THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
IN ITS
RELATION TO GOD AND THE UNIVERSE.
By the
REV. THOMAS W. JENKYN, D.
D. Including Section 1 and 2 ON THE ATONEMENT IN ITS RELATION TO
THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF DIVINE TRUTH. EVERY DIVINE TRUTH RELATED TO THE
ATONEMENT. The entire collection of doctrines and facts, found in
the sacred Scriptures, is called a system of divine truth,
not because their contents are given in a systematical
arrangement of classes, and orders, and kinds, but because
they present a complete and a harmonious body of
information, upon all the subjects of faith and practice. We
find in the Scripture the truths of theology, as in nature
we find the truths of botany, mineralogy, or zoology, wisely
strewn in copious and lovely variety. Yet, in both cases,
these vast diversities form one complete whole system. Thus
the analogy from nature--the reference of Scripture to
"first principles," and to "the proportion of faith,"--the
abuse of truth when taken out of its connection,--the beauty
of truth in its own practical bearing and position, and the
consistency of one truth with the entire mass of all truths,
warrant us in regarding the Scripture as presenting to us a
system of divine truth. Of this entire system of divine truth, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the central orb, in whom are gathered all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the very Sun of the
system, full of grace and truth;--the Sun which first
garnished the dark horizon of Eden with a day-spring from on
high. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament present us
with the whole "truth, as it is in Jesus," that "in all
things he might have the preeminence," and be, as to the
whole arrangement, "all in all." The Christian student,
therefore, will, as well from cordial inclination as from
public profession, be disposed to consider and to view every
truth, according to its bearing and relation to the person
and the work of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and
the life, the faithful and the true witness. Christ himself
says, "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I
into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth."
"The truth" is the pure verity and the simple reality of the
case, as the state of things exists between God and man.
Upon this case every truth bears, and with every such truth
the atonement of Christ is connected:--the whole of its
undertaking bears witness to it. I. All the truths contained in the prophecies of the
Scriptures are related to the atonement of Christ. It was prophesied that this world should, in a given
time, be favored with the appearance of an extraordinary
personage. He was marked out as "the Seed of the woman, the
Shiloh, the Prophet, the Wonderful, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Lord our Righteousness, the Desire
of all nations, the Messenger of the covenant." The atoning
Mediator claimed to himself the honor of being this very
personage, to whom all the prophets bore witness. Prophecy had revealed that this personage was to make his
appearance in the character of the Deliverer of man. As the
Seed of the woman, he was to bruise the head of the serpent
that had enslaved and ruined man. He was to be for a
sanctuary, and to come, "bringing salvation." The Lord
Christ was born a Saviour, and he came to seek and to save
that which was lost. God sent his Son into the world not to
condemn the world, but that the world through him might be
saved. He is the Personage whom the prophets meant, for
there is no salvation in any other, nor any other name among
men given by which we must be saved. He was made under the
law, that he might redeem them who were under the law. The deliverance which it was prophesied that this
personage was to effect was a deliverance from sin. It was
prophesied that he should make an end of sin, that is, to
open a way for the just God to deal with a sinner as if he
had not sinned; in being, as it were, blotted out of the
account. He was to effect this deliverance as a priest on
his throne, and as a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The Lord Christ took upon him the name of Jesus, because he
would deliver his people from their sins. He appeared as the
Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He has
redeemed us from the curse of the law. The Jews
misunderstood this class of prophecies, and interpreted them
as signifying only deliverance from civil thraldom, and from
political evils. Whereas, he himself declares that he came
to call sinners; and his gospel assures that there is now no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. It was predicted that this Personage should effect this
deliverance from sin, not by power, but by his own
substitutionary and vicarious sufferings. He was to be a man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was to bear our
griefs and to carry our sorrows; to be wounded for our
transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He was to
make his soul an offering for sin and to be numbered among
transgressors. He was to be cut off, but not for himself.
The meaning of these and the like passages is, that this
illustrious Person was to endure the sufferings with which
the Father put him to grief, in the stead of our suffering
the punishment which was due, to us for our sins. This class
of passages is referred to in the New Testament as being
accomplished in the death and the atonement of Jesus Christ.
He gave his life a vicarious ransom for many. He was made a
sin offering for us. He died the Just for the unjust. He was
made a curse that the curse of the law might not be
inflicted on men. Hence it was prophesied that this deliverance from sin
should be on account, and for the sake, of his sufferings.
We were to have peace, through his suffering our
chastisement; and by his stripes we were to be healed. To us
guilty sinners who had no worthiness, he was to be the Lord
our righteousness. It was on account of his intercession
that gifts were to be given to men, even to the rebellious.
The mediation of Christ fills up these prophecies. It is for
Christ's sake that God forgives sin; it is by faith in the
name of Christ that pardon is received by the sinner. It is
the blood of Jesus Christ--that cleanses from all sin; and
every saved man is found not in his own righteousness, but
in the righteousness of Jesus Christ only. All the prophecies of the Scripture form a complete,
connected, and harmonious system of truths, in the centre of
which is the Lamb, as if it had been slain from the
foundation of the world. The doctrine, or the testimony
concerning the mediation of Christ is the very spirit and
life of prophecy, without which prophecy would be a body
without a soul. The atonement of Christ is the central point
from which, alone, the eye of faith can command a view of
the whole panorama of prophecy. All unfulfilled prophecy, as
well as the already accomplished predictions, have their sum
and substance in the character and the work of Jesus Christ.
