522 VINDICI^ EVANGELICJE.
Although enough hath been said already to evince the truth of this, yet I shall farther put it out of question by the ensuing obser- vations and inferences: —
1. To the payment of a price or ransom properly so called, — which, as is acknowledged, is not necessary that it should be money or the like, ] Pet. i. 18, but any thing that may satisfy him that detains the captive, — it is not required that it should be paid into the hand of him that is said to receive it, but only that it be some such thing as he requires as the condition of releasing the captive. It may con- sist in personal service, which is impossible to be properly paid into the hand of any. For instance, if a father be held captive, and he that holds him so requires that, for the delivery of his father, the son undertake a difficult and hazardous warfare wherein he is concerned, and he do it accordingly, this son doth properly ransom his father, though no real price be paid into the hand of him that detained him. It is sufficient to prove that this ransom was paid by Christ unto God, if it be proved that, upon the prescription of God, he did that and underwent that which he esteemed, and was to him a valu- able compensation for the delivery of sinners.
2. The propriety of paying a ransom to any, where it lies in under- going the penalty that was due to the ransomed, consists in the voluntary consent of him to whom the ransom is paid and him that pays it unto this commutation ; which in this business we have firmly evinced. And the price paid by Christ could be no other; for God was not our detainer in captivity as a sovereign conqueror, that came upon us by force and kept us prisoners, but as a just judge and law- giver, who had seized on las for our transgressions: so that not his power and will were to be treated withal, but his law and justice ; and so the ransom was properly paid to him in the undergoing that penalty which his justice required.
3. There must some differences be allowed between spiritual, eter- nal, and civil, corporeal, temporal deliverances; which yet doth not make spiritual redemption to be improper, nay, rather the other is said to be improper wherein it agrees not thereunto. The one is spiritual, the other temporal; so that in every circumstance it is not to be expected that they should agree.
4. There are two things distinctly in God to be considered in this business: — (1.) His love, his will, or purpose; (2.) His justice, law, and truth. In respect of his love, his will, his purpose, or good pleasure, God himself found out, appointed, and provided this ran- som. The giving of Christ is ascribed to his love, will, and good pleasure, John iii. 16, Rom. v. 8, viii. 32, 1 John iv. 9, 10, as he had promised by his prophets of old, Luke i. 67-70. But his justice, and law, and truth, in their several considerations, required the ransom ; and in respect of them he accepted it, as hath been showed at large.
OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 523
So that nothing in the world is more vain than that of our adversaries, that God procured and appointed this price, therefore he did not accept it. That is, either God's love or his justice must be denied; either he hath no justice against sin or no love for sinners; — in the reconciliation of which two, the greatest and most intense hatred against sin, and the most inexpressible love to some sinners in the blood of his only Son, lies the great mystery of the gospel ; which these men are unacquainted withal.
5. That God may be said to receive this price, it was not neces- sary that any accession should be made to his riches by the ransom, but that he underwent no loss by our deliverance. This is the differ- ence between a conqueror or a tyrant and a just ruler, in respect of their captives and prisoners. Says the tyrant or conqueror, " Pay me so much, luherehy I may he enriched, or I will not part with my prisoner;" says the just ruler and judge, " Take care that my justice he not injured, that my law be satisfied, and I will deliver the prisoner." It is enough, to make good God's acceptance of the price, that his justice suffer not by the delivery of the prisoner, as it did not, Rom. iii. 25 ; yea, it was exalted and made glorious above all that it could have been in the everlasting destruction of the sinner.
These things being thus premised, it will not be difficult to estab- lish the truth asserted, namely, that this price or ransom was paid to God ; for, —
1. A price of redemption, a ransom, must be paid to some one or other; the nature of the thing requires it. That the death of Christ was a price or ransom, properly so called, hath been showed before. The ridiculous objection, that then it must be paid to Satan or our sin, hath also been sufficiently removed: so that God alone remains to whom it is to be paid; for unless to some it is paid, it is not a price or ransom.