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

All this runs upon a mistake,¹ that Christ cannot be a Surety, unless he be such after the manner of men; the Suretyship of Christ is not to be measured by humane Laws, unto which (because variant among themselves no less, I suppose, in points of Suretyship than in other things) it cannot possibly correspond; but it is to be measured by the holy Scriptures, which set forth his undertaking and satisfying our debts in a way of superlative Excellency above all the Sureties in the world. Among men, notwithstanding the Surety, the Debtor is Debtor still: But Christ hath ⟨p. 422⟩as our Surety made such a plenary Satisfaction on our behalf, that if we receive him by Faith, we are Debtors no longer, all our debts are crossed and blotted out of Gods Book. Among men the Surety, having made payment, may have his Action against the Debtor, and ordinarily he seeks to reimburse himself; But our heavenly Surety seeks no such matter; he knows, that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth are not able to repay him what he hath laid down for us, neither if they could, doth he desire it; but on the contrary he woes and beseeches men to come in to him, that their Debts may not be charged on them by the Law for want of embracing the Gospel. If upon the escape of the Prisoner, the Bail be punished, yet is not the Prisoner quitted: But our Surety Christ, did not suffer as a Bail doth upon escape, upon accident or contingency, but upon absolute and irrevocable certainty, such as could not be avoided, and he suffered so in our room and stead; and his Satisfaction is so far reckoned or imputed to us, that upon our believing there is not, there cannot be any condemnation to us, or satisfaction required of us for ever. In Suretyship for the Behaviour, ⟨p. 423⟩the Virtues of the Surety are not accounted to him for whom he is Surety: But the Payment and Satisfaction of Christ our Surety is upon Gospel-terms so imputed and made over to us, that the Law or Justice of God cannot demand a second Payment and Satisfaction from us: Hence it appears, that Christ and we are one person in Law, that his Payment and Satisfaction is reckoned as ours. And what matters it, if humane Laws are strangers to imputed Righteousness, it suffices us, that this Mystery is founded on the holy Scripture.