serve as very great aids to our spiritual improvement; and more especially so, those by the good and enlightened Swedenborg, who was specially commissioned to announce and to unfold the interior sense of God's most Holy Word. But what we would admonish of and guard against is, that disrelish for the plain words of Scripture which is too common amongst us; and the cause of which, we believe, lies in our not putting more into practice those prohibitory commands which the Word enjoins upon us. In order that we may learn to do well," we must first cease to do evil;" we must restrain ourselves from indulging in anything to which we are inclined that we know to be sinful and contrary to God's divine laws. 66 If thorns and briars be suffered to grow and luxuriate in our hearts, they will assuredly "choke the good seed," and we shall be unfruitful." Let this consideration, therefore, put us on our guard, amongst other things, against the "deceitfulness of riches," lest, in our eager pursuit after this world's goods, we be drawn aside thereby, and neglect to lay up "treasure in heaven." "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." If, when we read the Word, we resolve, with a sincere and honest determination, by the Lord's help, to practise what we read, and really do so practise it, by constantly denying ourselves, and restraining our evil lusts and passions; by "taking up our cross" daily, and thus "following the Lord in the regeneration;" verily, we shall find our appetite for spiritual food will quicken, and in proportion as we practise the literal sense of Scripture, searching diligently, and praying devoutly for heavenly enlightenment, will the Lord intuitively unfold to us the inner meaning also. Henceforth, then, let us make it more our duty to practise what the Lord commands; every evil that is forbidden, let us, in a spirit of dutiful obedience, resolve at once to check; yea, and not only resolve, but, when the trial comes, and we are tempted to indulge in some besetting sin, then let us show that our resolves are based upon a strength much higher than our own, by a successful resistance thereto. For if we lean upon our own arm alone, trusting solely to our own strength, we shall assuredly fall, since man of himself, and by his own proper power, is altogether unable to cope with the gigantic evils of his heart. This we think it would be superfluous in us to attempt to prove. since every true Christian, at least, will, from daily experience, bear self-convicting testimony to its truth. Our own innumerable short-comings, and yieldings unto carnal propensities, testify, that though "the spirit may be willing, yet the flesh is weak." And no one can have watched the secret workings of his own heart, and noted the infinitely varied manifestations of evil which abound there, without arriving at the same sad conclusion as our Bibles have beforehand told us is the case-that, truly, "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." W. N. REVIEW. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. AN INQUIRY INTO THE FACT AND THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN ATONEMENT. By Charles Williams, of Accrington. SECOND NOTICE. IN the former notice of this work,* the remarks that were offered were confined to its most general features; its main subject, that of Sacrifice, not being touched on. To this topic it is therefore proposed to devote a short space in this second notice. In Mr. Williams's view, Sacrifice is to be considered under three aspects; and he maintains that Sacrifice, under all three of its aspects, centered in Christ. The following is his own statement of the question, with which he opens his book : "There are three forms of Sacrifice; self-sacrifice, sacrifice by man, and sacrifice by God. These exhaust the idea of sacrifice; and when they all meet in one person, we have a perfect sacrifice. Such is the case in the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. By self-sacrifice, (he continues,) I mean the voluntary offering of self to God. Christ was a self-sacrifice, because he was alike the victim and the priest. He offered up himself."-p. 7. Of the second kind of sacrifice, he observes "Man may be sacrificed by man. Jesus was. Reading the narrative of his life, all classes conspired to sacrifice him."-p. 11. Speaking of the third kind, he says "Another form of sacrifice exists,-sacrifice by God. This is also met with in the sacrifice of Christ. John the Baptist, looking on Jesus as he walked, said, Behold the Lamb of God. It must be admitted, that if God had merely provided the sacrifice, such language would have been appropriate. But in the Lord Jesus we have the Lamb which God sacrificed as well as provided."―p. 18. * See p. 369. + Heb. vii. 27. John i. 36. § This appears to be a misprint. The connection implies that the word should have been "unappropriate." From other portions of this work we gather, that by self-sacrifice he means self-surrender; and by sacrifice by man, abandonment. Thus, in regard to the first, he observes "The object of the Lord Jesus Christ in coming into the world, was not selfish. What saith the Scripture? Lo, I come to do thy will, O God! The Lord presented himself to the Father, that he might do the Divine will. Hence his own testimony-I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.† And again-I seek not mine own glory. True to his purpose, and faithful to the trust committed to him, he approached the Father just before his betrayal, and said—I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.§ This is self-sacrifice; for when one neither does his own will, nor seeks his own glory, but does the will and seeks the glory of another, he must have entirely surrendered self to him whose work he finishes."