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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.
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ndtgive , way to positive wrath against any part 01 mankind . While he was resolved to leave most men as he found
tdem , he was inclined to reprieve a few , not indeed from the foresight of their j&ith or amiable quajiues , but rather die contrary . His Elect would be greatly alarmed , if oven any part of his infinite atonement should be turned
aside irom themselves ; his inflexible justice in refusing all aid to JReprobates , who are just as good as themselves , is a principal source of their triumph ; and they are delighted with his goodness , principally on account of its partiality . However , his favour did not extend to a . greater number than to one person in two thousand , and with only this trifling exception , he had no commiseration for the lost state of
mankind . Or , perhaps , benevolence toward them would not l > ave been consistent with a prudent regard for himself ; for as the office which he did undertake to execute for this small number proved to him a most grievous task ; so , if he had enlarged their number to one half of
mankind he would have drawn down on himself a thousand times more wratht At the commencement of his very limited undertaking , what must have been his distress of mind , when no dignified or rational way occurred to him , or was communicated to him
to avert from the Elect the Father ' s infinite wrath , excited and impelled as it was by his infinite justice . He had no choice but to adopt or decline the expedient pointed out to him . It was promulgated in heaven , that the Father ' s wrath and justice , with respect to mankind , might be expended , not
O n them , but on some innocent person , who would voluntarily undertake to appease him by assuming their guilt and punishment . From this circumstance we cannot suppose that justice in heaven can bear any analogy to Justice on earth . - An awful sHence ensued . No angelic being offered to b ^ ar the brunt of this wrath and justijpe . On tjiis ominous pause ,, the Son himself , part of the vejy substance of God , came forward , and offeree ^ himralf to , ^ j igputed £ . sinner for the plect exclusively , jmd not only to ^ pyi ^ ara ^ i ^ Sfc ^ ^ f Q * * u ? il lness % q them , without requiring rom them any condition in return ;
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for he scorned to save them by halves Agreeable to this offer , he is aptly described by the Elect as a physician , who cures his patients by prescribing regiriien and physic , nof to them , but to nimself , —ana as a judge who procures himself to be executed , in order
to save the lives of felons condem ned by his own sentence . His offer was accepted , and the bargain was accordingly concluded between these two infinite Persons of the one substance . It certainly appears a very dear bargain ; particularly when we consider that it did not prevent the success of Satan over bom Persons , with respect to mankind , in the enormous proportion of at least two thousand to one : and
that it gave Satan the triumph of exacting , an infinite sacrifice , distress and humiliation , in the reserved case ol the Elect , wherein he was , foiled . In vain do curious persons inquire from the Elect the reasons , why the Devil should be allowed to triumph in this manner , —why this bargain between
two Co-equals , either such as the other , should be so partial in itself , and bear so hard on the second Person , —why one part of the substance of God should have infinite wrath to be ap peased , and not another , —why the
second Person should not require the First to atone to ~ himself by exquisite sufferings for the Elect , or for an equal portion of men among the Reprobates , —why the partial sufferings of God
should be an advantage to men alone , and to a very small proportion of them , why they should riot , at the same time , purchase vegetable life for inert matter , sensation for vegetables ,
rationality for brutes , and'higher powers for all mankind , since they are as miidh calculated to produce these effects , as to expunge unconditionally the sin of any man ? But if there be any congruity between these sufferings , and the unconditional removal of sin , then—being of infinite value ,, why slibujd they not remove unconditionally the sins of all men ? To none of these questions do the Elect choose to reply either front * scripture or reason . ' One p f the ' worid ^ of this bargain consisted in . the cdj&J ^ vjdnce b y which the , substance of Qod % ight be made to su ^ r . It was # W $% 3 \ £ pmc ^ prt of to ana A m $ & , ujton Sw ^ W / . 'WK .
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2 J 5 g Letter to a Friend on the Atonements
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1816, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2452/page/10/
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