propriety in praying for redemption, we have examples from the best authority. The psalmist prays for mercy and redemption in the same sentence. "But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me."-" Draw nigh to my soul and redeem it."

The work of atonement being already finished, and the work of redemption implying a building, which God is now rearing up on the foundation of atonement, prove their difference.

We are informed by the apostle, that believers are sealed unto the day of redemption.* The day of judgment, with the righteous, will emphatically be the day of redemption. When, therefore, they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory, they will look up, and lift up their heads; for their redemption draweth nigh.t

From the observations which have now been made, we infer the following remarks:

1. Not to distinguish between atonement and salvation is an error.

2. Notwithstanding Christ has given himself a ransom for all, yet none will be profited thereby, except those, who, by a true and living faith, are united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the living bread, the bread of atonement, which, if a man cat, he shall live forever. But he who eateth not of this bread shall die, being destitute of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

3. "Christ has given himself a ransom for all." On this the Universalists pretend to build their scheme: but, if the above distinction be just, they cannot, with any propriety, infer universal redemption (salvation) from the universality of the ransom or price of reEph. iv. 30. † Luke xxi. 8.

demption. Universal atonement therefore is consistent with particular redemption: it is also consistent with the doctrine of election.

Atonement is the price of redemption. Redemption itself is the actual exemption and escape from bondage. No one is redeemed therefore from the curse of the law, until he is united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Of man, nothing is required in order to atonement; but, in order to redemption, or deliverance from the curse of the law, it is necessary that he be reconciled to God, or that he receive the atonement.

4. To distinguish between redemption and the application of redemption is improper. But between atonement and the application of atonement, there is the same propriety of distinction as between atonement and redemption.

The Lamb of God, the Great Atonement.

(Extracted from the Rev. John Newton's Messiah.)

THE extent of the atonement is frequently represented, as if a calculation had been made, how much suffering was necessary for the surety to endure, in order exactly to expiate, the aggregate number of all the sins of all the elect; and that so much he suffered, precisely, and no more; and that when this requisition was completely answered, he said, It is finished, bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. But this nicety of computation does not seem analogous to that unbounded magnificence and grandeur, which overwhelm the attentive mind, in the contemplation of the divine conduct in the natural world. When God waters the earth, he waters it abundantly. He does not restrain the rain

to cultivated, or improveable spots, but, with a profusion of bounty worthy of himself, his clouds pour down water, with equal abundance, upon the barren mountain, the lonely desert, and the pathless ocean. Why may we not say with the scripture, that Christ died to declare the righteousness of God, to manifest that he is just in justifying the ungodly, who believe in Jesus! And for any thing we know to the contrary, the very same display of the evil and demerit of sin, by the Redeemer's agonies and death, might have been equally necessary, though the number of the elect were much smaller, than it will appear to be, when they shall all meet before the throne of glory. If God had formed this earth for the residence of one man only; had it been his pleasure to afford him the same kind and degree of light which we enjoy ; the same glorious sun, which is now sufficient to enlighten and comfort the millions of mankind, would have been necessary for the accommodation of that one person. So, perhaps, had it been his pleasure to save but one sinner, in a way that should give the highest possible discovery of his justice, >and of his mercy, this could have been done by no other method, than that which he has chosen for the salvation of the innumerable multitudes, who will, in the great day, unite in the song of praise, to the Lamb who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood. As the sun has a sufficiency of light for eyes (if there were so many capable of beholding it) equal in number to the leaves upon the trees, and the blades of grass that grow upon the earth; so in Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, there is plenteous redemption, he is rich in mercy to all that call upon him; and he invites sinners without exception, to whom the word of his salvation is sent, even to the ends of the earth, to look unto him, that they may be saved.

A DISCOURSE,

Designed to explain the Doctrine of Atonement in Two Parts.-Delivered in the Chapel of Rhode-Island College, on the 11th and 25th of November, 1796.

BY JONATHAN MAXCY, D. D.

PRESIDENT OF RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE.

PART I.

HEBREWS ii. 10.

For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

THE sufferings of Christ were essential to his

character as a Saviour. Without them the pardon of sin would have subverted the authority of the divine law, and have prostrated the dignity of the divine gov. ernment. For, if God should not execute the penalty incurred by the transgressor, if he should not mani. fest in his moral government the same abhorrence of sin that he does in the declarations of his law, his word and his conduct would be repugnant to each other, and he would afford no convincing evidence, that his law was a transcript of his will; that it ought to be considered as sacred, and respected as an universal inva

riable standard of obedience for all rational creatures. One great and chief design of the atonement made by the sufferings of Christ, was to impress a thorough conviction of God's displeasure against sin, though he should pardon the sinner. It was essential to a consistent exercise of pardon, that in some visible expression, God's real disposition towards sin should be manifested as clearly, fully and unequivocally, as it would be in the execution of the penalty of the law on the transgressor. This disposition, when brought into view in some sensible manifestation, vindicates God's character from all suspicion, and fully discovers his attachment to the dignity of his government, to the rights of his justice, and the truth of his law. The sufferings of Christ appear to have been available to the procurement of salvation, so far as they portrayed God's displeasure against sin, and evinced the infinite. value he set upon his own character and law. Hence it is, that the scriptures so frequently bring into view a suffering, crucified Christ, as the only hope of salva. tion. His sufferings support the dignity of God, as the moral governor, while he extends mercy to the guilty; they present him in a glorious point of light, as the universal sovereign and proprietor, as the great source from which all things have proceeded, and in which all shall finally terminate. It is therefore with great reason and propriety that the text declares, that "it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, te make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

These words, by bringing into view the passion of Christ, as essential to a display of the divine character in the pardon of sin, present the doctrine of atonement in a light truly interesting and important. For surely no