(3) We cannot possibly suffer a punishment which is infinite in degrees, because we ourselves are but finite in our natures; and what is finite cannot contain what is infinite: yea, though God should stretch and widen our capacities to the utmost, yet we can never become vessels large enough to hold infinite wrath at once. Therefore,

(4) The punishment of sinners, because it cannot be infinite in degrees, that it may be satisfactory must be infinite in duration and continuance; that so a finite, yet immortal creature, as the soul of man is, may undergo a penalty some way infinite as is the justice offended.

(5) Because their punishment must be infinite in duration, therefore it is utterly impossible, that ever it should be completely borne and eluctated, since what is to last to all eternity can never be accomplished. And, therefore, it is impossible, that ever we should procure to ourselves a Righteousness of Satisfaction; as impossible as it is, to outlive eternity, or to find a period in what must continue for ever.

[1] But, it may be objected: "Is not God's justice satisfied in the punishment of the damned? why else doth he inflict it? And, if justice be satisfied in their damnation, how then can satisfaction be a righteousness equivalent to innocence, since they shall never be discharged from their torments ?"

To this I answer:

1st. That there shall never be any time, wherein the justice of God shall be so fully satisfied by the damned in hell, as to require no more sufferings from them: for they shall be making satisfaction to all eternity. The infinite justice of God is satisfied in this, that it shall be satisfying itself to all eternity: and yet, in all that eternity, there shall be no one moment, wherein the sinner shall be able to say it is finished, and justice is fully satisfied.

2dly. To this may be added, that the eternal succession of their torments is, in respect of God, a permanent instant, a fixed and abiding Now. So that the very infinity of their punishment in the everlasting continuance of it, is accounted by God (to whom a thousand years, yea thousands of millions of years, are but as yesterday when it is past) as now actually present and existing For, in his essence, there is no variation; and, in his knowledge, objects have no succession, besides that of method

and order.

[2] "But how then," may some say, were the sufferings of Christ satisfactory, since they were not infinite nor eternal?" I answer:

1st. That our Saviour Christ, being God as well as man, and so an Infinite Person, might well bear the load of infinite degrees of wrath at once laid upon him, and thereby complete his satisfaction. So that his sufferings might be intensively infinite, and yet not exceed the capacity of his nature.

Or, if any should scruple whether the punishment of Christ were infinite in degrees, yet,

2dly. We may affirm that the dignity of his person, being God as well as man, might compound for the measure of his sufferings, and shorten their duration. For it is infinite suffering for an infinite person to suffer, it being an infinite humiliation and abasement. However, that punishment, which is stretched out by the line of eternity when laid upon the damned, was all wound up together when inflicted on Christ. He, at one large draught, drank off the cup of that fury, which they everlastingly drain by little drops. And could they, as he did, bear and eluctate the whole punishment at once, they would thereby obtain a Righteousness of Satisfaction, and be proceeded with as innocent or negatively righteous.

That is the Third Position.

4. Another position shall be this: Because we can neither fulfil the commands of the Law, nor yet undergo and eluctate the utmost extremity of the punishment; therefore, our righteousness cannot possibly be Inherent or Personal.

We cannot be personally righteous by perfect Obedience, because of the corruption of our natures: we cannot be personally righteous by full Satisfaction, because of the condition of our natures. Our corrupt state makes our perfect obedience a thing impossible; and our limited finite state makes our full satisfaction as impossible. As we are fallen sinners, so we lie under a sad necessity of transgressing the Law: as we are vile creatures, so we lie under an utter incapacity of recompensing divine justice. Well, therefore, might the Apostle cry out, There is none righteous; no, not one: Rom. iii. 10. As for a personal righteousness of obedience, the Prophet unfolds that goodly garment: Isa. Ixiv. 6. All our righteousnesses are but as filthy rugs rags they are; and, therefore, cannot cover our nakedness filthy rags they are; and, therefore, need a covering for

themselves. To think to cover filth by filth, is nothing else, but to make both more odious in the sight of God.

Nor can we hope to appear before God upon a Righteousness of Satisfaction: for how should we satisfy his justice?

Is it by Doing?

Whatsoever we can do, is,
God's gift.

Our own duty, had we never sinned. And,

Can bear no proportion to the sin committed; for no duty is of infinite goodness; but every sin is of infinite heinousness, as hath been demonstrated; and therefore no duty can make satisfaction for it.

Is it by Suffering, that we hope we may satisfy God? Alas! this is nothing else, but to seek salvation by being damned: for that is the penal part of the Law; and the only personal satisfaction, that the justice of God will exact of sinners.

