+ , gur man tcst New Series, Vol. IV, No gmtritalt Httslgittian. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1867. IMPUTATION, VEMR*WILL, AND GENERAL ATONEMENT. . . " love We Confession-of Faith of , the Presbyterian Church, aud always loved it.*** I do not concur in all the pecularities of the Old Calvinism, nor aid i eyer." —Gardiner Spring, Fide j. Times. I. 271;' "Old Calvinists themselves are not agreed upon,the question whether mediate or immediate imputation is the doctrine of the Bible, or of the Churches of the Reformation."--/bid. 8. . " The Church can accept no human cr,eed as a. final and permanent document. She twilit always vindicate her right to revise, to purge, to add.. ophn, to the teachings of, the Divine . Spirit, and believe in the progressive advancement of the ChttrOh, into 'a more perfect knowledge of the truth. las the%Word of God only which abidetkforever. Otherwise •we are in bon dage to our Confession, and renounce thettierty wfiere with Christ hath made us free.--L,firodeiator's Address, Scottish Free Church Assembly, 1866.1 • Upon the doctrine of imputation, or, more definitely, the connection between ;the moral condition of the individual, sinner.and the . fall of our first parents, it may•be , questioned if the Confession itself is consistent.. The two Catechisms declare broadly - that mankind sinned in, and fell with, Adam--(L. C., Q. 22; S. C., Q. 16.) They . , say nothing whateVer of the "imputation" of Adam's sin to his posterity, netvo , thstandittg the' later-made index refers us - to those parts of the Cate ehisms under the word ''imputation.. ]oth Catechisms, at least at this Voint,'nepesktri ly imply the doCtrine, afterwards'` fully wrought out by the great, Jonathan Ed wards, of the personal identlty, of , Ad'ani and his posterity. The Confession, hoWever, Beet VI., gems to take a different atiea 'fair more common sense view; It says of our first parents:— " They being the root of allmapkincl, the guilt of this sin was imputed," &c: Adam and Eve may well be called the root, which draws a sound.distinctien between them and their posterity. The ,realistic-",withors the Catechismv , woulti hardly ha've; fallen, into such language. Yet when we come to the sixth paragraph of this section, in which " Original Sin" is declared to be a transgres sion of the law of God as truly as actual sin; we confess ourselves at a stand again. We cannot believe that the Westminster divines meant' to teach that native depravity—that a quality of the soul, is a transgression. Hence they must have meant by the phrase " original sin," Adam's first sin, viewed either as his own act, or, in the sense of the Catechisms and of the philosophy of Jona than Edwards, as the act of the , entire hu man family in him. In this section of the Confession, therefore, there seems to be a mingling of the two ideas of mediate and immediate imputation, while the Catechisms are clearly upon the ground of the immedi ate; in fact, holding up the idea of identity so strongly that the word imputation is not employed by them at till in reference to Adam's sin. Moreover, the sixth section of the Confession does not speak of the impu tation of Adam's sin at all. It says (para graph 3) the guilt of Adam's sin -was imputed. So, also, both. Catechisms, when the question is asked as to the sinfulness of the fallen state, reply first of all that it consists, not in the sin, but "in'the guilt of Adam's first sin ;" they also seeming thus to open the door to the idea of mediate imputation. Now there certainly is a difference between imputed guilt and itnputed sin, and if we may understand the word "guilt" in the. sense of liability to suffering for the sin of oneself or another, then the guilt of Adam's sin would mean liability to suffering in con sequence of the sin of Adam. If such was the intent of the Westmin ster divined in the use of this language, then, they certainly did not mean to shut up those who subscribed to the Standards to the real istic idea of the identity of the race with Adam; they did not mean to insist on hold ing the race responsible as criminal for their first parents' sin. Butlet us - hear one who will not bo suspected of a disposition, to in terpret the Bible or the Confession in a New School sonse, = we refer to Dr. Hodge, of Princeton Seminary. In the new edition of his Commentary--" revised and in. great measure re-writtqn," as we are told on the title page, and published less than three years ago, he says, page on imputation: "This doctrine does not 'include the idea of a mysterious