^yil.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 293
pan end of sin/' as was showed, "and brought in everlasting righte- ^ousness;" Heb. x. 14-18. To suspend the issue of all these trans- factions between God and the Mediator upon conditions by us to jbe accomplished, not bestowed on us, not purchased for us, and as fto their event uncertain, is disadvantageously to beg the thing in question.
Now, because it appears that, notwithstanding the death of Christ, many for whom he died are kept a long season under the guilt of sin,^ and are all of them born in a condition of wrath, Eph. ii. 3, I shall crave leave a little to insist on this instance, and to show that notwithstanding the truth thereof, yet the guilt of sin is so taken away from all those for whom Christ died, by his death, that it shall never be a cause of everlasting separation between God and them. In the obedience and death of Christ, whereby, as a completely suffi- cient and efficacious means, he made way for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes, in such paths of infinite wisdom as brought in all the good he aimed at by it, in that order which the very frame and nature of things by him appointed required for the exaltation of his glory, God is satisfied, well pleased, and resolved that he will not take his course at law against those in the behalf of whom he died, 2 Cor. V. 18-20. Though an arrest was gone forth against all man- kind, yet the Lord suspended by his sovereignty the utmost execu- tion of it, that room and space might be given, according to the eternal thoughts of his heart, for the deliverance of some. A reprieve is granted mankind, out of reasons and for purposes of his own. After the sentence of death was denounced against them, God being pleased to magnify his grace, according to his eternal counsel and purpose in Jesus Christ, innovates the law, as to the obligation of it unto punishment, on the behalf of some, by the interposition of the Son of his love in such a way as to undergo what was due unto those on whose behalf the interposition was made.^ And by this undertaking of Christ, in the very first notion of it, as it was satisfactory, thus much is done and accomplished : —
(1.) The vindictive justice of God is satisfied. That is, whereas such is the natural right, sovereignty, and dominion of God over his creatures, and such his essential perfections of holiness, purity, and righteousness, that if his creatures cast off his yoke and their dependence on him (which they do by every sin, what in them lieth), it is then of indispensable necessity that he render unto that sin or sinner guilty thereof a meet recompense of reward;^ Jesus Christ hath so answered his righteousness,* that without the impairing of his right or sovereignty, without the least derogation from his per-
' 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; Eph. ii. 11, 12. « Eph. i. 5, 6, 11 ; 2 Tim. i. 9 ; Heb. vii. 22, X. 9, 10; 2 Cor. v. 21. s Gen. xviii. 25; Josh. xxiv. 19; Ps. v. 4-6; Hab. i. 13; Eom. i. 18. 32; 2 Thess. 1. 6. * Vide Diat. de Just. Div.
294 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
fections, he may receive liis sinning creatures again to favour. It being '■ the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy of death/' Rom. i. 32, and " a righteous thing with him to render tribulation to sinners," 1 Thess. i. 6, for "shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen. xviii. 25; he hath set forth his Son to " declare his righteousness for the remission of sins," Rom. iii. 24, 25. Now, for whom Christ died, he died for all their sins: 1 John i. 7, " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," the application of it being commensurate to his intendment in his oblation, not ex- tending itself to the actual effecting of any thing whatever which was not meritoriously procured thereby. " He loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish," Eph. v. 25-27. He makes complete atonement to the justice of God on their behalf, so that the very vindictive justice of God hath nothing to lay to their charge. That which in God maintains the quarrel against sinners is atoned, and is no more their enemy than mercy itself; and this not upon condition of believing, to be antecedently accomplished before this be done. The satisfaction of justice vindictive depends not at all on any thing in us; it requires only that there be vindicta iioxce, and a vindication of the sovereignty of God over the sinning creature, by the infliction of that punishment which, in his infinite wisdom and I'ighteousness, he hath proportioned unto sin. On a supposition of sin, in such creatures as being made meet and fit to yield voluntary obedience unto God, and so standing in a moral subjection to him, being their cutting off, what lies in them, their dependence on God (which that it should be continued is as necessary as that God be God, or the Lord of all), those creatures are, upon the account of the sovereignty and righteousness of God, whereof we speak, indis- pensably obnoxious unto punishment, which is of necessity required unto God's retaining his dominion over them. By the death of Christ, this condition is so far repaired that the dependence and sub- jection unto God of those for whom he died is made up so far as to a deliverance of them from a necessity of being obnoxious unto punishment, and that completely, without any abeyance upon con- ditions in themselves, which can have no influence thereinto. So that, though the process of the law sent forth be not instantly re- called, but man is suffered to lie under that arrest for a season, yet God lets fall his suit on this account, and will never pass his first sentence, from which we are reprieved, unto full and final execution, pronouncing himself well pleased with his Son,^ resting satisfied with his mediatory performances, and seeking no farther.