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1 st also possess the same indefeasible right to become a separatist ; if he entertain a similar conviction with regard to the episcopal church which Protestantism has erected—to become a separatist , we say , without being branded as a schismatic ? The true Protestant principle , then , all forms apart , is that for which we plead ; and for their adherence to this principle , so salutary , so essential to true religion , to a religion founded
in scrip tare and conscience , the early Puritans , and more especially the later Nonconformists , are worthy of immortal renown . It is this spirit of inquiry in religion which they have so rigorously and so-long maintained , that constitutes the preserviug power by which the mind is saved from the Scylla of spiritual despotism on the one hand , and the Charybdis of sceptical licentiousness oo the other . "—P . 35 .
The Society for the diffusion of Ecclesiastical Knowledge no doubt owes its formation to the prevalence of religious excitement and the dispositiou to religious discussion , which are unexampled in this country . To the same causes it will in a great degree owe its power and usefuluess . Now , while the Church of England is split into parties , is the time for advancing the claims of Dissent . Now , while a revolution in the temporal affairs of the Catholics has drawn the
attention of men to their ecclesiastical peculiarities , is the time to establish the leading principle of the Reformation . Now , that all " Evangelical Dissenters " are placed on a footing of political equality with their episcopalian brethreu , is the time to ascertain the nature of the
remaining divisions in Christian society . Now , when the straitest of all sects are desired , by an ordinance of their spiritual directors , to recur to first principles , is the time when the effort to induce Quakers to reason on religious
matters may not prove utterly hopeless * Some peculiarity of circumstance appears , at the present moment , to prepare every religious body in thia kingdom for the profitable agitation of questions which it is all-important to them as men and as Christians to understand .
We notice with pleasure the first motions of an engine which cannot but be powerful , and which promises to be exteusively useful in its operations ; and we shall watch our opportunity , from time to limey to add , according to our influence , a new impulse to its powers , or of interposing a check , should those powers appear to us , erroneously directed . Such co-operation and opposition ,
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wheresoever they come , will be welcome to the Society , if it adheres to its avowed principles ; and all who are zealous for the prevalence of gospel truth will be encouraged to anticipate and hasten the
day when that union of sects in the promotion of a common object which is now cemented by mutual forbearance , will become , by the gradual development of truth , an union of understandings a * well as hearts—a sympathy of the mind as well as the soul .
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Art . If . —The Atoning' Sacrifice ; a Display of Love , not of JVrath . By Noah Worcester . Cfambridffe , U , S . 1829 . There is a striking agreement between the subject and style of this little work . Its arguments in favour of the Divine benignity and in disproof of the
partial cruelty too commouly imputed to the ordainer of salvation are urged in a spirit of conciliation which cannot fail of augmenting their power . The author hu succeeded in his attempt to reason not as the advocate nor as the opponent of any denomination of Christians , but as the frieud of peace and truth .
The object of the work is to shew that the gospel dispensation is characterized by benevolence , and that this benevolence is exhibited in the inseparable connexion between repentance and forgiveness , in the undeviatiug veracity of God with regard to his threatening * , in the constant inculcation of the duty of
forgiveness , and in the promotion of peace on earth by the ordination of the death of the Saviour . To effect this main object , various prevalent doctrines , totally irrecoucileable with it , are ably combated ; and it is proved that sacrifices cannot become substitutes for punishment except as indications of repentance , that the
ransom paid for sinners is not independent of their own efforts , that vicarious punishment i « inconsistent with justice , and above all , that salvation by Christ is a redemption from punishment solely by being a redemption from sin . The advocates of the popular doctrine of the atonement have been accustomed to
insist on one or other or all of these points , in connexion with a belief in the impartial love of the universal Father ; or , if inconsistencies were at length perceived * have been more ready to impeach the mercy of God , than to relinquish their conviction of doctrines which ought to be proved to be scriptural , before they can be conceived to be true . While the ChrUuan dispensation , including the 8 «* lf-
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Critical Notices . —Theological . \ \ ; r
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 117, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/45/
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