in the next words Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friend that is that he be contented to die in his stead And to the same purpose St. Paul For when ye were yet Sinners in due time Christ died for the ungodly Now the question is whether by this expression of Christ's dying for the ungodly be meant only his dying for the benefit and advantage of Sinners but not his dying in their stead This let the words which immediately follow determine For scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man one would even dare to dye But God commendeth his love to us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us And now I appeal to any man of good sense whether it be not plain that the Apostle here speaks of Christ's dying for sinners in the same sense as one man is said to dye for another that is to save another from death which what is it else but to dye in his stead He that can deny this is perverse to the highest degree and I fear almost beyond the possibility of being convinced And the Argument from these two Texts is so much the stronger because we do not here reason merely from the phrase and expression but from the main Scope of our Saviour's discourse in the one and of St. Paul's in the other For the design of both is to recommend the Superlative love of Christ to us above the greatest love that ever any man express'd to another The highest pitch that human affection did ever rise to was for a man to lay down his life for his Friend but the Son of God laid down his life for his Enemies Scarcely says St. Paul would one lay down his life for a righteous man that is for one who is but strictly just and honest and does no body wrong but for a good man that is for one that is kind and beneficial to all and hath obliged Mankind by great Benefits some one may be found that would lay down his life to save the life of such a Person But the love of Christ hath gone far beyond this He dyed for Sinners for those who were neither good men nor righteous But God commendeth his love to us in that whilst we were yet Sinners Christ dyed for us Now where doth the force of this Argument lye if not in this that Christ hath done that for us who were Enemies and Sinners which some very few persons in the World have done for their Friend or for some very eminently good man And what is that Why they have laid down their lives in their stead And so Christ hath done for us This seems to be so very plain that I do not see how the force of this Argument is possible to be avoided It is evident then from Scripture that Christ dyed not only for our advantage but in our stead as truly and really as any man ever did or can dye for another who lays down his own life to save another from death For if Christ had not dyed we had perished everlastingly and because he dyed we are saved from eternal Death and misery And though this be no where in Scripture spoken of by the name or term of Satisfaction yet it is said to be the price of our Redemption which surely is the same thing in effect with Satisfaction For as we are Sinners we are liable and as I may say indebted to the Justice of God And the Son of God by his Death and Sufferings in our Nature hath discharged this obligation and paid this debt for us Which discharge since it was obtained for us by the shedding of Christ's blood and the Scripture tells us that without shedding of blood there is no remission of Sins And since God is graciously pleased to accept of it for the Debt which we owed to his Justice and to declare himself fully pleased and contented with it why it may not properly enough be called payment or satisfaction I confess I am not able to understand Men may eternally wrangle about any thing but what a frivolous contention what a trifling in serious matters what barretrie in Divinity is this Not that God was angry with his Son when he thus laid on him the iniquities of us all No he was always well pleased with him and never better than when he became obedient to the Death even the Death of the Cross and bore our Sins in his own body on the Tree Nor yet that our Saviour suffered the very same that the Sinner should have suffered namely the proper Pains and Torment of the Damned But that his Obedience and Sufferings were of that value and esteem with God and his voluntary Sacrifice of himself so well-pleasing to him that he thereupon entred into a Covenant of Grace and Mercy with Mankind wherein he hath engaged himself to forgive the Sins of those who believe and repent and to make them partakers of eternal life And hence the Blood of Christ which was shed for us upon the Cross is called the Blood of the Covenant as being the Sanction of that New Covenant into which God is entred with Mankind and not only the Sanction and confir mation of that Covenant but the very Foundation of it For which reason the Cup in the Lord's Supper is called the New Testament or as the word should rather be rendred the New Covenant in his Blood which was shed for many for the remission of Sins I proceed now to the II d. Thing propounded which was to shew that the Expiation of our Sins was made by the Sufferings of Christ from the nature and intention of Expiatory