Treatise on Atonement Section 7

How many various calculations have diviners made on the fury and wrath which they have discovered in God.

How much they have preached and written, on this awful subject; and how many ways they have invented to appease such wrath and vengeance! When we come to see the error, and find those principles in ourselves, all those notions vanish at once. The fly on the glass might easily been removed or destroyed; but had there been a monster in the sun, what calculations could mortals have made to remove it? Enmity in man may be overcome with love; but did it exist in God, it must be infinite and eternal.

To conclude, the supposition, that Deity receives the atonement, or any possible advantage from the Gospel plan; whereby any alternation is effected in him for the better, amounts to inexplicable absurdity of making omniscience more wise, omnipotence more powerful, justice more just; and of giving love the power of loving, of making mercy more merciful, truth more true, and goodness better; for these are the seven spirits of God, which are in the earth, and they are without the shadow of turning. Having shown, as we hope, to the reader's satisfaction, the necessity of atonement, and where satisfaction must be made and reconciliation takes place, we shall pass to make some inquiries into "The Personage of the Mediator who makes the atonement, and his ability for performing the work."

We have already stated some of the absurdities contained in the opinion of most Christians, respecting the Mediator; we shall now be a little more particular on the subject.

We shall contend, that the Mediator is a created dependent being. That he is a created being is proved from Revelations 3:14, where he is said to be "the beginning of the creation of God." His dependency is proved, by his frequent prayers to his Father. That he acknowledged a superior when on earth is evident from many passages which might be quoted. See St. John 5:19, Christ here says, "the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do." He acknowledges a superior in knowledge. See Matthew 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." And further, that he acknowledges a superior even in his resurrected glory, may be proven from his own words to his servant John, on the Isle of Patmos, see Revelations 3:12, "Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God. And he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name." Four times in the above scripture he acknowledges a being whom he worships. Again, see Psalm 45:7, "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness, because God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." The reader will observe, we have ventured to put the word because, in room of the word therefore, in the quotation; But we have not done it without the authority of the original translation.

The difference is so essential, we cannot dispense with it. Observe, the writer of this Psalm addresses on God, and speaks in his address, of another. See verse 6, "Thy throne Oh God, is for ever and ever." This God is dependent on another, expressed in verse seven, "Because God, thy God, hath anointed thee. That the names, God, Lord, and everlasting father, are applied to Christ we shall not dispute; neither shall we dispute the propriety of it; but we do not admit that they mean the self-existent Jehovah, when applied to the Mediator. In the quotation from the Psalms, Christ is said to be anointed above his fellows. Fellows are equal. Who are Christ's equals? Perhaps the reader may say, They are the Father and the Holy Ghost; but we can hardly believe that Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above his Father, neither do we believe any one will contend for it. We are sensible, that God speaks by the prophets of smiting man who is his fellow; but this fellowship must be different from the one just spoken of, and stands only in an official sense. The reader will then ask, Do we consider the Mediator no more than equal with man? We answer, yes, were it not that our Father and his Father has anointed him above his fellows. "Wherefore, God also hath anointed him and given him a name which is above every name," Philippians 2:9. For his exaltation, anointing, and his name he was dependent on his Father, and received them from him. This name he received, which was above every name was the name of God. It will be said that Christ taught the people that he and his Father are one. The oneness of the Father and the Son, is their union, and agreement in the great work which he has undertaken; and he prayed that his disciples might be as well agreed in the Gospel of salvation, as he and his Father were. "As Thou hast sent me into the world, so have I also sent them into the world, "St. John 17:18 The Father of all mercies sent his son into the world for a certain purpose; and there was a perfect agreement between them, in all things, He says he came not to do his own will, but the will of him who sent him. And again, "My meat and my drink is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish the work."