To deny the atonement is to take away the lifeblood of
prophecy. The Biblical critics who reject the atonement,
like the Jews who rejected the Messiahship of Christ, make
the whole apparatus of their learning to bear against the
prophecies which predict a suffering Saviour and a Vicarious
sufferer. This fact shows that the doctrine of the atonement
is the heart of Christianity. A Socinian divine puts the
fifty-third chapter of Isaiah to critical torture with the
same unmercifulness and spleen as a Jewish Rabbi would put
it. They both agree, like Herod and Pilate, to do away with
the claims of Christ, to sap the foundation of Christianity,
to throw away the blood of atonement as an unholy thing. The New Testament regards the whole system of prophecy as
having its scope and meaning, its spirit and truth, its life
and glory, in the person and the atonement of Jesus Christ
"The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." To him
gave all the prophets witness. Paul witnessed, both to small
and great, saying no other things than those which the
prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should
suffer, and that he should he the first that should rise
from the dead, and should show light unto the people and to
the Gentiles. The apostle Peter describes salvation as being
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ, and then says, "of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching
what, or what manner of time, the spirit of Christ which was
in them did signify when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." Here then, we meet with a complete system of prophecies
delivered by various men and in divers ages, and yet
pointing to One remarkable Personage of the highest majesty
and excellency. These prophecies treat of his person, his
name, his character, his work, his life, his death, and his
glory; each of them consistent with the others, and one
casting light on all the rest. They all meet together and
have their full accomplishment in One Person, and in no one
else,--but in him most fully and clearly. Though they were
delivered in various generations, they have but one object
in view; and other events are hinted at only as they are
connected with that object, and that object is the work of
Christ. He is the true Seed of the woman, the true Prophet,
the true Redeemer, the true Immanuel, the true Son of
Righteousness. II. All the truths contained in the ceremonial
institutions and sacrificial types are connected with the
atonement of Christ. It is confessedly true that many of the early christian
fathers, as well as many of the modern interpreters of types
and shadows, have discovered similitudes, drawn parallels,
pursued analogies, and pressed out truths which were never
designed by such symbols. But such extravagant deductions of
undisciplined imaginations supply no fair and valid
arguments against a scriptural, sober, and judicious
application of the typical character of the Jewish
institutions and ceremonies. The sacred Scriptures
indisputably assert that there is a designed coincidence and
an intended connection between the religious institutions of
the Jews and the essential doctrines of Christianity.
Indeed, I might argue that of so much importance in the
system of divine truth is the symbolical character of the
Israelitish ceremonies, that the Holy Spirit has given one
entire book--the epistle to the Hebrews,--not only to give a
distinct recognition of that principle, as designed by God
to prefigure the realities of the gospel--but also to mark
out and explain the relation and agreement between that
principle, and the events and the doctrines of the mediation
of Christ. Hence the Jewish institutions are called, "a
shadow of good things to come, but the body [the
substance] is of Christ." Col. ii. 16, 17. The gifts and
sacrifices of the priest "serve unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to make the tabernacle. Heb. viii. 5. This
tabernacle and the vessels of the ministry are called "the
patterns of things in the heavens" and "the figures of the
true." Heb. ix. 23, 24. The entire constitution of the
Levitical law is described as "having a shadow of good
things to come, and not the very image of the things." Heb.
x. 1. The body, the substance, the filling up, the meaning and
truth of all these ceremonial institutions, "is of Christ,"
and of him only. Extraordinary and illustrious characters
were types of his person. Holy offices were shadows of his
work and undertaking. The Jewish polity was an outline of
his kingdom. The distinguished privileges of the theocracy
were figures of his glorious rewards, the vicarious and
expiatory sacrifices were representations of his glorious
atonement. Various classes of types were employed to shadow
forth the great truths of our salvation. Some types shadowed
that man was a sinner;--others, that he had forfeited his
life ; others, that another life was substituted and
accepted instead of it;--and others shadowed that this
substitution should take place in the Messiah, who according
to Isaiah would "make his soul an offering for sin," and be
"led as a Lamb to the slaughter." Exod. xx. 7. Lev. vi. 3,
4. xvii. 11. xxiv. 16. Deut. xxii. 26. The Jewish institutions taught the Israelites no truth
which the gospel has not attached to the atonement of
Christ, and revealed it, "the truth as it is in Jesus." The
very truths that were obscure in the ceremonial types are
now made clear and defined by the gospel. And the truths
which appeared defective and imperfect in the Jewish ritual,
now, in the light of the christian atonement, stand out in
prominent relief, and with a fullness of meaning which they
never had before. The sacred Scriptures regard all symbolical truths as
meeting in the atonement of Christ. This is evident from the
facts, that sacrificial names and appellations are given to
Christ; that Jewish sacrifices are represented as shadows of
the satisfaction of Christ; that the value which was but
nominal in them, is described as intrinsic in the sacrifice
of Christ; that the efficacy which was but ceremonial in
them, is declared to be real and actual in the atonement of
Christ; that the sacrifice of Christ is pointed out as the
last that should be offered for sin; and from the fact that
animal victims ceased to be sacrificed, after the Great
Propitiation had been publicly offered by Christ. He himself
was the truth of them all. He was the true sacrifice, the
true priest, the true altar, the true temple, and the true
Saviour. III. All the doctrinal truths of divine revelation are
connected with the atonement. All doctrinal truth is the mind of God, the expression of
his thoughts; and all his thoughts have a reference to the
atonement. The person of Christ is the centre of every
truth, and the Mediation of Christ is the circumference of
every truth. In him all truths live, move, and have their
being. The atonement magnifies and honors every truth
implied in the reality of the exercise of a moral government
in the world. It supposes and distinctly recognizes the
verity and the reality of the sinfulness and ruin of
mankind. It is itself a proof and a specimen of the truth of
the introduction, into the divine government, of a
compensative scheme for the purpose of restoring sinful man.
