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
On the prevailing Forgeifulness of God ;—its Cause , and Remed ' y . By Thomas May , Minister of the Old Chapel , Stand . Forrest , Manchester . There was no need for Mr . May to deprecate the severity of criticism on the ground of his having- consented to publish this discourse at the request of the very respectable congregation before whom it was preached , for it is creditable alike to the writer ' s head and heart ; and we are glad to find in it an evidence that the loss which the congregation at Stand has recently sustained will be repaired in him who now ministers to them in holy things .
We doubt if the first part of the sermon corresponds accurately with the title . It is not so much an exposition of the fact of a prevalent forgetful ness as it is an argument in defence of the assumption , that wrath is a better teacher of piety than mercy . As it is , the position requires limitation . It is not true as a general principle , but with some minds ,
and in certain states of mind . With at least equal correctness might it have been said and enforced , that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance . The fact is , both statements are false in the generality in which they are put forth , and true only when set over against each other with their mutual checks and counterchecks .
Another position is taken in unison with what are the prevalent notions among Unitarians on the subject , that God cannot—as he is a God of justice and goodness—entaii on his unoffending- offspring the consequences of another's crime . The plain answer is , that he does . The child of a vicious parent is weak in body and depraved in mind in consequence of another ' s crime ! And , while the bonds of society last , the evil as well as the good of one generation will descend upon the next . The mistake arises from a confusion of ideas . Sin and
sufferingare identified . Sin is not transmissible , but suffering is . In the popular theology the two are confounded ; and I am called a sinner by birth as well as in fact . All that Unitarians have to do is to expose the monstrous folly of . transferable guilt , while they acknowledge the obvious fact of transmissible suffering . The author ascribes the prevalent forgetfulness of God , not to any defect in our original constitution , but to the prevailing ( prevalent ) if
not universal neglect of a proper early education . The affirmation of this proposition is correct , but scarcely the negation . Impiety prevails in consequence of a bad education . —True . But what causes that bad education ? Trace back the process of demoralization , and in what can you rest but a defect in our original constitution ? Man is by nature imperfect , therefore sinful . A delicate logic is needed to handle these subjects well ; and we ^ have often been pained to hear vague talk against ' original sin , ' when the declaimer was as far from truth as the
orthodoxy which he assailed . Here , too , a distinction must be taken , between an imperfect and a sinful nature . The first man , —whoever he was , —and all men , are inclined to sin by the very imperfection of their nature ; but they are not sinful by birth any more than they are righteous . Virtue and vice are acts and habits of intelligent beings ; but suffering- and imperfection are the heritage of all creatures that God has made . Having got , in some manner , over these racks and shoals of controverted theology , Mr , May passes smoothly and agree-
Untitled Article
Critical Notices .- *~ Theology . 501
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1832, page 501, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1816/page/69/
-