The Atonement Author:Jonathan Edwards Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A DISCOURSE, DESIGNED TO EXPLAIN THE DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT. FOR IT BECAME HIM FOR WHOM ARE ALL THIJIGS, AND BY WHOM ABE ALL THINGS, IN BK1.VGIXO MANY SOUS ... more »USTO OLORY, TO MAKE THE CAPTAIN OF THEIB SALVATION Perfect Thbough Sufferings.— Hebrews 2: 10. The sufferings of Christ were essential to his character as a Saviour. Without them the pardon of sin would have subverted the authority of the divine law, and have prostrated the dignity of the divine government. For, if God should not execute the penalty incurred by the transgressor, if he should not manifest in his moral government the same abhorrence of sin that he does in the declarations of his law, his word and his conduct would be repugnant to each other, and he would afford no convincing evidence, that his law was a transcript of his will; that it ought to be considered as sacred, and respected as an universal, invariable standard of obedience for all rational creatures. One great and chief design of the atonement made by the sufferings of Christ, was to impress a thorough conviction of God's displeasure against sin, though he should pardon the sinner. It was essential to a consistent exercise of pardon, that in some visible expression, God's real disposition towards sin should be manifested as clearly, fully, and unequivocally, as it would be in the execution of the penalty of the law on the transgressor. This disposition, when brought into view in some sensible manifestation, vindicates God's character from all suspicion, and fully discovers his attachment to the dignity of his government, to the rights of his justice, and the truth of his law. The sufferings of Christ appear to have been available to the procurement of salvation, so far as they portrayed God's displeasure against sin, and evinced the infinite value...« less