THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
IN ITS
RELATION TO GOD AND THE UNIVERSE.
By the
REV. THOMAS W. JENKYN, D.
D. Including Sections 1 thru 5 ON THE ATONEMENT IN ITS RELATION TO
THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. ALL PROVIDENCE CENTERING IN THE
ATONEMENT. I HAVE already examined the atonement in its relation to
all works of God, considered as the productions of his
wisdom, power, and goodness, and as the abodes of
intelligent beings, and theatres of divine dispensations. In
that chapter, no immediate regard was had to the
administrations of providence in this world. In order,
therefore, to a due examination of the atonement, in all its
bearings and influence, we shall now proceed to consider it,
in its relation to the providence which God exercises over
our world. PROVIDENCE is that wise oversight and holy care which the
Blessed God exercises over all beings, so as to preserve,
direct and order all their agencies for the good of his
whole empire and for the display of his own glory. It is the
divine disposal and administration of all the works, and of
all the events, of time. Time is always shifting its scenes,
and, in every change, is producing fresh characters and
successive works. Every moment of time is throned with
agents and crowded with events. All things, and all beings
are at work, and are at work for God, under his cognizance,
management, and control. All are working out some amazing
plan, of which the operations of every individual is an
underplot, and of which, the progress and the upshot shall
be according to the wisdom of God and the good pleasure of
his will. The foundation of providence is the existence of God. If
there be no God, there can be no providence. Providence
without the oversight of infinite intelligence is a
fortuitous concourse of events, a series of plots without a
meaning. Heathen historians, both ancient and modern, would
be puzzled to answer the questions,--What can be the meaning
of their histories! For what purposes have all these events
come to pass? What is to be the final upshot of all the
movements and changes in dynasties and empires? History
without a providence is an idle tale, a cipher without an
integer, a number of unconnected links, but no chain. Divine
providence, on the contrary, gives unity, worth, energy, and
weight to all the events of history, by connecting each and
all of them with the infinite superintending mind of
God. As heathen philosophers rob history of its importance and
glory, by separating it from the providence of God; so, many
Christian divines rob providence of much of its beauty and
worth, by severing it from the mediation and atonement of
Christ. It has long been the fashion in theology to consider the
divine government, as consisting of three kingdoms or
provinces, called the kingdom of nature, the kingdom of
providence, and the kingdom of grace. The same fashion has
represented the kingdom of grace alone, as connected with
the atonement of Jesus Christ; supposing the kingdom of
nature and the kingdom of providence to sustain no
relationship to his mediation. I believe such distributions
of the divine empire to be human, unscriptural, and
therefore untenable. The advancement of natural philosophy
has banished from the science of chemistry, the old orthodox
principles of "the four elements," and it is now full time
that the progress of scriptural theology should have
abolished the human arrangements of the three divine
kingdoms. If, however, these arrangements only mean that
nature, providence, and grace are imperia in imperio--wheels
within a wheel,--works and events of various diameters
thrown around one centre, and that centre, the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, such distribution and such language would
be admissible. It is the making either of these provinces
independent of the central, throne that makes such a
division inadmissible and blamable. To separate nature and providence from the mediation of
Christ, is to put asunder what God has united. What is
nature but the original constitution of all things? What is
the original constitution of all things, but the state in
which they were created by Christ, and for Christ? And this
is mediation. What is providence? Is it not Christ upholding
all things, and governing all things? Is it not all things
consisting and holding together in Christ? Providence, then,
alienated from the mediatorial administration of Christ, is
not the providence of the Scripture. And nature separated
from the work of Christ is not the "course of nature"
mentioned in the Scripture as a theatre for the scenes of
redemption, and as an apparatus of means for the good of
them that love God. Nature, providence, and grace, then, are three immense
wheels in one machinery,--the cogs, and revolutions of each,
catching and influencing those of the others, and all put in
motion by the influence of the great atonement. God does not
perform one thing as the God of nature, another thing as the
God of providence, and a third as the God of grace. Such
language is just as proper as that he does one thing as the
God of vegetation, another as the God of geology, and a
third as the God of astronomy; or one thing as the God of
the earth, another thing as the God of the moon, and another
as the God of the sun. He is of one mind, and his system is
one. Any one of his dispensations, like a stone thrown into
a lake, produces, according to its weight and importance,
circles which tell on other portions of his works, and in
other places of his dominion. The atonement of Christ is an event to which all
providence refers. "The hour" of atonement was the hour for
which all hours were made. It was the hour to which all
preceding providences looked forward, and to which all
subsequent providences look backward. It was in the fullness
of time, at a crisis which providence had matured, that
Christ offered the atonement of his death. In this
atonement, as the centre of power and influence, Christ
stands, amid the numerous revolutions of providence, the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever. THE MEDIATORIAL ADMINISTRATION OF
PROVIDENCE FOUNDED ON THE ATONEMENT. I. The sacred Scriptures regard the atonement of Christ
as the ground and reason for committing the administrations
of providence into his hands. Let us hear what Jesus Christ himself says, "All power is
given to me in heaven and earth." Matt. xxviii. 19. In this
passage christ regards himself as the President of the
entire universe. He declares his power to be universal. He
has authority over heaven, to employ all its intelligences
in his service, and to dispose of all its happiness and
honors according to his sovereign will and pleasure. His
authority extends over all the earth, over all beings and
things, over all times, works, and events,--and especially
over the probation and the destinies of man. This language
does more than merely assert the universal domination of the
Redeemer, it gives also an intimation of the harmonious
administration of this immense power. The power exercised in
heaven is not opposed to the interests of the earth; and the
authority employed on earth is subservient to the great
interests of heaven. It is by the influence of the atonement
that the will of God will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. The whole language of the New Testament is an echo of
this regal proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Mediator is "King of kings, and Lord of lords." He is "Lord
of all." "He has power over all flesh." He has "the keys of
Hades and the grave," and is "Lord both of the dead and the
living." He is the "head of all principality and power,"
"the Lord of glory." "Every judgment is committed unto him."
