weight. The interpretation yields a good and important sense and we are to receive, not dictate, the phraseology of Scripture.

3. That the ôs is to be understood as the relative of eos Swv, and that the intermediate words are to be read in a parenthesis. This method was proposed in a letter to the late Dr. Woide, by Vice-chancellor Cramer of Kiel. It is plain and natural as to both sense and grammatical construction, and it accords with the parenthetic style of the Apostle Paul. For these reasons, I conceive that it is entitled to be received as most probably the genuine construction. According to it, the passage runs thus :-"which is the church of the living God, (the pillar and ground of the truth, and confessedly great, is the mystery of godliness!) who was manifested in the flesh," &c.

January, 1842. The investigation which it has been my duty to carry on since writing the preceding note, almost thirty years ago, has not led to a conviction that the opinion here expressed ought to be abandoned. I may be allowed to request attention to my Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. iii. p. 321-330, and 354-362, especially p. 360; 3rd ed.

Note XXI.-page 64.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST.

The connexion between the subject of the present publication and the general faith of Christians concerning the person of their Saviour, is obvious; but to introduce the most abridged view of our arguments for the latter doctrine was impossible in the Discourse, and would be immensely disproportioned to the form and object of these cursive notes. Yet, as any man is at liberty to give a general opinion on an extensive question, when a detail of reasons would be unseasonable, it may be permitted me to express mine, without offence or seeming dictation. Having spent a considerable

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portion of my time in reading, not inattentively, nor, I sume to say, with a bigoted mind, works written against this doctrine, the conviction of my mind is that their combined efforts have not disproved the body of evidence adduced in its favour by many writers since the Socinian controversy arose, two centuries ago.* Some arguments have been proved inconclusive, some alleged texts irrelevant, and some defenders of the doctrine incompetent: but the citadel is the stronger for the destruction of cumbrous outworks, wood, hay, and stubble, which never properly belonged to it.

While the conscientious believers in the Deity of Christ are becoming more careful and exact in their statements and arguments, it is to be wished that its adversaries would, on their part also, exercise more candour and justice. I cannot but think that there are good grounds for this wish, when I find some of our theological opponents representing it as a fact unquestionable, that we hold the Divine Being to have changed himself into a babe, to have bled and died, and laid in a tomb; that our sentiment is opposed to the style of the N. T. in its usual distinct mention of God and the Mediator; that we deny the Unity of God; that we believe in three Supreme Beings; and that we attribute to one of them the exercise of capricious rule, malignant passions, and blind rage, and to another a character of superior mildness and

* Owen, Hoornbeek, Turrettin, Venema, Stapfer, Bull, Waterland, Calamy, &c. The Essay on the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Dr. Van Wynpersse, translated from the Dutch by the late Rev. John Hall, of Rotterdam, (1796,) is peculiarly judicious and impressive. An excellent work, which discovers the amiable probity and fairness, no less than the learning and indefatigable research, of its lamented author, is A Plea for the Deity of Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine of the Trinity; by the late Rev. David Simpson, M. A. An improved edition has been published by the late Rev. Edward Parsons. In a few instances, exploded readings are retained; among the many solid arguments some dubious ones occur; and sometimes other writers are quoted without due correction of their improper expressions.

Since the first publication of this treatise, the author has attempted an investigation of the subject here adverted to, upon the principle of a cautious induction, tracing the doctrine of a Messiah from its first revelation to the final descriptions of the New Testament; Scripture Testimony to the Messiah. On this and the other important subjects connected with it, he would earnestly recommend Dr. Wardlaw's Discourses on the Socinian Controversy.

benevolence. Undoubtedly, they have a fair right to say that these, or any other conclusions, appear to them deducible from our doctrines; but they ought not to forget our denial of such inferences, and our solemn protest against them.

Note XXII.-page 69.

ON THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT.

