It gave full fatisfaction to the juftice of God, and made up an everlafting peace between God and finners. Quest. What was it that rendered Chrift's facrifice fo acceptable to God, and fo efficacious for men?

Anf. 1. The quality of his perfon derived an infinite value to his obedience and fufferings. He was equally God, and as truly infinite in his perfections as the Father, who was provoked by our fins. He was the eternal Son of God, equal with the Father in all things. The fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him; and he is the brightnefs of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. His perfon was of as great dignity and honour as the Father's was, to whom he was offered. Though there be a diftinction of order among the perfons of the Godhead, yet there is no priority, nor diftinction of dignity. This made his fufferings of infinite and eternal value. For though his Deity was impaffible, yet he that was a divine perfon fuffered. And it is especially to be obferved, that the efficacy of his blood is afcribed to the divine nature. So the apoftle declareth, Col. i. 14, In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of fins. The efficacy of the Deity mingled itfelf with every groan in his agony, and with every pang and cry upon the crofs. And as his blood was the blood of God, as it is called, Acts xx. 28. fo his groans were the groans of God, and his cries the cries of God; and therefore of infinite value. What he acted and fuffered as man, was dignified and rendered efficacious by his divine nature. From this arifes the infinite difference between the facrifices of the law and the facrifice of Chrift, both in virtue and value. This is fet down by the apoftle with admirable emphafis, Heb. ix. 13. 14. For if the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the afhes of an heifer Sprinkling the unclean, fanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more fall the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without fpot to God, purge your confcience From dead works to ferve the living God? By the Lerfon

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al union with the Deity, great dignity was conferred upon the fufferings of the human nature.

2. The virtue and efficacy of Chrift's facrifice flowed from the infinite holinefs and purity of his perfon. He was holy, harmless, &c. He was as free from blemish as he was full of the Spirit. The fpotleffnefs of his human nature was neceffary to his being a facrifice, and the union of the divine nature was neceffary to his being a valuable facrifice. He had no fin naturally imputed, and he had no fin perfonally inherent. He had no fin naturally imputed, because he was not defcended from Adam by ordinary generation, who introduced fin into the world, and derived it down to all his progeny. He was holy in all his offices, harmless as a Pricft, faithful as a Prophet, holy in his life and death; no guile was found in his mouth, nor any inordinate motions and defires in his heart. His facrifice could not have availed us, if he had been tainted with the leaft fin.

3. The graces exercifed in his fufferings rendered his facrifice fragrant and acceptable to God, Phil. ii. 8. He became obedient unto death. His obedience ran with a chearful and prevalent strain through the whole courfe of his life. He fubmitted to a body, fitted to receive all those strokes of wrath that we thould have endured for ever; a body made under the law, fubject to the obedience and malediction of it. He delighted to do the will of God in human nature, Pfal. xl. 6. 7. He came not to do his own will, but that of him who fent him. Whatever was ordered him by his Father, that he fpake, did, and fuffered. He chearfully laid down his life when the hour appointed by the Father was come. It was not a simple, but an affectionate obedience; As the Father gave me commandment, fays he, fo I do, John xiv. 3. His offering him, felf a facrifice according to the will of God for our fanctification, was the moft fignificant part of his o bedience. This rendered his facrifice highly accepta, ble. Again, his admirable humility is joined with his obedience, as the caufe of his exaltation, which was

an evidence of its fragrancy, Phil. ii. 8. That the Lord of glory fhould ftoop fo low, as to put himself in the room of finners, eclipfing the bright luftre and fplendor of his glory, and throuding under the difguife of our infirm flesh, fubmitting nimielf to a harder piece of fervice, and to deeper degrees of humiliation, than ever any creature in heaven or earth was capable of; to defcend from the throne of his inacceffible light, and to expofe himself to the rage and fury of devils and men, without murmuring or impatience, to fubmit himself to an infamous death, endure the wrath of an offended God and Father, whom he infinitely loved, fhed his precious blood, and defcend into the grave; this was an inexpreffible and inimitable act of humility, lower than which he could not ftoop. Now, fince humility renders men fo pleafing to God, that he heaps upon them the greateft teftimonies of his favours, and richly difpenfes to them the doles of his grace, it mult needs render the Son moft acceptable to the Father in these his fufferings, and draw from him the greateft teftimonies and diftributions of his favours, because it was the greatest act of humility as well as of obedience that could poffibly be performed. Further, the high exercife of his faith rendered his facrifice most acceptable to God. He had not one fpark of infidelity, nor any the leaft grain of diftruft in the goodnefs of God, in the midft of his deepest forrows. He fuffer. ed the torments of hell for a time, without that killing defpair that preys upon the inhabitants of that dif mal place. He had a working of faith under the fenfe of his Father's greateft difpleafare, and confidence in his love, while he felt the outward and inward force of his frowns. He had a faith of the acceptablenefs of his death for all his people, and gave clear evidence of his confidence in the promife, for a happy and glorious fuccefs, in his acting like a King while he was hanging as a malefactor upon the crots, diftributing his largeffes to the poor thief, alluring him

