Christ took upon himself the penalties of a sinful world, and his self-sacrifice is only not righteous, because it is so much better than righteous, because it moves in that higher region where law is no more known, but only known no more because it is transfigured into love. Vicarious suffering is the law and condition of all highest nobleness in the world. It is this which God is continually demandincr m of his elect, they approving them selves his elect as they freely own them the debtors of love to the last penny of the requirements which it makes.
But the sufferings and death of Christ were not merely vicarious, they were also satisfactory; and thus' atoning or setting at one, bringing together the holy and the unholy, who could not have been reconciled in any other way. It is not maintained that aod could have pleasure in the sufferings of the innocent and the holy, and that innocent and holy his own Son; but only that he must have the highest pleasure in the love, the patience, the obedience which those Sufferings gave him the opportunity of displaying, which but for those he never could have displayed. Christ's sublime devo tion to the will of God permitted the Father to say, " I have found a ransom" Christ satisfied herein, not the divine anger, but the divine craving and yearning after a perfect holiness. righteousness, and obedience iu man; which craving no man had satisfied, but
all had disappointed before.
The reader is referred for further and fuller information on this subject to the follow ing works, which have been consulted and used in the preparation of this article: Banes Christliche I,ehre von der Versohnung; Hase's Hutterus Redivivus; Neander'S Christliche Dvmengeschiehte; Giesele•r's Lekrbuch der Dogmengeschichte; Hagenbach's Lehrbuoh der Dogmengeschichte, vierle Auflage; Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion; Edwards, Concerning the Necessity and Reasonableness of the Christian Doctrine of Satisfaction for Sin; Owen's Death of Death in the Death of Christ, and Of the Death of Christ; Payne's Lectures on Divine Sovereignty; .Chalmers's _Institutes of Theology; Wardlaw's Systematic Theology ; Campbell's (John 3I'Leod) Nature of the Atonement, etc.; Taylor's (J. J.) Christian Aspects of Faith and Duty (discourse on " Christ the Mediator "); Manrice's Theological Essays; St. Paul's Epistles, first and second editions (article " On Atonement and Satisfaction "); Trench's Fire Sermons (sermon on " Christ the Lamb of God ").