An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

It is a strange definition of suretyship, That it is an absolute taking ⟨p. 308⟩the debt upon our selves, and an actual discharging the Debtor. No man in his wits ever became surety for another, when he knew before hand; that, if he did, he must pay the debt: but men become sureties upon reasonable assurance, that they shall suffer no injury by it: Therefore when Christ died for us, he did not dye as our Surety, but as our Sacrifice substituted in our room, which is the Scripture notion of it, and differs as much from the notion of a surety; as paying the debt doth from being bound with another, that it shall be paid: Suppose, secondly, That Christ dyed for us as our Surety; yet did Christ fulfil all Righteousness for us as our surety too? Doth this also exactly answer the case of suretyship among men, so as that there needs no illustration of it? The Doctor was so wise, that he would not assert this in the premisses, but very craftily thrusts it into the conclusion; That therefore God makes over our sins to Christ, and Christ's Righteousness and satisfaction to us: But was there ever such a surety heard of among men, that one man should discharge all offices of piety, virtue, justice, temperance instead of another? If such a thing had ever been, such a man ought not to have been called a surety, but a proxy: ⟨p. 409⟩But humane Laws, as many defects as there are in them, never admitted of such proxies; for these are personal duties, which none can perform for us; you may as well say, that a man may live and be a man by proxy, as discharge those duties, which are necessarily entailed on his person by a proxy. Proxies are allowable only in such cases, where the material enquiry is, whether the thing be done, not who doth it; but where the consideration of the person that doth it, is essential to the action; there is no place for a surety or proxy: because it doth not satisfy the Law, that the thing is done, unless it be done by such a person. Thus it is in all the duties of Piety and Religion; every individual person is bound to do them: Though there were never so many righteous men in the World, there righteousness can avail none but themselves; Nay, the righteousness of God, which is more than all the righteousness of men cannot make an unrighteous man righteous; no external Relation can make the righteousness of another ours;

It is a strange definition of suretiship, That it is an absolute taking