PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 12
John Owen · 372,421 words · 377 reading sections
Section 241
But yet Mr B.'s candid procedure in this business may be re- marked, with his huckstering the word of God. He reads the words in this order: "It became him to make the captain of their salva- tion perfect through sufferings, that he might be a merciful and faith- ful high priest." Who would not conclude that this is th…
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To this Heb. vii. 15, 16 is urged, and these words, "After the power of an endless life," are insisted on; as though Christ was not a priest until after he had ended his life and risen again. But is this the intendment of the apostle? doth he aim at any such thing? The apostle is insisting on one of his arguments, to …
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1. The Scripture will speedily determine the difference: Eph. v. 2, " Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." He that offereth sacrifices and offerings unto God is a priest ; so the apostle defines a priest, Heb. v. 1. He is one " taken from a…
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410 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^. compared to the daily sacrifices of the priests. Now, those daily sacri- fices were not performed in the most holy place, whither the high priest entered but once in a year; which alone was a representation of heaven : so that what Christ did in heaven cannot answer to them, but what he did on…
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That the Lord Jesus, our mediator, did not, by his death and suf- ferings, undergo the penalty of the law as the punishment due to our sins; that he did not make satisfaction to God, or make reconciliation for transgressors; that he did not thereby properly redeem us by the payment of a ransom, nor so suffer for us as …
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Q. Did Christ die to reconcile and bring God to us, or, on the contrary, to bring us to God? A. Rom. V. 10; Eph. ii. 14, 16; 2 Cor. v. 19; 1 Pet. iii. 18. That I may by the way speak a little to this question, reserving the full discussion of the matter intended to the ensuing discourse, the terms of it are first to …
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For the texts cited by Mr B. as making to his purpose, the most, if not all of them, look another way than he intends to use them ; they will in the following chapter come under full consideration. Rom. V. 1 0, " When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son," is the first mentioned. That our …
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Thus, though it be most true that Christ died to reconcile us to God by our conversion to him, yet all the places cited by Mr B. to prove it (so unhappy is he in his quotations) speak to the defence of that truth which he doth oppose, and not of that which he would assert ; and which by asserting in opposition to the t…
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The principal considerations of the death of Christ are of it, — I. As a price; II. As a sacrifice; III. As a penalty: of which in the order wherein they are mentioned. 'Crell. de Causis Mortis Christi, p. 13. OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 419 CHAPTER XXII. The several considerations of the death of Christ as to t…
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OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 421 "pitch" or "bitumen;" hence what God says to Noah about making the ark, ^"l??], Gen. vi. 1-1, the LXX. have rendered a<s(paX7ui(Siig rf! aafdXrw, — " bituminabis bitumine." "i^? in pihel is " placavit, ex- piavit, expiationem fecit ; " because by sacrifice sins are covered as if they…
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Not to speak of sacrifices in general, the sacrifices of the Jews may be referred to four heads: — (1.) The daily sacrifice of morning and evening, which is instituted Exod. xxix. 38, 39 ; which being omitted, was renewed by Nehemiah, chap. X. 33, and wholly taken away for a long season by Antiochus, according to the …
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{2cUy.) In regard of application. The blood of common sacrifices being once shed was a dead thing, and had no more worth nor effi- cacy; it could not possibly be a "living way" for us to come to God by, nor could it be preserved to be sprinkled upon the conscience of the sinner. Hence doth the apostle make it evident,…
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Thus they. Some brief animadversions will give the reader a clear account of this discourse: — Sundry things are here splendidly sup- posed by our catechists, than which nothing could be imagined or in- vented more false ; as, that the covenant was not the same for sub- stance under the old and new testament, before an…
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428 VINDICI-ffi EVANGELIC^. But they plead proof of Scripture for what they say, in the ensu- ing question: — • Q. How dost thou demonstrate both these ? A. That the sins which could not be expiated under' the old testament are all expiated under the new, Paul witnesseth, Acts xiii. 38, 39 ; and the same is also aff…
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'The interpretation of this place by the Socinians is as ridiculous as any they make use of. Take it in the words of Volkelius : — Add hereto that the mortal body of Christ, which he had before his death, yea, before his ascension into heaven, was not fit for his undergoing this office of priesthood or wholly to accom…