Indeed "all things are delivered unto him of the Father, who
has constituted him the heir of all things, who has put all
things under his feet, and who has issued a public edict
from his throne, "that in the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in heaven, of things in earth, and
things under the earth." Another class of passages distinctly asserts that the
person of the Mediator is invested with this authority and
dominion on account, and in consequence, of his atonement.
Take Phil. ii. 8-10, as a nucleus for the others. "Being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. WHEREFORE
God also bath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name--that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is LORD to the glory of God the Father." To
possess the universal empire was one design of his
sacrifice. "For, for this end Christ died that he might be
Lord both of the dead and the living." It was after that he
offered one sacrifice for sins, that he forever sat down at
the right hand of God. The apostle Peter represents Christ
as "gone into heaven, and on the right hand of God; angels,
authorities, and powers, being made subject unto him." 1
Peter iii. 22. He entered heaven in his priestly office, and
his atoning character, as the high priest entered the holy
of holies; and on this official entrance into heaven, he
took public possession of all power and authority. It was not now that the grant of universal dominion was
made to him; nor was it now that he commenced his
mediatorial government; but it was now that he was publicly
inaugurated into the administration of divine providence.
Though in virtue of the original and eternal grant of the
Father, Christ had been in the actual possession of all
power, yet it was not till after his ascension in his
atoning office, that he assumed the public exercise of his
mediatorial authority over providence. Probably, the new
aspect which the administration of providence assumed about
this time towards the Gentiles was designed to be a proof of
this, as it seemed reserved to honor the coronation, and to
adorn the triumphs, of the Mediator. And the copious
effusion of gracious influences at this time seemed to give
a new character to the dispensations of providence, as royal
largeness scattered among the people, to grace the
auspicious entrance of Christ upon the public exercise of
his mediatorial power, as the official Organ of moral
government. II. Without an atonement there would have been no
providence exercised among mankind. If there be no
relationship between the atonement of Christ, and the
providence of God, it is impossible to account for the
continuation of mankind on the face of the earth. Suppose for a moment that the arrangements of the
constitution with Adam in Eden had been carried out into
literal execution. In the day that our first parents would
eat of the forbidden fruit, "dying they were to die." They
did eat. And had this constitution been executed to the
letter, they would immediately have died and perished; and,
consequently, would have had no posterity. If the
threatening had been executed literally, there would have
been no human race. They, however, sinned, and became liable
to the literal infliction of the threatened punishment, but
the infliction of the literal penalty was suspended, and
they lived. How did this come to pass? It was by the
introduction of a new dispensation, a dispensation that was
sparing, restorative, and saving. The ground of this new
dispensation was the Seed of the woman's bruising the
serpent's head, and obtaining, by his sufferings and
conflicts, a mastery over the world, and over all evils. From the moment that the threatened penalty was suspended
by the introduction of another constitution, Adam and Eve
lived under a new dispensation, and under this new
dispensation Cain and Abel were born; yea, under this new
dispensation the whole posterity of Adam has been introduced
into the world. This has been long and strenuously disputed,
but on no solid and scriptural grounds. I would just ask, if
the penal sanctions of Eden had been literally inflicted on
our first parents, how was it possible for them to have a
race of offsprings? If the human race is born under the Eden
constitution, or as it is called, the covenant of works,
where is the Eden test of probation? on whom has its literal
threatenings ever been executed? who has ever died in the
day that he first sinned? The case of mankind, I conceive, stands thus. In the wise
and harmonious exercise of divine prerogative and public
justice, the original penalty or curse threatened against
Adam was suspended. I do not consider the sentence
pronounced on our first parents after the fall, to be the
same with the curse that was threatened to them before their
fall. The sentence is daily executed, but the original curse
or penalty threatened was suspended. It was suspended, on
the ground of the atonement of Christ as an equivalent, that
is, as an expedient which was substituted instead of it, and
which would answer the same public ends. By such a
substitution another dispensation was introduced, and by the
introduction of another dispensation, our first parents and
their posterity were allowed to live. The human race, then, owes its very existence, with all
the blessings and advantages of that existence, to the
mediation and atonement of Jesus Christ. For without a
regard to the atonement, it is impossible, to view the
suspension of a punishment which had been solemnly
threatened, to be either honorable or safe to the divine
government. If God can, with honor to his government, remit
any punishment irrespective of the atonement, he might remit
all-- which would make the atonement of Christ altogether
vain. III. If the dispensations of providence be separated from
the influence of the atonement, no principle remains to
account for the harmonious administration of judgement and
mercy in the government of the world. Take away the atonement of Christ, and the state and the
circumstances and the prospects of man present a labyrinth
for which we have no clue. If man be what he was first made,
and what he ought to be, in the service and in the favor of
his Maker and Owner, how will you account for his misery and
degradation? If man be abhorred, and spurned, and cursed of
his Maker and Lawgiver, how will you account for his
mercies, for his probation, for the call on him to
repentance, and for the numerous answers which God has given
to his prayers? Man is evidently under a mixed administration. He himself
is regarded in the mixed character of a condemned sinner and
a probationary candidate. God governs him in the mixed
character of a gracious Benefactor and just Judge. Scripture
and observation prove that these things are really so. The
difficulty is to find some ground or medium in which
prerogative and law, or mercy and judgment, shall harmonize.
