On the Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ. By Rev. William Symington [pp. 201-233]

Symington on the dionenment.
circumstance, that the Christian public there has been con-,
siderably agitated with the publication of new and dangerous
doctrines on the subject of the atonement. It will be recollected that Thomas Erskine, Esq., who had acquired considerable reputation as a theological writer, by his work on the INTERNAL EVIDENCES OF CHRIsTIANITY,published a little work
on the ATONEMENT, in which he maintained not only the
universality of the atonement, but its universal efficacy in
bringing the whole human race into a justified state. In
connexion with this he taught that the glad tidings of the
gospel, was the annunciation of this fact, and that saving faith,
consisted in a full persuasion that we are already in a,justi-.
fled state; and that the condemnation of any would be for refusing to believe this merciful testimony of God. This
antinomian work of Erskine was mixed up with much that
was good and pious; and the author and his followers insisted that nothing so much promoted personal holiness as
the persuasion above mentioned; ind this they declared to,
be the effect'of the doctrine on their own minds. Severalable answers were returned to this publication. Dr. Wardlaw, so favourably and extensively known assa theological
writer, took up his pen to counteract the influence of this
pernicious publication.' His little work has been republished in this'country. Dr. Dewars, principal of Mareschall
college, Aberdeen, also published a work on the atonement
about this time. This subject was also involved in the-prosecution carried on in the ecclesiastical courts of the Church
of Scotland against Irving,- M'Clean, Campbell, &e., which
resulted in their deposition from the sacred ministry.
The attention of theologians in that country was therefore
turned to the subject of atonement; and as these errorists
made the universality of the atonement the foundation of
their whole system, this will show why this point has received so large a share of attention in -the treatise now under
review.
In.this country, discussions on the atonement have taken
a different turn; for while we have too many who reject the
whole doctrine with scorn, we have also a large number who
have adopted a new theory of the atonement, which,. they
persuade themselves avoids the most prominent difficulties
of the old doctrine. We propose therefore to occupy some
space in giving our own views of the atonement in relation
to the existing state of opinion in this country. And we are
induced to undertake this, not'o,nldy because the subjectis of
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