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hatred of it ; but it {hall alfo anfwer the demantl and defign 

 of the threatening by fin-h aftual pain or punilhmeiit, 

 though it is laid on the fiirety iiilltad of the offender; and 

 thus it may fecure the law from being broken, in time to 

 come, as efieCinally as if the offenders thcmfelves had been 

 punilhcd. Such a pain, penance, or punifhment, are the 

 humiliation and fiifferings of Jefus Chrill, his labours and 

 forroW; and it is in this ienle that the language of expiation 

 or atonement, of propitiation and ranfoni, is fo often ufed. 

 See I Pet. ii. 23. 2 Cor. v. it. Gal. iii. 10. " Now by 

 thefe appointed fufferings of the Swi of God, in the room 

 and Head of linfn! men, tiiere is an honourable amends made 

 to the governor of the world for the violation of his law, and 

 a glorious way made for the cxcrcife of mercy in the pardon- 

 ing of the finner, and that witliout any imputation of re- 

 flection upon the holinefs of God's nature and conduft, or 

 any fufpicion of the juftice of his government, as if he would 

 connive at fin : fmcc lie difcovers and declares, that in paffing 

 by the fms of his people in former ages, and in pardoning and 

 juilifying fmners who now believe in Chri'.l, he will manifeil 

 iiis juftice and righteoufntis by requiring fuch a facriiiee 

 wheieby fin (hall be punidied, though the (inner be fpared." 

 See Rom. iii. 24 — 26. To this purpofe, Whitby'(in Heb. v. 

 3.) oblerves, that Chrift, after he became our furetv, was 

 not, nor could be delivered from thofe forrows which were 

 the punilhment of our fins; he being as oiu- expiatory facri- 

 fice, not only on the occafion of our fins, but in our (lead, to 

 bear the punifhment of our iniquity. (See Satisfaction.) 

 In the fenfe above explained, the death and fufferings of 

 Chrill were properly Vicarious. The advocates for this 

 opinion have fometimes afferted, without referve or quahh- 

 cation, that the necefiit)' of an atonement arofe from the im- 

 mutable nature, and the indifpenfible demands of divine 

 juftice; and that Godrcu/J not, in confiftence with his moral 

 attributes, have pardoned fin without receiving a plenary 

 fatisfadtion; that this fatisfaCtion or atonement coi/M not have 

 been given by any other being but his own &verhifting and 

 equal Son ; and that even he could not have effcfted this 

 great and ultimate objeft of his mediatorial office, unlcfs our 

 fins had been imputed to him in the fame degree as his 

 merits are imputed to us. (See Imputation.) On the 

 other hand, thofe who have carried Calvinifm to the ex- 

 treme in other points, have neverthclcfs maintained, that 

 punitive juftice was not eflential to the divine nature, and 

 that God might have pardoned fin by virtue of his own 

 abfolute authority, independently of an atonement. IJf. 

 Owen, however, has oppofed this tenet in a Latin tract, 

 intitlcd, " Diatriba de julHtia divina." 



" Chrift's death," fays the learned biblical writer. Dr. 

 Clarke (Sermons vol.viii. p. 366.), "was truly ^.nA pro- 

 perly, in the ftrifteft meaning of the word, an expiatory 

 facrifice. For if finners, by having diminiilied the honour, 

 and defpifed the authority of God's laws, were become 

 liable to the juftice and vengeance of God; if the Son of 

 God in our nature, by vindicating the honour of God's 

 laws, hath difcharged this obligation, and obtained remif- 

 fion for us; and if the obtaining this remiflion was by the 

 (bedding of his blood, which is called " the price of our re- 

 demption" (i Cor. vi. 20) ; it follows, that the wrnth of 

 God was appeafed by the death of Chrift, and that God 

 was gracioufly pleafed to accept this vicarious fuffering of 

 his Son, in the ftead of the punifhment that w^s due to the 

 finner in his own perfon; which is the exprefs and moft 

 proper notion of an expiatoiy facrifice." To the fame pur- 

 pofe this excellent writer obferves in another place (vol. v. 

 p. 203.), that " Chrift hath vindicated the honour of God's 

 laws, by taking upon himfelf the puniiliment of their fins 



who repent, and embrace the terms of the gofpel. He con« 

 dcfccndedto be made fin forus, i.e. to be made a facrifice for 

 our fins, that we through that expiation might become fub- 

 jeCls capable of the mercy of God. He took upon him our 

 nature, and was clothed in fle(h,yw/V/)' indeed that he might 

 preacli the will of God to mankind in a nearer and more con- 

 defeending converfation with them ; but, principally, that he 

 who in the form of God could not fufTer, might become 

 capable of fii.Tering by being made in th.e lik.-nefs to-man. 

