wardly discovered by their evil actions; yea, their carnal mind is enmity itself against God; and befides this, there is, on the part of God, a law-enmity, an enmity declared in the law in the eye of the law, and in the fight of juftice: having finned, they are viewed as enemies to God, and rebels against him, and fo are declared in and by the law, and confidered as fuch: not that there is any real enmity in the heart of God to elect finners; this is inconfiftent with his everlasting and unchangeable love to them; but there is a law-enmity which must be slain and removed, and was flain and removed in and by the death of Christ as when fubjects rife up in rebellion against their king, there may be no enmity in his heart to them, yet by the law of the land, they are declared and looked upon as enemies, rebels, and traitors to his crown and government; and are treated as fuch, and preceeded against in due form of law, though at length pardoned, at least, some of them; and it is this fort of enmity, which makes the fatisfaction of Chrift for fin neceffary. Had there been only an inward enmity in mens minds to God, manifefted by their works, that might have been removed, and is removed, by the Spirit of God caufing the arrows of the word to be fharp in the hearts of fuch enemies of the king; whereby the people fall under him, lay down the weapons of their rebellion, and submit unto him; and are reconciled to the righteousness of Christ, to the way of falvation by him, and to his laws and government; and by the grace of God, the enmity of their hearts is overcome, and love is implanted in their fouls. To remove this enmity, the fufferings and death of Chrift feem not neceffary; and though it is faid, while God's ele&t were finners, Chrift died for them; and when they were encmies, they were reconciled to God by his death; yet this is not to be understood of the inward depravity and enmity of their hearts; for the far greater part of those for whom Chrift died, and whom he reconciled, were not then in a state of actual corruption and enmity, for they were not in actual being; but the fenfe is, that they were then confidered as finners in Adam; and as enemies, rebels, and traitors in their apoftate head; when Christ died for them, and reconciled them to God, by making fatisfaction for their fins, which this enmity made neceffary: there is a twofold reconciliation, with respect to this twofold enmity; the one is the work of Chrift, the other the work of the Spirit of Chrift; the one was made at Chrift's death, and by it; the other, at converfion; and we have them both in one text, Rom. v. 10. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, then the law-enmity was flain, and reconciliation and fatisfaction made for fin; much more, being reconciled, that is, by the grace and Spirit of God at conversion, when the inward enmity is removed, and the heart is filled with love to God, and is made willing to ferve him; we shall be faved by his life. A text worthy to be written in letters of gold; no fuch paffage is to be found any where but in the word. of God; not in all the voluminous writings of the heathens; it contains a thought,

thought, a fentiment, which could never have entered into the heart of man to conceive of, had it not been revealed by God himfelf in the facred fcriptures; ENEMIES RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON! Thus then it appears, if men are finners, and fo tranfgreffors of the law, and aliens from God, and enemies to him, fatisfaction must be made for their fins, if ever they are pardoned, faved, and brought to glory.

Secondly, The other thing to be granted, in order to make fatisfaction for fin appear neceffary, is, that it is the will of God to fave finners, at leaft, fome of them; and this furely will be allowed by fuch who believe a divine revelation. God has decreed to fave fome; he has refolved upon it within himself, and has faid, I will fave them by the Lord their God. He has appointed fome not. unto wrath, which they deferve, but to obtain falvation by Jefus Chrift. He has chofen them to it, through fantification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth. There are fome who are ordained unto eternal life, who are veffels of mercy, afore prepared for glory; and there was a provifion made for their salvation in the council and covenant of grace. In the council of peace between the Father and the Son, the fcheme of falvation was planned; and in the covenant of peace it was fettled, and the Son of God was agreed upon to be the author of it; and accordingly, in the fulness of time, he was fent to be the Saviour of men; and he came to feek and to fave that which was loft, and he has faved his people from their fins. This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Chrift came into the world to fave the chief of finners; and he has obtained falvation for them; and that by his fufferings and death, by the shedding of his blood, to which it is afcribed; being made perfect in fuffering, he is become the author of falvation; he has redeemed men to God by his blood, and reconciled them to him by his death; all which was by the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God: what Jews and Gentiles did to Chrift, and what he fuffered by them, were no other than what the hand and counfel of God determined before should be done; and therefore it was neceffary they fhould be done, and that Chrift should suffer and die to make fatisfaction for the fins of men.

