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3ERbI.
XXXV.)
THE ATONEMENT
bF
CHRisír.
75
son and
their
awakened
consciences. And this
is
no
where to
be
found
in so
evident
and complete
a
manner,
as in the
death
of Christ.
Il.
The
very first
"discoveries
of
grace, which were
made to
man
after
his fall, implied
in
them something
of
an
atonement for
sin,
and
pointed
to
the
propitiation
which
Christ
has now
made
;
Gen.
iii.
15,
i
&c.
The
first
appearance
of
grace
was
the promise
given,
that
the
"
seed
of
the woman should bruise the head
of
the ser-
pent,"
that
is,
he
should abolish the
guilt, mischief,
and
misery
that
sin
and
the
tempter
had
introduced
:
But
in
order
to
do
this,
the
woman's seed must have his
heel
bruised, must
sustain
some
personal
sufferings..
Immediately after
this, sacrifices
of
beasts were
inAti-
tuted*
as
a
type
and prefiguration
of
some
future
glorious
sacrifice
and atonement that should
be
made
to
God
for
the
sins
of
men,
Nt
w
it
is
the
very
notion
of
an
expiatory
sacrifice,
as
I
have
shewn before,
that
some
creature
is
provided to
stand in the room
of
the original transgressor and
to
bear
his
guilt and
suffer
punishment
in his
stead,
that
thereby
the transgressor
having
his
guilt taken
away,
may
be
de-
livered and
saved.
And when Adam
was
ordered
to
put
a beast
to
death
which
had
not
sinned,
in
order
to
wor-
ship or
honour God
by
it,
and
when he
found
that
he
hiníself
who
had
sinned,
was
not
put
to death,
it
was
not
hard
for
hint
to
understand
that
the beast
was
put
to
death
in
his,
room and stead
:
And it
is
not
unlikely
that
God
told
him
so.
Let
us
consider further,
that
it
is
exceeding probable,
when the
"
Lord God made
coats
of
skins
for Adam
and
his wife," Gen.
iii.
21.
these were the skins
of
the
beasts
* Though
we
have
no
express revelation in
scripture,
that
sacrifices
were now
instituted, yet there
is
abundant
reason to believe it
;
For,
I.
Abel
offered bloody sacrifices.
Now
we
can
hardly
suppose
that
Adam
or
Abel would
everìnvent
such a
strange ceremony
to
please God with
it
;
Nor
could
reason ever
dictate
to
them,
that
God, their Creator,
would be
pleased
with such a bloody
practice,
as
cutting
his living
creatures to
pieces, and
then burning
them
with
fire.
Nor
would
God
who
is
so
jealous
of
his
prerogative in matters of worship, ever have shewn
his
ac-
ceptance of these
rites,
if
he
himself
had not appointed
them.. 2.
Though
we do
not read
that
Adam
offered sacrifice,
yet it
was
plain he
was
not
permitted
to
eat
flesh; and therefore it
is
more
probable,
that
when
he
killed
beasts,
it
was for
sacrifices:
And God taught
him to
make cloth-
ing
for
himself out of their
skins,
This
was
immediately after the
fall.