The meritorious price of our redemption, iustification, &c. Cleering it from some common errors; and proving, Part I. 1. That Christ did not suffer for us those unutterable torments of Gods wrath, that commonly are called hell-torments, to redeem our soules from them. 2. That Christ did not bear our sins by Gods imputation, and therefore he did not bear the curse of the law for them. Part II. 3. That Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law (not by suffering the said curse for us, but) by a satisfactory price of attonement; viz. by paying or performing unto his father that invaluable precious thing of his mediatoriall obedience, wherof his mediatoriall sacrifice of attonement was the master-piece. 4. A sinners righteousnesse or justification is explained, and cleered from some common errors. / By William Pinchin, Gentleman, in New-England.

Grace and Peace to the wise and conscio∣nable Reader.

I Have laboured in this Dialogue to explicate the meritorious price of our Redemption, Justifica∣tion and Adoption, and to clear it from some common Errors, hoping that others who are better learned, will take occasion by this Dia∣logue to do it more thoroughly.

I find variety of opinions touching the point of Christs satisfaction for our Redemption, and Justification: namely, what it was that he did or suffer'd to satisfie Gods wrath for our Redemption and Justification.

1. Some hold that Christ did satisfie Gods Justice for our Re∣demption from the curse of the Law, by bearing the said curse for us: and they stick not to affirm it in these terms: The curse of the Law: The wrath of God: The torments of Hell: The pains of the Damned: The second Death, &c.

2. Others will not indure such harsh terms, as some of these are, and yet they affirm that Christ did suffer the wrath of God for our Redemption, namely, so much of it as was eq••ivalent to the punishment of the sins of the Elect: See Mr. Iacob upon Christs sufferings, pa. 33.

3. Others do affirm that Christ did not suffer that kind of wrath which the damned do suffer, but that kind of wrath only which the Elect do suffer in this life; but yet in a far greater measure, and thus Mr. Ainsworth did at last explain his apprehensions in a letter to my self (having had two or three turns in writing, not long be∣fore his death.)

Such jarring there is among Divines, about the kind of sufferings which they say Christ bare for our Redemption.

4. Others disagree about the part of Christs human nature, that did bear the wrath of God for our Redemption: for some affirme that Christ suffered the wrath of God in his soul only, and not in his body: 2. Others affirm that he suffered the wrath of God in his

body, as well as in his soul, to redeem our bodies from Gods wrath, as well as our souls.

5. Others do not agree about the time when Christ did first be∣gin to suffer the wrath of God; nor how long he bare it ere it ceased, neither do they clear it; whether it continued constant up∣on him without any intermission, from the first time that the wrath of God did seize upon him, untill his death, or untill his Resurrection.

These things are not cleared by those Divines that hold that Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, by suffering the said curse for us.

But I have laboured in this Treatise to prove that Christ did not suffer any degree of Gods wrath at all for us, but that all his suffe∣rings were inflicted upon him from the rage and enmity of the old Serpent and his wicked instruments, being all comprised under this one sentence, Thou shalt pierce him in the footsoals, Gen. 3.15. And yet I grant also that God had a hand in all his sufferings, because Satan and his instruments could inflict no other punishments upon Christ, but according to Gods determinate Counsell (but not from his Anger) Act. 2.23. Act. 4.27, 28. God gave leave to Satan that was now in the Serpent when he tempted Eve, to go into the Scribes and Pharisees, to accuse and condemn the seed of the wo∣man as a wicked Malefactor: But in Gods intent, all that Satan and his instruments did, was but to try the obedience of the Mediator, Ebr. 5.8. or els to prove the verity of his human nature, Ebr. 2.11.

These things are of high and necessary consequence to be clea∣red: For,

1. By this means we shall attain to the right understanding of the meritorious price of our Redemption.

2. By this means sundry Scriptures will be cleared from wrong interpretations.

3. By this means divers substantiall points of Divinity will be cleared from severall grosse mistakes.

4. By this means several stumbling blocks of offence wil be taken away, first from the Papists, and secondly from the poore Jews.

1. From the Papists, for they (especially the malicious Jesuites) do often upbraid us for ascribing unto Christ such passions and per∣turbations of soul from the sense of his Fathers wrath, as cannot be (say they, and I think truly) without sin: Gregory Martin the Je∣suite

doth often deride us with great scorn and disdain, for ascri∣bing unto Christ such perturbations of soul as did arise from the sense of Gods wrath: and the Rhemists in their Annotations upon the New-Testament do the like in severall places.

And yet they do also greatly misse of the right understanding of the meritorious price of our Redemption▪ For 1. they joyn their own merits with the merits of Christ, as necessary to the purcha∣sing of their Redemption.

2. They do most superstitiously look at the grosse substance of Christs flesh and blood, and at his bodily pains and stripes which he suffered from Satan and his instruments as a Malefactor, as the me∣ritorious price of their Redemption.

3. They do most grossely hold that the soul of Christ went down into the lowest hell to perfect their Redemption, for they make four hells, or four stories in hell: In the first of which they place the souls of all the holy men that died before the coming of Christ: In the second they place the souls of all those children that die with∣out Baptism: In the third they place the souls of all those that suf∣fer the pains of Purgatory, and in the fourth hell, which is the low∣est of all, they place the souls of the damned; and then they pro∣pound this question, Into which of these places did the soule of Christ descend after his death? They answer thus, That Christ de∣scended into all these parts of hell to triumph over Satan, and to deliver the souls of the Fathers, and to comfort others as their Ad∣vocate and Redeemer: see Bellarmine in his Christian Doctrine.

