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

No man in his wits would be Surety for another, when he knew beforehand, that, if he did, he must pay the debt: Men become Sureties upon assurance not to suffer injury by it: Thus the Author: To which I answer, Sureties are usually bound to pay in case of the Debtors default, but it is not at all material or essential to Suretyship, whether the Debtor be solvent or not; it is not the Debtors sufficiency, but the Sureties own Act, which makes him a Surety; neither can a Surety, if prosecuted, plead this in Law, that the Debtor was a Non solvent at the time when he became Surety: But however it be with Sureties among men, Jesus Christ was a Surety after another rate than they are: Sureties among men undertake to pay the debt upon a mere contingency, that is, if the Debtor make default; but Christ undertook to satisfy for us, not upon contingency, but certainty: he was delivered [Greek or Hebrew], by a determinate Counsel; it was down in the ⟨p. 415⟩eternal Rolls, that he must make satisfaction for us, there was not the least Salvo, or Condition, or Contingency in it. No man in his wits will be a Surety for a known Non-solvent: But Christ was by his love to us so excordiated and ravished out of himself, that he would be Surety for us, though known utter Bankrupts, though under the [Greek or Hebrew], under a perfect impossibility to fulfil the Law or expiate the least breach of it: Nay, he would be a Surety for us, for this very reason, because he knew, that we were in a lost irrecoverable condition in our selves. The Surety doth not absolutely undertake the debt: But Christ our Surety did absolutely undertake to make Satisfaction, he was a Surety and a Redeemer both in one: As a Surety he paid down his Blood for satisfaction, and as a Redeemer he paid the same Blood for a price of Redemption. A Redeemer, we know, doth not depend on the Captive for paying the Ransom, but absolutely undertakes it himself; and so did Christ our Redeemer for us: And if as Redeemer he absolutely undertook to pay down his Blood for a price of Redemption, then as a Surety too, he absolutely undertook ⟨p. 416⟩to pay down the same Blood for satisfaction; otherwise his Redeemership and Suretyship could not possibly consist together. Sureties use to have assurance to save them harmless: But had Christ any? Or was any such thing possible? It pleased the Lord to bruise him, Isa. 53.10