The Son of God hath emptied all the treasures of his love, to purchase deliverance for guilty and wretched captives; he hath passed through so many pains and thorns to come and offer it to them; he solicits them to receive pardon and liberty, upon the conditions of acceptance and amendment, which are absolutely necessary to qualify them for felicity: now if they slight the benefit and renounce their redemption, if they sell themselves again under the servitude of sin and gratify the devil with a new conquest over them, what a bloody cruelty is this to their own souls, and a vile indignity to the Lord of glory! And are there any servile spirits so charmed with their misery, and so in love with their chains, who will stoop under their cruel captivity, to be reserved for eternal punishment! Who can believe it? But, alas, examples are numerous and ordinary. The most, by a folly as prodigious as their ingratitude, prefer their sins before their Saviour, and love that which is the only just object of hatred, and hate him who is the most worthy object of love. It is a most astonishing consideration, that love should persuade Christ to die for men, and that they should trample upon his blood, and choose rather to die by themselves, than to live by him! that God should be so easy to forgive, and man so hard to be forgiven! This is a sin of that transcendent height, that all the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah are not equal to it. This exasperates mercy, that dear and tender attribute, the only advocate in God's bosom for us. This makes the judge irreconcilable. The rejecting of life upon the gracious terms of the gospel, makes the condemnation of men most just, certain, and heavy.

1. Most just for when Christ hath performed what was necessary for the expiation of sin, and hath opened the throne of grace, which was before shut against us, and by this God hath declared how willing he is to save sinners; if they are wilful to be damned, and frustrate the blessed methods of grace, it is most equal they should inherit their own choice: "they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life." Conscience will justify the severest doom against them.

2. It makes their condemnation certain and final. The sentence of the law is reversible by an appeal to a higher court; but that of the gospel against the refusers of mercy will remain in its full force forever. "He that believeth not, is condemned already," John iii. 18. It is some consolation to a malefactor, that the sentence is not pronounced against him; but an unbeliever hath no respite. The gospel assures the sincere believer, that "he shall not enter into condemnation," to prevent his fears of an after sentence; but it denounces a present doom against those who reject it. "The wrath of God abideth on them." Obstinate infidelity sets beyond all possibility of pardon; there is no sacrifice for that sin. Salvation itself cannot save the impenitent infidel; for he excludes the only means whereby mercy is conveyed. How desperate then is the case of such a sinner. what sanctuary will he fly? All the other attributes condemn-him; holiness excites justice, and justice awakens power for his destruction; and if mercy interpose not between him and ruin, he must perish irrecoverably. Whoever loveth not the Lord Christ, is anathema maranatha;" he is under an irrevocable curse, which the Redeemer will confirm at his coming.

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3. Wilful neglect of redeeming mercy aggravates the sentence, and brings an extraordinary damnation upon sinners. Besides the doom of the law which continues in its vigour against transgressors, the gospel adds a more heavy one against the impenitent," because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God," John iii. 18. Infidelity is an outrage, not to a man or an angel, but to the eternal Son; for the redemption of souls is reckoned as a part of his reward; "He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied," Isa. liii. 11. Those therefore who spurn at salvation, deny him the honour of his sufferings; and are guilty of the defiance of his love, of the contempt of his clemency, of the provocation of the most sensible and severe attribute when it is incensed. This is to strike him at the heart, and to kick against his bowels. This increases the anguish of his sufferings, and imbitters the cup of his passion. This renews his sorrows, and makes his wounds bleed

afresh. Dreadful impiety, that exceeds the guilt of the Jews. They once killed him, being in his humble, inglorious state, but this is a daily crucifying him now glorified. Ungrateful wretches, that refuse to bring glory to their Redeemer, and blessedness to themselves; that choose rather that the accuser should triumph in their misery, than their Saviour rejoice in their felicity! This is the great condemnation, that Christ came into the world to save men from death, and they refuse the pardon, John iii. 19. It is an aggravation of sin above what the devils are capable of, for pardon was never offered to those rebellious spirits. In short; so deadly a malignity there is in it, that it poisons the gospel itself, and turns the sweetest mercy into the sorest judgment. The Sun of righteousnes, who is a reviving life to the penitent believer, is "a consuming fire" to the obdurate. How much more tolerable had been the condition of such sinners, if saving grace had never appeared unto men, or they had never heard of it! for the degrees of wrath shall be in proportion to the riches of neglected goodness. The refusing of life from Christ, makes us guilty of his death. And when he shall come in his glory and be visible to all that pierced him, what vengeance will be the portion of those who despised the majesty of his person, the mystery of his compassions and sufferings ! Those that lived and died in the darkness of heathenism, shall have a cooler climate in hell than those who neglect the great salvation.

