ed to express the act of delivering the captive or the slave from bondage, and not the price paid for their delivery. This, I apprehend, is always the meaning of the term when used by the sacred writers in the concerns of our salvation. Sinners are in the bible denominated the captives and the slaves of Satan. From this servitude and bondage Jesus Christ has, by his mediation and ministry, ransomed them; but the supposition never entered the human mind, that Christ paid a consideration to Satan for the delivery of sinners from his empire. No. Our Saviour has ransomed the children of men from the dominion of the wicked one, that he might establish a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Christ gave his life for sinners, that he might ransom them from the bondage of iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Christ died that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. This is the ransom which he has obtained for sin

ners.

Jesus Christ is also said, by his death, to have reconciled sinners to God. He is called our reconciliation." You that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works, now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable, in his sight." Again."God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto

them." You, my Christian brethren, must perceive that the reconciliation here described respects sinners themselves, and not God. The supposition that the death of Christ was to pacify the wrath of offended Deity, and to render him compassionate and merciful towards his rational offspring on earth, seems to be opposed to the plain import of these very passages, as well as to the whole language of scripture on this doctrine. It is here expressly declared, as above stated, that the scheme of our salvation flowed from the inherent benevolence of the divine nature. God is ever disposed to confer his favour on his children in a manner which consists with his underived his immutable perfections. He has made his Son Jesus Christ the mediator and minister of the highest blessings to man. In our text, the apostle reasons thus-"If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life; and not only so, we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." This is the only passage in the New Testament in which the word atonement occurs, and here the term ought to be reconciliation; for the word in the original is the substantive from the verb, which, in the former verse, is translated reconciled, and the Greek word in every other place is thus translated. The meaning of our text, in the paraphrase of Dr. M'Knight, is this "If, being enemies under sentence of death, we are respited, and made to lay down our enmity to God, through the death of his Son; much more, being thus reconciled, we shall be saved from pun

ishment through his life in the body, which he regained, that he might govern us now and acquit us at last. And not only do we hope to be saved from wrath by Christ's life, but we, believers, the spiritual seed, even boast in God as our God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received an opportunity of being pardoned." This text, then, furnishes no authority for the doctrine of satisfaction it states the means appointed by divine wisdom and mercy to bring us into the state of salvation, and measures adopted to prepare us for the society of heaven.

But as the word atonement is often used on subjects of divinity, it may be well to learn its meaning as applied to the Jewish ritual. It frequently occurs in the Old Testament, and in every place it means the efficacy which God was pleased to give to particular ceremonial observances in removing legal impurities and uncleanness from men, and in making the sanctuary, the altar, the vessels, &c. legally pure and holy. Atonement was made as well for the altar, the vessels, &c. as for sinners. If we choose to apply this term to Christianity, it must mean the efficacy of the measures which God, by Jesus Christ, has been pleased to appoint to purge the consciences of men from dead works, that they may through Jesus Christ be justified in his sight. Atonement, in a scriptural sense, cannot mean merit transferred from Christ to the sinner, by which he is justified; but an effect produced in the disposition of the sinner himself, which renders him the fit object of the mercy of God. Christ is said "to

be the propitiation for our sins." He was the medium of the gracious provision which assures pardon to the repenting sinner, and eternal life to the obedient Christian. He is said "to have given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God." In the execution of the gracious and merciful purpose of God in the salvation of sinners, he consecrated his days, and sacrificed his life." He was the good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep." In imitation of his piety and devotedness to the appointed duties of his mediatorial office, we are directed, as his disciples, to present ourselves a living sacrifice unto God, holy, and acceptable in his sight. Christ, we are told, "bore the sins and bore the sicknesses of men." He did not take the sins and the diseases of men upon himself, but delivered men from them..

I proceed to the last head of our discourse, viz.— 3. To show, from the authority of scripture, that the benefits of the mediation of Jesus Christ are not limited to a few elect individuals, but are extended to the whole family of man.

I need not dwell on this branch of our subject. If the statements made in the previous propositions be admitted, no pretext can be found for the limitation of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. God is, in the bible, represented as the common parent of all the members of the human family. All his children possess an intellectual and moral capacity; and it is expressly declared that they are all placed in a state of probation, candidates for a blessed immortality. The laws of the gospel are applied to all men without distinction: its sanctions and its

prom

ises are as general. Christ, the scriptures assert, tasted death for every man; and they assure us that God would not that any should perish, but that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. In the description of the day of judgment the declaration is express, that all shall be raised from the tomb, summoned before the tribunal of the constituted Judge; and that each individual shall receive according to the deeds done in the body, whether they shall have done good or evil.

The covenant of grace and mercy was established at the time when sentence of death was pronounced upon apostate man. By this covenant, all men are brought into a state of salvation. But the conditions of acceptance with God are suited to the capacities which individuals of mankind possess, and to the means of improvement that they enjoy. They who are favoured with the privileges of the Christian revelation will, in the great day of account, be judged by the laws of the gospel; they who are left to the guidance of reason and conscience, will be judged by the law of reason, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. At his tribunal eve

ry mouth shall be stopped.

The pious and good

of all nations and ages will be admitted to the honour and glory of an immortal life in heaven.