Such a medium is the atonement of the death of Christ. This medium is not necessary to the existence of mercy
and justice in God, nor, perhaps, to a separate exercise of
them. God has these attributes and perfections
irrespectively of the mediatorial constitution, and they
harmonize in his nature with perfect loveliness, for in him
can be no clashing attributes or contradictory principles. A
medium is necessary, therefore, only to harmonize their
exercise, in a mixed administration of moral government. The atonement of the death of Christ is a suitable medium
for this. It supposes man to be a sinner, and yet a
candidate in probation. It supposes God to be a sovereign
Benefactor, and yet a righteous Governor. It exhibits God in
the fullness of his character, a righteous legislator who
published a good law; a gracious Lord who exercises his
sovereign prerogative in infinite wisdom; and a just
governor, who, in dispensing pardon and favor, consults the
dignity and the honor of his government. The very provision
of an atoning expedient supposes all this. The atonement
does not exhibit one attribute glorious and lovely at the
expense of the other, but it shows forth each and all in
unsullied purity, in well-adjusted harmony, and in greater
lustre and splendor than any measure in the universe. It
enables God honorably to condescend to show favors without
sinking his character or his government. The same atonement in its aspect upon the sinner,
contemplates him in his mixed character, under condemnation,
and yet in probation. The provision of an atonement tells
the sinner, that the moral legislator thought the quarrel
between him and the offender of such an importance, as to
call in the interposition of a third party, and that third
party a Person of great dignity and worth. It tells him that
the very friend who interposed for him regards the law which
the sinner violated as holy, just, and good. By exhibiting
the sufferings of this illustrious Interposer, as
substituted instead of the punishment due to the offender,
the atonement brings a greater amount of motive to deter
sinners from transgression than the tempter can bring to
allure to it. God is so well pleased with the atonement of
his Son, that he reckons any of his perfections honored and
glorified, by being exercised for the sake of it, and on
account of it. He is willing to confer any boon and any
favor, however great, upon any offender, however unworthy,
if he will ask it in the name and for the sake of his dear
Son. In this mixed administration of the divine government,
man's transgression will account for his miseries, God's
goodness will account for his mercies, and the atonement of
Christ will account for the honorable exhibition of favor to
him as a condemned offender. THE ADMINISTRATION OF PROVIDENCE
SUBSERVIENT TO THE ENDS OF THE
ATONEMENT. If all the movements in the physical universe are put in
subserviency to gravitation, it is valid to argue that
gravitation is connected with all the arrangements of
matter. By a similar train of reasoning we can prove a
connection between the atonement of Christ and all the
arrangements of providence. The fact of such a connection is
established both by the testimony of the Scriptures, and by
the whole aspect of the dispensations of providence. I. The whole design and aspect of the atonement is
"good-will to men;" and to this, the whole administration of
providence is subservient. The entire character and history of providence are summed
up in one inspired sentence: "all things work together for
good." "All things" in the universe are at "work." All
things are at work "together," in order and harmony. The
product of the harmonious co-operation of all things is
"good." This aggregate of good produced in the universe
forms the portion and inheritance of "them who love God."
The workings together of good agents produce an immense
accumulation of good; and even the workings of bad agents
are overruled for good. Indeed all the evils in the universe
arise from agents not working their proper work; but even
this is made subservient to the production of good upon the
whole. It is a fact which should form the doctrinal creed of
every man, that in the whole machinery of providence, there
is not a single wheel made and intended to produce evil.
Every wheel, and every revolution of every wheel, is
intended, placed, and fitted to produce good, and to produce
nothing but good. It is true, indeed, that the results of
providential revolutions may and will be for evil to some;
nevertheless, the reason of this is not in the movements of
providence, but in the character and attitude of sinners
themselves. The workings of any piece of machinery may be
good and productive of good, but if a drunken or a heedless
man throw himself within its cogs, the fault of the result
cannot be ascribed to the working of the machinery. Picture
to yourself a thief at his wicked work, skulking in
darkness, and grasping his booty. Will he remain long on the
scene of wrong to enjoy his prey? No. See how all the stars
of heaven move in their courses--see how the great globe
itself rolls in rapid and mighty movement--see how the sun
travels in the greatness of his strength. All these
stupendous movements are positively good, and produce good:
but they are for evil to the spoiler: simply because he is a
spoiler, and at a wrong work; they are for good to every
honest man, who is at his proper work. Every friend of sin
is like a besotted man entangled in the meshes of a good
machinery, whose revolutions will eventually crush and
destroy him. He is out of his place. The author of the
machinery never intended him to be there, and therefore the
blame of the evil consequences is not to be ascribed to Him.
