in the Administration of these his Offices is not the Righteousness here spoken of for it is not unto and upon Believers that is it is not imputed to them nor is it upon them through Faith Christ administers his Prophetical Office righteously namely according to the Law thereof the command given him by his Father He discovers to us what he hath seen with and received of his Father for that end So he did when on Earth Joh. 1.18 and 3 32 34. and 5.19 and 8.38 and 12.49 50. And now he is in Heaven he goes by the same rule in revealing his Fathers Counsels to us Rev. 1.1 Both in Heaven and on Earth he speaks in righteousness Isa 63.1 Christ doth administer his Kingly-Office in Righteousness he gives Righteous Laws and Ordinances and Executes Righteous Judgments and Administers all the Affairs of the World and of his Church most Righteously Isa 32.1 He is a King that reigns in righteousness Psal 145.17 All his ways are holy and all his judgments just Rev. 15.3 and 16.5 7. The Judgments which he executeth on his Enemies and for his People are Holy and Just and he is True and Righteous in executing of them But this Righteousness of Christ in his Administring his Prophetical and Kingly Offices is not the Righteousness which here in the Text is said to be upon us For in his Prophetical and Kingly Administration he acts from God towards us but in bringing in this Righteousness which is upon us through Faith and wherein we stand justified he acts towards God for us which is the proper work of his Priestly-Office as the Apostle expresly declares and asserts Heb. 5.1 and Heb. 8.3 Some there are who say That the Righteousness of Christ which is upon us through Faith is his Mediatorial Righteousness but either they therein do mean the Righteousness which as a Priest he brings in before God for us or it is too wide an Expression None that I know of but Socinians or Semisocinians who do really deny the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us though they seem in words sometimes to own it do speak of the Imputation to us of any part of the Righteousness of Christ's Administring his Prophetical or Kingly Offices For the same reason for which I limit this Righteousness which is upon us through Faith to the Righteousness brought in by Christ as a Priest I conceive the Incarnation of Christ taken precisely as abstracted from the Condition that attended it all the days of his frailty is not a part of this Righteousness If any will needs call it a part of this Righteousness inasmuch as he therein did according to the Will of his Father and according to his own undertaking I would not much contend with them though the Expression be both unaccurate and insnaring But I can by no means grant it to be a part of this Righteousness For it is no part of the Humiliation of Christ or of his Satisfaction or of his Obedience to the precept of the Moral Law not of his Humiliation by his Humiliation I mean that Abased State of Christ which is contradistinguish'd and opposed to his Exaltation for his Humiliation was of the Whole Person in both Natures and the ground of it was our Sins being upon him as our Surety and ally'd in Blood to us and all the while he was in a State of Humiliation he was under the Curse But certainly Christ is not now under the Curse and yet he doth now dwell in our Nature in his State of Exaltation Nor is Christ's Incarnation a part of his Satisfaction For Satisfaction to speak properly is made to the Justice of God and the Demands thereof by Vertue of the Moral Law and not meerly to the Just and Righteous Will of God the Law-giver Satisfaction is a repaying and making amends for Wrong done and not barely a pleasing of the Will and Mind of him to whom Satisfaction is made and thence Satisfaction is the Fruit and Effect of Punishment But Christs dwelling in our Nature is no part of the Punishment of Sin for then the Divine Nature only is punished and not the Humane at all nor the Person Besides it may as justly be said to be a part of his Exaltation as of his Humiliation for the Humane Nature subsisting in Personal Union with the Divine hath an higher and better subsistence then any it could have had in subsisting by it self Nor Lastly Is it a part of his Obedience to the Precept of the Moral Law For the Law took not hold upon him he was not under it before his Incarnation and therefore could not be bound by it to become Incarnate For these and such like reasons Divines of very Subact and Accurate Judgments have denyed the Assumption of the Humane Nature to be any part of the Satisfaction or Humiliation of Christ So Bradshaw of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and Ames Med. Theol. l. 1. c. 20. Sect. 4. And I do the rather note it and desire it may be observ'd and taken in by you because some who have lookt upon Christ Incarnation as a part of his Humiliation have also deny'd any other manner of Imputation of his Righteousness than what agrees to and may be affirmed of his Incarnation Namely that it is for our behoof and benefit and that the Effects and Fruits of it are communicated to us but his Righteousness it self is not upon us according to them and is not imputed to us at all I will issue this point thus which also further clears it up There is a difference in the Nature of the things and distinction therefore to be made in our thoughts between the Incarnation of Christ and the Condition or Form of a Servant in which he did come and appear in our Flesh from the first moment of his