494 THE ATONEMENT OF cÑatST. and in plain Ianguage, just before he died, at.the institution or the holy supper ; Luke xxii. 19. He took bread and brake it, saying, This is my body which is givenfor you. And of the cup he said, This cup is the Nero Testament inmy blood which is shed for you; or as St. Matthew expressesit, This is my blood of the Ne-w Testament which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. These things put together, make it evident that Christ himself taught, this doctrine. Objection. But it will be said, How can we suppose that this doctrine of atonement by the deathof Christ, should be so considerable a part of the gospel; if our blessed Redeemer, the great Prophet of his church, spoke so seldom of it in public, and that in so obscure a manner ?: Answer I. This doctrine of atonement for sin byhis death, and the acceptance of it with God the Father, could not be so well preached in public till he died, and rose again ; for his death was the foundation of this atonement ; his resurrection and his ascension to heaven were the proofs ofits being accepted of God. Noiv it was divinely wise andproper for our Lord not topreach such doctrines toofreely in public to the multitude,till these events should appear in the world. If he had spoken all these things, concerning himself it would have probably amazed and confounded the common people, and raised their rage or their ridicule ; so ignorant and so of prejudice as they were in that day. 2. If Christ had publicly and plainly preached up the atonement of his death, he must thereby have foretold openly that he must die as a sacrifice ; and this might have had very ill effects on the malicious Jews, either, 1. To provoke them to kill him, beforehis hour was come, and pretend that they only obeyed his own prophecy and commission when they put him to death Or, 2. They might lay hold on him, and keep him prisoner without killing him, to endeavour to falsify his prophecies of hisdeath, and thus attemptto make voidhis doctrine ofatone- ment. It is true, God, by his immediate influence on the wills of men, could have prevented these effects : But it is not the manner of God's cónduct in providence to answer and accomplish his own predictions by such immediate, divine, and over-ruling re- straints upon the wills of men, if it may done otherwise. , And therefore indeed, the prophecies, and especiallysuch as are ac- complished in the same age in which they are spoken, are usu- allygiven forth in metaphors -and parables, that men may not so 'clearly and perfectly understand them, and that God, in his moral government of the world, may not be constrained to go out of his eon;mon and ordinary methods, inorder tobring theseprophecies topass.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=