It exhibits the honest sincerity of the divine invitation
addressed to sinners, in the clear light of the
"demonstration of the Spirit." It supplies the most splendid
evidence of the truth and certainty of the promises of the
gospel, and gives the most solemn assurances of the reality
of spiritual blessings. Thus there is no class of truths which may not be either
proved or explained by the principles of the atonement. And
there is no class of truths which does not lose weight and
efficacy by being severed from the person of Christ. Every
truth separated from Christ, like a branch lopped from the
living tree, loses its freshness and beauty, and languishes
and dies. The providence of God has given us melancholy
instances of the corruption and unwholesomeness to which any
truth tends when apart from Christ. See the high and noble
truths of the Old Testament--truths which elevated the minds
of Abraham and Moses, which ravished the heart of David, and
which tuned Isaiah's harp to the high pitch of even gospel
times--look at them, in every age of the Jews, from the time
of Malachi to the present day--look at them in the
Cabbalistic inanities of the ancient Rabbis, in the turgid
puerilities of modern Judaism, and you will perceive how
much they have lost of sanctity, dignity, and energy,; and
how void, and powerless, and lifeless they have become. "How
is the fine gold become dim?" How will you account for this
painful circumstance in the history of divine truth? One
awful fact explains the whole. The Jews have alienated these
glorious truths from their vital connection with the
sacrificial atonement of Messiah "the Christ of God." Look again at the great and mighty truths of the New
Testament. See them in their healthiness, vigor, and beauty,
in the ministrations of the apostles, in the religious
affections of the primitive churches, in the masculine
energies of the Reformation, and in the glow and power of
modern Revivals. Then look at them in the ice-bound realms
of Socinian theology;--and how wan, and cold, and dead, and
putrid are they! If they glow, it is not with the charming
glow of a healthy life-blood, but with the clammy warmth of
controversial heat. If they move, it is not with the
vigorous stirrings of an eternal vitality, but with the
galvanic convulsions of a fitful elocution. If they preserve
their form and fashion, it is because a cold and indurating
philosophy has embalmed them. They are the same truths, but
they have been separated and banished from Christ, whose
person is the Son of Revelation, and whose atonement is the
Heaven of Truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is represented in the Scriptures as
the Magazine and Repository of all truth, in whom are all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is not a truth
pertaining to God and man, to eternity and time, but is
connected with him. To the inquiry of the church and of the
world, "What is truth?" the Mediator replies, "I am THE TRUTH." The truth is in Jesus as it is in no
one else. In no one else is the truth perfect, complete, and
full. In no other is it clear, unadulterated. In no one else
is every truth: every truth in its due proportions; every
truth in all its power and bearings; every truth, in full
harmony with every other truth. In Christ is the truth, the
truth completely, and the truth exclusively. The truth as it
is in Jesus is sincere without falsehood, genuine without
counterfeit, steady without perfidy, real without fiction,
exact without error. In him it is right without any wrong,
honest without fraud, perfect without mutilation. It is this connection of every truth with the mediation
of Christ that makes real Christianity to be not afraid of
the progress of any class of truths. Sometimes in the
infancy of any given Science plausible theories are advanced
as having a tone of contradiction to Scriptural verities,
but the discipline of a mature philosophy never fails to
show that the contradiction is not real. Truth in man is
partial, sectarian, and jealous; but Truth in the christian
system is full, universal, and free; and no more fears the
developments of any truths than the mighty ocean dreads the
digging up of new wells, or the Sun the new discoveries of
Optics. IV. The atonement is inseparably connected with all
practical truth. The atonement is the centre of duties, as well as of
doctrines. This is clearly proved and illustrated in the
Apostolic epistles. The New Testament writers, after laying
down the "doctrine of the cross," erect a peerless structure
of holy duties and practical truths. They exhibit the
atonement as establishing every duty required in the moral
law; and they preach the moral law as establishing every
duty required in the gospel. The atonement "destroys" no
moral command. It "makes void" no moral duty. The gospel of
the atonement brings a new class of duties to bear on the
sinner, as, believing in Christ, repenting of sin, etc.
