and eternal good. Though by nature we are that depraved being which has been described, we become, by grace, exalted even to a higher dignity and happiness than we lost in Adam. What the Apostle intended for another subject will apply to this :-" Even that which was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." Thus may our fall and ruin, by augmenting our eternal happiness, and displaying the brightest attributes of God in the unsearchable riches of Christ, serve to vindicate the ways of God to

man.

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE ATONEMENT.

By the Atonement, we understand, that offering of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, upon the cross, whereby he made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world. "Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." We do not profess to explain, how the forgiveness of sins is connected with the sacrifice of Christ. It is enough for us to know that it is declared by God, to be the only way by which man can be saved. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good

in thy sight."

a Romans iii. 25, 26.

Is it said, that the mercy of God is sufficient, upon our repentance, to do away our sins, without resorting to the vicarious sacrifice of his Son? But, independently of revelation, which assures us of the necessity of this mode of salvation, who can demonstrate the mercy of God? It cannot be deduced from the works of creation. Volcanoes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and desolations, which often dismay and overwhelm the inhabitants of the world, would rather induce a contrary belief. If we turn to the human condition, and contemplate the pains and calamities to which we are heirs, the same conclusion seems to follow. Go to the cradle, and see the infant who never yet has sinned, writhing in agony and suffering. Go to the hospital, where thousands lie with mangled limbs, and racked with fierce pains. Viewed by all the light which reason alone can shed upon them, these things would lead to the belief, that the affairs of this world were either left to the contingencies of a blind chance, or else were directed by some cruel and relentless being. Can reason show cause why these scenes of disorder and suffering will not be perpetuated beyond the grave? Upon the abstract principle of justice, the degree of punishment cannot affect the argument, since it is as just to inflict undeserved punishment for a year, or for eternity, as for a day or an hour. The same argument which would claim exemption from punishment beyond the grave, on the ground of mercy, would render the same exemption necessary in the present state of things.

The same considerations may be applied to the notion which represents repentance as available to our pardon and acceptance. Every day's experience convinces us that repentance cannot obviate the effects of intemperance, and other vices, on the human constitution. Can any one prove, that the effects of them on the moral constitution

are different, or that our experience will be different in another world? Either the events in this life have not been arranged by justice and goodness, or the justice and goodness of God are not necessarily obliged to remove all evil consequent upon sin in the next life.

In what way, in truth, can deliverance from punishment be supposed to be connected with repentance? If our obedience were pure and perfect, it could do no more than answer the present demands of justice. "We may as well affirm, that our former obedience atones for present and future sins, as that our present obedience makes amends for our antecedent trangressions." But our obedience itself is imperfect. There is none that may be called good, no not one. "If we could say, we were not guilty of any thing at all in our consciences," says Hooker, ("we know ourselves far from this innocency; we cannot say we know nothing by ourselves; but if we could,) should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge that sees further into our hearts than we ourselves can do? If our hands did never offer violence to our brethren, a bloody thought doth prove us murderers before him; if we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous, offensive, or hurtful word, the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God. If we did not commit the sins, which daily and hourly, either in deed, word, or thought, we do commit; yet in the good things which we do, how many defects are there intermingled! God, in that which is done, respecteth the mind and intention of the doer. Cut off then all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory, those things which men do to please men, or to satisfy our own liking, those things which we do for any by-respect, not sincerely

b See Magee on the Atonement, a book worthy of the perusal both of the scholar and the Christian.

and purely for the love of God; and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds. Let the holiest and best thing we do be considered; we are never better affected unto God than when we pray; yet when we pray, how are our affections many times distracted! How little reverence do we show unto the grand majesty of God, unto whom we speak! How little remorse of our own miseries! How little taste of the sweet influence of his tender mercies do we feel! Are we not as unwilling many times to begin, and as glad to make an end; as if in saying, call upon me, he had set us a very burdensome task? It may seem somewhat extreme, which I will speak; therefore let every one judge of it, even as his own heart shall tell him, and no otherwise; I will but only make a demand; if God should yield unto us, not as unto Abraham, if fifty, forty, thirty, twenty, yea, or if ten good persons could be found in a city, for their sakes that city should not be destroyed; but, and if he should make us an offer thus large; search all the generations of men, since the fall of our father Adam, find one man that hath done one action, which has passed from him pure, without any stain or blemish at all, and for that one man's only action, neither man nor angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both; do you think that this ransom, to deliver men and angels, could be found among the sons of men? The best things which we do, have somewhat in them to be pardoned. How then can we do any thing meritorious, or worthy to be rewarded? Indeed God doth liberally promise whatsoever appertaineth to a blessed life, to as many as sincerely keep his law, though they be not exactly able to keep it. Wherefore we acknowledge a dutiful necessity of doing well; but the meritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce. We see how far we are from the perfect righteousness of the law; the little fruit which we have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound;

we put no confidence at all in it, we challenge nothing in the world for it, we dare not call God to reckoning, as if we had him in our debt books; our continual suit to him, is, and must be, to bear with our infirmities, and pardon our offences." "For God is not a man as we are that we should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both." So that as to any justification before God, upon any ground of merit or obedience, we must let that alone for ever. Upon the ground of mercy, we have, as before observed, no hope except upon the terms which the Gospel has revealed. Here alone are we informed how the mercy of God can be exercised consistently with his justice.

In stating the doctrine of the Atonement, some have gone to the extreme of representing the Almighty as an angry being, who could be rendered placable only by the death of his Son. But it will be seen that the Scriptures represent it as flowing purely from his benignity and love. "God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He determined to save man, and he adopted this method of effecting that object and of showing forth the infinitude of his goodness. We are, perhaps, not even permitted to say, that this was the only way in which he could save a sinful world; for who can set bounds to his wisdom and power? But having in his mercy appointed this as the medium of our salvation, it is certain, that there is now " no other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." As far as