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can apply to it with precisely the same truth ami ftrinfeSs as to the position of the apostle , " We conclude that man is j ustified by faith , without works of law . —To him that worketh not , but believeth in Him who justifieth the ungodly , his faith is counted for
rig hteousness : as David also described the happiness of the man to whom God counteth righteousness without works . ** ( Rom . iii ; 28 , iy . 5 , 6 i ) M . C . gives a sentiment which , he says , in The Refuge ' * we read in so many words , that the man most deeply stained with crimes , and the man who
has performed the greatest number of good works , are perfectly equal in the sight of God ! " ( P . 4 . ) A more flagrant instance of dishonest quotation could hardly exist . The only passage in the book to which I can , by any reasonable conjecture , suppose that M . C . alludes , is this :
" In the cross of Christ , the lovitigkindness of God to man appears with meridian lustre * By this despised mean of human happiness , and this only , the divine perfections are glorified and the chief of sinners 6 aved .
Not , be it remembered , by works of righteousness which we hare done : * for there is nothing we ever have done or ever shall do , that can procure an
interest in the Divine favour . Suppose a character , among the apostate sons of Adam , in whom resides all the moral excellency that ever dignified human fiature since the fall : and . on human fiature since the fall ; andon
, the other hand , one in whom concentres all the moral evil committed since that fatal period ; and it will be found on examination that , in point of justification before God , they stand on a perfect level . The accumulated
virtue of the former , if pleaded as that which might render him acceptable to his Judge , would avail nothing : nor would the enormous guilt of the latter , simply considered , be an obstacle to the bestowment of & race and of glory . " ( P . 75 . ) I wave the adduction of passages
almost without end from The Refuge , which insist upon the absolute necessity of personal holiness ; I wave appealing to the words immediately following the preceding citation , which contain the strongest assertion to that effect ; I wave any reference to the tenor and genius of the work , every where bright with moral purity > and
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I take my stand upon the insulated passage itself , ami affirm that M . 0 ; could not have ivrittefcwh # t be bias done without deliberate fratid ! Me must have read the book at least partially , to find out the passage . He
must have been aware of the true sense of the passage , ( as referring solely * nd most definitely to the ground of justification for a sinner before God , ) because he h&s so earefuliy garbl&S his pretended alle |^ ion ^ of it , as to exelude the broa < $ declarations of that
sense . He must have known that , while he was venting that so and so , ' * we read in so many words , " ht was adducing what was not found there in clauses , or words , or sentiments . What homage has he not paid to the
book which he reviles ; when he shews that he could not reach his purpose without committing a literary for ~ gery I What honour has he not conferred upon the persons whom he pursues with such enmity , in that , while he is affecting a zeal for the
interests of morality and an alarm lest they should suffer from the promulgation of the primary doctrine of the Reformation , he is himself trampling upon the first law of social morals , the obligation of truth in giving testimony !
It is painful to me to use these strong expressions : but the regard due to violated truth makes them necessary . Most sincerely do I pray that the glorious grace which M . C » thus awfully insults , may forgive the enormous wickedness of the attempt , and reclaim him who has made it . I
subjoin the words of the immortal Luther , which , though far more open to plausible objection , than any that are to be found in The Refuge , are , to my conviction , most fully
warranted by the Holy Scriptures : " Christ condemns not only men ' s self-confidence , but all their righteousness and merit of works . For , since we are bound to declare that
works are useless , " [ i . e . to justification ^ iC it of necessity follows that they are not a righteousness , that they are of no avail for the procuring * of eternal life , that they are worthless ,
and absolutely things of nothing . Therefore , all self-confidence , righteousness , wisdom , and every kind of works , is rejected " ( Non enim fiduciam tantum , scd et justitiam omnem
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iwat thelate Theological Controv 6 i * &ie&at &eftev < r . r 4 BQ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/21/
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