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Untitled Article
diQCj DUt to ascerta * an < 5 vindicate truth , iti * highly necessary in the investigation of any point of doctrine , to turn it on every sia * e , to look at it in all its bearing-s , and with patience and candour to appreciate its real merit by the acknowledged criterions of orthodoxy . With this view let us . put to
oorselves the questions which follow . —If , as is generally supposed , Original Sin , propagated as an active principle in th « soul , be the efficient cause of the universal prevalence of evil , will not this exonerate mankind from much of the responsibility which would otherwise attach to their
dispositions and actions , as moral agents in a state of probation ? For really if our nature be radically evil , or if evil be so closely interwoven with its fabric as is generally believed , it would appear unreasonable to expect any good fruit from so corrupt a tree . Yet we find God both expects and demands
it . " ( See Jer . ii . 2—Isa . v . 4 . ) P . 185 . Note . Imputed Righteousness . " Upon this interesting subject also , " says the author , " there is a considerable
diversity of opinion in the Methodist connexion . " P . 95 . He acknowledges " the popular feeling appears to be rather against it ; " and though he labours to prove it by quotations from the writings of Mr . Wesley , he is compelled to admit that the founder of the
Methodist connexion , if in the early part of his ministry he maintained , afterwards rejected , and openly opposed the views of the subject for which he contends . He quotes a passage from Mr . Wesley , which it is impossible to reconcile with the notion that Christ ' s righteousness and merits are imputed to the sinner .
" Again ; Mr . Wesley proceeds , least of all does justification imply that God is deceived in those whom he justifies ; that he thinks them tp be in fact what they are not , that he accounts them to be otherwise than they ar , e . It does by no means imply , that God judges concerning us , contrary to the
real nature of things 3 that he esteems us better than we are , or believes us righteous when we are unrighteous . Surely no . The judgment of the all-wise God is always according to truth ; neither can it ever consist with his unerring wisdom to think that * am innocent , to judge that lam righteous ° r holy , because another is so . He can no
raore in this manner confound we with Christ , than with David or Abraham . " P . 168 . The author lays tbte greatest stress ° n tKfe doctrine of Imputed Righteoasm 6 ^ 9 and laments the opposition it ^ eet *» 7 Wtu awjypra 8 t , Jtl * e Methodists .
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Sentiments respecting the death of Christ , which alarm him , are entertained by some of the preachers . u The author has heard from a Methodist pulpit , the doctrine inculcated that the death of Chiist was not essential td the
salvation of mankind , but that God made choice of that as the most eligible and advantageous mode of reconciling the world to himself . And he has been told by another preacher , and one of very distinguished rank and eminence in the connexion , that the death of Christ was not a
meritorious sacrifice for the sins of the world , which was * a Calvinistic notion ; that God chose indeed to manifest his grace and extend his mercy to men through that medium 5 but that if it had so pleased him , he might have don © the same through the death of a bullock or any similar medium . " P . 355 . Note .
We are informed , p . 138 . " The most general sentiment in the Methodist connexion concerning" Justification " is , that it is perfectly synonymous with the forgiveness of sins ; the removal of guilt , and of the liability to punishment which we incur thereby , a mere exoneration from the penalties to which a breach of the divine law
subjects every transgressor . " To this the author objects , though it appears from his own account , that it was the sentiment of the founder of the Methodist societies , and has been from the first the sentiment most generally maintained in those societies .
He makes great complaint of the increase of legality among the Methodists , because they do not insist on some popular doctrines which are generally termed evangelical , but continually enforce reformation and good works , without directing their hearers
to depend on the personal righteousness of Christ imputed to them for their justification , pp . 130—134 ; and with all his veneration for Mr . Wesley he hardly acquits him of being too legal . He says , p . 278 , " Mr . Wesley ' s zeal for God , and for tjhe honour of the divine law , carried him with a full tide
into the bosom of the strongest Arminianism . " And adds , in a note , *• We may here notice an instance of Mr ; . Wesley ' s having about that time lost all dread of danger from the introduction of legality into his system of divinity . In a letter to Miss Bishop , of Bath , dated November 5 , 1770 , he
observes : — " I cannot find in my Bible any such sin as legality . Truly , we have been often afraid , where no fear
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Review . —Inquiry into the Methodist Societies . 99
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1816, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2449/page/35/
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