SECTION III. 5 O. and practice, as the apostle calls them ; Rom. xiv. I -6. These may be safely debated on both sides among wise and humble Christians of different sentiments ; but 1 hope the doctrine of the proper atonement of Christ for sin shall never be numbered among the doubtful disputables : I own I have such a formidable idea of the denial of it, that I can hardly think such a gross error ought to be borne with in a christian church, where it is openly avowed and maintained in opposition to so many express scriptures. Let us but take a more particular survey of the mis- chiefs of this opinion, and then let Cavenor tell me whether it be such a harmless mistake as he imagines. First, Is not a denial of the propitiation of Christ for sin a very evident renunciation of one of the chief glories and bles- sings of christianity ? And to make this appear, I would en- quire, was not this doctrine one of those noble and needful re- velations brought to us by the gospel of Christ, which, as Pauli- nus has intimated, the heathen philosophers never knew, and which the reason of man could never find out ? Is it not such a complete atonement and such a divine medium of obtaining par- don of sin and peace with God, which all the Gentile world seemed to want, and which they sought for in vain among their endless inventions of ceremonies and rites, and bloody sacrifices, and which the Jews themselves were acquainted with but in au imperfect manner by the types and figures of their law ? Where is the religion that can propose such a relief for a guilty con- science, such a balm as this for the broken heart of a penitent offender ? And does not the denial of it sink the gospel of Christ in this respect almost down to the level of heathen philosophy and to the religion of nature, whereby a sincere penitent might derive somekind of hope of the forgiveness of sin from the mere mercy of a God ? Nor indeed does it leave us so much of this divine doctrine for the comfort of mourning penitents, as theJews themselves enjoyed under their veils and emblems, and smoaking sacrifices. In the two last centuries, when the doctrine of Socinuspre- vailed in some parts of Europe, who denied the satisfaction of Christ for sin, our fathers were wont to charge it with a reduc- tion of christianity to a sort of tnahumetism ; for the Turks con- fess Christ to bea great prophet ; theybelieve the pardon ofsin, and the resurrection of the dead, and the future recompencesof heaven and hell: But how much more does the scripture teach of the way to obtain salvation than the Alcoran does, if the doc- trine of the proper sacrifice of Christ be set aside, with all the blessed truths and duties- which are derived from it ? The socinian error, saithDoctor Arrowsmith in his Tactica Sacra, is more properly called a subtle mahurnetism, and it opens its mouth as a whirlpool tf irreligion. And Grotius himself in M m 3
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