protections to their persons and rights in maintaining the testimo. ny of this church.-Signed, WILLIAM GIBSON, SAMUEL B. WYLIE, ALEX. MCLEOD. The above report was adopted by the synod, and a delegation consisting of Dr. McLeod, Messrs. Black and Wylie, was appointed to repair to the seat of government as soon as convenient, and confer with the government, with a view to obtaining the objects therein contemplated."-Extracted, &c.-J. B. Synod Clerk. FREE DISCUSSIONS. [For the American Christian Expositor.] 68 JURIES. The duty of all who profess "the common Christianity," in relation to serving on juries," ought to be well understood. The act of the supreme judicatory is "absolutely prohibitory," the reasons assigned. 1. "There are moral evils essential to the constitution of the United States." Under this head we have the following particulars: "There is no acknowledgment of the being or authority of God." This is a radical defect, tantamount to declaring independence "The of Jehovah's government. nations that forget God shall be turned into hell.' to rebellion against Messiah, "who is made Lord of all to the glory of God the Father." Ezra ix. 6. 4. It gives support to the enemies of the Redeemer. By granting charters of conservation to temples of blasphemy against the trinity of persons in the Godhead, and against the divinity of Jesus. The revenue of Harvard University is, in a great part, from the state treasury. That institution employs, and amply pays, more than twenty Unitarian professors. The mother of harlots and her harlot daughters have their charters of conservation. 5. "It admits to its honors and emoluments, Jews, Mahometans, Deists, and Atheists." This is contrary to the common conscience and rebellion against the command of God. "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people, able men, such as fear God, hating covetousness, and place them over to be rulers," &c. Exo. xviii. 21, 6. "It establishes that system of robbery, by which men are held in slavery." See U.States constitution, sect. V. art. IV. clause 5, and art. V. also art. IV. sec. JI. clause III. and sec. IV. 7. "It violates the principles of representation." This it does by what Mr. Madison, in the late Virginia convention, called the "three-fifths principle." See U. States constitution, art. I. sec. II. clause III. II. The inconsistency of this practice with our standards, and "known and appointed," and enforced "usages" 1. "Jurors are executive officers crea ted by the constitution." This constitution is impious-the U. States constitu tion. 2. They mingle together the virtuous and the profane in one sworn association. "Say ye not a confederacy to all to whom "Can & this people say a confederacy." man take fire in his bosom and not be burned?" 3. The juror places himself upon oath, under the direction of a law which is immoral, as in the slave holding and other states, there are constitutional laws, re warns souls and bodies of men. 4. The supreme judicatory church members against sitting on ju 2. "There is no acknowledg-gulating the transfer of slaves; trafficking ment of the Christian religion.' This does not give "permission to the jury to make the revealed will of God the rule."* 3. There is no professed submission to the kingdom of "Messiah." How could there be, when there is no acknowledgment of the Bible which reveals him. All sin in the universe is resolvable in * See Editorial note, No. 5, p. 192, of this journal. ries." 5. They never contravened the old law of the church. 6. On the admission of members the initiate vows to obey the judicatory in the Lord. 7. Therefore, he who swears the juror's oath sins against God's law, and the law of the church, and breaks his vow. J R.W. Albany, Oct. 13, 1831. VOL. I. FEBRUARY 1, 1832. NO. 10. THE NECESSITY OF THE ATONE MENT. Luke xxiv. 26. "Ought not Christ to have ⚫ suffered these things?" This is an inquiry of the Re. deemer himself. It was original. ly addressed to a few of his disciples with whom he met, sad and solitary, traveling to Emmaus, and conversing about the events which had recently transpired at Jerusalem: Disguised as a stranger, unacquainted with events taking place in his absence, he proposed to them a question, which elicited from them in reply a detailed account of his own sufferings and death. Their reply to his question respecting the awfully important scenes of which they had been the witness, furnished him with an occasion to expatiate at large upon the nature, and causes, and effects of his own sufferings, as intended to effect an atonement. And of these sufferings as making satisfaction for sin, he, in plain terms, asserts the necessity. Ought not Christ to have suf fered these things?" Which form of expression, according to the idiom of the original language,conveys a decided affirmation of the fact. It being taken for granted that sin is to be pardoned, and a reconciliation to be effected, it is indispensably necessary that Christ should suffer to make an atonement. In this discussion, it is taken for granted, VOL. I. FEB. 1832. 