God's threatenings, in the persons threatened, and others that are spectators; which consequences God may be obliged not to be a cause of. But threatenings do not properly bring an obligation on God, that is consequent on them as threatenings, as it is with promises.

As to those threatenings that are not positive or absolute, they are not necessarily followed with the punishment mentioned in them, because the possibility of escaping the punishment is either expressed or understood in the threatening. But the divine truth makes it necessary that there should be a certain connexion between them, that as much punishment be inflicted as is signified by them. If certain suffering be not signified by them, then there is no necessary connexion between them and ceriain suffering. If it be only signified in them, that there is great danger of the suffering, according to God's ordinary method of dealing with men, and that, therefore, they, as they would act rationally, have great reason to fear it, seeing that God does not see cause to reveal what he will do to them: if this be all that is really contained and understood in the threatening, then this is all that the threatening is connected with. Or, if the proper meaning of the threatening be, that such suffering shall come, unless they repent, and this be all that can be fairly understood, then the truth of God makes no more necessary. But God's truth makes a necessary connexion between every threatening and every promise, and all that is properly signified in that threatening or promise.

§2. The satisfaction of Christ by his death is certainly a very rational thing. If any person that was greatly obliged to me, that was dependent on me, and that I loved, should exceedingly abuse me, and should go on in an obstinate course of it from one year to another, notwithstanding all I could say to him, and all new obligations continually repeated; though at length he should leave it off, I should not forgive him, unless upon gospel considerations. But if any person that was a much dearer friend to me, and one that had always been true to me, and constant to the utmost, and that was a very near relation of him that offended me, should intercede for him, and, out of the entire love he had to him, should put himself to very hard labours and difficulties, and undergo great pains and miseries to procure him forgiveness; and the person that had offended should, with a changed mind, fly to this mediator, and should seek favour in his name, with a sense in his own mind how much his mediator had done and suffered for him ; I should be satisfied, and feel myself inclined, without any difficulty, to receive him into my entire friendship again; but not without the last mentioned condition that he should be sensible how much his mediator had done and suffered. For if he was ignorant of it, or thought he had done only some small matter, I should not be easy nor satisfied. So a sense of Christ's sufficiency seems necessary in faith.

3. The apostle, when he would express his willingness to be made a sacrifice for his brethren the Jews, says, "I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren:" Rom. ix. 3. See, concerning Moses, Exodus xxxii. 32. 2 Sam. xviii. 33. "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee." This text expresses substitution; Matt. xx. 28. To give his life a ransom for many." Concerning this text, and the force of the preposition avri, see Moncrief's review and examination of the principles of Campbell, p. 113, 114.

The laying of hands on the head of the sacrifice, was a token of putting the guilt of sin upon a person; agreeably to the customary signification of the imputation of guilt among the Hebrews, Thus the phrase, his blood shall be upon his own head, or on our heads, &c. was a phrase for the imputation of the guilt of blood. So Joshua ii. 19.; 1 Kings ii. 32, 33. "And the Lord shall return his blood upon his own head, who fell upon two men more righteous and better than he, and slew them with the sword, my father David not knowing thereof, to wit, Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel; and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever; but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the Lord." Verse 37, "For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die; thy blood shall be upon thine own head." Verse 44. "The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father; therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head."

Abigail, when mediating between David and Nabal, when the former was provoked to wrath against the latter, and had determined to destroy him, 1 Sam. xxv. 24, "fell at David's feet and said, Upon me let this iniquity be, and let thy handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thy audience, and hear the voice of thy handmaid." And in verse 28, she calls Nabal's iniquity her iniquity. By this it appears, that a mediator's putting himself in the stead of the offender, so that the offended party should impute the offence to him, and look on the mediator as having taken it upon him, looking on him as the debtor for what satisfaction should be required and expected, was in those days no strange notion, or considered as a thing in itself absurd and inconsistent with men's natural notion of things.

Heb. xii. 24, 25, 26. "And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth; much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth. But

now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only," &c.

He that speaketh, whom the apostle warns us not to refuse, who spake once on earth, and whose voice shook the earth, and who now speaketh from heaven, and his voice shakes not only the earth but heaven, is he that is spoken of verse 24, Jesus the mediator, &c. whose blood speaketh. The word xpnuari?w signifies to speak divine oracles, and in scripture is applied to God alone. When it is said he spake on earth, respect is had to God's giving the law at Mount Sinai, when his voice shook the earth. It is plain it was not the voice of Moses, or any created angel that is intended, by the whole history of the affair in Exodus. The people made great preparation to meet with God: God descended on the Mount: He was there in the midst of angels; Psalm lxviii. 17. "From his right hand went the fiery law." Deut. xxxiii. 2. And in giving the law he says, "I am the Lord thy God," &c. He that in the book of Haggai ii. 6, 7, which the apostle refers to, says, "Yet once more I shake the heaven and the earth," is God. See Owen in loc. p. 273, 274, 278.

Christ is often represented as bearing our sins for us: Isaiah liii. 4. 66 Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." Verse 11. "For he shall bear their iniquities." Verse 12. "He bare the sin of many." And with an evident reference to this last place, the apostle says, Heb. ix. 28, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and to them that look for him, he shall appear the second time, without sin unto salvation." And with a plain reference to verses, 4, 5, of this liii. chapter of Isaiah, the apostle Peter says, 1 Pet. ii. 24, “Who his ownself bare our sins in his own body on the tree."

