then be redeemed from the curse, according to justice ; so the apostle argues, Rom. iii. 25, 56. " Whom God hath set forth to " be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his " righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the " forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time, his righte- u ousness, that God might be just, and the justifier of him that " believeth in Jesus." Mark the design and end of God in ex- acting satisfaction from Christ, it was to declare his righteousness in the remission of sin to believers ; and lest we should lose the emphatical word, he doubles it, to declare, I say, his righteousness. Every one can see how his mercy is declared in remission : but he would have us take notice, that his justification of believers is an act of justice; and that God, as he is a just God, cannot condemn the believer, since Christ hath satisfied his debts. This attribute seems to be the main bar against remission ; but now it is become the very ground and reason why God remits. O how comfort- able a text is this ! Doth Satan or conscience set forth thy sin in all its discouraging circumstances and aggravations ? God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation. Must justice be manifested, sa- tisfied and glorified ? So it is in the death of Christ, ten thousand times more than ever it could in thy damnation. Thus you have a brief account of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ.
Secondly, We shall gather up all that hath been said to establish the truth of Christ's satisfaction ; proving the reality of it, that it is not an improper, catachrestical, fictitious satisfaction, by divine acceptilation, as some have very diminutively called it ; but real, pro-
Eer, and full, and as such accepted by God. b For his blood is the lood of a Surety, Heb. vii. 22. who came under the same obligations of the law with us, Gal. iv. 4. and though he had no sin of his own, yet standing before God as our Surety, the iniquities of us all were laid upon him, Isa. liii. 6. and from him did the Lord, with great severity, exact satisfaction for our sins, Rom. viii. 32. punish them upon his soul, Matth. xxvii. 46. and upon his body, Acts ii. 23. and with this obedience of his Son, is fully pleased and satis- fied, Eph. v. 2. and hath in token thereof raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, 1 Tim. iii. 16. and for his righteousness-sake acquitted and discharged believers, who shall never more come into condemnation, Rom. viii. 1, 34. All this is plain in scripture ; and our faith in the satisfaction of Christ, is not built on the wisdom of man, but the everlasting sealed truth of God : yet such is the perverse nature of man, and the pride of his heart, that whilst he should be humbly adoring the grace of God, in providing such a Surety for us, he is found accusing the justice, and diminishing the mercy of God, and raising all the ob- jections which Satan and his own heart can invent, to overturn
SERM. XIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, 18£
that blessed foundation upon which God hath built up his own ho- nour, and his people's salvation.
Thirdly, In the next place, therefore, we shall reject those doc- trines, and remove the principal of those objections that are found militating against the satisfaction of Christ.
And, in the first place, we reject with deep abhorrence that doctrine, which ascribes to man any power, in whole, or in part, to satisfy God for his own, or other men's sins. This, no mere creature can do by active obedience, were it so complete that he could never sin in thought, word, or deed, any more, but live the most holy life that ever any lived : for all this would be no more than his duty as a creature, Luke xvii. 10. and so can be no satis- faction for what he is by nature, or hath done against God as a sinner. Nor yet by suffering ; for we have offended an infinite God, and can never satisfy him by our finite sufferings.
We also, with like detestation, reject that doctrine which makes the satisfaction of Christ either impossible, or fictitious, and inconsistent with grace, in the free pardon of sin. Many are the cavils raised against Christ's satisfaction ; the principal are such as these that follow :
Object. The doctrine of Christ' *s satisfaction is absurd, for Christ (say we) is God ; if so then, God satisfies himself than which what can be more absurd to imagine ?
Sol I answer, God cannot properly be said to satisfy himself; for that would be the same thing as to pardon, simply, without any satisfaction. But there is a twofold consideration of Christ ; * one in respect of his Essence and Divine Nature, in which sense he is the object both of the offence, and of the satisfaction made for it. Another in respect of his person and ceconomy, or office ; in which sense he properly satisfies God, being in respect of his manhood another, and inferior to God, John xiv. 28. The blood of the man Christ Jesus is the matter of the satisfaction ; the Di- vine Nature dignifies it, and makes it of infinite value -f\ A cer- tain family had committed treason against the king, and are all under the condemnation of the law for it ; the king's son moved with pity and love, resolves to satisfy the law, and yet save the fa- mily ; in order whereunto he marries a daughter of the family, whereby her blood becomes royal blood, and worth the blood of the whole family whence she sprang ; this princess is by her hus-
* It is one thing to treat of Christ's divinity according to its nature, considered distinctly by itself: another thing to treat of it as in his person. TrelcaU
f Christ, according to his divine nature, is one with God ; as man he is one with us : on the other part, as God, he is at a distance from us : as man, or by volun- tary ceconomy, at a distance from God. Idem. Hid. See Dawn, vn Col. 103. and Cameron, p. 561.
184 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.' SERM. XIV.
band executed in the room of the rest. In this case the king satis- fies not himself for the wrong, but is satisfied by the death of ano- ther, equivalent in worth to the blood of them all. This similitude answers not to all the particulars, as indeed nothing in nature doth, "or can; but it only shews what it was that satisfied God, and how it became so satisfactory.
Object. If Christ satisfied by paying our debt, then he should have endured eternal torments ; for so we should, and the damned shall.
Sol. We must distinguish betwixt what is essential, and what is accidental in punishment. The primary intent of the law is repa- ration and satisfaction ; he that can make it at one intire payment (as Christ could and did) ought to be discharged. He that cannot (as no mere creature can) ought to he for ever, as the damned do, under sufferings.
Object. If God will be satisfied for our sins before he pardon them, liow then is pardon an act of grace.