Sacrifices both among the Jews and Heathen to which the Death of Christ is in the New Testament so frequently compared and in point of vertue and efficacy to take away Sin infinitely preferr'd to it Now the nature and design of Expiatory Sacrifices was plainly this To substitute one Living Creature to suffer and die instead of another so that what the Sinner deserved to have suffered was supposed to be done to the Sacrifice that is it was slain to make an atonement for the Sinner And though there was no reason to hope for any such effect from the Blood of Bulls or Goats or of any other Living Creatures that were wont to be offered up in Sacrifice yet that both Jews and Heathen did expect and hope for it is so very evident that it cannot without extreme Ignorance or Obstinacy be deny'd But this expectation how unreasonable soever plainly shews it to have been the common Apprehension of Mankind in all Ages that God would not be appeased nor should Sin be pardoned without Suffering But yet so that men generally conceived good hopes that upon the Repentance of Sinners God would accept of a vicarious punishment that is of the Suffering of some other in their stead And very probably as I said before in
the Dignity of the Person that suffered and the nature of the Sufferings Considering likewise that these Sufferings were not only wholly undeserved on his part but unmerited also on ours for whose sake he submitted himself to them Nay on the contrary he had obliged to the utmost those for whom and by whom he suffered and continued still to oblige them by the greatest Blessings and Benefits purchased and procured for them by those very Sufferings which with so much Malice and Cruelty they inflicted on him Had our B. Saviour been a mere Man the perfect Innocency and unspotted Purity of his whole Life his Zeal to do the Will of God and his delight in doing it his infinite pains and unwearied diligence in going about doing good His constant Obedience to God in the most difficult Instances and his perseverance in well doing notwithstanding the ill usage and hard measure the bitter Reproaches and Persecutions he met withal for it from a wicked and ill natured World His perfect submission to the Will of God his invincible Patience under the greatest and bitterest Sufferings and his infinite Charity to his Enemies and Persecutors These must needs be highly acceptable to God and if Man could merit of God likely enough to be available for the Sins of others But our Saviour and our Sacrifice being the Son of God in our Nature and He voluntarily assuming it and submitting to the condition of Humanity in its lowest and most miserable state Sin only excepted and his being contented to live a Life of doing good and suffering evil and at last to be put to Death and slain a Sacrifice for us The Dignity of the Person who did and suffered all this for us and his dearness to God must needs add a mighty value to so perfect an Obedience and such patient Sufferings so as to render them a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And all this being willingly performed in our Nature and accepted by God as done upon our account may reasonably be presumed to redound to our benefit and advantage as much as if we our selves had performed it in our own persons Nothing being so proper and so available to make an honourable amends and satisfaction to the Justice of God for the Sins of all Mankind as the voluntary Obedience and Sufferings of Human Nature in a Person of so great Dignity and dearness to God as his eternal and entirely beloved Son Now that Expiation of Sin was made by the Sufferings of Christ in our stead I shall endeavour to make good these three ways First from plain Testimonies of H. Scripture declaring this matter to us as clearly and fully as it is possible for words to do it Secondly from the nature and intention of Expiatory Sacrifices both among the Jews and Heathen to which the Death of Christ is in the New Testament so frequently compared and in point of vertue and efficacy to take away Sin infinitely preferred to it Thirdly by vindicating this Method and Dispensation of the Divine Wisdom from the Objections which are brought against it and by shewing that there is nothing in it that is unreasonable or any wise unworthy of God I. I shall produce some plain Testimonies of H. Scripture which decIare this matter as clearly and fully as it is possible for words to do it namely that the Son of God in order to the effectual Expiation of Sin suffered in our stead and bore the wrath of God for us and made a perfect Atonement for Sin and obtained eternal Redemption for us This the Scripture declares to us in great variety of expressions as that Christ dyed for us and for our Sins that he was a Sacrifice for us and a propitiation for the Sins of the whole World that is of all Mankind that he bare our Sins in his own body on the Tree and appeared to take away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself that we are justified in his blood and redeemed by the price of it and in very many other expressions to the same purpose And this is so evidently the scope and meaning of these Expressions that it cannot be