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A sacrifice is a religious oblation, wherfein something by the ministry of a priest, appointed of God thereunto, is dedicated to God, and destroyed as to what it was, for the ends and purposes of spiritual worship Avhereunto it is instituted. I shall only take notice of that one part of this definition, which asserts t…
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sacrifice, John xvii. 19. So that, indeed, the deity of Christ, that supported, bore up, and sanctified the human nature as offered, was the altar, and the cross was but an instrument of the cruelty of man^ that taketh place in the death of Christ as it was a penalty, but hath no place in it as a sacrifice. That this …
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For the latter, it is true, indeed, that for the most part it falls out that every one that is to be punished is unwilling to undergo it, and ' Sallust. Bell. Catilin. cnp. xxxvi. OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 435 there is an improj)er nolleity (if I may so speak) in nature unto the subtracting of any good from it, …
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I shall not trouble the reader with the heathens' apprehension of Bhadamanthean righteousness, and the exact rendering to every one according to his desert, even in another world. There is a twofold rule of this proportion of sin and punishment, the one constitutive, the other declarative. The rule constitutive of the…
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(2.) The second end of punishment, which gives a second kind of them, in the general sense before mentioned, is for the good of others, and this also is various: — [1.] It isybr the good of them that may he like-minded with him that is punished, that they may be deterred, affrighted, and persuaded from the like evils.…
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' Indc •^coa.oiiyfii.ccTiXo; ffvXXcyiffiOf, et rfcifu.'hiiy/^a.rnicii i\$ufj!,nfia. - KoXuTaTt Ti d'^ius TcuTous Tt, xa) roig HXXois gvfif^ii^ci; ■vaoahit'yfji.cit, ff'aptf Kara- err.traTi- — Thucyd. lib. iii. 40. ^40 VINDICI^: EVANGELIC^. that is Isa. liii. What in particular shall be produced from thence will appe…
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For the first, let the reader consider what is contained in the several words here setting forth the condition of Christ. We have " despising and rejecting, sorrow and grief," verse 3. He was " stricken, smitten, afflicted," or there was striking, smiting, afflic- tion on him, verse 4; "wounded, bruised, chastised Avit…
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The two expressions that I chose in particular to consider are nextly to be insisted on. The first relates to him who did inflict the punishment; the other to him that was punished. The first is in verse 6, " The LoRD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The person punishing is Jehovah, the person punished called…
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It is, then, " to meet/' Now, the word here used being in hiphil, which makes a double action of that expressed, by adding the cause by whose power, virtue, and impress the thing is done, thence it is here rendered " occurrere fecit," — " he made to meet." And so the sense of it is, " God made our sins, as it were, to …
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It appears, then, from all that hath been said, that our iniquities that were laid on Christ were the punishment due to our iniquity. Farther to clear this, I shall a little consider what act of God this was whereby he laid our iniquities on Christ ; and these two things OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 447 are consid…
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(2.) That as he be a king, and have supreme government, so he be a. judge to put in execution his justice. Thus, "God is judge him- self," Ps. 1. 6; he is "the judge of all the earth," Gen. xviii. 25; Ps. xciv. 2; Ps. Ixxv. 7; Isa. xxxiii. 22, as in innumerable other places. Now, as God is thus the great governor and j…
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3. That Christ himself was willing to undergo this burden and undertake this work. And this, as it is consistent with his death being a punishment, so it is of necessity to make good the other con- siderations of it, namely, that it should be a price and a sacrifice ; for no man gives a price, and therein parts with th…
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Socinus would have it hei'e be as much as '•' abstulit," " he took away." So saith he, " God took away our sin in Christ, when by him he declared and confirmed the way whereby pardon and remission 452 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^. is to be obtained, as he pardoned our sin in Christ by discovering the new covenant and mercy th…
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(2.) Those who would have the sense of the word to be, " to take away," in this place, confess it is by way of the allusion before men- tioned, that he that takes away a thing takes it up, and bears it on his shoulders, or in his arms, until he lay it down, and by virtue of this allusion doth it signify ''to take away.…
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(2.) So also of the sins of others: Num. xiv. 33, " And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms." " Bear your whoredoms ;" that is, " My anger for them, and the punishment due to them." Num. xxx. 15, he that compels by his power and authority another to break a vow shall himsel…
