It is, then, " to meet/' Now, the word here used being in hiphil, which makes a double action of that expressed, by adding the cause by whose power, virtue, and impress the thing is done, thence it is here rendered " occurrere fecit," — " he made to meet." And so the sense of it is, " God made our sins, as it were, to set upon or to fall upon Jesus Christ ;" which is the most common use of the word, as hath been showed.
It is objected that the word signifies to meet, yet no more but this may be the meaning of them, " God in Christ met with all our iniquities;" that is, for their pardoning, and removal, and taking away.
Of the many things that may be given in for the eversion of this gloss I shall name only two, whereof the first is to the word, the latter to the matter. For the word, the conjugation, according to the common rule, enforces the sense formerly mentioned: he made to meet, and not he met. Secondly, The prophet in these words renders a reason of the contemptible, sad condition of the Messiah, at which so many were scandalized, and whereupon so few believed the report of the gospel concerning him ; and this is, that God laid on him our iniquities. Now, there is no reason why he should be represented in so deplorable a state and condition if God only met with and prevented our sin in and by him ; which he did (as they say) in his resurrection, wherein he was exceeding glorious. So that the meaning of the word is, that God made our sins to meet on him by laying them on him ; and this sense Socinus himself consents unto, Prselec. cap. xxi. p. 133. But this also will farther appear in the explication of the next word, and that is " our iniquity."
Secondly, " The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," W. How the iniquity of us? That is, the punishment of our iniquity. I shall offer three things to make good this interpretation : —
1. That the word is often found in that sense, so that it is no new or uncouth thing that here it should be so: Gen. iv. 13, ""^iil, " Mine iniquity is greater than I can bear;" it is the same word here used.
446 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC^.
They are the words of Cain, upon the denunciation of God's judg- ment on him ; and what iniquity it is he gives you an account in the next words, " Behold, thou hast driven me out,'' verse 14. That was only the punishment laid on him. It is used in like manner several times. Lev. xs. 17, 19; 1 Sam. xxviii. 10, Saul sware to the witch that no iniquity should befall her, — that is, no punishment for that which she did at his command, in raising up a spirit to consult withal, contrary to the law; and also in sundry other places: so that this is no new signification of the word, and is here most proper.
2. It appears from the explication that is given of this thing in many other expressions in the chapter : " The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." How? In that "it pleased him to bruise him, and put him to grief," verse 10; in that he " was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities," verse 5 ; as will be made more evident when I come to the next phrase, " He shall bear their iniquities," which answers to this, " He laid them on him."
3. Because he did so lay our sin on Christ that " he made his soul an offering for sin." When our iniquities were on him, "his soul" (that is, he himself, by a usual synecdoche, the soul for the person) " was made ^^'^, an offering for sin." The word here used is like "piaculum" in Latin ; which signifies the fault, and him who is punished for it in a way of a public sacrifice. So is this word taken both for a sin, a tres- pass, and a sacrifice for the expiation of it, as another word, namely, S5^n, is used also. Lev. iv. 3, " He shall offer it nxtsn^, for a sin,"— that is, an offering for sin. So also Exod. xxix. 14, Lev. iv. 29. And this very word is so used, Lev. vii. 2, "They shall kill ^^'?;" that is, the sin, or sin-offering, or " trespass-offering," as there it is rendered. And other instances might be given. Now, God did so cause our iniquities to meet on Christ that he then under them made him- self ^^^, or "an offermg for sin." Now, in the offering for sin the penalty of the offence was, " suo more," laid on the beast that was saciificed or made an offering. Paul interpreteth these words by other expressions: 2 Cor. v. 21, " He made him to be. a sin for us;" that is, an offering for sin, CiC'X. He made him sin when he made him "a curse, the curse of the law," Gal. iii. 13; that is, gave him up to the punishment by the law due to sin. Rom. viii. 3, " God send- ing his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," nai vspl a/Mupriag, for sin, a sacrifice for sin, " condemned sin in the flesh." Heb. X. 6, ' OXoKavTw/j^ara xai 'jrspi ai/japTiag oux, ivdoKrjaag, "In burnt- offerings and for sin thou hast had no pleasure ;" and again, "On ^ualati Kal vpofffiopav xai oXoxavTui/Aara xai -ffepi d/J,aprlag, verse 8.