sically impossible for him to fulfil? God knew that Judas would betray Christ, but Judas was not necessitated to be a traitor, by God's knowledge. Punishment proves the existence of sin, sin proves the existence of a law, and a law given by a righteous and merciful God, proves the possibility of obedience. The prescience of God is to be considered as perfectly distinct from his will, he willeth not the death of a sinner, but he foresees that the impenitent will perish, and he foresees all the actions of men, both those which are conformable, and those which are contrary to his will; he foresaw original transgression, but his prescience did not af fect the free agency of Adam, though pity to the human race, induced him to provide the consequent remedy.

On the doctrine of atonement, christianity, properly so called, is erected. By christianity, I mean the religion of fallen beings, the truths to be believed, and the duties to be performed, by such beings. In this view, the salvation of mankind, through the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever has been, and ever must be, a most interest

ing subject, to all serious minds. And there is one thing, concerning which, we have no division or difference of opinion at all, which is, that the death of Christ is spoken of, in reference to human redemption, in terms and in a manner, in which the death of no person whatever, is spoken of besides. Many have died martyrs, many have suffered in a righteous cause, but that is said of him, and of his death and sufferings, which is not said of any one else; an efficacy and a concern are ascribed to him, in the accomplishment of mans' salvation, which are not ascribed to any other. In this instance the scriptures are full and conclusive,-" Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and smite the man that is my fellow, (Jehovah's fellow) saith the Lord of hosts." Zechariah xiii. 7. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. Micah v. 1. In perfect consonance with this idea, is the language of the apostles, they speak of Christ as a ransome for many, a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, as dying for us, as bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, as tasting death for every man. few of the assertions of the

These are only a

inspired writers

relative to the great doctrine of atonement, but they have no doubtful or delusive meaning, they are oracles from heaven, and let men use what art they please in torturing such expressions as these, they cannot prevent us from seeing what the general sense of scripture is "That it hath pleased God to give us eternal life only in his Son, and in his Son as suffering and dying for us." Thus hath God bestowed upon man the greatest gift his eternal plenitude could provide, and beyond which, heaven itself hath nothing more valuable or glorious to impart.

Why this precise mode of redemption, by the death and sufferings of Christ, was preferred to all other, in the eternal purpose of the Godhead, exceeds the power of human reason to discover, because the attribute of wisdom, which is out of the reach of man to apply to this enquiry, is here most materially concerned. It is a subject of pure revelation. By his own reason, man can add nothing to what is revealed, and without impiety, he can alter nothing. But when it hath been proved by fact, that a religion was revealed, in which this mode of redemption

is employed, then reason may lend her modest aid, to shew (what a rational religion seems to expect should be shewn) that this precise mode of atonement is conformable to all our ideas of divine goodness and justice. Nay, that it best quadrates with, as it is seen to be the most proper means of, a restoration to a free gift, when it is become justly forfeited. This difference, in the application of reason to religious matters, Moses hath not obscurely intimated to the Israelites, where in his last direction for their conduct, he says, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us, and to our children for ever ;" and if I should not observe this sage direction, but vainly endeavour to explain mysteries, which the gospel hath left unexplained, I should justly incur the censure of Jerome to his adversaries,-" Why do you pretend, after so many ages are elapsed, to teach us, what was never taught beforewhy attempt to explain what neither Peter nor Paul, thought it necessary for man to know." Ad Pammachium De Erroribus originis.

It appears to me, that all the real doctrines of religion, as contained in the new testament, are defensible upon the purest principles of reason, without sacrificing any one that is clearly revealed, though it may appear to be mysterious. But those writers who deny the divinity of Christ, and are pleased to style themselves by the title of rational Christians, (with the implied insinuation of course, that the title does not belong to those christians who differ from them in doctrine,) pretend to teach and study christianity on a more liberal plan, to clear it from a load of superstition and corruption, to emancipate the minds of those who believe in it, from the shackles of narrow prejudice, and to enable them to think boldly for themselves. Now pleas and pretensions such as these, must address themselves to many minds, with great effect. They are particularly calculated to work upon the feelings of the young and inexperienced, who may be easily caught by the sound of such assumptions, without the ability to examine, with any justness, their foundations.