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Untitled Article
confident that no such strange expedient as is here described * is to be foiu d in the Christian scriptures . One text indeed my friend produces to countenance his hypothesis upon which ignorant persons may be excused for laying considerable stress , but which a peison of my friend ' s abilities and learning should have been ashamed to allege , and which I am persuaded that "Upon reconsideration , he will regret tfrat he has cited . It is
Koin . iii . vs . " Whom God has set forth as a pmpitiation through faith in his blood to declare at this time his righteo ' sncf .- / ' My friend , if he recollects himself , must
knowthai : the word rendered propitiation invariably signifies a mercy sent ; and that whether the doctrine of atonement be true or false ,, this text has nothing to do wiih it . The design of the apostle evidently is to represent Jesus Christ as the mercy-seat , upon which the divine goodness as it were , takes its stand and declares its purposes of mercy to mankind .
Bui it is time to draw to the conclusion of a discussion in which I have been so unexpectedly and unintentionally engaged . At the same time I confess tbatl was not reluctant lo embrace the opportunity of entering my public and graven protest against the Arian system with which 1 am so farfromdesirin ^
toenterintocornpronuse , that I regard it as a corruption of the Christian doctrine which in the enormity of its nature , and in the magnitude of its evil consequences , is little short of Trinitarianism itself . It is indeed in some respects more dangerous than even the doctrine of the trinity . For Trinitarianism in every shape , and in every explanation of it , is so palpably absurd , that no abilityj no learning , no eloquence , can veil its deformity from the inquisitive mind when once emancipated from the shackles of early prepossession . But Arianism , though equally
unfouned in reason and in scripture , and though it is clogged with innumerable and insurmountable difficulties , does not , priwid fa * c ?< u involve a contradiction . Genuine Arianism is at best polytheism , and if it is accompanied with the worship of Christ , ss in all consistency it ought , it is idolatry . Jt becomes every one therefore who is concerned for the purity of the Christian religion , to separate himself from this glaring error , against which T am persuaded that the apostles and the first teachers of
Christianity would have raised aloud their warning voice of it had shewn itself in the primitive Church ; but it had no existence till some centuries afterwards . It is in vain to urge that many who have embraced this doctrine have been and are men eminent for talents and learning , men of serious piety and of exemplary benevolence . I grant it with pleasure j and the same
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598 Mr . Be&ham ' s Strictures on Carpente r s Lectures .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1807, page 598, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2386/page/34/
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