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office is to teach men to be reconciled to God by removing this fear. We teach the removal of fear because of guilt, by preaching the expiation of the guilt of sin, by the sacrifice of Christ. We preach the removal of fear because of continued sin, by the impartation of the power of the Holy Spirit, to those who have faith in that sacrifice. The doctrine of reconciliation implies, therefore, therefore, three things; that man is a sinner, that sin can be pardoned, and that sin can be removed; and everything which revelation relates to us of these things, is summed up in that one word, which accurately expresses the whole truth. That word is, the Atonement. This word implies the causes, the means, and the result of reconciliation. Its causes are, the mercy of God, and the sin of man-the means, the propitiation by Christ-the result of receiving that propitiation, the bestowing the Divine aid to sanctify, and to renovate the soul. All our external services are but proofs of our faith in the atonement, which reconciles man to God; and there is no holiness, no true morality, but that which flows from faith in this atonement. Faith in Christ, working obedience in the heart and life, by life to God, is the one true religion. The preaching this doctrine of the atonement, therefore, is your first chief duty. It includes every other. On all occasions when you speak to the people, this doctrine must be, and ought uniformly to be, without the exception of any

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sermon whatever, the expressed, or the implied foundation of all moral inference, and all spiritual instruction. This is the one truth. The pages of Revelation may, in one sense, be said to teach this alone; for all its history, facts, and inferences, refer to this, as the object for which alone, all was written. The Bible begins with it, when it "the seed of the says, woman shall bruise the serpent's

head." It goes on with it, from the days of Abel to those of the apostles, in the perpetual offering of the sacrifices, which revealed, in their typical details, the Lamb of God. I know I am speaking to those who have read, and who have been convinced by the arguments of the deeply-learned Faber, Magee, Smith, Jerram, and others on this point. When John the Baptist, the connecting link between the Jewish and the Christian dispensations, pointed out Christ to his own disciples, who thereupon left him to follow Christ, he declared him, with reference to the atonement alone, to be the Lamb of God. When Christ went up to Jerusalem to die, he became our sacrifice, our passover, only to complete the work of his atonement, of which his death was the principal part, and which he undertook before the creation of the world. When he returned to his glory, his apostles summed up all their teaching in this one doctrine, "We preach Christ crucified." The Epistles more especially dwell on this point, because the history of the redemption of man being completed, the mind is brought under the teaching of inspiration, to ponder this topic without interruption. When we shall see Christ at the last, we shall "look on him whom we have pierced." The piercing of his hands, and his feet, was the sign of the completion of his atonement and he shall be known as the atoner, when he comes again to judge us. Such is the manner in which the doctrine of the atonement is the beginning, middle, and the end of the whole book of Revelation. See too in what manner the church, in full accordance with the Scriptures, teaches the same truth. Every prayer we offer to God, is addressed to him in the name of Christ: not alone as our prophet to instruct us, but as the sacred intercessor of the new covenant. We approach to God in the name

of Christ, because Christ is the mediator, who offers the prayers of his people. We pray to Christ as the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. Men, women, children, the philosopher, and the uninstructed, all join in what we justly call the Common Prayer. In the sacramental services of the church, we thank God for him who made upon the cross the great sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world-and so I could go on, to prove to you, that the doctrine of the atonement is the one great truth, which we always, on all occasions, systematically explicitly, prominently,and uniformly keep in view; as the hope of our souls, the basis of our prayers, the foundation of all our faith, praise, and gratitude, and the source of all that Christian holiness, of which morality is only a part, because morality is our duty to man, and includes not our duty to God.

I am now, therefore, brought to the question-Why have I said all this? Why have I presumed to remind you of a duty so well known, so thoroughly understood, and I doubt not, so long practised by you all? What is the error against which I shall warn you?

6 The error to which I refer shall be mentioned in the words of the writer. It is the inference or conclusion from the preceding reasonng in his book. It is this:

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The prevailing notion of bringing forward the atonement explicitly and prominently on all occasions, is evidently quite opposed to what we consider the teaching of Scripture, nor do we find any sanction for it in the Gospels. If the Epistles of St. Paul appear to favour it, it is only at first sight.'

Such is the statement of the error to which I allude. The title of the tract is, On Reserve in communicating Religious Knowledge; and as it is addressed to the clergy, the communication of knowledge

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'The arguments on which this strange novelty is defended are principally three: the example of Christ-the moral government of God-and the custom of the Primitive Church.

