reafon to expect fuch favours as the grant made to Jefus Chrift in their behalf; the grant, not only of the pardon of fin, but of eternal life, with all the perfection, glory, and happiness, which attend it. That the great creator and fovereign of the universe fhould be thus propitious, and fhew fuch favours to such creatures, requires fuch a foundation to make it confiftent with perfect wisdom, the highest reason, as none but he who is poffeffed of it, could either find, or lay: and firm and strong it must not only have been, but appeared to men to be, which had the whole weight of the firmest faith and hope in God to bear.

The affurance which Jehovah gave to ancient Ifrael of being their Elahim, by fixing his throne, a throne of grace, among them, even on this curfory view, appears to have been very great. But if we may suppose, that they understood at the fame time what was reprefented by the ark, with the law in it, covered with the mercy-feat, and cherubims of glory, which were but figures for the time then prefent, and fhadows of heavenly things, they must have had the fame views which we have now, of the

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new head of mankind, defigned from eternity the great priest-interceffor, the furety of the everlafting covenant or grant of eternal life. In him, the promised feed, they would find the great propitiatory, the true foundation and mean of conveyance of all that favour and grace they received, or hoped to receive, from the hand of God; and must have seen, that the only in which they or we can believe that God is, or will be, propitious, is faith, or a believing dependence on his blood; by the fhedding of which, he finished the work that was given him to do, fulfilled the terms of the grant made to him, and made over the fame kingdom by his teftament to all who would receive it from his hand, and hold it in his right.

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19. Reconciliation.

HE direct and immediate, and, I may fay, the neceffary, fruit and effect of a propitiatory, is propitiation. And when God has fet forth his ever-bleffed Son a propitiatory, it gives a firm and fure foundation for the ftrongeft confidence,

that,

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that (it is not, I think, proper to fay, he will be propitious, but that) he certainly is propitious; that is, as he proclaimed his name to Mofes, "Jehovah Elahim, gracious and merciful, long-fuffering, flow to wrath, and of great patience, forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion, and fin.” That this is a juft account of the divine nature, and which we may call his very effence, appears abundantly from this fingle confideration, that, of his own proper motion, without any external motive, he provided and established the great propitiatory. And as that was established from eternity in the unchangeable counfels of the Elahim, from the fame æra we muft date his being propitious. So that there never was a time when he could be called an enemy to mankind; though they had deferved to be treated as enemies, becaufe they were really fo to him; enemies in their minds through wicked works.

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God indeed is faid to be angry with "the wicked every day," and to have "vealed his wrath from heaven against all

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ungodlinefs and unrighteousness of men." But a father may be angry, very angry, with his children, and fhew his wrath by punishing

punishing them severely for their faults; while yet he is fo far from being their enemy, that this that this very anger, and the ftrongeft expreffions he can give of it, not only proceed from love, but are the strongest evidence of his concern for their welfare. It would be enough to fay, that this is the very cafe with God; but there is more in it. The faults of children not only reflect difgrace on their parents, but are otherwise often hurtful to their interests. But as creatures can bring no advantage to the creator by all the good they can do; fo neither can their wickedness hurt him any farther than by marring the effects of his love either in themfelves or others. And therefore the only reason of his anger and wrath, must be, concern for the good of his creatures, according to his kind and gracious purposes fet forth in his bleffed Son, the great and only propitiatory, that fin may be destroyed, and the finner faved.

It will be proper, however, to obferve here, that there is no foundation in all this for that very loofe affertion, which fome people, for very obvious reafons, appear extremely fond of, viz. That God never punishes an offender but with

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a view to the advantage of the party fuffering. Such is the effential goodness of the great creator and fovereign of the universe, that he cannot but hate, with the most perfect hatred, (if that expreffion may be allowed), all that kind of evil which goes under the name of fin; the only evil he hates, and which he therefore will certainly deftroy out of his world. He has indeed appointed, in his perfect wisdom, a way in which fin may be destroyed by the facrifice of his bleffed Son, the great propitiatory; and they who fincerely and heartily acquiefce in it, may be as fure of pardon and eternal life as God can make them. But if any finner will, in any inftance, make the God of truth a liar, and neglect his great falvation, he and his fin must be destroyed together.

But however that may be, nothing can be more evident from the whole of the divine conduct, than that God is not, that he never was, nor indeed can be, an enemy to mankind: and therefore to talk of his being reconciled, must be rather fomething worfe than an improper way of speaking, as it has a native tendency to confirm a finner in that very injurious notion of God,