the redemption of the
world by Christ can be shown to be really contrary to it, let the
Scripture, in the name of God, be given up: but let not such poor
creatures as we go on objecting against an infinite scheme, that we do not
see the necessity or usefulness of all its parts, and call this reasoning;
and what heightens the absurdity in the present case, parts which we are
not actively concerned in."(196)

This reply is amply sufficient for such an objection. But although the
concession is made, for the sake of argument, it is not true, that we do
not see the necessity or usefulness of the sufferings of Christ. For, as
the author well says: "What has been often alleged in justification of
this doctrine, even from the apparent natural tendency of this method of
our redemption--its tendency to vindicate the authority of God's laws, and
deter his creatures from sin: _this has never been answered_, and _is, I
think, plainly unanswerable_; though I am far from thinking it an account
of the whole of the case."(197)

It is true, we believe, that the position that the great work of Christ
was necessary to maintain the authority of God's law, and to deter his
creatures from sin, never has been, and never can be refuted. Yet nearly
all of the commonly received systems of theology furnish a principle, a
false principle, on which this position may be overthrown, and the
sufferings of Christ shown to be unnecessary. For if a necessary holiness
be not a contradiction in terms, if God can, as is usually asserted, cause
holiness universally to prevail by the mere word of his power, then the
work and sufferings of Christ are not necessary to maintain the authority
of his law, and deter his creatures from sin. In other words, the
sufferings of Christ were "not requisite to the ends proposed to be
accomplished," because, on such a supposition, they might have been far
more easily and completely accomplished without them.

Those who maintain, then, as most theologians do, that God could easily
cause virtue to exist everywhere if he would, really set forth a principle
which, if true, would demonstrate the sufferings of Christ to be
unnecessary, and consequently inconsistent with the goodness of God. We
must strike at this false principle, and restore the truth that a
necessary holiness is a contradiction in terms, an inherent and impossible
conceit, if we would behold the sublime significancy and beauty of the
stupendous sacrifice of th