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Treatise on Atonement section 6
In this council, and on so momentous an occasion the first person addresses the other two, saying, the colony which we have just planted on our new made earth, has rebelled, and you know the penalty, which is endless misery, must be immediately executed on the two delinquents, unless a dispensation can be devised more favorable to the offenders, and equally satisfactory to Justice. As the attributes spoke in the first person that of mercy, speaks, in the second, and propose a pardon. Justice opposes, and contends that his honor depends on the penalty being put into execution. Mercy again replies, the second person in the Godhead shall suffer the penalty due to sin, and justice shall grant a man a second probation, in which he may secure the life, which he, by rebellion, lost. That reasonable conditions should be proposed, and the third person should make them known to man, and give him proper direction how to fulfill them; and if man faithfully attends to those conditions, he secures his happiness; if not, mercy makes no more request in favor of the offender. To this all agree; and it is registered accordingly.
It seems according to this plan, that man utterly failed, on the first trial, but now has the second opportunity. We would ask, is there any more certainty of his succeeding now, than there was before? Is it certain according to the plan, that any of Adam's posterity will obtain salvation? Is it not in the power of all men to neglect those conditions? If it be not it destroys the nature of the conditions, and of probation; if it be, then it is entirely uncertain, whether an individual soul will ever be saved by the gospel plan.
We have before showed it erroneous to suppose that any finite being could suffer an infinite punishment in any period of time; and we think it is also granted that an infinite being cannot suffer. But admitting the system of atonement to stand on the ground contended for, it was a matter of utter uncertainty, whether it would, in any instant, prove efficacious, as it respected the salvation of man.
A rich parent gives a large portion to his son, accompanied with good advice; the son turns prodigal, spends all, gets into prison for debt. The father still loves the son, pays his debt, lets him out of prison, sets him at liberty, and gives him a thousand pounds more, which is all he ever can give him, and tells him to be more prudent. The prodigal, no sooner than he finds himself this liberated, and in possession of a handsome property, goes into the same error which brought him to ruin be- fore, and finally meets the same consequences. The father has no more to give, the son becomes a vagabond. We ask, did the parent act the part of wisdom, any more than the son did? If he had acted wisely, would he not have said to him, Son, I gave you much at the first; I gave you good advice; I told you, that industry and prudence alone would secure you from want; I told you, though your property were large, unless you put your money to interest, or into trade, it must dwindle; that if you threw away your time in vain and foolish prodigality, the end would be what you have already experienced. And although I hoped better things of you, than a total neglect of my admonition, yet I feared; and for your good, have I retained one thousand pounds of what I intended to give you, which, had you been economical, I should, by this time, have committed to your care. But as you have conducted so foolishly, I must, for your benefit keep the remainder of your portion until you prove yourself a convert, from prodigality to economy.
If the Almighty were ignorant, at first when he put man in possession of privileges which he afterwards abused, it astonishes me that he should risk the last favor which he had to bestow, on principles which he had just seen fail. It will undoubtedly be acknowledged, by all, that Jehovah knew, as perfectly before the transgression as afterwards, what man would do, and how he would dispose of the advantages which he had bestowed on him. Then, we ask, if God knew how man would abuse those privileges, and knew he would be eternally miserable, in consequences, was it an act of kindness, in God, to grant man such privileges? We ask, again, was it possible for that to fail which the Almighty perfectly knew would take place? The answer will be no. Then, when we have consolidated the whole down to its real self, all the privilege which God gave to those whom he knew would render themselves objects of his displeasure, was a privilege of incurring to themselves endless misery; we say more, he insured it to them himself, by putting that into their hands, by which he knew it would be effected.
I give my innocent child a loaded pistol, which I tell him to discharge at a serpent, on his way where I have ordered him. I know perfectly well, when I give him the pistol, that he will carelessly blow his own brains out with its contents, and the serpent will go unhurt; the child's end happens, I leave the reader to judge, whether I am the murderer of my child; my conscience would inform me.
The Mediator suffered the penalty of the law, to reinstate man of probation; God made a revelation to mankind for their instructions; he inspired the ancient prophets to speak of the things of his kingdom, sent his Holy Spirit into the world, to lead and guide man into all truth; and all this is done, from the pure benevolence of God toward a sinful world, for its everlasting welfare, but all upon uncertainties! After all, man has in his power to frustrate the whole plan of grace, and render it abortive!
On the other hand it was possible for every son and daughter to accept Christ, on the very easy terms of the gospel obedience, and thereby to have secured the heavenly kingdom. This being granted, who knows they will not do it? Things that are possible may be done; and who can say, for certainty, those things which are possible, will not be affected? If it be an absolute certainty, that any will finally fail of gaining the prize, it is also an absolute certainty, that they have possible opportunity for it. If there be any opportunity, and the prize be attainable by all, there is at least some room for hope; and were it the real Christian hope it would be like an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast; but being founded in the creature, and not in God, it is wavering and doubtful.