assuming it until he enter'd on his estate of his Exaltation The assuming of our Nature was an Act of Love and Grace to us ward and great Condescension in the Son of God and it belongs to the Constitution of his Person as he now is and is one thing wherein consists his Fitness for that work of Mediation to which he was called and which he had undertaken But his subjection to the Law and his fulfilling it in the form of a Servant is that Righteousness brought in by him for us which is upon us through Faith Proposition IV. Among the performances of Christ as a Priest this Righteousness is his Sponsory Fide-jussory or Suretiship Righteousness viz. That Righ eousness which as our Surety he was obliged to bring in for us and did so I do thus bring down and confine this Righteousness of Christ which is upon us unto his Suretiship-righteousness which is somewhat narrower than the whole of Christs performances as a Priest because there are some things which Christ did as a Priest which yet cannot be said to be any part of this righteousness which is upon us As for instance Christ passed through all
Love this Grace of Christ should constrain you and make you thus judge That if one dyed for all then those all have dyed namely unto sin and he dyed that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again for their Justification and that they might rise unto newness of life 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Thus the Apostle Peter also argues pressing it upon Believers to be holy in all manner of conversation even as he who hath called you is holy And the ground upon which he inforceth it is this because they are redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ See 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 18 19. 2. You should walk humbly also as well as holily This God doth require Mic. 6.8 for you stand accepted not in your selves nor in any Works of Righteousness that you have done but wholly in the Righteousness of Christ that is upon you through Faith Therefore when you have done all and attained to the utmost you should still be humble and say you are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 For all your obedience and conformity to the Law avails no more to justifie you than your worst sins do and you should look on your best performances and your worst sins even with the same eye in the business of Justification Believers do own that all their best Righteousness is as to their Justification but as filthy rags Isa 64.6 and true Converts have the like and can have no worse thoughts of their worst sins Isa 30.22 Labour you should and abound in the work of the Lord not to work out a Righteousness to stand justified in before God No God forbid such a thought should ever be entertained by any Believer I do not think the Saints in Heaven would be willing to exchange and put off the Robe of Christs Righteousness to stand before God for acceptance in that perfect and spotless Holiness to which they have there attained Much less should any Believer be willing to stand and continue in a justified estate by his own imperfect defective and stained Obedience Neither indeed can I see how such a frame of Heart can be consistent with true Faith But obey you should because you have a Righteousness upon you in comparison and in competition wherewith the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised Obey therefore to the utmost but look away from it when you have so done Obey not to acquire or continue to your selves an interest in this Righteousness much less to be your Righteousness before God but that you may show forth the Praises of him who hath called you into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ 3. You should also walk comfortably and rejoysingly as well as holily and humbly For you are made accepted in the beloved Standing in this Righteousness having it upon you through Faith you may you should rejoyse and glory not in your selves on any performances of yours or Graces inhering in you but in the Lord in whom you have both Righteousness and Strength For the Lord hath sworn that in him should all the seed of Israel be justified and glory Isa 45.23 24 25. Having by Faith received the atonement you may glory even in his presence of whom you are in Christ Jesus who is of God made unto you Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption and you made the Righteousness of God in him that he that gloryeth should glory in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT THere are two Passages in the foregoing Sermons which have been exclaimed against publickly and privately by one that heard them not And I do believe he was angered by more than two For he is one that makes union to Christ our having this Righteousness upon us and our being justified by it to be given us in way of reward of something done by us and he is the man that makes the state of Believers to be undecided and in suspense during this Life Both which Errors are damning the former in its Nature and direct tendency the latter in its Grounds and Principles And whether he do not in truth disown the imputation of our Sins unto Christ and of his Righteousness unto us it is like if he live the VVorld will see more fully for he hath given such pregnant indications thereof as do amount to at least just cause of jealousie But touching these things he thought it best to keep silence and to fix his nails where he thought he had better advantage The one Point is pag. 7. That the