doubt bought from some person whose Servants we were who also demanded the price he would have that he might send from under his power them that he held but the Devil held us to whom we were in bondage by our sins Therefore he required our price the blood of Christ But until the Blood of Jesus was given which was so precious that it was sufficient alone for the Redemption of all men it was necessary that those who were instructed in the Law every one for himself should give his own Blood as it were in imitation of the future Redemption and therefore we for whom the price of the blood of Christ was fulfilled have no need to offer for our selves a price that is the blood of Circumcision Cyprian Epist 8 to Clem. and the People He prayed for us though he was not a sinner himself but bore our sins The same Epist 63. to Cecilius parag 9. Christ carried us all who also carried our sins The same in his Book to Demetrianus parag 22. Christ imparts this Grace he gives this gift of his mercy by subduing Death with the Triumph of the Cross by redeeming the Believer with the price of his Blood by reconciling man to God the Father by enlivening mortal man with the Celestial Regeneration The same or rather another Writer of the Book of the Cardinal Works of Christ to Cornelius the Pope Serm. 7. which is concerning the manner of Circumcision that one Oblation of our Redeemer was of so great Dignity that it was sufficient alone to take away the sins of the World who with so great Authority went into the holy place with his own Blood that afterwards no request of Suppliants needed the Blood of any other The same Serm. 16. which is concerning the Ascension of Christ Who for our sakes having been sold for thirty pieces of silver would have it to be understood how great an unequality there was in the price that was given for him and in that which he himself gave for the World Whereas he being bought and sold for a little silver redeemed us at so great a price so that it cannot be a doubtful case that the greatness of the price exceeded the bargain Neither could the damage that verily just damnation deserved be equallized to the Obedience of Christ which proceeded unto Death it self and over and above paid what it owed not Lactantius concerning the Benefits of Christ Whosoever thou art that art present and comes within the threshold of the middle Temple look on me who being guiltless suffered for thy sin c. And presently For thee and for thy life I entred the Virgins womb was made Man and suffered a dreadful Death c. Eusebius Coesariensis lib. 10. of the Demonstration of the Gospel For it behoved the Lamb of God that was taken up by the great High-Priest to be offered a Sacrifice to God for the other Lambs of the same kind and for all the Flock of Mankind For because by man came Death by man also came the Resurrection of the Dead The same lib. 10. cap. 1. And as when one Member suffers all the other Members suffer with it so also when many Members suffered and sinned he also suffered according to the ways of sympathy For forasmuch as it pleased God being the Word to take the form of a Servant and to be joyned to the common Tabernacle of us all he takes upon himself the pain of the suffering Members and makes our Diseases his own and suffers grief and pain for us all according to the Laws of Love to Mankind And the Lamb of God having not only performed these things but having been punished for us and having endured the sufferings that he himself did not deserve but we for the sake of the Multitude of them that trespassed he became to us the Author of the forgiveness of sins having undertaken Death for us and translated unto himself the stripes and reproaches and shame that was due to us and drawn upon himself the Curse that was due to us becoming a Curse for us and what other thing was this but the giving life for life Therefore the Oracle saith in our person we were healed by his stripes and the Lord delivered himself for our sins Eusebius concerning the Preparation of the Gospel lib. 1. cap. 10. And God had respect to Abel and his Gifts but unto Cain and his Sacrifice he had no respect Hence you may understand that he that offered Beasts was more acceptable than he that offered a Sacrifice of the Fruits of the Earth And Noah immediately offered upon the Altar Burnt-offerings of all clean Beasts and of all clean Fowl and the Lord smelled a smell of sweet savour But Abraham also is recorded to have sacrificed so that by testimony of sacred Scripture those that were lovers of God of old esteemed the Sacrifice of Beasts the chiefest of all But I suppose the reason of this thing was not accidental or found out by man's wit but taught by the Divine Wisdom for seeing they saw that they who in their manners were holy and conversant with God and inlightned in their souls by the Divine Spirit and that they needed to perform great service for the cleansing away of the sins of Mortals they supposed that the price of their Salvation was due to him that is Prince both of life and soul Moreover having nothing better nor more precious to sacrifice than their soul instead thereof they offered a Sacrifice of brute Beasts bringing them in the room of their own life thinking that they sinned not nor offended in this thing because they were taught that the soul of unreasonable Creatures was not equal to the reasonable and intellective faculty of Men and having been taught that their life is no other thing but their blood and the lively power in the blood which they also presented offering it as a life for a life unto God And Moses also evidently declares this same thing the life of all flesh is the blood thereof and I have given you the blood upon the Altar to make atonement for your sins for their blood shall make atonement for the life Therefore I have commanded the Children of Israel that no soul of you should eat blood therefore consider diligently of these things how it is said I gave you blood upon the Altar to make Atonement for your souls For blood shall make atonement for the soul For he doth manifestly say that the blood of slain Beasts makes atonement for the soul of man And the Law concerning Sacrifices gives him that looks into it attentively to understand this same thing Therefore he commands every man that sacrificeth to lay his hands upon the Head of the thing sacrificed and to bring the Beast that is to dye to the Priest as offering the Sacrifice instead of his own life Therefore he says of every one He shall present it before the Lord and shall put his hands upon the Head of the Offering
fact came death and by man came the resurrection of the dead As in Adam all die as many as die so in Christ all shall be made alive as many as shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.21,22 Who reading these very words sees not that this saying to the Corinthians is exactly answerable to that to the Romans Therefore the Discourse is concerning Death that is common to the Posterity of Adam and from which they do rise again which rise again Wherefore also this place being compared with that to the Romans we say the Discourse is here concerning Adam a sinner for what he said here by man there he said by sin The Animal Condition of Adam is discoursed upon in Twenty Verses and more by the Apostle on a very different occasion for here Death is opposed to the Resurrection but there the Qualities of the Body at the first created and afterwards raised again are compared with one another of which that had joined with a natural possibility of dying by the bounty of God a possibility also of living but this shall so have life in it self that it shall be without any natural possibility of dying Here I cannot omit the adding of an excellent place of the very excellent Writer of the Book of Wisdom which though it is not in the Hebrew Canon yet it hath a venerable Antiquity and was always had in estimation among Christians So then saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1.13 And next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2.23 God made not Death neither doth he delight in the destruction of living Creatures for he created all things to have Existence and their Generations are healthful and the Poison of destruction is not in them neither is the dominion of Hell upon Earth But Righteousness is immortal But the ungodly with their hands and words called it to them and thinking it to be their Friend were consumed and made a Covenant with it because they are worthy to have a portion with it God created Man for uncorruption and made him the Image of his own Deity but by the Envy of the Devil Death came into the World and they have Experience of it that are on its side Here he shews that any kind of Death is understood which Death God is said not to have created nor to desire to wit with a will going before sin in opposition to uncorruption for the hope whereof Man is said to be created and that hope is not obscurely declared to have been a part of the Divine Image or at least a Consequent thereof But Uncorruption excludes all Death whether it is violent or not violent And what the Apostle said That