fi/I; Tnr saceir'ICE or Cuk:1'r. repents of sin, who loves God heartily, and receives the gospel of Chri.tas his only hope ; and, at the same timer with humble prayer and diligence seeks after all . divine truth, though he has not yet been able to receive these doctrines, in the scriptural sense of them, and is afraid to believe them for want of fuller convic- tion. Wheresoever such a person is found, I am well persuaded, the blessed God, who is himself the Author of all this gocd work in his heart, will not suffer him to perishfor want of know- ledge. Our great high-Priest can have compassion on the igno- rant, and on them that are out, of the way ; Heb. T. 2. If the belief of his atonement be necessary to their salvation, he will find ways to illuminate the mind and convince the conscience, and will rather send an angel or an apostle to them, as he did to Cor- nelius, than that any sincere penitent should fall under a condemn- ing sentence. SECT. VII.The transcendent Advantages of the Doctrine of the atonement of Christ, and the Sanctification of the Spirit toward all Christian Duties. When Charistes had finished his discourse, Cavenor ac- knowledgedbowmuch he was pleased and profited by the great- est part of it : And I think, saidhe, I shall become a convert of Paulinus and you, if you can clear up one point of difficulty that sticks with me still ; and that is, that you suppose the christian duties of repentance, faith, and love, prayer, and hope, with universal obedience, to be built on this particular doctrine of the atonement for sin by the blood of Christ. I confess the scriptures you have brought seem to give some countenance to it ; but does not Agrippa's creedsecure the necessity of all the same duties I Suppose that Christ died, only as a martyr for the doctrine of pardon and peace and eternal life, to be obtained by repentance and new obedience ; or suppose yet further, that he was put to death also to shew, in a way of emblem, that sin deserved death; are not christians under the same obligations to believe the doc- trine of Christ, and to fulfil these duties, as though he died e sacrifice to make atonement for sin,? This is certain, that the blessed God would never send his own Son to our earth, nor would his Son ever come downfrom heaven, merely to bringmes- sages of notion and speculation to mankind, if they have not a peculiar and considerable influence upon the practice of piety and virtue. Tell me therefore plainly, Charistes, what advantages has the doctrine of the atonement of Christ and the sanctifying operations of the Spirit to promote practical godliness, so much beyond Agrippa's creed. This task, replied Charistes, I readily and chearfully accept, and will endeavour to make it appear in several instances, what a superior influence on true piety and goodness our doctrines have above all that Agrippa'screed can pretend to.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=