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our numerous and aggravated transgressions . 2 dly , We are taught to view Christ as the person through whose sufferings and death our sins are pardoned and our services accepted , to impress our minds with
humility and self-abasement , by recollecting that we had rendered ourselves by our offences so obnoxious to an infinitely pure Being , that he would treat with us only through a mediator , and regard us only through the merits and intercession of
another . 3 dly , Christ is represented to a sinful world as their redeemer , that those humble and contrite souls who see their transgressions in all their deformity , as having sunk them to a very low degree of degradation , and who of course would have the most
awful and gloomy apprehensions of their desert of misery , might be encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace , since from the doctrine of the cross they can derive this consolatory argument , If God spared not his own Son , but gave him for us all , how shall he not with him freely give
us all things ? 4 thly , Christ was set forth as a propitiation and atonement , that those whom he came to redeem from ignorance , from sin , and from death , might entertain the sincerest affection for him who suffered and died for them , and thus be sweetly constrained to pay a greater regard to his instruction and a more cheerful
and willing obedience to his commands . Lastly , Christ was exposed to so many sufferings and an ignominious death for the redemption of sinful creatures , that sin might appear in
their eyes as exceedingly hateful , since it brought such aggravated calamities upon one who entertained so much love for them as to lay down his life that they might be delivered from its awful oonsequences .
Now , as the doctrine of the cross has a tendency to produce such happy effects on the mind of man , as there are numbers who acknowledge that they have found it highly useful in awakening , softening and comforting their souhs , when oppressed with a view of their fallen state and the solemnities
of an approaching judgment , I think it is a degradation of it to consider it in the light of a speculative doctrine ; for when we view it as calculated to produce thobc transforming purposes
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just mentioned , it ought , I think , to be ranked with some of our tnost valuable moral principles . If this is the case , we ought diligently to preaeh it ^ and to be anxious ( like the Apostle Paul ) that we preach it in its simplicity and purity , lest it be rendered of none effect .
Which leads me to the second thing proposed , namely , to point out those hindrances which are likely to render this doctrine of the cross © f none effect . We learn from the author of our
text , that what he considered as in danger of destroying the effect of the cross of Christ , was the recommending this self-denying doctrine with the enticing words of man's wisdom , and depending upon human learning- and rhetorical arts for success , instead of
that divine power from above which would give full demonstration of the Divine Spirit from whom it flowed . And it is also to be apprehended , that the doctrine of the cross hajs , in many instances , been rendered of none effect by those preachers who have set up the fallacious reasonings of
short-sighted human understandings in opposition to the revealed will of God , who appear to teach us not what the Gospel is , but what they think it ought to be ; and also by those who , by a pompous display of eloquence and other popular arts , ( with a view of gaining applause , ) have induced their hearers to consider
them as preaching themselves , and not the Lord Jesus Christ . Moreover I cannot help thinking that violent disputes upon this subject may have an unhappy influence on the mind , and prevent that salutary effect which it is otherwise calculated to
produce . There are very few disputes that are carried on with temper , and ( wonderful to tell ) religious disputes , or rather disputes about religion , are generally the most furious and hitter . Now , as the doctrine of the cross is suited only to the mind when in its humblest frame , when the only hatred
is against sin , and the only indignation we feel is against ourselves ; when the heart is broken down under a deep sense of shame and sorrow , and the only warm passions excited in the bosom arc astonishment and / ove ; surely in such a case every feeling ot an angry , proud , contentious sfnnt ,
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448 The late Rev . John Follett * * Views of the Atonement .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1826, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2551/page/4/
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