cred authority, might be effectually secured. To act contrary to his own nature, was impossible; to have no regard to the honour of his law and government, was unreasonable; a guilty world had better all have been damned.

Thus, from the perfections of God, and from the nature of the thing, we see the necessity there was that satisfaction should be made for sin, in order to open an honourable way in which divine mercy might come out after a rebellious, guilty, hell-deserving world.

To conclude this head, the necessity of satisfaction for sin, seems also to be held forth in the scriptures, and to be implied in God's conduct in this affair. In the Old Testament, the necessity of an atonement for sin was taught in types and figures. The man that sinned was to bring his offering before the Lord, and lay his hands upon it, and confess his sin over it; and so, as it were, transfer his sin and guilt to it; then was it to be slain, (for death is the wages of sin,) and burnt upon the altar, (for the sinner deserves to be consumed in the fire of God's wrath,) and the blood thereof was to be sprinkled round about, (for without shedding of blood there is no remission ;) nor was there any other way of obtaining pardon prescribed but this, which naturally taught the necessity of satisfaction for sin, and led the pious Jews to some general notion of the great atonement which God would provide, and to a cordial reliance thereon for acceptance in the sight of God. Lev. iv. and xvi. Heb. ix. But, in the New Testament, the nature and necessity of satisfaction for sin, and the impossibility of finding acceptance with God, unless through the atonement of Christ, is taught in language very plain and express; particularly in the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. St. Paul, having proved both Jews and Greeks to be under sin, and all the world to be guilty before God, and that every mouth must be stopped, in the first and second chapters, and in the beginning of the third, does, in the next place, enter upon, and begin to explain the way of salvation, by free grace, through Jesus Christ. "We cannot," says he," be justified by the deeds of the law, (Chap. iii. 20.) but it must be freely by grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, (ver. 24.) But if we are not justified by the deeds of the law; by our own

obedience, how will God, our Judge, appear to be righteous? If the law condemns us, and yet he justifies us, i. e. if he thus proceeds contrary to law, to clear and approve when that condemns, how will he appear to be a just and upright Governor and Judge, who, loving righteousness and hating iniquity, is disposed always to render to every one his due? Why, there is a way contrived, wherein the righteousness of God is manifested in our justification without the law's being obey ed by us; a way unto which the types of the law and predictions of the prophets did all bear witness; a way in which the righteousness of God is manifested in and by Christ, (ver. 21, 22.) But how? Why, God hath set him forth to be a propitiation, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." The apostle seems evidently to suppose that God could not have been just, had he not thus declared his righteousness; and that he actually took this method to declare and manifest his righteousness, to the end he might be just; might act agreeably to his nature, the original standard of justice, and to his law, which is the transcript of his nature, and the established rule of righteousness between him our Governor, and us his subjects. He set forth his Son to be a propitiation for the remission of sin, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the jus tifier, &c.

BESIDES, The necessity of satisfaction for sin, and that even by the death of Christ, seems to be implied in our Saviour's prayer in the garden, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. Mat. xxvi. 39. And again, (ver. 42.) O, my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done: as if Christ had said, "If it be possible thy designs of mercy might be put into execution, and poor sinners saved, consistently with thine honour, without my drinking this cup, O that it might be! but if it is not possible it should be so, I consent." Satisfaction for sin being necessary, and there being no easier way in which satisfaction for sin might be made, and a door opened for merey to come to a guilty world, consistently with the divine ho

nour, seems to have been the very ground of the Father's wilking him, and of Christ's consenting to drink that cup. And, indeed, is it possible to conceive why Christ should be willing to suffer what he did, or why his Father should desire it, were it not an expedient absolutely necessary, and nothing else would do, so that it must be, or not one of the race of Adam be ever saved, consistently with the divine honour? If it was not so absolutely necessary; if there was some cheaper and easier way that would have done, why did the Father will this? or how had Christ a sufficient call to undertake it? or, indeed, what need was there for him to undertake it? or what good would it do? If sin was not, in very deed, so bad a thing that it could not be pardoned without such a satisfaction, why was such a satisfaction insisted upon? why a greater satisfaction than was needful? Could a holy and wise God set so light by the blood of his dear Son, as to desire it to be shed without the most urgent necessity? Or why should the Governor of the world make more ado than was necessary, and then magnify his love in giving his Son, when mankind might have been saved without it? Did this become the great Governor of the world? or would God have us look upon his conduct in such a light? Surely no. Verily, therefore, such was the case of a rebellious, guilty world, that God looked upon them too bad to be released, consistently with the divine honour, from the threatened destruction, unless such a mediator should interpose, and such a satisfaction for sin be made; and therefore Christ acquiesced in his will, as being wise, holy, just, and good. And this being supposed, the love of God, in giving his Son, appears even such as it is represented to be ; unparalleled, unspeakable, inconceivable; so, also, does the love of Christ in undertaking. And thus, from the perfections of God, and from the scriptures, and from God's conduct in this affair, it appears that a full satisfaction for sin was necessary, in order to its being pardoned, or any favour shown to a guilty world, consistently with the divine honour.

