allusion. If, by the terms partial representation, and figure, our Author had only meant that kind of figure, where a part is put for the whole, I should have had no objection to his assertion; but then his argument would have contained nothing against the reality of forgiveness being dispensed on account of the mediatorial undertaking of Christ; his death, resurrection, and intercession, being parts of this, and coinciding with the idea of his making a real sacrifice for sin, as I have already shewn.

17. Many negative arguments, besides those I have taken notice of, are urged against the doctrine of atonement in the " Theological Repository," among which are placed the promises of certain happiness to the righteous, and the threatenings of misery to the wicked; the prayers of holy men recorded in the Old Testament, in which they implore the mercy of God for the pardon of their sins, and make profession of their own sincerity; and the like. I think it quite needless to give a particular answer to every argument of this kind, though our Author thinks them to be of consequence in this debate. "With me, I own," says he, these negative arguments have great weight.

When I find a profound silence concerning this supposed great doctrine of atonement, upon occasions on which I cannot help thinking it would naturally have occurred; when I do not find that frequent mention of it, and that stress laid upon it, which its importance would certainly require; when I find no trace of it in any direct message from God, or in any fact recorded in the sacred writings; I cannot help thinking that divines must have been mistaken concerning its supposed truth and importance;" page 266.

I readily allow that the Scriptures are silent with respect to this doctrine upon occasions on which this Author thinks it would have occurred, had it been true; and if he will inform me, why divine revelation was not given to mankind at first in its greatest degree of clearness, without the slow succession of dispensations, the last always improving on those which preceded; and why men were left to wait four thousand years before" life and immortality were brought to light," though they had message upon message from God in that long interval; I will then acquaint him why the doctrine of atonement was not clearly revealed on those occasions on which he thinks it ought to have been taught, if it

were a doctrine of divine revelation.* I leave the reader to judge, when he has considered what I have urged in defence of this doctrine, whether or not there are "traces of it in direct messages from God, and in facts, recorded in the sacred writings."

his

18. Our Author has attempted to shew, in "Familiar Illustration," that many of those passages of Scripture, which are usually brought to prove the doctrine of atonement, will admit of a natural interpretation upon other principles. In his introduction to these

criticisms he says, that the death of Christ

being compared to so many things, 'and things of such different natures,” as a sacrifice, a passover, a ransom," &c. " proves that the

*

I might here have answered our Author in his own words, inserting the term atonement instead of a future state; for thus he argues concerning the latter. "To ask why this important doctrine of a future state was not revealed, or not revealed with the same fulness of evidence before the time of Christ, or why it is not known at present to the whole world, is the same thing as to ask, why, in all the works of nature and providence, and in all the dispensations of God to mankind, a similar gradation is observed, and why nothing under the government of God is brought to perfection at once."-" Theological Repository," vol. i. page 36.

resemblance in all of them is only in certain respects, and that they differ considerably in others.-These," says he, "are all bold, but significant figures of speech, the death of Christ really corresponding to them all to a certain degree; but they differ so widely from one another, that no one thing can correspond to any of them throughout; for then it must exclude all, or at least most of the rest." Illustration," page 47.

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There is no necessity to suppose, that each circumstance of every institution which was designed to typify the method of our redemption by Christ, should have something corresponding to it in the antitype; because many, if not all, of those institutions, had other purposes to answer, besides that of being types of our redemption. The propitiatory sacrifices, as I have already observed, were branches of a political law, and had an immediate reference to crimes committed against God as Civil Governor. Various circumstances belonging to them might be needful in this respect, which were not intended to be typical. The same may be said with regard to the passover, and other types of Christ. Besides, so many things were to be prefigured concerning our Redeemer, that no one institution could exhibit them all, and therefore it

was necessary that different types should be appointed. The whole ceremonial law did but afford an imperfect resemblance of the things it typified; it was but "the shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things."

19. It is asserted, that "sacrifices for sin under the law of Moses are never considered as standing in the place of the sinner." Ib. page 49.

The expression "standing in the place of the sinner," is somewhat ambiguous: it may mean either suffering precisely the same punishment to which the sinner was obnoxious, or suffering what is sufficient to free the sinner from punishment. It is in the latter sense only that Christ is our substitute. He did not suffer precisely the same punishment which we deserve on account of our sins, for that is eternal death, or the being given up to a state of perfect sin and misery for ever; but he suffered what is sufficient to free the offender from this deserved punishment, in the way prescribed in the word of God. And in this sense, it is evident, the propitiatory sacrifices under the law stood in the place of the sinner; for the death of the animal, according to the ritual, freed him from that punishment, to which,