on the other hand, Owen, the so-called strict Cal- vinists of England, and the Old-School Presbyterian church in America, adhere to the Westminster Confes- sion, interpreting it as maintaining limited atonement. Their doctrine on tin' whole subject in substance is, that the atonement was made and intended only for the elect ; and that its necessity with respect to them
arose out of the eternal justice of God, which required that every individual should receive his due desert; and, consequently, that the sufferings of Christ were the endurance of punishment equivalent in amount of suffering, if not identical in nature (as Owen main- tains) with that to which the elect were exposed ; and, moreover, that the meritorious obedience of Christ in fulfilling the law imputes a righteousness to those for whom the atonement secures salvation, which gives them a claim to the reward of righteousness in ever- lasting life. The differences of view in the two divis- ions of the Presbyterian Church in America are thus stated by Dr. Duffield : " Old-School Presbyterians regard the satisfaction rendered to the justice of God by the obedience and death of Christ as explicable upon principles of justice recognised among men in strict judiciary procedures. "While they concede that there is grace on the part of God in its application to the believer, inasmuch as he has provided in Christ a substitute for him, they nevertheless insist that he is pardoned and justified of God as judge, and as matter of riglit and strict justice in the eye of the law, inas- much as his claims against him have all been met and satisfied by his surety. The obligations in the bond having been discharged by his security, the judge, according to this view, is bound to give sentence of release and acquittal to the original failing party, the grace shown being in the acceptance of the substitute. Their ideas of the nature of the divine justice, exer- cised in the pardon and justification of the sinner be- cause of the righteousness of Christ, are all taken from the transactions of a court of law. New-School Pres- byterians, equally with the Old, concede the grace of God in the substitution of Christ, the whole work of his redemption to be the development of 'the exceed- ing riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ;' but they prefer to regard and speak of the atonement of Christ, his obedience and death, by which he satisfied the justice of God for our [ sins, as the great expedient and governmental proce- dure adopted by the great God of heaven and of earth | in his character of chief executive, the governor of the universe, in order to magnify his law and make it honorable, rather than as a juridical plea to obtain a sentence in court for discharging an accused party on trial" (Bibliotheca Sacra, xx, G18).
The doctrine of Payne, Wardlaw, Pyc Smith, and other so-called moderate Calvinists in England, and of many in America, is in substance that the atonement consists in "that satisfaction for sin which was ren- dered to God as moral governor of the world by the obedience unto death of his son Jesus Christ. This satisfaction preserves the authority of the moral gov- ernment of God, and yet enables him to forgive sin- ners. That this forgiveness could not be given by God without atonement constitutes its necessity. The whole contents of Christ's earthly existence, embra- cing both his active and passive obedience — a distinc- tion which is unsupported by the Word of God — must be regarded as contributing to the atonement which he made. As to the ' extent' of the atonement, there is a broad distinction to be made between the sufficien- cy of the atonement and its effi< iency. It may be true that Jehovah did not intend to exercise that influence of the Holy Spirit upon all which is necessary to se- cure the salvation of any one ; but as the atonement was to become the I asis of moral government, it was necessary Ihat it should be one of infinite worth, and so in itself adequate to the salvation of all." In New England the younger Edwards (f 1801) modified the Calvinistic doctrine of the atonement, representing it, as the Arminians do, as a satisfaction to the gener- al justice, and not to the distributive justice of God. Among American Calvinistic divines Dr. E. D. Grif- fin holds a very high place. His "Mumble Attempt to reconcile the DijJ\ renrcs of Christians'' was repub- lished by Dr. E. A. Park in 1859. in a volume of es-
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