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OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENCE.
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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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to form a moral sect , any more than a political party , without erecting for it a distinct standard , without forming some mass of principle , without founding itself , in fine , on some grounds more noble and substantial than mere negative ideas , mere dissent , this third class have
adopted a creed , vague indeed and undefined , as yet extant but in airy speculation , yet for that very cause more convenient . To define what this creed , or those principles are , is beyond my power . "— -Vol . III . pp . 222—229 .
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On R . M ' s Questions on the Atonement . To the Editor . Sir , Ireland , June 13 , 1828 . " In the spirit of candour and sincere inquiry after truth , " which I cordially believe has actuated your correspondent
" R . M ., " in your Number for May , I beg to offer a very few comments on the subject , upon which , in common with him , I entertain a very anxious interest ; and which , if treated in the manner his example recommends , instead of in that acrimonious , dogmatic , and insolent tine , which is alike the bane of all Christian
charity and all rational discussion , might be rendered the source of much plea ' surable excitement to the mind , and of mutual instruction to the contending parties . I think I can discover one deep error at the foundation of the reasoning to which R . M . seems at present disposed to resign himself . In speaking of the Justice of God > , he appears to answer
the Unitarian ' s objection , —that to have treated Christ , who was really innocent , as if he were a guilty person , " would be a counterfeit of justice , and a collusion beneath the character of God /'—by urging the reverse of that treatment , with respect to man , which he supposes to be the admitted doctrine of Scripture , namely , that it can as little become the justice of God to treat , as innocent , him who is ** actually and really guilty . "
But is this the doctrine of Scripture ? I apprehend uot . To me it is apparent that no person is said to be forgiven , upon mere faith , unless that faith include in it a renunciation of sin t and the * commencing of a totally opposite course of thought and action . * ' If any man be in Christ , he is a new creature - old things are passed away ; behold all things are become new . " Of which fewness , and putting away of former evil habits ,
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&c , baptism was the external sign ; . intimating , by the submersion then practised in that form , that , having buried , or drowned , —and , as the apostle , always exuberant in figures , sometimes expresses it , " crucified the old man ;" the body of sin being thus destroyed , men should thenceforth no longer serve it .
Now I put it to the verdict of unsophisticated human nature , whether that be the same attribute which would forgive the unconverted , the uurepenting , the wilful , hardened , insensible , offender , with that which would extend a pardon to the humble , contrite , confessing , regenerated , supplicant , whom alone the
Scriptures and common sense recognise as the genuine Christian believer ? Is the former , which is the proceeding your correspondent would seem to fix upon the Deity , a remission consistent with justice ? No ; it is an indulgence granted upon the most arbitrary , improper , and mischievous grounds .
Is the latter , supposing it to be an uncircuitous and uninflueneed manifestation of favour towards repentance , inconsistent with it ? No ; it is a mercy administered upon the most intelligible , worthy , and beneficial grounds . I could wish your correspondent , and all the unbigoted orthodox , ( among whom I have pleasure in recollecting " Clericus Cantabrigieijsis , " nor would I willingly exclude Dr . Pye Smith from the number , )
to consider well , that mercy and justice are absolutely consentaneous ; and that , correctly understood , each may be said to lose itself in the other . For mercy never pardons where justice disapproves ; and justice never desires to punish where mercy can be fitly applied . The Divine Mercy is exerted only when it is proper to be exerted ; and it would be aa much a violation of justice aa it would of mercy , not to exert it when it is proper . Speaking strictly , therefore—and in .
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Occasional Correspondence . 565
Occasional Correspondence.
OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 565, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/53/
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