You remember the scape-goat ; upon his head all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins were confessed and put : ' And the goat did bear upon him all their iniqui- ties,' Lev. xvi. 21, 22. What is the meaning of this? Surely Jesus Christ, upon whom our sins were laid, and who alone died for the ungodly, Eom. v. 6, ' and bore our burdens away.' Therefore the be- liever in the sense of guilt should run unto Christ, and ofier up his blood unto the Father, and say, ' Lord, it is true, I owe thee so much ; yet. Father, forgive me ; remember that thine own Son was my ran- som, his blood was the price ; he was my surety, and undertook to answer for my sins. I beseech thee, accept of his atonement, for he is my surety, my redemption. Thou must be satisfied ! but Christ hath satisfied thee, not for himself — what sins had he of his own ?— but for me. They were my debts which he satisfied for ; and look over thy book, and thou shalt find it so ; for thou hast said, " He was made sin for us, and that he was wounded for our transgressions." ' Now, what a singular support, what an admirable comfort is this, that we
CLEARLY AND SATISFACTORILY ANSWERED. 69
ourselves are not to make up our accounts and reckonings ; but that Christ hath cleared all accounts and reckonings between God and us. Therefore it is said that ' in his blood we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins,' Eph. i. 7.
Quest. Whether it were not against the justice of God that Christ, who was in himself innocent, — loithout all sin, a Lamb without a spot, — should bear and endure all these punishments for us ivho were the offending and guilty and obnoxious persons only ? Or if you please thus,
Whether Ood ivas not unjust to give his Son Jesus Christ to be our surety and mediator and redeemer and saviour, forasmuch as Christ could not be any one of these for and unto ws but by a willing suscep- Hon of our sins upon himself, to be for them responsible unto the justice of God, in suffering those punishments which were due for our sinsf
I shall speak a few words to this main question. I say, then, that it is not always and in all cases unjust, but it is sometimes and in some cases very just, to punish one who is himself innocent, for him or those who are the nocent and guilty. Grotius in his book, De Satisfactione, gives divers instances ; but I shall mention only two.
First, In the case of conjunction, where the innocent party and the nocent party do become legally one party ; and therefore if a man marries a woman indebted, he thereupon becomes obnoxious to pay her debts, although, absolutely considered, he was not obnoxious there- unto. But,
Secondly, In case of suretyship, where a person, knowing the weak and insufficient condition of another, doth yet voluntarily put forth himself, and will be bound to the creditor for him as his surety to answer for him, by reason of which suretyship the creditor may come upon him, and deal with him as he might have dealt with the princi- pal debtor himself ; and this course we do ordinarily take with sureties for the recovery of our right, without any violation of justice. Now, both these are exactly applicable to the business in hand ; for Jesus Christ was pleased to marry our nature unto himself; he did partake of our flesh and blood, and became man, and one with us. And be- sides that, he did, both by the will of his Father and his own free con- sent, become our surety, and was content to stand in our stead or room, so as to be made sin and curse for us — that is, to have all our debts and sorrows, all our sins and punishments laid upon him, and did engage himself to satisfy God by bearing and suffering what we should have borne and suffered. And therefore although Jesus Christ, absolutely considered in himself, was innocent and had no sin inherent in himself, which therefore might make him liable to death and wrath and curse, yet by becoming one with us, and sustaining the office of our surety, our sins were laid on liim, and our sins being laid upon him, he made himself therefore obnoxious, and that justly, to all those punishments which he did suffer for our sins. I do confess, that had Christ been unwilHng and forced into this suretyship, or had any detriment or prejudice risen to any party concerned in this transaction, then some complaint might have been made concerning the justice of God. But,
70 SERIOUS AND WEIGHTY QUESTIONS ANSWERED.
[1.] First, There loas a ivilUngness on all sides for the passive work of Christ. First, God the Father, who was the offended party, he was willing, which Christ assures us of when he said, ' Thy will be done,' Mat. xxvi. 42 ; Acts iv. 25-28. Secondly, We poor sinners, who are the offending party, are willing. We accept of this gracious and wonderful redemption, and bless the Lord who ' so loved us as to give his Son for us.' And, thirdly, Jesus Christ was willing to suffer for us : ' Behold I come,' Ps. xl. 7 : ' And shall I not drink of the cup which my Father hath given me to drink ? ' John xviii. 11 : ' I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be ac- complished ? ' Luke xii. 50. He calls the death of his cross a baptism, partly because it was a certain immersion into extreme calamities into which he was cast, and partly because in the cross he was so to be sprinkled in his own blood as if he had been drowned and baptized in it. The Greek word, o-uye^o/^at, that is here rendered straitened, signi- fies to be pained, pressed, or pent up, not with such a grief as made him unwilling to come to it, but with such as made him desire that it were once over. ' There seems,' saith Grotius, ' to be a similitude implied in the original word, taken from a woman with child, which is so afraid of her bringing forth that yet she would fain be eased of her burden.' John x. 11, 'I am the good Shepherd. The good Shep- herd giveth his life for the sheep,' Christ is that good Shepherd by an excellency, that held not his life dear for his sheep's safety : ver 15, ' I lay down my life for the sheep ' : ver. 17, ' Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life : ' ver. 18, ' No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.' A necessity there was of our Saviour's death, but it was a necessity of immutability — because God had decreed it, Acts ii. 23 — not of coaction. He laid down his life freely, he died willingly. But,