i. e. to save mankind by reforming them from their sins; he adds, "and to give his life a deliverance or release for many," i. e. to deliver many; as if he had said, I came to prosecute by my death that, which was the great object of my life, the reformation of the world; for my death will prove an excellent expedient to rescue men from the dominion of sin. Here again we see how Christians are misled by interpreting figurative passages literally. The death of Christ agrees very well with the idea of a ransom, in as much as it is the means of deliverance like a ransom; but if we endeavour to make the comparison hold in every particular, we are led into a variety of mistakes.

We have an expression similar to this, although not exactly the same, in 1 Tim. ii, 6; " Who gave himself a ransom (agor, not algor) for all," where the sense must be the same, as in the preceding passage. We meet also with another similar expression; Tit. ii, 14, "Who "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to him. self a peculiar people zealous of good works,” i. e. that he might deliver us from subjection to iniquity or from the practice of it, but not by paying a ransom for us to iniquity, but by the preaching of the Gospel, by expedients of wisdom and power. So we read, 1 Pet. i, 18, "For as much as ye know, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious

blood of Christ"-not as a ransom or price, but as a proper expedient to effect such redemption or deliverance; not from the justice of God or the penalties due to former transgressions, but from a state of subjection to sin, from a vain conversation, as it is here expressed.

In this passage the price of redemption is said to have been given by Christ, but in general the price of our redemption is said to have been given by God; John iii, 16, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; Rom. viii, 32, "He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

This language on the part of God or Christ is very proper considered as figurative; for nothing but the mission of Christ could have saved the world, and his death was the necessary consequence of his undertaking it. God is said very properly to have given him for us; or, since he undertook the work voluntarily, and from the love which he bore to man, he also may be said to have given his life as a ransom for ours; and thus these texts come under the same general idea with those explained be, fore. In a figurative sense the Gospel may be said to be the most expensive provision, that God has made from recovering men from the power of sin, in as much as it required greater exertions of wisdom and power in the bestowment of miraculous gifts;

and he may be said thus to purchase men, as it were, for himself.

The above passages, which represent God as paying the ransom for mankind, afford a plain proof, that the language is to be considered as figurative, and that the death of Christ is only like a ransom in some respects and not in all; for God pays the ransom. Is he to pay it to himself? That is inconsistent with the idea of a ransom. The early

fathers indeed said, that the ransom was paid to the devil; but I suppose, that no one in the present day will adopt this idea, that Jesus Christ died to satisfy the demands of the devil, and thereby to deliver men from his power.

Thirdly, Christ is said to bear the sins of men : Is. liii, 11," He shall bear their iniquity;" v. 12, "He bore the sins of many;" Pet. ii, 24, "Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree;" Heb. ix, 28, "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many," i. e. according to the opinion of the advocates for the atonement, he bore the evils, which were due to us on account of our transgressions; but the idea we ought to annex to the phrase bearing sin, as we have already shown, is that of bearing it away, or removing it-an effect, which is produced by the power of the Gospel. These texts, therefore, are similar to i John iii, 5, "And ye know, that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." The phrase bearing

sin is never applied under the law, except to the scape goat, on the day of expiation, which was not sacrificed, but (as the name expresses) was turned out into the wilderness.

Some may suppose the doctrine of the atonement to be countenanced by Jesus Christ's being called a mediator, as if that term necessarily implied, that he had suffered something on our account, and was employed in pleading the merits of those sufferings in order to induce the divine Being to show mercy to mankind. But this must arise entirely from the idea being early associated with the term, and not from the word itself; for a mediator signifies a person, who, by the consent of two or more adverse parties, interposes, or acts as a reconciler, between the parties at variance. Christ is styled a mediator only by the apostle Paul; he is not once mentioned by that character in the four Gospels, or by any others of the sacred writers of the New Testament; Į Tim. ii, 5, "There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." The parties at variance are supposed by Paul to be God and a sinful world, and Christ is a mediator between both by declaring the mind and will of God in the Gospel, which is the rule of reconciliation, II Cor. v, 19. The same apostle says, "that God was in (or by) Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." That this passage had no particular reference to the sufferings of Christ, and to their qualifying him in

a peculiar manner for performing this office, is evi-, dent from his calling Moses, who delivered the law, a mediator, Gal. iii, 19; The law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator," who was Moses. In reference to this circumstance Christ is called the mediator of a better covenant, and of a new covenant, in the same manner as Moses was mediator of the old, The only reason, then, why Christ is called a mediator is, because he is employed to declare and to deliver his will to mankind, which will is the true and only medium of our reconciliation to God. He herein exercises an office, which is common to him with Moses and other prophets.

It should be still remembered, however, that it is only in a figurative sense that either Christ or Moses can be called a mediator; for there is a very observe able difference between them and other mediators among men. Christ acted from God, as God's minister, between him and sinful men; other mediators are agents, or ministers, from a third party, between two other partics. Christ offers from God, the one party, his whole terms, or scheme of reconciliation; other mediators propose to each of the two contending parties their several demands, and often retract and abate the terms of one or both parties. But the terms of God, offered by Christ, cannot admit of any abatement or alteration, but were to be accepted as the wise and gracious terms of God, considered as a governor treating with his dis loyal subjects.