III.—The Atonement.
Before explaining the doctrine of the New Church on this subject, it may be expedient to notice briefly the Old and commonly received doctrine. The reader can then judge which of the two is most in accordance with reason and Scripture;—which bears most conspicuously the impress of heaven, and which looks most like the offspring of man's self-derived intelligence.
If the Old doctrine of the Divine Trinity—corrupted into a trinity of persons—is erroneous, it was not possible for the other leading doctrines of Christianity to escape corruption and falsification from an error so fundamental. And the most prominent as well as the most mischievous falsity, because the most captivating and delusive, is that concerning the Atonement as commonly held and taught. This doctrine, we are aware, has been differently understood and explained at different times, and by different persons at the same time. And, notwithstanding the supreme importance which is very properly attached to a right understanding of it, probably not many among the most learned of the "evangelical" school at this time, would explain this doctrine in precisely or even substantially the same way. However this may be, the following summary