The President of the United States sends a minister to negotiate a peace at a foreign court; this minister must conduct according to the authority which he derives from him, by whom he is sent and as far as he does, he is in his official character, the power that sent him. It is evident that Christ received the power which he exercised in the work which he hath undertaken, and that his kingdom was given unto him, which goes to prove, He did not eternally possess them; "And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed," Daniel 7:14. According to the prophecy here quoted, the dominion, glory, and kingdom of Christ were given unto him, the people whom he is to rule are given unto him. "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," Psalm 2:8. In Matt. 28:18, Jesus Said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth." In Matt. 11:27, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father." These and many more passages are found in the sacred writ, in support of the dependence of the Mediator on the Supreme Eternal, and that he derives his power and glory from him. But if Christ is essentially God, all these scriptures seem without just signification.

It is written, that man was created in the image of God; and, by the light of the gospel Saint Paul ventured to assert, that Christ is this image. The reader will do well to observe, that the image of a person, are not essentially one, but some knowledge of a person may be obtained by his true image. Christ being the image of God, it is by him we learn the nature of the Father. Christ saith, "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him." Again, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Saint Paul is particular on this subject in First Timothy 2:5. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." It seems by this testimony that Saint Paul was a stranger to the notion of Christ being essentially God, as it would be improper to call him a man, were that the case. If it be argued that Christ is God and man both, we ask, was it the whole divine nature which constituted the divinity of Christ? If this question be answered in the affirmative, we desire to know where that divinity is which constitutes the other two persons in the God head. If the question be answered in the negative, and it be argued, that the divinity which Christ possessed was an emanation from God, it is coming directly to what we contend for, viz, that he is a created being.

As we see from the prophecy in Daniel that Christ received his kingdom; so we are taught, by Saint Paul, that he will deliver up his kingdom to the Father, when he has accomplished the grand object of his reign, "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father: when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign; till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet, but when he saith, all things are put un- der him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him, and when all things shall be subjected unto him, then shall the son also himself be subjected unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all," 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

Enough perhaps, is written, on this part of our query, to make the matter plain to the reader, although much more might be quoted from the scripture, in support of what we have argued.

We next inquire, has the Mediator power or ability, to perform the great work of atonement, which is the reconciliation of the world? Those scriptures, with their connections, which we have quoted to prove the Mediator's dependency, abundantly prove the sufficiency of his power to accomplish the work in which he is engaged. If all power in heaven and earth be committed to Christ, no doubt can be entertained of his sufficiency. If the whole system of the law in moral nature be subservient to the design of the Redeemer, and if he holds in his hands the power of moral government, it certainly must be at his option whether men shall be reconciled to God, or not.

God Was In Christ Reconciling The World To Himself

It may not be amiss to inquire, in this place, whether men in their individual capacity have the power of moral government? If they have, the great work of reconciliation might be performed by them. We ought not suppose the Almighty ever purposed more than one way to produce the event. If he had given ability to each individual to effect a complete reconciliation in himself, it is not consistent to believe that this work of reconciliation will be done by a mediator; but if the work of reconciling all things to God is assigned to Christ, it is not reasonable to believe we have power to perform it ourselves, and we think it will not be deemed admissible, that we have power to hinder or abort this work of reconciliation, as that would, in effect, deny the truth of all power being given to Christ. We ought to consider, that Christ was by no means ignorant of man; that he needed none to testify of man as he knew what was in man. He knew the moral distance which man had wondered from God, he knew all the expense of recovering him to holiness and happiness; and it appears rational, that he knew whether he possessed the ability to defray this expense or not; and if he knew he did not possess this ability, he would not have undertaken it. We ought not suppose the Mediator would act as unwisely as a man who undertakes to build a large house, without first counting the cost, to know if he was able to finish a building so expensive; or as a king would do, who should make war on another king, without first consulting whether he were able to contend with the double numbers which his adversary commanded.

Saint Paul writing to the Church at Colossians, saith, of Christ, he is the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence; for it pleased the Father, that in him all the fullness should dwell; and that the Father had made peace, through the blood of his cross; and then informs them to what this peace was made. "By him to reconcile all things unto himself: by him, I say, whether they be the things in earth, or things in heaven," Col. 1:20. In Isa. 9:6, we have a beautiful prophetic testimony of the kingdom of our Saviour, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And in the beginning of the next verse, the extent of his dominion is spoken of, " And of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."

