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ter acquainted with these treatises than I can be . They appear to regret that the Thoughts of Edwards have not come to their hands . Of that they have only an abstract , but they have
few points , which detract nothing from the principal design , and , perhaps , I have misunderstood them . Yet as you require my opinion , I propose to you these considerations , such as
they are , not because they are of any moment , but to comply with your desire : — Just at the beginning the author says , that the doctrine of redemption is founded upon the supposition of
Adam ' s fall . It is indeed certain , that the fall of Adam is not excluded from the doctrine of redemption ; yet neither are every one ' s own sins thus excluded . The opinion of many of the learned is , that our Lord Jesus Christ
has delivered us from the misery into which we fell by the sin of Adam , and restored us to the same state of happiness which we lost in Adam " . These appear to me to undervalue the immense benefit we receive from Christ .
who has delivered us from many offences , as the apostle speaks , Rom . v ., and introduced us to a far happier condition , even to eternal life in heaven .
I also find there this opinion , that Adam , by sin , lost immortality and became mortal . * If by immortality the author intends that if Adam had not sinned , he would not have died ; and by mortality , that through sin he incurred the necessity of dying , his
opinion I think very just . But if immortality , as the word strictly signifies , mean the impossibility of his dying , I cannot think it is correct to say that Adam was created immortal * I have fully explained my opinion in
my Christian Theology ' , B . ii . Ch . xxiv . For this immortality , or immunity from death , is plainly of a different nature from the immortality of God ; jtist as mortality or a liability to death
differs widely from death or a necessity of dying . Wherefore , it seems to me to be said rather improperly , p . 230 , that Adam ' s immortality was like fhat of God , after which it was formed , -f And though it most be
* The state of paradise was a state of immortality , of life without end , which lie lost that very day that he eat . " fVorks , tol . ed . 4 , p . 507 . f " Adam , l > eing the son of God ^ hnd this part also , of the likeness and image oi his Father , thai he wm immortal . Ibid , p . 558 .
received the other book . You know that I have written a System of Theology , * yet systems are not so prized by me , but that 1 prefer this small treatise to many systems ; freely confessing that 1 have thence derived more sound divinity than from the systems of numerous writers . But that author teaches a
theology far too gentle and liberal y while he scruples to confine salvation within the narrow bounds of human decisions , and maintains , not the orthodoxy of the creeds of sects , but of the word of God . Such a crime the
systematic Doctors are sure to punish by a discreditable imputation of Socinianism aud Atheism ; as if they who conscientiously refuse to reverence human decisions , were to be regarded as thus abjuring religion itself .
I very much approve the design of the author in that treatise . This , I think , he has happily pursued , aud fully proved his point . Two things especially please me — the correct sketch of the evangelical history , in
the ninth chapter , by which several passages in the gospels , apparently obscure , are satisfactorily explainedand that luminous deduction of arguments , by which it appears why our Lord Jesus Christ , while on earth , never expressly taught that he was the Messiah . These are peculiar to
this author , and clearly discover his judgment and ingenuity . But there are many other passages which strongly confirm the principal argument of his book , that a belief in Jesus , as the Christ , is the faith which justifies . You have here my opinion of that treatise , which I have resolved to read a third time .
But you ask me to send you any remarks which have occurred to me in reading that treatise . The whole is so excellent that I * know riot what to propose , worthy of animadversion . It haa so fully my sissent , that the remarks I have made are only on a very
his Second Vindication ^ hoth published in 1096 . ? Sec p . 478 , col . 1 , Note .
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672 The Correspondence between Locke and Limboreh , translated .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 672, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/8/
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