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with the sacred writers , and that we must supply the sense thus : — " All things" frequently " come alike to all . " " There is" sometimes * ' one event to the righteous and to the wicked . " So again , " The race is not "
always "to the swift , nor the battle to the strong ; " hut , in general , the contrary is the fact . Thus the modern Necessarians quote a passage in Isaiah , by a strange coincidence , in the same sense with the Calvinists : " Is there any evil in the city , and the
Lord hath not done it ? I form peace , and create evil ; " but this the context shews to relate to natural evil ; and no doubt the sentiment is just in that view ; because nothing can happen to states or individuals , which is beyond the Divine controul , and which lie cannot overrule or restrain . Or if they
will contend that it relates to moraL evil also , St . James shall answer them : " Let no man say when he is tempted , I am tempted of God , for God cannot be tempted with evil , neither tempteth he any man . " To conclude : let the advocates of
free inquiry defend the doctrine of the simple Unity of the Deity , and of the true and proper humanity of our Saviour , and also enforce all the moral and scriptural arguments , ( guarding them against abuse , ) for the final salvation of all mankind . Here , they
stand upon a rock , from which the darts of infidelity , and ( as we conceive ) of mistaken orthodoxy , will ultimately recoil . But the offices of Christ , in the great work of redemption , are " not of private interpretation ; " every man should endeavour to form the
best ideas upon these points that he is able ; but no one has a right to impose his own sense upon his neighbour . And this rule is applicable to those serious Christian s * who think they can discover the pre-existence of our Lord in the sacred volume . But ,
above all things , let the persons we are speaking of be cautious , though with the best intentions , of attempting to undermine principles which have stood the test of ages , and which have appeared to the wisest and best
of men perfectly consistent with the severest reason and judgment , with the nature of things , and " the analogy of the faiih , " tiU they shall have something better to give us in th ^ ir room .
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Af /\ Jbuckeqck ' * Defence of his Remarks on Providence * |» I 9
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Birmingham Sir , September 2 , 1823 . 1 HAVE given all the attention in my power to the statement im the Repository by Mr . Turner , ( pp . 399—405 , ) in reply to my observations on
a Particular Providence , as connected with the Memoirs of Mrs . Cappe * ( pp . 163—167 ) , without being ablfe to perceive that I have " singularly misconceived" the doctrine , " as it is maintained by the excellent person who is the subject of these remarks ;** and , of course , I cannot admit that
my "reasoning is founded on a false and gratuitous assumption . " I do not mean to assert that the opinions entertained by Mrs . C . may not have been similar to those of Mr . T ., but I request my readers will bestow a glance upon my quotation from the
Memoirs , and form their own opinion as to which of the two disputants assumes the most . I take the passage as I find it , without any reference to what I suppose may have been her more extended opinions : and it certainly appears to my apprehension ,
that if there be any meaning in language , any ideas that words can ex ^ - press with something like the perspicuity of correct and definite precision , she has accomplished what she intended in communicating her sentiments * I am well aware of the extreme
difficulty in finding words and expressions that shall not be liable to objections . No language can supply an exact picture of the mind and feelings ; and we must make a suitable allowance for imperfections , to which no person could be insensible who ever took up
his pen to reason on any abstract subject ; and more especially on this which is so entirely ideal , and out of the reach of demonstration . Mrs . C , for instance * uses the words happened and accidentally , not because she
considered them as philosophically correct ; but because there will inevitably subsist a discrepancy between the nice distinctions the mind perceives , and those of which oral or writteji speech , is incapable- When we have made
the nearest approaches we can , so as to render ourselves intelligible to each other , we should be satisfied , and not look for perfection where we shall never attain it . I , therefore , shalllay no stress upon these or similar expressions iu her statement , nor at-
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1823, page 519, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1788/page/23/
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