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of the actings of the Divine Persons, whose substance is one and the same; I say, if there were any compulsion, obliging Christ to undergo the penalty of man's redemption, in that case also there would lie an objection. But when he announceth the preparation of his body and his advent, he thus willingly doth it: "Sacrifice and offering thou, wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin hast thou had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." It was to do God's will he took the body which was prepared for him; and he further saith, "To do thy will I take delight; thy law is within my heart." And it is added, By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Christ once." And if Christ pleased, if he delighted, to do the will of his Father, in taking to himself a human body and a reasonable soul, who will say there was any infraction of holiness in that, in which I can see nothing but the highest grace and condescension? This, moreover, was not an act of will, saying, Let the sinner be forgiven; but it was an act of will, saying, Let the sinner behold the greatness of the grace which resideth in the depths of the Godhead. If any one say that this also is change in God, that he should please to save the sinner whom he hath already pleased to condemn, I say to that person, he knoweth not what he saith. It is not change in God's unalterable holiness, but a very great confirmation of it. It is no more than the opening of another volume of the book, which, while it emblazons all the rest with light, doth contain infinite matter hitherto unknown; of which the substance is the Father's willingness to permit, and the

Son's willingness to submit to, and the Spirit's willingness to effect, the Incarnation. Nor do I exclude God's love to fallen men; of which though I make not a principle or origin, yet this much I will say concerning it, That the Lord loveth not nor desireth to punish any one, but is rather sorry and grieved that his creatures should fall under sin's sore penalty. The punishment which ensues is from the nature of sin itself, not from the nature of God, from whom cometh down only good and perfect gifts. It is our ignorance of God, therefore, which makes us to suppose that his will is to inflict pain. His will is to protect holiness, and to promote it. There is, therefore, no impossibility, but quite the contrary, that God should desire and seek the salvation of his creatures. And the only question is, Doth the scheme which it hath pleased the Godhead to adopt, bespeak any toleration of sin, or any dealing with it as if it were a trivial offence? Doth sin appear to have changed its character in his holy mind, by this new manifestation which he hath given of himself? Now the very reverse is manifest from all the premises.

Furthermore, and finally, upon that imagined offence which is done to our ideas of justice, by this doctrine of the Just suffering for the unjust, I have to observe, that, though the fall must come first in the nature of things before the redemption, and, coming first in the nature of things, must also come first in the manifestation; we are not, therefore, to suppose that that form of God's being and attributes revealed in the redemption, which is grace, is not as necessary, and essential, and ancient a part of himself, as that other form of

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severity and justice which is revealed in the fall; though the latter be anterior, both in the idea and in the manifestation. We are apt to transfer the succession of time to the Divine mind, and so to confound all things. But, truly with the Lord all things are present from the beginning, and all appearances are but the unfoldings of his mighty purpose for the manifestation of that which is with him from the beginning. And this is most necessary, and constantly to be kept in mind, in order that we may not give to the eternal Jehovah a succession of existence. He is all in all times and in every time, as he is all in all places and in every place. And this is the reason why every substantial matter of our faith is by the Apostles traced up to before the foundation of the world; and every mystery is said to be hid in him before the world was. Bearing this in mind, to the question, Whether the scheme of vicarious suffering and imputed righteousness which we have unfolded, containeth in itself any thing adverse to justice, we at once answer, No, but every thing prosperous to righteousness and truth. It is from eternity of the righteous and holy will of God to punish sin; and it is so still, and whosoever believeth in Jesus hath a lively and most present sense of the heinousness of sin, and the eternal wrath which abideth on it. It is equally of the righteous and holy will of God to save the sinner, and to shew forth his goodness and mercy and forbearance in his salvation; and every believer in Christ hath a most blessed hope and assurance through grace of eternal salvation. These two forms of the holy will of God being most consistent with one another, will mutually illustrate each other when they are manifested.

And accordingly we find it to be so. For the Word which revealeth the will of the Father, and in whom the Father doth objectively behold all his purposes, and is well pleased with them, doth embody in the one act of his eternal sacrifice the utmost perfection of the Father's holiness and of the Father's goodness; of the former, in proving that the law was holy, and not tyrannical; a right, good, and blessed constitution, for humanity in its fallen state; and so reflecting from the mirror of its purity the greatness and heinousness of our depravity. His holy life set against our wicked life, is the only adequate manifestation of our sin, or of the righteousness of God. I say not but that in the conscience there is a certain sense of right, as in the understanding there is a certain discernment of truth; but as the latter could not discover the light, so could not the former quicken the life, could not give it real form, or even ideal form, until the Lord manifested it in actual being. But in thus manifesting the holiness, he also manifested the love, and that in the most exalted and marvellous kind, as every one doth freely acknowledge; for it can be brought into comparison with, and tried by, the tests of human love. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. v. 7, 8.) But our Lord stateth it with a modest tenderness, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." (John xv. 13, 14); And, to say it all in one word, in the incarnation

of Christ mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

These are the best efforts which my poor reason can make, to open the way of doubting minds to the comfort of this mystery; but I would do little justice to my own convictions, and shew little love to their souls, if I were to stop here, instead of betaking myself to the law and to the testimony, to see if they speak according to this way. In the exposition of all ideas and the resolution of all questions of divine theology, I hold it to be not only profitable, but absolutely necessary, and indispensably due unto God's wise revelation, devoutly to search his word, in order to discover whether that idea or solution be contained and much insisted upon therein; otherwise we might be spending precious time and talents upon some of those vain and profitless questions and endless disputations which profit nothing to the edifying of the soul: and after having thus ascertained that it is a great head, and, as it were, a common place in the word of God, and a frequent doctrine and lesson of the Spirit; we shall come in the exercise of humility, and of that spiritual understanding which is given to the humble, by degrees to unravel the difficulties and perplexities which at first present themselves to our natural reason, which, because it is fallen and under the thraldom of nature, must both have the truth presented to it from God, and by his Spirit be cleansed and purified to discern it. This method I have ever followed for myself, and shall now follow for your greater edification in this doctrine of the atonement for sin, by the blood of Christ, which I regard as the second great principle of the