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 Janeway, J. J. 1774-1858. 
 Letters on The Atonement: 
 which a contrast is 
 
LETTERS 
 
 IN WHICH 
 
 A CONTRAST IS INSTITUTED BETWEEN 
 
 THE 
 
 !9®0VOnB 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OLD AND OF THE NEW SCHOOL; 
 
 OR BETWEEN THE 
 
 DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE SCHEME, 
 
 ON THIS IMPORTANT SUBJECT. 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 A BROTHER IN THE MINISTRY. 
 
 BY J. J. JANEWAY, D.D. 
 
 Pastor of the Second Presbyterian. Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY A. FINLEY, 
 
 Corner of Fourth and Chesnut Streets. 
 
 Clark «$■ Raser, Printers. 
 
 1827. 
 
CONTENTS 
 ><h 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Letter I. Extent of the Atonement ... 5 
 II. Offer of Salvation in preaching the 
 
 Gospel 32 
 
 III. Divine Grace in the Recovery of 
 
 fallen Man 56 
 
 IV. Objections answered 73 
 
 V. Nature of the Atonement ... 98 
 
 VI. Nature of the Atonement ... 123 
 VII. Objections answered 143 
 
 VIII. The Truth of God 167 
 
 IX The Justice of God 185 
 
 X. The Love of God 200 
 
 XI. On the Law 214 
 
 XII. The Redeemer's Glory .... 223 
 
MWMSSSMIWHi 
 
 Until of late years the writer of these 
 Letters scarcely ever, in the course of his 
 public ministry, touched on the extent of 
 the atonement. He was in the habit of ex- 
 plaining its true nature, as a satisfaction 
 tor sin ; and, on the ground of the infinite 
 merit of the death of Christ, making a free 
 offer of salvation to his hearers ; assuring 
 them that whosoever believed would cer- 
 tainly be saved. But lately the extent of 
 the atonement has been made a subject of 
 controversy in the Presbyterian church; 
 and some advocates of the indefinite scheme 
 have represented this as a point of such im- 
 portance as to allege, that those who do not 
 adopt their views cannot preach the gospel ; 
 and indeed their zeal to carry a favourite 
 dogma, has, in the author's opinion, led 
 them to abandon the true nature of the 
 atonement. 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 Iii tliese circumstances, it appeared advi- 
 sable to draw a contrast between the new 
 and the old doctrine on this most important 
 subject. The writer thought proper to do 
 it in a course of letters to a ministerial 
 brother. At the commencement, he had 
 not determined to give them publicity ; but 
 having mentioned to a friend what he was 
 doing, he was requested to publish them in 
 the Christian Advocate. He complied ; and 
 now being informed that they have been 
 well received by many, he is induced, by 
 the request and advice of two brethren of 
 high standing in the Presbyterian church, 
 on whose judgment he places much reli- 
 ance, to collect them in this little book, in 
 which they may be read with greater faci- 
 lity and advantage, than in the Christian 
 Advocate, in which they are mixed up with 
 various other articles in two large volumes. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 ox 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Extent of the Atonement, 
 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 The doctrine of the atonement made by 
 our blessed and Divine Lord, is, you well 
 know, of unspeakable importance. It lies 
 at the foundation of a sinner's hope of sal- 
 vation. Had no atonement been provided, 
 darkness must forever have shrouded our 
 guilty world; no ray of light from heaven 
 would have cheered our hearts; the whole 
 race of fallen man must have sunk beyond 
 recovery, under the tremendous curse of a 
 violated law. But infinite mercy beheld 
 our ruined and helpless condition ; it pitied 
 
6 LETTERS OK 
 
 our misery, and determined on the salvation 
 of sinners, by a method at once safe for 
 them, and glorious to God. 
 
 As this method was devised, so it was 
 revealed, by Infinite Wisdom; and conse- 
 quently nothing in relation to its true na- 
 ture and blessed effects can be known, but 
 what the sacred scriptures have taught. 
 To the scriptures, then, must be our appeal 
 in every dispute on this all-important sub- 
 ject. What they teach it behoves us care- 
 fully to inquire and cordially to believe; 
 always remembering that philosophical 
 speculations on matters of pure revelation, 
 are apt to mislead. If Jehovah is pleased 
 to conceal any thing from us, it is vain for 
 man to attempt to discover it. — "Secret 
 things belong unto the Lord our God : but 
 those things which are revealed, belong 
 unto us and to our children for ever." 
 
 Two theories on the subject of the atone- 
 ment are advocated by members of the 
 Presbyterian church. The one is the defi- 
 nite y the other the indefinite scheme. The 
 advocates of the former have been denomi- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 7 
 
 nated The Old School, and the advocates 
 of the latter The New School. 
 
 In the course of the letters which I am 
 writing to you, my design is, to institute a 
 comparison between the two theories — A 
 short statement of each will facilitate the 
 accomplishment of this design. 
 
 The friends of the definite plan believe, 
 that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in exe- 
 cution of his engagements with his eternal 
 Father in the covenant of redemption, 
 came into the world in the fulness of time; 
 that having assumed our nature into a per- 
 sonal union with his Divine nature, he ap- 
 peared in the world as the Saviour of sinful 
 men. They believe that the immaculate 
 Redeemer was made under the law, and 
 consequently subject to its penal demands, 
 as well as to its preceptive requisitions; 
 that he became obedient unto death, even 
 the death of the cross; and that the whole 
 of his sufferings, from the beginning to the 
 close of his spotless life, constituted that 
 all-sufficient sacrifice which he offered for 
 sin. They believe that Jesus Christ, as the 
 
5.ETTERS ON 
 
 substitute of his people, was charged with 
 their sins, and bore the punishment of 
 them, and thus made a full and complete 
 satisfaction to Divine justice for all who 
 shall ever believe on him; and that this 
 atonement will eventually be applied to all 
 for whom, in the intention of the Divine 
 Redeemer, it was made: or, in other words, 
 to all to whom the wise and holy God has, 
 in his adorable sovereignty, been pleased 
 to decree its application. 
 
 They believe, moreover, that, in making 
 an atonement or satisfaction for the sins of 
 all who were given to him by the Father to 
 be redeemed, the Lord Jesus Christ did 
 offer a sacrifice or make an atonement, suf- 
 ficient, in its intrinsic value, to expiate the 
 sins of the whole world; that this infinite 
 worth necessarily arose from the nature of 
 his work, and the infinite dignity of his 
 Divine person; and that, if it had been the 
 pleasure of God to apply it to every indi- 
 vidual, the whole human race would have 
 beeu saved by its immeasurable worth. 
 
 On the ground of the infinite value of 
 
THE ATONEMENT, 
 
 the atonement, they further believe that 
 the offer of salvation can be consistently 
 and sincerely made to all who hear the 
 gospel : accompanied with the gracious and 
 divine assurance, that whosoever believeth 
 shall be saved; and enforced by the solemn 
 and alarming denunciation — that he who 
 believes not, but wilfully rejects the over- 
 tures of mercy, will increase his guilt and 
 aggravate his damnation. 
 
 Such are the views of the Old School ; 
 views that were entertained by the illus- 
 trious leaders in the glorious Reformation ; 
 views embodied in the creeds of almost all 
 the Protestant churches, that flourished im- 
 mediately after that grand epoch in the his- 
 tory of the Christian church. 
 
 The views of the friends of the indefi- 
 nite plan are different. They do not be- 
 lieve that Jesus Christ, in the great transac- 
 tion of dying for the redemption of the 
 world, was charged with the sins of his 
 people, or bore the punishment due to 
 them, or endured the penalty of the law, 
 They assert, that he suffered for sin in ge- 
 
10 LETTERS ON 
 
 neral ; that by bis sufferings a display was 
 made of the evil of sin, and an exhibition 
 of Divine justice; that his sufferings were 
 designed to be a substitute for our suffer- 
 ings, and in this way were vicarious, but 
 not as being the sufferings of one who took 
 the sinner's place. In this, say they, con- 
 sisted the atonement : and thus the obstacle 
 to the salvation of our sinful race being re- 
 moved, God can now exercise his sovereign 
 mercy, and apply the benefits of the atone- 
 ment to whom he pleases ; and as it was 
 not made for one man more than for ano- 
 ther, the offers of salvation can be freely 
 made to all mankind without distinction. 
 
 They deny that the Redeemer made a 
 plenary satisfaction for the sins of believers; 
 because such a satisfaction would in their 
 view be incompatible with the grace that 
 reigns in the salvation of sinners. Yet 
 some admit a satisfaction to what they 
 choose to denominate public justice ; but at 
 the same time they contend, this was no sa- 
 tisfaction to Jehovah's distributive justice, 
 or to the penal demands of his holy and 
 
THE ATONEMEN1 II 
 
 violated law — Relievers are saved, in oppo- 
 sition both to the demands of the law and 
 to the claims of justice. A provision, how- 
 ever, they think has been made by the suf- 
 ferings of Christ, in consequence of which 
 it becomes consistent with the stability and 
 honour of Jehovah's moral government 
 over rational creatures, to save all who be- 
 lieve in Christ; but still they assert, that 
 the ransomed of the Lord will never be 
 free from guilt, and that Paul and his com- 
 peers are now as guilty as when on earth, 
 and will forever deserve the punishment of 
 hell. The demands of the law, and the 
 claims of distributive justice too, they ac- 
 knowledge will forever remain unsatisfied ; 
 because they were not cancelled by the Sa- 
 viour's death, and never can be satisfied by 
 the redeemed themselves. 
 
 This is the new scheme ; a scheme which 
 its advocates recommend as being far pre- 
 ferable to the old one ; which has for so 
 many years obtained the approbation of the 
 Presbyterian Church. They prefer it on 
 three accounts. It gives, they imagine, 
 
12 LETTERS ON 
 
 greater extent to the atonement ; is more 
 compatible with a free and general preach- 
 ing of the gospel, and with an unfettered 
 and unreserved offer of salvation to all sin- 
 ners ; and corresponds best with the free- 
 ness and sovereignty of Divine grace, dis- 
 played in the recovery of fallen man. 
 
 While the advocates of the two schemes 
 thus differ in their views of the atonement, 
 they are agreed in the belief of the two fol- 
 lowing points. First, they receive the 
 doctrine that teaches us that Jehovah, in 
 his adorable sovereignty, has, from all eter- 
 nity, elected to everlasting life some, and 
 not all, of the human family: secondly, 
 they believe that the atonement never was, 
 and never will be, applied to any indivi- 
 dual of our race, in any other way than by 
 the power of Almighty grace. " Ye will 
 not," said our Redeemer, " come unto me 
 that ye might have life." And again, 
 " No man can come unto me, except the 
 Father which hath sent me, draw him." 
 
 These two points, you know, are insepa- 
 rably interwoven with the great subject 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 13 
 
 under discussion; and, therefore, ought, as 
 we go along, to be distinctly recollected, 
 and their bearings on it ascertained. Let 
 us now examine the pretensions of the New 
 School, and see if their scheme has, as they 
 apprehend, in the particulars stated above, 
 any superiority over that of the Old School. 
 
 I. It is affirmed that the indefinite is 
 of Jar greater extent than the definite 
 atonement, 
 
 Christ, say its advocates, died as much 
 for one man as for another. He made 
 atonement for sin in general : and thus 
 opened the door of mercy for all mankind 
 — opened the way in which every believer, 
 of whatever denomination, or sect, or na- 
 tion, may be saved. 
 
 But in what respect has the indefinite 
 greater extent than the definite atonement? 
 
 1. Not in regard to the merit of 
 Christ's death. Let our opponents mag- 
 nify it as they please, they cannot go be- 
 yond us in their views. We are ready to 
 join with them in celebrating its praises in 
 the loftiest strains. We believe the merit 
 
 B 
 
14 LETTERS ON 
 
 of Immanuel's death to be, like his divine 
 dignity, really infinite; sufficient, if it had 
 been Jehovah's pleasure to apply it to all, 
 to save every son and daughter of our apos- 
 tate race; and unnumbered millions more 
 of such accountable creatures, if such had 
 existed. 
 
 2. Not in regard to its application. 
 To whom, and to how many human beings, 
 the atonement will, in the course of re- 
 volving ages, be applied, it is impossible to 
 tell. The final day will show multitudes 
 which no man can number; thousands and 
 thousands, and ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand — all washed in the blood of the Lamb, 
 cleansed from every sin, and made pure as 
 the light. Our brethren will accord with 
 us in saying, that the atonement will save 
 every soul to whom it shall be applied, not 
 excepting the vilest of human beings. Be- 
 yond this they dare not go; they will not 
 say that a single individual of Adam's race 
 can be admitted into heaven, in any other 
 way than through the sprinkling of the 
 peace-speaking blood of our adored Lord 
 and Redeemer, 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 15 
 
 3. Not in regard to the offer of sal- 
 vation. To whom can the advocates of an 
 indefinite atonement, in preaching the 
 gospel, tender its blessings, that the advo- 
 cates of a definite atonement cannot? 
 You, Sir, well know, that we are taught 
 by our Divine Master to offer his great sal- 
 vation to every one, to whom, in the 
 course of his providence, we are called to 
 minister in holy things. Whenever we 
 stand up in his name to speak, we are au- 
 thorized to announce the joyful truth, that 
 salvation is come unto them. We can say 
 to everyone of our hearers, young and old, 
 rich and poor, bond and free, to the profli- 
 gate as well as to the moral part of our au- 
 ditory, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and thou shalt be saved." " Ho, every 
 one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." 
 "And the Spirit and the Bride say, come; 
 and let him that heareth say, come; and let 
 him that is athirst come; and whosoever 
 will, let him take of the water of life free- 
 ly." And let it be distinctly observed, 
 ihat all our offers of salvation are grounded 
 
16 LETTERS ON 
 
 on the atonement, and that we have none 
 to make but through the medium of Christ's 
 death. 
 
 4. Not in regard to the divine pur- 
 pose. Believing in the infinite intelligence 
 of Jehovah, and in the infinite wisdom of 
 the Redeemer, our brethren cannot but 
 admit, that both the Father and the Son 
 knew, from all eternity, to whom the atone- 
 ment would be applied in time; and be- 
 lieving also in the doctrine of a personal 
 election to everlasting life, they must con- 
 cede that Jehovah had decreed the precise 
 number of our race, to whom he would 
 apply its sovereign virtue. Here then we 
 are perfectly agreed. They believe, as 
 well as we, that the Father gave to his Son, 
 in the covenant of redemption, a definite 
 number to be saved ; and consequently that 
 they only will certainly and eventually be 
 saved. One of the New School speaks of 
 " the certainty of the salvation of those 
 for whom, electively, Christ died ;" " and 
 in this sense," he believes, Christ " died 
 for the elect alone" "I grant freely," 
 
1'HK ATONEMENT. 17 
 
 says another disciple of the same school, 
 " that only apart of mankind were given 
 to the Son in the covenant of redemption, 
 and that the salvation of these was one im- 
 portant object he had in view in laying 
 down his life:?' and in another place he 
 observes, "I feel no difficulty in admit- 
 ting, that there is a sense in which Christ 
 laid down his life for the sheep, in which 
 he did not for others. As far as his ob- 
 ject in laying down his life was to secure 
 the salvation of those for whom he died, 
 he laid down his life for the sheej) only; 
 for he never intended to secure the sal- 
 vation of any others" 
 
 It is conceded then, that the benefits of 
 the atonement will be applied only to those 
 to whom an infinitely wise God decreed to 
 apply them ; and that the Redeemer died 
 to save only the elect. Now, this is j?re- 
 cisely the reason why we affirm the atone- 
 ment to be definite: the grand object of 
 it, so far as respects man, is the salvation 
 of that portion of our lost race which Jeho- 
 vah was pleased, in the exercise of bound- 
 B 2 
 
18 LETTERS ON 
 
 less and unmerited mercy, to determine to 
 deliver from the deplorable ruin into which 
 all had fallen. " Christ loved the church 
 and gave himself for it; that he might 
 sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of 
 water by the word, that he might present 
 it to himself a glorious church, not having 
 spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but 
 that it should be holy and without ble- 
 mish."— Ephes. v. 25—27. " All that the 
 Father hath given me, shall come to me ; 
 and him that cometh to me I will in no 
 wise cast out. For I came down from hea- 
 ven, not to do mine own will, but the will 
 of Him that sent me. And this is the Fa- 
 ther's will which hath sent me, that of all 
 which he hath given me, I should lose no- 
 thing, but should raise it up at the last day. 
 And this is the will of Him that hath sent 
 me, that every one which seeth the Son, 
 and believeth on him, may have everlast- 
 ing life: and I will raise him up at the last 
 day." — John vi. 37 — 40. "I am the good 
 shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine. As the Father kuoweth 
 
THE ATONEMENT- 19 
 
 me, even so know I the Father : and I lay 
 down my life for the sheep." — John x. 14, 
 15. u I pray for them : I pray not for the 
 world, but for them which thou hast given 
 me; for they are thine." — John xvii. 9. 
 
 It appears then that, in regard to the 
 merit of Christ's death, — in regard to 
 its application, — in regard to the offer of 
 salvation, — and in regard to the Divine 
 purpose, the indefinite is not at all more 
 extensive than the definite atonement. 
 
 In what respect, then, we demand, is the 
 former more extensive than the latter? 
 Will the advocates of the new theory af- 
 firm, that the atonement was made for all 
 men? But they have already admitted, 
 that Christ died intentionally to save the 
 elect only ; and that God did not by the 
 atonement design to save any other men. 
 How then was the atonement made for all 
 mankind? They cannot pretend to say, 
 that the gospel has been preached univer- 
 sally to our fallen race; they cannot deny 
 that millions have died without ever hear- 
 ing of the name of Christ, or having the 
 
20 LETTERS ON 
 
 offers of salvation made to them. And is 
 it credible that the atonement was made 
 for all men, and yet the larger portion of 
 mankind never heard a word about it, and 
 died without having their ears saluted with 
 the joyful sound? If the atonement had 
 really been made for all, would not that 
 infinite love which provided it for all, have 
 so ordered, that all should have come to 
 the knowledge of the delightful fact ? Did 
 an infinitely wise Jehovah provide this 
 most costly and magnificent feast, for mil- 
 lions and millions in every age of the world, 
 to whom he never sent an invitation to par- 
 take of it; and whom he suffered to live 
 and die in absolute ignorance of its exis- 
 tence? Incredible! 
 
 But one advocate of an indefinite atone- 
 ment says, " It opened a door of hope for 
 all men;" and another, "That all men, 
 being placed in a state of probation, have 
 an opportunity to secure their eternal sal- 
 vation." Indeed ! The heathen then, who 
 never heard the gospel of the grace of God, 
 have, notwithstanding their btupid igno- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 21 
 
 ranee and debasing idolatry, a door of hope 
 set open before them ; and those who never 
 heard a syllable about the atonement, have 
 an opportunity for securing their salvation! 
 Who taught this doctrine? Not inspired 
 men. They teach very differently. They 
 have no such favourable views of a state of 
 heathenism. Listen to the Evangelist 
 Matthew : " The people which sat in dark- 
 ness saw a great light; and to them which 
 sat in the region and shadow of death 
 light is sprung up." Hearken to Paul: 
 "For whosoever shall call upon the Lord 
 shall be saved. How then shall they call 
 on him in whom they have not believed ? 
 and how shall they believe in him of whom 
 they have not heard ? and how shall they 
 hear without a preacher?' 5 — Romans x. 13, 
 14. "Wherefore remember, that ye being 
 in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are 
 called uncircumcision by that which is 
 called circumcision in the flesh made with 
 hands; that at that time ye were without 
 Christ, being aliens from the Common- 
 wealth of Israel ', and strangers from the 
 
22 ' LETTERS OK 
 
 covenants of promise, having no hope, 
 and without God in the world." Surely 
 these texts do not teach us that the heathen 
 have a door of hope set open before them; 
 and that all heathen have an opportunity 
 of securing their salvation. 
 
 But the friends of the new scheme will 
 say, The atonement is one thing, and the 
 Divine intention is another; and that the 
 atonement ought to be considered abstract- 
 edly from the purpose of God. The atone- 
 ment abstractedly considered! A grand 
 mistake. It cannot be thus contemplated ; 
 it was the purpose of God that made the 
 death of his Son an atonement; and conse- 
 quently if you view his death apart from 
 this purpose, you can see no atonement. 
 In the cross of Christ thus contemplated, 
 you may behold suffering and ignominy ; 
 you may behold a display of fortitude and 
 patience: but you can see no atonement. 
 To discover this, you must ask, why on 
 Calvary was exhibited that amazing spec- 
 tacle? why did the Son of God submit to 
 such bitter agonies and overwhelming 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 23 
 
 shame? for until these inquiries be answer- 
 ed, and Jehovah's design in the crucifixion 
 of his own Son be ascertained, you can 
 contemplate no atonement. The death of 
 Christ is an atonement, because his Father 
 designed it to be an atonement; so that the 
 atonement necessarily involves in its idea, 
 that of Jehovah's intention, in bruising his 
 Son and putting him to grief. 
 
 You see a man presenting to another a 
 valuable jewel, but you are ignorant of his 
 intention. Is it a gift, or is it a ransom? 
 It is impossible for you to tell. But you 
 are informed it is a gift. Immediately 
 you connect in your mind the jewel with 
 the intention of the donor. Or you are 
 informed it is a ransom; and then you im- 
 mediately connect the jewel with the in- 
 tention of its owner, to deliver prisoners 
 from captivity and bondage. So that both 
 a gift and a ransom, necessarily involve the 
 idea of the intention, for which a sum of 
 money or a jewel is presented by one per- 
 son to another. Thus stands the matter in 
 relation to the death of Christ. While you 
 
24 LETTERS ON 
 
 contemplate it abstracted from the Divine 
 intention, it will suggest to you no other 
 ideas than those of pain, ignominy, pa- 
 tience, and fortitude ; but when you con- 
 template this mysterious occurrence, in 
 connexion with the Divine intention to 
 make the blood of Christ a propitiation for 
 sin, you behold the great atonement. 
 
 As then the atonement necessarily in- 
 volves the Divine intention in relation to 
 the death of Christ, we are authorized to 
 ask the friends of an indefinite scheme a 
 question on the subject. Do you believe 
 that the Father delivered up his Son, and 
 that the Son delivered up himself to an ac- 
 cursed death, with an intention to save all 
 mankind ? To answer this question affir- 
 matively, would be to establish universal 
 salvation ; because the purpose of God 
 must stand, and he will do all his pleasure. 
 But they have already answered the ques- 
 tion in the negative. They believe that 
 the Father gave to his Son in the covenant 
 of redemption a particular, definite number 
 of the human race to save; and that for 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 25 
 
 these, and for these alone, did the Son die 
 with an intention to save them; and that 
 to none beside the elect will the atonement 
 be applied. Thus the decree of election is 
 brought into connexion with the death of 
 our great Redeemer; and the atonement 
 becomes definite, because infinite sove- 
 reignty chose it should be so. No matter 
 when the decree of election takes effect; 
 whether before, as in the case of infants, or 
 after a rejection of the atonement, as in the 
 case of most adults, the subject is not al- 
 tered; the truth remains the same; the 
 atonement is limited, definite. You may- 
 call it otherwise ; you may call it general, 
 you may call it indefinite. But it retains 
 its true character. It rs what the Divine 
 purpose has made it — definite, limited; 
 not indeed in its value, which is unlimited 
 and infinite; but in its application, and in 
 respect to the intention of the Father who 
 appointed, and of the Son who made the 
 atonement. 
 
 Another proof of this point will be found 
 in the meaning of the word atonement. Its 
 c 
 
X5b LETTERS ON 
 
 proper signification is, agreement, concord, 
 expiation, reconciliation. Accordingly 
 we find this meaning attributed to the ori- 
 ginal Greek term : x«r«AA«yii, in Rom. v. 
 11, translated atonement, properly signi- 
 fies reconciliation. So it is rendered in 
 other places ; and in correspondence with 
 its cognate verb, which is translated recon- 
 ciled. 
 
 The Hebrew term 133 translated atone- 
 ment, is derived from a verb that signifies 
 to cover ; and therefore, when it expresses 
 the effect, it signifies a covering; and when 
 it expresses the cause, it signifies that 
 which covers sin, and thus removes the Di- 
 vine displeasure from the offender. 
 
 In strictness of speech we ought to dis- 
 tinguish between the death of Christ, and 
 the atonement ; just as we distinguish be- 
 tween a cause and its effect. The death of 
 Christ is one thing, and the atonement is 
 another thing; the former being the cause, 
 and the latter the effeet. In human lan- 
 guage it is not unusual for the cause and its 
 effect to receive the same denomination. 
 
I'lIL ATONEMENT. 27 
 
 Thus the sensation produced, and thvfire 
 which produces it, are both, though very 
 different things, denominated heat. So 
 also cold signifies the cause of a certain 
 sensation in the human frame, and the sen- 
 sation itself. 
 
 Here then we see the reason why the 
 death of Christ has been called atonement: 
 it is so denominated because it produces 
 atonement, or reconciliation between God 
 and sinful man; and as it has produced this 
 glorious effect in millions of instances, it is 
 justly entitled to this appellation. So it 
 may be called in reference to all who have 
 been, or who shall be, atoned for, recon- 
 ciled to God ; but with what propriety can 
 it be so denominated in reference to indi- 
 viduals who never will be reconciled to an 
 offended God by its influence ? In truth, 
 the death of Christ is an atonement to no 
 man, before it has been applied ; when it 
 has been applied and produced its effect, 
 then, and not till then, is it an atonement 
 to him. You may call the death of Christ 
 a satisfaction to public justice, an amends 
 
88 LETTERS ON 
 
 for sin, a substitution for our sufferings ; 
 still this reasoning will apply. It cannot 
 be a satisfaction for those who perish for 
 ever under the hand of Divine justice ; it 
 cannot be an amends for the sins of those 
 in respect to whom it never produces this 
 effect ; it cannot be a substitute for the suf- 
 ferings of those who suffer for ever under 
 the penalty of the law. 
 
 We have admitted the merits of Christ's 
 death, or of the atonement, to be infinite, 
 and that if applied, it would save millions 
 more than shall ever be saved ; but it will 
 not follow that the atonement was made for 
 those who will never be saved. The earth 
 is large enough to have sustained many 
 millions of inhabitants more than have ever 
 lived on it, and probably to sustain mil- 
 lions more than will ever descend from 
 Adam: but on this account it cannot, with 
 any propriety, be said, that it was made 
 for human beings who shall never be 
 created. The sun is large and luminous 
 enough to send his beams to more planets 
 than exist in the solar system, and to en- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 29 
 
 lighten and warm their inhabitants; but, on 
 account of his greatness and grandeur, it 
 could not be said with any propriety that 
 he was formed to enlighten and warm in- 
 habitants of planets that shall never be 
 created. So it is with the atonement; al- 
 though sufficient in value for all, yet it was 
 made only for those to whom it shall be 
 applied, only for believers to whom the 
 death of Christ shall become an atonement; 
 and not for sinners to whom it has not been, 
 and never will be, applied ; not for unbe- 
 lieving sinners, to whom the death of 
 Christ is not, and will never be atonement, 
 or a cause of reconciliation. 
 
 But our brethren ask, Do not all men 
 partake of benefits resulting from the death 
 of our Redemer? Are they not in better 
 circumstances than they would have been 
 placed, if no atonement had been made for 
 our fallen race? Does not the commission 
 given by Christ to his ministers, authorize 
 them to preach the gospel to all mankind? 
 Are not all who hear the gospel invited 
 and commanded to come to Christ? And 
 c 2 
 
30 LETTERS ON 
 
 will not the guilt and punishment of those 
 who perish in Christian lands be greatly 
 increased by their rejecting the offers of 
 salvation through a Redeemer? All this 
 we readily admit; but, as our brethren be- 
 lieve the doctrine of election, and teach, 
 not only that the atonement will never be 
 applied to those who finally perish, but 
 also that Christ did not die with an inten- 
 tion to save them, all this will not amount 
 to an atonement for them. The benefits 
 referred to in the above questions are 
 merely the collateral benefits, resulting to 
 others from the atonement made for be- 
 lievers. 
 
 In conclusion, after all that has been 
 said on this point, we arc willing to admit, 
 that between the friends of a definite, and 
 the friends of a general atonement, the 
 difference is rather verbal than real. They 
 both agree in their views of the nature of , 
 this mysterious transaction. With them 
 we wish to have no dispute. But between 
 the advocates of the definite and the advo- 
 cates of the indefinite scheme 3 the differ- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 31 
 
 ence, in regard to their respective views of 
 the nature of the atonement, is great, as 
 will hereafter appear. 
 
 On the extent of the atonement, I have 
 insisted so largely, because, as you know, 
 our opponents attempt to disparage our 
 doctrine, by representing their views as 
 more liberal than ours; but it has, I trust, 
 been shown, that the atonement they advo- 
 cate, though called universal, is not more 
 extensive in fact, than the atonement we 
 advocate; and that their doctrine on the 
 subject has no advantage whatever in this 
 respect, over that which wc maintain. 
 
 Yours, affectionately. 
 
