IV.

2. Jefus is the Saviour of all men, by fatisfying the s ERM. divine juftice, and repairing God's honour in their behalf. The difloyal and ungrateful behaviour of man had fo wronged, fo endamaged, fo difhonoured God, (had so abused the goodness, difparaged the wisdom, flighted the power, impeached and flurred the authority of his Creator, had fo prejudiced all the rights and interefts of God,) that by the divine wifdom it was thought fit, that he should not be restored into a capacity of mercy and favour, without a fignal compenfation made, and an exemplary punishment undergone, whereby the right of God fhould confpicuoufly be afferted, his love of goodness and diflike of wickedness fhould be remarkably demonftrated, and every creature in heaven and earth fhould be folemnly admonished of its duty; of the reverence and obedience it owes to the great Creator, of the heinous guilt and horrible mischief it incurs by offending him. Such a compensation man was no wife able to make, or fit to undergo fuch a punishment: our Saviour therefore, out of infinite pity and charity, did undertake both; by a voluntary con- Phil. ii. 7. defcenfion putting himself into the low and weak state of man; subjecting himself unto that law which man was obliged unto, and suffering the pains which man had deferved. This he was pleafed to do in man's behalf, and in our ftead; and God was pleased to accept it as fo done d. His incarnation (or exinanition of himself, as St. Paul calleth it) was an act of that high duty and goodness, that it in virtue furpaffed all the obedience, which all creatures

ν Λοιπὸν δὲ οἱ ἄνθρωποι εκέτι μετὰ τὰ ἴδια πάθη μίνεσιν, ἁμαρτωλοὶ καὶ νεκροί· ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ λόγου δύναμιν ἀνασάντες ἀθάνατοι καὶ ἄφSagres asi diapérovow. Atban, in Arian. Orat. 4. 485.

· Τότε γὰρ δὲ θάνατο;, καὶ κατάρα ἐλύετο, καὶ δαίμονες κατησχύνοντα καὶ ἐδειγματίζοντο θριαμβευόμενοι, καὶ τὸ χειρόγραφον τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν τῷ savpy #poonλšto, &c. Chryf. in Joban. i. 14.

Η ἔνσαρκος παρουσία τοῦ σωτῆρος θανάτε λύτρον καὶ κτίσεως πάσης cwrzşla yéyour. Atban. ad Adelph. Ep.

were

IV.

Vide Cyrill.

Conc. p.

133. A

σιν, &c.

SER M. were able to render; that it yielded God more fatiffaction and more honour than the joint endeavours of all the world could confer. His with fo intense in Eph. charity and cheerfulness fulfilling all righteousness did far more please God, than all our moft exact obexaydience could have done; his enduring bitter pains and difgraces (confidering the infinite dignity of his perfon, his near relation and dearnefs to God, his perfect innocence and rectitude, yea his immenfe charity, contentedness and patience) more than countervailed the punishment due to the fins of all men. Such a payment was more than ferved to discharge Eph. v. 2. all our debts, (it ferved to purchase an overplus of graces and bleffings;) fo rich a price was more than Heb. x. 10. fufficient to ranfom all the world from captivity; fo goodly, fo pure, fo fweet, fo precious a facrifice might 1 Pet. i. 19. worthily expiate and atone all the guilts of men.

ix. 12.

XCV.

с

Now if we enquire what our Saviour did redeem, Aug. in Pf. the confideration of what he paid may (as St. Austin tells) help to inform us ; Quæritis quid emerit? Videte quid dederit, et invenite quid emerit. Do ye feek (faith he) what he bought? See what he gave, and find what he bought. However, that as the value and fufficiency of our Lord's performances, fo the defign and effect thereof did reach so far in regard to man; that his charity was no less extenfive than his performance was complete, for our good, the holy Scripture teaches John i. 29. us. For, He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the John vi. 51 fins of the world, (faith the Baptift.) And, The bread (faith he) which I gave is my flesh, which I will give for 1 John ii. 2. the life of the world. And, He is a propitiation (faith St. John) for our fins; and not only for our fins, but for 1 Tim. ii. 5. the fins of the whole world. And, He is the mediator of God and man, who gave himself (avríλuтρov Úπię wávтwv) (αντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων) a ransom, in the ftead, and for all men, (faith St. Paul.) Heb. ii. 9. And, He tafted death for every one, (faith the Author to

• Μὴ θαυμάζης εἰ κόσμος ὅλος ἐλυτρώθη· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἄνθρωπος ψιλός, ἀλλ' υἱὸς Θεοῦ μονογενῆς, ὁ ὑπεραποθνήσκων, &c. Cyrill. Cat. 13. the

IV.

iii. 17.

the Hebrews.) And, He was that one Man, who, as s ER M. it was expedient, did die for the whole nation of men. And, God was in him reconciling the world to himself, John xi. 50. not imputing their fins. And, He came into the world, xviii. 14. not to condemn the world, but that the world might by him be faved, (or freed from condemnation.) And, As Rom. v. 18. by the offence of one man judgment came upon all men to condemnation, fo by the righteousness of one mercy came upon all to juftification of life. The end we fee of our Saviour's performances was, that he might wipe off the guilt of fin from all mankind, that he might reverfe the condemnation paffed thereupon, and that he might remove the punishment due thereto; or, that, abfolving the first man's fin, he might take it away from the whole race, (as St. Athanafius speaks.)

23, 24.

iv. 5.

