such a price and ransom as our surety into his Father's hands, &c. Ergo,

There be four things to be proved in the assumption, or second proposition: First, That Christ paid such a price and ransom. Secondly, That he paid it into the hands of his Father. Thirdly, That he did it as our surety. Fourthly, That we might go free. All which we shall prove in order.

First, For the first, our Saviour himself affirms it; Matt. xx. 1. 28. He came to give his life Xúrpov a ransom or price of redemption for many;' Matt. x. 45. which the apostle terms ȧvríλurpov, 2 Tim. ii. 6. a ransom to be accepted in the stead of others, whence we are said to have deliverance dià Tñs άоλνTρwσεws, 'by the ransom paying of Christ;' Rom. iii. 24. He bought us with a price;' 1 Cor. vi. 20. which price was his own blood; Acts xx. 28. compared to, and exalted above, silver and gold in this work of redemption; 1 Pet. i. 18. So that this first part is most clear and evident.

Secondly, He paid this price into the hands of his Father; a price must be paid to somebody, in the case of deliverance from captivity by it, it must be paid to the judge or jailer; that is to God, or the devil: to say the latter, were the highest blasphemy: Satan was to be conquered, not satisfied. For the former, the Scripture is clear: it was his wrath that was on us; John iii. 36. It was he that had shut us up all under sin; Rom. iii. 3. He is the 'great King to whom the debt is owing;' Matt. xviii. 23. 34. He is the only lawgiver that can kill and make alive;' James iv. 12. Nay, the ways whereby this ransom-paying is in the Scripture expressed, abundantly enforce the payment of it into the hands of his Father. For his death and bloodshedding is said to be роσpоρά and Svoía, 'an oblation and sacrifice;' Eph. v. 2. and his soul to be a sacrifice or offering for sin; Isa. liii. 10. Now certainly offerings and sacrifices are to be directed unto God alone.

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Thirdly, That he did this as surety, we are assured Heb. vii. 22. He was made yyvos, a surety of a better testament and in performance of the duty which lay upon him as such, 'He paid that which he never took ;' Psal. Ixix. 4. All which could not possibly have any other end, but that we might go free.

To make an atonement for sin, and to reconcile God unto

the sinners, is in effect to make satisfaction unto the justice. of God for sin, and all that we understand thereby. But Jesus. Christ by his death and oblation did make an atonement for sin, and reconcile God unto sinners; Ergo,

The first proposition is in itself evident; the assumption is confirmed, Rom. iii. 24, 25. We are justified freely by the ransom-paying that is in Christ, whom God hath set forth to be iλaorpiov, a propitiation, an atonement, a mercy-seat, a covering of iniquity; and that εἰς ἔνδειξιν τῆς δικαιοσύνης, for the manifestation of his justice, declared in the going forth and accomplishment thereof. So likewise Heb. ii. 17. He is said to be a merciful high priest, εἰς τὸ ἱλάσκεσθαι τὰς ἁμαρ Tías Toũ λaou, 'to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,' to reconcile God unto the people; the meaning of the words being ἱλάσκεσθαι τὸν Θεὸν περί τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τοῦ λαοῦ, to reconcile God who was offended with the sins of his people; which reconciliation we are said to receive; Rom. v. 11. (the word Karaλλayǹ there, in our common translation rendered atonement, is in other places in the same rendered reconciliation: being indeed the only word used for it in the New Testament.) And all this is said to be accomplished δι ενός δικαιώματος, by one righteousness or satisfaction that is of Christ; (the words will not bear that sense wherein they are usually rendered by the righteousness of one, for then must it have been διὰ δικαιώματος τοῦ ἑνός.) And hereby were we delivered from that, from which it was impossible we should be otherwise delivered; Rom. viii. 3.

That wherein the exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ whilst he was on earth doth consist, cannot be rejected nor denied without damnable error: but the exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ whilst he was upon the earth, consisted in this, to bear the punishment due to our sins, to make atonement with God, by undergoing his wrath, and reconciling him to sinners upon the satisfaction made to his justice. Therefore cannot these things be denied without damnable error. That in the things before recounted, the exercise of Christ's priestly office did consist, is most apparent; first, From all the types and sacrifices whereby it was prefigured; their chief end being propitiation and atonement. Secondly, From the very nature of the sacerdotal office ap

pointed for sacrificing; Christ having nothing to offer but his own blood, through the eternal Spirit. And, thirdly, From divers, yea innumerable, texts of Scripture, affirming the same. It would be too long a work to prosecute those things severally and at large, and therefore I will content myself with one or two places, wherein all those testimonies are comprised, as Heb. ix. 13, 14. If the blood of bulls and goats, &c. how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God?' &c. Here the death of Christ is compared to, exalted above, and in the antitype answereth, the sacrifices of expiation, which were made by the blood of bulls and goats: and so must, at least spiritually, effect what they did carnally accomplish, and typically prefigure, viz. deliverance from the guilt of sin by expiation and atonement. For as in them the life and blood of the sacrifice, was accepted in the stead of the offerer, who was to die, for the breach of the law according to the rigour of it; so in this of Christ was his blood accepted as an atonement and propitiation for us, himself being priest, altar, and sacrifice. So Heb. x. 10. 12. he is said expressly, in the room of all old insufficient carnal sacrifices which could not make the comers thereunto perfect, to offer up his own body a sacrifice for sins, for the remission and pardon of sins, through that offering of himself, as it is ver. 19. And in the performance also do we affirm, that our Saviour underwent the wrath of God, which was due unto us. This, because it is by some questioned, I shall briefly confirm, and that with these following reasons.

