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of his works can have the slightest effect to propitiate the Deity , and if such a notion shews farther his want of faith in the atonement , would it not be the safest plan to renounce all good works whatsoever , both in profession and practice ? Do not these men
prove that they have not much faith in the atonement , who spend their lives in making converts to this doctrine , that is , in presuming to help in his work the omnipotent God ? How can Walkerinsist on the all-sufficiency of the atonement , and consequently maintain that there is no condition
required for justification , while he insists on faith as the one thing needful , by which he means , an accepting of Christ as a proxy , or an apprehended exchange with him of our vices for his merits ? While he maintains
literally that it is given to some men exclusively to believe in such an exchange , his preaching must appear a mockery . One of the great objects of the gospel , he says , is to humble the pride of man , by convincing him that the atonement is all-sufficient , and that the intrusion of his own works in any form is impertinent ; but what is so much calculated
to defeat this object , and to puff men up with spiritual pride , as the notions that they are the favourites and Elect of God , and that all who oppose them are Reprobates ? Both Calvinists arid Arminiansr have
always been involved in inconsistencies by their faith in the atonement ; still they are alike fearful lest their faith in it might be questioned ,, for notwithstanding their mutual jealousies , they have always agreed to brand those persons with the name of infidels , who do
not believe in it implicitly . Here I may be permitted to say , that those men are much better entitled to this name , who repose implicit faith in mysteries . A sincere Christian who values ri g htly his Christian liberty , will think it is incumbent on him to prove this doctrine , to analyze it , and view it on all sides , without prejudice ,
influenced only b y a regard for truth . Such a severe examination will probably be censured as irrevererit , even by men who scruple not to decide , with great ponfidencp , iKat the substance ort 3 t > d » compli ^ atedl / ^ 4 njs councils partial ) 9 Uf j ^ ore , they can convict us df ' pi # OT ^|^ M # t ? n ^ ng t ^ ir aecisiojrt ^ , SteWt . prove fheAi to be sacked I and W ^^ t MtM z ¦ wM er ^ as n 6 thini
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seems wanting to prove them to be extravagant fictions , most disparaging to the Divine Nature , but a simple and accurate detail of them . I shall attempt to give such a detail in the fewest words possible .
In consequence , of the foreknowledge that the wiles of Satan would prevail over man in paradise , God , for the first time , found himself under a necessity of dividing himself , or of being divided into three , distinct , co-equal , almighty Persons , all of the same substance .
These three Persons , being still but one God , held a council on the subsequent state of man ; upon which occasion , the first Person expressed infinite wrath at the foresight of man ' s transgression , the natural effect of which wrath , if uncontrolled in all cases , would be
most grievous torments , in soul and body , without intermission , in hell-fire , for ever , to Adam and Eve and all their posterity . The crime for which Adam ' s posterity was to suffer in this
manner , is called original sin , which means literally , the sin of men before they existed . When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit , their offspring by this act was guilty of so henious a sin , that all men , women and children
who have ever existed , with a trifling exception , and the greater part of men who are still to be born must be punished for it with endless torments , by the first Person , to the praise of his glorious justice . No alteration for the better or
worse can be effected in their destiny by their works , good or bad , —to heft they must go without a possibility of redemption . All men , without any exception , would go the same road , if a few of these delinquents did not experience unconditional favour and
reward , to the praise of God ' s glorious grace . Reprobates , as they are rolled , are here tempted to ask , as all the descendants of Adam are equally guilty of his crime , why should such a distinction be made between them , as
that a few should ! . e made eternally happy , independent of their works , and all the rest eternally miserable . ? For this distinction ^ the reason assigned is the sovereign will arid pleasure d ? God , not of the first Person , nor of . th ^
majority , but of the second , Person " alone ; for though they 'are all" One iti Deity and iubstanjee , tj / BUY thejr differ widely in their Vf Sfefro&itidxis ; and iti their ideas of mstice a * rid'Jtnercy . Thtf second part of tnS ^ substance of God did
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JLetter to a Friend on the Atonement . £ Q \
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vot . xi . e ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1816, page 261, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2452/page/9/
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