head of it, according to divine appointment, it was fubftituted in his place; and confequently, was put to death, as he deferved to have been, the guiltlefs for the guilty, In like manner, we are not to fuppofe that our Saviour, the lamb Main from the foundation of the world, was made a real finner, by his fubftitution as a fufferer in our ftead. When the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all, he did not thenceforward view him as a real object of his righteous difpleasure. Still the holy Governor of the world faid of him, "This is my beloved fon, in whom I am well pleafed." Was God the Father perfectly well pleased with him, perfonally confidered; but really very an gry with him, confidered as the Jurety of finners! All that we are to understand by our Saviour's being made fin for us, I conceive, is this. By the appointment and providence of God, that fuffering which we deferved, and muft otherwife have endured, was fo far laid upon him, as would answer every neceffary purpose of our just punishment. Accordingly, he was treated as if he had been a finner, and as no other innocent perfon was ever treated. As if he had been a finner, he was born of a woman, and born in very fingular circumftances of diftrefs and wretchednefs. As if he had been a sinner, he was a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief, all his days. As if he had been a finner, he was fubjected to hard labor, probably in the early part of life, and certainly during his public miniftry. He was "in wearinefs and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in faftings often ;" and often he had no place of fecare repofe, where to lay his head. As if he had been a finner, he was perpetually reviled and calumniated, and had all manner of evil faid against him, even by men in high reputation for fanctity and virtue. As if he had been a finner, he was at laft apprehended by the officers of juftice, and put to a very painful and moft ignominious death-the death of the crofs. And he was crucified between two thieves, as the greatest malefactor of the three. Thus was our Saviour treated, though perfectly free from fin. And to all this he was delivered, as the apoftie Peter tells us, " by the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God." So likewife we are informed by the ancient prophecies concerning him. In them it was written, "Awake, O fword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, faith the Lord of hosts. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth: Yet it pleafed the Lord to bruife him; he hath put him to grief." Secondly I proceed to enquire, how this was juft. What righteoufnefs was there in it, that one who knew no fin, fhould thus fuffer as a finner? "He was made fin for us," the text fays; and fo fays the prophet Ifaiah: "He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities." But this, instead of relieving, feems only to increase the difficulty. To flay the righteous with the wicked, Abraham concluded must be far from the Judge of all the earth; because he thought it could not be right: but how much more, fhould we fuppofe it must be far from him, and far from being right, to flay the righteous for the wicked! God hath faid, and Tolemnly declared it as an effential, has generally been adopted by our beft divines. It is a mode of reafoning fo long established, and fanctioned by fo many venerable authorities, that I once fuppofed it must be fcriptural, and agreeable to common fenfe; and therefore labored to comprehend its confiftency. But, after searching diligently, to me, it could never appear fatisfactory. I can no more fee the juftice of imputing fin, to one perfonally innocent, so that he may be properly punished; than I can fee the juftice of punishing part of his glory, that he "will by no means clear the guilty." Will he thus, as the means of doing this, condemn the innocent! He hath faid," Are not my ways equal?-The foul that finneth, it fhall die. The fon fhall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither fhall the father bear the iniquity of the fon. The righteoufness of the righteous fhall be upon him, and wickedness of the wicked fhall be upon him." In this manner hath the moft High condefcended to clear himfelfof the imputation of unright-him at first, without any fuch imconfnefs. He does this by denying the fact alledged,and not byjuftifying it; which implies a plain confeffion, that did he punish one perfon, for the fins of another, the complaint that his ways were not equal, would be well grounded. putation. If this would do among men, any perfon in the world might be juftly executed, only by putting him in the law-place of another, who had committed murder; and then judging him worthy of death, as an imputed actual mur. To remove this objection, as it derer. And if the Judge of all refpects the death of our Saviour, fhould proceed thus, in common an approved expofitor, in a note cafes, or if it were believed to be on the text now under confidera- juft and right for him to do fo tion, fays; "Unless the guilt of in any cafe; what would all his our iniquities, or our law-obliga- threatnings and promises avail, in tion to punishment, had been ju- the government of the moral dicially charged upon Chrift, it world? What terror to evil dofeems to me that he could not, by ers, would there be in the former; any rule of justice, have borne their or what fecurity in the latter, to punishment. For, in the order of them that do well? He will by no juftice, our