First, The punishment due to sin, is the wrath of God; Rom. i. 18. The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness;' chap. ii. 5. The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;' Eph. ii. 3. 'Children of wrath;' John iii. 36. Jesus Christ underwent the punishment due to sin; 2 Cor. v. 21. Made sin for us;' Isa. liii. 6. Iniquity was laid upon him; 1 Pet. ii. 24. He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.' Therefore he underwent the wrath of God.

Secondly, The curse of the law, is the wrath of God taken passively; Deut. xxix. 20, 21. But Jesus Christ underwent the curse of the law; Gal. iii. 13. Made a curse for us;' the

curse that they lie under which are out of Christ, who are of the works of the law;' ver. 10. Therefore he underwent the wrath of God.

Thirdly, The death that sinners are to undergo, is the wrath of God: Jesus Christ did taste of that death,' which sinners for themselves were to undergo; for he died as 'our surety; Heb. vii. 22. and 'in our stead;' Matt. xx. 28. Hence his fear, Heb. v. 7. agony, Luke xxii. 44. astonishment, and amazement, Matt. xiv. 33. dereliction, Matt. xxvii. 46. sorrow, heaviness, and inexpressible pressures.

That doctrine cannot be true nor agreeable to the gospel, which strikes at the root of gospel faith, and plucks away the foundation of all that strong consolation which God is so abundantly willing we should receive: but such is that of denying the satisfaction made by Christ, his answering the justice, and undergoing the wrath of his Father. It makes the poor soul to be like Noah's dove in its distress, not knowing where to rest the sole of her feet; when a soul is turned out of its self-righteousness, and begins to look abroad, and view the heaven and earth for a resting-place, and perceives an ocean, a flood, an inundation of wrath to cover all the world; the wrath of God revealing itself from heaven against all ungodliness, so that it can obtain no rest nor abiding, heaven it cannot reach by its own flight, and to hell it is unwilling to fall; if now the Lord Jesus Christ do not appear as an ark in the midst of the waters (upon whom the floods have fallen, and yet is got above them all), for a refuge, alas what shall it do? When the flood fell there were many mountains, glorious in the eye, far higher than the ark, but yet those mountains were all drowned, whilst the ark still kept on the top of the waters. Many appearing hills and mountains of self-righteousness, and general mercy, at the first view seem to the soul much higher than Jesus Christ; but when the flood of wrath once comes and spreads itself, all those mountains are quickly covered; only the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ, though the flood fall on him also, yet he gets above it quite, and gives safety to them that rest upon him. Let me now ask any of those poor souls, who ever have been wandering and tossed with the fear of the wrath to come, whether ever they found a resting-place untill they came to this. God spared not his only Son, but

gave him up to death for us all; that he made him to be sin for us; that he put all the sins of all the elect into that cup which he was to drink of; that the wrath and flood which they feared did fall upon Jesus Christ (though now as the ark he be above it, so that if they could get into him they should be safe); the storm hath been his, and the safety shall be theirs; as all the waters which would have fallen upon them that were in the ark, fell upon the ark, they being dry and safe; so all the wrath that should have fallen upon them fell on Christ, which alone causeth their souls to dwell in safety? Hath not, I say, this been your bottom? Your foundation? Your resting-place? If not (for the substance of it), I fear you have but rotten bottoms. Now what would you say, if a man should come and pull this ark from under you, and give you an old rotten post to swim upon in the flood of wrath. It is too late to tell you no wrath is due unto you; the word of truth, and your own consciences have given you other information; you know 'the wages of sin is death,' in whomsoever it be; he must die on whomsoever it is found; so that truly the soul may well say, Bereave me of the satisfaction of Christ, and I am bereaved. If he fulfilled not justice, I must; if he underwent not wrath, I must to eternity. O rob me not of my only pearl. Denying the satisfaction of Christ, destroys the foundation of faith and comfort.

Another argument we may take from some few particular places of Scripture, which instead of many I shall produce; as first, 2 Cor. v. 21. He made him to be sin for us. who knew no sin.' He made him to be sin for us; how could that be? Are not the next words, he knew no sin? Was he not a lamb without spot, and without blemish? Doubtless he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. What then is this, 'God made him to be sin?' It cannot be that God made him sinful, or a sinner by any inherent sin; that will not stand with the justice of God, nor with the holiness of the person of our Redeemer. What is it then? He made him to be sin who knew no sin?'

Why clearly, by

dispensation and consent he laid that to his charge, whereof he was not guilty. He charged upon him and imputed unto him all the sins of all the elect, and proceeded against him accordingly. He stood as our surety; really charged with