נשא

The word translated here in Isaiah liii. 4. and 12. is : the same word, and the same phrase, of bearing sin and bearing iniquity, is often used concerning things which are the types of Christ's priesthood and sacrifice, viz. the Levitical priests and sacrifices. It was no uncommon phrase, but usual, and well understood among the Jews; and we find it very often used in other cases, and applied to others besides either Christ or the types of him. And when it is so, it is plain, that the general meaning of the phrase is lying under the guilt of sin, having it imputed and charged upon the person, as obnoxious to the punishment of it, or obliged to answer and make satisfaction for it; or liable to the calamities and miseries to which it exposes. such a manner it seems always to be used, unless in some few places it signifies to take away sin by forgiveness. See Dr. Owen on Heb. ix. 28. and Pool's Synopsis on Isaiah liii. And concerning their laying their hands on the head of the sacrifice, see also Pool's Synopsis on Levit. i. 4.

In

That God in the instituted ceremonies concerning the scape goat, and the other goat that was sacrificed for a sin offering, intended that there should be a representation of laying the guilt

of sin on those goats; see Pool's Synopsis on Levit. xvi. 21, 22. 28. It was an evidence that the two goats were to appear as if they were made sinful with the sins of the people, or unclean with their uncleanness, or guilty with their guilt, that he that brought the one, and he that let go the other, were both unclean, and were therefore to wash themselves with water, &c. Levit. xvi. 26. 28.

The translation of guilt or obligation to punishment was not a thing alien from men's conceptions and notions of old in Scripture times; neither the times of the Old Testament nor New; as appears by what the woman of Tekoa says, 2 Sam. xiv. 9. "My Lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's house, and the king and his throne be guiltless." And by what the Jews said, when Pilate said of Christ, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person, see ye to it;" Matth. xxvii. 24, 25. "His blood be on us and on our children." And the words of Rebekah, when Jacob objected against doing as she proposed, that he should bring a curse on himself and not a blessing; Gen. xxvii. 13. "On me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice."

1 Cor. xv. 17. "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins," plainly shows how necessary it was, that there should be something more than reformation, which was plainly in fact wrought, in order to their being delivered from their sins; even that atonement, the sufficiency of which God attested by raising our Great Surety from the grave."-Doddridge in loc.

Defin. 1. By merit in this discourse, I mean any thing whatsoever in any person or being, or about him or belonging to him, which appearing in the view of another is a recommendation of him to that other's regard, esteem or affection. I do not at present take into consideration, whether that which thus recommends be real merit, or something that truly, according to the nature of things, is worthy to induce esteem, &c.; but only what actually recommends and appears worthy in the eye of him to whom it recommends the other; which is the case of every thing that is actually the ground of respect or affection in one towards another, whether the ground be real worth, or only agreement in temper, benefits received, near relation, long acquaintance, &c. &c. Whatever it be that is by the respecting person viewed in the person respected, that actually has influence, and is effectual to recommend to respect, is merit or worthiness of respect or fitness for it in his eyes.

Defin. 2. By patron, I mean a person of superior dignity or merit, that stands for and espouses the interest of another, interposes between him and a third person or party, in that capacity to maintain, secure, or promote the interest of that other, by his influence with the third person, improving his merit with him, or interest in his esteem and regard for that end. And by client, I

mean that other person whose interest the patron thus espouses, and in this manner endeavours to maintain and promote.

Having explained how I use these terms, I would now observe the following things:

1. It is not unreasonable or against nature, or without foundation in the reason and nature of things, that respect should be shown to one on account of his relation to, or union and connexion with another: or, which is the same thing, that a person should be thought the proper object of respect or regard, viewed in that relation or connexion, which he is not the proper object of, viewed as by himself singly and separately: or, which is still the same thing, that a person should be thought worthy of respect, or meriting respect on the account of the merit of the other person whom he stands related to, which he would not merit viewed by himself, taking the word here as it has been explained.

2. Whenever one is thus viewed, as having a merit of respect on the account of the merit of another that he stands related to, who has not that merit considered by himself, the merit of the person he is related to is imputed to him; and these persons so far are substituted the one in the place of the other. This is plain: for the person now accepted as having merit of respect, has not that merit in himself considered alone, but only as related to another that has merit in himself, and so is respected for the sake of the merit of that other; which is the very same thing as, in our view or consideration, transferring that merit from that other person to him, and viewing it in him as his merit, or merit that he is interested in, merit whose recommending influence becomes his in some degree; so that in all such cases there is an imputation and substitution in some degree. The merit of the one becomes the merit of the other in some degree; or, in other words, the recommending property, virtue, and influence of the one, becomes the recommending influence of the other, or influence that prevails to recommend the other; which is the same thing. Thus it is, when any one respects a near relation, or a child, or the spouse of a friend that is very dear and greatly esteemed for such a friend's sake, or shows the relative or friend greater regard, seeks his welfare more, and shows him more kindness than he would do if he were viewed out of such a relation or connexion, and entirely by himself.

Thus it is reasonable and natural, that one should be respected for the merit of another, and so his merit be in some degree imputed to another, and one person be substituted for another according to the natural sense of all mankind.

3. As it is the relation of one to another, or his union with him, that is the ground of the respect that is shown towards him for the other's sake, and so the ground of substitution of the other in his stead, and of the imputation of the other's merit in some degree, as has been observed; so it is manifest, that the greater or VOL. VII. 68