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THE ATONEMENT
OF
CHRIST.
CSEAM. XXXIV.
iii.
10.
By
sinning against
God,
we
have lost
all
pre-
tence
to the
reward
of
life,
and
immortality and glory;
Rom.
iii. 23.
All
have sinned,
and
come
short
of
the
glory
of
God
:
And
we
have also
subjected ourselves to
guilt and punishment
;
verse
19,
"
Every mouth
is
stopped, and
all the world becomes
guilty before
God."
A sentence
of
wrath and death
is
"
passed upon
all men,
for
that
all have
sinned
:
Rom.
v.
xii.
and
the best
of
saints
were by
nature
"
dead in trespasses and
sin,
and
the children
of
wrath
even
as
others."
Eph.
ii.
1,
3.
PROPOSITION
III.
'God
in
his
infinite
wisdom' did
not
think
fit to
pardon
sinful man,
without
some
com-
pensation
for
his
broken
law, some
recompence for
the
dishonour
done to
his
government.
He
did
not
see
it
proper
to forgive
all
our guilt
without
some
satisfaction
for breaking
his
holy commands.
I
will
not enter into
that
curious enquiry, whether God, considered abso-
lutely
as
a
sovereign,
could have done
it.
It
is
enough
for
us
that
he
hath,
in effect,
declared
he would
not
do
it,
and
that
probably
for such reasons
as these
:
1.
If
the
Great
Ruler of
the world had
pardoned
the
sins
of
men
without
any satisfaction, then
his laws
might
have seemed
not
:worth
the vindicating.
It
might.
have
been
questioned, whether
his
statutes
were
so wisely
contrived and
framed, as to deserve
a vindication,
if
he
had
freely forgiven all
rebels
that
had broken
them,
with-
out
any
consideration,
without
any satisfaction
at
all.
It
becomes
a
wise
lawgiver
to see
that
his wisdom
in
fram-
ing
his laws,
be
not
exposed to
dishonour; and there-
fore
his
lawt must
be "vindicated,
when they
are broken.
2.
Men would have been
tempted
to
persist
in
their
rebellions,
and
to
repeat
their
old
Offences
continually,
if
there
had been no vindication
of
the
honour
of
the
law,
nor any of
the
threatenings
of it
had been executed.
Therefore God requires
a
satisfaction for
his
broken
commands,
that
his
subjects might be
kept
in
due
obe
dience,
by
an awful
fear
of
his
governing justice. And
it
is
on this account, viz. to
deter and
affright men
from
sinning,
and
breaking
his
laws,, he
hath
given them an
account
in
what a
severe and
terrible manner
he
dealt
with
"
angels
that
sinned, he
spared
then
not,
2
Pet.
ii.
iv.
but
delivered them
to
chains
'of
darkness until
the
judgment of
the
great day,"
Jude
6..