53 TRi'E ATONIMENT OF CHARM [SEAM! . XVXlV: ners, and in short, to do little more than any other di- vine' prophet might have been employed in, if thewisdom of God had so appointed it They suppose he yielded to death that he might seal his doctrine.with his blood, and might set us a glorious pattern of suffering and dying, and then he led the way to our resurrection, by his own Wising from the dead. It is granted indeed, these are some of the designs of the coming of Christ, some of the necessary parts of the blessed gospel : But it seems to me, that this.blessed gos- pel is shamefully curtailed, and deprived of some of its most important designs and honours, if a proper atone- ment for sin by the blood of Christ be left out of it. Forgiveme, my fellow-christians, ifI spend a discourse or two on this great article of our common, faith. I- think it of so .high- a moment, that I would fain: pro- nounce ái d publish it aloud in an age that verges towards infidelity; I would glory in the cross of Christ, and en- deavour to support this doctrine with all my power. O may none of those who bear the christian name,. ever grow weary of it, or run back again to the mere religion of nature, as though we had no gospel ! I shall not spin out my thoughts, or employ yours in a laborious enquiry into the connection of the words, but take them just as they lie, and make this plain sentence the foundation of my discourse. IDoctrine---God bath set forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a propitiation for the sins of men. When the apostle says. Godbath set him forth, Christ is plainly the person intended : and this greek word wposaE7o, set forth, denotes either, 1. That God bath fore-or- dained and appointed his Son to become our propitiation byhis divine purpose in eternity, which purpose he exe- cuted here in time : Or, 2. It intends that Godbath set him forth, that is, proposed and offered him to the world as an atonement for the sins ofthose who trust in the me- rit of his death; for so the following words intimate, God set him forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood. I am not solicitous which of these senses the. reader will chuse ; either of them perfectly agrees with the design of the apostle. I would just take a brief notice also, that some inter- preters transpose the words of the text a little, and read
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