will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Eph. i. 5. To maintain, then, that God elects men, in time or in eternity, because of any qualities of faith or holiness which he sees or anticipates to be in them, is to undermine the doctrine of free grace, to call in question the utter depravity of human nature, to suppose that the sinner begins to act in his salvation before God, and to say, in effect, that men are born of the will of the flesh, and not of the will of God.

We are quite aware of what is inadequately pleaded on behalf of conditional election. It is contended that God bestows a measure of his Spirit upon all men, sufficient to enable them to believe on Christ. But if it be so, this bestowment or act of God must have been purposed, and purposed from eternity; and is not this universal gift of the Spirit, then, something, after all, very like the doctrine of election? If the donation of the Spirit vouchsafed secures the sinner's salvation, then the purposed act, on the part of God, involves the very decree of personal election professedly rejected; if it be not sufficient of itself for salvation, without a measure of superadded grace, then God does more for the salvation of some than others; and this measure of special grace, by whatever name it may be known, is the offspring of that sovereign purpose of election for which Calvinists contend.

The whole matter may be thus resolved: If men are saved by means of the simple exercise of their own faculties, under that general system of means and influences, common to all who enjoy the privileges of the Gospel, then is their salvation attributable, not to any special or peculiar act of grace, but to their own wise and suitable improvement of means and influences common to all; in which case no decree of personal election can be necessary, inasmuch as the decision for God and heaven is taken by the sinner himself, and the thing that distinguishes him from others is not so much the grace of God as his own successful use of means and influences, which others have failed to turn to an equally beneficial account; it is not so much God that has wrought in him "to will and to do of his own good pleasure," as that he himself, by a dexterous use of God's merciful provisions, has brought himself into a state of faith, acceptance, and new obedience.

If, on the other hand, the salvation of

men is not the result of any general system of means or influences, but of a special and peculiar exertion of Divine power and love, then two things are clear: 1st, That this act of sovereign mercy must have been decreed; and, 2dly, from its very nature, the decree must have been unconditional-that is, free, sovereign, unrestrained. This appears to us to be the real state of the case, as set forth in the living oracles. How does Paul to Timothy explain the nature of conversion, the Divine power as displayed in it, and the decree of God in Christ Jesus as its source? "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Tim. i. 9. And what is all this but the simple assertion of that precious doctrine of grace which Paul taught the Ephesians? But God," says he, "who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 4—10.

Upon the whole, then, we conclude, that as men are called, regenerated, justified, sanctified, and finally glorified, as so many distinguishing acts of the God of grace, there must have been a decree or purpose embracing all these several acts; upon the simple principle, that God does what he decrees, and decrees what he does. And what is all this but a distinct proclamation of the grand truth, that "Salvation is of the Lord?"

It is the election of grace that renders certain the salvation of any sinner; and all the steps of a sinner's return to God, from the first movement of penitence to his entrance into glory, are but so many developments of God's eternal and inscrutable plan. "So that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Rom. ix. 16. When the top-stone of the spiritual building shall be brought forth to the view of an admiring universe, it will

be amidst "shoutings of GRACE-GRACE unto it." Zech. iv. 7. The review of eternity will draw forth from the enraptured lips of all the redeemed the devout acknowledgment,-" Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake."

N. B. The writer of the above Essay begs to call the attention of the readers of the Evangelical Magazine to Dr.

Payne's "Lectures on Divine Sovereignty," &c., p. 51, for a fuller development of the doctrine contended for. He very cheerfully acknowledges his obligations to the Doctor for many of the trains of thought introduced.

In the February number of the Magazine the writer proposes to answer objections to the doctrine of election, and to exhibit its moral influence. Chelsea.

J. M.

THE very term redemption, as a designation of Christianity, seems to assume the doctrine of atonement as one of its fundamental principles; and there is no proper sense in which its blessed Author can be regarded as the Redeemer of mankind, unless his death be contemplated as vicarious and propitiatory. Atonement, therefore, may be considered as impressing its own distinguishing and peculiar character upon this great economy of moral government. Whatever of Divine and glorious it may reveal, this surpasses all. It is the sun in the system, the foundation of the edifice. Of this both its enemies and its friends seem to be equally aware. Both are equally persuaded that if this falls, it falls like a strong man, pulling down with it the very pillars of Christianity."

