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CHAPTER
10
OF THE MERIT OF CHRIST, WITH ARGUMENTS FROM THENCE.
Arg.
14. A fourth thing ascribed to the death of Christ is MERIT,
or that worth and value of his death whereby he purchased and
procured unto us, and for us, all those good things which we find
in the Scripture for his death to be bestowed upon us. Of this,
much I shall not speak, having considered the thing itself under
the notion of impetration already; only, I shall add some few
observations proper to that particular of the controversy which
we have in hand. The word merit is not at all to be found in the
New Testament, in no translation out of the original that I have
seen. The vulgar Latin once reads promeretur, Hebrews 13:16; and
the Rheimists, to preserve the sound, have rendered it
promerited. But these words in both languages are uncouth and
barbarous, besides that they no way answer eujarestei~tai, the
word in the original, which gives no color to merit, name or
thing. Nay, I suppose it will prove a difficult thing to find out
any one word, in either of the languages wherein the holy
Scripture was written, that doth properly and immediately, in its
first native importance, signify merit. So that about the name we
shall not trouble ourselves, if the thing itself intended thereby
be made apparent, which it is both in the Old and New Testament;
as Isaiah 53:5, “The chastisement of our peace was upon him,
and with his stripes we are healed.” The procurement of our
peace and heaing, was the merit of his chastisement and stripes.
So Hebrews 9:12, Dia< tou~ ijdi>ou ai[matov aijwni>an
lu>trwsin euJra>menov, “Obtaining by his blood eternal
redemption,” is as much as we intend to signify by the merit
of Christ.
The
word which comes nearest it in signification we have, Acts 20:28,
Periepoih>sato, “Purchased with his own blood;”
purchase and impetration, merit and acquisition, being in this
business terms equivalent; which latter word is used in divers
other places, as 1 Thessalonians 5:9; Ephesians 1:14; 1 Peter
2:9. Now, that which by this name we understand is, the
performance of such an action as whereby the thing aimed at by
the agent is due unto him, according to the equity and equality
required in justice; as, “To him that worketh, is the reward
not reckoned of grace, but of debt,” Romans 4:4. That there
is such a merit attending the death of Christ is apparent from
what was said before; neither is the weight of any operose
proving [of] it imposed on us, by our adversaries seeming to
acknowledge it no less themselves; so that we may take it for
granted (until our adversaries close with the Socinians in this
also).
Christ
then, by his death, did merit and purchase, for all those for
whom he died, all those things which in the Scripture are
assigned to be the fruits and effects of his death. These are the
things purchased and merited by his blood-shedding, and death;
which may be referred unto two heads: —
First,
Such as are privative; as, —
1.
Deliverence from the hand of our enemies, Luke 1:74; from the
wrath to come, 1 Thessalonians 1:10.
2.
The destruction and abolition of death in his power, Hebrews
2:14;
3.
Of the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8.
4.
Deliverence from the curse of the law, Galatians 3:13;
5.
From our vain conversation, 1 Peter 1:18;
6.
From the present evil world, Galatians 1:4;
7.
From the earth, and from among men, Revelation 14:3,4.
8.
Purging of our sins, Hebrews 1:3, Secondly, Positive; as,
—
1.
Reconciliation with God, Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:16;
Colossians 1:20.
2.
Appeasing or atoning of God by propitiation, Romans 3:25; 1
John 2:2.
3.
Peacemaking, Ephesians 2:14.
4.
Salvation, Matthew 1:21. All these hath our Savior by his
death merited and purchased for all them for whom he died; that
is, so procured them of his Father that they ought, in respect of
that merit, according to the equity of justice, to be bestowed on
them for whom they were so purchased and procured. It was
absolutely of free grace in God that he would send Jesus Christ
to die for any; it was of free grace for whom he would send him
to die; it is of free grace that the good things procured by his
death be bestowed on any person, in respect of those persons on
whom they are bestowed: but considering his own appointment and
constitution, that Jesus Christ by his death should merit and
procure grace and glory for those for whom he died, it is of debt
in respect of Christ that they be communicated to them. Now, that
which is thus merited, which is of debt to be bestowed, we do not
say that it may be bestowed, but it ought so to be, and it is
injustice if it be not.
Having
said this little of the nature of merit, and of the merit of
Christ, the procurement of his death for them in whose stead he
died, it will quickly be apparent how irreconcilable the general
ransom is therewith ; for the demonstration whereof we need no
more but the proposing of this one question, — namely, If
Christ hath merited grace and glory for all those for whom he
died, if he died for all, how comes it to pass that these things
are not communicated to and bestowed upon all? Is the defect in
the merit of Christ, or in the justice of God? How vain it is to
except, that these things are not bestowed absolutely upon us,
but upon condition, and therefore were so procured; seeing, that
the very condition itself is also merited and procured, as
Ephesians 1:3, 4, Philippians 1:29, — hath been already
declared.
