His Sufferings held to have been the same in kind, , 46 Views on the Extent of Redemption , 46-60 Discussion of Question , Did Christ die for all ? 47 Opinion of Fraser of Brea

LECT . II . ) THE ATONEMENT.

47 Brown , and Durham , and Dickson , and Gillespie ; and I think there can be no doubt that they hold , that in whatsoever sense Christ died for any of our race , in that same sense He died for all for whom He died . They held , indeed , the intrinsic sufficiency of Christ's death to save the world or worlds ; but that was altogether irrespective of Christ's purpose , or Christ's accomplishment . The phrase that Christ died suffi ciently for all was not approved , because the 6 For ' seemed to imply some reality of actual substitution . Yet the Scottish theological mind was evidently greatly exercised upon the subject in many aspects , and once and again we have discussions in connection with it , which are little known , and not without their

interest .

The name of Fraser of Brea is one well known , and very precious to many : a man he was of profound piety , full of love and devotion to his Master , for whom in the days of suffering he had borne an unflinching testimony. None is mentioned with greater respect by his contemporaries among the good men of his time . I might have added him to the writers whom I mentioned in my last lecture as having had experience of sore spiritual struggles. He tells us how he was assailed with historic doubts , such as might have been learned

in the school of Strauss or Baur . But these very unfold ings of his inner life which he has given us , evidently indicate that if he was a man both of gifts and grace , he was also a man of a peculiar type . You do not wonder at singular doctrines coming from his pen . . An earnest gospel preacher, he yet seemed to himself to want a sufficient ground for the gospel offer ; and while

48

SCOTTISH THEOLOGY .

[LECT . II . a prisoner on the Bass , he wrote a work upon the sub ject . As I have already mentioned , he was , at least in some points, a follower of Rutherford , and not in frequently he quotes Dr. Twiss ; yet , strange to say, he wrought out a theory of Universal Redemption from the extremest positions of his ultra - Calvinistic masters .

He asserts that 6 Christ obeyed , and died in the room of all , as the head and representative of fallen man : that ' men are all fundamentally justified in Him and by Him : ' 6 ' that Christ died for all.' But then are all men saved ? No. God did not mean to save any but His chosen . What , then , was the object of that one indi visible sacrifice for all , which God's Son offered on the

cross ? Well , first of all , to lay a real foundation for the gospel offer. For every man was satisfaction rendered , and every man might appropriate it as something objectively real. Is this all ? Is it simply the old

story of a conditional salvation ? Not at all. Fraser scorns the idea of conditional redemptions and salva tions . Men take , he argues , low and insufficient views of the Saviour's work , when they think it had respect to human happiness alone. The manifestation of God's justice and grace is its last and highest end . And this, according to him , is the glory of His scheme . It lays a basis for a gospel in which reprobates , just as well as the elect , can be asked to believe , while they are not, as the elect , brought under the divine appointment unto life ; and hence , too , it follows that, in their free rejection of what is simple verity, they become liable not to law , but to gospel wrath and vengeance ; and the same blood which magnifies God's grace exceed ingly, magnifies essentially His justice . It comes to

LECT . II . ]

THE ATONEMENT .

49 this , in short- Fraser plainly states it that Christ dies for reprobates , that they may fall under a more tremendous doom , as , on the other hand , He dies for the elect, that theirs may be an all - transcendent blessedness . In many other aspects the good man presents his theory. As you may buy a casket for jewels , so Christ bought all the world , and all men in it , for His chosen's sake , not to save all , but to use them , and , as it suits Him , to cast away ; though still , as there is a purchase , there is no unreality in offeringthem pardon and acceptance in virtue of it . So he puts it . There is no hiding or mitigating ; all is plainly and boldly spoken out .

This work was not published in the author's life time . About the middle of last century it was given to the world, and created no little commotion in two communities , the Cameronian and the Antiburgher. Two of the five ministers of the Cameronian presby tery seem to have embraced its views substantially, and broke off from good Mr. M Millan . An excellent minister of the Secession also became tainted, and was deposed . It was not difficult to answer them at almost every point . That whole notion of gospel vengeance was altogether out of keeping with the spirit

of the Bible . How monstrous the idea of the Father satisfied , and the Saviour made the wrath -inflicter ! What did you gain by it ? That vague redemption did not help you to the real one . Meant as a ladder to it, it really broke down under the first footstep placed on it . The work soon passed out of memory . The most important result of its production was the theological

discussions which it brought from the pen of Adam

D