Many years have flowed away since these sentiments were preached and published, but I must confess that I have found no reason to depart from them. The question has not indeed been given to quiescence; but the agitation of it, by holy and wise men, exercising towards each other the spirit of Christian friendliness, has done (I trust) no harm, and has even contributed to shew that each party might engraft upon its own view that of the other, without any unfaithful compromise. A most able defender of the doctrine of "Definite Atonement" has the following passages with which I feel it a happiness to adorn my pages. After disposing of a slender objection, he continues ;

"The objection proceeds on the mistaken supposition, that the Atonement of Christ is an exact equivalent for the sins of men; and that, had the number to be saved been either more or less than they are, or had their sins been of greater or less amount, the sufferings of the Redeemer must have varied in proportion. Now, to this view of the subject there are insuperable objections. It is at variance with what we have before established, namely, the infinite intrinsic value of Christ's Atonement. It overlooks the grand design of the atonement, which was, not simply to secure a mere commu tative satisfaction to the Justice of God, but to glorify all the divine perfections, and to make an illustrious manifestation of the principles of his government before the whole universe of moral creatures. It leaves no room for such an unlimited offer of Christ in the gospel, as to render those who

reject him without excuse: for, if the atonement of Christ bore an exact proportion, in point of worth, to the sins of those who are actually saved by it, then the salvation of any others was a natural impossibility, and no blame could attach to such for neglecting to embrace the proffered boon. Indeed, there would be no ground on which such an offer could be made.

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We hold by the view, that the sufferings of Christ are to be regarded in the light of a moral satisfaction to the law and justice of God; which would have been requisite had there been but one sinner to be saved, and had that sinner had but one sin; and which would have been adequate, had the number to be saved been, to any conceivable extent, greater than it is.

"The atonement of Christ being sufficient for all, possessing a glorious, infinite, All-sufficiency, it is with propriety made known and offered to the acceptance of all. There is, in this case, no natural impossibility in the salvation of any man. The secret design of God, by which the application is restricted, has no causal influence in producing unbelief. The obstacles to salvation are all moral; that is to say, are such only as arise from the native rebellion and hardness of man's own heart.

"The saving virtue of the Redeemer's blood,-in intrinsic worth, we regard as infinite." From an extensive and able treatise "On the Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ;" by the Rev. William Symington, D.D. Edinb. 1834; pp. 268, 269, 274, 302.

For those who intelligently believe in the infinite perfections of God, it is impossible to suppose that there can be anything vague, obscure, or vacillating in his purposes; or in his fore-ordained plans for the execution of those purposes. As little can we doubt that the intention of the Redeemer and the end contemplated by him as the accomplishment of that intention, are and ever have been in perfect accordance with the designs of the Almighty Father. The intention and the effect, in the operations of infinite wisdom and power, must be in perfect accordance, the one with the other.

If all men are not saved, it could not be the intention of God to save all men. To escape from this conclusion, some appear to satisfy themselves with the idea of a general and indefinite design; which is in fact but attributing to the Divine Mind the formation of a sketch or mere outline, and that he is actually unacquainted with the minute filling up till the event declares it. It is in another and a prior branch of theological science, that the futility of such reasoning as this is demonstrated. That, therefore, in the work of expiation by the Lord Jesus Christ, the most important and glorious of all the divine works, there was the absolute and determinate purpose, that the work should avail to the salvation of a certain number of mankind,-is a conclusion evidently unavoidable. Equally also must it be admitted that the personal mind and intention of the Redeemer coincided perfectly with the absolute will of Deity. There could not be discrepance. Most plainly does our Lord, in alternating sentences, affirm both the fixed purpose and the boundless comprehension: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out; for I have come down from heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me; and this is the will of him that sent me, that, of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise them up again at the last day; for this is the will of him that sent me, that every one who seeth [ó lewpŵv, contemplateth, exerciseth mental vision] the Son, and believeth on him, shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up again at the last day." John vi. 37-40. Thus delightfully and wonderfully do the declarations of the Lord Messiah correspond with those of the prophetic picture; "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Is. liii. 6.

But this view of the case does not exclude another. The work of Christ for the good of men is to be considered as one great whole. It may have, and probably it has, aspects and influences to an extent of which we have no conception in this our state of feeble and ignorant mortality.