Incarnation of Christ is no part of his Humiliation As to the truth of it as there laid down I shall say little more knowing it cannot be overthrown The whole stress of the matter lyes in those two words Incarnation and Humiliation how they are taken If the former be taken largely as comprising Christs taking both our Nature and the common sinless Frailties of it together with his being in the form of a servant and made under the Law I know not why it should be denyed to be a part of his Humiliation But if it be taken strictly for his dwelling in Flesh or Humane Nature comprehending under it both the act of assumption and the relation or union arising and effected thereby between the Humane Nature so assumed and the Person of the Son of God who did assume it neither the one nor the other of these neither the act of assuming nor the Union of the two Natures effected by it may be allowed to be any part of Christ's Humiliation For Humiliation is not in this argument to be taken laxly and improperly for any thing which hath Goodness or Grace in it as God's beholding things in Heaven and in Earth is said to be an humbling of himself Psal 113.6 So Christ might have been said to humble himself though he had never been Incarnate But in this subject Humiliation ought to be taken precisely for that which is proper and peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity which the Apostle calls his being in the form of a Servant or rather his being made under the Law Between which there may be conceived some difference for Christ is now in his state of Exaltation Gods Servant but he is not now under the Law as he was in the days of his Flesh and Frailty And taking these words thus it is far from being a singular conceit of mine that the Incarnation of Christ is not a part of his humiliation Mr. Bradshaw not only saith expresly Christ's assuming the Humane Nature cannot properly be said to be a part of his Humiliation but gives his reason for it of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and makes the Title of that Chapter to be this Christ that he might taken on him the guilt of sin was made man Whence it is evident that in his Judgment which is also the current Judgment of all Christians Christ's becoming Man was not the effect of the guilt of sin being on him but the way of his
the transaction between God and Christ concerning us without any thing done on us or in us or by us which cannot be said of the other for in it and indeed in order to the effecting it Christ lays hold on us Moreover the one I mean that which I call Vital Vnion is reciprocal or mutual in it not only we are in Christ but he is also in us Joh. 14.20 and 15.4 and 17.23 Colos 2.7 In this Union there is a mutual in-being between Christ and Believers But that other Union which I called Vnion in Law is not in like manner mutual for though we are said to be in Christ because of that publick capacity and common relation to us all that he stands in yet till the Vital Vnion between Christ and us is effected it cannot be said that he is in us And lastly these two Unions stand affected one to another as cause and effect The former namely that which I call Vnion in Law between Christ and us is the cause of the latter namely of our being brought into that Vital Vnion to him And hence the former is the rule and measure of the latter the latter is extended to all those and to those only who are comprised within the former and it is in the vertue and causal efficacy of the former that the latter is brought about and accomplished 6. Of this latter viz. Vital Vnion between Christ and us Faith is the means on our side Hence appears a further reason why it may well be called a Vital Union Both because in its effecting there is a vital touch as I may say between Christ and us and a clasping each on other and also because by and in this Union unto Christ we are brought immediately into a state of Spiritual Life first relative in Justification and Adoption and then and thereupon qualitative or transformative in Sanctification and Comfort which are Glory begun and shall be perfected hereafter Hence it is that some Divines and those no mean ones for Spiritual Light and Judgment make Faith to be actus medii ut simus in vivis rather than actus vitae quâ in vivis jam constituti vivimu the means and way of our being made Spiritually alive rather than our acting Life as being already brought into a state of Life As the Bodies closing with and clasping hold on the Soul by the animal Spirits which are corporeal things is rather the means of Natural Life than an Act of Life it self And the Notion seems to be countenanced by the Scripture which makes believing one thing and Life another and Faith the means of Life See Joh. 5.40 and 6.53 54 57. and 20.31 and Rom. 1.17 However this is plain and certain that he who hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5.12 and that we in our believing do receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Faith being our closing with him in that conjugal Covenant and Relation in which we are and stand vitally united to him 7. It being the proper use of Faith to be the means of Vniting us thus unto Christ and its proper Nature to rest upon Christ for all and to receive all from Christ the Crown of all is hereby set upon the head of Christ and to flourish there for ever And thus you see how the grand original design of God to bring in a Revenue of singular Honour and Praise and Glory unto his Son Christ is in