■ 
 
 
5<LS4*l^ 
 
-7 hstvr^ '" 
 
 (' SAX-- 
 
DISSERTATION 
 
 ox 
 
 THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 
 BY GEORGE STEVENSON, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT AYR. 
 
 Without shedding of blood is no remission, Hcb. ix. 22, 
 THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, PRINCE'S STREET : AND 
 T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 1817. 
 
TI£E 
 
 Caw &, Elder, Printers- 
 
TO THE 
 
 ASSOCIATE SESSION AND CONGREGATION OF AYR* 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO OCCASIONALLY 
 
 MEET WITH THEM FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP y 
 
 THE FOLLOWING DISSERTATION 
 
 ON 
 
 THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED, WITH BEST WISHES 
 
 FOR 
 
 THEIR RELIGIOUS AND MORAL IMPROVEMENT, 
 
 BY 
 
 THEIR AFFECTIONATE PASTOR, 
 
DISSERTATION 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ATONEMENT. 
 
 -•+•+*- 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 All things are of God. He created all things, 
 and for his pleasure they are and were created. 
 As he is the first cause, so his glory must be the 
 last end of all his works : " For of him, and 
 " through him, and to him, are all things; to 
 " whom be glory for ever. Amen*." This re- 
 venue of glory he secures from all his works by 
 the energies of his government, both in the 
 natural and moral world. The inanimate parts 
 of the creation are only adapted for shewing 
 forth his praise passively, and he makes them 
 subservient to the ends of his glory by the 
 energy of his physical government; for what are 
 
 * Horn. xi. 36. 
 A 
 
6 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 the laws of nature but the continued influence 
 of Deity, upholding all things in existence, and 
 conducting them, according to a fixed and uni- 
 form plan, to the accomplishment of the ends 
 proposed by him in their creation ? " Lift up 
 " your eyes on high, and behold who hath 
 <c created these things, that bringeth out their 
 " hosts by number; he calleth them all by 
 " names, by the greatness of his might, for that 
 u he is strong in power, not one faileth *." But 
 rational creatures, being possessed of intellect, 
 and will, and a freedom of choice, were formed 
 for honouring God by a course of moral obe- 
 dience ; and God secures a revenue of praise 
 from them by the energies of his moral ad- 
 ministration. This can only be accomplished 
 in one or other of the following ways : Either 
 by their perseverance in a course of obedience 
 to the law which he has prescribed as the rule 
 of their allegiance ; or, should they prove dis- 
 obedient, by his vindicating his own supre- 
 macy in the condign punishment of their 
 iniquity. When accountable creatures fail 
 of answering the ends of their creation by 
 voluntary submission to the will of their 
 
 * Isa. xl. 26. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 7 
 
 Creator, he must either yield up his moral su- 
 premacy over them, or vindicate his right to 
 their homage, by punishing their crimes ac- 
 cording to their desert. But, though the 
 punishment of sin is absolutely necessary for 
 the vindication of God's moral supremacy; yet 
 the manner of inflicting punishment depends 
 upon his will. His pleasure must determine, 
 whether sin shall be punished in the persons 
 of sinners themselves ; or whether a surety 
 shall be provided to endure its penal conse- 
 quences in their stead. The latter has been 
 his sovereign pleasure with respect to a num- 
 ber of our fallen race. Hence the general 
 idea suggested by the word atonement, as ap- 
 plied to the death of Christ. It denotes his 
 vicarious sufferings even unto death, for the 
 remission of the sins of his people ; so as to an- 
 swer all the moral purposes of that punishment, 
 .to which they must otherwise have been sub- 
 jeeteel in tnejr own persons. 
 
 It is proposed in this treatise, First, To ad- 
 duce some arguments in proof of the necessity 
 of an atonement for sin, by penal sufferings 
 unto death, in order to its remission. Secondly, 
 To inquire into the essential properties requi- 
 
 A 2 
 
8 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 site to such an atonement, and to shew that 
 all these belong to the sufferings and death of 
 Christ, as the Surety of the Church. And, 
 Thirdly, To subjoin a few general remarks, 
 tending to obviate difficulties, and to point out 
 the great importance of the subject. 
 
I 9 ] 
 
 PART FIRST, 
 
 ON THE NECESSITY OF AN ATONEMENT. 
 
 Before entering upon the first branch of the 
 general division, it will be proper to explain 
 the sense in which we understand the word 
 necessity^ as applied to the atonement in the 
 subsequent discussion. It is not a blind or 
 fatal necessity, inconsistent with free agency in 
 God ; but a necessity resulting equally from 
 his unsearchable wisdom, and his infinite ho- 
 liness, righteousness, and truth. It relates to 
 the moral government of God, and supposes 
 the subjects ot his government placed in cer- 
 tain relative circumstances, which render it in- 
 dispensably requisite for 5 him to act towards 
 them in this specific way, for the vindication 
 of his own moral perfections, and the dignity 
 of his moral administration. It is a necessity 
 which proceeds upon the supposition of the 
 following existing circumstances:^ 
 A 3 
 
iO DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Is/, That God created man a proper sub- 
 ject of moral obligation. An accountable 
 agent is a being who possesses a natural capa- 
 city of knowing, and enjoying God as the 
 chief good ; and of acknowledging His supre- 
 macy, and his ow r n dependence, by a course 
 of moral obedience. Such a being is man. 
 In his original creation, he was not only an 
 accountable, but also an upright moral agent. 
 He possessed not only a natural capacity of 
 knowing, enjoying, and serving God, but also 
 moral ability for these purposes. He was 
 made after God's image, in knowledge, righte- 
 ousness, and true holiness. But though per- 
 fectly holy, he was subject to change ; essen- 
 tial immutability in holiness being an in- 
 communicable attribute of Deity. Besides, 
 he was a moral agent, not in a confirmed, 
 but probatory state ; furnished with suitable 
 means to avoid transgression, but left to the 
 freedom of his own will : and upon the use 
 which he made of his liberty, his future state, 
 as an accountable being, depended. 
 
 c 2dlg 9 This necessity also supposes the fall 
 of man. Atonement for man's sin supposes- 
 him in a fallen and sinful state. M God hath 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 11 
 
 " made man upright, but they have sought 
 " out many inventions *." By an abuse of his 
 liberty he violated the Divine law. Possessed 
 of suitable means for avoiding evil, he made 
 choice of that which God had expressly pro- 
 hibited ; and thereby ruined himself and all 
 his posterity. M By one man sin entered into 
 " the world, and death by sin ; and so death 
 11 passed upon all men, for that all have sin- 
 " tied f." But the entrance of sin into the 
 world did not, of itself, render an atonement 
 by a vicarious sacrifice necessary. God might 
 have left the whole human race to perish under 
 the ruins of their fall. His holiness wouM 
 have remained untainted, though he had con- 
 signed them over, without exception, to eter- 
 nal destruction. Nor would this have brought 
 any just reproach upon his mercy; for mercy 
 is free and sovereign in its exercise. The ex- 
 ercise of mercy supposes its objects in misery; 
 but mercy is not necessarily extended to every 
 creature in misery. Had the exercise of mercy 
 been necessary towards every miserable ob- 
 ject, it behoved to have been extended to the 
 
 "* Keel. vii. 29. f R°ra» ▼• *& 
 
 A 4 
 
3 2 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 angels who sinned ; but they are reserved M 
 chains under darkness to the judgment of the 
 great dny. Had its exercise beeu necessary 
 towards every object in misery, it must also 
 have been extended to ail mankind, which is 
 not the case. Its exercise depends upon the 
 Divine will, which is regulated in all its deter- 
 tcrminations by unerring wisdom. " He will 
 M have mercy on whom he will have mercy *." 
 Sdfy 9 The necessity of the atonement pro- 
 ceeds upon the supposition of a purpose of 
 God to recover a number of mankind from 
 a state of guilt and wretchedness. The exist- 
 ence of such a -purpose is clearly stated in the 
 inspired volume. We are there taught that 
 God's thoughts towards a certain number of 
 bur race were, from everlasting, thoughts of 
 peace, and not of evil. That he made choice 
 of that number, and predestinated them unto 
 the adoption of children, through Christ. He 
 did all this by an act of free, rich, and 
 sovereign grace. i; According as he hath 
 11 chosen us in him before the foundation of 
 " the world, that we should be holy, and 
 
 * Rom ix. 15. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 13 
 
 €l without blame before him in love; having 
 " predestinated us unto the adoption of chil- 
 •« dren, by Jesus Christ to himself, according 
 " to the good pleasure of his will*." 
 
 Now, it was expedient that grace should be 
 displayed in the salvation of sinners, in a way 
 consistent with the rights of God's law, the 
 honour of his holiness, and the dignity of his 
 administration, as the moral Governor of the 
 w r orld. Hence the necessity of the atonement ; 
 a necessity which, upon the admission of 
 these existing circumstances, is founded upon 
 the moral character of God, or his pure and 
 unchangeable nature. 
 
 This is, of course, rejected by the Socinians, 
 who do not in any respect admit of atonement 
 by the death of Christ. But the necessity 
 here pleaded is also denied by others, who 
 not only admit the doctrine of the atonement, 
 but have also defended it with much ability 
 and learning against the Socinians. Among 
 this class, however, there is a diversity of 
 opinion, and from their manner of expressing 
 themselves on the subject, it is sometimes 
 
 * Eph. i. 4, 5. 
 A 5 
 
I4» DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 difficult to ascertain their real sentiments. 
 Some admit, that, according to the present 
 constitution of things, pardon is dispensed only 
 through the satisfaction of Christ : but they 
 reckon it presumptuous to suppose, that it 
 was impossible for God to have established 
 such a dispensation, or framed such a plan of 
 government, as might have enabled him to 
 have pardoned the sinner without any satisfac- 
 tion to his justice. These, we apprehend, con- 
 sider the atonement as proceeding merely from 
 the arbitrary appointment of God, and notfrom 
 any necessity arising from his moral perfec- 
 tions. — Others admit a fitness, and even neces- 
 sity, that pardon should be dispensed through 
 an atonement for sin, to render it consistent 
 with the wisdom of God, in his good government 
 of the world, and to afford a proper attesta- 
 tion of his irreconcilable hatred against all un- 
 righteousness ; yet they seem to deny that the 
 death of Christ was absolutely necessary, in or- 
 der to pardon, from the justice of God ; and 
 even suppose that God might, consistently 
 with mere justice, have remitted as much of 
 his own right to satisfaction as he pleased. 
 If the meaning of those who hold this opinion 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 15 
 
 is, that the necessity of the atonement is to be 
 vindicated from the wisdom as well as the jus- 
 tice of God, then it so far agrees with what 
 is maintained in the following pages ; for jus- 
 tice and wisdom are always combined in the 
 Divine government. But so far as they hold 
 that the claims of justice are arbitrary, and 
 might have been dispensed with, in whole or 
 in part, without derogating from the essential 
 rectitude and holiness of the supreme Judge, 
 their opinion materially coincides with that 
 which was first stated, and their language can 
 scarcely be cleared from inconsistency. 
 
 On the contrary, we maintain, that there is a 
 blessed necessity, arising from the purity and 
 rectitude of the Divine Nature, that every act 
 of transgression should be punished ; and that 
 it is morally impossible that God could in 
 any instance, or under any supposable consti- 
 tution of things, dispense the pardon of sin, 
 but through an atonement suited to its demerit* 
 
 In asserting this, we use no language but 
 that which is authorized by Scripture. The 
 Scriptures assert, That it is impossible for 
 God to lie * : — That he cannot deny him- 
 
 * Heb. vi. 18. 
 
 a6 
 
J 6 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 self*. But we proceed to substantiate the 
 necessity which we have just stated by the fol- 
 lowing arguments. 
 
 Is/, This necessity appears from the holi- 
 ness of God. 
 
 The holiness of God is the perfect recti- 
 tude of his nature, whereby he is absolutely 
 free from all moral impurity, and, in all that 
 lie does, acts like himself, and for the advance- 
 ment of his own honour: delighting in what 
 accords with, and abhorring what is contrary 
 to, his nature and will. Such is the descrip- 
 tion given us of Divine holiness in the Scrip- 
 tures. In these sacred oracles light frequent- 
 ly denotes moral purity, and darkness moral 
 depravity ; and we are told, " That God is 
 " light, and in him is no darkness at all f :" 
 " That there is none holy as the Lord \ :" 
 *' That he only is holy §." Holiness, as dis- 
 played in God's judicial procedure as the 
 Governor of the universe, is termed righte- 
 ousness; and, as interposed in the matter of a 
 promise or threatening, it is denominated 
 
 * 2 Tim. ii- la. t 1 John i. 5. 
 
 1 1 Sam. ii. % $ Rev. xv. 6* 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 17 
 
 truth. But be is " a God of truth, and 
 " without iniquity, just and right is he*/" 
 " Of purer eyes than to behold evil f." " The 
 " foolish shall not stand in" his " sight;" 
 he hateth " all workers of iniquity ; £" but he 
 " loveth righteousness, and his countenance 
 " doth behold the upright §." 
 
 From this view of the holiness of God, it 
 might be inferred, a priori. First, That, should 
 lie make creatures endowed with a natural 
 capacity of knowing, enjoying, and serving 
 him, he would also confer upon them moral 
 ability for these purposes. Secondly, That, 
 thus endowed, his moral supremacy, and 
 their dependence, would render them the ne- 
 cessary subjects of moral obligation. Thirdly, 
 That the law prescribed to them, as the rule 
 of their conduct, would be perfect, suited to 
 the rectitude and untainted purity of its Au- 
 thor, and enforced by a penal sanction. A 
 law without a sanction must be nugatory. If 
 the Lawgiver has a right to exact obedience, 
 he must, in the nature of things, have a right 
 to punish the transgressors of his law. No 
 
 * Deut. xxxii, 4. t Hab. i. 15. 
 
 } Psal. v. 5. § Psal. xi. 7. 
 
J 8 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 other method remains for vindicating his 
 authority, or testifying his displeasure with 
 moral evil. 
 
 We find all this realised with respect to 
 man. God created him not only a reasonable, 
 but also a holy being. He made man upright : 
 not only free from moral stain, but also possess- 
 ed of means suited for retaining his original 
 integrity. He gave him a perfect law in his 
 first formation, which was coeval with his ex- 
 istence, and engraven on his heart. He after- 
 wards added a positive law, with a promise of 
 life to himself and his posterity, as an addi- 
 tional motive to obedience. This law, both 
 in its natural and positive form, was accom- 
 panied with the awful sanction of death, to 
 w T hich he was to be subjected in case of trans- 
 gression. Adam, and all his posterity in him, 
 violated this law, and thereby incurred its 
 penalty. " By one man's disobedience many 
 were made sinners *." To see the necessity 
 of tfate atonement in order to the remission of 
 sin, knd the restoration of the sinner to the 
 Divine favour, it is only necessary to shew, 
 
 * Rom. v. 19. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT; 19 
 
 that the holiness of God indispensibly re- 
 quires that this penalty be executed, either 
 upon the sinner or his surety. 
 
 For this purpose, we have only to carry the 
 foregoing argument a little farther. If the 
 holiness of God requires that conformity to 
 his law be enforced upon the subjects of his 
 government by a sanction, it must also re- 
 quire, that the penalty of the law be executed 
 upon transgressors. If in the one case, holi- 
 ness demands that the penalty be annexed to 
 the law, as a suitable expression of God's ab- 
 horrence of moral evil ; in the other, it must 
 require that the penalty be inflicted for the 
 vindication of the honour of the law, and the 
 moral attributes of the Lawgiver. Besides, in 
 what other way can the Holiness of God be 
 vindicated, except by punishing sin according 
 to its demerit. If we infer, and that justly, 
 the weakness, if not the want, of moral prin- 
 ciple in the man who indulges his children or 
 other dependants in a course of wickedness ; 
 would it not imply a want of moral rectitude 
 in God to permit his dependant creatures to 
 violate his laws with impunity ? Yes j it would 
 lead to one or other of the following conclusions; 
 
20 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Either, that God can take pleasure in wicked- 
 ness, and connive at it, or that he is destitute 
 of power to render a recompense. Destitute 
 of power to punish sin he cannot be, since 
 it is in Him that man lives, and moves, 
 and has his being. He who sustains him in 
 existence, and confers upon him whatever is 
 calculated to render his existence happy and 
 comfortable, must possess the power of penal 
 infliction ; since it requires no more than the 
 suspension of that influence to render him 
 miserable. If, therefore, in any instance sin 
 remained unpunished, it would lead to the 
 other conclusion — that God can approve of 
 moral evil, or connive at it. Such a con- 
 clusion, however, is repugnant to every dictate 
 of sound reason, as well as to the whole tenor 
 of supernatural Revelation. " He is of purer 
 eyes than to behold iniquity V " The wick- 
 ed, and him that loveth violence, his soul 
 hateth +." 
 
 In fine, if we view God's supremacy or ab- 
 solute dominion over the sinner, in connec- 
 tion with his holiness, it must appear to every 
 
 * Hab, i. 13. j Psal. xi 5. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 21 
 
 unprejudiced mind, that it is as incompatible 
 with the nature of God, not to punish sin, as 
 it is contrary to his nature not to hate it ; for 
 the indulgence of moral evil, with the right 
 and power of punishing it, must imply an ap- 
 probation of the crimes committed, or, at any 
 rate, a want of supreme regard to moral rec- 
 titude. 
 
 Some, perhaps* may be disposed to bring 
 forward the permission of sin, in opposition to 
 these conclusions, from the holiness of God, re- 
 specting its punishment ; and to put the ques- 
 tion, If it was consistent with the holiness of 
 God to permit sin, may it not also be consist- 
 ent with his hojiness to suffer it to exist with 
 impunity ? We rgrant that God might have 
 prevented the entrance of moral evil into our 
 world, by exerting his positive influence in 
 withholding men from sinning ; but we posi- 
 tively deny that its entrance is in any respect 
 the effect of Divine agency. When we speak 
 of God's permitting sin, the word permission 
 JO&st be understood as conveying u^ idea 
 jnif^Jy ..negative, li or, Jirst, God made man 
 upright, or endowed him not only with a 
 natural capacity, but also with a moral ability 
 
22 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 to know, enjoy, and serve him. Secondly, He 
 furnished him with moral means, or motives 
 to holiness ; which, if improved, would have 
 deterred him from sinning. Nothing more 
 could, therefore, have been done for man, in 
 the way of retaining his freedom of choice, 
 without which he could not have been an ac- 
 countable agent; unless God had been pleas- 
 ed to confirm him in a state of primitive in- 
 tegrity, as he did the holy angels, by the un- 
 interrupted communications of his grace. But 
 this grace God w r as under no obligation to 
 bestow; and consequently, his withholding it 
 can bring no impeachment upon his holiness. 
 Had he conferred confirming grace upon man, 
 it behoved to have been by an act of pure so- 
 vereignty ; but Divine Sovereignty is always 
 exercised in wisdom, for promoting some 
 grand and important end, connected with the 
 illustration of the Divine character and ad- 
 ministration. In this case, however, the with- 
 holding of confirming grace, which would 
 have kept man from falling, has, in the infinite 
 wisdom of God, been made subservient for pro- 
 moting that end more effectually than if man 
 bad, by an act of sovereignty, been preserved ia 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 23 
 
 his state of primitive integrity. God has, in 
 boundless wisdom, overruled the entrance of 
 moral evil, not only for manifesting his sove- 
 reign mercy, but also for affording, through 
 the atoning sacrifice of his own Son, the most 
 illustrious display of the untainted holiness of 
 his nature, and the unspotted righteousness of 
 his administration as the judge of the universe. 
 Thus, we find the permission of sin, instead of 
 obscuring the lustre of Divine holiness, has 
 been overruled for its more glorious manifest- 
 ation ; consequently, it can militate nothing 
 against the argument, founded on God's ho- 
 liness, in support of the necessity of punish- 
 ment in the case of transgression. 
 
 Neither does the exercise of Divine forbear- 
 ance towards sinners in the present life, in 
 the smallest degree, militate against these con-» 
 elusions ; when we connect it with a future 
 state of retribution. Divine forbearance does 
 not, in any degree, involve in it the idea of 
 remission, or even mitigation of punishment; 
 since the longer punishment is delayed, it will 
 be the more terrible when inflicted. As money 
 upon usury loses nothing from the prolonga- 
 tion of the term of payment, since it accumu- 
 
84 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 lates in proportion ; so punishment delayed, 
 under a dispensation of Divine forbearance, 
 increases in degree, according to the duration 
 of the term of that forbearance. This is 
 clearly and forcibly expressed by the Apostle 
 Paul. " Or despisest thou the riches of his 
 M goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffer- 
 11 ing ; not knowing that the goodness of God 
 " leadeth thee to repentance. But after thy 
 " hardness, and impenitent heart, treasurest 
 " up unto thyself wrath against the day of 
 " wrath, and revelation of the righteous judg- 
 " ment of God ; who will render to every 
 " man according to his deeds # ." We must 
 therefore conclude, that since God is infinitely 
 and immutably holy, he must punish sin ac- 
 cording to its desert. And this being admit- 
 ted, the necessity of the atonement, on the 
 grounds above stated, follows of course. If 
 God in rich sovereignty purpose to acquit 
 the sinner, and restore him to favour, he 
 must, in his infinite wisdom, devise an expe- 
 dient for vindicating his holiness in the con- 
 dign punishment of sin : and this expedient 
 
 * Horn, ii 4, 5, 6. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 25 
 
 is the substitution and vicarious death of his 
 own Son, in human nature. " Herein is love, 
 M not that we loved God, but that he loved 
 11 us ; and sent his Son to be the propitiation 
 w for our sins *•'}( 
 
 2*%, This necessity may be demonstrated 
 from the Justice or Equity of God's moral ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Justice or equity in God, has been defined, 
 a supreme disposition to give to all their due. 
 This definition, we apprehend, accords with 
 the account given us in Scripture of this per- 
 fection of the Divine nature. " The Lord 
 " our God, is God of gods, and Lord of 
 "lords: a great God, and a mighty, and a 
 u terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor 
 M taketh rewards f. Yea, surely the Lord 
 " will not do wickedly, neither will the Al- 
 c< mighty pervert judgment J." This attri- 
 bute must have for its objects God himself, 
 and his rational creatures, considered as the 
 subjects of his government. 
 
 Let us attend, in the first place, to the equity 
 of God as it respects his creatures. Viewed 
 
 * 1 Jolmiv. 10. f Dent. x. 17. f Job xxxiv. 12. 
 
26 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 simply as creatures, God owes them nothing. 
 Absolutedependance, which is essential to crea- 
 tures, must exclude all claim on their part, 
 even for existence itself, and consequently for 
 any of its enjoyments. But, considered as ac- 
 countable beings, they are supposed to possess 
 from him what constitutes them such, namely, 
 rational intelligence, free agency, and objects 
 suited to their wants in the discharge of their 
 duty. With these, as we formerly stated, God 
 furnished man in an ample manner in his ori- 
 ginal formation. He did not confer upon him 
 merely a natural capacity for knowing, enjoy- 
 ing, and serving him ; but also moral ability 
 for these purposes. Though man by his fall 
 has lost that moral ability which he originally 
 possessed for the service of God, he lost it by 
 his own fault. His delinquency cannot, there- 
 fore, invalidate God's claim upon him for obe- 
 dience. In demanding universal obedience 
 from man in his fallen state, God only exacts 
 what is right. He is not a hard master, reap- 
 ing where he has not sown, or gathering where 
 he has not strawed ; since, even in that state of 
 moral degeneracy, man is a rational, and conse- 
 quently an accountable, agent; possessed of in- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 27 
 
 tellect, and will, and a natural freedom of 
 choice. Besides, he is also privileged with 
 moral means, or powerful motives to goodness. 
 This holds true not only of those who are fa- 
 voured with the Gospel, but also of the Hea- 
 then on whom the light of supernatural Reve- 
 lation never dawned. In their case, God has 
 not left himself without a witness of his moral 
 supremacy, of their dependance, and of the 
 obligations they are under to serve and obey 
 him. " God (says Paul in his address to the 
 " learned Athenians) that made the world, and 
 " all things therein, seeing that he is Lord 
 "of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in tem- 
 " pies made with hands, neither is wor- 
 " shipped with men's hands, as though he 
 " needed any thing ; seeing he giveth to all 
 " life, and breath, and all things; and hath 
 " made of one blood all nations of men for to 
 " dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath 
 ■" determined the times before appointed, and 
 " the bounds of their habitation : That they 
 " should seek the Lord, if happily they might 
 " feel after him, and find him, though he be 
 " not far from every one of us. For in him 
 11 we live, and move, and haye our being, as 
 
28 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " certain also of your own Poets have said ; 
 " For we are also his offspring *." To the 
 same purpose is his address to the inhabi- 
 tants of Lystra: " Nevertheless, he left not 
 " himself without witness, in that he did good, 
 " and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful 
 M seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
 u gladness f." 
 
 If man, possessed of these natural powers, 
 and moral means adapted for the service of 
 God, does, in his fallen state, invariably make a 
 wrong choice, it must proceed from the root- 
 ed enmity of his heart against God, which 
 can never be pleaded, on the ground of equity, 
 as dissolving his obligations to duty. Such a 
 plea would go to subvert the very foundations 
 of morality, or to confound the eternal and 
 immutable principles of moral good and evil. 
 It would be to say, that man's first sin put it 
 out of his power to sin on any future occasion. 
 For, if he were not accountable to God, be- 
 cause, by his own apostacy, he has lost his moral 
 ability to serve him, then his actions, however 
 atrocious, could be no more sinful ; for where 
 
 * Acts xvii. 24, 28. f Acts xiv. 17, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 29 
 
 there is no responsibility, there can be no 
 transgression. 
 
 Let us now enquire what is God's due from 
 his rational creatures. They owe him supreme 
 love, unbounded submission, and universal 
 conformity to his will ; or, should they fail in 
 these, he must possess an undoubted right to 
 exact from them that punishment which is due 
 to their offences : — a right which we have seen 
 he cannot dispense with but by affixing a stain 
 upon his holiness, and yielding up his supre- 
 macy into the hands of his rebellious creatures. 
 All these obligations are summed up in the 
 precept and penal sentence of the moral law— 
 a law which, as we have shewn already, is 
 founded on God's supremacy, and man's de- 
 pendance, and which contains a suitable and 
 necessary expression of the untainted purity 
 of his nature, and his abhorrence of moral evil. 
 
 That God has denounced indignation and 
 wrath apon every soul of man that doth evil, 
 must be admitted by all who bow to the au- 
 thority of the Scripture. " The wages of sin 
 *f is death *." M Cursed is every one who 
 
 * Rom, vi. 25. 
 
SO DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " continueth not in all things written in the 
 " book of the law to do them *." Besides, 
 these are declared to be, in the judgment of 
 God who cannot err, no more than the just 
 retribution of human crimes. " Knowing 
 €i the judgment of God, that they who com- 
 *' mit such things are worthy of death *." 
 " Far be it from God that he should do wick- 
 *' edness, and from the Almighty that he 
 " should commit iniquity : for the work of a 
 * f man will he render unto him, and cause 
 ** every man to find according to his waysf." 
 But if the punishment of death is no more 
 than what is due to sin, God, in inflicting that 
 punishment, does no more than what strict 
 justice requires ; and shall not the Judge of 
 all the earth do right ? This is a dictate of 
 reason as well as Revelation. The light of na- 
 ture, and the power of conscience, have 
 taught the most barbarous nations to connect 
 Divine vengeance with crime, as its just desert. 
 Even the Barbarians of Malta understood 
 that vengeance belonged unto God. This 
 appears from the conclusion which they drew 
 
 * Rem. i. 5& f Job xxxiv. 10,-11. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 31 
 
 from the viper fastening on Paul's hand. 
 " When the Barbarians saw the venemous 
 " beast hang on his hand, they said among 
 " themselves, no doubt this man is a murder- 
 " er, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, 
 " vengeance suffereth not to live *." But if 
 justice required the execution of the sentence 
 of the law upon transgressors, it must be exe- 
 cuted. " Though hand join in hand, the 
 M wicked shall not be unpunished f." €t God 
 " will render to every man according to his 
 " deeds — To them who by patient continu- 
 M ance in well doing, seek for glory, and 
 " honour, and immortality, eternal life: but 
 M unto them that are contentious, and do not 
 46 obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, 
 " indignation and wrath ; tribulation and an- 
 il guish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
 11 evil, of the Jew first, and also of the 
 " Gentile $» 
 
 Are some disposed to object, Though satis- 
 iaction for sin is God's right, may he not dis- 
 pense with his own right, so as to acquit the 
 sinner from condemnation without a satisfac- 
 
 * Acts xxviii. I. f Prov. xi. 21. t Rom. iL 6, 9. 
 
 b2 
 
32 DISSERTATION' ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 tion ? This is in other words to suppose that 
 God may cease to be just; for if immutable 
 justice be an attribute of his nature, it must 
 also be a property of his will ; and in all his 
 dispensations towards his creatures, he must 
 act in strict accordance with it, by giving to 
 all their due. Were he to dispense with 
 punishment for transgression in any one in- 
 stance, it would be an act of injustice to him- 
 self. But since he is the great Supreme, the 
 vindication of his own right from his depen- 
 dent creatures, is the first idea that enters into 
 our conceptions of what constitutes the recti- 
 tude of his administration as a moral gover- 
 nor: " For of him, and through him, and to 
 " him, are all things ; to whom be glory for 
 ever. Amen *." 
 
 Is it still insisted, That to deny the possi- 
 bility of God pardoning sin by a mere act of 
 grace, without satisfaction to his justice, is to 
 set limits to his sovereignty ? A reply to this 
 objection will come in more naturally under 
 another argument f. At present, however, 
 we may remark, that God cannot act contrary 
 
 * Rom. xi. 36. \ Page 59. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. S3 
 
 to, or deny himself. Were he to do so he 
 would cease to l>e righteous, and consequently 
 cease to be God. We have shewn already, 
 that justice is not only an essential attribute 
 of his nature, but also necessary with respect 
 to its exercise, whereas the exercise of his 
 mercy proceeds from his will. But the will 
 of every rational being must, in all moral de- 
 terminations, accord with his nature ; God's 
 sovereign acts of mercy must therefore be just 
 and holy. In fine^ to dispense pardon by a 
 mere act of sovereign mercy without regard to 
 an atonement for sin, w r ould be to sacrifice the 
 eights of justice to the exercise of mercy, and 
 to disgrace mercy by its own supposed tri- 
 umphs j for mercy exercised to the injury of 
 the honours of justice, is not praise-worthy in 
 the creature, and much less could it be so in 
 God. On the whole, since the Judge of all 
 the earth must do right, if the sinner is to be 
 pardoned, it must be in the way of atonement 
 being made for transgression : — the point to be 
 proved in the present question. 
 
 3d!j/i The Necessity of an Atonement also 
 appears from the Veracity of God. 
 
 We have already proved that the atonement 
 B 3 
 
S4 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 is necessary on the grounds stated, from the 
 holiness of God. But truth, when ascribed to 
 God in relation to the creatures, is merely his 
 holiness as interposed in the matter of a pro- 
 mise or threatening, so that the same argu- 
 ments which have been advanced to prove the 
 necessity of the atonement from his holiness 
 might be again brought forward to prove it 
 from his truth. Whether he speaks to men 
 in the w r ay of a promise, or of a threatening, 
 he speaks in his holiness. " God hath spoken 
 V in his holiness, I will rejoice*." Immuta- 
 ble truth is invariably ascribed to him in 
 Scripture. " God is not a man that he should 
 u lie, neither the son of man that he should 
 " repent: hath he said it, and shall he not 
 " do it, hath he spoken, and shall he not 
 u make it good | ?" Yea, we are told that it 
 is impossible for God to lie 1 : That he keep- 
 eth truth for ever §. But Divine veracity is 
 pledged in the penal sentence of the law, 
 which adjudgeth the sinner to suffer condign 
 punishment for his crimes. M In the day thou 
 " eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die!!.'' 
 
 * Psal. U. 6. t Numl). xxiii. 19 J Ileb. vi L& 
 
 ( P<al. cxlvi. 6. J Gtu. ii. 17. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 3J 
 
 M Cursed is every one that continueth not in 
 " all things written in the book of the law 
 " to do them *." That the death threatened 
 is penal cannot be doubted, and that it includes 
 not only temporal, but also eternal death, if 
 executed upon the sinner himself, is likewise 
 obvious. It is the reverse of that life which 
 God confers upon his own elect, through the 
 mediation of Chri.st ; but if that life is eternal, 
 the death to which it stands opposed must also 
 be eternal. M The wages of sin is death, but tho 
 " gift of God is eternal life f." This sanction 
 accompanies not only the revealed law, but 
 also the law as engraven upon the heart and 
 conscience of every child of Adam. Whence 
 arises the deep remorse which men often feel 
 upon the commission of crimes, which, from 
 their secrecy, expose them to no danger from 
 fellow mortals ? and whence also proceed the 
 awful forebodings of a future state of retribu- 
 tion, in the minds of the wicked, who have not 
 the written law, — but from the testimony of 
 conscience, that death, either infinite in its 
 
 * Gal. ill 10. f Rom. v. 25. 
 
 B 4 
 
36 DISSERTATION ON THE ATOKEMENT. 
 
 degree, or eternal in its duration, is the just 
 recompense of transgression ? 
 
