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to be different from that God whom he is said to be with . This same Logos made all things , and afterwards became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ . No competent person would reject this view of the subject , were it not for the perplexing consequences which follow , " &c . It is candidly admitted also by Mr . Frend , that the term Trinity is not to be regarded " as contradictory to , but only as a modification of the term
Unity , and which modification is expressed by the compound term triunity . " Nor does he consider it as at all unfair that those who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity should ( as Bishop Blomfield has done ) lay an equal claim to the appellation of Unitarian with the party by whom it is now exclusively appropriated . Again , in adverting to the doctrine of Original Sin , I feel no hesitation in
acknowledging that there is one exposition of its meaning which is equally at variance with Scripture and reason . It is well known to be a leading tenet of Calvinism , that in consequence of Adam ' s transgression the human heart has become so radically tainted with corruption , so inherently debased b y moral depravity , as justly to merit the eternal vengeance of God , even without the aggravation of actual sin . But because this view of the subject is , in the estimation of more rational divines , utterly at variance with the
plainest principles of equity and benevolence , and has arisen from a palpable misconception of the sacred writings , is there no alternative but to adopt the opposite extreme , and to maintain that the mind of man is in its natural state absolutely exempt from all propensity to evil ? If it be true that the disobedience of our first parents introduced death into the world , ( and I cannot perceive any advantage to be gained by Dr . Middleton's figurative explanation of the Mosaic narrative , ) is there any thing unreasonable in
believing that their descendants would inherit the frailty and imperfections both of body and mind necessarily consequent on their subjection to mortality ? For not only would the physical frame of man become liable to a thousand ills , his understanding , his will , and his affections would all share in the same deterioration , and would consequently give rise to those moral
evils which have since so universally prevailed . The objection to this account , that the innocent are thus made to suffer for the guilty , is at once removed by a recurrence to the argument from analogy . How often in the course of human affairs has the extravagance of the son involved the most exemplary father in irretrievable ruin ! How often has the profligacy of the parent entailed incurable disease on his guiltless offspring !
These reflections conduct us to the third topic referred to—the doctrine of what is usually called the Atonement . Here also I must take the liberty of making the same complaint against the conduct of the Unitarians ; and we might infer from the language they employ , that the members of the Church of England were united in holding but one opinion respecting this controverted point . Is there no difference then between believing that the sacrifice of Christ was demanded as a full satisfaction to the inexorable justice of an incensed Deity , without which even infinite power could not rescue
mankind from everlasting punishment , and believing that our Saviour ' s death was chosen by the Divine mercy to be the means of restoring the human race to the same prospects which they had enjoyed before the transgression of our first progenitor ? Is there no difference between the rigid doctrine of the atonement as asserted by the Calvinist and the ultra-orthodox , between the central gallows pictured in the fervid imagination of Dr . Channing , and the happier view of the subject entertained by that liberal class of theologians who have at least an equal claim to our attention , and who
Untitled Article
On Mr . Elton ' s Second Thoughts . 645
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 645, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/13/
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