of salvation, so far as they portrayed God's displeasure against sin, and evinced the infinite value he set upon his own character and law. Hence it is, that the scriptures so frequently bring into view a suffering, crucified Christ,as the only hope of salvation. His sufferings support the dignity of God, as the moral governor, while he extends mercy to the guilty; they present him in a glorious point of light, as the universal sovereign and proprietor, as the great source from which all things have proceeded, and in which all shall finally terminate. It is therefore with great reason and propriety that the text declares, that "it became him for "whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in "bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of "their salvation perfect through sufferings." These words, by bringing into view the passion of Christ, as essential to a display of the divine character in the pardon of sin, present the doctrine of atonement in a light truly interesting and important. For surely nothing can be calculated more effectually to awaken the solicitude, and raise the desponding hopes of the guilty, than a prospect of forgiveness. Why God should require sufferings and the effusion of blood as a pre-requisite to the remission of sin, has been a subject of much inquiry, and to many "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." They have supposed, that if God would not pass by sin without an atonement, without full satisfaction to his justice, he must be naturally implacable; that he has no mercy, because he punishes the innocent for the guilty, and bestows no good without an adequate compensation. Sufferings, it is true, can add nothing to the love of God to his creatures: but they may be, and it is hoped can be, proved to be necessary to a consistent exercise and display of that love. Atonement does not imply a purchase of God's mercy; it does not imply satisfaction to justice, as a cancellation of debt; nor does it infer any obligation on justice for the liberation of sinners; for if it do, then sinners are not saved by forgiveness, since it is impossible for mercy to pardon, where justice cannot punish. Atonement implies the necessity of sufferings, merely as a medium through which God's real disposition towards sin should be seen in such a way, that an exercise of pardon should not interfere with the dignity of government, and the authority of law. The sufferings of Christ for sin characterize the gospel scheme and distinguish it from all others. The atonement made by them, adds to the Christian religion its chief superiority, and lays the only foundation of hope for all who have just views of the divine law, and the moral state of man. All the doctrines of the gospel will derive their peculiar complexion from the manner in which the doctrine of atonement is explained. A mistake here will be peculiarly injurious, and will infallibly lead into error in every part of divinity. Atonement is the great sun in the centre of the system. Blot it out, and you are lost forever. Not a ray from any other quarter will dart through the gloomy prison of sin, to cheer its disconsolate inhabitants, to disenthral them from their chains, and enlighten their path to freedom and glory. The design of revelation is to unfold the true God to men, acting according to the principles of his nature. This God is just and merciful. He is disposed to punish and to pardon. How then shall his justice and his mercy be displayed towards the transgressor, without infringing or destroying each other? God threatens punishment to sin. Sin is committed. God, instead of punishing, pardons. Where is his justice? Where is his truth? Where is the regard due to his law, his character and government? If he punish, where is his mercy? These difficulties will be obviated by a right understanding of the atonement which Christ made for sin. To exhaust this important subject. to comprehend all its connexions and consequences, perhaps at present exceeds all human capacity. Enough of it, however, can be known and understood, to enable us to perceive its excellency, and to secure our present and future felicity. As the design of atonement was to save men from the curse of the law. in consistency with the perfections and designs of God. the atonement had immediate respect to the law of God. to the moral state of men, and to the ntimate and chief end of God in creation. Without a just and proper view of these three points, all inquires respecting atonement will be extremely defective, if not totally erroneous. They will leave us, ike an unpiloted mig, driven by the winds over the pathless ocean. In the subsequent discourse, therefore, I shall I. First explain the nature of the divine law, the moral state of man, and the design of God in creation. II. Secondly, the matter, the necessity, and the nature of atone ment. A few inferences will then close the subject. I. I shall begin the first division of this discourse, by Under this denomination we are not to include all the laws given to the people of Israel. For though these may be termed divine with respect to their author, yet they are not all of a moral nature, and consequently not obligatory on all mankind. For this reason all the positive laws appertaining to the former dispensation, are not included in the phrases, "divine law," and "the law of God." These are used by way of eminence, to denote the moral law, as it is promulged and epitomized in the decalogue. *The laws given to the Israelites were of three kinds, moral, ceremonial and forensic. The first respected them as rational, accountable creatures; the second, as members of the ecclesiastical body; the third, as members of the political body. The two last kinds of laws were peculiar to the Israelites. They alone had the promise of the Messiah. His death and sufferings for sin were prefigured by the various offerings and sacrifices enjoined in their ritual. Hence they received the ceremonial law, as an indication of the Messiah yet to come, who being the substance of all its shadows, was by the sacrifice of himself to * Leges autem iis latæ non unius generis fuerunt. Tres omnino theologis recensentur. Moralis sive decalogica, ceremonialis, et politica, sive forensis. Scilicet tripliciter considerari Israeliticus populus potuit. 