Ergo, The second argument: If we were enemies when this reconciliation was made, then this we all, nor any of us had any hand in reconciling ourselves by conditions, but the former is true. Rom. v. io, ergo.

Thirdly. If we receive this reconciliation, then we have no hand in working of it, but the former is true. Rom. v. 11, ergo; there is no conditions on our part.

Fourthly. If this reconciliation was made in

1

the

officially for them, generally the most idle, the most ignorant, being the most confident accepted the office, and commenced priests of their most high God. Soon the tyranny of their tempers and the furtive dispositions by which they were governed, lessened their influence and palsied their interest, in order to repair the injuries that their own villainy had created; they soon persuaded the populace (for in no age were the ninetenths of the human race capable of forming an opinion) that there was no intercourse to be maintained with God, but through their instrumenta lity, and in order to rivet their chains the faster, they drew such an awful picture of the Deity, that constituted his character in the opinion of the ignorant, the most unfriendly to their happiness because such a malevolent disposition was utterly averse to their real interest. To add plausibility

to

the person of Christ, then this world had no hand in this reconciliation by conditions, but the former. is true.

Fifthly. If this reconciliation consisted in the non-imputation of sin, then there can be no conditions on their part to interest or disinterest, but the former is true.

Now let us consider when this was done which I distinguished thus:-first, contrived; secondly, revealed; thirdly, performed; fourthly, applied.

First.

to this impious fraud, the mother was introduced, covered with the blood of her immolated infantand led with all the pretended piety of professional duplicity, to lift up her hands reeking with its blood, to appease the anger of that God who hath said, Thou shalt not kill. At other times other kind of sacrifices were to be made, even the sacrifice of property, by the way of an offering: but in all these, and especially in the most valuable, some little deduction was to be made by way of a present to the priest, that he might pronounce his prayers with a greater degree of pathos, not that these men were ever over and above fond of wealth, they only invented those religious mistakes to please the God of Heaven, and told lies in a religious way to induce the God of truth to be friendly to them and their charge. Happy would it have been for Christendom, had the unscriptural,

First. It was contrived where it was performed: God was in Christ, ever since God has been in Christ this has been contrived: God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. From whence I gather, that God has contrived this in Christ ever since he has been Jesus Christ; God was in Christ, God has never been in Christ without this, and this is from eternity. I say, this has been contrived ever since the human nature and the Godhead has been one person, and

this

scriptural, the heathenish idea of an angry God, been obliterated from the human mind by the bright effulgence of gospel truth, and established in the mind of believers, the scriptural idea of God as a God of love.

An inspired Apostle informs us, "that God is love;" if God is love, he must be so essentially or accidentally,-if accidentally-there must have been a period when the counterpart of that character must have applied to him, and if so he ceases to be God,—for that being which is capable of a change is no God. The establishment of the above truth is worthy our attention, and we will endeavor to do this by actions attributed to God in the divine testimony; to fly in the face of an host is not a very trifling enterprize I own, neither is it very pleasant to shock the prejudices of mankind; but if by shocking them we

surmount

this person has been one with his Father in essence ever since the Father had an essence. Now if we can find when the Father begun to have an essence, we may know when the Son was begot ten. If we can find when the Son was begotten, we may find when the two natures, was one per son; if we can find when the two natures was one person, then can we find when this covenant was made; therefore let us not bring the person of Christ in time.

Obj.

surmount them, we loose sight of the tem porary inconveniency, in contemplating the last ing benefit that will arise from the discovery of truth. There has been a sentiment cherished in all the colleges of Europe, that God loves his people, and is graciously disposed towards them, in consequence of the sufferings of Christ. I need not cite my authorities to prove this assertion, "from the musty records of past ages," for the discordant changes that are daily rung in our ears from surrounding pulpits, is an awful proof of this distressing fact. A few solitary instances excepted, they all tread the same path. Christ was the gift of Jehovah's love, and not Jehovah's love the effect of Christ's death; the gift proceeding from love could never be the cause of that love, that caused it. To prove this, I will refer you, to the testimony of one, who spoke as the

P 2.

t

spirit

Obj. If Jesus Christ has took human nature in the Virgin's womb, how has he been from all eternity? I do not know; I must confess I am astonished, the Lord grant me not to err in this point; but I must confess I never could understand the definition of many that have writ about him, for if the second person took humanity in the Virgin's womb, I cannot see how Jesus Christ could be any thing but a decree or purpose of God, till about four thou→

sand

spirit gave him utterance,'
"of one who was a co-
temporary with Christ, of one who from the af-
fection he bore for the Redeemer, in addition to
the abovementioned consideration would have re-
presented the love of God as flowing from the
death of Christ-and not the death of Christ the
effect of divine love, had it been true; instead
of this, we find it is quite the contrary. God sa
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not
perish, but obtain everlasting life, John iii. 16..

The end proposed in this gift is said to be the communication of everlasting life;-this was the avowed design God had in the gift of his Son. If there is any truth in the above avowal, the means that manifested the design and brought the design into execution, could never be the cause of the design, but the design produced the means.