All men have finned, and come fhort (or are deftitute) Rom. iii. of the glory of God; being juftified freely by his grace, by the redemption that is in Chrift Jefus. Chrift hath re- Gal. iii. 13. deemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curfe for us. He was born under the law, that he might redeem thofe which were under the law. He that knew no 2 Cor.v. 21. fin, was made fin, (was punished and dealt with as a finner,) that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, (that we might be capable of being efteemed and dealt with as righteous by God upon this account.) So that the refult is, divine juftice being fully satisfied, and the honour of God fully repaired, (in regard to all fins paft and future,) the mouth of vengeance being ftopped, the claims of death and hell being evacuated, that general fentence of condemnation (paffed upon all the fons of Adam) is fufpended, Death ceases to reign by any juft power, or inevitable neceffity; (it is, as St. Paul faith, abolished 2 Tim. i. or abrogated as to any lawful right, or neceffary force 10. it hath;) the rigour and feverity of that law, which upon pain of death exacteth moft punctual obe

[ Ἵνα ἐκείνω λύων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, ἀπὸ παντὸς αὐτὴν ἄρῃ τοῦ γένους" Atban. in paff.

VOL. I.

dience,

IV.

SER M. dience, (and which confequently doth expofe all men to unavoidable condemnation,) is tempered and abated, a foundation is laid for the fhewing mercy, and Gal. iii. 10, granting pardon. In refpect whereto,

12.

3. Our Lord is the Saviour of all men, as having in Rom. x. 5. the behalf of mankind transacted and ratified a new covenant, very neceffary for, and very conducible to, the falvation of mankind; whereby falvation is made attainable, and is really tendered unto all, upon feafible and equal conditions. According to the purport whereof upon any man (however ftained or foaded with the guilt of moft heinous tranfgreffions) his embracing the overtures thereof, confenting to, and complying with the terms propounded therein, that is, fincerely believing, and fseriously repenting ; returning to God with hearty defires and earnest refolutions to ferve him; God is ready to difpenfe mercy and pardon, and immediately receiveth the perfon into grace and favour with him; yea, the man continuing to perform a faithful, though imperfect, obedience, an obedience suitable to man's natural infirmity and frailty, and proportionable to the affiftances afforded him; God farther promifeth to bestow inestimable bleffings and rewards of joy and happiness. That covenant which the prophets implied of old, when (befide and beyond what the Ka. i. 16. Jewish law did import) they preached thus; Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings, ceafe to do evil-Though your fins be as fcarlet, they fhall be as white as fnow; though they be red as crimson, they Ifa. Iv. 7. fhall be as wool. And, Let the wicked man forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, Ezek. xviii. and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And, If the wicked man will turn from all his fins, that he hath committed, and keep all my ftatutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall furely live, he shall not die, (fo God in Isaiah and Ezekiel declareth his intention to proceed with men, avowing that way of his to be

21.

moft

IV.

Eufeb.

moft equal and fair.) This is that covenant which our S ER M. Lord commanded his Apoftles to declare and propound to all mankind; Go ye (faid he to them) into Mark xvi. the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every crea-15. ture; that Gospel, according to which, as it is expreffed in St. Luke, repentance and remiffion ought to be Luke xxiv. preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerufalem; in refpect to which, St. Peter fays, that God A&s v. 31. hath exalted our Lord to be a Prince and a Saviour, to grant repentance to Ifrael, and remiffion of fins; (to grant repentance, that is, (as the Apoftle to the Hebrews and Clemens Romanus fpeak) μετανοίας τόπον, room for repentance, or capacity to receive pardon upon repentance;) concerning which covenant that Clemens, (the fellow-labourer of St. Paul, and whom Clemens Alexandrinus calleth an Apoftle,) in that excellent, admirable, and almoft canonical Epiftle to the Co-avuasía. rinthians, which (as Eufebius and Jerome tell us) was anciently publickly read in most Churches, hath'E, these remarkably full and clear expreffions; Let us, faith he, look fedfaftly upon the blood of Chrift, and let us fee how precious to God his blood is, which being fhed for our falvation, did bring the grace of repentance to the whole world. Let us attentively regard all ages, and obferve that in every generation the Lord granted place of repentance to them who would turn unto him. This is that new and better covenant,eftablished upon better promifes, (cancelling all former, exceptionable, imperfect, and ineffectual compacts, referring to man's interest and duty,) about which the Apoftle to the Hebrews Heb. viii. 6. difcourfeth, and whereof he calleth our Lord the Me- ix. 15. xii. diator and Sponfor; in regard to which St. Paul call-2 Cor. iii. 6. eth him the Mediator between God and man; plainly declaring all men to have a concernment and interest

ἐκκλησίαις,

Β Ατενίσωμεν εἰς τὸ αἷμα τοῦ Χρισοῦ, καὶ ἴδωμεν ὡς ἐτι τίμιον τῷ Θεῷ αἷμα αὐτοῦ, ὅτι διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν ἐκχυθὲν, παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ με τανοίας χάριν ὑπήνεγκεν. Ατενίσωμεν εἰς γενεάς πάσας, καὶ καταμάθωμεν ὅτι ἐν γενεᾷ καὶ γενεᾷ μετανοίας τόπον ἔδωκεν ὁ δεσπότης τοῖς βελομένοις ἐπιγραφῆναι ἐπ ̓ αὐτόν. Clem. ad Corinth.

F 2

therein;

Eufeb.

24. vii. 22.