SECTION III. 553' never died with design to make a proper atonement for his sins? How will his hopes languish, his addresses to God flag and fail, and the springs of his love and obedience be weakened, when he is deprived of the doctrine which hash all along been the life of his faith, the language of his prayer; Mid the support of his hope, and which he thought he had built upon th? most express and undeniable testimony of the word of God ? What can I believe, saith he, if this be not true ? Or what have I to rest upon, if this foundation bedestroyed. Fourthly, This newdoctrine of Agrippa, does it not shame- fully diminish and debase the glorious design of the incarnation of the Son of God ? Does it not sink the condescension of so divine a person to so low a degree; that one of the ancient pro- phets raised from the dead, or a new prophet brought upon the stage of the world, might almost, if not altogether, have supplied his place ? Was this all that a being of such transcendent excel- lency as the Son of God, must come down from heaven for? What ? Must the Son of God himself be exposed to so much pain and shame, and go through so many humiliations ; must he suffer so' many indignities, and endure such a bloody and painful death, merely to become a martyr or witness of the truth of such doctrines as a meaner prophet might have taught the world, and might have confirmed them with his death, or sealedthem withhis blood ? Or was this cursed death of the blessed Jesus} designed fir no nobler a purpose than what the blood of bulls and goats continually performed; that is, to teach mankind in a way of emblem that sin deserved death ? But Pavilions having intimat- ed the dishonour of such sentiments, I pursue it no further, but proceed, Fifthly, This opinion of Agrippa concerning the death and sufferings of Christ, by taking away one of the chief glories of christianity, renders the Christian religion a thing of much less value and importance. Instead of ingratiating the New Testa- v ent with infidels, and reconciling their minds to it by explain. ing away some of its noblest revelations, it will probably have a contrary effect upon many of them, and tempt them to say, What is the New Testament worth, if it tells me so littlemore than thè light of nature teaches? Why so much pains and labour, sa much criticism and toilsome argument, such. warm and vehement zeal to support the divine authority of the New Testament, and the religion of Christ, sfrwe learn no more from it than Agrip- Pa's creed `.t And thus one of the chief designs or pretences of Agrippa andhis friends is lost thereby, which was to bring Chris- tianity into esteem with the deists, by sinking the doctrines of it almost to a level with natural religion. Agrippa's creed has de- based it so far, that infidelity may take no disgust at it, and so far stripped it of its fairest honours, till the infidel shall say,
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