Now, though it be thus in vain to seek for a righteousness of our own, either of the one kind or of the other; yet that corruption of our natures, which is the only cause why we have not a perfect personal righteousness of obedience, still prompts us insensibly to trust to it: and ready we are, upon all occasions, to be drawing up an inventory of our good works, as the merit of our justification; which, if they be really found, are but good evidences of it. For,

5. The righteousness, which alone can justify us, must be a Righteousness either of Obedience or Satisfaction; either doing what the Law hath required, or suffering what it threatens: and, indeed, both are necessary to bring us to heaven and happiness, in a way of Justification.

Perhaps God might, by the absolute prerogative of his mercy, have pardoned and saved sinners, without requiring any Righteousness or Satisfaction. But I say, that it is utterly impossible and contradictious, that he should justify any without a righte. ousness; for the very notion of Justification doth essentially connote and infer a righteousness, since it is God's owning and dealing with men as righteous. For ought I know, God might, had he so pleased, have pardoned and saved us without any righteousness; but, certain I am, he could not justify us without it. Now that is no righteousness, which doth not fully answer the law which is the rule of it: for the least defect destroys its nature, and turns it into unrighteousness.

If it be here objected, That the Rule of our Righteousness

is not the Law of Works, but the Law of Faith: that the Covenant of Works is abolished, and that of Grace succeeds in the place thereof, which requires faith, repentance, and sincere obedience as the conditions of our justification; and that these are now the Righteousness by which we are justified: I answer, by laying down

6. A sixth position: That the Covenant of Works is only so far forth repealed and abrogated, as it did require a Personal Righteousness to our Justification; but it is not repealed, as it did require a Perfect Righteousness.

God did never so far disannul the Covenant of Works, that, whether or no his Law were obeyed or his Justice satisfied, yet we should be accounted righteous: but, it is only thus far repealed by the Covenant of Grace, that, though we cannot perfectly obey nor fully satisfy in our own persons, yet we may be pardoned and accepted through the satisfaction and obedience of our Surety. So that, even now, under the Covenant of Grace, no righteousness can avail to our Justification, but what, for the matter of it, is perfectly conformable to the Law of Works. And, when we say that the Covenant of Works is abrogated, and that we are not to expect Justification according to that covenant, the meaning is not, that the matter of that covenant is repealed, but only the personal obligation relaxed: for, still, it is the righteousness of the Law which justifies us, though performed by another. And, therefore, in this sense, whosoever are justified, it is according to the Covenant of Works: that is, it is by that righteousness, which, for the substance and matter of it, this covenant did require.

For the proof of this, which is of very great moment for the clearing the doctrine of Justification, consider,

(1) That there can be no sufficient reason given why our Saviour should suffer the penalty, who never transgressed the precepts of the Law, unless it be that his sufferings might be our satisfaction..

Consequently, if Christ died for us, only to satisfy divine justice in our stead, and as our Surety, it must necessarily follow, that this his death is our Righteousness of Satisfaction according to the Law and Covenant of Works.

(2) That Law, according to the letter of which the far greater part of the world shall be judged, cannot be an abrogated, a repealed law.

But, though true believers shall indeed be judged only ac

cording to the favourable construction of the Law of Works, which is the accepting the righteousness of their Surety for. their own; yet all the rest of the world (and how vast a number is it!) shall be judged according to the strict letter of the Covenant of Works, and must either stand or fall according to the sentence of it: they must either produce a perfect sinless righteousness, wrought out personally by themselves; or else suffer the vengeance of eternal death. Indeed, all men, at the Last Day, shall be judged by the Covenant of Works: and, when they shall stand before the tribunal of God, this Law will be then produced, and every man's title tried by it; and whoever cannot plead a righteousness conformable to the tenor and import of it, must expect nothing else but the execution of the punishment threatened. The righteousness of Christ will be the believer's plea; and accepted, because it fully answers the matter of the Law. The rest of the world can produce no righteousness of their own, for all have sinned; nor can they plead this of Christ, because they have no faith, which alone can give this title and convey it to them: so that their case is desperate, their doom certain, and their punishment remediless and insupportable; and this, according to the tenor of the Covenant of Works, Do this or Suffer this, by which God will proceed in judging of the world.

Consider, again,

(3) That the matter and substance of the Covenant of Works is nothing else but the Moral Law (as I shewed before) the law of holiness and obedience: the obligation of which continues still upon us; and the least transgression of which is threatened with death and condemnation.

"What, then, doth God speak contradictions? and, in the Law of Works, tell us he will punish every transgressor; and, in the Law of Faith, tell us he will not punish every transgressor?" No, certainly: his truth and his justice are immutable; and, what he hath once spoken with his mouth, he will fulfil with his hand. And his veracity is obliged to punish every offender; for God can be no more false in his threatenings, than in his promises: and, therefore, he punisheth those whom he pardons, or else he could not pardon. He pardons their Persons, according to his Covenant of Grace: he punisheth their Surety, according to his Covenant of Works: which, in a forensic sense, being the punishing of them, they have in him made a satisfaction to the justice of God, and thereby have