74 THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. (SEAM. XXXV. tween God and sinners ; it is to point out an atonement to them, "answerable to their guilt, which they wanted, and to discover a solid .foundation for peace. This is done in the death of Christ. A few easy reflections of natural conscience, will ac- quaint all the thinking part of men that they are sinners, that they have offended the great and glorious God whó made them : And those that have read the histories of mankind, and have surveyed distant nations and past ages, havé fdund this to be almost the universal enquiry of men, " What shall we do to pacify the anger of that God, against whomwe have sinned ?" The heathenworld had an awful notion of the vengeance of heaven. Hence arose endless forms of superstition : How many long and costly ceremonies, what painful and bloody rites of wor- ship have been invented and practised by men, to make some compensation for their crimes ? All the craft and contrivance of their priests, could never have prevailed with the bulkof mankind, to take suchyokes of bondage upon them, if there had not been something in natural conscience, which wanted an atonement and peace to be madewith heaven, from a sense of their own guilt. The prophet Micah introduces this general language of 'anawakened conscience, Wherewith shall I come-before the Lord, or bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings ? Dill the Lord bepleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born far my trangression, the fiuit of my body for the sin of my soul? Micah vi. 6, 7. Alas ! all these are vain and fruitless proposals: ßut the gospel makes the enquiring conscience easy, when it proposes the blood of the Sonof God, appointed by the Father as a satisfactory offering for the sins of men : This is what the guilty world wanted, but could never find out. This the gospel hath revealed and set in an open light. And indeed, if the great God who is offended, did ever send down a Peace-maker to reconcile heaven and earth, it is very reasonable to suppose that he should an- swer the universal cry of nature distressed with guilt ; and that he should furnish sinful creatures with such an atonement for sin, and such a solid foundation for their acceptance with himself, as might fully Satisfy their rea-
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