32 LETTERS OS 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 Offer of Salvation in jireaching the 
 Gospel. 
 
 My dear Brother, 
 
 At the close of the preceding letter it was 
 admitted that between the definite and the 
 general atonement, the difference is verbal 
 rather than real. I am therefore unwilling 
 to represent three theories on the subject, as 
 prevailing in the Presbyterian church. But 
 as the word general seems to correspond 
 with the term indefinite, better than it does 
 with the term definite ; and consequently 
 intimates that the advocates of a general 
 atonement harmonize more in their views 
 with the friends of an indefinite, than with 
 those of a definite, atonement; it may be 
 proper to state, that this is by no means the 
 fact. By turning to the description given 
 of the opinions of the new school on this 
 all-important doctrine of divine revelation, 
 
FHE ATONEMENT. do 
 
 it will be seen that it does not at all suit the 
 views of those who have been known, in 
 the Presbyterian church, as the advocates 
 of what is termed a general atonement. 
 For they believe, as well as we, that Christ 
 was the substitute of his people — that he 
 was charged with their sins — that he bore 
 the penalty of the law — that he made satis- 
 faction to the justice of God for all who 
 shall believe — In fact they differ from us 
 only in relation to the terms they prefer, in 
 speaking on the extent of the atonement. 
 While they maintain that Christ died espe- 
 cially for the elect, they believe that, in a 
 certain sense he died for others. With them, 
 let it be repeated, we wish to have no dis- 
 pute. We think alike, although we make 
 choice of different words, in communicating 
 our thoughts in regard to a particular point. 
 The comparison I am drawing, is not be- 
 tween our views of the atonement and theirs ; 
 but between ours and those which are en- 
 tertained on this great subject, by persons 
 whose sentiments were stated in my first 
 letter, and who are usually known by the 
 
34 LETTERS ON 
 
 name of Hopkinsians. And should these 
 letters ever meet the public eye, I wish the 
 friends of a general atonement to see, that 
 I am not contending with them, but op- 
 posing certain views of a most important 
 doctrine, which they, as well as we, believe 
 to be unscriptural and dangerous. 
 
 You will not, my dear friend, understand 
 what I have said in relation to the heathen, 
 in my first letter, as representing the salva- 
 tion of all who are destitute of the light of 
 the gospel, as being impossible. I have only 
 said, that if the atonement had been made 
 for all mankind, the knowledge of it would 
 have been sent to all nations ; and that, as 
 an inspired writer has expressly represent- 
 ed the heathen as being u without Christ, 
 strangers from the covenants of promise, 
 having no hope and without God in the 
 world" it is altogether improper to say, a 
 door of hope has been opened for all men 
 — for the heathen, who are destitute of di- 
 vine revelation, just as much as for Chris- 
 tians, to whom the gospel is preached. Still 
 I believe, that, as infants, who are inca- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 35 
 
 pable of hearing and believing the gospel, 
 are saved, not as being free from guilt and 
 depravity, but through the atoning blood of 
 Jesus Christ; so some of the heathen may 
 be saved, by the application of the same 
 precious blood. How they are brought to 
 participate in the salvation of Christ, I do 
 not know. Jehovah may, if he please, re- 
 veal to some, at any time he chooses, so 
 much of the gospel as may be sufficient for 
 the exercise of faith. But in whatever way 
 the application of the atonement may be 
 made, it is altogether extraordinary. Of 
 the means of grace, the heathen are ma- 
 nifestly destitute : they have no Bible, no 
 Sabbath, no gospel, no ministry of reconci- 
 liation ; they are ignorant of God and 
 Christ, of the way of peace and salvation. 
 
 In my former letter, the two theories in 
 regard to the atonement, that prevail in 
 our church, were compared, in regard to the 
 extent of the atonement. It was, I trust, 
 fairly shown, that the new has no advantage 
 over the old scheme in this point ; that the 
 greater extent which is attributed to inde- 
 
36 LETTERS ON 
 
 finite atonement is nominal, and not real ; 
 and that the definite atonement, in respect to 
 the merits of Christ's death, the invitation 
 of the gospel, the offers of salvation, and 
 the divine purpose, is quite as extensive as 
 the other. 
 
 II. In this letter I propose to examine 
 the second claim of the Neiv School ; which 
 is, that their views on this most interest- 
 ing subject are more compatible with a 
 
 FREE AND GENERAL PREACHING OF THE 
 GOSPEL, AND AN UNFETTERED AND UNRE- 
 SERVED OFFER OF SALVATION TO ALL SIN- 
 NERS. 
 
 To this claim we cannot yield. It is a mere 
 gratuitous assumption. You well know, 
 the advocates of the doctrine on this funda- 
 mental point that has prevailed in the Pres- 
 byterian church from its foundation in this 
 country, and by the teaching of which this 
 church grew and nourished for more than 
 a century, have felt no embarrassment in 
 preaching the gospel indiscriminately, and 
 offering salvation to all, to whom it was their 
 privilege to bear the delightful messages of 
 divine grace. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 37 
 
 With the utmost freedom have they pub- 
 lished to all their hearers, the great and 
 precious truths embodied in the gospel. 
 They have delighted in celebrating the infi- 
 nite love and unmerited mercy of Jehovah 
 in providing salvation for sinners, by the 
 mission of his own Son into our fallen and 
 ruined world ; and in proclaiming the grand 
 and fundamental truth, that the Redeemer, 
 by his obedience unto death, made a full 
 satisfaction for the sins of his people, and 
 wrought out for them a complete justifying 
 righteousness. They have constantly ex- 
 hibited him as an all-sufficient Saviour, able 
 and willing to save unto the uttermost, all 
 that will come unto him; assuring their 
 hearers that his blood cleanseth from all sin, 
 and that his righteousness can make the 
 vilest sinner righteous in the eves of imma- 
 culate Purity. They have not ceased to 
 invite all to come to this glorious Redeem- 
 er for salvation ; urging the acceptance of 
 the invitation, by showing that all are 
 commanded to believe the gospel message, 
 and that God has promised that he will cast 
 
 D 
 
3S LETTERS ON 
 
 out none who come to him. They ground 
 the offer of salvation on the atonement of 
 Christ; and proclaim it as an infallible truth, 
 that whosoever believeth on him shall, with- 
 out a single exception, be saved. And to 
 all they add the awful truth, that all who 
 refuse the overtures of Divine mercy, and 
 continue in unbelief, will burden their con- 
 sciences with aggravated guilt, and bring 
 down upon themselves a more terrible con- 
 demnation. 
 
 Now, in the enunciation of these truths, 
 consists the preaching of the gospel — in 
 exhibiting the infinite love and unmerited 
 mercy of God towards our fallen world, and 
 in setting forth the death and righteousness 
 of his Son, as sufficient for saving the vilest 
 of sinners, and every one who believes ; 
 and in grounding on the merits of Immanu- 
 el's atonement, a full and free offer of par- 
 don and life, to all who will accept of them 
 on the terms prescribed by Infinite Majesty. 
 
 What more can the friends of indefinite 
 atonement add ? Will they reply — We can 
 assure all our hearers that. Christ died for 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 39 
 
 Ihem ? But in what sense ? Did he die with 
 an intention to save them ? No ; he died 
 intentionally to save the elect alone ; God 
 did not design by the atonement to secure 
 the salvation of others. And how does this 
 view of the subject show the consistency of 
 offering salvation to all, any more than the 
 view we take ; who represent the merits of 
 the atonement as sufficient for all, and there- 
 fore on this ground offer salvation to all 
 who will accept it? Can they make the 
 offer on any other terms ? Can they tell un- 
 believers that they will be saved ? By no 
 means. They declare, as well as we, that 
 he that believeth not shall be damned ; and 
 that none can partake of the saving benefits 
 of Christ's death, unless it be applied by 
 faith. 
 
 It will, we know, be said, that as Christ, 
 according to the definite scheme, made 
 atonement only for his elect, the offer in 
 preaching the gospel /,is made to them alone. 
 But this is a groundless assertion. Minis- 
 ters arc not entrusted with the execution of 
 die secret purposes of Infinite Wisdom ; nor 
 
40 LETTERS OtS 
 
 are they acquainted with the elect of God^ 
 any further than he is pleased to designate 
 them by the bestowment of his grace. Elec- 
 tion is no rule to them, in discharging their 
 official duties. They must publish the gos- 
 pel to all, and tender salvation to all indis- 
 criminately ; leaving it to the Most High 
 to make the application, and to call his cho- 
 sen to the enjoyment of salvation, in his 
 own way and time. 
 
 Still it may be objected, that, if the atone- 
 ment has not been made for all, the offer of 
 salvation to all cannot be grounded on the 
 atonement. Why not? The atonement is, 
 in its own nature, sufficient for all ; and if 
 it were applied to all, every son and daugh- 
 ter of Adam would be saved ; but because 
 Jehovah, in his adorable sovereignty, is 
 pleased to apply it to some, and not to all, it 
 certainly does not follow that the benefits of 
 it cannot be offered to all. 
 
 But suppose, it may be said, a non-elect 
 person were to believe in Christ and accept 
 the offer of salvation ; would he, for whom 
 no atonement has been made, be saved? 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 41 
 
 Without hesitation I answer affirmatively ; 
 just as I would say, that if an elect per- 
 son were to die in unbelief, he would be 
 damned. 
 
 But, before I assign the reasons of this 
 answer, it may be proper to show how the 
 same difficulty applies to the scheme of the 
 new school. They believe in the doctrine 
 of election ; they say Christ died intention- 
 ally to save only the elect; that God did 
 not design to secure by the atonement the 
 salvation of any other men: and they must 
 admit that Christ intercedes, not for the 
 world, but for them whom God has given 
 him. Now, we ask, suppose a non-elect 
 person were to believe, would he be saved? 
 one whom they say Christ did not die in- 
 tentionally to save; one whose salvation 
 God did not design to secure by the atone- 
 ment; one for whom the great High Priest 
 in heaven docs not intercede: would such 
 a person, in these circumstances, be saved, 
 if he were to believe? Our brethren have 
 to meet the same difficulty. And in fact 
 it comes in the way of every one who ad- 
 d 2 
 
42 LETTERS 0> 
 
 mits the foreknowledge of God, and be- 
 lieves that the application of the atonement 
 depends on his sovereign grace. 
 
 But, after all, cannot the difficulty in re- 
 ference either to election, or to a definite 
 atonement, be lessened, if not solved? 
 Election secures the salvation of its objects 3 
 but it interposes no obstacle in the way of 
 the salvation of the non-elect. Jehovah 
 will, in his own appointed time and man- 
 ner, bring to a saving union with his Son, 
 all whom he has destined to immortal 
 glory ; but the grace which he is pleased to 
 impart to his chosen, does not prevent 
 others from repenting and believing, as he 
 commands them. He only withholds from 
 them what they have no right to claim ; yet,, 
 if in obedience to his command, they were 
 to repent and believe, he would doubtless 
 fulfil to them the promise directed to all 
 believers. 
 
 These observations will apply to the 
 atonement. Were a non-elect person to 
 believe in Christ, he would receive all the 
 benefits of his death ; which, in that case, 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 43 
 
 would actually become to him an atone- 
 ment ; for let it be remembered, it is the 
 application of his death that makes it truly 
 an atonement or reconciliation. The pur- 
 pose of God to apply the merits of his Son's 
 death to his chosen, ensures the application 
 to them, and their consequent salvation; 
 but this divine purpose does not create any 
 hindrance to others; it only leaves them to 
 the influence and operation of their native 
 depravity and wicked unbelief. 
 
 The answer we have given to the ques- 
 tion, grounded on a supposed case that will 
 never happen, can be justified on the prin- 
 ciples that regulate common conversation, 
 and on the principles that governed the 
 language of inspired teachers, by the infal- 
 lible connexion between faith andsalvation^ 
 and by the nature of the atonement — 
 
 1 . On the principles that regulate com- 
 vwn conversation. Of a man who has 
 just escaped from the flames that consumed 
 his dwelling, we say, he would have pe- 
 rished, if he had slept longer; and of one 
 lost at sea, he might have been living; if he 
 
44 LETTERS OK 
 
 had not gone on that voyage. The farmer 
 says, 1 should have had a fine crop, had it 
 not been for that drought which withered 
 my grain; and, again, I should have made 
 a profitable sale of my articles, if the mar- 
 ket had not been so glutted. Ten thousand 
 similar observations are made ; all predi- 
 cating a different state of things, on the 
 supposition that the cause that has produced 
 the existing state of things had not occur- 
 red. 
 
 2. The "principles that governed the 
 language of inspired teachers, justify 
 the answer. That perverse generation of 
 Israelites that came out of Egypt, failed to 
 enter into the land of promise; and from 
 the event it is certain that it was the Di- 
 vine intention not to bring them into the 
 possession. Yet this generation was com- 
 manded and encouraged to march forward, 
 and take the promised inheritance. "Be- 
 hold," said Moses to them, " the Lord thy 
 God hath set the land before thee: go up 
 and possess it, as the Lord God of thy la- 
 thers hath said unto thee ; fear not, nei- 
 
11IL ATONEMENT. 45 
 
 ther be discouraged." And when they 
 were dismayed at the report of the spies, 
 their leader said, " Dread not, neither be 
 afraid of them. The Lord your God which 
 goeth before you, he shall fight for you, ac- 
 cording to all that he did for you in Egypt 
 before your eyes." — Deut. i. 21, 29, 30. 
 
 The event also proved it to be the secret 
 purpose of Jehovah to establish the king- 
 dom of Israel in the family of David; yet 
 hear the language of Samuel, speaking 
 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
 on the supposition that Saul had been obe- 
 dient to the Divine commandment : " And 
 Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done fool- 
 ishly : thou hast not kept the command- 
 ment of the Lord thy God, which he com- 
 manded thee: for now would the Lord 
 have established thy kingdom upon Israel 
 for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not 
 continue: the Lord hath sought him a man 
 after his own heart, and the Lord hath 
 commanded him to be captain over his peo- 
 ple, because thou hast not kept that which 
 the Lord commanded thee." — 1 Sam. xiii. 
 13, 14. 
 
46 LETTERS ON 
 
 Tyre and Sidon, the Saviour assures us, 
 would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, 
 if the mighty works that were done in Cho- 
 razin and Bethsaida had been done in them; 
 and he also says, that if the mighty works 
 that were done in Capernaum had been 
 done in Sodom, it would have continued to 
 his day.— -Matt. xi. 21, 23. 
 
 When Paul was in danger of shipwreck, 
 as he was sailing to Rome, he was assured, 
 by promise, that his life and the lives of 
 all on shipboard, for his sake, should be 
 preserved. No condition was annexed to 
 the promise ; it was absolute. Yet this in- 
 spired man, who had unshaken confidence 
 in Jehovah's word, when he saw through 
 the sailors' design to escape with the boat, 
 under pretence of casting out anchors, did 
 not hesitate to say to the centurion and the 
 soldiers : " Except these abide in the ship, 
 ye cannot be saved." From this declara- 
 tion we may unquestionably infer, that they 
 would have perished, if the sailors' design 
 had been accomplished. What then would 
 have become of the promise ? But Jeho- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 47 
 
 vah took care of his own faithfulness, The 
 warning of Paul produced its effect. " The 
 soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and 
 let her fall off." Thus this promise of 
 God, like his other promises, was accom- 
 plished by appropriate means. See Acts 
 xxvii. 22-25. 30-32. See also 2 Kings 
 viii. 10. ch. xiii. 19. 
 
 3. Our answer can be justified by the 
 certain and infallible, connexion which 
 God has established between faith and 
 salvation. " I am the resurrection and the 
 life: he that believeth in me, though he 
 were dead, yet shall he live : and whoso- 
 ever liveth and believeth on me, shall never 
 die." " He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved." But I need not cite pas- 
 sages to prove what will not be denied. 
 Now, this infallible connexion between 
 faith and salvation, authorizes a minister of 
 the gospel to assure every individual to 
 whom he preaches, that if he believe he 
 will most certainly be saved. Jehovah has 
 pledged his word, and he can and will fulfil 
 his promise. 
 
48 LETTERS ON 
 
 4. The nature of the Redeemer's work 
 will justify the reply. In what did this 
 work consist? In his obedience unto death 
 in our nature ; or in his active and passive 
 obedience. In regard to the first branch of 
 the Saviour's work, it is manifest that, 
 while obeying the precepts of the Divine 
 law, in the room and stead of his chosen 
 people, he observed them as perfectly, and 
 his obedience was as glorious, as if he had 
 been acting as the representative of many 
 millions more. And in regard to the se- 
 cond branch, we believe, that the great 
 Redeemer, in effecting the salvation of all 
 who shall be saved, submitted to as much 
 humiliation, and endured as extreme mi- 
 sery, as would have been demanded from 
 him, on the supposition that the sins of all 
 mankind had been imputed to him. He 
 bore the curse of the divine law, the pu- 
 nishment due to our sins: and by the infi- 
 nite dignity of the sufferer, more ho- 
 nour was done to the penalty of the law, 
 than would have been done to it by the 
 everlasting punishment of our whole race. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 49 
 
 Hence while the atonement is definite. 
 being intentionally made only for those 
 given to Christ by the Father to be re- 
 deemed by him, it was necessarily, in its 
 oivn nature and intrinsic value, sufficient 
 for the salvation of every son and daughter 
 of Adam. 
 
 Now, on this infinite worth of the atone- 
 ment, are grounded the general invitations 
 and offers of the gospel. In preaching, we 
 are not indeed authorized to tell every 
 man that Christ died specifically for him, 
 or that an atonement was made for him : 
 but we are authorized to say, that the Son 
 of God came to save sinners of our race: 
 that he has, in our nature made an atone- 
 ment for sin, suited to the case of human 
 sinners, and that, in its intrinsic value, it is 
 infinite; and that he is able and willing 
 to save unto the uttermost, all that will 
 come to him. On this basis we invite all 
 to apply to him for salvation, and tender 
 to all the offers of Divine mercy; assuring 
 them that if they will accept the offers 
 made, they shall certainly be saved : for 
 
50 LETTERS ON 
 
 the mouth of the Lord has uttered the pro- 
 mise, and it cannot fail to be accomplished. 
 It will follow, then, that if a non-elect per- 
 son were to believe, he would certainly be 
 saved. 
 
 Let this be further illustrated, by advert- 
 ing to the covenant made with Adam, who 
 represented all his natural posterity. Such 
 was the nature of that covenant and of his 
 representative conduct, that had his poste- 
 rity been two-fold more numerous than 
 they in fact will be, the consequences of 
 his disobedience would extend to them the 
 same destructive influence that will reach 
 all who shall actually descend from him. 
 Similar was the nature of the covenant of 
 redemption, and of the work of obedience, 
 done by the Saviour as the representative 
 of his people. Had it pleased his eternal 
 Father to have increased the number given 
 to him to be redeemed, no alteration in his 
 work of suffering and obedience would 
 have been required. 
 
 In regard to Adam's posterity it is true, 
 that as the number had been determined on 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 51 
 
 before his apostacy, the number could not 
 be increased after that fatal event ; because 
 this would have brought evil on immortal 
 beings not originally represented by him, 
 and so an act of injustice would have been 
 done to them. But were the number ap- 
 pointed to salvation to be increased, no ob- 
 jection could be made to the increase on 
 the score of injustice; because they would 
 be made partakers of a benefit, and not of 
 an injury. Besides, were any to whom it 
 was not the Divine intention to apply the 
 merits of the Redeemer's death to believe, 
 they would, by their faith, be brought into 
 a saving union with him; and consequently 
 would come into contact with that blood 
 that cleanseth from all sin, and gain an in- 
 terest in that righteousness " which is unto 
 all and upon all them that believe." Thus 
 united to Christ and interested in his me- 
 rits, they would be sheltered from Divine 
 wrath, and be entitled to eternal life. 
 " There is therefore, now, no condemna- 
 tion to them that are in Christ Jesus, who 
 walk not after the flesh, but after the Spi- 
 rit." 
 
52 LETTERS ON 
 
 In this representation, I do not perceive 
 any inconsistency with the statements made 
 ill my former letter. For whatever was 
 said in regard to the connexion between 
 the death of Christ and the Divine inten- 
 tion, it was shown, that, in strictness of 
 speech, the death of Immanuel is not an 
 atonement to any until it be applied \ 
 and consequently it follows, as stated above, 
 that it will infallibly produce reconciliation 
 between God and all and every one, with- 
 out excepting any individual, who shall be- 
 lieve, and thus have its efficacy applied to 
 his soul. 
 
 But will it be objected, that, on the 
 ground on which we represent the offers of 
 salvation to be made to the non-elect, they 
 might be made to devils ? We think not, 
 for two reasons : first, because our commis- 
 sion does not extend to them : and this rea- 
 son, our brethren must allow, precludes 
 the offers of salvation to damned spirits, 
 for whom, they say, the atonement was 
 made: and secondly, because the atonement 
 is not suited to the case of devils, not having 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 53 
 
 been made in the nature of angels, but in 
 the nature of man. " Forasmuch then as 
 the children are partakers of flesh and 
 blood, he also, likewise took part of the 
 same; that through death he might destroy 
 him that had the power of death, that is, 
 the devil ; and deliver them who through 
 death were all their life long subject to 
 bondage. For verily he took not on him 
 the nature of angels; but he took on him 
 the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all 
 things it behooved him to be made like 
 to his brethren, that he might be a merci- 
 ful and faithful High Priest in things per- 
 taining to God, to make reconciliation for 
 the sins of the people/' — Heb. ii. 14-17. 
 
 It now appears, I trust, that, on the plan 
 of definite atonement, the invitations of the 
 gospel can be most sincerely given to all 
 who hear it preached; that the offers of sal- 
 vation can be most freely and unreservedly 
 presented to all who will accept them; that 
 it is the duty of all to believe, because Je- 
 hovah commands them so to do ; and that 
 those who refuse the overtures of mercy, 
 
 E 2 
 
j4 letters on 
 
 and wilfully reject an offered Saviour, will 
 be justly punished for their unbelief, as 
 well as for their other sins. No unbeliever 
 will, in the day of judgment, be able to 
 discover in our views of the atonement, as 
 its opponents imagine, any thing insincere 
 or unreasonable, on which to found a fair 
 excuse for unbelief. It will then appear, 
 that although Christ died to make an atone- 
 ment for his own people, yet, if others had 
 believed, his death would have been an 
 atonement to them also, and would have 
 saved them from the curse of God, under 
 which they must for ever sink in hopeless 
 misery. 
 
 Addressing the Jews, who had crucified 
 the Lord of glory, Peter said, "Him being 
 delivered by the determinate counsel and 
 foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and 
 with wicked hands have crucified and 
 slain." — Acts. ii. 23. Here it is affirmed, 
 not only that God foreknew how the Jews 
 would treat his Son, but that he did, by his 
 determinate counsel, deliver him into 
 their hands; and yet the inspired speaker 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 55 
 
 charges on the consciences of his hearers 
 the horrible crime of having, with wicked 
 hands, seized him, and put him to death. 
 Of consequence, sinners can derive from 
 the secret purpose of Jehovah, no excuse 
 for their unbelief and wilful rejection of an 
 offered Saviour. 
 
 Very affectionately, yours, &c, 
 
56 LETTERS ON 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 Divine Grace in the Recovery of fallen 
 Man. 
 
 My dear Brother, 
 
 In my last letter it was, I hope, fairly 
 proved, that the doctrine of the new school 
 has no advantage over that of the old, in 
 respect to a general and free preaching of 
 the gospel, and an unfettered and unre- 
 served offer of salvation to all men. We 
 can invite all to come to Christ, as sincerely 
 as any of our brethren. We can offer sal- 
 vation to all, as freely as they; and hold 
 out as many inducements and encourage- 
 ments to incline the perishing to come to 
 the munificent feast which grace has pre- 
 pared. We can exhibit the promises in all 
 their fulness and riches, as well as they ; 
 and thunder out the denunciations of a 
 righteous God, against all who disbelieve 
 the gospel and reject the Saviour. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 57 
 
 III. But the advocates of indefinite 
 
 atonement claim that their views corres- 
 pond best with the freeness and sove- 
 reignty of divine grace, displayed in 
 the recovery of fallen man. 
 
 They contend that to represent the death 
 of Christ as a real and complete satisfaction 
 to divine justice for the sins of his people, 
 is to set aside the grace of God in their 
 salvation. If, say they, salvation was really 
 purchased for them by the Redeemer's sa- 
 crifice, then salvation must be granted to 
 them as a matter of debt, and not as a free 
 and gratuitous gift ; and besides, as the 
 price has been paid and accepted, justice re- 
 quires that all for whom it was paid, should 
 be immediately justified and released from 
 captivity. 
 
 In reply to the latter part of this state- 
 ment, I shall here observe briefly, that the 
 scheme sketched by the wisdom of our op- 
 ponents, is not the plan devised by infinite 
 wisdom. That sinners should be justified 
 before they were born, and be released 
 from condemnation as soon as they came 
 
58 LETTERS DM 
 
 into the world, was no part of Jehovah's 
 plan. It was the pleasure both of the Fa- 
 ther who gave them to his Son to be re- 
 deemed, and of his Son who bought them 
 with his blood, that they should remain 
 under the curse of the law, until they should 
 believe on the Redeemer. Then, and not 
 till then, are they, or can they be, justified. 
 This was the plan of infinite wisdom; and 
 so it is drawn by the pen of inspiration. 
 Christ paid the price of our redemption, 
 that the benefits of it might be applied to 
 his people in the way and time determined 
 on by divine sovereignty: and surely he 
 had a right to arrange the economy of sal- 
 vation, as was most pleasing to himself. 
 
 In regard to the former part of the state- 
 ment, examination will show, that the ob- 
 jection, if it have any force, will apply to 
 the doctrine of the new, as well as to that 
 of the old school. Man was fallen; and 
 God, in infinite mercy, determined to save 
 him. But a mighty obstacle was in the 
 way of his salvation. It must be removed, 
 or man must perish. None in heaven or on 
 
THE ATONEMENT. §9 
 
 earth, among all the creatures of God, is 
 able to remove it. The Son of God alone 
 is equal to the stupendous undertaking; 
 and even he can accomplish it in no other 
 way than by humiliation the most profound, 
 and sufferings the most overwhelming. 
 His obedience unto death is required, to 
 make it consistent for a righteous God to 
 exercise his mercy in saving sinful men. 
 Now, it cannot be denied that the inspired 
 writers speak of the Saviour's death as an 
 invaluable price, by which his people were 
 purchased. "For," says Paul, "ye are 
 bought with a price: therefore, glorify God 
 in your body and in your spirit, which are 
 God's." 1 Cor. vi. 20. By the same mo- 
 tive does Peter enforce a holy and heavenly 
 conversation : " Forasmuch as ye know 
 that ye were not redeemed with corruptible 
 things, as silver and gold, from your vain 
 conversation received by tradition from 
 your fathers; but with the jjrecious blood 
 of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and 
 without spot." 1 Pet. i. IS, 19. 
 
 By his death we say that Christ satisfied 
 
GO LETTERS ON 
 
 divine justice for all true believers: and 
 our brethren say, by his death Christ made 
 an exhibition of divine justice, and satisfied 
 jiublic justice, so that God can now save 
 all who believe. But if we view his death 
 in either light, it will appear that it was the 
 procuring cause of our salvation; and that 
 without the intervention of his fearful suf- 
 ferings, none of our guilty race could have 
 been saved. The death of Christ our bre- 
 thren represent as being a substitute for 
 our sufferings, and some, if not all, will 
 allow it to have been an equivalent for 
 them. If then the justice of God, (call it 
 what you will, public or distributive,) re- 
 quired the amazing sufferings of his own 
 Son for the salvation of sinners, and he, by 
 them, actually satisfied the demands of jus- 
 tice; where, to adopt their own language, 
 we ask, is the free and sovereign grace of 
 God in a salvation thus dearly bought? 
 The objection then applies to the doctrine 
 of the new school, as well as to that of the 
 old. 
 
 When it is affirmed that sinners are saved 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 61 
 
 by absolute grace, our brethren do not 
 mean that salvation is bestowed on them 
 ivithout respect to the atonement of 
 Christ ; for they affirm an atonement to 
 have been so necessary, that none of our 
 sinful race could, without the death of 
 Christ, have been saved consistently with 
 the glory of the Supreme Ruler of the uni- 
 verse. Where then, we again ask, is the 
 grace of God, in salvation procured by so 
 costly a sacrifice ? 
 