denied without offering the greatest violence imaginable to the H. Scriptures For can any man think that God would have used so many expressions in Scripture the plain and most obvious sense of all which is that the Son of God suffered for our Sins and in our stead if this had not been his design and meaning Would not this be in effect to say that God hath written a great Book to puzzle and confound but not to instruct and teach Mankind I will at present single out some few of those many Texts of Scripture which might be produced to this purpose He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that is he hath made him who had no sin himself a Sacrifice for our sins Again and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God St. Peter to the same purpose tells us that Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh Here Christ is said to have suffered for Sin and to declare that the Apostle did not only mean that Christ suffered upon the occasion of our Sins but that he suffered in the place and stead of the Sinner he adds the just for the unjust that is the Son of God who was innocent and had no Sin suffered for us who were Sinners or as it is elsewhere express'd he bare our sins in his own body on the Tree It is true indeed that Christ suffered for our benefit and advantage which the Socinians would have to be all that is meant in the Texts which I have cited But then it ought to be considered that Christ's suffering for our benefit and advantage does by no means exclude nor is any wise inconsistent with his suffering in our stead For whoever suffers in another man's stead and to save him from suffering does undoubtedly suffer for his benefit and advantage and gives the best demonstration of it that can be But the manner of the expression if compared with other parellel Texts of Scripture and especially with what is so often said of our Saviour's being a Sacrifice which I shall have occasion further to urge by and by I say the manner of the expression if well considered will appear to any man that is not contentious to signify our Saviour's suffering instead of the Sinner But not to argue from words and phrases I will produce two Texts which declare this matter so plainly that the force of them is not to be avoided without the most shameful wresting and perverting of them This is my Commmandment says our Saviour that you love one another as I have loved you How is that he declares
d. Thirdly It is yet further objected That this seems to be more unreasonable than the sacrificing of Beasts among the Jews nay than the sacrificing of Men among the Heathen and even of their own Sons and Daughters Because this is the offering up of the Son of God the most innocent and the most excellent Person that ever was To which I answer that if we consider the manner and the design of it the thing will appear to be quite otherwise As to the manner of it God did not command his Son to be sacrificed but his Providence permitted the wickedness and violence of men to put him to death And then his Goodness and Wisdom did over-rule this worst of Actions to the best of Ends. And if we consider the matter aright how is this any more a reflection upon the Holy Providence of God than any Enormities and Cuelties which by his permission are daily committed in the World And then if we consider the End and Design of this permission of Christ's Death and the application of it to the purpose of a general Expiation we cannot but acknowledge and even adore the gracious and mercifull Design of it For by this means God did at once put an end to that unreasonable and bloody way of Worship which had been so long practiced in the World And after this one Sacrifice which was so infinitely dear to God the benefit of Expiation was not to be expected in any other way all other Sacrifices being worthless and vain in comparison of this And it hath ever since obtained this effect of making all other Sacrifices to cease in all Parts of the World where Christianity hath prevailed Obj. 4 th Fourthly The last Objection is the Injustice and Cruelty of an innocent Person 's suffering instead of the Offender To this I answer That they who make so great a noise with this Objection do seem to me to give a full and clear Answer to it themselves by acknowledging as they constantly and expresly do that our Saviour suffered all this for our benefit and advantage though not in our place and stead For this to my apprehension is plainly to give up the Cause unless they can shew a good reason why there is not as much Injustice and Cruelty in an innocent Person 's suffering for the benefit and advantage of a Malefactor as in his suffering in his stead So little do Men in the heat of dispute and opposition who are resolved to hold fast an Opinion in despite of Reason and good sense consider that they do many times in effect and by necessary consequence grant the very thing which in express terms they do so stifly and pertinaciously deny The truth of the matter is this there is nothing of Injustice or Cruelty in either Case neither in an Innocent Person 's suffering for the benefit of an Offender nor in his stead supposing the Suffering to be voluntary