An evil doer is like a thief and a robber, whose pursuits
are not in harmony with the "course of nature," and
therefore the course of nature and the revolutions of
providence are against him. History and experience testify that in the present mixed
administrations of providence, mercy and judgment, like
ingredients in a medicine, or like a thunderstorm in the
atmosphere, operate for the public good, and altogether wear
an aspect of benevolence and kindness towards man. Judgments
are never sent without warnings, which are like the voice of
mercy crying before the trumpet of judgment. Judgments keep
up a constant memorial of the rectitude of the governor, and
a testimony to his concern for the public welfare, in
showing that he is as much determined to defend good laws,
as he was disposed to make them. These judicial
interpositions restrain men from great evils, and really
prove blessings to many families, and to many neighborhoods,
by removing a root of bitterness and an evil example from
among them. Even the severest inflictions of judgments leave
more criminals behind than they sweep away, that the others
may have a season for repentance. Judgments come very
gradually, and when they do come, God never stirs up all his
wrath, and he never afflicts with the "greatness of his
power." If even the judgments executed in the
administrations of providence have such an aspect of
benevolence and "good-will to man," what must be the
character of the mercies which providence with open hand
lavishes on the children of men? In the dispensations of
providence, mercy and truth have met together, righteousness
and peace have embraced each other. It is the atonement of Jesus Christ that gives to divine
providence this character and aspect. The atoning Mediator
is, in priority of arrangement, the first in the series of
the blessings of infinite providence, the first bubbling in
the well-spring of the stream of favors, the first stone in
the magazine of all fullness of blessings, and it is out of
his fullness that we all have received. It is because God
spared not his own Son, but delivered him for us all, that
he will with him freely give us all things. All blessings
and mercies are dispensed in his name, by his authority, and
on his account. It is only so far as our mercies are
employed in harmony with the mediatorial work of Christ,
that they prove real blessings unto us; they are otherwise
traps and snares to our ruin. All good things, and sure
mercies are contained in the New Testament of Christ. No
blessing has ever come to man but what is contained in the
Testament, and the Testament with all its blessings and
mercies, is sealed with the blood of the atonement. The Lord
Jesus Christ is constituted the sovereign of providence. In
this character he sits on the right hand of God, and
dispenses his favors. Blessings are dispensed by him, not by
his divine authority, but by his mediatorial power; and his
mediatorial power is, alpha and omega, founded in the
atonement of his death. II. The subserviency of providence to the designs of the
atonement becomes more evident when we consider that
providential dispensations are administered with a special
reference to the interests of the church of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is himself "the heir of all
things," and all his people are "joint-heirs with him." God
has placed the Mediator in the throne of dominion at his own
right hand in the heavenly places, and has put all things
under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things
to the church. Therefore, the apostle says elsewhere, "All
things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come, all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is
God's." Our blessed Saviour, in his intercessory prayer in the
garden, refers to this bearing of his mediatorial government
generally, on the interests of the church especially, "Thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." This
passage, while it shows that the mediatorial dominion of
Christ is of wider diameter than his church, proves that the
exercise of all his mediatorial authority and sway, is
subservient to the interests of his people. The entire
history of divine providence is an evidence of this special
Subserviency. The early history of the Jewish church shows
how much the civil politics and the external condition of
the nations of the earth were subservient to its protection
and establishment. When the church has been in circumstances
difficult, painful, and critical, providence in an
unthought-of manner interposed to supply suitable means and
proper instruments of deliverance--as in Egypt and Babylon,
at the introduction of Christianity, and at the Reformation.
The plots, and designs, and machinations of men and of
nations, laid down with malicious craftiness, and nerved
with wealth and power, have been, by a mediatorial
providence, suddenly frustrated and destroyed. The
dispositions of counsels and states have been, as rivers of
water in the hand of providence, directed, or moderated,
chastened, or overruled for the furtherance of the church of
Christ. Some instances of particular providences, in the
lives and labors of individual members of the church, supply
the most decisive and interesting specimens of the manner in
which the administration of the world is subordinate to the
benefit of the church. III. One marked design of the atonement of Christ is to
magnify the law and make it honorable. To this high design
all the dispensations of providence are subservient. This is
the end aimed at in the inflictions of judgments on
individual men and on communities, in the institution of
sacrificial rites which have prevailed among all nations, in
the miraculous revelations of the divine mind and will to
prophets and other messengers, in the prompt and suitable
answers that have been given to prayer, in the promulgation
and ministrations of the gospel in the world, in the holy
lives of renewed men, in the eternal punishment of
incorrigible rebels, and in the glorious rewards of the
heavenly state. These considerations warrant the conclusion, that all
things are made "for" Christ as Mediator, and "given" to his
administration to subserve the ends of his government, and
secure the purposes of his atonement. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ATONEMENT
ANALOGOUS TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF
PROVIDENCE. PALEY observes, in his Natural Theology, that in all our
widest and farthest researches into the productions of
Creation, "we never get amongst such original, or totally
different modes of existence as to indicate, that we are
come into the province of a different Creator, or under the
direction of a different will." Well had it been for the
christian church had such a thought suggested itself to our
theological inquirers and polemical writers. It would have
saved much controversy, heresy, persecution, and
bloodshed. The analogy between providence and moral government,
BUTLER has established in a position unassailed and
unassailable. Many of the controversies which have agitated
and unsettled the christian church, have been conducted on
the supposition, that in the works of redemption we come, so
to speak to the productions of a different God, other than
the Lord of providence and the Maker of the world. Human
systems of theology seem to take this datum for their
basis-but holy writ, sound reason, and daily experience show
that mankind are members of one immense system, pervaded by
the same mind, regulated by the same will, and administered
on the same general principles. My present design is only to illustrate the analogy
between the administration of the atonement and the
dispensation of providence. I. The providence of God has a universal aspect. His
tender mercies are over all his works. He maketh his sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and the unjust. Such is the God of providence, and such
also is the God of redemption. He has loved the world. He
gave his Son to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole
world. He willeth not that any should perish, but that all
should come to the knowledge of the truth, and he commands
all men everywhere to repent. Here are words of equal
dimensions. If you will apply some cramping and abridging
process to the phrases about redemption, try the same
experiment on providence, and the result will show that you
serve a system and receive not the truth. On the universal
aspect of providence you have no system to serve, but on
redemption you have to cut and square these unmeasured
expressions to ready-made creeds. Think not in your hearts
that the God who openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire
of every living thing, is different from the God who spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. Say not
that the God who has provided so bountifully for our bodily
and temporal wants, has been ignored, and scanty in his
supply for the soul that is to live forever. II. The measures of providence are liable to failure. A
medicine may fail, notwithstanding the virtue which
providence has given it. The crop of the husbandman may
fail, notwithstanding the provision that seed time and
harvest time shall continue. The morbid fear of
acknowledging such a liableness to failure in the measure of
providence is unaccountable when God declares his own
government of the Jews, under the theocracy, to have failed
of its ends. "In vain have I smitten; they have refused to
receive correction," Jer. ii. 30. The work of God distinctly
and expressly recognizes the same liableness to failure in
the great measure of atonement. Are you sure that it is not
attachment to system, rather than attachment to the truth,
that makes you hesitate to avow this? The Scriptures openly
state that the atonement may become of none effect in some
cases, as in Gal. v. 2, 5. The apostle Paul was afraid of
the Galatians, lest he had bestowed upon them labor in vain,
i.e., lest the ministry of the atonement should fail of its
ends. The same apostle pleads with the Corinthians in
earnest entreaty, that they would not receive the grace of
God in vain, which he must have supposed to be a possible
case. The prophet Isaiah introduces the Messiah, the Lord
Mediator himself, saying, "I have labored in vain, and spent
my strength for naught." In perfect harmony with this
prediction are the very words of the Redeemer himself "How
oft would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not?" As I have
here only to notice the analogy between the atonement and
providence, no candid reader will suppose that this language
implies an utter failure--it merely implies susceptibility
of failure. The failure in either case does not dishonor
God, the blame of it is entirely with the sinner-and the
possibility of the case is quite consistent with the laws of
trial in a free and moral government. The character of any measures of divine providence is to
be tried by the fitness and adaptation, and design, of such
measures, and not at all by their final results. It is in
this manner we always judge of an evil measure in the world.
