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restored the sick to bodily health.* For Grotius on this passage correctly remarks: As the transactions ' of ancient events prefigured Christ, so some of the 'actions of Christ himself served to signify others. 'It cannot be doubted that the benefit of health restored to the body exhibited a figure of remission ' of sins, and health restored to the mind. The prophecy, therefore, was twice fulfilled; first, when 'Christ laboured till evening, employing himself in healing the maladies of others, as Matthew here 'shews: and afterwards, when by enduring the pu'nishment of the cross he obtained remission of sins 'for us.'

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And, indeed, unless the prophet had contemplated the Messiah's death, when he said, "Surely he hath "borne our griefs and carried our sorrows," there could have been no reason for his immediately adding, "Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,

and afflicted:" that is, smitten on account of his own sins; for such was the supposition of those whom the prophet here personated. For it was not because he healed bodily diseases, how diligent soever he may have been in this work, but because he suffered the punishment of the cross, and was given up to death, that he could be " esteemed smitten of God." Whoever will consider these things, I think must be convinced that the words, "Surely he hath borne

*TR.---Dr. Magee suggests that all apparent dissonance between the prophet and evangelist will be removed, if we understand n and Severas of bodily pains and distempers, and 1 and vocous of diseases and torments of the mind. Dr. M. has adduced many examples of the use of these words to justify these interpretations; and he ac'cordingly refers the former clause to Christ's removing the sicknesses of men by miraculous cures, and the latter to his bearing their sins upon the Discourses and Dissertations, vol. I. p. 412---431, Ꮓ

cross.

"our griefs and carried our sorrows," contain the same sentiment as the declarations which follow them. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, "he was bruised for our iniquities. The Lord hath "laid on him the iniquity of us all. ́“make his soul an offering for sin,

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When he shall he shall see his

seed, he shall prolong his days. He bare the sin of many." And the import of all these declarations, I trust, has been satisfactorily ascertained.

IX. But whatever was intended in these passages of Isaiah, is also intended by St. Peter, when, in allusion to the language of the prophet, he says of Jesus Christ:* "Who his own self bare our sins in "his own body on the tree." If this passage be rendered, according to Crellius,† carried our sins up to the tree, it is equally in favour of our doctrine. For those evils which Christ bore upon the tree, or, carried up to the tree, were in his body, in which he is said to have borne them upon the tree, or to have carried them up to the tree. The evils which were in his body were not his own vices or sins properly so called, but were the punishments of our sins, which throughout the scriptures are commonly designated as sins. And these punishments could in no sense be in the body of Christ, without being endured by him. But if Christ endured in his body the punishment of our sins, he clearly suffered a vicarious punishment. And forasmuch as he voluntarily took upon himself the punishments appointed and proposed to him for our sins, it was for this end, as is expressed in the next clause," that we being dead to sins, should live "unto righteousness," and devote all our efforts to the pursuit of it. For nothing is more calculated to

* I Peter ii. 24.

+ Contra Grot. c. i. p. 34.

excite and inflame our love to Christ than that infinite love of Christ to us, which is manifested in his voluntary submission to a most cruel death on our account: and true love to Christ is the most powerful motive to evangelical obedience. Hence that declaration of St. Paul: "For the love of Christ constraineth us; "because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead and that he died for all, that they "which live should not henceforth live unto them60 selves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again."

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X. But it is urged, that any one may well be said to bear sins, who on the account of sins sustains a heavy burden of calamities, tortures, and death, although there be no real punishment or vengeance in the case.' This is the language of Crellius, but evidently without reason. For when we affirm that the phrase, to bear sins, signifies some punishment, we rely not upon the mere force of the phrase itself, but form our opinion on a consideration of the passages in which it is found, and the nature of the subject. The scope of the passages already quoted, in which this phrase occurs, fixes its meaning, as we have already shown, to vicarious punishment; and the subject itself rejects every other interpretation of it. In these passages Christ is introduced as a piacular victim. So Isaiah has introduced him in express terms, and he is followed by St. Peter. The proper nature and design of a piacular victim is exhibited, as we have elsewhere proved at large, in vicarious punishment: which, although according to the opinion of Crellius it may want the character of vindictive, not being inflicted for the demerit of + Contra Grot. c. i. p. 32.

11 Cor. v. 14, 15.

the person punished, nevertheless retains that which constitutes it vicarious punishment, as we have sufficiently explained in another place.

It only remains for us to conclude this chapter by declaring our dissent from what some have incautiously affirmed, that we were punished in Christ; which ought by no means to be admitted. For he who is punished in a friend, does himself receive some detriment and injury from the evils inflicted on that friend. In this way parents are punished in their children; whose calamities are attended with loss, sorrow, or disgrace, which may be considered as a punishment, to the parents themselves. But the contrary of all this has been the effect of those punishments which Christ endured for us. Not only have they never produced the least detriment or injury to us, but they have procured the pardon of our sinsand eternal salvation. Hence it is Hence it is easy to perceive, that there is a wide difference between our being punished in Christ, and his being punished for us. For to affirm that we have been punished in Christ, will be, by consequence, to maintain that we have received some injury from the sufferings of Christ: which is very far from the truth. But to affirm that Christ endured punishment for us, is to maintain, what is strictly true, that punishment was endured by him, in order that we might be delivered from punishment.

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CHAPTER VI.

Passages of Scripture which represent Atonement as effected by the Death of Christ.

FROM our examination of passages in which the death of Christ is expressly described as a vicarious punishment, we now proceed to those in which he is declared to have sanctified or purified our persons, or to have expiated or purged our sins, either by himself, or by his blood or sacrifice,

To this purpose is the following language of the apostle to the Hebrews.* "We have an altar, "whereof they have no right to eat which serve the "tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose "blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high

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priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Where"fore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people "with his own blood, suffered without the gate,' To sanctify the people, here, signifies the same as to purify the people; and to purify the people, is to expiate the sins of the people, Since it appears therefore from this passage, and that with evidence too plain to be contradicted, that our sins were expiated by the blood or death of Christ, the only point for controversial discussion is, upon what principle, or in what manner, his death accomplished this. But this question will easily be determined, if we are disposed to follow the train of the argument. For as the apostle is here speaking of Christ as a piacular victim, and of the blood of Christ, as the blood of a piacular victim; his death must be considered as expiating sins in the same way as the death of a pia

* Heb. xiii, 10---12.

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