But they have equally the same appearance of Injustice and Cruelty Nor can I possibly discern any reason why Injustice and Cruelty should be objected in the one Case more than in the other there being every whit as little reason why an Innocent Person should suffer for the benefit of a Criminal as why he should suffer in his stead So that I hope this Objection which above all the rest hath been so loudly and so invidiously urged hath received a just Answer And I believe if the matter were searched to the bottom all this perverse contention about our Saviour's suffering for our benefit but not in our stead will signify just nothing For if Christ dyed for our benefit so as some way or other by vertue of his Death and Sufferings to save us from the wrath of God and to procure our escape from eternal Death this for ought I know is all that any body means by his dying in our stead For he that dies with an intention to do that benefit to another as to save him from Death doth certainly to all intents and purposes dye in his placea nd stead And if they will grant this to be their meaning the Controversie is at an end and both sides are agreed in they will give up that which by their own confession is an undoubted Article of the Christian Faith and not controverted on either Side except only by the Socinians who yet are hearty Enemies to Transubstantiation and have exposed the absurdity of it with great advantage But I shall endeavour to return a more particular Answer to this Objection and such a one as I hope will satisfy every considerate and unprejudiced mind that after all this confidence and swaggering of theirs there is by no means equal reason either for the receiving or for the rejecting of these two Doctrines of the Trinity and Transubstantiation First There is not equal reason for the belief of these Two Doctrines This Objection if it be of any force must suppose that there is equal evidence and proof from Scripture for these two Doctrines But this we utterly deny and with great reason because it is no more evident from the words of Scripture that the Sacramental Bread is substantially changed into Christ's natural Body by virtue of those words This is my Body than it is that Christ is substantially changed into a natural Vine by virtue of those words I am the true Vine or than that the Rock in the Wilderness of which the Israelites drank was substantially changed into the Person of Christ because it is expresly said That Rock was Christ or than that the Christian Church is substantially changed into the natural Body of Christ because it is in express terms said of the Church That it is his Body But besides this several of their own most learned Writers have freely acknowledged that Transubstantiation can neither be directly proved nor necessarily concluded from Scripture But this the Writers of the Christian Church did never acknowledge concerning the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ but have always appealed to the clear and undeniable Testimonies of Scripture for the Proof of these Doctrines And then the whole force of the Objection amounts to this that if I am bound to believe what I am sure God says tho I cannot comprehend it then I am bound by the same reason to believe the greatest Absurdity in the World though I have no manner of assurance of any Divine Revelation concerning it And if this be their meaning though we understand not Transubstantiation yet we very well understand what they would have but cannot grant it because there is not equal reason to believe two things for one of which there is good proof and for the other no proof at all Secondly neither is there equal reason for the rejecting of these two Doctrines This the Objection supposes which yet cannot be supposed but upon one or both of these two grounds Either because these two Doctrines are equally incomprehensible or because they are equally loaded
People that it was an established Principle among them that without shedding of blood there was no remission of Sins God was pleased to comply so far with these Notions and Apprehensions of theirs as to make his own Son both a Priest and a Sacrifice to do that once for all which their own High-Priest pretended to do year by year And from hence the same Apostle takes occasion to recommend to them the new Covenant and Dispensation of the Gospel as having a greater and more perfect High-Priest and a more excellent Sacrifice than were the High-Priests and the Sacrifices under the Law the Son of God having by one Sacrifice of himself obtained eternal Redemption for us and perfected for ever them that are sanctified And this Apprehension prevailed no less in the Heathen World and proceeded to the Sacrifices of Men even of their first born And with this Apprehension not to countenance but to abolish it God was pleased to comply so far as to make a general Atonement for the Sins of Mankind by the Death of his Son appearing in our Nature to become a voluntary Sacrifice for us God permitting him to be unjustly put to death and his blood to be shed by the malice of men in appearance as a Malefactor but in truth as a Martyr and accepting of his Death as a meritorious Sacrifice