identity of Adam and his race; nor that of a transfer of the amoral turpitude of his sin to his descendants. It does not teach that his offence was personally or pro perly the sin•of all men, or that his aCt.was, John kTVeir 18jui y 67 in any mysterious sense, the act : of .his pos terity. . . . The sin of Adam,• therefore, is no ground ,to.!us of remorse., trine merely teaches that, in virtue of the , union, representative and :natural, between Adam and his posterity, his_sin is the ground' of their condemnation, that, is, of their sub jection to penal evils." ✓ Any idea of guilt implied in the word condemnation the Pro fessor instantly explains as suhjestieu to, penal , He,quotes with, approval, the saying of Orep:.", - ko,,be Ulience eulfix reus AIKi t .ES MAN: .11., sirs*.", The emphasis is his own. 41,sp ‘! To: imp Ute sin -is to regard and; tr j e#, sinner." : (Page 84.) All idea—as it Iteems" . to us--of mpral tUrpitude is excluded in,his,conception of'the, relation in which we stand,to Adam's first sin. Di. Hodge ,haying, accepted the Confession of Yaith,on the Old ;School platforin, : must see ro,orn..for his view in that instrarnent, or ..he must believe that its teachings en-this point are, not amen ." the- essential and . necessary articles." of the, system. It isnot. f general4- ~ suppo,s,ed that Dr. Tl.odge's views ; are we, do not think they .are, al th.pugh,on this point we believe he has been unconsciously liberalized by the air of Ame rican 4!reeb,yterianisni from which he , conid not altogether isolate himself'. is net with his view nor with . the true vie*, ae cording, • to Dr.Hodge,,that Prof. Stuart, or Mr. Barnes are,in controversy, but with the false view, based on the doctrine of tile iden tity of thehurnan family with Adam, or on the doctrine of the transfer of moral charac , ter. We now subjoin Mr. Barnes' statement of this doctrine, made in his Defence: " To im ,pute sin i to a,man which he never Committed, is ene.thincr; to impute the guilt of sin, that is,, an eTposedness to judicial suffering, is another thing. . . . If what is meant, then, by the phrase !_the guilt of this sin is im puted;' or reckoned to his posterity be'that ,they arfii..lkaye, as they , c9me into the world to evils which are designed to eXpress God'i abhorrence, of sin; that they are born with, a depraved nature; that they will sin as soon •as they, begin to act as moral agents, whenever that may be and in whatever world• they:may be•placed, that without re newal they cannot be saved, and that all this is designed to exhibit God's abhorrence of sin, then I have not denied it, but have taught it. That all the sufferings to which the posterity of Adam are subjected in ~ con sequence of sin, are designed as evils of a ju dicial nature, intended td set forth his ab horrence of the crime, I have no doubt." Mr. Barnes denies that the sin of Adam, that is, his transgression and criminality, has been imputed to his posterity. So we think, in the quotations we have given, most plainly does, Dr. Hodge. Mr. Barnes be lieves in our liability to judicial suffering on account of Adam's sin; Dr. Hodge believes in a subjection to penal evils; both differ, in our opinion, from the plain meaning of the Catechisms which teach, in the true spirit of realism, that we sinned in Adam, If this be •latitudinarianism, those who think so are welcome to make the most of it. We confess, we are ashamed of these triv ialities. We are ashamed for Calvinism— misrepresented by hair-splitting logicians as a dry scholastic system, as a stiff suit of me dieval armor, fitting close, over every facul ty of mind and heart. Bat We must needs add a few sentences to set the views com monly called "New School," in such a light as to show, that a genuine Calvinism is con sistent with a reasonable liberty of opinion; just. as a mountain may have a heart of unchanging granite and a surface of endless variety and beauty. One of the standing objections which men instinctively make to Calvinism, is the sweeping denial of human freedom, which is regarded as an essential part of the sys tem by many of its friends and enemies alike. And yet the Confession itself has a section (IX) entitled "Of, Free Will." And the language of the opening paragraph shows that the title is no mere catch-word. "God bath endued" gravely declare the Westminster divines, "the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature de termined, to good or evil." 