to come.

Effay VII. Were we to judge of this matter by what happens in the prefent life, we fhould be led to believe, that repentance will not, by itself, prevent the penal confequences of fin in the life For when men ruin their fortunes by extravagance, or their health by excefs in fenfual indulgencies, it is well known, that repentance alone doth not remove these evil confequences of their follies and exceffes. In like manner, when individuals incur the penalties of human laws, no wife governor finds it either reasonable in itself, or expedient for the good of the community, to free the criminal from the punishment which the wholesome laws of the ftate have annexed to fuch crimes, merely because he hath repented of them. The punishment of criminals is neceffary to deter others from committing the like offences. Wherefore, if in the prefent life, repentance is never found of itself to remove the temporal evil consequences which God hath connected with vice; alfo if, men themselves being judges, repentance ought not to prevent the punishment of crimes injurious to fociety, what reason hath any person, from the prefent conftitution of things, to expect that repentance of itself will prevent those penal confequences which God may have thought fit to annex to vice in the life to come? Much more, what reason hath any one, from the present constitution of things, to expect that repentance and reformation will put the finner into the condition he would have been in, if he had always preferved his innocence? The prevalence of propitiatory facrifices in every age and country of the world, certainly fheweth it to be the general fenfe of mankind, that repentance is not of itself sufficient to procure the pardon of fin; but that fomething befides is neceffary to induce the Deity to be propi tious, even to the penitent finner.

I acknowledge, indeed, that the prevention of the bad con. fequences of vice, and the removal of these consequences when they happen, which in the prefent conftitution of things, sometimes takes place through the timely affiftance of others, affords a prefumption, that the connection between fin and pu nishment is not fo rigid, but that in certain cafes it may be broken. This prefumption, however, goeth no farther than to afford a flight hope, that punishment, even in the life to come,

may poffibly be avoided through fome foreign affistance. But whether any fuch affiftance be actually provided, and what that affiftance is, and by whom it is to be afforded, cannot be known. from the prefent conftitution of things. It is God alone who can discover these things to us. Wherefore, if revelation teacheth that God hath been pleased through the vicarious fufferings of his fon, to prevent thofe penal confequences from coming on finners in the future life, which in the original conftitution of things he hath connected with fin, these things should not be objected against because they are not discoverable by human reason. The only thing proper for us to do, is to enquire whether it be really a doctrine of revelation, that through the sufferings of Chrift the penal confequences of fin are, in the life to come, to be prevented from coming on the finner, who having repented of his fins and reformed his conduct, is capable of being pardoned. And if, on enquiry, this is found to be a doctrine of revelation, "Our wifdom is," as Butler obferves, "thankfully to accept the benefit, by performing the conditions. "upon which it is offered, without difputing how it was pro"cured on the part of Chrift."

SECT. II. Shewing it to be a Doctrine of Revelation, that Chrift bath made atonement for the Sin of the World, by his Death.

1

That Chrift hath made atonement for the fins of men by his sufferings and death, is revealed in all those paffages of scripture, where his death is represented as a propitiatory facrifice. For, fince according to the ideas, which in every age and nation, mankind have entertained of propitiatory facrifices, they were believed to have a real efficacy in procuring the pardon of fin, the scriptures, by calling Christ's death a facrifice for fin, have declared it to have that efficacy; and have taught us to expect pardon, through the efficacy of that facrifice.

To recite all the paffages of the Jewish and Christian revela. tions, in which the sufferings and death of Chrift are spoken of as a propitiatory facrifice, and the pardon of fin is reprefented as owing to the efficacy of that facrifice, would lengthen this effay beyond bounds. The following appear to be fome of the

principal paffages, and therefore they merit the reader's attention, Ifa. liii. 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. -10. When thou shalt make his foul an offering for fin, he shall fee his feed.-John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the fin of the world.-Rom. iii. 25. Whom God hath fet forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, for a proof of his own righteousness in passing by the fins which were before committed through the forbearance of God: 26. For a proof also of his righteousness in the prefent time, in order that he may be juft, when juftifying him who is of the faith of Jefus.-Rom. iv. 25. Who was delivered to death for our offences, and was raifed again for our juftification.-Gal. iii. 13. Chrift hath bought us off from the curfe of the law, having become a curfe for us.-Ephef. i. 7. By whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of fins.-Heb. ii. 14. Since then the children participate of flesh and blood, even he in like manner partook of these, that through death be might render ineffectual him who had the pover of death, that is, the devil. Heb. ix. 25. Not however, that he should offer himself often, as the high-pricft entereth into the holy places every year with other blood. 26. For then he must often have suffered fince the formation of the world: but now once at the conclufion of the ages, he hath been manifefted to abolish fin offering, by the facrifice of himself. 27. And for as much as it is appointed to men once to die, and after that the judgment; 28. So alfo Chrift, being once offered in order to carry away the fins of many, will, to them who wait for him, appear a fecond time without fin-offering, in order to falvation.— Heb. x. 10. By which will we are fanctified, through the offering of the body of Chrift once.-1 Pet. iii. 18. For Chrift alfo hath once fuffered for fin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.

