SERMON XXXIV. The Atonement of Christ. Rom, iii. 25.Whom Godhath set forth to be a propitiation IT is one of the chief glories of the gospel, that it discoversa full atonement for sin by the blood of Christ, that it sets before us the reconciliation of sinners to an offended God, by the death of his own Son. One would be ready to wonder, that any of the guilty race of Adam should be unwilling to receive so divine a discovery, or should refuse a blessingso important. But such unhappy principles have prevailed over the minds of some men, and particularly the Socinians in the lastage, that they have been content to venture their eternal hopeson the mercy of God, without a dependance on the satisfaction made for sin, by Jesus the Saviour. They imagine Christ the Son of God . came into our world chiefly to be a teacher of grace and duty, to he an example of piety and virtue, to plead with God for sinners, and in short to do little more than any other divine prophet might have been employed in, if the wisdom of God had so appointed it. They suppose he yielded to death that hemight seal his doc- trine with his blood; and might set us a glorious pattern of suf- fering and dying, and then he led the way to our resurrection, by his own rising fromthe dead. It is granted indeed, these are some of the designs of the coming of Cnrist, some of the necessary parts of the blessed gospel ; But it seems to me, that this blessed gospel is shamefully: curtailed, and deprived of some of its most important designs and honours, if aproper atonement for sin by theblood of Christ be left out of it. Forgive me, my fellow-christiáns, if I spend a discourseor two on this great article ofour common faith. I think it of so high a moment, that I would fain pronounce and publish it aloud in an age that verges towards infidelity ; I would glory in thecross of Christ, and endeavour to support this doctrine with all my power. O may none of those who bear the Christian name, ever grow weary of it, or run back again to the mere religion of na- ture, as though we had no gospel ! I shall not spin oùt my thoughts, or employ yours in 4 lahn-
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