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facred Law violated without a juft recompence. Ho- Chap. 2. linefs, which cannot but abhor fin, could do no less than stand on the fame fide. Truth remembred, that that threatning, moriendo morieris, Thou shalt furely die, was too facred a thing to be made nothing of; fome way or other it ought to be fatisfied. Thus the Attributes themselves feem to be at a distance.

3. Could a Ranfom be found out to the content of Justice, how should man, depraved polluted man, be made capable of receiving fuch a benefit? who should unscale his eyes, that he might look upon fuch a myftery? who should break his iron-finewed will, that he might yield to fuch terms, as Salvation was to be given upon? It is certain, that blind impenitent crea tures cannot enter into Heaven; before they can arrive thither, their eyes must be opened upon the great Offer, their hearts must be diffolved into the divine Will; and how this shall come to pafs, is another difficulty. Now after the difficulties, let us fee the admirable folution of them: when all finite understandings were pofed and nonpluft at the cafe of fal'n man, when neither men nor Angels could fo much as start a thought touching a remedy, infinite Wisdom found out a way of Salvation for us. The incomparable contrivance was thus: A creature, a finite perfon could not fatisfie Justice, but an infinite one shall do it. There are three perfons in the facred Trinity, but the Son of God thall do it; He fhall affume an humane nature; in it He fhall obey and die upon a Crofs, and thereby he shall fatisfie divine Juftice, and purchase Grace and Eternal life for us. That the Son: Thould do it rather than any other perfon, was very congruous many ways. Gods beloved One was fit to reconcile us, his eflèntial Image was fit to repair the

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Chap. 2.

gracious one; none could be more meet to usher in Adoption than Gods natural Son, nor to enlighten the World than the brightness of his glory: the Eternal Word Incarnate muft needs be an excellent Prophet, the middle perfon in the facred Trinity a moft congruous Mediator. The bleffed Father fhewed forth himself in a former work in Creation; the holy Spirit appears in a fubfequent work, in Sanctification; it was therefore very meet that the Son,the fecond perfon in the Trinity, fhould manifeft himfelf in the middle work, in Redemption. But that we may look a little further into this admirable Defign, it will not be amifs to fix our eyes upon thofe rare Conjunctions, which the divine Wifdom hath framed in order to Our Salvation.

1. There is a Conjunction of Natures, God and Man in one perfon. Jefus Chrift, who was confubftantial with the Father as to his Divinity, was made consubstantial with us as to his Humanity; Heaven and Earth were united together in an ineffable manner: the distance between God and man was, as it were, filled up in this wonderful Incarnation, fupremum infimi did attingere infimum fupremi, the creature came as near God as poffibly could be. Admirable are the tendencies of this Union. He was Man, that he might be capable of fuffering, and that by fuffering he might fatisfie in the fame Nature which had finned. He was God, that he might stamp fuch an infinite value upon his fufferings; that thofe, though but the fufferings of one, might answer for a World, and, though but temporal fufferings, might counterpoise Eternal. He was Man, that in condefcenfion to our weakness he might speak to us through a vail of flesh. He was God, that he might speak to our hearts

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in divine illuminations; in words of life and power. Chap. 2. He was Man, that he might be touch'd with a feeling of our infirmities, and melt into tender compaffions towards us. He was God, that he might break all the powers of darkness, and erect an holy Throne in our hearts. This was the firft fundamental Conjunction, a thing worthy to attract from us a much higher admiration, than what is due to the Wonders in Nature.

2. There is a Conjunction of Justice and Mercy. These in men do ufually, like the Sun and Moon reign by turns; but in this wonderful Difpenfation these are in exercife and glory both at once. Juftice appears, in that Jefus Chrift our Sponfor was fmitten and wounded to death, and that an accurfed one for our fins: Mercy fhines forth, in that Sinners repenting and believing are spared, nay, and advanced to glory. Juftice did not fpare the Surety, but exacted all; Mercy doth not exact ought from the believer, but forgive all. The fufferings of Chrift refpect both Attributes, they fatisfied the Law, and founded the Gofpel. Juftice had a full compenfati- on, and Merey fprung up in promifes of Grace and

Eife.

