brought pardon and peace unto us For DIE was upon him, here is that exemplary punishment, in which God's wrath against sin is discovered, which is well adapted to deter others from it. Thus Jer. xxx. 14. the punishment of a cruel one, and Prov. vii. 22. the exemplary punishment of a fool, and Ezek. v. 15. so shall it be a reproach and a taunt, an instruc tion (example) and an astonishment.

VIII. But we certainly take too much upon us, when we presume to examine the equity of the divine government, by the standard of our reason: when the fact is plain, we are always to vindicate God against the sophistry of our foolish reasonings. That man is certainly the author of a monstrous, horrible, and detestable heresy, and discovers a profane arrogance, who like Socinus, is not ashamed to write as follows: As for my part, indeed, though such a thing should be found not once, but frequently, in the sacred records, I would not on that account believe it to be so. But modesty should teach us rather to say; That truly for my part, though my rea son, which I know is blind and foolish, and apt to be clamorous against God, should a thousand times gain-say it, I 'would not therefore presume to call in question, what I 'find but once in the sacred records; or, by seeking some other interpretation, would I force on the words of scripture, any meaning more consonant to my reason.' When therefore we shall have proved from holy writ, that the Lord Christ has made satisfaction to the justice of God, and consequently, that there is no injustice in it: according to the maxim, which na ture itself dictates, that all the ways of God are righteousness and truth.

IX. No Christian questions that Christ fulfilled all righteousness. The multitude of the Jews, Mark vii. 37. testified concerning him, he hath done all things well. And he declared this truly, as he did every thing else, concerning him self, "for, I do those things that please him," John viii. 29. And hence he boldly appealed to his enemies, v. 46. « which of you convinceth me of sin ?" Nay, even to his Father him self, Psal: xcix. 5. "O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee:" for I suppose this Psalm contains a prayer of the Lord Christ, as appears from several parts of it being often quoted in the New Testament. And these words, I think, contain a protestation of the Lord Jesus to his Father of his own innocence; of which Theodorus in Catena, has given no improper paraphrase: been guilty of any fault against them, thou and art my witness, I have done nothing"

whether I have thyself knowest, But I think the

meaning may be more fully expressed thus: it is true my God, I have taken guilt upon me, and am made a curse; but thou knowest all my sins, even to the slightest offence, for which I suffer; that in all there is not the least fault of mine, by which I have violated thy law, so as to restore what I have taken. The truth of this protestation the Father attests, when Isa. liii. 2. he calls Christ his righteous servant, and justi fied him in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16. declaring that as man he was of

contrary, he ho every crime falsely laid to his charge; on the

contrary, he honoured his Father by his perfect obedience; and as Mediator so diligently executed his office, that he was deficient in nothing.

X. It is also allowed that the most holy obedience of Christ was for our good: because therein we have, 1st. A confirmation of his heavenly doctrine; the works of his most perfect. holiness, no less than his miracles, being a demonstration that he was a preacher of divine truth sent down from heaven. 2dly. A living law and most perfect pattern of holiness, worthy both of God and of the children of God, of which we had an exact delineation in the written law; but its shining forth in its lively image and native light in Christ and his actions, is fitted to stir up every man to love it, who beholds it with a spiritual eye. Mankind wanted this even to discern the unspotted image of the divine holiness in one of their brethren; which at length they obtained in Christ, who “left us an example that we should follow his steps," 1 Pet. ii. 21. 3diy. A pointing out of the way to heaven: Christ teaching us not only by his words, but his actions, that " without holiness no one shall see the Lord," Heb. xii, 14.

XI. But we must proceed a step further, and affirm, that the obedience of Christ was accomplished by him in our room, in order thereby to obtain for us a right to eternal life. The law, which God will have secured inviolable, admits none to glory, but on condition of perfect obedience, which none was ever possessed of but Christ, who bestows it freely on his own. people. This is what the apostle declares, Rom. v. 16. " but the free gift of Jesus Christ is of many offences unto justification:" though we want those works, for which the reward may be due: nay, though for so many sins, we may have deserved an eternal curse; nevertheless there is something sufficient, not only for abolishing many offences, but likewise to be the meritorious cause of righteousness; namely, the obedience of one; and it becomes ours by gratuitous gift. More clearly still, verse 19. "for as by one man's disobedience many were made [constituted] sinners, so by the obedience of ope

1

shall many be made [constituted] righteous." The former
one man was Adam, the root and federal head of mankind.
By his disobedience, all mankind, as belonging to him, were in-
volved in the guilt of the curse: and as he sustained the per-
son of all, what he did amiss, is accounted as done by all.
The other is the one man Christ, who neither sinned in, and
with Adam, nor had the dominion of sin and death passed up-
on him, and who is worthy to be both lord and head, a second
Adam, and the origin and source of the inheritance to be de-
volved on his brethren. He is possessed of an obedience, even
to the whole law of God, which enjoined him to have a perfect
love for the glory of his Father, and for the salvation of his
brethren. By that obedience the collective body of those who
belong to him are constituted righteous; that is, are judged to
have a right to eternal life, no less than if every one had per-
formed that obedience in his own person.

