GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. S5
BO as to transfer their own guilt to him, but washed their hands over him, to declare their personal innocency. By these means, as in all other expiatory sacrifices, did God instruct the church in the trans- ferring of the guilt of sin unto Him who was to bear all their iniquities, with their discharge and justification thereby.
So " God laid on Christ the iniquities of us all," that " by his stripes we might be healed," Isa. liii. 5, 6. Our iniquity was laid on him, and he bare it, verse 11; and through his bearing of it we are freed from it. His stripes are our healing. Our sin was his, imputed unto him ; his merit is ours, imputed unto us. " He was made sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might become the righteousness of God in him," 2 Cor. v. 21. This is that commutation I mentioned: he was made sin for us; we are made the righteousness of God in him. God not imputing sin unto us, verse 19, but imputing righte- ousness unto us, doth it on this ground alone, that " he was made sin for us." And if by his being made sin, only his being made a sacrifice for sin is intended, it is to the same purpose; for the formal reason of any thing being made an expiatory sacrifice, was the impu- tation of sin unto it by divine institution. The same is expressed by the same apostle, Rom. viii. 3, 4, " God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh ; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." The sin was made his, he answered for it; and the righteousness which God re- qidreth by the law is made ours: the righteousness of the law is ful- filled in us, not by our doing it, but by his. This is that blessed change and commutation wherein alone the soul of a convinced sinner can find rest and peace. So he " hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that the blessing of Abraham might come on us," Gal. iii. 13, 14. The curse of the law contained all tliat was due to sin. This belonged imto us; but it was trans- ferred on him. He was made a curse ; whereof his hangmg on a tree was the sign and token. Hence he is said to " bear our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. ii. 24 ; because his hanging on the tree was the token of his bearincf the curse: " For he that is hauQ-ed is the curse of God," Deut. xxi. 23. And in the blessing of faithful Abraham all righteousness and acceptation with God is included ; for Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righte- ousness.
But because some, who, for reasons best known unto themselves, do take all occasions to except against my writings, have in particular raised an impertinent clamour about somewhat that I formerly de- livered to this purpose, I shall declare the whole of my judgment herein in the words of some of those whom they can pretend no quarrel against, that I know of
3(3 ox JUSTIFICATION.
The excellent words of Justin Martyr deserve the first place: AvTog Tov 'ihtov u'llv drridoro Xvrpov b'lrsp Tj^jboov, rov ayiov v'^rlp avo/Muv, rov u/CaKov V'^rsp ruv zazwi/, rov dixaiov 'jTsp ruj abi'/.w, rhv a(pdaprov hnrip tuv (pdapruv, rof dddvarov v'^rsp ruv Si/j^rwv" ri ydp aXXo rdg d/Maprlctg fj/MMV riduv/jdyj xaXb-^ai, rj sxiivou dr/.aioG'jv'/i] sv rivi dr/.arjjdT^vai duvarov rovg dvo- fjjovg r,/j,ccg -/.ai daZiTg^ ri h /xo'i/w rco v'l'Si rov Qsov; cu rrig yXuzslag dvraX- Xwy^ig, df Trig dvs^iyjtdGTOu drjfj.iovpyia.g, w tmv d'Xpoedo'A.rjruv iuipyiSiuv' ha d'jo/Mia /xb 'joXXSiv sv dixaiw ivi xpuQf, dizaioavvT} ds ivog 'jroXXovg dvo- /jbovg oizaiu)(jyi, Epist. ad Diognet. ; — " He gave his Son a ransom for us; — the holy for transgressors; the innocent for the nocent; the just for the unjust; the incorruptible for the corrupt; the immortal for mortals. For what else could hide or cover our sins but his righteousness ? In whom else could we wicked and ungodly ones be justified, or esteemed righteous, but in the Son of God alone ? O sweet permutation, or change ! O unsearchable work, or curious operation ! 0 blessed beneficence, exceeding all expectation ! that the iniquity of many should be hid in one just one, and the right- eousness of one should justify many transgressors." And Gregory Nyssen speaks to the same purpose: Msrakig ydp rrphg ia-jrhv tov tSjv yjfjLojv d/MapTiaiv pv-Tov, ju,iTBdc/Jxs [loi TT^g savroij xalJaporo^rog, xoivuvov /jus tou hauTou -/.dXXoug d-^rspyasd/Mvog, Orat. ii. in Cant.; — " He hath transfei'red unto himself the filth of my sins, and communicated unto me his purity, and made me partaker of his beauty." So Augiistine, also : " Ipse peccatum ut nos justitia, nee nostra sed Dei, nee in nobis sed in ipso ; sicut ipse peccatum, non suum sed nostrum, nee in se sed in nobis constitutum," Enchirid. ad Laurent., cap. xli.; — " He was sin, that we might be righteousness; not our own, but the righteousness of God ; not in ourselves, but in him ; as he was sin, not his own, but ours, — not in himself, but in us." The old Latin translation renders those words, Ps. xxii. 1, ''^^i<^ ''■?.^'^, — " Verba delictorum meorum." He thus comments on the place : " Quomodo ergo dicit, ' Delictorum meorum?' nisi quia pro delictis nostris ipse precatur ; et delicta nostra delicta sua fecit, ut justitiam suam nostramjustitiam faceret;" — ''How saith he, ' Of my sins?' because he prayeth for our sins; he made our sins to be his, that he might make his righteousness to be ours, ''n Trig yXv/.iiag dvraXXayy^g' — " O sweet commutation and change ! " And Chrysostom, to the same purpose, on those words of the apostle, — " That we might be made the righteousness of God in him:" UoTog roAjra, Xoyog, rroTog raZra 'rrapagr^aai duvrjffirai vovg', rov ydp bixaiov, (prjSiv, i-yoiridiv dn,apTuX6v, hot, Toiig dfzapruXovg 'Zoir,Grj hixaio-jg' /jbdXXov Bri ou6h o'jTOig ii-TTiv' aXX' o ToXXw iMiVi^ov r^V o\j ydp s^iv idrjXiv, dXX' aOr^v r^v 'XoidrriTOL' ov ydp flrrsv, I'XOii^Giv d/j,apT0i)X6v, dXX' afxapriav ahyj rov fjbri d/Mup- rdvovra /jt,6vov, dXXd rov /Mrjd's yvovTa d,'j,apTiuv' ha nai rj/Jbug yivui/j^iOa, ovz s/'crs, di'/iuioi, dXXd di/.aioGvvr}, y.ai Qiou dj/tawouvr], Qiov ydp Isriv av-rj, orav