Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

play the perfection of his own moral rectitude, as rector of the universe, in the accomplishment of it. The excellence and goodness of the end did juftify the choice of the mean, and gave it its whole value. In any other view, the death of Chrift will give us a moft abfurd and fhocking idea of the nature of God.

§. 4. AGAIN, fuppofing that the death of Chrift did take its value from his obedience and goodness; yet this, infstead of subferving, would really differve the Dr's purpofe; because it supposes that the death and the perfect obedience of Christ were two different things. For, if the death of Chrift took its value from his obedience and goodness, his death could not be his obedience and goodness: if it had, it could not have derived its value from them. Where

fore, if the Dr. could really prove, that the death of Chrift did take its whole value from his obedience and goodness, yet this would not prove that the death of Chrift was his obedience and goodness, but the contrary. However the Dr. fays, that he has " proved this, and explained it at large, "in the VIII chapter of the Key to the Apoftolic writings." And to what he has faid there he refers his reader. I fhall, therefore, here examine all the fcriptureevidence which the Dr. has produced, in that VIII chapter, to prove this point.

[ocr errors]

And

And as the things, which the Dr. says in the next paragraph of his fcripture-doctrine of atonement examined, coincide with fome of these things which he says in that VIIIth chapter of his Key, I fhall examine both together.

§. 5. ALL the fcripture-evidence, (additional to that which we have in the Xth chapter of his fcripture-doctrine of atonement examined,) which the Dr. produceth, in the VIIIth chapter of his Key to the Apoftolic writings, in order to prove, that Christ's perfect obedience and goodness was the facrifice which he offered to God for the fins of mankind, is contained in the second paragraph of that chapter. And, therefore, I fhall confider and examine all the parts of that paragraph separately and distinctly.

§. 6. THE Dr. begins this paragraph with a question, viz. "How then is this

[ocr errors]

(i. e. the blood or death of Christ, confi"dered as an offering and facrifice to God) "to be understood?" To which he answers, "The blood of Chrift is the perfect obedi"ence and goodness of Chrift." And then he proceeds to the proof of this point; the various parts of which I fhall fet down in order, and make a particular answer to each of them.

The

The Dr's Proof.

§. 7. I. THE Dr. fays, "His (Chrift's) "blood is not to be confidered only with regard to the matter of it; for fo it is a mere corporeal fubftance, of no more "value in the fight of God than any other "thing of the fame kind?

στ

ANSWER.

§. 8. WHAT the Dr. here fays, will be readily granted to him: but I don't fee that it can be of any fervice to his scheme. The queftion, under confideration, is not about the blood of Chrift as a corporeal substance, or the value of it in God's fight, as fuch: but about his voluntary death upon the cross, and its efficacy as a facrifice for fins and particularly, about this death as being, or not being, the perfect obedience and goodness of his whole life here on earth. And whatever inference the Dr. may draw, in fupport of his fcheme, from the blood of Chrift, confidered as a corporeal fubftance; yet, I am perfwaded, he can draw none from it, fubfervient to that purpose, when it is confidered in this other view. For, confidered as the blood of the Son of God, voluntarily fhed upon the cross, or his painful, violent, and fhameful death,

it must affect, and make very deep impreffions upon, the minds of all fober thinking intelligences, whether God, angels or men.But fuppofing that the blood of Christ had been, in all refpects, worthless, yet it will not follow, that his blood was his perfect obedience and goodness, or that this is the fcripture fenfe of his blood: if I am not mistaken, the contrary will follow, viz. that his blood, because it was of no value, was not his perfect obedience and goodness, which were things of great worth. This laft inference, I think, is good common fenfe; but no way favourable to the Dr's notion of the blood or death of Chrift.

The Dr's proof continued.

§. 9. II. THE Dr. adds, "Nor is the "blood of Chrift to be confidered only in "relation to his death and fufferings, as if "mere death or fuffering were, in itself, pleafing and acceptable to God.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ANSWER.

§. 10. WHAT the Dr. here means by confidering the blood of Chrift in re"lation to his death and fufferings," is what I cannot comprehend. In the fcripture phrafeology, the blood of Christ, and the death of Chrift, are equipollent terms,

K

and

and fignify one and the fame thing: for which reason, his blood cannot be confidered in relation to his death, nor his death in relation to his blood. All, therefore, that I can make of what the Dr. fays, is, the death or fuffering of living and fenfible beings is not, in itself, pleafing and acceptable to God: confequently, the death or fuffering of Chrift was not, in itself, pleafing and acceptable to him.-All this is very true. But I cannot fee, that it is of any service to the Dr. For although the death or fuffering of Chrift is not, in itself, pleafing and acceptable to God, yet it will not follow, that the blood or death of Chrift was the perfect obedience and goodness of his fpotlefs life; or, that this is the fcripture-sense of it, which is the point that the Dr. has to prove: nor will it follow, that the death or fuffering of Chrift was pleafing and acceptable to God, because it was the death or fuffering of a perfon whose obedience and goodness were without any ftain or defect. If this laft was true, the death and fufferings of every obedient and good being would be pleafing and acceptable to God; not only fo, but the more perfect the obedience and goodness of any being were, his death and fufferings would, in proportion, be the more pleafing and acceptable to him. A little cool reflection upon these things, may help us to perceive the abfurdity of

either

« AnteriorContinuar »