The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace

Now here is a judicial and a Law-act of suretyship put upon Christ. 1. He was made Surety,¹ then he was not Surety by nature, but so made by a free transaction and Covenant. For in Christs coming under that act, when he was made Surety, there be two things: 1. His eternal condescending to take on him our nature, and to empty himself and be a servant. 2. His agreeing and plighting of his faith and truth to take on our condition in Law, that God should lay upon him the iniquity of us all, Isa. 53.6. and that God should make him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, [Greek or Hebrew], in our Law, place and room, 2 Cor. 5.21. not against his Fathers will, nor yet without his own free consent. That is against all reason: For that which God made Christ, that he was not by nature, but that God willingly made him, and that he was willingly and by free Covenant made. But God gave him a body, Heb. 7.5. and God made him sin, [Greek or Hebrew], 2 Cor. 5.11. So a Surety is one that promises to satisfy for another, and comes from a Verb which signifies to promise by striking of hands, Prov. 22.26. Be not thou among them that strike hands, or, of them that are surety for debts. The Seventy, give not thy self, [Greek or Hebrew], as a Surety. Aries Montan. Inter percutientes fide jubendo. ²The Verb in the Hebrew is from a root that signifies to mix together: as the owl light, when light and darkness after the Sun-set are mixed together. And by a Metaphor it notes suretyship and mixture of persons, as M. Legh: when one is tied for ⟨p. 322⟩another, and mixed with him in his place. As Christ put himself in the bond and writ of blood that we were in:³ We were in the Law-writ,