you may hereafter be enabled to turn many to righteousness, and finally to obtain the recompense of the good and faithful servants of Christ, is the ardent wish and prayer of your very sincere friend, APRIL 22, 1801. THE AUTHOR. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. IT is now nearly seven years since application was made to the Author, by his Bookseller, for a new Edition of the DISCOURSES ON THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINES OF THE ATONEMENT AND SACRIFICE. It being his intention to introduce into the work considerable alterations in point of form, and considerable additions in point of matter; he deferred complying with the Bookseller's desire, until he should be able to accomplish this intention. The same preventive causes, to which in the PREFATORY ADDRESS TO THE STUDENTS he had occasion formerly to advert, again operated to produce delay; and have occasioned this late appearance of the promised publication. The work, which now issues from the press was, he is almost ashamed to avow, committed to it in the June of 1807-It is only to those, however, who are unacquainted with the nature of the Author's academic occupations, that he feels any explanation to be necessary upon this head. He takes this occasion also to apologize, on the same ground, for the non-appearance of certain other works, for which he stands engaged to the public; and which, although for some years nearly completed, he has not had time to carry through the press. SEPT. 21, 1809. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE THIRD EDITION. IN the Edition now given to the public, additional matter, which, it is hoped, may bestow some additional value, has been introduced; and a few changes (conceived to be improvements) in form and arrangement, have been adopted. The principal additions will be found in Numbers VII. VIII. XII. XIV. XVII. XXVII. XXX. XLI. XLII. LIII. LXV. LXIX. and its Postscript; and in the last twenty pages of the Appendix. The Index of Matters, and List of Books, are likewise enlarged: and a new Index of Texts is introduced. The alterations of arrangement chiefly affect Numbers XXXV. LIX. LXIX.-The Syriac quotations are printed in their proper character; which could not be done in the former editions, from the want of a Syriac type. It should be remarked also, for the better understanding of certain parts of the work, especially the notes in page 99 and page 161, that the Edition was sent to press early in the year 1810; although, from unavoidable delays, it only now makes its appearance. JANUARY 1st, 1812. DISCOURSE I. 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. But we preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called-CHRIST the power of GoD, and the wisdom of GOD. THAT the sublime mystery of the Redemption, should have escaped the comprehension both of the Jew, and of the Greek: that a crucified Saviour should have given of fence to the worldly expectant of a triumphant Messiah, whilst the proud philosopher of the schools, turned with disdain from the humiliating doctrine, which proclaimed the insufficiency of human reason, and threatened to bend its aspiring head before the foot of the cross-were events, which the matured growth of national prejudice on the one hand, and the habits of contentious discussion, aided by a depraved moral system on the other, might, in the natural course of things, have been expected to produce. That the Son of God had descended from heaven: that he had disrobed himself (a) of the glory which he had with the Father before the world began: that he had assumed the form of the humblest and most degraded of men: that submitting to a life of reproach, and want, and sorrow, he had closed the scene with a death of ignominy and torture; and that through this voluntary degradation and suffering, a way of reconciliation with the Supreme Being had been opened to the whole human race; and an atonement made for those transgressions, from the punishment of which unassisted reason could have devised no means of escape: these are truths, which prejudice and pride could not fail at all times to have rejected: and these are truths, to which the irreligion and self-sufficiency of the present day, oppose obstacles not less insurmountable than those which the prejudice of the Jew, and the philosophy of the Greek, presented in the age of the apostle. For, at this day, when we boast a wider diffusion of learning, and more extensive acquirements of moral knowledge, do we not find these fundamental truths of revelation questioned? Do we not see the haughtiness of lettered scepticism presuming to reject the proffered terms of salvation, (a) See No. I. B because it cannot trace with the finger of human science, the connexion between the cross of Christ, and the redemption of man? But to these vain and presumptuous aspirings after knowledge placed beyond human reach, we are commanded to preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED: which, however it may to the self-fancied wise ones of the world appear as foolishness, is yet to those who will humble their understanding to the dispensations of the Almighty, the grandest display of the divine perfections; Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. To us also, my brethren, who profess a conviction of this truth; and who are called on by the return of this day, more, (b) particularly to recollect the great work of salvation, wrought out for us by the memorable event which it records; it may not be unprofitable to take a short view of the objections that have been urged against this fundamental (c) doctrine of our religion: that so we may the better discern those snares which beset the Christian path; and that being guarded against the obstructions which are insidiously raised against that true and gospel faith, whereby alone we can hope for acceptance and happiness, we may be able to place the great pillar of our hopes upon a basis which no force can shake, and no art can undermine. In the consideration of this subject, which every Christian must deem most highly deserving the closest examination, our attention should be directed to two different classes of objectors: those who deny the necessity of any mediation whatever; and those who question the particular nature of that mediation, which has been appointed. Whilst the deist on the one hand ridicules the very notion of a Mediator: and the philosophizing Christian on the other, fashions it to his own hypothesis: we are called on to vindicate the word of truth from the injurious attacks of both; and carefully to secure it, not only against the open assaults of its avowed enemies, but against the more dangerous misrepresentations of its false or mistaken friends. The objections which are peculiar to the former, are upon this subject, of the same description with those which they advance against every other part of revelation; bearing with equal force against the system of natural religion, which they support, as against the doctrines of revealed religion, which they oppose. And indeed, this single circumstance, if weighed with candour and reflection; that is, if the deist were truly the philosopher he pretends to be; might suf (b) See No. II. (c) See No. III. |