Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…

2. To suppose that all that Christ does is only to make Atonement for us by suffering, is to make him our Saviour but in Part. 'Tis to rob him of half his Glory as a Saviour. For if so, all that he does is to deliver us from Hell, he don't purchase Heaven for us. The adverse Scheme supposes that he purchases Heaven for us, in this Sense, that he satisfies for the imperfections of our Obedience, and so purchases that our sincere imperfect Obedience might be accepted as the Condition of eternal Life; and so purchases an opportunity for us to obtain Heaven by our own Obedience. But to purchase Heaven for us, only in this Sense, is to purchase it in no Sense at all; for all of it comes to no more than a Satisfaction for our Sins, or removing the Penalty by suffering in our stead: For all the purchasing they speak of, that […] imperfect Obedience should be accepted, is only his satisfying ⟨p. 64⟩for the sinful imperfection of our Obedience, or (which is the same Thing) making Atonement for the Sin that our Obedience is attended with. But that is not purchasing Heaven, merely to set us at Liberty again, that we may go, and get Heaven by what we do our selves: all that Christ does is only to pay a Debt for us; there is no positive Purchase of any Good.—We are taught in Scripture that Heaven is purchased for us, 'tis called the purchased Possession, Eph. 1. 14. The Gospel proposes the eternal Inheritance, not to be acquired, as the first Covenant did, but as already acquired and purchased: But he that pays a Man's Debt for him, and so delivers him from Slavery, can't be said to purchase an Estate for him, merely because he sets him at Liberty, so that henceforward he has an opportunity to get an Estate by his own hand Labour. So that according to this Scheme, the Saints in Heaven have no Reason to thank Christ for purchasing Heaven for 'em, or redeeming them to God, and making them King's and Priest's, as we have an Account that they do in Rev.5. 9

2. To suppose that all that Christ does is only to make Atonement for us by suffering, is to make him our Saviour but in Part. 'Tis to rob him of half his Glory as a Saviour. For if so, all that he does is to deliver us from Hell, he don't purchase Heaven for us. The adverse Scheme supposes that he purchases Heaven for us, in this Sense, that he satisfies for the imperfections of our Obedience, and so purchases that our sincere imperfect Obedience might be accepted as the Condition of eternal Life; and so purchases an opportunity for us to obtain Heaven by our own Obedience. But to purchase Heaven for us, only in this Sense, is to purchase it in no Sense at all; for all of it comes to no more than a Satisfaction for our Sins, or removing the Penalty by suffering in our stead: For all the purchasing they speak of, that imperfect Obedience should be accepted, is only his satisfying