the load of divine wrath, so as to remove it, and rise again, when he had done; " who knoweth the power of thine anger; even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath," Psal. xc. II. see Nah. i. 6. It was therefore necessary for our surety to be more than man, that by the infinite power of his Godhead, he might support the assumed human nature, and so be able to bear the fierceness of divine wrath, and conquer every kind of death.

XXII. I shall not conceal what is objected to this argument ; namely, that God could have so supported the human nature, though not personally united to himself, by his divine power, as to have rendered it capable to endure and conquer all manner of sorrows. I dare not refuse this. But yet that would not be sufficient in the present case. Because, by that hypothesis, it would be God himself, by the surety, who would have vanquished his enemies. But it is necessary, that our surety should do this by his own power, that “his own arm should bring salvation unto him," Isa. lxiii. 5. and therefore be "the mighty one of Jacob," Isa. lx. 16. " the mighty God, Isa. ix. himself" stronger than the strong man,' Luke xi. 21, 22. "having life in himself," John v. 26. and having power to take his life again," John x. 18. To which is required" the exceeding greatness of his power," Eph. i. 19. and so should" be declared to be the Son of God with power," Rom. i. 4.

XXIII. These are the tremendous mysteries of our religion, "which were kept secret since the world began, but are now made manifest, and by the scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith," Rom. xvi. 25. 26. From hence, the divinity of the Christian religion ap pears with evidence. What penetration of men or angels was capable of devising things so mysterious, so sublime, and so far surpassing the capacity of all created beings? How adorable do the wisdom and justice, the holiness, the truth, the goodness, and the philanthropy of God, display themselves in contriving, giving, and perfecting this means of our salvation? How calmly does conscience, overwhelmed with the burden of its sins acquiesce in such a surety, and in such a suretiship; when here at length, apprised of a method of reconciliation, both worthy of God, and safe for man? Who, on contemplating these things in the light of the Spirit, would not break out into the praises of the most holy, the most righteous, the most true, the most gracious, and the most high God? O the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of VOL. I.

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God!

God! O the height of mysteries, which angels desire to look into! Glory to the Father, who raised up, accepted, and gave us such a surety! Glory to the Son, who cloathing himself in human flesh, so willingly, so patiently, and so constantly performed such an engagement for us. Glory to the Holy Ghost, the revealer, the witness, and the earnest of so great happiness for us. All hail! O Christ Jesus, true and eternal God, and true and holy man, all in one, who retains the properties of both natures in the unity of thy person. Thee we acknowledge, thee we worship, to thee we betake ourselves, at thy feet we fall down, from thy hand alone we look for salvation. Thou art the only Saviour; we desire to be thy peculiar property, we are so by thy grace, and shall remain such for ever. Let the whole word of thine elect, witle us, know, acknowledge and adore thee, and thus at length be saved by thee. This is the sum of our faith, and hope, and this the top of all our wishes. Amen.

CHA P. V.

Of the Suretiship and Satisfaction of Christ.

I. HAVING thus spoken of the person of the surety, so far as the nature of our design requires, now is the time and place to treat a little more accurately of the satisfaction itself, which, by his suretiship he undertook to give. For he is called the Surety of the Covenant, or Testament, Heb. vii. 22. Not only, nor principally, because he engaged to us in the name of God, to fulfil the promises contained In that testament, if we obeyed his commands, as Carcellous treading in the footsteps of his master Socinus, artfully pretends but, because he engaged to God for us, to perform all those conditions in our stead; upon which we were to receive the testamentary inheritance. When Hezekiah desired thesaving fruit of this suretiship, he prayed, Isa. xxxviii. 14. “I am oppressed, undertake for me." And God himself, when he gives to his Son all the glory of this suretiship, expresses himself thus: Jer. xxx. 21. " for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord." That is, what mortal, nay, what creature dares engage to perform all those things which are incumbent on the priest, who shall have a right to approach to me for himself and his people. Our surety therefore, thus engaged to God for us. To what purpose is such a surety, who should only engage to us in

the

the name of God? If Christ be a mere man, such as they represent him, could his engagement give us a greater assurance of the truth of the divine promises, than if we heard them immediately from the mouth of God himself? Was it not necessary that God, who cannot lie, should first of all engage to us, that the man Christ would be true in all his sayings, before we could with sure confidence rely upon them? Is it not much better and more safe, to rely upon the oath of the infallible God, by which he has abundantly confirmed to the beirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, Heb. vi. 17. than on the declaration of a mere man, let him be ever so true and faithful? And what peculiar excellency would Christ have had above others in this case, to the honour of being the alone surety, had he only, by the publication of a saving doctrine, which he confirmed by his martyrdom, assured us of the certainty of the promises of grace: seeing the other Prophets and Apostles of Christ did the very same, not scrupling to undergo the most cruel death, in order to seal with their blood the truth of God's promises, which they had declared? What can vilify Christ, or make void his suretiship, if this does not?

