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If these were simply exemplary, it follows, of course, that only such as are capable of imitating, can derive advantage from them. Thus infants can reap no benefit from the sufferings of Christ; and all who die before they are qualified to study the example exhibited in his history must necessarily perish-a conclusion which would go directly to destroy the dearest hopes of bereaved Christian parents, did not such know assuredly that it is in direct contradiction to the testimony of him who said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.'

Such are the theories to which the enemies of the doctrine of atonement have had recourse, with the view of accounting for the sufferings of Christ. How entirely they fail, the preceding observations may help us to judge. They leave the facts of the case, in all their peculiar features, wrapt in inextricable mystery. The solution of the difficulty is to be found in the doctrine of Christ's atonement. Admit this and all is clear. Considering that he bore our iniquities, that he suffered the wrath of God, that he was exposed to all the direful consequences of God's manifested displeasure at guilt, that he drank the bitter cup of penal woe, in short that he gave his soul an offering for sin-considering this, the mystery of his intensest suffering is explained; the bitter anguish, and bloody sweat, and awful desertion, and final cry, give us no difficulty; all is natural, and easy, and consistent. On every other supposition, however, the whole is involved in impe

netrable clouds. Can we hesitate, then, what view of the subject to adopt? Truly we must say, CHRIST SUFFERED FOR SINS, THE JUST For THE UNJUST, THAT HE MIGHT BRING US TO GOD!

SECTION VIII.

PROOF-THE APOSTOLICAL WRITINGS.

THE evidence we are now to bring forward is not inferential, like that formerly adduced. It is direct, conveyed in plain didactic statements; statements, indeed, so plain, numerous, and unequivocal, as not to be mistaken without the most obstinate resistance of the light. In this department the evidence is so abundant, scattered over so wide a field, and so diversified withal, that it is not possible to convey a definite idea of it, without having recourse to a process of classification.

There are, first of all, those passages in which express mention is made of atonement or reconciliation, as effected by Christ. In our version, the former term occurs but once in the new testament :-'We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received THE ATONEMENT (Ĥv xaraλλayýv.)'* But the original word occurs in other passages :—' And all things are of God, who hath reconciled (xaraλλáğavtos) us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation (rñs xaraλλayñs); to

*Rom, v. 11.

wit, that God was in Christ reconciling (xaraλλáoow) the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation (ñs xaraλλayñs)."* Of the proper import of this term, we have before given our opinion. We have seen that reconciliation and atonement are synonymous, and that to confine the effect expressed by these terms to man, is contrary altogether to the scripture usage of them, as well as to a consistent interpretation of the passages in which they occur. That salvation implies the removal of man's moral enmity to God is frankly admitted; but this is not inconsistent with firmly maintaining that it also necessarily supposes and requires the removal of God's legal enmity to man. The party offended must be reconciled as well as the offender, before any real or permanent friendship can be effected; and this we contend is what the language we have quoted above is designed to express. The reconciliation or atonement spoken of, is said to be effected by the death of Christ; whereas the removal of the enmity of man's heart is more properly the work of the Holy Spirit. It is also represented as something synonymous with the non-imputation of trespasses, which itself is decisive of the sense in which it is to be understood; for, while the imputation of guilt presents a legal barrier to reconciliation on the part of God, it interposes no moral barrier on the part of man. Besides, the phraseology of the first of the texts is itself suffi

* Cor. v. 18, 19.

cient to determine the point :—' by whom we have now received the atonement.' To speak of a person's receiving the boon of reconciliation to God, in the sense of the removal of all legal offence, is intelligible enough; but to speak of his receiving the laying aside of his own enmity to God is, to say the least, uncouth and unnatural phraseology.

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Allied to these, and to much the same purpose, are those texts which ascribe propitiation to the work of Christ :- Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (angiov) through faith in his blood.'* 'Jesus Christ the righteous-he is the propitiation (adós) for our sins.'t Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (aoμóv) for our sins.' The corresponding verb is also used:- God be merciful (árenri) to me, a sinner.'§ A merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for (iλáoxsoba-to propitiate) the sins of the people.' The use of these terms by the Septuagint translators of the old testament, to denote the mercy-seat and the taking away of wrath by means of sacrifice, has already been mentioned. Nor does this application rest solely on their authority, for the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews gives it his high sanction, when, treating of the furniture of the ancient tabernacle, he speaks of the cherubims of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat (rò arrhgov).' The mercy-seat sprinkled

* Rom. iii. 25. † 1 John ii. 2.

§ Luke xviii. 13.

1 John iv. 10.

|| Heb. ii. 17.

¶ Heb. ix. 5.

with the blood of the sacrifice, was that to which the pious Israelite looked when imploring the pardon of sin. Over it hovered the Shekinah, or symbol of the divine presence, with reference to which Jehovah, as propitiated by sacrifice, was understood to dwell between the cherubim, and to commune with his guilty children from above the mercy-seat. Can any thing more satisfactorily determine the sense in which we are to understand the work of Christ? His death is that by which the wrath of God is appeased; by which Deity is propitiated; the grand propitiatory, with reference to which alone it is, either that God can regard man with benignity, or that man can ever approach God in the hope of being accepted.

To the same purpose are all those passages before cited, in which ransom and redemption are spoken of in connexion with the work of Christ. These terms are correlative in their import, the former denoting the sum paid for the emancipation of a prisoner or captive, the latter marking the deliverance or escape which is thus effected. The use of them with reference to man's salvation, of which we shall adduce instances immediately, shows that this salvation is brought about by the interposition of a substitute who procures the liberation of the prisoner by paying his debts, or the emancipation of the captive by tendering his ransom. Men by their sins are brought under obligations to the law and justice of God, which God can neither gratuitously fall from demanding, nor men of themselves ever implement, for reasons that have been already assigned. To the

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