this way brought about accomplished and fulfilled For this Righteousness of Christ being upon us through Faith it glorifies Christ in that he is made all unto us in our acceptance with God as righteous to Eternal Life And indeed Faith is such a Grace as that there is in its Nature a singular aptitude and fitness to give Glory unto Christ This will be made apparent by considering these two things 1. Faith is a going out of our selves unto Christ for all It is a going out of our selves as Indigent miserable and perishing And to whom do we in believing go but unto Christ Faith therefore gives him the Glory of having in him a fulness of suitable sufficiency for Sinners in our guilty ruined Condition And what do we go to him for It is for all that we need Being guilty and under Condemnation we go to him for Righteousness unto Justification of Life and thence Faith is said to be in his Blood Rom. 3.25 Being utterly without strength and dead in sins we go to him for strength Isa 45.24 Being frail and mutable as Creatures and having unsteadfast treacherous hearts as Sinners we go to him for Everlasting Righteousness and for establishment in himself by an unchangeable Ordinance and constant never-failing influences that is in one word for Eternal Life Thus as the Son of God is in himself a Person of infinitely higher Excellency than the first Adam and a better Head unto all his Seed than the first Adam was So Faith acknowledgeth him to be an Head far better than Adam beyond all comparison and gives him the Glory of it accordingly 2. Faith is a prime and principal part of our being conformed to the image of the Son of God Suppose that the principle of Grace begotten and created in us in Regeneration do contain in it the habit of Faith which I will not now call in question nor determine yet this is manifest that in our acting Faith we cannot so well and congruously be said to act like God as to act like Christ For God never acted Faith but Christ did Heb. 2.13 and was so open and frequent in the profession of it that his Adversaries took notice of it Psal 22.7 8. He owned and professed that he lived by the Father as we by Faith do live by him Joh. 6.57 Though he be God by Nature and of himself yet as Mediator he lives by the Father and the Humane Nature of Christ lives and subsis Person leaning on the Eternal Deity of the Son of God it hath its subsistence in the bosom of the God head We in believing do herein imitate Christ after our manner and measure and according to that unmeasurable distance and disproportion that is between him and us We lean and live on Christ and fetch all from him and from God through him But he is the first Pattern and Original Copy of believing both because he lived a Life of Faith and because the Humane Nature of Christ leans on the Godhead in the Son and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Union After somewhat of a similitudinary way though with great dissimilitude and disparity do we by Faith lean and live upon Christ and on God in and through him the Eternal Power of the Godhead in Christ and not so much the strength of any created principle of Grace in us holding our hearts unto him and causing them for ever to liâ—e upon him USE 1. Here we may see the
becoming capable to have our guilt imputed to him I suppose none will imagin that Christ had been in a state of Humiliation if our guilt had not been upon him Dr. Ames is as express as express can be to the same purpose Marrow of Div. l. 1. chap. 20. sect 3 4. Mr. Norton against Pinchion Part. 2. chap. 3. p. 205. hath these words Incarnation is not a Mediatorly or Office-Act but an Act constituting the person called to that Office Mr. Samuel Stone a Divine of very exquisite judgment and acuteness and one so far from being an Antinomian that he wrote against some of their Tenets as I gather from Mr. Baxters Script Gosp def l. 1. p. 73. hath these words Prin. of Orac of God part 1. ch 17 q. 2. What is Christs humiliation Answ The abasement of Christ whereby he became subject to Divine Justice to satisfie for our offences and to merit Life and Happiness This abasement presupposeth his Incarnation and Vnction His Incarnation is therefore no part of his humiliation And in his following explication he saith The state of abasement falls upon the Son of God incarnate his Incarnation is one part of his fitness to redeem and hence the Son of God is incarnate before his humiliation in order of Nature being the subject of humiliation Hence the humiliation is ascribed to the whole Person Lastly since the preaching of these Sermons an understanding Person tells me that that eminent Servant of Christ now in glory Mr. John Collins delivered the very same thing and being taxed for it by one who would not receive satisfaction from him the matter was brought to Dr. Owen who readily declared himself to concur in his judgment with Mr. Collins It is true Divines commonly say Christ was humbled in his Conception So besides others Mr. Alexander Richardson Ames Stone who yet hold that his Incarnation was no part of his Humiliation and that in good consistency with themselves and with the Truth For Christ's Incarnation is one thing his Conception is another By the one he became Man by the other the Son of Man the former implies only his participation of the Nature the other together with the nature the manner and way of his partaking thereof though still in Christ they did concur and co-exist Besides there is a difference between saying Christ humbled himself in his Conception and saying his being conceived was part of his Humiliation The former I readily assent to for there were many circumstances of great abasement attended not only his Birth but his very Conception But as to the latter I would not so crudely assert it without some explication For that the Virgin Mary conceived him is agreed on by all Christians nor do I see reason to dissent from that of Ames That the Humane Nature was really related to Mary as to its cause But yet I do not remember that I have met with it in any judicious Writer that Mary was a cause either of Christ's Incarnation or of his Humiliation And for my own part I would chuse to refer Christs Conception taken precisely as abstracted from all the afflictive or eclipsing circumstances of it to the things that made him allyed in blood to us and so a fit Person to stand and act as our Surety rather than to his actual performing the work of Suretiship as antecedently standing in that relation unto us For as I do not think the precept of the Moral Law obligeth us to be conceived nor that the curse of it doth inflict it on us as a punishment so neither do I see that Christ's Conception was any part of his fulfilling that Law for us either in the precept or in the penalty of it Nor do I think it any dangerous Heresie to hold that it is not imputed to us any more than that his Resurrection Ascension and Intercession are not And yet whatever there was in Christ's Conception of his fulfilling the Law either in the precept or in the curse of it I do look upon as a part of his Righteousness which is imputed to us But though there were circumstances of great abasement in Christ's Conception yet I can by no means assent to that which was again and again asserted at Pinners-Hall by him who there opposed Christ's Incarnation being no part of his Humiliation namely That the Son of God was united to an Embrio I do not herein transgress the Apostles rule 1 Tim. 5.19 I have seen the Notes of that Sermon taken by two Persons and have had this attested by at least twice too An Embrio is an unformed unorganized mass or lump not a perfect Humane Nature To say that the Son of God did assume or was united to such a thing as an Embrio is a piece of Ignorant Blasphemy But alas whither will the heat of opposition carry Men. That the English Reader may not think I am singular herein he may look into Mr. Nortons Ortho Evang. ch 3. p. 39. But what is the reason why Christ's Incarnation must needs be made a part of his humiliation I suspect there is a secret at the bottom of this matter I doubt he discerns that if Christ's Incarnation be taken up and admitted to be a part of his humiliation it puts an Engine into his hand to overthrow the imputation of Christ's humiliation unto us For if one part of it be not imputed it 's easie inferring the rest is not And it is no difficult task to evince that the Incarnation of Christ is not imputed to us But for that very reason I did and still do judge it necessary to be so exprest in distinguishing between Christ's Incarnation and his Humiliation and to declare the former not to be a part of the latter The other point deeply reflected on is pag. 22 23 24 25. That Bilievers are as Righteous as Christ is as he is their Surety I heard it and took it in first many Years agoe in a Sermon from that Reverend Man of God my Honoured Father in Law Mr. William Ben of Dorchester a Man so shining in Holiness so excelling in clearness of Gospel-Light and so abounding in Solid Spiritual Practical Scriptural Notions that I have not known many that have gone beyond him few that equalled him I have since considered all that I have met with against it in Papists Socinians and their Followers And am and was well aware that some Learned Men seem to decline owning it but 't is only in the sense in which their Adversaries mean it and would infer it Others seem to own it with certain limitations and explications I no way doubt but that as by me delivered it will be found a Truth that will abide in strength and firmness when all the Papists Socinians and Semisocinians on Earth have broken their Teeth upon it And this I say with an eye particularly to his Discourses who so publickly quarrelled at it in which by the account I had of them I could find nothing fit to be
his Mercy 2 Tim. 4.8 it is a Crown of Righteousness given by the Lord the righteous judge And as in our being glorified the righteousness of God is exerted and shineth forth so it is likewise in our being justified 1 Joh. 1.9 Rom. 3.25 26. and indeed throughout the whole of our Salvation he is a just God and a Saviour Isa 45.21 Hence appears the Necessity of this Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ It must be provided and brought in that God may be Just in showing Mercy and appear Righteous in extending Grace unto us and saving us with that great Salvation to which he hath appointed us For it is the unchangeable Constitution of the unchangeable God to glorifie the one Attribute as well as the other Justice as well as Grace in our Salvation Of this Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ there are two parts without either of which it would not be compleat and perfect and would not serve our turn And the reason thereof is because Christ being our Surety is thereby under an Obligation to pay our Debt and we owe a double Debt unto the Moral Law viz. a Debt of Satisfaction by suffering the penalty as transgressing guilty Creatures and a Debt of