ever we may certainly conclude from the whole,

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. 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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upon the wicked, or the wicked man's atoning his sin with God, or suffering any thing to induce God to pardon the rightcous; but must be understood in Dr. Patrick's sense. And so also No. 33, Isa. xliii. 3, I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Seba and Ethiopia for thee. For the prophet

doth not speak of atoning their sins, or taking away the guilt or punishment of their sins; but probably refers to Israel's being freed from Egyptian bondage: and then he means no more than this; I brought great calamities and plagues upon the Egyptians, &c. in order to accomplish your deliverance and prosperity; as it follows in the next verse, since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life, or happiness. From No. 6 it may be objected, that some of Saul's posterity suffered in his stead to make atonement for his sin. But Saul's house was concerned in the barbarous usage of the Gibeonites as well as himself. Ver. 1, It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And therefore the execution of seven of his sons, may well be supposed to be an

act of justice upon those, who, at least, had been accessaries to the murder of many innocent people.

115. In all those 37 places (especially in No. 25) the word caphar seems to retain something of what I take to be its natural and original sense, viz. to cover or smear over, as Gen. vi. 14, the only place, where it is evidently so used: which according to our method of stating the other texts will stand thus.

EFFECT. The wa

ter was kept out of the ark, that Noah and his family might not perish in the flood.

MEAN. The ark's being smeared, and all its chinks stopped with pitch.

117. Something, I say, of this original sense is retained in all the foregoing instances. Atonement for sin, is the covering of sin, or the securing from punishment. And thus, when sin is pardoned, or calamity removed, the sin or person may be said to be covered, made safe, or aton