SECTION 7I1. 555 tlpe holy scriptures not once only, but open, that Christ made satiíaction to Godfor sin, Iwould not therefore believe the mat- 1, as you think. And again, Even the greatest force is to be used with such words rather than take them in the obvious sense, Thus speaks Socinus in his treatise of-SatisfaJtwwn, and in his Epistle to Baleorimicius. I1ow evident is it that such'men re- fuse a subjection to the revelation of God himself, nor will they abide by the decisions of scripture, when it doth not speak such things as suit their unhappy relish ? And it is,a very dangerous 'thing to enter into this temper and spirit,. Peter and the beloved John,` when they treat of their Mas- ter's death, assert with frequency and great strength of expres- sion, that doctrine which their Master himself thought proper to give some notice of-in his life-time. It is true, he mentions it more sparingly because their prejudices then were not able to bear it; John xvi. 12. I have yet. many things to say untoyou, but you cannot bear them now. But.wheu they were filled with the spirit of wisdom and knowledge, they published andexplain- ed their Master's doctrines more at large ; they then tell us of Iris bearing our sins on his body on the tree, of his redeeming us by his precious blondas a lamb without blemish, of the sprinkling pi the blood of Jesus upon us, of our being washed from sin in his blood, and redeemed untoGod thereby: and use the same sort of language which St. Paul, who learned his gospel also by the revelation of Jesus Christ ; and who acquaints us that he gave tip his lye a ransom- for sinful men, that his blood was shed for the remission of sins, that he was made a cause for us, that he might redeem no from the curse of the lare, which pronounces death upon every sinner, and that he bath taken away sin by the sacrifice' ofhimself; and made peace by .the blood of his cross be- tween God and man. But the indulgence of Agirippa's scheme encourages us to contradict Christ and his apostles at once, by taking away the obvious and natural sense of their words, under a pretence of making their doctrine more honourable and more Conformable to the nature and reason of things. When a man has once persuaded his conscience to deny this doctrine of the propitiation of Christ for sins, which is so plain- ly taught in scripture, and in such various forms of speech, what is there of doctrine in the New Testament which they may not deny or turn into an alle,ory and figure? 1 should be ready to fear that neither the perverse sentiments of Mr. Woollastan, who turned the miracles of Christ into allegory, nor any other idle nisi unscriptural scheme of interpretation would be very hard to defend upon such principles, and after such a step as this. If the propitiation of sin by the sufferings of Christ may be thus Interpreted away by pretended figures, and explained into the doç;trines and duties of mere natural religion, what may not
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