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sition. We fancy that we discover in him, that party spirit which sectarianism necessarily generates, and which has blinded him against the light of strong arguments, and taught him to place an undue reliance upon weak ones; but there are no symptoms of personal or indivi. dual harshness in his pamphlet and if his flock, whom he is endea vouring to confirm in his opinions, are not very different from what we believe them to be, they would be estranged rather than recovered, by uncharitableness. We have only to hope that they will listen patiently both to Mr. Wix, and to Mr. New ton, and we shall then have no doubt respecting the issue of the conflict.

Attention to the Origin and Design of the Gospel, recommended, as a Defence against prevailing Errors; including some Observa tions on the Doctrine of imputed Righteousness: a Sermon, preached at St. James's Chapel, Whitehaven, July 14, 1820; at the Visitation of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Chester; and "published by Request. By William Ainger, B. D. Formerly Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Vicar of Sunninghill, Berks; and Perpetual Curate, and Superintendent of the Cleri cal Institution, at St. Bees, Cumberland. Pp. 27. Rivingtons.

1821.

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a revelation from God to man, wit must, when properly explained and understood, be found in every part to vindicate its own origin and design; justly contending that it would argue a degree of imperfection con tradictory to the very idea of a divine revelation, did we not on correct and impartial enquiry' dis cover it to be throughout strictly compatible at least with that source and that purpose. A summary of the author's sentiments on this subject is contained in the following passage.

"Perhaps this plain and simple principle might, if duly pursued suffice, in most instances, to guide us aright both in discerning and defending Christian truth.

We

"1. For, in the first place, our religion claims to have God for its author. are, then, at once furnished with an an swer to every cavil against it, that is founded solely on an alleged antecedent improbability in terms or circumstances of the dispensation; and with a corrective also to every perversion of it, that may be attempted for the sake of evading such cavits: because it is obvious that human notions of probability or improbability, ceedings of a Divine Being.--Yet on such can never become the measure of the pro narrow views, and not on any real inconsistency with the acknowledged attributes of the Deity, will all the most popular objections to Christianity itself, or to its leading doctrines, be uniformly discovered actu ally, if not avowedly, to rest.

religion professes, to remedy the evil of "2. Again, in the second place, our that state in which we exist by nature, and to open to us, and fit us for another, a purer and better state of existence. This comprehensive account of its design, might be supported by a reference to particular texts of Scripture *. But, in fact, we gather such a design scarcely so much from any precise definitions and descriptions of it, as from what is either partially and incidently expressed, or clearly im plied, in almost every sentence that adverts

to the present condition and future destination of mankind, and to the connection which the one holds with the other t. If,

"See Titus ii. 11-14."

tirely new, and is this, to prepare us by a "The object of this religion is enstate of probation for the kingdom of hea This is every where professed by Christ and his Apostles, to be the chief 3 S

ven.

however, we have sufficient grounds for concluding the life of the Christian to be thus intended by supreme wisdom and

goodness, as a temporary school of moral

and spiritual discipline and improvement; if, in short, God's kingdom in this world was really established in order to train up members for his kingdom in the next, it seems inevitably to follow, that no interpretation of the records of our faith can be right, which does not, by its consequences, tend to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, endued with the dispositions, and exercised in the graces, that may render them 'meet to become,' after this scene of earthly probation is ended, partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light t.""

1

P. 4.

'The

end of the Christian's life.' truth of this principle, That the present life is a state of probation and education, to prepare us for another, is confirmed by every thing which we see around us. It is the only key which can open to us the designs of Providence in the economy of human affairs, the only clue which can guide us through that pathless wilderness, and the only plan on which the world could possibly have been formed, or on which the history of it can be comprehended or explained. Soame Jenyns's View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion. Prop. 2."

"St. Luke i. 17." "Col. i. 12."

