Page images
PDF
EPUB

it is impossible to obtain. And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the biood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight. Amen.

SERMON XXIX.

THE NATURE AND END OF THE SACRIFICES OF THE

MOSAIC LAW EXPLAINED.

ROM. V, 11.

And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received

the Atonement.

THOSE, whose opinions we oppose, maintain

that Christ, by his obedience to death, made a proper, a real, and full satisfaction to divine justice. for the sins of men; so that whoever by faith relies upon his sufferings is justified in the sight of God, and has his sins no longer imputed to him. This opinion is called the doctrine of the atonement; and the belief of it is supposed to be absolutely necessary to obtain forgiveness of sins and eternal life hereafter. To make this atonement is supposed to be the great design and end of the Christian dispensationthat which Christ, the second person in the Trinity, had in view in coming into the world: it is also imagined that there is a reference to it in the rites and ceremonies of the, Mosaic law, particularly in the atonement and sacrifices which that law requires, and that these were principally figures, to

represent to men at that time the true sacrifice and atonement afterward to be made by Christ.

"

I have already shown how unnecessary these methods of averting the divine displeasure from sinners are, by proving, that all God requires in order to bestow forgiveness, is repentance and reformation. I have also shown, that the great design of the death of Christ was, to give an example of a resurrection from the dead to eternal life, for the purpose of establishing the faith of Christians in that important and interesting event, and that the beneficial consequences attributed to it arise thence.

I should now proceed to examine those figurative representations which are given of the death of Christ, and to show how well those correspond with the idea before-mentioned, as it's principal design; but the doctrine of the atonement of Christ is sup. posed to derive so much countenance and support from the atonements of the Jewish ritual, that it will be necessary to consider their design, and use, in order to determine how far the inferences, so confidently drawn from them, are just; and if we can prove that they were of no avail by themselves to take away the guilt of sin and secure the favour of God, but were appointed for a different purpose, we shall have a strong presumption that the death of Christ, so often spoken of in the same light, could have no such effect.

These atonements were required on a great variety of occasions, for different persons and things; but

they had one general design, which was to maintain a regular and becoming intercourse between God and his people in the ordinances of religious worship. In order to understand the propriety of them in this view, it is necessary to remember the peculiar relation in which God stood to the children of Israel; that he was not only their God, but likewise their king, dwelling among his subjects by a visible symbol, in a royal pavilion, or tabernacle. It became necessary, therefore, that certain ceremonies should be instituted, to regulate the intercourse between these subjects and their sovereign, between this people and their God, and that proper officers should be set apart to attend upon his royal presence, to perform the services of the court, and to conduct or manage the intercourse of the people with the Lord their God. In this ritual we find certain atonements prescribed on various occasions for different purposes. We shall reduce them to different heads, in order to take a general view of their design, and afterward make some observation upon the whole.

Thus, first, we find atonement appointed at the first dedication or consecration of things or persons to the service of God, whereby things were solemnly appropriated or set apart to be solely employed in that service, and persons were invested with and acknowledged to have a right or privilege to attend upon and perform the appointed acts of religious worship, or other services, allotted to them accord

« PreviousContinue »