With respect to the example of Christ. We acknowledge that he taught in parables, and that he had many things to say to his disciples which they could not bear, and which he did not therefore reveal to them. Two considerations, however, render the conduct of the Christian minister who should preach the doctrine of the atonement with reserve, on account of our Saviour's mode of teaching, utterly unreasonable and absurd. The first is, that the apparent reserve of Christ may be accounted for, by local, temporary, and occasional circumstances. He had not come to the earth merely to teach the Jews. He had come to fulfil a vast number of prophecies, especially those which related to his death; and it was necessary that all these should be fulfilled, in order that the evidence of their accomplishment, might be added to that of his miracles, and that all the churches after the day of Pentecost, should compare the events of his life, passion, death, and resurrection, with the predictions which had previously recorded them and the Divine wisdom can never be sufficiently admired, which, by the manner in which Christ taught, so overruled the conflicting feelings, and inconsistent conduct, of he multitude, the

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Jews, the Pharisees, and the Romans; that they all contributed in the very precise moment of the predicted fulness of time, to the death of Christ; in that exact manner, and through all the minuteness of detail, which was necessary, that the letter of the Scripture might be fulfilled. Sometimes, even with all his studied caution in speaking to those around him, the truths which they were to remember hereafter, though they could not receive them at that present time; they took up stones to stone him. If they had done so the prophecy could not have been fulfilled, which said, "a bone of him shall not be broken." Sometimes they were so impressed with his miracles, and especially with that by which it was found that he could maintain large armies, at the expense of a few loaves and fishes, and thus have headed the Jews against the Romans,-that they were coming by force to make him a king. If they had done this, the Romans, unless other miracles had been performed, and other prophecies had been previously spoken, might have slain him with the sword, in tumultuary conflict, together with his followers, and then the soldiers might not have cast lots upon his vesture, nor have given him the vinegar and the gall. When he alluded to the conversion of the Gentiles, they desired to throw him from the brow of the hill on which the city was built; and a miracle was wrought contrary to his general plan of acting, for his own personal safety. He depended for that safety till the time of his death drew nigh, when the prophecies should be accomplished, upon that very reserve and forbearance, which is now perverted into an argument, to you and to me, to lose sight of our first duty, and to preach with reserve, the sacred doctrine of the atonement.

'The next consideration, resDECEMBER, 1838.

pecting the example of Christ, renders the adoption by the Christian minister of this prescribed reserve still more objectionable.

The truths which Christ did not reveal to his followers, because they were not able to bear them, were all revealed to them by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, for the benefit of themselves, and of the Church, after the day of Pentecost. The express and solemn declaration of our Saviour wasit is expedient for you, that I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. I will send you another Paraclete, even the Spirit of truth, that he may abide with you for ever. He, when he is come, shall guide you into all truth. The Holy Spirit has come. He has been, he is with his Church. He has guided, and He does guide it into all truth; so that the Scriptures have been completed; and whatever there has been of reserve, either in the types and shadows of the law, which was only one stage in the education of the Church of God, that education is now ended: and whatever there may appear to have been of mystery or reserve in the teaching of Christ, for any purpose whatever, we are now guided into all truth and such mystery, difficulty, and reserve is, consequently, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, fully and entirely done away. We are the interpreters of that completed revelation: and the interpreter can have no right to teach the message of his master with reserve.

The second argument, upon which reserve in our communicating religious instruction to the people is defended, is--the moral government of God.

The view which this writer submits to us, of the moral government of God, is, that God communicates less knowledge to man than man can bear, in pity to his weakness, lest man should increase

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his condemnation, by perverting that knowledge. Whereas it is expressly declared-" This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." All my conclusions as a Christian, respecting the moral government of God, are derived from revelation alone. In that now completed revelation, I find no reserve whatever. All is sufficiently plain, clear, and simple. All that I can be required to know of God, my soul, my destiny, is fully revealed to me. Much of Aristotle is quoted to illustrate our author's position. Much metaphysical reasoning too is used to prove the truth of the anomaly defended by him. This writer affirms that Christ studiously concealed his divinity; and that this concealment is a part of the moral government of God. Whereas we find, that when there was an opportunity afforded him of asserting his divinity, without that probability of causing a tumult, which sometimes induced him to speak in parables, be never forbore to declare it. He promised the woman of Samaria, for instance, to execute that highest office of Deity, the sending down the Holy Spirit. He told his disciples he was Lord of the Sabbath: that is, that he professed the same authority as the Lord who appointed the Sabbath. He affirmed himself to be the Resurrection and the Life. When he was dying in his human nature on the cross, he pronounced the final state of the criminal who was crucified with him. He told the man whose bodily disease he cured, Thy sins be forgiven thee," and the Jews justly exclaimed, "Who can forgive sins but God only?" He thus declared his divinity, not only, as this writer supposes, to those who were pious persons, prepared to receive his words, but to the Jews,