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It must, however, be admitted, that there is in this doctrine something extremely remote from ordinary apprehension. Analogies cannot reach it, and it lies beyond the province of human invention The scheme of which it forms an essential part is an economy, which can be viewed only in its own light; and the arguments which support it must be drawn from the evidences of a Divine origin, which its Almighty Author has impressed upon it.

It is true, there are some traces in history of persons supposed to have presented themselves as vicarious offerings for relatives or connexions, yet they are feebly attested; while among the well attested records of judicial authority, we have no instance, probably, of any person, who was himself innocent and upright, being admitted as a substitute in behalf of the guilty. Yet, says Mr. Hall, on whose authority we have ventured

to make this assertion, that this is the way in which the infinite mind has proceeded in laying the foundation of human acceptance none can doubt, but those who are disposed to torture the plainest expressions of holy Scripture.

The universal practice of the heathen world, from the earliest ages to the present, in offering expiatory and piacular sacrifices, furnishes no other proof in favour of the Divine appointment, than as it implies all original communication from heaven, which ignorance and superstition have grossly perverted and abused. In other instances, universal belief, accompanied by a corresponding practice, affords a strong presumption that the principle is interwoven with the original constitution of man; that it is the dictate of natural religion, which, when recognised by a professed revelation from God, becomes a collateral testimony to the validity of its pretensions. Thus the belief and worship of a Deity, so universal without a Divine revelation, are accepted as rational evidence in behalf of a system which makes him known, and inculcates the duties which he has a right to enforce. But it is not so with the universal prevalence of sacrifices designed to appease his wrath and to propitiate his favour. This universality, when viewed in connexion with the sacrifices themselves and the sentiments they inspire, or in which they originate, is an anomaly in human nature, and an evidence of its total depravity; a practice unsupported by reason, repugnant to feeling, opposed by interest, and contrary to religion, can only be sought in the corruption of the human heart acting upon its superstitious fears, to the complete annihilation of virtue and piety. Such have been all the

sacrifices which have been offered, since the patriarchal ages down to the present time, among the unenlightened nations of the earth; and they can only be accounted for on the admission that the first revelation of mercy to apostate man founded religion on the basis of an atoning sacrifice as the grand means of effecting his reconciliation with his offended Maker. Perhaps it may be affirmed of all false religions, that they are perversions of the true; that they are not so much original inventions, as debasing counterfeits; a lie, as contradistinguished from the truth, which they first dethrone and then personate. It is thus, and thus only, that the universal prevalence of oblation and sacrifice supports the great doctrine of redemption; in every other view, it is directly opposed to that doctrine, and to the entire system of which it is the distinction and glory. This system, indeed, it absolutely supersedes, obliterating its character, and leading the mind to the furthest conceivable distance from the sphere of its influence. The doctrine of expiation by sacrifice is maintained; but the nature of sin is altogether misapprehended, and its guilt represented as removed by so mean an equivalent as a slaughtered animal or a sinful human creature. It is rather considered as an incentive to new offences, and is generally presented in shocking alliance with obscene rites and the most loathsome depravity. Even in the least offensive instances, it never represents the guilt of sin as thus removed by the appointment of the Deity; this it never traces as the result of his purpose in the sacrifice of the victim; nor does it regard the victim itself as provided by him, and that victim an object infinitely dear to his heart. It neither pacifies the conscience nor purifies the heart. It is always a monstrous and debasing exhibition of ignorance, weakness, guilt, and terror; a vain and a wicked expedient to insult and then to propitiate a Being of infinite purity and justice. It makes mercy the pander to crime, relaxes all the bonds of moral obligation, dissociates man from man, and destroys for ever those who dare to confide in its efficacy.

We come, therefore, to the atonement effected by the sacrifice of the Son of God, unassisted by any reasonings to be derived from the analogies which are to be found in the universal practice of mankind. We must refer its whole consideration to the discoveries which God has

been pleased to vouchsafe. We have no guide but revelation. Here, and here only, must we learn the nature of the oblation, andt he principles on which it is founded. And here we find it associated with symbolical representations, with promises and predictions, with historical records, with the sentiments of piety, with civil polity, with ecclesiastical institutions, with amazing miracles, with doctrines of infinite moment, with wondrous moral transformations, with human destiny, with the Divine glory, with the songs of angels, and the consummated bliss of the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven. Here we are presented with the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This great sacrifice is every where recognised; and under every form calculated to reveal its design, to impress its importance, to secure its reception, and to maintain its influence. Yet such is the awful mysteriousness of this one great subject of revelation, that in its discussion we shall do well to adore and to inquire, to believe while we investigate, and to investigate that we may more firmly believe.

