But it must be asked, which of the natures, joined in Jesus Christ, offered up this infinite satisfaction?-Was it the divine nature? or the human nature? If the divine nature, then the Godhead, or a portion of the Godhead, immortal and impassible, suffered death. If the human nature only, then an infinite satisfaction was not effected; and the purpose might equally have been obtained by a perfectly righteous man, as Enoch.

The Atonement is commonly thought to be interwoven with the divinity of Christ, but erroneously; for the Arians admit it in a certain sense, who yet deny his divinity. The question must stand on its own independent merits, and is not necessarily connected with the absurd theory of an infinite satisfaction. The atonement or propitiation, whichever we call it, does not of itself prove Christ's divinity, or his super-angelic nature. The simple humanity of Christ's nature does not of itself disprove the atonement.

"If GOD," says Dr. Watson, "thought fit to accept for our redemption any price, there is nothing that we know of but his own wisdom, which could determine what price he would accept. Hence I see no difficulty in admitting that the death of an angel, or of a mere man, might have been the price which God fixed upon."

The Arians confess the Scripture that Christ was sent from God, and was a gift from God. They do not look upon the death of Christ in the light of substitution or vicarious punishment, but only as a voluntary sacrifice, which obtained God's favour, and procured his mercy to mankind. They do not believe in original or inherited sin, or imputed righteousness, but think the atonement called for by the actual sins of mankind, and the merits of Christ efficacious in rendering repentance available. In this less unreasonable scheme there are still inconsistency and contradiction. If

Christ were a gift of GoD, he was the voluntary effect of his love, and not the procuring cause. When Christ is said to have "obtained eternal redemption for us," (Heb. ix. 12,) it cannot consistently be interpreted to mean that he effected a change in the will of God in our favour; for it was in the free will of God that the Gospelmessage of meicy and immortality through Christ originated; but that he finished the work" of redemption "which the Father had given him to do."

The strict Unitarian, or Humanitarian as to Christ's nature, believes the declarations of the Old Testament, that God is of himself essentially merciful, and that repentance and reformation are the sole conditions of his mercy,-declarations. which he sees to be confirmed by Christ Jesus; who was commissioned to bear the strongest attestation to the merciful nature of God, in submitting to death, the penalty of sin, that he might become the first-born of the resurrection; and that the "sufferings," by which he was "made perfect," might be rewarded by the glory to which he was raised, at the right hand of God, as the delegated judge of mankind, and the head of God's spiritual creation. That "in being declared the Son of God, with power by his resurrection from the dead," " he became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him," as the influential cause of their forsaking sin and being "reconciled to God;" and that thus through him we receive "the reconciliation." That his death was a sacrifice only as it was a gift offered up in voluntary obedience to the will of his God and Father; and as the means of moral purification and of re-admission to forfeited privileges, by bringing those who were in the state of sinners under the death in Adam, into the state of righteous persons through Christ's immortality.

EXAMINATION

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OF

The supposed Scriptural Grounds for a Vicarious Satisfaction, or a Propitiatory Sacrifice.

The Scripture testifies, Rom. v. 14-18, that "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come: But not as the offence, so also s the FREE GIFT. For if through the offence on one, [the] many be dead; much more the GRACE of God, and the GIFT by GRACE, which is by ONE MAN, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto [the] many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the FREE GIFT is of many offences unto justification; for by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of GRACE, and of the GIFT of righteousness, shall reign in LIFE by [diz, through] one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation [of death]; even so by the righteousness of one [the righteous obedience of Christ unto the death of the cross], the FREE GIFT came upon all men unto justification of LIFE."

From this passage it is plain, (1) That the posterity of Adam, in coming under the mortal penalty of sin, had no share in the sin itself; (2) That the favour or grace of God to man, in removing this

penalty, and conveying to men the means of righteousness, was FREE, or self-originated, and not procured or purchased of God by another; men being always said to be purchased, not of God, but to God from sin; (3) That God, foreseeing the perfect righteousness of him whom he loved before the foundation of the world," thought fit to appoint him the medium, through whom he would reconcile the world to himself, and DECLARE his mercy in the resurrection from the dead, and the promise of remission of sins on repentance; but that this reconciling of man to God was a free gift of God himself, who himself purchased us from death and sin by the blood of the new covenant; which was necessary, as a means, only in so far as it appeared fitting in the wisdom of God.

PSALM li. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

It is the custom to force particular texts, which have an individual application, into general truths and axioms; but the meaning of a passage must be ascertained by the context, and by a general comparison of Scripture with itself. This passage occurs in a penitential hymn, expressive of remorse for a special act of wickedness in the individual. Ver. 4, "Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." 14, "Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God!" Allusive, probably, to the slaying of Uriah.

This expression of strong contrition, and a sense of personal depravity, cannot be understood as a general allusion to hereditary human sinfulness, or incapacity of righteousness; for this would appear to be rather an apology than a confession. This was in fact a Jewish proverbial saying, expressive of rooted depravity. John ix. 34, "Thou wast altogether born in sins; and dost thou teach

US?" Which cannot be meant of the hereditary sin of human nature, for the Pharisees exclude themselves.

ISAIAH Ixiv. 6. WE are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. This is also wrested into the general axiom, that "all human righteousnesses are filthy rags.' It is spoken of the particular offences of the Jewish people. "7, There is none that calleth upon thy name; for thou hast hid thy face from us. 10, Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness; Jerusalem a desolation. 11, Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire. 12, Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?" These unrighteousnesses are also, in the same chapter, compared with righteousnesses. "5, Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, THOSE that remember thee in thy ways: behold thou art wroth, for we have sinned; in THOSE is continuance, and THEY shall be saved."

1 COR. ii. 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This is brought in proof of the radical and total depravity of man's nature, from the womb, and his utter incapacity to choose good in preference to evil. But natural is here used in opposition to spiritual, and the original should properly be understood, "the animal or sensual man:" xixos, a word sometimes translated sensual. In the same sense it is said, "the carnal mind is at enmity with God." In Rom. i. 28, the same Apostle says, speaking of the Gentiles, "And even as they did not like [or think fi] to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind;" and in ver. 31 he describes, among their vices, the