val of the famine which God had inflicted. -No. 26, the death due by the law of God to the owner of the ox, that had slain a man, by the permission of the same law might be bought off with a sum of money paid to man.-No. 35, God permitted no atonement for a murderer, &c. and man was not to take any bribe to exempt him from punishment.

(6.) The remaining twenty-six are cases between the most high God and man, and relate to his favour or displeasure, and to judgments or blessings from him alone. No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34. In two of those cases sin is neither expressed nor implied, No. 32, 33. In the rest it is. Now here we are to consider, 1, the effect of the atonement; and, 2, the means by which it was made.

108. I. The effect is the pardon of sin variously expressed or implied.

(1.) No. 5, the effect is not quite certain. (2.) Sometimes it is expressed by the forgiveness, or taking, or purging away, or cleasing of sin; as No. 2, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15.

(3.) Sometimes by the removal, and, in negative atonement, by the inflicting and continuing, of calamities; or the bestowing of blessings. No. 1, 3, 4, 8, 19, 20, 22, 24, 28, 29, 34.

(4.) Sometimes partly by the forgiving, or not forgiving of sin, partly by the removal or not removal of calamities, No. 11, 14, 23.

109. II. The means by which atonement was made, are such as God affords and appoints; or such as men devise.

II.

(1.) Such as God affords and appoints : As, I. his own goodness and mercy alone. No. 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 19, 23, 24. Prayer, No. 2, 3, 7, 22. III. Instruction, prayer, repentance. No. 28. IV. Acts of virtue and justice. No. 4, 9, 12.

ciplinary visitations. No. 15.

V. Dis

VI. An

offering to the service of religion. No. 1, 5.

VII. Sufferings of some which turn to the benefit of others. No. 32, 33.

(2.) Such as men devise : as counsels, riches, forces, or any shifts they use to preserve or secure themselves. No. 20, 29, 34.

110. Whether this be a proper rangement of these texts, I shall not insist. How

ever we may certainly conclude from the whoie,

111. (1.) That forgiveness of sin is exemption from punishment, removal of calamity, or bestowing of blessings. Which appeareth from other parts of scripture; as 2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27, compared with chap. xxiv. 3, 4. Josh. xxiv. 19, 20. 1

Kings viii. 33,

34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39.. Neh. iv. 4, 5. 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14. Psal. xxv. 18. lxxviii. 38.-lxxxv. 1, 2. Isa. xxxiii. 24. Lam. iii. 42, 43.

Amos vii. 2, 5. Mat. ix. 5. Acts iii. 19. Acts iii. 19. 1 Cor. xv. 17, 18. And it is agreeable to the reason of things. For a pardon only in thought or word, and which effecteth nothing, is, in effect, no pardon at all.

112. (2.) That the means of making atonement for sin, are not uniform; but that any mean, whereby sinners are reformed, and the judgments of God averted, is atoning, or making atonement for, their sins. As the sole goodness of God, the prayers of good men, repentance, disciplinary visitations, signal acts of virtue and justice.

113. (3.) The giving an equivalent to God is no ways included in the notion of

atonement, however it may bear that sense with regard to men, among whom alone equivalents in case of injuries, I presume, can have any place. The only texts in this collection that can, I think, look this way are No. 1, and 5. In the first, God, the king of Israel, requireth half a shekel of every one above twenty, for the service of the tabernacle: which is called the ransom or atonement for their souls; I suppose, as it was a testimony of their obligations to God, and of their willingness to support his worship. Which he so far accepted, as to spare their lives forfeited by their transgressions. In the latter case, the officers, after a signal victory, having reviewed their forces, and finding they had not lost one single man, in acknowledgment of so great a preservation, and to engage the like protection of God for the future, made a rich offering to the sanctuary. But no man in either of these cases can judge, that the offering was by way of equivalent, in point of justice; but as an act of homage and gratitude pleasing to the divine goodness.

114. (4.) The transferring of guilt doth not belong to the sense of atonement. In

the greatest part of those texts we have not the least suggestion of a vicarious punishment, of one man's guilt being laid upon another, and that other being punished, or suffering for it. The only places, that can be imagined to look that way, are No. 32, 33, 6. The first of these places is Prov. xxi. 18, The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright. Which Dr. Patrick paraphraseth thus, 'Such is the distinction which divine 'Providence makes between the good and the bad, that righteous men are not only strangely delivered from those dangers 'which others fall into; but preserved from 'mischief, by its seizing on the wicked : ' and men sincerely virtuous, escape in a ' common calamity; when they that pre' varicate with God and with religion, by 'that very means, which they thought was 'best for their safety, are overwhelmed in 'it.' According to Prov. xi. 8, The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. For the righteous is not here considered as a sinner; because he is opposed to the wicked, or sinner: and therefore the place can admit of no idea of the righteous man's guilt being laid

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