We judge of a dagger, a sword, a cannon, by its fitness and
design. We judge of deceit, cunning, extortion and
oppression, by their tendency and aim. Thus should we judge
of providence. No wise man judges of a medicine by the death
of its patient, of wealth by a miser, of learning by
pedantry, or of liberty by anarchy. The deluge was a fit
measure to clear the earth of evil doers, but you will not
judge so by the final results. The final result does not
prove that the selection of the family of Abraham would
preserve a people from idolatry and sin--nevertheless the
measure itself was adapted and intended to do this. The
miracles of Egypt and the wilderness were fitted and
designed to bring the Israelites to obey God, and to trust
him --but the result was otherwise. You do not judge of the
ministry of Christ among the Jews, by its final result, but
by its tendency and design. Why then will you judge of the
atonement only by its final results? Why not judge of it by
its adaptation and fitness and design? If the final result
of any measure turn out to be the same with the ultimate end
for which it was instituted and adapted, then the final
result is a good criterion by which to test the design and
tendency of a measure. In illustration, we may say that our
present state of trial and probation is adapted, calculated,
and designed to work out for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory; but the final results, in countless
instances, will prove otherwise. Will you say then, that
this state was fitted and intended to prove thus disastrous?
You are not to judge of probation by what it may be, or
shall be in given instances, but by what it is now, by what
it is fitted and intended to effect. Nor are you to judge of
the atonement by what it may and shall be in some instances,
"the savor of death unto death," but by what it is now,-and
what it is calculated and designed to be, "the savor of life
unto life" to all who will accept it. III. The principle on which general providence becomes
available to particular cases, and thus becomes particular
providence, is by personal application only. So when a
farmer takes into cultivation a piece of land from the
common, on which no corn has ever grown before, he applies,
to his own individual case, the broad offer and promise of
general providence, that wherever there shall be a seed time
there shall be a harvest time. This general providence
becomes as suitable and as effectual to him, as if it were
made and intended for him personally, and for him only. He
never thinks of consulting the secret decrees of heaven, to
know whether such a plot of ground was eternally predestined
to bear a crop. The general promise is quite enough for him.
Thus he acts in the thousand affairs of life; say, in taking
medicine, he never waits to unroll the private manuscripts
of heaven. for information: he merely ascertains the general
fitness, adaptation, and tendency of the remedy, and applies
it to his individual case. Why will not men act thus about
the atonement? General atonement and particular redemption
are no more inconsistent than a general and particular
providence. No argument can be brought against a general
atonement which will not fall with the same weight and edge
upon a general Providence. There are no difficulties
connected with particular redemption which do not adhere as
closely to particular providence. It would be regarded as
the drivelling of silliness to argue that if there be a
particular providence there cannot be a general one. Of the
same estimate is the reasoning that if there be a particular
redemption the atonement can not be universal. As general
providence becomes particular only by personal application,
so does general atonement become particular redemption.
"Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life
freely;" "and him that cometh I will in no wise cast
out." The supposed farmer never suspected that he was not
personally intended in the general promise of Providence. If
his crop has not answered his expectations, he sees and
feels that the failure was owing to the nature of the soil,
and not to a deficiency in the promise; for it was never
promised, that if he ploughed the rock, or sowed the
seashore, he should have a harvest. And why should any
sinner suspect that he is not personally interested in the
atonement, and that the general atonement is not available
to his particular and personal case? There is not in the
Scriptures even the most remote allusion to any class of
sinners for whom Christ did not die. In the whole history of
salvation and of man, there is not on record a single
instance of a personal application of the general atonement
failing of success. No personal applicant at the door of the
atonement has ever perished. Christ has never said to any
suppliant,--"I never meant you individually." If any sinner
who knows of the atonement perishes, even in his destruction
he sees, that his perdition is not through a deficiency in
the atonement, for the atonement had never promised or
provided, if he sowed to the flesh, that from the flesh he
should reap everlasting life. If you heard some of the
family of the supposed farmer quibbling about the divine
decrees, and saying that they were never designed to be
farmers, and that they did not think providence would ever
bless them in such an undertaking, you would conclude that
at heart they had no liking for the work. It is, I believe,
universally true, that no sinner quibbles about the secret
designs of the atonement, but when he has no liking to the
personal application of it, to condemn himself and to
justify the divine government. When Paul's fellow-passengers
laid hold on the "boards and broken pieces of the ship,"
they had no time to quibble about secret decrees, they made
the provisions of general providence available to their
particular cases, and they all succeeded. Let every sinner
go and do likewise. IV. The providence of God treats men as moral and free
agents. Providence will do for a man nothing that he can do
for himself. Providence will give seed to the sower, but it
will not sow it nor reap the crop for him. Providence will
fill the sails of the vessel with gales, but it will not
steer at the helm. Providence makes no arrangement to
encourage the idleness--or inactivity of man, but all its
provisions require and demand the full exercise of his
agency. God promised to feed the Israelites in the
wilderness with manna, but they themselves were to gather
and prepare it for food. Providence gives us our "daily
bread," but not in baked loaves falling from the sky.