 Since death, therefore, is the proper punish- 
 ment of sin, and since God has awarded this 
 punishment to it in the penal sentence of the 
 law, he must cease to be true, or that penalty 
 must be inflicted either on the sinner or on 
 his Surety. The truth of God, as we will 
 have oecasion to shew afterwards, admits of a 
 change of person as the subject of punishment, 
 but it can admit of no change or mitigation 
 of the punishment itself. A change of punish- 
 ment in degree from that stated in the sanc- 
 tion of the law, would infer a violation of 
 Divine veracity, pledged in that sanction. 
 But it is impossible for God to lie. " He is 
 4< not a man that he should lie, nor the son 
 •« of man that he should repent." Nothing 
 can occur with respect to God, to produce a 
 change of that sentence which he has pro- 
 nounced upon the sinner, since it is pronounc- 
 ed in judgment and in righteousness. It 
 contains no more than what sin deserves, so 
 that God cannot, in consistency with his holi- 
 ness and universal equity, either mitigate or 
 change it. He who has pronounced ths 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 37 
 
 sentence foresaw all the circumstances under 
 which man would incur the penalty which it 
 contains, so that none of these circumstances 
 can warrant a change. We must therefore 
 conclude, that since God is a Being of immut- 
 able veracity, before the sinner can be par- 
 doned, his veracity, in the penal sentence of 
 the law, must be vindicated, by the punishment 
 of sin according to its demerit. 
 
 Is it objected to this conclusion, That God 
 has in some instances dispensed with the exe- 
 cution of his threatenings, as in the case of 
 Nineveh ? And is it thence inferred, that the 
 execution of the penalty of the law cannot be 
 necessary from the veracity of God ? We de- 
 ny the fact alleged, and consequently, the 
 justness of the inference from it. Every person 
 conversant with ancient history must know, 
 that Nineveh was destroyed, according to the 
 tenor of the threatening denounced by the 
 ministry of Jonah. The only change that 
 took place respected the time of the execution 
 of the judgment threatened ; and that change 
 falls under the head of the exercise of Divine 
 forbearance, which we have already proved 
 to be ia its nature distinct from a dispensation 
 25 
 
38 DISSLRTA'IIOX OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of pardoning mercy *. Divine forbearance is 
 a temporary suspension of the execution of 
 punishment upon sinners under a dispensation 
 of moral means, tending, from their nature, 
 to lead them to repentance. Its exercise has 
 one or other of the following ends, corres- 
 ponding to the two classes of persons about 
 whom it is conversant. As exercised towards 
 those for whom God has designs of mercy, 
 he waits that he may be gracious, or to dis- 
 play his sovereign mercy in the remission of 
 their sins, through the atonement. " This is 
 " a faithful saying and worthy of all accepta- 
 «' tion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to 
 11 save sinners, of whom I am chief. How- 
 a beit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in 
 " me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all 
 " long suffering, for a pattern to them who 
 " should afterwards believe on him to life ever- 
 11 lasting f ." But as exercised towards others, 
 the end proposed is to render them wholly in- 
 excusable, and thereby to vindicate more ef- 
 fectually the equity of the Divine administra- 
 tion in their condign punishment. Hence 
 
 * See p. 24. f 1 Tim. i. 15, 16. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 39 
 
 the term of God's forbearance with wicked 
 nations, and individuals, has usually been pro- 
 longed till they had poured contempt upon 
 every external means of reformation, to which 
 they had access. But this was not the case, 
 as yet, with the inhabitants of Nineveh. They 
 repented at the preaching of Jonah. And 
 although their repentance did not constitute a 
 ground for the remission of their national sins, 
 so as ultimately to avert the threatened judg- 
 ment ; yet it furnished a reason for prolong- 
 ing the season of a dispensation of Divine for- 
 bearance towards them. As long as they were 
 susceptible of serious impressions, however 
 temporary, the cup of their iniquity was not 
 full ; and consequently the threatening, so far 
 as it regarded the time specified for inflicting 
 punishment, no longer applied to them $ as it 
 proceeded upon the supposition of their con- 
 tinuing in the same moral circumstances. 
 But it must still be remembered, that the 
 threatening, as to the matter of it, continued 
 in force. They were reprieved, not pardoned : 
 so that their respite furnishes no argument in 
 favour of impunity in the case of transgression. 
 Nor does the history of Divine government 
 
40 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 furnish us with an example of the execution or 
 the penal sentence of the law upon the sinner 
 being finally dispensed with; except in the 
 way of punishment for the offence committed 
 being endured by his Substitute. 
 
 Athly, The Necessity of an Atonement 
 may be demonstrated from the Goodness of 
 God. 
 
 Goodness, as ascribed to God in Scripture, 
 has sometimes a more general, and at other 
 times a more restricted, signification. Though 
 we must conceive and speak of the properties 
 which constitute the Divine character distinct- 
 ly, owing to the limited nature of our appre- 
 hensions, yet they are one combination of ex- 
 cellence in him, and completely consistent to 
 their exercise. Hence, God's goodness in a 
 more general sense, includes all his moral ex- 
 cellencies, agreeably to the account given of it 
 to Moses. At present, we shall, however, 
 confine our views to the goodness of God, as 
 it frequently denotes, simply, the benignity 
 of his nature ; and the more especially, as this 
 view of Divine goodness has been considered 
 by some as incompatible with the punishment 
 ©f transgressors, and consequently with the 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 41 
 
 necessity of an atonement for sin in order to 
 its forgiveness. There is no expression more 
 descriptive of benignity than love. But to 
 point out the pure benignity of the Divine 
 character, the Scriptures tell us that " God is 
 love." This amiable view of God has been 
 considered by some as incompatible with the 
 doctrine which these arguments tend to esta- 
 blish. Since God is love, they infer, that a 
 being of such pure benevolence will never 
 pursue his offending creatures with so great 
 severity, as to subject them to condign pu- 
 nishment for their crimes. This inference 
 proceeds,^^/, From a mistake respecting the 
 supreme object of God's benevolent and com- 
 placent regard. As God is the Supreme good, 
 so he must be the Supreme object of his owa 
 regard. Were this not the case, Divine love 
 could not have an adequate object ; for a 
 being of infinite excellence only can be 
 an adequate object of infinite love. God's 
 benevolence, therefore, as diffused through- 
 out all his purposes and operations towards 
 his creatures, must still revert upon him- 
 self as its supreme object. This being the 
 case, his supreme regard to his own honour* 
 
42 DISSERTATION" OK THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 and his supreme delight in his own rectitude, 
 must render the punishment of sin in his crea- 
 tures absolutely necessary. He would not act 
 up to his character as thus delineated, were 
 he to suffer it to exist with impunity. Since 
 God is love, he must punish sin, which is an 
 insult upon his holiness, and a contempt of his 
 authority, according to its desert ; for in no 
 other way is it possible to vindicate his su- 
 preme delight in his own purity, and his su- 
 preme regard to his own honour. Secondly, 
 This inference proceeds upon a mistake re- 
 specting the end proposed by God in punish- 
 ing his guilty creatures. The moral end of 
 punishment is not the destruction of the sin- 
 ner, but the vindication of the holiness of his 
 own nature, and the rectitude of his moral 
 administration. God does not hate any of 
 his creatures, as creatures ; nor does he afflict 
 them for the purpose of rendering them miser- 
 able. " He doth not afflict willingly, nor 
 "grieve the children of men; — To crush 
 €i under his feet all the prisoners of the 
 " earth *." " Say unto them, As I live, saith 
 *< the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
 
 * Lain. iii. 55, 5i. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 43 
 
 M death of the wicked ; but that the wicked 
 " turn from his way and live: Turn ye, turn 
 " ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die, 
 u O house of Israel * ?" Hence, the reason 
 assigned in Scripture why God will inflict 
 punishment upon the wicked is his supreme 
 delight in rectitude. " Upon the wicked God 
 " shall reign snares, fire, and brimstone, and 
 M an horrible tempest ; this shall be the por- 
 " tion of their cup : for the righteous Lord 
 u loveth righteousness, his countenance doth 
 " behold the upright f." To the same pur- 
 pose is the explanation Moses gave of the 
 moral end of that terrible judgment inflicted 
 on Nadab and Abihu, when they offered 
 strange fire before the Lord. " And Nadab 
 " and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each 
 * of them his censer, and put fire therein, and 
 w put incense thereon ; and offered strange 
 M fire before the Lord, which he commanded 
 w them not. And there went out fire from 
 u the Lord and devoured them, and they 
 u died before the Lord. Then Moses said 
 f * unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, 
 
 * Ezek. xxxiii. 11. f Fsal. xi. 6, 7. 
 
4i DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " saying, I will be sanctified in them that 
 " come nigh me, and before all the people 
 " will I be glorified *." 
 
 Divine goodness, so far from being incom- 
 patible with punishment in the case of trans- 
 gression, or with the necessity of atonement 
 for sin in order to its remission, furnishes us 
 with the following arguments in their support. 
 
 First i Were judicial infliction in th^ case 
 of transgression not necessary for the vindi- 
 cation of God's honour, we could not recon- 
 cile its existence at all with the benignity of 
 his nature. 
 
 God has no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked, yet we find that, even in this world, 
 a very large share of penal evil exists. The 
 liistory of mankind is replete with examples 
 of Divine retribution. In every age, by means 
 of his desolating judgments, the wrath of God 
 has been revealed from heaven against all un- 
 godliness and unrighteousness of men. But 
 how could this be accounted for, consistently 
 with Divine goodness or benignity, were ju- 
 dicial infliction not necessary for the vindica- 
 
 i 
 
 * Lev. x, 1, 2, 3. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 45 
 
 tion of God's moral administration ? Had 
 there been no examples of penal evil in the 
 moral world, the objection against its necessity, 
 founded upon the benignity of the Divine 
 character, would have had some plausibility ; 
 but since exemplary punishment has been in- 
 flicted even in this life, in countless instances, 
 the argument taken from Divine benignity 
 proves the reverse. Had punishment in the 
 case of transgression not been indispensably 
 requisite for the vindication of God's honour, 
 a Being of such pure benevolence, would 
 never have destroyed the old world with a 
 flood; Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and 
 brimstone from heaven, and made the earth 
 open her mouth, and swallow up Corah, 
 Dathan, and Abiram, and their company. 
 Nor would death in its natural course ever 
 have obtained such a universal reign over the 
 human race. 
 
 Secondly -, Since penal infliction exists in the 
 Divine administration, its moral necessity can- 
 not be denied without charging the Father of 
 Mercies with cruelty towards his rational offi* 
 spring. 
 
4G DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 That God has inflicted condign punishment 
 upon his guilty creatures in numberless in- 
 stances, must be admitted by all parties ; but 
 unless we grant that in every instance wherein 
 punishment has occurred, it was necessary for 
 some important moral purpose, we, implicitly 
 at least, charge God with cruelty. We can 
 conceive of no medium in judicial infliction, 
 between the moral necessity pleaded, and 
 cruelty. Human governors may be incapable 
 of drawing the line of distinction ; this however 
 cannot be the case with regard to God. But 
 every species of cruelty must be infinitely re- 
 mote from a Being of such exalted benevo- 
 lence: the existence of penal evil in hi&-govern* 
 ment is therefore an incontestible proof of its 
 necessity for the vindication of the honour of 
 his law and moral administration. 
 
 Thirdly , The goodness or benignity of God 
 towards the upright parts of the intelligent 
 creation, demands that exemplary punishment 
 be inflicted upon transgressors. A governor 
 among men cannot extend the blessings con^ 
 nected with a good government to his dutiful 
 subjects, and at the same time permit the trans- 
 gressors of his laws to escape the punishment 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 4< 
 
 due to their crimes. There is but one alter- 
 native. He must either withhold the blessing 
 of protection and motives to rectitude from 
 the former, or inflict exemplary punishment 
 upon the latter. But who can doubt which 
 of these two belongs to the side of goodness 
 in an earthly governor ? Every person capa- 
 ble of reflection will see at once, that a good 
 governor must protect and cherish the sober 
 and righteous class of his subjects, and punish 
 the disorderly and unruly part of the commu- 
 nity, for the public welfare. As God is a 
 good governor, he must therefore punish those 
 who have introduced disorder and crime into 
 the vast empire over which he presides; else 
 he would be chargeable with the want of good- 
 ness towards the upright part of the intelligent 
 creation. God's vindictive justice, so far from 
 being incompatible with his goodness, is ac- 
 tually a branch of it. M And he said, I will 
 " make all my goodness pass before thee, and 
 " I will proclaim the name of the Lord before 
 " thee, and will be gracious to whom I will 
 14 be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom 
 " I will shew mercv *." — " And the Lord 
 
 V 
 
 ExcJ xxxiii 19 
 
48 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 4C passed by before him, and proclaimed the 
 u Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gra- 
 " cious, longsuffering, and abundant in good- 
 " ness and truth: keeping mercy for thou- 
 " sands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and 
 H sin, and that will by no means clear the 
 " guilty: visiting the iniquity of the fathers 
 " upon the children, unto the third and fourth 
 " generation f , v 
 
 Stilly^ The Necessity of an Atonement 
 appears from the well-attested facts respect- 
 ing the painful sufferings, and ignominious 
 death of the Son of God in our nature; taken 
 in connection with the justice and goodness 
 of God. 
 
 Were we even to admit, for the sake of 
 argument, the Socinian opinion concerning 
 the person of Christ, or that he is a mere man, 
 it is impossible to reconcile his sufferings and 
 death with Divine benignity, bat by admit- 
 ting that they were vicarious and penal. If 
 any credit at all be attached to the gospel his- 
 tory, it must be granted that Jesus of Nazareth 
 was a just and righteous person ; one, who 
 
 * Esod, xxxiv. | 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 49 
 
 had done no violence, neither was guile found 
 in his mouth ; a person of unequalled piety, 
 and unparalleled generosity; one who went 
 about doing good 7 and extending his benefac- 
 tions even to his enemies; one, whom even 
 his most inveterate foes could not convince of 
 sin ; and who, twice by an audible voice from 
 heaven, had the most pointed testimony that 
 he pleased God. But this man was subjected 
 to unparalleled sufferings, and a most shame- 
 ful death; and all this happened according 
 to the determinate council and foreknowledge 
 of God *. If he did not suffer, therefore, as 
 a substitute, it is impossible to reconcile his 
 sufferings with divine equity and benignity. 
 In this case he must have suffered without 
 cause, even in so far as the righteous Judge of 
 the world was concerned. But such an idea 
 is equally repugnant to his justice and his 
 goodness. His sufferings must therefore have 
 been vicarious to reconcile them with the jus- 
 tice, and indispensably necessary to reconcile 
 4hem with the goodness, of God. 
 
 But when we bring into view the real cha- 
 
 * Acts ii. 23. 
 
50 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 racter of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, his 
 fellow and equal, the argument assumes vast 
 additional importance. He is his Son, his 
 only begotten Son, his Son in whom he is, 
 was, and ever will be well pleased ; yet it 
 pleased the Lord to bruise him, and to put 
 him to grief. Not only his innocence, there- 
 fore, but also his personal dignity and intimate 
 relation to the Father of Mercies, must have 
 rendered it incompatible with the justice and 
 benignity of the Divine nature and govern- 
 ment, to subject him to sufferings and death, 
 had not these been indispensably necessary to 
 the vindication of the moral perfections of God 
 in the salvation of sinners. He suffered with- 
 out cause from the Jews, and on that account 
 the hand which they had in his sufferings has 
 fixed an indelible stain upon their character, as 
 monsters of injustice and cruelty ; but does not 
 the denial of our Lord's substitution in the room 
 of the guilty, and of the necessity of his death 
 in order to the remission of their sins, virtually 
 transfer the same charge of cruelty and injus- 
 tice to God himself, and that also towards his 
 own Son, who always merited his approbation 
 and complacent regard ? 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 51 
 
 The argument derives greater weight still, 
 from the consideration of what he suffered. 
 He suffered not only from men and devils, but 
 also, in- his soul, from the immediate hand of 
 God, as an offended Judge. His soul was ex- 
 ceeding sorrowful, even unto death. This is 
 denied by the Socinians, who make example 
 the sole end of his sufferings. They resolve 
 the whole of his sufferings into the endurance 
 of human infliction, or terror arising from the 
 prospect of it. But that he did suffer imme- 
 diately from God, is evident from the express 
 testimony of Scripture. " It pleased the 
 " Lord to bruise him, and to put him to 
 •" grief*." No satisfactory reason can be as* 
 signed for his agonies in the garden of Geth- 
 semane, unless it be admitted that he suffered 
 immediately from God in his soul. To tell 
 us that his amazement and bloody sweat pro- 
 ceeded from agitation of mind, in prospect of 
 what he was about to endure from men, is to 
 degrade the Son of God, in respect of patience 
 and fortitude, below the level of thousands of 
 his followers, who have ascended the scaffold, 
 
 * Isa. liii, 10. 
 
52 DISSERTATION OK THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 and embraced the stake, not only without 
 dismay, but even rejoicing that they were ac- 
 counted worthy to suffer shame for his name's 
 sake. Besides, the end assigned for his suf- 
 ferings by4;he Socinians, was, in this case, 
 completely defeated. For it is only in the 
 way of viewing his principal sufferings as im- 
 mediately from God, that we contemplate in 
 him unparalleled patience and resignation 
 under suffering ; since it w r as in this particular, 
 especially, that his sufferings exceeded, in 
 their intensity, the sufferings of others who 
 have been placed in similar external circum- 
 stances. That he suffered from the hiding of 
 his Father's countenance on the cross is be- 
 yond a doubt, if we attach any creditto gospel 
 history, " My God, my God, (said he) why 
 fl hast thou forsaken me* ?" But would ever 
 the Father of Mercies have sheathed the sword 
 of justice in the bowels of his own Son, had 
 his death not been necessary — indispensably 
 necessary, for the vindication of his honour 
 in the salvation of guilty men ? 
 
 From these considerations we must infer, 
 
 * Mat. xxvij. 16. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 53 
 
 First) That Jesus suffered and died in the 
 room of others. In no other way can his 
 death, since he had no personal sin, be recon- 
 ciled either with the goodness or justice of 
 God. Secondly, That these sufferings in all 
 their extent must have been absolutely neces- 
 sary to expiate human guilt, so as to render 
 its remission compatible with the honour of 
 God's moral character and government. To 
 suppose them unnecessary in the smallest de- 
 gree, is to affix a stain upon Divine goodness, 
 or to charge God with cruelty to his only 
 begotten Son. 
 
 Qthly, The Necessity of an Atonement may 
 be also demonstrated from the Wisdom of God. 
 
 The present question regards not only the 
 Socinians, who deny the atonement altogether, 
 but also those who admit the fact of atone- 
 ment by the blood of Christ, but deny that it 
 would have been inconsistent with the moral 
 character of God to have conferred forgiveness 
 in any other way; and it is in opposition to 
 the sentiments of the latter, that the present 
 argument is brought forward. 
 
 It is here admitted, on both sides, that Christ 
 madje a true and proper atonement for sin ; 
 c 
 
54 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 and also that the scheme of mercy, as manifest- 
 ed through the atonement, affords an admirable 
 display of wisdom, as it makes the most effec- 
 tual provision for the illustration of the glorv 
 of the Divine character. But we apprehend 
 this cannot be granted consistently, without 
 admitting the necessity here pleaded for. This 
 may be proved from the peculiar character of 
 Divine Wisdom. 
 
 The attribute of Wisdom is exercised in 
 fixing upon the best ends, and devising the 
 most proper means for accomplishing these 
 ends, v Taking the Scripture doctrine of the 
 atonement for granted in this argument, it 
 will be admitted, that the end proposed by 
 God was the advancement of his own honour 
 in man's salvation, and that the means devised 
 by his wisdom for effecting this end, was the 
 vicarious death of his own Son in human na- 
 ture. Now, we think it may be proved, 
 reasoning a posteriori, or from what He has 
 done, that he could not consistently with his 
 infinite wisdom have saved sinners in any 
 other way. 
 
 To fix upon a means for accomplishing a 
 proposed end, which is either inadequate or 
 
DISSERT AT ION T ON THE ATONEMENT. 5 \ 
 
 superfluous, argues folly, not wisdom. It will 
 be granted in the present case, that the meam 
 determined upon by God for vindicating his 
 own honour in man's salvation is wonderfully 
 great — the greatest, or speaking after the 
 manner of men, the most expensive that he 
 could have employed. In giving his Son to 
 be the propitiation for our sins, he gave the 
 greatest gift he could give. But if God could 
 have accomplished the same end by an inferior 
 means, then the death of Christ must have 
 been unnecessary ; and consequently the ap- 
 pointment of his death for the remission of our 
 sins, would argue a defect of wisdom in God. 
 In this case, Christ crucified could no longer be 
 the wisdom of God ; nor could it any longer 
 be affirmed, that in the plan of redemption 
 through his blood, God hath abounded towards 
 us in all wisdom and prudence. We must 
 .therefore conclude, that since the glory of God 
 is the end to which he must always act, else 
 he could not be a holy Being ; so the death 
 of Christ must have been the only adequate 
 expedient for securing this end in man's sal- 
 vation ; otherwise it would have been incon- 
 sistent with his infinite wisdom to have fixed 
 c 2 
 
56 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 upon it. Had some other expedient been 
 sufficient for this purpose, not only his wisdom 
 but also his goodness would have required that 
 his own Son should have been spared ; but 
 God spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us alh His death must therefore 
 have been necessary, in order that sin might 
 be remitted, and the sinner restored to the 
 divine favour. 
 
 Do some still insist, Though it be admitted, 
 that atonement for sin by the death of Christ 
 is an expedient calculated to secure the ends 
 of God's glory to the best advantage, yet might 
 He not have, had he pleased, admitted of a 
 less illustrious display of his glory in man's 
 salvation, and then an expedient less fit wxnild 
 have been sufficient ? All the works of God do 
 not display his glory in the same degree ; yet 
 in wisdom hath he made them all. Might 
 he not, in this case, have proposed to him- 
 self the same end in an inferior degree, and 
 brought it about by inferior means, consistent- 
 ly with his infinite wisdom ? 
 
 To these queries we reply in the negative. 
 We readily admit that God's works do not 
 all display his glory in the same degree ; but 
 
DISSERTATION ON TH£ ATONEMENT. 5/ 
 
 we maintain, that they all display it in the 
 highest degree of which they are capable, from 
 their nature and the station which they hold in 
 the universe. This holds true of the meanest 
 reptile that crawls, as well as the seraphim of 
 glory who encircle God's eternal throne. It 
 would have been inconsistent with his zeal for 
 his own honour, to have proposed to himself 
 any thing short of this from their creation and 
 preservation. It would, for the same reason, 
 have been inconsistent with his wisdom, to 
 have proposed to himself a less share of honour 
 from the salvation of guilty men, than the 
 nature of the case would admit. No mea?is 9 
 therefore, inferior to those which his wisdom 
 has actually devised, namely, the substitution 
 and death of his own Son, could have secured 
 the ends of his glory in the eternal salvation of 
 sinners of our race- 
 
 Wily, The Necessity of an Atonement 
 may also be illustrated from the character of 
 divine Sovereignty. 
 
 Though the character of divine sovereignty 
 does not of itself furnish a proof of the neces- 
 sity of the atonement, yet, when taken in 
 connection with the evidences of that necessity 
 c 3 
 
•75 DISSERTATION OS THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 already adduced from the holiness, justice, 
 and veracity of God, it serves to shew the un- 
 tenable nature of the opinion, that God might, 
 had he pleased, have pardoned sin without an 
 atonement. It is proper that this be kept in 
 view, in order to see the force of the following 
 remarks in the present question. Those who 
 plead that God might, under a constitution of 
 things different from the present, have pardon- 
 ed sin without a satisfaction to his justice, ap- 
 pear to ground their principal objection to the 
 necessity which we are endeavouring to sup- 
 port, upon the particular view which they take 
 of the freedom and sovereignty of the divine 
 will. Hence, they load those who argue for 
 this necessity with the obloquy of setting limits 
 to the sovereignty of the Almighty. But care 
 should be taken, lest, by attempting to exalt 
 one divine attribute, we detract from the glory 
 of another. God is sovereign in dispensing 
 his favours, but his sovereignty must ever be 
 regulated by unerring wisdom, and bounded 
 by a supreme regard to holiness and universal 
 equity. This will appear from a slight view 
 of the nature and moral character of the will 
 of every rational agent. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 59 
 
 The moving causes of every volition in all 
 moral determinations, are the intellect and 
 moral disposition of the agent willing. This 
 holds true of men, of angels, and of God him- 
 self. A wicked man, or a fallen angel, invari- 
 ably wills what is evil, because his intellect is 
 blinded, and his dispositions totally depraved* 
 A holy angel, or a glorified saint, uniformly 
 wills what is good and agreeable to the divine 
 law, because his intellect is pure, and his dis- 
 positions completely holy. The general train 
 of the believer's volitions in this world are on 
 the side of rectitude, because he is renewed in 
 the spirit of his mind ; and when he wills 
 otherwise, it is owing to remaining ignorance 
 and depravity of disposition. God is a being 
 infinitely wise and infinitely holy : all his voli- 
 tions or purposes, therefore, must be under 
 the guidance of unerring wisdom, and in 
 strict accordance with his immutable holiness 
 and justice. This being the case, his sove- 
 reignty is bounded in its exercise, not indeed 
 by any creature ; " For who hath resisted his 
 f* will ?" nor by any thing extrinsic to him- 
 self, but by his own supreme regard to recti- 
 tude, and his own unerring wisdom, which 
 c 4 
 
60 DISSERTATION" ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 disposes of all events so as to render them 
 subservient to the advancement of the honour 
 of his moral perfections. Were this not the 
 case, the sovereignty of God would be no 
 better than whim or caprice. It would be 
 willing without reason, and acting without any 
 end worthy of a rational being. 
 
 God's sovereignty may be defined a supreme 
 right to will and to do whatever is not incon- 
 sistent with his own purity and righteousness. 
 Such being the character of divine sovereignty, 
 it must be inconsistent even in Him as a 
 Sovereign, to dispense pardon, except in the 
 way of vindicating his delight in holiness y and 
 manifesting his supreme regard to righteous- 
 ness, by the punishment of sin according to 
 its demerit. A righteous man values moral 
 character above life ; and, accordingly, all his 
 volitions and operations are made subservient 
 io its preservation and advancement. His 
 power, however great, is limited in its opera- 
 tions, by his regard to moral rectitude; yea, 
 even his benignity yields to a sense of justice. 
 He is first just, and then bountiful If such 
 is the character, if such the tendency of righte- 
 ousness, as found in a creature, it must ba 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 61 
 
 possessed in an infinitely greater degree by 
 God, who is necessarily and independently 
 holy. And if such is the influence that recti* 
 tude of disposition has upon human volitions, 
 what must be the influence of God's immutable 
 holiness upon all his sovereign volitions and 
 operations ? His holiness is his glory, and to 
 affirm that he cannot will or act contrary to 
 it, is to say no more than the Scripture asserts, 
 when we are told that he cannot deny himself. 
 In fine, the intellectual and moral character of 
 the Divine nature must enter into every act of 
 the divine will. But, to affirm, with our op- 
 ponents, that God might, by a sovereign act 
 of mercy, have dispensed with the claims of 
 justice, and set sinners free from condemnation 
 without ransom, is to set God's will at variance 
 with his nature, which is equally unphiioso- 
 phical and unscriptural. Besides, it is to rob 
 divine sovereignty of its brightest ornaments ; 
 namely, wisdom and purity. The first pro- 
 perty of divine sovereignty must be purity ; 
 but this property his sovereign mercy could 
 not have possessed, as extended to guilty men, 
 had it not vented through the atonement. It 
 must also be wise; but this property could 
 c5 
 
(t& DISSERTATION CN THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 not have belonged to God's sovereign purpose 
 of saving sinners, had it not made provision 
 for the vindication of the honour of his moral 
 -perfections, by the condign punishment of 
 sin. In Christ, by whom we have now receiv- 
 ed the atonement, mercy and truth have met 
 together, righteousness and peace have kissed 
 each other, in the salvation of sinners. 
 
 8////t/, The Necessity of an Atonement may 
 be illustrated from the history of God's moral 
 government in every age. 
 
 If in any instance we found that God had 
 pardoned sin without an atonement, there 
 might be some reason for suspecting the just- 
 ness of the above conclusions ; but no instance 
 of this kind can be produced in the history of 
 the moral government of God. A great pro- 
 portion of the angelic family fell from their 
 first estate, but for them there w T as no remis- 
 sion; because, for them no atonement was 
 provided. " The angels who kept not their 
 " first estate, but left their own habitation, He 
 " hath reserved in everlasting chains under 
 " darkness to the judgment of the great day." 
 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
 against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 63 
 
 men ; not only in the penal sentence of the 
 law, but also by means of his terrible judg- 
 ments inflicted upon individuals on account of 
 their personal sins, and nations on account of 
 their national transgressions. But in no in- 
 stance do we find his judicial displeasure ulti- 
 mately turned away, but through the blood of 
 an atoning sacrifice. 
 
 Let us first attend to man as an individual, 
 and we will find that no instance can be pro- 
 duced of his obtaining the pardon of sin, as 
 pertaining to the conscience, but through the 
 blood of the atoning sacrifice of the Son of 
 God. We have several instances of Divine 
 forbearance being extended to notorious of- 
 fenders, on account of their humbling them- 
 selves before God ; as in the case of Ahab, 
 ^ind the inhabitants of Nineveh. But we have 
 already shewn, that forbearance does not in 
 the smallest degree^partake of the nature of 
 forgiveness. Nor #re we to infer from certain 
 instances wherein pardon was conferred under 
 the former dispensation, for crimes for which 
 the law of Moses provided no sacrifices, that 
 it was bestowed without an atonement for sin. 
 No -, these crimes, as well as those for which 
 c6 
 
64f DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 that law provided a sacrifice, were pardoned, 
 so far as pertained to the conscience, only 
 through the blood of Christ; which, though 
 shed in the end of the world, existed in re- 
 spect of its efficacy from the beginning of time. 
 God did not require a legal sacrifice for 
 David's sin, else he would have given it ; but 
 can we hesitate for a moment, whether he re- 
 ceived forgiveness through the atoning Sacri- 
 fice of his Son and Lord ? Christ shed his 
 blood for the remission of the sins of his elect, 
 who lived under the old as well as under the 
 new dispensation. " And for this cause He 
 " is the Mediator of the New Testament, that 
 " by means of death, for the transgressions 
 " which were under the first Testament, they 
 <c who are called might receive the promise 
 V of eternal inheritance *." 
 
 Though the history of God's moral govern- 
 ment in this world will not be completed till 
 the end of time, yet we are not left at an un- 
 certainty respecting his future procedure in dis- 
 pensing pardon. Scripture assures us that at 
 the close of the scene none will be exempted 
 
 * Heb. ix, 15. 
 
DISSERTATION OK THE ATONEMENT. 65 
 
 from eternal perdition, but those who have 
 fled for refuge to the blood of atonement. 
 44 The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 44 heaven with his mighty angels. In flaming 
 44 fire taking vengeance on them that know 
 44 not God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
 46 Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished 
 44 with everlasting destruction from the pre- 
 44 sence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
 44 power *." 
 
 With respect to nations or bodies politic, 
 it will be readily granted that they are the 
 aggregate of individuals. But it does not fol- 
 low, that they are not in their social capacity 
 amenable for their conduct to God, as the 
 Governor among the nations. When the laws 
 of society, therefore, are contrary to the eter- 
 nal rule of righteousness; when public faith 
 is violated ; when iniquity is practised under 
 the colour of public law, and with the general 
 consent of the community ; and when the in- 
 fluence of a commonwealth is afforded for the 
 subversion of truth and the propagation of 
 error, and for the suppression of piety and 
 
 * % Thess. I 7-9. 
 
66 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 righteousness, and the advancement of vice, 
 ir religion, and profaneness; it must subject 
 the guilty to the most severe national judg- 
 ments. 
 
 Though God has, in this life, inflicted ex- 
 emplary punishment upon some individuals, 
 to keep up upon the minds of men a sense of 
 their responsibility, and to shew that even in 
 time, there is a God who judgeth in the 
 earth ; yet there is no necessity that this 
 should uniformly take place, for the vindica- 
 tion of the purity and rectitude of the Divine 
 government. Individuals are to exist in a fu- 
 ture world, where they will be punished with 
 an everlasting destruction, from the presence 
 of the Lord and from the glory of his power. 
 This renders the exercise of Divine forbear- 
 ance towards them in this world compatible 
 with the equity of God's moral administration. 
 " The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly 
 *< out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust 
 " unto the day of judgment to be punished *." 
 But nations, as such, exist only in this world, 
 so that it is only in time that they can, in 
 
 *2Pet. ii. 9. 
 