ATONEMENT, as another term for redemption or satisfaction, "is a provision for guarding the laws of eternal wisdom; so that the goodness of the Divine government may sustain no disparagement in receiving transgressors to favour, and in conferring upon them the riches of infinite benevolence.* The atonement of Christ is the effect of his sacrifice, which though only once offered, in the fulness of time, when he died a violent and ignominious death upon the cross, was, previous to the event, revealed in its purpose and, subsequently in its consummation, to the faith and hope of every age since the apostacy of man." Again, ، sacrifice, in its proper acceptation, is the solemn infliction of death on a living creature, generally by effusion of its blood in a way of religious worship; and the presenting of this act to the Deity as a supplication for the pardon of sin, and a supposed mean of compensation for the insult and injury thereby offered to his Majesty and government.'

On a superficial view, all these circumstances do not appear to meet in the oblation of Christ at the time when

it was actually presented. He was numbered not with the devout, but

Vide Dr. Pye Smith's invaluable work, entitled, "Five Discourses on the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and on Atonement and Redemption."

with malefactors at his death; and by wicked hands he was crucified and slain. He fell the victim of foul conspiracy and atrocious violence. But it ought to be remembered, that his death was a voluntary act of his own; that as the Great High Priest he offered himself to God, and that at the very moment this costly sacrifice was bleeding, it imparted efficacy to all the prayers that have ever ascended with acceptance from this guilty world to the throne of his heavenly Father; that it is the penitent's only effectual plea for mercy; so that the solemnities of worship on which Heaven smiles with approbation, are intimately associated with this one offering for sin. It is the sacrifice which, ever since the fall, has been constantly before the throne, and there it will remain as a memorial for ever of guilt remitted, in perfect consistency with all the principles of the Divine government, and as the brightest manifestation of all the perfections of the Divine nature. But interesting and delightful as are the relations which the atonement bears to the salvation of sinners, the piety of saints, the felicity of heaven, and the manifestations of God; it is of the greatest moment that we should view it in its relations to the moral legislation of the universe, especially as the general system bears upon the human race in their state of guilt and condemnation.

The existence of creatures implies almost of necessity the existence of laws suited to their nature by which they are governed. All rational creatures are accountable; and the laws by which they are regulated disclose the grand principles of moral government, which hold the same rank in the intellectual system that the laws of matter and motion do in the physical. None of these laws can be arbitrary; they are the result of infinite wisdom, and must be what they are, and only what they are, in relation to the particular nature to which they are applied. Change the laws, and the creatures they were intended to govern must change with them; or if they remain the same, the great end of government in reference to them must be defeated. In the moral government of rational beings, any change in the principles of legislation would not only affect the governed, so as to destroy the essential differences between good and evil, but the character of the Divine Lawgiver would be utterly compromised, and the integrity of his

throne, based as it is on eternal justice, for ever lost. God is immutable in his nature, and he is equally immutable in his will. His laws are the expression of that will. As they regard himself, they emanate from his holiness, or the moral harmony of all his perfections; as they apply to the intelligent creation, they may be summed up in one word-JusTICE. This justice has well been described as remunerative or punitive. By it sanctions are annexed to laws which are as important and necessary as the laws themselves. Perfect conformity to the will of the Deity thus expressed, imparts all the happiness of which the creature is susceptible; deviation or transgression, naturally and constitutionally, according to the moral order of the universe, involves it in corresponding misery—that is, it brings upon the culprit the denounced punishment; and punishment is defined to be "some suffering of natural and positive evil inflicted as the desert of moral evil upon an accountable and offending being, by a competent authority, and according to a law previously made known." Natural punishment is the necessary result of sin. Positive punishment is the infliction of the penalty denounced against sin in the sanction of the law which has been violated: both comprehended in one word-DEATH; and this death is described in the Scriptures in language which borrows its illustrations from all that is most terrific in the powers of visible nature, involving at the same time all that is fearful and amazing in spiritual and invisible torment. Neither the law of God, nor these its glorious and tremendous sanctions, are capable of abrogation, except on the principle of arbitrary government; on the principle of changing the character of the Most High, and hazarding all that is good and holy in the universe. Dr. Pye Smith observes on this subject, with his usual acuteness and power of discrimination, "Were we even to concede that the Deity could remit the positive punishment of sin by a determination of his gracious will, yet this would not effect the salvation of the sinner;" it would be mere forbearance, and the sinner would be left to feel the natural and necessary consequences of his sin. "These," the Doctor adds, "are not inflictions, but they are events and states of things which follow of themselves, according to the general constitutions of the universe; the laws of intellectual and moral nature

