texts, to ascertain that they contain the genuine sentiments of the several writers; and then devise, if you can, any means by which I could offer a greater insult to your understanding than by saying, as those from whose sentiments I wish to preserve you are often saying, 'Hence you may safely infer, that the doctrine ' of the depravity of human nature is not supported by 'Scripture.'

Indeed, it seems next to impossible to deny this doctrine, without at the same time impugning the wisdom of God, as manifested in the economy of redemption. In this there is an amazing apparatus, for which, upon the hypothesis of our opponents, there can be no necessity for there certainly can be no necessity that "Christ should die for all," if all have not sinned. According to this scheme, every human creature must be born of "God," "be created anew," "be quickened," "be reconciled to God by Jesus "Christ," "be washed from his sins in His blood." Here, therefore, are requirements and provisions where none are needed, if the doctrine of human depravity be unfounded. God, who alone can see and provide for future contingencies, has fancied there would be a universal apostasy when there has been no such thing— foretold by his prophets, that he would provide a way for the restoration of his people, when no restoration was required,-appointed a Saviour to die for the sins of the whole world, and whose "blood" was to wash away the sins of many who had no sins to be thus cancelled. And this, even this, is called "rational religion;" a religion that evinces the wisdom and

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goodness of God, conformably to the most liberal, and pure, and philosophical principles !

"Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may "abound? God forbid." Though the powers of man are vitiated, and his inclinations to evil are so strong that they will never be thoroughly subdued but by Divine influences; yet God, who cannot be otherwise than holy, continues still to demand a perfection of obedience. Ours is a moral inability to fulfil the Law; but he who knows the heart can, and has graciously promised he will ultimately destroy this inability, by communications from himself. “To the Lord our "God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we "have rebelled against him." Though we cannot of ourselves fulfil what God requires in his Law, yet we "can do all things through Christ, who dwelleth in ❝ us." If we live according to the flesh, we must "die hereafter: but if through the Spirit we mortify "the deeds of the body, we shall live." (o) God condescends, by the dispensation of the Gospel, to pardon and accept the humble, sincere, penitent sinner, on account of the perfect obedience and atoning sacrifice of his own Son, who died to deliver his people from the power of sin, as well as from the punishment due to it. The promises of the New Dispensation relate as well to the recovery of the Divine image, as the recovery of the Divine favour. On both these accounts we are solicited to come to Christ "that we may have "life." The invitations of the Gospel are free and

(0) Rom. viii. 3.

open to all; yet, this should not cause us to sink into supineness, or to treat the invaluable gift with indifference; for the blessings of redemption are restricted to penitent believers, and to them alone.

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LETTER XIV.

On the Atonement for Sin, by the Death of Jesus Christ.

"GOD hath so loved the world, that he hath given "his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in "him may not perish, but enjoy everlasting life.” (p) Such is the remarkable language of the great Head of

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(p) John, iii. 16. When reflecting upon this text, and many others in the New Testament, it has often occurred to me that it would be extremely difficult to defend either our Lord or his apostles from the charge of egregious trifling upon the most solemn subjects, according to that interpretation of Christianity which denies the extent of human depravity, and the Doctrine of Christ's divinity. Thus, in the case before us, a Jewish Ruler, convinced that Jesus Christ was a teacher sent from "God," solicited a conference with him. In the course of it, this Jew hesitated much at the doctrine of regeneration; but his teacher prepared his mind for still more extraordinary discoveries of divine truth, by saying, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" What, then, is the mysterious truth for which the mind of Nicodemus was thus prepared? Why, that "God so loved the world as to send" a good man into it! That is, to send a good man as an example to a world that already contained many good men, and to give unto those good men eternal life! Or, "God so loved the world as to give," not his Son by nature, but by adoption and elevation from a state of wretchedness and poverty, to inexpressible glory at his own right hand!! Who would ever extol so wonderfully the clemency of a monarch that should pretend to give his own son to die for rebels, and instead of so doing should adopt one of the most indigent and wretched of his subjects for that purpose? So again, the language of the apostle to Timothy, "Without controversy 66 great is the mystery of Godliness, God was manifested in the flesh," has an intelligible and important meaning, if it signify that the Divine

the Church, concerning himself. It is important for us to determine the precise meaning of this proposition; and therefore to inquire whether we believe in him when we consider him as one who came merely to teach us and to set us an example, or when we farther regard him as one who died a sacrifice for sin?

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To me it appears that the latter is the correct interpretation of the passage: and that, therefore, though the preaching of "Christ crucified was unto the Jews "a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,” (q) both in the primitive and most succeeding times, yet it is a genuine and awfully momentous Christian doctrine, that Christ by his death has made atonement or satisfaction for the sins of all those who truly repent, and return unto God in the way of sincere though imperfect obedience.

This great truth (for such I doubt not you will find it to be) has been believed and defended by good men in all ages. Among the Christians of the earliest times, we have, first, Clemens Romanus (whose first epistle even Mr. Belsham commends) saying, "Let us look 66 stedfastly to the Blood of Christ, and see how precious it is in the sight of God; which, being "shed for our salvation, has obtained the grace of "repentance for all the world." And again, "By the "blood of our Lord there shall be redemption to all

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nature was mysteriously united to human nature in the person of Jesus Christ. But deprive the passage of this interpretation, and give it that of the Socinians, and you cannot, I think, conceive any thing more puerile.

(g) 1 Cor. i. 23.