debt of another. For our debt he was made uuder the law, and so as a sacrifice, he stood in the stead of a sinner, and the sacrifice was to be offered for the man ; and so some exponnd that place, ' He was made sin for us,' 2 Cor. v. 21, that is, a sin-offering ; therefore he doth take our sins upon him as his own, Isa. liii. ; and so the Lord doth im- pute them and lay them upon him as his own : ver. 6, ' He did make to meet upon him the iniquities of us all.' The original word here used comes from J^JE) pagang, which word in its native propriety in- tends a kind of force or violence, impetum fecit, they met with all their violence upon him, and therefore ' he was made sin for us,' that is, as a surety in our stead, ' he did bear our sins in his body upon the tree ; he was delivered for our transgressions.' Our surety hath paid all our debts. ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and it pleased the Father to bruise him,' Isa. liii. 5, 10. The original word signifies to break him to pieces as in a mortar. By the great things that our surety has done for us, and the great things that he hath suff'ered for us, he hath given most perfect and complete satisfaction both to his Father's law, and to his Father's justice ; and this pleased the Father. Weigh well that. Col. ii, 14, ' He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that was contrary unto us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.' ^ Christ hath crossed out the black lines of our sin with the red lines of his own blood. The Greek word 'xeLp6'ypa<j>ov, i.e., the handwriting, some do take here for a writing written with God's own hand in tables of stone, as the law of the ten commandments were, Exod. xxxiv. 1 ; and this is by them understood of the moral law, or of the ten commandments, which are said to be against us, in respect of their strict requiring of perfect obedience, or in default thereof, by reason of its curse, which Christ as our surety hath borne for us on the cross, and delivered us from it. Gal. iii. 10, 13. But others by this handwriting do understand the law of the ceremonies of the Old Testament. In the general, it was some- thing that God had against us ; to shew or convince, or prove, that we had sinned against him, and were his debtoi's. I suppose that this handwriting was principally the moral law, obliging us unto perfect obedience, and condemning us for the defect of the same, and likewise those ceremonial rites, which, as Beza observes, were a kind of public confession of our debts. Now these were against, and contrary unto us, inasmuch as they did argue us guilty of sin and condemnation, which the moral law threatened and sentenced, &c., but saith the apostle, ' Christ hath blotted out the handwriting, and hath taken it out of the way and nailed it to his cross,' that is, Jesus Christ hath not only abrogated the ceremonial law, but also the damnatory power of the moral law, as our surety, by performing an act of obedience which the law did require, and by undergoing the punishment which the law did exact from the transgressors of it ; and so Christ doing and suffer- ing, what we were bound to do and to suffer, he did thereby blot out the handwriting, and cancelled it ; and therefore we may safely con-
' Some by the handwriting do understand the covenant of God with Adam. Beza and Calvin do understand it of the ceremonial law. But, saith Chrysostom, ' It is meant not onlj' of the ceremonial law, but also of the moral law, as a covenant of works.' CEcumenius, Jerome, and otliers, are of the same opinion. But, eaith Zanchy, ' This is spoken to comfort the Colossiaiis, who were never under the ceremonial law.'
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