Page:A Treatise of the Covenant of Grace (John Ball).djvu/298

 286

The sin of crucifying Christ was the sin of the Jewes in that age alone, and yet wrath is come upon them to the uttermost, even unto this day, Matth. 27. 25. 1 Thes. 2. 16. vid. 1 King. 21. 21. and 14. 10. Judg. 9. 56. 1 King. 2. 33. Jer. 22. 30. And if it be not unjust to punish one for anothers fault, and grant impunity to the offendour, it is not unjust to punish the innocent for those faults, which are remitted to the guilty, 2 King. 8. 9, 10. 1 King. 21. 21. For it is essentiall to punishment that it should be inflicted for sinne, but not that it should be inflicted upon him that hath offended.

Thirdly, that an innocent person may thus in justice and equity suffer for a nocent, there is required (besides the acts of ordination in the supreme, of submission in the suretie, and of consent in the delinquent) first, an intimate and neere conjunction in him that suffereth, with those that should have suffered. Severall unions and conjunctions there are, as Politicke between the members and subjects in a state: and thus the people were punished for Davids sin. 2 Sam. 24. 14, 17. and in a common-wealth universally sinfull, a few righteous men may as parts of that sinfull society be justly subject to those temporary evils, which the sins of that society have contracted. See 1 Sam. 12. 25. Naturall, as between parents and children, so the Lord visited the sins of Dathan upon his little ones. Numb. 16. 27, 33. ''Valer. Max. de Dion. Siculo. Plutarch. de sera Num. vindict. Mysticall, as between man and wife, so the Lord punished the sins of Amaziah the Priest of Bethel, by giving over his wife unto whoredome, Amos'' 7. 17. And we see in many cases the Husband is liable to be charged and censured for the exorbitancies of his wife. Stipulatorie and by consent, as in the case of fide jussores & obsides, who are punished for the sins of others whom they represent, and in whose place they stand as a caution and muniment against injuries which might be feared, as we see in the Parable of a Prisoner committed to the custody of another person. 1 King. 20. 39, 42. So the surety is punished for the debtor. Possessorie, as between a man and his goods, and so we find that a man was to offer no beast for a sin-offering, but that which was his own. Lev. 5. 6, 7. Besides, there is required in the innocent person suffering, that he have a free and full dominion over that from which he parteth, in his suffering for another. As in suretiship, a man hath free dominion over his money, and