90 / 674
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
filled
with
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
him
must
have its
due
of
honour.
If
I
labour
with
all
my
powers to make him some
re-
compence for
my
past iniquities
by 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
humbly
approach
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