CHRISTIANITY. It is proposed in the present article to give a very brief outline of the system of the Christian religion, and of the evidences by which its truth is established. The principal parts, both of the system and evidences of C., will be found noticed under separate heads.
C. comes to us with a claim to be received as of divine origin. It is no product of the human mind, but has for its author the Being whom it sets before us as the object of worship. It is consequently altogether exclusive; it claims to be deemed the only true religion—" the truth'—and admits of no compromise or alliance with any other system.
C. cannot be viewed as distinct from the religion of the Jews and of the patriarchs:. it is the same religion accommodated to new circumstances; there has been a change of dispensation only. In studying either the system or the evidences of C., we are com pelled continually to revert from the New Testament to the Old, and must in some measure trace the history of the true or revealed religion through the previous and pre paratory dispensations.
The whole system of C. may be regarded as having its foundation in the doctrine of the existence of one God. See GOD. Next to this may be placed the doctrine of the fall (q.v.) of man. Man is represented as involved in misery by sin (q.v.)—original and actual—and every individual of the human race as incapacitated for the service and fel lowahip of God, obnoxious to the displeasure of God, and liable to punishment in a future and eternal state of being. See PUNISHMENT, FUTURE. And here we may regard the doctrine of the atonement (q.v.) as next claiming our attention—a doctrine taught in all the sacrifices (see SACRIFICE) of the patriarchal and ,Jewish dispensations, as well as by the words of inspired teachers. Man being utterly incapable of effecting his own deliverance from sin and misery, God sent his Son to save sinners, to deliver them from hell, to make them holy, and partakers of the eternal joy and glory of heaven.
By those who regard Christ as a mere creature, atonement or reconciliation with God is made to depend on the repentance of man as its immediate cause; whilst the life and death of Christ are represented as merely an example to us of obedience, virtue, and piety in the most trying circumstances; the doctrines of a propitiatory sacrifice, a sub stitutionary obedience, and an imputed righteousness, with all that form part of the same system, falling completely and even necessarily to the ground. These doctrines,
however, are all consistently maintained in connection with the doctrine of the Trinity and the generally received doctrine as to the person of Christ. See and TRINITY. The very incarnation (q.v.) of the Son of God is regarded as a glorious display of the divine condescension, and a wonderful exaltation of human nature; whilst a personal enjoyment of the highest dignity and bliss of which humanity is capable in the favor and fellowship of God for ever, is to be attained by faith in Jesus Christ. See FAITH and JUSTIFICATION.
The indissoluble connection between faith and Salvation arises from the divine appointment, but secures a moral harmony, as it provides for bringing into operation— in accordance with the intellectual and moral nature of man—of most powerful and excellent motives for all that is morally good, the partakers of salvation bring thus fitted for the fellowship of him into whose favor they are received; and as it prevents the possibility of any of them taking to themselves, or giving to others, the glory of that salvation which they really owe to Christ, and which they must therefore ascribe, to Christ, as God is a God of truth, and truth must reign in the kingdom of heaveu.
Salvation is ascribed by all Christians to the grace of God. 'the mission of Christ was an act of supreme grace; and all must be ascribed to grace for which we are indebted to Christ. The doctrine of grace, however, is part of the system of C. on which important differences subsist, especially as to the relation of the grace of God to indi vidual 111C11. Such are the differences concerning election (q.v.), and concerning the origin of faith, and man's ability or inability to believe of himself. But by Christians generally, the personal relation of the believer to Christ, and his faith in Christ, are ascribed to the Holy Ghost or Spirit of God, the third person of the Godhead, and so to the grace of God. Sce ARMINIUS, CALVINISM, and PELAGIUS.