These are duties which the moral law, as such, never could
ask of any man. But now, since the provision of the divine
government has annexed these requirements to the atonement,
which has answered all the ends of the law unites with the
gospel in making them obligatory upon every sinner who hears
them. Some declared foes, and some false friends of the
atonement have represented it as destroying all practical
truth and duty. The atonement on the contrary distinctly
recognizes all the practical truths of the moral law as
still binding on all--shows the reasonableness of the
demands of those practical truths,--and enforces them with
an accumulated amount of arguments and motives. The gospel connects every practical truth with the
atonement of Jesus Christ. Observe how the apostles teach
the most plain and common duties of life; such as the duties
of husbands and wives, the duties of parents and children,
the duties of masters and servants, of kings and subjects,
etc. To enforce these duties, they do not go for arguments
to the law of nature, to the claims of relationship, or to
political economy; nor do they confine themselves to the
moral law. No, they go at once to the mediation of Christ;
husbands are to love their wives because Christ loved his
church; and servants are to obey their masters, that they
may adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all
things. They teach that these practical truths are to be
performed by the assistance of the grace of Christ; that the
practice of such truths is to be the effect of faith in
Christ; that these duties are to be done in the name of
Christ; that they are acceptable to God only through the
merits of Christ; and that they will be rewarded by Jesus
Christ himself. In duties as well as in doctrines, the
apostles knew nothing but Christ, and him crucified. It was
the cross of Christ that gave the name and the designation
to their system--it was "the preaching of the cross." The
opponents of practical truth they called, "the enemies of
the cross of Christ;" and the renunciation of holy duties,
they regarded as making "the cross of Christ of none
effect." If these hints will be regarded as sufficiently defined
to pencil out the lines of connection between the entire
circle of truth,--whether in predictions and types, or in
doctrines and duties,-and the great atonement of
Christ,-their end will be answered. A LIMITED ATONEMENT INCONSISTENT WITH
THE WHOLE SYSTEM OF DIVINE TRUTH. I. An atonement limited to a certain number of sinners is
inconsistent with the truths revealed in the prophecies of
the Old Testament. Scriptural prophecy supplies us with the
best specimens of the theological principles of the church
of God under the patriarchal and Jewish dispensations. It
should be borne in mind, that the prophets promulgated their
principles and sentiments, "as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost;" and that, consequently, their doctrine was "the MIND
of the spirit." These holy men of God seem sometimes not to
have understood at once the fullness, the extent, and the
majesty of the stupendous doctrines which they announced.
They therefore investigated, "inquired, and searched
diligently what the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did
signify or mean, when it testified about the sufferings of
Christ and the glory that should follow." Such a 'diligent
search,' conducted under such auspices, would be likely to
terminate in a correct knowledge of the truth of the case.
These doctrines of prophecy, Jesus Christ himself opened and
expounded, as teaching that he ought to suffer, and enter
into his glory. These are the very doctrines which the
apostles preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;
and it is into these doctrines that the angels desire to
look. These doctrines, therefore, deserve to be regarded by
us, in this inquiry, as legitimate sources of information on
the theological creeds of the Jewish prophets. The true doctrines of the prophets teach us that the
benefits of the death of Christ were of universal extent. It
was prophesied that in the Seed of Abraham, that is, in
Christ, all the nations of the earth should be blessed, Gen.
xx. 18. Gal. iii. 16. The meaning of this is, that Jesus
Christ in his work and offices, would be a blessing unto all
the nations of mankind. In harmony with this are the very
numerous prophecies which relate to the call of the
Gentiles. Isaiah predicted that God gave his Son to be a
Salvation unto the end of the earth, Isa. xlix. 6. Joel
prophesied that the influences of the Spirit should be
"poured upon all flesh," Joel ii. 28, 29. The aspect of the
whole of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah,--an epitome of
the divinity of the prophets,--is unlimited and
universal. The word "ALL" has often been most uncandidly and
dishonorably tortured and wrested, to mean a generality of
kinds and degrees, and not a universality of the mass of the
human race. Prophecy, however supplies us with one text at
least, that has bid stubborn defiance to all theological
tortures. It is Isa. liii. 6, "ALL we like sheep have gone
astray; we have turned EVERY ONE to his own way, and the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us ALL." Some of the
advocates of particular atonement have challenged their
opponents to present one single text in which the word "all"
means indisputably every individual of the human race. Here
it is. The word "all" in the last part of the sentence means
the "all" mentioned in the first part; and both mean the
"every one," in the middle portion of the verse. If you
apply the word "all" in the first sentence, the torturous
criticisms which are generally employed on the word "all" in
the last sentence, you offend equally against sound
interpretation, theological fairness, and logical
deduction. Let us now see how these doctrinal prophecies were
understood by the apostles who preached with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven. Peter, after "inquiring" into the
testimony of Moses and "all the prophets from Samuel, and
those that follow after," uses these remarkable words: "Ye
are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which
God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, 'and in thy
seed, shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto
you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to
bless, in turning away EVERY ONE of you from his
iniquities,'" Acts iii. 25,26. A preacher, who did not view
the mediation of Christ in all its amplitude and extent,
would have used a language much more cautious and measured.
He again says: "Of a truth I perceive, that God is no
respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth
him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The
word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ, (He is Lord of all)--to him give all
the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever
believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins," Acts x.
34, 85, 36, 43. Paul preached to Jews and Gentiles
everywhere "that they should repent and turn to God, and do
works meet for repentance;" yet he says that he had learnt
this universal call from the doctrines of the prophets.
"Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this
day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other
things than those which the prophets and Moses did say
should come," Acts xxvi. 20, 22. Many more passages of this kind might be cited, but these
are sufficient to show that, in the judgment of the
apostles, the doctrines of the prophets taught a
universality of design in the Mediatorial undertaking of the
Messiah. It was a leading object of the apostles' ministry
to prove, against the sectarian limitations of the Jewish
expositors of their day, that the blessings announced in
prophecy had a designed relation to all the nations of the
earth. The prophecies that predict the final results which
the atonement shall infallibly produce, do not weaken the
others which describe its universal aspect. The same prophet
that asserts that "the Son of God shall see his seed, and
that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands,"
takes up the language of blame, and remonstrates with the
disobedient: "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is
the arm of the Lord revealed?" The Spirit of prophecy
plainly foretells that the mediation of Christ will not
produce the same effects on all, that is, that it will not
have its intended effects upon all to whom it shall be
exhibited. It is foretold that Christ and his atonement will
be "despised and rejected of men"--be a "stone of stumbling
and a rock of offence," and "the stone which the builders
refused." These disastrous effects are not the consequences of a
limitation in the design of the atonement, but they result
from a deliberate, and an obstinate non-compliance with the
great purposes of the atonement. The men who reject Christ,
dislike the atonement. They stumble and are offended at the
principles involved in it--the principles of the goodness of
the law, the wickedness of sin, and salvation by
grace,--and, therefore, they reject it and perish. Hear the apostle Peter's exposition of this prophecy. "A
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to them which
stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto also they,
were appointed," 1 Pet. ii. 4--8. God exhibits his Son as
the foundation of salvation to men. In this character he is
"disallowed of men,"--they will not submit to it, but are
"disobedient" to the arrangement. As they will not comply
and obey, they "stumble," and fall, and perish, and that,
according to the "appointed" order of the provision. Are we
from this to infer that they were appointed to disobey and
stumble? What?--that they were appointed to "disallow"
Christ, and yet be blamed and punished for it? The passage
teaches no such thing. It is an "appointment" of the
constitution of providence that whosoever will not eat food
will die. Will any one argue from this, that there are human
beings "appointed" not to eat food? Such an inference would
unsettle every wheel in providence.--Is it an "appointment"
of the dispensation of the atonement that whosoever will not
receive this remedy, will die and perish. Is it therefore
sane and logical to argue that there are human beings
"appointed" not to take the remedy? Not so did Peter
understand it. He says that, "in preaching peace by Jesus
Christ, God is no respecter of persons." And again he says,
"GOD hath showed me that I should not call any man common or
unclean," that is, God has taught me that in my ministry, I
should not deem any one man an outcast decretively excluded
from the benefits of the atonement of the Gospel. From such
premises the inference is fair, that an atonement limited to
a certain number, is at variance with the truths in the
prophetical doctrines concerning the extent of the Messiah's
mediation. II. A limited atonement is inconsistent with the truths
embodied in the typical representations which shadowed forth
the character and extent of the redemption of Christ. The
divine ordinance of sacrifice revealed to Adam and Eve, was
as open and accessible to Cain, and as available for him, as
it was in the case of Abel. God himself appealed to Cain's
personal knowledge of such an arrangement. "If thou doest
well, shalt thou not be accepted?" Gen. iv. 7. Doing well,
here means doing like Abel, that is, offering a sacrifice
for his sins, in obedience to the divine arrangement. In
acting thus, he would do well and be accepted. Here was no
sovereign limitation, no decretive exclusion. God acted upon the same general principle towards the
antediluvians in the provision of an Ark for their safety.
The aspect of this expedient was of a universal character,
All were invited to come to the ark: and the rejecters are
blamed for not seeking safety in it. The apostle in his
epistle to the Hebrews says that Noah's ministry concerning
the ark "condemned the world." It is impossible to show how
any could be condemned for not being saved in the ark, if
the ark was never verily intended for them, and if they were
never sincerely invited and pressed to come into it. The sacrifice which Noah, after the flood, offered to
God, presents a distinct and bold outline of many of the
great principles of the true Atonement; especially, of its
universal extent. The sacrifice of Noah was offered to
propitiate the favor of God towards the interests of a
ruined world. Through God's satisfaction in this sacrifice,
he confers the grant of the whole world upon Noah, and
promises blessings to all the unnumbered nations and
generations that should occupy the entire world. The world
since then has awfully abounded in sins and evils, but still
God is distributing the treasures of his goodness with a
bountiful hand. All this is to be traced to his infinite
pleasure expressed through the "sweet savor" of Noah's
sacrifice. It was through this sacrifice that the great
promise was given to mankind, that there should be seed-time
and harvest, summer and winter to the end of the world. Men
may, indeed, neglect both "seed-time and harvest," but they
cannot ascribe their conduct to any excluding or limiting
decree. The apostle Paul seems to refer to this very
sacrifice as an adumbration of the atonement of Jesus
Christ, "who gave himself for us, an offering and a
sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor," Eph. v. 2. It
is through this true sacrifice that every blessing comes to
our world. It is in Christ that God reconciles the world to
himself without dealing with it according to its sins. It is
on account of the mediatorial atonement that God gives to
his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for his possession. Take another prefiguration of the unlimited extent of the
atonement of Christ in the provision of the Brazen Serpent.
The sacred Scriptures inform us of the designed extent, and
of the actual result, of this expedient of mercy. "And the
Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it
upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that every one that
is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live. And Moses
made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came
to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when He
beheld the serpent of brass he lived." Num. xxi. 8, 9. The
design of this expedient was not limited to those who
"looked," but it extended to all who were "bitten." If any
bitten did not "look," they could not ascribe their death to
an exclusiveness in the provision, but to their own conduct.
The Lord Jesus Christ considered this provision as an apt
illustration of the extent of his atonement. "As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life." John iii. 14, 15.
