The Doctrine of Justification by Faith

1. The Lord Christ our Mediator and Surety was in his Humane Nature made [Greek or Hebrew] under the Law, Gal. 4.1. That he was not so for himself by the necessity of his Condition, we have proved before. It was therefore for us. But as made under the Law, he yielded Obedience unto it; this therefore was for us, and is imputed unto us. The exception of the Socinians that it is the Judicial Law only that is intended, is too frivolous to be insisted on. For he was made under that Law whose Curse we are delivered from. And if we are delivered only from the Curse of the Law of Moses, wherein they contend that there was neither Promises nor Threatening of eternal things, of any thing beyond this present life, we are still in our Sins, under the Curse of the Moral Law, notwithstanding all that he hath done for us. It is excepted with no colour of sobriety, that he was made under the Law only as to the Curse of it. But it is plain in the Text, that Christ was made under the Law as we are under it. He was made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law. And if he was not made so as we are, there is no consequence from his being made under it, unto our Redemption from it. But we were so under the Law, as not only to be obnoxious unto the Curse, but so as to be obliged unto all the Obedience that it required, as hath been proved. And if the Lord Christ hath redeemed us only from the Curse of it by undergoing it, leaving us in our selves to answer its Obligation unto Obedience, we are not freed nor delivered. And the Expression of under the Law doth in the first place and properly signify being under the obligation of it unto Obedience, and consequentially only with a respect unto the Curse. Gal. 4.21. Tell me ye that desire to be [Greek or Hebrew] ⟨p. 393⟩under the Law; They did not desire to be under the Curse of the Law, but only its Obligation unto Obedience; which in all usage of Speech, is the first proper sense of that Expression. Wherefore the Lord Christ being made under the Law for us, he yielded perfect Obedience unto it for us, which is therefore imputed unto us. For that what he did, was done for us, depends solely on Imputation.

1. The Lord Christ our Mediator and Surety was in his Humane Nature made 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 under the Law,