guishing life independently of the will of his Creator; though, at the same time, he has no other control over matter, than that of being able to change its form. On the contrary, in consequence of the immortality of the soul, the suicide has only power to separate spirit from matter, and is equally as incapable of destroying the one, as of annihilating the other. 622 the Atonement, in your last Magazine, col. 448, allow me, Sir, a few strictures thereon. The term which we translate Atonement, in the Hebrew language is, Copher; as a verb it literally signifies to cover, and as a noun, a covering: wherever the word is used, it always implies something in discord or disunion. In relation to the offended party, it signifies to pacify, to render him propitious. (See Gen. xxxii. 20.; Ezek. xvi. 63.) When applied to sin, it signifies to cover or expiate, to make Levit. xvi. 30.) When the term respects the sinner himself, it implies his being covered or protected from punishment, and is rendered a ransom or atonement for him. (See Exodus xxi. 30.;-xxx. 12, 15.) This seems to be the plain unforced meaning of the word Copher. The same argument which overthrows the morality of Deism, has a similar effect when applied to its faith; for when reason is left to her own unassisted light, she obscures the doc-satisfaction for it. (See Psa. xxxii. 1.; trine of the soul's immortality with the mists of error, and disguises it with the extravagancies of falsehood. Is this then, I would ask, a religion, deserving, by its innate excellence, to supersede Christianity? Is a system which commences in doubt, and terminates in uncertainty, to erect itself on the ruins of truth, and the wreck of virtue? God forbid. The attempts to subvert an institution so fraught with good as Christianity, will only reveal its beauties more completely, by contrasting them with the deformities of a religion, which has human reason only for its origin and guide. M. RANDOLPH. On the Atonement. MR. EDITOR. SIR,-You will agree with me, that the doctrine of the Atonement stands at the foundation of the Christian scheme; and any error here, is like poison at the fountain, it vitiates all the streams. Being, Sir, of vital importance, it becomes imperative that our views be correct and scriptural; not partial, and garbled, cut, and shaped, in relation to a system of divinity, originated as the old systems of philosophy were. It is evident, that much of the divinity of the present day is of this cast; and is fairly referible to some of those corrupt moral impulses of our nature, that impress a general character, and prompt to a selection and arbitrary arrangement of truths of a particular feature. To unfold these latent springs of human nature, that exert their influence in the moral department of the character, is not my intention; but as these reflections were suggested by Mr. Cooke's article on When we look into the Greek version of the Old Testament by the Seventy, we find it translated by a term which imports propitiation. This view of the subject would certainly be solidly founded, if the Apostles, who wrote in Greek, were found to make use of the same term, in reference to the death of Christ. Now, what is the fact on this subject? it is, that the Apostles do constantly make use of the same term when speaking of the death of Christ, as the Seventy do in reference to the legal sacrifices. plain inference that I would draw from these statements is, that the Atonement has the same bearing towards every character; independently of his attainments in sanctification, I regard it, as the grand moral expedient by which God renovates the fallen nature of man; by which their full sanctification is accomplished. The When our attention is arrested by that moral phenomenon, man, it is but a very scanty view that we take, if we suffer the mind to be detained upon his state, and contemplate the remedy only in reference to that state; our relation to the Deity is of paramount importance, it being a relation of guilt and condemnation. The application of the Atonement is, in the first place, to his relation, in which it effects a complete change; it is this that admits of the substitution of Christ as a propitiation for sin. the sacrifice of Christ was so complete in its own nature, as to rende If God propitious; if it did expiate guilt; if it does cover the guilty sinner's head; if he is protected thereby from the penalty of everlasting misery,-I contend that the Atonement is complete, irrespective of the state of the believer: to his demoralized state it stands in the relation of a cause, the efficiency of which is proved, by its having removed the curse off his guilty head; and will ultimately, in the hand of the divine Spirit, effect a consummate change also in his moral condition. But shall we attribute imperfection to the Atonement, when only the full effects of it, in application to the sinner, are not developed? or shall we mistake its definite nature, by a common figure of speech, which names the effects for the cause, and reason upon the subject under that erroneous notion? To what must it conduct us but false conclusions? This is specifically my opinion of Mr. Cooke's performance: in canvassing what he has advanced, he will allow his brother, freedom to justify his own views, though he may, by so doing, denominate his as error, 624 body are brought into full harmony with the divine nature; and not that harmony itself. I believe it is generally admitted, that Christians, whatever be their attainments, may with scriptural propriety use the Lord's Prayer in their addresses to God: in that petition we crave forgiveness of trespasses; the fully sanctified make use of this prayer,-to what then does their faith revert, as the foundation of their expectation of mercy; to what can it look with hope, but to Christ, the hope set before us in the gospel? As John writes in his 1st Epistle, i. 8. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."