Service and Obedience to the Precept as rational Creatures constituted in the way to our Everlasting Condition Hence there are two parts of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness This is that which the Apostle saith and on which he puts so much Remark and Emphasis 1 John 5.6 This is he who came by water and by blood Jesus the Christ not in water only but in water and in blood The Language and Phrases are Levitical Conceive the meaning of them thus The first Adam came by Water in a Spotless Cleanness and Purity as to all that the Precept requir'd of him But Jesus Christ came not by Water only not only in such Purity and Cleanness as fully answered all the Demands of the Precept of the Law but he came by Blood also which neither Adam nor Angels did Jesus Christ the Son of God came in a way of satisfactory Sufferings to Expiate and make Atonement for the Sins against the Precept which we were guilty of this he did by his Blood The reason is he was made our Surety his Name was put not only into the Covenant of Works but into it as a broken Covenant 1. His subjection to and suffering of the penalty of the Law This is commonly called the Passive Obedience or Righteousness of Christ because it consists in his Suffering the penalty or curse of the Law The Scripture calls it the Blood of Christ Ephes 1.7 and the Death of Christ Rom. 5.10 under that eminent part including and intending the whole of his Sufferings And also Christ's being made Sin 2 Cor. 5.21 and being made a Curse Gal. 3.13 The ground and reason of this Suffering of Christ under the Curse of the Law is because our Guilt our Sins were upon him and thence he suffered in our stead for them Isa 53.5 6. God the Father with his own consent put upon him the Garments of us Sinners and then awaked his Sword against him even the Sword of his Revenging Justice and ran him through and poured out his Blood as if he had been a Sinner Zach. 13.7 The end of it with reference to God is the restoring to him the Honour of his Authority and Supremacy over us and of his other perfections which shine forth in the Law which we by disobeying him had robbed him of Psal 69.4 With reference to us the end and attainment of it is reconciling us to God Rom. 5.10 Thence Christ is said to reconcile us and make peace between God and us by the blood of his Cross Eph. 2.14 15 16. Colos 1.20 21. The necessity of this part of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness being brought in for us ariseth partly from the glorious Holiness and Justice of Gods Nature whence he cannot but maintain his own Supremacy and the Rational Creatures Moral dependance on and subjection to himself which being violated by Sin can no way be re by satisfaction nor satisfaction be made but by the suffering of Punishment and partly from the veracity of God in his threatning wherein he hath in Wisdom and Justice established a connexion between Sin and Death and made the latter to be the wages of the former Gen. 2.17 Deut. 27.26 Insomuch as in regard of the Sanction of the Law that of the Apostle Heb 9.22 takes place and holds true without blood there is no remission 2. His subjection to and fulfilling the precept of the Law is also a part of Christ's Suretiship-Righteousness This is commonly called Christ's active obedience and by the Apostle his Obedience Rom. 5.19 viz. Obedience not only in Suffering but Obedience to the precept of the Law as Adams Disobedience to which it is there opposed was a violation of the precept By Christ it is called his fulfilling all righteousness Matth. 3.15 and his doing the will of God Psal 40.8 Heb. 10.7 9. The reason and ground of Christs obligation to bring in this part of righteousness for us is because he is our Surety and we owe this Debt to the Law of God And there is a necessity of it because God will magnifie his Law and make it Honourable in his being well pleased in Christ with us for his righteousness sake Isa 42.21 And because it is the unchangeable constitution of God that all the saying Good and Blessing which shall be given us shall be given not only from Free Grace but by the hand of Justice and in the way of being purchased for us by a just price Thence as in the former part of Christ's Suretiship-righteousness God's vindictive justice appeared and was glorified so in this part of it his remunerative justice shines forth and is exerted For by this part of Christ's righteousness he hath obtained for us in a way of purchase or merit by paying down a just price Salvation and Eternal Life Heb. 9.14 Eph. 1.14 Under this Obedience or Conformity of Christ to the Precept of the Law I include both all the course of his Holy walking and also the habitual created inherent Holiness of his humane Nature for the precept of the Law requires Holiness both in heart and Life and therefore Christ paid both Heb. 7.26 28. Isa 53.9 1 Pet. 2.22 and 3.18 I mention this in the second place after the other part of his Suretiship-righteousness because though that was compleated and finished at his Death and his Active Obedience to the precept of the Moral Law was yielded in his Life yet the consideration of them and the Natural order of them as availing and accepted for us is that suffering under the penalty goes before Obedience to the precept because there is no room for merit or purchase till satisfaction be first made As among Men you cannot purchase of another till your Debt be paid and former Arrearages into which you have run with him be satisfied and