Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

" If a vindication of God's law is wanted, in order to the offer of for- giveness, it is wanted here, and for effect in this world. And if we nar- rowly inspect the case presented, we shall be at no loss in regard to the real ground of such a necessity. For it is even a fundamental condition, as re- gards moral effect on our character, that, while courage and hope are given us, we should. be made, at the same time, to feel the inteusest possible sense of the sanctity of the law, and the inflexible righteousness of God. What we need, in this view, is some new expression of God, which, taken as addressed to us, will keep alive the impression in us that God suffers no laxity. In a word, we must be made to feel, in the very article of forgiveness, when it is offered, the essential and eternal sanctity of God's law — His own immovable adherence to it, as the only basis of order and well-being in the universe. " As to the manner in which this desired result is effected, since it presents the hinge question at issue between TJnitarianism and orthodoxy, I will dilate upon it here as the gravity of the question demands. " On one side, it is afSrmed that God could not forgive sin, either without an equivalent suffering or an equivalent expression ^abhorrence to sin made by suffering, in the place of punishment. On the other side, since this doc- trine, in either form of it, seems to involve something offensive to our moral sense, or repugnant to our ideas of God, it is affirmed that God, out of his simple goodness or paternity, can forgive, and will forgive every truly penitent sinner. Satisfied with neither doctrine, for the reasons urged by one against the other, and, perhaps I should say, with both, for the reasons urged by each in its own behalf, I venture to suggest, as the more real and reasonable view, that, in order to make men penitent and soto want forgiveness, — that is, to keep the world alive to the eternal integrity, verity, and sanctity of God's law, — that is, to keep us apprised of sin, and deny us any power of rest while we continue under sin ; it was needful that Christ, in his life and suf- feringSj should consecrate, or re-consecrate the desecrated law of God, and give it a more exact and imminent authority than it had before — this, too, 13 ble ; so that it would have no verity, and, of course, no sa- credness at all. — [pp. 228, 229.] vnthout anything of penal quality in his passion, without regarding him as bearing evil to pay the release of evil, or as under any infliction or frown of God, and yet doing it by something expressed iu his life and death." [Pp. 228, 229.] " This suffering [of Christ] is expressive, because it is in- cidental to an effort to reveal the love of God, and bring the eternal life into the closest possible proximity to our human hearts." — " If we look upon It as the very end p,nd aim of Christ's mission to recover man to God and obedience; or, what is the same, to re-establish the law as a living power in his heart ; then, of course, everything he does and suffers, every labor, wearinessv self-denial, and sorrow, becomes an expression of his sense of the value of the law — every pang he endures, declares its sacredness. So that if he offers pardon, free pardon, to every transgressor, we shall never connect a feeling of license, but shall rather feel a sense of the eternal sanctity of the law, and have a more tremulous awe of it in our conscience, than we should if every transgressor were held to punishment by the letter of it. Indeed, if that were the doctrine, we should reason away and reject the doctrine as in- credible ; so that it would have rio verity, and, of course, no sacredness at all. Whereas, having seen, in the pains-taking, suffering life of Jesus, what God will do for the practical establishment of his law, we are seized with a deep apd a-ye-felt conviction, that if we do not return to it according to his call, there is yet something , different that must assuredly follow. AH this, you perceive, without anything said of a penal quality, in the sufferings of Christ. JVo evil is laid upon him as evil, by the Father, to be endured retributively. He only suffers the ills that lie in his way, and endures the violence that hu- man malignity and cruelty heap on his head." REMARKS. While the author, in these passages, confesses the necessity of keeping up an impression of the eternal sanctity and verity of the law, he teaches that this object is effected by a scheme es- sentially diflFerent from that which God has revealed, and utterly subversive of the great central and fundamental truth of the Gospel. We regard him as denying the vindicatory power o( the law, stripping it of its sanctions, and leaving it mere ad- vice, and no longer law. Indeed, he declares, that if God were to instruct us that every transgressor is, by the power of law, and by the divine justice, without the Gospel, held to punishment according to the declared penalty, we should reason away and reject such a declaration as incredible, so that it would have no verity, and of course no sacredness at all, 14 IV. — Concerning the Fall. The fall of man was, from the nature of the case, an a priori necessity ; and, of course, a historic certainty. It was to be expected that the soul, under a simple commandment of God, would yield to the instigation of her curious nature, and try the bad experience of evil. We accordingly look, reason- ably and necessarily, for a lapse under the first discipline of law.