It is therefore evident that there is no inconsistency with the nature of divine justice, nor the rules of reason among men, that in sundry cases the sins of some may be punished on others.
II. It is to be observed, that this administration of justice is not promiscuous, — that any whatever may be punished for the sins of any others. There is always a special cause and reason of it ; and this is a 'peculiar conjunction between them who sin and those who are punished for their sins. And two things belong unto this conjunction. 1. Especial relation; 2. Especial mutual interest.
1. There is an especial relation required unto this translation of punishment ; — such as that between parents and children, as in most of the instances before given ; or between a king and subjects, as in the case of David. Hereby the persons sinning and those suffering are constituted one body, wherein if one member offend, another may justly suffer: the back may answer for what the hand takes away.
2. It consists in mutual interest. Those whose sins are punished in others have such an interest in them, as that their being so is a punishment unto themselves. Therefore are such sinners threatened with the punishment and evils that shall befall their posterity or chil- dren for their sakes ; which is highly penal unto themselves. Numb, xiv. 33, " Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years,
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and bear your whoredoms/' The punishment due to their sins is in part transfen-ed unto their children ; and therein did the sting of their own punishment also consist.
III. There is a greater, a more intimate conjunction, a nearer rela- tion, a higher mutual interest, between Christ and the church, than ever was or can be between any other persons or relations in the world, whereon it became just and equal in the sight of God that he should suffer for us, and that what he did and suffered should l)e unputed unto us ; which is farther to be cleared.
There neither is nor can be any more than a threefold conjunction between divers distinct persons. The first is natural ; the second is moral, whereunto I refer that which is spiritual or mystical ; and the third federal, by virtue of mutual compact. In all these ways is Christ in conjunction with his church, and in every one of them in a way singular and peculiar.
1. The first conjunction of distinct persons is natural. God hath made all mankind " of one blood," Acts xvii. 26, — whereby there is a cognation and alliance between them all. Hence every man is every man's brother or neighbour, unto whom loving-kindness is to be showed, Luke x. 36. And this conjunction was between Christ and the church, as the apostle declares, Heb. ii. 14, 15, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Hence "both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one," verse 11. His infinite condescension, in coming into this com- munion and conjunction of nature with us, was before declared ; but it is not common, like that between all other men, partakers of the same nature. There are two things wherein it was peculiar and eminent.
(1.) This conjunction between him and the church did not arise from a necessity of nature, but from a voluntary act of his will. The conjunction that is between all others is necessary. Every man is every man's brother, whether he will or no, by being a man. Natural generation, communicating to every one his subsistence in the same nature, prevents all acts of their own will and choice. With the Lord Christ it was otherwise, as the text affirms. For such reasons as are there expressed, he did, by an act of his own will, partake of flesh and blood, or came into this conjunction with us. He did it of his own choice, because the children did partake of the same. He would be what the children were. Wherefore the conjunction of Christ in human nature with the church is ineffably distinct from that common conjunction which is amongst all others in the same nature. And, therefore, although it should not be meet amongst mere men, that
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one .should act and sviffer in the stead of others, because they are all thus related to one another, as it were, whether they will or no ; yet this could not reach the Lord Christ, who, in a strange and wonderful manner, came into this conjunction by a mere act of his own.
(2.) He came into it on this design, and for this only end, — namely, that in our nature, taken to he his own, he might do and suffer what was to be done and suffered for the church : so it is added in the text, " That by death he might destroy him who had the power of death ; and deliver them who through fear of death were subject to bondage." This was the only end of his conjunction in natm-e with the church ; and this puts the case between him and it at a vast distance from what is or may be between other men.