DISSERTATION OK THE ATONEMENT. 67 
 
 this capacity, be subjected to punishment. 
 Hence, national sins, when persisted in, have 
 invariably been punished in time, by the poli- 
 tical destruction of those by whom they were 
 committed. " The indignation of the Lord" 
 has been " upon all nations, and his fury up- 
 " on all their armies; he hath utterly de- 
 *' stroyed them ; he hath delivered them to 
 " the slaughter*." Where now are the 
 powerful kingdoms and mighty empires that 
 ilourished in ancient times ? They have each 
 in their turn been overthrown in the righte- 
 ous judgment of God, for their public sins, 
 yea, their very names are extinct, save in the 
 page of the historian, where they only exist as 
 monuments of the direful consequences of na- 
 tional crimes. The same observation applies 
 to all those religious associations, of whatever 
 designation, which have departed from the 
 faith and profession of our Lord's supreme 
 deity, and proper atonement for sin. No so- 
 ciety or individual departing from beneath 
 4;he covert of atoning blood, can escape God's 
 righteous vengeance. It was under this covert, 
 
 a. xxxiv. & 
 
68 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 as exhibited in symbol by the blood of the 
 Paschal Lamb, that the Israelites were safe in 
 that dreadful night, when the destroying an- 
 gel passed through, and slew all the first-born 
 in the land of Egypt. Their existence as an 
 organised nation, and their connection as a 
 church with the true olive-tree, were preserved, 
 so long as they adhered, in any degree, to the 
 doctrine of salvation through the atonement; 
 but as soon as they totally rejected this doc- 
 trine, wrath came up >n them to the uttermost. 
 It was not even the crucifixion of Jesus that 
 filled up the cup of their iniquity ; but the 
 rejection of the offers of salvation through the 
 blood of the cross, exhibited to them by the 
 ministry of his apostles. This brought down 
 the vengeance of Heaven upon them, till they 
 were consumed from off that good land which 
 God gave to their fathers. As long as the 
 churches of Asia adhered to the doctrines of 
 Christ's supreme deity and proper atonement 
 for sin, they flourished amidst the hottest per- 
 secution. The power and policy of hell could 
 not prevail against them. But the Arian 
 hereby, which struck at the foundation of 
 both, brought on first their decline and then 
 
BISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 69 
 
 their ruin. It requires but a small degree of 
 discernment to trace similar judgments in 
 modern Europe to similar causes. 
 
 In fine, there is only one society under 
 Heaven, the true church of Christ, which has 
 existed from age to age, and survived amidst 
 the wreck of nations and bodies politic. A 
 society, indeed, which is not now confined to 
 any particular place or people, but which has, 
 notwithstanding, distinctive characteristics by 
 which it is known from all others ; namely, 
 its attachment to the doctrines of revealed re- 
 ligion in general, and its stedlast adherence, 
 in particular, to the grand truths of the divinity 
 of Christ, his true and proper satisfaction for 
 sin, and salvation by free grace as it reigns 
 through his righteousness. Of this society, 
 we are told in the Scriptures of truth, that it 
 is a kingdom which shall never be destroyed 
 — that it shall not be left to other people- 
 that it shall flourish on the ruin of all opposite 
 interests, and that it shall stand for ever *. 
 Concerning this highly favoured society, God 
 has said, " Though I make a full end of all 
 
 * Dan. u*A&< 
 
70 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 "nations, yet will I not make a full end of 
 " thee* " The existence of this society from 
 age to age, can only be accounted for from its 
 interest in the atonement. Innocent it is not. 
 The sins committed by this society, from the 
 privileges which it possesses, are of all others 
 the most aggravated : yet it is the only cor- 
 porate body under Heaven, which has escaped 
 -the overflowing scourge of God's avenging 
 wrath. It has, indeed, been chastened, but 
 not killed, cast down, but not forsaken. 
 
 From the above view of the history of God's 
 moral government, we apprehend it must be 
 obvious to every unprejudiced mind, that in 
 no instance, pardon has been bestowed upon a 
 guilty creature, but through the atonement of 
 Christ. But if \ve consider the pure benignity 
 of God's nature, and his delight in the exer- 
 cise of mercy, — we can only account for this 
 fact by admitting that, in order to forgive- 
 ness, atonement is necessary from his moral 
 perfections. Had no such necessity existed, 
 we might have expected, that in some in- 
 stances, if not in the case of men for whom a 
 
 # Jev. xxx. 11. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 71 
 
 ransom is provided, at least among fallen an- 
 gels, God would have displayed his supposed 
 sovereign right to dispense with his justice, by- 
 setting his guilty creature free without ransom. 
 But since no example of this kind is to be 
 found, and since the Scriptures assure us that 
 none exist, we must conclude, that without an 
 atonement for sin there can be no remission. 
 
 9thly y The Necessity of an Atonement may 
 also be proved from the express testimony of 
 Scripture. 
 
 In stating this argument, we may first ad- 
 duce a lew passages which assert the insepara- 
 ble connection between moral and penal evil; 
 and then we shall bring forward some other 
 texts, which bear more particularly upon the 
 necessity of the atonement by the death of 
 Ch rist, in order to the remission of sin. That 
 penal evil is a necessary consequent of moral 
 evil, is obvious from the whole tenor of Scrip- 
 ture. The proofs are so numerous that it is 
 difficult to fix upon a few, in the way of omit- 
 ting others no less clear and explicit. When 
 the Lord passed by and proclaimed his name 
 to Moses, we find that one prominent part of 
 it was his iLflexible justice. " Keeping mercy 
 
72 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgress 
 ** sion, and sin, and that will by no means clear 
 " the guilty *." We grant that the word 
 guilty, is a supplement, but without it the pas- 
 sage cannot make sense. Besides, that it is of 
 guilt that he will not clear the sinner, is obvi- 
 ous from what follows : M Visiting the iniqui- 
 " ties of the fathers upon their children unto 
 " the third and fourth generation. " Punish- 
 ment is mentioned not only as the desert of 
 sin, but as that which will without fail be in- 
 flicted upon the guilty. " Though hand join 
 u in hand, the wicked shall not be unpu- 
 " nished f." The same thing is inferred from 
 the moral character of God, and the delight 
 which he necessarily has in moral rectitude. 
 " Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, 
 V and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; 
 M this shall be the portion of their cup. For 
 " the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his 
 M countenance doth behold the upright *." 
 God will render to all their due, but death is 
 the desert of sin ; it must, therefore, be its ne- 
 
 * JExod. xxxiv. 7. f Prov. xi. 21. J PsaL xi. 6, 7. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 73 
 
 cessary result. " The wages of sin is death, 
 " but the gift of God is eternal lifef." 
 
 We shall now adduce some passages which 
 bear more particularly upon the necessity of 
 the atonement by the death of Christ, in order 
 to the remission of sin ; and with these we 
 shall close the chain of evidence in its support. 
 
 Luke xxiv. 26. — " Ought not Christ to 
 "have suffered these things and to enter into 
 M his glory ?" The things that he suffered are 
 obvious. "Being found in fashion as a man, he 
 M humbled himself, and became obedient unto 
 " death, even the death of the cross," But 
 we are told that it was fit or becoming, and, con- 
 sequently, necessary in a moral point of view, 
 that he should suffer these things. It was not, 
 however, necessary on his own account. No, 
 he was without sin. But since death is the 
 wages of sin, he must have suffered even unto 
 the death for the sins of others ; and his suf- 
 ferings must have been necessary to procure 
 the remission of their sins. 
 
 Heb. ii. 10. " For it became him, for whom 
 « are all things, and by whom are all things, in 
 
 * Rom. vi. 25. 
 
74 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 M bringing many sons unto glory; to make 
 u the Captain of their salvation perfect through 
 11 sufferings." Some may admit the necessity 
 of the death of Christ intimated in the passage 
 formerly quoted, on certain grounds, who de- 
 ny it on others. They may allow that it is 
 necessary to our forgiveness from the appoint- 
 ment of God, and the present scheme of the 
 Divine government, yet deny any such neces- 
 sity arising from his natural or moral perfec- 
 tions. But the text before us will not admit 
 of this explanation, as will appear if we attend 
 a little to its import. In this passage God is 
 presented to our view as the first cause, and 
 last end of all things. As all things exist from 
 liim, as their first cause ; so all things must ex- 
 ist to him and for him, as their last and high- 
 est end : " For of him, and through him, and 
 (i to him, are all tilings; to whom be glory for 
 " ever, Amen." This must be the case, since 
 it would have been utterly inconsistent with 
 Ills wisdom and the supreme regard he has to 
 his own honour, to have made creatures for 
 any chief end inferior to that of his own glory. 
 We have also in the words, a particular work 
 of God to which the general rule is applicable, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 75 
 
 namely, the bringing of many sons from among 
 our fallen race to glory, under the conduct of 
 Christ as a Captain of salvation ; and concern- 
 ing this Captain we are told, that he was per- 
 fected or set apart to his work of saving these 
 sons by his sufferings. But wc are further 
 told that this was necessary from the character 
 of God, as the first cause, and last end of all 
 things : " For it became him for whom are all 
 M things," Sfc. This passage sets aside com- 
 pletely every constitution of things different 
 from the present, under which, it is supposed, 
 God might have dispensed pardon without an 
 atonement for sin. For there can be no sup- 
 posable constitution of things of which God 
 must not have been the first cause, and the 
 last end. Unc^er no form of the Divine govern- 
 ment, therefore, could God have pardoned 
 sinners without a satisfaction to his justice, 
 consistently with his own honour. That the 
 verb here rendered became, denotes necessity, 
 cannot be disputed, if we attend to its general 
 use in Scripture. It was morally necessary 
 from God's appointment, and his own under- 
 taking, that our Lord, when made under the 
 law as our Surety, should act up to that Jaw 
 
46 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 in all its demands; but this necessity is ex- 
 pressed by the same verb # , " And Jesus an- 
 " swering said unto him, Suffer it to be so 
 "now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all 
 cl righteousness." To act like saints, it must 
 be morally necessary to avoid fornication ; but 
 this necessity is also expressed by the same 
 wordf. " But fornication and covetousness, 
 " and all uncleanness, let it not be once named 
 " among you as becometh saints." Now, if it 
 was necessary that our Lord should be bap- 
 tized to fulfil all righteousness, as the Surety of 
 the church ; and if it was necessary that the 
 Ephesians should avoid fornication, and all 
 uncleanness, in order to their acting as saints; 
 and if the necessity in both cases is intimated by 
 the word became ; then, in the passage under 
 consideration it must denote a corresponding 
 necessity in God, arising from his moral per- 
 fection, to accomplish his gracious purpose of 
 saving sinners through an expiatory sacrifice. 
 Let none object to this reasoning, that God 
 is above all law, and, therefore, is not bound 
 by any law, as Christ was when acting as our 
 
 * Mat. iii. 15. t Eph. ▼• $• 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 77 
 
 Surety, or, as the Ephesians were, being neces- 
 sarily accountable beings. God's essential rec- 
 titude, is to Him instead of a Jaw ; and were 
 He not invariably to act agreeably to his own 
 immutable rectitude, He would no more be a 
 holy Being, than his creatures can be holy, in 
 the way of violating the law He has prescribed 
 for the rule of their conduct. 
 
 Heb. ix. 22, 23.-T-" Without shedding of 
 V blood is no remission. It was, therefore, 
 u necessary that the patterns of things in the 
 " heavens should be purified with these; but 
 " the heavenly things themselves with better 
 iS> sacrifices than these." As this passage fur- 
 nishes us not only with a proof of the necessity 
 of the atonement, but also with a number of 
 useful deductions respecting its nature and 
 end ; we shall submit a more particular ex- 
 planation of it to our readers, than would 
 otherwise have been proper in this place. 
 
 The Sinaic transaction, to which the writer 
 to the Hebrews obviously refers in the preceding 
 context, contained a revelation of God's cove- 
 nant of grace, both in its promise, and in its con- 
 dition, as it was to be fulfilled by the promised 
 Messiah. The promise of the covenant was ex- 
 D 
 
78 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 hibitedin the preface to the law, in these words, 
 " I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee 
 €i out of the land of Egypt, and out of the 
 " houseof bondage." The ten precepts, armed 
 with a penal sentence, and promulgated with 
 awful displays of God's majesty, as a Lawgiver 
 and Judge, contained an exhibition of its con- 
 dition. This is the law which Christ was made 
 under as our Surety, and in this form it was ad- 
 dressed to him, out of the midst of the flames 
 of Horeb, through the Israelites, from whom 
 he was to descend according to the flesh. It 
 is the law which Christ came, not to destroy 
 but to fulfil. This view of the law, is in no 
 respect inconsistent with its use as a rule of 
 righteousness; for it also bears this form con- 
 sidered as grafted upon the promise with 
 which it was prefaced, ordained in the hand 
 of a Mediator, and along with the promise 
 dedicated with the blood of an atoning sacri- 
 fice. Accordingly, when Moses had spokep. 
 every precept, the transaction at Horeb, which, 
 viewed as promulgated from the midst of the 
 fire, had a federal form, was rendered testa- 
 mentary by the blood of an atoning sacrifice. 
 
DISSERTATION OK THE ATONEMENT. 7$ 
 
 This is the transaction to which the inspired 
 writer to the Hebrews refers, in the preced- 
 ing context, verses 18, 19, 20. — " Where- 
 M upon, neither the first Testament was dedi- 
 " cated without blood. For when Moses had 
 u spoken every precept to all the people ac- 
 " cording to the law ; he took the blood of 
 " calves, and of goats, with water and scarlet- 
 " wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the 
 " book and all the people, saying, This is 
 " the blood of the Testament which God 
 a hath enjoined unto you." The same rite 
 was afterwards extended to the tabernacle, the 
 vessels of the ministry, and almost every thing 
 connected with the service of the earthly sanc- 
 tuary, verses 2 1,22. — " Moreover, hesprinkled 
 " likewise with blood both the tabernacle, and 
 " all the vessels of the ministry," &c. 
 
 The sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifices 
 was, without doubt, the sign of its application, 
 by means of intercession, for the purpose of 
 the removal of their guilt for whom it was 
 shed. This being admitted, we see, at once, 
 the reason why Moses sprinkled the people. 
 They were guilty, and the rite of sprinkling 
 was the sign of the remission of their sins 
 D 2 
 
80 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 through the shedding of that blood with 
 which they were sprinkled. The reason of 
 the sprinkling of the book, the tabernacle, and 
 all the vessels of the ministry, is not so obvi- 
 ous ; as, from their nature, they were not 
 capable of moral contamination. If we attend, 
 however, to the reason assigned by the Spirit 
 of God for the application of the blood of 
 atonement to the hojy place, it will appear 
 that the sprinkling of blood upon inani- 
 mate things, had still ,a relation to its main 
 design, which was the removal of human guilt 
 and impurity. " And he shall make an atone- 
 11 ment for the holy place, because of the un- 
 11 cleanness of the children of Israel, and be- 
 " cause of their transgressions in all their sins; 
 " and so he shall do for the tabernacle of the 
 11 congregation, that remaineth among them 
 cc in the midst of their uncleanness *." The 
 same reference is made to human guilt as the 
 reason of the atonement being extended to the 
 altar, verses 18, 19. — " And he shall go out 
 " to the altar that is before the Lord, and 
 " make an atonement for it, and shall take of 
 
 * Lev. xvi. 16. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. Si 
 
 " the blood of ther bullock, and of the blood 
 " of the goat, and shall put it upon the horns 
 " of the altar round about : and he shall 
 *< sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger, 
 u seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it 
 M from the uncleanness of the children of 
 " Israel." From these passages, it appears, 
 that the application of the blood of atonement 
 to those inanimate objects, was, with regard 
 to its use or design, only relative ; and that 
 the uncleanness to be removed^ was still the 
 guilt or impurity of the people; 
 
 But the question still recurs, why was the 
 sign of their remission extended to the taber- 
 nacle, the altar, and the vessels of service, and 
 not confined to themselves, the proper sub- 
 jects of moral and ceremonial defilement ? 
 Some account for it by supposing, " that the 
 " sins of the people were considered as cleav- 
 " ing to, and polluting and unfitting for the 
 " service of God, the places and instruments 
 " of their worship." But we apprehend that 
 even this does not account for it in a satisfac- 
 tory manner; more especially, as this view 
 cannot be admitted with respect to those 
 heavenly things of which the tabernacle and 
 D 3 
 
8S DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENt. 
 
 its furniture were patterns ; and which, an- 
 swering to the type, are said to be purified 
 Avith better sacrifices. Their purification by 
 the blood of Christ, cannot be supposed to 
 proceed upon the idea of their being tainted 
 or polluted by the sins of the people. 
 
 To see the significancy of sprinkling in all 
 its variety, we must attend to the ends of the 
 atonement itself, of the application of which 
 sprinkling was the sign. The atonement was 
 not only expiatory but also propitiatory. It 
 did not only cancel the guilt of the offender, 
 or disannul his obligation to punishment ; but 
 it was also the means of his access to, and fa- 
 vourable acceptance with, God. Keeping these 
 two ends of the atonement in view, they will 
 furnish us with a key to the use of sprinkling 
 in all its variety. The sprinkling of the blood 
 npon the people when the first Testament 
 w r as dedicated, was the sign of the efficacy of 
 the atonement for absolving them from punish- 
 ment. But the sprinkling of the book, was 
 the sign not only of their deliverance from the 
 curses, but also of their access to all the bless- 
 ings contained in it, by means of that blood ; 
 not indeed from its own intrinsic value, as we 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 83 
 
 shall presently see, but as the symbol of the 
 blood of that sacrifice which the Messiah was 
 to offer in the end of the world. The taber- 
 nacle, the altar, and all the vessels of service, 
 were symbols of new covenant privileges, or 
 patterns of things in the heavens, and for the 
 time being, means of intercourse with God in 
 his character as the God of the church. 
 They were, therefore, sprinkled for the same 
 reason that the book of the covenant was 
 sprinkled \ or to shew that the access of the 
 worshippers to God, and their acceptance 
 with him, as residing in th^ tabernacle and 
 served by the vessels of the ministry, were 
 only through the blood of an atoning sacri- 
 fice. The justness of these remarks will ap- 
 pear, if we attend to the rite of sprinkling, as 
 applied to the several parts of this sacred 
 edifice. 
 
 The first thing that comes under our ob- 
 servation here, is the Holy of Holies, the 
 place of God's special residence, where he is 
 represented as having his throne above the 
 mercy-seat, and between the cherubims. This 
 throne was to be sprinkled with blood, and 
 that blood was considered as propitiatory, or 
 D 4 
 
84- DISSERTATION OS THE ATONEMEXT. 
 
 that which procured access to the throne, and 
 favourable acceptance with Him who sat up- 
 on it, both to the officiating priest, and to the 
 people represented by him. This appears 
 from its name, the propitiatory, and also from 
 God's promise, respecting the manifestation 
 of his favour from this throne sprinkled with 
 blood. " And thou shall put the mercy-seat 
 M above upon the ark; and in the ark thou 
 " shait put the testimony which I shall give 
 M thee. And there I will meet with thee, and 
 44 I will commune with thee, from above the 
 ■' mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims 
 " which are upon the ark of the testimony, of 
 " all things I will give thee in commandment 
 46 unto the children of Israel *.* The taber- 
 nacle, or that part of it in which the inferior 
 priests ministered, and through which the 
 high-priest passed on his way to the oracle, 
 was sprinkled for the same reason, or to sig- 
 nify the way of their access to and acceptance 
 with God, in the discharge of holy duties. 
 The rite of sprinkling was extended to the 
 vessels of the ministry for a similar purpose; 
 
 * Excd. sxt. 21, It. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 85 
 
 or to intimate that the service in which they 
 were employed, was acceptable to God only 
 through the atonement. Not only the taber- 
 nacle and its furniture, but also the altar be- 
 fore the door of the tabernacle, on which the 
 offerings of the people at large were presented 
 to God, was, on the great day of atonement, 
 to be sprinkled with blood ; to shew that their 
 personal services without, as well as the ser- 
 vices of their representatives within the taber- 
 nacle, were holy and acceptable to God, only 
 through the same atoning sacrifice. In one 
 word, the meaning of the rite of sprinkling as 
 applied to these inanimate things which led 
 to the oracle, is explained by the antitype. 
 They were all connected with the way to the 
 oracle, or the Holy of Holies, which was a 
 type of Heaven, and it is in allusion to them 
 that our access to Heaven is signified by f? a 
 " way ;" but this way is consecrated for us by 
 the blood of Christ. " Having, therefore, 
 " brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest 
 " by the blood of Jesus, by anew and living way 
 " which he hath consecrated for us, through 
 " the vail, that is to say, his flesh *," & c * 
 
 * Heb. x. 19, 20. 
 D 5 
 
DISCLRTATIOK ON" TEE ATOHEMEST* 
 
 Hence also, the sense in which we are to un- 
 derstand the verb rendered to purge (verse 22), 
 with reference to the patterns of things in the 
 heaven?, and to purify ^ verse 23) with respect 
 to the heavenly things themselves. In both 
 rases it denotes the preparation of access to 
 these tilings, by the removal of that which 
 excluded the worshippers from them ; namely, 
 ceremonial uncleanness in the one case, and 
 moral guilt and impurity in the other. 
 
 The rite of sprinkling, therefore, in all its 
 variety, amounted to this, " Without shedding 
 v; of blood is no remission. " This was the 
 import or significancy of the whole, that the 
 sin of the offender could be expiated, his per- 
 son restored to favour, and his services ac- 
 cepted with God. only through the blood of an 
 atoning sacrifice. The blood of the sacrifices 
 under the lawcould not put away sin as pertain- 
 ing to the conscience. It could only remove 
 ceremonial impurity, and avert the temporal 
 punishments to which this subjected theofifend- 
 er. This is clearly pointed out by the inspired 
 writer in another part of this Epistle *. The 
 whole system of sacrificial service had an insti- 
 
 I Chap. x. 1. % % 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 87 
 
 tuted meaning, and was intended to prefigure 
 that sacrifice in its grand results which Christ 
 was to offer up once in the end of the world. 
 
 This is evident from verse 22, " It was 
 " therefore necessary, that the patterns of 
 " things in the heavens should be purified 
 " with these, but the heavenly things them- 
 " selves with better sacrifices than these/ 5 
 
 The first thing that claims our attention in 
 these words, is the designation given to the 
 inanimate objects sprinkled with the blood of 
 the Levitical sacrifices. They were " patterns/* 
 that is, figures, or symbolical representations 
 of things in the heavens. By u the heavenly 
 n things themselves," we are to understand 
 the substantial realities of a future and better 
 economy, of which these things were types or 
 figures. If we consider the word patterns^ 
 as including the first Testament itself, then, 
 in so far as regarded its Mediator, and the 
 sacrifice with which it was dedicated, it was 
 only a typical dispensation of God's covenant. 
 Hence, when contrasted with it, the new dis- 
 pensation is called "a better Testament*. 5 ' 
 
 * Heb. vif. 22. 
 
 r><3 
 
8S DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 The tabernacle was also a figure of the true 
 tabernacle which God hath pitched and not 
 man, or of the human nature of Christ, in 
 which the true Schechinah dwells by a per- 
 sonal union. The Holy of Holies was only a 
 figure of Heaven itself, into which Christ has 
 entered as our forerunner ; and the ceremonial 
 services, figures of the more pure and spiritual 
 ministrations of a better dispensation. 
 
 It was necessary, we are told, that the pat- 
 terns of things in the heavens should be puri- 
 fied by those legal sacrifices. It was neces- 
 sary to constitute them patterns. Destitute of 
 this purification, they would have been figures 
 of things in the heavens, without the sign of 
 the means by which sinners have access to them. 
 JBut from the necessity of the purification of 
 those patterns, the inspired writer infers the 
 superior necessity of the purification of the 
 heavenly things themselves, or their separation 
 to the use of sinful creatures, by the blood of 
 a better sacrifice : — " But the heavenly things 
 themselves with better sacrifices than these." 
 
 It is evident, that the one sacrifice of Christ 
 is here meant by better sacrifices. The use 
 of the plural number denotes, first, that his 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 89 
 
 sacrifice, though only offered once, realized all 
 the sacrifices under the law ; and, secondly, 
 that it exceeded them all in value or dignity. 
 The heavenly things themselves are purifi- 
 ed or set apart to the use of sinful creatures 
 by the blood of this better sacrifice. This is 
 necessary to our access to them, and to God 
 himself by means of them. That the new 
 covenant might become a confirmed deed of 
 conveyance of all spiritual blessings to men, 
 it was necessary that it should be ratified by 
 the blood of Christ, verses 15, 16, 17. It was 
 absolutely necessary to our Lord's consecra- 
 tion, as our advocate, ministering in the 
 tabernacle of his own human nature, that He 
 should suffer unto death. He entered Heaven 
 by his own blood : there was no access for 
 him there as our High- Priest, but by his own 
 atoning sacrifice, verses 11, 12. And it is 
 through the same blood that we have access to 
 the holiest, and that God is pleased to accept of 
 our persons and services. " Having, therefore, 
 " brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest 
 <J through the blood of Jesus*," &c. " Ye 
 
 * Heb. x. 19. 
 
l jO DISSERTATION" OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " also as lively stones are built up a spiritual 
 " house, an holy Priesthood, to offer up spirit- 
 <; u&] sacrifices, acceptable to God through 
 " Jesus Christ *." — This passage serves to 
 .illustrate the following important truths con- 
 nected with the doctrine of the atonement. 
 
 first, It shews us the unscriptural nature 
 of the Socinian tenet, that repentance is the 
 only prerequisite to the pardon of sin. It 
 presents us with this general maxim : M With- 
 out shedding of blood is no remission." This 
 is a maxim applicable to both dispensations.— 
 Under the former economy, ceremonial un- 
 cleanness could not be removed, nor the tem- 
 poral judgments to which it subjected the 
 offender averted, unless by the blood of a sacri- 
 fice. But this was also intended to instruct 
 the worshippers respecting the absolute neces- 
 sity of the infinitely more precious sacrifice of 
 Christ, to put away sin as pertaining to the 
 conscience. — No pretentions to repentance 
 could supersede the necessity of a sacrifice for 
 sin in the case of those who violated the cere- 
 monial law; and much less can this plea be sus- 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. & 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 91 
 
 tained, as a sufficient reparation for the dis- 
 honour done to God by moral transgression. 
 In vain is it pleaded by the Socinians ,that 
 God offers pardon to the penitent, and that 
 pardon is promised on the ground of repent- 
 ance. It is granted, that repentance is men- 
 tioned in Scripture as characteristic of the par- 
 doned, or of those who are warranted to con- 
 clude that they are possessed of tins privilege. 
 But it is impossible that repentance can be the 
 ground of the Divine procedure in dispensing 
 pardon. Man is bound to exert all his powers 
 in the service of God for the present, according 
 to the circumstances in which he is placed, 
 and the moral relations in which he stands to 
 the great Supreme arising out of those circum- 
 stances. Is he a sinner ? It is his bounden 
 duty for the present to break off his sins by re- 
 pentance ; and, consequently, were his repent- 
 ance possible without a regard to the atone- 
 ment, in repenting he would do no more than 
 what was his present duty. But if in the case 
 supposed he only fulfilled present duty, how 
 could this atone for past crimes ? It has never 
 been alleged that present repentance atones for 
 
92 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 future sins ; but this might be argued with as 
 much reason, as that it atones for past trans- 
 gressions. 
 
 The opinion that repentance atones for past 
 transgressions with respect to God, the supreme 
 Lawgiver of Heaven and earth, is contrary to 
 the views universally entertained by men, re- 
 specting its efficacy with reference to crimes 
 committed against the laws of a civil state. 
 It has never yetentered into the mind of a civil 
 magistrate, or come under the deliberation of 
 any legislative body under Heaven, that re- 
 pentance should be admitted as a sufficient 
 compensation for murder, robbery, or any 
 other gross immorality committed against the 
 public law. Were it proposed it would 
 only provoke their scorn and derision. But, 
 strange to relate ! it has been thought a proper 
 reparation for the most heinous offences com- 
 mitted against the Lord of the universe. May 
 not God put the question to the advocates for 
 repentance as meritorious of forgiveness, which 
 he put to the Jews respecting their torn and 
 their lame offerings? " And if ye offer the 
 blind for sacrifice is it not evil? and if ye 
 offer the lame and sick is it not evil ? offer it~ 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 93 
 
 now unto thy Governor ; will he be pleased 
 with thee or accept thy person, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts * ?" Yes, he has done more than put 
 this question to the advocates for human 
 merit. He has even pronounced them all 
 accursed. " For as many as are of the works 
 " of the law are under a curse. For it is 
 44 written, cursed is every one who continueth 
 44 not in all things written in the book of the 
 44 law to do them f ." 
 
 In fine, pardon through the blood of Christ 
 and repentance, are inseparably connected, 
 as the faith of the former leads to the latter : 
 and it is for this reason that the pardoned are 
 characterised by their penitency ; and that 
 none are warranted, from Scripture, to con- 
 clude that they are interested in the one who 
 continue strangers to the other. 44 1 will pour 
 upon the house of David, and the inhabitants 
 of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of sup- 
 plications ; and they shall look upon me whom 
 they have pierced, and they shall mourn for 
 Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and 
 shall be in bitterness for Him as one that is 
 in bitterness for his first born %? 
 
 * M&L i. 8. f Cal. iii. 10. { Zcch. xii. 10. 
 
9i DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Secondly, This passage contains a cleat* proof 
 of the necessity of the atonement by the death 
 of Christ ; in order to the remission of our 
 sins, and our access to all the blessings of 
 God's covenant. 
 
 The tabernacle and its furniture did not 
 exist on their own account, but to prefigurethe 
 glorious privileges of a future and better dis- 
 pensation. They were shadows of good things 
 to come — patterns of things in the heavens. 
 The ceremonial preparation of access to these 
 patterns, by the blood of slain beasts, was con- 
 stituted necessary by the appointment of God ; 
 for the express purpose of shadowing forth 
 the necessity of the moral preparation of ac- 
 cess to the heavenly things themselves, by our 
 Lord's obedience even unto the death. — The 
 former was a necessity arising from the ap- 
 pointment of God, and intended to typify a 
 moral necessity founded on the purity of his 
 nature, and the rectitude of his administra- 
 tion. The argument, therefore, i? from the 
 less to the greater. If the blood of bulls and 
 goats was necessary to remove ceremonial un- 
 cleanness which excluded the ancient Israelites 
 from the patterns of things in the heavens 3 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 95 
 
 how much more necessary the precious blood 
 of Christ to expiate moral guilt which excludes 
 sinners of every age and nation from the 
 heavenly things themselves. — That this is the 
 tenor of the argument in the text now under 
 consideration, appears, from the subsequent 
 context, where we are told, that Christ, as the 
 representative and forerunner of his people, 
 realized the type by his entrance into hcavert 
 with his own blood. " For Christ is not en* 
 " tered into the holy places made with hands, 
 " which are the figures of the true, but into 
 " heaven itself, there to appear in the presence 
 « of God for us." 
 
 Thirdly, It shews that our Lord, in his death, 
 is the only true and proper sacrifice for sin. 
 
 The formal nature of a sacrifice for sin, is 
 the offering up of a life for the purpose of its 
 expiation ; and it is obvious, that the lite of- 
 fered must correspond in value to the desert 
 of the offence to be expiated by it. But the 
 life of a beast could have no fitness as a vicari- 
 ous sacrifice, in the room of the life of a man, 
 forfeited by transgression. Nor, could even 
 the life of a man, which is only of finite value, 
 possess moral worth for expiating his own sin, 
 
96 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 and much less the sins of a great multitude 
 which no man can number, out of all nations', 
 kindreds, and tongues and people ; since every 
 sin is of infinite demerit. No man " can by 
 M any means redeem his brother, nor give to 
 M God a ransom for him." All the sacrifices 
 under the Jaw could not put away one sin as 
 pertaining to the conscience. They possessed 
 reality as sacrifices only so far as related to 
 ceremonial pollution, They only sanctified to 
 the purifying of the flesh. In so far as moral 
 guilt, or access to special benefits were con- 
 cerned, they were only typical sacrifices. 
 This is evident from the passage now under 
 consideration. These sacrifices must have 
 been of the same specific nature with the things 
 purified by them; but these, we are told, 
 were only patterns or types of things in the 
 heavens ; the sacrifices with which they were 
 purified, must therefore have been mere types 
 of the better sacrifice of Christ, through which 
 fallen creatures have access to the heavenly 
 things themselves. And hence we see, the ab- 
 surdity of the notion vented, and keenly pro- 
 pagated by the enemies of the atonement, 
 that the sacrificial language of the new Testa- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 97 
 
 ment, as applied to the death of Christ, is 
 mere figure or allusion, borrowed from the 
 economy of Moses. What is figurative, on 
 the contrary, belongs to theLevitical sacrifices, 
 what is real to the sacrifice of Christ. These 
 sacrifices only sanctified to the purifying of 
 the "flesh ; his sacrifice purges the conscience 
 from dead works. The former only brought 
 sin to remembrance ; the latter puts it away. 
 " But now once in the end of the world hath 
 " he appeared to put away, sin by the sacrifice 
 "of himself V' 
 
 Fourthly, This passage also shews the ab- 
 surdity of the scheme of atonement by pure 
 intercession. 
 
 The rejection of atonement by mediation 
 altogether, seems to have been considered by 
 some Socinian writers as too glaring an outrage 
 upon Scripture phraseology. To get rid of 
 the doctrine in the way of retaining the terms 
 by which it is expressed in Scripture, they 
 have fallen upon the scheme of atonement by 
 pure intercession. How far they have suc- 
 ceeded, the intelligent and candid reader of 
 
 * Vcne 26. 
 
