of soul and body. For Peter speaks expressly of the death of the flesh,* and the whole scripture ascribes our ransom to that death, from which Christ arose by his resurrection: and in fine, Paul makes the sacrifice which Christ offered, to consist in a death, which is like to that which is appointed for all men once to undergo,† and which is a sacrifice, and was shadowed forth by the slaying of the legal sacrifices. And we have already mentioned several places, which cannot, without manifest violence, be so explained, as to exclude the death of the body from being included in his death.

XLIII. If you object, that Christ had before said, It is finished; I answer, it ought to be understood of his finishing all those things, which he was to suffer and do in life, so that nothing remained, but to conclude the whole by a pious death. Just as Paul said, I have finished my course § and Christ himself, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Whence one would absurdly infer, that there remained for Christ on saying this, nothing further to be done or suffered; when he was still to be made perfect by his last sufferings. The meaning is evident; namely, that Christ, in discharging his office, had perfectly performed all he was thus far to perform.

XLIV. If you insist upon it, that his death was calm and gentle, without the appearance of any pains of eternal death, having already undergone these: I answer, it was a gentle death indeed, in so far as the faith of Christ, now victorious over all temptations, was well apprised, that he had surmounted the greatest pains, and was secure about his resurrection and the pormised reward; but yet he died a cursed death, inflicted by the wrath of God against sin; and the curse of it was typically figured by his hanging on the tree, which still continued in and after death. For,

** Pet. iii. 18. ↑ Heb. ix. 27. Ver. 26. § 2 Tim. iv. 7. John xvi. 4.

while he hung on the tree, so far he was doubtless under the curse, according to Gal. iii. 13. By which is signified, that his punishment ought to be taken as holding forth guilt, and the curse of God.

XLV. But, say you, believers are still to die; and therefore Christ did not satisfy for them by hist death. I answer, the catechumens have been taught to answer this objection from quest. 42. of the Heidelberg catechism.* By the death of Christ, death hath ceased to be, what it was before, the punishment inflicted by an offended judge, and the entrance into the second death, and is become the extermination of sin, and the way to eternal life: and the last day it shall be altogether abolished. And if you go on to argue in this manner, I shall easily make it appear from your own hypothesis, that even that very anguish of Christ, when he complained of his being forsaken of God, was not satisfactory for us: for believers themselves often complain of spiritual desertion : But Zion said, NGADSABANI JEHOVAH, The Lord hath forsaken me, Is. xlix. 14. Where we have the very same word, which the Lord Jesus uses, Psal. xxii. 2. And Zion says so truly, with respect to the sense of Grace, and the influence of spiritual consolation. The difference between the desertion, whereby Christ was forsaken of his Father, and that of believers, consists in this, that, in the former, there was the wrath and curse of God, and the formal nature of punishment, which are not in the latter; neither are these in their death.

XLVI. As to what is objected to our argument, taken from the agonies of Christ in Gethsemane, it is pretended, that these sufferings were not satisfactory in this very thing, that then an angel appeared to comfort him; whereas a good angel could not have done

*Q. But since Christ died for us, why must we also die? A. Our death is not a satisfaction for sin, but the abolishing of sin, and our passage into everlasting life.

