i 36 cí1Declarationof the GloriousMy s T ERi ftanding, or the compafs of imagination. And in every one of them there was fomething reduftively infinite, as committed againft an infinite Majefty, The iniferies which hereon all thefe perfons were obfióxious unto, were infinite, becaufe eternal ; or all that evil which our nature is capable to fuffer, was by them all eternally to be undergone. By all thefe perfons, in all thefe fins, there was an inrode made on the rule and government of God, an affront given unto his juftice in the violation of his law. Nor can anyof them be delivered from the confequents hereof in eternal mi- fery without a compenfationand fatisfaftion made unto the juftice of God. To affert the contrary, is to fuppofe that upon the matter, it is all one to him whether he be óbeyed or difobeyed, whether he be honoured or dif- bonoured in and by his. creatures, And this is all one as to denyhis very being; feeing it oppofeth the glory of his effential properties. Now to to fuppofe that á nicer man by his temporary fuffering of external pains, fhould make fatisfa&ion untothe juftice of God for all the fins ofall thefe perfons foas it fhould be right and juft with him, not only to fave and deliver them fromall the evils they were liable unto, but alfo to bring them unto life and glory, is to conftitute a mediation between God and man that fhould confift in appearance and oftentation, andnot be an effeft ofdivine wifdom, righteoufnefs and holinefs, nor haveits foundation in thenatureand equityof things themfelves. For the thingsfuppofed will not be reduced unto any rules ofjuftice orproportion, that one ofthemMould be conceived in any fenfe to anfwer unto the other i that is, there is nothing which anfwers any rule, notions or conceptions of juftice; nothing that might be exemplary un- to men in the punifhment of crimes, that the fins of an infinite number of men, deferving every one of them eternal death, fhouldbe expiated by the temporary fufferings ofone meer roan, fo as to demonftrate the righteoufnefs of God in the punifhment of fin. But God doth not do thefe things for Thew or appearance, but according unto the real exigence of the holy pro= perties of his nature. And on that fuppofition there muff be a proportion between the things themfelves, namely, the fufferings ofone, and the de- liverance ofall. Norcould the faithofman ever find a stable foundation to fix upon on the fuppofition before mentioned. No faith is able to conflift with this objection, that the fufferings of one sneer man fhould be accep- ted with God as a juft compenfation for the fins of the whole church. Men who in things of this nature fatisfy themfelves with notions and fan- cies may digeft fuch fuppofitions. But thofe who make ufe of faith for their own deliveryfrom under a covidion of fin, the nature and demerit of it, with a fenfe of the wrath of God, and the curfe of the law againft it, can find no relief in fuch notions or apprehenlions. But it became the wifdom of God, in the difpenfation of himfelf herein unto the church fo to order things, as that faith might have an immoveable rock to build upon. This alone it bath in the perfon of Chrift, God and man, his obedi- ence and fufferings. Wherefore thofe bywhom thedivine nature ofthe Lord Chrift is denied, do all of them abfolutely.deny alfo that he made any fatisfaftion unto divine jultice for fin. They will rather fwallow all the abfurdities which the abfolutedifmillion of fin without fatisfaftion or punifhment doth bring alongwith it, than grant that a meer mancould make any fuch fatisfaftion by his temporary fufferings for the fins of the world. And on the other hand, whoever loth truly and fincerely believe the di- vine perfon of Chrift, namely, that he was God and man in one perfon, and as fuch a perfon afted in the whole work of mediation, he cannot fhut . his eyes againft the glorious light of this truth, that what he didand fuffer- ed in that work, -muff have an. intrinfick worth and excellency in it, out ballancinp
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