the doctrine of the Son of God coming in the flesh, by his dying as a sacrifice for sin, by his rising and ascending to heaven, by his appearing there as a priest to intercede for sinners in the virtue of his sacrifice, and by his sitting there as a King, to reign overall things for the salvation of his people whom he has purchased with his own blood.

THE RECOLLECTION.

What a variety of supports has this blessed doctrine of our reconciliation to God by the atoning death of Christ? What a train of arguments to confirm it, are drawn down from the very first entrance of sin into the world! Guilty nature urges us on to inquire after such an atonement, and the Bible reveals it to us in a long succession of types, promises, and prophecies, in narratives and plain instructions, in darker or brighter discoveries, from the beginning of mankind.

If I forsake the gospel of Christ, and his atonement for sin, whether shall my guilty conscience fly to find a better relief? This is the doctrine that supplies the chiefest wants of a guilty creature, and the chief defects of natural light and reason. Nature shews me no way to recompense the justice of God for my. innumerable sins. Nature shews me nothing which God will accept in the room of my own perfect obedience, or in the room of my everlasting punishment. If I leave thee, O Jesus, whither should

go? Thy sufferings are the spring of my hope of pardon, and my eternal life depends on thy painful and shameful death.

I see and I obtain in this gospel of atonement all that the heathen world laboured for in vain, by ma ny wild inventions, and painful superstitions. The anger of the God of heaven is pacified by the sufferings of Jesus his Son, O my God, let my soul never run back to infidelity and heathenism, and

rove abroad among the foolish inventions of men, in quest of any other methods of atonement. The blood of Jesus is all my hope.

Here I see the gracious promises of ancient times fulfilled, even the first promise of mercy that was ever made to fallen man. Here I behold the accomplishment of the predictions of the holy prophets since the world began; it was the Spirit of Christ spake in them, concerning the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow, 1 Peter i. 11. Here I see "the seed of the woman breaking the head of the ser'pent, the Son of God manifested, and by his own death, destroying the works of the devil, 1 John iii. 8. Here I behold the Messiah cut off, but not for him"self. I behold him here on his cross finishing iniquity, transgrassion, and sin; and bringing in ever'lasting righteousness. I see his soul made an offering for the sins of men:' And the prophets Isaiah and Daniel, conspiring with the blessed apostles to point to Jesus as an all-sufficient Saviour.

I see the types and shadows of the Jewish religion so happily answered in this doctrine of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, that I am well assured that this is the substance, for it bears the shape and lineaments of the shadow. This is the great Original; for it carries the exact resemblance of the types and pictures that went before. The ancient religion of emblems and figures was confirmed by the amazing wonders of Moses; but the religion of Christ, which contains in it the substance and true glory of all former dispensations, is not only attested by the miracles of the Son of God, but he himself also appears in the midst of it, in so divine a correspondence with the typical ordinances of Moses, as gives a double and most undoubted confirmation to his own blessed gospel, and his own atonement for sin. Every thing that established the religion of the Jews, serves to establish me in the religion of Christ, Their lavers and washings, their altars

and sacrifices were divine; but they were divines only for a season. These ancient vails which covered the gospel, were of God's own contrivance; and when they were exhibited to the people, especially in the days of Moses and Solomon, they made a bright and sacred appearance; but now the gospel stands forth unvailed, and in perfect light: God himself hath folded up these vails as an old garment, and laid them aside. The substance is come, and the shadows disappear. Blessed be the Lord that I was brought forth since the Sun of Righteousness is risen upon the earth, and the morning clouds are vanished away.

I hear Jesus, my great prophet, preaching this doctrine of propitiation for our sins by his death, in his own ministry; though he was content to do it in a more obscure and imperfect manner: And I now see the reason why he taught this truth chiefly in parables, because it was not proper in that age to be published to the multitude in plain language, till he had actually died and rose again.

I behold his terrible agonies in the garden, be. fore he came near the cross. I see the blessed Son of God labouring under. the burden of our guilt, wrestling, and sweating blood, under the unknown impressions of that tribulation and wrath, that indignation and anguish, which was due to my sins. What else could make so glorious and divine a person discover such dreadful distress of soul? Again, he cries out on the cross with anguish of spirit, he bleeds, he groans, he dies. I acknowledge the truth of the doctrine of his atonement. I read it in all his agonies. These are such sufferings, and such sorrows as are beyond all that men could inflict or that a mere man could bear, beyond all the common terrors of death and the grave. My Saviour sustain. ed a heavier burden, and was engaged in harder work: a labour more dreadful, and more glorious. He was then making atonement to divine justice for

`my sins.

ever.

And blessed be his name for ever and

I read the same doctrine of atonement for sin, by the death of Christ, in the writings of his holy apostles. This was the gospel which they preached to the Jews, and to the rest of the nations. This they delivered down in the sacred records of the New Testament, whence we derive our religion and our hope. The language in which they expressed our reconciliation to God, by the death of Christ, carries with it such evidence, and such strength, that if I believe these books to be divine, I cannot but receive this doctrine as the truth of God; and 'I would learn of St. Paul to glory in the cross of 'Christ, and to live by the faith of the Son of God, 'who loved me, and gave himself for me,'

When I read of the astonishing gifts of the blessed Spirit, communicated to the first preachers and professors of the gospel; when I survey these gifts in all their extensive glory, and in all their force of argument; I look upon all of them as an heap of united wonders, conspiring to support this doctrine of the propitiation of Christ, which was every where taught by these inspired favourites of Heaven. Every strange tongue which they spoke, teaches me this blessed truth. Every disease of body which they healed, assures me, that the stripes which Christ sustained, were for the healing of our souls. Every unclean spirit which they cast out, establishes my belief, that by the atoning death of Christ, we are delivered from the power of the devil. Every surprising wonder which they wrought, gives me a firmer persuasion of this wondrous doctrine, that the Son of God died to give us life.

Blessed Saviour, let the same Spirit, by whose influence they healed the sick, they cast out devils, and wrought all these wonders, write this holy religion, and this doctrine of thy atonement for sin deep in my heart. heart. O let me make it my daily food,

VOL. II.

R