and propitiation for the Sins of the whole World That by this wise counsel and permission of his Providence he might for ever put an end to that barbarous and inhuman way of serving God which had been so long in use and practice among them The Son of God by the voluntary Sacrifice of himself having effected all that at once and for ever which Mankind from the beginning of the World had in vain been endeavouring to accomplish by innumerable and continual Sacrifices namely the pardon of their Sins and perfect peace and reconciliation with God For these Ends and Reasons and perhaps for many more as great and considerable as these which our shallow understandings are not able to fathom the Wisdom of God hath pitched upon this way and method of delivering Mankind from the guilt and dominion of Sin by the Sacrifice of his Son And to this end it was requisite that he should appear in our Nature and dwell amongst us for some considerable time that by a long course of the greatest Innocency and of the greatest Sufferings in our Nature he might be capable of making a perfect expiation of Sin So that two things were requisite to qualify him for this purpose perfect Innocency and Obedience and great Sufferings in our Nature even to the suffering of Death Both these the Scripture declares to be necessary qualifications of a Person capable to make expiation of Sin and both these were found in the Person of our B. Saviour First unspotted Innocency and perfect Obedience This the Scripture testifies concerning Him and the whole course of his Life and actions He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without Sin saith the Apostle to the Hebrews He always did the things which pleased God as He testifies concerning himself and we are sure that his witness is true He did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth as St. Peter tells us of Him And this was necessary to qualify him for the perfect expiation of Sin whether we consider Him as a Priest or as a Sacrifice As a Priest he could not have been fit to make expiation for the Sins of others had he not been without sin himself And this the Apostle tells us is one great Advantage of our High-Priest under the Gospel above the High-Priest under the Law who being a Sinner himself as well as those for whom he offer'd had need to offer for himself before he could make so much as a Legal expiation for the Sins of others But a perfect and effectual expiation of Sin so as to purge the conscience from the guilt of it cannot be made but by an High Priest who is holy and innocent himself For such an High-Priest saith the Apostle became us that is now under the Dispensation of the Gospel when a perfect expiation of Sins is to be made such an High-Priest is necessary as is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners who needs not as those High-Priests that is as the High-Priests under the Law to offer up sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the People The plain force of which Argument is this that he who will be qualified to make atonement for the Sins of others must be without sin himself And then if we consider Christ as a Sacrifice for Sin perfect holiness is necessary to make a Sacrifice acceptable and available for the expiation of Sin The necessity of this was typified by the quality of the expiatory Sacrifices under the Law the Beasts that were to be offered were to be without spot and blemish To which the Apostle alludes speaking of the quality and efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ How much more says he shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God And to the same purpose St. Peter For asmuch as ye know ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot hereby intimating that nothing less than the perfect innocency and holiness of him who was to be a Sacrifice for us could have expiated the guilt of our sins and purchased eternal Redemption for us Secondly great Sufferings likewise in our Nature even to the suffering of Death were requisite to the perfect expiation of Sin I say even to the suffering of Death For the Sacrifices which were to make expiation were to be slain And it was a constant Maxime and Principle among the Jews and the Apostle more than once in this Epistle seems to allow and confirm it that without shedding of blood there was no remission of Sins Not that God could not have pardoned Sin without satisfaction made to his Justice either by the suffering of the Sinner himself or of a Sacrifice in his stead But according to the method and Dispensation which the Wisdom of God had pitched upon he was resolved not to dispense Forgiveness in any other way For which reason he seems either to have possess'd Mankind with this Principle or to have permitted them to be so perswaded that Sin was not to be expiated but by Blood that is either by the Death of the Sinner or of the Sacrifice Now the Life of our B. Saviour as well as his Death was made up of Sufferings of one kind or other Continual Sufferings from his Cradle to his Cross from the time he drew his first breath to his giving up of the ghost And not only continual Sufferings but the greatest that ever were considering