This universality he explains and confirms, by asserting in
the 17th verse, that the world through him might be
saved." This universality is further shadowed forth in the
sacrifices appointed by the Jewish law, especially by the
lamb of the daily offering, and by the sacrifice offered up
at the yearly feast of expiation. Num. xxviii. 3, 4. Lev.
xvi. 7-34. It is in reference to the lamb of the daily burnt
offering that our Lord is more particularly called a Lamb.
It is in this character that John the Baptist describes
Christ as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world," plainly implying that there was the same relation
between the atonement of Christ and all the inhabitants of
the world, as there was between the lamb of the burnt
offering and the whole of the Jewish nation. It is in
reference to this that the apostle John in his Apocalyptic
visions describes the atonement of Christ as "a Lamb in the
midst of the throne of God," that is, connected with all the
measures appointed by the throne, and with all the services
received by the throne. On the great day of the annual expiation the atonement of
the scape-goat was offered unto the Lord. This atonement had
a universal influence upon all the interests of all the
Jewish tribes The provision runs thus: "And Aaron shall lay
both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and
ALL their transgressions in all their sins--and the goat.
shall bear upon him all their iniquities into a land not
inhabited." And again, "The Priest shall make an atonement
for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation:
and this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make
an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins
once a year." These sacrifices of the Jews were related to
them all, were designedly offered up for all, and were truly
available to all. The atonement effected by them was
unlimited in design and aspect. This ceremonial atonement
did not consist in the sacrificial victim suffering the
identical punishment due to the offender, but in
substitutionary sufferings: for the blasphemer was to be
stoned to death, but the sacrifice for him was not to die by
atoning. Lev. xxvi. 16. v. 4-6. Nor did the Jewish atonement
consist in inflicting upon the victim a certain amount of
torture and pain, in proportion to the number and enormity
of the sins to be expiated. The instructions which Moses
gave concerning these sacrifices are distinct, minute, and
even punctilious; but there is not a jot nor a tittle in
them all to warrant an opinion held by some that Christ
would have had to suffer more, had there been more to be
saved; and less, had the number of the elect been less. Universal as was the bearing of these sacrifices, yet
they were susceptible of failure. They might fail of their
design, not through a deficiency of extensiveness in them,
but through the voluntary neglect or misimprovement of those
for whom they were offered. The atonement offered on the
great day of annual expiation was intended to take away "all
the iniquities of the children of Israel." Lev. xvi. 22.
This, the atonement would effectually accomplish to all
those who, according to the arrangements of that atonement,
"afflicted the souls, and did no manner of work on that
day." If it was offered designedly for all the tribes, will
it not infallibly secure all its ends to all the tribes? No;
"For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted
[in contrition] in that same day, he shall be cut
off from among his people," and that notwithstanding the
atonement offered for him, Lev. xxiii. 27. The Jews, when
they saw these persons "cut off," because they neglected the
provisions of the atonement, never thought of arguing that
the atonement was never designed for them. It seems to me,
then, that all the leading principles of the Old Testament
types and shadow's are opposed to the doctrine that limits
the atonement of Christ to a certain amount of sin, or to a
certain number of sinners. III. The opinion that the atonement was designed for a
few only, is opposed to the entire system of doctrinal
truths revealed in the Scriptures. A full discussion of this
proposition would require a volume, rather than a page or
two; my limits therefore will only allow me to supply a few
hints of proof and elucidation. Were this opinion consistent
with scriptural doctrine, it would be possible to express it
in scriptural language. At least the spirit and the animus
of the opinion would be found in scriptural statements, if
not the letter and the form of it. Let any one find the
"holy text" that will justify such language as the
following: "Christ died for the elect, and the elect only."
"He gave himself a ransom for the sheep only." "Whom he
predestinated, them he also purchased, and whom he
purchased, them he also called." No; there is no rule in
biblical language that will account for such a dialect as
this. Let any one find a statement in the Scriptures that
Christ did not die for every man. Let some class of sinners
be pointed out to us which the Scriptures declare to be
unatoned, and unredeemed, or unransomed. Let any abetter of
a limited atonement search and try to embody his opinion in
some express declaration of Scripture, "--sudet multum, frustraque laboret, Ausus idem." As this opinion cannot be expressed in scriptural
language, as it cannot be pronounced in "words which the
Holy Ghost teaches," so likewise it cannot be made to run
parallel and to tally with scriptural doctrines. To give an
enumeration of the doctrines opposed by this opinion, would
be to furnish a catalogue of all the truths of revelation.
All the doctrinal truths of the Scriptures may be divided
into two classes, viz: truths contained in the principles of
divine moral government, and truths revealed in the promises
of the gospel: and a limited atonement strikes against them
all. Let a few examples suffice. By disputing the reality of
the Moral Governor's wish that all men should be saved, come
to the knowledge of his truth, and comply with his laws;--by
denying that all men are bound, on the principles of
individual accountableness, to accept of Jesus Christ as
their Saviour,--by pleading that the elect, whose debts are
supposed to have been paid, must be saved, as the moral law
can never reach them again; and by asserting that a vast
number of souls shall be sorely punished for not doing what
they had no power to do, and for not accepting what was
verily never intended for them--this opinion militates
against every truth in the principles of moral government.
It clashes equally with all the truths revealed in the
gospel. The gospel declares that by the "true" grace of God,
Christ tasted death for every man; but by the false grace of
this pretended theology, Christ tasted death only for some.