Arg.
15. Fifthly, The very phrases of “DYING FOR US,”
“bearing our sins,” being our “surety,” and
the like, whereby the death of Christ for us is expressed, will
not stand with the payment of a ransom for all. To die for
another is, in Scripture, to die in that other’s stead, that
he might go free; as Judah besought his brother Joseph to accept
of him for a bondman instead of Benjamin, that he might be set at
liberty, Genesis 44:33, and that to make good the engagement
wherein he stood bound to his father to be a surety for him. He
that is surety for another (as Christ was for us, Hebrews 7:22),
is to undergo the danger, that the other may be delivered. So
David, wishing that he had died for his son Absalom, 2 Samuel
18:33, intended, doubtless, a commutation with him, and a
substitution of his life for his, so that he might have lived.
Paul also, Romans 5:7, intimates the same, supposing that such a
thing might be found among men that one should die for another;
no doubt alluding to the Decii, Menoeceus, Euryalus, and such
others, whom we find mentioned in the stories of the heathen, who
voluntarily cast themselves into death for the deliverance of
their country or friends, continuing their liberty and freedom
from death who were to undergo it, by taking it upon themselves,
to whom it was not directly due. And this plainly is the meaning
of that phrase, “Christ died for us;” that is, in the
undergoing of death there was a subrogation of his person in the
room and stead of ours. Some, indeed, except that where the word uJpe>r
is used in this phrase, as Hebrews 2:9, “That he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man,” there only
the good and profit of them for whom he died is intended, not
enforcing the necessity of any commutation. But why this
exception should prevail I see no reason, for the same
preposition being used in the like kind in other cases doth
confessedly intimate a commutation; as Romans 9:3, where Paul
affirms that he “could wish himself accursed from Christ uJpe<r
tw~n adelfw~n,” — “for his brethren,” —
that is, in their stead, that they might be united to him. So
also, 2 Corinthians 5:20, ‘Upe<r Cristou~ presbeu>omen,
“We are ambassadors in Christ’s stead.” So the
same apostle, 1 Corinthians 1:13, asking, and strongly denying by
way of interrogation, Mh< Pau~lov ejstaurw>qh uJpe<r
uJmw~n; “Was Paul crucified for you?” plainly showeth
that the word uJper, used about the crucifying of Christ for his
church, doth argue a commutation or change, and not only designs
the good of them for whom he died, for, plainly, he might himself
have been crucified for the good of the church; but in the stead
thereof, he abhorreth the least thought of it. But concerning the
word ajnti>, which also is used, there is no doubt, nor can
any exception be made; it always signifieth a commutation and
change, whether it be applied to things or persons: so Luke
11:11, ‘Ofiv ajnti< ijcqu>ov, “A serpent instead
of a fish;” so Matthew 5:38, ‘Ofqqalmo<v ajnti<
ojfqalmou~ “An eye for an eye;” so Hebrews 12:16 —
and for persons, Archelaus is said to reign ajnti< Hrw>dou
tou~ patron, “instead of his father,” Matthew 2:22.
Now, this word is used of the death of our Savior, Matthew 20:28,
“The Son of man came dou~nai th<n yuch<n auJtou~
lu>tron ajnti< pollw~n, to give his life a ransom for
many,” — which words are repeated again, Mark 10:45,
— that is, to give his life a ransom in the stead of the
lives of many. So that, plainly, Christ dying for us, as a
surety, Hebrews 7:22, and thereby and therein “bearing our
sins in his own body,” 1 Peter 2:24, being made a curse for
us, was an undergoing of death, punishment, curse, wrath, not
only for our good, but directly in our stead; a commutation and
subrogation of his person in the room and place of ours being
allowed, and of God accepted. This being, cleared, I demand,
— First, Whether Christ died thus for all? that is, whether
he died in the room and stead of all, so that his person was
substituted in the room of theirs? as, whether he died in the
stead of Cain and Pharaoh, and the rest, who long before his
death were under the power of the second death, never to be
delivered? Secondly, Whether it be justice that those, or any of
them, in whose stead Christ died, bearing their iniquities,
should themselves also die and bear their own sins to eternity?
Thirdly,
What rule of equity is there, or example for it, that when the
surety hath answered and made satisfaction to the utmost of what
was required in the obligation wherein he was a surety, they for
whom he was a surety should afterwards be proceeded against?
Fourthly, Whether Christ hung upon the cross in the room or stead
of reprobates? Fifthly, Whether he underwent all that which was
due unto them for whom he died? If not, how could he be said to
die in their stead? If so, why are they not all delivered? I
shall add no more but this, that to affirm Christ to die for all
men is the readiest way to prove that he died for no man, in the
sense Christians have hitherto believed, and to hurry poor souls
into the bottom of Socinian blasphemies.