VI. OF ATONEMENT FOR SIN BY THE DEATH OF

CHRIST.
You have been taught by divines, that if Christ be not God, he could not have made an infinite satisfaction for the sins of mankind. But, my brethren, where do you learn that the pardon of sin, in a finite creature, requires an infinite satis- faction ; or, indeed, any satisfaction at all, besides repentance and reformation on the part of a sin- ner? We read in the Scriptures that we are "justi- fied freely by the grace of God," Rom. iii. 34. But what free grace, or mercy, does there appear to have^been in God, if Christ gave a fall price for our justification, and bore the infinite weight of divine wrath on our account ? We are commanded to " forgive others., as we ourselves hoptf to be for- given, " Matt. vii. 14. and to be " merciful, as our Father, who is jn heaven, is merciful." But surely we are not thereby authorized to insist upon any atonement, or satisfaction, before we'give up our
resentment
hj the Death of Cfirist. 29
resentment towards an offending and- penitent bro- ther. Indeed, how could it deserve the name of forgiveness if we did > If he. only repent, we are .commanded to forgive him, Luke xvii. 4.
You read in* the Scriptures that Christ died a u sacrifice for our sins," Heb. ix. 26\ So he did, and a sacrifice it was of " a sweet-smelling savour fo God." To die, as Christ did, in the glorious cause of truth and virtue; to die, as he did, in order to show us an example of patiently suffering death for our religion, and the good of mankind, and in a firm hope of a resurrection to a future and eternal life; to die, as he did, in express attesta- tion of his own divine mission, by his manifest resurrection from the dead, and as the fullest proof of tliat doctrine, by means of which sinners are continually reconciled unto God, was a noble sa- crifice indeed. We also are commanded to t€ yield our bodies living sacrifices/' Rom. xii. 1. and we are required to offer the (€ sacrifice of praise con- tinually," Hebrews xiii. 15. But it is plain that all these are only figurative expressions, and used by way of comparison. Neither our bodies nor our prayers can be considered as real sacrifices ; not are we, therefore, obliged to suppose that Christ was a real sacrifice. And though we, like him, should be called actually to " lay down our lives for our brethren," 1 John iii. 16. which, in imita- tion of him, we are enjoined to be ready to do, we
should
30 Of Atonement for Sin
should be sacrifices only in the figurative sense of the word.
It is true, that no man who is a sinner (and all men have sinned) can be justified hy his works* We all stand in need of, and must have recourse to, free grace and mercy ; but it is a great disho- nour to God to suppose that this mercy and grace takes its rise from any thing but his own essential goodness.; and that he is not of himself and in- dependent of all foreign considerations whatever, what he solemnly declared himself to Moses, at the time of the giving of the law, to be, namely, " a God merciful and gracious, long suffering, abun- dant in goodness and in truth/' Exod. xxxiv. 6. ' or that be requires any other sacrifices but " the sacrifices of a broken spirit, and a contrite heart, which he will never despise/' £sal* li. 17,
Can we wish for a more distinct and perfect representation of the manner in which God for- gives the sins of his offspring of mankind, than eur Saviour has exhibited to us in that most ex- cellent parable of the prodigal son ? in which the good father no sooner sees his child, wjio had abandoned him, and wasted his substance in riot- ous living, returning to him and to his duty ; but without waiting for any atonement or propitiation, even €€ while he was yet a great way off, he ran to him, fell upon his neck, and kissed him," Luke xv. 20. The same representation we see in ^ the
ly the Death of Christ. 31
the parable of the creditor, who freely forgave his servant, because he humbly desired him. Let us not then, my brethren, deprive the ever-blessed God of the most glorious and honourable of all his attributes, and leave him nothing but justice, or rather vengeance, which is expressly said to be " his strange work.'* Isaiah xxviii. 21.
It is impossible to reconcile the doctrine of the satisfaction for sin by the death of Christ, with the doctrine of free grace, which, according to the uniform tenor of the Scriptures, is so fully displayed in the pardon of sin, and the justifica- tion of sinners. When, therefore, the apostle Paul says, Rom. iii. 24. " that we are justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemp- tion that is in Christ Jesus/' the meaning of the latter clause must be interpreted in such a manner as to make it consistent with the former ; and it is far from requiring any force or straining of the text to do it. For it is only necessary to suppose that our redemption (or, as the word properly signifies, and is indeed frequently rendered by our translators, our deliverance} from the power of sin, i. e. our repentance and reformation, without which there is no promise of pardon, is effected by the gospel of Jesus Christ, who came to call sinners to re* pentance. But still God is to be considered as the giver , and not the receiver, with respect to our re- demption*
32 Of Atonement for Sin
demption, for we read that " he spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all/' Rom. viii. 32.
