471 THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. nature, has 'sòme notion also of these penities, viz. the indib= nation and wrath o God on those thatdo evil. And such as have enjoyed the benefit of divine revelation, in patriarchal, Jewish; or ehristian times, have had ranch clearer discoveries thereof, This might be proved at large from thediscourse of St. Paul; Rom. ii. 6-10. compared with Rom. i. 32. The heathens who are without the law, have the work of the law written in their hearts, and they know, or might know, that those who break it are worthyofdeath. II. All mankind have broken the law of God. There is none righteous; no, not one; Rom. iii. 10. By sinning against God, we have lost all pretence to thé reward of life, and im- mortality, and glory ; Rom. iii. 23. 411 have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we have.also subjected our- selves to guilt and punishment ; verse 19, Every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God. A sen- tence of wrath and death ispassed upan all men, for that all have sinned; Rom. v. 12. and the best of saints were by nature dead ist trespasses and sins, and the children of wrath even as others; .kph. ii. 1 -3. - III, God in is infinite wisdom did not think fit to pardon siinfnlman, without some compensation 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 curi. 'ens enquiry, whether God, considered absolutely as a sovereign, could have done it. It is enough for us that he bath, in effect, declared he would not do it, and that probably for such reasons as these I. 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 ques- Coned, whether his statutes were so wisely contrived and framed, as to deserve a vindication, if hehad freely forgiven all rebels that had broken them, without any consideration, without any satisfaction at all. It becomes a wise lawgiver to see that his wisdom in framinghis laws, be not exposed to dis- honour ; and thçrefore his lawsmust be vindicated, when they are broken. 2. Men would have been tempted to persist in their rebel- lions, 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 obedience, by an awful fear of his governing justice. And it is on this account, viz. to deter and affright Insu
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