Providence supplies us with raiment, but not in garments
ready made, descending upon us without any agency of our
own. Providence has made bread to be the staff of life, but
here it meets us as free agents, for if we do not exercise
our own agency to partake of it, it will avail us nothing.
The administration of the atonement meets man in the same
manner, as a free agent. It does nothing for him that he can
do himself. It presents to his eyes, "Him whom he has
pierced," but he himself must repent and weep. It shows to
him "a new and a living way to the Father," but he himself
must walk it. It supplies him with a sovereign and
sufficient remedy," but he himself must "receive" it. If he
refuse the balm of Gilead, it will not heal him. If he
neglect this great salvation, it will not save him. If he
will not have this man to rule over him, he will not be
delivered from the kingdom of darkness, As providence deals
with free agents, so does the atonement. Take these
statements about the atonement simply and candidly as they
are presented to yon, and you will admit, you must admit,
that they are the real facts of the case. Will you venture
to wrest them because they ran not parallel with the lines
of your theological system? These arrangements about the
atonement are no more dishonorable to the character of God,
than are the similar measures about the providence of God.
Whatever may be the failures of providence during the
economy of probation, we know that the upshot of the whole
will be to the everlasting glory of God, and that all his
perfections and purposes will appear guiltless of those
failures. So will the administration of the atonement of
Christ be unto God a sweet savor, even in them that perish.
Though his death prove of none effect to those who are bent
on being justified by the law, and to them who would not
obey him, yet the illustrious Redeemer shall not fail of the
travail of his soul. It should be remembered that the mere
salvation of sinful men was not the only thing for which the
soul of Christ travailed. He travailed for the glory of God,
for the honor of the law, for the condemnation of sin, for
the free overtures of the gospel, for the gracious
acceptance of sinners, for the inexcusableness of wilful
rejecters, and for the righteousness of their sorer
punishment. Of all this travail he shall see. And while he
is glorified in his saints and admired in them that believe,
he will be justified and adored in the punishment of the
refusers of his salvation, for the language of all
intelligences will be "Amen, just and true are thy ways,
thou King of saints. These remarks show that the moral Governor who directs
the administration of the atonement is not a Ruler different
from him who regulates the dispensations of providence. In
proceeding from one to another, we make no transition into
the works and principles of a different God. We have already
considered that the whole system of the universe was of a
mediatorial character, and that, had it not been for the
substituted sufferings of the Seed of the woman, there would
have been no providence exercised towards the human race,
for they would never have come into being. The dispensations
of providence, therefore, must take their character from the
medium through which they are administered; and this medium
is the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. Providence began
with the atonement--it continued to be administered through
the atonement--and it will forever close with the closing
dispensation of the atonement. The close of one is the close
of the other. A season will come when there remaineth no
more sacrifice for sin, when the merits of the atonement
will be no longer available to our world, when the time of
probation for receiving the benefits of the atonement will
close, and then will providence close forever. Then, "Let
him that is holy be holy still, and him that is filthy be
filthy still. From the whole of this train of observations, the
inference is inevitable that God exercises no providence in
this world with which the atonement has not a close and
constant relation, and that they are both administered upon
the same principles of moral government. A LIMITED ATONEMENT INCONSISTENT WITH
THE ADMINISTRATION OF PROVIDENCE. I. An atonement designed for a limited number only, is
inconsistent with the general claim which Jesus Christ makes
to govern and regulate the duties, the affections, the
homage, and the destinies of every man on the face of the
earth. The Lord Jesus Christ claims the heathen for his
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his
possession. This passage is sometimes interpreted as meaning
that the inheritance which Christ claims consists only of
his elect people among the heathen. If so, the rest of the
heathen, who remain unconverted, are not rebels against
Christ. Against what can they be said to have rebelled? Is
it against his claims to them? No; according to this limited
hypothesis; for he does not claim them personally, but only
the elect who lived among them. In such a case, their
non-submission to his rule and government is no sin to be
laid to their charge, for the mediatorial king is supposed
to lay no claim to them. Can it be a crime in any of the
heathen not to submit to a claim which has never been made
on them? When the mediatorial judge will say, "Slay those
enemies that would not have me to rule over them," might
they not silently murmur or retort, "I would not?" Was it
ever offered to us to have thee to rule over us? Didst thou
ever lay claims to our homage and obedience?" Suppose that
these foes themselves dared not mutter such a retort, would
not thoughts and hints of this kind suggest themselves to
holy intelligences, who actually knew the truth and verity
of the case? I should like to hear an abettor of limited
atonement remonstrate and reason with a class of rebels who
said, "We will not have this man to rule over us." His
theological system would require him to say, "You will not
have him? Stop, are you sure you could have had him? Did he
ever ask you to have him? Since you have rejected him it is
a proof that he never sincerely intended you to receive him,
or else he would have made you to receive him before now."