this, without a most grievous sin against God, if Christ was then actually making satisfaction; especially as he was to tread this wine-press alone, and it was foretold, that while making satisfaction, he should be deprived of all consolation, There is none to take pity, comforters I found none :* this argument is very inconclusive. For, 1. That angel did not tread the wine-press together with the Lord Jesus; nor was any part of his sufferings laid upon him; nor, by any natural influence, did he assist Christ in carrying that burden. He strengthened Christ no otherwise than in a moral, sense, by setting before him the glorious issue of the conflict he had undertaken, and by other arguments to the like purpose. 2. There is no reason, why some small share of comfort should not be administered to Christ, while in the act of making satisfaction: especially if done with a view to preserve him for more, and not fewer sufferings. The words of Psal. Ixix. are not to be taken in such a general sense, as to exclude all manner of consolation and pity: for a great company of people and of women bewailed him,† as did also all the people that came together to that sight, and smote upon their breasts, and the beloved disciple John, and above all his pious mother, whose soul then a sword pierced.§ Nor is there any thing in the words of the psalm, which obliges us to confine these things to the three hours darkness. It treats of that time, in which they gave him gall for his meat, and in his thirst gave him vinegar to drink, which was not done during the darkness. 3. It cannot be inferred, that God the Father, in sending that angel, had not then either assumed or then laid aside the character of a strict and impartial judge; any more than it can be inferred, that the minds of Christ's enemies were disposed to pity, when they laid the cross on Simon of Cyrene, in order that he might carry it after *Psal. Ixix. 20. Luke xxiii. 27. ‡ Ver. 43. § Luke ii. 35.

Ver. 21.

him. For both was done with a view, lest Christ sinking under his present pains, should escape those that were to ensue. 4. We shall by this be better able to form a judgment of the incredible load of anguish, with which that mighty Lion of the tribe of Judah was so pressed down, that he appeared almost ready to sink under it, unless he was in some manner at least, heartened. 5. Nor, on any pretence, can that angel be accused of any bad action, in strengthening Christ, while satisfying for us; since, by that consolation, he neither went about to rob Christ of his glory, to whom alone the praise of satisfying remains entire; nor to oppose the decree of God, to execute which with resolution he animated Christ; nor to put any bar in the way of our salvation, to acquire the right to which by constancy in his sufferings he encouraged the Lord.

XLVII. To pretend to infer from the beginning and end of the solar eclipse, during the passion of Christ, the beginning and end of his satisfaction, is a cabbalistical fancy, founded neither on scripture, nor solid reason. I will not deny, that, in that darkness, there was a kind of type of the very thick dark. ness, with which the greatly-distressed soul of the Lord Jesus was then overwhelmed, without a single ray of consolation breaking in upon him, but what his unshaken faith, grounded on the inviolable promises of his Father, and not staggering as to the certainty of the future reward, darted in at times upon his trembling soul. But the question is not, Whether Christ was then actually satisfying? this we all allow ; the question is, whether then only?

XLVIII. But let us now conclude this debate; which has so much disquieted the mind of this very learned person, as his friends wanted the world should know from letters, published after his death. But God and my conscience are my witnesses, that nothing but the love of truth, which is only to be derived from, and defended by the scriptures, obliged Оо

VOL. I

me to enter upon this subject. I know not in what I can be blamed, unless in the liberty I have taken to dissent from the author. But if, by taking a wrong path, I have strayed from the truth, how acceptable will the kind admonition be! How readily shall I own and correct the error! I heartily wish we could generally endeavour to please ourselves less, in order to please God more. I ever had a veneration for this learned person, though, after our dispute, I found he was much disgusted. But I thought this should be no hinderance to my profiting by his learned commentaries, which I own I did, with a just commendation of the author; as my other writings abundantly testify, I have done, and that very sincerely.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Effect of Christ's Satisfaction.

THE

HE effect of Christ's satisfaction is twofold: The first regards Christ himself; the other, the elect. Christ, by his satisfaction, obtained for himself, as Mediator, a right to all the elect; which the Father willingly and deservedly bestows upon him; Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos session.* This is Christ's PHENGULLATH, work with his God, that he should not only be his servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; but that he should be given for a light to the Gentiles, that he might be God's salvation unto the end of the earth. It appears also from that promise, If his soul shall make itself an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. And thus we become his inheritance,§ his peculiar treasure,|| his peculiar people. I

11. Besides, it is not possible, but Christ should exIs. liii. 1o. Eph. i 12. || Ps. cxxxv. 4. I Tit. ii. 14. & Pet. ii. 9.

*Psal. ii. 8. t Is. xlix. 4. 6.