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who were rejecting him, and whom he called liars, children of the devil, workers of the works of their father, serpents, a generation of vipers, who could not escape the damnation of hell. When we remember these passages—and I could refer you to many moreand are then told, that Christ's studiously concealing his Divinity, is a part of the moral government of God and an argument to us to teach the doctrine of the atonement with reserve-I am sure you will, with me, admire the learning of the author, more than his judgment. I do not warn you against his metaphysics, for I do not clearly comprehend them: but I do warn you against his theology, as unscriptural, unchurchmanlike, and indefensible.

'The last argument, by which the proposition of which I am speaking is defended, is no less untenable than the others. It is derived from a custom in a part of the Primitive Church.

'My Christian Brethren-No one error has done so much harm to the Holy Catholic Church, as the confounding the customs of antiquity, with the laws of Christ. Revelation, the revelation in the Scriptures I mean, is our only certain guide to truth, in doctrine, discipline, or practice. Tradition, the medley of writers called the Fathers, the maxims, the customs, the laws, the enactments, the canons of the early ages, are all, more or less, useful sources of evidence; but as authorities for conduct, or guides for doctrine, they are to be received or rejected, as criticism or philosophy enable us to decide on their value. There are, as you well know, many doctrines received as truths in the Church of Rome, which are confessedly not to be found in the Holy Scriptures. The Church of Rome defends these doctrines on the very same reasoning by which reserve in preaching the doctrine

of the atonement is defended by this writer. The Doctors of that Church assure us, for instance, that Transubstantiation was kept with reserve, and formed a part of the Arcani Disciplina. This was a system of discipline, or of religious instruction, only partially adopted at the time, when the converts to Christianity were made from Heathenism, and when the Pagans, who would not embrace Christianity, were accustomed to deride its mysteries. I can now only refer you for a more extended account to Bingham, Newman, and others.

That part of the Arcani Disciplina which is made the foundation of the argument for our preaching the doctrine of the atonement with reserve, is derived from the distinction, which was made in the second century, between the candidates for baptism, and the faithful who had been already baptized. This difference was then so great, at least in the church of Alexandria, that the Lord's Prayer was taught only to the converts immediately before baptism; and the Mystery of the Trinity, and the Apostles' Creed were taught at the same time. There may, or there may not have been sufficient reason for the concealment of some of its doctrines by the early churches -and they may, or they may not have been right or wrong in their discipline. It is a matter of very little real importance to us: for the Church of England is as much able to make wise and good laws for its own regulation, as the Churches of Alexandria, of Rome, or of any other place whatever. But do let me entreat you, to observe how utterly inapplicable all notion of teaching the doctrine of the atonement with reserve, because of the discipline of certain churches in the early ages, is, to the laws, customs, discipline, and practice of this Church of England. We make no other differ

ence between one Christian and another, than that between the confirmed, and the unconfirmed: and this is a distinction in practice and discipline only, and not in the degree of instruction. We place the Catechism of the Church in the hands of children as soon as they can distinguish between good and evil. We teach them to lisp their first petitions to God, in the language of the Lord's Prayer. We give them the Apostles' Creed as the summary of their belief as soon as they can read. And if this is not sufficient to prove the utter abhorrence in which we hold the notion of teaching the great truths of Christianity with reserve, we admit the youngest child to the public worship of a church, in which each person of the Trinity is worshipped-in which no mystery is kept back-in which the Nicene Creed is read every Sunday, and the Athanasian Creed is read to the ignorant as well as to the learned, to men, women, and children, twelve times in the year. If it shall be said that this is proving too much-that it is impossible that children should understand the mystery of the Trinity, and therefore there ought to have been some reserve, I answer, that this is not the question. The question is, whether we, the teachers of Christianity, are to possess the power of withholding at our pleasure, in the public worship of God, or in the general instruction of the people, any part of the mysteries of religion, or the whole counsel of God? Are we to be entrusted with the tremendous power of saying to our congregations, God has revealed to mankind certain truths respecting His divine nature, and the manner in which alone the fallen race of man can be reconciled to Him: but you are ignorant, weak, and unlearned, and I will teach to you these sublime truths, with a reserve, of which I will be the judge, and you shall be

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