Some have affirmed, that God could forgive fin, and fave finners without a fatisfaction: this is faid by the Socinians, and by fome others, (I am forry to fay it) who own that a fatisfaction is made, and that it was fit and expedient it fhould be demanded and made, at least, fome fort of one, as fome have exprefsed it; but to fay it was fit and expedient, is giving up the point; for what was fitting and expedient to be done, in the affair of falvation, was neceffary: God could not but do, or will to be done, what was proper and fitting to be done. Such a way of talking tends to undermine the doctrine of fatisfaction by Christ; VOL. I. Rr and

Socinus de Jefu Chrifto Servatore, par. 1. c.1. & par. 3. c. 1, Prælection. Theolog. c. 16-18. pag. 566, 567, 570. Racov. Catechef. c. 8. qu. 12.

and to encourage, and ftrengthen the hands of the Socinians, the oppofers of it; much the fame arguments being used by the one as by the other. Indeed, it is not becoming us to limit the holy One of Ifrael, or to lay a reftraint on his power; we should proceed cautiously and warily in this matter. His power is unlimited, power belongs to God; infinite, unlimited, unbounded power; he can do more than we can think or conceive of; with him nothing is impoffible; yet it is no ways derogatory to the glory of his power, nor is it any impeachment of it, nor does it argue any imperfection or weakness in him, to say there are fome things he cannot do; for not to be able to do them is his glory, when to do them would be weakness and imperfection; and the fcripture warrants us in fo faying, which, for inftance, more than once, fays, that God cannot lie; for that is contrary to his veracity and truth; nor can he commit iniquity, that would be contrary to his purity and holiness; nor can he do any act of injustice to his creatures, that would be contrary to his juftice and righteoufnefs; nor can he deny himfelf, that would be against his nature, and the perfections of it; and for the fame reafon, he cannot forgive fin without a fatisfaction; for that would not accord with his perfections, as will be feen prefently. After all, it is a vain and fruitless thing to difpute about the power of God, what he can do, or what he cannot do, in a cafe where he has declared his will, what he will do, or will have done, as in the cafe before us; for at the fame time that he proclaimed his name, a God forgiving iniquity, tranfgreffion and fin; it is added, by no means clearing the guilty; that is, without a fatisfaction to his juftice; or not letting go the guilty unpunished, Exod. xxxiv. 7. Numb. xiv. 18. Nor is a pardoned finner left altogether unpunished, as the fame phrafe is rendered in Jer. xxx. 11. for though he is not punifhed in himself, he is in his furety. Befides, in the everlasting covenant of grace God made with his fon, he declared to him what was his will in this cafe, and which he agreed unto, and came into the world to do, faying, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; and what was that? to offer up the body prepared for him, together with his foul, an offering for fin, to make atonement and fatisfaction for it; and which is farther manifeft from our Lord's prayer in the garden; which, could there have been another way of pardoning fin, and faving finners, than through the blood, fufferings, and death of Chrift, as a facrifice and fatisfaction for fin, that importunate requeft would have brought it forth, O my father, if it be poffible, let this cup pass from me: if the persons thou hast given me, and I have undertook to save, can be faved, and their fins pardoned, without my drinking this bitter cup of sufferings and death for them, let me be excufed drinking it; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, thy will be done; and what that will was that was done, is notorious.

It may be said, that to affirm that God cannot forgive sin without a fatisfaction, is to make God weaker than man; and to represent him as not able to do what