"If the present life is a trial of men's fidelity, a probation of their fitness for a future and more lasting state; then every erroneous notion, which is of such a nature, as leads men to rely upon any equivalent whatsoever, instead of employing faithfully those talents wherewith God has intrusted them, in promoting his kingdom of truth and righteousness, must needs be a fatal deceit. If they depend upon any absolute decree of God, or upon any appli

cation of the merits of Christ to save

It is not probable that the accube dis

racy

puted by any class of professing Christians yet are there many Christian teachers who ought to question and refute them, if consistency were any part of their pursuit. For we are told again and again, that it is not for man to systematize, but that he is to preach the Gospel as he finds it, that if he has a Calvinistic text he is to preach a Calvinistic Sermon, and if a passage of an opposite tendency should be selected for the following Sabbath, a sermon of an opposite tendency is also to be delivered. This custom has prevailed in certain quarters for a considerable period; but we be. lieve that it was left to Mr. Simeon, of Cambridge, to avow and to recommend the practice. The preface to the Hora Homiletica, is an express vindication of it; and as that preface has been reprinted and panegyrized in most of the pamphlets of the party, we shall take the present opportunity of making some remarks upon the subject.

them, not from, but in their sins: if they expect to be saved by their faith, meaning thereby mere credulity, instead of fide lity or acting faithfully upon the principles they profess: in these and all other cases whatsoever, which can possibly be reconciled with vicious and immoral prac9- tice, our Saviour will say unto them, Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity. For if ye have not been faithful in a small and temporary trust, how is it fit I should give you a kingdom to be your own for ever? Dr. Samuel Clarke's Sermons, p.

16358. V. 11. Ed. 1734."

In the first place then, we say that if Mr. Simeon is in the right, the Church of England is fundamentally and grossly in the wrong; having reduced the contents of the Sacred Volume to a theological to subscribe to that system, and system, and required her ministers acknowledge it as their own. What right had the Church to act thús? Why was she not satisfied with a promise to preach nothing but what might be found in the Bible? These continually called upon to answer are questions which Churchmen are by the pious Non-conformist on the one hand, and the liberal Lancasterian on the other; and Mr. Simeon can return no sufficient or convincing his doctrine as he varies his answer. If he is justified in varying the Dissenters are justified in their opposition to creeds and articles, and have a right to expect his as sistance in ridding the land of such

nuisance.

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In the second place, will Mr. Simeon adhere to his own rule upon any other subject except the Calvinistic controversy? Will he preach to-day upon a Trinitarian, and tomorrow upon a Socinian passage, urging the declarations of Scripture in both cases, to their full extent; and not presuming to reconcile or systematize what seems, and only seems to be contraditory? We feel assured that he would not-but we cannot conceive how he would defend or explain his conduct. The doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, is deduced from a vast number of texts, which would be absurd and contradictory if that doctrine were not true. And it is the bounden duty of every Christian teacher to compare and contrast these opposing authorities, and to shew that they do not tend to invalidate each other, as the sceptic is always ready to insinuate; that it is not necessary to reject one set of them as spurious, or unintelligible, which is the Socinian's crafty policy, but that even from the first and purest ages of the Church, they have been reconciled by the Catholic interpretation, and that such interpretation is reasonable, necessary, and just. We have no inclination to suppose that Mr. Simeon would object to such preaching as thiswe are confident that a great majority of the clergymen who are connected with him would adopt it without the slightest hesitation. And therefore we would simply ask whether they are consistent interpreters of Scripture, when they refuse to adopt that process with respect to God's dealings with mankind, which they have already adopted on a subject of far greater obscurity, namely, the separation and the unity of the Divine Nature? In the last place, what inference is to be drawn by the Church from this newly discovered antipathy to systems of theology among the Calvinists, or semi-calvinists of the present day? Do they not hereby

