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
laying the foundation of so amazing a doctrine as the Atonement , we cannot be too exact in otir expressions—speafcJing strictly , I say , it is not clemency , " as your correspondent observes , but equity which " frees from punishment ; " of which equity , or perfect * ' equality , " in the ways of God , we have the niost distinct and unimpeachable enunciation in the eighteenth and thirty-third chapters of the Prophet Ezekiel .
I repeat , then , that justice and mercy , in their essence , and as they exist in the Divine Mind , must be one . To suppose them different , is to suppose that Gdd can only he just by the sacrifice of mercy , or merciful by violating justice !—suppositions too lowering to the Creator to be admitted for a moment .
It is true that , in dispensing forgiveness , he departs from the letter of the law ; for no law contains within itself any pardon for its own infraction . But in so dding , far from being unjust , he would doubtless be doing what was most itist ; for in particular circumsfances ,
summum jus would be summa injuria . A law can only be designed to procure the greatest possible amount of obedience to it . But if it were a principle undoubtingly received , that a person having Once offended could never be forgiven , all endeavour at recovery would be abandoned . Perseverance in sin would be
the consequence ; and the amount of disobedience , the very thing again 9 t which the law was directed , be incalculably augmented . In a word , Sir , the natural theology to which I am adverting , would in effect dethrone the Most High , by depriving him alike of mercy and of justice j for where there is no pardon , as this system
supposes , there can be no mercy . And not less signally would it deprive him of justice j for to hold the penitent and impenitent—him who renounces and grieves for his sin , and him who corruptly and proudly persists in it , as both guilty , and both to take up their station among the wicked and the damned ; this , surely , would be the consummation of all injustice t
I have said thus much , in order to fix the attention of your correspondent upon the most important and critical step in the whole of this truly interesting inquiry , namely , the nature of the introductory thecfogy to which he has given his assent , and by which he seems for the present to be held in suspense . For if .
Untitled Article
on the one hand , nature and reason instruct us that God is unforgiving , revelation can never legitimately persuade us of that to which all our previous information is unequivocally adverse . And , On the other hand , if nature and reason assure us that God is compassionate , "full of mercy and consideration towards those who deplore and depart from their sins - 7 that such is his
essential character as a Being of perfection , who regulates his judgments not less in equity than in mercy , and as the source from whence his human creatures are to derive an ever -increasing invigoration of all their moral notions and habits ; then , again , no system professing to be revealed , nor any interpretation of it , can be entitled to our credence , which would subvert or enfeeble these imperishable principles .
It behoves , then , those who venerate Scripture , and who regard Revelation as the most unbounded of blessings , from its giving assurance to the most sacred and interesting hopes of mankind , not to weaken Us evidence by removing the principal pillar upon which it reposes . The most successful defender of revealed religion who has ever written—I need scarcely advert to the name of Paley—has assumed it as the basis of his
defence , that it was suitable to the . benevolence of the Deity to grant a revelation . WThat Would become of that defence , if it were either to be shewn that there Was no discoverable benevolence in the Deity to which that revelation should conform , or no indication in the system professing to come from him , of any intrinsic benevolence ascribable to its Author ?
Sir , I believe it to be most fortunate for the truth of that system which , in proportion as intelligence diffuses itself , will be more and more submitted to the test of inquiry , that the reverse of these imagined demonstrations will be found to be the fact , as well in revealed as in natural theology ; nor can I close these few observations , as suggested by a
consideration of the latter , without referring to the gratifying conformity with them which we find in two out of multitudes of passages which might be cited to the same effect , —the * one from the Old , the other from the New Testament , which seem to affirm the direct , undisguised , uninfluenced benevolence of the Deity in terms not more impressive from their tenderness than indelible from their distinctness : " The Lord is full of compassion and
Untitled Article
56 & , Occasional Correspondence .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 566, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/54/
-