the same nature. It was an expression of love to God and man. But his expression of love to God and man had no atoning influence, nor any tendency to merit either forgiveness or eternal life for sinners. The scripture never ascribes any part of his atonement to his holy and obedient life, but to his laying down his life, giving his life a ransom, pouring out his soul unto death, and his once offering himself a sacrifice for sin. His dying the just for the unjust answered the same purpose that God would have answered by executing the penalty of the law upon transgressors themselves. It displayed the same feelings towards sinners that God would have displayed by punishing the whole human race according to their desert. By punishing them according to their desert, God would have manifested his infinite displeasure towards them, and his inflexible disposition to maintain his moral government over all moral beings. Such a display of God's hatred of sin, and disposition to punish it, was absolutely necessary, in order to render it consistent with the perfect rectitude of his nature, to pardon and save penitent sinners from deserved punishment. And nothing could more fully display his vindictive justice in the view of the whole intelligent creation, than his subjecting his Son, whom he loved with the most ardent affection, to the painful and reproachful death of the cross. Through the medium of his vicarious death, God made it manifest that he feels the same hatred of sin and disposition to punish it, when he forgives, as when he punishes sinners. Though God did not punish sinners by the stripes which he laid on Christ, yet he displayed the same feelings that he would have displayed, if he had punished them all personally. Though General Washington would not have punished the man who killed Captain Huddy, if he had put Captain Asgill to death in his room, yet he would have displayed his disposition to punish the man who killed Captain Huddy, as clearly as if he had put that murderer to death. God, by subjecting Christ to his agonies in the garden and to his sufferings on the cross, demonstrated to the world, that he would by no means clear the guilty, without an atonement for sin. And though the sufferings and death of Christ did not pay the debt of suffering which mankind owed to divine justice, nor dissolve their obligation and desert of punishment; yet Christ by his blood procured the pardon and salvation of the church, and laid a foundation for the pardon and salvation of all mankind, so far as an atonement for their sins could lay a foundation for God to make a full display of his pardoning mercy. It was not possible for Christ to merit eternal life for any; but he could procure salvation for all whom his Father should in his sovereign mercy, bring to

repentance and faith, and prepare for the kingdom of heaven. It is, therefore, in this sense only, that Christ purchased, bought, ransomed or redeemed mankind, by his blood. This is what Peter believed and taught christians to believe, respecting the redemption of Christ. He says, "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,-but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot." The debt which sinners owe to God is not a pecuniary debt, and therefore cannot be paid with silver or gold. It is a debt of guilt, which the blood of Christ cannot literally pay, and discharge the original debtors from all obligation to pay. But his blood can atone for their guilt, and procure pardon or forgiveness at the hands of a merciful God. Now, as the forgiveness of sin, or deliverance from deserved punishment, resembles a discharge from a pecuniary debt, so there is a propriety in the sacred writers' using the terms, purchased, bought, ransomed, and redeemed, in reference to what Christ did and suffered to deliver mankind from the wrath to come. And these figurative expressions are so proper, pertinent and intelligible, that there seems to be no ground to understand them in a literal sense, which would imply the gross absurdity that Christ's obedience was our obedience, and Christ's sufferings were our sufferings; so that now our obligation to obedience and our desert of punishment are entirely taken away. But if we understand the terins purchased, bought, ransomed, and redeemed, in a figurative sense, then all that the inspired writers have told us respecting Christ's having obtained eternal redemption for us, is plain and intelligible.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. It appears from the whole tenor of this discourse, that Christ did not, either by his obedience or death, merit salvation for us. Both ministers and people, who call themselves orthodox, are very fond of using the phrase, merits of Christ, when speaking of his atonement for sin, by which they mean that Christ merited salvation for all for whom he made atonement. But this is neither a scriptural nor proper phrase. It is often designedly or undesignedly used to convey the idea that Christ, by his obedience and sufferings on the cross, paid the debt of suffering and obedience in the room of sinners, so that God is obliged, in point of justice, to release them from eternal sufferings, and to bestow upon them eternal life. This is a false and unscriptural sentiment, and naturally tends to lead men into several other great and dangerous errors.

In particular, it leads some to believe that Christ died and

made atonement only for the elect. For if Christ merited salvation for all for whom he died, then God is obliged, in point of justice, to save all for whom he died; and if he died for all, then he is equally bound, in point of justice, to save the whole human race. This is a just and conclusive way of arguing; and therefore many who argue in this way, justly conclude that Christ died only for the elect, because they suppose that only the elect will be saved. Those who call themselves very strict and genuine Calvinists, have long maintained that Christ died and merited salvation only for the elect. It must be allowed that they draw a just conclusion from their premises, and have good ground to maintain their darling doctrine of a limited atonement. But how they can reconcile the universal offers in the gospel of salvation to sinners with their notion of particular redemption, it is not easy to see.