by Man and by Sin Death entred this Author said no less truly That Death entred by the Envy of the Devil For all these Expressions signify the same Fact to wit That the first Sin of Man was committed by the Suggestion of the Devil Neither doth it hinder that this Author observes a certain special Effect of Death upon the Wicked for Death having entred by the first sin and gained power over all Men gets a certain peculiar strength by the great and continual sins of every Man in which sense sin is called the sting of death 1 Cor. 15.56 Therefore those from whom after their death all passage to life is shut up are deservedly called the Confederates of Death or its Bondslaves and peculiar Possession It might very easily be demonstrated if this were the thing that is treated upon that this was the constant Opinion both of Jews and Christians that any kind of death of a Man is a punishment of sin so that the Christian Emperours not without cause disallowed that Opinion besides others in Pelagius and Celestius that they said That Death did not flow from the snare of sin but that the Law of an unchangeable Appointment required it But that we may gather the things that hitherto have been said into one because the Scripture saith That Christ was chastised by God that is was punished That Christ did bear our sins that is the punishment of our sins That he was made sin that is subjected to the punishment of sin That he was made a Curse unto God or liable to the Curse that is the punishment of the Law But the Passion of Christ it self having been full of Torments bloody and ignominious is a very fit matter of punishment Moreover because the Scripture saith That these things were inflicted on him by God for our sins that is our sins so deserving because Death it self is called the wages that is the punishment of sin verily it cannot be justly doubted that in respect of God the Passion and Death of Christ was a punishment Neither are the Interpretations of Socinus worthy to be regarded which deviates from the constant use of words without Example especially because no just reason hindereth to retain the signification of the words which shall appear more evident afterwards Therefore in God the punishment is actively in Christ passively yet to whose Passion a certain voluntary Action is joyned to wit the undertaking of the Penal Passion The end of the thing that is discoursed upon according to the Intention of God and Christ which being placed in act may also be called an Effect is twofold to wit a Demonstration of the Divine Righteousness and the Remission of Sins in respect of us that is our Impunity For if you take the exacting of punishment impersonally it 's end is the Demonstration of Divine Righteousness but if you take it personally that is wherefore Christ was punished the end is that we might obtain freedom from punishment The former end is expressed by Paul when he saith concerning Christ Whom God hath appointed for a Propitiation in his Blood for the demonstration of his Righteousness for the pardoning the foregoing sins in the forbearance of God Afterwards he adds repeating almost the same words To declare his Righteousness at this time that he may be the justifier of him that is of the Faith of Jesus Rom. 3.25,26 Here next unto his Blood that is his bloody Death is joyned the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to declare his Righteousness By this Name of the Righteousness of God that Righteousness should not be understood that God works in us or which he imputeth unto us but that which is in God for it follows That he may be just that is that he may appear to be just This Justice of God that is Righteousness according to its divers Objects hath divers Effects About the good or evil Deeds of a Creature the Effect thereof amongst others is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reward unto which Paul having respect said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is it is just with God to reward Affliction to them that afflict you And elsewhere Every Transgression and Disobedience received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just Recompence of Reward And that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.8 the Syrian translated it Whose Condemnation
which ascribe the remission of sins to the Blood of Christ that place should be joyned which we just now cited Being justified in his Blood Rom. 5.9 Also those that attribute the washing away of sins to Blood or Death Te Blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 For the purging of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 Christ washed us from our sins in his Blood Apoc. 1.5 For though to wash away to cleanse and the like words may signifie either to cause that sins may not be committed in time to come or that being committed they may not appear yet the other Interpretation is more agreeable to the Phrase of Scripture So to abolish sins is expounded not to remember sins Isaiah 43.24 and to cleanse from Iniquity is shewed to be the same thing with forgiveing Jer. 33.8 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sins may be blotted out hath evidently the same sense Acts 3.19 And these are taken wholly for the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to forgive sins and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cleanse from all inquity 1 John 1.9 and elsewhere these are put as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 synonimous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to be cleansed and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pardon may be Hebr. 9.22 Wherfore also Socinus is forced to confess that in John's Apocal. cap. 1. vers 5. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cleanse is attributed to Blood deliverance from punishment is more rightly understood than the cleansing of the Soul To these may be joyned that of Isaiah just now cited The chastisement of our peace was upon him that is his punishment procures us peace with God concerning which peace the Angels speak Luke 2.14 And that of the same Isaiah By his stripes we are cured that is by his punishment we have freedom from punishment By these Testimonies therefore it is manifest that the impunity of our sins is the End of the Death of Christ and also an Effect of the same Death Socinus who is not willing to acknowledge this Connexion of Death with the Remission of sins performed unto us brings others wonderfully different from the words and scope of the Scripture But all these that he hath here and there scattered in his Book seem to be reducible to these four Heads The first is That Christ when he preached that the remission of sins lyes open to the Penitent did not refuse Death to give testimony to that Preaching But this sense makes the Death of Christ an Effect of remission more than remission of Death For the Existence of a thing is the cause of a Testimony not contrariways But the Scrripture says that we obtain remission by Blood Ephes 1.7 Coloss 1.14 And that Blood blots out our sins 1 John 1.7 Also that the shedding of Blood is a thing Antecedent without which there is no Remission Hebr. 9.22 Moreover if this Interpretation were true the Martyrs also might be said to have shed their Blood for the remission of sins and that we obtain remission by that Blood when yet the Scripture gives this priviledge to Christ only Moreover the Cause of the Killing of Christ in respect of men was not properly the preaching of Repentance and Remission of Sins but that he called God his Father making himself equal to God John 5.18 and consequently that he did profess himself to be God For which cause his Death gave properly a Testimony to this Profession not to the preaching of Pardon And also a Testimony concerning the Doctrine was given no less but more by the Miracles than by the Death of Christ But no where is this Effect attributed unto Miracles that by them we obtain Remission of sins The second thing that Socinus brings is That Christ by his Death obtained the power of giving Remission But Socinus himself overturns this Position who sheweth that Christ living on Earth had and exercised this Power But that which is cannot be any more made mine And lest any man should so mistake which Socinus doth more hint at than affirm as if this Power of Christ had only respect to Punishments Temporal and of this Life it must be observed That when Christ is said to have had power upon earth to forgive sins the Effect is not restrained by that Addition on Earth but the place of the Action is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 emphatically expressed For it is also said to the Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth where though to loose is to declare to be loosed yet that Expression on the Earth signifies only the place of the Action for it follows they shall be loosed in Heaven For that is it which Christ signified that that Power though so eminent and Celestial belonged to him living on the Earth Neither do the People wonder at any other thing but that so great power was given to men