70 TIiE ATONE.MENT OF CBRI.sT. [SEAM. XXXIV. But, alas ! I am one of the sinful guilty race of man. My very nature is corrupt, my powers of action are un- holy, and I have broken the law of my God in a thousand instances. My conscience condemns me, my mouth is stopped, I am guilty before God, I lie under the sen- tence of his condemning law by nature, and am by na- ture a child of disobedience, and a child of wrath. It is a glorious instance of divine mercy and forbearance, that he has not executed the severities of his law upon me long ago : It is rich mercy and adorable patience that my flesh and spirit have not been filledwith all these terrors, that I am not made as wretched as I have been rebellious. Nor can I expect, that the great and terrible God, who sent his indignation upon angels when they sinned, turned them out of heaven, and chained them in dark- ness, should forgive all my infinite offences, without some reparation made for the honour of his broken law. He is a great God indeed, his majesty is tremendous, and every thing that belongs to himmust have its due of honour. If I labour with all my powers to make him some re- compence for my past iniquitiesby new obedience, I find it is impossible. The best of my righteousnesses are all defective : My holiest services want some forgiveness as well as my wilful sins. Nor can I suffer the punish- ment due to my iniquities, without being for ever mi- serable. All the doors of hope are shut against me, nor by the utmost effort and labour of my own powers, can I find a way to escape : If I am left to myself in this state, I must despair and perish. But blessed, for ever blessed be the mercy of my God, . that he has sent his own Son to take flesh and blood upon him. He has sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh to become a sacrifice for sin, to sustain the sorrows which I could never sustain, and to provide a laver of his own blood to cleanse us from all sins. Lord, I humblyapproach this sacred laver, to wash away the de- filements of my soul, Christ is become a sacrifice to divine justice, in the room and stead of men. And he is also our great High- priest : For he of Bred himself up to the strokes of jus- tice, and the penal demands of the law of God, and
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