^ Exigitur, as Junius and some others read it.
224 OF THE IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST.
will never stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of God to require such debts of us, which Christ, by shedding his most pre- cious blood, hath discharged for us, Rom, iii. 25. Mark, the male- dictory sentence of death, denounced by the law against sinners, was inflicted by God upon Christ. This is that which the prophet Isaiah positively asserts, where he saith, * The chastisement,' that is, the punishment (called a chastisement, because inflicted by a father, and only for a time,) ' of our peace was upon him.' And again, ' He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,' Isa. liii. 5, 7 ; which, according to the genuine sense of the original, is better rendered, ' It was exacted' — to wit, the punishment of our sin ; and he was afflicted, or he an- swered— to wit, to the demand of the penalty. The curse to which we are subject, saith Theodoras,! he assumed upon himself of his own accord. ' The death that was not due to him he underwent, that we might not undergo that death which was due to us,' saith Gregory.* ' He made himself a debtor for us, who were debtors ; and therefore the creditor exacts it from him,' saith Arnoldus.^ Now God's justice being satisfied for our offences, it cannot but remit those ofi'ences to us. As the creditor cannot demand that of the debtor which the surety hath already paid, so neither can God exact the punishment of us which Christ hath suffered ; and therefore ' it is just with God to forgive us our sins.' It will be altogether needless to inquire whether it had been injustice in God to forgive without satisfaction. St Austin's determination is very solid : There wanted not to God an- other possible way, and if it were unjust, it were impossible ; but this of satisfaction was most agreeable to divine wisdom.-* Before God did decree this way, it might be free to have used it or not ; but in decreeing, this seemed most convenient, and after, it became necessary, so that there can be no remission without it ; and however it might not have been unjust with God to have forgiven without it, yet we are sure it is most just with him to forgive upon satisfaction.^ Indeed, the debt being paid by Christ, God's very justice, as I may say with reverence, would trouble him if he should not give in the bond, and give out an acquittance. The believing penitent sinner may, in a humble confidence, sue out his pardon, not only at the throne of grace, but at the bar of justice, in these or the like expressions : Lord, thou hast punished my sins in thy Son, wilt thou punish them in me ? Thou hast accepted that suff'ering of thy Son as the punishment of my sin, therefore thou canst not in justice exact it of me, for this were to punish twice for one offence, which thy justice cannot but abhor. 0 sirs ! God doth not pronounce men righteous when they are not ; but first he makes them so, and then he pronounces them to be such ; so that if a man will be justified, he must be able to pro- duce such a complete righteousness wherewith he may stand before the justice of God. Ah sinners ! the Lord is infinitely just, as well
^ Theod. disp., 1. xv. c. 5. ' Gregory Moral., 1. iii. c. 13.
^ Arnold, de sep. verb, Tr. i. * Aug. de Trinit., 1. xiii. c. 10.
* When you are forgiven, you are then released, and for ever acquitted from any after-reckonings with the justice of God. Divine justice hath no more to say or do against you, for remissa culpa, remittitur pctna, If the fault be forgiven, then also is the punishment forgiven ; nay, let me speak with a holy and humble reverence, God can- not in his justice punish when he hath pardoned.
OF THE IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST. 225
as merciful ; and if ever your sins be pardoned, it must be by an admirable contemperament, or mixture of mercy and justice together. It was one of the great ends of the gospel dispensation that God might exalt his justice in the justification of a sinner : Eom. iii. 26, ' To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justiner of him that believeth in Jesus.' But,