Another error to which the phrase, the merits of Christ, leads, is the false notion of imputed guilt and imputed righteousness. Those who hold that Christ literally purchased, bought, ransomed and redeemed mankind by his obedience and death, suppose that his sufferings are imputed to believers for their pardon, and his obedience is imputed to them for their justification, or title to eternal life. This is the same as to suppose that Christ's sufferings and obedience are transferred to believers, and become their sufferings and obedience, which is absurd.

Nor is this all; the phrase, the merits of Christ, leads many professed Calvinists into the gross error of Antinomianism, or the doctrine of an appropriating faith. Many who believe that Christ merited salvation for the elect only, suppose that saving faith essentially consists in a person's believing that Christ died and merited salvation for him in particular, and that the merits of his death and obedience have been imputed to him, and have released him, in point of justice, from the wrath to come, and entitled him to eternal life.

The phrase, the merits of Christ, leads some to deny that God offers salvation to all men without distinction or limitation. As they suppose that Christ merited salvation only for the elect, so they naturally suppose that God offers salvation to none but the elect. But the plain truth of fact is, that God does offer salvation to all ages, classes and characters of men; which proves that Christ did not merit salvation any more for the elect than for the non-elect, nor indeed for any of mankind. If Christ merited salvation for the elect, then it is absurd to suppose that he offers salvation to them upon the terms of repentance and faith; or if Christ merited salvation for all men, it is absurd to suppose that he offers salvation upon any terms

whatever; for justice requires him to save all, whether they comply or do not comply with any terms proposed in the gospel. It is not strange, therefore, that the phrase, the merits of Christ, has actually led men to imagine that all mankind will finally be saved. The scripture plainly declares that Christ did suffer and die for all mankind; and if his sufferings and death did merit salvation for all men, it necessarily follows that all men must be saved. If men would only understand, as they ought, what the scripture says concerning Christ's purchasing, buying, ransoming and redeeming mankind by his sufferings and death in a figurative, and not in a literal sense, they would clearly see that there is no foundation in scripture for the phrase, the merits of Christ, and of course that there is no foundation in scripture for the doctrine of a limited atonement, or for the doctrine of an appropriating faith, or for the doctrine of universal salvation. The phrase, the merits of Christ, which is such a fruitful source of errors and absurdities, ought to be entirely laid aside.

2. If what Christ did and suffered for sinners did not merit salvation for them, then the doctrine of justification through faith in Christ is perfectly consistent with full atonement for sin. Some imagine that the free grace of God, in converting and pardoning sinners, cannot be reconciled with the full atonement which Christ has made to divine justice, by his vicarious sufferings on the cross. But this supposed difficulty of reconciling these two doctrines arises entirely from a misapprehension of the real nature and design of Christ's atonement. The nature and design of Christ's atonement was merely to display the vindictive justice of God, and not to pay the debt of suffering which sinners had incurred by their transgressions of his holy law. Consequently, God displays the same free and sovereign grace in the conversion and salvation of sinners through the atonement of Christ, as if no atonement for sin had ever been made. So Paul thought and said in his epistle to the Romans. "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness," or vindictive justice, "for the remission of sins — to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." He conveys the same sentiment in similar language in his epistle to the Ephesians. "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved,) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kind

ness towards us, through Christ Jesus." In these passages, the apostle expressly declares that God displays his grace, even the exceeding riches of his grace, in the conversion and justification of sinners, through the blood or atonement of Christ; which amounts to saying that the free grace of God in the pardon of sin is perfectly consistent with a full atonement for it. Since Christ's obedience was necessary to qualify him to make atonement for sin, we may see why the sacred writers sometimes represent his atonement by his obedience, and sometimes by his death, his blood, his sacrifice, or his sufferings. His obedience was inseparably connected with his death. Hence the apostle said to the Philippians, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Wherefore he says again, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." And by the prophet, Christ is called "the Lord our righteousness." Though the inspired writers do not always make a distinction between the obedience and sufferings of Christ, yet they let us know that this distinction is always to be understood, by their so often ascribing his atonement to his death, his blood, his sacrifice, or once offering up himself as a lamb without blemish and without spot, for all. The apostle has clearly shown that Christ made atonement for all mankind, not by his obedience, but by his blood, his suffering, his death on the cross.

4. It appears from what Christ did and suffered to make atonement for sin, that God can consistently forgive or justify all penitent believers, entirely on Christ's account; but that he cannot consistently reward them for their sincere obedience, on any other than their own account. Christ suffered and died in the room of sinners, in order to make atonement for their sins, and thereby lay a proper foundation for God to exercise pardoning mercy towards all who repent, and believe the gospel. But he did not obey in the room of sinners, in order that God might consistently reward them for their obedience, after they were pardoned or justified through the atonement of Christ. Though God cannot consistently forgive sin, yet he can consistently reward virtue, without an atonement. All the sincere obedience and good works of believers deserve the divine approbation and gracious reward, solely on account of their intrinsic and moral excellence. True holiness in saints is as