1. Ut creaturæ rationales, a Deo, uti suprema ratione tam moraliter, quam naturaliter dependentes. Et sic data fuit ipsi lex decalogica, quæ quoad substantiam, cum lege naturæ, homines qua tales obligante, una eademque est. 2. Ut ecclesia veteris testamenti; expectans Messiam promissum, et lætiora per ejus consummationem tempora. Atque eo respectu acceperunt legem ceremonialem, quæ ostendit quidem, nondum venisse Messiam, et satisfactione sua, omnia consummasse, fore tamen, ut veniat et omnia faciat nova. 3. Ut populus peculiaris, rempublicam, genio ac indoli suæ convenientem, habens in terra Canaan."-Witsii de Econ, Fod. lib. iv. cap. iv. p. 609. abrogate its authority, and discontinue its observance. Hence Christ, in the sufferings by which he made atonement for sin, had no other respect to the ceremonial law, than as he corresponded to its typical prefigurations. The forensic laws of the Israelites were accommodated to their peculiar genius as a people; to their peculiar circumstances in the land of Canaan; and were designed to form the whole nation into a republican theocracy. Hence it appears, that the ceremonial and forensic or political laws of the Israelites, were of a temporary nature, and obligatory no longer than continued by the express injunction of the legislator. In this view, as they did not originate in the eternal fitness and propriety of things, they may be styled positive, in contradistinction to those which are moral; which express the unchangeable will of God, respecting the obligation, the obedience and disobedience, the reward and punishment, of rational creatures. These laws primarily flow from the absolute perfection of God, and like his nature are sacred, immutable and eternal. These laws, summed up in one body, are styled the law, or law of God. To this law the whole of Christ's work, in making atonement for sin, had immediate respect. Without a just view of this law, therefore, the doctrine of atonement cannot be understood, nor its necessity and propriety perceived. Concerning the divine law, two things must be particularly noticed. 1. It contains a prescription of certain duties. These are contained in the decalogue, as it was delivered at Mount Sinai, and are all summarly comprehended in love, as the fountain from which a real acceptable obedience flows. Thus Christ explained the law: Thou fall bore the Lord thy God with all thy beart, and with all thy woul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like ento it. The salt bore ty neugtbora pef O. tew two com mandments sang al me aw and the propheta" Maxia 27, &c. Palvemed the hr ʼn the ame ight, when he ad," Long is the flitting offer km and 10. Noviam, berlin*, either mental o emeral when woes not good frus pure kne to God can come quter the denomina en of true vinue o XELİ c. Thu hw a delineation of verby restante, kad 020 66 designed to govern the whole man, by inspiring right motives, and producing an entire correspondence between them and external actions. 2. The second thing to be noticed concerning the law is, that it contains comminations of divine vengeance against transgression. Without these, it would not properly in its nature have the force and authority of a law. The language of the law, expressing the penal sanction, is, " Cursed is every one who confirmeth not all the words of the law, to do them. Deut. xxvii. 26. This curse most undoubtedly is the just and proper punishment of sin. For it is inconsistent with the perfection of God, to threaten a punishment greater or less than sin deserves. This is the punishment from which Christ delivers. Thus Paul says to the Galatians, "God sent forth his Son, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Gal. iv. 4, 5. That is, to redeem them from its curse, as he explains it in another place. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Gal. iii. 13. Let it here be particularly noticed, that this commination annexed to the divine law, is the sum and foundation of all the others expressed in scripture, and denounced against transgressors. Various threatenings are found in the New Testament, denounced against those who reject the gospel. These threatenings express the real penalty of the divine law. For no man can slight, neglect or refuse the gospel, without violating the law, and incurring its penalty. That this penalty, which will be executed on the impenitent, in a future state, is endless misery or destruction, appears from the following passages of scripture. In Dan. xii. 2, it is said, " And many of them which sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt." Matt. xviii. 8. "It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into everlasting fire." Matt. xxv. 41, Christ says to the wicked, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." And in verse 46, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Mark iii. 29, Christ says of him who blasphemes the Holy Ghost, that he is "in danger of eternal damnation." Paul says of those who disobey the gospel, "Who shall be punished with everlast |