OF THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST. 549
(1.) Christy say they, "brought us eternah salvation from heaven;" that is, " he preached a doctrine in obedience whereunto we may obtain salvation/' So did Paul.
(2.) " He died that we might receive it;" that is, " rather than he would deny the truth which he preached, he suffered himself to be put to death." So did Paul, and yet he was not crucified for the church.
(3.) " It is not indeed the death of Christ, but his resurrection, that hath an influence into our receiving of his doctrine, and so our ob- taining salvation."
;, jAnd this is the sense of these words, " Christ died for us"! •, ; , For the confirmation of our faith from this expression, " Christ died for us," we have, i i
(1.) The common sense and customary usage oi humanJcind as to this expression. Whenever one is in danger, and another is said to come and die for him that he may be delivered, a substitution is still understood. The dvri-^l^vxoi of old, as Damon and Pythias, etc., make this manifest.
(2.) The common usage of this expression in Scrij^ture confirms the sense insisted on. So David wished that he had died for his son Absalom, that is, died in his Stead, that he might have lived, 2 Sam. xviii. S3. And that supposal of Paul, Bom. v. 7, of one daring to die for a good man, relating (as by all expositors on the place is evinced) to the practice of some in former days, who, to de- liver others from death, had given themselves up to that whereunto they were obnoxious, confirms the same.
(3.) The phrase itself of d'Trsdavs, or d-Tti^aviv lirsp rnj^uv, which is used, Heb. ii. 9, 1 Pet. i. 21,' Rom. v. 6-8, 2 Cor. v. 14, sufficiently proves our intention, compared with the use of the preposition in other places, especially being farther explained by the use of the preposition dvri, which ever denotes a substitution in the same sense and business. Matt. xx. 28, Mark x. 45, 1 Tim. ii. 6. That a substitution and commutation is always denoted by this pi'eposition (if not an opposition, which here can have no place), 1 Pet. iii. 9, Rom. xii. 17, Matt. v. 88, Luke xi. 11, Heb. xii. 16, 1 Cor. xi. 15, amongst other places, are sufficient evidences.
(4.) Christ is so said to die dvri riiiuv, that he is said in his death to have " our iniquity laid upon him," to " bear our sins in his own body on the tree," to be " made sin and a curse for us," to " offer himself a sacrifice for us" by his death, his blood, to " pay a price or ransom for us," to " redeem," to " reconcile us to God," to '' do away our sins in his blood," to " free us from wrath, and con- demnation, and sin." Now, whether this, to " die for us," be not to die in our place and stead, let angels and men judge.
1 In these two passages the phrase in question does not occur. The author might consider the expressions equivalent, and we have allowed them to remain. — Ed.
550 VINDICIiE EVANGELICiE.
4. But say they, " This is all that they have to say in this busi- ness: yet 'we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren ;' and Paul saith, that he ' filled up the measure of the affliction of Christ, for his body's sake, the church;' but neither the one nor the other did make satisfaction to God by their death or affliction." But, —
(1 .) If all we had to plead for the sense of this expression, " Christ died for us," depended solely on the sense and use of that word u-^ip, then the exception would have this force in it : " The word is once or twice used in another sense in another business; therefore the sense of it contended for in this business cannot be such as you seek to maintain/' But, [1.] This exception at best, in a cause of this importance, is most frivolous, and tends to the disturbance of all sober interpretation of Scripture. [2.] We are very far from mak- ing the single sense of the preposition to be the medium which, in the argument from the whole expression, we insist on.
(2.) The passage in 1 John iii. 16, being a part of the apostle's persuasive to love, charity, and the fruits of them, tending to the relief of the brethren in poverty and distress, disclaims all intend- ment and possibility of a substitution or commutation, nor hath any intimation of undergoing that which was due to another, but only of being ready to the utmost to assist and relieve them. The same is the condition of what is affirmed of Paul. Of the measure of affliction which, in the infinitely wise providence and fatherly care of God, is proportioned to the mystical body of Christ's church, Paul underwent his share for the good of the whole ; but that Paul, that any believers, were crucified for the church, or died for it in the sense that Christ died for it, that they redeemed it to God by their own blood, it is notorious blasphemy once to imagine. The meaning of the phrase, " He died for our sins," was before explained. Christ, then, "dying for us," being "made sin for us," "bearing our iniquities," and " redeeming us by his blood," died in our place and stead, and by his death made satisfaction to God for our sins.