desert the very strong hold of their creed? Was not its completeness as a scholastic system, one of the main causes of its promulgation? And can there be a surer symptom that its advocates are worsted, and are on the retreat, than that they have abandoned their ancient fortresses, and are continually shifting their ground? Mr. Simeon may conceive that his mind is superior to prejudice, and that he can fairly balance one set of opinions and doctrines against the other; giving to neither a more prominent place, or a more frequent repetition thau has been assigned to it in Holy Writ. And it is for his hearers and readers, not for us, to say whether he is successful in the attempt. But putting his own sermons out of the question, we should very much like to know how many men he has met with in the course of his long experience, of whom he can say that they have adhered to the plan which he lays down. Must he not admit, that at least ninety-nine Calvinists out of a hundred, take no notice in their sermons of those passages of Scripture which favour the Arminian scheme; and that the Arminians, among whom Mr. Simeon himself has been commonly numbered, treat the Calvinistic texts in 'a similar manner? Is it not certain that predilection, not to say prejudice, will have its force; and that an honest man will often forget the authorities which are opposed to his own opinion? We feel a strong conviction of the impolicy and impropriety of the plan which Mr. Simeon has recommended. It would render a great part of the preacher's office useless and uugatory; it would afford colourable excuses for latitudinarianism, Socinianism, and infidelity; it would tend to increase and multiply divisions and seets, and would ultimately bring the Bible into general disrepute. Mr. Ainger's Discourse, to which we now return, may assist in removing, or at least diminishing, that delusion, which

has been created, or rather de- will there be much danger lest any man

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"The errors of the rational Christian, having been compared with those of the ancient sceptics, the common source of both is pointed out in the following passage.

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"The evil I have stated in great measure to spring from a want of due regard to the origin, and to the design of Christianity. Accordingly we find St. Paul labouring to recall and fix the attention of the Corinthians chiefly on these two points, and on the consequences which obviously follow from them; thus holding them forth as leading principles, an adherence to which would serve to guide his converts aright through the more minute detail of faith and duty. Let us, my Reverend Brethren, pursue a similar course! We cannot, indeed, like the Apostle, refer our hearers to miracles wrought among them* :' we can shew, however, on evidence level to the most ordinary comprehension, that miracles we're really once wrought in confirmation of our religion; thus proving it to come God himself: and we may trust to their own plain sense to allow the inference, that, when God speaks, it becomes man to Tearn in humble silence, and neither to reject nor modify the communication, because it may be different from what he might have expected. We cannot, indeed, like the Apostle, appeal to the actual knowledge of our hearers, in order to demonstrate the deplorable state of the human race before the coming of Christ; for his coming has shed abroad a light in the world, of which even they partake the benefit, who refuse to adore the Source from whence it is derived: but we can render it plain to them, from what they witness in others, and from what they experience within their rown breasts, that man is all too ignorant, and too unholy, to make himself acceptable, here or hereafter, in the eyes of a pure and perfect Being; that for this end, he needs wisdom, which divine reve lation alone can teach, righteousness, which divine grace alone can confer; sanctifica tion," which divine help alone can enable him to acquire. These convictions once firmly established, our hearers, though pos ing no other learning, will yet sessing no ready to give an answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear t.' Nor

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spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit for the suggestions of infidelity,

whether that infidelity be total, or partial; whether denominated atheism, deis, or unitarianism†are ever found to pos sess the greatest influence over those, who, knowing little of the real claims of the Bible to their belief, knów still less how admirably fitted are the peculiar doctrines it divulges, to supply those wants, and to aid those imperfections, of which the best and wisest of mankind have, in all ages, been the most deeply conscious." "P. 11.

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* "Col. ii. 8."

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+ "The charge of infidelity, indeed, attaches in a certain degree to all who rel fuse their assent to any material doctrine deducible by the established laws of interpretation from Scripture; and great must be the force of that prejudice, which can overlook the inconsistency of arbitrarily imposing a meaning unwarranted by the usages of language, on a book to which all parties appeal as the standard and rule of faith. But I do not hesitate to aver my conviction, that the profession of Unitarian tenets affords a convenient shelter to many, who would be more properly termed Deists, and who by the boldness of their interpolations, omissions, and perversions, by the indecency of their insinuations against the veracity of the inspired writers, by their familiar levity on the awful mysteries of religion, and their disrespectful reflections on the person and actions of Unitarians, and betray the true secret of their Saviour, are distinguished from real the flimsy disguise which they have assumed as a cover from the odium of avowed infidelity Bishop of London's Primary Charge, 1814, p. 15. pants will und com "John i. 9."

eth from all sin as the Saviour who gave himself for us that be might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto him self a peculiar people zealous of good workstand who further reveals and imparts, to us the assisting influences of the Holy Spirit, in order that we should work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, since it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure *.'