-p. 8. In the extracts selected there is one point which appears to us to present an incongruity, and which, with all kindness, we commend to the reconsideration of Mr. Williams. In the first of them, selfsacrifice is defined to be "the voluntary offering of self to God," and Christ is said to be "a self-sacrifice because he was alike the victim and the priest;" in the last extract self-sacrifice is spoken of as the complete surrender of the will to the Father. This surrender, we would submit, does not necessarily constitute the Lord "a victim," and, as we hope to show, there is no ground which, when carefully examined, favours such a view. The will of God has respect to the redemption and salvation of the human race,-"This is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." It is this to which reference is made where the Lord, in explanation of the fact he declared to the disciples, of his having meat to eat they knew not of, said "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work; "** and where, again, he speaks of having glorified his Father on earth, and finished the work he gave him to do. Mr. Williams, indeed, seems not to have as yet fully freed himself from the trammels of orthodoxy, whence he has not entirely divested his mind of the idea of the Lord having been slain as a victim. A question which has frequently forced itself on our thoughts is, where the Lord is designated a victim in the Scriptures; or indeed, where the Jewish sacrifices are so styled or so represented. The idea, though found in orthodoxy, has not been derived there from the Scriptures, but transferred from + John vi. 38. John viii. 50. *Heb. x. 9. 66 66 Paganism. Mr. Williams appears to think it is found in the 53rd of Isaiah, where it is written-" It pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief; "* which, taken in connection with what Philip stated to the Eunuch,t proves that God afflicted Christ, made his soul an offering for sin." Another proof, in his estimation, of "Jesus Christ [having] suffered at the hand of God," occurs in his prayer-" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me."§ Mr. Williams seems to have overlooked the fact mentioned in Genesis, that it was the serpent which "bruised" the Lord-"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and THOU shalt bruise his heel." || The Lord, also, when taken by the multitude sent by the chief priests, said, This is YOUR hour, and the POWER OF DARKNESS." As regards the passage—“ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Mr. Williams seems to have some misgivings as to the legitimacy of the argument deduced from it, as he argues that "it is not an adequate exposition of these words to refer them to the fact that God did not interfere to prevent the arrest, and stay the execution of Jesus," since such non-interposition (he contends) when His servants suffer for His sake is not spoken of in the Bible as abandonment by God."** How Mr. Williams has fallen into this idea, we are somewhat at a loss to explain, the sense of abandonment having found so frequent expression in the Psalms. In that, for instance, which begins with the very words used by our Lord on the cross, the whole of which has a most evident bearing on His passion, we meet with the expression—“ Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help; (verse 11.) and at verse 19 a similar appeal occurs" Be not thou far from me, O Jehovah; O my strength, haste thee to help me."‡‡ Then, with regard to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, but for the extent to which the thoughts of the religious world have been too generally warped by orthodoxy, no such deductions would have ever been drawn from it; a fact we have been the more strongly impressed with from noticing that Mr. Williams has, by the change of the first person plural into the third person singular, ascribed that to God which the prophet attributes to us. The words of the latter are (ver. 4.)—" WE did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;" those of the former-"HE did esteem him," &c. In looking at this chapter, it appears not only to explain the nature of the Lord's temptations and passions, but also to predict the misconceptions that would * Verse 10. + Acts viii. 26, &c. + Page 22. § Matt. xxvii. 46. ++ See Psalm xxii. lxxi. 12. 3 G prevail in the church. Take as an example the third verse-" He was despised and rejected of MEN [not of God]; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and WE esteemed him not. Surely he hath BORNE OUR GRIEFS [not borne affliction at the hand of God] and CARRIED OUR SORROWS; YET WE did esteem him STRICKEN, SMITTEN OF GOD and AFFLICTED." Here we have a distinct prediction of the estimate the church would form of the subject, which has been, and still is, verified by the event. Our limits confine us to the merest glance, and forbid us to do more than hint, where it would have been more satisfactory to enter into a full explanation. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that the subsequent verses, which speak of our iniquities being laid on, or, as in the margin, caused to meet in him, refer to the assumption of the hereditary tendencies from the mother, which in the Lord's humanity formed the plane of temptation, whereby he admitted the assaults from hell-the spiritual stripes through which we are healed; since by His conflicts with the infernal powers He subdued them, and delivered man from the thraldom in which they held him, and by the same acts glorifying His humanity, he communicates health and salvation to the soul. The "bruising" is referred to Jehovah, though, as we have seen, it proceeded from the serpent or hell; because all that occurs is either by the divine appointment or the divine permission, and what happens by permission is equally under the divine Providence as that which occurs by appointment. This fact is sometimes presented in its more general form, as though evil and suffering, which only exist by permission, proceeded from Him. At the time we are fully sensible of the imperfect nature of the sketch we have presented, we are compelled to pass on, and to supply a word or two on Sacrifice. It has already been observed that there is no ground in Scripture for designating a sacrifice a victim; a fallacy which, in our opinion, has vitiated the leading idea of sacrifice generally current in the church. The verb in both Testaments rendered sacrifice means to kill for food; and the sacrifices themselves are called repeatedly "The bread of God." One of the most striking passages of the Old Testament in which the Lord is spoken of as a sacrifice refers to him under this aspect,--" Jehovah hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid the guests." One of the most pointed references to the subject in the New Testament is where the Apostle Paul speaks of this sacrifice Zeph. i. 7. * See also Matt. viii. 17. + See Leviticus xxi. 6, &c. |