believe and tremble, his mind was to feel the joyful hope of immortality, his breast to be warmed with the cheering sun of a good conscience. If there be any sect in the world at present, which teaches men, with countenances disfigured by melancholy, to grovel in the dust of dejection, to take off the hand from the calls of honest industry, to wander about neglecting the important duties of life, for the sole purpose of performing religious offices, that sect is fast approximating to the fanaticism of the Romish church, and sowing thick the seeds of error amongst mankind.

Finally. As the preparation for this sacrament is so simple, none can plead want of time, or hurry. of business, as an excuse for neglecting it. Those who lead a life of piety and benevolence, are at all times ready to join in it; to those, on the contrary, who turn their backs upon it, because they will not seriously consider, and repent of their

sins,

sins, it is not the preparation of a week, nor of a year, nor of an age, that will qualify them; nothing but repentance and charity, and surely without these, no one is either fit to live, or fit to die.

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SERMON VI.

THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.

1

1 CORINTH. XV. 3.

For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

I

Purpose, in this discourse, to treat, first, of

the Atonement and Vicarious Sacrifice of Christ; secondly, to mention, briefly, his Death and Resurrection.

The objections to the first head are, that surely God could have devised some better method for the redemption of mankind, than the death of his own Son; and that there seems a manifest injustice, in making the innocent suffer for the guilty. It is the highest degree of presumption in us, to call in ques

tion the designs of the Almighty, or to suppose that we can point out to him, improvements in the dispensations of his providence: we are to acquiesce, with gratitude and silence, in all his decrees; it is sufficient for us to know, that his revealed word has declared it, and that the Scripture tells us so ; "For God so loved the world, that he gave "his only begotten Son, that whosoever be❝lieveth in him, should not perish, but have "everlasting life."* "In this was mani"fested the love of God towards us, be66 cause that God sent his only begotten "Son into the world, that we might live "through him."+ "Herein is love, not "that we loved God, but that he loved 66 us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation "for our sins."+ "He that spared not his

+

❝own Son, but delivered him up for us all, "how shall he not with him, freely give us

* John iii. 16. + 1 Epist. John, iv. 9. 13

‡ Ibid 10.

❝ all

"all things?"*

To find fault with the

means of our redemption, or to suppose that better could have been adopted, is just as absurd as to murmur, because the fruits of the earth are not given to us in a state of present perfection, by which we must perish, if our care and foresight did not obviate the delay of vegetation to maturity. The sacrifice of Christ's death, was a most affecting acknowledgment of the infinite guilt and demerit of sin; it was a most forcible declaration of God's severity against our sins. No wise governor should suffer his laws to be broken with impunity, nor sacrifice his justice to his mercy. Since, in consideration of our pardon, God would admit no meaner sacrifice than the precious blood of his own eternal Son, he has hereby expressed the utmost indignation against sin, which he could possibly shew, except he were determined never

*Rom. viii. 32.

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