Page:Believer exalted in imputed righteousness.pdf/6

 until juſtice be ſatisfied, and the honour of the broken law be repaired; the law and juſtice of God are very peremptory, and ſtand upon a full ſatisfaction and reparation, otherwiſe heaven's gate ſhall be ſhut, and eternally barred againſt man and all his poſterity. The flaming ſword of juſtice turns every way, to keep us from acceſs unto the paradiſe that is above.

3dly, While man in theſe circumſtances was expecting nothing but to fall an eternal ſacrifice unto divine juſtice, the eternal Son of God, in his infinite love and pity to periſhing ſinners, ſteps in as a Mediator and Surety; offering not only to take our nature, but to take our law-place, to ſtand in our room and ſtead; whereby the whole obligation of the law, both penal and preceptive, did fill upon him: That is, he becomes liable and obliged both to fulfil the command, and to endure the curſe of the covenant of works, which we had violated. And here by the way, it is fit to advertiſe you, that it was an act of amazing grace in the Lord Jehovah, to admit a Surety in our room; for, had he ſtood to the rigour and ſeverity of the law, he would have demanded a perſonal ſatisfaction, without admitting of the ſatisfaction of a ſurety: In which caſe, Adam and all his poſterity had fallen under the ſtroke of avenging juſtice, through eternity. But glory to God, in the higheſt, who not only admitted of a ſurety, but provided one, and laid help upon one that is mighty.

4thly, Chriſt, the eternal Son of God, being in the fulness of time made of a woman, and made under the law, as our ſurety, he actually,