Thefe paffages, with many others which might be mentioned, taken according to their plain meaning, in conjunction with what Chrift faid to his difciples, when he instituted his fupper, to prevent his death and the ends for which he died, from being forgotten in the world; namely, This is my blood of the new covenant which is fhed for many for the remiffion of fins, Matth. xxvi. 28. I fay, these paffages teach us, That Chrift's sufferings and death, have, as B. Butler expreffes it, an efficacy additional to, and beyond mere inflruction, example, and government.

To

To elude, however, the force of the argument, taken from the account given in the fcriptures, of the end for which Chrift fuffered and died, fome have affirmed,

First, That Chrift's death is called a facrifice for fin, not because it was really fuch a facrifice, but merely in accommodation to the prejudices of mankind, who, from the beginning of the world, expected the pardon of their fins through the efficacy of facrifice. To this the answer is, 1. We know, that Chrift's death is not called a facrifice for fin, in accommodation to the prejudices of the Jews, and in conformity to the Mofaic phraseology; but that the Mofaic phrafeology was founded on the Levitical facrifices being types or prefigurations of the facrifice of Christ. So we are affured, Heb. viii. 5. Thefe ferve with a reprefentation and shadow of heavenly things, fince Mofes, when about to conftruct the tabernacle, was admonished of God; fee, now, faith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern which was fhewed thee in the Mount. For from this it appears, That as the tabernacle which Moses finished was a copy of the tabernacle fhewed to him on the mount, fo the Levitical priesthood, which he appointed, was a type of the priesthood of Christ: and the fervice of the Levitical priests, which he appointed to be performed in the earthly tabernacle, agreeably to the pattern shewed to him in the mount, was a type of the service of Christ, as an high priest, in the heavenly holy places. The fame thing appears from many other paffages in the Epiftle to the Hebrews. Wherefore, the death of Chrift was not called by the inspired writers, a facrifice for fin, in allufion to the Levitical fin-offerings; but these were called facrifices for fin, because they were types or prefigurations of the real facrifice of Christ. 2. If, in the account which the infpired writers have given of Christ's death as a facrifice for fin, they have not alluded to the Levitical facrifices, it will readily be allowed, that they have far lefs alluded to the heathen facrifices. For thefe not being of divine inftitution, as the Levitical facrifices were, if the facred writers have called Christ's death a facrifice for fin, in allufion to the heathen facrifices, they have given to those superftitions an importance to which they were by no means intitled. 3. If Chrift, in fpeaking of his blood as fhed for the remiffion of fin, and his apostles, in afcribing to his death all the efficacy which

Bb3

the

Effay VII. the facrifices for fin were supposed, both by the Jews and Gentiles, to poffefs, have not expreffed what is true in fact, but only have accommodated their language to the ill-founded prejudices and hopes of mankind, they have deceived us in a matter of the greatest importance. And the Epistle to the Hebrews, which was written profeffedly to prove that Chrift really offered himself a facrifice for fin, is a pernicious writing; because, by eftablishing a falfe fact, it hath led mankind to truft for the pardon of their fins to a lie.

Secondly, To deftroy the argument by which Christ's death is proved to be a real facrifice for fin, taken from the account given of it in fcripture, there are fome who contend that it is called a facrifice for fin, in a metaphorical fense only; because he died for the confirmation of his doctrine concerning the pardon of fin to be obtained through repentance, and as an example of patience and fortitude in fuffering for, righteousness fake, whereby his difciples are ftrongly excited to virtue. The perfons of whom I speak, supposing, it seems, that to the pardon of a finner nothing is requifite but his repentance and reformation, affirm, that Christ's death, by which the reformation and virtue of the world are fo effectually promoted, may be called a facrifice for the fin of the world in a metaphorical sense, with as much propriety as prayer, and praise, and almsgiving, are called facrifices with which God is well-pleased. But not to insist on what is well known, that prayer, and praise, and almsgiving, are nowhere called facrifices for fin, I reply, 1. That if Christ's death hath no other efficacy in procuring pardon for finners, but by promoting their reformation and exciting them to virtue; the fufferings and death of any other prophet or martyr may with as much truth and propriety, as the fufferings and death of Christ, be called a facrifice for fin; and the salvation of penitents may as truly be ascribed to their sufferings and death, as to Chrift's; at least, in as far as their fufferings added weight to their doctrine; and in proportion to the influence which their doctrine, in conjunction with their example, hath had in exciting others to virtue. Yet, nowhere in scripture are the fufferings of any prophet or martyr, termed a facrifice for the fin of the world; nor is the falvation of finners afcribed to any of them; nor are any of them called faviours. In particular, the

apoftle