The scriptural gospel addresses a message to every creature
to believe in Christ, to every man everywhere to repent, but
the invitation addressed by this "other gospel," is cramped,
partial, and select. It sometimes, indeed, feigns to take up
the terms of a general call into its dialect, but its
general call is founded not upon the truth of the fact that
Christ is a propitiation for all, but, upon a peradventure
that perhaps there may be some among the hearers whom God
may call. It impeaches the gospel of insincerity, and gives
a character of uncertainty to all its offers. It exhibits
the grace of God as ostentatiously giving a free and
generous invitation to all men, to come and share in the
feast of its provisions, while according to the real truth
of the case it sincerely intends that only a few should
partake. Many a trembling sinner, living under the public
ministrations of this theology, has thought that perhaps he
was meant in the gracious invitation,--that possibly he
might venture to hope that Christ would receive him. Now, in
the scriptural doctrine, Christ says "whosoever will, let
him come," and "him that cometh I will in nowise cast out;"
but the business of the abettors of this other doctrine is
to declare that this cheering assurance is not to be
received in the latitude and extent expressed The opinion of a limited atonement is unnecessary either
to the support, or to the elucidation, of any Scriptural
doctrine. Many, I conceive, have taken up this opinion from
an apprehension that it is essentially necessary to the
support of such doctrines as the sovereignty of divine
grace, the limited intercession of Christ, and the certainty
that the Son of God shall not lose his reward. But this
opinion is utterly unnecessary to the maintenance of these
doctrines. The doctrine of gracious sovereignty is clearly
in the Scriptures and daily acted upon in the affairs of
providence, and the government of the world, and therefore
needs not the hypothesis of limited atonement. Take, for
instance, the doctrine of predestination to life. This
doctrine derives no support from the opinion that Christ
died only for the elect. No one example can be given of the
holy Scriptures expressing anything like the sentiment that
God predestinated or elected a select number in order that
Jesus Christ might die for them, and for them alone. Yet the
doctrine of sovereign election is not at all weakened by the
absence of such an assertion. It is true that Christ died
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and [in
order] to purify unto himself a peculiar people. This
expresses only one end, and one result of the atonement.
Even this text does not so much as hint that Christ redeemed
any because they were a peculiar people. It should also be
remembered that the apostle gives this very text as an
illustration of the grace that bringeth salvation unto all
men. Tit ii. 11-14. As an instance how easily things are taken for granted, I
might mention that thousands have taken the opinion of a
limited atonement to be one of the doctrines of Calvinism.
But CALVINISM it is not. At least it is not the Calvinism of
CALVIN'S Institutes, nor, I believe of CALVIN'S Expositions.
I have consulted the Institutes for the very purpose of
ascertaining this point, and I could not find one passage
that asserted any such doctrine as that Christ died for the
elect only, or that he did not die for the reprobates. We
might now, then, reverse the advice of HORSLEY and say: "Let
those who boast in the name of Calvin know what Calvinism
is." Again, by the same process of easy assumption it has
been received as a settled point that the doctrine of the
universality of the death of Christ is rank PELAGIANISM.
Bishop DAVENANT, on the contrary, has shown in his
Dissertation on the Extent of the Death of Christ, that so
far from this being a doctrine peculiar to Pelagius, it was
in fact, the doctrine of the Fathers before the rise of
Pelagianism, and the doctrine of even Augustine himself, the
masterly champion of predestination against Pelagius. Well
then, without enumerating the writers of the New Testament
and a goodly company of other names renowned in theology,
here we discover that AUGUSTINE and CALVIN, the ablest and
the most strenuous advocates of divine sovereignty, thought
the doctrine of predestination safe and invulnerable without
the abutment of particular atonement. A limited atonement is as unnecessary to the doctrine of
sovereign influences, as it is to the doctrine of
predestination. The Scriptures never ascribe the sovereignty
of divine influences to the predestinated limitation in the
provisions of the atonement. It is never assigned as a
reason for the operation of divine influences upon any
person, that that person was one of the number for whom
Christ died. The absence of divine influences, from nations
and individuals, is never accounted for on the ground that
Christ had not died for them. Our friends themselves believe
that there are instances of the withdrawment of gracious
influences from churches and people. How will they account
for this? Will they say that divine influences stopped at
the boundary which limited the atonement? that they stopped
because the merits of the death of Christ stopped? that the
current of divine influence could proceed no longer as
hitherto the channel of the atonement went, and no further?
