voluntary victim, completely qualified to make a full expiation of sin. Confident of his own consummate ability to perform the arduous work; perfectly willing to undergo all the bitterness of suffering included under the notion of being made an expiatory sacrifice for sin; and absolutely certain of obtaining his end, in the honour of God and the happiness of man; he appears with an air of exalted personal dignity, and speaks with a tone of superlative, conscious worth. Lo, I come-Lo, I come to do thy will, O God-is the emphatical manner in which he speaks of himself. Besides, he contrasts the once offering up of himself a sacrifice for sin, with the whole aggregate of propitiatory oblations which had been presented to God, by patriarchs or priests, from the beginning of the world, and gives it an infinite preference to them all.Nor need we wonder. For the infallible writer of this epistle has taught us to consider the Messiah's personal dignity, as being incomparably superior to that of Aaron-of Moses-of Melchizedeck and of angels; he being no other than the SON of GOD incarnate, and really a Divine Person. For it was of Jesus the Eternal Father said, Let all the angels of God worship him. Nor ought the words immediately following to be omitted. Of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the SON he saith, Thy throne, O GOD, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.*

Now, my brethren, on supposition that the punishment of sin be equally an act of sovereign, divine *Heb. i. 6, 7, 8, 9.

pleasure, as the annihilation of a worm; and that the exercise of pardoning mercy on any of our species, or on all mankind, rests as much on the absolute will of God, as whether to-morrow shall be a serene or a stormy day; for what purpose did the just God. and the Saviour institute such a variety of expiatory sacrifices? And why did the apostle, in his letter to the Christian Hebrews, take such a minute review of those ancient institutes, as connected with the Levitical priesthood; elucidate their design; appreciate their importance; and mark their bearings on the Christian system?-Why, it may be further demanded, if the doctrine of atonement by substitutionary sufferings was neither inculcated by Jewish sacrifices, nor believed by the Penman of this epistle, did he introduce Messiah speaking as he does, and ascribe a plenary atoning efficacy to his death? Surely, a Rational Divine, i. e. a Modern Unitarian, if true to his principles, and explicit in declaring them, is not likely to imitate the conduct of this ancient writer. No: far from delighting in the use of sacrificial terms; totally averse from encouraging any degree of dependence on the obedience of a substitute; and confident that divine mercy is all-sufficient for the pardon of sin, without the least assistance from any atoning sacrifice; he would have disdained to mention the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, as of essential importance to our peace with God, and our acceptance before him. For, according to his principles, the blood of Jesus was no more intended to expiate human guilt, nor possessed of any more efficacy to answer such a design, than the blood of bulls and of goats. On the

* Heb. x. 10.

Socinian hypothesis, therefore, we may well wonder, how the Messiah himself, with either pertinency, modesty, or truth, could represent the offering up of his own body, as an article of such high consideration, and of such immense importance, in comparison with the whole system of ceremonial services; they being, as to atonement for sin, equally useless.

That Divine Justice must be displayed in the punishment of sin will further appear, by considering what the Scripture says of a man who is not interested in the death of Jesus Christ: for he is represented as in a state completely desperate. Thus it is written: If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.'*-Here it is manifestly supposed and implied, That an expiatory sacrifice is absolutely necessary to the salvation of sinners-That the death of Jesus is the only effectual sacrifice for that purpose-And, therefore, that he who is not interested in the atoning death of Christ, must inevitably perish. For nothing awaits him, but a terrible apprehension of awful, devouring, endless ruin. This, however, could not be a fact, if transgressors might be pardoned and saved without the substitutionary sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Should it be asked, Why may not God pardon sin upon repentance? it might be demanded, Why. may not the Eternal Sovereign pardon the worst. of criminals, without the intervention of repentance

* Heb. x. 26, 27.

itself? That God has graciously connected forgiveness with true repentance, is a revealed fact. This, however, is not because the deepest repentance makes any compensation for the evil of sin committed, or in the least diminishes its desert of punishment; but because of that regard which evangelical repentance always has to compensation already made by the expiatory death of Jesus.

Once more: Without admitting the death of Jesus to be vicarious, a demonstration of penal justice, and an atonement for sin; the language of the Holy Spirit, relative to his mediatorial work; the behaviour of Christ under his last sufferings; and the conduct of his divine Father, with reference to that bitter passion, are all of them impenetrable mysteries, and absolutely unaccountable. To a few thoughts respecting these particulars, I would now request your serious and candid attention.

The language of the Holy Spirit, speaking in the Scripture. Of this, the following instances are but a small part of what might be adduced. Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on meAll we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. It was exacted, and he was made answerable*-My righteous Servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities -He bare the sin of many-Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God-Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree-He hath

* So Bp. Lowth translates the passage. To the same effect, Junius and Tremellius, Vitringa, and others. D

made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him --Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness-To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus-Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us-Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us-When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.*

Now if, in this variety of kindred language, the proper notion of substitution, of imputation, and of Christ sustaining the punishment due to our sins, be not plainly and emphatically expressed by the Holy Spirit; it seems hard to conceive of any other terms or modes of speaking that could have been used, being able to answer that important purpose. Supposing the gracious and condescending God, in the several connections where these passages are found, were otherwise known to have intended to convey the meaning for which we plead; by what other language, with equal brevity, could he more plainly and unambiguously have expressed it, than that which is actually used? Were we, therefore, to admit, that substitution, imputation, and vicarious punishment, are quite foreign from the real inten

* Psal. Ixix. 9. Rom. xv. 3. Isa. liii. 8, 7, 11, 12. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 1 Pct. ii. 24. 2 Cor. v. 21. Rom. iii. 25, 26. Gal. iii. 13. Rom. v. 6, 7, 8, 10.