S. Satisfaction is properly made to the law when the penalty
' " Quid ad ca testimonia quoe nos a Christo testantur redemptos respondes ? — Resp. E verbo I'edimcndi non posse effici satisfactionem banc, liinc est planum, quod de ipso Deo ct in novo et in prisco fcedere scribitur, eum redemisse populum suum ex iEgypto, cum fecisse redemptioiiem populo sue. Deinde cum scriptum sit quod Deus redcmit Abrahamum et Davidem, et quod Moses fuerit redemptor, et qiiod simus re- dempti e nostris iuiquitatibus, aut e vana conversatione nostra, et e maledictione legis; certum autem est Deum nemini satisfecisse, nee vero aut iuiquitatibus, aut conversationi vnnae, aut legi satisfactum esse dici posse."
OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 51 7
which it threatens and prescribes is undergone, as in the case in- sisted on it waa In the meantime, our catechists are sufficiently vain, in supposing our argument to lie in the word "redimere." Though something hath been spoken of the word in the original, yet our plea is from the thing itself This Socinus thus expresses: —
There Is also required he who held the captive, otherwise he is not a captive. To him, in our deliverance, if we will consider the thing itself exactly, many things do answer, for many things do detain us captives; now they are sin, the devil, and the world, and that which foUoweth sin, the guilt of eternal death, or the punishment of death appointed to us. '
Ans. A lawful captive is detained two ways, — First, Directly; and that two ways also: —
1. Legally, juridically, and authoritatively : so is sinful man de- tained captive of God. " The wrath of God abideth on him," John iii. oQ^ as hath been declared.
2. Instrumentally, in subservience to the authority of the other: so is man in bondage to Satan, and the law, and fear of death to come, Heb. ii. 14, 15.
Secondly, Consequentially, and by accident: so a man is detained by his shackles, as in the filth of the prison; so is a man captive to sin and the world.
Nor are all these properly the detainers of us in captivity, from which we are redeemed, any more than the gallows keeps a malefac- tor in prison, from which by a pardon and ransom he is delivered.
To proceed with the description of redemption given, it is the de- livery of him who was captive from prison or captivity, and all the miseries attending that condition.
1. What I mean by the prison is easily gathered from what hath been delivered concerning the prisoner or captive, and Him that holds him captive. If the captive be a sinner as a sinner, and he who holds him captive be God, by his justice making him liable to punish- ment, his captivity must needs be his obnoxiousness unto the wrath of God on the account of his justice for sin. This are we delivered fi'om by this redemption that is in the blood of Jesus, Rom. iiL 23-25 : " For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Verse 23 is the description of the state of our captivity. Having " sinned," we are
' " Eequiritur et is qui captivum detineat, alioqui captivus non esset. Huic in libcratione nostra, si cxactius rem ipsam considerare vclimus, respondent multa. Multa siquidem nos tanquam captivos dctinebant ; ca autem sunt pcccatum, diabolus, muudus, et quae peccatum conscquuntur, moi-tis ajternse rcatus, seu mortis oeternaa nobis decretum supplicium." — De Servat. lib. i. cap. ii.
518 VINDICLE EVANGELIC^.
" come short of tlie glory of God." ' Tcrrspovvrai, they fall short in their race, and are by no means able to come up to a participation of God. Our delivery and the means of it are expressed, verse 24. Our de- livery : we are "justified freely by his grace," or delivered from th?vt condition and state of sin wherein it was impossible for us to reach and attain the glory of God. The 'procuring cause of which liberty is expressed in the next words, ha r^g a-Tro'k-jrfwGiug, by the redemp- tion or ransom-paying that is in the blood of Jesus ; that is the cause of our deliverance from that condition wherein we were. Whence and how it is so is expressed, verse 25 : God set him forth for that end, that we might have deliverance "through faith in his blood," or by faith be made partakers of the redemption that is in his blood, or purchased by it. And this to " declare his righteousness." We have it this way, that the righteousness of God may be declared, whereto satisfaction is made by the death of Christ; for that also is included in the word " propitiation," as shall be afterward proved.
Thus, whilst men are in this captivity, " the wrath of God abideth on them," John iii. Z% ; and the full accomplishment of the execution of that wrath is called " The wrath to come," 1 Thess. i. 10, which we are delivered from.
In this sense are we said to " have redemption in his blood," Col. i. 14, or to have deliverance from our captivity by the price he paid, and by his death to be delivered from the fear of death, Heb. ii. 15, or our obnoxiousness thereto; it being the justice or judgment of God " that they which commit sin are worthy of death," Rom. i. 32. Christ by undergoing it delivered us from it.