XII. Nor should it be thought strange, that the obedience
of Christ is sufficient to acquire to all a right to eternal life,
even though it became him as man to yield obedience for
himself. For we are here to consider the dignity of the person
obeying; who being man in such a manner, as at the same
time to be the eternal and infinite God, he is much more ex-
cellent than all the elect, taken together: and therefore his
obedience is deservedly esteemed of such value as may be
imputed to all, for obtaining a right to a blessed immortality.
And although the divinity, in the abstract, did not obey, yet
he who did is God; and thus the divinity of the person con-
tributes very much to the dignity of the obedience. It is cer-
tain, that as man, he owed obedience for himself, but since he
became man on our account, he also performed that obedience
in our room. Moreover, as man he was not necessarily under
the law, as prescribing the condition of happiness; because if
we set aside the consideration of the suretiship undertaken for
us, he would have enjoyed all manner of happiness, from the
first moment of his incarnation, on account of the union of the
humanity with the Godhead, as we have more fully shewn,
chap. m. § XIII, XIV.

XIII. It would likewise be false to infer from this, that
"if Christ performed obedience for us, we ourselves are un-
⚫der no necessity of obeying because no demand can be
made on the principal debtor, for what the Surety has per
'formed in his room. Our obedience may be considered,
either as it is the duty of the rational creature, with respect to
his sovereign Lord; or as it is a condition of acquiring a right
to eternal life: in the latter respect Christ accomplished it

VOL. 1.

for us, and therefore under that relation, it neither is, nor can be required of us, as if for want of perfect obedience, we could be excluded from eternal life. But in the former respect, we by all means owe obedience, and the obligation to it rather increased than diminished by this instance of Christ's love. For what more proper than by this to shew our gratitude, and declare, not so much by words as actions, that we acknowledge him for our Lord, who has purchased us for himself? And in fine, that as adopted sons, we decline no obedience to our heavenly Father, whom his natural Son, and of the same substance with himself, so cheerfully obeyed.

XIV. But besides, Christ satisfied the vindictive justice of God, not only for our good, but also, in our room, by enduring those most dreadful sufferings, both in soul and body, which we had deserved, and from which he by undergoing them, did so deliver us, that they could not with the wrath and curse of God, as the proper punishment of our sin, be inflicted on us. If there is any point in our divinity accurately proved, and solidly defended against the exceptions of the Socinians, by illustrious persons in the church, it is certainly this; which I choose not to repeat, desiring the reader to fetch the arguments from a Grotius, a Junius, a Turretine, a Hoornbeck, an Essenius, and the like renowned heroes; which will baffle all the efforts of the adversaries properly

to answer.

CHAP. VI.

What sufferings of Christ are satisfactory.

1. BUT it is really to be lamented, that in these our days, a new question should be started among the orthodox: namely, which of the sufferings of Christ ought to be deemed satisfactory in our room. There is one in particular, who seems to acknowledge none of the sufferings of Christ to be satisfactory for us, but those which Christ underwent during the three hours of the solar darkness, while he was upon the cross, and before he expired; excluding from the number of satisfactory sufferings, that agony and horror which he endured in the garden of Olivet the night in which he was apprehended, and that blood which he shed before, and when he was crucified, and after he expired on the cross. He had

* This was the garden of Gethsemane, which lay at the foot of the mount of Olives.

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not, says he, commenced his satisfactory actions, when by a
word he levelled his enemies with the ground, cured Mal-
chus, and promised paradise to the thief: no expiation was
yet made when an angel came to strengthen him. Nay,
he affirms, that Christ did not suffer corporal death as our
Surety, and in our room; and that consequently it belongs not
to the satisfaction which he made to the justice of God, if
indeed he then fully satisfied God when he died. But in
case Christ should seem to have suffered all these things in
vain, the learned person concludes, that they were done in or-
der to satisfy the veracity of God, which had foretold that
thus it should be, and to fulfil the types by which they were
prefigured in the Old Testament; distinguishing, moreover,
between convincing and compensating punishments, between
warlike sufferings and judiciary. He calls those compensating
and judiciary, which Christ endured during the three hours
of darkness; the others only convincing and warlike suffer-
ings; having this tendency, that Christ might learn to become
a merciful High Priest.

II. But it will be worth while to trace the hypothesis of
this very learned person from the foundation; which he has
done himself very accurately, in a letter to a friend, published
after the first and second editions of my work. For he main-
tains, 1st. That when God threatened man, if he sin-
ned, with death, he meant that death which our first parents
incurred on the very day they sinned, and which Christ the
Surety underwent in the room and stead of some; and which
the damned themselves, who are without a Surety, shall suf-
fer and be forced to undergo for themselves. But that is the
death of the whole man; because the subject of it is man,
made up of soul and body united; and consists, not only in the
privation of the sense of God's favour, and of communion with
him, and of a joyful delight in the enjoyment of him; but
it is also attended with all the torture and racking pain which
the almighty wrath of God can inflict. 2dly. Our first pa-
rents underwent that death immediately upon their sin: for in
the cool of the same day in which they sinned, when drawing
towards the evening, they heard the voice of the Lord con-
tinually walking in the garden. It was not that articulate
voice which Adam was before accustomed to hear, and was
afterwards pleased with its sound: but such as was heard at
Sinai, Exod. xix. 16, 17. and described Psal. xxix. and lxxvii.
18, 19. The voice of thunder and lightning, a token of God's
powerful wrath, which the guilty creature could neither bear
nor avoid, which made Adam and Eve hide themselves in the