that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by enallagy to one of the number of men Christ himself also first forgives the sins of the man that had the Palsy before he takes away the Palsy which was a Temporal Punishment and manifestly distinguishing both Powers he proves the one by the other to wit the invisible by the visible Then Christ did not at length obtain the power to forgive sins by his Death and consequently those sayings which ascribe the Effect of the remission of sins to his Death cannot be drawn to this sense Moreover the Scripture explains the way of the Connexion between Death and Remission by the word Propitiation and other such like words which cannot be applied to the power of giving Pardon The third thing is That in the Death of Christ an Example of Patience and Obedience is proposed to us But this Example in some respect pertains to Sanctification and that which follows it Eternal Glory but not any ways to the remission of sins for Christ by his Patience and Obedience obtained no pardon to himself as having no sin Wherefore when Christ is proposed for Imitation that we keeping that way which he went may come to the same Mark nothing would be more unseasonable than to make any mention of remission of sins And the Phrases of Scripture Blood cleanseth us By his Blood we have Remission do utterly reject this sense The fourth thing remains which most pleased Socinus So that in very many places he inculcates this as the support of his Cause and it is this That the Death of Christ perswades us to that very thing that is required for the obtaining remission of sins to wit Faith or as Socinus explains himself the hope of obtaining Eternal Life But verily what is more disagreeable unto truth than that so bloody a death of a most innocent man doth of it self conduce unto this that it may perswade us that great Joys are prepared by God for us living holily Wherefore Socinus seeing the absurdity of this Invention saith That the Death of Christ doth not this but his Resurrection
Christ God laid upon Christ our sins that is the punishment of sins which were so required that he upon that account was afflicted Christ did bear our sins that is again the punishment of sins Isai 53.5,6,7 1 Pet. 2.24 Christ made himself Sin and a Curse that is liable to the punishment of sins Isai 53.10 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 The Blood of Christ was shed for the Remission of sins so that that Remission did not come to pass without the shedding of Blood but by it Matth. 26.28 Hebr. 9.22 and elsewhere in many places Here Socinus opposeth many things Some Examples and Promises before Christ some sayings concerning those things that God said he gave by Christ The word remittere and cordonare to forgive and pardon and the very nature of Liberality from which he thinks it follows that God willeth to grant Impunity to us repenting requiring no punishment of any man upon that account As touching the Examples of Indulgence besides that no universal thing is rightly concluded from them it must be observed that these belong either to Temporal Punishment or Eternal If they belong to Temporal Punishment only the difference is manifest for as it is proverbially said That which is deferred is not taken away Now add this that in the very Fact of Achab as also in the Fact of David the contrary appears of that which Socinus would infer alledging them for himself for the Temporal Punishment was so taken away from David and Achab that it was translated unto others And in the Law it self sins are not forgiven except the Blood of the Sacrifices be poured out as shall be explained afterwards But if the remission of Eternal Punishment be the matter of Discourse Socinus proves by no Argument that it was made to any man without a respect of God to Christ The same must be said of Promises that hath been said of Examples and by the way it must be observed That when God promiseth to them that repent that he will forgive Temporal Punishments that should not be understood always of the whole punishment but of so much for God often useth to punish them also that repent but fatherly and gently So God restored his people when they repented from the Babylonish Captivity unto their Country but restored not the former Liberty and Glory of the Kingdom But as touching Eternal Punishment there is no Promise of Remission which excludes a respect to Christ Hitherto belong those sayings of Sacred Scripture which shew that Christ tasted death for all men without any difference of time that he gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom for all Heb. 2.9 1 Tim. 2.6 and much more those that by a Comparison being added admit no restriction of time as when all are said to have sinned and to be justified by Redemption in Christ Rom. 3.23 and when Righteousness is said to have come by one Christ upon all to wit as many as are justified as by one Adam Condemnation came upon all men Rom. 3.12 5.17,18 1 Cor. 15.22 Hence it is that Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Apoc. 13.8 which place is sufficiently vindicated from the Interpretation of Socinus both by the very coherence of the words and also by a like place of Peter where Redemption is said to be made by the Blood of Christ the unblameable and unspotted Lamb that was foreknown before the foundation of the World but made manifest in the last times 1 Pet. 1.19,20 Wherefore elsewhere the Death of Christ is said to have interposed for the Redemption of those Transgressions that had been under the former Covenant Hebr. 9.15 and the Righteousness of God is said to be declared by his Blood for the pardoning of sins that went before which God is shewed to have tolerated and suffered at that time the declaring of Righteousness being deferred to the time of Christ Rom. 3.25 Hereunto belongs that famous place to the Hebrews 3.25 not that he should often offer up himself as the Chief Priest entered once a year into the Sancturry with the Blood of another or else he should have suffered often from the Foundation of the World but now he hath been made manifest once in the end of the World to take away sin by the offering up of himself and as it is appointed for all men once to die and after this the Judgment so Christ was once offered that he might carry up the sins of many c. The whole coherence of which place if it be rightly considered and especially if that place of Peter be compared 1 Pet. 1.19 where the same thing is discoursed of almost in the same words it will appear that in this the Sacrifice of Christ differs from the Levitical because the Efficacy was limited within the time of a year but the Efficacy of that extends it self through all Ages for his Passion was esteemed with God as performed before all Ages though really it was performed in a certain time and so the decree of God was very manifestly revealed unto us And unless it had been so Christ must often have underwent Sufferings not after he began to preach but from the beginning of the World Which words have no signification at all unless the Efficacy of the Death of Christ extend it self to all sins which have any time been forgiven to men from the very beginning of the World Just as the Judgment after Death extends it self to all sins that a man committed during life But the contrary Interpretation of Socinus doth not only render the words vain but weakens the Argument of the Writer for it doth not follow if it were granted that Christ should have often been offered that he ought to have suffered not only often but often from the Foundation of the World unless you put together that Christ should have been often offered from the Foundation of the World for these have a coherence with one another for the Effect of the Oblation is not stretched farther than the Dignity of the Sacrifice But that Christ should have been offered oft-times from the Foundation of the World if the parity of the Sacrifice of Christ and the Levitical were granted which the Writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews opposeth it would not follow from any other thing but because the Effect of the Oblation of Christ is extended unto those sins that were at any time committed and forgiven from the Foundation of the World For if it were equal to the Levitical that is of a vertue limited within a certain time verily its Efficacy could not reach from the time that Christ died unto the most ancient sins But it would have been altogether necessary that many Acts of that kind should have been interposed between both times Now let us come to those Testimonies that seem to Socinus properly to belong to the time of Christ and the New Covenant Jeremiah indeed says God will be propitious to sins but denies not
