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system to the text ; it leads the mind to inquire , not , What says the Scripture ? What is the precise meaning * of these terms ? What is the scope of this argument ? What is the object of this series of observation ? What
should I think had I never heard of systems or isms or wonderful keys ?—But how can this passage be reconciled with the hypothesis ? How can it be made to support the system ? How may the key be introduced so as to move among the wards of this intricate lock without a touch of
interruption ? And accordingly this hypothesis is so dear to the persons who assume it , that they always value it far above the Scriptures : the real feeling- of their mind is—Whatever the
Scriptures teach , it must be something consistent with this hypothesis ; and many , very many of them say , if it be not so , the Scripture must be false : it is full of contradiction and
absurdity ; it will not do ; we will g ive it up ; we will burn our Bibles . There is nothing for which Unitarians have been visited with more obloquy ; nothing which has excited against them more horror ; nothing which has tended more to represent them in the view of the multitude , as ** contemners of God and enemies of
the cross of Christ , " and to make even the more candid orthodox believer say , without doubt they must perish everlastingly , than their rejection of the doctrine of Atonement—and certainly there is no impression which the modern advocates of this doctrine
have laboured with more earnestness and more success to keep up and to strengthen . And yet these very advocates themselves totally abandon the doctrine : they no more believe it than they believe the doctrine of purgatory ; they deprive Unitarians of the Christian name and consign them to unutterable torments ia hell-fire for
ever , for not admitting the truth of -what they themselves expressly deny . Every one who has read with care the modern defences of this dogma must have been struck with this fact ; but Mr . Ward law has afforded such
demonstration of it , that we cannot help directing t \ ie attention of the reader particularly to it , and offering this gentleman our sincere congratulations on the light which , on this subject , has beamed upon his mind . He has
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levelled with his own hand this middle wall of partition between us ; he is no longer a stranger and an alien ; with a safe conscience may he give the right hand of fellowship to his revered
and beloved friend Mr . Belsham , for on this one point at least , they are agreed , that the doctrine of the atonement is ' * utterly inconsistent with the grandeur and majesty of the Divine administration . "
What is the doctrine of atonement ? Hear Luther , — " Christ became the greatest transgressor , murderer , thie £ rebel and blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world ; for he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the
whole world , is not now an innocent person and without sin , is not now the Son of God ? born of the Virgin Mary , but a sinner . When , therefore , the law found him among thieves , it condemned and killed him as a
thief" ! Hear Calvin , — " Christ makes theFather favourable and merciful unto us—God appeases himself through the blood of the cross . There is no other satisfaction by which God being displeased may be made favourable and
appeased . " — Hear the Confession of Faith , — " Christ , by his obedience did fully discharge the debt of all those who are thus justified , and did make a proper , real and full satisfaction to his Father ' s justice in their behalf . *
If , then , these standards of the orthodox faith may be presumed to know what the doctrine of atonement is , and if there be any meaning in language , this doctrine teaches , that Christ did endure in the garden and on the cross all the misery which , on
account of their transgressions , would have been inflicted upon those who are saved throughout eternity ; that in consequence of this suffering God was appeased , and became " favourable and merciful / ' being pleased to accept the sufferings of his Son , in the place of those due to the real offenders .
In his discourse on the doctrine of atonement , Mr . Ward law proposes to illustrate and prove the five following propositions : — u 1 . It is in consideration of the
sacrifice of Christ , that God is propitious to sinners . 2 . In pardoning the guilty on this ground , God displays his righteousness . 3 . The ground on which the pardon of sin is bestowed , has been , in every ag-e , and under every dispensation , the same .
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414 Review * — Unitarian Controversy in Scotland .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 414, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/38/
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