98 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Scripture will be able to judge. He must 
 know that under the law blood-shedding was 
 indispensably requisite to atonement. u For 
 " the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I 
 $i have given it to you upon the altar to make 
 " an atonement for your souls, for it is the 
 " blood that maketh an atonement for the 
 11 soul *." The high-priest's entrance with 
 blood within the vail, is no doubt said to be 
 for the purpose of making atonement, but it 
 is obvious from what has been advanced con- 
 cerning the use of sprinkling as applied to the 
 mercy-seat, that this rite did not make atone- 
 ment of itself, but only as it was the means of 
 carrying into effect the sacrifice of atonement 
 offered without the vail. — The making of 
 atonement for sin formally lay in shedding 
 the blood of the victim, and presenting it on 
 the altar. This is evident from atonement 
 being completed by this rite in other cases. 
 Atonement was made for sin by the blood of 
 all the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings, 
 but in no instance was the blood carried within 
 the vail, but in the case of the great anniver- 
 
 * Lev. xvii. 11. 
 
DISSERTATION' ON THE ATONEMENT. 99 
 
 sary sacrifices offered by the high-priest, first 
 for himself, and then for the errors of the 
 people. — But even in the sense in which the 
 high-priest is said to have made atonement 
 within the vail, it was not by pure interces- 
 sion, but by intercession on the ground of 
 an expiatory sacrifice. His advocacy was 
 signified by the burning of the incense, the 
 cloud of which ascended and covered the 
 mercy-seat; and the sprinkling of blood which 
 accompanied it denoted his plea as an inter- 
 cessor. He was an intercessor within the vail 
 on the ground of the sacrifice offered without 
 the vail for the whole congregation of Israel. 
 
 Let us apply these remarks to the great 
 antitype; Jesus, the High-Priest of our pro- 
 fession. Satisfaction for sin is universally 
 ascribed in Scripture to his obedience unto 
 the death in our world. " He put away sin 
 " by the sacrifice of himself *.* u He gave 
 H his life a ransom for many f ." " He was 
 " once offered to bear the sins of many if." 
 He purged our sins by the sacrifice of himself 
 on earth, and it was in consequence of this 
 
 * Hcb. ix. 26. f Ma» **• 28. j Hefc n. 28. 
 
100 DISSERTATION OK THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 that he sat down at the right hand of God in 
 heaven. " When he had by himself purged 
 " our sins," he " sat down on the right hand 
 " of the majesty on high *." To the same 
 purpose forgiveness, we are told, is through 
 his blood, and not on the ground of mere in- 
 tercession. " In whom we have redemption 
 " through his blood, -the forgiveness of sins, 
 " according to the riches of his grace f.' 1 — 
 Our Lord's intercession in heaven is, without 
 doubt, held out to us in the New Testament 
 Scriptures as an encouragement to expect for- 
 giveness ; but it is so only as the means of 
 carrying into effect the sacrifice which he of- 
 fered on Calvary. "K any man sin we have 
 " an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the 
 Cl righteous :_ And he is the propitiation for 
 u our sins:);." — In the passage we have been 
 considering, our Lord's sacrifice on earth is 
 presented to our view as necessary not only 
 to the success of his advocacy, but also to his 
 access to heaven in the character of our advo- 
 cate. — " But the heavenly things themselves 
 vith better sacrifices than these. For Christ 
 
 * : JItb. i. 3. f Eph. i. 7. J 1 John ii. 1, 2. 
 
DISSERTATION' ON THE ATONEMENT, 101 
 
 is not entered into the holy places made with 
 hands, which are the figures of the true, but 
 into heaven itself, now to appear in the pre- 
 sence of God for us." 
 
 To speak of atonement through the media- 
 tion of Christ, whether while on earth, or now 
 that he is exalted to heaven, so long as his 
 suretiship is rejected, is evidently intended to 
 mislead the simple and unwary. Our Lord's 
 mediation as a Priest involves m it suretiship — 
 and in so far as his mediation respects atone- 
 ment for sin, it was accomplished by sure- 
 tiship, or by giving his life a ransom for many. 
 Such is the account given us in Scripture 
 of the mediation of Christ. It is not simply me- 
 diation by power, or by intercession ; but at 
 first instance, in the order of nature, it is by 
 death. " And for this cause he is the medi- 
 tator of the new Testament, that, by means of 
 " death, for the redemption of the transgressions 
 "that were under the first Testament, they 
 " which are called might receive the promise 
 " of eternal inheritance *." It is upon the 
 ground of this grand act of mediation, inteii- 
 
 * Heb. is. 15 
 
102 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 tionally overlooked by the advocates of the 
 scheme of atonement by pure intercession, 
 that all his other acts of mediation proceed. — 
 We grant that he mediates in heaven by in- 
 tercession ; but it is in virtue of the perfection 
 of bis sacrifice on earth, that he is, as an advo- 
 cate in heaven, able to save to the uttermost 
 all that come unto God by him *. He me- 
 diates also by power as a king, but his media- 
 tion as a king proceeds on the ground of the 
 perfection of his sacrifice as a priest. " For 
 u it became him for whom are all things, and 
 <c by whom are all things, in bringing many 
 u sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
 " their salvation perfect through sufferings f." 
 
 Fifthly », The view which we have taken of the 
 rite of sprinkling, particularly as applied to 
 the mercy-seat, serves to illustrate the connec- 
 tion which our Lord's intercession in heaven 
 has with the atonement. 
 
 Is it asked, What relation then has our 
 Lord's advocacy in heaven to the atonement, 
 since atonement is not by simple intercession ? 
 In reply, we may notice three grand ends of 
 
 * Hcb. Tii 25. + Heb, ii. 10. 
 
DISSERTATION' ON THE ATONEMENT. IQj 
 
 his intercession with reference to the atone- 
 ment. First, His presence in heaven as 
 our advocate, serves to evince the perfection 
 of his sacrifice in earth as a propitiation for 
 sin. He died as the surety and represent- 
 ative of his people on earth, and it was as their 
 representative that he entered heaven ; but had 
 his sacrifice on earth not been accepted in their 
 room, he would never have been admitted as 
 their representative into the presence of God. 
 
 Secondly, It is the grand means by which the 
 atonement is carried into effect in the salva- 
 tion of all those for whom he died. Christ 
 appears in the presence of God in the twofold 
 character of an Advocate and a Prince. He 
 is a Priest upon his throne. Both respect the 
 official administration of the blessings of that 
 covenant which was ratified by his death. As 
 an Advocate he intercedes for, and receives 
 these blessings from the Father, and as a 
 Prince and a Saviour he bestows them upon 
 his people. — John xiv. 16. " 1 will pray the 
 M Father and Jie will send you another Com- 
 " forter," &c— Acts ii. 33. " Therefore be- 
 " ing by the right hand of God exalted, and 
 -•" having received of the Father the promise 
 
 E 2 
 
104? DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, 
 <* which ye now see and hear." But, 
 
 Thirdly j His continual intercession in hea- 
 ven, serves to demonstrate to rational creatures 
 in general, and to those higher orders of intelli- 
 gence who encircle God's eternal throne in par- 
 ticular, the connection which his death has with 
 the whole of God's gracious administration to- 
 wards our fallen race. By our Lord's death on 
 earth, the justice of God was satisfied, and his 
 law magnified and made honourable. But the 
 ends of his declarative glory required that the 
 means by which all this was accomplished, 
 should not only be published to mankind on 
 earth by the preaching of the cross ; but also 
 displayed in heaven by our Lord's appearance 
 there as a Lamb that had been slain. Heaven 
 is God's throne, from which he dispenses par- 
 don and all spiritual blessings to sinners oT 
 mankind : it was therefore necessary that the 
 higher orders of rational beings, who surround 
 that throne, and are employed as ministering 
 spirits to those who shall be the heirs of salva- 
 tion, should enjoy the means of contemplating 
 the consistency of a dispensation of mercy 
 with God's unspotted righteousness as the 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 105 
 
 Judge of the universe. These means are af- 
 forded them by our Lord's entrance into the 
 Holiest with his own blood. That this is 
 one end of his public advocacy in heaven, on 
 the ground of the sacrifice he offered on earth, 
 appears from the pattern of it in the earthly 
 sanctuary. The sprinkling of the blood of 
 the sacrifice of atonement upon the mercy- 
 seat, represented the connection the atone- 
 ment has With- a dispensation of mercy to- 
 wards fallen creatures ; as it renders it com- 
 patible with the claims of justice and the hon- 
 our of the law. — But to ascertain fully the end 
 of this ceremonial observance, we must attend 
 to the symbolical witnesses of it. These were 
 the cherubim which overshadowed the mercy- 
 seat, and had their faces towards it, and their 
 eyes fixed upon it. And it is beyond a doubt, 
 that they represented those principalities and 
 powers in heavenly places, who study with 
 ardour, and contemplate with admiration, 
 the manifold wisdom, boundless mercy, and 
 unspotted righteousness of God, as displayed 
 in man's redemption through the atoning 
 blood of Christ. " To the intent that now, un- 
 u to- the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 E 3 
 
166 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 u places, might be known by the church the 
 u manifold wisdom of God # ." — " Which, 
 u things the angels desire to look intof." 
 
 Sixthly, The passage which we have been 
 considering serves also to illustrate the meaning 
 of several terms used in the New Testament, to 
 denote the grand effects of our Lord's sacri- 
 fice; such t& propitiation and reconciliation. 
 
 These effects were prefigured by the rite of 
 sprinkling under the law, — and the type and 
 the antitype serve, when compared, to cast 
 light upon each other. 
 
 Sin exposes the sinner to all the effects of 
 God's judicial displeasure. " The wrath of 
 " God is revealed from heaven against all 
 " ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men." 
 Though God purposed from everlasting to 
 save a certain number of our race, the ac- 
 complishment of that purpose, as we have 
 already proved, is incompatible with the un- 
 tainted holiness, and unspotted righteousness 
 of God, but in the way of sin being expiated. 
 Hence the meaning of the word propitiation^ 
 as applied to the death of Christ in the New 
 
 * Eph. iii. 10. t 1 P^t. i. 12. } <A*q**f. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 107 
 
 Testament. His death does not incline God 
 to favour sinners ; but it opens up the channel 
 in which his eternal love vents to them, by 
 removing the guilt of sin, the cause of his ju- 
 dicial displeasure. " He is the propitiation 
 " for our sins *." " Herein is love, not 
 " that we loved God, but that he loved us, 
 " and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
 M our sins f." That this is the exact sense of 
 the term, appears from the pattern of it in the 
 earthly sanctuary. The relation which the 
 death of Christ has to the favour of God and 
 its rich fruits, was prefigured by the atone- 
 ment under the law being extended to the 
 holy place or the oracle. Though it is not 
 said that God was atoned by the blood of the 
 sacrifice offered for the literal Israel, yet atone- 
 ment was made for the holy place. The 
 blood of the sacrifice for sin on the great day 
 of atonement, was carried within the vail, and 
 sprinkled upon the mercy seat. This was the 
 pattern or figure of God's throne of grace. 
 This typical throne was above upon the ark 
 which contained the law, to shew that GodV 
 
 * 1 John ii. 2. f Chap. iv. 1Q. 
 
 E4 
 
1C8 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 gracious administration is founded on justice; 
 and it was sprinkled with blood, to shew that 
 mercy can be extended to the guilty, only in 
 the way of sin being punished according to its 
 desert. Thus prepared, justice and judgment 
 were the habitation of God's throne, while 
 mercy and truth went in glorious procession 
 before his face. The whole figure went to 
 shew, that the blood of an atoning sacrifice, 
 is the means through which God manifests 
 his mercy towards our guilty race, as by that 
 blood, the exercise of mercy is rendered com- 
 patible with his holiness, and the unspotted 
 righteousness of his administration, as the 
 moral Governor of the world. But Christ, 
 viewed as the author of a perfect righteous- 
 ness, for the justification of the church, is that 
 in substance of which the mercy-seat was only 
 a symbol. Hence, he is called the propitia- 
 tory *. " Whom God hath set forth a pro 
 " pitiatory through faith in his blood, to de- 
 " clare his righteousness for the remission of 
 44 sins-f." And as in the type, by the throne 
 .being sprinkled with the blood of an atoning 
 
 # fPtfOTJlgW* \ Rom. iii. [to- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 109 
 
 sacrifice, from which mercy emanated, the 
 honour of justice was preserved inviolate ; so 
 through the bJood of Christ, mercy is mani- 
 fested from the throne of God, in pardoning 
 the chief of sinners, in the way of justice be- 
 ing also brought into view in all its majesty 
 and grandeur. Hence, the apostle adds, in 
 the way of explaining how He is a propitiatory, 
 (verse 26.) " To declare I say at this time his 
 " righteousness, that he might be just, and 
 " the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." 
 We now proceed to the consideration of 
 the word reconciliation. Even the friends of 
 the doctrine of the atonement differ in opinion 
 about the application of this term. Some 
 maintain that, as used in the New Testament 
 with reference to the death of Christ, it is only 
 applicable to sinners; and denotes the moral 
 influence of his death upon their hearts, in 
 changing their dispositions towards God and 
 his law. It is pleaded by others, that recon- 
 ciliation by the death of Christ is mutual,- or 
 that we are not only reconciled to God, but 
 that God is also reconciled to us through hb 
 atoning sacrifice. 
 
1 10 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 We apprehend much confusion of thought 
 has arisen upon this subject from inattention 
 to the meaning of the terms, anger, wrath, 
 and displeasure, as ascribed to God, with re* 
 gard to sinners; together with the character 
 in which God is said on the one hand to be 
 angry with them, and on the other to be 
 pacified toward them. In entering on this 
 question these points should be fixed, and 
 then the difficulty of the subject would in a 
 great measure be removed. 
 
 First, God is to be viewed in the present 
 inquiry in the character of a Lawgiver and 
 Judge. It is in this character that he gives laws 
 to his rational creatures, exacts obedience 
 from them, is displeased with them when they 
 commit iniquity, and punishes them for their 
 transgressions: it must be in the same cha- 
 racter that he is reconciled, or said to be 
 pacified towards sinners of our race, through 
 the death of Christ. Secondly, The terms, 
 wrath, anger, and displeasure, do not im- 
 ply any thing like passion in God, as in the 
 creature ; but only denote his holy aversion 
 to moral evil, and his determinate purpose, as 
 a righteous Judge, to punish it, for the vin- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. Ill 
 
 dication of the honour of his law, and moral 
 administration. Thirdly, Men are the ob- 
 jects of God's judicial displeasure, not as 
 creatures but as sinners. These remarks, if 
 properly understood and applied, will, we ap- 
 prehend, go far to remove the seeming difficul- 
 ties in the way of admitting the application of 
 the term reconciliation to God. 
 
 First, It has been objected, that those for 
 whom Christ died were the objects of God's 
 eternal love, and consequently no reconciliation 
 is necessary on his part towards them. That 
 this select number were the objects of God's 
 benevolent regard from everlasting, will be 
 readily admitted. They were chosen in 
 Christ before the foundation of the world, 
 and predestinated through him unto the adop- 
 tion of children, according to the good 
 pleasure of God's will. But in what character 
 did God in purpose love them ? Not in the 
 same character in which they are the objects 
 of his displeasure, viewed as in their sins ; or 
 in which he is reconciled to them through the 
 atonement. He set his love upon them from 
 everlasting as a gracious Sovereign ; but they 
 are the objects of his judicial displeasure, as 
 
1 II DISSERTATION* ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 in their sins, in the character of a righteous 
 Judge. Besides, God did not set his love 
 upon them as a Sovereign, to the prejudice of 
 his judicial honours; for redemption through 
 the blood of Christ, is a plan devised by his 
 infinite wisdom for restoring the objects of his 
 benevolent regard to a state of friendship with 
 him as a judge, by the removal of sin, the cause 
 of his judicial displeasure. 
 
 Secondly, The doctrine of mutual recon- 
 ciliation has also been thought incompatible 
 with divine immutability. 
 
 The objection brought forward by the So- 
 cinians against the doctrine of the atonement 
 itself, upon this ground, will- be attended to 
 more fully in another part of this Treatise. 
 AVe shall only remark here, that if the recon- 
 ciliation pleaded for on thepartof God, implied 
 any change in him, it behoved to be in that 
 specific character in which he is said to be re- 
 conciled, namely, in the character of a Judge. 
 But, since this reconciliation is through a true 
 and proper satisfaction for sin, it implies no 
 such change. There is, indeed, a change of 
 administration on the part of God as a Judge, 
 relative to his fallen creatures ; but this infers 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. I 1 3 
 
 no change in God himself, since the law loses 
 none of its righteous claims, nor the Lawgiver 
 any of his moral honours. — Though the same 
 persons who were the objects of God's judicial 
 displeasure become, by reconciliation, the 
 objects of his judicial approbation and love — 
 though they are beloved who were not beloved, 
 and accepted who w 7 ere not accepted ; yet this 
 is effected, not by bringing down the law to 
 the moral condition of the sinner, but by the 
 condition of the sinner being brought up to the 
 law by sovereign mercy through the atonement. 
 God, in the character of a righteous Judge, 
 can only approve of and accept his creatures as 
 righteous : but those who were once sinners, 
 and, viewed as such, the objects of his judicial 
 displeasure, are constituted righteous by the 
 imputation of the righteousness of the Surety 
 to them ; so that he absolves them from con- 
 demnation, and receives them into favour in the 
 way of preserving inviolate all his honours as 
 a righteous Judge. He is just, and the j-usti- 
 fier of him who believeth in Jesus. 
 
 Thirdly j Another objection has been 
 brought forward, grounded on the language 
 of Scripture. > 
 
114- DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT* 
 
 It is pleaded by those who deny mutual re- 
 conciliation, that God is no where in Scrip- 
 ture said to be reconciled to us, but that every 
 where we are said to be reconciled to God. 
 This objection has been ably refuted by several 
 modern writers on the atonement. They have 
 made it appear in a most satisfactory manner, 
 that, in the original language of the New Tes- 
 tament, and in the Greek version of the Old; 
 the offending party is said to be reconciled to 
 the offended, not by laying aside his enmity 
 against him, but by giving him satisfaction in 
 some way or other for the offence committed. 
 Our Lord's own direction, respecting the re- 
 moval of offences between brethren, furnishes 
 us with an appropriate example. " Therefore 
 M if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
 " rememberest that thy brother hath ought 
 M against thee ; leave there thy gift before 
 " tne altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled 
 " to thy brother, and then come and offer 
 " thy gift *." Here the offending party is 
 said to be reconciled to the offended, while it 
 must be obvious to every one, that this was to 
 
 * Mat. y. 25. 2L 
 
Dissertation on the atonement. 1 15 
 
 be done by his giving him satisfaction, in 
 order to the removal of his displeasure. In 
 the case before us, God is the offended party — 
 the offence is wholly on our part ; so that even 
 when we are said to be reconciled to God, the 
 primary idea must be the removal, by satisfac- 
 tion, of the offence which had incurred his 
 displeasure. This is accomplished by the 
 death of Christ as our Surety. " And (having 
 " made peace through the blood of his cross) 
 " by him to reconcile all things unto himself; 
 " by him, I say, whether they be things in 
 11 earth, or things in heaven # ." 
 
 But there is another reason for this mode of 
 expression, which we the rather mention here, 
 as we apprehend it has not been sufficiently at- 
 tended to by others. In the wonderful eco- 
 nomy of redemption God sustains the twofold 
 character of righteous Judge, and a gracious 
 Sovereign. As a righteous judge he demands 
 satisfaction for sin, in order to the sinner's re- 
 storation to favour. It was to him as a Judge 
 that reconciliation was made for iniquity by 
 the sacrifice of Christ. And it is in the same 
 
 * Col. l 20, 
 
116 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 character that he absolves the sinner from 
 guilt, and receives him into favour on the 
 ground of that sacrifice. As a gracious So- 
 vereign, however, it was with him that the plan 
 of reconciliation originated : — and it is by him 
 in that character it is carried into effect 
 through the mediation of his own Son. As a 
 Sovereign he found out the ransom by which 
 the claims of justice are satisfied, in the ap- 
 pointment and mission of Christ to be the 
 propitiation for our sins : and it is as a Sove- 
 reign that he applies the reconciliation, by im- 
 puting the righteousness of the Surety to the 
 sinner, on the ground of which, as a Judge, 
 he absolves him from condemnation and re- 
 stores him to favour. This accounts for his 
 being described in Scripture, as the party 
 reconciling ; while it is to Him the satisfaction 
 is given by which the reconciliation is brought 
 about. " And all things are of God who 
 " hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus 
 " Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 
 u of reconciliation ; to wit, that God was in 
 iC Christ reconciling the world unto himself 
 " not imputing their trespasses unto them, and 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 217 
 
 4i hath committed unto us the word of recon- 
 " ciliation *." 
 
 We shall only add, that, in the expres lan- 
 guage of Scripture, God is said to be pacified 
 towards sinners, and this involves all that is 
 included in reconciliation. M That thou 
 " mayest remember and be confounded, and 
 " never open thy mouth any more because of 
 " thy shame, when I am pacified towards th^e, 
 " for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord 
 " God f, n We are aw are that it has also 
 been denied that this word is applicable to 
 God. We are told that the passage may be 
 read, When I have prepared a covering for 
 thee. But this translation comes to the 
 same thing ; for reconciliation, as it respects 
 God, consists in his judicial displeasure being 
 turned away from sinners, by their guilt being 
 covered or cancelled by the atoning blood of 
 Christ. 
 
 Fourthly, The only remaining objection 
 to the application of the term reconciliation 
 to God, which we can at present recollect, 
 arises from the time when, in some passages 
 
 * % Cor. v. 18, 19. f E*&. » 63- 
 
118 DISSERTATION" ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of Scripture, it is said to be effected. — It may 
 be supposed that if reconciliation had referred 
 to the turning, away of God's judicial dis- 
 pleasure, it would have been limited to the 
 period of our Lord's death, when he put 
 away sin by the sacrifice of himself; which is 
 not the case. To remove this difficulty, we 
 need only attend to the obvious distinction 
 between the making of reconciliation and its 
 application. Reconciliation is made by re- 
 moving the ground of quarrel, by means of 
 satisfaction. This was done, completely done 
 by Christ at his death. He put away sin by 
 the sacrifice of himself. He punished trans- 
 gression, made an end of sins, made reconcilia- 
 tion for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting 
 righteousness. — This he accomplished, once 
 for all, not only for those who had lived un- 
 der the former economy, but also for those 
 who should be brought forth, and live in dif- 
 ferent and distant ages. This reconciliation, 
 therefore, needs to be applied to them, indivi- 
 dually, for whom it was made ; in order to 
 their enjoying the benefit of it. This is done 
 in their justification. Prior to this change of 
 their state before God> they are in their sins, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 1 19 
 
 under condemnation, and children of wrath 
 even as others. But when God imputes 
 righteousness without works, or reckons the 
 righteousness of the Surety to them, they be- 
 come the righteousness of God in him ; and 
 on this ground, and simply on this ground, 
 they are absolved from condemnation, and 
 introduced into a state of peace with God. — 
 This peace is realised in the heart and con- 
 science by faith, as it improves the righteous- 
 ness of Christ as the alone ground of our 
 justification before God. — It is to the applica- 
 tion of reconciliation that the Apostle refers, 
 when he mentions it as consisting in pardon: 
 " To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling 
 " the world unto himself, not imputing their 
 11 trespasses unto them *." And also when he 
 connects peace with justifying faith : " There- 
 M fore being justified by faith, we have peace 
 " with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ f." 
 Having offered these remarks for removing 
 difficulties, we now proceed to state a few 
 arguments in support of reconciliation on the 
 part of God as already explained. 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 19. f Rem. v. 1. 
 
120 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Fir sty It appears from the state of sinners 
 before God prior to their interest in Christy 
 compared with their condition posterior to it. 
 Sinners, as such, are every where repre- 
 sented as the objects of God's judicial displea- 
 sure or wrath. " God is angry with the wick- 
 " ed every day # ." The foolish shall not stand 
 in his " sight" — he " hateth all the work- 
 M ers of iniquity f." But this is the condition 
 of God's elect, as well as of the rest of mankind* 
 considered as in their sins. " Among whom 
 M also we all had our conversation in times 
 " past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 
 " desires of the flesh, and of the mind. And 
 f* were by nature the children of vcrath even 
 ** as others J." Compare this with their stare 
 when justified through the redemption which 
 is in Christ. M They havejjeace with God §.- 
 M They are freed from condemnation ||. They 
 " are accepted in the Beloved ^[." But to what 
 does this change amount ? Most certainly to 
 reconciliation on the part of God, or the turn- 
 ing away of his judicial displeasure from the 
 
 * Ps. vii. 11. f Vs. v. 5. J Eph. ii. 5. 
 
 § Rom. v. 1. , Ij Rom. viii. 1. *jj Bph. i, l>. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 121 
 
 sinner. It is not a change of heart or dispo- 
 sition produced in the sinner, but the change 
 of his state before God in the character of a 
 Judge: reconciliation must therefore respect 
 God in that character 
 
 Secondly, It appears from the character in 
 which Christ acted when he made the recon- 
 ciliation, which is carried into effect with re- 
 gard tothe sinner in his justification. The mak- 
 ing of reconciliation, as we have seen already, 
 lies in the removal of the ground of quarrel 
 by satisfaction. But in the present case, this 
 is invariably ascribed to Christ as a Priest. 
 Sin is the ground of the quarrel between God 
 and his fallen creatures; but Christ put aw r ay 
 sin by the sacrifice of himself, and thereby 
 made reconciliation for all those for whom he 
 shed his precious blood. But to whom did he 
 jnake this reconciliation ? Not, certainly, to the 
 sinner, but to God. God had done sinners no 
 wrong, they had no just claim against God, 
 the offence was wholly on their part; it was 
 therefore from them that satisfaction was due, 
 and this satisfaction Christ gave to Divine justice 
 lis our Surety when he offered up himself. Re- 
 sides, this was done by Christ in the character 
 
122 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of a Priest; but his sacerdotal functions, though 
 exercised for man, have God for their object. 
 He is a High- Priest for men in things pertain- 
 ing to God. It was to God He offered his 
 sacrifice, it is with God he intercedes ; it must 
 therefore have been to God he made reconcilia- 
 tion for iniquity. God must therefore be the 
 party whose displeasure is turned away in all 
 cases where reconciliation is said to be effected 
 by the sacrifice of Christ. Reconciliation, as 
 it respects the removal of the sinner's enmity 
 against God, though connected with his sa- 
 crifice, is more immediately the effect of his 
 power as a king. It is referred accordingly 
 in Scripture, not to his oblation on Calvary, 
 but to his administration from the throne of 
 the heavens. " The Lord said unto my lord, 
 ¥ sit thou at my right hand, &c. — The Lord 
 " shall send the rod of thy strength out of 
 M Zion, rule thou in the midst of thine ene- 
 " mies. Thy people shall be willing in the day 
 M of thy power, &c # ." 
 
 Thirdly, This also appears from the recon- 
 ciliation of which we are speaking being re- 
 presented as actually made, when Christ shed 
 
 * Ps. ex. 1, % 0. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 123 
 
 his blood on Calvary, and that, too, when 
 those for whom he died were yet sinners. 
 The application of this reconciliation on the 
 part of God to the sinner, as we have already 
 seen, takes place only when he is brought into 
 a justified state; but the making of it by 
 satisfaction was completed at once, when 
 Christ suffered without the gates of Jerusalem. 
 It cannot therefore respect a change of 
 disposition in the sinner, but the removal of 
 God's judicial displeasure by satisfaction for 
 sin. In this sense it must be understood when 
 the Apostle tells us, "Wherefore in all things 
 " it behoved him to be made like unto his ore- 
 <c thren ; that he might be a merciful and 
 " faithful High Priest, in things pertaining 
 w to God, to make reconciliation for the sins 
 
 * of the people*." And likewise when he says, 
 " We also joy in God, through our Lord 
 " Jesus Christ, by whom we have nam received 
 11 the reconciliation f." This also must be the 
 reconciliation foretold ift ancient Prophecy, 
 which was to be made at the end of seventy 
 prophetical weeks. " Seventy weeks are de- 
 
 # IhxTKirUi Heb. ii. 17. j. xXTciMxyry *Um v. 1J 
 
124? DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT* 
 
 €4 termined upon thy people, and upon thy 
 " holy city, to finish the transgression, and 
 " to make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
 " ciliation for iniquity *," &c. Moreover, 
 this reconciliation was made while we were 
 yet sinners, it cannot therefore respect a 
 change of heart in the sinner, since this 
 change upon an enemy makes him a friend. In 
 fine, this reconciliation is distinguished from 
 salvation ; but that reconciliation which lies 
 in a change of the sinner's heart with reference 
 to God and his law, is one principal part of 
 salvation : it cannot therefore, with any pro- 
 priety, be distinguished from it. " For if 
 <* when we were enemies, we were reconciled 
 " to God by the death of his Son, much more 
 ii being reconciled we shall be saved by his 
 " lifef." We must therefore conclude, that 
 the reconciliation made by the death of Christ 
 respects God, and that it regards the turning 
 away of his judicial displeasure by a true and 
 proper satisfaction for sin. 
 
 Fourthly, Reconciliation by the death of 
 Christ, as it respects God in the character of 
 
 * Dan. h 24. f Rom. v. 10, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 125 
 
 an offended Judge, may also be confirmed and 
 illustrated by its type in the earthly sanctuary. 
 The word atonement, as used in the Old 
 Testament with respect to the Levitical sacri- 
 fices, exactly corresponds to the term reconcili- 
 ation, as used in the New w r ith reference to the 
 death of Christ. But atonement by the blood 
 of the former respected the throne or adminis- 
 tration of God as a Judge in the earthly sanc- 
 tuary. The blood of the sacrifice of atonement 
 was carried within the vail, and sprinkled on 
 the mercy-seat $ and, by this rite, atonement is 
 .said to have been made for the holy place # . 
 In like manner, by performing this rite, the 
 priest is said to have reconciled the holy 
 place f. All this was intended to point out 
 the reference which the atonement had to God 
 as the means of turning away his judicial dis- 
 pleasure, to make room for the manifestation 
 of his sovereign mercy towards his fallen 
 creatures. But the mercy- seat was only a 
 figure of God's throne in heaven, from which 
 he dispenses pardon to guilty men ; and its 
 reconciliation by the blood of balls and of 
 
 * Lev xvi 15, 16. f Ycr.-'j f:0. 
 
126 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 goats, a type of the great reconciliation by the 
 blood of Christ, as it respects God as a Judge 
 in the heavenly sanctuary. " It was neces- 
 t€ sary that the patterns of things in the 
 " heavens should be purified with these; but 
 " the heavenly things themselves with better 
 " sacrifices than these. For Christ is not en- 
 " tered into the holy places made with hands, 
 u which are the figures of the true ; but into 
 " heaven itself, there to appear in the pre- 
 M sence of God for us V Reconciliation by 
 the blood of Christ, therefore, regards God, 
 viewed as dispensing pardon to sinners from 
 the throne of the heavens, in a way exactly 
 corresponding to that in which atonement re- 
 spected him as manifesting himself as gracious 
 to them, by the symbol of his presence in the 
 earthly sanctuary. The word translated atone- 
 ment , signifies covering. The blood of the legal 
 sacrifice, as sprinkled on the people, pointed 
 out its efficacy for protecting them from 
 vengeance. But as the sinner could only be 
 protected in the way of the honour of the 
 law being supported ; the atonement w r as 
 
 * Heb. ix, 25, 2-i. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 121 
 
 extended to the book of the law, when the 
 first covenant was dedicated, and afterwards 
 to the mercy-seat which was above upon the 
 ark which contained it. This served to shew, 
 that all the claims of the law were satisfied, 
 and its honours vindicated, while mercy was 
 extended to guilty men. But what this was 
 in type, reconciliation by the blood of Christ 
 is in substance. The wTath of God is reveal- 
 ed from his throne in heaven against our race 
 viewed as fallen in Adam : but through Christ 
 peace is proclaimed to them from the same 
 throne ; and the blood of Christ is the means 
 of this favourable change of divine administra- 
 tion towards them, which is called reconcilia- 
 tion, as it put away sin, the cause of God's 
 judicial displeasure. 
 
 We now proceed to consider reconciliation 
 as it respects the sinner, or denotes a change 
 of his heart and disposition towards God and 
 his laws. — Reconciliation, as it respects God, 
 paves the way for the reconciliation of the 
 sinner. As under the law the book of the 
 covenant was first sprinkled and then the 
 people; or the mercy-seat and then the altar: 
 so our Lord's entrance into heaven with his 
 f 2 
 
128 DISSERTATION ON THE ATOXEMKXT. 
 
 own blood, paved the way for the sprinkling 
 of the nations by the application of the efficacy 
 of the atonement to their consciences, to 
 purge them from dead works to the service of 
 the living God. This is to be distinguished, 
 however, from the application of reconcilia- 
 tion as it respects God in conferring pardon 
 on the sinner. That only changes his state 
 before God in the character of a Judge. The 
 change now to be considered is a change of 
 heart or disposition produced in the sinner 
 towards God and his law — a change from 
 enmity to love. It is to be considered at the 
 same time as the effect of divine power in re- 
 generation, and as produced by the moral in- 
 fluence of the atonement in conversion. 
 
 First, Let us attend to it as the effect of 
 divine power in regeneration. Man, in his 
 natural state, is dead in trespasses and sins, 
 and to every good work reprobate. But in 
 regeneration the stonv heart is taken out of 
 his flesh, and God gives him an heart of flesh. 
 This is a change produced by divine power. 
 " We are his workmanship, created id Christ 
 M Jesus unto good works *." " It is God who 
 
 * Eph. ii. 10. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 129 
 
 " worked] in you both to will and to do of his 
 " o-ood pleasure*." — The exercise of this 
 power, however, has an express reference 
 to the atonement. That supernatural influ- 
 ence which changes the sinner's heart, and of 
 an enemy and a rebel against God, makes 
 him a friend and an obedient subject, flows 
 in the channel of Christ's righteousness. 
 " Not by works of righteousness which we 
 " have done, but according to his mercy he 
 " saved us, by the washing of regeneration, 
 " and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; 
 11 which he shed on us abundantly through 
 *' Jesus Christ our Saviour f." 
 
 Secondly, We may now attend to it as pro- 
 duced, in conversion, by the moral influence 
 of the atonement. Conversion, as well as re- 
 generation, is the work of God. The same 
 divine power necessary for renewing the 
 faculties of the mind, is necessary to draw 
 them forth to exercise in turning from sin to 
 the service of the living God. But, as the 
 sinner becomes active in conversion, so he is 
 influenced by motives, in a way corresponding 
 
 * Phil. ii. 13. t Tit iii 5, 6. 
 
 f3 
 
120 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 to Iiis rational nature ; and these motives are 
 connected, inseparably connected, with the 
 atonement. — Formerly his heart was enmity 
 against God, but now he loves God with a 
 supreme love; and this change of disposition 
 arises from a believing improvement of God's 
 love to sinners of our race, as displayed in the 
 mission of Lis own Son to be the Saviour of the 
 world. " We love him because he first loved 
 " us *S Formerly the enmity of the sinner 
 against God was fostered by guilt in the con- 
 science ; so that all his attempts to serve God 
 proceeded, not from love to him as a Father, 
 but rrcm the dread of his avenging wrath. But 
 the faith of pardon through the atoning blood 
 of Christ at once pacifies and purges the con- 
 science from dead works. " How much more 
 " shall the blood of Christ, who through the eter- 
 " nal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, 
 " purge your conscience from dead works to 
 M serve the living God f." Formerly he lived 
 to himself ; — the honour of God constituted no 
 part of the end of his conduct. But now the 
 amazing love of God in sending his Son to be 
 
 * lJolmiv. 19. t Heb fc. 1*. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 131 
 
 the propitiation for our sins, and the love of 
 Christ in giving his life a ransom for many, 
 fill his heart with the most lively sentiments 
 of gratitude, and powerfully incline him to 
 live no longer to himself, but to him who died 
 and rose again. — This is reconciliation as it 
 respects the sinner — that reconciliation which 
 i^ without doubt inculcated in the pathetic 
 address of Paul to the Corinthians. " Now 
 " then we are ambassadors for Christ, as 
 " though God did beseech you by usj we 
 " pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled 
 " to God *," 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 20. 
 
 33* D OF THE FIRST FART. 
 
[ 132 ] 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 ON THE KATURE AND TRUTH OF THE 
 ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 
 
 1 he Necessity of an Atonement for sin, m 
 prder to its remission, has been evinced by 
 several arguments in the preceding part of 
 this Treatise. It is now proposed to consider 
 the origin of die Atonement revealed in the 
 gospel, its nature, and the manner in which, 
 it has been carried into effect. 
 
 To atone for transgression was not in the 
 power of sinners themselves. No man can 
 redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom 
 for him. The redemption of the soul is pre- 
 cious, and would have ceased for ever, had it 
 depended on the wisdom or power of any 
 creature. The discoveries made by man in 
 natural science are truly astonishing ; but how- 
 God should be glorified, and sinners saved, is 
 a discovery which far exceeds his powers. 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 133 
 
 These were exerted for ages to no effect. 
 The most barbarous nations under heaven 
 have manifested a conviction of the necessity 
 of an atonement for sin ; and tho thinking 
 part of mankind, in every nation, have, though 
 in vain, exerted their powers to discover an 
 adequate means for its accomplishment. But 
 after all their researches, the question remains 
 unsolved in every region of the globe where 
 the gospel is unknown. " Wherewith shall 
 " I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
 " before the high God ? Shall I come before 
 11 him with burnt offerings, with calves of a 
 " year old ? Will the Lord be pleased with 
 " thousands of rams, or with ten thousands 
 " of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first born 
 " for my transgression, the fruit of my body 
 " for the sin of my soul * ?* 
 
 The doctrine of the atonement by the death 
 of Christ is wholly supernatural. As God 
 found out this knowledge of witty invention, so 
 it is to the inspiration of the Almighty that 
 we are indebted for all that we know of its na- 
 ture and results: As it is written, " Eye hath 
 
 * Micah. vi. 6, 7. 
 
 f5 
 
\°A IMSrF.rvTATION 0!> THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 u notscen,nor ear heard, neither have entered 
 H into the heart of man, the things which Goci 
 11 hath prepared for them that love him. But 
 i; God hath revealed them unto us by his 
 " Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things 
 " yea, the deep things of God*." In the 
 gospel, " God hath set forth" his Son Christ 
 Jesus, " a propitiation through faith in his 
 " blood ; to declare his righteousness for the 
 i; remission of sins that are past through the 
 vi forbearance of God : To declare, I say, at 
 *< this time, his righteousness, that he might 
 * ; be just, and the Justifier of him who believ- 
 * 4 eth in Jesus f. ,J We now proceed to in- 
 quire into the essential properties of an atone- 
 ment for sin -, and to shew that all these are 
 included in our Lord's obedience unto death, 
 as the Surety of the church. 
 
 In the prosecution of this part of our sub- 
 ject, the first thing that comes under our con- 
 sideration is the doctrine of substitution. The 
 idea of atonement by substitution has prevailed 
 wherever the rite of animal sacrifice has been 
 observed ; and, as the latter has been practised 
 
 Jk 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. | Rom, iii. 23, 23. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 135 
 
 anions all nations, so the former has been dis- 
 cs ' 
 
 carded by no class of men under heaven, ex- 
 cept the avowed enemies of the cross of Christ. 
 This opinion must have been coeval with the 
 Jaw of sacrifice, since it is involved in the very 
 design of its institution. It is obvious, from 
 the Mosaic history, that the rite of sacrifice, 
 as a part of religious worship, obtained as 
 early as the days of Abel. That this rite does 
 not belong to moral natural worship, all will 
 admit ; it must, therefore, have had, even at 
 this early period, a divine sanction, as a rite 
 of instituted worship. God will approve and 
 accept of those religious observances only 
 which have the sanction of his authority; 
 but he had a respect to Abel, and to his of- 
 fering : it must therefore have been presented 
 in obedience to his express commandment *• 
 It is no less evident, that Abel viewed his of- 
 fering as slain by substitution, to prefigure the 
 vicarious death of the Seed promised to his 
 parents in paradise 5 for he offered iiis sacri- 
 fice in faith ; and his faith, without doubt, had 
 a respect to the mediation of Christ, as the 
 
 * Gen. iv. 4. 
 F 6 
 
I 36 DISSERTATION OX THE ATOXEMEIfJ. 
 
 alone ground of the acceptance of his person 
 ahd services with God. Had this not been 
 the case, the example of Abel had been 
 brought forward by the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, for illustrating the efficacy of 
 faith in Christ, to no purpose. " By faith 
 44 Abel offered unto God a more excellent 
 " sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained 
 <c witness that lie was righteous; God testify- 
 " ing of bis gifts, and by it he being dead yet 
 " spcakethV 
 
 The universal practice of offering sacrifice 
 in the heathen world, was, without doubt, the 
 result of this original Divine appointment. 
 The Gentiles soon lost sight of the proper 
 object of worship, and the instituted meaning 
 of the rite of sacrifice, or its typical reference 
 to the death of Christ ; but the constant chal- 
 lenges of a guilty conscience, kept alive among 
 them the idea of expiation for sin by a vicari- 
 ous sacrifice. It was under the impression that 
 offended Deity might be pleased with a vicari- 
 ous sacrifice, as an atonement for their crimes, 
 that they conducted their numerous victims 
 to the altars of their gods. 
 
 * Heb. xi. 1. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 137 
 
 The whole system of sacrificial rites, under 
 the economy of Moses, proceeded upon the 
 principle of atonement by substitution. It 
 was merely the original law of sacrifice upon 
 a larger scale, directing the views of the wor- 
 shippers forward to the same object ; namely j 
 the vicarious death of the Son of God in hu- 
 man nature. The Paschal Lamb was a sacri- 
 fice for sin, and slain as a substitute for the 
 first- born of Israel, as appears from its blood 
 being the appointed means of their deliverance 
 from the destroying angel. The sacrifice of- 
 fered for sin on the great day of atonement, 
 was also of vicarious import. This appears 
 from the emblematical transference of the 
 guilt of all the people, by the laying on of 
 the hands of the priest, to the scape-goat^ 
 and from the blood of the other goat being 
 actually shed for the specified purpose of mak- 
 ing atonement for the whole congregation. 
 The figure was double, the more effectually 
 to represent the nature and efficacy of the 
 death of Christ. The one goat was slain, to 
 shew that Jesus was to expiate sin by the 
 shedding of his blood -> the other, with the 
 ioad of atoned guilt, was sent by the hand of 
 
138 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 a stranger into the wilderness, to point out 
 the efficacy of his death, for cancelling and 
 bearing away the sins of his people; so that 
 they should never more be brought against 
 them in judgment # . All the sin-offerings, 
 and trespass-offerings, under that dispensa- 
 tion, were slain in sacrifice instead of the 
 guilty. They all died as substitutes, or un- 
 der the load of imputedguilt. 
 
 But, to what purpose was all the waste of 
 animal life, for such it really was, unless we 
 admit that the rite of sacrifice was appointed 
 for the express purpose of typifying the sub- 
 stitution and death of the Son of God in hu- 
 man nature, in the room of guilty men? The 
 typical relation of these sacrifices to the death 
 of Christ, is frequently marked in the inspired 
 volume. To shew that Christ was the anti- 
 type of the Paschal Lamb, the Baptist pointed 
 him out to his disciples by that designation ; 
 " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 " the sins of the world f." To the same pur- 
 pose we are told, that we " were not redeemed 
 44 with corruptible things, such as silver and 
 u gold, from our vain conversation received 
 * Lev. xvi. e— 26. j Joliu i. 29. 
 
Dissertation on the atonement. 139 
 
 " by tradition from our fathers, but with the 
 41 precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb with- 
 14 out blemish and without spot*." That 
 He is the antitype of all the sin-offerings and 
 trespass-offerings under the law, appears from 
 their names, when devoted to be slain in sacri- 
 fice, being transferred to him. Thus we are 
 told, that he was made sin for us : " For He 
 u hath made him to be sin for us, who knew 
 11 no sin ; that we might be made the righte- 
 M ousncss of God in himf." Also, that He 
 was made a curse for us : 44 Christ hath re- 
 c< deemed us from the curse of the law, being 
 44 made a curse for us J. J> These animals are 
 said to have borne the sin or iniquity of those 
 in whose stead they were substituted, as they 
 endured, in figure, its penal consequences, by 
 a violent death. " Wherefore have ye not 
 44 eaten the sin-offering in the holy place, 
 44 seeing it is most holy, and God hath given 
 M it to you to bear the iniquity of the con- 
 " gregation, to make atonement for them 
 44 before the Lord §." The same word is used 
 in the original, with reference to the suf- 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. f 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
 t Gal. iii. 13. $ Lev. x. 17. 
 
HO DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 ferings and death of Christ, to denote, that 
 He, as the antitype of the sin-offering, died 
 under the load of imputed guilt, or in the 
 way of enduring its penal consequences : 
 " Surely He hath borne our griefs, and car- 
 " ried our sorrows ; yet we did esteem him 
 " stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." 
 " Therefore, will I divide him a portion with 
 11 the great, and he shall divide the spoil with 
 " the strong ; because He hath poured out 
 " his soul unto death ; and He was numbered 
 " with the transgressors $ and He bare the 
 " sin of many, and made intercession for the 
 u transgressors # ." A similar expression is 
 used by the Apostle Peter, to denote, that 
 the death of Christ was penal and vicarious. 
 " Who his ownself bare our sins in his own 
 " body, on the tree, that we being dead to 
 " sin, should live unto righteousness; by 
 " whose stripes ye were healed f." 
 
 In fine, the substitution of Christ in the 
 room of the guilty, and the vicarious nature 
 of his death, are asserted in passages almost 
 innumerable throughout the New Testament. 
 
 * Isa. liii. 4, 12. f 1 Pet. ii. 24. 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. Ill 
 
 c< He gave his life a ransom for many *." 
 " He was once offered to bear the sins of 
 11 many ■}*•" " He suffered for sin, the just 
 " for the unjust $." " He, by himself, purged 
 " our sins§." " He was delivered for our 
 " offences ||." " He gave himself for us, an 
 " offering and a sacrifice to Godf." " His 
 <c blood was shed for the remission of sins **" 
 
 Thus far, we have considered it proper to 
 staie the doctrine of our Lord's substitution 
 from Scripture ; but the consistency of the 
 doctrine, with the view w r e have given of 
 the necessity of punishment in the case of 
 transgression, is the point to which we mean, 
 more particularly, to turn the attention of 
 our readers. 
 
 We admit, that punishment by substitution, 
 is not according to the ordinary course of jus- 
 tice, or the precise letter of the divine law, 
 which awards indignation and wrath to the 
 soul that doth evil. But if it be found that it 
 is a plan by which the ends of justice are more 
 effectually gained, and the moral purposes of 
 
 * Mat xx. 28. f Hek ix. 28. J 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 j iJeb i. 5. |j Rom. iv. 25. «j: Kph. v. 4 
 
 ** Mai xxvi. 28. 
 
142 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 the sanction of the law more effectually secured, 
 than they could possibly have been by the 
 personal punishment of transgressors ; then 
 it will appear, that it is a plan not only 
 Consistent w T ith the untainted holiness, un- 
 spotted righteousness, and immutable truth 
 of God, but also declarative of his unsearch- 
 able wisdom. 
 
 1st) That this is the case will appear, if we 
 attend to the moral ends of punishment, 
 whether considered as only denounced in the 
 penal sentence of the law, or as actually in- 
 ilicted upon transgressors. 
 
 The design of a penal sentence as annexed 
 to the divine law, may be considered, Firstj 
 As it regards the Lawgiver himself. The mo- 
 ral law is a transcript of God's moral pefec- 
 tions— a mirror in which we contemplate him 
 in the beauties of holiness. The penal sen- 
 tence of the law T , is an expression of his su- 
 preme delight in his own rectitude, and his 
 determinate purpose to vindicate its honour, 
 when insulted, by the condign punishment of 
 transgression. Secondly, It may be viewed as 
 it regards the subjects of the law. In thi^ 
 case, it has for its end to deter men from sin- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 143 
 
 wing, and not their punishment ; for the power 
 of the Lawgiver was sufficient to have secured 
 this, independently of any such threatening. 
 The threatenings of the law, without doubt, 
 hold out to the subjects of the Divine govern- 
 ment, what will be the fatal consequences of 
 transgression ; but what we assert is, that the 
 immediate end of their denunciation is not 
 punishment, but the prevention of it, by de- 
 terring men from sinning, and consequently, 
 from incurring the punishment due to trans- 
 gression, " God does not threaten, (says a 
 " celebrated divine), that men may sin and 
 " be punished ; but that they may not sin, and 
 11 so escape the punishment threatened; and 
 if therefore, the higher the threatening runs, 
 " so much the more mercy and goodness there 
 41 is in it; because it is so much the more likely 
 " to hinder men from incurring the penalty 
 " threatened *." 
 
 This being the direct and immediate end of 
 Divine threatenings, let us advert to what has 
 been advanced in the former part of this Dis- 
 sertation, concerning the moral end of punish- 
 ment f. It was there shewn, that the execti- 
 
 * Tillotscifs Sermons. f See page 42, 45. 
 
144 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 tion of the penalty of the law upon transgres- 
 sors, has not for its end their destruction, 
 but the vindication of the honour of the law, 
 and the moral character and administration of 
 the Lawgiver. Had the penalty of the law as 
 threatened, had for its end the punishment 
 of the subjects of the Divine government, or 
 as inflicted, the destruction of the sinner ; then 
 its design could not have been followed out, or 
 the end of justice gained, but by the personal 
 punishment of transgressors. But since this 
 is the end of neither, and since the supreme end 
 of both, is the vindication of God's honour; 
 atonement by substitution, is fully adequate 
 to its accomplishment, and, consequently, 
 consistent with the holiness, justice, and ve- 
 racity of God. 
 
 2d/*/, If it be found that the ends of punish- 
 ment are more effectually gained by the vica- 
 rious sacrifice of Christ, than they could have 
 been by the personal punishment of transgres- 
 sors ; then this plan will appear, not only con- 
 sistent with the holiness and justice of God, 
 but also eminently illustrative of his bound- 
 less wisdom. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 145 
 
 It has been already admitted, that the 
 punishment of sin by a vicarious sacrifice, is 
 a deviation from the ordinary course of justice. 
 That such a deviation is worthy of God, when 
 it tends to secure more effectually the moral 
 ends of punishment, may be vindicated from 
 analogy. A miracle is a deviation from the 
 ordinary laws of the Divine government in 
 the natural world ; but such a deviation indi- 
 cates, not only the power, but also the wisdom 
 of the Supreme Governor of the universe, 
 when made subservient to the more full illus- 
 tration of his glory. A corresponding end is 
 gained by this miracle in the moral system. 
 For, 
 
 First, By the substitution, and vicarious 
 death of the Son of God, the supreme end of 
 judicial infliction, namely, the vindication of 
 God's honour, is more effectually promoted, 
 than it could possibly have been by the per- 
 sonal punishment oi transgressors. 
 
 Is one end of judicial Miction the vindica- 
 tion of God's holiness ? This end is more effect- 
 ually promoted by the death of Christ, than it 
 could have been by the eternal destruction of 
 the whole of our fallen race. Kothin^ short of 
 
145 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 punishment infinite in kind, or in degree, can 
 afford a full expression of God's hatred of sin ; 
 and of such punishment, the wicked themselves 
 are utterly incapable, from the limited nature 
 of their powers. But in the death of Christ, . 
 we have an adequate expression of God's su- 
 preme delight in holiness, and his irreconcil- 
 able aversion to moral evil. He must have 
 an infinite delight in rectitude, and an infinite 
 hatred of sin, since, when our iniquities were 
 laid upon Christ, though his Son, his only 
 begotten Son, his beloved Son, in whom He 
 is well pleased, He spared him not. " God 
 " spared not his own Son *." " It pleased 
 u the Lord to bruise him, and to put him to 
 44 grief f." For a similar reason, the personal 
 punishment of the wicked can, in no limited 
 period of duration, fully display the glory, or 
 vindicate the injured honours of Divine jus- 
 tice. Sin, as we shall presently see, is a viola- 
 iion of infinite obligation ; it must, therefore, 
 be an evil of infinite demerit. But such a 
 crime, the sufferings of no creature can ex- 
 opiate in any period of duration. Justice will 
 
 * Rom. -'■'.. \ Isa. iiil 10. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 147 
 
 be prosecuting its righteous claims upon fallen 
 angels, and reprobate men, while eternal ages 
 revolve : but at no assignable period will these 
 claims be satisfied, or their debt paid. By the 
 death of Christ, however, the claims of justice 
 are fully satisfied, and the law not only fulfilled, 
 but also magnified and made honourable. If, 
 in this case, we take into the account the dig- 
 nity of the sufferer, the punishment was fully 
 adequate to the offence The same observa- 
 tion applies to Divine veracity, as pledged in 
 the sanction of the law. In the case of wicked 
 men, and fallen angels, God will be eternally 
 executing the penal sentence of his holy law, 
 but at no assignable period will that sentence 
 be fully executed ; and, consequently, at no 
 period will complete reparation be made by 
 their sufferings to the insulted honours of Di- 
 vine truth. But this is completely effected by 
 the death of Christ. Upon him the penal sen- 
 tence of the law has taken full effect. He 
 drank the cup of suffering which it awards to 
 transgression, and wrung out the bitter dregs 
 thereof. 
 
 Seco;/dh/, All the subordinate ends of punish- 
 ment are also more effectually promoted by the 
 
14-S DISSERTATION ON* THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 vicarious death of Christ, than they otherwise 
 
 could have been. 
 
 One end of punishment, as it respects so- 
 ciety, is to deter others from the commission 
 of those crimes which subject to it, and to 
 promote their attachment to rectitude and 
 social order. And the more striking the dis- 
 play which the examples of judicial infliction 
 afford of the energy and purity of the law, 
 and the justice of the government, the greater 
 their tendency to promote these ends. But 
 the whole of the Divine procedure in punish- 
 ing moral evil in the persons of transgressors, 
 whether human or angelic, in time and eter- 
 nity, will fall infinitely short of affording such 
 a display of the exceeding evil of sin, and the 
 spotless holiness and untainted righteousness 
 of God, as that which is exhibited to the view 
 of the moral creation in the death of Christ. 
 By his death, therefore, as a Surety, this end 
 of penal infliction is more effectually promoted, 
 than it could have been, had the whole of our 
 fallen family been subjected to eternal punish- 
 ment in their own persons. 
 
 Another end of punishment, as it respects 
 society. U the protection of the upright and 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 145 
 
 orderly part of the community. In other 
 cases, this end can seldom, if ever, be gained 
 by vicarious punishment. Though a righte- 
 ous man were to die in the room of his wicked 
 neighbour, who had forfeited his life to the 
 injured laws of his country, — his death would 
 give no -security to society against future in- 
 jury, and that, too, from the same person, as 
 long as the malefactor survived. Unless his 
 dispositions were changed, society would still 
 be exposed to new injuries from him. But 
 the moral world has ample security against 
 future injury from those for whom Christ 
 died; since He did not shed his blood for 
 them that they may sin with impunity, but 
 that He might redeem them from all ini- 
 quity, and purify -unto himself a peculiar 
 people, zealous of good works*. From these 
 remarks, it is evident, that all the moral ends 
 of punishment are more effectually promoted 
 by the vicarious death of Christ, than they 
 could have been by the personal punishment 
 of transgressors ; and consequently, i;he plan 
 of substitution must be worthy of God, not 
 
 * Tit. ii. H. 
 
 G 
 
A 50 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 only as a holy, but also as an infinitely wise, 
 Being. 
 
 Sdly, The wisdom of this plan will farther 
 appear, if we consider that thereby provision 
 is made for a more full discovery of the glory 
 of the Divine character, and, at the same 
 time, for a greater accession of good to the 
 rational creation. 
 
 Had the whole of our fallen race been left 
 to perish, like the angels who kept not their first 
 estate, there would have been no room for the 
 manifestation of God's special mercy. This 
 attribute of Deity, which now diffuses such a 
 glorious lustre over the Divine character, and 
 which swells the notes of holy angels and the 
 redeemed from among men, could have had 
 no place in his moral administration, had 
 satisfaction not been made for sin by the 
 vicarious death of the Son of God in our na- 
 ture. Grace reigns, but then it reigns, and 
 only could reign, through righteousness, in the 
 salvation of sinners *. Mercy goes in glorious 
 procession before God's face ; but it emanates 
 from a throne sprinkled with the blood of an 
 
 * Rom. v. 21. 
 
DISSERTATION ON TATE ATONEMENT. 151 
 
 atoning sacrifice. " Justice and judgment 
 "are the habitation of thy throne; mercy 
 " and truth shall go before thy face *." u He 
 €< is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver 
 " him from going down to the pit; J have 
 " found a ransom f." In the salvation of 
 sinners through the mediation of Christ, 
 " Mercy and truth are met together: righte- 
 " ousness and peace have embraced each 
 " other $." 
 
 The beneficial results of the death of Christ 
 to the human race, must be obvious to all 
 who believe the doctrines of Scripture. He 
 came that we might have life, and that we 
 might have it more abundantly. The per- 
 sonal punishment of transgressors is utterly 
 incompatible with their salvation. Had atone- 
 ment by substitution not been devised and 
 carried into effect, our whole family must 
 have sunk into eternal perdition ; and one 
 species of rational beings must have been for 
 ever cut off from the society of the blessed, 
 and consigned to the regions of endless misery 
 
 * Psal. lxxxix. 11. f Job xxxiii U 
 
 •l. lxxxv. 10, 11. 
 
 G 2 
 
152 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT-* 
 
 and despair. But, by means of this wonderful 
 device, God is glorified, and a great company 
 of the human race, which no man can number, 
 are saved with an everlasting salvation. Satan 
 is spoiled of his captives — -hell of its victims, 
 and heaven is replenished with the ransomed 
 throng, who, associated with holy angek, 
 serve God day and night in his temple. • 
 
 But the human race do not constitute the 
 only species of rational beings who have de- 
 rived advantage from the death of Christ. 
 He shed his blood for the redemption of men 
 only, but the advantages resulting from his 
 death are not confined to the human race. 
 We have already noticed the benefit resulting 
 to the moral creation in general from the 
 death of Christ, so far as it regards protection 
 and example. By his death, and the de- 
 velopment of the scheme of man's salvation 
 connected with it, they have acquired more 
 knowledge, and consequently, more intellec- 
 tual enjoyment, than from the contemplation 
 of all the other works of God. Hence the 
 angels, as represented by the cherubim above 
 the mercy-seat, had their eyes inward, and 
 fixed upon that symbol of the atonement. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATOKEMENTv 153 
 
 To the same purpose we are told, that these ce- 
 lestial spirits desire to look or pry into what re- 
 lates to the redemption of thechurch. " Which 
 " t&uras the angels desire to look into *." It is 
 for this reason that they strike in, and join 
 with the ransomed about the throne, in cele- 
 brating the praises of the Redeemer. They 
 cannot join with them in saying, " Thou hast 
 " redeemed us to God by thy blood f:" but 
 still they make the death of Christ the burden 
 of their song, as it is the grand medium 
 through which they have attained, as students 
 of Divine mysteries, to a great proportion of 
 their knowledge of the nature, persons^ and 
 perfections of that God-head whom they 
 adore. It is for the same reason that they 
 delight in ministering to the saints on earth, 
 and mingling in their assemblies ; for in these 
 they are constantly receiving additional dis- 
 coveries of the rich mercy, and boundless 
 wisdom of their Creator. " And to make all 
 " men see what is the fellowship of the 
 " mystery, which, from the beginning o/ the 
 " world, hath been hid in God, who created 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 12. t Rev. v. 9. 
 
 a 3 
 
154; DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " all things by Jesus Christ. To the intent 
 " that now unto the principalities and powers, 
 " in heavenly places, might be known by the 
 11 church the manifold wisdom of God *." 
 From these hints, it must be evident, that 
 through atonement for sin, by the vicarious 
 death of the Son of God, there is at the same 
 time a more full discovery of the glory of the 
 Divine character, and a greater accession of 
 good to the rational creation, than if the 
 whole of our race had been subjected to punish- 
 ment for their own sins. The plan of substi- 
 tution must, therefore, be worthy of God as an 
 infinitely good and infinitely wise Being. 
 
 4//z/j/, The equity, as w r ell as the wisdom, of 
 this plan, will further appear, if we consider, 
 that no injury ultimately results to any one 
 from its execution. No injury ultimately re- 
 sults to the Son of God, by whom the atone- 
 ment is made. It would have been incon- 
 sistent with the justice of God, to have laid 
 such an appointment upon his own Son, with- 
 out his consent j and with his goodness, had 
 the fulfilment of that appointment been to 
 
 * Eph. iii. 9, 10. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 155 
 
 issue in his own ruin, or the ultimate destruc- 
 tion of his human nature. But none of these 
 obstructions stood in the way of this wonder- 
 ful plan, either in design or in execution. 
 His constitution from eternity, as the Surety 
 of the church j was not more the result of his 
 Father's appointment, than of his own choice 
 and undertaking. The redemption of the 
 church, so far from being a task imposed upon 
 him against his will, was contemplated by 
 him in purpose with great delight. It is in 
 relation to this appointment that He says, 
 11 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of 
 " his way, before his works of old. I was set 
 " up from everlasting, from the beginning, or 
 M ever the earth was *•" And it is, as thus set 
 up, that he adds, " Then I was by him as one 
 M brought up with him; and I was daily his 
 " delight, rejoicing always before him. Re- 
 " joicing in the habitable part of his earth $ 
 M and my delights were with the sons of 
 men f." This appointment was the object 
 of his delight, not only in design, but also in 
 execution. Hence, in the immediate prospect 
 
 * Troy. tfii. 22, 25. f Verses 50, 31. 
 
 g4 
 
156 DISSERTATION* ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of entering upon the work which the Father 
 had given him to do, He said, " Lo I come^ 
 " in the volume of the book it is written of me* 
 " I delight to do thy will, O my God ! Yea, 
 M thy law is within my heart*/' And when 
 actually engaged in it, we find him declaring, 
 " My meat is to do the will of him that sent 
 me, and to finish his work f. 5> 
 
 It woulu also have been inconsistent, not 
 onlv with the justice, but also with the good- 
 ness of God, to have exacted from him the 
 p« ki hnienfc of our iniquities, had it been to 
 issue in his own ruin. But this was so far 
 from bt ing the case, that the work given him 
 to do, was to redound to his honour, and to 
 issue ; n the glorious exaltation of that nature 
 in which he was to suffer. " We see Jesus* 
 M who was made a little lower than the angels 
 " for the suffering of death, crowned with 
 " <r\ory and honour J." It is from the accom- 
 plishment of this arduous undertaking, in the 
 character of a servant, as it tends to illustrate 
 his distinct personality, and supreme Deity, 
 as the Son of God, that He receives an eteiv 
 
 * PsaL xl. 7, 8. f John it. 5* I Hcb ft 9. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 157 
 
 nal revenue of praise from the grateful redeem- v 
 ed from among men, and from the admiring 
 ano-els who surround God's eternal throne. 
 " He humbled himself, and became obedient 
 " unto death, even the death of the cross, 
 " wherefore God a4so hath highly exalted him, 
 " and given him a name which is above every 
 M name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee 
 " should bow, of things in heaven, and things 
 " in earth, and things under the earth : And 
 " that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
 " Christ is Lord, to the glory, of God the 
 " Father V " And when he had taken the 
 " book, the four living creatures, and four 
 " and twenty elders, fell down before the 
 " Lamb, having every one of them harps, 
 " and golden vials full of odours, which are 
 M the prayers of saints. And they sung a 
 " new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take 
 M the book and open the seals thereof; for 
 " thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
 " God by thy blood. And I beheld, and I 
 " heard the voice of many angels round about 
 J 4 the throne, and the four living creature^ 
 
 * PhiLii. 8,9, 10, 1L 
 
toS DISSERTATIONS ON TJBE ATONEMENT. 
 
 u and the elders; and the number of them 
 Jf was ten thousand times ten thousand, and 
 " thousands of thousands ; saying with aloud 
 " voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain* 
 "to receive power, and riches* and wisdom* 
 " and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 *' blessing *." 
 
 As no injury was done to the Son of God 
 by his Father in the appointment to his office 
 and work of redeeming the church, so the Son 
 himself, in his eternal undertaking, and its ac- 
 complishment in time in our nature, did not 
 violate any prior obligations* Considered as 
 God, he had a supreme right to engage to re- 
 deem the church. Viewed as incarnate, he 
 accomplished his eternal undertaking by his 
 obedience unto death, in the character of a 
 Surety, without violating any prior obligations 
 of his own. As man he was never under the 
 law for himself, since his human nature never 
 subsisted by itself, but from its first formation 
 was united to his divine person. He obeyed 
 the law, therefore, for others as a Surety ; 
 without neglecting any duties* or violating 
 
 *Rey. v. 8,5?— il>12. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 159 
 
 any obligations that he was under for himself. 
 Besides, he was supreme Lord of his own life; 
 for though the Father, according to eternal 
 compact, prepared him a body or human na- 
 ture, that human nature became his own by 
 the act of assumption 5 he had therefore an 
 undoubted right to lay it dow r n for the re- 
 demption of his people. 
 
 bthly, The equity and consistency of this 
 plan of substitution will appear further, if we 
 take into account, the divinely constituted re- 
 lation between Christ and those for whom he 
 shed his blood to expiate their sins. 
 
 The substitution of Christ in the room of 
 the guilty, to make satisfaction for their sin, is 
 an act of sovereign mercy. It is our business, 
 in the present argument, to point out the con- 
 sistency of this act of divine sovereignty with 
 the veracity of God, as pledged in the penal 
 sentence of the law, which awards condign 
 punishment to transgressors. Though the 
 law, as we have noticed already, admits of an 
 innocent substitute, as the subject of judicial 
 infliction in the room of the guilty ; as all the 
 moral ends of punishment may be thereby 
 more effectually promoted $ yet, this substitu* 
 G 6 
 
160 DISSERTATION ON THE ATOKEMEKT. 
 
 tion must be accomplished, so as to preserve- 
 in view the moral relation pointed out, by the 
 sanction of the law, between sin and punish- 
 ment. In order to this, the substitute must' 
 be so connected with those in whose stead he 
 is to endure the penalty of the law, as, in a 
 legal and federal sense, to be regarded as one 
 with them. — The Son of God was so con* 
 nected, by a dkine constitution, with those 
 whom he came to redeem-. 
 
