Christ did not come to engage, or undertake as a Mediator, that we should perfectly in our own Persons, keep the Moral Law, and so be Justified in God's Sight; nor did he come to undertake that we should sincerely keep any other Law to that end; much less, leave us to the exercise of our Natural, or Spiritual Abilities, to keep such a Law, as the Condition of our Justification, and Acceptation with God; but he came to procure for us such a Righteousness by his own Obedience and Suffering, that the Holiness, Justice, and Law of God doth require of us if we are Justified with God, for what the Law could not do, 1in that it was weak through the Flesh, God sent forth his Son, &c. Tis ⟨p. 79⟩a hard case, my Brethren, that these degenerate Presbyterians, or any pretending to be Gospel-Preachers, should deny Christ to be a Common Head and Surety for the Elect; for he that dies in the stead and room of others, is by the consent of the Law-giver substituted in their Law place, and so takes upon him the Capacity of a Surety, Representative, or common Person, undertaking to do, and suffer what others should, but these Men deny this Relation or Capacity of Christ as a Surety, in this Sense, and therefore deny he obeyed and died in our stead. And from hence it follows also that Christ did not do that for us, which our own Perfect Obedience did do, whilst Man stood, and would have done, had he not sinned, i. e. Justified him, or have given him a Title to Life.
Christ did not come to engage, or undertake as a Mediator, that we should perfectly in our own Persons, keep the Moral Law, and so be Justified in God's Sight; nor did he come to undertake that we should sincerely keep any other Law to that end; much less, leave us to the exercise of our Natural, or Spiritual Abilities, to keep such a Law, as the Condition of our Justification, and Acceptation with God; but he came to procure for us such a Righteousness by his own Obedience and Suffering, that the Holiness, Justice, and Law of God doth require of us if we are Justified with God, for what the Law could not do, 1in that it was weak through the Flesh, God sent furth his Son, &c. Tis ⟨p. 79⟩a hard case, my Brethren, that these degenerate Presbyterians, or any pretending to be Gospel-Preachers, should deny Christ to be a Common Head and Surety for the Elect; for he that dies in the stead and room of others, is by the consent of the Law-giver substituted in their Law place, and so takes upon him the Capacity of a Surety, Representative, or common Person, undertaking to do, and suffer what others should, but these Men deny this Relation or Capacity of Christ as a Surety, in this Sense, and therefore deny he obeyed and died in our stead. And from hence it follows also that Christ did not do that for us, which our own Perfect Obedience did do, whilst Man stood, and would have done, had he not sinned, i. e. Justified him, or have given him a Title to Life.
- 1Rom. 8.2, 3
