Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/64

58 statement of it in Buck's Theological Dictionary, said to have been drawn from distinguished Trinitarian writers on this subject, may be taken as embodying the generally received view. "The Atonement," say these writers, "is the satisfying divine justice by Jesus Christ giving Himself a ransom for us, undergoing the penalty due to our sins, and thereby releasing us from that punishment which God might justly inflict upon us. All mankind having broken the law, God in his infinite wisdom did not think fit to pardon sinful man without some compensation for his broken law. For if the great Ruler of the world had pardoned the sins of men without any satisfaction, then his laws might have seemed not worth the vindicating.

"Because God intended to make a full display of the terrors of his justice, and his divine resentment for the violation of his law, therefore He appointed his own Son to satisfy for the breach of it by becoming a proper sacrifice of expiation or atonement. The Divine Being having received such ample satisfaction for sin, by the suffering of his own Son, can honorably forgive his creature man who was a transgressor."

And if any one desires to know what this doctrine is, as held and taught at the present day, let him turn to the "Confession of Faith" of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, published in 1838. He will there find these words:

"Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus