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On the Importance of the Doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement.

A

GENTLEMAN of eminent learning, but whose religious principles I cannot exactly afcertain, obferved fome time fince to another diffenting minifter, that "it was impoffible to point out any good moral tendency of the doctrine of the Trinity, or the atonement of Chrift:" He added a restriction on the latter fubject, "as it was commonly ftated." But not knowing wherein he would reprehend the common statement, I can only offer my remarks on his affertion, agreeably to my own views of that doctrine, whether mine be the common method of stating it, or

not.

As I believe these two doctrines to be the two principal articles of mere revelation, or the two moft important truths, which would have been utterly concealed from the moft unbiaffed of created minds, had not God graciously difcovered them in his word, I can by no means give into this gentleman's idea concerning their being deftitute of a good moral tendency.

It appears evident to me alfo, that the principal end of the two pofitive inftitutions of the New Teftament, is to keep up the belief of these two doctrines in the church: That the ordinance of baptifm, which I confider as a folemn act of worship, is defigned to uphold the belief of the Trinity, and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper to confirm our faith in the atonement. And I do not believe that either the violent abufe of fome of the enemies of thefe doctrines, or the infidious artifices of others, will be able to destroy thefe articles of the Chriftian faith, as long as thofe ordinances continue to be obferved, which I doubt not will be till the fecond coming of our crucified and infulted Lord.

When I confider the innumerable wonders of creation, wherein I find the moft confident philofophers acknowledge themselves puzzled with countless mysteries, it would feem ftrange to me, if, in a revelation made by the Creator of himself, there fhould be no remarkable peculiarity of his nature introduced; but that I, who am unable to comprehend the vegetation of a blade of grafs, or the voluntary motion of a worm, or a fly, fhould be able to comprehend all that

God can tell me about himself. I own, therefore, that if a revelation, claiming a divine origin, contained no mysteries, it would be to my mind a much stronger objection to its authenticity, than any myftery commonly reputed to be contained in the Bible.

As to that peculiarity in the divine nature, by which the uncreated Being combines in himself the most perfect unity, and the most complete fociety; fo that in one fense he is abfolutely one, and in another refpect is really three; I do not imagine this could have been difcovered by the most exalted of created beings without a revelation, and I guess that one defign of the redemption of the church was to make it manifeft; but now it is revealed, it appears to me very reasonable and beautiful, and gives me, I think, the more exalted ideas of God.

But these two great doctrines of revelation appear of the greatest importance when viewed in their connexion with each other. The economy of falvation illuftrates the Trinity, and the previous threefold diftinction in the divine nature lays the foundation for the clearest manifestation of the divine perfections in the falvation of the church. "We cannot understand the scheme of redemption unless we know who the Saviour is. Nor can we rationally, and with comfort and fatisfaction, believe and truft in him, unless we know his fufficiency as a Saviour; his fufficiency in power to fubdue our iniquities, to fanctify our fouls, to conquer Satan and all our fpiritual enemies, and to uphold us to the end; his fufficiency in wisdom to disappoint the devices of our grand adverfary and all his agents, and to make us wife unto falvation; his fufficiency in goodness and grace to forgive our fins, to watch over us continually for our preservation, to intercede for us with the Father, and to difpenfe to us grace to help in time of need; and the fufficiency of his merit, and the price of his redemption, or his propitiatory facrifice to atone for all our fins, and to procure our acceptance with the Father. Now, if he be a divine perfon, his fufficiency in thefe things, and all other refpects, appears at once. But if he were not a divine perfon, might we not doubt, yea, pofitively deny, his fufficiency? How fhould a finite price redeem us from an endlefs or infinite punishment? How should a finite atonement fatisfy for crimes deferving a punishment without end? If Christ were a mere creature, we might well difbelieve either the Scripture doctrine of endless punishment, or the fufficiency of the Redeemer. No wonder, therefore, that thofe who difbelieve the divinity

of Chrift, do generally, if not univerfally, difbelieve the endless mifery of thofe who die impenitent*."

What farther difcoveries may be made to us hereafter of the intrinfic glory of Deity, as enhanced by this peculiar mode of fubfiftence, we cannot yet ascertain; nor what advantages may hence refult to the happy inhabitants of heaven. But as to us faved finners, it is certain that our obligations to gratitude, and devotedness to the Redeemer, and our motives to loathe, abhor, and mortify fin, are increased to an unfpeakable degree, by confidering the dignity of the Redeemer, and the necessity of the atonement, which no inferior perfon could have made.

What debtor will affirm that his obligations to a furety are equal, whether he paid for him an hundred pence, or ten thousand talents? What Chriftian will be fo infatuated as to believe that if no greater a facrifice had been required than the blood of bulls, or goats, to expiate our guilt; and if he who faid of them, who deferved to perish, "Deliver them from going down to the pit, I have found a ranfom," had pointed us to a ram caught in the bufhes, as the only requifite atonement; our reafon to admire the love of God, and fhudder at the evil of fin, would have been as great, as it is on the fuppofition of the Lamb of God, being no other than his incarnate Son?

