Immanuel unto death, its precepts and its penalty have been declared to be just and reasonable and good. More honour has been done to the one than would have been rendered, if all mankind had persevered in sinless obedience: and higher honour put on the other, than if it had been inflicted on our whole race. Let it not be objected, that the character of a substitute and representative is unknown to the law. Not so. The principle of representation was connected with it in its first operation on man; for, in the first covenant, Adam was constituted the federal head and representative of all his natural posterity: and if the world was ruined under such a dispensation without any reflecon the justice or goodness of the Almighty Creator, how can it be deemed inconsistent with these attributes of his nature, to establish a new and similar dispensation, for its recovery to holiness and happiness? That there is a striking analogy between the way in which we were ruined and the way in which we are recovered, is plainly taught in holy scripture. Having run a parallel between Christ and Adam, whom he styles "the FIGURE of him that was to come," and the corresponding effects of the of fence of the latter, and of the righteousness of the former, the apostle adds, "For as by ONE MAN's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of ONE shall many be made righteous." Rom. v. 14-19. And, in 1 Cor. xv. 22, he asserts the same analogy; "for as IN Adam all die, so IN Christ shall all be made alive;” meaning, not as the Universalists teach, that all men will be ultimately saved by Christ, but that all who are in Christ, united to him by faith, and represented by him in his mediatorial work, shall be raised from the dead to the enjoyment of an immortal life of happiness and glory; just as all united to Adam by natural generation and by the relation established by the original covenant or constitution made with him as their representative, have become subject to death in all its terrible forms.

From this comparison, it is easy to see which of the two theories reflects the highest honour on the divine law. The one maintains its righteous demands in all their extent, and exhibits them as gloriously fulfilled in the life and death of the Son of God for all his people while the other prostrates them and with them, the truth of God in the dust.

The Redeemer's Glory.

It remains only to show, that, as the views of the old school reflect higher honour on the perfections and law of God, than those of the new, so they present a nobler and more scriptural tribute of praise to the great Redeemer.

The atonement, says Mr. Beman, merely opened the door of mercy to fallen man. The writer of Dialogues, while he admits that Christ died with an intention to save the elect, and not others, and that he satisfied public justice, denies that he made any satisfaction to distributive justice, and affirms that the gift of Christ resulted from no special love of Jehovah to his chosen, but from that general benevolence in which all share, and that common compassion which is not denied even to the damned. Others represent the atonement as consisting in an exhibition of the evil of sin, and in a declaration of God's hatred of it and its desert of punishment; and affirm that, if not one soul were saved, the proper end of the death of Christ would be answered, and its full effect produced.

With these views of our brethren we cannot accord. They are either erroneous or defective. They detract from the honour due to the atonement of our blessed Lord; they remove it from that central and all important point in the scheme of salvation, which inspired writers have assigned to it; and they detract from it the glory of effects which it really produces. That it opened the door of hope and mercy to this wretched world is certain; but we regard it also as the meritorious cause of our salvation. While we admit a display of the evil of sin, of its desert of punishment, and of God's hatred of it, and of his justice, to be the result of the atonement; we maintain its true nature to consist in making satisfaction for sin. The idea that the end of the atonement would have been answered, although none of our fallen race had been saved, we reject as entirely derogatory to the wisdom of God and the merits of his Son; contending that, as an atonement carries in its nature the notion of a satisfaction, the salvation of all who were given to the Redeemer must certainly follow in the manner and time agreed upon in the eternal counsels of the Holy Trinity; and that to have left their salvation uncertain, as it would have reflected on Infinite Wisdom, so it would have been inconsistent with the infinite value of the price paid for their redemption. We make the atonement of Jesus Christ the procuring cause of every blessing bestowed on the church, both in this and the next world.

In my third letter (pp. 174, 175) it was shown, that the inspired writers represent every blessing of salvation as the fruit of Christ's death: such as forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, peace, adoption, sanctification, and the heavenly inheritance. Now, it is plain such a representation could not be properly made, if the death of Christ merely opened the door of hope and mercy. These blessings ought, in that case, to be denominated

the fruit of Divine grace ONLY, and not of the atonement; but as the atonement did really merit them for sinners, they are justly represented as the fruit, at once of the death of Christ, and of Divine grace; because they really are so; and grace is justly celebrated as reigning "through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 21.

An inspection of the texts cited in the letter just referred to, must convince any reflecting mind, that there is a real established connexion, between the death of the Redeemer and all the blessings of salvation. But what, it will be asked, is that connexion? In reply to this question, it may, I think, be truly affirmed, that it is the connexion which exists between cause and effect, between a price and a purchase, between a service rendered and a stipulated reward.

