this, but a contrary tendency; it follows, that the facrifice of the perfect obedience and goodness of Chrift cannot, for the reafon affigned by the Dr. be any reason with God, for granting the remiffion of fins. And with this conclufion I might here terminate the examination of this point. But that I may leave nothing undone, that may serve to fhew the abfurdity and falfhood of this principle, I fhall examine it by itself, and abftracted from the connection which it has with the other part of the Dr's fcheme. : §. 3. HAD the Dr. in the feveral paffages, which I have quoted from his book, inferted the word mean, or medium, in place of the word reafon, I thould have had nothing to object here for had he done fo, he would have fpoken conformably to the language and fense of the fcriptures, which very often fpeak of our redemption, and the remiffion of fins, as being (ev, or dia with a genitive cafe following it) in, by, or through the death, blood, cross, or facrifice of Christ, as a mean of conveyance; but never once mention them, as being for, or, on account of, that facrifice, as a reafon for the grant or conveyance of these bleffings and many of the texts of fcripture, which he has quoted in feveral places of his book, would have effectually fupported this doctrine. But the Dr. in affigning the facrifice of Chrift as a reason of God's God's remitting fins, or as a motive by which he is determined to grant this favour to finful men, has, I think, departed both from fcripture-doctrine, and from common fense. What the Dr. has advanced from the fcriptures in support of this doctrine, I have already examined, and fhewn to be weak and inconclufive. The only thing, therefore, which remains to be confidered, is, its confiftency, or inconfiftency, with reafon and common fenfe. Or §. 4. ALL the reafons which either are, or can be, affigned for any voluntary action of an intelligent mind, are one or other of the three following; either (1.) The primary motive by which he is excited and determined to do the action; which is always fome affection or inclination of nature. (2.) The end which the agent propofes to fubferve or promote by the action; which is commonly called the final caufe of the action. Or (3.) The fitness and rectitude of the action. Thus we fay, that a man performed fuch an action, because he was excited or moved to do it by this or that affection; or because he proposed to gain this or that end by the action; or because he judged the action to be right and reasonable.-Befides · these three reafons, I know none that can be affigned for any moral action, of an intelligent mind. If the Dr. knows of any other reafon 1 See Part II. Chap. I. §. 15-28. of of action, I hope that he will be pleased to rectify my mistake. §. 5. IF, therefore, it be clearly proved, that the facrifice of Chrift neither is, nor can be, a reason of any of these three kinds with God, for granting the remiffion of fins ; then it will follow, that it neither is, nor can be, a reason of any kind with him, for granting this bleffing to finners. This, therefore, I fhall here endeavour to prove a clear and fatisfactory manner. And in §. 6. First. THE facrifice of Chrift cannot, as a primary motive, be a reason with God, for granting the remiffion of fins; because the primary motive to every voluntary action, is fome affection or inclination of nature. That fome affection or inclination of nature, is the primary motive to every voluntary action, is what every man feels in his own experience. And that this is the primary motive by which the deity was, and is, determined to grant the remiffion of fins, the fcriptures every where declare. This is what the Dr. himself acknowledgeth in the following words, "The defign of it (i. e. of "the facrifice of Chrift) could not be to "make God merciful, or to difpofe him to fpare and pardon us, when, as fomè fuppose, so great was his wrath, that had not "Chrift interpofed, he would have destroyed us. This is directly contrary to the most "plain and certain notions of the divine good ઃઃ goodness, and to the whole current of "revelation; which always affures us, that "the pure love of God to a finful world "was the first mover and original fpring of "the whole of our redemption by Chrift, John iii. 17. All that Chrift did,-was by "the will and appointment of God, and "was conducive to our redemption only in "virtue of his will and appointment, Heb. "x. 7. John v. 30.-vi. 27. 38 *." If §. 7. Secondly. THE facrifice of Chrift cannot be the final cause of the action of the deity in granting the remiffion of fins; nor, confequently, a reafon with God, as fuch, for granting that favour to finful men. we should fuppofe, that the facrifice of Chrift was the final caufe of the grant of the remiffion of fins, or the end which God proposed to himself by this grant, and, as fuch, the reason of his granting the remiffion of fins; the very fuppofition would supply us with fuch an abfurd and horrid notion of deity, as I chufe not to mention.-Befides, it would make the remiffion of fins not to be the effect of Chrift's death; but Chrift's death to be the effect of the remiffion of fins; which is contrary to common fenfe, the whole current of fcripture, and to the Dr's own better doctrine. It therefore, remains §. 8. * See Scripture-doctrine of Atonement examine d Chap. IX. §. 154. -- : 8. Thirdly. THAT the facrifice of Chrift, if it is a reafon with God, for granting the remiffion of fins, it must be a reason with him for making that grant, because it did conftitute, or was included in, the rectitude of the action of remitting fins. But the facrifice of Chrift did neither conftitute, nor belong to, the rectitude of the Deity's action in remitting fins: and, therefore, could not be a reafon with God, as being included in it, or belonging to it, for the performance of that action which I thus prove. The rectitude of a moral action confifts in three things, viz. In the rectitude (r.) Of its primary motive; (2.) Of its end; and (3.) Of its fitness to promote that end. Befides the rectitude of these three, I can Conceive of nothing that is included in the rectitude of any moral action. For if fuch an action proceeds from a right motive, and be directed to a right end, and has a proper tendency and due fitnefs to promote that end, it is, in all refpects, a right action, and there is nothing wanting to its rectitude.-But now it feems to me, to be plain and evident, that the action of the deity in remitting fins, has no dependence at all on the facrifice of Chrift, for the rectitude either of its primary motive, or of its end, or of its tendency and fitness to promote that end: for, if it had, it would follow, that in the performance of this action, God could not act upon a right 02 motive, |