Of Christ's taking our nature upon him, which is again mentioned, we have spoken before. If he was "made flesh, made of a Avoman, made under the laAv ; if he partook of flesh and blood because the children partake of the same ; if he took on him the seed of Abraham, and was made like to us in all things, sin only excepted; if, being in the form of God and equal to him, he took on him the form of a servant, and became like to us,"— he took our nature on him;* for these, and these only, are the things which by that expression are intended.
'OvTos iffTiv 0 T o^jf avTwe^irius, ixccripa; (piffiu; avrioidniirr,; Trt ixecTipa, to, "ua, Oia <r»v Tn; vvcunamui rauTOTATa, kk) t^v tis a.^XYi'Ka cchraiv ■:ripi^uipriinv. — Damas. de Oltliod. Fide, lib. iii. cap. iv.
' 'a\-/]{Im;, tixUj;, o^iaiiiToi;, affvy^vr'jii. — Vide Evagrium, lib i. cap. ii iii. ; Socrat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. xxix. xxxii. xxxiii. ; Niceph. lib. xiv. cap. xlvii. ' Vid. loh.
Hen. Hotting. Hist. Oriental., lib. i. cap. iii. ex Alko. sura. 30 '' Rom. v. 12, 15, 16,
19 ; Eph. ii. 1-3 ; Ps. IL 6 ; John i. 5 ; Eph. iv. 18 ; 1 Cor. ii. 14 ; John iii. 5, n ; Eph. ii. 12; Col. i. 21 ; Rom. viii 6-8. * John i. 14; Gal. iv. 4,5; Heb. ii. 14, 16, 17; Phil. ii. 6-8.
TO HIS CATECHISM EXAMINED. 77
The most of what follows is about the grace of Christ, which, having destroyed what in him lies his person, he doth also openly reject ; and in the first place begins with the foundation, his mahing satisfaction to God for our sins, all our sins, past, present, and to come, -vAhich also, under sundry other expressions, he doth afterward condemn. God is a Grod of " purer eyes than to behold e\ il," and it is " his judgment that they which commit sin are worthy of death ; " yea, " it is a righteous thing with him to render tribulation" to offenders -j^ and seeing we have "all sinned and come shoi't of the g^ory of God," doubtless it will be a righteous thing wnth him to leave them to answer for their own sins who so proudly and con- temptuously reject the satisfaction which he himself hath appointed and the ransom he hath found out.* But Mr B. is not the first who hath " erred, not knowing the Scriptures " nor the justice of God. The Holy Ghost acquainting us that " the Lord made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all ; that he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniqui- ties, and that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed ; that he gave his life a ransom for us, and was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him ; that he was for us made under the law and underwent the curse of it; that he bare our sins in his body on the tree ; and that by his blood we are redeemed, washed, and saved," ^ — we doubt not to speak as we believe, namely, that Christ underwent the punishment duo to our sins, and made satisfaction to the justice of God for them; and Mr B., who it seems is otherwise persuaded, we leave to stand or fall to his own account.
Mo^t of the following instances of the doctrines he rejects belong to and may be reduced to the head last mentioned, and therelbre I shall but touch upon them. Seeing that "he that will enter into life must keep the commandments, and this of ourselves we cannot do, for in many things we oftend all, and he that breaks one commandment is guilty of the breach of the whole law,* God having sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children ; and that which was impossible to us by the laAv, through the weakness of the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us; and so we are saved by his life, being justified by his blood, he being made unto us of God righteousness, and we are by faith found in him, hav- ing on not our own righteousness, which is by the law, but that Avhich is by Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God by faith;"* — we do affirm that Christ fulfilled the law for us, not only undergoing the penalty of it, but for us submitting to the obedience of it, and performing all that righteousness which of us it requires, that we might have a complete righteousness wherewith to appear before God. And this is that which is intended by the active and passive righteousness of Christ, after men- tioned ; all which is rejected, name and thing.
Of Christ's being punished by God, which he rejects in the next place, and, to multiply his instances of our false doctrines, insists on it again un- der the terms of Christ's enduring the wrath of God and the pains of a damned man, the same account is to be given as before of his satisfac- tion. That God "bruised him, put liim to grief, laid the chastisement of