created, yet he was offended with them when they sin ned, and gave his Son to suffer for them, that through that Son's obedience he might be reconciled to them.

This reconciliation is clearly delivered in the scriptures as wrought by Christ; for "all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ;" and that by virtue of his death, for "when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, making peace through the blood of his cross, and by him reconciling all things unto himself," Rom. v. 10; Col. i. 20. In vain it is objected that the scripture saith our Saviour reconciled men to God, but nowhere teacheth that he reconciled God to man; for in the language of the scripture to reconcile a man to God, is in our vulgar language to reconcile God to man, that is to cause him who before was angry and offended with him to be gracious and propitious to him. As the princes of the Philistines spake of David, 1 Sam. xxix. 4. " Wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men ?" Wherewith shall he reconcile Saul who is so highly offended with him, wherewith shall he render him gracious and favorable, but by betraying these men unto him? As our Saviour adviseth, "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother," that is, reconcile thy brother to thyself, whom thou hast injured, render him by thy submission favorable unto thee, who hath something against thee, and is offended with thee; Matt. v. 23. As the apostle adviseth the wife that, "departed from her husband, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to her husband," that is, to appease and get the favor of her husband; 1 Cor. vii. 11. In the like manner we are said to be reconciled unto God, when God is reconciled, appea sed, and become gracious and favorable unto us; and Christ is said to reconcile us unto God, when he hath moved, and obtained of God to be reconciled unto us, when he hath appeased him and restored us unto his fa vor. Thus when we were enemies we were reconciled to God," that is notwithstanding he was offended with us

for our sins, we were restored unto his favor by the death of his Son.

Whence appeareth the weakness of the Socinian exception, that in the scriptures we are said to be reconciled unto God; but God is never said to be reconciled unto us. For by that very expression, it is to be understood, that he who is reconciled in the language of the scriptures, is restored unto the favor of him who was formerly offended with that person which is now said to be reconciled. As when David was to be reconciled unto Saul, it was not that David should lay down his enmity against Saul, but that Saul should become propitious and favorable unto David: and therefore where the language is that David should be reconciled unto Saul, the sense is, that Saul, who was exasperated and angry, should be appeased, and so reconciled unto David.

Nor is it any wonder God should be thus reconciled to sinners by the death of Christ, who "while we were yet sinners died for us," because the punishment which Christ, who was our surety, endured, was a full satisfaction to the will and justice of God. "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many," Matt. xx. 28. Now a ransom is a price given to redeem such as are any way in captivity; any thing laid down by way of compensation to take off a bond or obligation, whereby he who before was bound becometh free. All sinners were obliged to undergo such punishments as are proportionate to their sins, and were by that obligation captivated and in bonds, and Christ did give his life a ransom for them, and that a proper ransom, if that his life were of any price, and given as such. For a ransom is properly nothing else but something of price given by way of redemption, to buy or purchase that which is detained, or given for the releasing of that which is enthralled. But it is most evident that the life of Christ was laid down as a price; neither is it more certain that he died, than that he bought us: "Ye are bought with a price," saith the apostle; and it is "the Lord who bought us," and the price which he paid was his blood; for "we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the

precious blood of Christ." Now as it was the blood of Christ, so it was a price given by way of compensation; and as that blood was precious, so was it a full and perfect satisfaction. For as the gravity of the offence and iniquity of the sin is augmented and increaseth, according to the dignity of the person offended and injured by it; so the value, price, and dignity of that which is given by way of compensation, is raised according to the dignity of the person making the satisfaction. God is of infinite majesty, against whom we have sinned; and Christ is of the same divinity, who gave his life a ransom for sinners; "God hath purchased his church with his own blood," Acts xx. 28. Although therefore God be said to remit our sins by which we were captivated, yet he is never said to remit the price without which we had never been redeemed: neither can he be said to have remitted it, because he did require it and receive it.

