CHAPTER, VIII.

Imputation of the sins of the Church unto Christ. Grounds of it. The nature of his suretyship. Causes of the new covenant. Christ and the church one mystical Person; consequents thereof.

HOSE who believe the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto believers, for the justification of life, do also unanimously profess, that the sins of all believers were imputed unto Christ. And this they do on many testimonies of the Scripture, some whereof shall be pleaded and vindicated afterwards. At present we are only on the consideration of the general notion of these things, and the declaration of the nature of what shall be proved afterwards. And in the first place we shall inquire into the foundation of this dispensation of God, and the equity of it, or the grounds whereinto it is resolved, without an understanding whereof, the thing itself cannot be well apprehended.

The principal foundation hereof is, that Christ and the church, in this design, were one mystical person, which state they do factually coalesce in, through the uniting efficacy of the Holy Spirit. He is the head, and believers are the members of that one person, as the Apostle declares, I Cor. xii.

Imputation of the sins of the Church &c, 127

12, 13. Hence as what he did is imputed unto them, as if done by them, so what they deserved on the account of sin was charged on him. To this purpose Augustine thus speaks, "We hear the voice of the body from the mouth of the Head. The church suffered in him, when he suffered for the church; as he suffers in the church, when the church suffereth for him. For as we have heard the voice of the church in Christ-suffering, my God, my Lord why hast thou forsaken me: look upon me; so we have heard the voice of Christ in the churchsuffering, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me." And Cyprian on bearing about the elements of the Eucharist, " He bare us, or suffered in our person, when he bare our sins." Chrysostom, "We suffered in him." Eusebius also, expounding those words of the Psalmist, "Heal my soul, for," or as he would read them, “if I have sinned against Thee," and applying them to Christ in his sufferings; saith, "because he took of our sins to himself; communicated our sins to himself; making them his own." And in the following words he more fully expresses what I design to prove: "How then did He make our sins to be his own, and how did He bear our iniquities?" Is it not from thence, that we are said to be his body, as the Apostle speaks, you are the body of Christ, and members, for your part, or of one another; and as when one member suffers, all the members do suffer; so the many members, sinning and suffering. He according unto the laws of sympathy in the same body, (seeing that being the word of God, he would take the form of a servant, and be joined unto the common habitation of us all (in the same nature) took the sorrows or labours of the suffering members on him, and made all their infirmities his own, and according to the laws of humanity (in the same body) bare our sorrow and labour for us. And the lamb of God did not only these things for us, but he underwent torments, and was punished for us; that which he was no ways exposed unto for himself, but we were so by the multitude of our sins; and thereby he became the cause of the pardon of our sins; name

ly, because he underwent death, stripes, reproaches, translating the thing which we had deserved unto himself; and was made a curse for us, taking unto himself the curse that was due to us; for what was he, but (a substitute for us) a price of redemption for our souls? In our person therefore the oracle speaks, whilst freely uniting himself unto us, and us unto himself, and making our (sins or passions his own) I have said Lord be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.

That our sins were transferred unto Christ and made his, that thereon he underwent the punishment that was due unto us for them and that the ground hereof, whereinto its equity is resolved, is the union between him and us, is fully declared in this discourse. So saith the learned and pathetical Author of the Homilies on Math, v. in the works of Chrysostom, Hom. 54. which is the last of them. In carne sua omnem carnem suscepit, crucifixus, omnem carnem crucifixit in se. He speaks of the church. So they speak often others of them; that he bare us, that he took us with him on the cross, that we were all crucified in him; as Prosper; He is not saved by the cross of Christ, who is not crucified in Christ. Resp. ad cap. Gal. cap. 9.

This then I say is the foundation of the imputation of the sins of the church unto Christ, namely, that he and it are one person, the grounds whereof we must inquire into.

But hereon various inquiries are made. What a person is, in what sense, and how many senses that word may be used; what is the true notion of it, what is a natural person, what a legal, civil, or politcal person; in the explication whereof some have fallen into mistakes. And if we should enter into this field, we need not fear matter enough of debate aud altercation. But I must needs say, that these things belong not unto our present occasion; nor is the union of Christ and the church illustrated, but obscured by them. For Christ and believers are neither one natural person, nor a legal or political person, nor any such person as the laws, customs, or

usages of men do know or allow of. They are one mystical person, whereof although there may be some imperfect resemblances found in natural or political unions, vet the union from whence that denomination is taken between him and us, is of that nature, and ariseth from such reasons and causes as no personal union among men, (or the union of many persons) hath any concernment in. And therefore as to the representation of it unto our weak understandings unable to comprehend the depth of heavenly mysteries, it is compared unto unions of divers kinds and natures. So is it represented by that of man and wife: not unto those mutual affections which give them only a moral union, but from the extraction of the first woman, from the flesh and bone of the first man, and the institution of God for the individual society of life thereon. This the Apostle at large declares, Ephes. v. 25. 26,-32. Whence he concludes, that from the union thus represented, we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bone, ver. 30. or have such a relation unto him, as Eve had to Adam, when she was made of his flesh and bone; and so was one flesh with him. So also it is compared unto the union of the head and members of the same natural body, 1 Cor. xii. 12. and unto a political union also between a ruling or political head, and its political members; but never exclusively unto the union of a natural head, and its members comprized in the same expression, Ephes. iv. 15. Col. ii. 19. And so also unto sundry things in nature as a vine and its branches, John, xv. 1, 2, 3. And it is declared by the relation that was between Adam and his posterity, by God's institution and the law of creation; Rom. v. 12, &c. And the Holy Ghost by representing the union that is between Christ and believers, by such a variety of resemblances, in things agreeing only in the common or general notion of union on various grounds, doth sufficiently manifest that it is not of, nor can be reduced unto any one kind of them. And this will yet be made more evident by the consideration of the causes of it, and the grounds whereinto it is resolved. But whereas it would re

quire much time and diligence to handle them at large, which the mention of them here being accasional, will not admit, I shall only briefly refer unto the heads of them.

I. The first cause of this union, lieth in that eternal compact that was between the Father and the Son, concerning the recovery and salvation of fallen mankind. Herein the assumption of our nature, the foundation of this union, was designed. The nature aud terms of this compact, counsel, and agreement, I have declared elsewhere, and therefore must not here again insist upon it. But the relation between Christ and the Church, proceeding from hence, and so being an effect of infinite wisdom in the counsel of the Father and Son, to be made effectual by the Holy Spirit, must be distinguished from all other unions or relations whatever.

2. The Lord Christ as unto the nature which he was to assume, was hereon predestinated unto grace and glory. He was foreordained, predestinated, before the foundation of the world; I Pet, i 20. That is, he was so as unto his office, so unto all the grace and glory required thereunto, and consequent thereon. All the grace and glory of the human nature of Christ, was an effect of free Divine preordination. God chose it from all eternity, unto a participation of all which it received in time. Neither can any other cause of the glorious exaltation of that portion of our nature, be assigned.

3. This grace and glory whereunto he was preordained, was twofold. (1.) That which was peculiar unto himself; (2.) That which was to be communicated, by and through him unto the church. Of the first sort was the grace of personal union, that single effect of Divine wisdom, (whereof there is no shadow nor resemblance in any other works of God, either of creation, providence, or grace) which his nature was filled withal. Full of grace and truth. And all his personal glory, power, authority, and majesty as mediator in his exaltation at the right hand of God, which is expressive of them all, doth belong hereunto. These things were peculiar unto him, and all of them effects of his eternal predestination.