 First, In the eternal covenant. In that 
 federal transaction, God, in the person of the 
 Father, and in the character of the representa- 
 tive of Deity in the economy of grace, laid 
 the help of the elect from among men upon 
 his own Son, pre-ordaining him to endure in 
 human nature, all the penal consequences of 
 their iniquities, and to fulfil all righteousness 
 in their stead. This appointment the Son 
 engaged to fulfil: " He said, Lo, I come, in 
 " the volume of the book it is written of me, 
 " to do thy will, O God." By his Father's 
 appointment, and his own engagement, a 
 federal connection was thus formed between 
 Christ and his people, which laid the founda- 
 tion of all that intercommunity of relation? 
 
dissertation: on the atonement. ISt 
 
 ship, obligations, and benefits, which subsist3 
 between him and them in time. They were 
 by this eternal transaction constituted one 
 with him in federal representation. As he 
 took upon himself their legal obligations, so 
 they received in him all the blessings and be- 
 nefits which were to result from the fulfilment 
 of these obligations. Hence, the promises of 
 that covenant are said to have been- made to 
 them in him before the world was : " In hope 
 " of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, 
 M promised before the world began # ." In 
 like manner, they are said, in that eternal 
 transaction, to have received grace in him. 
 11 Who hath saved us, and called us with an 
 u holy calling, not according to our works, 
 " but according to hjs own purpose and 
 <{ grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus 
 u before the world began, f." 
 
 Secondly, In consequence of this federal 
 union, the moment that he became incarnate, 
 he was identified with them in law. All the 
 obligations they were under to the law, as a 
 broken law, and violated covenant, were 
 
 « Tit. i. 2. f 2 Tim. i. a 
 
162 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENTS 
 
 transferred to him, and exacted of him, as 
 their Surety. He had all their guilt laid up- 
 on him ; that is, he was subjected to all the 
 penal consequences of their sin to procure its 
 remission. " Christ hath redeemed us from 
 " the curse of the law, being made a curse 
 " for us*." He was also made under the 
 precept of the law T , that he might fulfil it 
 in their stead, as tire condition of their eternal 
 happiness. M When the fulness of the time 
 " was come, God sent forth his Son, made of 
 " a woman, made under the law, to redeem 
 " them that were under the law, that we 
 " might receive the adoption of sons f " 
 
 Thirdly* He became one with them in na- 
 ture. That federal union formed between 
 Christ and those for whom he was to lay 
 down his life, which we have already consi^ 
 dered, laid a sufficient foundation for a change 
 of person as the subject of judicial infliction, so 
 as to answer all the moral purposes of punish- 
 ment. But still we may discern a fitness, 
 and consequently, a moral necessity, that the 
 nature which had sinned should suffer the 
 
 * Gal. iii. 13, t Gal. iv. 1 
 
DISSERTATION' OX THE ATONEMENT. 163 
 
 punishment due to sin. And that the price 
 of redemption should be paid in the nature 
 of those who were to be redeemed. This is 
 necessary, fully to preserve in view the moral 
 connection established, in the sanction of the 
 law, between punishment and crime; and 
 consequently, for preserving inviolate the 
 veracity of God pledged in that sanction. We 
 are accordingly taught in Scripture, that our 
 Lord assumed human nature, and in that na- 
 ture fulfilled all the claims of the law; and 
 also, that it was expedient or becoming that he 
 should do so. " For, both he that sancti- 
 " fieth, and they who are sanctified are all of 
 " one; for which cause he is not ashamed to 
 " call them brethren. For, verily, he took 
 M not on him the nature of angels, but he 
 M took on him the seed of Abraham. Where- 
 " fore, in all things, it behoved him to be made 
 " like unto his brethren, that he might be a 
 y merciful and faithful High- Priest in things 
 " pertaining to God ; to make reconciliation 
 " for the sins of the people *." These remarks 
 serve to illustrate the consistency of our Lord's 
 
 *Heb. ii. U, 16,17. 
 
164 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 substitution in the room of the guilty, with 
 the veracity of God pledged in the sanction of 
 the law; 9ince, by the constituted unity of 
 Christ, with those for whom he died, in fe- 
 deral establishment; in legal exaction, and in 
 nature, through his death though vicarious, 
 the moral connection which the sanction cf 
 the law establishes between punishment and 
 crime is maintained, and Divine veracity 
 preserved inviolate. 
 
 Some may still insist, that the Scriptures 
 militate against this doctrine, for they ex- 
 pressly assert, The soul that sinneth shaH 
 die : Every one shall die for his own iniquity. 
 " Behold all souls are mine, as the soul of the 
 " father, so also the soul of the son is mine; 
 " the soul that sinneth it shall die *." To 
 see the design of this pointed declaration, 
 and the whole of the subsequent context, we 
 must attend to the false hypothesis which the 
 Spirit of God brings it forward to refute. 
 The Jews at this time w^re subjected to heavy 
 judicial inflictions on account of their sins. 
 But, instead of acknowledging their personal 
 
 * Ezek,. xviii. L 
 
DISSERTATION' ON THE ATONEMENT. 165 
 
 iniquities, they considered the sins of their 
 fathers as the cause of all their sufferings, and 
 arraigned the conduct of God as unjust, ii> 
 punishing them for the sins of their ances- 
 tors. This is the meaning of the proverb 
 used by them, verse 2. " The fathers havo 
 M eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth 
 " are set on edge." In refutation of this 
 false conclusion, and to convince them of 
 their personal iniquities, God proceeds to 
 shew what he invariably does in dealing with 
 a people in the ordinary course of justice* 
 He subjects the soul that sinneth to personal- 
 punishment. But this has no reference to the 
 question before us, as it dees not regard a dis- 
 pensation of Divine sovereignty. It was Di- 
 vine equity only that was accused, and the de- 
 fence is only a defence of God's* equity in the 
 distribution of punishment in- the usual course 
 of justice. Nor does it militate against what 
 is asserted in the second commandment; for 
 God only visits the iniquities of the fathers 
 upon their children, when the children make 
 them their own, by a practical approbation cf 
 them in following the same evil courses, 
 
166 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Finally, It has been admitted that the penal 
 sanction of the law awards punishment to 
 transgressors ; and that, in the ordinary course 
 of retributive justice, the soul that sinneth 
 must die. But it is positively denied that God 
 does, in any sanction annexed to his law, bind 
 himself up from exercising sovereign mercy, 
 by admitting a substitute to satisfy the claims 
 of justice, that sin may be expiated* and the 
 sinner saved ; those threatening** excepted 
 which regard persons who finally reject the 
 atonement of Christ. For such, we are as- 
 sured, " there remaineth no more sacrifice 
 " for sins : But a certain fearful looking for 
 i; of judgment, and fiery indignation which 
 " shall devour the adversaries *." 
 
 We now proceed to shew more particularly, 
 that all that is necessary to a true and proper 
 atonement for sin, belongs to the death of 
 Christ, as the Surety of the church. 
 
 1st, This will appear, if we consider that 
 his death, in the room of transgressors, was 
 appointed and authorised by God in the cha- 
 racter of Supreme Lawgiver, 
 
 * Heb. x. 26, 2k 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 167 
 
 We have attempted to shew at some length, 
 that atonement by a vicarious sacrifice an- 
 swers all the moral purposes of punishment. 
 It must always be kept in mind, however* 
 that the power of admitting a substitute, to 
 satisfy the claims of the law in the room of 
 transgressors, belongs exclusively to the Law- 
 giver. The death of Christ could have had 
 no validity in law, as a propitiation for the 
 sins of the elect, had it not been appointed 
 and authorised by God for that purpose. 
 The formal reason of obedience is the will of 
 the Lawgiver, his death could not, therefore, 
 have been sustained in law on their account, 
 had he not been specially appointed by God, 
 to lay down his life for them. That he was 
 so appointed and authorised, appears from 
 what the Scriptures relate concerning his 
 death, as the matter of an eternal purpose. 
 They tell us, that he who shed his blood for 
 us in time, was pre-ordained from everlasting 
 to do this. M Forasmuch as ye know that ye 
 !■ were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
 " as silver and geld, from your vain conver- 
 " salion received by tradition from your fa- 
 M thers i but with the precious blood of Christy 
 
168 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " as of a lamb without blemish and without 
 M spot. Who, verily, was fore* ordained be- 
 •* fore the foundation of the world, but was 
 u manifest in these last times for you *." As 
 he was pre-ordained from everlasting to put 
 away sin by the sacrifice of himself, so he was 
 expressly sent into our world for this purpose 
 in time. " Herein is love, not that we loved 
 " God but that he loved us, and sent his Son 
 " to be the propitiation for our sins f ." He 
 did not run unsent in the grand work of our 
 redemption ;- — he acted by a Divine warrant, 
 and under the authority of a Divine commis- 
 sion. " No man taketh this honour unto 
 " himself, but he that is called of God, as was 
 " Aaron ; so also Christ glorified not himself 
 "to be made an High-Priest; but he that 
 " said unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day 
 " have I begotten thee J." Hence, the whole 
 of his work on earth, is resolved by himself 
 into the will of his Father : " For I came 
 *' down from Heaven, not to do mine own 
 u will, but the will of him who sent me §<?* 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 18, 19, 20. flJohniv. 10. 
 
 $ tleJb. v. 4>, 5. J John \i. 58. 
 
DISSERTATION* ON THE ATONEMENT. 169 
 
 Our Lord's death, therefore, possessed this 
 fundamental property of a true atonement for 
 sin ; namely, the special appointment of God. 
 This rendered it valid and pleadable by Christ, 
 on the behalf of that select company given him 
 by his Father; whereas, independently of this 
 appointment, his death could have had no 
 more relation to them than to fallen angels. 
 
 Care must be taken, however, to distinguish- 
 between what gives our Lord's death validity 
 in law in the room of transgressors, and that 
 which renders it a satisfaction for sin corre- 
 sponding to the extensive claims of the law. 
 The former proceeds from the appointment 
 of God, the latter arises from its own intrin- 
 sic value. To refer, as some have -done, the 
 whole value or fitness of the death of Christ, 
 for expiating sin, to the apointment of God, 
 is to put his sacrifice on a level with the Levi- 
 fcical sacrifices. They were as really offered 
 by Divine appointment as the sacrifice of 
 Christ ; yet they could not put away sin as per- 
 taining to the conscience. The Spirit of God, 
 however, assigns as the reason of their insuf- 
 ficiency for that purpose, not their want of a 
 divine appointment, but of inherent value: 
 
170 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " Fork is not possible that the blood of bulls 
 " and of goats should take away sins *." On 
 the other hand, he refers us to the intrinsic 
 value of Christ's death, arising from the dig- 
 nity of his person, as the reason of its suffi- 
 ciency for this purpose. " How much more 
 " shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 " eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to 
 " God, purge your conscience from dead works 
 " to serve the living God f !" 
 
 In referring to the appointment of God the 
 whole fitness of the death of Christ to expiate 
 sin, there seems to be a wish to exalt the glory 
 of Divine sovereignty. But w r e should beware 
 of seeking to magnify one attribute of God at 
 the expence of another. In this case there is 
 an attempt to exalt his sovereignty to the dis- 
 honour of his wisdom, his holiness, and his 
 goodness. The purpose of redemption was a 
 sovereign purpose, but then it was also wise, 
 as appears from the adaption of the means to 
 such a weighty and important end. " Thou 
 " spakest in vision to thy holy One, and saidst 
 " I have laid help upon one that is mighty %. n 
 
 * IIr;b. x. 4, f Hcb. ix. 11. t Ps - lxxxix - 18 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 171 
 
 It was a holy purpose, which it could not have 
 been, had it not proportionated the punish- 
 ment to the demerit of the crime. It was 
 also good ; but this property it could not have 
 possessed had it assigned judicial infliction to 
 God's dear Son in the smallest degree beyond 
 what was absolutely necessary to vindicate 
 God's honour in man's salvation. But had the 
 fitness of the blood of Christ arisen solely from 
 the arbitrary appointment of God, the blood 
 of a goat, or even of a young pigeon, might 
 have served the purpose of expiation equally 
 well ; and consequently, his excruciating suf- 
 ferings and death were superfluous and vain. 
 An idea utterly repugnant not only to the 
 wisdom, but also to the goodness of God. 
 
 2dly i The sufficiency of his death for the 
 purpose of atonement will also appear when 
 we consider, That the death to which he sub- 
 mitted was that death, in all its extent, which 
 the sanction of the law awarded as the punish- 
 ment due to transgression. 
 
 Death, in the judgment of God which is al- 
 ways according to truth, is the punishment due 
 to sin. « In the day that thou eatest thereof 
 
172 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " thou shalt surely die*." M The wages of sin is 
 €€ death f." And, as we have noticed alreadj*, 
 there was a moral fitness, or necessity, that sin 
 should be expiated by death in the same na- 
 ture in which it had been committed. The 
 Son of God, accordingly, made expiation for 
 sin in human nature, by the painful and ac- 
 cursed death of the cross. Cl He came not to 
 " be ministered unto, but to minister, and to 
 fl give his life a ransom for many J/ 1 
 
 When atonement for sin is said to have been 
 effected by the death of Christ, or the shed- 
 ding of his blood, it is to be understood as in- 
 eluding not only the decease which he accom- 
 plished at Jerusalem, but also the whole of his 
 privations and sufferings during his humbled 
 state. These were typified under the former 
 dispensation by the burning of the whole or 
 a part of the sacrifices offered for sin. That 
 took place after the death of the victims, be- 
 cause it was impossible in the nature of things 
 that it could precede it. Besides, had they 
 teen put to death by burning, their blood could 
 not have been preserved for the purpose of be- 
 
 •* Gen. ii. 17. f Rem vi. £3. J Mat. xx. 28. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 176 
 
 ing applied to the several objects fur whose 
 purification it was shed. His whole life was 
 one continued scene of suffering, and all that 
 he did suffer in our nature, and in our world, 
 was vicarious and penal ; and, consequently, 
 entered into the matter of the atonement. 
 But to expiate sin, and procure its remission, 
 it was necessary not only that he should suffer, 
 Uut also that he should die. " Without shed- 
 *' ding of blood is no remission *." " When 
 u Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he 
 M said, It is finished ; and he bowed his head, 
 " and gave up the ghost f." Since the sanc- 
 tion of the law awards death as the punishment 
 due to transgression, nothing short of death 
 could expiate human .crimes. The law ad- 
 mits of the translation of punishment from 
 sinners to their Surety, because all the ends of 
 punishment may be more effectually gained 
 by the death of a substitute than they could 
 hove been by the eternal destruction of trans- 
 gressors : but it can admit of no commutation 
 or change of the punishment itself, which it 
 Assigns as the wages of sin. The penal sen- 
 
 * Ucb. ix./?2. t J<*n *« 50 - 
 
 H 
 
174? DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 tence of the law, which makes death the 
 wages of unrighteousness, either does or does 
 not contain a suitable expression of God's 
 abhorrence of moral evil. If it does not, it 
 cannot be a holy sanction ; but if it docs, theu 
 the same immutable holiness which dictated 
 it must require that it take full effect in the 
 punishment of transgressors. If we reason 
 the matter upon the principle of equity, we 
 must arrive at the same conclusion. Death 
 pronounced by the Judge of all as the punish- 
 ment due to sin, must either be a just sentence 
 or not. If it be unjust, how could a righteous 
 God pronounce it? But if just, the same justice 
 which dictated the sentence, must peremptorily 
 demand its execution when incurred by trans- 
 gression. In fine, since the sentence was pro- 
 nounced in truth, God's immutable veracity 
 must render its execution absolutely necessary. 
 Some may be ready to suppose that, in the 
 present case, there must have been not only a 
 change of person, but also a change of punish- 
 ment; from the obvious difference between 
 the sufferings and death of Christ, and the 
 sufferings of the wicked in this world and 
 that which is to come. That there is an ob- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 175 
 
 vious difference wc readily admit ; but it does 
 not follow that there was a change of punish- 
 ment, in the case of Christ as a Surety, from 
 that awarded by the penal sentence of the Jaw 
 to transgressors. We are evidently, in this 
 case, to distinguish between these sufferings 
 which necessarily arise from judicial infliction 
 on the part of God, in executing the penal 
 sentence of the law, and those which proceed 
 from the limited powers and moral depravity 
 of the wicked, when subjected to punishment 
 for their own crimes. Our blessed Lord was 
 subjected, as a Surety, to the former in all 
 their extent and intensity ; buthe could not 
 in the smallest degree experience the latter, 
 owing to his personal dignity and purity. A 
 few instances will render the truth of this ob- 
 servation obvious to persons of every capacity. 
 The wicked, when subjected to personal 
 punishment, will suffer all the horrors of re* 
 morse. In this world their consciences are 
 often seared as with a hot iron ; but when 
 they lift up their eyes in hell, they will stand 
 convicted, before the tribunal of their own 
 minds, of all the wickedness they have com- 
 mitted in this life ; and this conviction, con* 
 h 2 
 
176 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 nected with the painful recollection of the 
 many opportunities of salvation which they 
 have slighted, and the means of grace they 
 once enjoyed, but despised, will fill them with 
 inexpressible horror. But whence will all this 
 arise ? Not directly from judicial infliction 
 on the part of God as a judge ; but from self- 
 reproach, as the authors of their own ruin. 
 They will also feel all the horrors of despair 
 arising from a conviction that their misery 
 will be eternal ; but neither does the eternity 
 of punishment arise necessarily from the penal 
 sentence of the law, but from the limited ca- 
 pacity of the creature. The law demands in- 
 finite satisfaction, corresponding to the infinite 
 demerit of sin ; and since no creature can 
 give this satisfaction in .kind or degree by 
 temporary . suffering, the sufferings of the 
 wicked in hell must be eternal. To these we 
 may add, the misery which will spring directly 
 out of their own depravity of disposition. 
 Misery and sin are interwoven in their very 
 nature. Every deviation of heart from the 
 law of God as a righteous governor, is inse- 
 parably connected with an alienation of soul 
 from him as the supreme good $ but, cut off 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT* 177 
 
 from the fountain of happiness, the rational 
 creature must be miserable. Hence, even in 
 this world, the sinful passions of the human 
 heart, such as pride, malice, envy, and wrath, 
 are sources of real misery to wicked men. 
 If they are so now, what must they be in a 
 future state, when infuriated by disappoint- 
 ment and despair ! 
 
 But it was not necessary that our Lord 
 should, in making atonement for sin, be sub- 
 jected to suffering from these causes; since 
 they arise not necessarily from the law, but 
 from the limited capacity or moral depravity 
 of the wicked themselves. 
 
 As it was not necessary he should, so it was 
 not possible he could, suffer from these sources* 
 He could not feel the horror of remorse, since 
 it proceeds from self-condemnation for per- 
 sonal guilt ; for he was hoiy, harmless, unde- 
 filed, and separated from sinners. Neither 
 could he experience the anguish of despair, 
 which arises from the certain prospect of 
 eternal misery. His faith, on the one hand, 
 in his Father's promise of support under his 
 sufferings till finished ; and his consciousness, 
 on the other, of his own personal dignity, which 
 
 / H 3 
 
 ft 
 
173 DlBSER T A T 1 N N T H E AT N JE M E NT . 
 
 rendered his sufferings, though temporary, of 
 infinite value for expiating sin, completely 
 fortified his mind against despair. Hence he 
 is introduced by the prophet saying, " For 
 tf the Lord God will help me, therefore shall 
 ci I not be confounded; therefore have I set 
 " my face like a flint, and I know that I shall 
 " not be ashamed. He is near that justified! 
 i{ me, who shall contend with me? Let us 
 " stand together, who is mine adversary ? 
 M Let him come near to me *." Nor was it 
 either possible or necessary he should expe- 
 rience that misery which springs out of the 
 operations of the inherent depravity of the 
 heart. Sin is the transgression of the law, 
 and though the penal sentence of the law de- 
 livers over the sinner to the dominion of sin, 
 till its righteous claims are satisfied ; it would 
 be absurd in the extreme to suppose, that it 
 required the effects of the operations of sin, 
 as a part of satisfaction for transgression. 
 This would be to suppose that sin was neces- 
 sary to expiate itself. Nor was it possible 
 Christ could feel this species of misery, owing 
 
 * Isa. l. 7, 8. 
 
1 ) I SSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 1 79 
 
 to his personal innocency, and untainted purity. 
 Being completely free from sin, he could not 
 experience any of those direful effects, which 
 spring out of its power and operations in the 
 heart of the sinner. 
 
 But our Lord was not only subjected to 
 temporal death, and the sufferings in his body 
 which preceded and accompanied it, but also 
 to spiritual death, as far as it is strictly penal. 
 We must here, however, carefully distinguish 
 between what in spiritual death belongs for- 
 mally to the nature of sin, and that which is 
 the effect of judicial infliction, lb the former 
 belongs the privation of rectitude, and the 
 corruption of the whole man j to the latter 
 pungent sorrow, and the privation of mental 
 enjoyment. The former constitutes the sin- 
 fulness of man's fallen state, the latter its 
 misery. That the former is not strictly penal 
 must be obvious to every person of discern- 
 ment. Whatever is strictly penal in spiritual 
 death must be from God ; but were this death, 
 as it lies in the privation of moral rectitude, 
 the effect of divine infliction, God would be 
 the author of sin. Man sunk into spiritual 
 death by his own delinquency, and not by ju- 
 H 4» 
 
ISO DISSERTATION ON' TflE ATONEMENT, 
 
 dicial infliction on the part of God. By the 
 same act of transgression which constituted 
 him a sinner, he fell under the power of this* 
 death. The law and justice of God, it is true, 
 gave him up when thus fallen to its dominion-; 
 so that, bv the force of his own depravity, lie 
 binks more and more under its power; unless 
 that power be counteracted and overcome by 
 supernatural grace ; as in the case of those 
 who are r covered from the ruins of the fall 
 through the atonement* But this is a conse- 
 quent of jacKeial permission, and not an effect 
 of judicial infliction ; and must be referred to 
 that misery which springs out of the being of 
 sin, and not to that which arises from penal 
 infliction on the part of God. Besides, this 
 could not obtain in the case of Christ, an in- 
 nocent substitute, suffering the penal conse- 
 quences of sin in the room of others ; for God 
 gives up none judicially to the power of moral 
 depravity, tilt they have first, by their own 
 apostacy, sold themselves to the service of un- 
 righteousness. Is it still insisted, that the 
 dominion of sin must involve in it the idea of 
 penal infliction ; since the Scripture asserts, 
 that the strength of sin is the law, apd since 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 181 
 
 the reason it assigns why sin shall not have 
 dominion over believers, is, that they are not 
 under the law but under grace ? 
 
 In reply, we shall only observe, that to sup- 
 pose that the curse of the law binds over the 
 sinner to the dominion of sin by authorita- 
 tive injunction, or positive influence, would 
 not only be absurd but also blasphemous. It 
 retains him under its dominion only as it con- 
 stitutes a legal bar in the way of the commu- 
 nication of that supernatural influence to his 
 heart, which alone can extricate him from its 
 power. This being the case, the power of 
 sin in all its degrees must be referred to that 
 misery and wretchedness which spring out of 
 sin itself, and not to that punishment by posi- 
 tive infliction on the part of God, which the 
 Jaw requires in order to its expiation. 
 
 Our Lord did not, in this view, taste in 
 any degree of spiritual death, nor was it ne- 
 cessary he should do so, when enduring the 
 penal consequences of sin in the stead of his 
 people. On the contrary, his righteousness 
 lay in avoiding it. The first Adam was 
 formed after God's image, in knowledge, 
 righteousness, and true holiness. This cou- 
 H 5 
 
IS'2 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 stituted his spiritual life; and had he stood 
 the period of his probationary state, the re- 
 tention of that life, in the active discharge of 
 the duties of the law which he was under as 
 a representative, would have constituted his 
 federal obedience ; whereas, his first trans- 
 gression, by which he lost his spiritual life, 
 constituted that sin by which he entailed the 
 curse on himself and all his posterity. God, 
 ill the person of the Father, prepared a holy 
 human nature for Christ, the second Adam 5 
 and his righteousness, as the Surety of the 
 church, lay in his retaining that nature in its 
 primitive integrity, and in the active dis- 
 charge of all the duties of the law he was 
 made under* — and that, too, amidst circum- 
 stances of unparalleled temptation and trial, 
 arising from the penal consequences of sin to 
 which he was subjected. 
 
 But our Lord did endure spiritual death, §0 
 far as that death is the effect of judicial inflic- 
 tion. Spiritual death, in this view, includes 
 the two following ingredients. 
 
 1st, A deep and painful sensation of the 
 penal consequences of sin produced in the 
 mind by the immediate power of God. This 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 183 
 
 our Lord felt in an inconceivable degree in 
 the garden of Gethsemane. As intellectual 
 happiness arises from the knowledge and con- 
 templation of objects agreeable and interesting 
 to the mind, and mental distress proceeds 
 from a discovery to the understanding of ob- 
 jects of a disagreeable and alarming nature, 
 so the ageny of soul which our Lord experi- 
 enced, when enduring the penal consequences 
 of our iniquities, must have been great in 
 proportion to his aversion to moral evil, and 
 his comprehensive knowledge of the extent, 
 purity, and spirituality of the Divine law. 
 But his knowledge was only the medium, and 
 not the impulsive cause of his mental suffering. 
 The painful sensation itself, was the effect of 
 the power of God's judicial displeasure upon 
 his holy soul, which accompanied the discovery 
 which he had of the dreadful desert of sin 
 charged upon him as our Surety ; the energies 
 of which penetrated the inmost recesses of the 
 heart, and produced that extreme sorrow and 
 amazement which forced the blood from every 
 pore of his blessed body. In these con-> 
 sisted the quintessence of that death which 
 the sanction of the law awards as the punish- 
 h6 
 
]$•£ DISSERTATION CN THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 ment of transgression : — That death of which 
 our Lord spoke, and which he actually endured 
 in the garden of Gethsernane and on the cross ; 
 a death with which the separation of soul and 
 body, accompanied by the strongest convul- 
 sons of animal nature, may not once be 
 brought into comparison. M And he takelh 
 " with him Peter, and James, and John, and 
 i{ began to be amazed and very heavy. And 
 " saith unto them, my soul is exceeding sor- 
 iC rowful, even unto death *." " And being 
 " in an agony, he prayed most earnestly ; and 
 " iiis sweat was as it were great drops of 
 " blood falling down to the ground f." 
 
 2dly y Another ingredient of this death is 
 the suspension of the sweet manifestations 
 of the Divine favour. This also, our Lord 
 experienced in the garden and on the cross. 
 As his supreme happiness arose from the sweet 
 manifestations of his Father's love ; so the 
 felt suspension of these for a season, must 
 have constituted the very essence of mental 
 death. This made him cry out upon the 
 cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
 
 * Mat. adv. 53. 34 f Luke xxii 11, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONXMLNT. ] B 5 
 
 11 forsaken me*?" We inust not suppose, 
 however, that even then, there was any abate- 
 ment of the Father's love to Christ. No; 
 he never loved him more than when, as a 
 Judge, he was exacting from him the punish- 
 ment of our iniquities. Nor are we to sup- 
 pose, that, at this moment, there was a total 
 interruption of supporting influence from the 
 Father to the soul of Christ. No; even then, 
 with him God's hand was established, and his 
 airin did strengthen him. The suspension 
 lay in the withholding of the smiles of his 
 countenance, or the sensible communications 
 of his favour. This must have produced in 
 the holy soul of Christ, a degree of distress 
 proportionate to the high value he put upon 
 communion with his Father and his God. 
 As the communications of his Father's love 
 constituted the essence of his felicity, so the 
 felt suspension of these must have consum- 
 mated the anguish of his spirit, in this hour 
 and power of darkness. From these remarks, 
 it will appear, that our Lord, in making 
 atonement for sin, was subjected to the whole 
 
 * Mat. xx-vii. 46. 
 
186 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of that death which is the wages of trans- 
 gression. 
 
 Thirdly, Our Lord's death w T as obediential ; 
 and he died in the actual discharge of his offi- 
 cial functions as the High-Priest of the church. 
 Hitherto, our views have been confined prin- 
 cipally to Christ as a sacrifice, or the subject 
 of judicial infliction ; but had he not been also 
 the Priest, who gave himself in sacrifice to God, 
 his death could have been of no avail for vin- 
 dicating the Divine honour in man's salva- 
 tion. His death was the matter of a Divine 
 appointment, and that appointment, as it re- 
 gards him, bore the form of a law or com- 
 mandment. Had he not, therefore, been ac- 
 tive and voluntary in laying down his life, his 
 death could not have been obediential ; and 
 had it not been obediential, it could not have 
 been of avail for vindicating God's honour as 
 a Lawgiver; and, of consequence, it must 
 have been unavailing for the redemption of 
 the church. But Christ " humbled himself, 
 " and became obedient unto death, even the 
 " death of the cross *." Destitute of this 
 
 * Phil, ii. 8. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 187 
 
 form, the death of Christ could have had no 
 moral fitness for expiating sin. Sin is a vio- 
 lation of moral obligation ; consequently, no- 
 thing but a moral act, or course of acting, 
 can possess a moral fitness for expiating it $ 
 and this character our Lord's death could not 
 have possessed, had he not died in the active 
 discharge of his official functions as a Priest. 
 It is not our design to enter upon the con- 
 sideration of our Lord's obedience to the whole 
 law, which constituted that righteousness on 
 the ground of which his people obtain a title 
 to eternal life. Our business at present, is to 
 consider his obedience, as it regarded that par- 
 ticular commandment which he received from 
 the Father, to lay down his life to make atone- 
 ment for sin, in order to the forgiveness of his 
 people, or to procure their freedom from con- 
 demnation. His obediential acting, in laying 
 down his life in submission to God's command- 
 ment, formed a principal part of his work as a 
 Priest. " He gave himself for us, an offering 
 " and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling 
 savour *." Viewed as the subject of judicial 
 
 * Eph. v. ft 
 
183 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 infliction in his death, and in ail the sufferings 
 that preceded it, he was a sacrifice. But he 
 J was not only a sacrifice, but also an offering, 
 and his obediential acting as a Priest consti- 
 tuted him such. " Every Priest standeth 
 i{ daily ministering, and offering oftentimes 
 IC the same sacrifices, which can never take 
 " away sins : But this man, after he had offer- 
 11 ed one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down 
 " on the right hand of God *•" 
 
 The High-Priest under the law was an 
 eminent type of Christ in his priestly charac- 
 ter, and his functions at the altar, of Christ's 
 sacerdotal service in offering himself to God 
 a sacrifice for sin. But such is the plenitude 
 of our Lord's office and work, that they could 
 not be fully represented in type by any one per- 
 son, or by the official duties of any particular 
 class of persons. Hence the appropriate acts 
 of priest-hood were divided among the several 
 orders of the family of Levi. The High- 
 Priest was assisted in the discharge of his 
 functions by the inferior priests, and these 
 again by the Levites. And, after all, some of 
 
 * Heb. x. 11, 12, 
 
DISSERTATION CN THE ATONEMENT. 189 
 
 these acts were occasionally performed by the 
 people at large ; such as providing the offer- 
 ings at their own expence, conducting them 
 to the place where they were to be slain in I 
 sacrifice, and solemnly devoting them to God 
 for that purpose. But all the appropriate 
 acts of priest-hood entered into our Lord's 
 sacerdotal service in giving his life a ransom 
 for many For, 
 
 Is/, The sacrifice by which Atonement 
 was made was provided at his own expense. 
 We have seen already that the Father pro- 
 vided him a body in his miraculous conception. 
 But that body, or human nature, became his 
 own by the act of assumption ; and he gave it 
 freely as a ransom for the church. " The 
 " Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 
 " but to minister, and to give his life a ransom 
 " for many V J 
 
 2dly 9 He conducted his offering to the 
 place where it was to be slain in sacrifice, and 
 solemnly dedicated it to God for that pur- 
 pose. Till the period determined by God 
 when he should lay down his life, we find him 
 
 * Mat XX. 28. 
 
190 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 avoiding the snares laid for him by his ene- 
 mies. But no sooner did this arrive than he 
 stedfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem: 
 " I have a baptism (says he) to be baptised 
 " with, and how am I straitened till it be ac- 
 " complished * ?" He freely left the guest- 
 chamber where he had observed the last pass- 
 over, and instituted the ordinance of the 
 supper, and entered the garden of Gethse- 
 mane, where his last passion commenced ; and 
 where, perhaps, he drank the bitterest potion 
 of the cup given him by his Father. " But 
 " that the world may know that I love the 
 " Father, and as the Father gave me com- 
 " mandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go 
 " hence f." It was evident from what befel 
 the soldiers, when they came to apprehend 
 him, that, independently of his own choice, 
 they could not have accomplished their pur- 
 pose. When he said, *< I am he, they went % 
 " backward and fell to the ground $.* Thus 
 he conveyed his offering to the place where it 
 was to be slain in sacrifice. His internal ex- 
 ercise corresponded with these external acts, 
 
 * Luke xii. 50. f John xiv. 51. | Jchn xviiu 6. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 191 
 
 and in it his solemn devotemcnt of himself to 
 God as an offering for sin principally consist- 
 ed. He gave himself up to suffer and die in 
 humble submission to his Father's will, and 
 actuated by ardent zeal for his glory in men's 
 salvation. This is expressed by his sanctify- 
 ing or dedicating himself. " And for their 
 " sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might 
 " be sanctified through the truth*." And also 
 by his engaging his heart to approach unto 
 God, of which act of our great High-Priest, 
 both as it regards his eternal undertaking, 
 and his accomplishment of it in time, fiod 
 himself is introduced speaking in the language 
 of wonder. " Their nobles shall be of them- 
 " selves, and their Governor shall proceed 
 " from the midst of them, and I will cause 
 " him to draw near, and he shall approach 
 u unto me; for who is this that engaged 
 11 his heart to approach unto me? saith the 
 " Lordf." 
 
 3dly 9 His death itself was also official 
 and voluntary. In vain the Socinians tell us, 
 that if his death was a sacrifice, the Jews and 
 
 • John xvii. 19. f Jcr. xxx. 21. 
 
