" Let one be given uji to die in the stead of aU."
John xiii. 37, Tr^v -^v-x/i^ i-i'Ov bvsp gov S^jcw. They are the Avords of St Peter unto Christ, " I will lay down my life for thee;" — " To free thee, I will expose my own head to danger, my life to death, — that tliou mayest live, and I die." It is plain that he intended the same thing with the celebrated dvri-^vxoi of old, A\ho exposed their own lives {■^'vx'^v dvri -yl^u^T^g) for one another. Such were Damon and
* A monk of Constantinople, wlio wrote an epitome of Dion Cassius, a.d. 1071-1078.— Ed. ^
AN APPENDIX. , 44-7
Pythias, Orestes and Pylades, Nisus and Eiiryalus. Whence is that saying of Seneca, " Succurram perituro, sed ut ipse non peream; nisi si futurus ero magni hominis, aut magnee rei merces ;" — " I will relieve or succour one that is ready to perish ; yet so as that I perish not myself, — unless thereby I be taken in lieu of some great man, or great matter ;" — " For a great man, a man of great worth and useful- ness, I could perish or die in his stead, that he might live and go free."
We have a great example, also, of the importance of this expres- sion in these words of David concernmg Absalom, 2 Sam. xviii. 33, ?l^rinn ^JN 'm2 IPI^-^D^—" Who will grant me to die, I for thee," or in thy stead, "my son Absalom?" [Literal rendering of the Hebrew.] It was never doubted but that David wished that he had died in the stead of his son, and to have undergone the death which he did, to have preserved him alive. As to the same purpose, though in another sense, Mezentius in Virgil expresses himself, when his son Lausus, in- terposing between him and danger in battle, was slain by^neas: —
" Tantane me tenuit vivendi, imte, voluptas, Ut pro me liostili paterer succedero dextraj Qiiein geiuii? tuaiie hfec geiiitor per vuliiera server, Morte tua viveus?" — iEn. x. 84G.
''Hast thou, 0 son, fallen under the enemies' hand m my stead? am I saved by thy wounds? do I live by thy death?"
And the word ^D^, used by David, doth signify, when applied unto persons, either a succession or a substitution; still the coming of one into the place and room of another. When one succeeded to another in government, it is expressed by that word, 2 Sam. x. 1 ; 1 Kings i. 35, xix. 16. In other cases it denotes a substitution. So Jehu tells his giiard, that if any one of them let any of Baal's priests escape, V^'M nnri ic's:^ 2 Kings x. 24, — his life should go in the stead of the life that he had suffered to escape.
And this answereth unto dvrl in the Greek; which is also used in this matter, and ever denotes either equality, contrariety, or substi- tution. The two former senses can here have no place ; the latter alone hath. So it is said, that Ai-chelaus reigned avrl 'Hpudou roD ca- rpog auTou, Matt. ii. 22, — " in the room" or stead " of his father Herod." So 6<p6aX//,og avri ocpdaX/jjOv, odovg avri odonrog, Matt. V. 38, is " an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." And this word also is used in expressing the death of Christ for us. He came oovvai rriv -^v^'/jv avTov Xurpov dvTi iroXkuv, Matt. XX. 28, — "to give his life a ransom for many;" that is, in their stead to die. So the words are used again, Mark x. 45. And both these notes of a succedaneous substitution are joined together, 1 Tim. ii. 6, 'O ooiig iauHv dvri}.vrpov O-xs^ -ravruv. And this the Greeks call rjj's -^v^vs -rpiaeOai, — to buy any thing, to
418 AN APPENDIX.
purchase or procure any thing, with the price of one's hfe. So Tig- ranes in Xenophon, when Cyrus asked him what he would give or do for the hberty of his wife, whom lie had taken prisoner, answered, Kav r^j -^u'/TJ; Tpiai/iriv UKSn /Mrj'rrort XarpivSai rauTTiV — " I will 2:»urcliase her liberty with my life/' or " the price of my soul." Whereon the woman being freed, affirmed afterward, that she considered none in the company, but him who said, u; r^g -^v/Jig av 'xpiairo wots /x^j /xs 6ovXi\jsiv, "that he would purchase my liberty with his own life," [Cyrop. lib. iii.]
And these things are added on the occasion of the instances men- tioned in the Scripture; whence it appears, that this expression of " dying for another" hath no other sense or meaning, but only dying instead of another, undergoing the death that he should undergo, that he might go free. And in this matter of Christ's dying for us, add that he so died for us as that he also died for our sins; that is, either to bear their punishment or to expiate their guilt (for other sense the words cannot admit) ; and he that pretends to give any other sense of them than that contended for, which implies the whole of what lies in the doctrine of satisfaction, " erit mihi magnus Apollo," even he who was the author oi all ambiguous oracles of old.