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DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIIl. 457 cannot from them be confirmed. This digression, then, is to cast into the fire that broken crutch which this learned man hath lent unto the Jews and Socinians to lean upon, and keep themselves from sinking under their unbelief. To discover the rise of that learned man…
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He confesseth with us that the head of this prophecy and dis- course is in verse 13, chap. lii. The words of that verse are, — " Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high." Of the sense of which words, thus he : — " Fcce intelliget servus mens. Hgec omnia clarissimb …
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1. To grant the first observation, as to the change of persons in the discourse, the word (^"^9^? " shall be astonished") here used signifies not every slight admiration, by wondering upon any occasion, or that may be a little more than ordinary, but mostly an astonish- ment arising from the contemplation of some ruthf…
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4 [As] for the accommodation of the words to Jeremiah, how did he sprinkle many nations, so as to answer the type of legal cleansing? Did he pour out the Spirit upon them? did he sanctify and make them holy? did he purge them from their iniquities? " But he turned many amongst the nations from the worship of idols." Bu…
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1. I suppose if we had not had the advantage of receiving quite another interpretation of these words from the Holy Ghost himself in the New Testament, yet it would not have been easy for any to have swallowed this gloss, that is as little allied to the text as any thing that can possibly be imagined. The Holy Ghost te…
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The third verse pursues the description of the Messiah in respect of his abject outward condition ; which being of the same import with the former, and it being not my aim to comment on the text, I shall pass by. Verse 4, '' Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor- rows: yet we did esteem him stricken, sm…
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The reading of the words must first be considered, and then their sense and meaning; for against both these doth the learned annota- tor ti'ansgress, perverting the former that he might the more easily wrest the latter. 1. " He was wounded for our sins, crimine nostro," "by our crime;" that is, it was our fault, not h…
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3. The word rendered by us "chastisement," and by the Vulgar Latin, which Grotius follows, " disciplina," is ""DiD^ which as it hath its first signification " to learn," so it signifies also " to correct," because learn- ing is seldom carried on without correction; and thence "disciplina" signifies the same. Now, what …
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Though the words of this verse are most important, yet having at large before insisted on the latter words of it, I shall be brief in my animadversions on the signal depravation of them by the learned annotator. Therefore, — 1. Why is this confession of sins restrained to the times of Ma- oiasseh, and not afterward? T…
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The other word is '^^.V.^.. The Vulgate Latin seems to look to the active use of the word, " to answer," and therefore renders it "voluit," " he would," — he willingly submitted to it, or he undertook to do that which was exacted ; and much may be said for this interpretation from the use of the word in Scripture. And …
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Now, the sense of these words is, that either Christ was taken away, that is, killed and slain, by his pressures, and the pretended judgment that was passed on him, or else that he was delivered from the straits and judgment that might have come upon him. Although he was so afflicted, yet he was taken away from distres…
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2 Reg. XXV. 18-21. Nihil illis divitise suae profuerunt, quibus re- dimi se posse speraverant. Eo quod iniquitatem non fecerit, neque DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIII. 477 dolus fuerit in ore ejus. Quanquam nihil aliud dixerat qnam quod Deus ei mandaverat ;" — " ' And he shall give the wicked for his grav…
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2. It pleased the Lord ^'^?'^, " eum contundere, conterere, fran- gere," to bruise or break him; in answer to what was said before, verse 5, " He was wounded, he was bruised," etc. That which is said, to accommodate all this to Jeremiah, is, that by all this is intended that God permitted it to be done to him. But, — …
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Verse 11, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many ; for he shall bear their iniquities." The event and glorious issue of the suffering of Christ, in respect of himself and others, with the reason thereof, is briefly comprised and expre…
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8. " My righteous servant shall justify many." That this term, used thus absolutely, " My righteous servant," is not applied to any in the Scripture besides Jesus Christ, hath been declared ; especially where that is ascribed to him which here is spoken of, it can be no otherwise understood. P''1T-, "shall justify," th…