2. That he endured these sufferings in his official capacity as the representative of the elect, being a divine person giving subsistence to a human nature. 3. That these sufferings were of a vicarious and substitutionary nature, and did really effect an atonement between an offended God and offending sinners; and all these considerations are involved in the text. It however affirms something more; it asserts the necessity of these sufferings to accomplish an atonement. From it we then deduce the doc. trinal proposition: Remission of sin and restitu. tion into favor, presupposes an atonement made. This we will endeavor to illustrate and enforce, I. By adverting to the nature of sin. II. To the character of the Being against whom it is committed. III. To the character of the person rendering the satisfaction. In affirming the necessity of the atonement, it will, perhaps, be proper to explain what ideas we attach to the term necessity. In speaking of the necessity of the atonement, we do not mean that the Divine Being was 'under any obligation of any kind to pardon the violators of his law, on account of any thing which they could do to render a satisfaction; for indeed such was the nature of 47 the offense committed, that the perverseness, he injures himself, transgressor by his offense incapacitated himself from rendering any adequate satisfaction. Nor do we mean that he was under any obligation to admit of the principle of substitution at all, much less to consent that his own Son should act as that substitute. Indeed it is impossible that God could ever be under any other obligation to his creatures than such as is the result of some express promise, or stipulation, or determination of his own. But the necessity which we affirm, is one arising out of a new state of things produced by the election of grace. Seeing that God had determined to save some of the fallen race of man, through a satisfaction made by a substitute qualified and accepted; it was absolutely and indispensably necessary that Christ, the only qualified substitute, should suffer to make an atonement, and these sufferings were the only means of procuring that object. This will appear, I. From a consideration of the nature of sin. "Sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God." It is the want of conformity on the part of the creature to a law given by God to him for the regulation of his conduct, adapted to his nature, and beneficial in its tendency. Of this law he possessed perfect power to fulfill the requisitions, and by fulfilling them he promotes his own good, contributes to the adyantage of the rest of the universe, and promotes the glory of the Lawgiver. If, however, he fail to conform to this law from his own does all he can to produce disorder in God's empire, and insults by his disobedience the Almighty Legislator. And if his offense be a willful transgression of the law its heinousness is increased. A want of conformity may be the result of ignorance or negli. gence; but a determined and open transgression is a daring revolt against the authority of the Sovereign, and open declared defiance of the Majesty of the skies. In either case sin is an infinite evil. It is an infinite evil, as it is the violation of an infinite obligation---of an obligation binding to perfect and perpetual obedience, and likewise if it be willfully violated, binding to a perpetual punishment. But it is especially infinite, as it strikes against an infinite God. Human reason, and the daily practice of mankind, sanction the principle that a crime is greater or less in degree in proportion to the dignity of the person against whom it is committed. Take as an example of this the crime of murder in its various grades: the life of a human being is taken. If the person slain be a useless or obnoxious member of society, the enormity of the crime is not as great as if a more useful and respected person had been murdered. If again, it be a friend, the criminality is increas ed; if it be a near relation it is increased still higher; and if a parent be the murdered individual, the demerit of the crime is enhanced to a tenfold degree. Apply this principle to the case in hand, and ascend from the most excellent and dignified person on earth to the great Parent of the universe, the Father of mercies, the most excellent of beings, and the most bountiful of benefactors; ascend to him whose excellency is infinite, and whose dignity is in finite, and we cannot but allow, that a crime committed against him is an infinite evil. In the moral government of God, an indissoluble connection has been established between sin and suf. fering. And, as according to the principles of distributive justice, the punishment should, in all ca. ses, be in proportion to the crime; as sin is an infinite evil, eternal misery is its adequate recompense. And if eternal sufferings, which are infinite in duration, be required as a satisfaction to the justice of God for the violation of his law, a crime of infinite enormity; the sufferings of Christ, in his capacity of the substitute for sinners, as the only means of procuring the atonement, will appear not only absolutely necessary, but also natural and