Let not the investigation of this question be regarded as a mere matter of curious speculation. If the scriptures speak on it we are bound to hear and learn; and it would ill become us to turn away our ears from the voice of heavenly wisdom, contenting ourselves with believing that some general undefined connexion subsists, between our salvation and the death of Christ. Will any say that this point belongs merely to the philosophy of Christianity? I would admonish them not to disparage by such a name, a truth which Infinite Wisdom has seen fit to teach the church. It is precisely one of those particulars, in which the knowledge of Christians transcends that of ancient saints; one that involves the glory of the Redeemer and the comfort of his people. We proceed therefore to inquire what the New Testament teaches on this question.

1. It teaches that the connexion between the death of Christ and our salvation is that of cause and effect. If it were not of this nature, with what propriety could the inspired writers attribute the cleansing of the soul from its moral pollutions to his blood? That they do so is incontrovertibly plain: "Unto him that loved us, and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood.”. But this, it will be said, is figurative language. Admitted; it has however, a real meaning; and what can the meaning be, except this: that, as the body is cleansed from its pollution by the application of water, so the soul is really cleansed from the pollution and guilt of sin, by the application of the Saviour's blood to it by faith. Accordingly we hear the apostle (1 John i. 7.) say, in plain language, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin:" teaching us that his precious blood operates, as a cause, in purifying the soul from moral defilement, as really as water does in purifying the body from the pollutions.

of contaminating substances. The same truth is taught by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ix. 13, 14, where he shows the superiority of Christ's sacrifice to those typical sacrifices that were offered under the law: "For, if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" The blood of the Levitical sacrifices were the constituted cause of ceremonial purification; and, in like manner, the blood of Christ is a more powerful cause, of real internal purification of the sinner's conscience, from the guilt and pollution of sin.

2. Between the death of Christ and the blessings of salvation, there exists the connexion found between a price and its purchase. That his blood is denominated a price, and that we are said to be bought, is asserted by inspired writers too plainly to be denied by any acquainted with scriptural language; and some of our brethren seem willing to allow that we were bought with a price; but deny that any price was paid for the blessings of salvation. Yet from the admission of the former truth, the latter must follow as a legitimate consequence. For when a person buys a thing, that thing becomes the buyer's property. In what sense then, I ask, were we bought by Jesus Christ? Were we not his property before he paid the price? Were we not his creatures, dependent on him for existence and every thing; and had he not a perfect and sovereign right to dispose of us as he pleased? How then did he buy us? What new right did he acquire over us by his purchase? He bought us out of the hands of Divine justice, and from under the curse of the law, that he might save us; he acquired by his purchase the right of delivering us from the dominion of sin and Satan, and bestowing on us eternal life. "Father," said our Redeemer, as he was finishing the payment of the mighty price of our redemption, "the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast. given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John vii. 1, 2.

Besides, as the sacred writers do, as we have proved, connect the blessings of salvation with the death of Christ as their real meritorious cause; and as they expressly call his death a price; it must follow, that the one is connected with the other, just as a thing purchased is with the price paid. And this is taught still plainer in that remarkable passage in Peter's first epistle: (chap.. i. 18, 19.) "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed.

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with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now, here deliverance from vain conversation, from a foolish and sinful life, or in other words, sanctification, is affirmed to have been purchased with the blood of Christ; and if this leading blessing of salvation was, then it will follow, that all others were thus purchased. Accordingly, we find this asserted by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews: "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained ETERNAL REDEMPTION for us." Heb. ix. 12. Eternal redemption will, it is presumed, be admitted in this passage, to comprehend all the blessings of salvation; or if any should wish to object, they ought to be convinced by the 15th verse, where the apostle goes on to say-" And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that BY MEANS OF DEATH, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament; they which are called might receive the promise of the ETERNAL INHERITANCE." Here then the blessings of salvation, not excepting the eternal inbauitamorg ana addaibukad to the death of Christ as their meritorious cause, or price paid for them. See also Gal. iii. 13, 14.

It is in vain for our brethren to endeavour to explain away this scriptural truth, by alleging the death of Christ was not a literal price. For if by this they mean the blood of Christ was not silver and gold, they assert what no one can be ignorant of, and guard against an error which none are in danger of adopting. But the blood of Immanuel, though not silver nor gold, yet was a REAL price; infinitely more valuable in the sight of God and acceptible to Divine justice, than all the treasures of earthly kingdoms. That the purchase of our salvation by this amazing price is perfectly consistent with the reign of free and sovereign grace throughout the whole work, from beginning to end, was, you will remember, shown in my third letter. To the arguments there used to establish the entire harmony of salvation by grace, and salvation by the righteousness of Christ, it is not deemed necessary to offer any thing additional.

3. The connexion between the death of Christ and our salvation, is the same as that which exists between a service rendered and a stipulated reward.

A work was assigned to Jesus Christ by his eternal Father. This work consisted in his active and passive obedience, or, in other words, in his obedience even unto death. So we are taught by holy scripture. He himself says, "sacrifice and offering thou