It Is Not God's Will That Any Should Perish
(2 Peter 3:9)
On this system it would be absurd to argue the certainty of the endless misery of any of the family of man, as the salvation of the whole is possible; God out of love to his creatures, made it possible for them all to obtain salvation; indeed it is his will, that all should be saved from their sins, it is, also, the will of Christ and of the Holy Spirit; it is the will of all the holy beings in heaven, and of the saints on the earth; prayers are daily offered up, from the altar of sacrifice, for its accomplishment: And if it be not done, the whole Godhead will be disappointed; mourning, instead of rejoicing, will be the employment of the holy angels, and the saints will be stung with the keenest sensations of grief.
No one would dare to say that he believes God can be disappointed in any of his purposes: therefore those who believe in the system last examined, must be dissatisfied with it, if their eyes should ever be opened to see its consequences.
Having examined those several systems of atonement, in as concise a method as was convenient, and having given my principal reasons for not adopting either, I now beg the attention of the reader to my second inquiry.
The Necessity Of Atonement,
and
Where Satisfaction Must Be Made.
I have, already, entered my protest, against the necessity of atonement, on the principle upon which Christians have generally believed it, by showing the finite nature of sin, and the error of supposing that the law of God required the endless misery of mankind, or a penal requisition.
Atonement signifies reconciliation, or satisfaction, which is the same. It is being unreconciled to truth and justice, which needs reconciliation; and it is a dissatisfied being which needs satisfaction. Therefore, I raise my inquiry on the question. Is God the unreconciled or dissatisfied party or is it man? For our assistance on this question, let us turn our attention to God's dealing with Adam, on the day of transgression, and the conduct of Adam the transgressor. After Adam had eaten of the forbidden fruit his eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil: and he found himself naked and endeavored to hide himself from God, which he certainly would not have done had he considered his maker his friend. Sin produced two errors in the mind of Adam, which have been very incident to mankind ever since; the first was, he believed God to be his enemy, in consequence of disobedience; and secondly, that he could reconcile his maker by the works of his own hand. The first of these errors, we discover, from Adam's endeavoring to hide from God; and the second is seen in his endeavoring to clothe himself with the works of his own hands. It is true that a material change had taken place in Adam; but can we prove, that any alteration happens in God? It is very evident, that Adam was unreconciled to God; But it is equally evident, that God was not unreconciled to him. God's calling Adam, in the cool of the day, and asking him where he was; clothing him with a garment of skins and promising that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, are beautiful representation of the parental love and fatherly care of the Creator. It ought to be observed, that God pronounced no curse on Adam, but on the serpent. If the Almighty had been unreconciled or dissatisfied with his creature man in room of promising him a final victory over the serpent, the curse would undoubtedly have fallen on the object of his displeasure.
To say, that God loved man less, after transgression, than before, denies his unchangeability; but to say, that man was wanting in love to God, places him in his real character. As God was not the unreconciled party, no atonement was necessary for his reconciliation. Where there is dissatisfaction it presupposes an injured party; and can it be hard to determine which was injured by sin, the Creator or the sinner? If God was unreconciled to man the atonement was necessary, to renew his love to his creature; but if man was the unreconciled the atonement was necessary, to renew his love to his Creator. The matter is now stated so plainly, that no person, who can read, can mistake.
We shall now endeavor to prove, from scripture, that the atonement by Christ was the effect, and not the cause of God's love to man. See St. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." According to this passage, nothing is more plain in the scripture than the idea of what Christ did for sinners, was a consequence of God's love to them. Again, verse 17, "For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but, that the world through him might be saved." This passage says that God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world; but according to the general idea of atonement, Christ stood as the proxy of man and the world was tried in him, and condemned in him, and in him suffered the penalty of the law which man had transgressed. It is also said, in the text, that Christ was sent, that the world through him might be saved; which, if true, goes to prove, that the Father's object, in Christ's coming into the world, was the salvation of sinners, and not for the removal of any dissatisfaction, in himself toward them. Again, see Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." As the death of Christ is here spoken of as a commendation of God's love to us, it ought to be considered as an effect and not the cause of that love. Again, 1 John 4:9, "In this was manifested the love of God, toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him." If Christ's coming into the world as a manifestation of God's love to us, this love must have existed before he came, and his coming was an effect produced by it. Verse 10, "Here in is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." Verse 19, "We love him because he first loved us."
