The observation, that Grotius' main business is otherwise discovereth the bottom of Mr B.'s mistake, even a supposal that I should oppose Grotius in his main intendment in the place considered ; which was not once in my thoughts. It was merely about the nature of the penalty that Christ underwent that 1 discoursed. How the relaxation of the law as to the commutation of persons may be esta- blished, whether we affirm Christ to have paid the idem or tantundem, and that Mr B. affirms the same with me, I can prove by twenty instances. The reader, if he please, may consult p. 18, and pp. 25, 33-35, 42, 48; and, in plain terms, p. 81, " In respect of punishment abstracting from persons, the law was not dispensed withal as to Christ." And what said I more?
And so much, if not too much, to Mr Ba.xter's exceptions; which of what weight and force they are, I leave to others to judge.
That which I maintain as to this point in diffei'ence I have also made apparent. It is wholly comprised under these two heads, — first, Christ suffered the same penalty which was in the obligation; secondly. To do so is to make payment ejusdem, and not tantidem.
The reasons of both I shall briefly subjoin. And first, as to the first, they are these following : — 1. The Scripture hath expressly revealed the translation of punishment in respect of the subjects suffering it, but hath not spoken one word of the change of the kind of punishment, but rather the contrary is affirmed: Rom. viii. 32, " He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all."
2. All the punishment due to us was contained in the curse and sanction of the law ; that is, the penalty of the obligation whereof we spake. But this was under- gone by the Lord Christ ; for " he hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. iii. 13.
3. Where God condemneth sin, there he condemns it in that very punishment which is due unto it in the sinner, or rather to the sinner for it. He hath re- vealed but one rule of his 23roceeding in this case. Now, he condemned sin in the flesh of Christ, or in him sent in the likeness of sinful flesh: Rom. viii. 3, " God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." The condemning of sin is the infliction of punishment due to sin.
4. The whole penalty of sin is death, Gen. ii. 17. This Christ underwent for us: Heb. ii. 9, "He tasted death." And to die for another is to undergo that death which that other should have undergone, 2 Sam. xviii. 33. It is true, this death may be considered either in respect of its essence (if I may be allowed so to speak), which is called the " pains of hell," which Christ underwent, Ps. cxvi. 3, xxii. 1, Luke xxii. 44 ; or of its attendancies, as dui-ation and the like, which he could not undergo, Ps. xvi. 8-1 1, Acts ii. 24-28. So that whereas eternal death may be considered t«o ways, either as such in poteniia, and in its own nature, or as actually, so our Saviour underwent it not in the latter, but first sense, Heb. ii. 9, 14, which, by the dignity of his person, 1 Pet. iii. 18, Heb. ix. 2G, 28, Rom. V. 10, which raises the estimation of punishment, is cequipotent to the other. There is a sameness in Christ's sufferings with that in the obligation in respect of essence, and ecjuivalency in respect of attendancies.
5. In the meeting of our initjuities upon Christ, Isa. liii. G, and his being thereby made sin for us, 2 Cor. v. 21, lay the very punishment of our sin, as to us threat- ened, upon him.
6. Consider the scriptural descriptions you have of his pcrpcssions, and see if they do not plainly hold out the utmost that ever was threatened to sin. There is the -y^i:* Is''i- i"'- -''■> Peter's /^^^Xw^', 1 Pet. ii. 24; the " livor, vibex," "wound, stripe," that in our stead was so on him, — that whereby we are healed. Those ex- pressions of the condition of his soul in his sufferings, whereby he is said >.vTu<r(a.t,
Matt. XXvi. 37 ; ixSaf/.tl'IirOai, cihrifJ-onlv, Mark xiv. 33 ; BpifiSoi a"fi.aTt>s iv TH ayuvin,
Luke xxii. 44; sadness unto death, Matt, xxvi, 38; that dreadful cry, "Why hast
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tliou forsaken me?" — those cries out of the deep, and mighty supplications under his fear, Ileh, v. 7. that was upon him, do all make out that the bitterness of the death due to sin was fully upon his soul. Sum all his outward appearing pressures, mocks, scoffs, scorns, cross, wounds, death, etc., and what do some of their afflic- tions who have suffered for his name come short of it? And yet how far were they above those di-ea'lful expressions of anguish which we find upon the "Fellow of the Lord of hosts," the " Lion of the trilie of Judah," who received not the Spirit by measure, but was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows! Certainly his inconceivable sufferings were in another kind, and such as set no example to any of his to suffer in after him. It was no less than the weight of the wrath of God and the whole punishment due to sin that he wrestled under.