296 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
the sins of all and every man in the world. This sufficiency of his sacrifice hath a twofold rise : — First, The dignity of the person that did offer and was offered. Secondly, The greatness of the pain he endured, by which he was able to bear, and did undergo, the whole curse of the law and wrath of God due to sin. And this sets out the innate, real, true luorth and value of the hlood-shedding of Jesus Christ. This is its own true internal perfection and sufficiency. That it should be applied unto any, made a price for them, and become beneficial to them, according to the worth that is in it, is external to it, doth not arise from it, but merely depends upon the intention and will of God. It was in itself of infinite value and suffi- ciency to have been made a price to have bought and purchased all and every man in the world. That it did formally become a price for any is solely to be ascribed to the purpose of God, intend- ing theu' purchase and redemption by it. The intention of the offerer and accepter that it should be for such, some, or any, is that which gives the formality of a price unto it ; this is external. But the value and fitness of it to be made a price ariseth from its own internal sufficiency. Hence may appear what is to be thought of that old distinction of the schoolmen, embraced and used by divers protestant divines, though by others again rejected, — namely, " That Christ died for all in respect of the sufficiency of the ransom he paid, but not in respect of the efficacy of its application;" or, "The blood of Christ was a sufficient price for the sins of all the world;" — which last ex- pression is corrected by some, and thus asserted, " That the blood of Christ was sufficient to have been made a price for all ; " which is most true, as was before declared: for its being a price for all or some doth not arise from its own sufficiency, worth, or dignity, but from the intention of God and Christ using it to that purpose, as was declared; and, therefore, it is denied that the blood of Christ was a sufficient price and ransom for all and every one, not because it was not sufficient, but because it was not a ransom. And so it easily appears what is to be owned in the distinction itself before expressed. If it intend no more but that the blood of our Saviour was of sufficient value for the redemption of all and every one, and that Christ intended to lay down a price which should be sufficient for their redemption, it is acknowledged as most true. But the truth is, that expression, "To die for them," holds out the intention of our Saviour, in the laying down of the price, to have been their redemp- tion; which we deny, and affirm that then it could not be but that they must be made actual partakers of the eternal redemption pur- chased for them, unless God failed in his design, through the defect of the ransom paid by Christ, his justice refusing to give a dismis- sion upon the delivery of the ransom.
Now, the infinite value and worth which we assert to bo in the
ANSWERS TO ARGUMENTS FOR UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 297
death of Christ we conceive to be exceedingly undervalued by the assertors of universal redemption; for that it should be extended to this or that object, fewer or more, we showed before to be extrinsical to it. But its true worth consists in the immediate effects, products, and issues of it, with what in its own nature it is fit and able to do ; which they openly and apparently undervalue, yea, almost annihilate. Hence those expressions concerning it: — First, That by it a door of grace luas opened for sinners: where, I suj^pose, they know not; but that any were [ever] effectually carried in at the door by it, that they deny. Secondly, That God might, if he ivoidd, and upon what condi- tion he pleased, save those for whom Christ died. That a right of salva- tion was by him purchased for any, they deny. Hence they grant, that after the death of Christ, — first, Ood might have dealt with man upon a legal condition again; secondly. That all and every man might have been damned, and yet the death of Christ have had itsfidl effect; as also, moreover. That faith and sanctification are not pur- chased hy his death, yea, no more for any (as before) than what he may go to hell withal. And divers other ways do they express their low thoughts and slight imaginations concerning the innate value and sufficiency of the death and blood-shedding of Jesus Christ. To the honour, then, of Jesus Christ our Mediator, God and man, our all-sufficient Redeemer, we affirm, such and so great was the dignity and worth of his death and blood-shedding, of so precious a value, of such an infinite fulness and sufficiency was this oblation of himself, that it was every way able and perfectly sufficient to redeem, justify, and reconcile and save all the sinners in the world, and to satisfy the justice of God for all the sins of all mankind, and to bring them every one to everlasting glory. Now, this fulness and suffi- ciency of the merit of the death of Christ is a foundation unto two things: —