and with the convicted publican, cries, "God be merciful to me a sinner!”

Then, indeed, he finds mercy. Then it is, that the eye of faith opens to behold the Lamb of God, and pardon and life descend upon his soul. Put not this doctrine aside as the mere tenet or dogma of a sect.

Every individual has in it an interest as important as his everlasting welfare. Not one, who has not an immortal soul, which, unless renewed by grace, is at this moment enthralled in the terrible guilt and bondage of this depravity. Unless deliverance for that soul is obtained, in this brief day of proffered grace, it must wear its chains forever! O, there is an awful import in those scriptures, which describe the condition of the soul when abandoned to the full dominion of its depravity;-chains, darkness, despair, forever doing the terrible work of sin upon the spirit—shutting it in from the glorious light of God, and making it a prey to the worm that never dies, and to the fires that shall never be quenched.

Is it possible that there is such a doom in prospect, and will you sleep over it? When will you hear what God has spoken? Ah! the flattering delusion will soon be over-the stern realities of death and judgment are fast upon us. Unless you awake to the offer of grace, your redemption will soon cease-you must die in sin-die forever!

CHAPTER VI.

NATURE OF ATONEMENT.

THE Christian atonement is hailed by believers as an occasion for holy joy.* Scorned by the unbeliev ing, as dishonorable to God and needless to man, to the truth-illumined eye it is the brightest gem in the crown of the Godhead, and the only hope of a lost world. What a spectacle must the human race have presented to holy intelligencies above, if we may suppose them to have looked upon it before the light of the atonement dawned. Mankind without even the disposition to return to God, and even if they had the disposition, the offended law having demands which they could never satisfy, no other alternative could have appeared but the complete triumph of the adversary in the remediless ruin of the entire race.

With the light of the atonement a new morning dawned on our world, whose beams shot upwards even into the angelic heavens. A brighter era opened, even

*Rom. v. 11.

there; a more glorious developement was made to celestial beings of the riches of the wisdom and glory of God.* Accordingly when the fulness of the promised time had come, angel-voices were heard singing in the skies, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will to men." And we are divinely taught, that the scheme of human redemption excites such interest in heaven, that it by way of eminence comprehends the "things the angels desire to look into." And yet man, the being most of all interested in it, the being who ought of all others to press it to his heart with tears of grateful joy, in the vain conceit of his own wisdom, is first to pronounce it folly and bid it away.

But the strength of his objections, apart from the sinful hostility of heart, lies mainly in false views of it. Hence the best refutation of objections, is a clear and accurate presentation of the doctrine. Before proceeding therefore to the scriptural proof of the doctrine, let us endeavor to understand what it is.

The Christian Atonement is a provision divinely made by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, for the salvation of men.

I know not how at once better to obviate objections, and present a scriptural view of the doctrine, than by exhibiting it in the following particulars :-This atonement is gracious, propitiatory, necessary, vicarious, moral, sufficient, and unlimited.

* Eph. iii. 10. † Luke ii. 14. ‡ 1 Pet. i. 12,

1. GRACIOUS. It is a provision dictated by feelings purely gracious on the part of the entire Godhead. It has been said, by objectors, to imply feelings in the Father directly the reverse of these-feelings of vindictiveness towards us;-that it supposes him to have had revenge in his heart, which must be gratified, and which, it is said, ought rather to fall on the guilty than on the innocent. Advantage has been taken of a somewhat unguarded use of certain bold poetic figures, to make the atonement teach that the Father actually vented his anger towards us upon his innocent Son, and thus to make it exhibit him in a most repulsive light ; while the Son is all grace. Hence distinguished writers have maintained that the doctrine of the atonement eclipses the character of God, and shrouds the universe in an awful gloom.

A more melancholy misapprehension cannot be imagined. All the persons of the Godhead are equally gracious in this transaction. One in essence, the Father and the Son are also morally one in the work of redemption. It was in reference to this, that Christ said, "I and my Father are one.”* As much as to say, This is no divided transaction-we are one in heart and one in action in this glorious enterprise.' It was as gracious on the part of the Father to give up his Son to the ignominious death of the cross, as it was on the part of the Son to give up himself, and on the part of the Holy Ghost to endure grief and insult, in this work of reclaiming sinners. The atonement,

*John. x. 30.

therefore, correctly viewed, so far from imputing vindictiveness to the Father, pre-eminently invests him with a character of unmingled and amazing benevolence. Here is the true account of the matter-" God SO LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life."*

2.

PROPITIATORY.

The apostle Paul says of Christ, referring to his atoning sacrifice, "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 past."+ And St. John says, "He is the propitiation for our sins." It has been sometimes represented that the design of the atonement was to act upon God the Father-to allay his anger, and render him propitious. This error has done immense evil, in prejudicing men against the atonement. It was not to render God propitious that the atonement was made, but to remove the obstacles of violated law in the way of his exercising his propitiousness. God loved us with the love of compassion, and was disposed to be propitious towards us, therefore he provided this atonement to secure the ends of law, and declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. Such is the plain scriptural presentation of the subject. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”||

3. NECESSARY. It is objected that the atonement reflects no glory on the divine wisdom; for, it is said,

*John iii. 16. † Rom. iii. 25. + 1 John ii. 2.

|| 1 John iv. 10.