After such an address let him try to impress on the minds of
these very men, their accountableness to this mediatorial
Ruler, the inexcusableness of their destruction, the guilt
of their rejection of Christ, and the justice of their
sentence according to the truth of the case. If Christ does not claim the homage and the service of
every man, every man is not bound to take him for a King,
and to yield obedience to him. No advocate of a limited
atonement has ever seen a man to whom he could not say, and
that on Scriptural grounds, that he was bound to receive
Christ as his Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ has made laws for
every man on the globe, laws that bind every man to repent,
and to believe the gospel, and to accept salvation for his
sake. If every man on the earth has not yet heard of these
laws, the fault is in them who were commissioned to publish
them, and not in Him who enacted them. These laws were meant
and intended for "the world," and they were to be preached
to "every creature." There is no limitation in the
commission, or in the aspect and design of the laws. With
what grace, or on what principles, could the Lord Jesus
Christ enact laws to make the homage of the world to him
binding upon them, if he laid no claims to that homage? We
would think it unaccountable for a king to send edicts and
messages to a province, where, in reality, he had no power
and authority. Christ lays to the services of the sinner no
claim which is not founded on the blood of redemption. The
sinner would never have had his existence had it not been
for the mediatorial interposition of "the Seed of the
Woman:" to that Mediator, therefore, he owes everything: and
it is on the ground of that mediation that Christ claims
everything that he is, and everything that he has. The authority which Christ has by his mediation over
every man is analogous to the authority which God by his
providence has over every man. God's providential power over
every man is founded in every man's relation to God. It is
founded upon the immutable fact that God is the Creator and
the Supporter of every individual. God had not authority
over Jonathan, on the ground that he was the Creator of
David, but on the ground that he was the Creator of Jonathan
himself He had not power over Judas because he was a
benefactor to Peter, but because he was a benefactor to
Judas himself Of the same character is the mediatorial power
of Christ over sinners. He had not power over Saul of Tarsus
because he died for Stephen, but because he died for Saul.
He had not authority to "gather" the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, under his mediatorial wings because he died for
his disciples, but because, he made atonement for these very
citizens. His intercession for his murderers was not founded
on his death for his friends, but on his death for these
identical murderers. These must be self-evident
verities. On this subject, there is an argument of this kind
frequently used: If Christ has authority over all, by an
atonement for all, how comes it to pass that all are not
saved? I can only say, that there is no difficulty in this
question which does not bear as hard upon the providence of
God, as upon the atonement of Christ. The long-suffering of
God is as much, in tendency and design, "for salvation," as
is the atonement. Let us form the query, by substituting the
one word for the other, this: If God's long-suffering
towards all, be designed for the salvation of all, how comes
it to pass that all are not saved? How will you parry
it? The fact is that both providential authority and
mediatorial authority are exercised over free agents who are
in a state of probation, and are therefore liable to be
rejected and renounced. The rejection of providential
government does not invalidate the claims of God which are
founded upon his relations to man as his Maker and Owner;
nor does the rejection of the mediatorial sway of Christ,
founded on his relations to the sinner as his Mediator and
Saviour, destroy his claims to homage and love. You do not
limit "the goodness of God" to the boundaries of the mere
number that it actually "leads to repentance;" you know it
is infinitely larger than that. You do not think that it is
a dishonor to the "long-suffering of God" that it is not
really successful "for salvation" to every sinner to whom it
is exhibited. These things you yourself hold as
indisputable, and you do well. Then, why judgest thou thy
brother, and why settest thou at naught thy brother, because
that, on your own principles, he thinks the atonement of
Christ, like "the goodness of God," may be of wider extent
than the number of sinners that actually repent; or "the
long-suffering of God," that it is not less glorious,
because it does not actually save those who neglect and
reject its benefits. I am aware that the proposition, that the universal power
of Christ is founded on his universal atonement, is
combatted by the statement that, on this showing, Christ has
died for the beasts of the field, and for devils, over whom
he certainly has authority. As brutes and devils are not
under moral government, ruled by hopes and fears, much less
in a state of trial and probation, the quibble appears so
irrelevant and sophistical as not to deserve a serious
reply. II. A limited atonement is inconsistent with the
bountiful favors and mercies which Providence confers on all
men universally. If God has conferred any favors on offenders
independently of the atonement of the Mediator, it is
difficult, if not impossible to say why He could not confer
all favors without it. If so, there was no necessity for the
atonement. This sentiment leads straight-forwardly to
Socinianism. We have already considered all providential
favors as being founded in the mediatorial atonement, and
administered on account of it. To evade this doctrine it is
asserted that the ungodly obtain their mercies and favors,
only for the sake of the elect, or through the church. Then,
whenever an ungodly man asks a blessing on his food, he
should ask it "for the elect's sake," not for Christ's
sake--and he should return thanks to God in the church's
name, but in the name of Christ. The Papists would be glad
of such a doctrine, because it would place at their disposal
the entire worthiness and merits of the church; though it
would be difficult to persuade any Christian church to
believe that it has all this worthiness in it. An atonement that is limited by the commercial principle
of paying so much suffering for so many blessings would be,
in respect to Divine Providence, a measure of sheer
absurdity. According to this commercial scheme, Christ has
suffered as much punishment as the sins of each of the elect
deserved, and has purchased for them blessings in proportion
to the worth of the sufferings, which he endured for them,
and these blessings he demands for them by his intercession.
