merited mercy; but towards Christ, as the sinner's surety and representative, it is an act of justice, arising not merely from a promise made to him of the Father, but from the meritorious nature of his own plenary satisfaction. In all the stupendous plan of redemption, infinite justice and boundless mercy are displayed. In this great work, Jehovah shines in all his glory as a just God and a Saviour.

EIGHTH. By denying the transfer of sin to Christ, Mr. Fuller has entangled himself with many absurdities. Among other things, this principle has led him to deny that the sufferings of Christ were real and proper punishment.* But by this he does not mean, as some have supposed, † that Christ did not really and truly suffer, but that his sufferings were not really and properly punishment. Now, if the sufferings of Christ were not real punishment, it will follow that the sins of those who are saved are never punished at all, and thus mercy would triumph at the expense of justice. It is allowed that sin is not properly punished in the persons of those who are saved; and if it be not in the person of their great Surety, it is remitted without punishment, and justice is not satisfied. If it be, as Mr. Fuller asserts, that "guilt is not transferable, but the desert of the criminal remains," then justice, because it finds guilt upon. the criminal, calls aloud for his punishment; nor can it allow the sufferings of an innocent person in his stead, because it finds in such a one no guilt, and be

* Dialogues, &c. page 203.

Testimony of the Norfolk and Suffolk Churches, 1806, page 22, where Mr. Fuller is thus misunderstood.

cause it punishes sin, only where it finds sin to pu→ nish. But if it be true that God, by a strange act of His grace, laid the iniquity of all that are saved, upon Christ, then divine justice, finding sin upon him, punished it in him; but the same justice forbids the punishment of believers, because it finds no guilt upon them.-Again: Mr. Fuller has said much about the sufferings of Christ, as an expression of God's hatred against sin; but this part of his system is as inconsistent as the rest. The sufferings of Immanuel were, indeed, an expression of God's infinite abhorrence of iniquity; and it appears in this, that he would not spare sin when found upon his Son, but punished it even in him. But if we suppose that sin was not really transferred to Christ, then his sufferings might be indeed an expression of love to the sinner, and of the honour of the lawgiver, but hatred to iniquity would not be perfectly expressed. "All the world,” says a holy Puritan, "is nothing so dear in the eyes of God as his Son; and if it had been possible that sin could have been connived at, it would be upon his Son, being his only by imputation. A fond father may possibly wink at a fault in a son, which he will not pass by in a slave; but when a father falls foul upon a dear child, upon whom a fault is found, and the fire of indignation restrains his affection, this argues the extremity of the rage of the father, and the heinousness of the crime that incenseth it. When the Lord will lay iniquity upon Christ, and when he finds it upon him, if he himself shall not escape-nay, if there shall not be a mitigation of wrath, though the crime be upon him no otherwise than only as a sure

ty, this shews that iniquity is of such a loathsome savour in the nostrils of God, that it is impossible he should have any partiality or remissness wherever it is to be found."*

NINTH. In which way soever Mr. Fuller's system is contemplated, its inconsistency and absurdity appear. He admits the doctrine of election, though experience has shewn that the tendency of his principles is opposed to the cordial reception of it; but he admits that God the Father chose a certain number of fallen men in Christ Jesus, whom he determined to bring to everlasting glory through the blood of the Redeemer: yet Mr. Fuller virtually denies that the blood of Christ was shed for the sins of the elect, in distinction from the rest. He admits that the design of God in giving his Son, and the design of Christ in laying down his life, were definite; yet he asserts an indefinite atonement. He allows that the sovereign purpose of God in election, and the work of the blessed Spirit in conversion, respect a peculiar people; yet he denies that the same sovereignty shines in the death of Christ. Instead of consistently maintaining that the part which each person in the adorable Trinity took in the great economy of salvation, respected the same objects, we have particular election, and effectual vocation, but not special redemption. The decree of God the Father he allows is absolute; the operation of the Spirit is absolute; yet, with marvellous inconsistency, he represents the atonement of Christ as conditionally sufficient for the whole race of Adam!

* Dr. Crisp's Sermons, 4th edit. 1791, vol. ii. pagę 43.

I have thus stated some particulars wherein Mr. Fuller's sentiments appear self-contradictory; and if you, my friend, are as heartily disgusted with this perverted gospel, this "yea and nay" system as I am, and if you have any relish for an honest declaration of divine truth in its simplicity, I will here introduce to you, by way of contrast, the testimony of some of those churches which have been considered almost

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a perfect dunghill in society." It is the confession of the Baptist Churches of the Norfolk and Suffolk Association, which Dr. Rippon has done himself the honour to record in his Baptist Register.*

"We are kept by the power of our Covenant God steadfast in the great and glorious truths of the everlasting gospel-the God-honouring, soul-enriching, and heart-warming doctrines of a Trinity in the Godhead-of the sovereign, eternal, and immutable love of the Triune Jehovah, centering in Jesus, and resting, with all its unfading glories, and unnumbered blessings, upon the sons of God-the eternal election of some of the human race to everlasting life and glory in Christ Jesus, proceeding from and directed by the absolute, uncontrollable sovereignty of Jehovah's will-the eternal and indissoluble union of all the chosen in Christ, who was set up from everlasting as

* Vol. IV. for 1801 and 1802, page 981. I earnestly hope that the Norfolk and Suffolk churches are continuing to hold fast the truth. They have still a name that they live; I trust they are not dead. Satan has been trying to seduce them from the faith of the Person of Christ; but if ever they are drawn aside by his wiles, or if ever they cease to bear their testimony against the popular divinity of the day, then let this good confession stand as a witness against them for ever.

their federal head and glorious representative; in whom their persons were accepted in love--their predestination to the adoption of children, as God the Father's act, proceeding from the boundless love of his heart in his Son, and designed for the praise of the glory of his stupendous grace--the eternal, gracious, and infinitely-wise covenant transactions of the Holy Three, relating to the salvation of offending mortalsthe transfer of all the sins of the elect from them to Christ, and the full condemnation and punishment of them in him-the complete atonement made for them by the one glorious and all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ's spotless humanity, presented to infinite justice upon the altar of his divinity, in all the flames of his transcendent love-the personal and all-perfect obedience of our great Immanuel to the holy law, performed in the room and stead of his people, accepted for them, and imputed to them by the God of all grace; and their free, full, and everlasting justification by it in his sight-the glorious redemption, perfect cleansing, and full pardon, of all the vessels of mercy, through the precious blood of the cross-their regeneration, effectual calling, and conversion, by the glorious, almighty, and irresistible operations of God the Holy Ghost-the life of faith they live upon the fulness of Jesus, and the good works they perform in love to the Trinity in Covenant, for the honour of discriminating grace, and the glory of the Triune Jehovah-in fine, their preservation by the power of the Almighty, through faith, to that glory to which they were destinated by electing love before the foundation of the world. These sublime truths we consider as