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all cafes an abomination to God, that I believe fuch an offering to have been one of the higheft acts of obedience that ever was performed by any mere man. Take now thy fon, thine only fon Ifaac, faid the Almighty to faithful Abraham, and offer him for a burnt-offering. This the holy man executed in intention, which was the fame as to the virtuoufnefs or vitioufnefs of the thing, as if he had actually done it:* Yet he received the highest applaufe from his unerring Judge. The doctrine of atonement fuppofes Chrift to have laid down his life for finners in obedience to the will of his Father; the affertion, therefore, that this would have been a crime, or act of disobedience, carries abfurdity on the face of it. If our author does not include this in his idea of Chrift's facrifice, he is combating a fhadow, and is engaged in a contention in which he has no opponent.

5. Mr. G. feems to me to have overturned, his own arguments against the death of Christ being confidered as a facrifice for fin, in the fame manner as the author of the Appeal has done. He afferts that "the death of Christ "is ftiled a facrifice, not because it was truly " and properly fuch in the Jewish sense of fa"crifices; but because it was a diftinguished

*This feems to be the apoftle's view of the matter, when he says, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, OFFERED UP Ifaac, and he that had received the promises, OFFERED UP his only begotten fon. Heb. xi. 17.

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expreffion of his regard to God. Hence "alfo other moral virtues, fuch as praife, and "thanksgiving, doing good, and communicating, "are called by that name. In fhort," fays he,

"as the New Teftament facrifices are all fpi"ritual and moral ones, that of Chrift must "be fo too." P. 42. "Where he is exhi"bited under Mofaic and Levitical images, "fuch as propitiation, and the like, it is plain "that the writers use the figurative ftyle." P. 43. "From all which," (speaking of fome preceding arguments, he fays,) "it is evident, "that Chrift being called our propitiation is "only in the allufive way, and that he could "in no other fenfe be an atonement, than "that of declaring God's gracious purpose of

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paffing over the fins of men, on the condi"tion of their future repentance. Not that "what he did and fuffered procured that mercy, but were only declarative of it." P.48. When Mr. G. tells us what was the nature of real propitiatory facrifices, he gives this description of them. Propitiatory facrifices I "confider as public certifications, that the of"ferers were either defirous of being restored, or actually were reftored to the privileges "of citizens; not by virtue of the facrifice "which they offered, but of the penitent dispofition accompanying that facrifice." Ib. "So Chrift," fays he, "is our propitiation, declaring us in a state of favour with God; "not in virtue of what he fuffered, but on

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"condition only of our renewed obedience." Ib. Are not these two accounts of the matter. manifeftly inconfiftent? If the proper idea of real propitiatory facrifices be that of public certificates, or declarations of God's favour to the penitent; and if Chrift is our propitiation precifely in the fame fenfe, as is here afferted; then it plainly follows, that he is not called fo figuratively, but that his death was as real a facrifice as the Jewish propitiatory facrifices

were.

6. The immoral tendency of the doctrine of atonement, and the practical advantages of Socinianism, are favourite topics with Mr. G. he enlarges upon them frequently in his letters. I fhall, therefore, make one remark on this head, before I conclude thefe reflections. Our author obferves, that "the beft and fu"reft criterion of religious principles is their "moral influence; this is our Saviour's own "rule, By their fruits shall ye know them; the "fruits which they have a tendency and fit"nefs to produce." P. 63, 64. Now, Sir," (adds he, addreffing himself to his friend,) "I appeal to you, whether principles, "that in any degree relax the obligation of "the moral law, are principles which a wife

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man would efpoufe, or an honest man de"fend?" Ib. Whether our author's doctrine has not fome tendency to relax the obligation of the moral law, I leave the reader to judge, when he has confidered the following fentence respecting

respecting moral obligation. "To say that 66 every the leaft error in moral life deferves "eternal torments, is a hard faying, and who

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can bear it." P. 19. How different is the language of fcripture on this head! The WAGES of fin is DEATH. Rom. vi. 23. Death, eternal death, as the context plainly intimates, and various other paffages declare,* is th wages, the due defert and reward of fin, of fin indefinitely, of every tranfgreffion of the moral law.

May this awful truth be written upon our hearts, that we may apprehend rightly the exceeding finfulness of fin, as the apostle speaks, and be led by this knowledge to embrace the falvation which is by Jesus Christ !

* As Gal. iii. 10. Curfed is every one that continueth not in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them. James ii. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in ONE point, he is guilty of all.

Sold by JOHN BINNS, Bookfeller in Briggate, Leeds, This Day is published, the fecond Edition, Price 3d. of

A SHORT DEFENCE of the DOCTRINE of

the DIVINITY of CHRIST,

With fome Remarks upon a late Appeal to the ferious and candid Profeffors of Christianity. M. Hey,

A

by

To which is added,

SUPPLEMENT,

Containing Obfervations upon a late Familiar Illuftration of certain Passages of Scripture.

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