A medium betwixt two extremes wherein it is proved that the whole first Adam…

The Sacrifice may be offered up, and an Atonement may be made, but the Blood may not be sprinkled; the slaying the Sacrifice is one thing, and the sprinkling the Blood is another.¹ So the Atonement made for us by Jesus Christ, which is the Price and meritorious Cause of our Redemption and Justification, is ⟨p. 18⟩one thing, and our receiving the Atonement or the application of his Blood to our personal and actual discharge from Sin, Guilt and Condemnation, is another thing: For if when we were Enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; ²much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his Life. We grant God was not only made reconcilable by the death of his Son, but by his Death God was fully reconciled; that is he received a full Satisfaction by that one Offering:³ Faith adds nothing to the Merits of Christ's Blood, or meritorious Sacrifice, but it is by his Life, by his Intercession, that it is made effectual or efficacious unto us, who pleads with God for the Spirit, which he purchased also for his Elect, that so the saving Benefits and Blessings might be applied to them: And therefore the Apostle adds in the next verse,⁴ And not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement. God hath, as if Paul should have said, through Christ's Intercession given us a free and personal Discharge purchased for us; he hath given us Faith to receive the Atonement. The particle Now hath its Emphasis, denoting the Privilege of all such as believe; and hence it is that we glory in Tribulation: we are now actually acquitted and for ever delivered from Condemnation. Sirs, since the strict time of the laying down the Price of our Redemption was not the time when many of the Elect were actually acquitted and justified, why should it be asserted to be the time when any of them were? For those Believers that lived and died from Adam till ⟨p. 19⟩Christ came, were justified, and went to Heaven before the Sacrifice was offered, and the Atonement actually made: the Father trusted the Son according to that holy Compact that was between them, Christ covenanting and engaging that he would die for them. And now as Adam received the Atonement when he believed, and not till then; so we when we are in Christ, believe, do receive the Atonement also, and not before: