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cy: So the fallen angels seem to be under some kind of a reprieve; for they are reserved in chains, to the judgment of the great day, as condemned prisoners...II. Peter ii. 4. And hence, a number of them once cried out, Art thou come to torment us

before the time?....Mat. viii, 29: Yet we are not taught, in scripture, to look upon this as a mercy to them. But the scriptures teach us to consider our reprieve....our worldly comforts ....our means of grace....our space for repentance....the restraints of providence, and the common influences of the spirit, as mercies-yea, as great mercies....Rom. ii. 4-Isaiah v. A-Deut. x. 18-Acts xiv. 17-Rev. ii, 21. All these common favors, therefore, as well as special and saving mercies, were not proper to be granted to such a guilty, hell-deserving world, by a holy, sin-hating, sin-revenging God. This was not to treat mankind as it was fit and meet they should be treated; It was contrary to law that any favor at all should, without a salvo to the divine honor, be granted them; for, by law, they were all doomed to destruction: And it was contrary to the divine nature to do any thing in the case, that, all things considered, would have, in the least measure, a favorable aspect towards sin; or so much as in the least tend to make him seem less se vere against it, than if he had damned the whole world for their apostacy and rebellion.

If God had set aside his law, which was the image of his heart, and undertaken and shown all these favors to a guilty world, without any salvo to his honor, his visible conduct would have been directly contrary to the inward temper of his heart; and by it he would have counteracted his nature, and misrep resented himself, dishonored his law, rendered his authority weak and contemptible, and opened a wide door for the encouragement of rebellion, throughout all his dominions—and, in effect, gotten to himself the character the devil designed to give of him to our first parents, when he said, Ye shall not surely die, (Gen. iii. 4)-i. e. "God is not so severe against sin as he "pretends to be, and as you think for-nor does he hate it so "much, nor will he do as he says in the case." It was there. fore infinitely impossible.

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(7.) To the end, therefore, that a way might be opened for him to put his designs of mercy in execution, consistently with himself....consistently with the honor of his holiness and justice, law and government, and sacred authority, something must be done by him in a public manner, as it were, in the sight of all worlds, whereby his infinite hatred of sin, and unchangeable resolution to punish it, might be as effectually manifested as if he had damned the whole world. MERELY his saying that he infinitely hates sin, and looks upon it worthy of an infinite punishment, would not have manifested the inward temper of his heart in such a meridian brightness as if he had damned the whole world in very deed: but rather, his saying one thing, and doing another directly contrary, would have been going counter to himself; especially, considering him as acting in the capacity of a Gov ernor, to whom, by office, it belongs to put the law in execution, and cause justice to take place: For him first to make a law, threatening eternal death to the least sin, makes him appear infinitely just and holy; but then to have no regard to that law in his conduct, but go right contrary to it, without any salvo to his honor, is quite inconsistent, and directly tends to bring himself, his law and authority, into the greatest contempt. Something, I say, therefore, must be DONE, to make his hatred of the sin of mankind, and disposition to punish it, as manifest as if he had damned the whole world; to the end that the honor of his holiness and justice....of his law and government, and sacred authority, might be effectually secured. To act contrary to his own nature, was impossible....to have no regard to the honor of his law and government, was unreasonable-a guilty world had better all have been damned.

Thus, from the perfections of God, and from the nature of the thing, we see the necessity there was that satisfaction should be made for sin, in order to open an honorable way in which divine mercy might come out after a rebellious, guilty, hell-deserving world.

To conclude this head, the necessity of satisfaction for sin seems also to be held forth in the scriptures, and to be implied

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in God's conduct in this affair. In the Old Testament, the ne cessity of an atonement for sin was taught in types and figures. The man that sinned was to bring his offering before the Lord, and lay his hands upon it, and confess his sin over it-and so, as it were, transfer his sin and guilt to it; then was it to be slain, (for death is the wages of sin) and burnt upon the altar, (for the sinner deserves to be consumed in the fire of God's wrath), and the blood thereof was to be sprinkled round about, (for without shedding of blood there is no remission)-nor was there any other way of obtaining pardon prescribed but this, which naturally taught the necessity of satisfaction for sin, and led the pious Jews to some general notion of the great atonement which God would provide, and to a cordial reliance thereon for acceptance in the sight of God....Lev. iv, and xvi-Heb. ix. But, in the New Testament, the nature and necessity of satisfaction for sin, and the impossibility of finding acceptance with God, unless through the atonement of Christ, is taught in language very plain and express; particularly in the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. St. Paul having proved both Jews and Greeks to be under sin, and all the world to be guilty before God, and that every mouth must be stopped, in the first and second chapters, and in the beginning of the third, does, in the next place, enter upon, and begin to explain the way of salvation, by free grace, through Jesus Christ :-"We cannot," says he, "be justified by the deeds of the law, (Chap. iii. 20), but "it must be freely by grace through the redemption that is in "Jesus Christ, (ver. 24): But if we are not justified by the "deeds of the law....by our own obedience, how will God, our "Judge, appear to be righteous? If the law condemns us, and "yet he justifies us, i. e. if he thus proceeds contrary to law, to "clear and approve when that condemns, how will he appear "to be a just and upright Governor and Judge, who, loving “righteousness and hating iniquity, is disposed always to ren "der to every one his due ?.... Why, there is a way contrived, "wherein the righteousness of God is manifested in our justi"fication without the law's being obeyed by us....a way unto

"which the types of the law and predictions of the prophets "did all bear witness....a way in which the righteousness of "God is manifested in and by Christ, (ver. 21, 22): But how? "Why, God hath set him forth to be a propitiation, to declárè "his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through "the forbearance of God-to declare, I say, at this time,his right66 eousness, THAT HE MIGHT BE JUST, and the justifier of him "which believeth in Jesus." The apostle seems evidently to suppose that God could not have been just, had he not thus declared his righteousness; and that he actually took this method to declare and manifest his righteousness, to the end he might be just....might act agreeably to his nature, the original standard of justice, and to his law, which is the transcript of his nature, and the established rule of righteousness between him our Governor, and us his subjects. He set forth his Son to be a propitiation for the remission of sin, to declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier, &c.

BESIDES, The necessity of satisfaction for sin, and that even by the death of Christ, seems to be implied in our Savior's pray. er in the garden, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nev ertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt....Mat. xxvi. 39: And again, (ver. 42.) O, my father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done As if Christ had said, "If it be possible thy designs of mercy might be put into execu❝tion, and poor sinners saved, consistently with thine honor, "without my drinking this cup, O that it might be ; but if it "is not possible it should be so, I consent." Satisfaction for sin being necessary, and there being no easier way in which satisfaction for sin might be made, and a door opened for mercy to come to a guilty world, consistently with the divine honor, seems to have been the very ground of the Father's willing him, and of Christ's consenting to drink that cup: And, indeed, is it possible to conceive why Christ should be willing to suffer what he did, or why his Father should desire it, were it not an expedient absolutely necessary, and nothing else would do, so that it must be, or not one of the race of Adam be ever saved,

consistently with the divine honor? If it was not so absolutely necessary if there was some cheaper and easier way that would have done, why did the Father will this? or how had Christ a sufficient call to undertake it? or, indeed, what need was there for him to undertake? or what good would it do? If sin was not, in very deed, so bad a thing that it could not be pardoned without such a satisfaction, why was such a satisfaction insisted upon ?....why a greater satisfaction than was needful? Could a holy and wise God set so light by the blood of his dear Son, as to desire it to be shed without the most urgent necessity? Or why should the Governor of the world make more ado than was necessary, and then magnify his love in giv ing his Son, when mankind might have been saved without it? Did this become the great Governor of the world? or would God have us look upon his conduct in such a light?...Surely no : Verily, therefore, such was the case of a rebellious, guilty world, that God looked upon them too bad to be released, consistently with the divine honor, from the threatened destruction, unless such a mediator should interpose, and such a satisfaction for sin be made; and therefore Christ acquiesced in his will, as being wise, holy, just, and good. And this being supposed, the love of God, in giving his Son, appears even such as it is represented to be-unparalleled, unspeakable, inconceivable; so, also, does the love of Christ in undertaking: And thus, from the perfections of God, and from the scriptures, and from God's conduct in this affair, it appears that a full satisfaction for sin was necessary, in order to its being pardoned, or any favor shown to a guilty world, consistently with the divine honor.

And if we, in very deed, did stand in such need, such an absolute, perishing need of a mediator, as this comes to-if God looked upon things in such a light, then must we see this our need of a mediator, and look upon things in this light too, and have a sense of this great truth upon our hearts: for, otherwise, we neither truly understand what a state we are in, nor what need we have of a mediator. And if we do not truly understand what a state we are in, nor our need of the mediator

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