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light of enemies to the law and worship of the true God. The death of Christ having confirmed a dispensation of divine grace which comprehends the whole world, the Gentiles are said to be reconciled by his death: because no longer excluded from the privileges of God's people, being in this respect made fellow heirs, and of the same body with the Jews. Christ having, under this view, put an end to the distinction between Jew and Gentile, is said to have made both one, to have reconciled or included both in one body under the new dispensation. The Jews, by the peculiar dispensation they were under, were considered as in union with God, being his peculiar people, and a way of access to him was kept open to them by the institutions of the law; the Gentiles were shut out, no such way of access was open to them; but now, under the dispensation introduced by Christ, the way is opened for both to have an access to the Father. Hence it is said that we Gentiles have now received the reconciliation.

When the Jews put the word of God from them, the gospel dispensation, in the public ministration of it, was extended to the Gentiles. Thus the casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the world. This reconciliation evidently relates to the Gentiles being manifestly brought under the new dispensation when the Jews rejected it.

The former dispensation was limited to one nation, it brought the Jews nigh to God in a peculiar relation and in the enjoyment of peculiar privileges; but the gospel knows no limitation, in it God ex-

tends his love, mercy, grace and salvation to the whole world. Hence it is said God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself: bringing the world nigh to himself by placing them under the dispensation of Christ, which, in its aspect and tendency is equally favorable to all men.

Formerly the Gentiles were far off in a sense in which the Jews were nigh: the former were without Christ, being aliens from the common wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: the latter had God's anointed Prophets and Priests among them, . the promise of Christ given to them, the covenants of promise, a revealed ground of hope, and God in the manifestations of himself among them. But now in Christ Jesus, the Gentiles, who were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ: i. e. in the dispensation which Christ sacrificed his life to introduce, and confirmed with his own blood. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken. down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, (that which made the distinction and placed Jew and Gentile in opposition,) even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself, of twain, one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity. (abolished the Jewish ordinances) thereby. In these passages it is evident that by reconciliation the Apostle intended the Gentiles being placed, in com

mon with the Jews, under the dispensation of the gospel.

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If instead of first adopting a prevailing opinion, and then seeking to make the language of scripture bend to it, which has frequently been the case, we carefully observe the facts stated in the New Testament, and follow the reasoning of the Apostles of Jesus, it will be ascertained that the reconciliation which Christ hath made, consists not in his having appeased the wrath of God, satisfied his justice and changed its aspect towards sinners, nor in his having reconciled him to the world, but that it consists in his having brought the Gentiles nigh to God, by placing them under the dispensation of the gospel. Consequently, the Gentiles are no longer without Christ. He is sent to them, with all the truth and grace which came by him, in the gospel. They are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow heirs of all the advantages of the gospel.

The Apostles intreated sinners to be personally reconciled to God-to his character, the methods of his grace, to his authority, and all the dealings of his hand-to avail themselves of the gracious dispensation under which God had placed them, by embracing his gospel, receiving his favor, and becoming obedient to his Son-to lay aside their enmity and cease from rebellion, by repenting, turning to God, and submitting themselves to his will. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Such is the christian doctrine of reconciliation,

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which has been mistaken for the modern doctrine of atonement. The former displays the great love of God to sinners, stamps the greatest importance on the ministration of Christ, as calculated and designed to make the world pure and happy, and every way secures the good of the moral system. The latter is irreconcileable with the divine character, it gives the work of Christ an unimportant direction, by supposing it designed, to effect some change in the aspect of divine justice, if not in God himself, where no change ever was either necessary or possible, and is inimical to the good of the moral system, as it substitutes an imaginary in the place of a real and personal righteousness.

CHAPTER SECOND.

A reply to MR. JERRAM'S LETTERS on Atonement, in a series of Letters to that Gentleman.

LETTER I.

ASIR,

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to THAT christianity has 'certain leading principles, which are interwoven with its very texture, and that these principles are in perfect unison with each other, I fully grant; but that the doctrine of atonement, as maintained by you, and other reputed › Orthodox writers, is one of these leading principles, I deny, for the following reasons. 1. Nothing can be a leading principle of christianity that is not clearly laid down as such in the New Testament; but so far from this being the case, with respect to the popular doctrine of atonement, its advocates are necessitated to support it by inference and deduction. It is not in unison with a grand leading princi

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