Abstractedly considered, this is true; but it is not expressive of what was the revealed law of innocence. The law made no such condition, or provision; nor was it indifferent to the law-giver who should suffer, the sinner, or another on his behalf. The language of the law to the transgressor was not _thou shalt die, or some one on thy behalf_; but simply _thou shalt die_: and had it literally taken its course, every child of man must have perished. The sufferings of Christ in our stead, therefore, are not a punishment inflicted in the ordinary course of distributive justice; but an extraordinary interposition of infinite wisdom and love: not contrary to, but rather above the law, deviating from the letter, but more than preserving the spirit of it. Such, brethren, as well as I am able to explain them, are my views of the substitution of Christ. _Peter._ The objection of our so stating the substitution of Christ, as to leave no room for the free pardon of sin, has been often made by those who avowedly reject his satisfaction; but for any who really consider his death as an atonement for sin, and as essential to the ground of a sinner’s hope, to employ the objection against us, is very extraordinary, and must, I presume, proceed from inadvertency. _James._ If it be so, I do not perceive it. The grounds of the objection have been stated as clearly and as fully as I am able to state them. FULLER Footnote 40: חשב; λογιζομαι. Footnote 41: 1 Sam. i. 13. Neh. xiii. 13. 1 Cor. iv. 1. 2 Cor. x. 11. Rom. viii. 18. Footnote 42: 2 Sam. xix. 19. Ps. xxxii. 2. 2 Tim. iv. 16. Footnote 43: Num. xviii. 27-30. Job xiii. 24. Rom. ii. 26. Philem. 18. Footnote 44: Expository Discourses on Gen. xv. 1-6. Also Calvin’s Inst. bk. iii. ch. xi. § 7. Footnote 45: Inst. bk. iii. ch. xi. § 2. Footnote 46: p. 510. Footnote 47: Lev. xvi. 21. Footnote 48: Lev. i. 4, 5. Quest. LXXII., LXXIII. QUEST. LXXII. _What is justifying Faith?_ ANSW. Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner, by the Spirit and word of God; whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself, and all other creatures, to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person, righteous in the sight of God for salvation. QUEST. LXXIII. _How doth faith justify a sinner in the sight of God?_