Will they say that the influences of the Spirit were
withdrawn from the churches of Asia minor, because there
were no more people there for whom Christ died? No. The
Scriptures never teach that divine communications are
confined or withdrawn because the atonement is limited or
bounded. And it is triumphantly proved by the history of the
christian church, that the most powerful defenders of the
doctrine of divine influences have been principally found
among those divines who were the most pertinacious advocates
of universal atonement. Again. The limitation of the intercession of Christ is
not to be ascribed to a limitation in his atonement. The
Scriptures nowhere say so. It is never hinted that the
persons, for whom Christ does not intercede, are persons for
whom he did not die; or that the persons for whom he
intercedes are alone the persons for whom he died. The
aspect of his intercession is as wide as the aspect of his
atonement. He makes intercession for all believers, that
through them the WORLD might know that God sent him; and for
the world to know Jesus Christ whom God hath sent, is life
everlasting. The ability of Christ to intercede for all is
limited, in the same manner as God's ability to answer the
prayer is all is limited. The atonement limits neither of
them. They are limited on other principles. God has never
undertaken to answer prayers and requests which are never
addressed to him, and Christ has never undertaken to plead
causes which have never been committed to him. Nothing can
be more unlimited than this declaration: "If any man sin, we
have an advocate--who is the propitiation for the sins of
the whole world." Neither is this opinion necessary to prove the certainty
that Christ shall not lose his reward. A limited atonement
can never prove it. The proofs of this must be sought from
other sources, such as the grace, the counsel, and the
faithfulness of God. There are many circumstances in this
hypothesis which render it too weak to support the glorious
doctrine raised on it. 1. It supposes that the reward of
Christ consists principally, if not entirely, in a numerical
salvation of souls; whereas there are other elements in his
reward, e. g., the glory of the divine perfections, the
vindication of the eternal law, his infinite joy in all
this, etc., etc. 2. It takes for granted. that the atonement
has no ends answered in the destruction of those who reject
it, whereas it is a sweet savor unto God even in them that
perish. 3. It supposes that Christ is sure of his reward
only on commercial principles; that as he has paid so much
suffering for so many souls, God must in commutative justice
recompense him in return "quid pro quo," which entirely
destroys the morality of the atonement. Christ is never said
to be sure of some, because he has purchased some. The
saints in heaven sing the song of truth, when they say,
"Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood", but this does
not imply, nor is there any other text that implies the
opposite, namely that those who are not in heaven, are not
there, because Christ had not redeemed them with his
blood. This train of reasoning convinces my mind, that the
hypothesis of particular atonement is a matter foreign to
the system of divine doctrines as revealed in the
Scriptures. IV. It remains for me to show, that a limited atonement
is inconsistent with the system of practical truth as
revealed in the Scriptures. The Scriptures sum up all
practical truth in loving God with all the heart, and loving
our neighbors as ourselves. No theological system has ever
yet said, in express words, that it is not the duty of all
men to love God with all the heart. But let any one take his
position, within the magic circle of this limited
hypothesis, and let him try to inculcate the duty of love to
God on all the excluded reprobates. What argument will he
use? What motives can he exhibit? He may amuse them with the
metaphysical prolusion that men should love God on account
of what He is; but he will never teach them the New
Testament language, "We love Him because He first loved us."
Or, from his position, let him try also to preach that men
ought to love their neighbors as themselves, and to do unto
others as they would that others should do unto them. In the
whole history of theologians, no one has ever yet been found
who would have admired particular redemption had be believed
himself to be one of the reprobates arbitrarily excluded
from atonement. There are, however, many duties required of all men
towards Christ, which could only arise from the fact that
Jesus Christ had died for them. I will present a few as
samples. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved." This is addressed to everyman who hears the gospel.
One man will not be saved by believing that Christ died for
another, but for himself. Peter did not call on the sinners
of Jerusalem to believe, on the ground that for aught they
know, Christ had died for them: but he assures them, that if
they believe, there is in Christ a salvation provided for
them. "God now commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent."
Do the Scriptures anywhere show that God requires a
repentance that has no connection with the atonement of his
Son? There is no motive for any sinner to repent, unless
there be an atonement for him. Yet God commandeth every man,
every where, to repent. The repentance of any man will not
be available, except through an atonement made for that man;
therefore, a call from God to everyman, must be founded on
an atonement for every man, in propria persona. Peter teaches Simon Magus, "Pray God, if perhaps the
thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." Prayer, we
know, goes to the throne of grace,--but God has no throne of
grace except the atonement of his Son. What had Simon Magus
to do with the throne of grace and prayer, if Christ did not
die for him? Would he not have been a thief and a robber, to
go and draw on provisions which had never been intended for
him? Yet the doctrine of the apostle teaches him to pray for
pardon--though it is a fact that God can grant no pardon,
and hear no prayer, but through the death of his Son. Paul inculcates the duty of love to Christ at the peril
of being Anathema Maranatha, in case of neglecting it. My
duty to love God arises not from the fact that he made my
neighbor, but from the fact that He made me. And my duty to
love Christ arises not from the fact that he died for my
neighbor, but from the fact that he died for me. Now the
apostle uses the terms of a general message--"if any man
love not the Lord Jesus Christ." If any man and every man,
is to love Christ at all, he is to love him as his Mediator,
Redeemer, and Saviour; for the gospel would never pronounce
any sinner accursed for not loving Christ as his Redeemer,
if the fact were, that Christ never had redeemed that
sinner. The same apostle, in 1 Tim. ii. 1-6, teaches that
supplications, prayers, and intercessions, should be made
for all men. Why? Because God wills that all men should be
saved; and, because Christ gave himself a ransom for all. We
cannot pray for devils, because we have no testimony that
Christ died for them. But we can pray for all MEN, because
we have a clear testimony that Christ tasted death for every
man. This latter class of practical truths are duties--they
are duties incumbent upon every man who hears of them; yet
they never would have been duties obligatory upon any man,
had it not been for the mediation of Christ. The theory of a
limited atonement clashes with all these duties ; indeed, it
destroys the obligation to observe them, except merely on
those who are supposed to be within the enclosures of
particular redemption. If all the hearers of the gospel are
not under obligations to discharge these New Testament
duties, then they do not sin against Christ by neglecting
them; for they, according to this hypothesis, actually owe
no such duties to him. It is hardly necessary to add another
line to say that such an opinion is subversive of all
practical truth.