fins must first be fuppo-means clear the guilty, nor confed to be placed to his account, demn the innocent: but, upon this to answer for them, before he principle, he can make any one could undergo the proper punifh- innocent or guilty, only by impument for them; fince divine jufting to him the guilt or innocence tice can no more punifh the en- of fome body elfe. Upon this tirely, and in all refpects, guilt- principle, when the books come lefs, than clear the guilty." to be opened, in the day of the revelation of the righteous judg ment of God, thousands of fuch transfers, never thought of before, might be found written: and whofe fins we should finally be anfwerable for, it would be impoffible for any man to tell. Can real blame-worthinefs, and juft defert of punishment be thus thrown upon perfons You fee, it is here fuppofed, that our fins were imputed, by the fupreme Judge, to the holy Jefus, fo as to become really his; till which he could not, and after which he could, and did, juftly bear the proper punishment for them. And this is the way of getting over the difficulty, which for things they never did, and which were totally foreign from the thoughts and intents and difpofition of their hearts! Yes; it has been faid. By means of a constituted union, between two or more perfons, there arifes a kind of common perfonality. A community of intereft and action, of lofs and gain, of merit and demerit; of right to rewards, and liablenefs to punifhments. Such conftitutions are common among men ; and are never thought to be arbitrary or unreafonable. The hufband and wife; a father and his minor child; a creditor or debtor and his legal attorney; all the members of a corporation and their trustees, are one in law. In many civil matters, they are fo, I grant; but not in criminal actions. A man is not hanged for a murder committed by his wife or child; nor the heads of a corporation, for the treafons of fome of its members. No one is thought culpable, or properly punishable, on account of the ill-conduct of another, to which he was no way acceffary; however nearly related to him, or in whatever way connected with him, that other perfon may have been. It is true, we often fuffer lofs and damage, from the criminal actions of our relations, our trustees, or constituents. We are fome times required to make compenfation for the mischief done by the iniquities of thofe under our care, or thofe empowered to act for us. In human governments, fuch fuffering is often unavoidable, or not to be avoided without great public inconvenience: In the divine government, it is always juft; because, however the foffering of one may be immediately occafioned by the fin of another, no man fuffers more than his own iniquities deferve. But fuftaining lofs and damage, by means of the criminality of others; and being chargeable with the criminality itfelf, and fo being properly punished for it as evil doers, are quite different things. Notwithstanding, therefore, both a federal and a vital union between Chrift and Christians, he cannot be to blame for their fins. In order to make out this, they must be fuppofed fo united, as to be properly one individual perfon. That merit or demerit, are not transferable from one perfon to another, or capable of being thrown into a common fock, like civil property;. I am perfuaded is one of the plaineft feelings of the moral fenfe, implanted in every man's mind. And as no fimilitudes, nor metaphyfics, unlefs by confounding ideas, can ever commend this notion of imputation to any man's confcience; fo, I hope, we are not put to the hard task of attempting it, in order to vindicate any of the ways of God, revealed to us in his word. Perhaps no article of the faith for which we are required earnestly to contend, looks more poradoxical; or more like a contradiction to reafon and common fenfe, than the one now before us; but, could we keep clear of "darkening counsel by words without knowledge"-could we think upon it, neither too little nor too much; it is very likely that even this, would not appear inexplicable. Divines have long followed one another, in fpeaking of Chrift as being properly punished; but this is not the language of the Old or NewTeftament. I know of no text of fcripture, in which the word punishment is ufed; with reference to the fufferings of Chrift, at the band of his heavenly Father. God, is never faid to condemn him. Pilate, indeed, paffed a fentenca of death upon him, and the Jews put that fentence in execution. By them, he was condemned and punished; but mofl unjustly. And though whatever they did, was before determined in the counfel of the Moft High; yet their acts herein, were not his acts; any more than all the unrighteous deeds done under the fun are his. him for his inheritance, and the uttermoft parts of the earth for his poffeffion. That he should fee of the travail of his foul, and be fatisfied. Thus God made him to be a fin-offering; not by unwilling confraint, but by the joy fet before him: by the most powerful inducements to a benevolent mind. And in all this, fince there was no compulfion-no unreafonable imputation-no real punishment, there was nothing unjust. Our next enquiry is, how are we to understand that finners, when united to Chrift by faith, are made the righteoufnefs of God in him? Not that they are made, in the fight of God, free from all imputation of fin, and worthy of the rewards of the perfectly righteous. The benefits of Chrift's meritorious righteoufnefs only, are made