-Chap. ii. 1. "My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation (or atonement) for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole Mr.Cooke considers the Christian's having attained to full sanctification-world.” This, I think, is the scriptural brought to a complete conformity to the image of Christ-as imbodying the import of the term Atonement: but if the above explication be correct, it must be the effect of that doctrine believed; it is the belief of the truth of Christ's death as a sacrifice for sin, and his resurrection as a proof of the sufficiency thereof, that produces a renovation in the man: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, -by whose stripes ye were healed." The scriptures uniformly represent the believer as identified with Christ: crucified with him; risen with him; complete in him: hence, he is virtually, at one, in harmony, with God, as much so as Christ is. This appears to be the relation in which God views the sinner in Christ. It is the work of Christ, his Atonement, that has established this relation, the belief of which becomes the grand moral means of regeneration. The Atonement then, in its application to the fully sanctified believer, must ever imply that sacrifice, by virtue of which, through faith, his soul and application of the Atonement; whoever looks for forgiveness, or desires to be at one with God, must look for it through faith in the advocacy of Christ, who is the righteous advocate, because he is the propitiation or atonement. The Apostle writes these truths, that they sin not; thus we see the intention of the revelation of God; it is to reunite to him, from whom sin has separated us; and this grand truth of the propitiation, or covering of the guilty by expiation for sin, is, in the hand of the Divine Spirit, the moral remedy which cures the diseased soul. Mr. Cooke's error appears to be an exclusive application of a term to effects, which properly designates the cause, and is only idiomatically applied in the sense he uses it. Instances of similar application are very common; as, when we say, what is your faith? by which we mean, what are the doctrines you believe? not, what is faith as an operation of the mind, and in popular language. We say, place an article in the sun, when all that is meant is, place it in its rays. Instead, therefore, of saying with Mr. 625 On the Intuitive Knowledge of Adam. Cooke," that the idea attaching to this term (atonement) implies, that a propitiatory offering has been made, whereby this reconciliation is effected," (that is, atonement effected ;) I would say, that the idea attaching to this term is, as a consequent, that the believer therein shall see Christ as he is, and be made like him when he shall appear. I am, Sir, your's, &c. Sunderland, May 18, 1821. AMICUS. On the Intuitive Knowledge of Adam. 626 hyena? or the ferocity of the bull-dog, or blood-hound? unless we admit that Adam possessed prescience also. If, therefore, the Hebrew names of the brute creation be characteristic of their present propensities, it is a selfevident proposition that the Hebrew was not the primitive, but is a derived language; and that those names were not given them in Paradise, but at a subsequent period. That the Hebrew therefore was the vernacular language of Paradise, or that the names Adam gave the different animals, had any relation to their respective qualities, seem to be the mere waking dreams of pseudo-phiSIR, -It seems to be an idea generally losophers, drawing conclusions withprevalent, that Adam possessed in- out premises, as we have no scripture tuitive knowledge, as a constituent authority whatever on which to ground part of his character, essential to his such hypothesis. As a corroborative nature; and that he exercised it in evidence, that neither Adam nor Eve giving names to the different animals possessed intuitive discernment in which God caused to appear before Paradise; Eve, when tempted by the him for that purpose. And it is far-serpent, knew not that he was a diather believed, that those names were expressive of their respective qualities. Consequently, he must have had the faculty of infallibly discerning spirits also. But I would ask the contenders for these opinions, how do they know that Adam ever possessed intuitive knowledge, and this spiritual discernment? Should they reply, that Hebrew was the vernacular language of Paradise, and that the name each animal bears is, in that language, expressive of its peculiar qualities, and consequently, that Adam must have intuitively discerned those innate qualities, to enable him to give each an appropriate name characteristic of its nature, as he had not yet seen that nature in operation; I would first observe, that we have no data whereby to fix on the Hebrew as the primæval language; and it seems probable, that whatever it might have been, it was lost at the general confusion of tongues, or, at least, subdivided into various dialects, in which the original was absorbed. As Adam named the animals before the Fall, those names could have no possible relation to their subsequent depraved nature. When all was harmony, innocence, and love, how could Adam designate the future blood-thirsty nature of the tiger? how characterize the ravening wolf? the subtle fox? the voracious crocodile? the restless rapacity of the bolical agent, beguiling her to de- JOHN COOKE. 627 Memoirs of Leonardo Aretino. MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND TIMES (Continued from col. 500.) 628 whole party, as if they had been just liberated from long confinement, indulged so profusely in joy, that it might justly have been said that they had revived their youthful days. The country house in question, is situated nearly half way between Lucca and Pisa, on the right bank of the river Serchio, in a most delightful spot, excellently calculated for the enjoyment of rural amusements. For the ground, gently swelling into a hill, and commanding a view of the plain below, is connected with mountains which abound in covers for game. Whether then you are fond of hawking, hunting, coursing, or fishing, or in whatever way you wish to sport, the variety of surface, with the addition of the river, affords you plenty of diversion. In the mean time, the hopes entertained by pious Christians, of the termination of the schism grew daily more faint. Instead of heartily concurring in such measures as were likely to promote peace and union, each of the rival pontiffs studiously adopted every artifice, to throw upon his competitor the odium of the continuance of dissension. In a letter