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

There was an absolute [Greek or Hebrew] upon his Death and Sufferings, Matth. 16.21. and how could he be saved harmless against the Decree of Heaven? Nay, if if he could, he would not; when Peter would have had him spare himself, he calls Peter, Satan, one who in that particular savoured not the things of God. Thus we see, Christ is a Surety in a way of Excellency above humane Sureties. But saith the Author, Christ died for us, not as our Surety, but as our Sacrifice: To which I answer, Christ died for us as a Sacrifice, but he died for us as a Surety too; no one Notion can take in all the Excellencies of his Death: Though the Essentials of his Suretyship lay in his undertaking to satisfy for us, yet the Satisfaction it self was a just necessary consequent of it: As he offered up himself for us, so he died for us as a Sacrifice; and as he undertook to satisfy for us, so he died for us as a Surety. ⟨p. 417⟩But to pass on with the Author: If Christ died for us as a Surety, yet did he fulfil all Righteousness for us as a Surety too? Was there ever such a Surety heard of among men, that one man should discharge all Offices of Piety, Virtue, Justice, Temperance in stead of another? Such a man must have been called not a Surety, but a Proxy; but humane Laws admit no such Proxies; these are personal Duties, which none can perform for us; no external Relation can make the Righteousness of another ours; the Righteousness of another can never be our personal Righteousness, unless we become one person with him: Thus the Author: To which I answer; Here the Author makes a great wonder at Imputed Righteousness; Was there ever such a Surety heard of among men? saith he: To which I answer, Socinus makes as great a wonder at the imputation of sin to Christ: Ego sanè non video quid absurdius aut iniquius dici potuerit, quàmjure alicui posse aliena peccata imputari; I see nothing (saith he) more absurd or unequal than that the sins of one man should be imputed to another: Yet for all this our Divines do maintain, that our sins were imputed to Christ; and indeed there can ⟨p. 418⟩be no Satisfaction without it. The Author here complains, that Christ should be a Surety to fulfil all Righteousness for us, and so that Righteousness should be imputed to us; but if the sin of one man may be imputed to another, why not his Righteousness?