the character of divine veracity. If the atonement consist in the literal suffering of the real penalty due to a certain number of offenders, it is evident that the identical penalty due to the others has not been suffered, and consequently that there is no provision whatever made and designed for their salvation. This commercial atonement gives the sinner no alternative. The penalty must be suffered before he can be saved; and if Christ has not suffered it for him, he must suffer it himself; and if he suffer it himself he will not survive it, he will be lost-and lost because the quantum of his punishment was not enumerated in the amount of penalties allotted for atonement. Yet he is condemned and punished for not availing himself of the sufferings of Christ as the means of his salvation, whereas, according to the true verity of the case, these sufferings were never provided or intended, or designed to be at all available for him: it was never decreed that Christ should profit him. If the divine purposees run thus, the universal aspect of the atonement is an imposing semblance; the urgent general call of the gospel is serious trifling; and the condemnation for unbelief-for not believing what was really not true,-for rejecting what he verily was never welcome to,-such a condemnation is an enormity, for which all the languages of the globe have no epithet. The friends of a particular and limited atonement argue that the Father's election, and the Son's redemption, are of the same extent, or relate to the same individual persons, to all such, and to none else: so that all the chosen people are redeemed, and all the redeemed are the chosen to salvation. They also plead that there is not in the scriptures the least intimation that Christ's redemption either exceeds or falls short of the Father's election, in one single instance or individual person. The fallacy of this argument is in the word "redemption." This word has various meanings. Redemption means, either the ransom price, or the price of redemption—or it means, the act of paying down that price; or else, by metonymy, it means the effect of such a payment, meaning the state produced by such a ransoming. This effect in the case of a sinner is, a state of forgiveness, acceptance with God, and admission to heaven. In the above argument the effect of paying the ransom price is confounded with the act of paying it. In the argument, "redemption" means the effect, the final result of paying the price. This final result of the atonement will not derange any of the plans of God, as to his determination to exercise sovereign speciality in the application of the atonement. Our question is, was the act of paying the ransom price by Christ designed to be available to all, so "that the world through him might be saved," or only designed for a certain chosen number. We say fearlessly, that the final results of the atonement will only be realized by those who receive Christ, and to whom it has been given to believe in him; but the act of making that atonemennt, and the offer of the benefits of the atonement are designed and purposed to be a medium of salvation to all men, without excluding one individual. If the word "redemption" be taken in the sense of "actual salvation," then Christ's redemption neither exceeds, nor falls short of, the Father's election. If "redemption" be taken in the sense of paying down the ransom price, or a valuable and honorable consideration, as a medium for delivering sinners, then Christ's redemption and the Father's election are not commensurate and of equal extent, taking "the Father's election" as meaning the will of God revealed in the final results of the atonement. It is supposed, even by our Savior himself, that the result will not be commensurate with the gracious design of God, and with the large aspect of the atonement. God loved the world, and gave his Son, that the world through him might be saved-but it is only whosoever believeth in him, it is he only that will answer the design, and share in the result of the atonement. The atonement is a measure of government, not of private love and friendship, but of a public commonwealth. In such a public measure, the public will of the Father, as moral governor, and the public design and intent of Christ, as mediator, are commensurate. God willeth all men to be saved, therefore Christ gave himself a ransom for all. From the divine purposes, the advocates of a limited atonement argue, that since Christ foreknew the results of the atonement, and since he foreknew who would believe in him, why should he die and lavish his blood for those who, he knew, would not believe in him. This argument is founded on three things, which are wrong, and inconsistent with moral government. It is supposed, first, that foreknowledge is the rule of Christ's conduct and actions; secondly, that to save believers was the chief end of his sufferings; and, thirdly, that his death consisted in suffering the identical punishment due to sinners; for it supposes, that he would not knowingly suffer the punishment of those, who, he knew, should suffer the punishment themselves. If the question be repeated, Why did he suffer for those, whom he knew to be sure to prove unbelievers? The reply is, he suffered to vindicate the character of God in offering pardon to them and he suffered, to shew how inexcusable they would be in their own destruction. But why should this foreknowledge be confined to the atonement of Christ only? The Lord Jesus Christ knew that his own would receive him not, yet he came to them. He knew that the Jews would reject the overtures of his ministry, yet he said, and he said it with tears of regret, that he would oft have gathered them. He knew that many would neglect his great salvation, yet he gave himself a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. I might remark, in passing, that he would not have foreknown that any would disbelieve in him, without foreknowing that they would have the offer, the warrant, and the opportunity to believe in him, and that the ground of such an offer and warrant was his own death for them. Another argument from the character of the divine decrees to maintain particular atonement is, that a general atonement throws an air of uncertainty around the plans and the purposes of God and of disappointment around the travails of the soul of Christ. It must be remembered that we are concerned in the divine decrees, only as they are administered within the circle of moral government: and that beyond that line they are "secret things," unrevealed, and belonging to God only. Within this boundary, it should not be evaded nor blinked, that the divine plans are susceptible of failures. When God by Isaiah remonstrates with the Jewish church, and asks, "What could I have done more?" it is implied that all the measures which had been used, had failed of their ends. It is implied in the sentiments of Jesus Christ himself, when he supposes his Father to say, "They will reverence my Son," though after all he was slain and murdered. It is therefore a morbid squeamishness that makes us afraid to avow what are daily matters of fact. This failure has taken place in creation--it was made "very good," but now is groaning and travailing together in pain. It takes place in providence, for in it God has determined the bounds of men's habitation, that they might seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him; but they are all gone astray, every one in his own way. It takes place in the atonement; Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but unto him who died for them but many deny the Lord that bought them, and renounce his reign over them. It is sometimes vauntingly asked, "Where does the scriptures speak of Christ's death, and the ends of it, in terms of uncertainty; or represent him as coming short of his aim and intention in dying for sinners?" In Heb. iv. 1, the apostle warns some who might seem to come short for the rest of the people of God. God has no rest to offer to any sinner but through the death of Christ. To fall short of it is a possible case, and no one can fall short of a thing that was never provided and intended for him. This rest could not have been provided but through the death of Christ. It is a supposable case that an uncharitable Christian may "destroy him for whom Christ died," and cause a "weak brother to perish, for whom Christ died;"-that men may deny the Lord that bought them, and bring destruction upon themselves. - I may here be interrogated, "How do you reconcile the liableness to failure in the divine measures, with the certainty that God's counsel shall stand, and that he will do his pleasure?" I state at once, most frankly and distinctly, that I do not know how to reconcile them. I believe it is not my duty to reconcile them; and that to be able to reconcile them, is not necessary to make me to answer the great ends of my probation here. The present administration is not the time and place to reconcile them. A belief in particular atonement does not at all remove the difficulty. A limited atonement may seem to tally with the certainty of the actual and final results of the death of Christ, but it clashes most gratingly against the indisputable verities, the universal aspect of the atonement, the sincere invitations of the gospel, and the sorer punishment of unbelievers. This difficulty cannot be avoided by escaping to any other creed. It presses on the Heathen and the Mahometan, upon the Jew and the Christian. Philosophers, metaphysicians, and theologians, have endeavored with Herculean labors, to push this subject up to light and distinctness; but after all, like the stone of Sisyphus, it rolls back to its own awful mystery and dread profundity. There never was a creed on the face of the earth, and there exists not a creed, that accounts for the difficulty. Yes, there is one, but it is a creed so severely simple, so unsophisticated with metaphysical reasonings, and so unamalgamating with theological systems, that few deign to take it up; it is the creed of Jesus Christ, "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight," the creed that "judges nothing before the time," the creed that sings, "God is his own interpreter, |