Discourses - 1860 Author:Edward Norris Kirk Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE ATONEMENT PERFECTLY MADE BY CURIST'S DEATH. Bb ant offrring tit liatfi prrfrtttb fnrtbrr tdrm tliat art aanrtiffeb."—Heb. 10: 14. A Treatise... more » was written at the beginning of the twelfth century by the renowned Anselm, on the question, " Wherefore has God become Man ? " He opens it with this remark: " Whatever man can say or know on this subject, there will yet remain profounder reasons for it than those he may have discovered." So can we say of the Atonement, "we know in part." The divines of New England have accomplished a great work by discovering in it a principle of moral government, and showing how God could consistently make a sacrifice to his own justice. But it is hurtful to leave the subject there, as if it were fully comprehended by any act of the speculative understanding. The priesthood of Christ is. not yet fully understood on earth; nor is the power of his sacrifice at this day completely felt, even by believers. May light shine upon our minds, and beams of vital heat from the cross fall upon our hearts, while we are gazing upon it here ! I propose to inquire what the Atonement is, and what are its effects; and from this to show that it was made by one offering. I. The Nature Of The Atoxemext. — It is here described as an offering, and a single offering. 1. The Atonement is an offering up of the body and soul of Jesus as an expiation. — Expiatory offerings belong to all the religions that preceded Christianity. But in only one of them have we evidence of its being divinely appointed. We can no more doubt the institution of expiatory sacrifices, by God's direction, at Mt. Sinai, than we can doubt the most authentic facts in history. But there are frequent intimations, during the continuance of that system, that it was not to endure f...« less