On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
who- c deny the Lord that bought them . ' The original allusion is probably to those Gnostics ^ who denied that the Father of
Jesus Christ was either the maker of the world , or the author of the Jewish dispensation . "— Pp . 356 , 157 . There is , ( p . 175 ) a strong , we wish < we could say an over-wrought , description of the anti-moral effects of the doctrine of Satisfaction , when it is not counteracted by the true doctrines of Christianity , w-bicb no system is able wholly to subvert . The
author then institutes a comparison between the spurious orthodoxy of the day , and the simplicity that is in Christ , "" and here he is animated by his subject to a rich strain of eloquence : " Bui : the prominent feature of the doctrine , in the sense of substitution and
satisfaction , is the mystic idolatry which it involves , and the necessary connexion with a denial of the supremacy of * the only true God , ' and with the c falling away * from the worship of God , even the Father ; 6 the Goo and Father * of our Lord Jesus Christ . It is now a reproach to worship him whom Christ worshiped .
* It was the faith of Moses , that God should in the Messias 4 raise up a prophet like to himself ;* it was ( he faith of Peter , that c Jesus of Nazareth was a maw approved of God by signs and wonders , which God did by him j * it was the faith of Paul , that * tliere is One God , and one Mediator between God and men , the man Christ Jesus . ' It was the declaration of Christ , that c he was a maw who had told them
the truth which he had heard from God . ' Yet they who represent Christ , as Moses and Peter and Paul represented him and as he declared himself , are accused of degrading * Christ . ' What shall be thought of degrading * God ?
* Who degrade Christ ? They that behold in him a man * in all respects like hi * brethren , c tempted as they are / and therefore peccable , i yet without sin j * 4 made perfect by snfleringf ;* i despising the shame for the glory that was set before him ;* yielding- up Ins life with assured faith in the promises of God that he should receive it again ; and giving to all an example of sinless purity and unfainting" obedience to the will of God ?—Or they who regard hi in as himself a Divinity or u super-ang ^ lic nature , superior to suffering * ,
superior to temptation , incapable op sin ; wliose sinlessness had therefore no merit , whose devotion had no heroism , whose perseverance unto death was no proof o > f fortitude , no test of faith ; whose resurrection is in itself no demonstration that man will be raised from the grave : whose
Untitled Article
Moses and the prophets worshiped him , in the character of the one Jehovah , who c stretched out the heavens by himself •? as Christ and the -Apostles worshiped him ^ in the character of' God even the Father *'
life and martyrdom , whose action * and suf ferino-s , are too supernatural for example can awaken no admiration , can excite « b sympathy ? " Who degrade God ? they who believe the assurances of his Iioly pronhets . th « f
* he will abundantly pardon' those who return unto him ; they who see in him pure and perfect benevolence and goodness , and regard his justice as only a modification of his benevolence ; they who worship him as
the ' God and Father of us and of our Lord Jesus ? the only true Goi > 3 the blessed and only Potentate , who at . one hath immortality ; they who adore him as their mighty Saviour and Redeemer ; their merciful and compassionate Father , who
* saw them when they were afar off 5 ' the sole Author and original Fountain of all blessings temporal and eternal , all gifts and graces and influences , which he shed upon us of his own free mercy in Christ , the Son whom he had sent to be the
Saviour of the world ?—< Or they who see in his justice only vengeance ; who deny his glorious attribute of rich unpurchased mercy 3 who make him gracious on conditions which violate justice by substi - tuting the innocent for the guilty ; who transfer their gratitude for the work of
redemption from him , the only Saviour , * to him whom he hath sent 5 from the author to the instrument ; who refuse to him supreme homage 5 who libel his justice , limit his beneficence , divide his unity , contract
his power , snatch the very work of creation out of his hands , and leave him amidst the darkness of unapproachable mystery and terror , a CJod who , of himself , is unable to bless and to saVfe , and who- is alone able to curse and to destroy ? lt
If all love and gratitude are to-be concentered in the Son of God , which is early inculcated into the tender minds of children , and which must be the case if lie interposed between men and God , to avert
vengeance and bribe compassion , the heart is shut up from those high and holy consolations which the Scripture teaches us to expect from the c Father of mercies and God of comfort . ' If the God and Father
of his creatures were to retire from tne universe , with awful reverence be it spoken , what void would be left in the hearts of the worshipers of Christ ? " —I * p *
175—177 . The " Appeal' * concludes with a lively anticipation , expressed in beautiful scriptural figures , of the final success and universal prevalence of Unitarian Christian truth .
Untitled Article
504 Revieiv . A —ppeal to Sef ipture and Tradition .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1819, page 504, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1775/page/44/
-