God, which involves those ideas of the divine character, it is easy to see the human heart is not naturally very averse. Yea, to define any material change, with respect to its views of the divine character, which takes place in the human heart, in repentance; will, on this hypothesis, be utterly impracticable. Surely no such change can be conceived as renders, divine, supernatural influences, in any measure necessary. We need not, therefore, be surprised to hear those who deny the necessity of atonement, renounce every idea of divine supernatural operation, in the conversion of sinners.

AND with what appearance of consistency, gentlemen who entertain such ideas respecting atonement, can urge that this is a doctrine which subverts the very notion of grace in the pardon of sinners; is hard to be conceived. For, with such, it is a fundamental maxim that it would be inconsistent with goodness to deny pardon to penitents. On this foundation the superstructure of their whole system is built.

And

what grace there can be in conferring pardon, in cases wherein it would be unjust and cruel to withhold it, cannot possibly be imagined. Little reason have those who entertain such sentiments, to exclaim against the advocates of atonement, as denying the doctrines of free grace in the salvation of sinners.

THUS manifest is it, that the denial of atonement makes a total change in the aspect, not only of the moral law, but also of the whole christian system. It exhibits both the divine character itself, the doctrines of Christ and his Apostles, and the terms on which the sinner may be pardoned and saved, in a light infinitely diverse from that in which they all appear in the atonement of Christ.

AND now it must be left with the candid, intelligent reader, to judge for himself; faithfully comparing what is here offered with the unerring oracles of God. These are the only standard of truth; and by these must every doctrine be tried. Every sentiment, every scheme of doctrine that will not bear this test, however cherished, or by whatever great name it be au thorised, will sooner or later fall to the ground. While, on the other hand, every system, and every sentiment that is found here, however unpopular, however exploded by the great and the wise, among men ; will infalliby stand, and shine, and brighten forever and ever.

AND the whole must be left with HIM who, himself, made atonement for the sins of the world; for him to use, and to dispose of, as in infinite wisdom, he shall see will be for the best. With Him the cause of truth may be confided in his hand it is infinitely safe. May the time be hastened when the darkness shall be dispelled, and the light shall shine: when his truth, such as it is, shall be known and be confessed, from one end of the earth even unto the other; and the whole earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. AMEN.

APPENDIX.

CONTAINING A VIEW OF CONSEQUENCES, RESULTING FROM A DENIAL OF THE DIVINITY OF

CHRIST.

THE doctrines of christianity are so connected together, and many of them so evidently imply each other, that a denial of one, subverts the foundation of many others. This is more obviously the case respecting that of the Divinity of Christ, than almost any other doctrine. As the christian system is built on Christ, his character is so interwoven with the whole, that the nature and consistency of it can be comprehended, no further than his true and real character is understood. All evangelical doctrines derive their complexion from the character of Christ, their Author :-And, must necessarily admit and require very different constructions, according to the sentiments, which are to be entertained respecting the real Divin. ity of his person.

We often derive advantage from a view of conse quences naturally flowing from opinions proposed to us. Consequences afford one rule for trying the strength and justness of principles from which they result. The consequences, which naturally flow from opinions, and the influence these opinions necessarily have on others, serve, many times, to shew their consistency, or the reverse. In this view of the subject, it may be useful to trace some of the consequences, which naturally flow from a denial of the Divinity of Christ.

In the preceding Examination of the Scripture Doc trine of Atonement, the true and real Divinity of Jesus Christ was taken as a given point; and on this ground was the inquiry into the nature of the atonement he made for sin. As the truth of this doctrine is much more freely and openly called in question, than it was when the Treatise was first published; it is thought that, in aid of this important subject, a view of some of the consequences, naturally resulting from a denial of the real and essential Divinity of Christ, may now, with propriety, be added.

I. Ir Christ be not truly a divine person-God as well as man, it must be, that there is no atonement made for the sins of men; and, of course, if any sinners of mankind are pardoned and saved, they are saved without regard to any atonement made for them.

Ir the death of Christ were not an atonement for sin, none has been made. By atonement is here meant that which magnifies the broken law of God, and does it the same honor, which would have been done by the execution of its penalty whenever it be incurred. The only natural and ordinary way to magnify and honor a broken law, is to execute its penalty on the offender. Laws, which are not executed, will, neither be of force, nor command respect. If the sinner be forgiven without such a testimony of divine displeasure against him, as honors the law of God, and establishes its authority to the same degree, that the execution of its penalty would have done; it would seem to diminish the respectability, both of the law, and of the Lawgiver; and, naturally tend to take away the fear of offending the holy God. Whenever, and in whatever way, the displeasure of God against the sinner be as fully and sensibly expressed, to the view of creatures, as it would have been by the execution of the penalty of the law itself upon him, atonement is made

for his sins, and the ends of punishment are answered. By atonement, therefore, we mean a clear and visible manifestation of that righteous anger, which really exists in the divine mind against the sinner, without the offender's being subjected to personal punish

ment.

IF Jesus Christ be but a creature-if he be not, truly and really, a divine person; no atonement, in this sense of the term, is made for sin :-For aught we can see, it might have been forgiven, with as little injury to the character and respectability of the law of God, if he had never came into the world. If Christ be but a mere man, or a mere creature, in whatever sense it may be supposed he died for sinners, there is nothing, in his death, to exhibit the character of the Great Governor of the world in any measure in the light, in which the threatenings of his holy law repreNo temporary sufferings of a mere creature could exhibit a displeasure in Him, who inflicted them, to be compared with that, which would necessarily appear in the execution of the threatened penalty on a sinner. For the sinner, therefore, to have been forgiven, even however much out of respect to Christ, would seem necessarily to cast reproach on the law of God, and beget an opinion, that so high a degree of displeasure, as its penalties import, never did, in fact, exist, in the divine mind.

sent it.

Ir, on the other hand, Christ is really a divine person-in such a sense the Son of God, that he partakes of the very nature and essence of the Godhead-If a person of such dignity gave his life a ransom for sinners, bearing their sins in his own body on the tree; the character of that glorious Judge and Avenger, who laid on him the iniquities of us all, must appear in a light exceedingly different from what it would or could have done, had the sinner been forgiven out of