3. Holiness in God, which hates fin, is the fundamental root of that Juftice, which punisheth it. Punishment iffues out of Juftice; Juftice fprings out of Holiness. Now that Holiness may be contented, and fo Juftice fatisfied, not only in it felf, but in its very foundation, there was in Chrifts Sufferings a Conjunction of punishment and obedience. It's true,the Socinians think these two altogether inconfiftent, becaufe si christi påf

fones rationem

obedientia habent, rationem pæne babere non possunt; obedientia enim vitus eft; pœna auten propter inobedientiam infligitur. Schli&. contr. Meifn. 128.

obedience

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Chap.2. obedience is a Virtue, but punishment is inflicted for difobedience. But in Scripture the thing is clear; there was a virtuous action in his Paffion, a fignal obedience in his Sufferings: he poured out his foul, he was obedient unto death. Pure entire obedience run through his whole life to the last gafp upon the Crofs: it was not at all broken or interrupted by the bloody Agony, nor loft or forfaken in that night of defertion, when he cryed out, My Ged, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. His Sufferings were very penal in themselves, and inflicted by Juftice, yet freely undertaken, and obedientially undergone. Here therefore was an admirable work of Wisdom; his Sufferings as penal fatisfied Justice, and as obediential gratified Holiness.

4. The Truth of God was concerned in that first Threatning, Thou shalt furely die; and in that other, which is a kind of Commentary upon it, Curfed is ke that continueth not in all things. Thefe Threatnings, which were the fanction of that eternal Law, touching which our Saviour affures us, that one jot or tittle of it fhall not pafs away, are not to be confounded with thofe conditional Threatnings which are extant in Scripture, and were by God ufed to induce men unto repentance. Now that Truth might be falved, there was in Chrifts Sufferings a conjunction of a Satisfaction, and a kind of execution of the Law. Indeed, an execution of it in the rigour or ftrict letter of it there was not, neither could that be but upon the Sinner himself; yet there was a kind of execution of it in an equitable fenfe in our Sponsor Jefus Chrift: his Satisfaction, though it was not the idem, the very fame which the letter of the Law called for; yet in infinite Wisdom it was

accom

accommodated to the terms of the Law, as far as Chap. 2. the decorum of his Sacred Perfon could admit of; in the threatning there was Death and a Curse, and both these were in the fufferings of Chrift: hence the Apostle faith, That fin was fo condemned in his flesh, that the righteousness of the Law was fulfilled, Rom. 8. 3, 4. It was in a fort executed in our Surety, that in the fame fufferings there might be a fatisfaction to Juftice, and a compliance with Truth. He that confiders thefe Conjunctions will have caufe to cry out with the Pfalmift, Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kiffed each other, Pfalm 85. 10.

ubi eft fatisfactie, ibi non eft meritum; Satisfactio eft folutio debiti de jure, meritum autem opus indebitum. Soc.

5. That poor lapfed man with his blind eyes and hard heart, utterly uncapable in himself of Heaven, may be made meet for it; there was in Christs fufferings a conjunction of Satisfaction and Merit; Juftice was compenfated, and Grace impetrated. Indeed the Socinians, blind with their own corrupt reafon, cannot fee how these two should stand together, Satisfaction being the payment of a juft debt, and Merit the doing of an undue work. To which I answer: It is true, that when one pays a finite fum for his own debt, there is not, there cannot be a merit in it; but when Jefus Chrift paid down fufferings of an infinite value for us, there cannot but be an immense merit in them. Infinity is an Ocean, and may run over in effects as far as it pleases; thofe fufferings had a kind of Infinity in them, enough to pay divine Juftice, and over and above by a redundance of merit to purchase all grace for

us.

Hence the Apostle faith, That the Holy Ghoft is fhed on us abundantly through Jefus Chrift, Tit. 3. 6.

D

Chrift

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