divines have found a name * less offensive in sonno ,
which , having ( like many of * & ?* terms , ) no place in revelation , " * J oii its very face that it was fabricate * to aerve a system * , and the name » sovereignty . This is the fountain * which shall supply th « river of W > and feed the lak « of tit * for «* er w
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£ 1 $ Reasons for rejecting theCalvinistie 'Pkeoloyy . No . til *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1815, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1759/page/18/
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