Where shall we write this rule in large and golden letters, that the whole city might read it daily? Shall we engrave it on every door, that all who pass by may see it? Shall it stand fixed to every post of the house, that it may direct all our domestic conduct? Shall it meet us at the entrance of every shop, and thus guard our traffic from iniquity, and sanctify all our commerce? Shall we make a philaclery of it, and wear it on the borders of our garments, that we may never put it off unless when we lie down to sleep, and cannot act? But the Spirit of Christ is the best writer of his own golden rule, and the heart of man is the best table to receive and bear this writing. O that the Holy Spirit would write this sacred law of justice and love more deeply, more effectually in all our hearts, that the religion of our Saviour might look like itself, all amiable and holy; and that while we give glory to God on high, for his saving grace, we might find peace and truth spreading through all the earth, and good-will multiplied among the children of men. Thus the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven, and the kingdom of our Redeemer come in its expected glory. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus.

HYMN FOR SERMON XI.

LONG METRE.

BLESSED Redeemer, how divine,

How righteous is this rule of thine,

Never to deal with others worse

Then we would have them deal with us!

This golden lesson short and plain,
Gives not the mind nor memory pain;
And every conscience must approve
This universal law of love.

'Tis written in each mortal breast,
Where all our tenderest wishes rest:
We draw it from our inmost veins,
Where love to sense resides and reigns.

Is reason ever at a loss?

Call in self-love to judge the cause:
Let our own fondest passion shew
How we should treat our neighbours too.

SERMON XII.

THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.

ROM. iii. 25.

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.

T is one of the chief glories of the gospel, that it discovers a full atonement for sin by the blood of Christ, that it sets before us the reconciliation of sinners to an offended God, by the death of his own Son. One would be ready to wonder, that any of the guilty race of Adam should be unwilling to receive so divine a discovery, or should refuse a blessing so important.

But such unhappy principles have prevailed over the minds of some men, and particular the Socinians in the last age, that they have been content to venture their eternal hopes on the mercy of God, without a dependence on the satisfaction made for sin, by Jesus the Saviour. They imagine Christ the Son of God came into our world chiefly to be a teacher of grace and duty, to be an example of piety and virtue, to plead with God for sinners, and in short, to do little more than any other divine

prophet might have been employed in, if the wisdom of God had so appointed it. They suppose he yielded to death that he might seal his doctrine with his blood, and might set us a glorious pattern of suffering and dying, and then he led the way to our resurrection, by his own rising from the dead. It is granted indeed, these are some of the desigus of the coming of Christ, some of the necessary parts of the blessed gospel; but it seems to me, that this blessed gospel is shamefully curtailed, and deprived of some of its most important designs and honours, if a proper atonement for sin by the blood of Christ be left out of it.

Forgive me, my fellow Christians, if I spend a discourse or two on this great article of our common faith. I think it of so high moment, that I would fain pronounce and publish it aloud in an age that verges toward infidelity; I would glory in the cross of Christ, and endeavour to support this doctrine with all my power. O may none of those who wear the Christian name, ever grow weary of it, or run back again to the mere religion of nature, as though we had no gospel!

I shall not spin out my thoughts, or employ yours in a laborious enquiry into the connection of the words, but take them just as they lie and make this plain sentence the foundation of my discourse.

DOCTRINE. God hath set forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a propitiation for the sins of men.

When the apostle says, God hath set him forth, Christ is plainly the person intended; and this Greek word (proetheto, set forth,) denotes either, 1. That God hath fore-ordained and appointed his Son to become our propitiation, by his divine purpose in eternity, which purpose he executed here in time; Or, 2. It intends that God hath set him forth, i. e. proposed and offered him to the world as an atonement for the sins of those who trust in the merit of

his death; for so the following words intimate, God set him forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood. I am not solicitous which of these senses the reader will choose; either of them perfectly agrees with the design of the apostle.

I would just take a brief notice also, that some interpreters transpose the words of the text a little, and read them thus, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation in his blood through faith; and thus they suppose the apostle in this very verse, declares that Christ atoned for our sins by his own blood; and if this be the true sense of it, it does but more effectually confirm the design of my doctrine, which is to shew, that Christ by his bloody death became a sacrifice to God, in order to make satisfaction for the crimes of men.

My method of discourse shall be this,

I. To explain more at large the manner in which I conceive Christ to become an atonement or propi tiation for our sins.

II. To give some reasons to prove, that he is ordained of God, and set forth or offered to the world under this character. And,

III. I shall shew what glorious use is made of this doctrine throughout the whole Christian life.

First, let me explain the manner wherein Christ becomes an atonement or propitiation for sin. And to render this point easy to the lowest understanding, I would draw it out into these propositions.

PROPOSITION 1. Thegreat God having made man, appointed to govern him by a wise and righteous law, wherein glory and honour, life and immortality are the designed rewards for perfect obedience; but tribulation and wrath, pain and death are the