 He led a moft innocent and fpotlefs life, that he miglit in- 

 deed fct us an example, that we (hould follow his fteps; but 

 chiefly, becaufe, as it was required that the typical facrifices 

 under the law fliould be whole and without blcmi'h, foit was 

 ncceffary, that he who was to be the real expiatory fa.-rifice 

 for the fins of others, (hould have none that needed expiation 



of his own He fullered a fhameful and ignominious death 



upon the crofs, tliat he might indeed give us an example of 

 patience and readinefs to fufl'er ; but the principal defign of it 

 was, that he might put away fin by the facrilice of himfelf, 

 and obtain eternal redemption for us throjigh faith in his 

 blood. His refurrettion wasthe demonftration of this facri- 

 fice's being accepted by God; and his afcenfion into Jiea- 

 ven was in order to plead the merits of his fufferings before 

 God, and intercede for thofe who, according to the terms of 

 the gofpel-covenaitr, fliould be capable of receiving the gra- 

 cious benefits purchafed by his death." Similar fentiments 

 of tlie doftrine of atonement are largely illuftrated in a trea- 

 tife, by Mr. M. Tomkins, who was an avowed Arian witli 

 regard to the Trinity, iutitled, " Jefus Chrift, the Mediator 

 between God and Man;" of which a fecond edition was 

 printed in London, in 1761. This writer, havinir produced 

 feveral paffages of fcripture, that fpeak of Chrift's death as a 

 facrifice, and which declare him to be conftituted an high- 

 prieft, and having eftablifhed, as he conceives, beyond all 

 reafonable doubt, the literal fenfe of thofe fcriptures, pro- 

 ceeds to conlider what was the notion of expiatory facrifices, 

 and of the prieftly office under the law of Mofes. (See 

 Sacrifice.) Thefe facrifices, he fhews, were intended to 

 make atonement for the perfon who offered them ; i. e. 

 according to his ftatement they were, by divine appoint- 

 ment, of avail to free him from the guilt he had contrafted, 

 and to prevent the punifhment to which he was liable. See 

 Numb. viii. ig. xvi. 46. Tiiefe facrifices he confiders as a 

 proper expiation, or a real propitiation; not that they were 

 the caufe of a merciful difpofition in God, and in that fenfe 

 rendered him propitious who was before implacable ; but 

 they were appointments for procuring pardon, and the 

 priefts by offering them obtained from the mercy of God 

 thofe bleffings of which they otherwife muft have been de- 

 prived. Hence he infers, that the effefts attributed to the 

 blood of Chrift correfpond with fuch effefts of thefe legal 

 facrifices, and that his afting as our high-prieft anfvvers to 

 the ofEce of the liigh-prieft under the law. See Heb. viii. 

 ix. 8. 23. X. I. He proceeds to fhew, that our pardon and 

 acceptance with God, and our freedom of accefs, are re- 

 prefented, in the New Teilament, as the fruit of the fuffering 

 of Chriit not merely as an aft of obedience, but as a facrifice 

 for fin, as a demonftration of God's difpleafure againfl it, 

 and of his regard to the righteous fanftion of the original 

 law, which denounced death to the tranfgrefiiars of it. 

 With this view, when God refolves to fhew mercy to 

 finuers, he alio determines that his only begotten fon, not 

 indeed without his confent, (hall fuller death, the penalty 

 which the original law had denounced againlt tranfgreffors. 

 Thus Chrift, by fuffering death, prevented or warded off 

 thofe effects or confequcnces of fin, which would otherwife 

 have come upon mankind; and accordingly his death and 



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