 A writer, I know not where to place 
 him, says, if I understand him, that the 
 sufferings of Christ were not a full equiva- 
 lent for the execution of the penalty of the 
 law on those who are saved; because this 
 would be destructive to the grace of God 
 in our salvation. Now, if this objection 
 have any weight, it must depend on the 
 assumption, that so far as the sufferings of 
 Christ were necessary to our salvation, the 
 grace of God is diminished : because if a 
 full equivalent for our sufferings, or a com- 
 plete substitution for them, be wholly in- 
 consistent with the freeness and sovereignty 
 
 F 
 
62 LETTERS ON 
 
 of divine grace, then, for the same reason, 
 a partial equivalent, or a partial substitu- 
 tion for them must be, in its degree, incon- 
 sistent with the freeness and sovereignty of 
 divine grace. What consequence follows? 
 Clearly this : if we had been saved, with- 
 out the intervention of the death of Christ, 
 by a sovereign act of Jehovah in remitting 
 our sins, there would have been a more 
 glorious display of free and sovereign 
 grace. But who that has read the scrip- 
 tures attentively, does not know that such 
 a conclusion would be at war with the 
 strains in which they celebrate redeeming 
 love? Do they not teach us to consider 
 the method of saving sinners, through the 
 humiliation and death of the Son of God, 
 as affording the highest display of divine 
 love and mercy? Hear our Lord himself: 
 " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
 lieveth in him should not perish, but have 
 eternal life." Hear his Apostle John : 
 " Hereby perceive we the love of God, be- 
 cause he laid down his life for us." " In 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 63 
 
 this was manifested the love of God toward 
 us, because that God sent his only begotten 
 Son into the world, that we might live 
 through him. Herein is love; not that 
 we loved God, but that he loved us, and 
 sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins." Now, these declarations are 
 manifestly based on the fact, that a richer 
 and more glorious display of divine love 
 has been made in our salvation, through 
 the incarnation, sufferings and death of 
 Christ, than could have been made in 
 saving sinners without so costly a sacrifice; 
 and that grace is magnified, not in propor- 
 tion as the Saviour's sufferings are dimi- 
 nished, but rather in proportion as they are 
 increased. The exhibition of the Father's 
 love brightens at every step in his Son's 
 humiliation; and shines with the greatest 
 splendour, when the Lord of glory, in the 
 midst of the preternatural darkness, suffer- 
 ing under the hidings of his Father's face, 
 is heard to exclaim, " My God, my God, 
 why hast thou forsaken me?" and then 
 bows his head and gives up the ghost. 
 
64 LETTERS ON 
 
 This objection, then, militates against 
 the plain language of holy scripture, which 
 teaches us, that, if we would form exalted 
 views of Jehovah's infinite love and sove- 
 reign grace, we are not to diminish the 
 Redeemer's sufferings, but look at them in 
 all the extent of agony, terror and dismay 
 to which they were carried by divine jus- 
 tice. "He that spared not his own Son, 
 but delivered him up for us all; how shall 
 he not with him also freely give us all 
 things?" 
 
 We believe, my dear sir, you well know, 
 all the benefits of salvation to be the fruits 
 of Christ's death, and purchased by him 
 for all who will accept them ; and yet, in 
 perfect consistency, we believe 7 that they 
 all flow from unmerited grace and infinite 
 love. Both these propositions are plainly 
 taught in holy scripture. 
 
 1. The inspired writers represent every 
 blessing of salvation as the fruit of Christ's 
 death. 
 
 Forgiveness is the fruit of his death 
 "la whom we have redemption through 
 
HIE ATONEMENT. 65 
 
 his bloody even the forgiveness of sins, ac- 
 cording to the riches of his grace.'''' Ephes. 
 i. 4. "And be ye kind one to another, 
 tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even 
 as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
 you." Ephes. iv. 3. Reconciliation is 
 the fruit of his death; "And all things are 
 of God, who hath reconciled us to himself 
 by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the 
 ministry of reconciliation, to wit; that God 
 was in Cftrist reconciling the world unto 
 himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them." 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. "And, having 
 made peace through the blood of his cross, 
 by him to reconcile all things unto him- 
 self; by him, I say, whether they be things 
 in earth, or things in heaven. And you, 
 that were sometime alienated, and enemies 
 in your mind by wicked works, yet now 
 hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh 
 through death, to present you holy, and 
 unblameable and unreprovable in his sight." 
 Col. i. 20-22. Justification is the fruit 
 of his death. " Being justified freely by 
 his grace, through the redemption that is 
 f a 
 
66 LETTERS ON 
 
 in Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 23. Peace is 
 the fruit of his death. "But now, in 
 Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar 
 off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 
 For he is our peace, who hath made both 
 one, and hath broken down the middle 
 wall of partition between us." Ephes. ii, 
 13, 14. Adoption is the fruit of his death. 
 "But when the fulness of 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." Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 Sanctification is the fruit of his death. 
 " Husbands, love your wives, even as 
 Christ also loved the church, and gave him- 
 self for it, that he might sanctify and 
 cleanse it by the washing of water, by the 
 word." Ephes. v. 25, 26. The heavenly 
 inheritance is a fruit of his death. " And 
 for this cause he is the mediator of the New 
 Testament that, by means of death, for the 
 redemption of the transgressions that were 
 under the first Testament, they which aie 
 tailed might receive the promise of eternal 
 
THE ATONEMENT. «)7 
 
 inheritance." Heb. ix. 15. "For the 
 wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is 
 eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." 
 
 From these texts of holy scripture, it 
 appears undeniable, that all the blessings of 
 salvation come to us as fruits of the Re- 
 deemer's death ; and as his death was the 
 price which he paid for them, it must con- 
 clusively follow, that they were all pur- 
 chased for believers by his death. 
 
 2. But the inspired writers, while they 
 teach this truth so fully, teach with equal 
 plainness and fulness, that all the blessings 
 of salvation are the fruits of free and 
 sovereign grace. In the present discussion 
 it is unnecessary to go into any laboured 
 proof of this point ; because it is freely and 
 cordially admitted by our brethren, from 
 whom we differ in our views of the atone- 
 ment. Were proof required, it might, by 
 an induction of particulars, be shown that 
 each benefit of salvation is attributed to the 
 free and abounding grace of God. " By 
 grace are ye saved, through faith ; and that 
 
68 LETTERS ON 
 
 not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." 
 Ephes. ii. 8. "Not by works of righteous- 
 ness which we have done, but according to 
 his mercy he saved us, by the washing of 
 regeneration and the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly 
 through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that 
 being justified by his grace, we should be 
 made heirs according to the hope of eter- 
 nal life." Tit. iii. 5—7. 
 
 Now, as the scriptures teach us that we 
 are saved by the death of Christ, or that all 
 the blessings of salvation were purchased 
 by his blood ; and teach us also that we are 
 saved by free grace, or that all the bless- 
 ings of salvation flow from unmerited mer- 
 cy, if there be any difficulty in reconciling 
 these two doctrines so fully and distinctly 
 taught in the Scriptures, the difficulty ma- 
 nifestly grows out of the revelation of an 
 omniscient God. It is our duty in humble 
 submission to his infallible teaching, to re- 
 ceive both truths, how irreconcilable soever 
 they may appear to our feeble understand- 
 ings. A little more light, and difficulties 
 
LHE ATONEMENT. 60 
 
 of this kind would vanish. What myste- 
 rious doctrine of the Bible would be re- 
 ceived by us, if it were not received till all 
 difficulties attached to it were removed? 
 Who can fully explain the doctrine of the 
 Trinity ', the doctrine of the incarnation 
 of the Son of God, the doctrine of divine 
 influence? Yet every Christian believes 
 them. 
 
 But the Scriptures contemplate no diffi- 
 culty in regard to these two important 
 truths; they consider them as perfectly 
 consistent and harmonious: for they exhibit 
 them in close connexion in the same verses; 
 as will appear from a reference to the 
 texts just quoted. " In whom we have re- 
 demption through his blood, the forgive- 
 ness of sins, according to the riches of his 
 grace" Here the blood of Christ is repre- 
 sented as the price of our redemption ; and 
 yet forgiveness is represented as flowing 
 from the riches of divine grace. Again: 
 " Being justified freely by his grace 
 through the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus." Here justification is attributed to 
 the free grace of God; and at the same 
 
70 LETTERS OK 
 
 time it is attributed to the redemption of 
 Christ, or to his blood, which is the jirice 
 of our redemption. Again : "That as sin 
 hath reigned unto death, even so might 
 grace reign through righteousness unto 
 eternal life." What is the meaning of this 
 passage? Plainly this: As sin, the pro- 
 curing cause of every evil, reigns in all the 
 calamities brought on our guilty world, 
 and extends its destructive ravages unto 
 death; so grace, the original spring of our 
 salvation, reigns, through the righteous- 
 ness of Christ, the procuring cause of every 
 blessing, from the beginning to the con- 
 summation of salvation. 
 
 We cannot, my dear brother, but feel sur- 
 prised that any should apprehend an incon- 
 sistency between the two propositions — 
 that the righteousness of Christ is the pro- 
 curing cause, and divine grace the original 
 spring, of our salvation. 
 
 The scriptures, you know, set our ivorks 
 and the grace of God in opposition ; and 
 represent salvation by works, and salvation 
 by grace as being wholly incompatible. 
 " And if by grace, then is it no more of 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 71 
 
 works : otherwise grace is no more grace. 
 But if it be of works, then is it no more 
 grace : otherwise work is no more work." 
 Rom. xi. 6. But, while this opposition 
 between grace and our works, as the pro- 
 curing cause of salvation, is abundantly ex- 
 hibited by the inspired writers, no where, 
 not in a single passage, do they set the 
 grace of God in opposition to the ivorks or 
 righteousness of Jesus Christ. 
 
 To the great Redeemer the covenant of 
 redemption was indeed a covenant of works. 
 His obedience unto death was the very 
 work the law demanded of him as our 
 Surety ; and consequently to Him the re- 
 ward was not of grace, but of debt ; a re- 
 ward secured by the promise of his Father 
 to him, for the glorious services he had done 
 in execution of his mediatorial office. At 
 the close of life, when offering up his inter- 
 cessory prayer for his church, he could say 
 " Father 1 have glorified thee on the earth ; 
 I have finished the work thou gavest me to 
 do :" and on the ground of his obedience 
 utter that divine language, " Father, I will, 
 that they also whom thou hast given me, be 
 
12 LETTERS ON 
 
 with me where I am ; that they may behold 
 my glory, which thou hast given me ; for 
 thou lovedst me before the foundation of the 
 world." John xvii. 4, 24. 
 But to us the covenant is ivholty of grace: 
 inasmuch as it secures to us all the blessings 
 of salvation, not on the footing of our own 
 works, but on the footing of our Redeemer's 
 righteousness. All is the fruit of grace. It 
 was grace that planned our salvation. It was 
 grace that chose us in Christ before the 
 foundation of the world. It was grace that 
 accepted the mediation of Christ. It was 
 grace that provided the Mediator in the per- 
 son of God's own son. It was grace that 
 revealed the wonderful plan of redemption. 
 It is grace that offers salvation, and grace 
 that applies it. It is grace that remits our 
 sins and justifies us when we believe in 
 Christ. It is grace that begins the work of 
 sanctification ; grace that carries it on ; and 
 grace that crowns it with glory. To our 
 own salvation we do not contribute a parti- 
 cle of merit. It is not for our righteous- 
 ness, but purely for the righteousness of 
 (fhrist that we are saved. I am, &c. 
 
Tirr ATONEMENT. 73 
 
 LETTER IV 
 
 Objections Jlmwered, 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 The object I had in view in my last, was 
 to show how well our doctrine of the atone- 
 ment corresponds with a full and glorious 
 display of the free and sovereign grace of 
 God in man's salvation. 
 
 In this, I propose to resume that subject, 
 by replying to some of the objections urged 
 in recent publications. 
 
 To illustrate the entire harmony between 
 the grace of God in our salvation, and the 
 righteousness of Christ as its procuring cause, 
 the subject may be viewed in a different 
 light from that in which it has already been 
 presented. 
 
 Speaking of the great Redeemer, the 
 writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, 
 " Though he were a Son, yet learned he 
 obedience by the things which he suffered: 
 
74 LETTERS ON 
 
 and being made perfect, he became the au- 
 thor of eternal salvation unto all that obey 
 him." Heb. v. 8, 9. Salvation, then, is the 
 work of Christ ; and consequently the whole 
 of it from beginning to the end must be at- 
 tributed to his grace. All its blessings are 
 deposited in his hands; and He distributes 
 them as he pleases. Hence it is recorded, 
 " Of His fulness have all we received, and 
 grace for grace:" John i. 16; and he him- 
 self says, " As thou, Father, hast given him 
 power over all flesh, that he should give 
 eternal life to as many as thou hast given 
 him." John xvii. 2. He is the inexhaustible 
 fountain from which all blessings flow to 
 believing sinners. "Our life is hid with 
 Christ in God." Col. iii. 3. Heisthewme 
 that bears all the branches, and imparts to 
 them life and fruitfulness. John xv. 5, 6. 
 He is the Head, from which all vital influ- 
 ence is derived to every member of his mys- 
 tical body. Col. ii. 19. "I am crucified 
 with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not 
 I, but Christ liveth in me :" Gal. ii. 20. "I 
 give unto" my sheep "eternal life; and 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 75 
 
 they shall never perish, neither shall any 
 pluck them out of my hand." John x. 28. 
 It is plain, then, that Christ both procur- 
 ed salvation for us, and distributes all its 
 blessings according to his sovereign pleasure. 
 But shall we imagine his grace to be less 
 free and glorious, because he became obedi- 
 ent unto death, in order that he might be- 
 come the author of eternal salvation unto all 
 who obey him ? Do we owe him less, be- 
 cause he fulfilled the law in our place, and 
 satisfied all the demands of justice against us 
 by enduring the penalty due to sin ? Would 
 his grace have been more free, more conspi- 
 cuous, more illustrious, if he had humbled 
 himself less, and suffered less, in accomplish- 
 ing our salvation ? Let an inspired writer 
 answer these questions : " Ye know the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though 
 he was rich, yet for your sakes he became 
 poor, that ye, through his poverty, might 
 be rich." 2 Cor. viii. 9. " The life which 
 I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of 
 the Son of God who loved me, and gave 
 himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. It is in the* 
 
7<J LETTERS ON 
 
 depth of that humiliation to which the great 
 Redeemer submitted, and in the greatness of 
 those sufferings which he endured for our 
 sins, that the riches of his grace, and the 
 fervency of his love are to be seen to the 
 best advantage ; and it is from the purchase 
 he made of salvation for us, while hanging 
 on the accursed tree, that the strongest mo- 
 tive to obedience is drawn. " For ye are 
 bought with a price: therefore glorify God 
 in your body and in your spirit, which are 
 God's." lCor. vi. 20. "The love of Christ 
 constrainethus; because we thus 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 which died for them, and rose 
 again." 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 
 
 Now, if the sufferings of Christ for our 
 salvation do not detract from his grace in 
 saving us; and if the payment of his life as 
 the price of our redemption is not at all 
 inconsistent with his love in redeeming us, 
 nor with his sovereign pleasure in bestow- 
 ing redemption on sinners ; then it will fol- 
 
THE A KiM.MF.NT. 77 
 
 low tliat his sufferings do not detract from 
 his Father's grace, and that the payment of 
 the inestimable price he made is not incon- 
 sistent with his Father's love in our salva- 
 tion, and does not at all infringe upon his 
 adorable sovereignty in its application ; be- 
 cause the Father and the Son, being one in 
 nature and perfections, are most perfectly 
 harmonious in all their counsels, designs, 
 and operations. But this idea will receive 
 a fuller illustration, when the objection re- 
 ferred to is taken up. 
 
 Previously to that, let us see how the 
 difficulty is removed by the new doctrine, 
 and how its advocates harmonize the jus- 
 tice and the grace of God displayed in the 
 salvation of sinful men. While they admit 
 that, by the death of Christ, public justice 
 was satisfied, they maintain that dist?*ibu- 
 tive justice is not satisfied. They further 
 say that u public justice demands that the 
 greatest good of the universe should be 
 promoted, that the greatest possible sum of 
 happiness among intelligent beings should 
 g 2 
 
LETTERS ON 
 
 be brought into existence;"* consequently 
 public justice demands the salvation of all 
 who believe in Christ. Now, here is the 
 very difficulty to which they object in the 
 doctrine of the old school: for \i justice 
 demands the salvation of believers, where, 
 to use their language, is the grace display- 
 ed in the salvation of sinners? How can 
 they be saved by grace, if they are saved 
 by justice? But, it has been shown, ac- 
 cording to our views of the scheme of re- 
 demption, that grace and justice perfectly 
 harmonize. Our brethren, however, by 
 trying to get rid of what seemed to them 
 an insuperable objection, have created a 
 real difficulty. They represent the justice 
 of God as at once demanding the salvation 
 and the damnation of believers: for it will 
 scarcely be denied, that both public and 
 distributive justice are the justice of one 
 and the same divine Being. Distributive 
 justice they say, i •' demands that every per- 
 son should be treated according to his 
 moral character," and " that the guilty 
 
 * Dial, on Alonemcnl, p. 
 
THE ATONEMEN 1 /0 
 
 should be punished."* It follows, there- 
 fore, that as believers will for ever remain, 
 as they teach, guilty even in heaven, that 
 distributive justice will eternally demand 
 their punishment. But the demands of 
 public justice, it seems, will prevail over 
 the demands of distributive justice; and 
 consequently the public justice of God will 
 forever preserve all believers in the enjoy- 
 ment of heavenly happiness, in opposition 
 to the unceasing demands of his distribu- 
 tive justice. So much for this scheme of 
 removing the difficulty. 
 
 In a recent publication, I have met with 
 the following remarks: "And if Christ has 
 suffered that very penalty involved in the 
 eternal condemnation of the elect, as some 
 contend, then they ought to be liberated 
 on the principles of the law. Their debt 
 is paid. There is but one being in the 
 universe to whom these persons would be 
 indebted for their release; and that is the 
 friend who paid their debt, or suffered the 
 
 ' Dial, on Atonement, p. 29, 
 
SO LEMURS ok 
 
 penalty of the law in their stead.' 1 * Bold 
 assertions indeed! The writer is led to 
 the conclusion he has here formed, merely 
 by pushing a metaphor far beyond the li- 
 mits intended by those who use it. It is 
 well known that the disciples of the old 
 school illustrate the doctrine of the atone- 
 ment by referring to transactions occurring 
 between debtor and creditor. With this 
 illustration they have been furnished by the 
 Saviour himself; as will appear from the 
 petition prescribed by him, "Forgive us 
 our debts as we forgive our debtors;" and 
 from the parable he spake about the ser- 
 vant who owed his Lord ten thousand ta- 
 lents. Here the Redeemer compares sins 
 to debts, and the forgiveness of them to 
 the remission of a debt by a creditor. 
 
 It is a feature of the old school divinity, 
 of which it is hoped its pupils will never 
 be ashamed, and one in which they differ 
 from most of the new school writers, that 
 they are fond of the language of scripture, 
 and have little regard to any theological 
 
 ' IiCITlHll, J). H. 
 
1 UK ATONEMENT. 
 
 reasonings which are not clearly sanctioned 
 by the authority of the inspired penmen. 
 In regard to the point before us, it should 
 be remembered that not only do we find 
 such expressions and illustrations in the 
 New Testament as those already quoted, 
 but such as the following: "Ye are not 
 your own, for ye are bought with a price" 
 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. " Ye are bought ivith 
 a price, be not ye the servants of men." 
 1 Cor. vii. 23. " Denying the Lord that 
 bought them" 2 Pet. ii. 1. Nay, the 
 whole work of our salvation is frequently 
 denominated from a pecuniary transaction 
 — It is called Redemption, and believers 
 are said to be redeemed. Now redemp- 
 tion, it is well known, in its literal signifi- 
 cation, refers to the price which is paid for 
 a prisoner or a slave — The same is also the 
 import of the term Ransom — "Justified 
 through the redemjition that is in Christ." 
 Rom. iii. 24. " In whom we have re- 
 demption through his blood, the forgive- 
 ness of sins, according to the riches of his 
 grace." Ephes. i. 7. " Having obtained 
 
S2 LETTERS ON 
 
 eternal redemption for us." Heb. ix. 12. 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us." 
 Gal. iii. 13. "Ye were not redeemed with 
 corruptible things as silver and gold — but 
 with the precious blood of Christ." 1 Pet. 
 i. 18. "Thou hast redeemed us to God by 
 thy blood." Rev. v. 9. "The Son of 
 man came to give his life a ransom for 
 many." Matt. xx. 28. " Who gave him- 
 self a ransom for all, to be testified in due 
 time." 1 Tim. ii. 6. While we have 
 such a warrant as is contained in these, and 
 many similar passages, we shall never hesi- 
 tate to illustrate the doctrine of atonement 
 by the similitude of debtor and creditor; 
 nor to speak confidently of the satisfac- 
 tion of Christ. At the same time, we shall 
 be careful not to push this similitude to an 
 unlawful extreme, nor to represent the 
 satisfaction of Christ as tallying in all re- 
 spects, with that which is made in human 
 transactions. 
 
 But all these illustrations, although bor- 
 rowed directly from the volume of inspira- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 83 
 
 lion, appear to be thought improper by the 
 writer on whom we remark ; for from one 
 of them, which virtually embraces the 
 whole, he derives an argument which he 
 deems subversive of our whole doctrine. 
 Hear him: "Your neighbour becomes in- 
 debted to you in a large amount, which he 
 is utterly unable to pay. You resort to 
 legal coercion — institute a prosecution, and 
 eventually lodge him in prison. A third 
 person, actuated by benevolence, inquires 
 into the affair — is touched with pity for the 
 tenant of the jail — becomes his legal surety 
 — pays the whole demand, and restores 
 him to personal freedom. Now, we ask, 
 on what principle that man is permitted to 
 cross the threshold of his prison? Must 
 he come to your feet, and beg to be re- 
 leased; or may he boldly demand liberty 
 on the principles of law? And when he 
 again rejoices in the light of heaven, to 
 whom shall he express his gratitude; to his 
 benefactor who paid the debt, or to you who 
 set him at liberty when the last jot and tit- 
 tle of your demand was extinguished ? It 
 
S4 LETTERS ON 
 
 is manifest that you have no farther claim 
 upon this man, because the debt is paid,, 
 
 He has a legal right to a discharge ; and on 
 the score of gratitude he is indebted to that 
 benefactor alone who cancelled the de- 
 mand."' 
 
 This case the author adduces as parallel 
 to that of the atonement, according to the 
 views of his brethren whom he is opposing. 
 We deny the fact. Let him find, in pecu- 
 niary transactions, if he can, a perfect pa- 
 rallel ; and then he may push the compari- 
 son as far as he pleases, and we shall be 
 ready to meet all the consequences. But 
 this case is by no means parallel. Here it 
 is supposed that the creditor has no agency 
 in bringing forward the surety; and of 
 course no gratitude is due to him for the 
 payment of the debt. But let us suppose 
 the creditor to provide the surety, and to 
 engage his own son to become responsible 
 for the debt, and to consent to his being found 
 in a state of humiliation, while procuring the 
 means to enable him to make the payment ; 
 
 * Beman, p. 39, 
 
THE ATONEMENT. B8 
 
 would not, we ask, the debtor be, in that 
 case, under obligations of gratitude to his 
 merciful creditor, and have reason to thank 
 him for the recovery of his liberty ? Surely 
 Mr. B. has not yet to learn that the Father, 
 who demands from sinners payment of the 
 debt which they have contracted by vio- 
 lating his holy law, is constantly exhibited 
 by us as being so merciful that He jwovided 
 the surety for our fallen race, and that he 
 sent into the world his only begotten Son, 
 in a state of the deepest humiliation, to pay 
 the debt which we could never have extin- 
 guished ! 
 
 Again, in this case it is supposed, that 
 the debt is paid absolutely, so that the cre- 
 ditor is compelled by law and justice to 
 release the debtor immediately. But let 
 us change the circumstances. Suppose a 
 benevolent individual visits a prison fdled 
 with debtors — He finds one who had con- 
 tracted his debt through folly and vice. 
 But he is touched at the recital of his case, 
 and determines to pay his debt. Wishing, 
 however, to reclaim the unfortunate man, 
 ii 
 
LETTER $ ON 
 
 and to humble his lofty spirit, lie tells him, 
 I will pay your debt; but remember, the 
 payment will be made on this condition, 
 that you shall not enjoy the intended be- 
 nefit and obtain your freedom, till you ac- 
 knowledge your fault to your creditor, and 
 ask his forgiveness of ) T our improper con- 
 duct towards him. Now, from this ar- 
 rangement it is plain, that this debtor could 
 not, on principles of law or justice, claim a 
 release, until he had submitted to the pre- 
 scribed condition; and his creditor could 
 justly detain him in prison, with a view of 
 humbling his proud heart, and bringing him 
 to the required acknowledgment. 
 
 Jehovah had a perfect right to arrange 
 the economy of salvation as he pleased ; 
 and his Son had a perfect right to pay the 
 price of our redemption under what stipu- 
 lations he chose. For aught we know, the 
 plan, in respect to the application of the 
 atonement, might have been different from 
 what it really is, in a variety of respects. 
 The whole economy of salvation was ar- 
 ranged in the counsels of infinite wisdom. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 87 
 
 It is what the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost chose it should be; and to carry into 
 effect this wonderful scheme, the eternal 
 Son of God laid down his life as a ransom 
 for us, or as the price of our redemption. 
 
 But pecuniary transactions, we not only 
 admit but insist, can furnish no perfect pa- 
 rallel to the mysterious transaction of saving 
 sinners. A creditor cannot refuse the pay- 
 ment of his debt by a third person: but Je- 
 hovah might have exacted the debt from 
 every sinner, and refused the mediation of 
 a surety. A debtor may provide his sure- 
 ty; but a sinner cannot, and must be in- 
 debted for the blessing to the bounty of his 
 offended sovereign. The creditor's pecu- 
 niary demands are satisfied the moment his 
 debt is paid: but the demands of God upon 
 the sinner are not satisfied till he believe in 
 Christ, although the price of our redemp- 
 tion was paid long before he came into ex- 
 istence. The debtor, after the payment of 
 his debt by another, is not commonly under 
 obligation to his creditor for releasing hint 
 from prison : but the sinner must, accord- 
 
SS LETTERS ON 
 
 ing to the provisions of the covenant of re- 
 demption, be under eternal obligations to 
 the Father, for delivering him from the 
 curse of the law and the prison of hell, 
 through the atoning sacrifice of his own 
 Son. In human transactions the surety is 
 a different individual from the creditor: but 
 in the divine transaction of saving sinners, 
 the Son, our surety, though a different per- 
 son from the Father, yet is with him one 
 and the same infinite Being. 
 
 It is absurd then to infer that because the 
 inspired writers illustrate the doctrine of 
 atonement by referring to pecuniary transac- 
 tions, that it must resemble them in every 
 particular; and it is equally absurd from 
 the fact that the atonement does not agree 
 with pecuniary transactions in every parti- 
 cular, to infer that it cannot agree with 
 them in some general principle, and is not 
 a price in any sense whatever. 
 
 Let us view the remarks of the writer 
 last quoted, a little closer, and we shall find 
 in them several important errors. 
 
 " Their debt is paid. The law has no 
 
I J 1 J A rONEMENT. 
 
 further demand ; grace and pardon are out 
 of the question. " So says this author, but 
 so say not the inspired writers. The en- 
 tire consistency between the grace of 
 God in our pardon and the satisfaction of 
 Christ for sin, has already been shown; 
 and any further proof on the subject is 
 deemed unnecessary. But in regard to the 
 law, it is perfectly plain from the testimony 
 of scripture, that on unbelievers it has all 
 its demands, and that they must remain 
 under the curse, till they believe in Christ; 
 for the stipulations between the Father and 
 the Son are such, that they secure an actual 
 release from its penal demands only to be- 
 /levers. 
 
 "There is but one being in the uni- 
 verse to whom they would be indebted for 
 their release; and that is the friend who 
 paid their debt, or suffered the penalty of 
 the law in their stead." Is this the lan- 
 guage of a professed trinitarian ? Docs 
 he not know that the Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit are one being? Does he not 
 know that they are so perfectly one, that 
 H 2 
 
DO LETTERS 
 
 it' in prayer we address the Son, vvc ad- 
 dress the Father and the Spirit; and that if 
 we address the Father we address the God- 
 head? He has surely read what our Lord 
 declared to the Jews: "For the Father 
 judgeth no man, but hath committed all 
 judgment unto the Son; that all men should 
 honour the Son even as they honour the 
 Father. He that honoureth not the Son 
 honoureth not the Father which hath sent 
 him." John vi. 22, 23. Does he not 
 know that there is a perfect concurrence of 
 all the persons in the Godhead in all their 
 works ; and that although one part of the 
 work of man's redemption is peculiarly ap- 
 propriated to one person, and another to 
 another person in the divine Trinity, yet 
 they all concur in every part? Has he not 
 read the Saviour's declaration? "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, the Son can do no- 
 thing of himself, but what he seeth the Fa- 
 ther do : for what things soever he doeth, 
 these also doth the Son likewise. " John 
 v. 1^). And after all this, in opposition to 
 the perfect unity of the Father, Son and 
 
I HE ATONEMi J f 
 
 Spirit, and to their entire concurrence in 
 all their works, does he venture to make so 
 round and unqualified an assertion — " There 
 is but one being in the universe to whom 
 they would be indebted for their release; 
 and that is the friend who paid their debt 
 ■or suffered the penalty of the law in their 
 stead V Now, from this difficulty the 
 writer cannot extricate himself by saying 
 he admits the unity of the Divine Being, 
 and that we are indebted both to the Son 
 and the Father; because this would be aban- 
 doning his argument, which was to show, 
 that, if Christ paid our debt, or suffered 
 the penalty of the law in our stead, then 
 we are indebted for our release not to the 
 Father, but to the Son alone, as if they 
 were not one and the same being. 
 
 This objection to the truth betrays its 
 origin.— Infidelity forged it. Christians 
 have received it at her hands. 
 
 But the author may say, as in fact he has 
 said, " Be it so, that mercy to redeemed 
 man is the same ; but by whom is this mei 
 cy exercised, Surely not by God the Fathei 
 
9- LETTERS ON 
 
 It is a vital principle of that scheme against 
 which we contend, to represent the Father 
 as rigidly insisting upon the infliction of the 
 whole penalty of the law, before he consents 
 to the offer of salvation to a rebellious world. 
 Every particle of the curse must be inflict- 
 ed. Every jot and tittle of the law must 
 be executed." 
 
