common nature of all men, yet perfectly free from sin; a man, united to God, and so personally one with God, that it could be truly said, "God purchased his church with his own blood:" "For," argueth the apostle, "if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences ?"

That only will satisfy the enlightened conscience, which will satisfy God; which the conscience can approve as worthy of him, and in which it can see every thing requisite to answer the end for which sacrifices were appointed.

The apostle argues, that the legal sacrifices, which were but shadows of good things to come, could never make the comers thereunto perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; for nothing could be seen in those sacrifices sufficient to produce the effect which God designed, and man's condition required. " It was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin." But the offering of Christ, through the Eternal Spirit, had in it every thing proportionate to the glory of God,

For this

God, and the salvation of man. reason "it was offered once for all,” and not to be ever repeated. Neither God, nor the consciences of men, will look for any thing more perfect, nor for any addition to the perfection of this one sacrifice. It was a redemption-price of inestimable value, arising from the dignity of the Redeemer's character. It was the price of man's deliverance from death, that curse and wages of sin; and, in its consequence, it will be the opening of the grave and of the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

That Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our justification; that Christ is the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world; that Christ was lifted up, as the serpent in the wilderness, for the healing of all nations; that Christ is the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; that Christ is the resurrection and the life, and that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life-as clearly appears in scripture, as the sun before us. But are there no difficulties connected with this doctrine?

That the idea of such a mediation is extraordinary and amazing, we must allow; that it is far above what man's understanding could have conceived, and that it even overwhelms

all his thoughts, we feel and acknowledge : and many of the works of God do the same. But that it is inconsistent with reason, that it is contradictory to the plain undeniable dictates of the human mind, or abhorrent from the moral sentiments of our nature, we must deny. On the contrary, it perfectly accords with our reason, experience, and feelings.

We know not all the purposes of Providence, and the ends which the Divine mediation is to answer. Some of them, however, as far as we are concerned, are plainly intimated. Christ is said to bear our sins, or, the punishment of them; to have our iniquities, or, the chastisement due to them, laid upon him; to become answerable for us as the debts we owe are exacted; to suffer the just for, or in place of, the unjust; to redeem us from the curse, being made a curse for, or instead of us. But there is a passage still more explicit in the Epistle to the Romans, where it is said of Christ, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation to declare, or for the manifestation, or clear exhibition, of his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.". Romans iii. 25, 26.

That

That mercy might be exercised in consistency with justice; that both might be displayed, each to the greatest possible advantage, in beauteous harmony together; that the honor of the Divine government might be maintained, its laws supported, and the ends of punishment answered, while even the chief of sinners might be saved: THIS, it would appear, was the primary reason why Christ died.

With respect to future worlds we know not God's vast designs. Yet thus much is said in Scripture concerning this salvation-that the angels desire to look into it; that unto principalities, and powers, in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God is made known by the Church; that is, by the counsels and dealings of God with regard to the salvation of redeemed sinners and again, that it is the design of God, in the ages to come, or futurity, to shew the exceeding riches of his grace, by his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ.

This obviates the objection drawn from the apparent insignificance of him who was to be redeemed.

Whoever is disposed to attend to the dictates of unbiassed reason, may consult Bishop Butler's

Butler's Analogy of Religion, in the second part of which he will find it most forcibly demonstrated, that all the providential blessings which Almighty God confers upon us, are communicated, not immediately, but mediately through the instrumentality of others. It will be found demonstrated, that the whole economy of this world consists of evils and remedies, and these, for the most part, administered by the instrumentality of intermediate agents. The consonance of human reason with the idea of atonement, is not deducible from sacrifical institutions only: every part of life exhibits ideas of redemption from evils, and making atonement or satisfaction for the faults or misery of others. What, for instance, is the kind office (sometimes done) of releasing a person from the horrors of a jail, by paying his debts, but a redemption from evil? What is all medical aid, all relief of poverty, the whole course of our infancy, youth, and education, but a friendly redemption from evils to which, without that redemption we must have yielded? Thus we see a redemp tion from evil by paying a price or substitute in some shape or other, by money, by skill or power, and often by suffering, is no new idea, introduced by Christianity, but is, in fact,

the