If then we consider together, on our side the nature and obligation of sin, in Christ the satisfaction made and reconciliation wrought, we shall easily perceive how God forgiveth sins, and in what remission of them consisteth. Man being in all conditions under some law of God, who hath sovereign power and dominion over him, and therefore owing absolute obedience to that law, whensoever any way he transgresseth that law or deviateth from that rule, he becomes thereby a sinner, and contracteth a guilt, which is an obligation to endure a punishment proportionable to his offence; and God, who is the Lawgiver and Sovereign, becoming now the party wronged and offended, hath a most just right to punish man as an offender. But Christ taking upon him the nature of man, and offering himself a sacrifice for sin, giveth that unto God for and instead of the eternal death of man, which is more valuable and acceptable to God than that death could be, and so maketh a sufficient compensation and full satisfaction for the sins of man: which God accepting, becometh reconciled unto us, and for the punishment which Christ endured, taketh off our obligation to eternal punishment,

Thus man who violated, by sinning, the law of God, and by that violation offended God, and was thereby obliged to undergo the punishment due unto the sin, and

to be inflicted by the wrath of God, is, by the price of the most precious blood of Christ, given and accepted in full compensation and satisfaction for the punishment which was due, restored unto the favor of God, who being thus satisfied, and upon such satisfaction reconciled, is faithful and just to take off all obligation unto punishment from the sinner; and in this act of God consisteth the forgiveness of sins, which is sufficient for the first part of the explication of this Article, as being designed for nothing else but to declare what is the true notion of remission of sins, in what that action doth consist.

The second part of the explication, taking notice not only of the substance, but also of the order of the Article, observing the immediate connexion of it with the holy church, and the relation, which in the opinion of the ancients it hath unto it, will endeavour to instruct us how this great privilege of forgiveness of sins is propounded in the church, how it may be procured and obtained by the members of the church.

At the same time when our Saviour sent the apostles to gather a church unto him, he foretold "that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem;" and when the church was first constituted, they thus exhorted those whom they desired to come into it, "Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out;" and, "Be it known unto you, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins," Acts iii. 19; xiii. 38. From whence it appeareth that the Jews and Gentiles were invited to the church of Christ, that they might therein receive remission of sins; that the doctrine of remission of all sins propounded and preached to all men, was proper and peculiar to the gospel, which teacheth us that " by Christ all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." Acts xiii. 39. Therefore John the Baptist, who went “before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, gave knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the remission of their sins," Luke i. 76.

This, as it was preached by the apostles at the first gathering of the church of Christ, I call proper and peculiar

to the gospel, because the same doctrine was not so propounded by the law. For if we consider the law itself strictly and under the bare notion of a law, it promised life only upon perfect, absolute, and uninterrupted obedience; the voice thereof was only this, 66 'Do this and live." Some of the greater sins nominated and specified in the law, had annexed unto them the sentence of death, and that sentence irreversible; nor was there any other way or means left in the law of Moses by which that punishment might be taken off. As for other less and more ordinary sins, there were sacrifices appointed for them; and when those sacrifices were offered and accepted, God was appeased, and the offences were released. Whatsoever else we read of sins forgiven under the law, was of some special divine indulgence, more than was promised by Moses, though not more than was promulgated unto the people, in the name and of the nature of God, so far as something of the gospel was mingled with the law.

Now as to the atonement made by the sacrifices, it clearly had relation to the death of the Messias; and whatsoever virtue was in them did operate through his death alone. As he was the lamb "slain from the foundation of the world," so all atonements which were ever made, were only effectual by his blood. But though no sin was ever forgiven, but by virtue of that satisfaction; though God was never reconciled unto any sinner, but by intuition of that propitiation; yet the general doctrine of remission of sins was never clearly revealed, and publicly preached to all nations, till the coming of the Saviour of the world, whose name was therefore called Jesus, because he was to his people from their sins."

66 save

Seeing therefore we are assured that the preaching of remission of sins belongeth not only certainly, but in some sense peculiarly, to the church of Christ, it will be next considerable how this remission is conferred upon any -person in the church.

For a full satisfaction in this particular two things are very observable; one relating to the initiation, the other concerning the continuation, of a Christian. For the first of these, it is the most general and irrefragable assertion of all, to whom we have reason to give credit, that all