 " Now, if when the penalty of the law 
 was about to fall on sinners, the Son of God 
 came forward and endured the exact amount 
 of suffering due, on legal principles, to these 
 sinners, be the number great or small, then 
 the whole mercy involved in their redemp- 
 tion is expressed by Christ alone. The 
 Father, as one of the persons of the Trinity, 
 is inflexibly just, without any inclination 
 to the exercise of mercy ; while the Son 
 is so merciful, that he has suffered the most 
 rigid demands of the law, in order to obtain 
 the consent of the Father to the salvation of 
 his people. This representation appears to 
 us derogatory to the character of God. It an- 
 nihilates the attribute of mercy, and repre- 
 sents the Son as a kind of milder Deity who 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 93 
 
 has interposed and answered the stern de- 
 mands of the Father, in behalf of his people, 
 and in this way literally purchased them 
 from perdition. "* 
 
 The Father is without any inclination 
 to the exercise of mercy!!! The whole 
 mercy involved in redemption is expressed 
 by Christ alone ! /.'" And is this a fair re- 
 presentation of the views of those who cor- 
 dially believe what is stated in the Confes- 
 sion of Faith ? " Christ, by his obedience 
 and death, did fully discharge the debt of all 
 those that are thus justified, and did make a 
 proper, real, and full satisfaction to his Fa- 
 ther's justice in their behalf. Yet, inasmuch 
 as he was given by the Father for them, 
 and his obedience and satisfaction accepted 
 in their stead, and both freely, not for any 
 thing in them, their justification is only of 
 free grace ; that both the exact justice, and 
 inch grace of God, might be glorified in 
 the justification of sinners." chap. ii. sec. 3. 
 Had the author, who has subscribed the Con 
 
 * Beman, p. 37, 
 
91 LETTERS ON 
 
 i'ession of Faith, attended to this and other 
 articles of that admirable summary of Chris- 
 tian doctrine, it might have kept him from 
 making such unjust misrepresentations of his 
 brethren's views and statements. 
 
 But does he not know that all intelligent 
 advocates of the scheme he opposes, have 
 uniformly represented the plan of redemp- 
 tion as originating in the unmerited mercy 
 and boundless love of God the Father ? 
 Does he not know that they believe the at- 
 tributes of Jehovah to be immutable ; and 
 that they teach that the death of Christ was 
 not the cause, but the fruit, of mercy, as 
 an attribute of the Father? Does he not 
 know that, while they believe the satisfac- 
 tion of Christ to have been necessary to a 
 consistent and honourable exercise of mercy, 
 they regard the gift of Christ as the highest 
 demonstration of the Father's unbound- 
 ed mercy ! Does he not know that they 
 can, with as much emphasis as he, repeat 
 the delightful encomium passed on the Fa- 
 ther's love by the Redeemer? " God so loved 
 the world that he gave his only-begotten 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 95 
 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have eternal life." Does he 
 not know that they constantly teach that 
 " the love of God was the cause, and not 
 the effect of the atonement?" These facts 
 he ought to have known, before he assailed 
 an important doctrine in the Confession of 
 Faith and of the Bible; but if he did 
 know them, he must account for misrepre- 
 senting so greatly the views of his brethren, 
 as well as he can. 
 
 But I have not done with the quotations 
 from this writer. If his remarks have any 
 force they apply to his own scheme. He 
 maintains the necessity of an atonement, to 
 open the way for the exercise of divine mer- 
 cy, and he has spent a whole sermon on 
 that point, and in showing the love which 
 God bears to his holy law. He contends 
 that unless satisfaction had been made to 
 public justice, salvation would have been 
 impossible. Now, he believes that the Son 
 and not the Father, became incarnate; that 
 the Son, and not the Father, humbled him- 
 
90 LETTERS ON 
 
 self; that the Son, and not the Father, suffer- 
 ed ; that the So?i, and not the Father, bled 
 and died on a cross ; that the Son, and not 
 the Father, made an atonement; that the 
 *Sbtt,and not the Father, intercedes for sin- 
 ners. He expressly says, " In the case of all 
 believers, and such and such only will be 
 saved, the misery ivhich Christ endured, is 
 the real and only ground of their release; 
 because without these sufferings^ or the 
 atonement, there could have been no par- 
 don OR GRACE FOR SINNERS."* What fol- 
 
 lows from all this ? Why$ if his remarks be 
 just, then it will follow, that according to 
 his own scheme, we are indebted to Christ 
 alone for salvation. How happens it that 
 some writers, while objecting to the princi- 
 ples of others, do not perceive that they are 
 fighting against themselves. The reasoning 
 of this author, if fairly and fully carried out, 
 would sweep away two of the fundamental 
 doctrines of the gospel, the Atonement 
 and the Trinity. 
 
 * Reman, p. 50. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. . l >7 
 
 In my next, I propose to compare the 
 two theories in regard to the nature of the 
 atonement, in order to discover which ac- 
 cords best with scriptural truth. In the 
 mean time, 
 
 I remain affectionately yours. 
 
93 LETTERS OX 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Nature of the Atonement. 
 
 Dear Brother, 
 
 The doctrines of the two schools in relation 
 to the atonement, have now been compared 
 in three particulars. It has been shown, I 
 trust, that in regard to its extent, in regard 
 to a free and unfettered preaching of the gos- 
 pel, and in regard to the riches of Divine 
 grace displayed in our salvation, the views 
 of the new school have no superiority over 
 those of the old ; and that the latter present 
 the riches of Divine. grace in by far the 
 strongest light. 
 
 Let us now proceed to institute a contrast 
 between these conflicting views, in several 
 other particulars; in which, I think, it will 
 clearly appear that ours have a most decided 
 advantage. 
 
 1 . Let us compare the nature of the atone- 
 ment as explained and advocated by the two 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 99 
 
 schools respectively; and see whose views 
 and representations accord best with scrip- 
 tural truth. The nature of the atonement 
 is not a subject on which human philosophy 
 should speculate. It is matter of pure re- 
 velation ; and nothing farther can be known 
 of it than God has been pleased to reveal. 
 The Bible is our teacher ; and those views 
 which accord with the instructions of inspir- 
 ed writers must be true, while those which 
 disagree or depart from them must be false. 
 The advocates of the indefinite scheme, 
 differ in their views of the nature of the 
 atonement. Some say, it consists in making 
 a display of the evil of sin, and an exhibi- 
 tion of Divine justice. Others represent it 
 as consisting in a satisfaction to public jus- 
 tice for sin in general ; but they deny that 
 a proper, real satisfaction for the sins of be- 
 lievers was made to Divine justice, so that 
 they can, on legal principles, be set free 
 from the curse of the law. They admit that 
 Christ's sufferings are a substitute for our 
 punishment; but they deny that He was 
 the substitute o( his people, and that, charg- 
 
100 LETTERS ON 
 
 ed with their sins, he endured the penalty 
 of the law, and thus made a real satisfaction 
 for them, and paid a real price for their re- 
 demption. They all speak of the atonement 
 as merely opening the door, and removing 
 the obstacle in the way of the exercise of 
 mercy. Let me cite a few quotations from 
 a recent publication — " The atonement con- 
 sists, not in cancelling the demands of the 
 law for one or all men, but in opening the 
 door of hope, in rendering the pardon of 
 sinners consistent with the character, law 
 and universe of God."* Again: "This 
 atonement merely opened the door of 
 mercy ; it prepared the way for the offer 
 and the exercise of pardon. "t Again : 
 "The atonement does not of itself save a 
 single soul. It barely opens the door for 
 the accomplishment of this object by free 
 and sovereign grace.":}: 
 
 Now, these views are, in my opinion, re- 
 pugnant to plain and decided testimonies of 
 holy scripture, and tend to destroy the very 
 nature of the atonement. 
 
 * Beman. f Ibid. * Ibid. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 101 
 
 The sacred writers speak of the death and 
 righteousness of Christ, in more exalted 
 terms than our brethren bestow on them. 
 They teach us to attribute to his divine sa- 
 crifice, much more than the bare honour of 
 opening a door of hope and mercy to sinners. 
 
 They tell us that the Saviour, by his suf- 
 feri?igs, became the " author of eternal re- 
 demption to all that obey him." Heb. v. 9. 
 They tell us that on the ground of his sacri- 
 fice and intercession, Christ " is able to save 
 to the uttermost them that come unto God 
 by him." Heb. vii. 24 — 27. They assure us 
 that his blood cleanseth from all sin; and 
 that it purges the " conscience from dead 
 works to serve the living God." And it 
 has been shown, in a former letter, thatyb?*- 
 givejiess, reconciliation, justification, 
 sanctification, adoption, and eternal life, 
 are all attributed to the sacrifice and righ- 
 teousness of our divine Redeemer, as their 
 meritorious and procuring cause: and con- 
 sequently that, while grace reigns in our 
 salvation, it reigns through righteousness 
 unto eternal life. We therefore deem it dis- 
 i 2 
 
102 LETTERS ON 
 
 honouring to the invaluable atonement of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, which the holy scrip- 
 ture represents as being the spring of every 
 blessing of salvation, to speak of it as mere- 
 ly opening a door of hope and mercy. 
 The Bible speaks of his sacrifice in sublimer 
 strains of praise — " Unto him that loved us, 
 and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto God and his Father ; unto him be glory 
 and dominion for ever and ever — Amen." 
 Rev. i. 5, 6. " Thou wast slain, and hast re- 
 deemed us to God by thy blood out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation ; and hast made us unto our God, 
 kings and priests, and we shall reign on the 
 earth." Rev. v. 9, 10. 
 
 If the atonement consisted, as our breth- 
 ren affirm, in a display of the evil of sin 
 and of Divine justice, it might reasonably be 
 expected, that the inspired writers would 
 have stated the fact. But in what passage is 
 it stated ? Frequently indeed the death of 
 Christ is called an expiation or purging 
 away of sin, a propitiation, a ransom, a 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 103 
 
 price, a reconciliation ; but no where do 
 they denominate ft a display of the evil of 
 sin and of Divine justice. That there was 
 such a display, and that in the highest degree, 
 is readily admitted. This, however, we are 
 not expressly taught; we are left to infer it 
 from the mysterious transaction on the 
 cross, viewed in connexion with its causes 
 and its effects. In no passage of scripture 
 that I can recollect, is the death of Christ 
 spoken of as exhibiting the evil of sin and 
 the justice of God. I am not ignorant that 
 our opponents will immediately refer to a 
 passage in Rom. iii. 25, 26, as furnishing a 
 proof that we are taught to regard the Re- 
 deemer's death as an illustrious display of 
 Divine justice. But, I apprehend, the righ- 
 teousness there mentioned means, not an 
 attribute of the Godhead, but that glorious 
 righteousness of Christ, of which the sacred 
 writer had spoken in the preceding verses; 
 and of which he treats throughout this epis- 
 tle, as the ground of a sinner's justification; 
 and through the medium of which Jehovah 
 can, consistently with his own glory, bestow 
 
104 LETTERS OK 
 
 salvation on every one who believes in 
 Christ; and thus appear a just God, while 
 he assumes the character of a Saviour. 
 
 Now, this profound silence of scripture 
 on the point, furnishes conclusive proof that 
 the atonement does not consist in a display 
 of the evil of sin and of Divine justice. The 
 fact is, this display is the result of the atone- 
 ment and not the atonement itself; just as 
 the glorious sight or appearances which our 
 eyes behold, when the sun pours his beams 
 upon heaven and earth, are the effect of his 
 light, and not the light itself. 
 
 Besides, if a display of the evil of sin and 
 of Divine justice were all that was required 
 to constitute an atonement, it might be ask- 
 ed, where was the necessity for the suffer- 
 ings of the great Immanuel? Has not such 
 a display been made in the sufferings and 
 death both of rational and of irrational crea- 
 tures? Is not such a display made, and will 
 it not be eternally made, in the torments of 
 the damned ? Was all this insufficient ? 
 Was a more awful spectacle required, a sa- 
 crifice of groatcr value, in order to produce 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 105 
 
 a stronger impression on the minds of the 
 intelligent universe ? Should this be admit- 
 ted, it would furnish no reason why the suf- 
 ferings of the present and the future world 
 should not be regarded as forming constitu- 
 ent parts of the atonement. But how oppo- 
 site would this be to the language of holy 
 scripture, which every where attributes the 
 great work of propitiating an offended Sove- 
 reign to Christ alone, exclusively of the 
 agency of any creature either in heaven or 
 on earth ! 
 
 In a subsequent letter it will be shown, 
 that, on the principles adopted by our oppo- 
 nents, there is really no display of the evil 
 of sin and of Divine justice. I now pro- 
 ceed to explain and vindicate the views 
 which the advocates of a definite atonement 
 entertain of its nature. 
 
 They believe that Jesus Christ, in accom- 
 plishing the salvation of his people, acted 
 as their legal substitute ; that he was 
 charged with their sins ; that he bare the 
 ■penalty of the law, or endured the punish- 
 ment due to them ; and thus made a com- 
 
106 LETTERS ON 
 
 plete satisfaction for their guilt to Divine 
 justice, and paid the price of their redemp- 
 tion. Such are their views of this mysteri- 
 ous transaction, exhibited in the life and 
 death of the Son of God. If these views can 
 be shown to be scriptural, then it will fol- 
 low, as a necessary consequence, that the 
 opposite views of our brethren must be un~ 
 scriptural. Let us examine the subject 
 carefully. 
 
 1. Christ acted as the substitute of 
 his people. 
 
 Substitution is evidently conveyed in the 
 meaning of the preposition 'wrefrfor, when 
 it is applied to the death of Christ. That 
 this is its import in Rom. v. 6 — 8, can hard- 
 ly be denied. When Paul says, " Scarcely 
 for a righteous man would one die, yet 
 peradventure for a good man some would 
 even dare to die," he clearly means dying 
 in the room and stead of a good man, in 
 order to save his life ; and consequently 
 when he speaks of the superior love of Christ, 
 in dying for us, he must mean his dying, 
 as our substitute, in our room and stead. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 107 
 
 " Raphelius." (Not. ex Xen. in v. 8.) says 
 Doddridge, " has abundantly demonstrated, 
 that 'wee i>!A.m x7r$^a.H signifies, he died in 
 our room and stead ; nor can I find, that 
 wxoQotvetv'vree mo$ has ever any other signi- 
 fication than that of rescuing the life of ano- 
 ther at the expense of our own : and the 
 very next verse shows, independent of any 
 other authority, how evidently it bears that 
 sense here ; as one can hardly imagine any 
 one would die for a good man, unless it 
 were to redeem his life by giving up his 
 own." 
 
 The Redeemer is expressly called a sure- 
 ty; that is, one who stands engaged to be- 
 come the substitute of another, to fulfil his 
 obligations, and pay his debts. " By so 
 much," says the author of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, " was Jesus made a surety of 
 a better testament." — Ch. vii. 22. With 
 this writer accords Peter, in exhibiting the 
 Saviour as a substitute for sinners : " For 
 Christ," says he, " hath suffered for sins ; 
 the just for {^vxt() the unjust" — the just 
 person in the room and stead of unjust per- 
 
108 LETTERS ON 
 
 so?is, "that he might bring us to God." 
 The Redeemer himself teaches the same doc- 
 trine ; for he tells us, " The Son of man 
 came, not to be ministered unto, but to min- 
 ister, and to give his life a ransom for" (*vt<) 
 in the room and stead of " many." Now in 
 these texts we are taught, not merely that 
 the sufferings of Christ come in place of our 
 sufferings, but that He took our place, and 
 endured the punishment that we should have 
 endured, and laid down his life to save our 
 lives. 
 
 This was no new doctrine in the church 
 of Christ. By the institutions of Moses, 
 the Jews had become familiar with the idea 
 of substitution. Through a long course of 
 ages they had seen, by Divine appointment, 
 an animal substituted in the place of a hu- 
 man offender, and the life of the animal de- 
 stroyed to save his life. And why this 
 appointment of heaven? Could the life of 
 a dumb animal save a rational creature 
 from deserved vengeance? "It was not 
 possible," says the apostle, "that the blood 
 of bulls and goats should take away sins." 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 109 
 
 Heb. x. 4. Why then did the altar at Je- 
 rusalem continually stream with blood ? 
 Doubtless to typify Him who was the 
 Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world ; the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sin of the world ; to typify " the offer- 
 ing of the body of Jesus once for all;" that 
 "one offering" by which "he hath per- 
 fected for ever them that were sanctified." 
 Animal sacrifices did in type, what Christ 
 did in reality. They were typical substi- 
 tutes; he was a real true substitute. 
 " Christ our passover is sacrificed (Wtf) 
 for us." 1 Cor. v. 7. The blood of bulls 
 and of goats sanctified to the purifying of 
 the flesh ; but the blood of Christ purges 
 the conscience from dead works to serve 
 the living God. He offered up himself, 
 his person for us. Heb. ix. 14. "He 
 needed not daily, as those high priests, to 
 offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and 
 then for the people's : for this he did once, 
 when he offered up Himself." Heb. vii. 
 27. He himself was our substitute. 
 2. Being the surety and substitute of 
 
110 LETTERS ON 
 
 his people, the Redeemer was charged 
 
 WITH THEIR SINS. 
 
 They were imputed to him, and he be- 
 came responsible for the satisfaction de- 
 manded by Divine justice. "It is for ever 
 impossible, in the very nature of things," 
 says a sermon writer, " that Christ should 
 be liable to suffer that punishment which 
 the law denounced against the transgres- 
 sor."* And again : " But this idea in- 
 volves a literal transfer of character. 
 On this scheme Christ, and not man, is the 
 sinner. But Christ and man cannot ex- 
 change characters, because sin and holiness 
 are personal, and cannot be transferred from 
 one moral being to another. The sinful or 
 holy acts of one person, may, in a thousand 
 ways, affect another — exert an influence 
 upon his happiness or misery — but it can 
 never be so transferred as to become his 
 sinful or holy act."t Such are the asser- 
 tions of a writer, who a little before had 
 said, " We do by no means intend to deny 
 the doctrines of substitution and imputa- 
 tion:" of consequence, we are to under- 
 » Reman, p. 34. j lb. p. 35- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 11] 
 
 stand him as affirming that the advocates 
 of a definite atonement teach, by their doc- 
 trine of the imputation of sins to Christ, 
 that there is such a transfer of moral cha- 
 racter in this divine transaction, that it is 
 no longer true that the sins which were 
 actually committed by the sinner were ac- 
 tually committed by him; but were actually 
 committed by Christ, who actually did not 
 commit them. 
 
 That they do not teach an absurdity so 
 extravagant, need not be told to any ac- 
 quainted with their writings. Nor does it 
 follow as a fair and legitimate consequence 
 of their doctrine. In that admirable Epis- 
 tle of Paul to Philemon in favour of Onesi- 
 mus, he says— " If he hath wronged thee, 
 or ovveth thee ought, put that to mine ac- 
 count," (tovto e/Mt e*foye ( ) charge this to me, 
 impute this to me. " I Paul have written 
 it with mine own hand, I will repay it." 
 Now here the apostle offers to become re- 
 sponsible for any debt that Onesimus might 
 owe to hb master, and requests Philemon 
 to impute, or reckon the debts to him, and 
 
112 LETTERS ON 
 
 look to him for the payment. But accord- 
 ing to the writer to whom we refer, this 
 transaction was impossible; because it would 
 involve such a transfer of character, that 
 Paul would become the original contractor 
 of the debt and not Onesimus. A benevo- 
 lent man sees a poor debtor forced along 
 the street by an officer of justice to prison ; 
 he is touched with compassion ; he goes to 
 the unfeeling creditor, and says to him, I 
 will be surety for your debtor ; charge the 
 debt to me ; I will pay it. But he is met 
 by the writer, who rises up and says — 
 " The thing is impossible. Such a transac- 
 tion would imply that you, and not the 
 debtor, had contracted the debt. His act is 
 personal, and it can never become your per- 
 sonal act." 
 
 Now, from the imputation of Onesimus' 
 debts to Paul, and the reckoning of a debt 
 contracted by another man to his surety, 
 these absurd consequences follow, with just 
 as much certainty as they do from the impu- 
 tation of sin to Christ, as we hold the doc- 
 trine; that is, with none at all. Who does 
 
THE ATONEMENT. llj 
 
 not see that, in the case of Paul, when One- 
 simus' debt was charged to him, it still re- 
 mained true that the debt was originally 
 contracted by Onesimus, and not by Paul ? 
 And who does not see, in relation to a sure- 
 ty, that, after a man has become responsi- 
 ble for the payment of another person's debt, 
 it still remains true that the debt was origi- 
 nally contracted by this person, and not by 
 his generous friend ? Why then should any 
 intelligent individual impute such absurdi- 
 ties to our doctrine ? or how is it that the 
 minds of some are so affected by preju- 
 dice, that they cannot understand a divine 
 transaction, which can be so aptly illustrat- 
 ed by familiar and daily occurring examples 
 in human affairs? When we say that our 
 sins were charged to Christ, our brethren 
 certainly ought to know we do not mean that 
 our sins were taken from us, and infused 
 into Christ, so that we become innocent 
 and Christ actually the sinner : and I may 
 add, our statements are so far from implying 
 any thing of the kind, that it seems difficult 
 to account for such erroneous conceptions, 
 
 K 2 
 
114 LETTERS ON 
 
 unless we attribute them to a wish to substi- 
 tute misrepresentation for argument, which 
 we would not impute to our brethren. By 
 the charging of our sins to the Redeemer, 
 we simply mean, they were so imputed, or 
 reckoned to him, that he became responsible 
 to Divine justice for their penal consequen- 
 ces. Our opponents may affirm this to be 
 impossible: but, if we search the scriptures, 
 we shall find, that, in the judgment of in- 
 spired writers, it was not only possible, 
 but a glorious fact. 
 
 This important truth was exhibited in the 
 sacrifices under the ancient economy. Hav- 
 ing brought the animal to the appointed 
 place, the worshipper was required to put 
 his hand upon the head of the burnt-offer- 
 ing. The victim being then slain, the blood 
 was sprinkled round about upon the altar. 
 Lev. i. 3 — 5. The imposition of the offer- 
 er's hand, it is believed, was generally ac- 
 companied with a confession of his sins : at 
 least the act denoted his wish to have his 
 guilt imputed to the animal, that, being 
 slain in his place, he might escape deserved 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 115 
 
 punishment. Certain it is, that, on the great 
 day of atonement, the imposition of the 
 high priest's hands was accompanied with 
 a confession of the sins of the people; and 
 the whole transaction exhibited, in the clear- 
 est manner, the imputation of sin to the ani- 
 mal. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands 
 on the head of the live goat, and confess 
 over him all the iniquities of the children 
 of Israel, and all their transgressions, in all 
 their sins, putting them upon the head of 
 the goat, and shall send him away by the 
 hand of a fit man into the wilderness : and 
 the goat shall bear upon him all their ini- 
 quities unto a land not inhabited : and he 
 shall let go the goat into the wilderness." 
 Lev. xvi. 21, 22. 
 
 It is not denied by the advocates of inde- 
 finite atonement, that these types were de- 
 signed to prefigure the Redeemer and his 
 work. This is plainly taught in Scripture. 
 "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." 
 1 Cor. v. 7. " Christ hath loved us, and 
 given himself for us, an offering and a sa- 
 crifice to God, for a sweet smelling sa- 
 
llf) LETTERS ON 
 
 vour." Ephes. v. 2. In the epistle to 
 the Hebrews, the inspired writer teaches 
 us that the tabernacle or temple was a 
 figure, and that the law and its sacrifices 
 were shadows of good things to come, 
 chap. ix. 9, x. 1. He also assures us ol 
 the superior efficacy of the Redeemer's of- 
 fering, above the efficacy of the Levitical 
 offerings: " For if," says he, "the blood 
 of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an 
 heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth 
 to the purifying of the flesh; 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? 7 ' 
 chap. ix. 13, 14. 
 
 Now, the type being the shadoiv, and 
 the antitype the substance, what was pre- 
 figured by the former must be found in the 
 latter. It will follow, then, that as the 
 victims under the law stood figuratively 
 charged with the sins of those for whom 
 they were offered., bo the great victim, tu 
 whom they all pointed, stood really charged 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 117 
 
 with the sins of all for whom he was of- 
 fered. 
 
 With this fact the language of the New 
 Testament plainly and fully accords. 
 " He," says Paul, " hath made him to be 
 sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might 
 be made the rig hteoics?iess of God in him." 
 2 Cor. v. 21. Made him to be sin — A 
 figurative expression, say our brethren; 
 and we reply, doubtless it is a figurative 
 expression. Christ was not literally made 
 sin: for sin is an act or quality of a rational 
 creature; and no person can be so absurd 
 as to believe Christ was converted into sin, 
 any more than to believe the paschal lamb 
 was converted into the angePs act of pass- 
 ing over the houses of the Israelites, be- 
 cause it was called the passover. But what 
 is the meaning of the expression ? Does 
 the apostle intend to teach us that Christ 
 was stained with sin? Certainly not; for 
 he bears his testimony that " he was holy, 
 harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin- 
 ners." What then is his meaning? The 
 phrase was well chosen and selected, to 
 
US LETTERS ON 
 
 convey a very important truth. There is 
 a manifest antithesis between the two 
 parts of the text ; and it is reasonable to 
 conclude that just as we are made the 
 righteousness of God in Christ, so he was 
 made sin for us. As we are made the 
 righteousness of God in Christ by the im- 
 putation of the Redeemer's righteousness 
 — according to the explanation of the au- 
 thor of the text, in other parts of his writ- 
 ings, when speaking on the subject, (Rom. 
 iii. 22.) " Even the righteousness of God 
 which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all 
 and upon all that believe;" and again (ch. 
 iv. 6), "Even as David describeth the bless- 
 edness of the man unto whom God im- 
 puteth righteousness without works" — so 
 Christ was made sin for us, by having our 
 sins imputed to him, that he might justly 
 bear the punishment of them. 
 
 But suppose we adopt the construction 
 put on the phrase by some able commenta- 
 tors, that Christ was made a sin-offering, 
 because sin-offerings under the law were 
 called sin ; yet the result will be the same. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. Uf) 
 
 For a question arises, Why were sin-offer- 
 ings denominated sin? There certainly 
 was a good and sufficient reason for this 
 denomination, or the Old Testament writers 
 would not have given it to the legal offer- 
 ings: and no other reason can be assigned 
 than the fact, that sin was imputed to the 
 victim, and the victim was slain in place 
 of the offerer, whose iniquities it bore. In 
 like manner our Redeemer became a sin- 
 offering, by having the sins of his people 
 imputed to him, and dying as their substi- 
 tute. Peter was crucified ; Paul was be- 
 headed; thousands of martyrs shed their 
 blood ; and all suffered in consequence of 
 sin; but neither Peter nor Paul, nor any 
 martyr ever became a sin-offering; nor is it 
 ever in Scripture said of any mere man that 
 he was made sin for us. And the reason 
 is that, although the prophets, and apostles, 
 and martyrs suffered much, and in conse- 
 quence of sin, yet none but Christ was ever 
 charged with our sins, and died as our sub- 
 stitute, to make expiation for them. 
 
 In entire harmony with Paul. Peter in- 
 
120 LETTERS ON 
 
 culcates the same important truth: "Who 
 his own self bare our sins, in his own 
 body on the tree, that we being dead unto 
 sin, might live unto righteousness." 1 Pet. 
 ii. 24. Bare our sins. How? Sins 
 were not a tangible mass that could be 
 taken from us as a burden, and placed on 
 the Saviour. Nor could they be infused 
 into him, so as to render him inherently 
 polluted by them. In what way then could 
 he bear them? In no other than by having 
 them imputed, charged to him, so as to be 
 made responsible for their penal conse- 
 quences. Or will any prefer saying the 
 Redeemer bore the punishment of our 
 sins? That this idea is included in the 
 apostle's meaning we shall readily admit : 
 but, if he bore the punishment of our sins, 
 it will follow, that they were previously 
 charged to his account; because this impu- 
 tation was necessary to render him respon- 
 sible for them, and make it just to inflict 
 on him the punishment due to them. 
 
 "Abigail, when mediating between Da- 
 vid and Nabal, when the former was pro- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 121 
 
 yoked to wrath against the latter, and had 
 determined to destroy him, (1 Sam. xxv. 
 24,) fell at David's feet and said, 'Upon 
 me let this iniquity be, and let thy hand- 
 maid, I pray thee, speak in thy audience, 
 and hear the voice of thy handmaid." 
 And in verse 28 she calls Nabal's iniquity 
 her iniquity. By this it appears, that a 
 mediator putting himself in the stead of the 
 offender, so that the offended party should 
 impute the offence to him, and look on the 
 mediator as having taken it upon him, and 
 looking on him as the debtor for what sa- 
 tisfaction should be required and expected, 
 was, in those days, no strange notion, or 
 considered as a thing in itself absurd and 
 inconsistent with men's natural notion of 
 things." President Edwards, vol. viii. p. 
 515. 
 
