' This shews us the greatness of man's sin and of Clirist's love, of Satan's malice and of God's justice; and it shews us the madness and blindness of the popish relisjioii, which tells us that some sins are so light and venial as that the Bprinkling ot holy water and ashes will purge them away.
CHRIST CONSIDERED AS A COMMON HEAD. 255'
(3.) The sacrifices iu the law had prefigured it ; (4.) The foulness of man's sin had deserved it ; (5.) The redemption of man called for it ; (6.) The glory of God was greatly exalted by it. So 1 Pet. iii. 18, ' For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.' To see Christ the just suffer in the stead of the unjust, is the wonder- ment of angels and the torment of devils : 1 Pet. iv. 1 , ' Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh,' &c,, that is, in the human nature, for the expiation and taking away of our sins ; 1 Pet. ii. 21, * Because Christ also suffered for us ; ' John x. 11, * I lay down my life for the sheep,' This good shepherd lays down life for life, his own dear life for the life of his sheep : John xi. 50, ' Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not,' that is, rather than the whole nation should perish. Caiaphas took it for granted, that either Christ or their nation must perish, and, as he foolishly thought, that of two evils he designed the least to be chosen, that is, that Christ should rather perish than their nation ; but God so guided his tongue that he un- wittingly, by the powerful instinct of the Spirit, prophesied of the fruit of Christ's death for the reconciliation and salvation of the elect of God. Heb. ii. 9, ' That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man,' inrep Trai^ro?, or for every creature. Who all these be, the con- text sheweth — (1.) Sons that must be led unto glory, ver. 10; (2.) Christ's brethren, ver. 11 ; (3.) Such children as are given by God unto Christ, ver. 13. In all which scriptures the preposition vTrep is used, which most commonly notes substitution, the doing or suffering of something by one in the stead and place of others, and so it is all along here to be taken. But there is another preposition, dvTL, that proves the thing I am upon undeniably: Mat. xx. 28, ' Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,' Xvrpov dvrl ttoX- Xcop. AvTpov signifies a redemptory price, a valuable rate ; for it was the blood of God wherewith the church was purchased. Acts XX. 28 : 1 Tim. ii, 6, ' Who gave himself a ransom,' dvriXvrpov, ' for all.' The Greet: word signifies a counterprice, such as we could never have paid, but must have remained everlasting prisoners to the wrath and justice of God. 0 sirs ! Christ did not barely deliver poor captive souls, but he delivered them in the way of a ransom, which ransom he paid down upon the nail. When their ransom was ten thousand talents, and they had not one farthing to lay down, Christ stands up in their room and pays the whole ransom, Mat, xviii. 24, Every one knows that avrl, in composition, signifies but two things, either opposition and contrariety, or substitution and commutation, Mat. V. 38 ; so that the matter will thus issue, that either we must carry it thus, that Christ ' gave himself a ransom against sinners,' than which nothing can be more absurd and false, or else thus, that he ' gave himself a ransom in the room and stead of sinners,' which is as true as truth itself, John ii. 28, 29. Certainly no head can invent, no heart can conceive, nor no tongue can express more clear, plain, preg- nant, and apposite words and phrases for the setting forth of Christ's substitution, than is to be found in that golden chapter of Isaiah liii.
256 CHRIST CONSIDERED AS A COMMON HEAD.
In this chapter, as in a holy armoury, we may find, had I time to go through it, many pointed daggers, and two-edged swords, and shields of brass, to arm us against the corrupt notions and opinions of the blinded and deluded Socinians, who fight with all their might against the doctrine of Christ's substitution. Ver. 4, ' Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,' &c. ; ver. 5, ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed ;' ver. 6, ' The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all ; ' or, ' the Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on him ; ' ver. 7, ' He was oppressed and he was afilicted,' &c. ; or, as the words are rendered by some, ' It was exacted and he answered;' ver. 8, ' For the transgres- sion of my people he was stricken ;' ver. 11, ' For he shall bear their iniquities ;' ver. 12, * And he bare the sin of many.' All men of worth and weight conclude that all this is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what more clear and evident proofs can there be of Christ's susception, of the sinner's guilt, and of his bearing the punish- ment due for it ? The priests of old, you know, are said to bear the iniquity of the people : Lev. x. 17, ' God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord.' The sinner bears his iniquity subjectively, the priest typically, and the Lord Christ really : Exod. xxviii. 38, ' That Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things.' Herein the high priest was a type of Christ ; answerable to which the prophet Isaiah tells us that Christ, our high priest, had the iniquities of all believers laid upon him, and that he bare them in his own person, Heb. iv. 14, 15 ; so the apostle, Heb. ix. 28, ' So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,' &c., avevey- Kelv d/iapTia<i. It is an allusion to the priests who carried up the sacrifice, and with it the sins of the people, to the altar. Christ our priest did cany up the sins of his people upon the cross, and there made satisfaction for them, in their room or stead, by the sacrifice of himself ; and that scripture is more worth than the Indies — viz., 1 Pet. ii. 24, ' Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,' avijvejKev, 'he bare them aloft' — viz., whe^ he climbed up his cross, and nailed them thereunto, Col. ii. 13-15. Christ in the human nature, when he was upon the cross, did suffer all the punishments and torments that were due to our sins ; he cancelled all bonds, annihilated the curse ; in which respects he is said ' to bear our sins in his own body on the tree.' But to prevent prolixity I shall produce no more scriptures, though many more might have been produced, to prove Christ a common person, a representative head of all his elect ; and that he did really substitute himself in their room, and took upon himself their guilt, and put himself in their place, and did undergo whatever they should have undergone.