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I « rd ' s appearance , but I did not see ! hat he comp lained of nature but of the buseof it . He tells us that when men Unew God , they g lorified him not as God neither were thankful . He taught that all had sinned , and all needed merextent vice
cy he shews to what an prevailed among the idolatrous Gentiles , and superstitious and bigoted Jews . He says nevertheless , that " man is the ima ^ e and glory of God . " 1 Cor . x j . 7 . lie tells us that glory , honour and peace shall be to -every man that worketh good , that when the Gentiles
who have not the law do by nature the things contained in the low , these having not the law are a law unto themselves , their consciences also bearing witness , and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another : and I thought that tnese facts were wholly
subversive of ihe doctrine of original , universal and total depravity . I read of the reconciliation of sinners to God , of the carnal mind , of the works of the flesh , and of men dead in trespasses and sins , and that in this state the people at Ep hesus , and the Jews among the res ' ., were by nature the children of wrath even as others in similar
circumstances : I was certain that a man destitute of revealed religion , and one whose morals had been neglected , would grow up a savage , a victim to numberless evil passions , and I was not sarprised to hear Paul describing the condition of the Jews as not being much better than that of the Gentiles
"fulfilling the desires of the flesh and ot the mind / ' for I had read their history , and did not doubt that a state of uncultivated nature would produce this evil fruit : I saw an instance of it
in Adam , I read of sin entering into the world by one man and death by sin , and that by one man ' s disobedience many were made sinners . I knew that the carnal mind was
enmity against God : I had seen and felt it to be so ; I had suffered by it , fl nd I thought that if men were less carnall y minded , they would not be jo ready to find excuses for their sins , ^ more humble before God , and not plead their nature as an hardened crimin al pleads an alibi . I thought that J ? would be but a poor excuse at «* e day of judgment : I knew that * nere bad habits and the love of sin governed the heart , men were dead to
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, God and righteousness . I ' thoug ' C ht of that passage in Jer . xiii . JIB—* an the Ethiopian change his skin , or the jeopard his spots ? then may ye also do well that are accustomed to do
evil . " I knew that the first man was the first sinner , and that death entered by sin . I doubted not that many became or were made sinners by this man ' s disobedience , that his posterity w ^ ere exposed to a thousand natural evils , and consequently temptations to the commission of moral evil , which would never have existed had Adam
never transgressed . I saw that men were naturally prone to wander from God - the conduct of our first parents proved that they were ; therefore I was the less astonished at the abounding wickedness and folly of mankind .
" Lo , this onl y have I found , that God hath made man upright ; but they have sought out many inventions . " Eccles . vii . 2 Q . I read through the Epistles , but I could find nothing in them to countenance the doctrine
of a nature universally , totally , a'nd radically corrupt . Nothing in Paul , nothing in Peter , James and John , not omitting Jude . I wondered with great astonishment Where could this doctrine originate ? I thought it began in the synagogue ,
that it was a refinement upon the lira minical doctrine of the metempsychosis I suspected that the apostles were tainted with this error till better taught by Jesus Christ , or why did they . ask that strange question—rJohn ix . 2 , * X traced it to Africa , to Europe , to . the Vatican , to Lambeth Palace , lo , the
convocation , to the synod ;«~—I saw original sin approaching me in the habit of the holy office , an inquisitor of the order of St . Dominic , I bowed not , but I thought it high time to retire . SIGMA .
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Sir , August 12 , 181 ( 5 . UPON perusing with usual interest the last Number of your valuable Repository , I was sensibly affected b y the indirect information contained in page 386 , ( and the more official intelligence page 392 ) , that the proposal of Mr . Rutt for a New Edition of Dr .
Priestley ' s Theological Works is , languishing for want of sufficient support from the Unitarian public Allow me to state that when I first became acquainted with the proposal , by means
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On Mr . Rutt ' s Edition of Priestley ' s Works . 521
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1816, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2456/page/21/
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