From these passages, and many more which might be quoted, to the same effect, it is easy to learn, that what the Mediator did for sinners, was the consequences of and not the cause of God's love to us. God being infinite in all his glorious attributes, he can, by no means love, at one time, and hate the same object at another. His divine omniscience comprehended all the events of time and eternity; therefore, nothing could take place, to remove his love from an object on which it was placed. The Almighty had no occasion to dislike Adam, after the transgression, any more than he had even before he made him; for, he knew as well then, that he would sin, as he did after it was actually done. The reason we mortals love an object, at one time, and dislike it, at another, is the weakness of our understanding; we have not always the same view of the same object. We may slight an object of great value, its excellence's being out of our sight; and we may set our affections on one of no value, by erroneously attaching a value to it which it does not possess. But the Infinitely Wise is subject to no mistake; he comprehends the whole futurition of all mortal beings, and loves them as his offsprings, with a love consistent with his immutable existence. Therefore, it is evident, that God was not the unreconciled, and of course, did not require an atonement to reconcile himself to his creatures.
Let us now turn on the other side, and see if man be not unreconciled to God; and if it would not be more reasonable, to reconcile man to his maker, than to reconcile God to the sinner. See Psalms 14:2-3, "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there be any that did understand, and seek God. They all are gone aside? They are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no not one."
The Apostle Paul, in the third chapter of Romans, giving a general description of mankind, introduces it with the passage from Psalms, which we have just quoted, and continues it by an assemblage of various passages, see verse 13 & c. "Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongue, they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet is swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes." It is very evident that the Apostle meant to exclude none from this description, as the reader may learn from verse 19, "Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." Again, 5:12, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." That the scripture abundantly proves, that all men are sinners, and in an unreconciled state, considered under the law, or in the earthly nature, will not be disputed by any. Then it is certainly man that needs reconciliation. Men, while dictated by a carnal mind are dissatisfied with God: they accuse him of being a hard task master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strawed. They think on the Almighty, but desire not the knowledge of his ways. They behold no beauty in him; he appears a tyrant, regardless of the happiness of his creatures. A consciousness of sin, without the knowledge of God represents deity as angry, and full of vengeance; in which sense, many scriptures are written, as we have before observed. How often do we find, that God has been provoked to wrath and jealousy, and his fury raised to a flame against, the sinner. And how often do the scriptures represent him repenting of his angry, and growing calm! All these scriptures are written according to the circumstances of the creature, and the apprehension which the unreconciled entertain of God. Viewing man in this state of unreconciliation to God, and holiness, it appears evidently necessary, that he should receive an atonement productive of a renewal of love to his maker. Without atonement God could never be seen as he is, "all together lovely, and the chiefest, among ten thousand," nor could he be loved with the whole heart, mind, might and strength. How often are men grumbling at providence, that things should be governed as they are? How often are men displeased at the Supreme Being himself? What an infinite number of hard speeches have sinners spoken against God? All which argue the necessity of atonement, whereby by these maladies may be healed.
What an infinite difference there is between the all gracious and merciful, and his lost and bewildered creatures? He, all glorious, without a spot in the whole infinitude of his nature; all lovely, without exception, and loving without partiality.
Who can tell the thousandth part of his love to his offspring? And this invariably the same through every dispensation, without the smallest abatement. But what can we say, of man? Lost in the wilderness of sin, wandering in the bypaths of iniquity, lost to the knowledge of his heavenly Benefactor, and dissatisfied with his God; he goes on grumbling and complaining, attributing the worst of characters to the most merciful of beings and entertaining no regard for the fountain of all his comforts. God never called for a sacrifice to reconcile himself to man; but loved man so that he was pleased to bruise his son for our good, to give him to die, in attestation of love to sinners.
The belief that the great Jehovah was offended with his creatures to that degree, that nothing but the death of Christ, or the endless misery of mankind could appease his anger, is an idea that has done more injury to the Christian religion than the writings of all its opposers, for many centuries. The error has been fatal to the life and Spirit of the religion of Christ in our world; All those principles which are to be dreaded by man, have been believed to exist in God: and professors have been molded into the image of their deity. And become more cruel than the uncultivated savage! A persecuting inquisition is a lively representation of the god which professed Christians have believed in ever since the apostasy. It is every day practice to represent the Almighty so offended with man, that he employs his infinite mind in devising unspeakable tortures, as retaliations on these with whom he is offended. Those ideas have so obscured the whole nature of God from us, that the capacious religion of the human mind has been darkened by an almost impenetrable cloud; even the tender charities of nature have been frozen with such tenets, and the natural friendship common to human society, has, in a thousand instances, been driven from the walks of man.