peculiar which cannot be communicated to the Apostles But it could if the benefit of Christ's death were distinguished only by degree from the death of the Apostles and not also in its proper end So also in the Epistle to the Hebrews 2.10 there is an example in it that Christ came to glory by Sufferings the special manner is in that that Christ suffered for every man vers 9. And as in those places patience so in other places love is commended to us by the same example of Christ but the special manner doth more openly express the deed of Christ Though if you will look more exactly into those places we shall see that not so much the act of death as the danger of death is there regarded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which only John useth 10 11 15. and 1 John 3.16 as also John 13.37 and 38. also John 15.13 is not properly there to lose life but as it were to put it in pledge that is to undergo the danger of death Therefore in those places that very thing that is prescribed to us contains not only the benefit of another but also a certain exchange to wit in that sense which Horace expressed in these Verses Paratus omne Caesaris periculum Subire Moecenas tuo Being prepared to undergo all dangers of Caesar Mecenas with thine But in the saying of Caiaphas not only as a Prophesy dropt from him at unawares but also according to his Opinion a certain true substitution was expressed For he feigned the inevitable destruction of the Jews if Christ should be permitted to live and on the contrary if Christ should be slain that certain safety should be obtained for this very thing Therefore he desired to substitute really the death of Christ to a destruction otherways hanging over And so he would have the same in kind to befall Christ with that which was otherways to happen to the people and he believed that the death of Christ was a near cause of the deliverance of the People and fit of it self Which is the same thing as if you should say he would have Christ perish in the room of the People that was otherways that is under a contrary condition to perish Here it must be marked by the by that Caiaphas did put the first effect of the death of Christ not about the Jews whose deliverance he sought but about the Roman Governours whose Anger he desired to escape So that if it be true which Socinus urgeth that such an interpretation of the words of Caiphas should be taken which may answer both the mind of the Holy Spirit and his mind this dying for the people must needs signifie that safety was to be obtained from another but that other according to the mind of the Holy Ghost can be none but God whence it follows it is exercised about God before it is exercised about men which Socinus stubbornly denies But those things that have been hitherto said by us concerning the signification of exchange in the Particle pro for are much illustrated by the the nature of the Expiatory Sacrifice For in those the Scripture and common Opinion of Nations do witness that blood is given for life which shall now be made manifest CHAP. X. Concerning the Expiation made by the Death of Christ THere remains the last rank of Testimonies which signifie that Christ's Death is an Expiatory Sacrifice which because by the Artifice of Socinus they are involved in many Mists we reserved them for the last place that they might receive some light from these things that have been said before We and Socinus are agreed concerning the word that Christ's Death was an Expiatory Sacrifice or a Sacrifice for Sin the Divine Epistle to the Hebrews testifying the same especially cap. 9. But of the proper force of that word Socinus thinks one way and the Church of Christ another way The disagreement shall be briefly and perspicuously so explained if we say that according to Socinus the effect of expiation first and properly is exercised about sins to come because the Death of Christ by ingenerating Faith draws us from sins but in respect of by-past sins only secondarily and in that respect also all this action is exercised about us not about God that is that God is not moved to pardon but we are prepared to receive remission to wit by the Amendment of Life but according to the Opinion of the Church which agrees to Scripture the effect of expiation is properly exercised about by past sins and the first action is about God who is moved to forgive That the first action is exercised about God not about Men it is proved from the nature of Priesthood For a Priest is appointed for Men in the things of God Hebr. 5.1 but not for God in the things of Men which is the Office of a Prophet And because Sacrifice especially Expiatory Sacrifice is an act of the Priest as such for a High-Priest is appointed for this purpose that he may offer Sacrifices for sins Hebr. 5.1 8.3 it follows that Sacrifice belongs to those things which are performed for Man with God But the whole matter will be made more manifest by comparing the Sacrifices of the Old Law with this Sacrifice of which comparison the Writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews is an Author unto us and elsewhere the Prophets and Apostles The ancient Law is considered two manner of ways either carnally or spiritually Carnally as it was an Instrument of the Commonwealth of the Jews Spiritually as it had a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shadow of things to come Hebr. 10.1 As touching the former consideration the Expiatory Sacrifices of the Law sanctified unto the purifying of the flesh Hebr. 9.13 which of what sort it is we shall explain The Law of God had this sanction he is accursed that abides not in all the words of the Law Deut. 27.26 Gal. 3.10 therefore he shall be guilty of punishment whosoever in the least shall deviate from the Law as James shews James 2.10 This Punishment according to a carnal sense was violent death which is evident from the contrary because life is promised to him that fulfils the Law Lev. 18.5 Gal. 3.12 But as in every Commonwealth rightly governed the King requires punishment by his Judges and if they fail by himself So in the Hebrew Commonwealth which Josephus rightly called Theocratia because God was its King Judg. 8.23 1 Sam. 8.7 God ordinarily required the punishments of the Law by Judges yet so that he himself required the same punishment if the Judges failed in their duty Let the people saith he stone him or I setting my angry face against that man will cut him off Lev. 20.3 Neither did he only threaten this but also often performed it as it appears by many Examples of the Old Testament But because a Lawyer may somewhat relax his own Law especially Penal God the King of the Hebrews in some Crimes admitted Expiatory Sacrifices in the room
and so it was observed in every Sacrifice no Sacrifice being otherways offered For which things it is said that the Beasts were brought that their lives might be offered for theirs Antonius the Hermite Epist 2. in which also the Father of Creatures being moved in his Bowels for our wound which could not be heled but by his goodness only sent his only Begotten to us that by our Bondage he might take the form of Bondage and deliver himself up for our sins And our very sins humbled him but by his stripes we all were healed Macarius Bishop of Jerusalem Lib. 2. Act. Concil Nicen. But he came a Saviour of all men and undertook for our sake in his own flesh the punishments that were due to our sins Athanasius concerning the Incarnation of the Word of God And because it was necessary that that which was due from all should at length be restored for it was due that all men should dye as I said before for which chiefly he came For this cause after his manifesting of his Divinity by his Works it remained that he should offer a Sacrifice for all having given the Temple of his own Body unto Death for all men that he might make all men unblameable and free from the ancient Transgression and might declare himself also to be more powerful than death having shewed his own body uncorruptible as a First-fruits of the Resurrection of all And presently For there was need of Death and there was need that Death should be for all that that which was due from all might be performed whence as I said before the Word because it was impossible that he should dye for he was Immortal took upon himself a Body that could dye that he might offer it as being his own instead of all men And that he suffering for all men by entring thereinto he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and might deliver those that through fear of Death were subject to Bondage The Saviour of all men having died for us we that believe in Christ do not now dye the death as of old according to the threatning of the Law The same in the same place And by such a manner of death Salvation came to all men and all the Creation was redeemed this is the life of all And as a Sheep he gave his Body unto Death instead of all men for their Salvation The same upon the Passion and Cross of Christ But beholding the visibleness of the wickedness and that the Mortal Generation was not able to stand against Death nor able to suffer the punishment of their sins for the excessive greatness of the evil exceeded all punishment and seeing the goodness of his Father seeing also his own fitness and power For Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God he was moved with love to Mankind and pitying our weakness he cloathed himself therewith for he himself as saith the Prophet took our Infirmities and carried our Diseases and pitying our Mortality