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    The ^ piiitual consists in the benefit it procured us in the attainability of final salvatjon . The full nature and intent of this benefit , or in what precise way the death of Christ operates to produce it , needs not , perhaps , be perfectly understood . Reflect how little we know of the laws

    of nature , as they are called , or the laws and regulations by which the world of spirits is governed ; still less of the lives which we shall experience in a world for which we are destined . According to that , the death of Christ may , both in an -intelligible and a natural way , have an efficacy in promoting the salvation of human creatures . The moral ends of the

    death of Christ consist in the additional motives which it furnishes to a life of virtue and religion , as it is a pattern and example , and encouragement and incitement to virtue . " And from the Sermon on Good Friday , — " The opinion which I have in view by this caution is , that -whilst we contemplate with deserved admiration the exceeding great love of

    our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , we slide into a way of considering God the Father as a being of a harsh and austere character , at enmity with mankind , which enmity was to be reconciled by the blood of his Son . This is udflcriptural ; for God is never said to be reconciled to us , but we to God , He is always ready to receive

    mankind to their duty . But the difficulty was to induce mankind to return . I proceed to prove , in the second place , that the redemption of the world , instead of being undertaken by another to appease the wrath of an incensed or austere God , was itself a thing provided by God , and was the effect of his care and goodness towards his human creatures . " If these

    are orthodox opinions on the atonement , we rejoice at the change that orthodoxy has undergone , and prefer a claim to be considered sound in the faith . ^ . The reviewer , passing onto a vindication of Paley ' s orthodoxy in respect of the Trinity , asserts that " the third person of the Trinity is spoken of by him as a real , efficient , powerful , active being . " This assertion exhibits an instance of the

    artifice to which reviewers too frequently descend , when in the practice of their trade they pursue an imaginary instead of a real object . Of " the third person of the Trinity , " Paley saya not a word . The : entire sentence is as follows : ¦ M ; With : what but with the operation and the co operation of the spirit of God as of a real , efficient , powerful , active being , can such expressions as the following be made tounilt ? . " It is then the spirit of

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    God , not the third person of the Triftity , of which he speaks * But by the spirit of God , does he not mean the third person of the Trinity ? That remains to be proved ; and cannot be boldly assumed . In the absence of such proof we might rest contented ; but evidence is not wanting to shew , that by the spirit of God , Paley intended the Deity himself , considered in his operations on the human mind . In his sermons " on the Influence

    of the Spirit" this is made abundantly obvious . We do not rest on the fact that in these compositions when the occasion permitted , nay , called for explicit statements of the deity of the Holy Ghost , ( had the writer symbolized with orthodoxy , ) not the faintest trace of such

    statement can be found ; but repeatedly the term , the spirit of God , is used for the Deity solely , considered in reference to his influences on the soul . " God , " and " the spirit of God , " " the grace of God , " " God's spirit , " " the agency of the Deity , " are used indifferently to signify God operating for man's benefit .

    It is allowed by the reviewer , that Paley makes no explicit declaration of our Lord ' s divinity ; and this remarkable omisslou is accounted for by the assertion that Paley was accustomed " to understate his argument . " What the understating of an argument has to do with simple declarations , ( for this is all that was needful , ) I cannot comprehend .

    Paley does indeed caution the youthful part of the clergy against pretending to demonstration when they had and could have probability only . But surely there is a difference between this and advising them , to conceal a part of the counsel of God . To overrate an argument is alike imprudent and disingenuous ; but to make incomplete , and therefore erroneous and deceptive statements of divine truth , is a

    practical disavowal of God ' s authority , and a most culpable dereliction of duty . The plea which the reviewer prefers , is in reality an accusation ; it is nothing more nor less than an impeachment of Paley ' s good faith ; and either this charge must be withdrawn , and then Paley appears an Unitarian ; or if it be persisted in to save his orthodoxy , it is destructive of his honourable fame .

    But Paley speaks of Christ as the divine founder of our religion $ and so do many Unitarians , on the ground of his having a divine commission;—as " from the beginning , " but ; of what ? as " before Abraham ; " but how ? as " possessing glory with the Father before the world was ; " in appointment or actual eujoy-

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    85 $ Occasional Correspondence .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1828, page 856, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2567/page/56/