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By justification is intended acquittal , remission , acceptance . The Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry agrees with some writers of a very different school in speaking of a two-fold justification . But the concurrence goes no further . According to Dr . John Taylor , of Norwich , two kinds of justification are described in the Christian Scriptures , and especially in Paul ' s
Epistles . * There is a justification , which consists merely in a state of external privilege , as opposed to a Jewish or Heathen state . This is out first justification ; the other being final , and denoting our ultimate and everlasting accep tance with God , through his mercy in Jesus Christ , and after a due improvement of our outward advantages . We take such a distinction to be obvious and firm , and regard it as the key to the epistolary writings of the New Testament .
Were the tenets characterizing the popular theology contained in that inestimable volume , we , probably , should find in it as frequent a use of particular terms as occurs in a number of writings at the present day . The word atonement , for example , is most familiarly employed in our age and country —from the pulpit , the altar , and the press . Nevertheless , we meet with even the English substantive in only a single passage of the New Covenant ; in a passage , too , where it ought to have been translated reconciliation . ^ Thus , again , intercede , intercession , are words presenting themselves but
Jjfive times in the Christian Scriptures : nor has the original verb exactly the sense which it bears in some favourite catechisms and discourses . Our appeal , likewise , Dr . Ryder may perceive , is to " the simple Scripture , ' ' justly rendered , indeed , and made its own interpreter . Perhaps , on consulting it , he may further be sensible that in numerous places the name Christ is applied not to our Saviour personally , but sometimes denotes " the Christian doctrine , " " the Christian spirit and principle ; " which view of the case may unfold the nature and manner of the union of his consistent disciples , even here , with their exalted Head . §
A large portion of this Charge is devoted to the subject of viciousness in life ; to the sources and the remedies of the prevalence of crime . In the author ' s judgment , " There can be no just expectation of effecting the prevention or the radical and permanent reform of vice , without the communication of genuine
religious principle . The watch will not go right without the regulation of the master-spring , nor the stream flow pure , unless the fountain be cleansed . According as the governing motive is debased and denied , or exalted and purified , we shall produce * the works of the flesh / or ' the fruits of the spirit , ' in suitable abundance . In proportion to the hearty reception of true religion will be the diminution of crime . " [ I
* Key t-o the Apostolic Writings , or an Essay to explain the Gospel Scheme , &c . ; prefixed to a Paraphrase of the Epistle to the Romans . A few years since , a judicious Abridgment of this Essay was submitted to the public , by the late Rev . and amiable Thomas Howe , of Biidport . + Certainly , we consider Rom . v . 11 , compared with 2 Cor . v . 18 , 19 , as decisive of the question , aa perfectly opposed to the popular doctrine of atonement , a word grossly misunderstood , both in its etymological and its scriptural signification . For this reason , we the rather urge these passages on the notice of our readers .
X Properly speaking , to intercede , is not " to avert wrath , " but " to carry on the concerns of one , in whose welfare we are deeply interested : " among the means of doing this , \ syprayer . Hence the import of zvT \ ry % a , vtivy and of words derived from it . § GaLiv . 19 ; Coloss . i . 28 , &c , &c . || P . 32 .
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76 Bishop ofLichfields ' Charge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/4/
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