But in all these tenents of theirs, they misse most grossely of the true meritorious price of their Redemption; for they do never ex∣plicate wherein the efficacy of his mediatoriall sacrifice of Attone∣ment doth lie: they never shew how his death was a mediatoriall death, by the actuall and joynt concurrence of both his natures, which mediatoriall death of his must be considered as the only pro∣curing cause of his Fathers Attonement, for our full Redemption, Justification, and Adoption.

2. There is the like need to clear the meritorious price of our Redemption, for the poor Jews sake: For, as Mr. Broughton doth often affirm, they do greatly stumble at these two positions of ours; first in that we do make Christ to stand before God as a guilty sin∣ner, by his imputing all our sins to him; and secondly they stumble at this, in that we do make the Messiah to redeem us from the curse of the Law, by bearing the said curse for us.

But the Ebrew Doctors do in a jesting and scoffing manner say unto us, That every Fox shall pay his own skin to the Flayer: See W••ems on the Jew, p. 318. and yet woe and alas! the poor Jews are lamentably blinded about the meritorious price of our Redempti∣on: For,

1. Though som of the Ebrew Doctors have affirmed, that the Messiah should suffer death for their Redemption, and that his sufferings should be marvellous great, yet I cannot perceive that they do look upon the death of Christ in a right construction, be∣cause they do not look upon it as a mediatoriall death actuated by his own power, even by the joynt concurrence of both his natures.

2. The most of the Jews (except a few) do hold that the Messi∣ah shall never suffer any kind of death at all: The Jews in generall were once perswaded for a time, that one Rabbi Akibah was the King Christ: yea both himself, and all the wise men of that age thought he had been Christ the King untill he was killed for his in∣iquities, and when he was kil'd, then they knew he was not so. See Ains. on Deut. 8.19. By this testimony of theirs it is evident that the Jews in generall did hold that their Messiah should never die at all: and in our Saviours daies, when he told the Jews that he must be put to death, and that the hour was come in which the Son of Man should be glorified, John. 12.23, 32. then the Jews did stumble at this Doctrine, and said, We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever, How then sayest thou that the Son of Man must be lifted up? v. 34. From hence it is evident, that the Jews in generall did hold that the Messiah should not redeem his people by suffering any kind of death at all: but their common tenent was, that the Messiah should redeem them from the Nations of the world by outward power, as a stately King and Conqueror, and in this carnall sense, they did ordinarily understand that spirituall promise made unto David, in 2 Sam. 7.13. I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom for ever. This eternall Throne the Jewes (except a few) do understand it of the outward pompous Kingdom of the Messiah; yea the very Apostles themselves for a good while together, understood not the spirituall nature of the Kingdome of the Messiah, Mar. 9.9, 10. Luke 24.20, 21.

Ther••fore it follows from the premises; that the Jews as long as they are ignorant of the spirituall nature of the Kingdome of Christ, cannot understand the true meritorious price of their Re∣demption;

for the Messiah must break the Devills headplot, not by his outward power as a stately King and Conqueror, but by his mediatoriall sacrifice of Attonement.

Therefore for the poor Jews sakes, we ought as much as may be to clear up the true meritorious price of our Redemption.

The Apostle Paul did not differ from the Scribes, but in two points mainly; the first was concerning the death of Christ; the se∣cond was concerning his Resurrection: See Acts 17.3. Acts 26.23. 1 Cor. 15.3. and according to those tenents, Pauls preaching had a differing effect upon the Jews in their Synagogues: some were per∣swaded by Pauls preaching to imbrace those tenents, but others re∣sisted and raised up persecution against him for this Doctrine: and in his Epistle to the Ebrews in generall, he doth labour might and main to prove that Christ was God, and that in his human nature he was to die to make his soul a sacrifice of Attonement by the power of his divine nature; that so through death, he might de∣stroy him that had the power of death, that is the Devill, Heb. 2.

In like sort when Stephen was convented before the great Coun∣cell of Jerusalem, he affirm'd before them all that he did then see Jesus Christ whom they had crucified, now living and sitting at the right hand of God, Acts 7.56. But the Judges of the great Sanhe∣drin stopped their ears at this Doctrine of Stephen, and the com∣mon multitude did so detest this Doctrine of his death and Resur∣rection, that in a confused uproar and rage they took him from the Councell and stoned him to death.

Hence it is evident that the Jews in generall did hold, that the Messiah should neither die nor rise again by the power of his di∣vine nature: and they do also greatly stumble at our common Do∣ctrine of Imputation, because by it we make the Messiah more odi∣ous to God (in their apprehensions) then any leper can be to us.

But ah and alas! as the poor Jews will not acknowledge that their Messiah must die, to make his soul a mediatoriall sacrifice of Attonement for their Redemption.

So many of them are so far blinded by Satan, that they deny his divine nature, and so in effect they deny him to be a Mediator: The Lord in mercy open their eyes to see him whom they have crucifi∣ed (not only as a base malefactor, but) as an obedient Mediator, with mourning and and bleeding hearts: and the Lord in mercy help us to remove all errors from our Doctrine, and to make the path of our Religion plain before them. Amen, even so, Amen.

Thine in the Lord ever. W. P.