 Again, observes this profound theologian 
 in the same page: "The word translated 
 here in Isaiah liii. 4 and 12, is am : the 
 same word and the same phrase of bearing 
 sin and bearing iniquity, is often used con- 
 cerning things which are the types of 
 
 L 
 
122 LETTERS ON 
 
 Christ's priesthood and sacrifice, viz. the 
 Levitical priests and sacrifices. It was no 
 uncommon phrase, but usual, and well un- 
 derstood among the Jews ; and we find it 
 very often used in other cases and applied 
 to others besides either Christ or the types 
 of him. And when it is so, it is plain, that 
 the general meaning of the phrase is lying 
 under the guilt of sin, having it imputed 
 and charged upon the person, as obnoxious 
 to the punishment of it, or obliged to an- 
 swer and make satisfaction for it; or liable 
 to the calamities and miseries to which it 
 exposes. In such a manner it seems al- 
 ways to be used, unless in some few places 
 it signifies to take away sin by forgiveness." 
 Edwards, vol. viii. p. 515. 
 
 In my next I shall proceed to show that 
 Christ bore the penalty of the law, or en- 
 dured the punishment due to our sins. 
 
 Affectionately yours. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 123 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 Nature of the Atonement. 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 Agreeably to promise, I am to show, in 
 this letter, 
 
 III. That Christ, as our Redeemer, bore 
 the penalty of the law, or endured the. pun- 
 ishment of our sins. 
 
 It is admitted by the new school, that one 
 person may suffer for another, but not that 
 one can suffer the punishment due to ano- 
 ther ; and accordingly, while they affirm 
 that Christ died and suffered for us, they 
 strenuously deny that he was punished for 
 us. " If," says one, " another person, of his 
 own accord, offers to bear the suffering, 
 which was due to me for my offences, he 
 may do so. But it cannot be punishment 
 to him. Punishment supposes guilt. He 
 cannot take my actions upon himself, so 
 that they shall become his own actions, and 
 
124 LETTERS ON 
 
 cease to be mine. He cannot become guilty 
 without his own personal transgression. If 
 he suffers in my place, therefore, his suffer- 
 ings are not punishment to him."* This 
 reminds me of the manner in which Dr. 
 Fuller attempts to prove that the sufferings 
 of our blessed Redeemer were not the pun- 
 ishment of our sins. It was done by the 
 magic of a definition. His definition is 
 this : " Punishment is natural evil inflicted 
 for personal guilt" Admitting the defi- 
 nition to be correct, his point was gained. 
 But suppose his definition to be altered so 
 as to suit our taste, and to read thus : Pun- 
 ishment is natural evil inflicted for personal, 
 or imputed sin : and what then becomes of 
 his argument ? To the author of the argu- 
 ment in the above quotation we readily 
 concede that punishment supposes sin ; but 
 we deny what he maintains, that it always 
 supposes personal transgression. Jesus 
 Christ, it has been proved, had the sins of 
 his people imputed to him, and thus became 
 
 * Dialogues on Atonement, p. 20. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 125 
 
 subject to the punishment of them. By this 
 we do not mean, that he took their actions 
 upon himself so that they became his own 
 personal actions, and no longer the actions 
 of his people. The absurdity of such a sup- 
 position has alreacty been exposed. He 
 consented to have them so charged to his 
 account, that the punishment of them might 
 be justly required of him. To maintain that 
 punishment, in all cases, supposes personal 
 guilt, is as unreasonable as to maintain that 
 a person can never become responsible for 
 any actions but his own personal actions. 
 This, however, the common occurrences of 
 civil life will prove unfounded. It is well 
 known, that when a citizen has incurred the 
 penalty of a violated law, and being unable to 
 pay the fine, is liable to imprisonment, a 
 friend may release him by assuming his 
 obligation and paying his fine. When this 
 is done there is no transfer of moral charac- 
 ter; and no one is so absurd as to imagine 
 the transaction implies that the offender's 
 friend committed the trespass. 
 A man is apprehended as a murderer. 
 
 L 2 
 
126 LETTERS ON 
 
 He is tried, convicted, condemned to 
 death, and finally executed. It cannot be 
 denied that this man has suffered the pun- 
 ishment due to murder. Afterwards his 
 innocence is proved beyond dispute ; what 
 will result? Will you say he suffered no 
 punishment? No punishment! What great- 
 er punishment could he have suffered ? He 
 certainly did die under the imputation of 
 murder; and to expiate the guilt of that 
 horrible crime he was condemned. Surely 
 then he suffered punishment. You may 
 affirm, he suffered unrighteously; you may 
 affirm he was unjustly punished : but you 
 cannot in truth say he was not punished; 
 because it will for ever remain a fact that 
 he did suffer death as the punishment of a 
 crime. The language of inspiration con- 
 firms this reasoning. (See Acts, xxvi. 11. 
 Prov. xvii. 26.) 
 
 The king of the Locrians enacted a law, 
 that an adulterer should suffer, as the pu- 
 nishment of his crime, the loss of both his 
 eyes. His son was the first transgressor. 
 The father felt for his child ; and the sove- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 127 
 
 reign felt for the honour of his law. How 
 were these conflicting feelings to be recon- 
 ciled? How could the father spare his son 
 and the sovereign maintain his law ? He 
 deprived the adulterer of one of his eyes, 
 and he gave up to vengeance one of his 
 own. Whatever judgment may be formed 
 of the conduct of this ancient monarch, it 
 cannot with propriety be denied, that he 
 actually participated with his son id the 
 punishment denounced against his offence; 
 and it must be admitted that by this mode 
 of executing the penalty of his law, as salu- 
 tary an impression might be made upon the 
 minds of his subjects as could have been 
 made by depriving the culprit of both his 
 eyes. None could afterwards doubt that he 
 was determined to maintain his law, by in- 
 flicting its penalty on all offenders. 
 
 Having made these remarks on the ge- 
 neral question, I offer in support of the 
 truth stated at the beginning of this letter, 
 the following arguments. 
 
 1. It follows as a consequence from what 
 has been already established : for if Jesus 
 
128 LETTERS ON 
 
 Christ suffered as our substitute, in our 
 room and stead, and if our sins were im- 
 puted to him, then the sufferings he en- 
 dured were the penalty of the law, or the 
 punishment due to our sins. 
 
 2. During a long course of ages this truth 
 was typically held up to view in the daily 
 sacrifices of the Jewish church; for it can 
 hardly be denied that the animal victims 
 were considered as dying in the place of 
 the offerer, and as symbolically bearing his 
 punishment. Now, the substance of this 
 shadow was found in the great Antitype; 
 Christ realized the idea that had been pre- 
 figured in the types. 
 
 3. The history of our Redeemer's suffer- 
 ings proves that he endured the penalty of 
 the law. His sufferings began at his birth, 
 extended through his life, and terminated 
 only in his death. He suffered from po- 
 verty and hardship, from slander and per- 
 secution. He suffered from men and de- 
 vils, from earth and heaven, from the hands 
 of his enemies and the hands of his Father. 
 He suffered both in body and in soul. In 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 129 
 
 the garden of Gethsemane such was his 
 amazement, and consternation, and anguish 
 of spirit, that he said to his disciples, "My 
 soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
 death ;" and to his Father, " Father, if it 
 be possible, let this cup pass from me." 
 On the cross his sufferings were aggravated 
 by every circumstance of shame and indig- 
 nity that malice could invent; and to crown 
 all, his Father hid his face from him, so 
 that, in the bitterness of extreme sorrow, 
 he exclaimed, "My God, my God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me !" At last, having 
 finished his awful sacrifice, he bowed his 
 head and gave up the ghost. 
 
 Such were the Redeemer's sufferings; 
 and it is natural to ask, Why did he suffer? 
 To reply, he suffered for us, or he suffered 
 in consequence of sin, is saying no more 
 than Socinians will say. The scriptural 
 reply is, Christ, by his sufferings, endured 
 the penalty of a violated law, and thus 
 satisfied Divine justice for the sins of men. 
 But our brethren, while they affirm he sa- 
 tisfied public justice, by his sufferings, 
 
150 LETTERS ON 
 
 deny that he bore the penalty of the law. 
 Their very nature, however, we think, 
 evinces the contrary. 
 
 For what is the penalty of the law ? An 
 inspired apostle shall answer the question : 
 " The wages of sin is death. " Rom. vi. 
 23. By death cannot be meant simply the 
 separation of the soul and body. This 
 term is used in Scripture in a variety of 
 senses. It signifies any great calamity. 
 Speaking of the plague of locusts, Pharoah 
 said to Moses and Aaron, " Intreat the 
 Lord your God, that he may take away 
 this death only." Exod. x. 17. It signi- 
 fies circumstances of great danger : " The 
 sorrows of death compassed me, and the 
 floods of ungodly men made me afraid." Ps. 
 xviii. 4. It signifies great vexation or dis- 
 tress of mind : " And it came to pass, when 
 she pressed him daily with her words, and 
 urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto 
 death, that he told her all his heart." Jud. 
 xvi. 16. Death, by which the apostle ex- 
 presses what is the wages of sin, is a word 
 of large import. It comprehends all the 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 131 
 
 pains and sorrows, labours and toils, suffer- 
 ings and miseries, which wicked men en- 
 dure, either in this world or in the next; 
 for all these, together with the death of 
 the body, constitute the wages of sin, or 
 the penalty of the Divine law, when inflict- 
 ed on impenitent offenders. How manifest 
 then is it that Jesus Christ bore this penal- 
 ty ! All the pains and sorrows, all the suf- 
 ferings and miseries that the law could de- 
 mand from him, as the Surety of his peo- 
 ple, in order to make expiation for their 
 sins, he actually endured ; and at last ter- 
 minated his humiliation and sufferings by 
 dying on the accursed tree. 
 
 4. As the Old Testament exhibited typi- 
 cally Messiah's sufferings in this light, so 
 the language of the New expressly ascribes 
 to them this character. It speaks of them 
 in terms so plain and decided, that it seems 
 surprising how any can deny the truth now 
 under investigation. The Son of God, the 
 apostle tells us, " was made under the law, 
 that he might redeem them that icerc 
 under the law" Gal. iv. 4, 5. How 
 
132 LETTERS ON 
 
 was Christ under the law ? Just as they 
 whom he came to redeem were under it. 
 Sinners are under the law, both in respect 
 to its preceptive requirements, and its pe- 
 nal demands ; they are bound to obey the 
 one, and to satisfy the other: and so was 
 the Redeemer under the law ; he volunta- 
 rily obligated himself to obey all the pre- 
 cepts of the moral law, and to satisfy all 
 its penal demands by enduring its curse. 
 Moreover, as the church was under the 'ce- 
 remonial law, when he appeared in the 
 world, he submitted also to this law and 
 all its institutions; and, as a token of his 
 subjection to it was circumcised, although, 
 as a perfectly holy man, he could, on his 
 own account, be under no obligation to ob- 
 serve it. 
 
 The correctness of this interpretation 
 may be confirmed by a passage in the 40th 
 Psalm, as explained in the 10th chap, of the 
 epistle to the Hebrews. " Sacrifice and of- 
 fering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast 
 thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering 
 hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo I 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 133 
 
 come: in the volume of the book it is writ- 
 ten of me, I delight to do thy will, my 
 God ; yea, thy law is within my heart." 
 By the will of God in the sixth verse, the 
 Saviour doubtless means, as he explains it, 
 in the next member of that verse, the law 
 of God. Now, he declares that he delight- 
 ed to do this will, or to fulfil this law ; and 
 as the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews 
 shows that this will or law of God referred 
 especially to the Saviour's sacrifice of him- 
 self, or, in other words, to his sufferings, 
 it will follow, that he considered himself 
 under obligation to obey the Divine law in 
 this respect. — In presenting himself as a 
 sacrifice for sin he took delight, because it 
 was required by the law of his God. 
 
 It appears, then, from these texts, that 
 the Redeemer voluntarily subjected himself 
 to the penal demands of the Divine law ; 
 and consequently he was legally bound to 
 endure its penalty. That he actually ful- 
 filled his engagements and bore the penalty 
 is plainly and unequivocally asserted by the 
 apostle Paul. " Christ," says he, " hath re- 
 
 M 
 
134 LETTERS ON 
 
 deemed us from the curse of the law, being 
 made a curse for us." Gal. iii. 3. Now, 
 this seems so plain as almost to preclude any 
 reasoning on it. The curse of the law was 
 its penalty ; and to say Christ was made a 
 curse for us is equivalent to saying he was 
 made a punishment , for what is the penalty 
 of the law, hut the punishment it denounces 
 against transgressors? The meaning of the 
 term curse, in the first part of the text can- 
 not be disputed ; nor can any just reason be 
 assigned for giving to the same term, in the 
 second part of it, a different meaning. But 
 when it is said that Christ was made a 
 curse, our brethren contend the expression is 
 figurative. Granted : but let it be remem- 
 bered it is used to convey a very important 
 truth. " The carnal mind," says the same 
 apostle, " is enmity against God :" which 
 doubtless is a figurative expression ; for no 
 one will believe he intended to teach that 
 the mind of man is really enmity, in the 
 abstract. Yet, in using this strong expres- 
 sion, he undoubtedly designed to inform us 
 that the carnal mind is in a state of real 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 135 
 
 tnmity to God, highly and violently opposed 
 to his holy will. And what less can the 
 inspired writer mean, by saying Christ was 
 made a curse for us, than that he actually en- 
 dured the curse orjienalty of the law for us ? 
 for if Christ did not bear the curse or penalty 
 of the law, but merely suffered for us, it 
 could not with any propriety be asserted he 
 was made a curse for us; an expression 
 than which the whole vocabulary of human 
 language could not furnish one stronger. 
 
 Surely this is decisive scriptural testi- 
 mony to the truth under discussion. But 
 plain as it appears to us, our brethren endea- 
 vour by a forced interpretation of it to de- 
 prive us of its support. I shall not, how- 
 ever, interupt the course of my argument, 
 by introducing their construction in this 
 place. It shall be attended to, when I take 
 up their objections to our views of the na- 
 ture of the atonement. 
 
 Beside these texts, many others bear tes- 
 timony to the important truth, that the 
 divine Saviour endured the penalty of the 
 law, or bore the punishment due to our sins, 
 
136 LETTERS ON 
 
 The inspired writers no where teach that he 
 suffered for sin in general. Sin, in the ab- 
 stract, is a mere name, a word ; and if any 
 should say that Christ died for sin in gene- 
 ral, or in the abstract, they would utter a 
 manifest absurdity. The sacred penmen 
 teach a very different doctrine. They teach 
 us that Christ died for the sins of indivi- 
 duals ; for sins really committed. " He was 
 wounded for our transgressions: he was 
 bruised for our iniquities." " He died for 
 our sins/' " Who was delivered for our 
 offences." " So Christ was once offered to 
 bear the sins oimany" 
 
 Such is the language of the inspired wri- 
 ters: and all these texts, by fair construc- 
 tion, will prove that the Redeemer submitted 
 to the punishment due to our sins. The 
 evangelical prophet asserts it in plain lan- 
 guage : " The chastisement of our peace 
 was upon him;" Isaiah, liii. 5; that is, the 
 punishment (for this is the meaning of the 
 term chastisement,) the punishment of our 
 sins necessary to procure peace for us with 
 God, was laid upon him. President Ed- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. K)T 
 
 wards, treating on this subject, says, " His 
 bearing the burden of our sins may be con- 
 sidered as somewhat diverse from his suffer- 
 ing God's wrath. For his suffering wrath 
 consisted more in the sense he had of the 
 dreadfulness of the punishment of sin, or of 
 God's wrath inflicted for it. Thus Christ 
 was tormented, not only in the Jire of God's 
 wrath, but in the Jire of our sins ; and our 
 sins were his tormentors : the evil and ma- 
 lignant nature of sin was what Christ en- 
 dured immediately, as well as more remote- 
 ly, in bearing the consequences of it."* 
 
 I think, my dear friend, I may now say 
 that, by plain and decisive scriptural testi- 
 monies, the following points have, in this 
 and the preceding letter, been proved ; 
 namely : 
 
 1. That Jesus Christ was constituted 
 the substitute of sinners ; 
 
 2. That he was charged ivith the sins 
 of his jtcople ; and 
 
 3. That he sustained the penalty of 
 
 * Vol. viii. p. 526. 
 M2 
 
138 LETTERS ON 
 
 the law, or bore the punishment due to 
 their sins. 
 
 It must then follow, conclusively, that his 
 sufferings were a real and full satisfac- 
 tion to Divine justice, and that he actually 
 paid the price of our redemption. How 
 remarkable that passage in the epistle to the 
 Romans ! " Whom God hath set forth to 
 be a propitiation through faith in his blood, 
 to declare his righteousness for the remission 
 of sins that are passed, through the forbear- 
 ance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time, 
 his righteousness, that he might be just and 
 the justijier of him that believeth in Jesus." 
 Rom. iii. 25, 26. From this text it is a 
 clear inference that if Christ had not become 
 a propitiation for sin ; if his blood had not 
 been shed for the remission of it, and he 
 had not interposed to turn away Divine 
 wrath from believers ; if he had not brought 
 in his righteousness ; Jehovah could not con- 
 sistently with the demands of his justice, have 
 pardoned and justified any of our race : but 
 that now, through the satisfaction made by 
 the death of Christ to the demands of his 
 
iHE ATONEMENT. 139 
 
 justice, and that complete righteousness 
 which he has wrought out, he can, in the 
 remission of the sins of believers, and in 
 their justification, display not only his 
 boundless mercy, but his inflexible justice. 
 To you, my friend, and to me, it is mat- 
 ter of surprise, that our brethren do, in the 
 face of such plain testimonies of scripture, 
 assert that the Redeemer did not pay any 
 real price for our redemption. I shall not 
 here repeat the texts quoted in my fourth 
 letter, (pp. 81, 82,) to show how frequently 
 and expressly the inspired writers use this 
 very term, and other cognate words. 1 
 would only ask, what language can be 
 plainer? Is it figurative? Was not the 
 blood of Christ real? Was not the church, 
 the object of his purchase, real? Was 
 there not a real exchange? Did he not 
 really give his life, his bloud, for his peo- 
 ple? Are we not told that " to this end 
 Christ died and revived and rose again, that 
 he might be Lord belli of the dead and the 
 living?" 
 
 I shall clo^e this letter With two extracts 
 
140 LETTERS ON 
 
 from the writings of President Edwards? 
 for whom our brethren profess so great a 
 veneration. 
 
 Illustrating the nature of the atonement 
 by referring to the Jewish sacrifices, he 
 says, " If there was nothing of true and 
 real atonement and sacrifice in those beasts 
 that were offered, then doubtless they were 
 an evidence, that there was to be some 
 other greater sacrifice, which was to be a 
 proper atonement or satisfaction, and of 
 which they were only the presage and 
 signs; as those symbolical actions which 
 God sometimes commanded the prophets 
 to perform, were signs and presages of 
 great events which they foretold. This 
 proves that a sacrifice of infinite value was 
 necessary, and that God would accept of no 
 other. For an atonement that bears no 
 proportion to the offence, is no atonement. 
 An atonement carries in it a payment or 
 satisfaction in the very nature of it. 
 And if satisfaction was so little necessary, 
 that the Divine Majesty easily admitted 
 one that bears no proportion at all to the 
 
THE ATONEMENT. Ml 
 
 offence, i. c. was wholly equivalent to no- 
 thing, when compared with the offence, 
 and so was no payment or satisfaction at 
 all; then he might have forgiven sin with- 
 out any atonement."* 
 
 Again : " It cannot here be reasonably ob- 
 jected, that God is not capable of properly 
 receiving any satisfaction for an injury ; 
 because he is not capable of receiving any 
 benefit ; that a price offered to men satisfies 
 for an injury, because it may truly be a 
 price to them, or a thing beneficial ; but 
 that God is not capable of receiving a be- 
 nefit. For God is as capable of receiving 
 satisfaction as injury. It is true, he can- 
 not properly be profited ; so neither can he 
 properly be hurt. But as rebelling against 
 him may be properly looked upon as of the 
 nature of an injury or wrong done to God, 
 and so God is capable of being the object 
 of injuriousness; so he is capable of being 
 the object of that which is the opposite of 
 injuriousness, or the repairing of an injury. 
 If you say, what need is there that God 
 
 * Vol. viii, p. 530, 531. 
 
142 LETTERS ON 
 
 have any care for repairing the honour of 
 his majesty when it can do him no good, 
 and no addition can be made to his happi- 
 ness by it? You might as well say, what 
 need is there that God care when he is de- 
 spised and dishonoured, and his authority 
 and glory trampled on ; since it does him 
 no hurt?"* The president then goes on to 
 prove, from the natural dictates of con- 
 science, and from the light of reason, that 
 Jehovah demands a reparation of the evil 
 of sin, not merely because it is injurious 
 to the happiness of his creatures, but 
 chiefly from regard due to his own in- 
 sulted Majesty. 
 
 Sincerely and affectionately, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 * Vol. viii. p. 532. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 143 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 Objections Answered. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 
 That Jesus Christ actually bore the penal- 
 ty of the law, was, I hope, clearly evinced 
 in my last. Against this doctrine, however, 
 several objections are urged by our brethren. 
 But objections, how plausible soever they 
 may seem, ought not to outweigh plain 
 scriptural testimony to the contrary. If, 
 therefore, we could not satisfactorily remove 
 every difficulty, still the truth should be 
 believed. It is the duty of Christians to re- 
 ceive with implicit faith whatever they find 
 revealed in holy scripture. 
 
 Granted, the pupils of the new school will 
 reply ; we admit the paramount authority 
 of inspiration ; but we deny the truth for 
 which you contend, to be a part of divine 
 revelation. To us, however, the texts ad- 
 duced seem clear and decisive ; and nothing 
 
144 LETTERS ON 
 
 that they can offer is sufficient to change 
 our mind. 
 
 1. The first objection I shall notice, is 
 urged against the interpretation we give to 
 a particular text. When Paul says, (Gal. 
 iii. 13.) "Christ hath redeemed us from 
 the curse of the law, being made a curse 
 for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every 
 oue that hangeth on a tree ;" we think he 
 does, in plain words, teach that Christ bore 
 the curse ox penalty of the divine law. But 
 our brethren think otherwise ; and one of 
 them says, " It is in no shape, asserted 
 here, that Christ suffered the penalty of the 
 law. The apostle tells us in what sense he 
 " was made a curse for us." " Cursed is 
 every one that hangeth on a tree." Believ- 
 ers are saved from the curse or penalty of 
 the law by the consideration that Christ 
 " was made a curse" for them in another 
 and a very different sense. He was " made 
 a curse" inasmuch as he suffered, in order 
 to open the door of hope to man, by the 
 pains and ignominy of crucifixion. He 
 hung upon a tree. He died as a malefactor. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 145 
 
 He died as one accursed. If this text prove 
 that Christ suffered the penalty of the law, 
 it does, at the same time, and by principles 
 of legitimate exposition, prove, that the pe- 
 nalty of the law was crucifixion, or hanging 
 on a tree. But the penalty of the law was 
 eternal damnation threatened against the 
 transgressor alone, and liable to be executed 
 upon him, and upon no one else."* My an- 
 swer to this objection will appear in the fol- 
 lowing observations. 
 
 First : To assert, as this writer does, that 
 the penalty of the law can be executed on 
 none but the transgressor himself, is cer- 
 tainly no legitimate proof in controversy 
 with Christians who think differently, and 
 assert the contrary to be true. We do not 
 rest our cause on mere assertion ; already, 
 it is believed, clear scriptural testimony has 
 been adduced in support of the fact, that 
 Christ suffered the penalty of the law ; and 
 to us the text under discussion affords such 
 unequivocal evidence of it, that we are rea- 
 
 • Beman, #. 45, 46. 
 
 N 
 
146 LETTERS OK 
 
 dy to wonder how he could, in the face of 
 the apostle's declaration, indulge himself in 
 the liberty of making so round and unquali- 
 fied an assertion. 
 
 Secondly : The fact that Christ died a 
 painful and an ignominious death, and that 
 he submitted to such a death for the sins of 
 his people, is no subject of dispute. Our 
 brethren admit it as cordially as we. It 
 is admitted in the quotation above. The 
 point of difference is the character of his 
 sufferings. We say that they were an inflic- 
 tion of the curse or penalty of the law de- 
 nounced against sin ; this they deny. But 
 death, it has been shown in the preceding 
 letter, is the wages of sin, the curse or 
 penalty of the law ; and consequently as 
 Christ underwent death for the sins of men, 
 he endured the penalty of the law due to 
 them. 
 
 Thirdly : The quotation by the apostle 
 of a passage in the Old Testament, was 
 not adduced to prove that our Redeemer 
 was crucified. This fact had been fully 
 recorded by the pen of more than one evan- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 147 
 
 gelist. It was perfectly well known to the 
 Galatians. Any quotation from the Old 
 Testament in proof of a fact so abundantly 
 attested in the evangelical narrative, would 
 have been entirely superfluous. Yet Mr. 
 B. seems to think this to have been one 
 reason of the quotation, "He hung upon a 
 tree." 
 
 Fourthly: Nor was the quotation made 
 to prove that Christ died as a malefactor 
 " He died," says Mr. B. " as a malefactor." 
 This fact was fully known to all who were 
 acquainted with the fact of his crucifixion, 
 and the account given of it by the inspired 
 historians and teachers. 
 
 Finally : The quotation was brought for- 
 ward to prove the character of the Redeem- 
 er's sufferings. It was not crucifixion only 
 that he endured. He had suffered through 
 life from various causes and in various ways. 
 He had endured in Gethsemane unutterable 
 mental agonies. His soul had been sorrow- 
 ful even unto death. And on the cross the 
 anguish he felt from the hidings of his Fa- 
 ther's face, was unspeakably more severe 
 
148 LETTERS OS 
 
 than the bodily pains he underwent. " it 
 pleased the Lord to bruise him." The 
 sword of Jehovah awoke against the Shep- 
 herd. His soul was made an offering for 
 sin. Whence all these sufferings of the Son 
 of God ? What were they ? They were, 
 we say, the infliction of the penalty of the 
 law: and this, in our apprehension, the 
 apostle declares very plainly, by telling us 
 Christ was " made a curse for us." In proof 
 or illustration of this fact, to teach us the 
 true character of his sufferings, to mark 
 distinctly the relation they bore to sin, he 
 adduces the quotation, "Cursed is every- 
 one that hangeth on a tree." It is found on 
 record in Deut. xxi. 22, 23. 
 
 But why was it thus written ? Was it de- 
 signed to express the indignation of Jeho- 
 vah against the crimes of all who were thus 
 put to death ? But why, it may be asked, 
 was this written against all who suffered 
 capitally by hanging, and not against others 
 who suffered by decapitation and by sto- 
 ning ; modes of punishment used by the 
 Jews, in relation to crimes of the deepest 
 
THE ATONEMENT- 149 
 
 dye ? There was a peculiar reason for this 
 record ; and Scott, in his comment on this 
 place, has assigned it : " In the current opi- 
 nion," says this able writer, " they who 
 were thus suspended were deemed accursed 
 of God : but the Holy Spirit doubtless dic- 
 tated this expression in reference to Him, 
 who was made a curse for us." By the pro- 
 vidence of God it was so ordered that our 
 Redeemer died that particular kind of death, 
 which, in typical reference to his death, 
 had long before been declared to be ac- 
 cursed; and thus he appeared visibly and 
 outwardly ', as in fact he was really, dying 
 under the curse of God, or penalty of the 
 law. Such is the apostle's meaning; and 
 this the design of his quotation. 
 
 The quotation establishes the fact that 
 the immaculate Saviour was accursed of 
 God. But none can be accursed by the righ- 
 teous Jehovah, but those whom it is right 
 and just to curse. Nor can any be declared 
 by him to be accursed except those against 
 whom his law denounces a curse ; because 
 he has no curse to inflict but what his law 
 
 N 2 
 
150 LETTERS ON 
 
 denounces. It follows, then, tliat as the 
 spotless Redeemer was accursed, he must 
 have been under the curse of the law ; but 
 as he could not be under it in consequence 
 of any personal transgression, it remains 
 that, as we have already shown, he was 
 under it by his becoming the voluntary sub- 
 stitute of sinners, and engaging to bear the 
 punishment due to them. 
 
 " I wonder," says the celebrated Beza, 
 quoted by Scott on this text, " that Jerome 
 and Erasmus should labour and seek for I 
 know not what figure of speech, to show 
 that Christ was not called accursed. Truly 
 in this is placed all our hope : in this the 
 infinite love of God is manifested ; in this 
 is placed our salvation, that our God pro- 
 perly and without any figure, poured out 
 all his wrath on his own Son ; — caused him 
 to be accursed, that he might receive us into 
 his favour. Finally, without any figure, 
 Christ was made a curse for us, in such a 
 manner that unless he had been truly God, 
 he must have remained under the curse for 
 ever, from which, for our sakes, he emerg- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 151 
 
 cd. For, indeed, if the obedience be figura- 
 tive and imaginary, so must our hope of 
 glory be." 
 
 2. The New School urge, as a second 
 objection against the doctrine of Christ en- 
 during the penalty of the Jaw, the impossi- 
 bility of the fact. " It is," says one, " for 
 ever impossible in the very nature of 
 things, that Christ should become liable to 
 suffer the punishment which the law has de- 
 nounced against the transgressor, — against 
 him alone. The law has no penal demands 
 against Christ — and such demands it can 
 never establish. " The soul that sinneth, it 
 shall die," is the threatening of the law."* 
 An objection, in appearance, formidable 
 indeed ! for if it were in the very nature of 
 things impossible for Christ to suffer the 
 punishment due to sinners, then it would 
 be a hopeless task to endeavour to establish 
 it as a fact that he did bear that punishment. 
 But, 1 think, notwithstanding this bold as- 
 sertion, the passages that have been cited 
 
 * Beman, p. 34. 
 