cloathed himself therewith for Paul saith He humbled himself unto death and that the death of the Cross and seeing the impossibility of our bearing the punishment took it upon himself For Christ became a Curse for us and so being compassed about and cloathed with Humane Nature by himself brought us to the Father that he himself suffering may make mans suffering to be without damage and may exchange small things for great Hilarius Pictaviensis on cap. 14. Matth. in the Hymn on the Epiphany Jesus hath forth shin'd The gracious Redeemer of all Mankind Blest John with fear doth shiver To dip him in the River Whose Blood is able to purge out The sins of all the world throughout Optatus Milevitanus concerning the Schism of the Donatists against Parmenianus lib. 3. When ye say redeem your souls whence bought ye them that ye may sell them Who is that Angel who makes a fair of souls which the Devil possessed before his coming Christ the Saviour redeemed these with his Blood according as the Apostle said Ye are bought with a price for it is evident that all men were redeemed by the Blood of Christ Victor Antiochenus on the fifteenth Chapter of Mark. And wherefore sayest thou was the Lord and Maker of all things made Man for our sakes and suffered so much reproach and so great punishments He was made like unto us and took our Miseries and our Crosses upon himself that he might raise up our Nature that was fallen down by sin and might again restore it unto its ancient degree of Dignity Therefore the Advantages that have redounded unto us by his Torments are very many for he paid our Debts for us he bore our sins he both lamented and sighed for our sake Cyrillus of Jerusalem Catechis 13. But he set free all that were kept in Bondage under sin and redeemed the whole World of Mankind And you need not wonder that the whole World was redeemed for he was not a meer man but the only begotten Son of God who died for them And verily the sin of one man Adam was effectual to bring death upon the World But if Death reigned over the World by the sin of one man how much more shall life reign by the Righteousness of one man And if then they were thrown out of Paradise for the Tree of Food verily now by the Tree of Jesus Believers shall more easily enter into Paradise If the first man that was formed of the Earth brought Death upon the World certainly it must needs be that he that formed him of the Earth being Life himself should bring Eternal Life If Phinehas being zealous against the Evil-doer caused the Anger of God to cease doth not Jesus who slew not another but delivered up himself the Price of our Redemption take away the Anger of God that was provoked against men Basilius Homil. on Psalm 48. One thing was found that was worthy of all together which was given for the price of the Redemption of our Souls the holy and precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ Gregor Nazianz. in the two and fortieth Oration which is the second on the Paschal Lamb. That great thing and unsacrificeable that I may so speak in respect of the first Nature was mingled with Legal Sacrifices and not for a small part of the World nor for a little time but for all the World and it eternized the Purification The same in the same place A few drops of Blood renew the Creation of the whole World and they have united and gathered all men into one Body And in the same Oration It is therefore requisite to search into the Matter and Doctrine which hath been neglected by many but by me hath been very diligently searched after For unto whom was that great and much celebrated Blood of God and the High-Priest and the Sacrifice poured forth and upon what account for we were kept in Bondange by that wicked one under sin and
Death of Christ besides the Will of God and Christ Which is manifestly contrary to the saying of Paul If there is righteousness by the Law then Christ died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain Gal. 2.21 where the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vain by the acknowledgment of Socinus signifies without Cause but there should have been added without an Antecedent Cause which is the original and most frequent signification of this word The original of it is from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Gift that is such a Gift as hath not an Antecedent Cause of Right whence it began to be translated also to other things in which the Antecedent Cause is not found So David Psalm 25.19 speaking of his Enemies says They hated me hinam in vain that is when I had given them no Causes of hatred Which Christ applying to himself John 15.25 says They hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause just in the same signification The place of Paul it self of which we are treating suffers not another Cause than an Antecedent to be understood For the Cause which Socinus deviseth to wit That they who mend their lives should be assured of the pardon of their sins this Final Cause appertains unto the Preaching and the Resurrection but not to Death which when Socinus saw here he would have Christ understood by the name of Death and also that Preaching and the Resurrection are included both wrestingly and contrary to the mind of Paul for Paul denying that Christ died for all signifies that there is some peculiar Cause which should belong to the Death of Christ for otherways he could have preached for a certain Cause and for a certain Cause have received a Reward for according to Socinus the Resurrection is only referred hither and not have died Moreover that Paul had a peculiar respect to the Death of Christ that which goes before makes it sufficiently evident who gave himself for me for that Giving every where in the Scripture signifies Death And Paul calling this same thing the Grace of God denies that that is despised or rejected by him and immediately gives a Reason For if righteousness came by the Law Christ then died in vain signifying by the contrary that this is the peculiar Cause why Christ gave himself and died because we by the Law were not just but guilty of punishment therefore our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity is the Antecedent Cause of the Death of Christ The other Efficient Cause is Christ himself and that a willing Cause I lay down my life saith Christ no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self John 10.18 Christ gave himself for us for the Church Gal. 2.20 Eph. 5.2 and 5.25 The Cause that moved Christ was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love to Mankind This is saith he my Command that ye love one another as I loved you Greater love than this hath no man that a man should lay down his life for his Friends Ye are my Friends John 15.13 In the Faith of the Son of God that loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood Apoc. 1.5 Christ loved us and gave himself for us an Oblation Eph. 5.2 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her Eph. 5.25 The Matter is both the Torment going before Death and chiefly Death it self Isaiah calleth Torments by a pathetical name haburah a Wound Isai 53.5 And 1 Pet. 2.24 calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stripes Therefore we also see mention made of the Cross where this Argument is handled He reconciled both to God by the Cross Ephes 2.16 Having made peace by the blood of the Cross 1 Col. 12. Neither should only those Corporal pains be understood by the name of Torments but chiefly those very grievous Sufferings of Mind which the Evangelists signifie by the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be sorrowful to be astonished to be heavy in respect of which chiefly Christ cried out that he was forsaken of God The other part of the Matter Death it self is urged in many places I lay down my life John 10.18 He reconciled us by Death Coloss 1.22 Death coming between for the Redemption of Transgressions Hebr. 9.15 This Death in the holy Scriptures is considered chiefly with two qualities as Bloody and as Ignominious That quality of bloody Death is denoted by the word Blood This is the Blood of the New Covenant which is poured forth for many for the remission of sins Matth. 26.28 Luke 22.20 God purchased the Church with his own blood Acts 20.28 God hath appointed Christ for a Propitiation by Faith in his Blood Rom. 3.25 Justified in his Blood Rom. 5.9 We have redemption by his Blood the remission of sins Eph. 1.7 Ye that sometimes were afar off are made near by the Blood of Christ for he is our peace Eph. 2.13 We have redemption by his Blood Col. 1.14 Having made peace by the Blood of the Cross Col. 1.14 Not by the Blood of Bulls or Goats but by his own Blood he entred into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption Hebr. 10.12 Without shedding of Blood there is no remission Hebr. 10.22 Ye are come to the Blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Hebr. 12.24 According to the purification of the Blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.2 The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 Christ washed us from our sins in his Blood Apocal. 1.5 But the other quality of an Ignominious Death is signified by the very Name of the Cross for in that very punishment there is great ignominy whence it is said He suffered the Cross having despised the shame Hebr. 1.2 And by the name of Contempt which Isaiah used Isai 53.3 Here by the by it may be observed That not only in the places now alledged and others like them that either only or chiefly treat of the remission of sins there is mention made of Death Cross Blood but that in very many places the Apostles did profess they knew nothing they taught nothing but Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 1.23 and 2.2 and that therefore the Gospel it self is by them called the Word of the Cross 1 Cor. 1.12 Moreover Christ appointed the Sacred Sacrament of his Supper not peculiarly for a Commemoration of his Life or Resurrection but of his Death and the shedding of his Blood 1 Cor. 11.26 Which things having been so often repeated do manifestly shew that some proper and peculiar Effect should be attributed unto this Death and Blood which Socinus cannot do For the whole Life of Christ gave an Example of Holiness more than his Death it self which was compleated in a short time But the Confirmation of that Promise of Celestial Life consists properly in the Resurrection of Christ unto which Death is only as a way
