Hardy:
When, therefore, we say God would that Christ should lay down a price sufficient, and so applicable to every man, it is to be understood in a conditional way, upon the terms of faith and repentance. And hence it is, that though Christ dying suffered that punishment which was designed to be satisfactory for the sins of every man, yet God doth justly inflict the punishment upon the persons of all them who are not by faith partakers of Christ’s death, because it was intended to satisfy for them only upon condition of believing.
Nathanael Hardy, The First General Epistle of St John the Apostle, Unfolded and Applied (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1865), 140. [Underlining mine.]
[Notes: As this stands, hardy’s brief comment would not be persuasive to some, but when his thought is combined with that of C Hodge or Edward Polhill the point is clear. The penal satisfaction of Christ (unlike a pecuniary satisfaction) does not ipso facto discharge the “debt” for all those for whom it was made. A condition is annexed to it. Upon completion of this condition, the benefit of the satisfaction is reckoned to the penitent; but not before. Prior to the this condition being met, the sinner is still subject to the wrath and punishment of God. Lastly, what Hardy says here on conditional unlimited satisfaction exactly images the language of Ursinus and Paraeus.]
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