3. May all virtue be resolved into disinterested bene- volence, and all sin into selfishness? In other words, is there nothing else that ought to be except benevolence, and nothing else that ought not to be except selfishness ? Is justice only a form or mode of benevolence—.e., does God punish sin simply to prevent its recurrence or to limit its spread, and for the good of the universe as a salutary example? Is sin a relative evil only because it is the invariable cause of suffering to the sinner ané@ to others? And is it punished simply to limit its influence ? On all these points, the consistent advocates of the Governmental Theory must take the affirmative. On the contrary, we affirm that there are many virtues which cannot be included under the head of benevolence, and many sins which cannot be reduced to the category of selfishness ; that virtue is that which ought to be for its own sake, as an absolute end in itself, and for no reason beyond; that sin is intrinsically evil, and deserves punishment because of its intrinsic evil, and for no rea- son beyond ; that divine justice is an exalted perfection, determining God always to treat moral agents as they deserve, and that he punishes sin because this attribute of justice demands that sin shall be treated appropriately to its nature.
4. Supposing it to be the purpose of God to make provision for the salvation of sinners, were the sufferings of Christ absolutely necessary to that end, rendered so by the constitution of the divine nature ; or was the necessity for them only contingent upon the optional will of God or upon the conditions of the creature ? }
5. What is the nature of the divine law? Is it a product of the divine will, or a transcript of the divine
CHAPTER., III.
44 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
nature? Hence, is the law relaxable or immutable? Is penalty an essential or an unessential element of the law to which it is attached ?
6. As a matter of fact, is Christ represented in Scrip- ture as having come for the purpose of fulfilling the law, or “i Polacco) it ?
. Has God, as a matter of fact, éstabliched such a union between Christ and believers that they are legally one with him; that his death and his life, his Father and his inheritance, his standing and his rights, are theirs as matters of law ?
8. Did Christ die not only for us, but in a strict sense as our Substitute, in our law-place and stead ?
9. Was the guilt (legal obligation to punishment) of our sin imputed to Christ (justly charged to his account), because of that legal oneness which the divine will had constituted between him and us ?
10. Thus bearing justly and legally the guilt of our sin, did he truly expiate that guilt, and thus satisfy justice ?
11. Do the Scriptures teach that when the believer is Justified, the righteousness or rewardableness of Christ’s perfect obedience to the divine law in our place is justly charged to our account; or is Justification mere pardon ?
12. Do the Scriptures teach that the design and effect of Christ’s death are actually to save those for whom he died ; or was it only to put all men in a salvable state ? Did Redemption secure faith and repentance for those who are redeemed; or are all men redeemed, and then left to provide their own faith and repentance ?
The central point to be kept always in view is repre- sented by the question, Did Christ truly expiate the guilt of our sin ?
An examination of all the Scriptural evidence sub- stantiating this doctrine would occupy us with the study
PRINCIPAL POINTS INVOLVED. 45
of nearly every book of the Old and the New Testa- ments; with an analysis of the nature and relations of every particular doctrine in the entire system of _ revealed truth; and with a detailed examination of in- numerable words and passages. A bare outline of this argument is all that will be here attempted. The im- pression I wish to convey, in conformity with my own clear conviction, is, not that this or that text must mean what we suppose and nothing else, but that the whole of what Scripture says on this subject, when brought together, makes it impossible to doubt what the sacred writers meant us to believe.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ULTIMATE MOTIVES OF ALL GOD'S ACTS ARE IN HIMSELF ; AND THE IMMUTABLE PERFECTIONS OF THE DIVINE NATURE DEMAND THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN.
Sense se Sve u eens ps ral