'After such a broad opening statement, it would seem that every subsequent word or phrase, on the subject, shoUld be interpreted' accordingly. And there isnothing which cannot be .so • interpreted as to leave room for this unim- PHILADELPHIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1867. peachable human liberty—this very corner stone of, the whole sentimept of- law And justice, human and diviae f: ,:tk .human breast; this inmost jewel of,.man'l moral na ture; , ; this very possibility - .of „conscience. To array Calvinism a:gainst this„ is.tp e3E poss it to dire: and unmeritpd, suspicion ; as hostile to good morals, as , an,,oecidental fa talism; the counterpart 04 . Islamism in the East. The, Confession of Faith is party to this, unjust prejudice: - It indeed proeeecls to teach that, since the fall, 'Y man - hath-wh,olly lost,,all ability . . of will to anyspritual-geod, being altogether, averse from that , which is good." .And in this great: mystery of the human, will, we do and must, freely ,admit it as the teaching of Scripture and reason that man, in some , torribly true pc.1:180, is unable to - do right, and that, withoAt, divine assis tance he cannot, be saved. , - .7Zet in 110 such sense as to overturn the.olear teaching .of the, first, paragraph of the sectien. This distinction liberal Presbyterians indicate,by the •use Of the terms, ".natural ability",and "moral - inability." They, hold, that Section First.teaches natural - that : the following paragraphs teach moral inability, the two , attributes being, consistent with each other, and their difference at once in telligible and of the highest importance. We can quote good O. S. authority on the 'same Side,of the,question. A. committee of the Synod of 'Virginia, comprising, among others, such men as Drs.. S. : E. Wilson and W. S. Plumer, issned a paper in which was the' following , emphatic declaration: " The error.of those who assert that the sinner has no power of any kind for the perfor mance of duty, strips the sinner of hisanor al agency, and accountableness and introdu ces the .heresy of • A.ntinomtanism or, Fatal ism." President Edwards said: "The thing , wan ping—is not a being able, but a being willing. There are faculties of mind, and a 9ipamty of nature, and evezyphing else suf ficient but disposition.lsilthing is wanting but a will." The younger Edwards says: 'lt is inquired, concerning President Ed wards' moral inability, whether the man who is the subject of it can remove it? I answer, Shall it then be considered latitudinarian for Mr. Barnes to ,say, as he did in his "De fence": " By this was • meant, that [man] was wholly inclined to evil and opposed to good; and that this native propensity was so strong, as never to be overcome but by the influ ence.of the Holy Spirit" ? And shall it be said that this is one of the peculiarities of his theology, which should not be tolerated . as on an equal footing, in the proposed re united Church, with the theology taught at Princeton? Then we must be prepared to see ' in the New American Presbyterian Church a monster of intolerance, worthy of the Middie ages and of thatleclining days of the . Jewish Church, rather than one breathing the Eyangelic. sweetness, charity and mutual confidence of the Christian Church of the 19th century. In a similar strain we might speak of the New School ' View- of. the extent of the . Atonement. , The : attempt to fasten latitu dinarianism upon us for holding and teach ing the perfectly plain Scriptural doctrine that Christ gave his life a ransom for all, is, a signal failure. Could it, be shown to be , contrary to the Confession, then it would . 'only be so, much the worse for the Confes sion. But it is not. The Confession may be chargeable with a sin of omission here, but it cannot 'be convicted of contravening the plain teaching of Scripture. The Con fession is very careful to trace out the rela tion of Christ's work to the elect; but it is equally careful to leave room for a doctrine, like that of Dr. James Richards, that by the sacrifice of Christ a way was opened for the restoration oP the whole human family to the favour of God, ( Tract 1: p 13 ;) a doctrine which Dr. Richardstriumphantly vindicates as that of the mature commentator JOHN CALVIN, by abundant quotations from his exegetical workt. A single citation will suffice to settle beyond dispute, what John Calvin saw was the mind, of the . Spirit on that point. lie is commenting on Matt. 26 28 :—This is my blooti of the New Testa ment which is shed for many for the remis sion of sins. • "Under the nitme of many" says Calvin " he designated not a part of the world only, but the whole human race. . . . While therefore we approach the sacred table, not only the general thought ,should come into the mind that the world is re deemed by, Christ's blood, but that every one , for, himself, should reckon his own sins -to .be, expiated." Another remarkable, pas sage: in the .Commentaries, to which. Dr. Richards, does not allude, but whieh•Dr. Cox in his interview with Dr, Chalmers invested witii peculiar interest, (Interview, - s, pp. 111 112) is the comment on Rom. 5:.18. There the, so-called New School doctrine of a gene ral Atonement ,is taught as, plainly, almost, as words can teach anything. "Christ suf fered for, the sins . 