In 1751 appeared a very learned and valuable treatise, entitled, ‘The Scripture Doctrine of Atonement examined, first in relation to the Jewish Sacrifices, and then to the Sacrifice of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ In this work the author first inquires into the original meaning, design, and efficacy of sacrifices, which he shews to be, in all respects, the same as that of prayer and praise, or any other suitable expression of our religious regards which are pleasing to God, as they proceed from or produce good affections in us. He then examines the prevailing notion that in sin-offerings the guilt of the offender was supposed to be transferred to the victim; and that the sacrifice became in this manner a type of the sacrifice of Christ, who, therefore, died to satisfy divine justice, by suffering the punishment due to the sins of men. After a complete, and what may well be called an exhaustive, critical inquiry into the meaning of the different terms employed in the Old Testament in speaking of this subject, he concludes that ‘sacrifices were symbolical addresses to God, expressing by outward signs what is expressed in prayer and praise by words, or in the course of life by deeds;—that they made atonement for sin, not as being substituted in the stead of the sacrificer, and bearing his sin or punishment, nor as an equivalent to divine justice—for neither of these enter into the notion of atonement—but as the sacrificer covenanted or transacted with God upon the sincerity of his soul, and with his sacrifice presented a penitent or thankful heart, and afterwards led an obedient life.’ P. 70.
He then enters, upon a similar investigation of
