What little relief this plea will afford our adversaries will quickly appear; for, —
1. I have proved that Christ underwent that death that was due unto sinners, which was all that justice, law, or reason required. He underwent it, though it was impossible for him to be detained by it.
2. If the Racovians do not think us obliged to God for sending his Son, out of his infinite and eternal love, to die for us, causing all our iniquities to meet on him, justifying us freely (who could do nothing for our own delivery) through the redemption that is in the blood of Christ, we m.ust tell them that (we bless his holy name !) we are not of that mind, but, finding a daily fruit of his love and kind- ness upon our souls, do know that we are bound imto him eternally, to love, praise, serve, honour, and glorify him, beyond what we shall ever be able to express.
For the inquiry made and comparison instituted between our
' " Cedo qui istud rationi repugnat ? — Id quidem hinc perspicuum est, quod seque- retur Christum actcrnam mortem subiisse, si Deo pro jjeccatis nostris satisfecisset, cum constet poenam quam homines peccatis meruer.aut ajtcrnam mortem esse. Deinde con- sequeretur nos Christo quam Deo ipsi deviuctiores esse, quippe qui sa,tisfactione mul- tum gratioe nobis ostendisset ; Deus vero cxacta satisfsictioDe, nulla prorsus gratia nos prosecutus fuisset."
VOL. XII. 35
54:6 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
obligation to tlie Fatlier and the Son, or which of them we are most beholden to, we profess we cannot speak unto it. Our obligation to both, and either respectively, is such that if our affections were ex- tended immeasurably to what they are, yet the utmost and exactest height of them would be due to both, and each of them respectively. We are so bound to one as we cannot be more to the other, because to both in the absolutely highest degree. This we observe in the Scriptures, that in mentioning the work of redemption, the rise, fountain, and spring of it is still assigned to be in the love of the Father, the carrying of it on in the love and obedience of the Son, and so we order our thoughts of faith towards them; the Father being not one whit the less free and gracious to us by loving us upon the satisfaction of his Son than if he had forgiven us (had it been possible) without any satisfaction at all.
And thus is this article of the Christian faith contrary to Scripture, and to reason. They add : —
Q. How also is it pernicious?
A. In that it openeth a door unto men to sin, or at least incites them to sloth in following after holiness. But the Scripture witnesseth that this amongst others is an end of the death of Christ, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and deliver us from this evil world, that we might be redeemed from our vain conver- sation, and have our consciences purged from dead works, that we might serve the living God, Tit. ii. 14; Gal. i. 4; 1 Pet. i. IS; Heb. ix. 14.'
That the deliverance of us from the power and pollution of our sin, the purifying of our souls and consciences, the making of us a peculiar people of God, zealous of good works, that we might be holy and blameless before him in love, is one eminent end of the death of Christ, we grant. For this end, by his death, did he procure the Spirit to quicken us, " who were dead in trespasses and sins," sprinkling us with the pure water thereof, and giving us daily sup- plies of grace from him, that we might grow up in holiness before him, until we come to the measure in this life assigned to us in him. But that the consideration of the cross of Christ, and the satisfac- tion made thereby, should open a door of licentiousness to sin, or en- courage men to sloth in the ways of godliness, is fit only for them to assert to whom the gospel is folly.
What is it, I pray, in the doctrine of the cross that should thus dispose men to licentiousness and sloth? Is it that God is so pro- voked with every sin that it is impossible and against his nature to forgive it without inflicting the punishment due thereto ? or is it that
* "Cede ctiam qui haec opinio est perniciosa? — Ad eum modum, quod horainibus fencstram ad peccandi licentiam aperiat, aut cevte ad socordiam iu pietate colenda eos invitet. Scriptura vero testatur, cum inter alios Christi mortis fincm esse, ut redi- meremur ab omni iniquitate, ex hoc seculo nequam eripereinur, et redimcremur ex vana convorsatione a patribus tradita, et mundaremur conscientia a mortuis operibus ad scvviendura Deo vivcuti, Tit. ii. 14; Gal. i. 4; 1 Tet. i. 18; Heb. ix. 14."
OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 547
God SO loved us that he gave his only Son to die for us? oris it that Christ loved us and washed us in his own blood? or is it that God for Christ's sake doth freely forgive us? Yea, but our adversaries say that God freely forgives us; yea, but they say it is without satisfac- tion. Is it, then, an encouragement to sin to afhrm that God forgives us freely for the satisfaction of his Son, and not so to say that he for- gives us freely without satisfaction? Doth the adding of satisfaction, whereby God to the highest manifested his indignation and wrath against sin, doth that, I say, make the difference and give the en- couragement? Who could have discovered this but our catechists and their companions! Were this a season for that purpose, 1 could easily demonstrate that there is no powerful or effectual motive to abstain from sin, no encouragement or in citation unto holiness, but what ariseth from or relateth unto the satisfaction of Christ.