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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.
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SpO f ^ ygsfc ? m $ m * to ^^ $ m $ low and unworthy vievv ^ of ; the , s ^ jg ^ fo ^ i ^ Ujfeh * ' $$ * & > 2 & $ } $ TQMm , & ; m ip ^ L ^ jN ^ r legiti m ate consequences , connexions and relations , as precious to me and the world as Iiis more
complicated aad metaphysical refinements are to him , I will not attempt to describe how unsatisfying to my mind is the long array of definitions , distinctions and modifications , with which li-e has answered the simple queries of Mr . Gibson .
After the foregoing exposure of my general views , it would of course be irrelevant to « nter into a detailed examination of those of Dr . Smith . For siace we both set out from totally different interpretations and uses of scriptural language , we might discuss the subject for ever without
approaching any nearer , together . I would be indulged , however , in a few desultory remarks , just to shew into what strange dilemmas Dr . S * is liable to fall , when he strains the local language of scripture into some mysterious and transcendental system , which he would adopt over and above a plain code of Christian and sublunary ethics .
In one place he seems to speak of Sanctification as if it originated from the human subject , ( p . 78 , top of col , 2 , ) and in another as if it were a work of divine power and goodness . His account of the defects of
Sanctification in the true Christian , represents them as no defects at all . For , according to him , a state of sanctifieationjs " a holy sensibility and justness of feeling , by virtue of which it detests all sin , and loves and pursues
all holiness . " But exactly such a state , it seems according to him , the true Christian preserves in the midst of his defects of sanctification , since they are all the time € i felt , lamented and opposed , in sincerity and with
constancy . " ^ This is a plain proof that the Doctor has no sort of clear ktea at all of what he is after in that dim and mystic figment of Sanctification at which he strains . In attempting to guard his system from
inconsistency , he runs against the bigger rock of absurdity . It never would have done for him to allow that defects of Satidtificiition Were ' raa / defects , because he had before maintained that Justification apd Sanctiftc ^ tion are for ever inseparable , and $ the l ^ tt ^ er
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vimfi defective , the f ^ pi ||^^^ y ||^ 0-tto % ^ ^ if ^ Jb ^ iE ^^ lfcc ^ ^ ifl ^^^ l ^^ - ^ iife cpe in 0 &g % ^^ ' ^^^^| p » G&iistiaii . ^ Yet that ther ^ is soiiiething tike defects of sanctifieation in Christians , was too notorious for him to deny . He ha ( l no > r 0 th 0 r , wa \| fe , tii
get rid of them than by an explanation which , as we have seen above , actually denied the very thing &e wm explaining . Wf : ^ y Dr * Smith ' s . subsequent fttterayftdta explain the sins of the saints in a phi * losophical way , is clumsy , invidious ,
and , I must say , some what ridiculous * I want to know why the circumstances which he enumerates with such analytical skill and exactness as causing true Christians to sin , may not explain the sins also of a great majority of mankind . I will ever maintain that
Unitarian wickedness is as good ^ n thing in itself a 3 Calvinistic wickedness . Why , this is a pretty daring attempt , truly , thus to embalm the defects of his sect , and to contend that they even SIN from better
motives than other people ! If we allow this , we shall give up the only common ground on which we stand with our adversaries * Long has our comfort and defence been , that they are sometimes human as well as ourselves .
But here their very transgressions are consecrated , and etherialized into something less offensive than ours . Never was such intolerable pride and vanity . Never was a , more dangerous maxim advanced . It is the -basis of a fifth
monarchy . Lamenting Antinomian extravagancies too in almost the same breath 1 But I will let the reader , into the secret of this outrage upon thep * logical decency . The consistency ^ Dr . Smith ' s , system would have been violated without it . His great and
favourite nraxim is , that Justification always keeps pace with Sanctification . But , as he says , there are no * ' de grees" in Justification . It is either every thing % v nothing * " It either $ &
or is not . " Now , if you allow ;) S an ^ tification to be essentially corrupted in any manner , Justification goes too , and Dr . Smith ' s system goes with iu Hence it is . that he is so anxious to
maintain a better ivaj / of Binning among the elect—one that is qot quite so wicked as oth $ r , pepple ^ r—one ^^ in short , wUic ^ however xmsanctified it na ^ y N f ^ U a $ * tt&t& 9 Nb ^ k : wm
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1826, page 143, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2546/page/15/
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