— [pp. 238-240.] [Pp. 238-240.] " The first stage of government is the stage of law. But law, taken by itself, can establish nothing. There is an a priori necessity, and, of course, a historic certainty, that the training of an empire of free be- ings, and the final and complete union of their will to God, tmll require a double administration." — " Under the first stage, that of commandment, the soul makes her acquaintance with obligation, comes at the terms, so to speak, of her existence, lays her hands lipon the iron-fences of law that stiffen round her. Will she keep within her inclosures .' If we speak of a naked possi- bility, she doubtless may. But it will be wonderful if she does not some- times yield to the instigatio'n of her curious nature,' and try the bad ex- perience of evil. Or if she does not, if she stays within her iron inclosure, only because it is iron, she would seem to be governed in the good she fol- lows, by constraint; which can hardly be regarded as a state of perfect vir- tue — it is a prudential, and even a cringing virtue, more than a virtue of liberty. " Accordingly, we look far a lapse, under this first discipline of law. Feeling its bars, as the bars of a cage, about her, the soul begins to chafe against them, and so she learns the law — first, by attrition against it, and then by bondage under it. This is her fall." REMARKS. We regard this, 1, As setting forth the principle that a simple commandment of God is, with holy beings, no sufHcient ground of obedience : but if left with this alone, and put upon their simple love, faith, and duty, they are to be expected to transgress : 2. As palliating the guilt of the fall, by representing it as reasonably to be expected — an a priori necessity, arising from a natural curiosity and irksomeness of restraint, which, even in holy beings, naturally required a second administration be- fore complete obedience is to be expected : 3. That for holy beings to obey God, simply because he is God, and because, as such, he commands, is a prudential and even a cringing virtue. The whole goes to teach men lightly to esteem the Divine authority ; and to vindicate crea- tures in rebellion against the law of God, until some other further dispensation is given to restrain them, than the dispen- sation of law. 15 ■V. CoNCEEMNG THE AtoNEMENT. Christ did not die to redeem us from the penalty of the law. He did not bear our sins in the sense of delivering us from the penalty by his sufferings. His blood was not, truly, shed for many for the. remission oi sins. — [pp. 218, 219.J He did not die a vicarious sacrifice, the just for the unjust. — [p. 189.J He is not in that sense the propitiation for our sins. There was no design of expiation, or of vicarious or penal suffering, in His death.^pp. 236, 237.J He did not come into the world for the purpose of dying for us : that would have been ostenta- tious and absurd. — [pp. 201, 202.] If God could for one mo- [Pp. 218-219.] " On one side, it is affirmed that God could not forgive sin, either without an equivalent suffering, or an equivalent expression of ab- horrence to sin made by suffering, in the place of punishment." — [P. 219.] " I venture to suggest, as the more real and reasonable view , that, in order to make men penitent, and so to want forgiveness — that is, to keep the world alive to the eternal integrity, verity, and sanctity of God's law — that is, to keep us apprised of sin, and deny us any power of rest while we continue under sin, it was needful that Christ,. in his life and sufferings-should, con- secrate or re-consecrate the desecrated law of God, and give it a more exact and itnminent authority than it had before — this, too, withMit anything of a penal quality in his passion, without regarding him as bearing evil to pay THE RELEASE OF Evii,, Or as under any infliction or frown of God, and yet doing it by something expressed in his life and death." P. 189.] Christ enters into human feelings by his incarnate charities and sufferings, to re-engage the world's love, and to re-unite the world, as free, to the Eternal Life. To sum up all in one condensed and luminous utterance, every word of which is power, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The apostle says nothing here, it will be observed, of recon citing God to men, he only speaks of reconciling men to God. Had he said, the Life of God was manifested in Jesus Christ, to quicken the world in love and truth, and reunite it to himself, he would have said the same thing under a different form. I am well aware that, in offering such a statement, as the true doctrine of Christ and his work, I affirm nothing that is distinctively orthodox, and shall even seem to rule out that view of Christ " as a sacri- flce, Wi expiation for sin, a vicarious suffering, '?iiii.<ih,ix>\he view of most or- thodox Christians, contains the real moment of his work as a Savior." P. [201.] "Once more, it is to be- noticed, as a law of expression, that when evil is endured, simply and only for what it expresses, it expresses no- thing. If a man wades out upon some mountain, in the snows of a wintry night, to carry food to a perishing family, then what he encounters of risk and suffering, being incidentally encountered, is an expression of charity. But if he calls upon us to observe his charity expressed in what he will suf- fer, and, waiting for a stormy night, goes forth on the same expedition to the mountain, he expresses nothing but ostentation. So if Christ comes into the world to teach, to cheer, to heal, to pour his sympathies into the bosom of all human sorrow, to assert the integrity of truth, and refiw^e ' the wick- edness of sin ' — in a word, to manifest the Eternal Life, apdparing it into a quickening union with the souls of our race, then to suffer incidentally, to die an ignominious and cruel death rather than depart from his heavenly errand, is to make an expression of the Heart of God, which every human 16