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"Reiterated declarations like these, are plain and express, And the sacred volume not only is every where eutirely in unison with them, but must be, if it comes from God. Lamentable, then, is the reflection that any, for whose sakes it was written, should, however, from the misinterpretation of certain parts, confessedly bard to be understood, wrest the whole 'to their own destruction §. Yet such, we have been warned, is the danger incurred by the unlearned and unstable' who attach to particular passages of the New Testament a speculative sense, and deduce from them practical conclusions, inconsistent with its main and leading tenour. Is an exemplification demanded? None more striking can, perhaps, be produced, than the construction that is sometimes put upon the very words which we have just been endeavouring to expound. It has been, and still is, contended, that, since Jesus Christ is here said to be made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption,' we are therefore warranted in concluding that his merits are actually imputed by God to those who shall be saved; and by him reckoned to them as their own ..

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66 Now it is obvious that this construc

"1 John i. 7.”. "Phil. ii, 12, 13,"

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t." Tit. ii. 14." "2 Pet. iii. 16." "We cannot but regret that such a doctrine, (professedly founded, too, on this text, among others) should have received the sanction of a pious and amiable Prelate of our Church, in a posthumous work which still retains considerable popularity. See Bishop Beveridge's Pri vate Thoughts on Religion,' Article 8. The unanswerable arguments by which a more able and judicious Commentator of that day demonstrated the fallacy of the doctrine itself, and the utter irrelevance of all the Scripture testimony adduced in support of it, are well worthy the most serious attention of those who would obtain a complete view of this important question, See Dr. Whitby's { Discourse concerning the imputation of Christ's per fect righteousness or obedience to the law, to us for righteousness or justification."

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tion of the passage, gives to the plaase is made unto us' (iyimon naiv), (a sense totally different from that which the review already taken of the context would seem to require; and which, also, the most learned, both of ancient and modern expositors, have agreed to be the sense of the Apostle; namely, that Christ is the fountain and foundation, the author and bestower of the several graces and benefits here entimerated, as they are, properly speaking, derived indeed, but not by imputation transferred, from him to us. The doctrine, therefore, which it is attempted thus to support, must stand, at best, but on suspicious grounds. And of the numerous considerations which have been successfully advanced in refutation of it, let one, in this place, suffice. To affirm that the merits of Christ are imputed to us for justification, is directly to controvert the fundamental position of the New Testament, that our faith is so imputed if we are to understand the assertion in reference to our first justification, as it is called, or admission to the privileges of the Christian covenant: if in reference to our final justification or salvation; then it is, by an inevitable inference, to supersede the necessity of personal holiness, and to deny that we shall be judged' hereafter every man according to his works We readily grant, nay we most strenuously maintain, that our justification, whether present or final, whether in this life or at the day of judgment, is to be obtained only on account of the merits of Christ: and it is, in fact, this doctrine, most wholesome and very full of comfort t, as our Article declares it to be, which is thus converted into Antinomian poison!

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"Many, doubtless, by whom such opinions have been unwarily adopted and inculcated, would be among the first to deprecate the pernicious consequences to which they too naturally tend. For it is but natural, that the persuasion of the perfect righteousness of Christ becoming, by imputation, theirs, should prove a knowledge that puffeth up,' among some who know nothing yet as they ought to know. It is but natural, that the same persuasion should encourage others in the free indulgence of every evil inclination, and in the perpetration of every evil act, from which they are not restrained by considerations of worldly policy, or a fear of the laws of man. For human wickedness, however aggravated, must needs be finite; and therefore can diminish nothing

Rev. xx. 13."

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"11th Article.

"1 Cor. viii. 1, 2."

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