192 DISSERTATION ON THE ATOXEMI3T, 
 
 the Roman soldiers who crucified him, must 
 have been the priests who offered it up to 
 God. The violence to which he was subject- 
 ed from the Jews, the conflicts he had with 
 the powers of darkness, and, we may add, 
 that which he endured before his death from 
 the immediate hand of God, belonged to his 
 vicarious sufferings, and were prefigured un* 
 der the Jaw by the burning of the whole cr 
 a i art of the sacrifices upon the altar. But 
 that which constituted our Lord a sacrifice 
 was his own voluntary act, or his laying down 
 his life in obedience to his Father's command- 
 ment. " He bowed his head, and gave up 
 " the ghost*." " He poured out his soul 
 " unto death f * " He became obedient 
 " unto death, even the death of the cross %.' 
 " No man taketh" my life " from me, I lay 
 " it down of myself; I have power to lay it 
 " down, and I have power to take it again ; 
 " this commandment hqxe I received of my 
 " Father J." 
 
 * John xix. 50. f Isa. liii. 10— IZ 
 
 } I nil i 8. J John x. IS. 
 
In fine, bined exercise of all the 
 
 graces of the Spirit, which be ha J received 
 out measure, entered deeply into our 
 Lord- oblation, I ped upon Lis death 
 
 that moral character, without which it could 
 have had no moral fitness for vindicating the 
 honour of God's law in the salvation c 
 men. He offered himself in I -e of a 
 
 firm and ur>_ -ith in God 4 a 
 
 in covenant, for support ondei 
 and the acceptance of hi-, en finis: 
 
 " Who in the c: he had 
 
 rfered up prayers an^ itions, 
 
 g : rj ing and tears, to him : »ole 
 
 44 to save him from death, ar eard in 
 
 :,e feared V* H: -red himself 
 
 iSeofthem: J parity 
 
 of God, and the in£. to 
 
 his nature and will, con:. :h the most 
 
 row on account c 
 done to God by it. I -yn who 
 
 poor and of a contrite heart, to whom God 
 :ih approbation and delight ; a> having 
 iicated the rights of his justice, the claims 
 
 I 
 
194; DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 of his law, the honour of his holiness, and the 
 dignity of his moral administration in the sal- 
 vation of sinners. Purposes for effecting which, 
 all the sacrifices that bled, and all the sacer- 
 dotal services performed in the Jewish temple, 
 had proved abortive and vain. " Thus saith 
 u the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and 
 " the earth is my footstool ; where is the house 
 " that ye build unto me, and where is the 
 u place of my rest ? For all those things have 
 " mine hand made, and all those things have 
 " been, saith the Lord : but to this man will 
 M I look, .even to him that is poor and of a 
 " contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word *." 
 He presented his offering in the vigorous ex- 
 ercise of supreme love to God, and ardent zeal 
 for his glory, accompanied with unparelleled 
 love to his people. " I am become a stranger 
 " unto my brethren, and an alien unto my 
 " mother's children : for the zeal of thine house 
 " hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of 
 " them that reproached thee are fallen upon 
 " me f." " Christ also hath loved us, and 
 41 hath given himself for us $." He was sup- 
 
 * Isa. Ixti. 1. 2. f Ft. Ixix. 8, 9. ( Eph. v. £ 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 195 
 
 ported and animated in his work by a lively 
 hope in God, for the accomplishment of the 
 promissory part of the eternal covenant* both 
 as it respected his own exaltation, and the sal- 
 " vation of his people. " Jesus, for the joy that 
 11 was set before him, endured the cross, despis- 
 " ing the shame *." " Therefore my heart is 
 " glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh also 
 M shall rest in hope; for thou wilt not leave 
 " my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine 
 " holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt 
 M shew me the path of life; in thy presence is 
 " fullness of joy ; at thy right hand there are 
 u pleasures for evermore f ." The exercise of 
 these and other graces constituted what was 
 represented under the law, in symbol, b\ the 
 meat-offering, which accompanied the sin-of- 
 fering, and rendered it of a sweet savour to 
 God. " Walk in love, as Christ also hath 
 M loved us, and hath given himself for us an 
 c< offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet 
 " smelling savour J." 
 
 Fourthly, His death was of infinite value 
 
 Heb. xii. 2. f Ps xvi. 9, 10, II, i Epb. v. % 
 
496 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 for expiating sin, owing to the dignity of his 
 person. 
 
 It was necessary that the sacrifice of Christ 
 should correspond in value to the degree of 
 the offence to be expiated by it. But what- 
 ever view we take of sin as committed against 
 God, it is an evil of infinite desert, and could 
 only be expiated by a sacrifice of infinite value. 
 If the holiness of God require an expression 
 of his detestation at sin by judicial infliction, 
 that expression must be adequate to the malig- 
 nity of the offence, fully to vindicate its in- 
 jured honours ; but nothing short of an atone- 
 ment of infinite value can afford an expression 
 of God's infinite abhorrence of moral evil. If 
 we examine the matter on the ground of equity 
 wo must arrive at the same conclusion. Since 
 sin is an offence committed against the majesty 
 and authority of God as a Lawgiver, justice 
 must require that the punishment correspond 
 with the degree of the crime ; but sin is an 
 infinite evil objectively considered ; nothing 
 less, therefore, can expiate it than a sacrifice 
 of infinite value. 
 
 That sin is an evil of infinite desert, appears 
 from its irreconcileable contrariety to the-oWi- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 197 
 
 nations we are under to love and serve God. 
 The higher our obligations to duty, the greater 
 must be the evil of counteracting them. The 
 moreabeing deserves to be honoured andobev- 
 cd, the greater must be the evil of withholding 
 honour or obedience from him; but God is a 
 being infinitely deserving of our love, honour, 
 and obedience ; to withhold these from him 
 must therefore be a crime of infinite demerit. 
 The Socinians themselves will admit of the 
 soundness of this reasoning, as applied to 
 crimes committed against the laws of a civil 
 state. Human legislators constantly make a 
 distinction among crimes with regard to the de- 
 gree of their criminality, and they proportion- 
 ate their respective punishments to their sup- 
 posed desert. They have also uniformly com- 
 puted the degree of demerit attached to crime, 
 by the degree of obligation supposed to be vio- 
 lated, and the dignity of the party against 
 whom the crime is supposed to be committed. 
 Hence, in every country, high treason has 
 been accounted the greatest offence against 
 society; because committed more directly 
 against the majesty of the state, in the person 
 af its supreme, governor. But every sin is an 
 I 
 
198 DISSERTATION' OS THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 act of treason against the Supreme Ruler of the 
 universe; and, if we allow that he is infinitely 
 superior to all earthly potentates, w r e must 
 also admit, that every violation of his law is a 
 crime of infinite demerit. 
 
 But if such is the desert of every sin a3 
 committed against God, nothing short of an 
 atonement of infinite value must be necessary 
 to vindicate God's honour in man's salvation. 
 That the death of Christ possesses this value, 
 will appear if we consider the nature of the 
 sacrifice, and the dignity of the person who 
 offered it to God for the expiation of human 
 guilt. Under the law the priest and the sa- 
 crifice were distinct, but both are conjoined 
 in the great High-Priest of our profession, 
 M He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
 But to see the value of our Lord's death as 
 an atonement for sin, we must attend, 
 
 First, To the unity of his person though 
 incarnate. His assumption of human nature 
 did not destroy his personal unity. He is 
 God and man in one person. The child born 
 is still the son given *. He who is made of 
 
 * Isa. is. 6. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 199 
 
 the fathers according to the flesh, is God over 
 #11 blessed for ever *. 
 
 Secondly 9 We must also keep in view the 
 communion between these natures in personal 
 agency. Though these natures are distinct, 
 yet, in consequence of their personal union, 
 the agency in both is but one personal agency. 
 Hence, these acts which belong more proper- 
 ly to his Godhead, are ascribed to him when 
 pointed out by designations descriptive of his 
 human nature ; such as the pardon of sin f ; 
 and the judgment of the world J. For the 
 same reason those acts .which are effected in 
 and by the human nature, are ascribed to him 
 when described by characters expressive of 
 his divinity ; such as obedience and suffering: 
 " Though he were a Son, yet learned he obe- 
 " dience by the things which he suffered §." 
 
 Let us now apply these remarks to our 
 Lord's sacrifice, and his agency as a Priest in 
 presenting it to God ; in order to see the su- 
 perlative excellence of the one, and the in- 
 iinite moral worth of the other. 
 
 * * Rom. ix. 5. f Mat. ix. & 
 
 \ cLs xvii. 51. § Heb. v. 8, 
 
 x2! 
 
200 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 With respect to bis sacrifice $ if we allow 
 that his person is divine, we must also admit 
 that it possessed a value corresponding to the 
 dignity of his person ; and if the latter be pos- 
 sessed of infinite dignity, the former must 
 have possessed infinite value. The matter of 
 his sacrifice was his human nature, but its 
 value must have been infinitely more than 
 human, arising from its subsistence in his Di- 
 vine person. What he gave was himself, 
 though in the human nature ; his sacrifice 
 must therefore have been of value correspond- 
 ing to his dignity as the Son of God. " He 
 u put away sin by the sacrifice of himself*." 
 " He gave himself for us a sacrifice and an 
 cl offering to God f ." Such is the account 
 the Scriptures make of the value of our Lord's 
 sacrifice, when they tell us that the church 
 was purchased by the blood of God. His 
 divinity could not suffer or die; but he, who 
 is God, bled and died in that nature which 
 subsisted in himself by a personal union. 
 " Feed the church of God which he hath 
 ** purchased with his own blood J." To the 
 
 * Iltb. ix. 26. f Eph. v. % t Acts xx. 28, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 201 
 
 same purpose we are told, " that the Lord of 
 " glory was crucified * £ and that he who by 
 himself purged our sins, " is the brightness 
 " of his Father's glory, and the express image 
 64 of his person f," His sacrifice must there- 
 fore be of -infinite value and efficacy for expiat- 
 ing transgression. 
 
 But to set the matter in its true light, we 
 must also apply what was said respecting his 
 personal agency, viewed as incarnate, to bis 
 functions as a priest in offering up his human 
 nature in sacrifice to God. This agency, con- 
 sidered as obediential, w r as in the human na- 
 ture, for it w 7 as in that nature he was made un- 
 der the iaw ; but it was not the less on that 
 account the agency of a Divine person. The 
 human nature of Christ had never any distinct 
 subsistence of its own ^ it could never, there- 
 fore, have any distinct personal agency. As 
 the superlative excellency of our Lord's Priest- 
 hood arises from its being vested in a JJivine 
 person ; so all his official functions must pos- 
 sess infinite moral worth, from their being 
 discharged by a Divine person $ though bear- 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 8. t Heb. i. 5, 4. 
 
 i3 
 
202 DISSERTATION" ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 ing an official character, and acting in his 
 inferior and assumed nature. M The law 
 " maketh high-priests which have infirmity; 
 ;( but the word of the oath which was since 
 61 the law, maketh the So'n who is consecrated 
 *' for evermore *." These two must never be 
 viewed separately, in contemplating the death 
 of Christ as a propitiation for sin. It was not 
 his sufferings abstractly, however intense, or 
 his death, though ignoniinious, that purged 
 our sins ; but his suffering unto death, con- 
 nected i ith his obediential acting under suf- 
 ferir^, and in laying down his life; and both 
 as deriving ii finite value and efficacy from the 
 divinity of bis person. 
 
 We may add, that although his agency in 
 the human nature, strictly speaking, constitut- 
 ed bis obedience as a Surety in his life and at 
 his death ; yet, in computing its moral worth, 
 we must take into account his acts of conde- 
 scension prior to his bearing the form of a 
 servant^ and to his being made under the law, 
 such i*s his eternal undertaking, and his com- 
 ing into our world by the assumption of hu- 
 
 ** * Heb. vii. 28. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 203 
 
 man nature. Although these acts did not 
 enter into the matter of his obedience as a 
 Surety, still they infused into it real value in 
 the eye of the law and justice of God, since they 
 had in design for their object, his entrance 
 upon that service, and were preparatory to it. 
 This is plainly intimated by the Apostle : 
 M Who being in the form of God, thought it 
 H not robbery to be equal with God : But 
 ii made himself of no reputation, and took 
 ** upon him the form of a servant, and was 
 " made in the likeness of men. And being 
 " found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
 "himself, and became obedient unto death, 
 " even the death of the cross *•" 
 
 From all these considerations, it will appear 
 that the death of Christ possessed every tiling 
 necessary to a true and proper atonement for 
 sin. His death was authorised by God tor 
 this purpose. He died the death awarded by 
 the law as the punishment due to transgres- 
 sion. His death was obediential, and of in- 
 finite value, arising from the dignity of his 
 person. — We shall only add, 
 
 * Phil. ii. 6, 7, 8. I* 
 
 i4 
 
204 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 Fifthly^ That the satisfactory nature of our 
 Lord's death, as an expiation for sin, appears 
 from the Father's approbation of his work, 
 both in progress and when finished. The 
 law made nothing perfect. The blood of 
 bulls and of goats could not take away sin: 
 they served only as shadows of that better 
 sacrifice which Christ w r as to offer up once in 
 the end of the world. His sacrifice is the 
 truth or substance of all the typical sacrifices, 
 which were consumed upon the Levitical altar. 
 In these sacrifices God had no pleasure \ but 
 when our Lord entered upon his work in human 
 nature, as our great High- Priest, agreeably 
 to ancient prediction, a righteous God looked 
 down with approbation and ^clight upon the 
 truth of moral obedience and satisfaction for 
 sir u springing out of the earth-*." Hence,, 
 while his work was only in progress, there 
 Came, at his baptism, a voice from Heaven, 
 which said, " Thou art my beloved Son, in 
 " thee I am well pleased f" The same testi- 
 mony of the Divine approbation was renewed 
 
 * Psal. lxxxv. 11. j Luke iii. VL 
 
"DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 205 
 
 at his transfiguration : " For he received from 
 " God the Father, honour and glory, when 
 " there came such a voice to him from the 
 «« excellent glory : This is my beloved Son in 
 " whom I im well pleased # ." After his 
 work was finished, his Father declared his 
 approbation of it in raising him from the 
 dead. He was in his resurrection taken by 
 God, in the character of a righteous Judge, 
 from prison and from judgment ; but had his 
 death not been availing for the payment of 
 the whole of our debt, a holy and righteous 
 God would not have acquitted him. In his re- 
 surrection he was justified as our representa- 
 tive, as having finished the whole work given 
 him to do ; but had his work not been satisfac- 
 tory, God had never given him this signal testi- 
 mony of his approbation. Hence, the im- 
 portance which the Spirit of God attaches to 
 the resurrection of Christ, as a ground of our 
 security from condemnation. He procured 
 our deliverance from the curse by his death ; 
 but we could have had no evidence that hk 
 death was efficacious for that purpose had he 
 
 * 2 Pet i. 17. 
 
 i5 
 
206 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 not risen from the dead ; for bad the Surety 
 failed to accomplish his work, we must have 
 for ever remained in our sins. " Who shall 
 " lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? 
 " It is God that justifieth : Who is he that 
 " condemneth ? it is Christ that died, yea, 
 " rather that is risen again *." The Father 
 also gave him glory in our nature and as our 
 representative; but had his w r ork not been 
 complete he would never have been crowned 
 with his glorious reward f. Had the blood 
 which he shed on earth, as a Priest at the altar, 
 not been efficacious for purging our sins, he 
 had never appeared in Heaven as a Priest upon 
 his throne ; for he entered Heaven by his own 
 blood %. Had his sacrifice not been accept- 
 ed, he would not have received the Spirit to 
 be shed down on the church, nor would he 
 have conferred gifts for the edification of her 
 members. All these belong to the promis- 
 sory part of the covenant, and suppose the 
 efficacy of his sacrifice for its ratification. 
 In fine, the propagation of the gospel in our 
 
 * Rom. viii. 55, 54. t Phil* «• 8, 9. 
 
 J Heb. is. II, 12. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 20? 
 
 world, its permanency, and the success with 
 which it has been accompanied from age to 
 age, in the religious and moral reformation 
 of mankind, are standing proofs of the per- 
 fection of the atonement. It is in conse- 
 quence of his death having received the Di- 
 vine approbation as a true and proper satis- 
 faction for sin, that as a Priest on his throne 
 he sprinkles the nations, by applying to them 
 the precious fruits of his mediation : Agree- 
 ably to ancient prediction, " When thou shalt 
 " make his soul an offering for sin, he shall 
 " see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and 
 *' the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his 
 M hand*.'* " As many w r ere astonished at 
 " thee ; his visage was so marred more than 
 " any man, and his form more than the sons 
 " of men : So shall he sprinkle many nations ; 
 " the kings shall shut their mouths at him: 
 " for that which had not been told them shall 
 " they see, and that which they had not heard 
 46 shall they consider f ." 
 
 * Isa. liii. 10, II. t Isa. lii, U, 15. 
 
 THE END OF THE SECOND FART. 
 
[ 208 J 
 
 PART THIRD. 
 
 GENERAL REMARKS, TENDING TO OBVIATE 
 
 DIFFICULTIES, AND ILLUSTRATE THE 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. 
 
 xi aving finished what was intended on the Ne- 
 cessity of an Atonement, and the Nature of the 
 Atonement actually made by Christ, we shall 
 now conclude the discussion with a few gene- 
 ral remarks, tending to obviate difficulties, 
 and to point out the vast importance of the 
 subject. 
 
 Is/, The doctrine of the atonement, as 
 now stated, is no way inconsistent with the 
 gratuitous nature of forgiveness.^ Those who 
 insist that it is so, betray total ignorance of 
 the doctrine as laid down in the holy Scrip- 
 tures. Had the atonement been represented 
 as the moving cause of forgiveness, there 
 might have been some reason for the objec- 
 tion ; but this is not the case. The sacred 
 
DISSERTATION" ON THE ATONEMENT. -09 
 
 writers represent the plan of redemption as 
 taking its rise from the sovereign will or good 
 pleasure of God. The purpose of pardon was 
 a purpose of rich, free, and sovereign grace. 
 The same boundless grace is manifested in 
 bestowing it on the sinner. " In whom we 
 u have redemption through his blood, the 
 14 forgiveness of sins, according to the riches 
 " of his grace # ." God is no where in Scrip- 
 ture represented as moved, or inclined by the 
 death of Christ to save sinners; on the con- 
 trary, the mediation of Christ is set forth in 
 the sacred oracles, as a plan devised by his 
 infinite wisdom, to give effect to his purpose 
 of mercy in their salvation, in a way con- 
 sistent with the honour of his law, and the 
 claims of his justice. The same God who in 
 rich grace purposed to save sinners, provided, 
 in boundless wisdom and love, the ransom 
 trrrmTgfrlvlncTi salvation is conferred. " He 
 " is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver 
 " him from going down to the pit, I have 
 " found a ransom f." The atonement, there- 
 fore, instead of lessening, enhances the mani- 
 
 * Eph. i 7. f J° b xxxiii - 2 ^ 
 
210 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 festation of Divine grace in the bestowing of 
 forgiveness. Great as the grace of God ap- 
 \ pears in conferring pardon, the display of this 
 I grace is still greater in providing the medium 
 ; of its conveyance. " God so loved the world 
 I** that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 " whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 44 but have everlasting life*." " Herein is 
 44 love, not that we loved God, but that he 
 44 loved us, and sent his Son to be the propi- 
 44 tiation for our sins f." Nor does the neces- 
 sity of the atonement which w r e have attempted 
 to establish militate at all against this freedom ; 
 since it does not respect pardon itself, but the 
 mode of its conveyance. God might or 
 might not have pardoned sinners; this de- 
 pended solely on his sovereign pleasure. But 
 having purposed to do so, it was absolutely 
 necessary that this purpose should be carried 
 into effect in a way consistent with his own 
 honour. 
 
 Jt may still be asked, Does not the atone- 
 ment lay the foundation of a claim of right 
 to forgiveness ? And is not such a claim ia- 
 
 * John iii. 16. f 1 John iy. 10, 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 2i 1 
 
 compatible with this freedom in bestowing 
 it ? We reply, That the atonement lays a 
 foundation for such a claim to the Surety we 
 grant ; but that it does so to the sinner we 
 deny. The sinner has ample warrant to plead 
 for pardon at God's throne through the atone- 
 ment ; but this warrant proceeds on the ground 
 of God's gracious offer of pardon in the gos- 
 pel, and not upon any claim he has to it as 
 matter of right. Besides, the claim of right 
 to forgiveness on the part of the Surety, on 
 behalf of those for whom he died, arises from 
 a prior act of grace. It is a right founded on 
 a gracious constitution, or the free promise of 
 God to the Mediator in the eternal covenant, 
 rendered pleadable as matter of right by his 
 fulfilment of its condition. 
 
 Moreover, a just view of the subject would 
 require us to take into account the personal 
 dignity of the Mediator. The claim of right 
 is between two Divine persons, though act- 
 ing in distinct economical characters. It is, 
 therefore, a claim not extrinsic to the Deity, 
 and, consequently, cannot lessen the gratuitous 
 nature of pardon to the sinner. 
 
212 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 In fine, the atonement, so far from- obscur- 
 ing, brings into view this grace as displayed 
 by each of the persons of Trinity by means 
 of their personal operations. As the appoint- 
 ment and mission of the Son, to make atone- 
 ment for sin, serve to illustrate the sovereign 
 love of the Father, so the undertaking of the 
 Son to finish the work given him to do, is no 
 less illustrative of his grace. " Ye know the 
 4< grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that 
 " though he was rich, yet for your sakes he 
 11 became poor, that ye through his poverty 
 " might be made rich *." Pardon, therefore, 
 is of grace, free, sovereign, and unsolicited 
 grace, though it flows to sinners through a 
 spiritual redemption. " In whom we have 
 " redemption through his blood, the forgive- 
 " ness of sins, according to the riches of his 
 11 grace -f." 
 
 2dlj/ 9 This doctrine is falsely charged with 
 setting limits to the power of God, and repre- 
 senting him as acting from a fatal necessity. 
 
 We have assigned no limits to the power 
 of God but those of his own holiness, justice, 
 
 * 2 Cor. \iii. 9. f Eph. i. 7. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 21 3 
 
 and veracity. Power is a vague term as used 
 by those who on this ground reject the neces- 
 sity of the atonement. We must certainly 
 make a distinction, in this case, between power 
 in the abstract, and the use of it by a moral 
 agent. A good man may possess physical 
 strength sufficient for assassinating nis neigh- 
 bour, as really as tiie wicked man who has ac- 
 tually cut his throat. But we say, m com- 
 mon language, that a good man is incppa] ie 
 of this atrocious deed, and we only taj the 
 truth ; for regaining his goodness, he cannot 
 commit sueh a crime. This, surely, is not te> 
 set limits to his power, but to commend him 
 for the proper use which he makes oi it- 
 Let us apply this reasoning to the case now 
 under consideration. In saying that God 
 cannot pardon sin without a satisfaction to 
 his justice, we do not set limits to his power 
 of acting, but only assert that he is too holy 
 and just to abuse it. The power of acting in 
 the case of every moral agent derives all its real 
 excellence from the use which he makes of it; 
 and were the power of God not uniformly put 
 forth in support of the cause of righteousness^ 
 
214? DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 it would be a defect, and not a perfection, in 
 the Divine character. 
 
 Neither does the necessity of the atonement, 
 as now stated, ascribe any thing like fatality 
 to God, No rational being acts from fatal 
 necessity who retains the power of choice ; 
 and the highest degree of rational liberty con- 
 sists in the agent who wills possessing a power 
 to choose what is most agreeable to his dispo- 
 sitions. But the necessity pleaded in the pre- 
 sent question, with reference to God, is a 
 necessity founded on his moral perfection. It 
 is a mode of acting, therefore, which God 
 chooses, and cannot but choose, else he would' 
 do violence to his adorable nature. 
 
 Sdlj/y This doctrine is equally remote from 
 ascribing mutability to God. It has been 
 charged by some as inferring change or mu- 
 tability in God. Could this charge be sub- 
 stantiated, it would furnish a sufficient rea- 
 son for rejecting the doctrine. Mutability 
 is incompatible with absolute perfection. 
 Were God to change, it behoved to be either 
 to the better or to the worse. Were the 
 change to the better, it would suppose im- 
 perfection in God prior to it ; were it to the 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 215 
 
 worse, then, posterior to it, he could not be a 
 perfect Being. This attribute of immutability 
 must belong to every property of the Divine 
 nature. God must be immutable in his holi- 
 ness, in his justice, and in his veracity $ but 
 his law and moral administration are merely 
 a transcript of these perfections ; and it is on 
 this very account we plead for the necessity 
 of an atonement for sin in order to its for- 
 giveness; or because the exercise of mercy in 
 the bestowing of pardon, independently of an 
 atonement, wouid produce a change in the 
 morai system, incompatible with the perfection 
 of the law, and the immutability of the Law- 
 giver. The charge applies in ail its JLrce to 
 every other scheme of forgiveness, but that of 
 remission through the blood of Christ ; since 
 no other method which has been suggested, 
 makes provision for the vindication of the im- 
 mutable perfection of the character and moral 
 administration of God. 
 
 But the objection seems to respect, not so 
 properly the holiness and justice of God, 
 as his special love displayed in dispensing 
 his favours to his fallen creatures. These 
 are conferred, according to our statement, 
 
216 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 through the atonement; and on that account 
 the objectors consider it as effecting a change 
 of mind in God towards the objects of this 
 dispensation. To obviate this objection, it 
 may be necessary again to remind our readers, 
 that fallen men are the objects of God's dis- 
 pleasure, not as creatures, but as sinners* 
 By keeping this in view, and attending to the 
 following distinctions, it will be found that 
 there is no real change in God, amidst ah the 
 chances which his sovereign mercy produces 
 upon the objects of hi* special regard. 
 
 First, We must attend to the distinction 
 between Divine benevolence and complacency. 
 The former, as it regards sinners of mankind, 
 flows purely from his sovereignty. " He will 
 " have mercy on whom he will have mercy." 
 The latter arises from his nature. As he is a 
 holy Being, he must delight in the image of 
 his own purity in his creatures, and abhor 
 whatever is contrary to it. 
 
 Secondly, Let us inquire whether pardon 
 through the atonement argues any change in 
 God's benevolent regard. That it does not 
 will appear if we consider, that pardon is 
 neither more nor less than the benevolent 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 217 
 
 purpose of God towards sinners from ever- 
 lasting, taking effect in time in their deliver- 
 ance from condemnation. Nor does it alter 
 the case, that t-he remission of sin is only- 
 through the atonement, for God only pur- 
 posed to save sinners in this way ; the means 
 and the end being embodied in the same 
 Divine purpose. Neither does it alter the 
 ease, that the state of the sinner before God 
 is changed by the act of pardon, from what it 
 was before ; for the moment when this change 
 should take place was also fixed in the same 
 eternal purpose. In pardon, there is a change 
 of Divine acting towards the sinner, but no 
 change of God's benevolent regard towards 
 him. This change of acting involves no 
 change in the mind of God, since it is merely 
 a following out of his one immutable purpose. 
 " He is in one mind, and who can turn him ? 
 " and what his soul desireth even that he 
 « doeth *." 
 
 Thirdly, Let us also inquire whether the 
 atonement produces any change in God's com* 
 placent regard. The sinner, as a sinner, can- 
 
 * Job xxiii. 13. 
 
218 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 not be an object of Divine complacency ; but 
 he becomes an object of it when interested in 
 the atonement and its grand results. He is 
 accepted who was not accepted, and beloved 
 who was not beloved ; but all this does not 
 infer any change in God. God does not now 
 love what he did not love before. He always 
 delights in rectitude, and now, by grace, the 
 sinner by nature possesses that rectitude, both 
 as irnputed and inherent, being not only justi- 
 fied through the righteousness, but regener- 
 ated by the Spirit of Christ. God must, there- 
 fore, delight in his own comeliness put upon 
 him. Still, the change is wholly in the sinner, 
 not in God. He esteems nothing now that 
 he did not always esteem ; and if his esteem 
 now terminates on a creature on whom it did 
 not formerly terminate, it is owing to a change 
 in the creature relative to God, and n.ot to any 
 change in God himself. While it is day in 
 our horizon, our part of the world is warmed, 
 beautified, and fertilized by the rays of the 
 sun ; but during the night we neither ejyoy 
 his light nor heat. This does not, however, 
 arise from any real change in the sun. He is 
 the same in himself, and his influences during 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 219 
 
 our night are the same as during our day, but 
 he is not so to us, or to that part of the world 
 which we inhabit, owing to its being turned 
 away from him. No sooner, however, does the 
 diurnal revolution of the globe turn our part 
 of the earth towards the sun, than we again fall 
 under his benign influences. Just so it is with 
 God, the Sun of the rational and moral system. 
 Amidst all the changes which his grace produces 
 upon the hearts of his people, he remains " the 
 " Father of Lights, w r ith whom there is no 
 " variableness, neither shadow of turning." 
 
 We now proceed to make a few remarks on 
 the importance of the subject. 
 
 first, The importance of the view we have 
 taken of the Necessity of the Atonement will 
 appear, from the tendency which the opposite 
 opinion has to leave us at a total uncertainty 
 respecting the moral character of the Supreme 
 Being. 
 
 All we know about God is through the me- 
 dium of his works, taken in connection with 
 his Word. The work of creation clearly evin- 
 ces the existence and eternal power of God. 
 " For the invisible things of him from the 
 •■ creation of the world are clearly seen, being 
 
220 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 " understood by the things that are made, 
 " even his eternal power and Godhead *." 
 But the principal source of our knowledge of 
 what may be more properly called his moral 
 perfections, is the moral law, either as engra- 
 ven on the heart of man, or as made known by 
 special revelation in the Bible ; taken in con- 
 nection with his moral administration in the 
 kingdoms of grace and providence. In the 
 precept of that law he is exhibited as a Beifig 
 of untainted holiness, and, in its sanction, as a 
 Being of unspotted righteousness ; and we 
 have no certain means of knowing that he is 
 immutably holy and inflexibly just, but from 
 his strict adherence to this law in the whole of 
 his administration as the moral Governor of 
 the world. But to say that God might, had 
 he pleased, have pardoned sin without a satis- 
 faction to his justice, is to destroy the law as 
 a criterion of his moral character. How T ever 
 holy the law is, and however righteous the 
 moral administration of God. according to the 
 present constitution of things ; if it might have 
 otherwise, consistently with his nature-. 
 
 * Rom. i. 20. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 221 
 
 the present form of his administration can be 
 no real test of his moral excellence. If the 
 present form of God's moral administration, 
 according to which he exacts an atonement in 
 order to forgiveness, be just and equal ; then 
 forgiveness, without an atonement, must, un- 
 der any supposable constitution of things, have 
 been wrong: for moral evil must be moral 
 evil under every supposed form of the Divine 
 government. To say that God might, un- 
 der a different constitution of things from the 
 present, have pardoned sin without a satisfac- 
 tion, is therefore to suppose that he is mutable 
 in holiness and justice: an idea from which 
 .we should shrink with horror. 
 
 This, as well as many other false notions 
 in divinity, obviously proceeds from the ab- 
 surd hypothesis respecting the self-determin- 
 ing power of the will. This -hypothesis ap- 
 plied to the will of man, has been employed 
 for overturning the whole plan of salvation 
 by grace as it reigns through the righteousness 
 of Christ. In this case, as applied to the 
 Divine will, it leads, not only to the subver- 
 sion of the necessity of the atonement, but also 
 to the overthrow of the whole moral svstem, 
 
 K 
 
222 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 by shaking the grand pillars on which it rests; 
 namely, the infinite holiness, justice, and 
 veracity of the Supreme Being. As we have 
 noticed already, the reason of every act of 
 will in all moral determinations, is the moral 
 disposition of the agent willing *. God's will, 
 therefore, as it respects the mode of confer- 
 ring pardon through the atonement, must be 
 an index of his moral character. But to 
 maintain that God might have dispensed par- 
 don without an atonement, is to suppose that 
 he might have been, in a moral point of view, 
 a Being altogether different from what he is 
 represented to be by the Scripture doctrine 
 of redemption through the blood of Christ. 
 This doctrine presents him to the view of 
 his rational creatures in all the beauties of un- 
 tainted holiness ; but, according to the notion 
 we are now confuting, he might have an- 
 nounced himself to his creatures in a charac- 
 ter, resembling more the fictitious deities of 
 Greece and Rome, than the Holy One of 
 Israel. In the glass of the atonement he 
 appears, as a governor, in all the majesty of 
 
 * See Page 59. 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 223 
 
 inflexible justice: but, according to the hypo- 
 thesis of our opponents, he might have appear- 
 ed perverting the eternal laws of justice, by 
 conniving at the most flagrant crimes, and 
 cherishing as his favourites the greatest mon- 
 sters of wickedness. These are some of the 
 consequences to which the opinion leads, that 
 God might, had he pleased, under a supposed 
 constitution of things different from the pre- 
 sent, have pardoned sinners without a satisfac- 
 tion to his justice. We are far from thinking 
 that the advocates of that opinion, designedly 
 give their support to such an insult upon the 
 Divine character ; but we have to do, not 
 with the designs of those who maintain the 
 theory, but with the dangerous consequences 
 to which it natively leads. 
 
