perfect obedience to the law, must every soul appear that enters heaven; the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in them, and they be led to walk in the Spirit to heaven, if ever they enter there. Without this divine image and perfect obedience not a soul living shall ever escape the damnation of hell; but Christ has magnified the law, and paid a full ransom for his own sheep; the second Adam will present them in his own image; he will restore that which he took not away, and by his knowledge shall he justify many; which is all couched in this text, "He is made of God unto us wisdom," as Adam had before he sinned; "righteousness" which Adam stood in before he fell; "sanctification," or holiness, in which Adam's image chiefly consisted; "and redemption" from that death which reigned from Adam to Moses through his disobedience,

Could all the human race have produced one righteous man, could they have brought forth one person that could make a new heart, a new spirit, and obey the law as Mr. Skinner can do, even then he dared not strike hands and become surety to God for another; he could only deliver his own soul by his righteousness, or enter into life by the new creation of himself; he could deliver neither son nor daughter, friend nor brother; no man can redeem his brother, nor pay a ransom to God for him. God appointed the surety, and set him up from everlasting, and prepared a body for him. Man had no hand in this work; God formed this

Jacob to bring the preserved of Israel, and to be for salvation to the ends of the earth: He made him strong for himself, Psal. lxxx. 17. God sent him into the world to do his will; and according to his determinate counsel and foreknowledge he was delivered, and by wicked hands he was crucified and slain; neither free-thinkers nor heirs of promise had any hand in providing this surety, in upholding him in his work, or in treading the wine-press. Many have talked and still do talk of co-workmanship and co-partnership, or of doing their part, but that is nothing but noise: "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me. I looked and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold," seeing so many had talked of it; "therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." If God the creditor put a surety in with the chosen debtor, as Job desires, which no creditor by law is bound to do, then the surety is the creditor's gift; I will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, Isa. xlii. 6. There is but little difference between a creditor's giving me a surety out of his own bosom to pay my debt, and forgiving me the debt; I neither procured the surety nor paid the debt, therefore am frankly forgiven. God has declared he will have life for life, and blood for blood; if so, I cannot be cleared without the shedding of blood, as God must be true to his word.

In short the language of the Lawgiver is, obey

my voice. "I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this thing commanded I them saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people," Jer. vii. 22, 23; this is the command: the threatening is this, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Jesus became surety of the better testament; he magnified the law, and died the just for the unjust. He died a temporal death, the soul was separated from the body; he died a legal death, he was made a curse for us; he died a spiritual death, his Father departed from him; and what would this author have more? Is not this a proper payment? Is not this a full satisfaction for God's elect? If the author of free thoughts says nay, then let him shew me what law and justice demanded more; he replies, "The stings of a guilty conscience, and the horrors of despair.' I answer, he never died for one soul that ever was or will be damned; they cannot be ransomed from the pit that go into it, they cannot be redeemed from death that die eternally, Christ bore the sins of men, he endured the curse of the law, the wrath of God, and was tormented with the powers of darkness; as to the stings of a guilty conscience, they could not lay hold of one that was holy, harmless, and undefiled, who had never sinned; nor had he any more room for reflection that recoils with guilt than I should have if I undertook to pay another's debt; I might reflect

upon myself for such an undertaking, but could never blame myself for imprudence in contracting the debt; my undertaking is an act of benevolence, not of imprudent wrong; I serve two persons, the creditor and the debtor, but wrong none except myself; nor did the Saviour, he became surety and smarted for it.

This author seems to intimate, nay he affirms, it is inferred that Christ did not pay the proper 'debt for any man.' Then I say, prison doors can never be opened, deliverance to captives cannot be preached, nor the acceptable year of the Lord be proclaimed; for God must appear just to his law before he can be the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. By this mode of free-thinking this author might infer, that my paying twenty pounds as a surety for another who owes that sum, is not sufficient to procure a gaoldelivery for my friend, unless I remain in a gaol myself. Christ paid the proper debt, and gave a full satisfaction, without either going into hell or rotting in the grave; his soul was made an offering to God for sin: “When Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." His body descended into the prison of the grave, but did not consume there; God suffered not his Holy One to see corruption. God raised him from the grave, and highly exalted him, as a proof that the work was finished, and God was glorified.

The main drift of this author is, to lessen the

merits of Christ, that free thoughts may perform their part in discharging the debt; to lessen the pardon of sin, that some ground may be laid for human boasting, and room be left for apostasy from grace, the creditor not having received his proper demands, and that the main branch of redemption may be left for the sinner to complete, that his free thoughts may make the Saviour's satisfaction void or valid, by the task that he performs or not performs; and by this means all the glory of redemption redounds to the creature; for it is well known that he that completes an undertaking gets the glory. But the surety declared with his dying breath, "It is finished;" if so, the proper debt must be paid; satisfaction and pardon do stand together according to God's law. Let this author look, and he will there find, that a sinner who had sinned, when his sins came to his knowledge, he was to bring a male kid of the goats without blemish, an offering to the Lord; "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt-offering before the Lord; it is a sin-offering." Then, says this author, how is the doctrine of pardon established, if the goat dies in the sinner's room? The answer is, the goat is God's gift; the law that favours the sinner thus is God's law; therefore atonement is made and forgiveness is established: "And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt-offering;