Christ. It hath not flesh and bones as we see him have. It is a fearful apparition, calculated to awaken horror, rather than confidence. The conjurations of philosophy, not the inspirations of heaven. It is at war with heaven, with its "mercy and truth," with its "righteousness and peace." It is at war with Zion; it takes away the sheaf from the hungry, and causes her naked to lodge without clothing. To lean upon it, is to lean upon a shadow that declineth, and to die in its embrace, is to perish from the way. "Rock of ages, cleft for me, From thy wounded side which flowed, Cleanse me from its guilt and power." CHAPTER IV. DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES CONTINUED. The Atonement-Its sufficiency-The New School limit it in its natureThe differences respect its nature, not its extent. It is usual for opposing parties to misunderstand, and to misrepresent each other. Knowledge is limited, language an imperfect medium of communicating our ideas, and hence we are often called upon, to explain and vindicate our exact opinions. When an error has been successfully impaled, its advocates sometimes also lose their temper and assail our characters. We are not however in such an event, required to abandon the point at issue, to go out in our personal vindication. The public will do us ample justice in the end, and also the cause which we oppose, and which demands from its advocates so malicious a defence. In matters moreover of a private and personal nature, few, will feel interested, while those which relate to our peculiar religious opinions, are of general interest, affecting the hopes and fears, the wants and woes which are common to all men. These, it can seldom be inappropriate in the spirit of charity to explain, discuss, and vindicate, and it often becomes a duty to do it. "Let not your good be evil spoken of." It has occurred to me that in closing these chapters respecting the work of Christ, something ought to be said on those points, in the atonement, in which our views as Presbyterians are misrepresented, especially as in them, misrepre sentation, addresses itself to the popular prejudice, which it awakens, to the iujury of the cause of truth and righteous ness. We are said to believe that the atonement is limited in its nature it being sufficient for the salvation of the elect, but if any more should believe or be included it would require additional sufferings on the part of Christ to save them. "Those in general who hold the theological system which is called generically Calvinistic, and who hold it perhaps with equal decision and sincerity in common, though palpably not with equal correctness in degree are divided here, some holding the fullness of the atonement for all men, others the limitation of its nature, as atonement to all the finally saved.". * * * "We therefore contend for the fullness of the atonement." (Introduction to Beman on the Atonement by Dr. Cox, p. 16.) "The whole question respecting limited or general atonement is settled by the notions which we entertain of its intrinsic nature. If the atonement consisted in Christ's suffering the amount of misery due to all those who will be saved; if it were a transaction regulated by the principles of commutative justice, then we might with propriety talk of its being limited to the elect. In this case, the sufferings of the mediator, must have been measured according to the number of individuals who were to be saved.— (Beman on Atonement p. 142.) Such representations are common and the impression created is injurious because it is false.* We do not believe that the atonement is limited in its nature. Its limitation in this respect is impossible and absurd. It has a limit. All men are not included in it or saved by it; but this limit is in the purpose of God, not in the nature of the atonement; that would remain the same, whether the number of the saved, should *Though the New School are fond of representing us as limiting the Atonement in its nature, yet I am acquainted with no author who maintains this view of the subject, but Ezra Stiles Ely, D. D. a member of the New School General Assembly. 74 OLD AND NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANS. be more or less. The same is true of the mercy of Godit is infinite, because it is divine. It cannot be limited in its nature, but still it has a limit beyond which it does not extend; fallen angels and lost spirits are not included in it or saved by it the limit, however, is not in the intrinsic nature of the divine mercy but in the determinations of the divine will. The "worth and efficacy" of the atonement arises out of the divinity of Christ, its adaptation from his humanity, and its limitation from the terms of the covenant which it seals. "It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God and the power of death, give worth and efficacy to his sufferings, obedience and intercession, and to satisfy God's justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation." "It was requisite that the mediator should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow feeling of our infirmities, that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have comfort and access, with boldness unto the throne of grace." (Larger Catechism, Ans. 38, 39.) Christ is God. This gives "worth and efficacy" to his atonement; its worth and efficacy are measured by his divinity; no circumference can be found to it. Like the horizon which we approach, it widens, and widens, and widens, forever. Like the extreme points which terminate the distances of the east and the west; their separation is immeasurable ; ages which never begin and never end roll between. An ocean which rests upon no bottom, is bounded by no shore. Such is the atonement in its fullness. We are conversant with no objects within the whole range of immensity and eternity, excepting those which are absolutely infinite, which can give us any adequate illustrations of its glorious sufficiency. "Forasmuch also as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise took part of the same," obeyed and suffered, arose and ascended in our common nature; and hence arises the adaptation of his atonement to all human sinners. His human nature bears a common relation to all who possess humanity Hence the atonement in its sufficiency and in its adaptation would require no alteration were any imaginable number included in it. This view of the subject is not a novelty among Presbyterians, an alternative to which we have been recently driven in sheer self-defence. This will be seen by recurring to the above quotation from the catechism in which the sufficiency of the satisfaction of Jesus Christ, is referred to his Deity. Calvin also held "that Christ suffered sufficiently for all men, but efficiently for the elect alone." "To the honor then of Jesus Christ our Mediator, God and man, our all sufficient Redeemer, we affirm, that such and so great was the dignity and worth of his death and blood shedding, of so precious a value, of such an infinite fullness and sufficiency was this oblation of himself, that it was every way able and perfectly sufficient to redeem, justify, reconcile and save, all the sinners in the world, and to satisfy the justice of God for all the sins of all mankind, and to bring them every one to everlasting glory. Now, this fullness and sufficiency of the merit of the death of Christ, is a foundation unto two things, viz: The general publishing of the gospel unto all nations, with the right that it hath to be preached to every creature, (Mat. xx. 6. Mark xvi. 15.) Because the way of salvation which it declares, is wide enough for all to walk in; there is enough in the remedy it brings to light, to heal all their diseases, to deliver them from all their evils: if there were a thousand worlds, the gospel of Christ might, upon this ground, be preached to them all; there being enough in it for the salvation of them all, if so be, they will desire virtue from him by touching him in faith, the only way to draw refreshment from |