There are many of like passages, which in the course of this work, we shall have occasion to introduce; but enough is already quoted, to show for what this power was given to Christ, and that it is sufficient to accomplish the end intended. Again, it may be reasonable to argue, that if the Almighty committed power into the hands of Christ, for the performance of anything whatsoever, if there should be found, at last a want of power for the work intended, it would prove a lack of wisdom in the giver of such power. No one who professes to believe in Christ, will dispute his power for the performance of all his will; but we wish to have the reader satisfied, in respect to his power, and in what it consist, which, to make clear as possible, we connect our last particulars in this general inquiry, which is,

Atonement In Its Nature

We have already observed that atonement and reconciliation are the same. Reconciliation is a renewal of love, and love is the law of the Spirit of Christ, of which Saint Paul speaks in Romans 8:2, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." By this law he was made free from the law of sin. The soul, when governed by the law of sin, which is in the members, of which Saint Paul speaks in Rom. 7:2, is in a state of unreconciliation to the law of the Spirit. And it is by the force and the power of the law of love, in Christ, that the soul is delivered from the government of the law of sin; the process of this deliverance is the work of atonement, or reconciliation.

The reader will now see, with ease, that the power that causes us to hate sin, and love holiness, is the power of Christ, whereby atonement is made. All the law and the prophets rest on the Spirit of love, but standing alone they cannot be fulfilled.

Our Saviour in his official character, is always called by the names which are applicable to God, manifest in the flesh. This circumstance will fully account for all the scriptures which our opponent would urge, in support of Jesus being essentially God.

Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; the law is as far fulfilled, in the soul, as it is brought to love God, in his adorable image, Christ Jesus; and a complete fulfillment of the law and the prophets will effect love in every soul, on whom the law, in a moral sense, is binding.

Let it be asked, by what means are we brought to love God? Answer, "We love him because he first loved us." God's love ante- cedent to our love of him. Which refutes the notion of God's receiving the atonement; but the idea, that the manifestation of God's love to us, causes us to love him, and brings us to an awaking of love, is perfectly constant to the necessity of the atonement, it shows us what atonement is, and the power which the Mediator must have and exercise, in order to reconcile all things to God.

The method, by which we are brought to love any object, whatever, is, by seeing, or thinking we see, some beauty in the object; and our love is always in proportion to the apparent good qualities of the object seen.

While our minds are darkened by the veil of the heart in the reading of Moses, so that the beauties of the administration of life are hidden from our eyes, and its excellent glories are out of sight; it is impossible that we should love Christ, or his word, yet during this darkness we must love something; therefore, as sin and the vanities of elementary life presents the greatest beauty to our eyes, of any objects which we behold, our affections are set on those corruptible things. Now we call up the question again, Has Jesus the power to cause us to love holiness, and to hate sin? Answer, Yes, if he has the power to reveal the divine beauties of the word, to remove the letter and its administration, which are death, and to take the veil from the heart, and cause us to see himself altogether lovely.

When a sinner views God as an enemy, and grumbles concerning his being hard, and austere, when he feels an aversion to him, and wishes to avoid his presence, it is certain that the Son has not revealed the Father to that soul. The idea thus entertained of God are altogether wrong, and the mind that entertains them has no just conception of the Almighty. But blessed be the expressed image of the Invisible; he hath power to reveal the true character of the Father, to remove the veil from the heart, and to let the sunbeams of divine light gently enter into the understanding; then God appears altogether lovely, and the chiefest among ten thousand, while the soul in ecstasy embraces the brightness of his glory, crying, "My Lord, and my God." But the idea of the letter is so fixed in the mind of Christians in general, that the veil of the law is fully on their hearts, as it was on the Pharisees of old, which caused them to be blind to their Messiah when he came.

Christians, have, for a long time, believed that the temporal death of Christ made an atonement for sin, and that the literal blood of the man who was crucified, has efficacy to cleanse from guilt; but surely this is carnality, and carnal mindedness, if we have any knowledge of the Apostle's meaning, where he says, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." The apostles were made able ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. Christ saith, "Except ye eat my flesh, and drink my blood, ye have no life in you." Must we understand this in a literal sense also? If we do how shall we understand what he further says of the matter? "The flesh profiteth nothing: The words I speak they are Spirit, and they are life.

