g of
the Locrians. He passed a certain law, with the penalty that every
transgressor of it should lose both his eyes. It so happened that his own
son was the first by whom it was violated. Now, any one can see, that
although Zaleucus had been a hard-hearted and unfeeling tyrant, he might
have pardoned his son, just because he had no regard to the demands of
public justice; or, on the other hand, that he might have inflicted the
penalty of the law upon his son to the uttermost, not out of a supreme
regard to the law, but because he was destitute of mercy and natural
affection. Neither by remitting the whole punishment, nor by inflicting it
with rigour, could he have made such a display of his justice and mercy as
to make a deep moral impression upon his subjects. In other words, if
either of these attributes had been left out in the manifestation, the
display of the other must have been exceedingly feeble and equivocal. Both
must be seen in union, or neither can be seen in the fulness of its glory.

How, then, could Zaleucus have displayed both of these attributes in the
most perfect and affecting manner? By doing precisely that which he is
said to have done. He directed that one of his own eyes should be put out,
and one of his son's. Whose heart is not touched by this most affecting
display of the tender pity of the father, in union with the stern justice
of the law-giver? His pity would not allow him to inflict the whole
penalty upon his beloved son; and his high regard for the demands of
public justice would not permit him to set at naught the authority of the
law: and but for the possession and manifestation of this last trait of
character, the mighty strugglings and yearnings of the first could not
have burst forth and appeared with such overwhelming power and
transcendent lustre. Hence, every system of redemption which, like that of
the Socinian, leaves out of view the administrative justice of God, does
not admit of any very impressive display of his goodness and his mercy.

All such illustrations must be imperfect, in some respects; but the one
above given conveys a far more adequate view of the atonement than that
presented by Dr. Channing. The application of it is easy. Such was the
mercy of God, that he could not leave his poor fallen creatures to endure
the awful penalty of the law; and such was his regard for the purity and
happiness of the universe, that he could not permit his law to be violated
with impu