And this is the common sense of " mori pro alio," and " pati pro alio," or "pro alio discrimen capitis subire;" a substitution is still denoted by that expression : which sufficeth us in this whole cause, for we know both into whose room he came, and what they were to suffer. Thus Entellus, killing and sacrificing an ox to Eryx in the stead of Dares, whom he was ready to have slain, when he was taken from him, expresseth himself, —
" rianc tibi, Eryx, meliorem aiiimain pro morte Daretis Persulvo."_^ii. V. 483.
He offered the ox, a better sacrifice, in the stead of Dares, taken fi'um him. So, —
" Fiatrein Pollux alterua inorte redemit." — ^a. vi. 121.
And they speak so not only with respect unto death, but wherever any thing of durance or suffering is intended. So the angry master in the comedian : —
" Verberibiis crcsum te in pistrimun, Dave, dedaic usque ad necem;-. Ea lege atquo oiniiie, ut, si te iiide cxemeiiui, ego pro te mohuii." —
Ter. And., i. 2, 28.
He threatened his servant, to cast him into prison, to be macerated to death with labour ; and that with this engagement, that if he ever let him out he wuuld grind for him; — that is, in his stead. Where-
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fore, without offering violence to the common means of understand- ing things amongst men, another sense cannot he affixed to these words.
The nature of the thing itself will admit of no other exposition than that given unto it; and it hath been manifoldly exemj)lified among the nations of the world. For suppose a man guilty of any crime, and on the account thereof to be exposed unto danger from God or man, in a way of justice, wrath, or vengeance, and when he is ready to be given up unto suffering according unto his demerit, another should tender himself to die for him, that he might be freed ; let an appeal be made to the common reason and understandings »f all men, whether the intention of this his dying for another be not, that he substitutes himself in his stead, to undergo what he should have done, however the translation of punishment from one to another may be brought about and asserted; for at present we treat not of the right, but of the fact, or the thing itself And to deny this to be the case as to the sufferings of Christ, is, as far as I can understand, to subvert the whole gospel.
Moreover, as was said, this hath been variously exemplified among the nations of the world; whose actings in such cases, because they excellently shadow out the general notion of the death of Christ for others, for sinners, and ai'e appealed unto directly by the apostle to this purpose, Rom. v. 7, 8, I shall in a few instances reflect upon.
Not to insist on the voluntaiy surrogations of private persons, one into the room of another, mutually to vmdergo dangers and death for one another, as before mentioned, I shall only remember some public transactions, in reference unto communities, in nations, cities, or armies. Nothing is more celebrated amongst the ancients than this, that when they supposed themselves in danger, from the anger and displeasure of their gods, by reason of any guilt or crimes among them, some one person should either devote himself or be devoted by the people, to die for them ; and therein to be made, as it were, an expiatory sacrifice. For where sin is the cause, and God is the object respected, the making of satisfaction by undergoing punishment, and expiating of sin by a propitiatory sacrifice, are but various expressions of the same thing. Now, those who so devoted themselves, as was said, to die in the stead of others, or to expiate their sins, and turn away the anger of God they feared, by their death, designed two things in what they did. First, That the evils which were impend- ent on the people, and feared, might fall on themselves, so that the people might go free. Secondly, That all good things which them- selves desired, might be conferred on the people. Which things have a notable sliadow in them of the great expiatory sacrifice, concerning
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460 AN APPENDIX.
which we treat, and expound the expressions wherein it is declared. The instance of the Decii is known; of whom the poet, —
" PlebeijB Deciorum aniniae, ijlebeia fuerunt Nomina; pro totis legionibus Hi tameu, et pro Omnibus auxiliis, atque omul plebe Latina, Suflaciunt Diis infernis."
The two Decii, father and son, in imminent dangers of the people, devoted themselves, at several times, unto death and destruction. And saith he, " Sufficiunt Diis infernis," — they satisfied for the whole people ; adding the reason whence so it might be : —
" Pluris eiiim Decii quam qui servantiir ab illis." — Juv., Sat. vii. 254-8.
They were more to he valued than all that luere saved by them. And the great historian doth excellently describe both the actions and expectations of the one and the other in what they did. The father, when the Roman army, commanded by himself and Titus Manlius, was near a total ruin by the Latins, called for the public priest, and caused him, mth the usual solemn ceremonies, to devote him to death for the deliverance and safety of the army ; after which, malcing his requests to his gods, (" dii quorum est potestas nostrorum hostiumque,") " the gods that had power over them and their adver- saries," as he supposed, he cast himself into death by the swords of the enemy. " Conspectus ab utnlque acie aliquanto augustior hu- mane visu, sicut coelo missus, piaculum omnis deorum irse, qui pestem ab suis aversam in hostes ferret \" — " He was looked on by both armies as one more august than a man, as one sent from heaven, to be a piacular sacrifice, to appease the anger of the gods, and to trans- fer destruction from their own army to the enemies," Liv., Hist. viii. 9. His son, in like manner, in a great and dangerous battle against the Gauls and Samnites, wherein he commanded in chief, devotinof him- self, as his father had done, added unto the former solemn depreca- tions:— " Prse se agere sese formidinem ac fugam, csedemque ac cru- orem, ccelestium, inferorum iras," lib. x. 28 ; — " That he carried away before him, from those for whom he devoted himself, ' fear and flight, slaughter and blood, the auger of the celestial and infernal gods.'" And as they did, in this devoting of themselves, design " averruncare malum, deum iras, lustrare populum, aut exercitum, piaculum fieri," or <!ripl-^7ifji,cx,, a,Yddrifx,a, d'TroxdOap/Mo,, — " expiare crimina, scelus, reatum," or to remove all evil from others, by taking it on themselves in their stead; so also they thought they might, and intended in what they did, to covenant and contract for the good things they desired. So did these Decii ; and so is Menceceus reported to have done, when he devoted himself for the city of Thebes, in danger to be destroyed by