The apostasy of the Jews happened, in consequence of the lips of the priest not preserving knowledge; they fell from the Spirit of the law, were lost in the wilderness of the letter. And therefore, were blinded. This was a figure of the more dreadful apostasy of Christians as was various other circumstances recorded in the Old Testament. The Christian apostasy happened in the same way; and the Church has been led into the wilderness of the letter, by a hireling priesthood, who knows nothing of the Spirit of the law; who have preached in the name of the Lord the letter which killeth, in room of the Spirit which giveth life.

We are sensible; there are thousands who profess Christianity, who are blind enough to object and say, "Then the Gospel has nothing to do with salvation of mankind." But suffer us to say, the Gospel is nothing but the Spirit of the law, which is the word, or Logos, spoken in the law, brought forth from the shadows of the first dispensation. To believe in any other atonement, than the putting off the old man with his deeds, and the putting on the new man which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness, is carnal mindedness and death.

There is nothing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, that can destroy sin, but love; and we have reason to be thankful that love is stronger than death, that many waters cannot quench it, nor the floods drown it; that it has power to remove the moral maladies of mankind, and to make us free from the law of sin and death, to reconcile us to the Father, and to wash us pure in the blood, or life, of the everlasting covenant. Oh love, thou great Physician of souls, what a work hast thou undertaken! All souls are thy patients; prosperous be thy labors, thou bruiser of the head of the carnal mind.

In this view of the subject, we may see how the divine grace of reconciliation may be communicated to those who have never been privileged with the volume of divine revelation, and who have never heard the name of a mediator proclaimed as the only way of life and salvation. We have no doubt but thousands, whose education has taught them to look on Christian religion as an impostor, may possess a good degree of his love, which is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus: and though none can feel or experience the divine animation, only through the medium of the second Adam, we do not conceive that its agency is confined particularly to names, sects, denominations, people or kingdoms.

The word which is nigh us, even in our hearts and mouths, is everywhere operating, in some degree, in all hearts. The enmity, which God put between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, is everywhere felt, and the two are struggling in every breast. When the creature like nature, or the carnal mind, which is enmity against God leads the whole man captive, it is then that the soul is in a state of unreconciliation and death; but when the heavenly man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness, binds the strong man armed, and whispers heavenly invitations to the soul, revealing himself in the understanding, the soul immediately ceases to confer with flesh and blood, beholds with inexpressible admiration the heavenly beauties of the new nature, is molded into its likeness, and experimentally becomes, a child of God; the way to the tree of life is opened, and the soul enters by the anchor of hope, within the veil, where the cherubs are disarmed of the flaming sword, and stand looking down on the mercyseat, where God communes with his people. Thus by the Spirit of the word, the soul is brought to a sweet communion with God, it feels its eternal sonship and rejoices there in, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Perhaps the Christian reader will here pause, and say, I can witness, what the author writes is true; but then, he does not tell of a regular law work; without, which, we can never be brought to taste those delicacies in the Gospel provision. To this observation, we reply, we believe there are as egregious errors crept into the Christian Church, in this particular, as in anything relative to the Christian religion; and we further believe, that among those, who have really tasted, that the Lord is gracious, there are such differences, on the above point, that in many instances they amount to a disfellowship, and tend greatly to destroy the blessed work begun in the heart. But those errors undoubtedly originate in some theories which are produced by the wisdom of the carnal mind, which is so apposed to the wisdom from above, that it is always endeavoring to introduce something that may serve to raise animosities, and to sow discord among the brethren.

Some, who, by the force of false education, have been led to believe, that God is an enemy to the sinner, have supposed they were every day exposed to the just vengeance of the Almighty, and have fancied that they could clearly see the justice of God, in their eternal banishment from heaven, and happiness: and they have been so wretched, on the wheel of torture as to be deprived of sleep and every kind of repose, for a tedious time, some longer and some shorter. Awful dreams, fraught with the most terrifying imaginations have corroded the mind; and sometimes, a burning lake of fire and brimstone has been painted so clearly, that, for several days together, the poor frightened soul would feel as if it were on the brink of a precipice expecting the next moment to be the last.