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"'Because he poured out his soul unto death;' that is, he ex- posed himself to the danger of death by following truth, which be- gets hatred. See Jer. xxvi. 13. Tid'imi ■^•j^yjv is spoken for exposing a man's life to danger of death, John x. 11. " ' He bare the sin of many,' or was evilly treated by the wicked- ness o…
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486 VINDICI^ EVANGELia*:. in the Scripture tlie same. His death was by the eflfusion of his blood, and what is done by his death is still said to be done by his blood. And though he williogly gave up himself to God therein as he was a sacrifice, yet he was taken by violence and nailed to the cross as it was a punishme…
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But from that sort of spiritual invisible creatures he suffered in the attempts of the devil. Christ looked on him at a distance, in his approach to set upon him. " The prince of this world," saith he, " cometh," John xiv. SO, He saw him coming, with all his malice, fury, and violence, to set upon him, to ruin him if …
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The Jeivs and Gentiles were engaged, by way of visible represen- tation of the enmity which was come on all mankind, John iv. 9, Eph. ii. 14-17; and therefore he who was to undergo the whole curse of the law was to have the rage and fury of them all executed on him. As I said before, all their persecution of him concer…
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{bthly) To express the residue of his body, and the condition of it when he hung on the cross so long, by the soreness of his hands and his feet, says he, " All my bones are out of joint," Ps. xxii. 14, and also verses 16, 17. Thus was it with his body. 'idly. The like also is expressed of his soid; for, — (Is^.) On…
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\st. The worm is from the in-beinfj and everlastino- abidiucf of a man's own sin. That tormenting anguish of conscience which shall perplex the damned to eternity attends their puuishment merely from their own sin inherent. This Christ could not undergo. The worm attends not sin imputed, but sin inherent, especially no…
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3. The punishment due to us, that is in the " curse of the law," consists, as was said, of two parts: — (1.) Loss, or separation from God; (2.) Sense, from the infliction of the evil threatened. And both these did our Saviour undergo. (1.) For the first, it is expressed of him, Ps. xxii. 1 ; and he actually complains …
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On these considerations, it is evident that the sufferings of Christ in relation to the law -were the very same that were threatened to sinners, and which we should have undergone had not our Surety undertaken the work for us. Neither was there any difference in reference to God the judge and the sentence of the law, b…
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The revelation of this covenant is in the Scripture ; not that it was then constituted when it is first mentioned in the promises and pro- phecies of Christ, but [it was] then first declared or revealed. Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, but he was so from eternity. As in other…
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1 "Ortp I'TfisyjJn') troi, 'ix^'s ■rpoir'S'.y.Tovi 'ixi^'- — Formula Jur. lustitut. lib. iii. c. Tol- litur. § item per. " Numerius Nigidius iuterrogavit Aulum Augerium, Quicquid tibi hodierno die, per aquiliauam stipulationem spopondi, id ne omue liabes acceptum ? Respondit Aulus Aiigerius, Ilabeo, acceptumque tuli." …
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The first thing, then, is manifest, that there was a voluntary con- currence and distinct consent of the Father and Son for the accom- plishment of the work of our peace, and for bringing us to God, 2. For the accomplishment of this work, the Father, who is prin- cipal in the covenant, the promisor, whose love " sets …
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OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 503 interpretation of ff-Tr'spfMaroc AQpaa/ju IntCkaiiZanraj, Heb. ii. 1 6, yet if it be " apprehendit/' and expressive of the effect, not " assumpsit," relating to the way of his yielding us assistance and deliverance, the same thing is intimated. [2.] That in this " body," or human na…
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(2.) There were promises in this compact that concerned the wo7'k itself that Christ undertook, namely, that if he did what was re- quired of him, not only he should be preserved in it, but also that the work itself should thrive and prosper in his hand. So Isa. liii. 10, 11, "When thou sbalt make," etc. Whatever he ai…
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(2.) Christ, accordingly, makes his demand solemnly on earth and in heaven. On earth : John xvii., throughout the whole chapter is the demand of Christ for the accomplishment of the whole compact and all the promises that were made to him when he undertook to be a Saviour, which concerned both himself and his church; s…
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Having thus fully considered the threefold notion of the death of Christ, as it was a, price, a sacrifice, and a punishment, and discovered the foundation of righteousness in all this, proceed we now to manifest what are the proper effects of the death of Christ under this three- fold notion. Now these also, answerably…
934 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1850–1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.