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    way or method in which it has seemed good to the Divine Wisdom to grant to ratakind remission of sins , that is , deliverance from the consequences of transgression , and restoration to the privileges of the Divine favour /* With deference to your correspondent , this proposition , though intended to concentrate and define

    hid views , contains nothing very explicit ; nothing m 6 re , perhaps , than every Unitarian would unite with him in asserting . He should explain to us , what ideas he attaches to the term mediation , and in what sense he supposes that the death of Christ

    particularly , any more than his life ,, or his teaching , or his resurrection , was " the way or method in which it seemed good to the Divine Wisdoni to grant to mankind remission of sins . " He complains , that the manner in which Unitarians in general explain

    the phraseology of Scripture , is a €€ violent straining of language . " But , Sir , it is at least one way of explaining it , and the interpretation alluded to by Mr . Cogan is another . He who publicly declares himself dissatisfied with both , is surely under obligation to

    affix some other definite meaning to the language in question , consistent with the ftcknawledged character of God , and with the general teaching of the -Scriptures . But your correspondent rather appears to me willing to

    admit , that he can attach no meaning whatever to phraseology which he yet contends was meant to convey one of the most important doctrines of revelation . " I » what way , " he asks , ' * does the death of Christ lead to the

    remission of sins ? " And immediately answers , ' * This is not a necessary inquiry , —neither can we find any formal answer to it in the Scripture . " Surely , Sir , either this is a very

    necessary inquiry , or your respectable correspondent has beeu wasting his labour and talents in endeavouring to prove that Unitarians in general view a very unimportant subject in a false Hght . Indeed , he had himself stated in the

    preceding page , before he was fully aware , perhaps , what an indefinite and indescribable doctrine he was about to advocate , that this inquiry was . the bnly question that required any discussion . «? The only question , therefore , is , in what way our Lord ' s death pro .

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    moted this end ; ' in what way foe forgiveness of si ^ s depended on his death . ** I submit , then , that until T . F . B . m # re clearly expiates in what sense the forgiveness of siife depends on the death of Christ , his doctrine is

    an unsubstantial phantom : whether it be true or false , I cannot easily determine ; for he refuse * to inform Hfie what it is . " ¦" " *

    Your correspondent assures us , bowever , that " we ftbfl in the Scriptures , the immediate eonoexios between these two things , ( the death of Christ and the forgiveness of sins , ) stfongJy ,

    repeatedly and variously asserted , and brought forward as a great and prominent truth of the gospel . "' This is language sp unguarded , and so wholly unwarranted by the Scriptures themselves , that I am surprised it should have escaped from so sensible and candid a writer . I shall not content

    myself , however , with returning a mere denial to this imposing assertion . In proof , then , that the immediate connexion between the death of Christ and the forgiveness of sins , cannot , in

    any sense whatsoever , be regarded as " a great and prominent truth of the gospel /* I submit the following simple , and as it appears to me , decisive facts .

    1 . This connexion is never declared by our Lord himself , except in the solitary instance of Matt . xxvi . 28 : cr For this is ray blood of the New Testament , which is shed for many for the remission of sihs . " Is this fact

    favourable to the supposition , that Jgsus regarded the said immediate connexion as a great and prominent truth of his religion ? How often does our Lord fepeak of his own death , but with no particular allusion to the forgiveness of sins ? How often does he speak of the forgiveness of sins , but without the most distant allusion to

    his own death ? Could this be , if these things were , as your correspondent supposes , immediately connected ? 2 . This connexion between tHe death of Christ and the forgiveness *« Sf sins , is never expressl y asserted by any of the apostLes , in their mftny discourses recorded m the Boole of Acts .

    To my humble judgment / thi 6 strong negative evidence agaiust the doctrine in question , is . altogether irresistible . The silence of the great Teacher of

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    Mt . Acton on ihe Rethhttim of SknS . 0 Sf

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1822, page 667, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2518/page/11/