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THE ATONEMENT
of
CHRIST.
[SEEM. XXXy.
soner without
killing
him,
to endeavour
to
falsify
his
prophecies
of
his
death, and
thus
attempt
to make
void
his
doctrine
of
atonement.
It
is
true, God,
by his
immediate
influence
on
the
wills
of
men,
could have
prevented
these
effects
:
But
it
is
not
the
manner of God's conduct
in
providence
to an-
swer
and
accomplish
his own
predictions
by
such
imme-
diate,
divine,
and
over- ruling restraints upon
the
wills
of
men,
if it
may
be
done otherwise. And
therefore
indeed,
the.
prophecies, and especially
such as
are accomplished
in
the
same age in which they
are
spoken,
are
usually
given
forth
in
metaphors and parables,
that
men
may
not
so
clearly and perfectly
understand
them,
and that
God,
in
his
moral government
of the world, may
not
be
constrained
to
go
out
of
his
common
and ordinary
me-
thods, in
order
to bring these
prophecies
to pass.
Answer
3.
It
is
evident, from many expressions
in
the
evangelists,
that it
was
not
the design
of
Christ,
in
his
own
life
-time,
to
publish the grace and glory
of
the
gos-
pel,
in so
clear,
so
distinct,
and
so
complete a manner,
as he designed to have
it published
by his
apostles
after
he
was
gone to heaven.
The
design
of
his own
public
ministry
was
rather
to
prepare
the
way
for the setting
up
of
his own
kingdom
in
the
world,
than to set it up
in
the
full glory
of it
in
his
own
person.
According
to
this
view
of
things,
his
preaching
was
formed
;
"
Repent
ye,
for the
kingdom
of
heaven
is
at
hand
;"
Mat.
iv.
17.
That
is,
the
gospel
state approaches, or bath
approach-
ed
to
you.
The prayer
he
taught
his
disciples
stands
on
the
same
foot,
wherein they are
instructed
to pray,"
"
Thy
kingdom come."
Mat.
vi. 10.
Therefore
when
he
spake
to
the multitude,
of
the spe-
cial glories
of
his
gospel,
and
especially
of
his
atoning
sacrifice,
it
was
generally
in
parables
;
and
when he in-
structed
his
disciples more
particularly
in
private,
he
gave them
but
hints
of
it,
and told them
that
they should
publish these things upon the house
-tops after the
Son
of
man should
rise from the dead,
but not
before.
Even
just
before
his
death,
his own
disciples them-
selves could
not
bear
many things
that
he
had to
teach
them
;
John
xvi.
12.
These
things were
reserved
there-
fore for the forty
days
communication
with
them after
his
resurrection;
when he
spake
with
them
"
of
things