Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

enough to die for them; now, that he loves God well enough eternally to damn them.

FROM his station, therefore, as King and Judge, the Mediator is viewed in a different light from what he could appear in before; and clearer discoveries are made of his real and transcendently excellent character. Now his love to the divine law puts on a different form from any in which it had before been ever seen. And this act of awful justice, in dooming impenitent sinners to eternal death, gives an import, a significancy, to the sufferings of Christ, which creatures never could have apprehended without it; giving a solemn majesty to his death, which will enable his people, forever, more highly to prize it.

[ocr errors]

HERE we see an obvious reason why the Mediator should be appointed the judge of the world. This exalted station, the holy scriptures teach us, was given him in reward for his sufferings, for his obedience unto death. And, in this last solemn act, before he gives up the kingdom into the hand of the Father, he hath advantage to exhibit, in more strong and glorious colors than could ever before appear, the perfect union and harmony, in himself and in his arduous work, of mercy and truth, and of righteousness and peace. These not only have harmonized and united in all the doctrines which he taught, and the work which he accomplished, on earth; but they meet, and kiss each other in the solemn sentence of his lips, "Come, ye "blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared "for you, from the foundation of the world," And, "depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for "the devil and his angels."

3. THE greater respect is manifested to the law of God, by such a person as Christ who died for sinners;

N

the more evident will be, both the evil of sin, and the necessity and import of the atonement.

ALL the new honors reflected upon the divine law, by the mediator, necessarily increase and heighten the ideas of the evil of sin. And, by how much the more the evil and malignity of sin are made manifest; by so much the more necessary will the atonement appear and the significancy and importance of it be proportionably increased,in the estimation of creatures. And yet, without this last and solemn act of judgment, it is exceedingly manifest that the high estimation in which the divine law is held by the divine Redeemer, could never be so clearly discovered, or so sensibly apprehended by creatures; even, though he died to magnify and make it honorable. The saints, therefore would forever be destitute of that discovery of righteousness, in the mediator, which, above every thing else, crowns those regards of his, to the law of God, which he expressed in dying upon the cross.

BUT, when the regard of Christ, to the divine law, is seen from the seat of judgment, and expressed in a sentence of everlasting punishment upon impenitent sinners; the saints will then see, in a more clear light than they ever could before, how great a thing it was for Christ to die for sinners; and himself, become a curse for them, that they might be the righteousness of God in him. By these means, therefore, the divine purity and hatred of iniquity will be greatly heightened to the views of creatures; and, clearer apprehen-, sions, consequently, be had of the nature, the extent, and the glory of divine, sovereign mercies: All which, it is easy to see, contribute to a vast enlargement of the powers and happiness of those who are saved by Christ.

BUT, on the other hand, should it be that the sentence of the law is, in no instance executed, at the last day; it is exceedingly manifest that one glorious testimony of Christ's respect to the divine law will be wanting: And, therefore, one evidence, of the necessity and importance of his death. And, in proportion as the evidence of all these is defective, the ideas of divine grace must be diminished; and the glory of the whole gospel fade away.

THESE observations make it manifest that the atonement, notwithstanding its entire sufficiency and fullness, is far from implying, either a necessity, or certainty, of the salvation of the whole human race: So far from it that, on the other hand, both the necessity and import of the atonement may be greatly illustrated by the eternal destruction of impenitent sinners.

And

if the preceding observations are just, the true nature of atonement could never be seen, nor properly understood, nor the real worth of it be suitably estimated, were the penalty of the law, in no instance, executed in its full extent upon transgressors.

AND as the sense we have of divine grace must necessarily be in proportion to the ideas we entertain of God's hatred of iniquity; it seems no more than rational to suppose that, in order to preserve and heighten a sense of grace, in those who are saved from among men; there will be perpetual displays of divine anger, on vessels of wrath.

And to see this

vengeance executed by him who himself became a curse. for his people, will greatly exalt his character, and give a language, a significancy, to his death, which was never before so clearly understood.

CONCLUSION.

IT may be of advantage before we dismiss the subject, to turn our attention, for a little while, to some of the natural consequences of a denial of the doctrine of atonement; or of the supposition that the mere persevering obedience of Christ, was all that was necessary to open a way for mercy to sinners. These two opinions will probably be found, on careful enquiry, to amount to one and the same thing: At least, not to be materially different in their consequences. They both deny any real necessity, arising either from the moral character of God, or from any other consideration, of his executing any punishments; or, when sin had taken place, of displaying in its natural fruits, that displeasure which the penalties of the law would naturally suggest.

On these sentiments it may be observed,

1. THAT if it be unnecessary to the glory of the divine character, and the good of God's moral government, that he should express his displeasure against sin, when it had actually taken place, by inflicting natural evil; it was of course unnecessary that God should ever threaten the sinner with natural evil. Where the general good doth not require punishments to be inflicted, it doth not require that they should be threatened.

So also in cases where benevolence will not express displeasure, it will not threaten creatures with it. It discovers capriciousness and want of wisdom, to annex penalties to laws, which never need be executed to express displeasure in words, in cases wherein it doth not in fact exist. On supposition, therefore, that God's displeasure against sinners never need be expressed in natural evils; it is evident that the moral law, abounding as it does with awful threatenings,

doth not express the true and real character of God; but one infinitely the reverse; exhibiting in words, anger which hath no existence in the divine mind, and dressing the great governor of the world in vengeance, while anger is not in him. Nothing, therefore, can more directly subvert the first principles of divine revelation, than the supposition that it is unnecessary to the glory of the divine character, that God should express, in natural evil, his displeasure against sin. That opinion which supposeth that sin might have been forgiven without atonement, clothes the divine Being in a character exceedingly diverse from that in which he appears in the moral law; and represents him as being possessed of a goodness of an exceedingly different nature from that which the moral law naturally exhibits. Therefore, for Christ to come, and magnify this law and do it honor; when it exhibits a character, in God, so infinitely diverse from that which would certainly have saved sinners, even though Christ had never appeared on earth; would be very far from being pleasing to the Father: And never, in his view, could have merited that high station to which he is now exalted.

THESE Consequences necessarily flow from a denial of the necessity of an atonement; if it be granted that the moral law, as promulgated in the sacred scriptures, speaks the mind and will of God. If the divine will, the feelings of the divine mind, perfectly correspond with the written law; it is inconceivable that God's anger against sinners should not be expressed, in his moral government, by natural evil. And when we consider the supremacy and mighty power of God, to deny the need of natural evil in order truly to express the character of God, when sin hath actually taken place; is the same as to deny that there are any ings in the divine mind, which, in their natural consequences and expressions would bring evil on sinners,

feel

« EdellinenJatka »