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His imagination is ardent , He makes much use ^ of elucidation by eompari * . sons and the supposition of cases , and be often runs his metaphors into
allegories . * But his meaning id not difficult to be perceived . One of his most remarkable peculiarities is the use of the term the saved , as an appellation of all sincere Christians . This
is alien from our habits : but it is clear as noon-day that he means only that such persons are , by the grace of God in Christ , delivered from the curse and condemnation , and from the power and dominion , of sin . He can , however , plead the authority of the New Testament . " The Lord
daily added to the church [ ravq < raty lA&ovq \ the saved ; " not , as it is in the common version , " such as should be saved / ' ( Acts ii . 47 ; and see the Unitarian Improved Version . ) Mr . B . has dealt with Mr . M . ' s
pamphlet in the way which he would heavily and justly complain of , if it were practised upon any of his own productions . He has picked out passages , omitting words and clauses ,
bringing together such as are not connected in the original , and separating them from tUeir proper connexion ; so that the impression of the whole is exceedingly different from the genuine meaning and design .
To prove this it would be necessary to translate large extracts from the pamphlet , for which I have not time , nor could I expect you to fill your pages with them . Yet I trust a very moderate indulgence in such citations will be admitted , as due to a virtuous and calumniated individual .
. Mr . Bakeweil has , in his ungenerous and unjust way , adduced garbled passages with the object of making it appear that the doctrine of Perseverance , as held by Mr . M ., implies a licentious tendency . Let me quote a few other passages , and let the equitable reader put them by the side of Mr . B . ' s . I cannot ask the insertion
of the original , as well as my translations : but the book ia at your service , and the extracts may be copied in French , if desired . The words put
* The observation of your American critic might be applied sometimes to Mr . M . ' s style : " It possesses that strained aim after merely rhetorical effect , so coyimob among the French divines , " ( Mom , Repos . XX , 655 . )
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in Italics are not put so by me , but are MthfeBy takent fron ? the French . ' * It is the objection which the world has at all times made against the ministers of God , and which in the present day is the outcry from all quarters , that the gospellers preach that y tfe need not do good works ; that theirs is a very convenient religion for
the wicked , who have only to say , I believe , I have faith , I am saved ; and then quietly yield to their lusts / As this calumny is no stranger to us , it will be right to repel it ; and at the same time to guard you against a carnal security , a fatal indolence , by shewing you , iny dear friends , that , though works are not wanted to obtain salvation , there is no salvation without works , " ( Conventicule de Bolle , p . 30 . )
" To say that true faith , —the faith of the heart , —Christian faith , is in the believer a support to sin , a counteraction to remorse , and thus a source of immorality ; is as much as to say , that the life which Jesus had just restored to Lazarus was a
support to the infection of his corpse , a means of remaining in the grave . It is surprising that sucli an assertion could ever be made by any person of sound sense . Yet , how many books and pamphlets are published to maintain it ! To hear their authors
complain as they do , of the preachers of the gospel and the doctrine of faith , one would suppose that those preachers were sellers of indulgences , and Christ a minister of sin ; and that to attract a soul to the cross of Jesus were enough to make it ten times more attached to Satan and his abominations . According to those persons , the assurance of having been saved by the love of our faithful Saviour , of being thus reconciled to God , of being sealed with the gift of the spirit of holiness , and animated by a lively hope of the heavenly glory , are , in , a believer , the same as hatred to his Redeemer , contempt of his heavenly Father , a bargain with sin , and the hope of being with the devil and his angels . —Yes , my friends , the Christian does good works , and
much better ones than before he became a Christian . — As a child of Abraham , he is animated by the spirit and walks in the steps of his spiritual father : and the first use that he makes of the liberty which grace gives him ,
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on " Modern Swiss Culvinists . " 731
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 731, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/27/
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