payment from a third person, he is bound in justice to release the debtor. As the two cases have been supposed to be similar, it has been concluded, that, since Christ has made such a satisfaction for sinners, God is in justice also bound to release them. This, however, is an unfounded and unscriptural view of the subject. There is no substantial resemblance between the payment of a debt for an insolvent debtor, and the satisfaction, rendered to distributive justice for a criminal. The debtor owes money; and this is all he owes. If, then, all the money, which he owes, is paid, and accepted; justice is completely satisfied, and the creditor can demand nothing more. To demand more, either from the debtor, or from any other person, would be plainly unjust. When, therefore, the debt is paid by a third person, the debtor is discharged by justice merely. But, when a criminal has failed of doing his duty, as a subject to lawful government, and violated laws, which he was bound to obey; he has committed a fault, for which he has merited punishment. In this case, justice, not in the commutative, but the distributive, sense; the only sense, in which it can be concerned with this subject; demands, not the future obedience, nor an equivalent for the omitted obedience, but merely the punishment, of the offender. The only reparation for the wrong, which he has done, required by strict justice, is this punishment: a reparation necessarily and always required. There are cases, however, in which an atonement, such as was described in the first of these discourses, may be accepted: An atonement, by which the honour and efficacy of the government may be preserved, and yet the offender pardoned. In such a case, however, the personal character of the offender is unaltered. Before the atonement was made, he was a criminal. After the atonement is made, he is not less a criminal. As a criminal, he before merited punishment. As a criminal, he no less merits it now. The turpitude of his character remains the same; and, while it remains, he cannot fail to deserve exactly the same punishment. After the atonement is made, it cannot be truly said, therefore, any more than before, that he does not deserve punishment. But if the atonement be accepted, it may be truly said, that, consistently with the honour of the government, and the public good, he may be pardoned.

This act of grace is all that he can hope for; and this he cannot claim, on account of any thing in himself, or any thing to which he is entitled, but only may hope, from the mere grace, or freegift, of the ruler. Before the atonement was made, the ruler, however benevolently inclined, could not pardon him, consistently with his own character, the honour of his government, or the public good. After it is made, he can pardon him, in consistency with them all; and if the offender discover a penitent and becoming disposition, undoubtedly will, if he be a benevolent ruler.

From these observations it is manifest, that the atonement of Christ in no sense makes it necessary, that God should accept the sinner, on the ground of justice; but only renders his forgiveness not inconsistent with the divine character. Before the atonement, he could not have been forgiven: after the atonement, this impossibility ceases. The sinner can now be forgiven, notwithstanding the turpitude of his character, and the greatness of his offences. But forgiveness is an act of grace only; and to the same grace must the penitent be indebted for all the future blessings connected with forgiveness.

I have now considered all the objections against the doctrine of the atonement, which I consider as claiming an answer; and shall therefore proceed, as I proposed at the commencement of this discourse, to make some practical remarks, arising from the preceding observations on this important subject.

REMARKS.

From these observations it is evident,

1st. That those, who trust in the expiation of Christ, will cer tainly inherit the favour of God.

In the text it is said, that God set forth Christ as a propitiation for sin, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness; that he may be just, when justifying him that believeth in Jesus. The End, for which Christ was set forth as a propitiation, is, that God, consistently with justice, may justify those who believe in Christ. The peculiar and essential nature of the faith of such, as believe in Jesus, is in one important particular exactly defin

ed, also, in the text, when it is styled faith in his blood: the faith, through which alone he is exhibited in the text as becoming a propitiation to men. This faith, or as I shall take the liberty to call it, trust, or confidence; (for such I hope hereafter to show it to be,) is not, indeed, nor is it here asserted to be, faith in the atonement only; but it is faith in the atonement pre-eminently. We are required to believe in the whole character, and in all the offices, of Christ; but we are required, peculiarly, to believe in him, as the great propitiatory sacrifice for sin. Every one, who is the subject of this faith, the real, and only, means by which we become interested in this propitiation, is amply exhibited in the text as entitled to justification.

