plained, when we come in the next discourses to show the purposes, which were answered by the In the mean time I shall conclude

death of Christ.

with making two observations.

The first is, that the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins upon repentance is not a doctrine peculiar to the Gospel of Christ, as many are apt to imagine. It was taught, as we have seen, in the plainest manner by the Jewish Scriptures, Even the Ninevites, who were heathen, and had nothing but the light of nature for their guide, were not destitute of just notions. upon this subject; for they encourage themselves to cry mightily unto God, and to turn from their evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands, with the hope that God may repent and turn away from his fierce anger, And, much as the Scribes and Pharisees had corrupted the other doctrines of the sacred writings, it does not appear, that they had ventured to misrepresent this. Christ does not, therefore, attempt to correct their notions, or to teach them any new doctrine, upon the subject of the divine mercy to the penitent. He has given us, however, some very striking and beautiful illus trations of it; and, by teaching mankind the most important truths on other subjects, and setting before them the most powerful motives to forsake their sins, where they stood in need of information, he has shown the mercy of God to sinful men in a more affecting light than it was ever seen in before.

The second is, that we ought to be thankful to

God, that we are assured of forgiveness upon such clear and unexceptionable authority. We are taught it by God himself, or by those, who speak in his name and by his direction-a surer ground of hope we could not possess. Let us lift up our hearts in praise to him, who has condescended to remove our fears and to quiet our apprehensions upon so interesting a subject, and let the hope of pardon induce us to repent of our sins.

SERMON XXVIII.

ON THE DESIGN AND ENDS OF THE DEath of chrIST.

I COR. i, 22, 24.

For the Jews require a Sign, and the Greeks seek after Wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a Stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks Foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God.

IN

N the last discourse I stated the object that I had now in view, which was to prove, that there was no foundation in reason or Scripture for that doctrine which supposes, that a proper, real, and full satisfaction must be offered to divine justice, before the sins of mankind could be pardoned, and that such a satisfaction was made by the obedience and death of Christ. In prosecution of this design I first inquired on what terms God is represented in Scripture as pardoning sinners; whence it appeared, that the only conditions of forgiveness mentioned in the Old and New Testament were repentance and reformation: wherever these appeared, a free and full pardon was considered as the necessary consequence, without reference to the death of Christ, or any other

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future event.

If this be the doctrine of Scripture, it follows, that Christ could not have died to make satisfaction for the sins of men in order to reconcile God to them; for no such satisfaction is wanted, God appearing to forgive freely, and saying nothing of his being induced to do it in consideration of what Christ was to do or suffer. Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged, that important benefits are supposed in the New Testament to arise from the death of Christ, and that in particular it had great influence in delivering men from their sins. We shall now, therefore, agreeably to the plan laid down in the last discourse, inquire what were the great ends to be answered by the death of Christ, and what is the foundation of the strong language used respecting that event.

For this purpose I shall first consider what is suggested by the fact itself as connected with his resurrection, and how far this agrees with the language of the New Testament. It is evident that there is often a language in facts, which speaks as strongly as words can do, and which almost supersedes the necessity of any verbal explanation. Thus the miracles performed by Christ speak so plainly for themselves, and were such obvious proofs of a divine mission, that there was no occasion to explain their design; the language which each of them speaks is plainly this: He, who thus changes the course of nature, must have authority from the God of nature for that purpose; he is employed by him for some

important design; what he says and does demands our careful attention. Accordingly, we find that Christ in general wrought the miracle, and left it to the spectator to draw the proper inference, without making any comment himself. What then is the obvious design of the death of Christ, as it may be inferred from the fact itself? The Jews, by putting him to death, intended nothing more than gratifying their malice, which had been provoked by his censures and reproofs, and delivering themselves from a troublesome enemy. But what we have to determine is, what was the principal design of Providence in permitting him to be put to death.

Now it is undeniable, that Christ taught the doctrine of a resurrection from the dead, both for the righteous and the wicked, to be followed by a state of reward and happiness for the one, and of punishment for the other. When, therefore, we see him, who taught this doctrine, dying upon the cross, rising again from the dead, and in the presence of his disciples ascending into Heaven; what is the obvious meaning which such facts suggest, without interpretation? Is it not, that this was intended to be an example and specimen of what God intends for all good men? In this view of the subject, they have the happiest tendency to establish our faith in the doctrine of a resurrection from the dead, and of a future state of reward and punishments; for we behold one (who although a prophet, and possessed of extraordinary powers, was yet a man like our