rewarder of all who diligently seek him."* But to all who have an opportunity of receiving the gospel, faith in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, is by the very form of baptism declared to be equally essential with faith in the supreme Father; and this indispensable necessity of faith in Christ is as perpetually and strongly enforced in the gospel, as faith in the God of Israel, by the law. Thus, "he who believeth and is baptised, shail be saved: but he who believeth not shall be damned." This is the uniform denunciation under which Christianity is offered to our acceptance. Thus our Lord, when his apostles were dejected and terrified at the approach of his sufferings and death, exhorts them, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." The effects of this faith are spoken of as most important and glorious: "the Word which was with God, and was God, who was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not: he came to his own, and his own received him not; but to as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed in his name:" and our Lord himself declares, "this is the will of him who sent me, that every one who seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day." How exalted is the dignity and the power on which this faith is founded, how unspeakably important the objects to which it is essential! "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And again, "the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."§ 66 Is it credible that he who is thus described, on whom we are called thus to believe is it credible or conceivable, he should be a mere man, who had no existence before his human birth; of whom it is doubtful whether, in the usual course of the moral administration of providence, since miracles have ceased, he has any immediate agency, or in any way directly influences the minds * Heb. xi. 6. + Mark, xvi. 16. ‡ John, xiv. 1. § John, iii. 35, 36. of his disciples ?"* Surely this is utterly incredible: he who is thus associated with God, as the object of that faith which is essential to salvation; on whom we are called to believe, as "the only begotten Son of the Father," sent into the world to save it, "whom God hath so loved, as to give all things into his hand ;"t He towards whom such faith as this is required, must partake of the divine nature, and power, and dominion; He must be one with God, he must be God. Thus again, we are taught to believe that "Christ is the PROPITIATION for our sins :" that by his death we are reconciled to God; that "all men have sinned," but that through the sacrifice of Christ, and by faith in him, they are accepted as righteous by God-such faith purifying their hearts and opening their eyes, "turning them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ."§ I am aware that all this is denied by those who deny the divinity of Christ. But really it is so plainly and so repeatedly inculcated, both by the prophets and apostles, that this denial seems rather to prove the strong connexion between those two great truths, than to shake the evidence of either: and the doctrine of the ATONEMENT has been so recently and so fully established by very eminent writers, that it is altogether unnecessary for me to do more, than hint at a few of those scriptural testimonies by which it is so irrefutably proved." The Messiah," says one prophet, "shall be cut off, but not for himself," but "to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness."¶ "Surely," says another prophet, "he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted: but he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed; all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."** Carpenter on Unitarianism, p. 7, 293. John iii. 16, 17, 35. 1 John, ii. 1, 2. 1 Tim. i. 15. Rom. v. 6, 12. S Acts, xxvi. 18. ¶ Daniel, ix. 24, 26. ** Isaiah, liii. 4. tt Matt. xxvi. 28. Nor are the apostles less express in testifying this great truth than the prophets. "This," says our Lord, " is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many, for the remission of sins."* How clear is the beloved apostle: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."+ And St. Peter, when instructing the first converts of the Gentiles in the faith of Christ, declares, "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." And again; "Christ also hath once suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit." And St. Paul, after having fully proved, that "all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God," declares, that God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God."§ And again, "He hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."¶ Taking for granted, then, this great truth, that Christ" delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification,”** I cannot avoid remarking, how admirably this truth harmonizes with the acknowledged divinity of Christ, and how difficult it would be to reconcile it with any other system of belief. True it is, we must not presume to be wise above what is written. We could not form any opinion on a subject so awful and so remote from all human comprehension, but as far as divine wisdom has condescended to reveal. We could not pronounce any method of satisfying divine justice, possible or impossible, any thing necessary or unnecessary for the salvation of man, except as the word of God has declared it. But when the truths of the DIVINITY OF CHRIST, and HIS ATONING For the sins of MAN, are thus clearly revealed, we are surely at liberty to examine their connexion, and thus endeavour to find new reasons to admire the wisdom of the divine dispensations. was + Acts, x. 45. 1 Ephes. i. 6, 7. ** Rom. iv. 25. Mat. xxvi. 28. +1 John, ii. 1, 2. 1 Peter, iii. 18. § Romans, iii. 25. And now, my friends, when we reflect on the universal and all-powerful efficacy thus ascribed to the Redeemer's intercession and atonement, does it not forcibly impress upon our minds the conviction, that this great Redeemer cannot be himself a created being, and as created, infinitely removed from the great First Cause that He cannot be himself fallible, limited, changeable, dependent? Would it not be evidently preposterous and incredible, that any one human being should be taught to look up to another mere human being, as having acquired such superior merit, and by that merit (if one may so express it,) such influence with the common Creator, the common Lord, the common Judge of both, as to be able by his intercession to propitiate God to his fellow-creature, by his merits and works of supererogation to obtain pardon for another's sins, and by his sufferings to atone for his fellow-creature's transgression? This would surely be most strange and incredible: and yet, if we compare any two created beings together, however exalted one may appear above the other while comparison reaches no farther than themselves, still when both are compared with the GREAT JEHOVAH, their common Creator and common Lord, on whom both are equally dependent, and whom both must equally bow down to and adore, does not all difference in the degrees of inferiority to the supreme God vanish into nothing? and must not the most exalted of the heavenly host, when compared with this great God, stand on a level with the humblest of mankind? Are not in this view all created beings brethren? so that the declaration of the Psalmist is as strictly applicable to all classes of creation, as to all ranks and descriptions of mankind: "no man may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto God for him, for it cost more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever."* Thus again, if all created beings are equally bound to constant and unlimited obedience to the supreme God; if all their powers, all their exertions, are equally due to his gift, and should be equally devoted to his service, is not our Saviour's declaration as strictly applicable to the highest angelic beings, who stand, as it were in contact with the throne of God, as to the humblest of mankind? "So likewise ye, when ye shall have *Ps, xlix. 7, 8. done all these things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do."* On this supposition, where were the room for any one created being making atonement for the sins of another? Thus clear is the harmony, thus inseparable is the connexion, between those two great truths, of the divinity and atonement of Christ. Thus impossible it is to receive one doctrine revealed by the divine word, and deny another, without involving ourselves in inextricable confusion and perplexity. Let us next observe the importance attached by the Scriptures to the interposition of Christ for the salvation of man, and reflect whether this interposition stands on a level with the exertions which have been made, and the effects which been produced, by other prophets and teachers and martyrs, who have taught and toiled, or suffered and died, to prove the sincerity and establish the truth of their opinions, to instruct men in the principles of religion, or recall them to the practice of virtue: or whether such superiority of importance and efficacy, is not ascribed to the interposition of Christ, as cannot be accounted for, without allowing to this our Redeemer a divine dignity, and attributing the efficacy of his redemption to a divine power. We may then in the first instance remark, that on this great event, the interposition of Christ for the salvation of man, the entire scheme of revelation centres. The law was but the preparation for the gospel, “the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The ceremonies and sacrifices of the law were typical of, and superseded by the sacrifice of Christ and by the more spiritual and exalted system of Christian faith and Christian perfection. "The spirit of prophecy was to bear testimony. to Jesus." "God," says St. Paul, “who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on Rev. xix. 10. *Luke, xvii. 10. ↑ Gal. iii. 24. |