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
L . J . J ., or any other who may be disposed to make my statements the groundwork of discussion , the desirableness of allowing the whole Lecture to appear , before lie commences his strictures on parts .
It is a subject which I much wish to see discussed among Unitarians 5 and , as far as I am able to judge , the result will be serviceable to the interests of piety among us . One doctrine of Grace or Divine Influences has long , and justly , been relinquished among us : but it does not follow that no other is well-founded .
On some points stated in this Lecture , I feel complete satisfaction ; on others , as the intelligent reader will perceive , I am less decided . I hope I am open to conviction on all . And though I cannot pledge myself to reply through this channel , to all the
objections which may be made by others * I cheerfully engage to state any change in opinion which they may produce . If I make no reply , my opponent may be assured that I had previously considered his objections , or that , if new to me , they make no change in rny convictions .
With best wishes for the increasing spread of the Monthly Repository , which I deem an invaluable channel of communication , and thereby a powerful means of union , and of zealous co-operation among Unitarians , I am , &c .
L . CARPENTER . Philippians ii . 12 , 13 . Wherefore , my beloved , as ye have always obeyed , not as in my presence only , but now much more in my absence , work out your own salvation with fear and ' tremblingj for it is God which worheth in you , botli to will and to do , of his good pleasure .
Those who are acquainted with the original language of the New Testamen t , and have noticed the peculiarities of our apostle ' s style , will readily perceive , that this passage is not without some critical difficulties : but
notwithstanding all the arguments which some eminently learned men have adduced , to shew that tlie apostle ' s meaning was very different from what is generally apprehended , I am satisfied that , on the whole , the
common translation is the true one . The last clause , *• of his good pleasure , * ig ambiguous . It may either mean .
Untitled Article
4 < according to his good pleasure , ' just as St . Paul says , near the beginning of his Epistle to the Ephesians * ** according to the good pleasure of
his will ; " or more nearly , 1 think , to the force of the original , ' * for his good pleasure , " i . e . to accomplish the gracious designs of his benevolence * This appears , also , best to suit the connexion . In this \ iew of the
passage , the apostle first expresses great approbation of the Christian obedience manifested by the Philippians , not only when he was present with them , but still more during his absence : he then exhorts them to work
out their salvation with holy fear and watchful solicitude ; just as the apostle Peter urges his Christian brethren , to give all diligence to make thciT calling and election sure : and in the last place , he encourages them in the great work of duty , by the assurance , that God worketh in them to will and
to do , so that his gracious intentions for their everlasting welfare might be accomplished . These words appear to me indisputably to establish two great truths . ( 1 . ) That whatever God doth for us , we are required , with caution and
circumspection , diligently to use the means we have of knowing and doing his will : and ( 2 . ) That those who are thus solicitous to serve aod please God , their heavenly Father will assist to purify their desires and affections , and to strengthen them for the trials and duties of the Christian life .
No one who believes in revelation , can doubt that God does influence the human heart : and it is probable that those who appear in words most widely to separate on this question , would find , ( if they left their philosophical
or theological systems out of view , and confined themselves to the plain dictates of religious experience , and to the declarations of the Scriptures , ) that the difference is principally verbal . The invariable doctrine of rerelation
is , that nothing is without God ; that of him , through him , and to him are all things ; that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without our heavenly Father ; that from him proceedeth every good and every perfect gift ; that he will not suffer the faithful
Christian to be tempted above what he is able to bear ; that at the throne of grace we may find grace to help in
Untitled Article
£ > 46 Dr » Carpenter on Divine Influences .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/22/
-