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all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.'

I know it has been asked, Is not God infinitely merciful; may he not therefore glorify his name in saving sinners on the ground of mere mercy without the intervention of an atonement? If the reasoning in my last be just, certainly he cannot-and this will appear very evident, if it be considered that mercy has regard to the object as miserable-not to his guilt, which is the source of his misery.

To pardon sin, as an absolute act of mercy, would be a total neglect of holiness, which is no more possible with God, than it is to put forth acts of power without wisdom. Now, the manifestation of divine holiness, in relation to guilt, can only be in the infliction of deserved penalty. As he cannot act powerfully without the exercise of infinite wisdom; so he cannot act mercifully without manifesting his infinite holiness. But to forgive sin, as an act of absolute mercy, would not be an act of holiness; and therefore no such act of absolute mercy is possible with God.'

Besides, if an atonement for sin be not indispensably necessary to forgiveness, the incarnation-the life-the sufferings-and the death of Christ were superfluous: because whatever was requisite to qualify a sinner for the enjoyment of heaven might, on this hypothesis, have been effected by the agency of the Holy Spirit. But, in addition to this gracious work of the divine Comforter, there are other offices to perform. He is to take of the things of Christ, and shew them to the church: to bring all things, in reference to his mediation to remembrance: and to apply his blood to the conscience, which operations necessarily involve an atonement.

If Jesus Christ satisfied not for us, says the eloquent Daille, what mean the prophets and apostles, who proclaim at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of all their preaching, 'That he died for our sins, was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed: that his soul was made an offering for sin: that he is our propitiation, through faith in his blood: that he is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world: that he offered up himself a sacrifice for sin, and sanctified us by this oblation, and purged away our sins by himself."

There are but three ways in which a sinner can hope to escape final perdition: namely, by personal conformity to the moral law, the absolute mercy of God, and the atonement of Jesus Christ.

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As to the moral law, that excludes all expectation of blessedness. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith-But all have sinned and come short of the glory of God: therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.'

With regard to the mercy of God, that, I have already observed, has relation to the object as miserable-not to his guilt.

In reference to the righteousness and atonement of Christ, these lay a solid foundation for hope. He is God's righteous servant, by the knowledge of whom many are justified-Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the

remission of sins-God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their tres passes unto them-Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many-he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.'

Your friend Theron, I know, will treat this consolatory doctrine with contempt and with ridicule. To suppose, it is said, that God will mark with rigorous exactness the deviation of his creatures from the strict rule of duty, is to impeach the divine goodness to represent the Almighty as inexorable and cruel; especially when it is considered that human nature is frail and imperfect; that the commission of particular sins is only a compliance with natural propensities, and which, therefore, if not free from blame, can never be viewed as enormities of such magnitude as to incur everlasting displeasure.

Were I to suppose that Theron might impose on your simplicity and your candour by 'partial representations of consequences, intricate deductions of remote causes, or perplexed combinations of ideas, which having various relations appear different as viewed on different sides; yet what must be the event of such a triumph? A man cannot spend all his life in frolic: age, or disease, or solitude will bring some hours of serious consideration, and it will then afford no comfort to think, that he has extended the dominion of vice, that he has loaded himself with the crimes of others, and can never know the extent of his own wickedness, or make reparation for the mischief that he has caused. There is not perhaps in allthe stores of ideal anguish, a thought more painful, than the consciousness of having propagated corruption by vitiating principles, of having not

only drawn others from the paths of virtue, but blocked up the way by which they should return, of having blinded them to every beauty but the paint of pleasure, and deafened them to every call but the alluring voice of the syrens of destruction.'

But in the appeal which your friend has made to the clemency of our beneficent Creator, no regard is paid to his holiness or his justice; to his truth and faithfulness as the moral governor of the universe. Considered in this light, his sovereign authority must operate by no rule, but must bend to the corrupt passions and inclinations of men nay, it must, in fact, relinquish its claim to obedience; and the Maker of all things become himself subject to the caprice of his own creatures!

The drunkard thinks it hard that his momentary intemperance, which is injurious to no one but himself, should be regarded as unpardonable indulgence. The thief can never believe that his forcibly taking from others what he considers as superfluous, in order to supply his own absolute wants, is a crime that calls for the interposition of vengeance. Thus, respecting every species of iniquity, and through all gradations of guilt, each transgressor has, in his turn, a thousand argu→ ments to plead in extenuation of his crimes: and these arguments, if not sufficiently weighty to balance his guilt, ought, he thinks, so far to prevail as to secure him from final perdition. Every man becomes his own judge, and imagines himself possessed of both capacity and right to decide in his own cause.

Now, according to this hypothesis, there is no fixed standard of right and wrong. There must be as many laws by which to judge, as there are individuals to be judged. The great Arbiter of

the universe can give no award. He has erected his tribunal in vain; and must either tamely ac quiesce in the sentence which the criminal himself shall pronounce, or be stigmatized as a merciless tyrant.

If,' says a sensible writer (see Mon. Rev. Vol. 60.p.441) the feelings of every man's mind were to be the standard of obligation, what duty that crosses their inclinations will men perform, or what vice that flatters them will they forego, for the sake of what others call reason, and in deference to an equivocal authority arising from what philosophy itself, which hath talked most loudly about this authority, hath not agreed to give any name or definition to? For every man's own feeling; i. e. his inclination, will be his standard of duty, without a settled law to which to appeal, a fixed and decisive criterion of good and evil, in spite of all the fine things that have been said on the beauty of virtue-Fitness and unfitness-the moral sense-and all

which Theocles in raptur'd vision saw.'

When men of this description are told of their situation and their danger, nothing is more com mon than for them to reply, God is merciful; but 'this,' as an ingenious writer expresses it, 'is a false and fatal application of a divine and comfortable truth. Nothing can be more certain than the proposition, nor more delusive than the inference. The truth is, no one does truly trust in God, who does not endeavour to obey him. For habitually to break his laws, and yet to depend on his favour; to live in opposition to his will, and yet in expectation of his mercy; to violate his commands, and yet look for his acceptance, would not, in any other case, be thought a reasonable course of conduct; and yet it is by no means as uncommon as it is inconsistent.

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