152 LETTERS ON 
 
 plainly teach us, that, in the judgment of 
 inspired writers, Christ actually did bear 
 the penalty of the law. Let us examine 
 the proofs by which this confident assertion 
 is supported. 
 
 The first is, that the penalty of the law is 
 denounced against the transgressor alone ; 
 meaning that it can be executed on him 
 alone, and not on Christ. But this is mere- 
 ly offering one assertion to confirm another. 
 
 The second proof is another bare asser- 
 tion, that "the law has no penal demands 
 against Christ, — and such demands it can 
 never establish." Neither of these asser- 
 tions contains any evidence. 
 
 But the third, being a quotation from 
 scripture, seems to present some proof: 
 " The soul that sinneth it shall die." But 
 how does this prove that Christ could not 
 endure the penalty of the law for his peo- 
 ple? The text is recorded in Ezekiel, ch. 
 xviii. v. 4. Examine it, and you will find 
 its meaning to be simply this : That in the 
 next world the son shall not die or be pun- 
 ished in place of his guilty parent ; nor shall 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 153 
 
 the parent die or be punished in place of 
 his guilty son : but every one shall bear the 
 punishment of his own sins. The Jews had 
 impiously impeached the conduct of Jeho- 
 vah in his treatment of them ; and he was 
 pleased to vindicate himself by making this 
 statement in regard to the principles of his 
 administration. But what has this to do 
 with the case of our Saviour ? It does not 
 declare that the soul of Christ should not 
 die; for his soul did die in agony and pain. 
 Nor does it say the curse of the law could 
 not be inflicted on him as the substitute of 
 sinners ; for an inspired apostle has told us 
 the curse was inflicted on him. Nor does 
 it say the law had no penal demands against 
 him ; for he " was," as Paul teaches, " made 
 under the law;" and consequently, as has 
 been shown, under its penal demands. To 
 attempt to put upon this text either of these 
 meanings, is only attempting to set one part 
 of scripture against another. Were we to 
 detach it from the context, and separate it 
 from its connexion with other portions of 
 the Bible, and give it the signification which 
 
154 LETTERS ON 
 
 the words in which it is expressed would, 
 in their full and unqualified meaning, de- 
 mand, we should shut up our fallen race 
 in hopeless despair ; for then it would de- 
 clare, that every soul that sinneth shall die 
 eternally. But this cannot be its import ; 
 because we know, that thousands and mil- 
 lions are saved through Christ, and will 
 never be subject to eternal death. Nor can 
 the meaning attempted to be imposed upon 
 this text in the above quotation, be its real 
 meaning; because it would militate against 
 plain scriptural testimonies to the contrary. 
 Reasoning similar to that of the author I 
 have referred to, has been put upon the 
 threatening denounced against Adam, to 
 prove that the penalty of the law could not 
 be executed on the Redeemer. " Thou," 
 j9dam, " shalt die." The force of the ar- 
 gument lies in this : the commination was 
 addressed to the first man ; and therefore it 
 can have no relation to another individual, 
 much less could it be executed on the spot- 
 less Redeemer. But the inference is wholly 
 incorrect. How many passages does the 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 155 
 
 Bible contain, which have respect to others 
 than the particular individual or individuals, 
 to whom they were addressed ? All the 
 apostolical epistles were thus addressed, yet 
 who does not know that they were design- 
 ed for the whole church? Who does not 
 know that promises, and threatenings, and 
 precepts that were addressed to primitive 
 Christians, had respect to Christians in every 
 subsequent age? Who does not know that 
 many promises given to the apostles, in pri- 
 vate conversations of our Lord with them, be- 
 long to all his future disciples? The sentence 
 denounced against the woman, in Gen. iii. 
 16, was spoken to Eve ; and yet it has been 
 executed on all her female posterity : and 
 the sentence denounced against Adam in 
 the 17 — 19 verses, has been inflicted on all 
 his offspring. Indeed almost every thing 
 spoken to our first parents had a reference 
 to their descendants ; and as they are born 
 in a state of mortality , and many die be- 
 fore they are capable of personal transgres- 
 sion ; it is manifest, from incontrovertible 
 facts, that the commination addressed to 
 
156 LETTERS ON 
 
 Adam had respect to his posterity ; because 
 it has, in every age, been uniformly execu- 
 ted on them. And as our blessed Lord sub- 
 mitted to the stroke of death, so it is, as 
 already shown, apparent, that he endured 
 the penalty of a violated law. 
 
 3. It is objected that Christ did not suffer 
 spiritual death. 
 
 That the sacred scriptures represent man- 
 kind as being by nature " dead in trespasses 
 and sins," will hardly be denied. It is true 
 that sinners love their depravity; but this 
 is no reason why it should be considered as 
 absurd to suppose that being delivered up 
 to the dominion of sin, was comprehended 
 in the sentence of death denounced against 
 a violation of the Divine law ; because to 
 innocent man, delighting in holiness and in 
 communion with God, it presented a terri- 
 ble idea, an object of the greatest dread. 
 That God does punish one sin by giving up 
 the offender to another, is clearly taught in 
 the volume of inspiration. Speaking of the 
 stupid idolatry of the ancient heathen, the 
 apostle says, " for this cause God gave them 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 157 
 
 up unto vile affections. " " And even as 
 
 they did not like to retain God in their 
 knowledge, God gave them over to a repro- 
 bate mind, to do the things which are not 
 convenient." We, therefore, believe that 
 spiritual death, which ensued upon the with- 
 drawing of the Holy Spirit from the soul of 
 man in consequence of his sin, was included 
 in the original commination of a righteous 
 God against disobedience. 
 
 The Saviour was perfectly free from sin. 
 Had the slightest stain of moral pollution 
 marred his obedience, it would have de- 
 stroyed its saving influence, and indeed 
 made him as helpless as any of our fallen 
 race. In bearing the penalty of the law, it 
 was not necessary that the curse should, in 
 all its circumstances, operate on him as on 
 original transgressors. It was sufficient for 
 him to endure what was essential to the 
 curse, and what the law demanded from him 
 as the surety of sinful men. Now, this con- 
 sisted in shame, disgrace, pain, anguish, and 
 misery in the whole of his human nature, in 
 soul and in body. Punishment may, in cir- 
 o 
 
158 LETTERS ON 
 
 cumstances, be very different in different per- 
 sons. Capital offences are, by human law, 
 punished in various ways; and sometimes 
 one mode of inflicting death is commuted for 
 another. The same diversity of circumstan- 
 ces is seen in the application of punishment 
 under the Divine government. All impeni- 
 tent sinners are subjected to the same curse 
 of a violated law. Yet how different the sor- 
 rows, the pains, the afflictions of life in dif- 
 ferent men ! How differently is natural death 
 inflicted ! On one by a sudden stroke of 
 lightning; on another by a lingering dis- 
 ease ! This man perishes in the ocean ; that 
 man is consumed in the flames of his dwell- 
 ing. One dies through sheer pain; another 
 gently expires. But in all these cases, 
 thus varying in circumstances, the sen- 
 tence of the Divine law is inflicted. And 
 for any thing we know to the contrary, the 
 same diversity in regard to punishment 
 may exist in the next world. The essence 
 of the curse the Redeemer unquestionably 
 did endure. He suffered in sow/and in body. 
 He was exposed to shame, disgrace, and 
 
IHE ATONEMENT. 159 
 
 ignominy. He endured unnumbered sor- 
 rows and miseries. He was deprived of 
 the light of his Father's countenance, so that 
 he had to complain of being forsaken of 
 him. His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, 
 even unto death. And he actually under- 
 went a separation of his soul from his body, 
 and remained for some time in the state of 
 the dead. " Thou shalt die," said the law ; 
 and the Saviour, the surety of sinners, did 
 die, in the very way the law required. 
 
 4. It is objected against our doctrine 
 that the Redeemer did not endure eternal 
 death. 
 
 In the eternity of future punishment all 
 sound theologians agree. They know that 
 sin deserves everlasting torments, and that 
 a righteous God has threatened to inflict 
 them on all impenitent transgressors. 
 
 But why is the punishment of sin eternal ? 
 Because a mere creature, being incapable 
 of sustaining it in any given period, it must 
 be prolonged through everlasting ages. But 
 the divine Redeemer was able to support 
 his human nature under any degree of pain 
 
160 LETTERS ON 
 
 and misery that the curse due to the sins 
 of his people required to be inflicted on him ; 
 and the infinite dignity of his person 
 imparted to his temporary sufferings a value 
 that made them a fair and full equivalent 
 for the everlasting sufferings of all who shall 
 be finally saved. By this mode of inflict- 
 ing the penalty, the justice of God was 
 better satisfied, the honour of his law more 
 effectually maintained, and the universe 
 more impressively warned against the evil 
 of disobedience, than could have been done 
 by the infliction of it on our whole race. 
 So that in the vicarious death of Jesus 
 Christ, as the substitute of his people, all 
 the ends of punishment were completely 
 and gloriously answered. No duration of 
 suffering in a guilty creature can ever satisfy 
 Divine justice; it must run parallel with 
 his immortal existence : but the sufferings, 
 endured by the immaculate and divine Sa- 
 viour, in the short term of his earthly life, 
 so entirely exhausted the curse, that law 
 and justice did not, and could not, demand 
 a single pain, a solitary tear, or one groan 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 161 
 
 more, to render his awful sacrifice of him- 
 self complete. The eternity of punishment 
 is to be considered rather as a circumstance 
 growing out of a case, than as belonging 
 to its essence. It depends on the nature 
 of the subject. In a mere creature it 
 must be eternal ; but not in a Divine sub- 
 stitute. To have prolonged the sufferings 
 of Christ beyond the period in which he 
 endured them, would have been unjust. 
 
 Finally: 
 
 To our views of the atonement, it is ob- 
 jected, that the Redeemer could not, al- 
 though a divine person, endure the amount 
 of suffering required from him. 'flf/ j 
 says a writer frequently quoted, "one soul 
 were to be saved by the atonement, Christ 
 must sustain an amount of suffering equal 
 to that involved in the eternal condemna- 
 tion of that one soul ; and if a thousand 
 were to be saved, Christ must suffer a thou- 
 sand times that amount, and in the same 
 proportion for any number who are to be 
 rescued from perdition and exalted to glo- 
 ry."— " Now, as a single sin deserved eter- 
 o2 
 
162 LETTERS ON 
 
 nal misery, which certainly implies infinite 
 suffering, we cannot see how every sin of 
 all the redeemed could have been expiated 
 in a few short hours, by the agonies of the 
 human nature of Christ, though this nature 
 was united to the Godhead. We say that 
 Christ himself could not have made an ade- 
 quate atonement — if this atonement im- 
 plied, that he must endure sufferings equal 
 to the eternal damnation of all those who 
 will finally be saved. "* Hence this writer 
 concludes that the penalty of the law was 
 not endured by the great Redeemer. 
 
 In reply to this objection, I remark that 
 the author is mistaken in attributing the 
 expiation of sin solely to the sufferings en- 
 dured by the Redeemer " in a few short 
 hours," at the close of life. We believe, 
 as the scriptures teach us, that, as he did not 
 feel a single pang on his own account, so 
 all the sorrows and afflictions, persecution 
 and distress, agonies and torments to which 
 he submitted during his abode on earth, 
 were inflicted on him on account of our 
 
 ♦ Beman, p. 78. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 163 
 
 sins, and constituted the atonement he made 
 for us. How much he suffered it is impos- 
 sible to tell. None but God can conceive 
 the amount. But we by no means either 
 teach, or believe, that he suffered so much 
 for one, and so much for another; and that 
 his agonies increased in their intensity just 
 in proportion to the number that will finally 
 be saved. We believe, and therefore teach, 
 that he endured the curse or penalty of 
 the law; precisely that amount of sufferings 
 which Divine justice, considering the infi- 
 nite dignity of his person, deemed requi- 
 site to make a full and complete satisfaction 
 for the sins of his people. But it is erro- 
 neous to suppose that this amount of suffer- 
 ing was regulated exactly according to the 
 number that shall be saved ; so that, if the 
 number had been less, his sufferings would 
 have been diminished, or if greater, they 
 would have been increased. The intrinsic 
 merit of the atonement of Jesus Christ, is, 
 as we have shown, in its own nature infi- 
 nite, and sufficient for the salvation of any 
 number of sinners of our race to whom it 
 
164 letters os- 
 
 niay be applied. Such was the nature of 
 the representative principle on which 
 Adam acted for us, that his first sin, by 
 which the covenant was violated, has con- 
 veyed guilt and pollution to all his poste- 
 rity, and would be equally destructive to 
 all, if the number of his descendants were 
 to be increased beyond that which the Di- 
 vine decree has determined on. And from 
 the nature of the same representative prin- 
 ciple, it follows, that if all mankind were 
 to become united to the Redeemer by faith, 
 and the infinite merits of his atonement 
 were to be applied to them, all would be 
 saved. 
 
 Every reflecting mind will see, that the 
 divine nature of Christ imparted to the suf- 
 ferings and obedience of his human nature, 
 to which it was personally united, an infi- 
 nite value; and rendered him capable of 
 enduring sufferings that were, in the eye of 
 law and justice, a full and perfect equiva- 
 lent "for the eternal damnation of all those 
 who will be finally saved." A small piece 
 of gold is in value equal to a much larger 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 165 
 
 quantity of silver, and a still greater quan- 
 tity of baser metal. A diamond will sur- 
 pass in value silver or gold that would out- 
 weigh it a thousand times. The blood of 
 a rational creature is worth more than the 
 blood of dumb animals ; and the blood of 
 Christ is infinitely more precious than that 
 of man. From sinful creatures justice de- 
 mands eternal torments ; but from the im- 
 maculate Son of God, while acting as the 
 substitute of sinners, it could demand no 
 more than he actually suffered while on 
 earth, by which he exhausted the terrors of 
 the curse. The Father filled the cup that 
 he put into his hands with every bitter in- 
 gredient which the penalty of his law re- 
 quired. The human nature of Christ 
 shrunk back for a moment from the deadly 
 draught, and prayed that, if possible, it 
 might pass from him 5 but knowing it must 
 be taken, or man must perish, he drank the 
 cup to its very dregs. " Ye know that ye 
 were not redeemed with corruptible things, 
 as silver and gold, from your vain conver- 
 sation received by tradition from your fa- 
 
166 LETTERS ON 
 
 thers ; but with the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb without spot and without ble- 
 mish." 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. 
 
 Thus I have endeavoured to answer the 
 objections brought by our brethren against 
 the views we entertain of the nature of the 
 atonement. The attempt, I hope, has been 
 a successful one. 
 
 Other points of contrast I reserve for sub- 
 sequent letters. Should Providence per- 
 mit, I may compare the two theories in re- 
 ference to the honour they reflect on the 
 perfections of God, on his holy law, and 
 on the work of our Redeemer. 
 
 In the mean time, I remain, 
 
 Yours, affectionately. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 167 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 The Truth of God. 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 In the two preceding letters, I endea- 
 voured to prove, that the definite scheme 
 accords with the scriptural representations 
 of the nature of the atonement, far better 
 than the indefinite. Let us now, 
 
 II. Look at the two theories in another 
 point of contrast, and inquire which puts 
 the most honour on the Divine perfections ; 
 the truth, the justice, and the love of God. 
 
 The truth of God will first claim atten- 
 tion. Truth is a perfection essential to the 
 Divine nature ; an attribute of which the 
 Supreme Being can never be divested. He 
 is celebrated by the inspired writers as " a 
 God of truth" " and plenteous in truth." 
 " All the paths of the Lord are mercy and 
 truth, to such as keep his covenant and 
 testimonies." " He shall judge the world 
 
168 LETTERS ON 
 
 in righteousness and the people with his 
 truth" " The Lord is good ; his mercy 
 is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all 
 generations." " He keepeth truth for 
 ever." " The word of the Lord is right, 
 and all his works are done in truth" "All 
 his works are truth, and his ways judg- 
 ment." " God is not man that he should 
 lie." " The Strength of Israel will not 
 lie." " God that cannot lie" 
 
 Such are the testimonies of inspired wri- 
 ters to this glorious perfection of the Divine 
 nature. Jehovah is truth itself. He al- 
 ways speaks the truth ; and he always does 
 according to truth. It is impossible for 
 him to deviate, in one word or action, 
 from the requirements of truth. He is true 
 in his threatenings as well as in his pro- 
 mises. 
 
 Now, this attribute of the Supreme 
 Ruler of the universe, is honoured by the 
 views we take of the atonement. We re- 
 present him as being incapable of departing 
 from his word, by suffering sin to escape 
 the penalty of the law. His threatenings. 
 
THE ATONEMENT- 169 
 
 we believe, are always executed either on 
 the head of the transgressor, or on the head 
 of his surety. Jehovah fulfils his commi- 
 nations, exactly according to his meaning 
 when he denounced them. Not so our 
 brethren of the New School. They aban- 
 don the penalty of the law. It is executed 
 neither on the ransomed of the Lord, nor 
 on their Redeemer. Sin escapes without 
 punishment. "There," says one, "is a 
 secret and perpetual recurrence to the idea 
 that Christ has paid the demand, or suffered 
 the penalty of the law, so that its claims 
 are now quieted, and the sentence of con- 
 demnation repealed. But this is a funda- 
 mental, and may prove a fatal error. There 
 is nothing in the character of Christ's suf- 
 ferings which can affect or modify the pe- 
 nalty of the law. These sufferings were not 
 legal. They constituted no part of that 
 curse which was threatened against the 
 transgressor."* Again : " The atonement 
 paid no debt — it involved the infliction of 
 no penalty "\ 
 
 * Beman, p. 68. f Ibid. p. 72. 
 
 P 
 
170 LETTERS ON 
 
 If these assertions be true; if the penalty 
 of the law has been inflicted neither on the 
 saved sinner, nor on his Redeemer ; then 
 his sins go unpunished: no satisfaction is 
 made to Divine justice ; and the truth of 
 God is prostrated in the dust. He threat- 
 ens; but he does not execute his threaten- 
 ings. He declares that sin shall be punish- 
 ed; but he pardons it, and suffers it to es- 
 cape without punishment. 
 
 How will our brethren get over this dif- 
 ficulty? How can they save the honour of 
 the Divine veracity ? Will they say, that 
 God is not bound to fulfil his threatenings, 
 while they admit that he is bound to fulfil 
 his promises? I am not ignorant of the dis- 
 tinction made between a promise and a 
 threatening. I know it has been said that, 
 as by the former a right is passed over to 
 him to whom the promise is given, justice 
 requires the promiser to act according to 
 his engagement; but in respect to the latter, 
 the matter is very different: no right being 
 conveyed to another, no obligation of jus- 
 tice demands the fulfilment of the threaten- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 171 
 
 ing. This distinction, however, will not 
 suffice to evince, that the truth of God 
 does not create an obligation to inflict the 
 penalty of his law, on every sin by which 
 it is violated. Justice, I admit, requires the 
 fulfilment of promises ; but does not truth 
 require the same ? It is to Jehovah's truth, 
 and not to his justice, the inspired writer 
 refers us, when he proves the immutability 
 of the Divine counsel. The promise and 
 the oath of God are the two immutable 
 things, in which it is impossible for God to 
 lie. (See Heb. vi. 17, 18.) If, then, it is 
 impossible for the God of truth to lie by 
 breaking his promise, it is manifest that 
 he is bound by his truth, as well as by his 
 justice, to fulfil his promises; and if he 
 pays such a sacred regard to truth involved 
 in his promises, is it not evident he must 
 pay an equal regard to truth involved in 
 his threatenings ? The claims of truth are 
 the same in both cases; and if the viola- 
 tion of truth would be lying in the one, it 
 surely would be so in the other. The 
 conclusion is, that every threatening of Je^ 
 
172 LETTERS ON 
 
 hovah must be fulfilled, according to its 
 true import. 
 
 But it will be said, the non-execution of 
 the penalty of the law involves no breach 
 of truth, because the penalty denotes only 
 the real demerit of sin. That the penalty 
 expresses the judgment of our divine Law- 
 giver on the demerit of sin, is readily con- 
 ceded; but to maintain that it involves no- 
 thing more, and gives no pledge that it 
 shall be inflicted, is to maintain, in our ap- 
 prehension, a manifest absurdity. Who 
 ever heard of a human lawpromulged with 
 such a sanction; a law declaring simply 
 what punishment a violation of it would de- 
 serve, but giving no assurance that the crime 
 would be punished? Such a law would 
 disgrace the wisdom of an earthly legisla- 
 ture; and shall we dishonour infinite wis- 
 dom and supreme authority, by imputing 
 such a law to Him by whom kings rule 
 and princes decree justice ? The penalty 
 annexed to his law, while it declares the 
 demerit of sin, denounces wo against the 
 transgressor. It assures us that sin shall 
 
"I HI ATONEMENT. 173 
 
 not go unpunished. It is written, "the 
 wages of sin is death ;" but it is also writ- 
 ten, " In the day that thou eatest thereof 
 thou shalt surely die" " The soul that 
 sinneth it shall die." " Who will render 
 unto every man according to his deeds: — 
 unto them that are contentious, and do not 
 obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, 
 indignation and wrath, tribulation and an- 
 guish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
 evil." " If ye live after the flesh ye shall 
 die." " For as many as have sinned with- 
 out law shall perish without law: and as 
 many as have sinned in the law shall be 
 judged by the law." Do these declara- 
 tions contain nothing more than the judg- 
 ment of the Supreme Lawgiver as to the 
 demerit of sin? Who does not see that 
 they solemnly assure us that sin shall be 
 punished, and that the truth of God is 
 pledged to see them fulfilled according to 
 their true mean ins? 
 
 But, say our brethren, the threatenings 
 of God are conditional. " Yet forty days, 
 and Nineveh shall be overthrown." But 
 r 2 
 
174 LETTERS ON 
 
 the Ninevites repented; "and God repented 
 of the evil that he had said he would do unto 
 them, and he did it not." Parents often 
 forbear to execute their threatenings ; and 
 human governments frequently remit the 
 penalty of the law in favour of unhappy 
 culprits. We grant magistrates are em- 
 powered to set aside the execution of sen- 
 tences denounced against the violators of 
 human laws; and whenever they exercise 
 their dispensing power, in conformity with 
 the design for which they received it, no 
 breach of truth is involved in the transac- 
 tion ; because every law to which this re- 
 mitting power extends is subjected to this 
 condition, that its penalty may, in certain 
 cases, be set aside. But, at the same time, 
 it is to be observed, that the very necessity 
 of this dispensing power grows out of the 
 imperfection of human government, and 
 the impossibility of adapting general laws 
 to every particular case. But no such ne- 
 cessity exists in the divine government; 
 which is infinitely perfect, and can, with 
 
HIE ATONEMENT. 
 
 175 
 
 infallible certainty, apportion punishment 
 to the demerit of every transgressor. 
 
 The escape of the Ninevites is indeed to 
 be attributed to the well known clemency 
 of God. But it produced no breach of 
 truth ; for it is evident, from the circum- 
 stances of the case, that the terrifying de- 
 nunciation of the prophet was designed to 
 awaken them to repentance, and lead them 
 to reformation. The effect was happy. 
 The people did repent. " God saw their 
 works, that they turned from their evil 
 way." When, therefore, the Lord deter- 
 mined to spare them, he acted according to 
 an established principle in his government 
 over the nations. " At what instant I shall 
 speak concerning a nation and concerning 
 a kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, 
 and to destroy it; if that nation against 
 whom I have pronounced, turn from their 
 evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought 
 to do unto them."* The threatening was 
 then conditional ; and consequently the 
 truth of God did not require its execution 
 
 • .Tcr, 13. 
 
176 LETTERS OK 
 
 on a repenting people. In sparing them, 
 Jehovah, who is merciful and slow to anger, 
 acted according to his real intention in 
 commissioning his servant Jonah to pro- 
 claim his wrath against the Ninevites, and 
 the true import of his awful denunciation. 
 But from the conditionality annexed to 
 threatenings of temporal calamities, in re- 
 spect to nations and individuals, it will by 
 no means follow that the penal sanctions of 
 God's holy and eternal law are, in like 
 manner, conditional. Parents, it is true, 
 do often remit punishment to their chil- 
 dren; and duty sometimes requires that 
 their threatenings should not be executed. 
 But Jehovah is above all authority. His 
 conduct is not subject to the rules that go- 
 vern the conduct of imperfect and erring 
 mortals. When a parent threatens to chas- 
 tise a child, he may really design to do so; 
 and yet he may afterwards see cause to 
 change his purpose, and lay aside the rod. 
 But when the omniscient God utters a 
 threatening, he knows all possible circum- 
 stances. Nothing unforeseen can arise to 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 177 
 
 induce a departure from his original pur- 
 pose; and consequently his truth demands 
 the infliction of the penalty of his law on 
 every sin, agreeably to its true import. 
 
 Our brethren, however, will insist, that, 
 as the penalty of the law is not inflicted on 
 the saved, it cannot be executed on any 
 other person. They strenuously maintain 
 the Redeemer did not bear the curse of the 
 law. But here zeal for their peculiar views 
 carries them along, in opposition to plain 
 testimonies of inspired writers. Christ did 
 endure, as was shown in my last letter, the 
 curse of the broken law, for all who believe 
 in him: and that this transfer of punishment 
 from the original offenders to their Surety- 
 Redeemer, was consistent with adherence 
 to truth, we are taught to believe by Infi- 
 nite Wisdom, under whose inspiration the 
 prophets and apostles wrote. The plan of 
 salvation was devised in the Eternal Mind 
 before the creation of the world; the Son 
 of God, in the character of Mediator, was 
 set up from everlasting; believers were 
 chosen in him before the foundation of the 
 
178 LETTERS ON 
 
 world; and immediately alter the fall of 
 man, he, the seed of the woman, was pro- 
 mised, as coming to destroy the works of 
 the devil : and of consequence it will follow, 
 that, when the Lawgiver at first denounced 
 the penalty of death in the hearing of inno- 
 cent man, he did it in view of all these 
 facts, and of that transfer of the curse from 
 the head of his people to the head of their 
 Divine Surety, which he contemplated, as 
 the way to effect their salvation. In the 
 death of Jesus Christ, as a satisfaction for 
 sin, the truth of God shines in all its lus- 
 tre. The penalty of a violated law is di- 
 verted from the sinner; and yet it is fully 
 executed, in the bitter agonies of our im- 
 maculate Redeemer. 
 
 In opposition to our views, an argument 
 has been drawn from the history of Adam. 
 The preacher began with premising, that 
 he believed God always acted according to 
 his real meaning in his threatenings; and, 
 then, in order to prove the threatening an- 
 nexed to the covenant made with Adam 
 was not executed, he observed that it de- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 179 
 
 nounced temporal death, to be inflicted on 
 the very day of his transgression. But 
 this, said he, was not inflicted; Adam did 
 not die, till he had lived upwards of nine 
 hundred years. Besides, the penalty was 
 eternal death ; God declared that Adam 
 should die eternally. But Adam was saved; 
 and Jesus Christ did not suffer eternal 
 death: consequently, the penalty was exe- 
 cuted neither on Adam, nor on the Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 Such was his argument. He could not 
 but be aware that it would be objected, 
 that, according to this statement, the devil 
 spake the truth, when, in tempting our 
 first parents, he affirmed, in opposition to 
 their understanding of the meaning of the 
 threatening, " Ye shall not surely die." 
 This he could not deny; and to do away 
 the force of an objection, so revolting to 
 the minds of common Christians, he ob- 
 served, that, to make temptations success- 
 ful, there must be a mixture of truth with 
 falsehood. — A feeble answer! 
 
 Now, in reply to this curious argument, 
 
ISO LETTERS ON 
 
 it is obvious to remark, that the construc- 
 tion put on the threatening does not accord 
 with the preacher's preliminary observa- 
 tion; for, if God always acts agreeably to 
 the real meaning of his declarations, then it 
 is certain he did not, by his threatening to 
 Adam, mean he should undergo temporal 
 death on the very day of his transgression; 
 because, as Adam's natural life was not de- 
 stroyed on that day, God did, by his own 
 conduct, show that this was not his mean- 
 ing. Nor does it appear that our first pa- 
 rent so understood the threatening; for 
 knowing himself to be the constituted head 
 of a numerous progeny who were to de- 
 scend from him, he had no reason thus to 
 construe it. But he actually did, in a dif- 
 ferent sense, die on the very day in which 
 he sinned. He lost the favour of his Maker; 
 he was deprived of spiritual life; the Holy 
 Spirit left his soul ; he lost the Divine 
 image, became corrupt in his moral nature, 
 fell under the dominion of sin, and the 
 power of spiritual death : his natural consti- 
 tution underwent a great change; the seeds 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 181 
 
 of death were sown in it, and he became a 
 mortal man : he was, moreover, ashamed, 
 fled at the voice of his Maker, and vainly at- 
 tempted to hide himself from his presence. 
 Besides, sentence of death was pronounced 
 upon him by his offended Sovereign ; and 
 he became legally dead. In this sense, 
 he actually died on the very day of his 
 transgression ; and thus Jehovah himself has, 
 by his treatment of the culprit, interpreted 
 the real meaning of his own threatening. 
 
