man simply and without any more ado, but, "that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John iii. 16.) Now the collation, application, or actual bestowing of the fruits or benefits of the death of Christ, not depending so much upon the intrinsical worth, value, or satisfactoriness thereof, as upon the will and pleasure of Him who voluntarily gave him to die for the justification and salvation of men, and, consequently, had a right of liberty to make the terms for the collation of these benefits what he pleased, he cannot, with any colour of reason, be deemed unjust in case he denies them unto those who refuse or neglect to perform his terms, notwithstanding they were by Christ purchased for them, that is, with a full and clear intent on his part, that they should have possessed and enjoyed them upon their believing. So that,

4. And lastly, for this: When God constraineth those who believe not to pay their own debts, and to make satisfaction themselves for their sins by being eternally punished, he cannot be said to require or take a double satisfaction or two satisfactions for one and the same debt, although it be true in a sense, namely, that lately declared, that Christ satisfied for them. For that satisfaction which Christ made for the sins of any person who believes not, I mean, who dies in unbelief, was never received or accepted by God in the nature of an appropriate, particular, or actual satisfaction for their sins; but only as a potential satisfaction, that is, as a thing of complete worth and value enough to have made a particular and actual satisfaction even for such a man's sins, as well as for the sins of those who believe, and which he as fully intended to accept for such a satisfaction on his behalf, in case he had believed, which he might have done, as he did to accept it upon such terms for them or for their sins who do believe.

If it be objected, "But if Christ made satisfaction for the sins of them who never believe, and God accepteth it not as a satisfaction for their sins, doth not God disapprove or disallow either Christ's doings, or his intentions, or both? For if Christ, in or by his death, made or intended to make satisfaction for the sins of unbelievers, and God refuseth to accept this satisfaction, or that which Christ intended for a satisfaction, for their sins, doth he not reject that which Christ desired and intended that he should accept?"

To this I answer, that an answer, in effect, hath been already

given. For in such a consideration or sense as Christ either desired or intended that his death should be a satisfaction for the sins of unbelievers, dying in unbelief, doth God the Father accept of it. Christ neither desired nor intended to make satisfaction by his death for the sins of unbelievers any otherwise, nor upon any other terms, than that God the Father should, upon the account thereof, justify such persons from their sins in case they should have believed; and, in this sense, he doth accept it as a satisfaction for them, being, for the sake thereof, most ready and willing to pardon all the sins, and so to justify the persons of all men, without exception, as well theirs who never will believe, in case they should believe, as theirs who shall believe and be actually justified thereupon. So that God, in causing or compelling unbelievers to suffer or to satisfy for their sins, doth not require or exact a second satisfaction for them after a former received, but only puts them upon payment of their debt themselves, who despised his grace in providing for them that which was indeed intended for the actual and real satisfaction hereof, upon condition of their believing, but was never upon these terms accepted by him, by reason of their nonperformance of the said condition of believing.

SECTION VI.

HOW THE ACTIVE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST JUSTIFIETH.

WHAT the active obedience of Christ contributeth towards the justification of sinners hath been in part declared already. Under the Mosaical law the beast that was to be offered in sacrifice, to make any of those Levitical expiations, was to be perfect, and without blemish; it was neither to be blind, nor broken, nor maimed, nor having a wen, nor scurvy, nor scabbed, not having any thing superfluous, nor any thing lacking in his parts, &c. (See Lev. xxii. 21-23.) If it had any of these or the like imperfections in it, it was not accepted. Now that which the soundness, perfection, and freedom from blemish, in the legal sacrifices, contributed towards their acceptation, and, consequently, towards the efficacy of their respective atonements or expiations, the same or the like in proportion doth the active

obedience of Christ contribute towards the acceptation of his sacrifice of himself, in order to the efficaciousness hereof for the justification of sinners. This similitude or proportion is plainly taught and asserted by the Apostle Peter, where he saith, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot;" (1 Peter i. 18, 19;) that is, as well without any natural, original deficiency or imperfection, signified in the word "blemish," as without any adventitious or actual defilement intimated in the word "spot." So John Baptist looketh towards the same analogy, saying unto the people concerning him, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John i. 29.) "The Lamb of God; " that is, a person highly acceptable with God, as being every ways qualified with innocency, righteousness, holiness, &c., and so meet, by his death, to make atonement for the sin of the world. So, then, as that which the unblemishedness of the beast for sacrifice, under the law, exhibited towards that atonement which was made by the offering of it, was the meetness of this offering of it for acceptance with God, and, consequently, for this acceptance itself, in order to his pardoning or passing by that ceremonial impurity or uncleanness for which it was offered; in like manner the active obedience of Christ, in conjunction with the absolute holiness and inward purity of his person, rendered his death or the oblation of himself a sacrifice, every ways meet and worthy acceptance with God, and, consequently, accepted with him for the expiation or atonement of the sins of all men.

