For the texts cited by Mr B. as making to his purpose, the most, if not all of them, look another way than he intends to use them ; they will in the following chapter come under full consideration. Rom. V. 1 0, " When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son," is the first mentioned. That our being recon- ciled to God in this place doth not intend our conversion to him, and our deposition of the real enmity that is in us against him, but our acceptance with him upon the account of the atonement made in the blood of Christ, whereby he is reconciled to us, is evident from sundry circumstances of the place ; for, —
1. That which is called being "reconciled by his death," in verse 10, is being "justified by his blood," verse 9. The observation of the same antithesis in both verses makes this evident. Now, to be justified by the blood of Christ is not to have our enmity with God slain and destroyed (which is our sanctification), but our acceptation with God upon the account of the shedding of the blood of Christ for us; which is his reconciliation to us.
2. We are thus reconciled when we are enemies, as in the verse insisted on, "When we were enemies, we were reconciled." Now, we are not reconciled in the sense of deposing our enmity to God (that deposition being our sanctification) whilst we are enemies ; and there- fore it is the reconciliation of God to us that is intended.
8. Verse 11, we are said to " receive" this "reconciliation," or, as
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the word is rendered, the " atonement/' naraXkayriv. The word is the same with that used verse 10. Now, we cannot be said to receive our own conversion ; but the reconcihation of God by the blood of Christ, his favour upon the atonement made, that by faith we do receive.
Thus Mr B.'s first witness speaks expressly against him and the design for the carrying on whereof he was called forth, as afterward will more fully appear.
His second also, of Eph. ii. 14, 16, speaks the same language, " He is our peace, who hath made both one, that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Setting aside the joint design of the apostle, to manifest the recon- ciliation made of Jews and Gentiles by the cross of Christ, it is evi- dent the reconciliation here meant consists in slaying the enmity mentioned, so making peace. Now, what is the enmity intended? Not the enmity that is in our hearts to God, but the legal enmity that lay against us on the part of God, as is evident from verse 15 and the whole design of the place, as afterward will appear more fully.
There is, indeed, 2 Cor. v. 18-20, mention made of reconciliation in both the senses insisted on ; — of us to God, verse 20, where the apostle saith the end of the ministry is to reconcile us to God, to pre- vail with us to lay down oxw enmity against him and opposition to him; of God to us, verse 19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself:" which to be the import of the words is evinced from the exegetical expression immediately following, " Not imputing their trespasses unto them." God was so reconciling the world unto himself in Christ as that, upon the account of what was done in Christ, he will not impute their sins ; the legal enmity he had against them, on the account whereof alone men's sins are imputed to them, being taken away. And this is farther cleared by the sum of his forraer discourse, which the apostle gives us, verse 21, declaring how God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself: '•' For," saith he, " he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Thus he was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, in that he made him to be sin, or a sacrifice for sin, so to make an atonement for us, that we might be accepted before God as righteous on the account of Christ.
Much less doth that of 1 Pet. iii. 18, in the last place mentioned, speak at all to Mr B.'s purpose : " Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." "Bring- ing to God" is a general expression of the accomplishment of the wliole work of our salvation, both in the removal of all hinderances and the collation of all things necessary to the fulfilling of the work. Of this the apostle mentions the great fundamental and procuring cause, which is the suffering of Christ in our stead, the just for the
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unjust. Christ in our stead suffered for our sins, that he might bring us to God. Now, this suffering of Christ in our stead, for our sins, is most eminently the cause of the reconciUation of God to us; and, by the intimation thereof, of our reconciliation to God, and so of our manuduction to him.