In the course of the letters which I am writing to you, my design is, to institute a comparison between the two theories-A short statement of each will facilitate the accomplishment of this design.

The friends of the definite plan, believe, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in execution of his engagements with his eternal Father in the covenant of redemption, came into the world in the fulness of time; that having assumed our nature into a personal union with his divine nature, he appeared in the world as the Saviour of sinful men. They believe that the immaculate Redeemer was made under the law, and consequently subject to its penal demands, as well as to its preceptive requisitions; that he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and that the whole of his sufferings, from the beginning to the close of his spotless life, constituted that all-efficient sacrifice which he offered for sin. They believe that Jesus Christ, as the substitute of his people, was charged with their sins, and bore the punishment of them, and thus made a full and complete satisfaction to Divine justice for all who shall ever believe on him; and that this atonement will eventually be applied to all for whom, in the intention of the Divine Redeemer, it was made: or, in other words, to all to whom the wise and holy God as, in his adorable sovereignty, been pleased to decree its plication.

They believe, moreover, that making an atonement or satisfaction for the sins of all we were given to him by the Father to be redeemed, the Lord esus Christ did offer a sacrifice or make an atonement, sufficie, in its intrinsic value, to expiate the sins of the whole wor that this infinite worth necessarily arose from the nature of his work, and the infinite dignity of his Diand that, if it had been the pleasure of God to apply it to very individual. the whole human race would have been save- by its immeasurable worth.

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On the ground of the infinite value of the atonement, they furjaer believe that the offer of salvation can be consistently and sincerely made to all who hear the gospel: accompanied with the gracious and divine assurance, that whosoever believeth shall be saved; and enforced by the solemn and alarming denunciationthat he who believes not, but willfully rejects the overtures of mercy, will increase his guilt and aggravate his damnation.

Such are the views of the Old School; views that were entertained by the illustrious leaders in the glorious Reformation; views embodied in the creeds of almost all the Protestant churches, that flourished immediately after that grand epoch in the history of the Christian church.

The veiws of the friends of the indefinite plan are different.They do not believe that Jesus Christ, in the great transaction of dying for the redemption of the world, was charged with the sins of his people, or bore the punishment due to them, or endured the penalty of the law. They assert, that he suffered for sin in general; that by his sufferings a display was made of the evil of sin, and an exhibition of Divine justice; that his sufferings were designed to be a substitute for our sufferings, and in this way were vicarious, but not as being the sufferings of one who took the sinner's place. In this, say they, consisted the atonement: and thus the obstacle to the salvation of our sinful race being removed, God can now exercise his sovereign mercy, and apply the benefits of the atonement to whom he pleases; and as it was not made for one man moe than for another, the offers of salvation can be freely made to all mankind without distinction.

They deny that the Redeemer made a plenary satisfaction for the sins of believers; because such a satisfaction would in their view be incompatible with the grace that reigns in the salvation of sinners. Yet some admit a satisfaction to what they choose to denominate public juice; but at the same time they contend, this was no satisfaction Jehovah's distributive justice, or to the penal demands of his holy violated law-Believers are saved, in opposition both to the dema ds of the law and to the claims of justice. A provision, however, ty think has been made by the sufferings of Christ, in consequence which it becomes consistent with the stability and honour of Jenah's moral government over rational creatures, to save all who bieve in Christ; but still they assert, that the ransomed of the Lord will never be free from guilt, and that Paul and his compeers are no when on earth, and will for ever deserve the punishment of hell. as guilty as The demands of the law, and the claims of distributive justice too, they acknowledge will forever remain unsatisfied; because they were not cancelled by the Saviour's death, and never can be satisfied by the redeemed themselves.

This is the new scheme; a scheme which its advocates recommend as being far preferable to the old one; which has for so many years obtained the abprobation of the Presbyterian church. They prefer it on three accounts. It gives, they imagine, greater extent to the atonement; is more compatible with a free and general preaching of the gospel, and with an unfettered and unreserved offer of salvation to all sinners; and corresponds best with the freeness and sovereignty of Divine grace, displayed in the recovery of fallen man.

While the advocates of the two schemes thus differ in their views of the atonement, they are agreed in the belief of the two following points. First, they receive the doctrine that teaches us that Jehovah, in his adorable sovereignty, has, from all eternity, elected to everlasting life some, and not all, of the human family: secondly, they believe that the atonement never was, and never will be, applied to any individual of our race, in any other than by the power of Almighty grace. "Ye will not," said our Redeemer, come unto me that ye might have life."And again, "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him."

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These two points, you know, are. inseparably interwoven with the great subject under discussion; and, therefore, ought, as we go along, to be distinctly recollected, and their bearings in it ascertained. Let us now examine the pretensions of the New School, and see if their scheme has, as they apprehend, in the particulars stated above, any superiority over that of the Old School.

