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it { $ - pushed . All that depended upon him was finished before he died , and some time before he died he enjoyed calmness of mind : the wrath of God was not therefore poured out upon him on the cross , nor was the atonement or satisfaction made by his
death . We may look at this matter in another point of view . On the popular scheme , all the efficacy of ChristV death depends upon his divinity ; but uDon the same scheme , it was Impos - r . -. i •» i nn ai _ tt ~ v ' i should sufferthe
sible that he : Deity is unchangeable and impassible ; arid even if a God could have suffered , all suffering must have been light to him , omnipotence is equal to itself and could easily have borne what omnipotence could inflict . But in whatever
strains the pseudo-orthodox may sing of a bleeding and dying God , they will not soberly reason in favour of so Pagan a notion ; arid therefore , according to them it was only the man Christ Jesus that suffered and died , and if
that death and those sufferings made the atonement and gave the satisfaction , the whole work was accomplished by the much-vilified human nature . It is pleaded , I am aware , that the union of the divinity with
the humanity , stamped an infinite value upon the sufferings of the latter 3 but how idle to talk of an union between two natures , of which one was agonized and torn in pieces , and the other was at its ease and absolutely incapable of a painful sensation ! The popular preachers and poets sometimes talk and write as if it were
the Uood of Christ ( physically so ) which satisfied and appeased the wrath of God . There is no arguing against metaphors—considered in any other » ght than a metaphor , however , this fltay be pronounced afoul and abominable supposition .
From the actual death of Christ , | he advocates of the doctrine of satisfaction will probably nee to the agony n . ** ? 6 a * den ; for we have seen that ^ hrist did not die under the wrath of korf
, and that before he died all that tyended upon him was finished : but if JJ * atonement were made in the garden it Was made without death and £ « hout blood . * On this supposition , ^ nm p migh j . suffer > Kut he did aot —— I ,,, i
lv *^ > language [ ch . xxii . 44 , ] is " liis *™** m *' usii were great drops of blood . '
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die , for us : a living man made the satisfaction , and , for aught that appears , he might have continued to live and his work been complete . And it behoves the popular teachers to determine what was the nature of Christ ' s
sufferings in the garden ? Was he oppressed by the consciousness of imputed guilt : then with what propriety can it be said that he knew no sin , since the propriety and efficacy of his punishment must have consisted in his knowledge or consciousness of
sin ? Was he overwhelmed with the wrath of God : then Gou was angry with him ; and who was it at the same time that sent an angel to strengthen him ? Consider the sufferer in the garden as God as well * as man , and what a scene of contradiction
rises up to view ! A divine person praying , trembling , sinking I Oppressed by God , imploring the sympathy of the apostles , comforted by ail aiigel I The writer to the Hebrews supposes that Christ ' s sufferings consisted iri the fear of death : * let those who defend the common scheme of
atonement explain how this fear was possible to one who was conscious of all the strength of deity , and also how the shrinking from death is consistent with the benevolence of Christ , if he
knew both that no suffering couJd exceed or equal his infinite power , and at the same time that upon his suffering and death depended the salvation of the human race , or a great part of them , from everlasting torments ?
If the atonement were made neither by his death nor his agony singly , it would be difficult to prove that it was made by them both together 3 especially since there is no necessary connexion between them , but on the contrary they form two distinct scenes in our Lord ' s ' history , marked by obviously different states of mind .
Taking atonement in the sense of reconciliation , the true scriptural sense , the idea of redemption or salvation is clear . Mankind were alienated from God by wicked works , Jesus Christ
brought them back to their heavenly Father by his example and comihandment of all righteousness . Vice and iniquity wrought in reflecting minds a sense of guilt and fear , Jesus Christ banished despair and inspired hope by — ¦ V I I ¦ W— ¦»
>«¦¦¦ V - ¦ —~ * Heb . v . 7 .
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Objections id iht popular ' Scheme &f Atonement . 159
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1815, page 159, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1758/page/31/
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