219 / 652
ISISC.
VI.]
THE ATONEMENT
OF'CHRÍST
MANIFESTI:IY.
20â
last
place,,
God
would
not
deal thus with his
holy
pro-
phets of the Old
Testament, and
his
apostles
in the
New,.
whether
Jews
or christians,
to
make
_therm
the ministers
of
a shewy
and
shadowy dispensation,
which
had
no
sub-
stantial and everlasting
blessings
belonging
to
it.
III.
Rem.
What
a divine
and distinguishing blessing
is
it
to
us,
in
this age
and this
nation,
that
the doctrine
of
the pardon of
sin, by
the atoning blood
of
the Lamb,
has
been
preached
to
us
from
our
infancy, and
yet
conti-
nues
to be
preached
to us by
the ministers
of
the gospel
?
O blessed be
God,
that
we
are
not
found
in
those
popish
nations, where
the
priests would
teach
us
to
trust
in
masses
and penances,
in
long
and
idle
repetitions of
formal prayers
in
Latin, and
merits
of
the saints,
and
useless
addresses
to them,
represented
in figures
of
silver,
or
gold,
-wood
or stone,
or
brass,
in
order
to reconcile
us
to
God
;
in
sprinklings
with holy
water,
and other
fooleries,
instead
of
the only
appointed
sacrifice
of the
Son
of
God, whereby they
Make
void
the
blessed
gospel
of
Christ,
and
overwhelm
it
with
their superstitious in-
ventions
?
How sad
a
thing
would
it
be
for
us,
if
we
were
left
upon
a'
dying
pillow,
and
had no,
other'
hopes
but
these
to
rest our
souls
upon
?
;
Here
it
may
not
be
improper
to
give an
answer to
this
objection.:
If
this
doctrine
of
the
atoning blood
of
the
Lamb
that
was
slain, be
so
glorious
in
itself;
and
so
needful
to
dur
salvation,
how
comes
it
to
pass
that our
Saviour
speaks
so
little
of
it
in
the
whole
of
his
mini-
stry, while
he
was
three
years preaching among
the
towns
of
the
Jews
?
Answer. See a
large and
full
answer
to
this objec-
tion
in my
sermon
on
the Atonement
of. Ch2°ist
;
(V
o
L.
I.)
and
urther inswers
are
repeated
in
my
treatise
of
Orthodox] and
Charity
united,
in
the
three
last
pages
of
the
First Essay of
the Substance
and
Matter
of
the
Gospel.
Another
objection may
be raised-
here
:
If
this
doc-
trine
be-so
glorious, and
so
very
needful, How comes
it
to
-pass,
that
it
is so
much
neglected among
men
that pro-
fess
'christianity
?
And
that
men who believe
it,
are
no
more
affected with
it
?
Answer.
1.
Though a
thing
be never
so
useful
and
necessary,
yet the mere commonness
of
these things
VOL.
iii.
V