CHAPTER VII.

PROOF OF THE ATONEMENT.

In the preceding chapter I have endeavored to explain the nature of the Christian atonement. I now propose to exhibit the proof of it. It is said that the doctrine of a satisfaction made to the divine government for our sins by the blood of Christ, appears only, if at all, in a few isolated passages of the New Testament, which are susceptible of some other meaning; whereas, so important a doctrine, if true, would be the burden of the entire Bible. Here then we join issue, I propose to prove, as summarily as possible, that this doctrine is taught throughout the Bible, and is indeed the burden of that book. It will be seen to be the universal sentiment of the Scriptures, that not a soul ever was or ever will be saved from our world, but by the atoning blood of Christ. All the effects of the death of Christ on the divine government, as our substitute, and all the reasons why it was necessary, we know not. These are among the profound things the angels desire to look into. Becoming modesty requires us rather to rest at present in the revealed fact, rejoic

ing in the assurance that what we know not now we shall know hereafter, in the unfoldings of eternity.

The fact in question will be proved by referring to the religion of Adam after the fall, the religion of the patriarchs, the religion of Moses and the prophets, the religion of John the Baptist, the religion of Jesus Christ, the religion of the apostles, and the religion of the millennium and of heaven. These comprehend the entire religion of the Bible, and I am to show that each and all of them are founded on REDEMPTION BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST.

All must see, at once, that this is a topic of the very highest interest-it gives the complexion to all our theological views, both theoretical and practical. It involves nothing less than the great question, What we must do to be saved, or in other words, the nature of saving faith. Moreover, if Christ is a Redeemer only as a teacher and exampler, then only those who live on earth since his advent could have the benefit of his redemption; whereas, if his atonement was a satisfaction rendered to the divine government for human sin, that could be done ages after the sin was forgiven, as well as before. This is our doctrine :-We maintain that all the saved from our world, during the four thousand years preceding the advent of Christ, as well as all the saved following, to the end of time, are saved by one and the same atoning blood of Christ. for the proof.

Now

1. THE RELIGION OF ADAM AFTER THE FALL.

God proposed to our unhappy progenitors a scheme of redemption, by which he placed them and their pos

terity under an economy of grace. To the devil, who, St. John informs us,* was impersonated in the serpent, and who had by the fall of man gained ascendancy over him, he said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Hebrew language abounds in short aphoristic sentences, compressing an immense meaning in a small compass. This is an instance. The bruising of the heel implies suffering; the bruising of the head, defeat. Hence the sentiment is, that God would set up a kingdom opposed to Satan; and one should be born of a woman who would, through the sufferings inflicted on him by his foe, succeed to defeat him. This illustrious personage, to be born of a woman, was to endure sufferings at the hand of his adversary, but the blow would eventually turn back on the adversary's head and crush it.

Instantly thereupon was instituted the sin-offering, which was the sacrifice of an innocent victim, the firstling of the flock, and no human being could approach God and find favor without it. It was on this account, as the inspired writer informs us, that Abel was accepted and Cain rejected. Cain was the first born of the fall; and mournfully does he exhibit the fruits of that catastrophe, in setting up his own will against the will of God, and substituting something else in place of that sin-offering, which was designed from the beginning to teach mankind that sin kills, and to typify

the great atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God. "The Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. And so the writer to the Hebrews says, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh."+ Cain brought of the fruit of the ground to God; but this did not suffice. There was in it no sin-offering, no bleeding victim, no type of the atoning Saviour. Abel offered with faith the appointed sacrifice, and was accepted; and his example "yet speaketh," and will speak to the end of time, testifying that fallen man is accepted of God, only by faith in an atoning Saviour. Such, then, was the religion of the first age of the world.

Of these

2. THE RELIGION OF THE PATRIARCHS. Abraham is at the head, and was indeed the father of the patriarchal religion, as he was also the father of all the faithful. Now let us see whether this atoning sacrifice for sin had a place in his religion. In the 22d chapter of Genesis we read that God said to him, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Abraham promptly obeyed. Not a syllable of question or murmur escaped his lips. Having travelled three days in the wilderness, with the agonizing prospect of his bleeding son

before him, he "lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off." Although the father's heart bled, his faith failed not. As he was with his darling son approaching the awful spot, the son said, "My father, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" This proves that Abraham had been accustomed to offer a bleeding lamb in sacrifice, whenever he approached the altar of God. His faith was now to be very severely tried. His reply was, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb." And when Abraham had bound his son upon the altar, as God commanded, "he stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son." At this instant the angel-Jehovah arrested his hand, and said, "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns :—and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burntoffering in the stead of his son."* The lamb thus provided, by the special interposition of God, typified the great atoning Lamb to be provided by God for the sin of the world. So we are expressly told. For it was to this very incident the heralder of Christ alluded, when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

And for this faith, Abraham received the most distinguished benediction of the Almighty. Jehovah called him out, covenanted with him, commended him

* Gen. xxii.