On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
is to go to the feet of his King and Saviour and bind hun self to obedience by tlie offer of ^ i » jie ^ rt aa 4 the oath of his lov ^ 0 Rp , 30 , 31 , 33 . ) ' ? Let tf 6 ift&n flatter himself that it eaji be Q'l ^ rmBQ , —To pnstend to belong ^ o Cltfis iv and yet to preserve
l | is old notions , his old habits , his old inclinations , his pld hopes , in one word , his o ! 4 hesrt—is to give the lie to the word of God ; it is to pretend to posses a secret which God himself 4 oe& not know , the secret of
uniting light with darkness , sin with grace . —The fruits of the Spirit are all Christian virtues , that is to say , all Sood works . The unibji which the lost Holy One has established between his Spirit and holiness" [ in the true Christian ] €€ is indissoluble as
well as necessary ; so that the faith which is produced by this Spirit , the faith which justifies , is as inseparable froui gpod works , as the restored life of Lazarus was from his resurrection . It was his resurrection itself . So also faith is the resurrection of the soul : it ia in the soul th& life of
works , good works . " ( P . 34 . ) " Make all who see you learn from you , that the commandment of God is dearer to the children of promise than all the allurements , all the hopes , all the fears of earth ; that the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness
is the only , the continual object of your dearest desires ; and that thus , while you have received your salvation from grace , and works were not wanted to obtain it , now that you
have received it , your life consists in performing those works to the glory of your Saviour God ; so that whoever will may gain assured evidence in you , that there is no salvation ivifhout works . " ( P . 43 . )
These , and many like these , are the paragraphs , and this is the strain of thought and feeling , which Mr . Bakewell has passed over ; while he was exercising his industry to cull
and mutilate other sentences , in order to fix upon them a meaning which the widest stretch of charity will hardly help us to imagine that he could believe to be that which their author intended .
Mr . B . urges , with great force , an Allegory by which , he says , M . Malan has delivered M the doctrine that no crimes can separate the elect frbjn God / ' It would be impossible Mly
Untitled Article
to refute this * part of Mr * B / s state meiit without translating < the < whole passage from Mn M « , wlilch would be long , and could not reasonably be presented far admission into your pages . This allegory may not be iu the best taste , nor all its parts in
exact keeping and Mr . B . has furnished a proof that it ia liable to be misunderstood and abused : bttt , to any one who wilt read it ia a fair and upright spirit , it will be abundantly apparent that the author ' s intention was to administer encouragement to persons whose miuds are overwhelmed with fear and distress on account of
their sins , and that nothing was farther from his thoughts than to afford any license or tolerance to wilfi&i sin * On this doctrine itself , the Perseve * ranee of the Saints * I cannot tout re- * peat my request that Mr . B . would * with seriousness and candour ,
consider the remarks offered in CMober , 1824 . ( Mom Repose XIX . 67 a ) Un * less lie can prove those statements to be incorrect , unless he can shew : the Calvinistfe doctrine to be a eontiouance in happiness without $ perse
vering in universal obedienc e * all his declamation falls to the ground * He may amuse himself with forming sup * , positions and putting dreadful cases of impiety and cri me ; buft I beg to inform him that he is siipposing moral impossibilities . Were any to argue and act as he describes ( and I fear
many have done so ) , they would furnish indeed melancholy reason to believe that they were total strangers to genuine religion ; but no reason at all for discrediting the Calvinistic doc ^ trine , that the sincere Christian will ,
by the aid of divine grace , persevere to the end in opposing sin and cultivating holiness . Your American cor * respondent affirms iny holding " that the very word Salvation means deliverance from sin" to be * ¦ ' qoming
round aweepingly to ArKainianisro . ' ( P . 656 . ) I assure him that he aleo greatly errs : and I cannot help be * iieving * that he has never attentivel y * or perhaps at all , read any Galvini&tie author of estimation on this subject .
May I hope , to be endured , if J quote a sentence or t > vo from the Act # of the Synod of Dor ^ I anv uo admirer of Synods , nor believe * " in tLeir w |; ho ^ rity : bi \ t 1 receive witfe ^ ev ^ en € Q truth ami arguruent , whenever I fi ^ them . < f It is their [ true believcrsj
Untitled Article
732 Dr . J . P . Smith in Reply to Mr . Bakewell
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 732, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/28/
-