2 5 8 The Nature of Chr tPs Suretifhip. accordingly this undertaking is afcribed unto that love which he exercifed herein, Gal. 2. 20. i 7oh. 3. 16. Rev. i. 5. And there was this in it moreover, that he took upon him our nature or the Seed of Abraham,wherein he was our Surety. So that although we neither did nor could appoint him fo to be,yet he took f ór.ß ur, that wherein and whereby he was fo, which is as much as if we had defigned him unto his work, as to the true Reafon of his being our Surety. Wherefore notwithífanding thofe antecedent Tranfa &ions that were be- tween the Father and him in this matter, it was the voluntary Engagement of himfelf to be our Surety, and his taking our mature upon him for that end, which was the formal Reafon of his being enflated in that Office. It is indeed weak and contrary unto all common experi- 'ence , that none can be a Surety for others, unlefs thofe others defign him and appoint him fo to be. The principal infrances of Suretithip'in the World, have been by the vo- luntary undertaking of fuch as were no way procured fo to 'do by them for whom they undertook. And in fuch under- 'takings he unto Whom it is made, is no lefs confidered, than they for whom it is made. As when Judah on his own ac- cord became a Surety for Benjamin, he had as much refpe& tinto the fàtisfa &ion of his Father, as the fafety of his 'Bro- ther. And fo the Lord Chrift, in his undertaking to be a Surety for us, had refpé& unto the Glory of God before our fafety. 2. We may confider the Arguments whence it is evident that he neither was, nor could be a Surety unto irc for God, but was fo for ire unto God. For I. or 47.45 a Surety, is one that undertaketh for another wherein he is defe1ive really orin Reputation. What - ever that undertaking be, whether in words of Promife, or in depofiting of real fecurity in the hands of an Arbitrator, . ctr by any other perfonal Engagement of life and body, it refpes
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