362 THE DESIGN OF THE ATONEMENT.
renton, the Westminster Assembly, the Formula Con- sensus Helvetica, the Savoy Confession, &c., &, &e. We lay it down, therefore, as a canon, which no student of historical theology will care to deny, that the COMMON CONSENT OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES, DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, AS WITNESSED IN THEIR CREEDS AND IN THE WRITINGS OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE THEO- LOGIANS, IS THE STANDARD OF CALVINISM.
The only other point which our argument requires us to establish is, that the decisions of the Reformed Churches, during the seventeenth century, were univer- sally and explicitly in confirmation of our view of the Atonement as definite and personal. Both of the learned and impartial critics, Wener and Hagenbach, agree that the deliverances of the Belgic* and Gallic+ Confessions (A.D. 1571), and of the Synod of Dort (A.p. 1619), ex- pressly teach a definite Atonement: ‘For this was the most free counsel, and gracious will and intention of © God the Father, that the life-giving and saving efficacy
* Conf. Belg., Art. 16.—Credimus, Deum, posteaquam tota Adami pro- genies sic in perditionem et exitium primi hominis culpa preecipitata fuit, Deum se talem demonstrasse, qualis est, nimirum misericordem et justum, misericordem quidem, eos ab heec perditione liberando et servando, quos zeterno et immutabili suo consilio pro gratuita sua bonitate in Jesu Christo elegit et selegit, absque ullo operum ipsorum respectu; justum vero, re- liquos in lapsu et perditione, in quam sese ipsi precipitaverant, relin- quendo.
¢ Conf. Gall., Art. 12—Credimus ex corruptione et damnatione univer- sali, in qua omnes homines natura sunt submersi, Deum alios quidem eripere, quos videlicet zeterno et immutabili suo consilio, sola sua bonitate et misericordia nulloque operum ipsorum respectu in Jesu Christo elegit ; alios vero in ea corruptione et damnatione relinquere, in quibus nimirum juste suo tempore damnandis justitiam suam demonstret, sicut in aliis divitias misericordiz sus declarat. Nec enim alii aliis sunt meliores, donee illos Deus discernat ex immutabili illo consilio, quod ante seculorum creationem in Jesu Christi determinavit: neque posset quisquam sua Vi sibi ad bonum illud aditum patefacere, quum ex natura nostra ne unum quidem rectum motum vel affectum seu cogitationem habere possimus, donec nos Deus gratis preveniat et ad rectitudinem format.
STANDARD OF CALVINISM. 363
of the most precious death of his own Son should exert itself in all the elect, in order to give them alone justi- fying faith, and thereby to lead them to eternal life ; that is, that God willed that Christ, through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmeth the New Covenant), should, out of every people, tribe, nation, and language, efficaciously redeem all those, and those only, who were from eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father.”* Under the head of the rejection of errors concerning redemption, ‘‘The Synod rejects the errors of those who teach ‘that God the Father destined his own Son unto the death of the cross without a certain and definite counsel of saving any one by name.’ .. . For this assertion is contumelious to the wisdom of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, and is contrary to Scrip- ture, as the Saviour says, ‘I lay down my life for the sheep, and I know them’ (John x. 15, 27).? + “ Who teach that ‘Christ, by his satisfaction, did not with cer- tainty merit that very salvation and faith by which this satisfaction of Christ may be effectually applied unto salvation.” t+ Here the doctrine of definite Atonement is taught with singular fulness and variety of statement. Thus it 1s stated (a.) That Christ died to secure the salva- tion of the elect, and the elect only. (b.) That Christ died in pursuance of a definite covenant arrangement between the Father and the Son. (c.) That Christ, by his death, actually merited and secured faith and spiri- tual grace for those for whom he died. Hence, those who never received the gift of faith are proved not to be those for whom he died.
The Westminster Confession was prepared in 1648. There has been in this generation a very uncandid attempt made by some who profess to receive this Con- fession, ex animo, as the fit expression of their faith, to * Articles of Synod of Dort, chap. ii., 3 8. fi Dhid.¢ 345) asp Thid. 338:
CHAYTER Vv.
The doc- trine of the West- minster Confes- sion and
chism de-
mons- trated.
GHAPTER Vi
364 THE DESIGN OF THE ATONEMENT.
show that it does not explicitly affirm a specific and