MR. DAN TAYLOR, in his Fundamentals of Religion, first edit. has the following passages: P. 169. By atonement is meant in general, something performed or suffered, or both, in order to appease an offended party. P. 170. Speaking of God's punishing transgressors, he says: 'If this punishment fall upon us, we are treated in a manner similar to that in which the flaming passion we call wrath would naturally prompt us to treat an offender.' P. 173. After speaking of Christ's dying for us he asks: 'Is it not evident then, that he died to atone or appease the divine anger?" P. 175. It is well known that a propitiation signifies an appeasement of anger in order to expiate offences, and obtain pardon for the offender.' It is evident, that Mr. Taylor, in these pas That God can act on the ground of mercy, without requiring a satisfaction, and that he hath more pleasure in exercising his mercy freely, and in the obedience of his creatures, than in bleeding sacrifices, is evident from the following pas sages. 1 Sam. xv. 22. Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.' Psa. li. 16, 17. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.' Isa. i. 11, 16, 17, 18, what purpose is the multi • To sages, maintains the same sentiment as others contend for under the name of satisfaction: and as ne maintains the universality of the death of Christ, and of his atonement. he must be considered as maintaining that Christ has made satisfaction to divine justice for, or by his death expiated the sins of, all mankind: yet he supposes, divine justice will be eternally pursuing those who do not believe and obey in the present state: for he says, p. 343. In these torments must the ungodly for ever dwell, soul and body ́eternally filled with anguish. I say eternally, for this fire is everlasting. Ages, thousands and millions of ages shall not bring its burning to a period. Millions of ages can bear no comparison to the duration of a lost sinner's anguish. When the largest number of ages to which the thought of man can extend, are revolved, this torment will only be beginning.' tude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.—Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mina eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.' Hos. vi. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.' Where Mic. vi. 6, 7, 8, with shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? will the LORD be pleased with. thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hatit showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' Matt. ix. 13. Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Pro. xxviii. 13. 'He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.' I say not unto you that I pray the Father for you; will for the Father himself loveth you.'-John xvi. 26, 27. Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.' Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he who feareth him. and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. -Acts x. 4, 34, 35. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.'—Rom. x.- 12. * MR. JERRAM admits that some writers may have expressed themselves On this subject in terms that cannot be justified;' (Letters on Atonement p. 14) The preceding extracts, from reputed orthodox writers, of celebrity, sufficiently explain what is meant by the doctrine of satisfaction, or popular doctrine of atonement; they show the light in which it hath been maintained for several ages: the import of them may be thus summarily stated. 1. Our sins made God-angry, wrathful and vindictive; and, such is the nature of his justice, it was impossible for him to lay aside his wrath, and become placable, well-willing, favorable and merciful to his creatures, until an innocent and holy person had borne the whole weight of his indignation and fury, and so satisfied divine justice on their behalf. 2. That Christ became the substitute of sinners, and, standing in their place, had all their sins imputed to him, and set up to his account; that he became responsible for them, and had the whole weight of their guilt and punishment laid upon him: that, this being the case, the wrath of God was turned from the sinner, and poured out upon Christ: that justice could make no abatement, but exacted of the substitute all that the sinner owed, and inflicted on him the very torments of the damned in hell, to the last degree: that, consequently, Christ became a sinner, by imputation, and died the death, not of a righteous person, but of a sinner. 3. That Christ, by en but surely he will not apply this remark to all the writers quoted above, and be so rash as to charge the zealous advocates for what he deems an essential doctrine of the gospel, from the time of the reformation to the present day, with expressing it in terms that cannot be justified.' Yet he must either do this or ac quit me of unfairness in the representation I have given of the subject. during all the wrath of God, hath appeased, reconciled, and rendered him placable, well-willing, favorable and merciful to sinners. 4. That all the blessings of grace and salvation come to us on the ground of a contract, bargain, or agreement, made between the Father and the Son on behalf of sinners; the conditions of which bargain, or agreement, Christ hath made good, on his part, by suffering the vengeance of God due to the actual transgressors. 5. That strictly speaking, God does not forgive sins; but cancels them because Christ has made full satisfaction for them; as a creditor cancels a debt when he has received full payment: that the blessings which God bestows on sinners are not dispensed by him as absolute free gifts; but that Christ paid a price for them to divine justice. 6. That sinners have not only encouragement to pray for blessings, on the ground of the divine mercy; but a right to require them, on the ground of justice; Christ having made good, on their behalf, his part of the bargain, or agreement, which secures all blessings to them. Such is the doctrine opposed in this volume. The reader may hence judge of the point at issue. The question is not whether Christ be the messenger of divine grace and mercy to men; nor whether God hath constituted him the medium by which all the blessings of salvation come to sinners; nor whether the suffering and death, es well as the teaching and resurrection of Jesus, had for their object the salvation of mankind; nor whether Christ died for us, for D |