92 THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. [SEEM. XXXV. the Sun of Righteousness is risenupon the earth, and the morning clouds are vanished away. I hear Jesus, my great Prophet, preaching this doc- trine of propitiation for our sins by his death, in his own ministry ; though he was content to do it in a more ob- scure and imperfect manner : And I now see the reason why he taught this truth chiefly in parables, because it was not proper in that age to be published to the multi- tude in plain language, till he had actually died and rose again. I behold his terrible agonies in the garden, before he came near the cross. I see the blessed Son of God la- bouring under the burden of our guilt, wrestling, and sweating blood, under the unknown impressions of that tribulation and wrath, that indignation and anguish, which was due to my sins. What else could make so glorious and divine a person discover such dreadful dis- tress of soul ? Again, he cries out on the cross with an- guish of spirit, he bleeds, he groans, he dies. I acknow- ledge the truth of the doctrine of his atonement. I read it in all his agonies. These are such sufferings, and such sorrows as are beyond all that men could inflict, or that a mere man could bear, beyond all the common ter- rors of death and the grave. My Saviour sustained a heavier burden, and was engaged in harder work ; a la- bour more dreadful and more glorious. He was then making atonement to divine justice for my- sins. And blessed be his name for ever and ever. I read the same doctrine of atonement for sin, by the death of Christ, in the writings of his holy apostles. This was the gospel which they preached to the Jew, and to the rest of the nations. This they delivered down in the sacred records of the New Testament, whence we derive our religion and our hope. The language in which they expressed our reconciliation to God, by the death of Christ, carries with it such evidence, and such strength, that if I believe these books to be divine, I can- not but receive this doctrine as the truth of God; and I would learn of St. Paul, Gal. vi. 14. " to glory in the cross of Christ," and -- to " live by the faith of the Spa of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." When I read the astonishing gifts of the blessed Spirit,. 5
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