/S THE SUBSTANCE OP THE GOSPEL: whom are all things, in bringingmany sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings, aEawwovay. which signifies to consecrateJesus Christ to be high-priest by this blood ofatonement, which Doctor Whitby proves at large in his Comment on this Text. Nor is it at all strange, that those who borrow from the Socinian* writers may raise such objections against the atonement or satisfaction of Christ for sin : Since Socinus himself saith, as should there be found some places of scripture, where it should be expressly written, that God was made man, or did assume human flesh ; they should net pre- sently be taken according as the words sound, since that is alto- gether repugnant to the divine Majesty." So Socinus in his Disputatious of Jesus Christ. And again : " If not once only, but often it shouldbe written in the sacred scriptures, that Christ made satisfaction to God for sins ; I would not therefore believe, that the matter is so as you imagine." So Socinus on the Satis- faction. And again : " Any, even the greatest force is to be used with words, rather than take them in the obvious sense." So his Second Epistle to Balcerimicius. % At the time when this essay was written, it was the common custom of writers to denominate parties of men, by the name which belonged to one of the chief leaders of that party, as Doctor Whitby speaks of the Socinians, the Arians, and others, in the same manner. This practice is not quite so customarynow a.days, because the same errors are not always joined in the same person, and therefore it may be proper to describe opinions, errors or parties in general by such names, but not particular persons. As for instance: The Socinians, in the last age, generally believed Christ to be a mere man, and denied his satisfaction or proper atonement for sin; whereas in the present age, most followers ofthat party, believe Jesus Christ to be as glorious á person, as the Arians make him, viz. more ancient than any of the works of God, and his agent in creating the world, andat the same time they deny his proper atonement for sin. You see then a plain reason, why errors may have the namesof their leaders applied to them ; but it is not proper to give the same denomination to all those particular persons who hold some of their errors, but who deny the others. t.
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