that Christ commended his apostles to him, and obtained for them that strength, and those aids of divine inspiration, with which it is evident they were afterwards furnished.

Nor is it to be doubted that the same obedience which was so available for the apostles, obtained for others also those aids of the Holy Spirit, by which, unless they are wanting to themselves, they may attain everlasting life. For it was not only for the apostles, but also for others, that Christ surrendered himself to death; and that surrender of himself to death was "an offering and a sacrifice to God of" such "a "sweet smelling savour, and so commended Christ himself to God, that Christ could effectually commend his people to him. Besides, those very gifts of the Holy Spirit, conferred on the apostles, were given to them, not only for their own salvation, but also for ours. Wherefore it is evident that in the prayer to which we have just adverted, Christ pleaded with God the merit of his obedience, not only for the sake of the apostles, but likewise for ours: and as it is certain that the Son of God, in his prayers to his Father, would never mention any plea that would not be available and effectual with him, it follows that this obedience, or voluntary oblation to death, the merit of which he pleaded with his Father on our behalf, really procured favour with God, not only for Christ himself, but also for us, notwithstanding the Socinians are of a contrary opinion.

* Ephes. v. 2.

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CHAPTER V.

The Death of Christ. Passages of Scripture which represent his Death as designed to be a vicarious punishment.

FROM the obedience by which Christ freely offered himself to a bloody death, we proceed to his death itself. Now the end or design attributed to Christ's death in the scriptures, is threefold :-one, common to the death of martyrs, by which, as we have already observed, the gospel was confirmed, and we are furnished with the most perfect example of the noblest virtues :-another, belonging to the death of a testator, by which the New Testament was fully established, and access to the promised rewards laid open to the heirs of heaven; just as the death of every testator establishes his testament, and invests the heir with a right of immediate entrance on the inheritance bequeathed to him :*-the last end or design of the death of Christ was similar to that of the piacular victims commanded by the law of Moses. His death atones for our sins. For when God, notwithstanding all our demerits, determined on the one hand, to establish some way of salvation as the fruit of his infinite clemency and mercy, and on the other, not to pass over such heinous transgressions without a signal demonstration of his holiness and justice and infinite hatred of sin, he resolved that his Son, the object of his peculiar love, should become the piacular victim for our sins, and by his vicarious punishment should procure their remission. But this effect of the death of Christ having been discussed in a

* Heb. ix. 15-17,

learned and copious manner by many other writers, we shall only touch on those things which appear to have a particular bearing on the point under our immediate consideration.

II. Of this description, in the first place, is the following passage of Isaiah, in his prophecy respecting the Messiah:* "he shall divide the spoil with "the strong: because he hath poured out his soul "unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many." These words, "he bare the sin of many," are to be understood in a sense correspondent to the character of him who " was numbered with the transgressors," that is, was treated as a guilty person.† Now when any person who is treated as guilty, is said "to bear

sin," who can understand the phrase, to bear sin, as importing any other than to suffer punishment? For no two things can have a greater connection or agreement with each other than suffering punishment, and being treated as guilty; but all this agreement, and connection will be destroyed, if it be conceded to the followers of Socinus that the phrase to bear sin, in the passage just cited from the pro

* Isaiah liii. 12.

† TR.-On the imputation of guilt to Christ, I take the liberty of transcribing a judicious remark, which I apprehend fully expresses the sense in which the statements of the author on this subject are to be understood. 'We commonly use guilt both in the sense of LEGAL ANSWERABLENESS ' (reatus), and of blameworthiness (culpa). It is only in the former sense, and by no means in the latter, that the word is here used. In divinity, as well as in other sciences, it is necessary to use some terms with a technical ' definiteness of signification, much more restrained than the ordinary acceptation of the same words. If scepticism or rashness should raise a cavil, we can only reply, that the cavil is unreasonable. No man ridicules mathematical terms, because, in many instances, they are the words of common life employed in a very restricted signification.' DR. J. P. SMITH On the Sacrifice of Christ. Note, p. 72, 73.

phet, has no other meaning than to bear it abolish it.

It will not be a correct answer to these observations, to plead that Christ was treated as a guilty person by the Jews, but not by God: for by whose counsel and will he is said "to have borne the sin of "many," by the same counsel and will also he was treated as guilty. But it was by the counsel and will of God that "he bore the sin of many;" by his will therefore was he treated as guilty, and for this reason it is that God is said to have "made the

iniquities of us all to meet upon him,"* and to have "made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.†”

It should further be remarked, that when the prophet declares the Messiah to have borne sin, his design in this expression, as the whole context shews, is to represent him as very much burdened and oppressed by our sins: but the phrase has no such force according to the interpretation of Socinus. To say that Christ bare away the sin of many, unless he bare it away by sustaining the punishment of it, conveys no idea of his sufferings, much less aggravates or amplifies them. God himself is sometimes said to bear away sin, yet in bearing it away he suffers no pain,

*Isaiah liii. 6.

+ I Corinth. v. 21.

Exod. xxxiv. 7. Num. xiv. 18. W rendered in our version forgiving iniquity.

TR.-It may well be questioned whether the sense of bearing away can justly be attributed to the word W in these texts. I beg the reader's attention to the following judicious criticism of Dr. Magee. That the 'signification of forgiveness, which evidently is not the radical meaning of the word has been derived from the more general one of bearing away, seems to have no just foundation: bearing away, necessarily implying something of a burden to be carried, it seems difficult to reconcile such a phrase with the notion of that Being, to whom this act of forgiveness is

III. The same prophet also says—“ The Lord "hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on him," that is, on Christ. The sentiment conveyed in these words is, that "the Lord hath laid on him the

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iniquity of us all," that is, hath inflicted on him a vicarious punishment on account of our sins. The interpretation which Crellius gives of this clause, 'that God by Christ did meet with the iniquity of us 'all,' is inconsistent with the meaning and construction of the original.* Such a licence of interpretation, as Crellius here assumes, would deprive us of all certainty respecting the meaning of any part of the scripture. Besides, the words just quoted, that " the “Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on "him," in conformity with the whole context, represent "the iniquity of us all" as a burden upon Christ. This is not at all suggested by the interpretation of Crellius, but is fully implied in ours, as it is in all the best versions of the passage. The Septuagint renders it; The Lord hath delivered him up to our sins. The Vulgate; The Lord hath placed on him the iniquity of us all. The Arabic; The Lord hath delivered him to our sins. The Syriac; The Lord hath caused that our sins should meet on him. The Interlineary version; The Lord hath made the iniquity

'attributed.---May not the word have passed to this acceptation, through its primary sense of bearing; namely, suffering through patience, en' during, or bearing WITH ?---The generic signification of the word, when applied to sins, seems to be that of bearing, suffering, enduring: and "then on the part of the sinner, it implies, bearing the burden, or penal consequences of transgression: and on the part of him against whom the 'offence has been committed, bearing with, and patiently enduring it.' Discourses and Dissertations, vol. i. p. 439, 440.

* The verb y*157 being in Hiphil clearly signifies not he met, but he caused to meet; and the particle almost always precedes the accusative case, rarely the dative.