550 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. his epistle to Walimns, speaking of the socinians, upon this aF- count will not allow them the title of christians ; for they have preserved, says he, ckristianity in the name, but they helve destroyed the thing ; and therefore I can make but little difference between them and the .illahometans, who never speak evil of Christ. The papists, who have corrupted christial:ity beyond all that ever went before them, yet have not debased it to this extreme degree ; for though they have introduced their fastings and scourgings and various penances to make a sort of satisfaction for their sins, yet they never renounced the proper atonement and satisfaction of Christ, but always maintained that doctrine in honourable language ; and they lay the foundation even of all the merit of their own mortifications, and their devotions upon the superior merit of the Son of God : But Agrippa and his party in this respect are worse than the papists themselves, for they renounce and cancel the merit of the death of Christ, and exclude itfrom making any atonement at all for the sins of men. In the present age the late Doctor Samuel Clarke, though he hath publicly departed from the common faith in his book written on the Doctrine of the Trinity, yet still he maintains the satisfaction and atonement of Christ, and has vindicated it in his treatise of Revealed Religion, and in several of his sermons which have been printed since his death. He tells us, in the fourthvolume, page 12.2, that the sacrifice of the death of Christ, which is the foundation of God's accepting our repentance, con- sistently with the honours of his divine laws, was inestimably the greatest blessing that ever was conferred on the sons of men yea, thefountain and spring, and the original foundation of all other blessings. Now what could Doctor Clarke think of their religion who deny the very foundation of God's accepting our repentance, who deny that which is the greatest blessing of God to men, and the original fountain of all others ? Or what shall we think of such a doctrine, or such a sort of christianity as this ? I must confess, in my opinion, says Ferventio, Doctor Clarke, as great a man as he was, talked very inconsistently in maintaining the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ for sin, while he denied his true divinity ; for where is sufficient excel- lency in the person to make such atonement, if it be not founded in supreme godhead ? Cavenorwasa little warmed to see so great a writer accused as absurd and inconsistent. I will not pretend, says he, to defend Doctor Clarke's sentiments about the person of Christ or about his sacrifice of atonement ; but this I may venture to 'say, there is no such inconsistency between them as you imagine : Does;tite scripture expressly say, it is supreme godhead in our blessed
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