elude, tliat tlie creditor is fully satisfied, when he gives in his bond to be cancelled. There are two ways of cancelling a bond, laceratione et liturd. Here it is blotted out, and can be read no more than if it had never been ; the obligatory power of the law as a covenant is taken away. God delivered his people from Pharaoh by force, and from Babylon by favour ; but that deliverance that Christ, as our surety, hands out to us, from sin, from wrath, from hell, from the curse, and from the moral law as it is a covenant of works, is obtained jws/'o pretio soluto, by paying a full price ; by which one becomes satisfied, and another thereupon delivered : Heb. ix. 26, ' He hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ;' to put away sin, Dan. ix. 24, is to abolish or make void the guilt or obUgation of sin, whereby it binds over unbelievers to condemnation ; to put away sin is to abrogate it, it is to bind it up in a bundle, to seal it up in a bag, to cast it behind him, as cancelled obligations, Isa. xxxviii. 17; Micah vii. 19 ; it is to blot out the black handwriting with the red lines of his blood drawn over it ; so that sin has no force, no power to accuse or condemn, or shut such poor souls out of heaven, who have that Jesus for their surety, that made himself a sacrifice to put away sin. Christ as our surety laid down a satisfactory price, not only for our good, but also in our stead or room : 1 Pet. iii. 18, ' Christ also hath suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.' What the unjust sinner should have suff'ered, that the just Christ suffered for him : 1 Cor. v. 21 , ' He was made sin for us ;' that is, an ofi'ering, a sacrifice in our stead, for the expiation of our sins: ' Christ was made a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13. Now Christ's becoming a curse for us stands in this, that whereas we are all accursed by the sentence of the law because of sin, he now comes into our room, and stands under the stroke of that curse which of right belongs to us ; so that it lies not now any longer on the backs of poor sinners, but on him for them and in their stead ; therefore he is called a surety, Heb. vii. 22. The surety stands in the room of a debtor, malefactor, or him that is any way obnoxious to the law. Such is Adam and all his posterity. We are, by the doom of the law, evil- doers, transgressors ; and upon that score we stand indebted to the justice of God, and lie under the stroke of his wrath. Now the Lord Jesus Christ seeing us in this condition, he steps in and stands between us and the blow ; yea, he takes this wrath and curse off from us unto himself; he stands not only or merely after the manner of a surety among men in the case of debt, for here the surety enters bond with the principal for the payment of the debt, but yet expects that the debtor should not put him to it, but that he should discharge the debt himself, he only stands as a good security for the debtor : no, Christ Jesus doth not expect that we should pay the debt ourselves, but he takes it wholly upon himself. As a surety for a murderer or traitor, or some other notorious malefactor that hath broken prison and is run away, he lies by it body for body, state for state, and undergoes what- soever the malefactor is chargeable withal for satisfying the law ; even so the Lord Jesus stands surety for us runagate malefactors, making himself liable to all that curse that belongs to us, that he might both answer the law fully, and bring us back again to God. As the first Adam stood in the room of all mankind fallen, so Christ, the second
260 THE SURETYSHIP OF CHRIST CONSIDERKD OF.
Adam, stands in the room of all mankind that are to be restored ; he sustains the person of all those which do spiritually descend from him, and unto whom he bears the relation of a head. When God appointed his dearest Son to be a surety for us, and charged all our debts upon liim, and required an exact satisfaction to his law and justice, inso- much that he would not abate the Son of his love one farthing-token of the debt, he did demonstrate a greater love to justice than if he had damned as many worlds as there are men in the world. Oh, let us never cast an eye upon Christ's suretyship, but let us stand and wonder, yea, let us be swallowed up in a deep admiration of Christ's love, and of his Father's impartial justice ! Ah, what transcendent wisdom also does here appear in reconciling the riches of mercy and infinite justice both in one by the means of a surety !, If all the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth, had been put to^answer these ques- tions. How shall sin be pardoned ? How shall the sinner be reconciled and saved ? How shall the wrath of God be pacified ? How shall the justice of God be satisfied ? How shall the redemption of man be brought about, in such a way whereby God may be most eminently glorified ? they could never have answered the questions. But God, in his infinite wisdom, hath found out a way to save sinners, not only in a way of mercy and grace, but in a way of justice and righteous- ness ; and all this by the means of Christ's suretyship, as hath been already declared.
Now, from the consideration of Christ's suretyship, a believer may form up this seventh, safe, comfortable, and blessed plea as to the ten scriptures formerly cited, that refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account: 0 blessed Father, remember that thine oivn Son was my ransom, Ms blood was the price; he ivas my surety, and undertook to ansiver for my sins. I knoio, 0 blessed God, that thou must be satisfied, but remember my surety hath satisfied thee; not for himself for he was holy and harmless, a lamb tvithout a spot ; but for me. They loere my debts he satisfied for; and look over thy books, and thou shall find that he hath cleared all accounts and reckonings between thee and me.^ The guilt of all my sins have been imputed to my surety, loho did present himself in my stead, to make full payment and satisfaction to thy justice. As Paul said to Philemon, ver. 18, concerning his servant Onesimus, * If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee anything, put it upon my account,' so saith Christ to the penitent and believing soul, If thou hast any guilt, any debt to be answered for unto God. put them all upon my account. If thou hast wronged my Father, I*will make satisfaction to the uttermost : for I was made sin for thee, Isa. liii. 12 ; 2 Cor. v. 21. I poured out my soul for thy transgressions. It cost me my heart's blood to reconcile thee to my Father, and to slay all enmity, Acts xx. 28. And as Kebekah said to Jacob in another case, ' Upon me, my son, be the curse,' Gen. xxvii. 13, so saith Christ to the believing soul, Why, thy sins did ex- pose thee unto the curse of the law, but I was made a curse for thee, Gal. iii. 13. I did bear that burden myself upon the cross, and upon my shoulders were all thy griefs and sorrows borne ; I was wounded