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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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Untitled Article
j ustification &s > preceding the performance of all our good works ? * 3 . Does not , therefore , our justification ( as the term is used hub our
Articles ) take place in this pKsent world ? f 4 . Is not everlasting salvation the same as everlasting life or happiness in the world to come ?
5 . Is not then our justification the mere commencement of that of which in the general scheme of redemption everlasting salvation is the end ? Sect . II . —Of Justification in reference to its Cause .
1 . Does not the Eleventh Article declare , that we are " justified by faith only" ? 2 . Does not the expression faith only derive additional strength from the negative expression in the same Article , and not for our own works ?
3 . Does not , therefore , the Eleventh Article exclude good works from all share in the office of justification ? Or , can we so construe the term faith , in that Article , as to make it include good works ?
4 . Do not the Twelfth and Thirteenth Articles further exclude them ; the one , by asserting that good works follow after justification ; the other , by maintaining that they cannot precede it ?
5 . Can that which precedes an effect be reckoned among the causes of that effect ? 6 . Can we , then , consistently with our Articles , reckon the performance of good works among the causes of justification , whatever qualifying epithet be connected with the term cause ?
Sect . III . —Of Justification in reference to the Time when it takes place . 1 . When we are justified , are we not , in the words of the Eleventh Article , accounted righteous before God ?
2 . When we are accounted righteous before God , and so accounted for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , are we not then admitted to
According to Art . XII . good works follow after justification ; and according to Art . XIII . we arc even incapable of doing good works before we are justified . t It is used also in the same sense by kt . Paul .
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the benefit of the Christian covenant ? —Art . XI . 3 . Is not , therefore , our justification our admission to the Christian covenant ?
chap . v . Of Everlasting Salvation . 1 . Though we are justified or admitted into covenant with God * through the merits of Christ , if we have but
faith in these merits , and though we are thus admitted even before our faith has produced good works , does not the performance of good works , when we are admitted into covenant ^ become thenceforth a bounden duty ?
2 . Do all men , who have been admitted into covenant with God , perform that bounden duty ? 3 , Does not , then , experience shew , that faith , which had been sufficient for our admission to the Christian covenant , is not always productive of that fruit which is wanted in order to
remain there ? 4 . Though the Twelfth Article declares , that good works spring out necessarily of a lively faith , are they a necessary consequence of faith in general ?
5 . Is there not a dead faith as well as a lively faith ? And does not St . James give the former appellation to the faith which remaineth unproductive of good works ? o . Though good works , then , are the natural fruits of faith , are they the necessary fruits of faith , or fruits-which follow of necessity F
7- If our faith should not be productive of good works , will our admission to the Christian covenant ensure our arrival at the completion of it ? In other words , will the justification which takes place in the present life ensure our everlasting salvation or happiness in the life to come ?
8 . Does not the Sixteenth Article declare that we may depart from grace and fall into sin ? 9 . Does the same Article say more than that " we may arise again and amend our lives" ? * And do ^ it not thus imply that we may not awe again and amend our lives ?
10 . Does it not then follow from the Sixteenth Article , that justification leads not of necessity to everlasting salvation ? 11 . Is not then the performance of
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Peterborough Questions . 509
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1821, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2504/page/5/
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