9f : the : whole world," says John Calvin. " Passys est Christus pro pecca tis totius mundi," are, the very,Words as they came 'from his pen, three hundred and twen ty-seven years, ago last October; while Charles Hodge, with : his 19th century Cal vinism, spends two peg& of his voluminous Commentary on Romans in arguing that the '" all men" of verse 18, means only the elect, and that John" 'Calvin's interpretation teaches Universalism! (Comm. p. 270.) 'And Charles Hodge, is " Old School," is a Calvinist par ex cellence, and we, and -John Calvin are New School, latitudinarian, in danger of Univer salism. and what not !, For our part, we, are satisfied with our • company. We vastly - prefer John Calvin's latitudinarianism—John Calvin's Uiiversal ism, if you please—to all the modern im provements and patent ..safety-valves, that self-styled Old .School men of our day declare . essential to orthodoxy.. Let it be under stoOd then distinctly :that this doctrine of . a general Atonement•is one of the three lead ing doctrines of " New School" theology, and one of the, peculiar doctrines of. Mr. Barne's and Dr. Benian which ' the -Presbyte rian and the. Banner are unwilling to admit to equal rights in the Church, with that taught at Princeton. TAXING EXEMPT PROPERTY. Only within a few dayS, the mass of those' interested have beceme aware of the extra- Ordiiatiry nature of the new. measure to tax eienipt property in thrice - icy' now before the.. State Legislature. This bill, which has .passed : the House 'and is now before, the Senate, originated, as might be expected,' with' one of the Representatives, from our city.. F JIt proposes to tax real estate held by the University of Pennsylvania, by the char tered schools of religious societies, by schools for the deaf and dumb, schools for the blind, and by schools of divinity; as well as the real estate of churches, whose annual in come is $2500' or more. 'As the purpose is understood to bo to subject these institutions to the city fciur per-cent tax on the market value of their property, and , as the provi 'sions of the bill are understood to be not merely permissive but peremptory, it is evi dent that the measure is a serious blow at religion,. education, and beneficence, at once. .one cannot resist the conviction that a lead ing design of its originators was to embar rass the Christian institutions which 'have been the glory of our city, to the fullest ex tent in their power.. The operation of the bill would be about equivalent to requiring the churches to support an additional pas tor. The First Church and Calvary would each have to pay $4OOO a year; North Broad St. $2500 ;.Clinton' St .$l5OO, and so on; and Philadelphia would claim the peculiar dis tinction of being, perhaps, the only commu nity in the world in which a University is subjected to taxation. • We fear that it is too late for us to sound -the-alarm, and that the measure has been adopted or defeated in the Senate by this time. Yet we much doubt whether Gov. Geary is the, man to put his name to a bill of this astounding character. One thing is clear, the religious, and the intelligent, and the benevolent of our city have a new illus tration of the utter unfitness of most of the men now in 'power for. the places to which they ,were elected, especially from this city. "It is to be regretted " says the Ledger, "that our Representatives are not more fa miliar with the churches (I) and charitable and educational institutions." We are glad to see that one of our city dailies has at last waked up to the fact, that our city Representa tives are drawn from a class of men not at all ,familiar with -our churcheS. It might have infered so much amonth ago, froth the fanatical zeal with which these men labored for the overthrow of the . peace of our Phi ladelphia Sabbath. We rejoice that even so late, the journal of the largest circulation in our city. has-called attention to this fact in the