and those things that followed his Resurrection But that it was requisite Death should go before But if the Scripture had signified so it would have mentioned perpetually the Resurrection or rather the Exaltation unto Heaven and sitting at the right hand of God where forgiveness of sins is discoursed of not Death and Blood at least not so often and in words so significant For that so frequent and usual joyning of Blood with Remission signifies some Effect not common but proper not far remote but near hand For what By-ways are these The Remission of sins is granted unto none but them that live holily for so speaks Socinus Faith and a certain hope of reward makes for holiness of Life This Faith is begotten by the Example of Christ raised from the Dead and glorified for holiness of Life as Socinus would have it Death went before that raising up therefore rightly and fitly is Remission said to be obtained by the Death of Christ Is not this it really which he finds fault with in others Alas That the Pine-tree was cut in the Pelian Wood for that is brought for a cause which is not some near thing or at least not far distant but that which is most remote from the Effect What if this had been in one place of Scripture it would perhaps have been less wonderful But what man that is in his right wits can believe that the Scripture speaks so often so obscurely and so coldly That Saying of Paul is very unlike Christ was raised from the dead for our justification Rom. 4.25 Which that it may be explained there is no need to fetch so long a compass of Socinus For the Resurrection of Christ begets in us Faith and Reliance on God and Christ to which Faith is promised Remission of sins And this Series is manifestly shewed Acts 13.33,38 Rom. 1.4 and 10.9 for Death is so far from being fit to beget Faith that on the contrary it most affrighteth men from that Faith And therefore in preaching the Gospel the Apostles do always oppose the Resurrection to the Ignominy of the Cross and the Misery of Death But that by Death and the shedding of Blood which the Scripture frequently expresseth in this Argument which is not properly a Cause of the Resurrection but only an Antecedent he would have the Resurrection it self to be expressed What is it else but to name Night that thereby Day may be understood Moreover if Death did not belong to the Remission of sins except because of the Resurrection that followed how could it have happened that Remission of sins was very seldom referred to the Resurrection but to Death in innumerable places Now add this also that Paul doth attribute to Death it self apart that is as it is abstracted from the Resurrection and Glory of Christ the Effect of Redemption purchased For he says If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life Rom. 5.10 Death is opposed unto a glorious Life and as Reconciliation is ascribed distinctly unto that so is Preservation unto this Reconciliation is obtained for Enemies by Death as a Sacerdotal Act being reconciled they are kept by his Kingly Power unto which Resurrection made access So also elsewhere the same Apostle puts Reconciliation before Preaching which begets Faith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their sins unto them and did put in us the Word of Reconciliation therefore we are Ambassadours for Christ and as if God were requesting by us we beseech you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.19,20 Here a twofold Reconciliation is put the former which is declared by the Word the other that is made by the Word that is the Reconciliation of Impetration this of Application that is before the Word this is after the Word We treat of that former and do justly deny that it can be referred to the Ingeneration of Faith which comes by the Word That also may be added John 3.16 where Christ is said to be given to wit unto death that they who believe may not perish Therefore it is profitable for another thing than that they may believe And verily if you please to attend the same thing is not obscurely shewed in that very place of Paul which is by Socinus cited for to confirm his own Opinions to wit that of which we discoursed who was delivered to wit unto death for our sins and rose again for our justification Because Sins are an evil thing and Justification a good thing it appears that the word propter for is not taken alike in both Members and it is convenient that the final Cause should be expressed in the latter Member if I am not mistaken we sufficiently shewed above that in the former the Impulsive Cause is signified Just as if I say that a Medicine is taken for a Disease and for Health Therefore Justification is the end proposed unto the Resurrection to wit by the Ingeneration of Faith by the Confession of Socinus Though verily I know not whether the Resurrection in this place is looked upon as an Argument to perswade Faith or whether it rather signifies the whole glorious state of Christ who hath this end proposed to himself amongst others that the Preachers of the Gospel may be sent and that their Endeavour may be promoted with a very plentiful Influence of the Spirit and Faith being made after that manner men may obtain the Remission of sins for so said Christ himself All Power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Therefore go ye and teach all Nations Behold I am with you always to the end of the World Matth. 28.18,19,20 Before as John saith the Spirit was not to wit poured forth with that efficacy and abundance the cause is added because Jesus was not yet exalted to Glory John 7.39 Paul also said of Christ When he had ascended on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts to men He gave some Apostles others Prophets and others Evangelists and others Pastors and Teachers to the perfecting of the Saints Ephes 4.8,12 But whether of these two ways you take it it appears that some peculiar and is ascribed to the Resurrection inasmuch as it is distinguished from Death On the other side it is ascribed unto Death apart or deliverance unto Death that it happened for sins but that very thing is no where ascribed unto the Resurrection and in this place it is not obscurely taken from the same But the Death of Christ in this Affair is both to be separated from the Resurrection and from the Ingeneration of Faith and in these places which deduce the Remission of sins from the Resurrection of Christ a certain distinct Effect is to be understood which the very simplicity of the Words import agreeing with other words of Scripture which say That Christ for our sins died a bloody death and that the