II. Christ therefore is called our surety, because he engaged to God to make SATISFACTION FOR US. Which satisfaction again is not to be understood in the Socinian sense, as if it only consisted in this, that Christ most perfectly fulfilled the will of God, and fully executed every thing God enjoined him, on account of our salvation, and so in the fullest manner satisfied God, and that for us, that is, on our account, for our highest and eternal good: as Crellius, when making the greatest concessions, would fain put us off with these fair words: but it consists in this, that Christ, in our room and stead, did both by doing and suffering, satisfy divine justice, both the legislatory, the retributive, and vindictive, in the most perfect manner, fulfilling all the righteousness of the law, which the law otherwise required of us, in order to impunity, and to our having a right to eternal life. If Christ did this, as we are immediately to shew he did, nothing hinders why we may not affirm, he satisfied for us in the fullest sense of the word. For to what purpose is it superciliously to reject a term so commodious, because hot to be met with on this subject in Scripture, if we can prove the thing signified by it?

III. We find his engaging to make this satisfaction, Psa. xl. 6. 7. 8. expressed in these words by Christ: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering thou hast not required.

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Then

Then said I, Lo! I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my bowels or heart." Where observe, 1st, The covenant between the Lord Christ and the Father, by virtue of which Christ calls the Father his God. 2dly, That Christ freely, and of his own accord, entered into this covenant with the Father; since he compares himself to a servant, whose ears were bored or digged through, in order voluntarily to serve his beloved Lord. 3dly, That by virtue of this covenant, Christ presented himself to do the acceptable will of his God. 4thly, That that will was expressed by a law, which Christ has within his bowels or heart, which he loves from his soul, and is to keep with all his heart. 5thly, That that law requires, not only perfect righteousness, in or der to obtain a right to eternal life, but also deserved punishment to be inflicted on the sinner. For all this was signified by the sacrifices, gifts, burnt-offerings and sin-offerings of the law. For when the sinner offered to God beasts or corn, which were given to himself for food, and was careful to have them consumed by fire, as it were in his own room, he thereby confessed that, on account of his sin, he deserved the most dreadful destruction, and even the 'eternal flames of hell. 6thly, That these external ceremonies of sacrifices could never, without a respect to the thing signified, please God, nor purge the conscience from dead works: therefore, Christ offered himself, in order to accomplish that will of God, by which we are sanctified, Heb. x. 10. both by fulfilling all the righteousness prescribed by the law, and by undergoing the guilt of our sins, that he might atone for them as an expiatory sacrifice. All these things are contained in the suretiship of Christ described by David.

IV. Christ could, without any injury, undertake such a suretiship; 1st, Because he was the lord of his own life, which, on account of his power over it, he could engage to lay down for others, John x. 18. I have power to lay it down. 2dly, Because being God-man in one person he was able to perform what he undertook, by enduring condign punishment, by fulfilling all righteousness, and in both, performing an obedience of such value as to be more than equivalent to the obedience of all the elect. 3dly, Because by that means, he gave an instance of an extraordinary and incomprehensible degree of love, both to the glory of God and the salvation of men. 4thly, Nor has his human nature any reason to complain, because a creature could have no greater glory than to be hypostatically united with a divine, person,

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and be subservient to him for accomplishing the greatest work, which the whole choir of elect angels will with astonishment celebrate through eternity; especially seeing it was assured, that after its sufferings, which were indeed the greatest that could be, yet of a short duration, that which was made a little lower than the angels, should obtain a name above every

name.

V. It was also worthy of God the Father, both to procure and accept of this suretiship of his Son; because in the execution of it, there is a manifestation of the truth of God, exactly fulfilling every thing he had promised in his law to his justice, and had threatened against sin; and of the goodness of God, reconciling to himself sinful and wretched man, on giving and admitting a proper mediator; and of the justice of God, not clearing the guilty, without a sufficient satisfaction; nay, accepting a far more excellent satisfaction, than could ever be given by man himself, because of the more excellent obedience of Christ, and his more meritorious sufferings, Rom. iii. 25. and of the holiness of God, not admitting man unto a blessed communion with himself, unless justified by the blood, and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ; in fine, of the all-sufficiency of God, who, as what seemed almost a thing incredible, is, by this means, become without any diminution to his perfections, the God and salvation of the sin

Hence it is, that the Lord Jesus, in the execution of his undertaking, professes, he manifested the name, that is, the perfections, of God, John xvii. 6. particularly those we have just now mentioned. Psa. lx. 10. "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared thy FAITHFULNESS and thy SALVATION: I have not concealed thy LOVING KINDNESS, and thy TRUTH, from the great congregation." As then nothing can be thought more worthy of God, than the manifesting, in the most illustrious manner, the glory of the divine perfections, and these perfections, shine forth no where with greater lustre, than in the satisfaction of Christ, it was altogether worthy of God to procure and admit his undertaking such a satisfaction.

VI. Nor by the admission of such suretiship is there any abrogation of, or derogation to the divine law; as little any contradiction of, or substitution of another, but only a favourable construction put upon it, because the law, as it stood, but only taken in a favourable sense, was most fully satisfied by the Redeemer, who was in the closest union with us, when he paid the due ransom. Whence the Apostle said, Rom. viii 4. the righteousness of the law was fulfilled by Christ. We shall not improperly conceive of the whole, in

the