And if we, in very deed, did stand in such need, such an absolute, perishing need of a mediator, as this comes to; if God looked upon things in such a light, then must we see this our need of a mediator, and look upon things in this

light too, and have a sense of this great truth upon our hearts for, otherwise, we neither truly understand what a state we are in, nor what need we have of a mediator. And if we do not truly understand what a state we are in, nor our need of the mediator God has provided, how can we be in a disposition to receive him as he is offered in the gospel, and truly and understandingly to rely upon him, his death and sufferings; his worth and merits; his mediation and intercession, as the gospel invites us to do?

To see our need of Christ to be our atonement; to see our need of his propitiatory sacrifice to open the way for the Govenor of the world to be reconciled to us consistently with his honour, is a very different thing from what many imagine. Some fancy they want Christ to purchase an abatement of the law, and satisfy for their imperfections; and then they hope to procure the divine favour by their own goodness. Some trust in Christ and the free grace of God through him, as they think, and yet, at the same time, look upon God as obliged, in justice, to save them, if they do as well as they can. Some, who lay not so high a claim to the divine favour, yet, by their tears and prayers, hope to move the compassions of God, and, by their fair promises, to engage his favour, and would secretly think it hard, if after all, God should cast them off; and yet they pretend to see their need of Christ, and to trust in him. But these are all evidently so far from seeing their need of Christ, that, in the temper and exercises of their hearts, they implicitly and practically deny any need of him at all; to their own sense, they are good enough to be accepted in the sight of God, upon their own account. Rom. x. 3. Others who have had great awakenings and convictions, and see much of their own badness, and do, in a sort, renounce their own righteousness; they look to be saved by free grace; but, in all the exercises of their hearts, see no need of a mediator, and have nothing to do with him: they see no reason why they may not be pitied and saved by free grace, without any respect to the atonement of Christ. They do not understand that they are so bad that it would be a reproach to the Governor of the world to show them mercy, otherwise than through a mediator. Others, again, who talk much of

:

Christ, and of faith, and of living by faith, and cry down works, and think themselves most evangelical, yet, after all, only believe that Christ died for them in particular, and that they shall be saved this is their faith, and this their trusting in Christ; whereby it is evident, they never truly saw their need of Christ, nor have they any respect to him under the proper character of a Mediator. But then do persons see their need of Christ, when, from a sense of what they are, and of what God is, they are convinced that they are too bad to be pardoned and accepted; so bad that any thing short of damnation is too good for them; so that it would be inconsistent with the divine perfections, and to the reproach of the great Governor of the world, to show them any favour without some sufficient salvo to his honour. Now they see their need of Christ, and are prepared to exercise faith in his blood, (to use the apostle's phrase. Rom. iii 23.) and not till now: for men cannot be said to see their need of Christ and his atonement, unless they see that in their case which renders his atonement needful; but its being inconsistent with the divine perfections, and to the dishonour of God, to pardon sin without satisfaction, was that which made an atonement needful. Therefore, sinners must see their case to be such as that it would be inconsistent with the divine perfections, and to the dishonour of God, to grant them pardon without satisfaction for their sins, in order to see their need of Christ and of his atonement. When they see their case to be such, then they begin to see things as they are; to view them in the same light that God does ; to perceive upon what grounds, and for what reasons, a mediator was necessary, and why and upon what accounts they want one; and hereby a foundation is laid for them, understandingly, to have a fiducial recourse to that mediator which God has provided, that, through him, consistently with the divine perfections, they may be received to favour and so, from Christ the Mediator, and from the free grace of God through him, do they take all their encouragement to come to God, in hopes of pardon and acceptance, and eternal life.→ And thus they look to be justified by free grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, which is what the gospel intends and proposes. Rom. iii. 24. And from an increasing