To say that God the Father provided an atone- ment for his own offended justice is, in fact, to give up the doctrine. If a person owe me a sum of money, and I choose to have the debt discharged', is it not the same thing, whether I remit the debt at once, or supply another person with money wherewith to pay me in the debtor's name ? If satisfaction be made to any purpose, it must be iti some manner in which the offender may be a sufferer, and the offended person a gainer ; but it can never be reconciled to equity, or answer any good purpose whatever, to make the innocent suffer the punishment of- the guilty. If, as Abraham says, it be " far from God to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked," Gen. xviii. 25. much further must it be from him to slay the righteous instead of the wicked.
I wish the zealous advocates for this doctrine would consider, that if it be necessary, in the na- ture of things, that the justice of God be satisfied before any sin can be pardoned, and Christ be God as well as the Father, whether the justice of Christ ought not to have been satisfied in the first place. If so, what other infinite being has made satisfaction to him ? But if the divine nature of the Son,
required
lythe Death of Christ \ 33
required no satisfaction, why should the divine nature of the Father require any ?
If it had been inconsistent with the divine justice to pardon *sin upon repentance only, without some farther satisfaction, we might have expected to have found it expressly said to he so in the Scriptures; but no such declaration can be pro- duced either from the Old or the New Testament. All that can be pretended is, that it may be inferred from it. Though good works are recommended to us in the strongest manner, it is never with any "salvo or caution, as if they were not of themselves acceptable to God. The declarations of -the divine- mercy to the penitent are all absolute, without the- most distant hint of their having a reference to any consideration on which they are made. " Thou 9 Lord, art good, and ready to forgive," Psalm ]xxxiv. 5. "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebel led-iagainst him," Dan. ix. 3. When David and olher peni- tents confess their sins, and entreat for pardon, they» refer -themselves to the divine mercy only, without seeming to have the least idea of any thing further. "Remember not -the sins* of my youth,- nor my. transgressions ; according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness sake, O Lord," Psalm xxv. 6.
It is particularly remarkable, that when sacrifices under the law are expressly said not to be sufficient
B- 5 for
34 Of Atonement for Sin
for the pardon of sin, we are never referred to any more availing sacfiifice; but to good works only. *' Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it ; thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of the Lord are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.'* Psalm li. 16, 17» If any of the Jews had had the least notion of the necessity of any atonement for the sins of mankind, they could not but have expected a suffering Messiah ; and yet it is plain that the very best of them had no such idea. And though our Saviour frequently explains the reason of his coming, and the necessity of his suffering, it is never on any such account. If he had done it any where, it might have been expected in those discourses by which he endeavoured to reconcile his disciples to his death, in his solemn prayer before his sufferings, at the time of his agony in the garden, or when he was upon the cross ; yet nothing of this kind drops from him on any of these occasions.
- When our Lord describes the proceedings of the day of judgement, he doth not represent the righteous as referring themselves to the sufferings or merit of their judge for their justification ; and the judge
himself expressly grounds it on their good works only. Though Peter, in his discourse to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, speaks of their sin in murdering Christ as of a heinous nature, he says
not
' ly the Death of Christ. 35
not a word of the necessity of any atonement; or that an amplesatisfaction had just been made by means of their very wickedness. How would a modern divine have harangued upon the occasion, and what advantage might he have taken of the cry of tti£ Jews, His blood be upon us and upon our chiU dren ! But Peter only exhorts to repentance, and speaks of the death of Christ as an event that took place according to the foreknowledge of God.
All the discourses of Paul upon various occasions in the book of Acts are entirely moral*. In his celebrated speech at Athens, he only urges his hearers to repentance, from the consideration of a future judgement. He says not a word of what is now called the true gospel of Jesus Christ. In short, it is only from the literal interpretation of a few figurative expressions in the Scriptures that this doctrine of atonement , as well as that of transtibstan- tiation, has been derived ; and it is certainly a doc* Irine highly injurious to God ; and if we, who are commanded to imitate God, should act upon the maxims of it, it would be subversive of the most amiable part of virtue in men. We should be implacable and unmerciful, insisting upon the ut- termost farthing.
These, my brethren, are the principal heads oa which I proposed to expostulate with you, in the plain and free jnanner in which I have done. Do you yourselves "search the Scriptures, and see
whether
36 Practical Consequences
whether these things be so. Pray to the God of truth to lead you into all truth; and may he give you understanding in all things!"