Sure I am that the writers of the New Teftament lay the greatest stress on God's giving his own Son to be incarnate, and to be facrificed for us; and my idea of the exalted import of that appellation abundantly enhances my sense of the obligation to divine love. In like manner, my fenfe of the abominable evil of fin, my repentance for the paft tranfgreffions of which I am confcious, my humiliation for the fin that ftill dwelleth within me, and my watchfulness against it in future, are all in proportion to my conviction, that it was requifite the Father of mercies fhould fhew his abhorrence of iniquity in the very method of his granting forgiveness; and that nothing would have been a fufficient falvo for his honour, or any adequate means of fupporting the credit and authority of his law, but the vicarious fufferings of one, who could fuftain the full curfe of the law, and yet emerge from thofe dreadful fufferings, which no inferior perfon could have fuftained without finking into perdition.

See a sermon entitled, All Divine Truth profitable, by Dr. Jonathan Edwards, at the Ordination of the Rev. Dan. Bradley, of Hampden, 1792.

O! would to God that all the worshippers of the flaughtered Lamb, without the fhedding of whofe precious blood it would have been impoffible for one fin in the world to have been expiated, may fo walk as to confound the enemies of the Crofs! The love of Christ constraineth us; let us then depart from all iniquity. We have feen him that was pierced for our offences, and in his fufferings have feen the extreme evil of fin; yes, we have beheld his glory as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; let us mourn, and be in bitterness, while we reflect what it was that rendered it neceffary for him to be fo wounded and bruised: Let our indignation be roused against fin; let us purfue it unto death. Away with it! crucify it! crucify it! It is not fit that that regicide should live which murdered the Prince of life.

Meanwhile it is a bleffed ground of encouragement, that our Sanctifier is divine, as well as our Saviour. Let them, who know not the depths of Satan, but perhaps deride his existence, and who know not the depravity of the heart, and the deceitfulness of fin; let them, I fay, doubt whether there be a Holy Spirit; let them treat him only as a figurative perfon, and his bleffed influence as a ridiculous fancy. Do you, beloved, take encouragement to work out your own falvation with fear and trembling, knowing that he is GOD, who worketh in you to will and do, according to his good pleasure. Little do they realize the unnatural disorder which fin has introduced into the moral world, who object to any immediate interpofition of God for the convertion and fanctification of a finner, and refuse to admit of any fuperior agency in the production of holiness, to that of a general law of nature. Surely this effect would be as vainly expected from the mere courfe of nature, as the last refurrection; and Paul intimates no lefs in the language he addreffed to the converts at Ephefus. Eph. i. 19, 20. ii. 1-5. While, therefore, you ever acknowledge the sinfulness of deadness towards God, whether partial, or total, be you ever ready to confefs that the Spirit who quickened you, is God who raifed the dead; and implore an increafe of his quickening influence, that you may, through him, mortify the deeds of the body, and live more abundantly, not to yourselves, but to him who died, and rofe again.

S. C.

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RECEIVED your letter, and have to thank you for your kind attention. I am a poor, weak, disjointed mortal, fometimes up and fometimes down, but devoutly grateful that I am what I am; able, upon the whole, to keep my head above water, and to unfold the unfearchable riches of Christ to my people; which is my daily ftudy and highest pleafure; but lamenting, as I fhall to my grave, that the best of my ftrength and the vigor of my faculties were not more directed to that glorious object, and myself more active and ufeful in the world.

And now, having fpoken fo freely of myfelf, let me also fpeak freely of you, and tell you, that you indulge yourself too much in dwelling on the dark fide of things. This is owing, I know, partly to your natural conftitution and the weakness of your bodily frame, and partly to your jealous and fcrupulous ideas of a ftate of grace; fo that the caufe is pardonable, but then its effect is not convenient; for it makes you take to yourself, with too much force, every thing that feems against you, while it makes you backward to explain, as a matter of comfort, what really makes for you. The text you mention is a clear proof of this. I am pofitive you have no concern with it in the way you mean-" But the fearful and unbelieving," &c. Rev. xxi. 8. All the characters in that lift, obferve, come to one and the fame end, and we are therefore to conclude that they are, in fome fenfe, all of one kind. The fearful and the unbelieving then (thofe characters which you would apply to yourfelf) muft mean perfons in whom the worst fort of fear, and the worst fort of unbelief are to be found.-The fearful, fuch as dare not own Christ, or, for fear of fuffering on his account, have difowned him, and apoftatized from him. And can you apply this to yourfelf? No; the thought is fhocking to you. Well, but you are afraid that in the view of difficulties," &c.; and fo

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