constitutions and laws which are essential to the harmony and well-being of God's entire world. To intercept this course of things, which infinite wisdom and goodness have established, to prevent these effects from ensuing, where their proper causes have already occurred, is not a case of forbearing to act; it is the exact reverse, it is a case of acting. It would be an interference of the Deity to suspend the operation of his own laws, to cut off the connexion between the cause and the effect, to change the course of nature; it would be to work a miracle ;" a miracle to subvert for ever all the principles of moral government. It is, indeed, conceded, that if man be saved, his guilt pardoned, his nature renewed, and immortal felicity conferred upon him, that a series of miracle must be wrought. But the Almighty Ruler, consistently with the principles and integrity of his wise government, may work a thousand miracles, and each shed a peculiar lustre upon his character; while he could not perform one in contravention of those principles of order and rectitude without tarnishing his glory, and defeating the very end of his administration-the happiness of the universe.

The race of mankind, presented as criminals before the bar of justice, must be either condemned or pardoned; and the great question is, can mercy be extended to them as a mere act of clemency, irrespective of the principles of moral government, and with the certain effect of totally subverting them; or can the guilt of these offenders be remitted on the principles of law and administrative wisdom? In other words, is their salvation to be resolved into an act of arbitrary will or absolute power; or is it to become a question of law and government, to be regulated by the dictates of wisdom, goodness, justice, and consistency? We can only answer this question by a reference to the revealed will of Heaven. With regard to mercy, as an original and essential attribute of the Divine nature, it is not for us to prescribe on whom or how it should be exercised.

We know "his mercy endureth for ever." Yet we must allow him to select its objects, and to determine upon the principles of its manifestation. Now from himself we have learned that he "so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but

VOL. XVI.

have everlasting life." In the only records of his mercy with which it is possible for us to become acquainted, we are assured that he has chosen to exercise it in the way of mediation and atonement; that if it has pleased him to pardon rebels of mankind, not by subverting his law or repealing its terrible sanctions, but by changing the mode of his administration; carrying into effect his threatenings against sin by appointing a substitute and a sacrifice in the place of the sinner. And here let it be specially observed, that "the change is not in the mind or character of the Supreme Ruler, but it is in the administration of his government, and in those outward acts by which that administration is indicated. The change is in the order of moral right, the effect of an adequate cause. This cause lies in the whole mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ; but most particularly and essentially in his sufferings and death." The proof and illustration of this from the Scriptures will form the subject of our next communication; in the meantime, and in conclusion, it will be important to reflect on the peculiar relation in which mankind were placed to the Divine government; and which rendered their condition, after the apostacy of Adam, susceptible of relief by the intervention of atonement effected by mortal suffering and sacrifice. We refer to the federal constitution under which they were placed in the person of the progenitor of their race. We know

of no other order of beings to whom this economy of moral government has been applied. It does not seem that the nature of angels admits of such a principle; they stand in no relation to each other tantamount to that which grows out of consanguinity. They inherited no moral taint; they did not spring into life under circumstances which placed their happiness in any other jeopardy than that which arose from mere individual choice. Each stood on the ground of his own personal probation. Every sinning angel, prior to his rebellion, possessed a nature superior to man. He was not only as free from sin as Adam in paradise, but was always surrounded with all the incentives to continue in holiness derived from pure spirituality of essence and intimate converse with God on the mountain of the Divine presence. Redemption seems to belong naturally to the federal constitution, and to be inapplicable to all moral economies constructed on a different

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