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To these opinions I heartily subscribe , to this statement I devoutly respond Amen * I have confidence in them , because they are in agreement with the tenor of the New Testament , and because they are in entire unison with
the best and most delightful feelings we entertain towards the great and bountiful Creator , whether derived frpm revelation or from the exercise of the understanding directed and illuminated by the light of revealed religion . They teach that God has
promised to mankind a future and an everlasting life , and that he will adapt the future condition of every individual to that character which has been the result of this first stage of his existence . And , as I . feel the highest
moral certainty that every thing is from God and of God , and that God is Love , I have no hesitation in the conelusion , that , ultimately , all will , be well with every creature he has destined for immortality .
In this conclusion , I fear the learned gentleman and I must part ; having agreed in our premises , I wish we had travelled together to the conclusion : and being agreed in all that appears to me most important I shall leave the subject with one remark upon , an argument used to support the hypothesis designated by the terms Justification and Sanetification . It has
been said that , without the process described by these terms , a sinner could have no ground of confidence before God . If by the word ground be meant , that a creature may prefer a claim
against his Creator , independently of the will and mercy and goodness of that Creator , founded upon some supposed right which he has derived from moral habits , then neither with Sanctification and Justification nor
without them has he any ground at all : but if by the term be meant that connexion between certain moral habits and a future state of immortal happiness which the supremely good Creator has , by revelation , declared shall exist , then Dr . Pye Smith , Mr . Andrew Fuller and myself are all entirely agreed . The Doctor has said ,
< c The penitent and believing sinoer is pardoned because Qirist gave himself a sacrifice , npt to purchase the Father's grace , but as a fruit and effect
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of that grace ?*¦ so th » t . mercy and gl ^ ee are the ground of the' expectation of happiness , or , whfchis the same thing , the ground of a sinner ' s confidence before God . ( Mon . Repos . p . 78 . ) Mr . Fuller says , " That good
works have the promise of salvation , is beyond dispute . Nothing that God approves shall go unrewarded . The least expression of faith and love , even the giving a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ ' s , because he
belongs to him , will insure everlasting life . " See Fuller ' s Works , Vol . VII . p . 431 . 1 should think no man would wish to employ a term of higher certainty or one that implies more of necessary connexion than the word
nsure . I observe that the charge of pious theft and the hint that these pious thieves will be excluded from heaven for it , made by Dr . Smith , has attracted the notice of a correspondent , and that the Doctor has replied to
him . Nevertheless , I will take the liberty to say , I think the change of property in this country from the Catholic to the Protestant Church , at the Reformation , is a case very much in point . Except indeed , and this is a most important exception , that in
one case Dr . Smith ' s party were the gainers , and in the other they are likely to be the losers . The mere fact of the exchange of property being made by act of parliament , and by the act of such a parliament , though
it might justify , it could not sanctify the appropriation of the funds of the Catholic Church , if such an appropriation were in itself unjust , and if so tremendous a punishment had been threatened against it . The law and the fact I take to be this , that as
succeeding generations of men improve in knowledge , they will apply , and they ought to apply , those means which their forefathers had found serviceable , to carry on their own improvement ; and that an endowment
for a professorship whose object was to maintain the Ptolemaic system , will be and ought to he devoted in the present day to maintaining the system of Newton , notwithstanding the former system was stoutly supported by the founder . THOMAS GIBSON .
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Mr . Gibson in Reply to Dr . J . P . Smith : 26 b
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VOL , XX . 2 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1825, page 265, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2536/page/9/
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