That every such believer will certainly inherit the favour of God cannot be rationally doubted. While he was yet a sinner, condemned and ruined, God, moved by his infinite benevolence, sent into this world his beloved Son, to become incarnate; to become a subject of his law, and a substitute for mankind; to lead a life of humiliation; and to die the accursed death of the cross; that he might redeem such sinners from the curse of the law; from a guilty character, and the endless miseries of devouring fire. The condition, proposed by himself, on which we become entitled to the blessings of this redemption, are all summed up in this single phrase, Faith in Christ, and pre-eminently in his atonement. This condition the believer has perforined; and is, therefore, entitled to these blessings. His title is secured to him by the covenant of Redemption, by the immutable promise of God to him, by the glory and excellency of Christ's mediation, and by that amazing and immense purpose of infinite love, which proposed, and accomplished, all the parts of this wonderful work. Who can doubt for a moment, that He, who proposed, He, who accomplished, this astonishing design, will go on to accomplish every thing, which it draws in its train? He, that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not, with him also, freely give us all things? Can any thing be too dear to be given to those, for whom Christ was given? Can any thing be too great to be expected by those, who are united to the Son of God, as members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; who are become his seed in the everlasting covenant; and to whom,

unasked, he has from his own overflowing goodness given the glory, which he had with the Father before ever the world was ? Let every believer, then, be completely assured, that his cause is safe in the hands of God. He has chosen the good part, and it shall never be taken from him. He, who has begun to befriend him in this infinite concern, will never leave him nor forsake him. All the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Though he fall, yet shall he rise again; and his mercy God will not utterly take from him. In the seed, sown in his heart, there is a blessing ; the beginning of immortal life. Cold and wintry as is the climate, beneath which it has sprung; unkind and barren as is the soil, in which it grows; doubtful and fading as we often see its progress; it cannot die. The hand, that planted it, will cultivate it with unceasing care; and will speedily remove it to a happier region, where it will flourish, and blossom, and bear fruit, for ever. I am persuaded, says St. Paul, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2dly. It is equally evident, that those, who reject the atonement of Christ, are without any hope of the divine favour.

The favour of God is proffered to the inhabitants of this world through Christ alone; and those only are promised an interest in it, who cordially believe in him, as the expiation of sin. Had there been any other condition, upon which this glorious blessing could be communicated, the same benevolence, which planned and accomplished our redemption, would, undoubtedly have communicated it to us. No such communication has, however, been made. On the contrary, it is often declared in the most explicit language, that he who believeth not shall be damned.

Even if the Scriptures had been silent, and no such awful declarations had been found in them, the nature of the subject holds out the strongest discouragement to every presumption of this kind. After such amazing efforts, made on the part of God, to bring mankind back from a state of rebellion, and to restore them to virtue and happiness, it cannot but be believed, that their obstinate continuance in sin must be regarded by him with supreme

abhorrence. His law condemned them, for their original apostasy, to final ruin. To the guilt of this apostasy, unatoned, unrepented of, and therefore remaining in all its enormity, they, in this case, add the peculiar guilt of rejecting the singular, the eminently divine, goodness of God, manifested in this wonderful provision for their recovery. In what manner they could more contemptuously despise the divine character, in what manner they could more insolently affront the divine mercy, it is beyond my power to conceive. No other offer can be so kind; no other blessing so great; no other display of the divine character, of which we can form a conception, so lovely. The ingratitude, therefore, is wonderful; the insolence amazing; the guilt incomprehensible. If, then, the righteous scarcely be saved where shall these unbelieving, ungodly sinners appear? If it be a fearful thing for all men, for heathen and for Mohammedans, to fall into the hands of the living God; what must it be for these men, to whom Christ is offered freely, daily, and alway; who sit, from the cradle to the grave, under the noon-day light of the Gospel, and bask, through life, in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.

Whence do these persons derive their hope? From their character? That could not save them under the law. It is the very guilt, for which they are condemned. From their repentance? They exercise none. Even if they did, it could never be accepted. A perfect repentance, as has been heretofore proved, cannot become an expiation for sin. But such repentance was never exhibited by men. Their repentance is not even a sorrow for sin. On the contrary, it is the mere dread of danger; a mere, terrified expectation of punishment. Who, however abandoned, does not, at times, experience such repentance, as this? Whoever dreamed, that the dread of death ought to excuse the felon from the gibbet?

Let every unbeliever, then, tremble at the approach of the judgment. Let him no longer say to himself, Peace, peace; when sudden destruction is coming upon him. Let him turn to the strong hold, while he is yet a prisoner of hope. Let him turn to the Lord with all the heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of

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