 That eternal death was involved in the 
 penalty annexed to the first covenant, and 
 that it is most unequivocally denounced 
 against all impenitent sinners, we assuredly 
 believe. But it is plain the word eternal 
 was not used in the threatening against 
 Adam ; and it seems to us, that if it had 
 been as plainly and positively declared 
 that he should surely and personally die 
 eternally, in case of violating the covenant, 
 as it was that he should surely die on the 
 day of his eating the forbidden fruit, his 
 condition would have been hopeless. For 
 we believe that when Jehovah condescends 
 Q 
 
182 LETTERS ON 
 
 to speak to us in human language, he is to 
 be understood according to the common 
 use of words, and that he always means 
 what he says. His truth is pledged, not 
 only in his predictions, as has been taught 
 by some, but in his threatenings too. In 
 the latter he as really means what he says, 
 as in the former: and in fact all threaten- 
 ings have the nature of predictions. Had, 
 therefore, the original commination been 
 expressed in the terms we have adverted to, 
 the case of Adam would have been remedi- 
 less. But these awful terms were not em- 
 ployed. The threatening was denounced 
 in such language as to render his salva- 
 tion consistent with Divine truth; in 
 language corresponding to those schemes 
 of mercy which were about to open 
 their treasures of grace and love on this 
 fallen world. Eternal death is now de- 
 nounced against every sinner; but surely 
 the meaning of the threatening is not that 
 every sinner of our race shall certainly die 
 eternally; for then who could be saved? 
 The import obviously is, that every sinner 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 1S3 
 
 deserves this tremendous punishment; and 
 that all who refuse to rely on the satisfac- 
 tion for sin made by Jesus Christ, shall 
 most certainly endure eternal misery. The 
 true meaning, then, of the original penalty 
 was, that Adam should surely die on the 
 day of his disobedience in the way explain- 
 ed; but not that he should as certainly die 
 eternally. He became indeed subject to 
 eternal death, just as sinners now are; but 
 his salvation was as consistent with the lan- 
 guage of the penalty and its real import, 
 as that of any of his posterity who lie under 
 the same dreadful curse. 
 
 From the history of Adam no evidence 
 can be derived, to prove that the penalty of 
 the law has failed in its execution, or that 
 the God of truth has ever acted, in a single 
 instance, contrary to the true meaning of 
 his words. Our first parent actually did 
 die, according to the real import of the 
 threatening; and as he from the first ex- 
 pected to be the progenitor of a numerous 
 posterity, and at the time of his fall had no 
 posterity, we have reason to believe that 
 
184 LETTERS ON 
 
 he did not himself understand by the threat- 
 ening, that his mortal life was to terminate 
 on the very day of his transgressing the 
 command of his Maker; and both promises 
 and threatenings are obligatory, only in the 
 sense in which they are really understood 
 by the different parties concerned in 
 them, at the time of making them. Jesus 
 Christ, the great Redeemer, did truly, 
 endure, as has been proved, the penalty of 
 the law; and if Adam has been saved, it 
 was through the vicarious sacrifice and 
 satisfaction for sin, made by the promised 
 seed of the woman. 
 
 Sincerely yours. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 1S5 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 The Justice of God. 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 We have seen how much more honour 
 is reflected on the truth of God, by the 
 doctrine we teach, than by that taught by 
 our brethren. Let us proceed to inquire 
 m which of the two schools, the honour 
 of divine justice is most exhibited. 
 
 Contemplating the cross of Christ in the 
 light in which our theory presents it, we 
 immediately see a glorious display of Di- 
 vine justice. Is an explanation of that 
 awful spectacle required? Is the reason of 
 the sufferings of the immaculate Redeemer 
 demanded ? We reply, it was right that he 
 should suffer, because he assumed the place 
 of sinners. Had he not become their sub- 
 stitute, justice could have had no claim on 
 him, for the payment of their debt. But 
 as, in infinite compassion to them in their 
 
186 LETTERS ON 
 
 lost and ruined condition, he was pleased 
 to undertake their redemption, and become 
 their substitute: he was " made under the 
 law,"* subject to all its demands, penal as 
 well as preceptive. Having thus assumed 
 the responsibilities of his people and stand- 
 ing charged with their sins, justice could of 
 course require from him a satisfaction for 
 the dishonour which they had done to the 
 law and government of God by their trans- 
 gressions; and justly inflict on him that 
 awful penalty which they had incurred. 
 The penalty must be executed. The truth 
 of God insists on its execution; his law de- 
 mands it; and consequently his justice 
 could righteously lay it on the Saviour, 
 who had voluntarily taken the place of sin- 
 ners, and engaged to satisfy all the demands 
 of law and justice against them. 
 
 This is the reason of the dreadful suffer- 
 ings of the spotless Lamb of God. As " he 
 was made sin" it was right that he should 
 be " made a curse for us;"t the punish- 
 
 • Gal. iv. 4. 
 
 f 1 Cor. v. 21, Gal. iii. 13. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 187 
 
 ment due to our sins could justly be inflict- 
 ed on our substitute, to whom they were 
 all imputed. The wrath of the Almighty 
 was poured out upon him ; the fires of Di- 
 vine justice consumed the victim that love 
 had provided ; the Father spared not his 
 own Son, but delivered him up for us all. 
 What a glorious display of justice! How 
 inflexible in its righteous demands ! It will 
 not abate them in the smallest degree, even 
 in favour of the Son of God. He must 
 drink the bitter cup of wrath to its very 
 dregs. In the cross of our Redeemer, the 
 universe will forever see the brightest ex- 
 hibition of Divine justice. 
 
 Equally plain does our doctrine make the 
 display of the evil of sin in the death of 
 Christ. Had no sin been imputed to him, 
 he could not have been treated as a sinner. 
 But as all the sins of his people were 
 charged to his account and he made respon- 
 sible for them, it was right that the penalty 
 of the law should be inflicted on him. "He 
 was wounded for our transgressions; he 
 was bruised for our iniquities; the chas- 
 
1S8 LETTERS ON 
 
 tiscment of our peace was upon him." 
 " He bare our sins in his own body on the 
 tree." In the curse denounced against a 
 fallen world, in the sufferings, agonies and 
 death of mankind, and in the torments of 
 hell, the dreadful evil of sin is seen ; but in 
 the sufferings and death of Christ, it is seen 
 in a still stronger light. When an angry 
 God, seizing a bold transgressor, pours out 
 his curse upon his guilty head, banishes his 
 soul from his presence, and overwhelms it 
 in the fiery billows of the burning lake, he 
 discovers his abhorrence of sin. But when, 
 seizing his only begotten Son as the surety 
 of guilty man, he poured out his curse on 
 his head, withdrew from him the light of 
 his countenance, and overwhelmedAzm with 
 shame, anguish and horror of mind, he pro- 
 claimed to the universe, in tones of thun- 
 der, his utter detestation of sin, and gave 
 the plainest and most convincing demon- 
 stration that he would not, and could not, 
 suffer it to go unpunished. In the cross of 
 Christ, sin appears to be that evil and bit- 
 ter thing, which God hates with utter 
 haired. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 1S9 
 
 Thus, according to the old theory, all ap- 
 pears plain and intelligible. But when we 
 turn our eye to the new scheme, we see ob- 
 scurity and darkness; we find ourselves sur- 
 rounded with difficulties and perplexities. 
 Our brethren, I know, think otherwise. 
 They imagine that, by an application of an 
 old distribution of the justice of God into 
 three kinds, commutative, distributive, 
 and public, they can not only expose the 
 error in our views of this great subject, but 
 remove all objections to the doctrine of the 
 atonement. I do not controvert this dis- 
 tinction; but I shall object to the use they 
 make of it, as being very unhappy and pro- 
 ductive of real difficulties. In their hands 
 it is a source of darkness, not a spring of 
 light. For 
 
 First, They set the justice of God at 
 variance with itself. In a former letter 
 this opposition was noticed in regard to be- 
 lievers. Here I shall consider it in refer- 
 ence to the Mediator. In man, justice, 
 how diversified soever in its operations, is 
 one and the same principle. It presides 
 
190 LETTERS ON 
 
 over his whole conduct, and governs him, 
 whether he act as a private individual, as a 
 merchant, or as a ruler. Equally plain is 
 it, that the justice of God, however diversi- 
 fied in its operations and distinguished by 
 different names, on account of its modes of 
 exercise, must be one and the same attri- 
 bute of his nature. It is impossible for any 
 collision to arise between his perfections, 
 much less in the same perfection. Yet 
 such a collision is represented as occurring 
 between the demands of Divine justice, ac- 
 cording to the fiews of our brethren. 
 " Distributive justice," says the author of 
 Dialogues on Atonement, " demands that 
 every person should be treated according 
 to his moral character. It demands that 
 the guilty should be punished, and the in- 
 nocent set free."* Consequently, as Christ 
 was, in their opinion, perfectly free from 
 sin in every sense, either imputed or per- 
 sonal, distributive justice required that he 
 should be saved from death, the ivages of 
 
 • r. 19. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 191 
 
 sin, and enjoy life, the reward of obedi- 
 ence; and not be treated as sinners deserve 
 to be treated, by being subjected to those 
 very sufferings by which a righteous God 
 punishes them, and expresses his displea- 
 sure against their disobedience. But, says 
 this same writer, speaking of Christ's death, 
 "it was a satisfaction to public justice, by 
 which the ends of punishment are answer- 
 ed."* Now, if his death was a satisfaction 
 to public justice, then public justice de- 
 manded his death; demanded that he 
 should pay the wages of sin, and be treated 
 as a sinner, by being subject to the very 
 sufferings that sinners deserve. Here 
 then is a complete opposition, in the de- 
 mands of one and the same Divine attri- 
 bute. It demands that Christ- should die; 
 and it demands that he should not die. 
 
 Secondly : They use this distinction so 
 as to set aside distributive justice, in 
 relation to the atonement. It had no de- 
 mand on Christ, they say; and of course 
 
 * P. 23. 
 
192 LETTERS ON 
 
 his sufferings were no satisfaction to its de- 
 mands. But this representation is incom- 
 patible with scriptural testimony. It is 
 true distributive justice had no demands 
 against Christ on his own account; but on 
 account of his representative character it 
 had just demands. Having undertaken the 
 redemption of sinners, he assumed their 
 place and responsibilities; he was made un- 
 der the law, subject to its penal requisi- 
 tions, and bound to suffer and do all that 
 their salvation required. It was therefore 
 right that he should be made a curse for 
 them, by enduring the penalty of the law; 
 and Jehovah, by inflicting punishment on 
 him, the surety of his people, dealt with 
 him on the principles of distributive jus- 
 tice. He was viewed, not in the character 
 of a holy man, who had always been obe- 
 dient to the Divine law; but in his charac- 
 ter of Mediator between an offended So- 
 vereign and his rebellious creatures, who 
 had engaged to pay the dreadful debt of 
 penal sufferings which they had contracted. 
 Justice therefore demanded his death ; and 
 
THE A TON EM LN F1 ■ 193 
 
 by dying he satisfied the claims of distri- 
 butive justice. It was, strictly speaking, 
 distributive justice that treated Christ as a 
 sinner, and exacted from him the sufferings 
 necessary to be endured in making an 
 atonement for sin. 
 
 Thirdly: On the plan of the new school, 
 
 JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN SATISFIED, UOr 
 
 can there be any display of this attri- 
 bute in the death of Christ. They assert 
 indeed that public justice was displayed in 
 that ever "memorable" event; and conse- 
 quently it must have demanded his death. 
 But on what grounds can this be maintain- 
 ed? Was Christ a sinner? No; he was 
 holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate 
 from sinners. Was sin imputed to him ? 
 No ; the)' reply, the imputation of sin is an 
 absurdity. Had the law any demands on 
 him? By no means; "the law," says one 
 of the new school, " has no penal demand 
 against Christ — such a demand it can never 
 establish." "The law," says another, 
 "did not demand the death of Christ."* 
 
 * Beman, p. 34. Dial, on Atonement, p. 23. 
 R 
 
194 LETTERS ON 
 
 If, then, on neither of these accounts the 
 Supreme Ruler of the universe had any de- 
 mands on the sufferings of Christ, on what 
 possible grounds could justice, public jus- 
 tice, if you please, require, that he, the im- 
 maculate Son of God, should undergo that 
 death which constitutes the wages of sin, 
 and which law and justice denounce against 
 sin, and against sin only? To subject such 
 a glorious and Divine personage, free from 
 sin both personal and imputed ; one on 
 whom the law had no penal demands; one 
 whose character merited the highest ho- 
 nours; to the greatest ignominy, to unut- 
 terable pain, and to an accursed death, 
 would have been a display, not of public 
 justice, but of public i?ijustice. It would 
 have dishonoured the government of the 
 Most High, and filled the universe with 
 terror. 
 
 But to prove that on this scheme no in- 
 justice was done to Christ, it is said: " His 
 sufferings were perfectly voluntary. He 
 took them upon himself. If those suffer- 
 ings had been inflicted upon him, without 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 195 
 
 His consent, he would have been treated 
 with great injustice."* But, if we admit 
 that his consent to suffer would have done 
 away the charge of injustice, it will not 
 follow that justice had any demands against 
 him; and if it had no demands against him, 
 there could be no display of justice, in 
 subjecting him to a treatment so opposite 
 to the claims of his moral character. " But 
 distributive justice," says the same writer, 
 in immediate connexion with the above 
 quotation, " was not exercised in the inflic- 
 tion of these sufferings upon him." No 
 indeed ; because, on the principles of our 
 brethren, great distributive injustice was 
 done to him; for those sufferings were in- 
 flicted, not in accordance with, but in op- 
 position to, ihz claims of distributive jus- 
 tice, which demanded a very different treat- 
 ment of one so perfectly holy, and so free 
 from sin in every sense. Consent, however, 
 will not always authorize the infliction of 
 evil on another. A man might wish to die, 
 
 * Dial, on Atonement, p. 23. 
 
196 LETTERS ON 
 
 and even request to be put to death; but 
 this would not justify a magistrate in de- 
 stroying his life, nor legalize his murder. 
 
 Finally : On the principles advocated 
 by our brethren, no intelligible end is 
 answered by the Saviour's death. They 
 indeed think otherwise; and one of them 
 has said, " The atonement was a scheme 
 devised by Infinite Wisdom, by which the 
 ends of punishment can be completely sa- 
 tisfied, and yet the sinner spared." On our 
 scheme this appears to be perfectly true; 
 but on that of the new school, it will be 
 found unable to stand the test of a rigid 
 examination. View the death of Christ in 
 the light of their principles, and it will be 
 seen to answer no one legitimate end of 
 punishment. 
 
 The principal end of punishment is the 
 satisfaction due to Divine justice for the 
 breach of God's holy law and the insult of- 
 fered to his infinite majesty. But according 
 to the theory of our brethren this is not an- 
 swered by the Saviour's death ; for they 
 deny that distributive justice had any thing 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 197 
 
 to do with that awful transaction, and it has 
 just been shown that public justice could 
 not be satisfied by it ; because it had no 
 demands against him. Vindicating the ho- 
 nour of the Divine law, is another end of 
 punishment. Admit, as we do, that Christ 
 placed himself under the penal demands of 
 the law, and suffered the penalty denounc- 
 ed against disobedience, and we see clearly 
 how the law was honoured by his atone- 
 ment; but deny, as the new school do, that 
 the law had any penal demands against him 
 and that he did suffer its penalty, and surely 
 it will be absurd to say that the law in its 
 penal demands was honoured by sufferings 
 which they did not require, and which of 
 consequence afforded them no satisfaction. 
 A display of the evil of sin, and of the ha- 
 tred which a holy God bears to it, is ano- 
 ther end of punishment. If Jesus Christ 
 was charged with the sins of his people and 
 really bore the punishment which they de- 
 served, then the infinite evil of sin and the 
 Divine hatred against it appear in a strong, 
 convincing and glaring light, in those 
 r2 
 
198 LETTERS ON* 
 
 dreadful sufferings which Jehovah required 
 of his own and well beloved Son, in making 
 an atonement ; and without which he would 
 not, and could not, forgive his offending 
 creatures. But if Jesus Christ was not 
 only perfectly holy in himself, but, as our 
 brethren affirm, not at all charged with the 
 sins of men, and not at all responsible for 
 them, we cannot see how the evil of sin 
 and the Divine hatred of it, appear in suffer- 
 ings which were not designed as a punish- 
 ment of sin. Finally : another end of pun- 
 ishment is to warn the creatures of God 
 against the evil of disobedience. Such a 
 warning was indeed, on our principles, 
 given to the universe in the shameful death 
 of Immanuel : but, if, according to the new 
 doctrine, Jehovah seized this glorious per- 
 son, and put him to a death which his vio- 
 lated law did not demand and which could 
 be no satisfaction to its penalty ; if he sub- 
 jected him to the most dreadful sufferings, 
 neither on account of any personal sin, nor 
 on account of any imputed sin, it is not 
 conceivable how such a procedure could 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 199 
 
 convey to rational creatures a warning 
 against the danger of disobedience. It was 
 rather calculated to alarm the obedient for 
 their safety, and shake their confidence that 
 they should continue to enjoy happiness, so 
 long as they persevered in their allegiance 
 and duty to their almighty sovereign. 
 
 Thus it appears, on the principles of the 
 new school, that no end of punishment is 
 answered by the death of Christ. It seems 
 to be an unintelligible transaction. We do 
 not see how our brethren can avoid, in their 
 march of fancied improvement, coming to 
 the conclusion to which the new discoveries 
 of Dr. Murdock has led him ; that the death 
 of Christ is a mere symbol, or arbitrary ap- 
 pointment of heaven, to signify the divine 
 mind in relation to a certain thing. 
 
 Affectionately yours. 
 
200 LETTERS ON 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 The Love of God. 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 The theories of the two schools in rela- 
 tion to Divine love, will be examined in 
 this letter. I shall endeavour to prove that 
 the doctrine of the Old School puts a high- 
 er honour on the love of God mani- 
 fested in the gift of his only Son, as our 
 atoning sacrifice, than that of the New. 
 
 In holy scripture this love is celebrated 
 as the highest and most glorious display of 
 love that was ever made. Accordingly, 
 we contemplate it as that special love, 
 which Jehovah was pleased to entertain for 
 all whom he designed to bring to the en- 
 joyment of everlasting happiness. We be- 
 lieve that, for the consistent and honourable 
 exercise of this amazing and eternal love, 
 and that it might flow out to them in its 
 rich and exuberant blessings, he sent his 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 201 
 
 own Son to be a propitiation for their sins. 
 "Herein is love, not that we loved God, 
 but that God loved us, and sent his Son to 
 be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John, 
 iv. 10. We believe that, if Jehovah had 
 not conceived this love for his chosen, 
 which prompted him to effect their salva- 
 tion, he certainly would not have exposed 
 his co-equal Son to shame and suffering, 
 nor permitted his precious blood to be shed 
 by impious men. 
 
 But as the New School believe that the 
 death of Christ merely opened the door of 
 mercy for all men, they can attribute the 
 atonement to no higher source than the 
 general benevolence and good will of God. 
 " It is," says the writer of Dialogues on 
 Atonement, " the love of benevolence or 
 good will. This has for its object all crea- 
 tures capable of enjoyment or suffering; and 
 regards the happiness of each one according 
 to its real worth. Now the happiness of 
 an individual is not, in itself, any more va- 
 luable, if he is elected, than if he is not 
 elected. But God regards things according 
 
202 LETTERS ON 
 
 to their real worth. His regard for the 
 happiness of the non-elect 9 therefore, is the 
 same as for that of the elect." " When this 
 kind of love is exercised towards the guilty 
 it is called compassion." — "Finally, it is this 
 compassion for sinners, which is expressed 
 by the Father in giving his Son to die ; 
 and by the Son, in laying down his life. 
 And this is the plain import of the text be- 
 fore mentioned, " God so loved the world, 
 that he sent his only begotten Son." Again : 
 " It is evident, therefore, that God felt no 
 special love for the elect, no love of a dif- 
 ferent kind, from that which he felt for 
 the non-elect. He loved one as much as he 
 did the other : and in the exercise of that 
 love for all he gave his Son to die for 
 all." Now here it is asserted that Jehovah 
 loved the non-elect, as much as he loved 
 the elect; and that the compassion which 
 he feels for the guilty of every description, 
 is the spring of that astonishing gift which 
 fills heaven and earth with holy wonder 
 and delight; and, consequently, it follows 
 that the compassion which the Divine bosom 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 203 
 
 feels for the wretch on whom sentence of 
 eternal perdition is pronounced, or the com- 
 passion felt for the damned, who are " crea- 
 tures capable of suffering," gave birth to 
 that stupendous gift, which we are constant- 
 ly taught by inspired writers to regard as a 
 demonstration of God's ineffable love to his 
 church. 
 
 These are new views for men professing 
 to belong to the Calvinistic school. They 
 may be found in the writings of Arminians ; 
 but it is only of recent date, that they have 
 been transferred to the pages of the advo- 
 cates of the doctrines of particular election 
 and limited salvation. Let us see whether 
 they will bear the test of examination. 
 
 Israel was a type of God's chosen peo- 
 ple; and if this representation be correct, 
 then the descendants of Abraham, consider- 
 ed as an elect people, were not distinguish- 
 ed from other nations by any peculiar af- 
 fection of the Most High toward them. 
 Such, however, were not the views of 
 their inspired lawgiver, who celebrates the 
 special love of God to them as his elect 
 
204 LETTERS ON 
 
 people : " The Lord thy God hath chosen 
 thee to be a special people unto himself, 
 above all the people that are upon the face 
 of the earth. The Lord did not set his 
 love upon you, nor choose you, because ye 
 were more in number than any people ; for 
 ye were the fewest of all people : but because 
 the Lord loved you." Deut. vii. 6 — 8. " Be- 
 hold, the heaven, and the heaven of hea- 
 vensy is the Lord's, thy God ; the earth 
 also, with all that therein is. Only the 
 Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love 
 them, and he chose their seed after them, 
 even you, above all people, as it is this day." 
 Deut. x. 14, 15. By these texts we are 
 plainly taught that the children of Israel 
 were the objects of Jehovah's special love ; 
 that this love was not founded on any good 
 qualifications which they possessed, but 
 originated in his sovereign pleasure ; and 
 that the love which God bare to them he 
 did not bear to nations whom he had not 
 chosen. Equally adverse to the represen- 
 tation of this writer, is the testimony of 
 Paul, who expressly teaches us, that Jacob, 
 as an elected person, was distinguished 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 205 
 
 by a love which was denied to his bro- 
 ther Esau. " For the children being jiot 
 yet born, neither having done any good or 
 evil, that the purpose of God, according to 
 election might stand, not of works, but of 
 him that calleth; it was said, The elder 
 shall serve the younger. As it is written, 
 Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I 
 hated." Whatever explanation may be 
 given of the election which the apostle here 
 speaks of, it cannot be denied that he ex- 
 hibits Jacob as an elect person, and Esau 
 as a non-elect person; that he represents 
 Jacob as distinguished by a love which was 
 not extended to Esau; and that this love 
 was not grounded on the superior worth of 
 the younger brother, but issued from the 
 sovereign purpose of an infinitely wise 
 God — Here we have an exact type of the 
 love which the Almighty bears to his spiri- 
 tual church. She was, in the exercise of his 
 sovereign pleasure, chosen out of the com- 
 mon mass of guilt and pollution. She was 
 distinguished from the rest of mankind by 
 a special love, not on account of the good 
 
206 LETTERS ON 
 
 qualifications, or personal righteousness of 
 her members, but because the Lord had a 
 delight to love her ; and from this love 
 flowed the astonishing gift of the Son of 
 God to be our Redeemer. In accordance 
 with this representation, the apostle speaks 
 of the love of Christ to his church : " Hus- 
 bands love your wives, even as Christ also 
 loved the church, and gave himself for it, 
 that he might sanctify and cleanse it 
 with the washing of water by the word, 
 that he might present it to himself a glori- 
 ous church, not having spot or wrinkle or 
 any such thing; but that it should be holy 
 and without blemish." The love which a 
 man bears to his wife is unquestionably 
 peculiar; such a love as he may not indulge 
 to any other woman. Still more peculiar 
 is that love which the Saviour entertains 
 for his church ; a love which he does not 
 bear to others. Now, to this special won- 
 derful love, the apostle traces up the gift 
 which Christ made of himself, and all the 
 blessings of pardon, justification, sanctifica- 
 tion, and glorification, which were purchas- 
 ed by his precious blood. 
 
THE ATONEMEN I • 207 
 
 In proof that the death or atonement of 
 Christ took its rise from the general bene- 
 volence of God, that common love in which 
 the reprobate share equally with the elect, 
 an appeal is made to the declaration of our 
 Lord to Nicodemus: "God so loved the 
 ivorld, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever believeth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life." John, 
 iii. 16. For a moment let us grant — that 
 the term ivorld, in this text, means all man- 
 kind, and mark the consequences. What 
 is the proof of God's love to the world? 
 The gift of his only begotten Son. For 
 what purpose was he given ? " That who- 
 soever believeth in him should not perish 
 but have everlasting life." It was his 
 fixed and unalterable purpose, that all be- 
 lievers should be saved. Now, if in this 
 verse the term world means all mankind, 
 it must, in the next verse, be equally ex- 
 tensive in its signification ; and then it will 
 follow, that it was the fixed and unalterable 
 purpose of God in sending his Son into the 
 world, that all mankind should be saved ; 
 
20S LETTERS ON 
 
 for the form of the expressions, you will 
 observe, in the two verses, especially in the 
 original, denoting "the Divine intention, 
 is the same ; "that the world might be 
 saved." Here is universal salvation ! But 
 from such a conclusion our brethren turn 
 away, because they know it to be unscrip- 
 tural. The conclusion, however, must fol- 
 low, unless we qualify the expressions in 
 the last verse, and show, that the term 
 world cannot there mean all mankind, but 
 only such of them as shall believe. In the 
 context, then, we find a reason for limiting 
 a word, which very rarely in scripture 
 signifies all and every man. This term 
 was wisely selected by our Saviour, in pre- 
 ference to the term elect. 1. Because the 
 elect, until called and converted, form a 
 part of the world that lies in wickedness. 
 2. Because the Redeemer intended to cor- 
 rect the prejudices of Nicodemus, and en- 
 large his views of the benefits to be derived 
 from the coming of the Messiah. With 
 the rest of his countrymen, he supposed 
 they were to be confined to his own nation. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 209 
 
 But our Saviour teaches him that they were 
 to be far more extensive in their distribu- 
 tion, by informing him that the love of 
 God, which sent his Son to save sinners, 
 embraced the Gentiles, as well as the 
 Jews. It was confined not to one nation, 
 but extended to all nations. It was a love 
 which he bore to the world at large, because 
 every where the objects of it were to be 
 found, mingled with every tongue, and 
 people, and nation. John has himself ex- 
 plained the import of the text, in chap. xi. 
 51,52. "And this spake he, not of him- 
 self: but being high-priest that year, he 
 prophesied that Jesus should die for that 
 nation; and not for that nation only, but 
 that also he should gather together in one 
 the children of God, that were scattered 
 abroad" 
 
 If God love all mankind alike, and Jesus 
 died alike for all, why does he not inter- 
 cede for the salvation of all mankind? That 
 he does not intercede for the salvation of 
 all, he himself has assured us: "I pray not 
 for the world, but for them which thou 
 
 S 2 
 
210 LETTERS ON 
 
 hast given me." Now, can it be doubted 
 that he loves those of our fallen race for 
 whom he intercedes, more than those for 
 whom he does not intercede? Indeed, the 
 special love of God to his elect, will clearly 
 follow from an admission of our brethren, 
 to which I have more than once adverted. 
 " Christ, say they, did not die with an in- 
 tention of saving any but the elect. The 
 Father did not deliver up his Son to death 
 with an intention of saving any other of the 
 human family.'' The most, then, that can 
 be said, in conformity with their views, is, 
 that Christ designed by his death to make 
 it consistent to offer salvation to the non- 
 elect, and place them under a dispensation 
 of mercy. Here, then, is a vast difference 
 made between these two classes of our fallen 
 race. For the one Christ dies with an in- 
 tention to save them; for the other, he 
 dies with no such intention. The one, 
 Jehovah chooses to salvation in Christ; the 
 other, he does not thus choose. To the 
 one, he not only offers salvation in the 
 preaching of the gospel, but, by working 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 21 1 
 
 faith in their hearts, and thus uniting them 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ, he actually puts 
 them in possession of its rich and invaluable 
 blessings. To the other, the offer of salva- 
 tion is sincerely made, and they are inex- 
 cusable in rejecting it; but God does not 
 impart to them the saving grace of his Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 And is it reasonable to conclude, that Je- 
 hovah feels for those two classes of men, 
 whom he treats so differently, the same 
 kind and the same degree of love? 
 