CHAPTER XII.

THE JUSTICE OF GOD IN REDEMPTION

THE Deity in itself is simple and pure, without mixture or variety the scripture ascribes attributes to God for our clearer understanding. And those as essential in him are simply one: they are distinguished only with respect to the divers objects on which they are terminated, and the different effects that proceed from them.

The two great attributes which are exercised towards reasonable creatures in their lapsed state, are mercy and justice. These admirably concur in the work of our redemption. Although God spared guilty man for the honour of his mercy, yet he "spared not his own Son," who became a surety for the offender, but delivered him up to a cruel death for the glory of his justice.

For the clearer understanding of this, three things are to be considered:

I. The reasons why we are redeeemed by the satisfaction of justice;

II. The reality of the satisfaction made by our Redeemer :

III. The completeness and perfection of it.

1. Concerning the first, there are three different opinions among those who acknowledge the reality of satisfaction.

The first opinion is that it is not possible that sin should be pardoned without satisfaction; for justice being a natural and necessary excellency in God, hath an unchangeable respect to the qualities which are in the creatures; that as the divine goodness is necessarily exercised towards a creature perfectly holy, so justice is in punishing the guilty, unless a satisfaction intervene. And if it be not possible, considering the perfection of the Deity, that holiness should be unrewarded, far less can it be, that sin should be unpunished; since the exercise of justice, upon which punishment depends, is more necessary than that of goodness, which is the cause of remuneration; for the rewards which bounty dispenses, are pure favour, whereas the punishments which justice inflicts, are due. In short; since justice is a perfection, it is in God in a supreme degree, and being infinite, it is inflexible. This opinion is asserted by several divines of eminent learning.

The second opinion is, that God, by his absolute dominion and prerogative, might have released the sinner from punishment without any satisfaction: for, as by his sovereignty he transferred the punishment from the guilty to the innocent, so he might have forgiven sin, if no Redeemer had interposed. From hence it follows,

that the death of Christ for the expiation of sin, was necessary only with respect to the divine decree.

The third opinion is, that considering God in this transaction, as qualified with the office of supreme Judge and Governor of the world, who hath given just laws to direct his creatures in their obedience, and to be the rule of his proceedings with them as to rewards and punishments, he hath so far restrained the exercise of his power, that upon the breach of the law, either it must be executed upon the sinner, or if extraordinarily dispensed with, it must be upon such terms as may secure the ends of government; and those are his own honour, and public order, and the benefit of those that are governed. And upon these accounts it was requisite, supposing the merciful design of God to pardon sín, that his righteousness should be declared in the sufferings of Christ. I will distinctly open this.

In the law, the sovereignty and holiness of God eminently appear and there are two things in all sins which expose the offender justly to punishment ;-a contempt of God's sovereignty, and in that respect there is a kind of equality between them. He that offends in one point, is guilty of all, they being ratified by the same authority, Jam. ii. 10. And from hence it is, that guilt is the natural passion of sin, that always adheres to it; for as God has a judicial power to inflict punishment upon the disobedient by virtue of his sovereignty, so the desert of punishment arises from the despising of it in the violation of his commands. In every sin there is a contrariety to God's holiness. And in this the natural turpitude of sin consists, which is receptive of degrees. From hence arises God's hatred of sin, which is as essential as his love to himself: the infinite purity and rectitude of his nature, infers the most perfect abhorrence of whatever is opposite to it. "The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, but the wicked his soul hateth," Psalm xi. 5, 7.

Now the justice of God is founded in his sovereignty and in his holiness; and the reason why it is exercised against sin, is not an arbitrary constitution, but his holy nature, to which sin is repugnant.