over to believers in the covenant of grace: his righteousness itself, is ftill his, and not theirs. Merit, like demerit, is ever perfonal and Chrift fuffered the curfe of the law which was due to us; but he did not fuffer it as what was due to him, in any way whatever. He fuffered as an innocent perfon, voluntarily ftepping in, to bear what would anfwer the neceffary ends of the juft punishment of the guilty. To reconcile the fufferings of Chrift with the juftice of God, it is enough to fay, they were vol untaryfufferings: Sufferings which he freely confented to, knowing what he did, and to which he had a right to confent. And this is the only way, it appears to me, in which they can ever be fo reconci-untransferable; but the confequenled. This is the plain fcripture account. "He gave himself for us. He came not to be miniftered unto, but to minifter, and to give his life, a ranfona for many." To do this, he faid in heaven, Lo, Icome: and on earth he declared, " I lay down my life of myself; I have power to lay it down." True, he adds, "This commandment have I received of my Father." And we know he was fent of God to do what he did, and fuffer what he fuffered. But the appointment of a dutiful fon to a painful fervice, with the promife of a great reward, is not to condemn and punish him. Such was this cafe. Chrift was promifed, for his obedience unto death, that he fhould be exalted and extolled, and be very high. That the Heathen fhould be given ces of either, may be transferred. As Chrift, when he had undertaken the redemption of man, could juftly fuffer death for their fin, though ftill, in all refpects, perfectly righteous; fo they, having received him as their Redeemer, though ftill very finful, and in no refpect any more innocent than before, can juftly inherit eternal life, as the reward of his rightcoufnefs. On this ground, they will finally be delivered from all the penal confequences of their fins, however numerous and aggravated : and will be made as perfectly blef fed to all eternity, as if they had fulfilled all righteoufnefs in their own perfons, through the longest and moft trying space of probation. They might be fo delivered from all evils, and made thus happy, on their first cordially embracing the gofpel, notwithstanding the original curfe of the law. From that curfe, Chrift hath fully redeemed them. If they die in a moment after they have become his willing difciples and fubjects, they are then made perfect in holinefs, and immediately pafs into glory. But, for wife reafons-(for the good of others, and their own greater good, and for the fuller manifeftation of the grace and power of God,) it is fo ordered, that while they continue in this world, they fhall be fanctified but in part; and that their tranfgreffion fhall be vifited with the rod, and their iniquity with ftripes. Thefe, though merciful corrections, are real punishments; and what they would neither receive nor deferve, had they a finlefs righteoufnefsproperly their own. It is alfo appointed to them, in common with other men, once to die; and that their bodies fhall fleep in the grave until the general refurrection. Chrift is, nevertheless, made of God unto them rightcoufnefs, in regard to their infal-putation. lible final juftification, from the first moment of their receiving him, and confenting to be his. "He that believeth hath everlast-rael fhall dwell safely; and this is ing life, and fhall not come into his name whereby he shall be called, condemnation." That is, fhall The Lordour righteousness." And never be liable to the curfe of the 1 John i. 9. "If we confefs our Jaw, or the wrath to come. fins, he is faithful and juft to forAnd now, what can any hum-give us our fins, and to cleanfe us ble Christian wish for more? His from all unrighteousness.” falvation is as certain, as if it were made a matter of abfolute debt to him." If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his fon; much more, being reconciled, we fhall I think not. Only making a be faved by his life. He that very reasonable allowance for the fpared not his own fon, but deliv- ftrong language of prophetic fcripered him up for us all, how shall 'ture, and no more need be underVOL. I. No. 10. Y y he not with him also freely give us all things?" Nor are those who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us, left to argue out the certainty of their falvation, merely from the grace of God,. and from what he hath already done for them. He has, moreover, given them his word and his oath; that by these two immutable things, they might have strong confolation. "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, fays David, ordered in all things and fure; for all my falvation, and all my defire." And indeed, beyond fuch ample security, what can be defired by any one, who is willing to be faved by grace, and to walk humbly with God? If any reliance can be placed on his goodness, already fo wonderfully manifefted, or on his promise and oath, why fhould we want to have a demand upon his juftice, for all our falvation, on the ground of a full and perfect, though imputed, felf-righteoufness. But are there not several texts which feem favorable to this explo⚫ ded high notion of merit by im Those two, that I think of, which have often been fo improved: Jer. xxiii. 6. "In his days Judah fhall be faved, and If Must not the first of these paffages imply, that the merit of Chrift is fo transferred to his people, or fo held in common by them, or to be really their merit? |