The Fountain of Life Opened

To object (as some do) the satisfaction of Christ was more than sufficient,¹ according to our Doctrine, and therefore could not be intended for the payment of our debt, is a senseless cavil. For surely if Christ paid more than was owing, he must needs pay all that was owing to divine Justice. And truly it is but a bad requital of the Love of Jesus Christ, who beside the payment of what we owed, would manifest his bounty, by the redundancy of his merit, which he paid to God to purchase a blessed inheritance for us. This overplus of satisfaction (which was the price of that inheritance I am now to open) is not obscurely hinted, but plainly expressed twice in Rom. 5.15. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift; for if through the offence of one, many be dead, [Greek or Hebrew]. much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace; which is by one man Jesus Christ [Greek or Hebrew], hath abounded, or flowed abundantly unto many. So vers. 17. For if by one mans offence, death reigned by one; [Greek or Hebrew] much more they which receive [Greek or Hebrew] the overflowings, or abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life, by one, Jesus Christ. ²In both which places Christ and Adam are compared as the two roots or common heads of mankind; both agreeing in this property of communicating their conditions to those that are theirs; yet there is a great deal of difference betwixt them, for in Christ the power is all divine, and therefore infinitely more active, and effectual. He communicates abundantly more to his, than they lost in Adam. So that this blood is not only sufficient to redeem all those that are actually redeemed by it, but even the whole world also. And were there so many worlds of men, as there are men in the world, it would be sufficient for them also; and yet still there would be an overplus of value. For all those worlds of men would rise but to a finite bulk; but this blood ⟨p. 182⟩is infinite in its worth and dignity.³ Since then there is not a whole world, no not half, but the far less part of the world redeemed by the blood of Christ; which was sufficient for so many: how great must be the surplusage, and redundancy of merit! Here our Divines rightly distinguish betwixt the substance, and accidents of Christs death and obedience.