 Was it not easily seen, from the peculiar 
 endearments which Jacob showed to his 
 son Joseph, that he loved him more than 
 his brethren ? And is it not manifest that 
 Jehovah loves those on whom he bestows 
 peculiar and distinguishing blessings, more 
 than he loves those on whom he does not 
 bestow them ? When the Jews saw Jesus 
 weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, they justly 
 remarked, "Behold how he loved him!" 
 They judged of the strength of his love 
 irom its effects: and doubtless we are au- 
 thorized to judge of the love of God, by 
 
212 LETTERS ON 
 
 the same criterion. When the God of Is- 
 rael sets forth his peculiar love to his an- 
 cient people, he enumerates some of the 
 distinguishing blessings bestowed on them: 
 and if the enjoyment of superior external 
 blessings was a proof of distinguishing re- 
 gard for the people thus favoured, then 
 surely the enjoyment of superior spiritual 
 blessings, must be a proof of distinguishing 
 love toward that portion of our race whom 
 Jehovah delights thus to favour. " Be- 
 hold," exclaims the apostle in view of these 
 distinguishing blessings, " behold what 
 manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
 on us, that we should be called the sons of 
 God!" And again: "Herein is love, not 
 that we loved God, but that God loved us, 
 and sent his Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins." 
 
 To this special, this distingiiishing\o\e, 
 we attribute the gift of Jesus Christ; and 
 not, as our brethren, to that common love, 
 that general compassion, which, as they say, 
 will be felt even for the damned, when the 
 sentence of everlasting perdition shall be 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 213 
 
 pronounced on them. This general com- 
 passion differs widely from that astonishing 
 love which inspired writers celebrate in such 
 lofty notes of praise ; — that wonderful love 
 which constitutes the theme of that ever- 
 lasting song which will be sung by saints 
 and angels in heaven, through endless ages. 
 With inspired writers, and in unison with 
 the sentiments of saints around the throne 
 in glory, we magnify this love, and set it 
 above all displays of general benevolence, 
 that were ever made in creation or in pro- 
 vidence. It has dimensions, a breadth and 
 length and depth and height, which no 
 created intellect will ever be able fully to 
 comprehend. " Unto to him that loved us, 
 and washed us from our sins in his 
 blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto God and his father; to him be glory 
 and dominion for ever and ever." Amen. 
 
 Yours, sincerely. 
 
-H LETTERS. ON 
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 On the Law. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I must draw my 
 epistles to a close. The importance of the 
 subject discussed, has induced me to spend 
 so much time in the investigation. They 
 are now in a course of publication ; and if 
 the great Head of the church shall conde- 
 scend to honour them as a means for recti- 
 fying the error of any reader, or for esta- 
 blishing the minds of the wavering in the 
 doctrine that has hitherto prevailed in the 
 Presbyterian church, I shall deem myself 
 well rewarded for the time and labour be- 
 stowed on them. 
 
 It only remains to contrast the two 
 theories in relation to the honour they 
 reflect on the divine lata, and on our 
 blessed Redeemer. 
 
 Both schools concur in pronouncing on 
 
THE ATONEMEN 1. 215 
 
 the Law of God the highest encomiums; 
 believing it to be a transcript of his moral 
 perfections, and worthy of the profoundest 
 obedience of every rational creature. They 
 agree in the sentiment, that the penalty 
 which guards the sanctity of the law, in- 
 volves a degree of misery far greater than 
 is felt by any human being on this side the 
 grave, and that it will run parallel with the 
 eternal existence of the damned; and they 
 strenuously maintain, that the infliction of 
 this fearful penalty on every impenitent 
 and unbelieving sinner, is a righteous pro- 
 cedure on the part of the Supreme Ruler of 
 the universe. But they differ widely in 
 their views of the bearing of the Mediator's 
 work on the law. 
 
 You know, sir, that, in the contrast I am 
 drawing, I do not refer to our brethren, 
 who, while they believe in a general atone- 
 ment, hold to its true nature as involving 
 a real satisfaction to Divine justice, and a 
 real infliction of the threatened penalty 
 on the sinner's glorious and spotless substi- 
 tute. In mv second letter it was shown, 
 
216 LETTERS ON 
 
 that between them and the advocates of a 
 definite atonement, the difference is merely 
 verbal, and that they have no ground for 
 controversy with each other. This I wish 
 to be kept in mind. 
 
 The new school believe the perfect obe- 
 dience which Christ yielded to the precepts 
 of the Divine law to have been necessary 
 to his work as Saviour, and that the least 
 defect in it would have defeated his bene- 
 volent design of saving sinners. But this 
 belief is grounded^ not on the necessity of 
 the saved having a finished righteousness 
 as the basis of their justification, but on the 
 necessity of perfect holiness in the person 
 of the Redeemer. Accordingly they deny 
 that Christ, as the legal representative of 
 his people, obeyed all the precepts of the 
 law for them, that his righteousness, 
 when received by faith, might be imputed 
 to them, and render them righteous before 
 God. They speak indeed of the sufferings 
 of Christ as being a substitute for our suf- 
 ferings; but at the same time deny that he 
 was our substitute, standing in our law 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 217 
 
 place, bearing our sins and enduring the 
 penalty due to them. The sufferings of the 
 Saviour were a consequence of sin; but they 
 were not an infliction of the curse of the 
 law : because, say they, the law had no de- 
 mands on him. The result is, that accord- 
 ing to the new theory, sinners are saved 
 without a righteousness, and without a 
 satisfaction for sin : and the death of 
 Christ is made a mere expedient for set- 
 ting aside both the preceptive and the 
 penal demands of the law upon them. 
 Neither the one nor the other has been 
 complied with by them, or for them, by a 
 surety. In opposition to the righteous de- 
 mands of a holy law, they appear in heaven 
 in the presence of the great Lawgiver, who 
 has pledged his truth that sin shall not go 
 unpunished, and proclaimed it as part of 
 his name or nature, that he will by no 
 means clear the guilty. 
 
 Such views are deemed by the old school 
 to be highly unscriptural, and really dan- 
 gerous in their tendency, a"nd in fact sub- 
 versive of the true nature of the atone- 
 t 
 
218 LETTERS ON 
 
 ment. They are unable to see how the 
 law could be magnified and made honour- 
 able, by a transaction and scene of suffer- 
 ing- which it did not require, and whieh 
 in fact were intended to prevent the fulfil- 
 ment of its just and good demands. 
 
 Very different are their views of the re- 
 lation which the obedience and death of 
 Immanuel bore to the law of God. In 
 them they behold a complete fulfilment of 
 all its demands on sinners, both preceptive 
 and penal. Taught by an inspired apostle 
 that " God sent forth his Son, made of a 
 woman, made under the law, to redeem 
 them that were under the law," (Gal. iv. 
 4, 5,) they believe that the law had de- 
 mands on Christ; and that by his holy life 
 and bitter death he fulfilled them all, as the 
 substitute and legal representative of 
 every true believer. Assured too by the 
 same apostle that " God imputeth righ- 
 teousness without words;" (Rom. iv. 6.) 
 " Even the righteousness of God, which is 
 by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon 
 all them that believe:" (Rom. iii. 21, 22.) 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 219 
 
 they hold that the obedience of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ even unto death, constitutes 
 that righteousness by which sinners are 
 justified; and that it is imputed for this pur- 
 pose to every one who believes in Jesus. 
 Thus sinners are saved in a way perfectly 
 consistent with the honour of the Divine 
 law; none of its demands are sacrificed; 
 all are fully satisfied, not indeed by fallen 
 man, but by his immaculate Redeemer; sin 
 is pardoned, and yet punished. The saved 
 appear in heaven before God in a complete 
 righteousness ; not a personal one, not 
 through their " own righteousness, which 
 is of the law;" but in that perfectly finished 
 and glorious righteousness, in which the 
 great apostle desired to be found, even 
 "that which is through the faith of Christ, 
 the righteousness which is of God by faith." 
 Phil. iii. 9. 
 
 Such a transaction is glorious to the law. 
 By the obedience of Immanuel unto death, 
 its precepts and its penalty have been de- 
 clared to be just and reasonable and good. 
 More honour has been done to the one than 
 
220 LETTERS ON 
 
 would hare been rendered, if all mankind 
 had persevered in sinless obedience ; and 
 higher honour put on the other, than if it 
 had been inflicted on our whole race. 
 
 Let it not be objected, that the character 
 of a substitute and representative is un- 
 known to the law. Not so. The princi- 
 ple of representation was connected with it 
 in its first operation on man; for, in the first 
 covenant, Adam was constituted the fede- 
 ral head and representative of all his na- 
 tural posterity : and if the world was ruined 
 under such a dispensation without any re- 
 flection on the justice or goodness of the 
 Almighty Creator, how can it be deemed 
 inconsistent with these attributes of his na- 
 ture, to establish a new and similar dispen- 
 sation, for its recovery to holiness and hap- 
 piness? That there is a striking analogy 
 between the way in which we were ruined 
 and the way in which we are recovered, is 
 plainly taught in holy scripture. Having 
 run a parallel between Christ and Adam, 
 whom he styles " the figure of him that 
 was to come" and the corresponding ef- 
 
1HE ATONEMENT. 221 
 
 iects of the offence of the latter, and of the 
 righteousness of the former, the apostle 
 adds: " For as by one man's disobedience 
 many were made sinners, so by the obe- 
 dience of one shall many be made righ- 
 teous." Rom. v. 14 — 19. And, in 1 Cor. 
 xv. 22, he asserts the same analogy; " for 
 as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all 
 be made alive :" meaning, not as the Uni- 
 versalists teach, that all men will be ulti- 
 mately saved by Christ, but that all who 
 are in Christ, united to him by faith, and 
 represented by him in his mediatorial work, 
 shall be raised from the dead to the enjoy- 
 ment of an immortal life of happiness and 
 glory; just as all united to Adam by natu- 
 ral generation, and by the relation esta- 
 blished by the original covenant or consti- 
 tution made with him as their representa- 
 tive, have become subject to death in all 
 its terrible forms. 
 
 From this comparison, it is easy to see 
 which of the two theories reflects the high- 
 est honour on the Divine law. The one 
 maintains its righteous demands in all their 
 T 2 
 
222 LETTERS ON 
 
 extent, and exhibits them as gloriously ful- 
 filled in the life and death of the Son of 
 God for all his people; while the other 
 prostrates them, and with them, the truth 
 of God, in the dust. 
 
 When I began this letter, I intended to 
 finish the contrast; but as the remaining 
 point is important, I think it best to re* 
 serve it as the subject of another letter. 
 
 Sincerely, yours. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 223 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 The Redeemer's Glory. 
 
 My Dear Brother, 
 
 This will be the last letter on the impor- 
 tant subject that has so long occupied our 
 attention. It remains only to show, that 
 as the views of the old school reflect high- 
 er honour on the perfections and law of 
 God, than those of the new, so they pre- 
 sent a nobler and more scriptural tribute of 
 praise to the great Redeemer. 
 
 The atonement, says Mr. Beman, merely 
 opened the door of mercy to fallen man. 
 The writer of Dialogues, while he admits 
 that Christ died with an intention to save 
 the elect and not others, and that he satis- 
 tied public justice, denies that he made any 
 satisfaction to distributive justice, and af- 
 firms that the gift of Christ resulted from 
 no special love of Jehovah to his chosen, 
 but from that general benevolence in which 
 
224 LETTERS Oft 
 
 all share, and that common compassion 
 which is not denied even to the damned. 
 Others represent the atonement as consist- 
 ing in an exhibition of the evil of sin, and 
 in a declaration of God's hatred of it and 
 its desert of punishment ; and affirm that, if 
 not one soul were saved, the proper end of 
 the death of Christ would be answered, and 
 its full effect produced. 
 
 With these views of our brethren we 
 cannot accord. They are either erroneous 
 or defective. They detract from the ho- 
 nour due to the atonement of our blessed 
 Lord ; they remove it from that central and 
 all important point in the scheme of salva- 
 tion, which inspired writers have assigned 
 to it; and they detract from it the glory of 
 effects which it really produces. That it 
 opened the door of hope and mercy to this 
 wretched world is certain ; but we regard 
 it also as the meritorious cause of our sal- 
 vation. While we admit a display of the 
 evil of sin, of its desert of punishment, and 
 of God's hatred of it, and of his justice, to 
 be the result of the atonement ; we main- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 225 
 
 tain its true nature to consist in making 
 satisfaction for sin. The idea that the 
 end of the atonement would have been an- 
 swered, although none of our fallen race 
 had been saved, we reject as entirely deroga- 
 tory to the wisdom of God and the merits 
 of his Son; contending that, as an atone- 
 ment carries in its nature the notion of a 
 satisfaction, the salvation of all who were 
 given to the Redeemer must certainly fol- 
 low in the manner and time agreed upon 
 in the eternal counsels of the Holy Trinity; 
 and that to have left their salvation uncer- 
 tain as it would have reflected on Infinite 
 Wisdom, so it would have been inconsis- 
 tent with the infinite value of the price 
 paid for their redemption. We make the 
 atonement of Jesus Christ the procuring 
 cause of every blessing bestowed on the 
 church, both in this and the next world. 
 
 In my third letter (pp. 64—67) it was 
 shown, that the inspired writers represent 
 every blessing of salvation as the fruit of 
 Christ's death : Such as forgiveness, re- 
 conciliation, justification, peace, adoption, 
 
226 LETTERS ON 
 
 sanctification, and the heavenly inheritance. 
 Now, it is plain such a representation could 
 not be properly made if the death of Christ 
 merely opened the door of hope and mercy. 
 These blessings ought, in that case, to be 
 denominated the fruit of Divine grace 
 only, and not of the atonement ; but as the 
 atonement did really merit them for sin- 
 ners, they are justly represented as the fruit 
 at once of the death of Christ, and of Divine 
 grace; because they really are so : and grace 
 is justly celebrated as reigning " through 
 righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus 
 Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 21. 
 
 An inspection of the texts cited in the 
 letter just referred to, must convince any 
 reflecting mind, that there is a real establish- 
 ed connexion between the death of the Re- 
 deemer, and all the blessings of salvation. 
 But what, it will be asked, is that connex- 
 ion? In reply to this question, it may, I 
 think, be truly affirmed, that it is the con- 
 nexion which exists between cause and 
 effect, between a price and a purchase, be- 
 tween a service rendered and a stipulated 
 reward. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 227 
 
 Let not the investigation of this ques- 
 tion be regarded as a mere matter of cu- 
 rious speculation. If the scriptures speak 
 on it we are bound to hear and learn ; 
 and it would ill become us to turn away 
 our ears from the voice of heavenly wis- 
 dom, contenting ourselves with believing 
 that some general undefined connexion 
 subsists, between our salvation and the 
 death of Christ. Will any say that this 
 point belongs merely to the philosophy of 
 Christianity ? I would admonish them not 
 to disparage by such a name, a truth 
 which Infinite Wisdom has seen fit to 
 teach the church. It is precisely one of 
 those particulars, in which the knowledge 
 of Christians transcends that of ancient 
 saints; one that involves the glory of the 
 Redeemer and the comfort of his people. 
 We proceed therefore to inquire what the 
 New Testament teaches on this question. 
 
 1. It teaches that the connexion between 
 the death of Christ and our salvation is 
 that of cause and effect. If it were not of 
 this nature, with what propriety could the 
 
22S LETTERS ON 
 
 inspired writers attribute the cleansing of 
 the soul from its moral pollutions to his 
 blood? That they do so is incontrovertibly 
 plain : " Unto him that loved us, and hath 
 ivashed us from our si?is in his own 
 blood" But this, it will be said, is figura- 
 tive language. Admitted: it has, however, 
 a real meaning ; and what can the mean- 
 ing be, except this : that, as the body is 
 cleansed from its pollution by the applica- 
 tion of water, so the soul is really cleansed 
 from the pollution and guilt of sin, by the 
 application of the Saviour's blood to it by 
 faith. Accordingly we hear the apostle 
 (1 John i. 7,) say, in plain language, " The 
 blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
 from all sin :" teaching us that his precious 
 blood operates, as a cause, in purifying the 
 soul from moral defilement, as really as 
 water does in purifying the body from the 
 pollutions of contaminating substances. 
 The same truth is taught by the writer of 
 the epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ix. 13, 
 14, where he shows the superiority of 
 Christ's sacrifice to those typical sacrifices 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 22,0 
 
 that were offered under the law: " For, if 
 the blood of bulls and of goats, and the 
 ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, 
 sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 
 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 ?" The blood of the Levitical 
 sacrifices were the constituted cause of cere- 
 monial purification ; and, in like manner, 
 the blood of Christ is a more powerful 
 cause, of real internal purification of the 
 sinner's conscience, from the guilt and pol- 
 lution of sin. 
 
 2. Between the death of Christ and the 
 blessings of salvation, there exists the con- 
 nexion found between a price and its pur- 
 chase. That his blood is denominated a 
 ])rice, and that we are said to be bought, 
 is asserted by inspired writers too plainly 
 to be denied by any acquainted with scrip- 
 tural language ; and some of our brethren 
 seem willing to allow that we were bought 
 with a price ; but deny that any price was 
 u 
 
230 LETTERS ON 
 
 paid for the blessings of salvation. Yet 
 from the admission of the former truth, the 
 latter must follow as a legitimate conse- 
 quence. For when a person buys a thing, 
 that thing becomes the buyer's property. 
 In what sense then, I ask, were we bought 
 by Jesus Christ ? Were we not his proper- 
 ty before he paid the price ? Were we not 
 his creatures, dependent on him for existence 
 and every thing; and had he not a perfect 
 and sovereign right to dispose of us as he 
 pleased ? How then did he buy us ? What 
 new right did he acquire over us by his 
 purchase ? He bought us out of the hands 
 of Divine justice, and from under the curse 
 of the law, that he might save us; he ac- 
 quired by his purchase the right of deliver- 
 ing us from the dominion of sin and Satan, 
 and bestowing on us eternal life. " Father," 
 said our Redeemer, as he was finishing the 
 payment of the mighty price of our redemp- 
 tion, " the hour is come ; glorify thy Son, 
 that thy Son also may glorify thee : as thou 
 hast given him power over all flesh, that 
 he should give eternal life to as many as 
 thou hast given him." John vii. 1, 2. 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 231 
 
 Besides, as the sacred writers do, as we 
 have proved, connect the blessings of salva- 
 tion with the death of Christ as their real 
 meritorious cause ; and as they expressly 
 call his death a price : it must follow, that 
 the one is connected with the other, just as 
 a thing purchased is with the price paid. 
 And this is taught still plainer in that re- 
 markable passage in Peter's first epistle : 
 (chap. i. 18, 19) " Forasmuch as ye know 
 that ye were not redeemed with corrupti- 
 ble things, as silver and gold, from your 
 vain conversation received by tradition 
 from your fathers ; but with the precious 
 blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blem- 
 ish and without spot." Now, here delive- 
 rance from vain conversation, from a fool- 
 ish and sinful life, or in other words, sane- 
 tification, is affirmed to have been pur- 
 chased with the blood of Christ ; and if 
 this leading blessing of salvation was, then 
 it will follow, that all others were thus 
 purchased. Accordingly, we find this as- 
 serted by the writer of the epistle to the 
 Hebrews : " Neither by the blood of goats 
 
232 LETTERS ON 
 
 and calves, but by his own blood he enter- 
 ed in once into the holy place, having ob- 
 tained ETERNAL REDEMPTION for US." 
 
 Heb. ix. 12. Eternal redemption will, it 
 is presumed, be admitted in this passage, to 
 comprehend all the blessings of salvation ; 
 or if any should wish to object, they ought 
 to be convinced by the 15th verse, where 
 the apostle goes on to say — " And for this 
 cause he is the mediator of the new testa- 
 ment, that by means of death, for the 
 redemption of the transgressions that were 
 under the first testament ; they tvhich 
 are called might receive the promise of 
 the eternal inheritance." Here then 
 the blessings of salvation, not excepting 
 the eternal inheritance, are attributed to 
 the death of Christ as their meritorious 
 cause, or price paid for them. See also 
 Gal. iii. 13, 14. 
 
 It is in vain for our brethren to endea- 
 vour to explain away this scriptural truth, 
 by alleging the death 'of Christ was not a 
 literal price. For if by this they mean 
 the blood of Christ was not silver and gold, 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 2'33 
 
 they assert what no one can be ignorant of, 
 and guard against an error which none are 
 in danger of adopting. But the blood of 
 Immanuel, though not silver nor gold, yet 
 was a real price; infinitely more valuable 
 in the sight of God and acceptable to Di- 
 vine justice, than all the treasures of earthly 
 kingdoms. That the purchase of our salva- 
 tion by this amazing price is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the reign of free and sove- 
 reign grace throughout the whole work, 
 from beginning to end, was, you will re- 
 member, shown in my third letter. To the 
 arguments there used to establish the en- 
 tire harmony of salvation by grace, and 
 salvation by the righteousness of Christ, it 
 is not deemed necessary to offer any thing 
 additional. 
 
 3. The connexion between the death of 
 Christ and our salvation, is the same as that 
 which exists between a service rendered 
 and a stipulated reward. 
 
 A work was assigned to Jesus Christ by 
 his eternal Father. This work consisted 
 
234 LETTERS ON 
 
 in his active and passive obedience, or, in 
 other words, in his obedience even unto 
 death. So we are taught by holy scripture. 
 He himself says, " sacrifice and offering 
 thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou 
 opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast 
 thou not required. Then said I, lo, I 
 come : in the volume of the book it is writ- 
 ten of me, I delight to do thy will, my 
 God : yea, thy law is within my heart." 
 Ps. xl. 6, 8. " I came down from heaven, 
 not to do mine own will, but the will of 
 him that sent me/' John vi. 38. Speak- 
 ing of laying down his life, the Saviour 
 says, "This commandment have I received 
 from my Father." John x. 18. And at 
 the close of life, just before his crucifixion, 
 he said, " Father, I have glorified thee on 
 the earth ; I have finished the work which 
 thou gavest me to do" His exaltation 
 followed, not merely as a consequent fol- 
 lows an antecedent, but as a reward of a 
 stipulated service. His reward consisted 
 in his being raised, as man and mediator, 
 to the mediatorial throne, invested with 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 235 
 
 supreme dominion over the church and the 
 world, over men and angels, for the pur- 
 pose of saving unnumbered sinners of our 
 race, to the glory of Divine grace. Both 
 prophets and apostles inculcate this delight- 
 ful truth. "Thy throne, God," ex- 
 claims David, while contemplating the 
 beauty and glory of the promised Messiah, 
 "is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy 
 kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest 
 righteousness and hatest wickedness: 
 therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed 
 thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows:' 
 Ps. xlv. 6, 7. In his prophetic view of the 
 humiliation and exaltation, the death and 
 resurrection, the obedience and reward of 
 Christ, Isaiah says, "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 
 hands. He shall see of the travail of his 
 soul and be satisfied: by his knowledge 
 shall my righteous servant justify many: 
 for he shall bear their iniquities. There- 
 tore will I divide him a portion with 
 
236 LETTERS ON 
 
 the great, and he shalt divide the spoil 
 ■with the strong : because he hath pour- 
 ed OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH." Isaiah 
 
 liii. 10, 12. Having recited the several 
 steps in the humiliation of the Son of God, 
 from his assumption of the form of a ser- 
 vant, to his death on the cross, the apostle 
 Paul declares his reward : " wherefore 
 God also hath highly exalted him, and 
 given him a name which is above every 
 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." Phil. ii. 9, 11. And the Re- 
 deemer himself proclaims the same truth, 
 in his solemn intercessory prayer; in which, 
 immediately after stating the completion 
 of his work, he prefers his claim to the 
 promised reward : " And now, Father, 
 glorify thou me with thine own self, with 
 the glory which I had with thee before the 
 world was. Father, I will that they also 
 whom thou hast given me, be with me 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 237 
 
 where I am : that they may behold my 
 glory which thou hast given vie : for thou 
 lovedst me before the foundation of the 
 world." John xvii. 5, 24. To this glo- 
 rious reward the apostle refers, when, 
 speaking of the Redeemer, he says, "Who, 
 for the joy that was set before him, en- 
 dured the cross, despising the shame, and 
 is set down at the right hand of the throne 
 of God." Heb. xii. 2. 
 
 Thus are we taught to conceive of the 
 nature of the connexion subsisting between 
 the death of Christ and our salvation." It 
 is that of cause and effect, that of a price 
 and its purchase, that of a service rendered 
 and a stipulated reward. To speak then of 
 the atonement as merely opening the door 
 of hope and mercy, is ascribing to it not 
 half the praise due to that amazing transac- 
 tion ; and to assert that its end would be ac- 
 complished, although not one human soul 
 were saved, is to derogate from the glory 
 of Him who died that we might live, and 
 hung upon a cross, that we might ascend a 
 throne. The design, both of the Father 
 
238 LETTERS ON 
 
 who gave his Son, and of the Son who 
 gave himself, to be a sacrifice for sin, was, 
 to secure the salvation of all believers, and 
 of all who were chosen to salvation in the 
 eternal purposes of heaven. This glorious 
 effect must be produced, or the atonement 
 would fail in accomplishing its grand de- 
 sign. But failure is impossible. " I lay- 
 down my life for the sheep. And other 
 sheep I have, which are not of this fold : 
 them also must I bring, and they shall 
 hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold 
 and one shepherd." Johnx. 15, 16. "All 
 that the Father giveth me shall come to 
 me ; and him that cometh to me I will in 
 no wise cast out. And this is the Father's 
 will which hath sent me, that of all which 
 he hath given me, I should lose nothing, 
 but should raise it up again at the last 
 day. And this is the will of him that sent 
 me, that every one which seeth the Son, 
 and believeth on him, may have everlasting 
 life ; and / will raise him up again at 
 the last day." John vi. 37, 39, 40. 
 
 Such is the scriptural connexion between 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 239 
 
 the death of Christ and the salvation of be- 
 lievers; a connexion clearly pointed out, 
 and strongly marked by inspired teachers. 
 It is one of those glorious truths which we 
 owe to Divine revelation, and which we are 
 bound by Divine authority to believe, and 
 apply to those practical purposes it is in- 
 tended to subserve. It has an important 
 bearing on a Christian's experience. It is 
 calculated to excite his joy, and awaken his 
 gratitude ; while it points out to him the 
 sacred fountain in which he is to wash, that 
 he may be cleansed from all the stains of 
 guilt, and all the pollution of sin. 
 
 The atonement we justly honour, when 
 we conceive of it as the procuring, meri- 
 torious cause of salvation, and as the infi- 
 nite price paid by the Son of God for the 
 redemption of all his chosen people ; and 
 when we believe that the free and sove- 
 reign grace of God, as it provided, so will 
 not fail to apply this infallible remedy, 
 discovered by Infinite Wisdom, for healing 
 the dreadful diseases produced by sin. By 
 his obedience unto death, Christ was 
 
240 LETTERS ON 
 
 "made" a "perfect" High Priest; and 
 thus, by his blood, "became the author 
 of eternal salvation unto all them that 
 obey him." See Heb. v. 8, 9, and ii. 10. 
 Having finished the discussion, permit 
 me now to recapitulate the several points 
 in which the two schemes of atonement 
 have been contrasted. In my first letter it 
 was shown, that, notwithstanding the broad 
 assertions of the New School about its ex- 
 tent, the indefinite is not more extensive 
 than the definite atonement, either in re- 
 gard to the merit of Christ's death, or in 
 reference to its application, or in respect 
 to the offer of salvation, or in relation to 
 the Divine purpose: and, in fact, that the 
 views of our brethren, in this particular, 
 have no advantage whatever over ours. In 
 the second, third, and fourth letters, the 
 doctrine of the two schools was compared, 
 in respect to the preaching of the gospel, 
 and the display of free and sovereign grace, 
 in the recovery of fallen man ; and it was, 
 I trust, proved, that there is nothing in our 
 views of the atonement, to prevent the ge- 
 
THE ATONEMENT. 241 
 
 neral preaching of the gospel to all nations, 
 and all classes of mankind; nothing to hin- 
 der a free and unrestricted offer of salvation 
 to every one who hears us, and to assure 
 him, that if he believe, he will certainly be 
 saved: that there is no inconsistency what- 
 ever in representing, as the inspired writers 
 plainly do, the blessings of salvation as 
 being, at once, the fruits of Christ's 
 death, and the fruits of free and sove- 
 reign grace ; and that if there were any 
 difficulty in this matter, the attempt of our 
 brethren to remove it, by asserting the Re- 
 deemer satisfied public, and not distribu- 
 tive justice, is futile. We compared the 
 views entertained by the two schools of the 
 nature of the atonement, in the fifth, sixth, 
 and seventh letters; where it appeared, that 
 our doctrine accords with scriptural state- 
 ments and representations on the subject; 
 and that, as our brethren mistake, so, by 
 denying the real satisfaction made by the 
 Son of God in his character of substitute 
 of his people, charged with their sins, and 
 sustaining the penalty of the law due to 
 
242 LETTERS ON, &C. 
 
 them, they, in fact, subvert the true na- 
 ture of the atonement, and oppose clear 
 and positive testimonies of inspired writers. 
 In the remaining letters I endeavoured to 
 prove, that the doctrine of the Old, is to be 
 preferred to that of the New School ; be- 
 cause it puts higher honour on the truth, 
 the justice, and the love of God ; because it 
 better guards the rights and demands of 
 the Divine law ; and because it affords a 
 
 r 
 
 brighter display of the mediatorial glory 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Committing these letters to the patronage 
 and blessing of that Almighty Redeemer 
 whose work I have endeavoured to illus- 
 trate, and whose glory I have attempted to 
 magnify, 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 THE END,