consistent. The infinite evil of sin, proves the necessity of an infinite atonement, and as no infinite being could be found in all God's universe but Christ his Son, so if the guilt of an infinite evil is at all to be removed, his sufferings were necessary to accomplish that object. Ought not (then) Christ to have suffered these things?" Consider too, for a moment, that which is the native tendency of moral evil. It is the entire and utter destruction of every thing that is excellent, and beautiful, and orderly, from God's fair crea. tion. Witness the depths of moral degradation to which it has reduced Lucifer, the son of the morning, once one of the holiest of beings, one of the most exalted of created intelligences, one of the most highly gifted servants of the eternal King. Witness the disorders pervading the natural creation, the innumerable hosts of diversified misery with which sinful humanity is constantly liable to be assailed, and death reigning paramount over every department of animated nature. Witness the scene of the last judgment, and tophet blazing high to the glory of inflexible justice. These all proclaim the infinite enormity of sin, and the necessity of a sacrifice of infinite worth to atone for its guilt, and to procure its pardon. The necessity of the atonement is evinced, II. From the character of God the great object against which moral evil militates. This character will be best exhibited by an enumeration of some of its attributes. And the first attribute we mention is, the perfect harmony existing among all the perfections of the divine nature. In every plan laid, and in every operation performed, there is the most harmonious accordance of every attribute; and especially in the device of the system of redemption. "Truth met with mercy, righteousness and peace kissed mutually." 1. The holiness of God demands the punishment of the transgressor before a remission of his sin, and reception into fa. vor. God's holiness consists in a perfect freedom from the least taint of moral evil, and an infinite tendency to rectitude. It is the perfect absence of any cause of disquietude; and it is that which emphatically secures the perfect felicity of the Divine Being. And as God the great fountain of all created existence is holy, so all of his creatures as they come from his creating hand are holy; and as they are holy so also they are happy; as between holiness and happiness there is an inseparable and necessary connection. Every created being in the universe, in as far as he is holy, he is happy; and in as far as he is unholy, he is miserable. It is the direct tendency of sin to produce unholiness, to taint and pollute the streams of holiness which in the nature of the creatures proceeds from God; and perhaps the crime of the first sinner was so tremendously audacious as to aim at polluting the fountain of holiness and immaculate purity itself. To sin then the nature of God must be infinitely opposed, and shall he not act against it? Shall he see moral evil going abroad through the ranks of creation, tainting and polluting them, and rendering them unfit for his communion? Shall he behold it in troducing misery and wo among his sentient creatures whom he has formed for happiness? Shall he behold province after province in his empire raising the standard of rebellion against him under the instigation of sin? Shall he behold himself insulted on his very throne, and yet permit the sword of justice to sleep in its scabbard, and refrain his hand from punishing the transgressor? It cannot be. He has himself said to the sinner, Thou shalt drink to the dregs "the cup of the wine of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God." This attribute of the Divine Being, then, demands an atonement from the transgressor; but as he cannot render it for himself, he must in his surety. The sufferings of the surety are therefore necessary. 2. God's justice demands an atonement. Justice is that attribute of God whereby he gives to every subject of his empire his due. It may be styled his love of order, and it induces him to the preservation of that order which he has established throughout creation. To his rational creatures he has promulgated a law defining this order, and inculcating its preservation; and the law he has fortified with a penal sanction, declaring the punishment of transgression. It is the due of those creatures that preserve this order, that they enjoy happiness and peace; and it is no less the due of the violators of this order, that they receive pain and misery. Vindictive punitive justice is essential to the nature of God as the moral governor of the uni. verse. Justice to himself must induce him to punish the violator of the order which he has estab. lished: and justice to his crea tures must induce him to mete with a due retribution those sub. jects of his empire, who commit offenses whose tendency is the production of unhappiness among themselves. God's justice is also distributive, proportioning the pu nishment to the crime. The crime we have before seen to be infinite. An infinite atonement is therefore necessary. (To be continued.) N. |