If Christ had been so much as touched with the least tincture of defilement with sin, he had not been a Priest after the order of Melchisedec, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners," &c., but rather after the order of Aaron, who needed to offer sacrifice for their own sins. Neither had he been in any condition or regular capacity to have made atonement for the sins of others until he had first fully expiated his own. That the active obedience of Christ doth not operate in, or about, or towards, justification, in that way or notion which some have conceived, as, namely, by an imputation of the particular acts thereof, in the letter and formality of them, unto those that believe, whereby they should be constituted or made properly

and formally righteous, we have demonstrated at large in a just treatise upon that subject, where it is made good, upon several accounts, that the said notion hath neither countenance from the Scriptures, nor any tolerable consistency with the clearest principles of reason.

SECTION VII.

HOW THE PASSIVE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST JUSTIFIETH.

WHAT place or interest the death or passive obedience of Christ hath in or about justification, we have, in like manner, briefly intimated in our fifth Section. It rendereth that great act of God, in the justification of a sinner, every ways comely and honourable unto him and worthy of him, and, consequently, makes him most willing and free to it. The Holy Ghost speaks plainly enough of that comeliness which the sufferings of Christ put upon the justification of a sinner by God, giving some intimation, withal, that unless this act had by one means or other been made thus comely for him, he would never have lift up his heart or hand unto it. "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things," meaning God, "in bringing many sons unto glory, to consecrate," or make perfect," the Captain of their salvation through sufferings." (Heb. ii. 10.) That meetness or comeliness for God here spoken of, intending the salvation and glorification of many, to effect it in no other way than by the sufferings of him who was to be the Prince or Captain of their salvation, respecteth mainly, if not solely, his act in justifying them, in order to their salvation and glorification.

For, otherwise, supposing them already justified, there needed more the life than the death of Christ to save them; according to that of the Apostle Paul: "But God commendeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom. v. 8-10.) We see here, 1. That our justification is ascribed unto the blood or death of Christ; and, 2. That

our salvation, our justification or reconciliation unto God presupposed, unto his life; that is, unto that power which is given unto him in that life which now he lives in glory at the right hand of the Father to exercise for the saving of all those that believe in him. Life frequently imports vigour, activity, liveliness of strength, or power for action; as death imports weakness and imbecility for action.

If you ask me, "But how, or in what respect, doth the passive obedience or death of Christ render the act of justification, as now it is exerted or performed by God, so comely or honourable for him? Or how may we conceive that either it would have been uncomely or less comely for him to have appeared in it, in case his hand had not been strengthened by the death of Christ unto it? Or doth it not well enough become the great God to forgive sin freely and without satisfaction?" I answer,

1. Whether we conceive the import of those words spoken by God unto Adam, and in him unto all his posterity, being yet in his loins, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt die the death," either in the nature or notion of a dreadful threatening in case of disobedience, or of a most sacred and severe law, to restrain sin and disobedience, (the difference, I confess, is not much material, as far as at present I apprehend,) it was no ways honourable or comely for God to suffer either the one or the other to be trodden or trampled under foot by the creature to whom they were given, without looking after them, or calling for some satisfactory account for the contempt measured out unto them. It cannot reasonably be thought but that God, by the denunciation of such a threatening, or promulgation and sanction of such a law, awakened and amazed both heaven and earth, and raised great expectations in both what the issue or consequence would be. Now, then, Adam and his posterity, being, as was said, now in him, rising up in disobedience in the very face, as it were, and presence of so terrible a threatening, if God should have passed by, and made no words of this high misdemeanor, he might seem either, on the one hand, to repent that he had so sorely threatened them, and therefore now proceeded not to execution; or else, on the other hand, that he was content and willing enough to be neglected or affronted by his creature; both which would have been very uncomely and dishonourable unto him. Nor would