Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #3: The Doctrine of Atonement by Joseph Priestley (Poison) ©2007

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH. An Appeal to the Serious and Candid Professors of Christianity, on the Following Subjects, viz. 1. The Use of Reason in Matters of Religion. II. The Power of Man to Do the Will of God. III. Original Sin. IV. Election and Reprobation. V. The Dignity of Christ. And VI. Atonement for Sin by the Death of Christ. [1 line] T which is added, A Concise History of the Rise of Those Doctrines. Joseph Priestly (1773-1804) Presbyterian and then Unitarian minister and scientist.

The views that follow are presented merely for their historical interest. Priestly came to hold Arian views on the Person of Christ, and rejected the doctrine of the atonement, the Trinity, and the inspiration of the Bible. While serving as the minister of Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, (a position to which he was appointed in 1767) he embraced Socinianism. In 1791 he became one of the founders of the Unitarian Society. Following public attacks, he went to America in 1794, "spending the remaining years of his life at Northumberland, Pennsylvania. During this period he adopted the doctrine of the universal restitution and of moral progress in life after death... In the realm of science he is known chiefly for his ‘discovery’ of oxygen in 1774 and for his great work on Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1774-86)." –Cross: Oxford Dict. Christian Church, p1105.

III. A concise History of the Doctrine of Atonement.

HE DOCTRINE of atonement, or of the necessity of satisfaction being made to the justice of God by the death of Christ, in order to his remitting the sins of men, arose from an abuse of the figurative language of Scripture, as the doctrine of transubstantiation also did. But for several centuries these figurative expressions were understood and applied in a manner very different from what they now are.

It was granted by some pretty early writers, that we were bought (or redeemed) with a price; but then, as we had been the slaves of sin, and were redeemed by God, who ransomed us by the death of his Son, it was maintained till after the time of Austin (the principal author of all the rigid doctrines that are now called Calvinistic), that the price of our redemption was paid not to God, but by God, to the devil, in whose power we were. Of this opinion was Austin himself, who wrote largely on the subject in his treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity. It was long after his time before we find any traces of its being generally thought that the price of redemption was paid to the offended justice of God; and the present doctrine of atonement, founded on the idea of the absolute necessity of an infinite satisfaction being made by one infinite being for offences of an infinite magnitude, as committed against another infinite being, is subsequent to the Reformation. This doctrine was advanced by the Reformers in the course of their controversy with the Papists, about the doctrine of human merit, works of penance, and the power of granting indulgences. Now can it be supposed that a doctrine of so much importance, as this is always represented to be, should have been unknown so many ages?

Thus all these boasted ancient doctrines are in fact of late date, either having arisen from the principles of heathen philosophy, or having been started and extended in the course of controversy, one false position making another necessary for its support; and an air of awful and deep mystery has been no small recommendation of them to many of the more ignorant.

The doctrine of the Trinity, having been one of the earliest corruptions of Christianity, will probably be one of the last to be completely eradicated. But the time, I trust, is fast approaching, when, by means of the zeal of truly enlightened and good men in this great cause, this fundamental error, which gives such great and just cause of offence to Jews and Mahometans, will be removed, and all that has been built upon it will fall to the ground.