CHAPTER II.

HAVING now, we conceive, very fully and clearly illustrated the truth originally propounded and explained on rational grounds to the early Christian converts by the great apostle Paul, whose manner was to reason from the Scripture, and therefrom to open and allege that Christ must needs have suffered; having contemplated in this wonderful survey the constellation of virtues He demonstrated during the trying scene of his exquisite sufferings; having beheld all that the malice of devils and men could possibly devise to defeat the triumph of the Son of God, gloriously defeated; and the savage and detestable means by them employed for the achievement of their purpose completely counteracted by effecting of their ruin ;—we now proceed to inquire why, and on what account the sufferings of Christ were so acceptable to God. And here we must acknowledge, that the principal stimulus to the inquiries contained in the foregoing pages, was a fervent desire to answer the following exclamation uttered by a Deist, when conversing with the author of these pages. "I am thankful to say, that

I entertain far different ideas of the supreme Being, than to conceive that the sufferings of a just and innocent person could be acceptable to God." And far different ideas, blessed be God! does the rational believer cherish, than to suppose, that the sufferings of Christ could be acceptable to God on any account, but those at large deduced from the arguments we stated in our last research; the result of which were, that the great Captain of salvation was made perfect through sufferings; and Scripture subjoins, that being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him: thus supplying a clear, rational, and satisfactory reason why the sufferings of Christ were so acceptable to God, and why and on what account they obtained the remission of sin. In all humility, we do most fervently wish, that mankind would rest contented with this wise and rational explanation, and forbear to assign as a reason for the bitter cup drunk by our blessed Lord, that the tortures He endured were ordained for the purpose of satisfying the justice of God; and that on that account they expiated sin. The basis of religion, virtue, and morality, unquestionably consists in forming just ideas of the nature and attributes of God. Unassisted reason teaches us that the Deity is good. He has not left himself unwitnessed even to that faculty, in that He does good, giving us fruitful seasons, and filling our hearts with joy and gladness. (Acts'xiv. 17.) But in his revealed word, He also abundantly confirms the conclusions reason dictates. When de

scending in a cloud on the summit of mount Sinai, He proclaimed his name, the Lord-the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. And does not the Lord himself repeatedly declare his utter abhorrence of all cruelty, and the infliction of sufferings, prompted and suggested by the malignant power of darkness, infusing barbarous superstition into the deluded mind of men? "Have they not turned unto me the back, and not the face? Though I taught them rising up early, yet have they not hearkened to receive instruction; but they set their abomination in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it; and they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination.” (Jer. xxxii. 33.) And again, (Ezek. xx. 30,) “ Wherefore, say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredoms after their abominations? For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you." And similar denunciations against those who barbarously cause their offspring to pass through the fire, are thickly interspersed in

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the prophetic writings.

It therefore cannot be

imagined, that a God who expresses such detestation at the infliction of cruelties on the innocent offspring of our mortal race, could feel a satisfaction by the infliction of most barbarous tortures on his own beloved Son.

Our former supposition appears, we think, far more consistent with right reason; namely, that the paternal Deity himself deeply sympathised in the dread sufferings of his most beloved Son; but the suppositions which some persons appear to have deduced from the doctrine which explains the sufferings of Christ as acceptable to God, by satisfying his justice, and on that account obtaining the remission of sins, we in all humility conceive to have often proved productive of very lamentable consequences; for when the erring mind of man has unhappily imbibed any confused and erroneous idea that God's wrath could be appeased, and his pardon obtained by the endurance of sufferings abstracted from other considerations, it not unfrequently so operates on gloomy dispositions, as to end in what we denominate religious melancholy, which sometimes terminates in fatal self-destruction.

That very excellent discourse on the death of Christ, written by the late eminent Dr. Blair, though in an early page of it he professes to "consider the subject as a very mysterious one, observing, that in all things we see only in part; and here, if any where, we see also as through a glass, darkly," (p. 123;) yet in several portions of the same sermon, he offers explanations strongly

savouring of the doctrine we lament. In p. 122, we read as follows: "This was the hour in which Christ atoned for the sins of mankind, and accomplished our redemption; it was the hour when the great sacrifice was offered up, the efficiency of which reaches back to the first transgression of man, and extends forward to the end of time; the hour when from the cross, as from an high altar, that blood was flowing which washed away the guilt of the nations. This awful dispensation of the Almighty contains mysteries which are beyond the discovery of man; it is one of those things into which the angels desire to look. What has been revealed to us is, that the death of Christ was the interposition of heaven for preventing the ruin of the human kind. We know, that under the government of God, misery is the natural consequence of guilt : after rational creatures had by their criminal conduct introduced disorder into the divine kingdom, there was no ground to believe that by their penitence and prayers alone, they could prevent the destruction that threatened them." (This there certainly was not; but Dr. Blair, without accepting the full and most satisfactory reasons assigned by scriptural explanation, how and why the sufferings of our blessed Saviour atoned for sin, proceeds to remark, that "the prevalence of propitiatory sacrifices throughout the earth, proclaim it to be the general sense of mankind, that mere repentance was not of sufficient avail to expiate sin, or to stop its penal effects." (This it doubtless is not; Scripture expressly informs us, that