men

men can do a creditor can forgive a debtor, when he is unable to pay the debts that are owing to him; and an offended perfon can forgive an offender against him; and, in fome cafes, fhould, and is to be commended for the fame. But it should be obferved, that fins are not pecuniary debts, and to be remitted as they may. They are indeed called debts, not properly, but alluvely; if they were proper debts, they might be paid in their kind, one fin by committing another, which is abfurd; but they are called debts, because as debts oblige to payment, fo thefe oblige to punishment; which debt of punishment must be paid, either by the debtor, the finner, or by a furety for him; fins are criminal debts, and can be remitted no other way. God therefore in this affair, is to be confidered not merely as a creditor, but as the rector and governor of the world; as the judge of all the earth, who will do right; as the great lawgiver, who is able to fave and to destroy, and who will fecure his own authority as fuch; do juftice to himfelf, and honour to his law, and fhew a proper concern for the good of the community, or univerfe, of which he is the moral governor. So, though one man may forgive another a private offence committed against himself, and as it is an injury to him, he cannot forgive one, as it is an injury to the commonwealth, of which he is a part. A private perfon, as he cannot execute wrath and vengeance, or inflict punishment on an offender of the law; fo neither can he let go unpunished one that has offended against the peace and good of the commonwealth: thefe are things that belong to the civil magiftrate, to one in power and authority; and a judge that acts under another, and according to a law which he is obliged to regard, can neither inflict punishment, nor remit it, without the order of his fuperior. God indeed is not under another, he is of himself, and can do what he pleases; he is the maker and judge of the law; but then he is a law to himself; his nature is his law, and he cannot act contrary to that. Wherefore as Joshua says, chap. xxiv. 19. he is an holy God: he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgreffions, nor your fins; that is, without a fatisfaction to his juftice, which is his nature, and to his law, which is his will, the honour of both which he is jealous of; fin is crimen læfæ majeftatis, "a crime committed against the majesty of "God;" it difturbs the univerfe of which he is the governor, and tends to shake and overthrow his moral government of the world; it introduces atheism into it, and has a tendency to bring it into diforder and confufion; and to withdraw creatures from their dependence on God, and their obedience to him; and therefore requires fatisfaction, and an infinite one, it being objectively infinite, as committed against an infinite Being; and therefore fatisfaction for it cannot be made by a finite, but by an infinite perfon, as Chrift is; and fuch a fatisfaction the honour of the divine Being, and of his righteous law tranfgreffed by

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fin,

• Socin Prælect. ut fupra c. 16.

fin, requires; which leads to observe, that to forgive fin without a fatisfaction, does not accord with the perfections of God.

1. Not with his juftice and holiness: God is naturally and effentially juft and holy; all his ways and works proclaim him to be fo; he is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; all creatures acknowledge his juftice and holiness; angels afcribe the fame to him; the angel of the waters faid, Thou art righteous, O Lord; devils must confefs it; men good and bad own it; wicked Pharaoh' faid, The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked: the good prophet Jeremiah, and even when diftreffed about the providences of God, and under a temptation about them, could not but acknowledge the juftice of God, Righteous art thou, O Lord-yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments. God the righteous Lord loves righteoufnefs, and hates iniquity; he is of purer eyes than to behold it with delight; he is not a God that takes pleasure in fin, but bears an utter hatred to it; he cannot but hate it, and fhew his hatred of it, which he does by punishing it; and punitive juftice is effential to him, though the Socinians, in order to enervate the doctrine of Chrift's fatisfaction, deny it; but God is a confuming fire; and as it is natural to fire to burn combustible matter put to ir, fo it is natural to God to punish fin and confume finners with the fire of his wrath, comparable to thorns and briers. The righteousness of God is feen and known by the judgments which he executes in the punishment of fin and finners, for which he is applauded, commended and praised; it is a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to them that trouble his people; his judgments on antichrift and the antichriftian ftates, are pronounced true and righteous by angels and faints, by the angel of the waters, and by the voices of much people in heaven, Rev. xvi. 6, 7. and chap. xix. 1, 2. And the last judgment will be a righteous one, when finners will be judged according to their works, and sentenced to everlafting punishment: nor does it comport with the justice of God to let fin and finners go unpunished.

2. Nor with the truth and veracity of God, with refpect to his holy and righteous law. God had a right to give a law to his creatures, and it became him as the Governor of the univerfe to give a law to them; for where there is no law, there is no tranfgreffion; men may live with impunity, no charge can be brought against them; fin is not imputed where there is no law: but God has given a law, which is holy, just, and good, and which fhews what is his good and perfect will; and this law has a fanction annexed unto it, as every law should have, or it will be of no force to oblige to an obfervance of it, and deter from difobedience to it; and the fanction of the law of God is nothing lefs than death, than death eternal, which is the juft wages and proper demerit of fin; and which God has declared he will inflict on the tranfgreffor, in the day

Socin. Prælect. Theolog. c. 16. Racov. Catechef, c, 8. qu. 20.