addressed from Siena to Roberto Ruffo, a man of considerable learning, Leonardo, like an affectionate servant, endeavoured to exonerate his master from the charge of evasion and prevarication. But his arguments are.feeble; and at the close of his epistle, he finds it necessary, in vindicating the good dispositions of Gregory, to derogate from the soundness of his understanding. "Our pontiff," says he, "is in his nature upright and sincere-but the good and candid are but too liable to be deceived by dis-with poplars, flowed gently between honest men; and some persons, who look up to him for promotion, have, by the exercise of flattery, crept into his confidence. These inspire him with groundless fears, and sometimes, notwithstanding his honourable intentions, divert him from the path of rectitude. So indignant are the public at large on this occasion, that I dread the occurrence of some disturb When the mind is harassed by care, even trifles, which beguile the sense of uneasiness, acquire importance. In the midst of his anxiety, Leonardo was so highly delighted by a day spent in rural amusements, that he could not forbear from expressing his satisfaction in the following lively terms, in a letter addressed to his friend Ruffo. "The pleasures of yesterday banishes the recollection of past, and the dread of future calamities, which are excited by the distractions of the times. Accompanied by two of my most intimate friends, and a considerable number of acquaintances, all bent upon pleasure, I visited the country house of Alamanno, archbishop of Pisa. The archbishop himself was our conductor; and the Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. ii. ep. 17. “On our arrival, however, we neither wished to hunt the boar, nor to shoot. the stag, nor to pursue the hare, nor yet to hawk. We were attracted by the incredible pleasantness of the river, whose crystal waters, overhung its verdant banks. Here we threw off After 629 Memoirs of Leonardo Aretino. To enter into particulars would be tedious. Your imagination will suggest what passed among familiar friends, unanimous in their pursuit of mirth. This day was assuredly a happy one; and it is especially to be deemed so, since, in such a state of confusion is the pontifical court, that every employment is welcome which can in any way enliven the gloominess of our thoughts.-Lucca, June 10."* 630 A the prescribed day to Savona, and was every hour triumphantly upbraiding his Holiness for his absence. bitter circumstance this, and a disgrace to the Italians both of the present and of future times! For what could have happened to us more shameful or more ignominious, than that the Pontiff should refuse to repair to the spot which he had himself selected for the effecting of that union of Christendom, for which all men are looking with such earnest expectation? Methinks, some one will here say, Dare you write such things-you, The forebodings which Leonardo seems to have entertained of the state of turbulence in which the court of the Pontiff was likely to be involved, were speedily verified. In the follow-who are in the service of his Holiness? ing letter to Pedrillo, a Neapolitan, who in all probability was one of his colleagues in the papal secretaryship, and who had withdrawn from the disgusting scenes of ecclesiastical intrigue, he thus expressed his feelings of honest indignation : Yes, truly! For why should I flatter him, and disguise my sentiments as to the nature of his conduct? I am a Christian, and an Italian, and I am irritated at the thought that Christians should be deprived of the blessing of unity and peace, and that my countrymen should be impeached as faithless covenant-breakers. Do I not then love the Pontiff? Yes! much more than they who by lying and flattering have persuaded him to adopt "Our conjectures have been proved by the event, to be but too well founded. The storm, which has of late been gathering by degrees, has at length burst with sudden fury. The cardinals, who have for some time past re-wrong measures. I do, indeed, study garded the conduct of the Pontiff with sentiments of indignation and resentment, have left him and departed. Nothing can be imagined more tempestuous or turbulent than the day of their departure. Greatly do I commend the wisdom and foresight which you evinced in quitting this scene of strife, and retiring to Naples; and I blame myself for not following the dictates of my better judgment, and imitating your example. "I will give you a history of this affair. I presume, that you are desirous of knowing the truth; and many falsehoods are circulated by those who are ignorant of the facts of the case. I will recur, then, to the period of your departure, in order that you may have a more perfect idea of the causes and the progress of the late events. The Pontiff, after he had quitted Rome, had stopped for some months at Siena. In the mean time the period had arrived, at which he had engaged to repair to Savona. But this period, to the great displeasure of all good men, and in neglect and contempt of his promise, he suffered to pass by. The Antipope, however, according to his agreement, came on Leon. Aret. Epist. lib. ii. ep. 20. to promote the true glory of the Pontiff, which consists in a spirit of unity, and in bestowing upon Christendom that peace which he had promised-a line of conduct than which nothing can be more conducive to immortal glory. But his evil counsellors have advised him to retain his see by any means, however disgusting to the Christian community at large. They who deemed this a glorious act are mad, especially since the consequences of such a step were easy to be foreseen. But I return to the course of my narrative. "The Pontiff not having repaired to Savona, and news having arrived that the Antipope, who had come thither on the day appointed, was accusing us for absenting ourselves; in consequence of the general ferment which took place in men's minds, another proposal was made, namely, that the Antipope should go to Porto Venere, and his Holiness to Lucca. We accordingly left Siena in the month of January, in the midst of a heavy shower of snow, and repaired to Lucca, where, notwithstanding the constant interchange of messengers, the affair seemed to make no pro gress. (To be continued.) |