But, says the reader, is it likely, that persecution ever rose from man's belief that God was an enemy to wicked men? Undoubtedly; for had all professors of Christianity believed, that God had compassion on the ignorant, and those who are out of the way, how could they have persecuted those whom they believed in error? But, with contrary views, those who professed to believe in Christ, who professed to be the real disciples of him who taught his disciples to love their enemies, have been the fomenters of persecution; they have persecuted, even unto death, those who could not believe all the absurdities in orthodox creeds. It may be asked, if those animosities did not arise from pride, ambition, and carnal mindedness? We answer, yes; and so does the god in whom persecuting Christians believe, for they form a god altogether like unto themselves; therefore, while they vainly fancy they are in the service of the true God, they are following the dictates of pride and unlawful ambition, the natural productions of a carnal mind? An atonement is the only remedy for the evil.
Men are dissatisfied with the Almighty and his providences; they are dissatisfied with, and enemies of, one another; whereas our true happiness consists in loving God, and our neighbors. Men in possession of vile appetites pursue, with greediness, their gratification; but still, they retain their wants, they are allied to heaven and holiness, and can never be happy without them. They are conscious of sin, and feel condemned notions resting on their minds; they look forward to the awful scene of dissolution, and stare back with horror. Death is the king of terrors to the unreconciled; how awful are their thoughts of death to those whose hopes are only the feeble production of their fears and wants, unsupported with divine evidence! Oh, how necessary is atoning grace, on such occasion, whereby a divine confidence may be enjoyed; the value thereof cannot be estimated by earthly treasures; all the shining dust of India, and the riches of the South, are poverty when compared with the riches of a reconciled mind.
Without atonement, God's glorious design, in the everlasting welfare of his offsprings, man, could never be effected; the ordination of an infinitely merciful God could never be carried into effect. The Almighty must not be deprived of the means of accomplishing his gracious designs. We read of his covenant with day and night, which cannot be broken; but it would be broken at once, should the causes cease that produce their changes. So of the covenant of eternal mercy, the testament of eternal life, it must be put in force by the death of the testator, and its life and immortal glory be brought to light through his resurrection. Let it be understood, that it is man who receives the atonement, who stands in need of reconciliation, who, being dissatisfied, needs satisfaction; and not place those imperfections and wants in him who is infinite in his fullness; and the doctrine of atonement may be sought for in the nature of things, and found to be rational to the understanding. That man receives the atonement, was evidently the opinion of St. Paul, see Romans 5:11, "And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Were there a single passage in the scriptures that would reach half as far in proving that God received the atonement, as the one just quoted goes to prove that man received it, the statement might be considered more disputable than it now is.
We read, that men are now enemies to God, by wicked words, which teaches us that enmity is wickedness: Should we then dare to say, that God is our enemy? It is wrong for us to be enemies even to those who injure us, much more to those who never had it in their power to do us any harm. We wish to ask, Did any of God's creatures ever injure him? Surely not. Why then does he turn our enemy? He commands us to love our enemies; that we may be like him, but if he hates his enemies, we must hate ours if we would be like him, If he is not our enemy, he needs no atonement. But if men are enemies to God, they need an atonement to bring them to love him who loves them.
Here the reader will observe we shun those difficulties which have represented the gospel of Christ so inconsistent with his nature. We now view the Almighty the same yesterday, today and forever; and by no means changed in his disposition toward his creatures, but always designing and working all things for their good. Here is no need of the self contradictory notion of altering an unalterable being; of satisfying an infinite dissatisfaction: of reconciling a being who was never unreconciled of producing love in love itself: of causing an eternal unchangeable friend to be friendly, or of offering a sacrifice to the eternal Father of our spirits to cause him to love and have mercy on his offsprings.
How much more reasonable it is, to suppose ourselves in need of those alterations. But unhappily, men have looked at Deity through the medium of a carnal mind, and have formed all their evil tempers in Jehovah; like the deceived astronomer, who fancied he saw a monster in the sun, occasioned by a fly in his glass. The creature being in the medium of sight, was supposed to be in the object beheld; and though it was small in itself, and would have appeared so, could it have been seen where it was; yet carrying it into the sun, it magnified to an enormous size. So it is with the vile and sinful passions, could we behold them in ourselves, and view them as they are, they would appear in their finite and limited sphere; but the moment we form those passions in Deity, they magnify to infinity. Let a council of astronomers be called, who are all deceived by the fly; let them consult on the size of the monster, calculate how long it has been growing, and how soon it may wholly absorb the sun; let them endeavor to account for its cause, and analyze its constitution, inform us of the degrees of heat its lungs sustain, and how many degrees hotter it is than iron can be heated in a furnace. But here is room for disagreement, which may give rise to great disputations. To one it appears much larger than to another; they cannot judge alike, with regard to its age, nor how much larger it will grow. Some are ready to dispute its being a living creature, fancying it might be an opaque body. They are all agreed, that there is a phenomenon in the sun, but dispute, and even quarrel about its peculiarities. What would become of all their calculations the moment they should discover the fly? All would be gone, at once, and the sun would be relieved of the burden of so ponderous a monster.