On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • 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.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    four volumes of posthumous sermons , which I never saw , his last thoughts may appear , and ihay shew that he had became an Antitrinitarian . Should it be otherwise , I am persuaded that by no writer would a correction of any statement be more courteously accepted than by your Correspondent Dr . Evans . J . T . RUTT .

    Untitled Article

    714 A Friendly Correspondence beti&egn an Udti&rian and a Calvmifit .

    Untitled Article

    A Friendly Correspondence between an Unitarian and a Calvinist . ( Concluded from p . 686 . ) I . to N . f with N . ' s Observations ( inserted as Notes ) . Dear N . 25 th October .

    HAVE no objection to your defi-I nition of sin , namely , that it con * sists in opposition to the will of God . The will of God is made manifest by his word , and by his works , in both

    of which , sufferings immediate or eventual , is inseparably united with disobedience . You certainly cannot intend to say that , in constantly pointing out this connexion as an argument for deterring men from sin , the sacred writers did not understand what was

    the real nature of sin - and that they ought to have insisted less upon the sufferings * incidental to a sinful course , and more upon the evil of opposition to God ,-f considered abstracteilly from p&in and misery .

    The sense of the disapprobation of Gpd is doubtless , to a spiritual man , the most painful of circumstances ; and when I speak of suffering , I always include in the term that source of painful feelings In like manner , when I say that obedience to the will

    of God is productive of pleasure , I ttfive constantly in view the paramount pleasure resulting from a sense of the Divine favour and approbation . " There rire many that say , Who will shew us any good ? Lord , lift thou up the light of tlxy countenance upon Us . ";); This was the saying of a man

    * Suffer ings of wrath in the soul . f- What tmore could they nay ? We re ^ d , but do not see oi feel what we read * t Shew us all the evil of sin , for we caftmot see it ourselves ! If we keep to such passages as these , both sects will agree .

    Untitled Article

    tfhd kitew vefirf # ell tvtier $ & tftfe pleasure tod p ^ te con sisted . It is a pity that yon do not clothe your ideas ; ih scriptural Uii £ ^ ag& * Your preference of 6 t&er thrifts , and your repeated appeals to like opinions

    of John Calvin , lead me to infer that you are much more anxious to impose upon me the peculiar tenets of that able , but fallible , and , in many respects , uncharitable dogmatist , than the doctrines and precepts of the atu thor and finisher of our faith . You

    must excuse me for making a distinction , and a very wide one * between Christianity and CaMnism—the latter of which appears to me to be in many respects essentially different from the religion of the Bible jaadiii every case wherein such difference

    exists , a substitution of a bad thing f for a good one * I will itbt call evil good to please a * ry ttm& . J You tell me that I am blind , § and that ! shall not be a competent judge of these matters till it shall please God to open toy ^ yes . My sight , however ,

    such as it is , tvill serve me as well to read the word of God , as the writings of John Calvin and his disciples -j \\ and I think I shall be quite as much in the \ v&y of truth ifc perusing the

    former as lii poring «{ f over the latter ! As far as the use of means can p £ ov 6 of any avail , you vtfill scarcely have the hardihood to dei > y that the Sacred Scriptures ** are tlie best to which we can resort for the attainment of

    * I have quoted * many , but not put chapter and verse , because you know them . How many texts are included under the designation of the ungodly , and the effects produced by the Fail L I give you credit for knowing those passages , and have quoted many of them I care little about Calvifi -I + —esteem others called Calvinists more than him .

    What I mean by Calvinists is , deeplyawakened and spiritually * raittd ^ dT persons , -f God knows best what is good or bad . Biintd man cannot set ^ until his eyes are opened .

    X Who requires you t < v diy So ? § Yes , you and I and all by nature The Lord , I trust , will gftre you sighfc * and me too ; for I h&Ve not seen Mul felt enough yet ' of the evil' of wiy Mien state .

    || The meaning of neither is perceived nor felt . If Praying for sightsahd light . ** Really understood .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/10/