 Secondly j The importance of the view we have 
 taken of the Necessity of the Atonement, will 
 further appear, from the tendency which the 
 opposite opinion has to support the immoral 
 doctrine of universal restoration. 
 
 That it has this tendency will appear from 
 
 the light in which it represents the law of 
 
 God. It places the moral-natural law on the 
 
 same footing with positive laws or institutions, 
 
 K 2 
 
224 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 which is a great mistake. A positive law is 
 an institution which depends solely upon the 
 will of God, and derives all its fitness as a rule 
 of conduct from his sovereign appointment. 
 Of this description was the precept given to 
 Adam in paradise respecting the tree of know- 
 ledge, and the ceremonial law given to Israel. 
 A moral-natural law is a rule of conduct, 
 founded on God's immutable holiness. The 
 former is just and reasonable, because com- 
 manded ; the latter is commanded, because 
 just and reasonable. The former is only ob- . 
 ligatory during the pleasure of the Lawgiver j 
 the latter is of perpetual obligation, as it 
 springs from God's supremacy and man's de- 
 pendance. Man may exist without being 
 under a positive law; but exist he cannot, 
 without being under a moral-natural law; 
 since his obligation to it springs out of those 
 moral relations which necessarily subsist be- 
 tween God and his rational creatures. This 
 beino* the case, under no constitution of things 
 could man have existed independently of ob- 
 ligation to the moral law ; and if its sanction 
 for the present be just and equal, which awards 
 death as the punishment of sin ; then, under 
 
DISSERTATION' OX THE ATONEMENT. 22.5 
 
 every supposable constitution of things, sin 
 must have deserved that punishment. 
 
 But the scheme we have been endeavouring 
 to refute, supposes that the law might have been 
 otherwise. At present it does not admit of par- 
 don without satisfaction for sin ; but the advo- 
 cates for that scheme plead that it might have 
 done so, under a constitution of things differ- 
 ent from the present. Is not this to make the 
 moral-natural law a mere arbitrary appoint- 
 ment of God, which may be repealed at plea- 
 sure, and, consequently, to put it on the same 
 footing with a positive institution ? This being 
 once admitted, the cause of universal restora- 
 tion is more than half established. The infer- 
 ence is plain, if the present plan of the 
 Divine government, which makes death the 
 wages of sin, might not have existed, had it 
 so pleased God ; it may be altered, as the 
 ceremonial law was, at some future period, and 
 devils and wicked men may be set free from 
 judicial infliction, as the Jews were from the 
 yoke of ceremonies. This is a native infer- 
 ence from the doctrine we are now examin- 
 ing, whether its advocates will admit it or 
 not. But whatever tends to countenance that 
 K 2 
 
226 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 scheme must give a deep wound to the in- 
 terests of morality; since it removes one of 
 the principal bulwarks against the inroads of 
 vice and profaneness. 
 
 Thirdly ', The importance of the view we have 
 taken of the Atonement will also appear, if we 
 attend to its hearings upon practical religion 
 and moral conduct. This part of our subject 
 deserves particular illustration, as it meets one 
 grand objection to the atonement, and enables 
 us to shew that, instead of weakening, it 
 strengthens the motives to the study of uni- 
 versal holiness. 
 
 1st, The connection between the atonement 
 and the interests of pure religion and moral 
 conduct, appears from the relation which it 
 hears to all gracious communications between 
 God and his fallen creatures. 
 
 Man, in his fallen state, is destitute of moral 
 rectitude. u The carnal mind is enmity 
 M against God, for it is not subject to the law 
 M of God, neither indeed can be*." This 
 enmity can be subdued, and that love which 
 is the fulfilment of the law implanted, only 
 by supernatural grace. " It is God who 
 
 * Rom. vjii 7- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 227 
 
 " worketh in you, both to will and to do of 
 " his good pleasure *." But the curse of the 
 law prevents all gracious communications from 
 God to the heart of the sinner, till removed 
 by an act of pardoning mercy ; and, as we 
 have seen already, pardon can be conferred 
 only through the atonement > the atonement, 
 therefore, must be fundamental to the restora- 
 tion of holiness, as well as happiness, to our 
 fallen race. The death of Christ opened up 
 the fountain of supernatural influence for the 
 removal of the filth as well as the guilt of sin: 
 cl In that day there shall be a fountain opened 
 " to the house of David, and to the inhabit- 
 " ants of Jerusalem, for sin and for unclean- 
 " ness f." The church is sanctiried by the will 
 of God. His gracious purpose is the mov- 
 ing cause of our sanctification, as well as the 
 remission of our sins; but this purpose takes 
 effect in our spiritual renovation only through 
 the atonement. " By the which will we are 
 u sanctified, through the offering of the body 
 " of Jesus Christ once for all $." Christ 
 sanctifies the church by the joint energies of 
 
 * Phil. ii. 13. f Zech. xiii. 1. J Heb. x. 10* 
 
 K 4 
 
228 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 his prophetical and kingly offices; but the 
 exercise of both proceeds upon the ground of 
 the perfection of his atonement for sin as a 
 priest. Hence he is said to have been sancti- 
 fied, or set apart to his work, as the Captain 
 of salvation, through his sufferings. " For it 
 11 became him for whom are all things, and 
 " by whom are all things, in bringing many 
 " sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
 11 their salvation perfect through sufferings *." 
 To the same purpose we are told, that " he 
 " gave hansel I for us, that he might redeem 
 11 us from all iniquity, and purify unto him- 
 " self a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 " works -h'' Also, that " he loved the church, 
 " and gave himself for it ; that he might 
 " sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of 
 M water by the word -, that he ruight present 
 ic it to himself a glorious church, not having 
 " spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but that 
 " it should be holy and without blemish J." 
 In fine, the church is sanctified by the personal 
 agency of the Spirit ; but the Spirit, in his 
 
 * Heb. ii. 10. t Tit, ii 1* t Eph. v. 25, 26, 2T 4 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 229 
 
 grace and influences, is conferred only through 
 the mediation of Christ. " But after that 
 " the kindness and love of God our Saviour 
 " toward man appeared : Not by works of 
 " righteousness which we have done, but ac- 
 11 cording to his mercy he saved us, by the 
 " washing of regeneration, and renewing of 
 " the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us 
 " abundantly through Jesus Christ our Sa- 
 " viour V 
 
 2dly, This connection will appear if we 
 consider the powerful motives to a holy life, 
 which arise from the atonement, and from the 
 display it affords of the Divine character. 
 
 Though all that is morally excellent in man 
 is from God ; yet, in conferring holiness, He 
 does not act upon man as a piece of inanimate 
 matter, but as a rational being. It is only as 
 a rational creature that man is a capable sub- 
 ject of moral qualities, and it is only so far 
 as his obligations to duty are apprehended by 
 his intellect, and are the matter of his choice, 
 that he is capable of discharging the duties 
 which he owes to God and his neighbour. 
 
 * Tit. iii. 4, 5, 6. 
 
 k5 
 
230 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 That the view which we have given of the Ne* 
 cessity of the Atonement furnishes us with the 
 most powerful motives to holiness will appear, 
 if we consider, 
 
 First, The display which it affords of the 
 Divine character. Whatever tends to exalt 
 God in the estimation of his rational creatures, 
 must have a tendency to promote the interests 
 of religion and morality. Rational creatures 
 cannot be easy in the commission of sin so 
 long as they retain, in any degree, just concep- 
 tions of the majesty and purity of the Supreme 
 Being. Sin entered into the world through 
 the influence of a temptation calculated to 
 degrade the Divine character in the estima- 
 tion of our first parents. " The serpent 
 " said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely 
 11 die. For God doth know that in the day 
 4< ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be 
 " opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
 1 ' good and evil*." These words contain 
 several insinuations degrading to the charac- 
 ter of God. His veracity, as pledged in the 
 sanction of the law, is expressly denied : " Ye 
 
 * Gen. iii. 4-, 5. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 231 
 
 H shall not surely die." His equity and good- 
 ness are arraigned, and it is insinuated that 
 the prohibition was intended by God to pre- 
 vent the intellectual improvement of his crea- 
 tures. In fine, our first mother was tempted 
 to consider that God was not so far exalted 
 above his creatures, but that they might be- 
 come equal with him in respect of intellectual 
 endowments. " God doth know that in the 
 11 day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be 
 81 opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
 " good and evil." These suggestions first 
 drew the human intellect from the contempla- 
 tion of the majesty and purity of God, which 
 had hitherto impressed the minds of our first 
 parents with reverential awe, humble submis- 
 sion, and the most lively sentiments of grati- 
 tude and esteem for their Creator, And this 
 blaze of celestial light was extinguished in the 
 cloud of error respecting the Divine character, 
 which led to their apostacy. The same pro- 
 cess marks the progress of their posterity in a 
 course of wickedness. Hence the propensity 
 which wicked men have uniformly discovered 
 to work themselves into false notions of the 
 Supreme Being. They seek ease in the com- 
 
2J2 UMSERTATION.ON THE ATONEMENT' 
 
 mission of sin, and the}' can fi^d it only hy 
 fostering mean and unbecoming thoughts of 
 God. K These things hast thou done, and I 
 M kept silence ; thou tlioughtest I was alto- 
 " gether such an one as thyself, and did ap- 
 11 prove of thy sin *." Without a change of 
 views respecting the Divine character, it is 
 impossible, in the nature of things, to bring 
 man back to a state of allegiance to God, 
 But no discovery of God, disconnected with 
 the doctrine of the atonement, is calculated to 
 engage the heart of a fallen creature in his 
 service; as it is only through the atonement 
 that he is exhibited as a God of grace and 
 mercy towards our ruined race. Every mani- 
 festation of God's moral character, discon- 
 nected with the display he has given of his 
 sovereign mercy through the atonement, in- 
 stead of conciliating the affection of a fallen 
 creature to his Maker, fills him with terror; 
 and terror of God as an enemy and avenger uni- 
 formly produces hatred. " The carnal mind 
 ft is enmity against God, for it is not subject 
 u to the law of God, neither indeed can bef." 
 
 * Ps, 1. 21. f Rom. viiL 7. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 233 
 
 The moral law is a transcript of the Divine 
 image. It presents God to our view in the 
 beauties of untainted holiness and unspotted 
 righteousness. But till the conscience of the 
 sinner is purified by the atoning blood of 
 Christ, his knowledge of the Divine law, in- 
 stead of subduing, only irritates his corrup- 
 tions, and gives a new impulse to them in the 
 service of sin: " For when we were in the 
 M flesh, the motions of sins which were by the 
 44 law did work in our members, to bring 
 " forth fruit unto death *." 
 
 As even the portrait of a man has been 
 found to draw forth every latent principle of 
 hostility, in the breast of his adversary, into 
 the most violent emotions of rage and fury, so 
 the enmity of the sinner's heart, which seemed 
 to be dormant, begins to rage against God 
 the moment the law is presented to his view jn 
 its extent and spirituality. " But sin taking 
 " occasion by the commandment wrought in 
 " me all manner of concupiscence. For with- 
 M out the law sin was deadf." 
 
 The moral perfections of God appear in 
 
 * Horn. vii. 5. f Rom. vii 8. 
 
234r DISSERTATION ON THE ATOXEMEST. 
 
 their brightest lustre in the cross of Christ. 
 In this median he is seen in all the glory 
 of spotless holiness, and id all the majesty of 
 inflexible justice ; but even this display of the 
 ry of the Divine character, disconnected 
 with the relation his death has to the egress 
 of mercy towards our guilty race, could have 
 had no influence in converting them from the 
 evil of their ways. Devils, without doubt, 
 discern in the cross of Christ the holiness and 
 righteousness of God ; but this discovery has 
 r.o influence in subduing their enmity against 
 God. On the contrary, it increases their 
 malice and hatred in proportion as it tends 
 to fill them with all the anguish arising from 
 disappointment, and to sink them deeper in 
 the horrors of despair. The doctrine of the 
 cross would have the same effect upon fallen 
 men, were it not the connection which it has 
 with a dispensation of sovereign mercy towards 
 our race. It is the rich mercy of God, as 
 manifested in the remission of sin through the 
 blood of Christ, which slays the enmity of the 
 sinner's heart, and produces in his soul that 
 love to God, which is the fulfilling of the law. 
 This is the grand article of the ministry of 
 
DISSERTATION 7 ON THE ATONEMENT. 235 
 
 reconciliation, which is made effectual by the 
 power of the Divine Spirit, for changing the 
 disposition of the sinner, and turning him from 
 sin to the service of the living God : " To 
 w wit, That God was in Christ, reconciling 
 " the world unto himself, not imputing their 
 u trespasses unto them V The love of God 
 manifested in sending his Son to be the pro- 
 pitiation for our sins, as improved by faith, 
 inspires the soul with the most lively senti- 
 ments of love and gratitude. u We love him 
 u because he first loved us f ." 
 
 The conscience being once purged by a 
 believing improvement of the blood of Christ 
 for the remission of sin, the discovery of the 
 holiness and justice of God in the cross of 
 Christ, has the most powerful moral influence 
 upon the heart. Then the whole of the Di- 
 vine character assumes the most pleasing and 
 engaging aspect. Those attributes of God's 
 nature, which formerly filled the soul with hor- 
 ror, now produce esteem and veneration. 
 While faith in the atonement casts out slavish 
 fear, as it presents God to our view as a God 
 
 * % Cor. v. 19. 1 1 John iv. 19. 
 
£36 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 of mercy* it also inspires that holy awe and re* 
 verence which is fundamental to all holy obe- 
 dience, as it brings into view every perfection 
 of God in all its majesty and greatness. " After- 
 " wards shall the children of Israel return, 
 M and seek the Lord their God, and David 
 " their king: and shall fear the Lord and his 
 "goodness in the latter days*." — Humility 
 is a principle which enters deeply into the ex- 
 ercise of genuine godliness: u God resisteth 
 " the proud, but he giveth grace to the hum- 
 " ble." " For thus saith the high and lofty 
 " One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name 
 " is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy 
 M place ; with him also that is of a contrite 
 * 4 and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of 
 " the humble, and to revive the heart of the 
 " contrite onesf." ,> But all the lustre of the 
 Divine glory, as displayed by the works of 
 nature, is insufficient to humble the loftiness, 
 and subdue the pride of the human heart in 
 the Divine presence. This is effected only by 
 the contemplation of the majesty and purity 
 of God in the face of Jesus. It was before 
 
 * Hosea iii. 5. t Isa. l\ii. 15. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT, 287 
 
 the throne of God, in the character of the Re- 
 deemer of the church, that the prophet, con- 
 trasting his own meanness with God's great- 
 ness, and his own vileness with his untainted 
 holiness, exclaimed, " Woe is me, for I am 
 44 undone, because 1 am a man of unclean 
 44 lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of 
 44 unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the 
 44 King, the Lord of Hosts*." Yea, it is 
 before the sair.e throne that the seraphim in 
 glory, in profound humility, cover their faces 
 with their wings, while they adore God in the 
 beauties of holiness. " And above it stood 
 " the seraphims : each one had six wings j 
 44 with twain he covered his face, and with 
 44 twain he covered his feet, and with twain 
 44 he did fly. And one cried unto another, 
 44 and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
 * 4 of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his 
 glory f \" — So long as we regard iniquity in 
 our hearts, we will never shun it in our prac- 
 tice ; but it is only so far as we have ob- 
 tained saving discoveries of the pardoning 
 mercy of God through the atonement, that 
 
 * Isa. \i. 5. f Verses % 5. 
 
238 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 we will loath sin, and abhor ourselves on ac- 
 count of it. " And I will establish my cove- 
 " nant with thee, and thou shalt know that I 
 " am the Lord, That thou may est remember, 
 " and be confounded, and never open thy 
 " mouth any more, because of thy shame, 
 11 when I am pacified towards thee, for all that 
 #< thou hast done, saith the Lord God*." — 
 Our diligence in duty must be exactly in pro- 
 portion to the sense we have of the extent of 
 our obligations to God. But his new cove- 
 nant character in Christ, presents us with a 
 new and powerful obligation to the study of 
 holiness. He is not only our Maker, and our 
 Preserver, but he is also become the God of our 
 salvation ; and this lays us under the strong- 
 est ties of love and gratitude, to be for him 
 and not for another: u O come! let us wor- 
 M ship and bow down, let us kneel before the 
 M Lord our Maker. For he is our God, and 
 H we are the people of his pasture, and the 
 " sheep of his hand. To-day, if ye will hear 
 ** his voice f." — A sense of obligation, how- 
 ever strong, would prove but a feeble induce- 
 
 * Ezek. xvi. 65. f Psal. xcv. 6, 7. 
 
241 
 
 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 fnent to the performance of duty, had we no 
 warrant to expect Divine aid in duty, and the 
 acceptance of our services with God ; but his 
 new covenant character in Christ, furnishes 
 us with an ample warrant to expect both. 
 Through the blood of Jesus we have access 
 with boldness to God's throne *. From this 
 throne, we are warranted to expect mercy and 
 grace, to help us in every time of need f ; and 
 our services, however imperfect in themselves, 
 are holy and acceptable unto God, through 
 the atoning sacrifice and prevalent advocacy 
 of his own Son. " To the praise of the glory 
 " of his grace, wherein he hath made us ac- 
 " cepted in the Beloved J." " Ye also as 
 " lively stones are built up a spiritual house, 
 u an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual 
 " sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 " Christ §." — Hope is a powerful principle of 
 action : but the death of Christ taken in con- 
 nection with his resurrection, opens up the 
 pleasing prospect of a blessed immortality, as 
 the gracious reward of all our services and 
 
 * Hcb. x. 19, 20. f Heb. iv. 16. 
 
 t Eph. i. 6 § 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
 
24-2 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 dignity and glory, with that external condition 
 of meanness and abasement to which he sub- 
 mitted for our sakes. He who is in the form 
 of God appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh : 
 — He who is the Sovereign Lord of the uni- 
 verse, took upon him the form of a servant :— 
 He whom angels adore, made himself of no re- 
 putation : — He who is the Lord of life, humbled 
 himself, and became obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross *. We must also take 
 into the account the character of those for 
 whose sake the Son of God submitted to all 
 this abasement. It was for the creatures of 
 his own power — not only for creatures, but for 
 sinful creatures — rebels against his authority. 
 " For when we were yet without strength, in 
 "-due time Christ died for the ungodly. For 
 " scarcely for a righteous man will one die ; 
 " yet peradventure for a good man some would 
 u even dare do die. But God commendeth 
 " his love towards us, in that, while we were 
 " yet sinners, Christ died for us f." 
 
 How free ! How disinterested the love of 
 Christ ! "Ye know the grace of our Lord 
 
 * rhii. ii. 6, 7. f Rom. v. 6, 7, 8. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 2 £3 
 
 " Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet 
 11 for our sakes he became poor, that ye 
 " through his poverty might be made rich *." 
 How astonishingly great ! It has a height, a 
 depth, a breadth, and a length, that passeth 
 knowledge. In comparison of this, mere hu- 
 man regard is but like the drop of a bucket to 
 the waters of the ocean. To see the extent 
 and value of this love, we must also take into 
 account the precious fruits of his death. He 
 has by his one offering delivered us from hell, 
 and opened up to us the way to the abodes of 
 eternal bliss. He has rescued us from eternal 
 perdition, and brought us to God the fountain 
 of happiness. Such amazing love calls for a 
 grateful return : and its moral influence upon 
 the heart is powerfully felt by all who believe. 
 They love him who first loved them ; and this 
 Jove makes their duty their delight. They are 
 constrained no less sweetly than powerfully by 
 this love, to the practice of holy obedience. 
 They consider themselves bound by every pos- 
 sible tie, to live to the honour of him who shed 
 his precious blood for them. " For the love of 
 
 * 2 Cor. riii. 9- 
 
BI4 DISSERTATION" ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 €( Christ constraineth us, because we thus 
 <c judge, that if one died for all, then were all 
 " dead: and that he died for all, that they 
 " which live, should not henceforth live unto 
 " themselves, but unto him who died for them 
 " and rose again*." The sense which they 
 have of the greatness of this love produces in 
 them a rooted aversion to sin. They consider 
 it as that which crucified the Lord of glory, and 
 put him to an open shame ; and this fills them 
 with self-loathing and heart contrition. Look- 
 ing on him whom they have pierced, they 
 mourn for bim as one who mourneth for an 
 only son, and are in bitterness as one who is in 
 bitterness for a first-born f . This love inspires 
 them with holy revenge against sin. Since he 
 suffered for sin, they are determined to die to 
 sin ; since it put him to an open shame upon 
 the accursed tree, they are determined to cru- 
 cify it : " Our old man is crucified with him, 
 " that the body of sin might be destroyed, 
 " that henceforth we should not serve sinf." 
 Love leads to imitate the object loved ; the be- 
 liever's love to Christ inclines him to imitate 
 
 * I Cor. v. 14. 15. f Zeca. xii. 10. } Rora vi. 6- 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 2*5 
 
 his blessed example. He grows up unto him 
 in all things. He cultivates every part of the 
 Christian temper, which is the same mind 
 which was also in Christ Jesus. He ste" 
 to walk as he also w r alked ; to imitate h s zeal 
 for God's honour, and his disinterested benevo- 
 lence towards men. " Hereby perceive we 
 " the love of God, because he laid down his 
 " life for us ; and we ought to lay down our 
 41 lives for the brethren*." His eye is con- 
 stantly fixed upon this perfect model of excel- 
 lence ; and the realizing view which he obtains 
 of his glory assimulates him to the same like* 
 ness. " Bur we all, with open face beholding 
 "as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
 " changed into the same image, from glory 
 " to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit f*" 
 Supreme love to an object, gives every energy 
 of the soul a direction towards that object : 
 the believer's love to Christ gives a spiritual 
 and heavenly direction to every affection and 
 desire of his heart. Being risen with Christ, 
 he seeks those things which are above, where 
 Christ sitteth at the right hand of God $• His 
 
 « 1 John iii. 16. f 2 Cor. iii. 18. i Col. ill. ■!. 
 
 L 
 
246 DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 conversation is in heaven, from whence also 
 he looks for the Saviour *. Whom having 
 not seen he loves ; in whom, though now he 
 sees him not, yet believing, he rejoices with 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory f. Ill fine, 
 Jove seeks the presence and fellowship of the 
 object loved. Can any lover of Jesus but hate 
 gin, and crucify it, since it mars his comfort- 
 able fellowship with him in grace, and pre- 
 vents his admission to his immediate presence 
 in glory ? Can he neglect the study of holi- 
 ness, since without it no man can see the 
 Lord ? No ! An assured expectation of being 
 with Christ will always lead to the ardent 
 pursuit of holiness in h\1 manner of conversa- 
 tion. M Beloved, n< v are we the sons of God, 
 €( and it doth not yet appear what we onall 
 €t be : but we know that when he siiall ap- 
 f< pear we shall be like him, for we shall see 
 u him as he is. And every man that hath 
 €i this hope in him purifieth himself, even as 
 " he is pure J." 
 
 Thirdly^ It must furnish powerful motives 
 to holiness, if we consider the display which it 
 
 * I>hil. iii 2. f 1 Pet. i. 8. \\ Joba iii. 2, 3. 
 
IMSSERTAT10N ON THE ATONEMENT. Z¥t 
 
 affords of the deep desert and awful malignity 
 of sin. fcin is the transgresbion of the law ; 
 whatever, therefore, is calculated to excite our 
 abhorrence of sin, must have a tendency to pro- 
 mote the study cf holiness. Sin appears to be 
 an evil thing and a bitter, in the glass of the 
 Divine law; — in the glass of all our personal 
 and domestic afflictions; — and of all those 
 public judgments, which have in every age 
 desolated our world* Its terrible consequences 
 will be still more strikingly displayed in the 
 eternal destruction of wicked men and fallen 
 angels in a future state. But all these, taken 
 together, fall far short of affording such a dis- 
 play of the awful desert of sin, as that pre- 
 sented to our view in the sufferings and death 
 of the Son of God in our nature. Sin was 
 judicially condemned as the object of God's 
 abhorrence, and the execration of all upright 
 intelligences., by its punishment in the flesh of 
 Christ as our Surety: " For what the law 
 " could not do, in that it was weak through 
 €t the flesh, God sending his own Son in the 
 " likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con- 
 ** demned sin in the flesh *."' In proportion 
 
 * Rom. viii. 5, k 
 
 l2' 
 
248 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONLMEN1. 
 
 as sin is lightly thought of, it will be readily 
 committed. But who, with the agonies en- 
 dured in Gethsemane and Calvary in his 
 view, can think lightly of sin ? Contemplating 
 these, vsho will any longer flatter himself that 
 he shall have peace in the practice of wicked- 
 ness ? If sin imputed brought the Lord of 
 glory to the dust of death, how fearful must 
 be the punishment which awaits the .sinner and 
 the ungcd ! y ? If such things were done in the 
 green tree, what must be done in the dry ? 
 
 Fourthly, The moral tendency of the atone- 
 ment also appears from the display which it 
 affords of the purity and immutable obliga- 
 tion of the Divine law. Whatever tends to 
 impress the minds of subjects with venera- 
 tion for the law, must operate as a powerful 
 motive to obedience. In this case the governor 
 secures obedience, not by force, but from a 
 powerful sense of moral obligation. But the 
 atonement affords the most striking display of 
 the perfection and immutable obligation of the 
 Divine law. The moral law contains a com- 
 plete rule of duty : " The law of the Lord is 
 11 perfect *J* It enjoins what is right, and 
 
 > P{*] viv 
 
9 19 
 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. ^ 
 
 only what is right, and prohibits what is evil, 
 am, all that is evil. Its penal sentence warns 
 us, that we cannot violate its precepts with 
 impunity. But in our Lord's obedience even 
 unto the death, we have the righteousness ot 
 the law exemplified in our own nature in all 
 its perfection. Besides, in his death we have 
 a most striking proof of its unalterable ob- 
 ligation. Could the law, in any instance, have 
 admitted of an abatement of its claims, cer- 
 tainly this would have been granted to God's 
 dear Son, when enduring its sanction as our 
 Surety : but the cup could not pass from him 
 till he drank it. This is the tendency of the 
 atonement, however, ,only when viewed as 
 necessary from the moral perfection of God. 
 According to the other view, the law is a mere 
 arbitrary appointment, and may be mitigated, 
 or even dispensed with at pleasure: it is not 
 founded on the immutable and eternal prin- 
 ciples of equity. The view we have taken, 
 therefore, of the necessity of the atonement, 
 as it serves to inspire veneration for the law, 
 must have a powerful influence in promoting 
 the study of holiness. 
 
 L 3 
 
250 DISSERTATION ON THE AT OX EM EXT. 
 
 4 Fifthly^ This view of the Necessity of the 
 Atonement has a powerful tendency to pro- 
 mote holiness, as it leaves no room for the 
 sinner to hope, that, continuing to neglect the 
 grace of God, and to trample upon his autho- 
 rity, he shall escape eternal perdition. We 
 have already seen that the opinion, that God 
 might have pardoned sin without an atone> 
 ment, gives countenance to such a presump- 
 tuous hope *. But, in proportion as it holds 
 out to the sinner the hope of impunity, it 
 must have a tendency to indulge him in the 
 practice of sin. The doctrine, as here stated, 
 leaves the sinner without the least prospect of 
 escape, if he rejects salvation through the cross 
 of Christ; so that it is equally calculated to 
 operate upon his fear of punishment, continu- 
 ing in the practice of sin, as upon his hope of 
 felicity in the way of turning to God through 
 Christ. To this purpose is the reasoning of 
 the inspired writer to the Hebrews: " There- 
 11 fore we ought to give the more earnest heed 
 " to the things that we have heard, lest at 
 " any time we should let them slip. For if 
 
 * See Page 285 
 
DISSERTATION OX THE ATONEMENT. c 25\ 
 
 " the word spoken by angels Was steadfast, 
 *' and every transgression and disobedience 
 " received a just recompence of reward, how 
 " shall we escape if we neglect so great sal- 
 " vation, which at the first began to be spoken 
 " by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us 
 ¥ by them that heard him * ?" " If we sin 
 M wilfully, after we have received the know- 
 M ledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
 ii sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful look- 
 M ing for of judgment, and fiery indignation, 
 M which shall devour the adversaries. He 
 •• that despised Moses' law died without 
 " mercy, under two or three witnesses ; of 
 " how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, 
 *' shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden; 
 i( under foot the Son of God, and hath counted 
 "-the blood of the covenant, wherewith he 
 " was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath 
 •* done despite unto the Spirit of grace f." 
 
 To conclude, Let the avowed enemies of 
 the atonement consider the vast importance 
 of the salvation of the immortal soul. " For 
 " what is a man profited if he should gain the 
 
 * Ileb. ii. 1, % 3. t Heb. x. 26, 27, 28, 29. 
 
££2 DISSERTATION ON" 1 HE ATONEMENTS 
 
 " whole world, and lose his soul ? or what 
 c< bhall a man oive in exchange for his soul # ?" 
 Do net your own consciences tell you that 
 you are sinners ? Do not they also, when so- 
 litude leaves room for reflection, dictate to 
 you, that death is the wages of sin ? And do 
 not the Scriptures coincide, in both respects, 
 with the testimony of conscience ? How vain 
 then the attempt to shield yourselves from the 
 wrath to come behind your empty resolutions 
 of repentance and reformation ! resolutions 
 which, you must be convinced, you never can 
 be able to realize. These, are a bed shorter 
 than that a man can stretch himself on it, and 
 a covering narrower than that he can wrap 
 himself in it. Be not deceived : " Without 
 " shedding of blood there is no remission." 
 And nothing less than a sacrifice of infinite 
 value can put away sin, as pertaining to the 
 conscience. We beseech you, in the bowels 
 cf kindness, to give the Scripture doctrines of 
 our Lord's divinity, and atonement for sin, 
 an attentive and impartial consideration. Do 
 not reject them because they are mysterious, 
 
 * Mot. xvi. 26. 
 
DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 253 
 
 Your own existence is a mystery. The great 
 depth of these doctrines is no small proof of 
 their Divine origin. God must be unsearch- 
 able in his counsels as well as in his nature. 
 Yield yourselves to his authority in his Word $ 
 and submit yourselves to the reign of his 
 grace through the atoning blood of his dear 
 Son. Oh ! remember that if you reject this 
 great salvation, there remaineth no more sa<- 
 crifice for sin ; but a fearful looking for of 
 judgment and fiery indignation to devour the 
 adversaries. Death is approaching, and judg- 
 ment awaits you. In the field of controversy, 
 when you have only to contend with fellow- 
 mortals, your sentiments and views may put 
 on a fair appearance ; but they can yield, no- 
 solid comfort in the prospect of* appearing 
 before the awful tribunal of God, who is of 
 purer eyes than to behold iniquity. " It is 
 11 a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the 
 " living God : *" And this punishment awaits 
 all those who know not God, and obey not 
 the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
^o"h DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 To you who profess to believe this doctrine, 
 but in works deny it, we would say, Be 
 not deceived, Christ is not the minister of 
 sin. He gave himself for the church, that he 
 might sanctify and cleanse it. Your faith can- 
 not be genuine, since it does not purify your 
 hearts, and lead you to the study of univer- 
 sal holiness. True faith worketh by love, 
 and love is the fulfilling of the law. By your 
 conduct, you harden the Deist and Socinian 
 in their infidelity. Through you the doctrine 
 of the cross of Christ is every day blasphemed 
 by them. You are accessory to their ruin, as 
 your conduct is the occasion of their stumbling 
 at the doctrine of the atonement, through 
 which alone they can be saved. Oh ! consi- 
 der that sound notions of Divine truth, when 
 not received in the love thereof, will only add 
 to your condemnation on a future day. Net 
 every one v>ho saith to Christ, Lord, Lord, 
 shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he 
 who cloeth the will of his Father who is in 
 heaven. No knowledge is saving which is not 
 practical. The grace of God, when received 
 and improve.!, teacheth us, that, denying un- 
 godliness and worldly lusts, we should Kve 
 
BISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 255 
 
 soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
 world. Jt will be more tolerable for Sodom 
 and Gomorrah at the day of judgment than 
 for you ; when, with the knowledge of the way 
 of salvation, you shall be cast into hell, because 
 you received not the truth in the love thereof, 
 that you might be saved. 
 
 To you who have fled to the blood of Jesus 
 for refuge, we would say, Hail ! ye highly fa- 
 voured of the Lord ; in you God beholds no 
 iniquity ; ye are the peculiar favourites of hea- 
 ven. You are safe in life. The dreadful 
 scourge of Divine wrath cannot reach you, 
 because you have made the Lord your refuge, 
 even the most High your habitation. There 
 shall no evil befal you, neither shall any plague 
 come near your dwelling. Even what is afflic- 
 tive in your outward lot shall yield to you the 
 peaceable fruits of righteousness. You shall be 
 happy at death. The way to heaven is conse- 
 crated for you by the blood of Christ, and 
 heaven itself prepared for your reception. 
 The great High- Priest of our profession is 
 there ready to receive yon. He has gone to pre- 
 pare a place for you. Study then in the mean 
 time to walk worthy of your holy vocation. 
 
256 DISSERTATION ON THE ATONEMENT. 
 
 Exemplify in your lives the moral tendency 
 of the doctrine of the atonement ; and let it ap- 
 pear that you daily feel the obligations which 
 it lays you under to the study of holiness. 
 " Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with 
 " a price: therefore glorify God in your body, 
 cc and in your spirit, which are God's," 
 
 •I be Ei;r. 
 
 Caw & "Elder, Printers, 
 Stamp Office Close.