character of our legislators, with re- Genesee Eva,ngeligt, No. 1090. gret. Mild as the language is, we believe it sounds the doom of these men. The church goers and church-supporters of this city, numbering from one-third to one-half of its adult population are waking up to the 'fact, thai out of the 22• Senators and Repre sentatives from this city at Harrisburg, the opponents' of religion have twenty-one, the only'excei)tion being Mr. Wallace of Mann , yunk. And if they do not know it, the respecta ble people of this vast city should that Out of ' the twenty-two Senators and Representatit'•es into whose hands-they have suffered their interests to fall, ten names are either not to be found in the directory, or are there without any . known occupation ; three of them are recorded as clerks, of whom Mr. Gregory,' the author of the bill under consideration, is put down as' one; one is a tobacconist,' `one •a real estate agent, while scarcely More than two or three 'afire in circumstances at all qualifying them for the resporiiiblepositions they occupy. We are much mistaken if the case' is not very much altered next year. r RENEWAL OF -DIL ADAM'S RESIGNATION. We deeply regret to announce that Dr Adams has felt constrained to renew his re signation as pastor. of North Broad street Church. Although he .has recovered his voice, and preached' last .Sabbath with all his wanted fervor and. ability, his generpl health is such as to forbid his early resump tion of the full.duties of the pastorate. Dr. Adams, in his short career of seven or eight years among' us, iI£LS been blessed of God as the instrument of, establishing one of the most prosperous church enterprises in the city. We cannot persuade ourselves that. his uSefdlness in this line of effort, is at an end, or that ;;a preacher of such unusual abilities is about to be laid aside.. The gene rous people of North Broad street have al ready refused one proposal of a like nature from their beloved pastor, when he was una ble to speak above, a, whisper; what they will do now, we cannot say, but we fear Dr. Adam's views of his own health will be a decisive obstacle to any attempts to retain him. He sails for Europe next Wednesday, upon the invitation of . Alexander Whilldin, Esq, to meet him. at Rome, ,and remain abroad over six months. SENATOR AUDLEY BROWNE. We are glad to learn, that this distin guished and earnest friend and supporter of every, good cause, in our Legislature, denies the correctness of the report of his speech on the Sunday Car Bill, sent to the Associa ted Press of this city, and upon which we remarked two weeks ago. We shall be hap py to print .a correct report of the Senator's speech on that occasion, a'S soon as it is pub lished, or comes under our notice. THE FUTURE OF THE 0. S. CHURCH IN BALTIMORE.—Rev. J. Leighton Wilson D.D., writes to the Southern Presbyterian:— The Presbyterians of Baltimore, as you are aware, are now divided into two parties, though still entertaining kindly and frater nal feelings towards each other. The first consists of such as have separated them selves from the Northern Church, and intend, at some early day, to connect themselves with ours, with which they are in full sym pathy, both as to feeling and principle. The other still adheres to the Northern Church. but does not approve of many of their mea sures, especially of the acts of the Pittsburg and• St. Louis Assemblies, which they regard as harsh and unconstitutional, and of no binding force whatever. Dr. Bullock, Mr. Lefevre, and their churches, belong to the former party, whilst Drs. Backus, Smith, Dickson, and Mr. Hays, with their churches, belong to the latter. There are a number of wealthy and influential persons helongi)ag to these last mentioned churches, who, while they are ecclesiastically connected with the Northern Church, have much' more sym pathy with the Southern, and devote their contributions mainly to carrying on our schemes of benevolence. What _will, be the ultimate status of such individuals, will de pend, it is presumed, very much upon the spirit' and action of the next Northern As-. sembly. The Presbyter says this account, we doubt not, is not far from. Correct." • . CHURCHES.—The Church of Rockaway,- - N. J., have extended a. call to the Rev. 0. R. P. Deyu of the Presbytery of" North River. The church edifice has been remodelled and much improved, and was re-dedicated on the 14th instant.— King tendered his resignation as pastor of the First Church of Quincy, Ilk, on the 17th of February.
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