" For this end, or cause, he is the Mediator of the New Testa- " ment; that, by means of death, lor the redemption of the u transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which " are called, might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance,1' Pleb. ix. 15.
We will here, First, See what Christ paid. Secondly, What he purchased. Thirdly, For whom.
First, What Christ paid. Our * divines comprise the virtue and fruits of the priesthood of Christ in these two things, viz. Solutio debiti, ct acquisitio hazreditatis, payment and purchase. Answera- bly, the obedience of Christ hath a double relation, relatio legalis justitia?, the relation of a legal righteousness; and adequate and ex- actly proportioned price. And it hath also in it ratio superlegalis meriti, the relation of a merit over and beyond the law.
To object (as some do) " •(• the satisfaction of Christ was more " than sufficient," according to our doctrine, " and therefore " could not be intended for the payment of our debt," is a sense- less cavil. For surely, if Christ paid more than was owing, he must needs pay all that was owing to divine Justice. And truly it is but a bad requital of the love of Jesus Christ, who, beside the payment of what he owed, would manifest his bounty by the redun- dancy of his merit, which he paid to God to purchase a blessed in- heritance for us. This overplus of satisfaction (which was the price of that inheritance I am now to open) is not obscurely hint- ed, but plainly expressed twice in Rom. v. 15. " But not as the " offence, so also is the free gift : for if through the offence of « one many be dead, zjoXXu /iaX\ov9 much more the grace of God, « and the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, " empiffgsvte, hath abounded or flowed abundantly unto many." So ver 17. " For if by one man's offence, death reigned by one " to/.Xw }Lu\yw, much more they which receive rr\v Ksoitfciav, the " overflowings, or abundance of grace, and of the gift of righte- " ousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." In both J which places Christ and Adam are compared as the two roots or common heads of mankind, both agreeing in this property of communicating their conditions to those that are theirs ; yet there
* Parker de descensu 1. 3. p. 79. Dr. Reynolds on Psal. ex. Cameron, p. 363, #c.
f Satisfactio Christi fuit plus quam sujficiens, non igitur, ex debito, non ex obligato. Fevard. dialog. 5. p. 382.
J Dutch Annotations on this place. Deodat. on this place.
120 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XV.
is a great deal of difference betwixt them ! for in Christ the power is all divine, and therefore infinitely more active and effectual: He communicates abundantly more to his, than they lost in Adam ; so that his blood is not only sufficient to redeem all those that are actually redeemed by it, but even the whole world also. And were there so many worlds of men as there are men in the world, it would be sufficient for them also; and yet still there would be an overplus of value : for all those worlds of men would rise but to a finite bulk ; but this blood is infinite in its worth and dignity. Since then there is not a whole world, no not half, but the far less part redeemed by the blood of Christ, which was sufficient for so many ; great must be the surplusage and re- dundancy of merit ? Here our divines rightly distinguish betwixt the substance and accidents of Christ's death and obedience. Con- sider Christ's suffering, as to the substance of it, it was no more than what the* law required; for, neither the justice, nor love of the Father would permit that Christ should suffer more than what was necessarv for him to bear, as our Surety ; but, as to the cir- cumstances, the person of the sufferer, the cause and efficacy of his sufferings, $c. it was much more than sufficient : a superlegale meriium, a merit above and beyond what the law required ; for, though the law required the death of the sinner, who is but a poor contemptible creature, it did not require that one, perfectly innocent, should die ; it did not require that God should shed his blood : it did not require blood of such value and worth as this was. I say, none of this the law required, though God was pleased, for the advancement and manifestation of his justice and mercy in the highest, to admit, and order this, by way of com- mutation, admitting him to be our awi^vyjtg, or ransomer, by dy- ing for us. And, indeed, it was a most gracious relaxation of the lawf , that admitted of such a commutation as this ; for hereby it comes to pass, that justice is fully satisfied, and yet we live and are saved ; which, before, was a thing that could not be imagined. Yea, now we are not only redeemed from wrath, by the ade- quate compensation made for our sins by Christ's blood and suffer- ings, substantially considered ; but entitled to a most glorious inhe- ritance, purchased by his blood, considered as the blood of an innocent, as the blood of God, and therefore as most excellent and efficacious blood, above what the law demanded. And this
* Quod substantiam pcerus nihil plus perpessus est Christus quam quodper legem debeba- tur ; quoad circumstanlias autem, patientis personam, patiendi causam passionis efficaciam, plus quam svfficicns satisfactio Chrisli a nobus dicitur. Parker de descensu, 1. 8.
f They who have written of the relaxation of laws, observe, that these are the best relaxations to which is annexed commutation or compensation]. Grotius on, satisfaction, chap. 5,
SERM. XV. TITE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 191
is the meaning of Athanasius, when he saith, "* That Christ re- " compensed, or made amends for small things with great :" he means not, that sin, considered absolutely, and in itself, is small ; O no, but compared with Christ's blood, and the infinite excel- lency and worth of it, it is so. And f Chrysostom, to the same purpose, " Christ paid much more (saith he) than we owed, and " so much more, as the immense ocean is more than a small drop.-" So that it was rightly determined by holy Anselm : " No man M (saith he) can pay to God what he owes him ; Christ only paid " more than he owed him."*' By this you see, how rich a treasure lies in Christ, to bestow in a purchase for us, above what he paid to redeem us ; even as much as his soul and body were more worth than ours, for whom it was sacrificed ; which is so great a sum, that all the angels in heaven, and men on earth, can never com- pute and sum up, so as to shew us the total of it And this was that inexhaustible treasure that Christ expended, to procure and purchase the fairest inheritance for believers. Having seen the treasure that purchased, let us next enquire into the inheritance purchased by it