death of Christ, was to honour the divine government. The objects whom he came to redeem, were violators of the law of God, and subject to its curse. As delinquents, it had a legal claim upon them; which claim was a bar to the bestowment of happiness. In order therefore to remove this impediment, he, as their surety, conformed to all its precepts in his life, and suffered its penalty in being made sin and a curse for them in his death. Now Christ, in bearing this curse, practically declared to angels and to men, That the law which denounced it is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good; that the persons for whom he died, deserved to suffer its penalty; and that they could not, consistently with the honour of the divine government, possess the kingdom prepared for them till this curse was removed.

If the purity and perfection of the law of God be not fully admitted; if the curse it pronounceth on the sinner be not strictly equitable; the death of Christ, as an expiatory sacrifice, was the most unjust, and the most cruel

event that heaven or earth ever witnessed! What need was there for such an expiation, if man could have been saved without it! To imagine that the Father of mercies required the death of his own Son to atone for crimes which the law could not righteously punish, or which could have been remitted in a way less rigorous, is such an impeachment of the divine wisdom and the divine goodness as excites horror.

But the period is swiftly approaching when all the impious cavils of men will be effectually silenced: when it shall be made manifest that the government of God is according to truth. 'Think not, said Christ, that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil: nor shall one jot, or one tittle pass from the law till all be fulfilled.' A day is appointed of God, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man who died to maintain the rights of divine Justice. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. And who so fit to

vindicate the divine government, or to administer divine justice, as he who voluntarily laid down his life in obedience to that law which thousands wantonly contemn, but by which, however reluctant, they must finally be judged!

It has been supposed that one reason among others for which a judgment day is appointed, is for putting honour on the Son of God. It is highly proper, says the ingenious Dr. Smith, that this holy and divine Person who was buffeted and affronted, condemned and crucified by an ungrateful and injurious world, should now judge his judges, and be as far advanced above the pinnacle of human greatness, as he was once below it. It is fit that Herod may see that he persecuted, not the infant king of a petty province, but the Sovereign of angels and of men; and that Pilate and the Jews may be convinced that he whom they called a King in scorn, is really a greater Emperor than Cæsar.'

I am yours, &c.

LETTER V.

be thou in Adam's room

The head of all mankind, though Adam's Son.
As in him perish all men, so in thee,

As from a second root, shall be restor❜d
As many as are restor'd, without thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons: thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in thee transplanted, and from thee
Receive new life-

MILTON.

HAVING sent you in my last, a few remarks on some of the objections raised against the perfection and extensive demands of the moral law, the righteousness and atonement of Christ; I shall now proceed to state more fully how the stupendous work of our redemption was effected.

What I have already said concerning the apostasy of man, the corruption of his nature, his aversion from God, and his inability to rescue himself from deserved ruin, will, it is

presumed, evince the absolute need in which he stands of a Saviour; and it is our happiness that the Son of God viewed us in this helpless condition; that in order to snatch us from a situation which involved everlasting destruction, he graciously took on him- Not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; and was made in all things, like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.'

The doctrine of redemption, though generally neglected, is of the last importance to man. This is the salvation of which the prophets inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto us: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.' This is the mystery into which angels are represented as having been anxious to look; but which, fully to comprehend, they must descend from celestial regions to learn on earth, by the church,