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and the consequence will be , that you will be saved by the atonement f shall thereby make" ? But the fact is , that Jesus did foretell his death , his resurrection and ascension , and the salvation of man as a consequence . What , then , becomes of the Doctor ' s implication of impossibility ? But he did not preach the atonement . And if he did not , the fair inference is , that he knew nothing of it ; for had this been a part , still more had it been the essential feature , of the scheme of salvation , it is inconceivable that it should have been omitted . No more difficulty existed in speaking of it than of the other circumstances which lead to the salvation of men . And we wonder
how it can be doubted that if we adhere to the simple descriptions of the way of salvation as givert by Christ , that we can be in any serious , much less fatal , error . " One is our Master , even Christ , " and we have no great fear that he will mislead us . We are no little surprised that the writer of the best work on Logic that has been yet produced , should have fallen into the gross error which Dr . W . has , in this passage , committed . This is his plan of procedure—he has settled in his mind that something he calls the
Atonement is an essential doctrine of Christianity ; this he finds not in the teachings of Christ , and therefore the gospels are incomplete , and Paul is set over his Master . In the same way the Catholic justifies his reliance on tradition , and in the same way might an apology and a defence be fabricated for every error . We have only to turn from Jesus to Paul , or to Hermas , or Tertullian , or Athariasius , or to the Koran , or to the Shaster , and we may establish in connexion with Christianity any tenet we please . Accordingly , Dr . W .
boldly declares that our Lord did not teach the whole truth ; and in defence of this assertion , ( which would have been a mortal sin if proceeding from the pen of an Unitarian , ) he adduces the promise of Jesus : " Howbeit , when he , the Spirit of Truth , is come , he shall guide you into all truth . " But Dr . W . forgot a passage which occurs in the same connexion : " But the Comforter shall teach you all things , and bring all things to your remembrance ^ whatsoever I have said unto you . " * This , then , was the work of the
Comforter , to bring the teachings of Christ to the remembrance of the disciples , not to complete the revelation . To suggest to the disciples the teachings of their Master contemporaneously with those events which were the best expositors of his meaning , was the work of the Holy Spirit . He had to explain by a reference to facts the bearing and intent of the language of Christ . The gospel was revealed , but it was not understood ; and to
accomplish this was the object of the Father in imparting his spirit to the disciples . What they had previously seen only through a glass darkly , aided by the suggestions of God , they afterwards saw in all its extent arid fulness of import . We have , however , an account given us of the discourses which were preached when the apostles had received the divine aid . Will Dr . W . be content to refer to these discourses as the test of the soundness of
his position ? To this he cannot in propriety demur . Well , then , by referring to the recorded effects of the gift of the Holy Spirit , we find no tface whatever of the doctrines of Atonement and Deity of Christ—and what is more , we find no new teaching of any kind . A change is indeed discernible ; in doctrine ? No ; but in the apprehension of the doctrine ; in men , not in truth . The apostles fully understand what before they knew in part , and proceed thence to preach , not a new gospel , not a gospel then only completed , but " the word which God ^ ent unto the children of Israel , preaching peace by Jesus Christ . " Nor is any novelty to he found in the whole book
? John xiv . 26 .
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536 JVhately ' s Essays on the Writings of St . Paul ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 536, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/16/
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