so it seems good in his sight. No theological writer has ever, manfully and openly, attacked the sovereign right of God to confer any favours on any sinners he pleases; that is, no one has fairly attacked the doctrine of sovereign election The crusade against this doctrine has been perfectly QUIXOTIC. Some have mistaken the proud towers of FATE for it. Others have mistaken the dungeons of REPROBATION for it. In the mean time the doctrine itself stands as a fair and glorious TEMPLE, whose foundations are laid deep in the eternal purpose and grace of God, - whose pinnacles sparkle in the light of uncreated glory, and over whose portals is the inscription of truth, "Him that cometh I will in no wise cast out."

SECTION II.

The influence of the Atonement on the interests of the Church.

The atonement of the Son of God for sin, is the ground for calling a CHURCH out of the midst of mankind. This is one reason why Jesus Christ, in his mediatorial character, is called the "foundation" of the church. The first stones of the church of God were built on the promise of the "Seed of the woman," and on this every succeeding stone has been placed. This is the ground of the general call of the gospel; and what a sure foundation it is for a minister to stand upon, to beseech all men to be reconciled to God! On this the prophets and apos

tles, and all wise master-builders have placed the living materials of the "church of the Lord."

The ministry of the atonement is the great instrument for collecting the church. Unto Christ the gathering of the people is to be. Something else may gather a sect of philosophers, or bands of philanthropists; but it is this alone that will gather a church. “And I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all (men) to myself." It is emphatically called the word and ministry of reconciliation. It is the trumpet of jubilee that announces the acceptable year of the Lord, and calls back to their home and their inheritance, the captives and those that are ready to perish.

This doctrine has always been in the church. When Adam, and Eve, and Abel, formed the first members of the church, the doctrine of the atonement was a cardinal article of its creed. In the church there was never known any way of acceptance with God but through an atonement. Whatever the church lost in seasons of afflictions and defeats, it has never entirely lost the doctrine of the atonement. Its outlines, from behind the dim transparency of ceremonial shadows, never entirely faded away from the vision of the Jewish church; and in the Christian church the ordinance of the Lord's supper has been a plain and imperishable emblem of the atonement, to show forth the Lord's death till he come. Though the emblem has been criminally shrouded from the people in the dark foldings of superstition, or, at another time, shamefully exhibited to the po

pulace in a mantle of State trappings—yet the doctrine itself has never quitted the Christian temple. Ecclesiastical History proves that in the precise proportion that any church becomes erroneous on the doctrine of the atonement, that church, whether in Rome or in England, among Episcopalians or Dissenters, becomes corrupt. It is also capable of proof, on which no entrance can be made now, that a church that denies the atonement of Christ is not a church of his.

The provisions of the atonement have a special reference to the well-being, the purity, the perpetuity, and the glory of the church. The general provisions of the atonement give the Mediator power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him; and constitute him "Head over ALL THINGS," with speciality of application, "to the CHURCH." To the church, all the provisions of the atonement, like all the arrangements of nature and providence, work together for good.

All the services of the church have a direct reference to the atonement. No service in the Christian temple is acceptable to God, but that which is offered through the hands of the "minister of the sanctuary." The prayers of the church take Calvary in their way to heaven. In singing with grace in the heart, the harp must be tuned for the "Song of the Lamb" at the foot of the cross. It disowns all preaching, but "the preaching of the cross." The church is baptized into the death of Christ as an

atonement for sin; and in the Lord's supper it sits to the feast of the atonement.

The atonement will be the theme of the church for ever and ever. In heaven not a note will be sounded but in harmony with "the BLOOD that speaketh better things." The burden of the song will be "UNTO HIM that hath loved us, and WASHED us from our sins in his own blood." The harp of Saul of Tarsus will send forth a sound which the harp of Gabriel does not reach, and a throng of ransomed sinners will for ever swell the strain, "washed us from our sins," and the sounds of the harpers harping will thrill eternity into melody and praise.

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CHAPTER XIII.

THE ATONEMENT IN ITS RELATION TO THE VARIOUS DISPENSATIONS OF REVEALED RELIGION.

SECTION I.

The progressiveness of Divine Dispensations.

IT has pleased God that the revelation of his mind concerning the salvation of sinners should pass through various and progressive degrees, or stages, of advancement, which, in theological nomenclature, are called, different dispensations. It is to such a delivery of revelation in various and successive parts and parcels, that Paul alludes in the commencement of his epistle to the Hebrews. "God who in sundry parts, and in various manners, spake of old to the fathers by the prophets, hath now in these last days of the Jewish dispensation and beginning of the gospel age, spoken to us by his Son," Heb. i. 1.*

As a gradual progressiveness is visible in works which are acknowledged to be of God, such successive dispensations in divine revelation can be no valid objection either to its reality, or to its certainty. Even if divine revelation had been given instantane* M'LEAN on the Epistle to the Hebrews, works, vol. v. in loc,