of good agreement parties who have had cause to be at variance, as is the case with God and his sinful creature man. It may farther be understood to express the effecting of harmony between two seemingly incompatible principles in the character and government of the great legislator-equity and sovereignty, justice and grace.

REDEMPTION. (—azoλurgwors.)—This term is borrowed from certain pecuniary transactions among men, as the release of an imprisoned debtor by liquidating his debt, or the deliverance of a captive by paying a ransom. These are transactions with which mankind in general, and especially the Jews and primitive Christians, have been perfectly familiar. Accordingly, both in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, the deliverance of man from sin is frequently represented by language borrowed from such negotiations. The term before us is of this nature. It involves all the ideas included in atonement. supposes sin, which is the cause of imprisonment or captivity. It supposes deliverance by a substitute, the captive or debtor being unable to effect his own escape. And, of course, it supposes also a clear emancipation or restoration as the result of the ransom being paid. "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom (λurgov) for many.' 'Ye were not redeemed (λurgwenre) with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."

It

3 Matt. xx. 28. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

PROPITIATION. (ἱλαστηριον, ἵλασμος.-In the three cases in which this term occurs in the new testament (which are the only cases in the scriptures), it is applied to him by whom atonement is effected." It is the same word which the Seventy employ to translate atonement. The cover of the ark, or mercy-seat, is called by them inaongior. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes the same use of it.5 The verb (inox) from which it is derived, signifies to turn away wrath, to appease anger, to do whatever may give the judicial authority a valid reason for pardoning an offender. It supposes, of course, an offence, and the turning away of the offence— two ideas which, we have seen, are involved in the doctrine of atonement; while the use that is made of it in scripture connects it inseparably with sacrifice as the means by which the offence is taken away.

SATISFACTION.-Though not found in scripture, this term is of frequent use in connexion with the subject under discussion. From certain misconceptions regarding its import, the grossest prejudices have been raised against its use. It properly denotes, that the sufferings borne by Christ were not the identical punishment required by the law, but a proper equivalent with which the great moral Governor was pleased to be satisfied in its place. What Christ endured was not the precise penalty of the law, but something equally satisfactory, serving the same purpose, as far as the rectoral honour of God is concerned.

Rom. iii, 25. 1 John ii. 2.-iv. 10.

5 Heb. ix. 5.

'By satisfaction,' says an accurate and learned theologian of the present day, we mean, such act or acts as shall accomplish all the moral purposes which to the infinite wisdom of God, appear fit and necessary under a system of rectoral holiness, and which must otherwise have been accomplished by the exercise of retributive justice upon transgressors in their own persons......... If the work of Christ have that excellency and merit, which the unerring justice of heaven has seen to be an actual doing of that which was requisite to compensate for the injury perpetrated, and to restore the moral harmony which had been violated, it may with the utmost propriety be called a satisfaction. The theological use of the word was probably introduced from the Roman law. Tertullian, who was well acquainted with that science, says, Christus peccata hominum omni satisfactionis habitu expiavit: which may be, I conceive, justly translated, Christ atoned for the sins of men by a satisfaction perfect in every respect.' He clearly shows his understanding of the term, when he says that our Lord, by healing the wound of Malchus, repaired the injury." It is scarcely necessary. to add, that this term involves all the requisite ideas of our doctrine-sin, substitution, and pardon.

SUBSTITUTION.-Neither is this term to be found in the bible, though in common use, and of great moment. The doctrine supposes, as has been said, that Christ takes the place of offending sinners, bear

6 Dr Pye Smith's Discourses on Sacrifice, &c., pp. 287, 288.

ing their guilt, and suffering their punishment. As surety for men, he voluntarily places himself in their situation, as violators of God's holy, just, and good law; he holds himself responsible for all their guilt; and bares his bosom to the full award of the threatened penalty due to them for sin. He substitutes himself in their stead, not merely in regard to punishment, but in respect of obligation to punishment. Christ submitted not only to be treated as a sinoffering, but to be made sin for us. He not only 'bare our griefs, and carried our sorrows,' but 'he bare the sin of many.' While his holy soul was free from all the moral contamination connected with a state of guilt; while personal guilt never could be charged upon him; he, nevertheless, behooved to have imputed to him the guilt for which he was to make atonement. This was necessary that his sufferings might partake of the nature of a punishment. Suffering, disconnected from guilt, is calamity or affliction, not punishment; to punishment, guilt is indispensably requisite. Christ had no guilt of his own; he was incapable, indeed, of contracting it; but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.'

VICARIOUS. This word, as its Latin derivation imports, has the same meaning as that just explained. It signifies performing the functions, or standing in the place of another.

EXPIATION. The annulling of guilt, or taking away of sin by some meritorious interposition, is the distinctive idea suggested by this term. Though not found in the Scriptures, no word is of more fre

quent use, or of greater significance, in connexion with the subject of our present inquiry.

Such, then, are the principal terms, scriptural and technical, which are in use on the subject now under review. It is of great importance that they be rightly understood, so that specific and distinctive ideas be attached to them respectively. In theology, as in other departments of science, we are in danger from that common law by which words and phrases in constant use come to be dissevered from the notions they are designed to represent. 'This gravitation,'

as has been happily remarked by a powerful anonymous writer, which brings the heavier substance (knowledge) down, as a residuum, and leaves the lighter (language) to float as a frothy crust on the surface, is to be counteracted only by continual agitation of the mass.” Let it be remarked, then, that the first three terms above explained (atonement, reconciliation, and redemption), direct our attention particularly to the effects of Christ's work; the next (propitiation), to the source of the sinner's danger, the wrath of God which needs to be appeased; the three next (satisfaction, substitution, and vicarious), to the medium of deliverance; and the last (expiation), to its nature as a deliverance from guilt. Some of these terms involve the same ideas as others; but, generally speaking, there are nice shades of meaning which serve to distinguish them. A knowledge of these distinctions will at once serve

7 Saturday Evening; by the Author of the Natural History of Enthusiasm, p. 99.