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Freeness of the Gospel , " and the writer ' s object is to shew that , «< in consequence of the Deity having taken on himself the nature and penal obligations of the sinner , in order that , consistently with his jastice , and at the cost , as IVIr . Erskine says , of a temporary suffering to himself , he might restore his forfeited
life ; and having , by his ( sufferings and death , " ( p . 19 , ) or , as he elsewhere expresses it , " by his ( the Deity ) having sujfered , groaned , and died , for mankind , dearly earned the gratitude and confidence of his creatures , all the sacrifice which his justice required has been made , an universal amnesty has been proclaimed , and the sentence of exclusion being
reversed , the whole human race is freely pardoned and forgiven , let the offences which they have committed , or may commit , ( including the hereditary load of guilt which the first pair bequeathed to them , ) be what they may . " ( P . 200 . ) Indeed , lest there should "be any lurking fear in the minds of notorious evildoers that they may find themselves
excepted , and shut out from the act of grace thus wonderfully obtained , the learned gentleman is at pains to assure his readers that the pardon which l \ e announces , the / ree , absolute , unconditional , and gratuitous pardon , by all which epithets it is designated , ( and woe be to him , in spite of the pardon , who does not feel and acknowledge the full force
and virtue of every one of them , ) is € < lavished on the mass of the guilty without ant / discrimination , and is entirely irrespective of the varieties of human character . " ( P . 61 . ) " It is to sinners , " says he , " . that the forgiveness is addressed : not to believing sinners , not
to repenting sinners , not to amending sinners , but to sinners , ( p . 26 , ) and he publishes these to them glad tidings , " not to shew how men may obtain pardon , " about which it would appear they have now no occasiou to give themselves any farther trouble , but , " how it has been obtained . " ( P . 132 . )
Having announced this as the condition in which all men , good , bad , and indifferent , are now placed , it seems to follow as a necessary inference that the doctrines of retribution , and of future rewards and punishments , are
heuceforth to be considered altogether anile aod out of date . For if , in consequence of the Deity baring suffered aud died for mankind , forgiveness is freely vouchsafed to ail , it is tantamount to saying that none are to be punished ; for the notion of pardon followed by penal inflic-
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tions the same as if there had been no pardon , is a contradiction in terms , aud the last thing likely to occur to any one . Indeed , Mr . Erskine anticipates , as well he might , that it will " appear to many a strange sort of pardon which allows the punishment to remain . " ( P . 103 . ) But , extraordinary as it may seem , this
is the sort of forgiveness which the credulity of the world must now be taxed with believing , on pain , of course , of eternal d u if any different view of the matter is entertained by any one . Sinners of all grades are freely pardoned , without any of that previous humbling of themselves , being born again , &c , which was once deemed absolutely requisite ; Ci
they are pardoned , without even having had a thought of asking to be forgiven /* ( p . 51 , ) so that all the prayers Which used to be offered up with that view , ( our Lord ' s among the number , as far at least as forgiveness of trespasses is one of its petitions , ) must henceforth be considered useless , if not impertinent . But , mark the sequel : though pardoned , they are
not saved—that is quite a different affair ; they are to be punished just as long and as severely in a future world as if the Deity had not " manifested himself \ t \ the flesh" in the present , save and except in one case , and that is , where the fact of the " strange sort of pardon" discovered by Mr . Erskine is known , ( a
knowledge which his treatise now puts within reach of every one , ) and being known , is believed . The pardon , says he , is " proclaimed freely and universally , it is perfectly gratuitous , it is unconditional and unlimited ; but Heaven is limited to those who are sanctified by the belief of the pardon . " ( P . 13 . )
The good sense and perfect comprehensibility of this is illustrated by observing , " that , in itself , pardon is not heaven , any more than a medicine is health . A pardon unreceived can no more save the soul than a medicine
unreceived can cure the body . The pardon of the gospel is a spiritual medicine , and faith is the taking it . If there is no faith , the medicine is not taken , and no cure can be expected . " ( P . 25 ) It would , indeed , have been extraordinary if auy system or scheme of
salvation had approved itself to Mr . Erskine ' s mind , in which belief of one thing or other was not a prominent and leading feature ; but it cannot escape observation , that what he now requires tnen to receive and credit , on his authority , the medicine which he now insists on their swallowing , is something very different
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5 ( rfe Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 266, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/50/
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