Then the reason why some Christians are so poor is, that the
Lord Jesus Christ did not actually purchase more blessings
for them. This also accounts for the low amount of their
Christian graces and religious comforts: as, if Christ
demands all that he has purchased for them, the amount
communicated is small only because the amount purchased is
small. Here is no encouragement to grow in grace, unless we
believe that more grace is purchased for us than we actually
possess. Every Christian and every minister, on this scheme,
enjoys quite as much usefulness and success as has been
purchased for him, and no more. No other doctrine could
provide so soft a cushion for those who are at ease in
Zion. Let us follow this commercial principle a little farther.
The greater sinner an elect person is the greater sufferings
did Jesus Christ endure for him. The more Christ suffered,
the more blessings did he deserve. Christ will by his
intercession demand that every elect person shall have his
due share in the purchased blessing. The result is, that the
greater the sinner is, the greater is the amount of merit in
his behalf, and the greater will be his share in the
benefits of the atonement: and the more a man sins, the more
will God confer blessings on him through his Son. More has
been suffered, and consequently more has been merited for
the sinner of sixty years, than for the sinner of six years,
consequently the sinner of sixty , than the for the sinner
of six years, consequently, the sinner of sixty years will
be entitled to more blessings than the sinner of six years.
The meaning of such an arrangement is that the less a man
sinned, the less has Jesus Christ merited and purchased for
him: and the fewer his sins, the fewer will be the blessings
purchased for his inheritance. Such an atonement, exhibiting
such a bonus on aggravated transgression, is a disgrace to
theology as an ethical science: Scriptural theology
therefore renounces it as utterly inconsistent with the
whole of the manner in which God has conferred, and has
promised to confer, the mercies of his providence. III. The limitation of the atonement to a certain number
is at variance with the broad principles on which Christ
carries on his intercession in heaven. I consider the intercession of Christ to consist in the
four following articles. It consists in his public and
official appearance before God as the mediatorial
representative of man, and the President of the universe, in
his administration of all the providence of God, publicly
and officially, on the ground of his atonement;--in his
publicly and officially presenting to God all the services,
and all the prayers, entrusted to him for presentation;--and
in an official and public expression of his will, and
desire, that these services and prayers may be graciously
received and accepted. In the first two articles the intercession of Christ is
unbounded and interminable--of the same length and breadth,
and height and depth, as the divine empire. In the last two
articles the intercession of Christ is limited only by the
limited services and prayers which are entrusted to him by
others for presentation. He cannot possibly express a will
or desire that services and prayers be received which are
never offered. It would be ridiculous to argue that the
power of presentation, in a Receiver-General of the revenue,
is limited by the amount which he actually presents-- that
the liberty of a representative in the Senate to present
petitions is limited by the number actually presented--and
that the ability of an advocate to plead is limited by the
number of clients who actually employ him. Yet this is the
kind of argument that has been employed to limit the
intercession of Christ. And after throwing a boundary around
the intercession of Christ, the abettors of a limited
atonement have thought themselves as invulnerable as if they
were in a magic circle. There is no limitation given to the intercession of
Christ, except the limitation which men give to it by their
limited services and limited prayers. The intercession of
Christ is capable of the same extent as his atonement. This
very commensurateness is the ground of the apostle John's
argument; "If ANY MAN Sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for
the sins of the whole world." The propitiation for the sins
of the whole world is the ground of intercession for any man
that sins, and any man that sins is said to 'have' this
advocate, as one to whom we can have access. The Lord Jesus Christ has taught his people to make
intercession, on large principles, for "all men." They have
no grounds for intercession but those on which Christ
himself intercedes. He would not encourage them to make
intercession of wider dimensions than his own. Their
intercession for all men could be of no avail, if the blood
of Christ the advocate did not second their plea: and it
cannot plead for all men, if it was not shed for all
men. The various specimens which Jesus Christ has given of his
intercession, declare it to be open, broad, and unlimited,
in its character and aspect. In the xvii. chapter of John he
makes intercession distinctly for his ministers and for his
church. When Christ says, "I pray for them, I pray not for
the world," it is evident that by "them" he means his
apostles, for he mentions one of "them" as being Judas, who
was a son of perdition. He prays not for ministers only, but
for "all who shall believe through their word." What is the
design which Christ has is view in praying for ministers and
believers? Hear his own language. He prays and
intercedes--"that THE WORLD may believe that thou hast sent
me." He prays that the world may believe. Believe what?
Believe the Gospel-and that whosoever "believes" shall be
saved. The intercession of Christ then is a benefit and an
advantage which is accessible to the world, and in which the
world is interested. Much stress is sometimes laid upon the
words of Christ, "Father I will that they who follow me
shall be with me." No one doubts the full force of this
language without implying that it expresses either a fiat,
or an imperious demand. Christ in Gethsemane had no will
different from the "will" with which he wept over Jerusalem,
and said, How oft "would I" have gathered thee. There can be
no incongruity between his intercession in the garden, and
his intercession on the cross. On the cross, he prayed for
all his enemies--"Father forgive them, for they know not
what they do:" and we believe that in heaven his
intercession is of the same character. It seems to be known, to all heavenly intelligences, that
all the favors that come to this sinful world, come under
the direction, and at the intercession of Jesus Christ. One
part of his intercession is his official and public
administration of providence on the ground of his atonement.
If he can, as commercial redemption implies, only demand the
blessings which he has purchased for a certain number, then
it is impossible, or at any rate, it is unintelligible, how
he can officially, as public organ of government in Heaven,
distribute the bounties of providence universally to ALL
MEN; even when, according to the combated doctrine, it is
well known to principalities and powers in heavenly places,
that he purchased these favors ONLY for a few.