286 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK III.
him;" that is, he was chastised or punished that we might have peace, that we might go free, our sins being the cause of his wound- ing, and our iniquities of his being bruised, all our sins meetincr upon him, as verse 6 ; that is, he " bare our sins," in Peter's interpre- tation. He bare our sins (not, as some think, by declaring that we were never truly sinful, but) by being wounded for them, bruised for tliem, undergoing the chastisement due unto them, consisting in death, wrath, and curse, so making his soul an offering for sin. " He bare our sins;" that is, say some, he declared that we have an eter- nal righteousness in God, because of his eternal purpose to do us good. But is this to interpret Scripture, or to corrupt the word of God ? Ask the word what it means by Christ's bearing of sin ; it will tell you, his being "stricken" for our transgressions, Isa. liii. 8, — his being "cut off" for our sins, Dan. ix. 26. Neither hath the ex- pression of bearing sins any other signification in the word : Lev. v. 1, " If a soul hear the voice of swearing, if he*do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity." What is that? he shall declare himself or others to be free from sin ? No, doubtless ; but, he shall undergo the punishment due to sin, as our Saviour did in bearing our iniquities. He must be a cunning gamester indeed that shall cheat a believer of this foundation.
More arguments or texts on this subject I shall not urge or pro- duce, though the cause itself will enforce the most unskilful to abound. I have proceeded as far as the nature of a digression will Avell bear. Neither shall I undertake, at this time, tlie answering of objections to the contrary ; a full discussion of the whole business of the satisfac- tion of Christ, which should cause me to search for, draw forth, and confute all objections to the contrary, being not by me intended. And for those which were made at that debate which gave occasion to this discourse, I dare not produce them, lest haply I should not be able to restrain the conjectures of men that I purposely framed such weak objections, that I might obtain an easy conquest over a man of straw of mine own erection, so weak were they, and of so little force to the shaking of so fundamental a truth as that is which we do maintain. So of this argument hitherto.
CHAPTER X.
Of the merit of Christ, with arguments from tlionce.
Arg. XIV. A fourth thing ascribed to the death of Christ is MERIT, or that worth and'value of his death whereby he purchased and procured unto us, and for us, all those good tilings which we find in the Scripture for his death to be bestowed upon us. Of this,
ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION. 287
much I shall not speak, having considered the thing itself under the notion of impetration already ; only, I shall add some few obser- vations proper to that particular of the controversy which we have in hand. The word merit is not at all to be found in the New Testa- ment, in no translation out of the original that I have seen. The vulgar Latin once reads promeretur, Heb. xiii. 16; and the Rheimists, to preserve the sound, have rendered it promerited. But these words in both languages are uncouth and barbarous, besides that they no way answer ihaf^isnTrai, the word in the original, which gives no colour to merit, name or thing. Nay, I suppose it will prove a difficult thing to find out any one word, in either of the languages wherein the holy Scripture was written, that doth properly and im- mediately, in its first nati\'e importance, signify merit. So that about the name we shall not trouble ourselves, if the thing itself intended thereby be made apparent, which it is both in the Old and New Testa- ment; as Isa. liii. 5, "The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." The procurement of our peace and healing was the merit of his chastisement and stripes. So Heb. ix. 12, A/d rov idiov ai/j,aTog aioovlav XvTfojffiv ivpa/zAvog, "Obtaining by his blood eternal redemption," is as much as we intend to signify by the merit of Christ. The word which comes nearest it in significa- tion we have. Acts xx. 28, llspie--oiy}ffaro, " Purchased with his own blood;" purchase and impetration, merit and acquisition, being in this business terms equivalent : which latter word is used in divers other places, as 1 Thess. v. 9; Ej^h. i. 14; 1 Pet. ii. 9. Nov/, that which by this name we understand is, the performance of such an action as whereby the thing aimed at by the agent is due unto him, according to the equity and equality required in justice; as, " To him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt," Eom. iv. 4. That there is such a merit attending the death of Christ is apparent from what was said before ; neither is the weight of any operose proving [of] it imposed on us, by our adversaries seeming to acknowledge it no less themselves; so that we may take it for granted (until our adversaries close with the Socinians in this also).