that on that very day he should be with him in paradife. Both his obedience to God in not turning his back, and his truft in God for his help and affistance, are joined together as the ground of his juftification, If. 1. 5. 7. 8. The light of his faith was to be discovered in oppofition to Adam's unbelief, and his great humility in oppofition to Adam's pride. By his active and paffive obedience he glorified the holiness and ju ftice of God; by his humility, the power and fovereignty of God; and by his truft and confidence, the divine faithfulness and veracity. All which muft needs render his facrifice a fweet-fmelling favour to God, and efficacious for men.

4. The completeness of Chrift's fatisfaction is grounded on the degrees of his fufferings. There was no defect in that payment which he made. We owed a debt of blood to the law of God, and his life was offered up as a facrifice, otherwife the law had remained in its full force and vigour, and juftice had continued unfatisfied. That a divine perfon hath fuf fered the punishment that we deferved, is properly the reafon of our redemption; as it is not the quality of the furety that releases the debtor out of prifon, but the payment which he makes in his name. The blood of Chrift fhed, and offered up to God, ratifies the new teftament. In short, our Saviour in his death fuffered the malediction of the law, even all thofe degrees of divine wrath and vengeance which the elect fhould have fuffered for ever in hell; and his divine nature gave a full value, and put a high price upon the fufferings of his human nature; fo that the fatisfaction proceeding from them had an intrinfic worth and value; and God, who was infinitely provoked, is thereby infinitely pleased.

5. The facrifice of Christ was fragrant and efficacious, because of the great glory and honour which he thereby brought unto God. The glory of his Father was what he had in view, as his main fcope and aim, in all his actions and fufferings, and that which he

alfo actually perfected. The glory of all the divine attributes appeared in him in its higheft luftre, 2 Cor. iv. 6. They all centered in him, and fhone forth in their greatest fplendor, not only in his incarnation, but alfo and chiefly in his facrifice. The mercy and juftice of God appear in combination here, and fet off one another's luftre. Mercy could not be glorified, unless justice had been fatisfied; and juftice had not been evidently discovered, if the tokens of divine wrath had not been feen upon Chrift. Grace had never failed to us, but in the ftreams of the Mediator's blood. Without the fhedding of blood, fays the apostle, there is no remiffion. Divine juftice had not been fo fully known in the eternal groans and fhrieks of a world of guilty creatures, nor could fin have ap peared fo odious to the holiness of God by eternal fcars upon devils and men, as by a deluge of blood from the heart of this facrifice. Without the fufferings of Chrift the glory of the divine perfections had lain in the cabinet of the divine nature without the

difcovery of their full beams. And though they were active in the defigning of it, yet they had not been declared to men or angels without the bringing of Chrift to the altar. By the ftroke upon his foul all the glories of God flafhed out to the view of the creature. All the divine perfections were glorified in the fufferings of Chrift; his mercy, juftice, power, and wifdom. Here the unfearchable depths of manifold wildom were unfolded. Such a wifdom of God fhined in the crofs, as the angels never beheld in his face upon his throne; wifdom to cure a defperate difeafe by the death of the phyfician; to turn the greateft evil to the greateft good; to bring forth mercy by the execution of juftice, and the fhedding of blood: how furprising and, aftonifhing is this! The ultimate end and defign of Chrift's facrifice was the honour of God in our redemption. Chrift fought not his own glory, but the glory of him that fent him, John viii. 50. He fought the glory of his Father in the fal