I. It is affirmed that the indefinite is of far greater extent than the definite atonement.

Christ, says its advocates, died as much for one man as for another. He made atonement for sin in general; and thus opened the door of mercy for all mankind-opened the way in which every believer, of whatever denomination, or sect, or nation, may be saved.

But in what respect has the indefinite greater extent than the definite atonement?

1. Not in regard to the MERIT of Christ's death. Let our opponents magnify it as they please, they cannot go beyound us in their views. We are ready to join with them in celebrating its praises in the loftiest strains. We believe the merit of Immanuel's death to be, like his divine dignity, really infinite; sufficient, if it had been Jehovah's pleasure to apply it to all, to save every son and daughter of our apostate race; and unnumbered millions more of such accountable creatures, if such had existed.

2. Not in regard to its APPLICATION. To whom, and to how many human beings, the atonement will, in the course of revolving ages, be applied, it is imppossible to tell. The final day will show multitudes which no man can number; thousands and thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand-all washed in the blood of the Lamb, cleansed from every sin, and made pure as the light. Our brethren will accord with us in saying, that the atonement will save every soul to whom it shall be applied, not excepting the vilest of human beings. Beyond this they dare not

go; they will not say that a single individual of Adam's race can be admitted into heaven, in any other way than through the sprinkling of the peace speaking blood of our adored Lord and Redeemer.

3. Not in regard to the OFFER of salvation. To whom can the advocates of an indefinite atonement, in preaching the gospel, tender its blessings, that the advocates of a definite atonement cannot? You, Sir, well know, that we are taught by our Divine Master to offer his great salvation to every one, to whom, in the course of his providence, we are called to minister in holy things. Whenever we stand up in his name to speak, we are authorized to announce the joyful truth, that salvation is come unto them. We can say to every one of our hearers, young and old, rich and poor, bond and free, to the profligate as well as to the moral part of our auditory, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "And the Spirit and the Bride say, come; and and let him that heareth say, come; and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." And let it be distinctly observed, that all our offers of salvation are grounded on the atonement, and that we have none to make but through the medium of Christ's death.

4. Not in regard to the DIVINE PURPOSE. Believing in the infinite intelligence of Jehovah, and in the infinite wisdom of the Redeemer, our brethren cannot but admit, that both the Father and the Son knew, from all eternity, to whom the atonement would be applied in time; and believing also in the doctrine of a personal election to everlasting life, they must concede that Jehovah had decreed the precise number of our race, to whom he would apply its sovereign virtue. Here then we are perfectly agreed. They believe, as well as we, that the Father gave to his Son, in the covenant of redemption, a definite number to be saved; and consequently that they only will certainly and eventually be saved. One of the New School speaks of "the certainty of the salvation of those for whom, electively, Christ died;" "and in this sense," he believes, Christ "died for the elect alone." "I grant freely," says another disciple of the same school, that only a part of mankind were given to the Son in the covenant of redemption, and that the salvation of these was one important object he had in view in laying down his life:" and in another place he observes, "I feel no difficulty in admitting, that there is a sense in which Christ laid down his life for the sheep, in which he did not for others. As far as his object in faying down his life to secure the salvation of those for whom he

died, he laid down his life for the sheep ONLY; for he never N TENDED to secure the salvation of any others."

It is conceded then, that the benefits of the atonement will be applied only to those to whom an infinitely wise God decreed to apply them; and that the Redeemer died to save only the elect. Now, this is precisely the reason why we affirm the atonement to be definite: the grand object of it, so far as it respects man, is the salvation of that portion of our lost race which Jehovah was pleased, in the exercise of boundless and unmerited mercy, to determine to deliver from the deplorable ruin into which all had fallen. "Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."-Ephes. v. 25-27. "All that the Father hath given me, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him that hath sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day,"-John vi. 37-40. "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep. and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep."John x. 14, 15. "I pray for them: I pray NOT for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.”John xvii. 9.

It appears then that, in regard to the MERIT of Christ's death, -in regard to its application,-in regard to the offer of salvation, --and in regard to the Divine purpose, the indefinite is not at all more extensive than the definite atonement.

In what respect, then, we demand, is the former more extensive than the latter? Will the advocates of the new theory affirm. that the atonement was made for all men? But they have already admitted, that Christ died intentionally to save the elect only; and that God did not by the atonement design to save any other men. How then was the atonement made for all mankind? They cannot pretend to say, that the gospel has been preached universally to our fallen race; they cannot deny that millions have died without ever hearing of the name of Christ, or having the offers of salvation made to them. And is it credible that the atonement was made for all men, and yet the larger portion of