as witnesses Marcellinus Amongst the Macedonians the Heads of those were Condemned that were of the same Blood with the Traytors as Curtius tells In the Cities of Grecia it was a Custom that together with the Tyrants the Children of the Tyrants were slain as Halicarnassoeus and Cicero observes Indeed these things are not commendable but yet they prove that that Assertion concerning the Consent of all Nations is not in all respects true And in these Examples the Conjunction of Persons only seemed to suffice for Punishment without any Consent which Halicarnassoeus observes to have been rejected by the Romans But where any Consent went before I dare almost be bold to say that there was none of all those whom we call Pagans that judged it an unjust thing for one man to be punished for another man's Fault The power of killing Sureties shews this which was usual to the most courteous People The Thessalians of old killed Two hundred and fifty Hostages as Plutarch tells The Romans beheaded three hundred Volscians They threw down the Tarentines from the Tarpeian Rock as is mentioned in Livius There are extant the like Examples of Goths Danes and English-men And as very Learned men have rightly observed it was judged righteous so to do So also in Capital Judgments the Pledges were usually slain if the Guilty Persons did not present themselves whence by the Grecians they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls put in stead it appears sufficiently both from other places and also from the noble History of Damon and Pythias Neither is it any wonder that they so judged for because they believed that every man had no less power of his own life than over other things as appears by the frequent and somuch noised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-murder among the Grecians Romans and other Nations it was clearly the Consequence that they believed Life could be strongly obliged no less than other things for the former being presupposed it was necessary the latter also should be granted And verily if any man examine this Business with requisite diligence he will find a true difference why a man is less obliged by consent to Coporal than Pecuniary Punishment that is that he that consents hath not equal power over Body and Money Neither yet do I assent unto the Modern Lawyers approving this by a certain Answer of Vlpianus who said That no man seems Lord of his own Members L. liber homo d. ad Legem Aquil. For he takes the word Lord strictly according to the use of Civil Law as it is opposed to a Servant because the Aquilian Law speaks strictly of a Servant he denies that the direct Action that is answerable to the words of the Law can be accommodated to a Free-man wounded yet so that by the likeness of Respects he thinks an useful Action should be given And that I may truly say what I think though I very much admire the Equity of the Romans in moderating this Extension of Punishment yet I cannot be perswaded to believe that it was a thing by them supposed wholly and of it self unjust that one man should be corporally punished for the Fault of another Neither am I therefore moved because Suretiships were by them forbidden under capital punishment for many things use to be forbidden not because they are judged altogether unjust but because they are dangerous as all Suretiships of Women and of others also for a Dowry this therefore belonged to Civil Law which because it failed in Foreign People therefore it was otherways observed in Hostages by the Romans themselves Yea so long a time afterwards Christian Emperors appointed that the Jaylor when the guilty Person escaped through the default of his Family should bear his Punishment L. ad Commentariensem C. de custod reor And now also or not long since noble Masters of Law have taught that this Rule That no man should oblige himself to Capital Punishment ceaseth if Law or Custom confirmed that manner But as touching those Punishments which respect not any Consent but only the Conjunction of Persons though the Roman Laws forbid a Son to be the Successor of his Father's Punishment or to be marked with any Blot for his Father's Crime yet Halicurnassaeus observes that this very thing obtain'd not from the beginning but from that time in which Sp. Cassius was condemned of Tyranny Wherefore neither the Romans themselves thought that this Power descended from a certain perpetual and immutable Rule of Justice Whereas the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius would seem to grant Life to the Sons of them that had committed Treason not of the Necessity of the Law but of their Imperial Lenity when otherways as they themselves speak they ought to have perished by their Father's Punishment L. quisquis C. ad l. Jul. Majest This also may be added That it can be proved by Histories that the Death of Rebels was inflicted on their Children not only by Tiberius and Severus but also by Theodosius It must also be observed that in the same Law of Arcadius and Honorius Jus omne ab intestato aut ex Testamento cuiquam succedendiâ— all right of succeeding to any man by Testament or otherways is taken away from the Sons of Rebels that Infamy is branded upon them that they are not suffered to attain to Preferments or Corporations Afterwards it is added May they be such that unto them being oppressed with perpetual want Death may be a Comfort and Life a Punishment Exclusion from Preferments about the Children of them that had offended against the Commonwealth was a long time used by the Romans from the times of Sylla But that Sons should suffer want for the Crimes of their Parents Cicero says it is an ancient thing and of all Cities and namely he adds that the Children of Themistocles suffered want which are only therefore brought that it may appear that there was not that Consent of Nations which Socinus brings in himself and that the Romans themselves whose Equity was most conspicuous amongst all People did not regard that difference in punishment that Money may be made another man's but Corporal Punishment may not For neither the Poverty of Children or Infamy or their Exclusion from Preferment could be made the Poverty of Parents their Infamy or their Exclusion from Preferments except perchance by a certain Fiction which esteems the Father and Children as if they were one and the same man Also I wonder at that which Socinus pronounceth of the Fact of Zaleucus whose History is in Diodorus Siculus and Aelianus that he saith â—e hath a very ill report and his name is reckoned amongst headstrong and rash Princes and Judges of People verily all Antiquity both for wise Laws and also chiefly upon the account of that Fact commended Zaleucus as also it appears by these Writers that I mentioned and Plutarch and others and I think that no other ancient Writer judgeth otherways of that Fact The Sentence of Valerius Maximus is
in the eyes of all men Also there is nothing stronger than those Examples of Justice Zaleucus when he had guarded the City of the Locrenses with very wholsom and profitable Laws when his Son being Condemned for the Crime of Adultery according to the Law appointed by him should have wanted both his Eyes and the whole City in respect to the Father forgave the young man the necessity of the Punishment for sometime he consented not At length being overcome by the Prayers of the People first having plucked out his own Eye and then his Sons he reserved the use of seeing to both So he rendered unto the Law the due measure of Punishment by a wonderful moderation of Justice having divided himself between a merciful Father and a just Law-giver And verily if a man had a free power as of Living in Banishment so in plucking out his own Eye nothing could be found more praise-worthy than that Fact of Zaleucus especially when the precise Obligation of the Law ceased either for his Principality or for the Peoples Consent Therefore Zaleucus erred as almost all Pagans that he claimed a greater power over his own Body than was due But that Fact so much celebrated gives Testimony against that Knowledge that Socinus thinks is imprinted in the minds of men that no man can take upon himself the punishment of another man's Fault That we may conclude this Question this is not enquired Whether it is lawful for any Judge to inflict upon any man any punishment of another man's Crime For the Law of Superiour Judges takes away this power from the Inferiour Neither is this enquired Whether this be lawful to the highest Power among men in any punishment and over any man for sometimes either the Law of God or natural Reason hindereth But this properly is enquired into Whether the Act that is in the power of the Superiour may without consideration of another man's Crime be ordained by that Superiour for the punishment of another man's Crime The Scripture denies this to be unjust which shews that God did this Nature denies because it is not proved to forbid the Consent of Nations openly denies And that the thing may be presented more naked before the Eyes who judges Decimation that was usual in the Roman Legions to be unjust when he that offended and could have been pardoned no less than another is punished not for his own Fault only but for the Fault of all the other Who judgeth it unjust if the highest Power relaxing the Law some man useful to the Common-wealth but deserving Banishment for a Fault is retained in the Common wealth yet another of his own accord obliging himself to Banishment to satisfie the Example Who would judge it unjust if a chief Governour of a Common-wealth denies Preferments to Children of Rebels otherways not unworthy if there are others found as fit for them Verily there is no injustice here for in the first kind of Fact the proper fault of the Person punished in the second the valid Consent of the Party concerned in the third the Liberty of the Governour permitted that to be performed which the Governour useth for punishment In our Fact God hath power to punish Christ being Innocent unto a Temporal Death as Socinus confesseth to wit a Lordly Power Christ also had by Divine Concession yea as being God himself a Power which we have not over his own Life and Body I saith Christ have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Power and Authority to lay down my Life John 10.18 Therefore there is no Injustice in this That God who hath the highest Power for all things that are not of themselves unjust he himself being subject to no Law would use the Torments and Death of Christ to shew a weighty Example against the great Crimes of us all to whom Christ was very nearly joyned by Nature Kingdom Suretiship which how not only justly but also wisely was appointed by the most Wise and most Just God it will appear more in the following Chapter where we shall search into the Cause of this Divine Counsel CHAP. V. Whether there was sufficient Cause that moved God to punish Christ for us and it is shewed that there was Socinus often endeavours to prove that God was not willing that Christ should suffer punishment for us by this Argument because there appears no Cause that God would do so We need not here use the Lawyers Defence who deny that account can be given of all things that were appointed by Ancestors though this Refuge may much more justly be laid open to us than to them because it is not so difficult to men to search into the Causes of Human Will because of the Community of Nature but the Causes of the Divine Will many times through their very sublimeness are hid from us Who knoweth the mind of the Lord who hath been his Counseller Rom. 11.32 Therefore often 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.33 his ways are unsearchable It could be added that often the Will of God is sufficient to it self for a Cause for these things being excepted that contain in themselves a certain rectitude and determined to one which God willeth because they are just that is because they agree to his Nature in all other things that he willeth he maketh them just by willing so on whom he will he hath mercy and whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9.18 But it is not necessary that we should fly to those things because God himself hath manifestly enough declared unto us Causes of his own Counsel But it is convenient that we should say this only by way of Preface that Socinus doth not rightly require that such a Cause should be rendered which may prove that God could not do otherways for such a Cause in these things that God doth freely is not requisite But he that will say this Action is free will have Augustine for a Consenter that professeth God wanted not another possible way of delivering us but there was not another more convenient way for curing our Misery But also before Augustine Athanasius said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God could have said a word and so abolished the Curse if he had not come at all but it behoveth to consider that which is profitable to men and not the power of God in all things Therefore that demand of Socinus is so much the more unjust because he himself gives no Causes of the Torments and Death of Christ which draw any necessity with them for Oracles and Miracles could suffice to shew us the way of Holiness and Christ could without Death and Death without Christ for the Afflictions and Death of the Prophets also and Apostles the Life also of Christ could be abundantly sufficient unto us for this use Christ also could after a Life passed innocently here as Enoch or Elias have been translated into Heaven without Death and thence shew his Majesty to the Earth For these are the Causes to which Socinus
before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But I go to washings and the brinks of the shore that having cleansed my faults I may escape the heavy wrath of the Goddess We see here manifestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be reconciled to the Gods is the same with escaping their anger And verily he that diligently hath lookt into those places just now cited cannot deny that they speak of this Reconciliation that is the turning away of the wrath of God or verily of this also For Rom. 5. Paul after his own manner expressing twice the same thing that which he had said before that Christ died for the wicked and sinners vers 6. and 8. presently he expresseth the same in these words that when we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son vers 10. And it appears by the opposite Member that this benefit is before Conversion it self If these things saith he are so much more now being justified by him we shall be saved from wrath verse 9. also much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life The Apostolick Argumentation proceeds à majori If God was so good towards us before we were converted what will he be to us being converted Here the word Reconciliation in the formed Member cannot signifie Conversion for the Apostle observes some singular thing in Christ but to convert sinners is not such a thing for they are not converted at any time but being sinners But it is a rare and altogether singular thing to dye for sinners and to reconcile sinners by death seeing that there have been always very few who would dye for their Friends being good men vers 7. Then Conversion is more aptly ascribed unto the glorious Life of Christ than his Death but this Reconciliation is attributed to Death distinguished and discriminated from a glorious Life as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 opposite signification of the word shews Moreover by the latter benefit it is given to be understood what the former is The latter that comes to the converted is to have peace with God verse 1. to be saved from wrath vers 9. and 10. The Apostle calls this same to receive reconciliation verse 11. What other thing is it here to receive reconciliation but to receive remission of sins as the Scripture speaks Acts 10.43 and 26.18 but to receive Conversion is an unknown kind of speaking If therefore in the latter Member to receive reconciliation is to receive the reconciliation of sinners and in effect to be delivered from wrath or from punishment in the former Member also to be reconciled should have an analogical signification that the former Member may be a right to the thing the latter an exhibition of the same thing Add unto all these that the love of God cannot be said but very unsutably and unaptly to be gathered from this that we have departed from the hatred of God For though Paul would have discoursed of the benefit of our Redemption it should have been expressed with anotherguess word that might signifie not our action but Gods But nothing is more plain than our Interpretation nothing more agreeable to the Apostle's purpose But that Socinus objects that the mention of satisfaction here is not sutable yea that the praise of love is thereby diminished it is a vain thing for mention is not made of satisfaction in respect of its being a punishment but as it is a way of delivering us Neither as we proved before can the love of God towards men be more manifestly shewed any way than that being angry that is requiring punishment yet found a way for our freedom from punishment having bestowed Christ for that purpose In that place 2 Cor. 5. about the end as in that to the Romans there is found mention of a twofold Reconciliation The former Reconciliation is that whereby God reconciled all things or the World to himself by Christ or in Christ vers 18 and 19. The latter is that unto which the Apostles as Ministers of Reconciliation in whom the word of Reconciliation is put exhort men in the name of God and Christ vers 18 19 20. Therefore that former cannot be Conversion it self for it is the Antecedent and chief Matter of that word by which conversion is made Moreover Paul himself sheweth that it consists in the not imputing of sins that is in the decree of not imputing them But now to impute sins and to forgive them signifie the same thing Rom. 4.6,7,8 But how is this Decree of not imputing sins founded on Christ Paul will tell for God made him that knew no sin to become sin for us That which Socinus objects That the not imputing of sins is contrary to that way of reconciling by satisfaction is without reason for as was explained before satisfaction goes before afterwards emission and non-imputation of sins follow It may also be said that it is not absolutely said that God imputes not sins but that he imputes them not to them that is to the sinners And that sin may be forgiven to one man or not be imputed to him and that it may be imputed to another man for example or that another man may upon that account be afflicted and punished it appears sufficiently both by many things that we alledged before and also chiefly by that which happened to David And though these are not joyned immediately in words not imputing sins and he made him that knew no sin to become sin that doth not make them not to belong to the same thing For these are joyned to one another by conjunctive words and and for neither doth any new speech and differing from this argument come between but this is said that God hath made the Apostles Ambassadors and Ministers of the benefit by him bestowed to wit that they were sent for this purpose through the World that they might plant the Faith of that benefit in men by their preaching But the strongest argument for making that Faith is from the delivering up of Christ unto Death for it is not credible that God would have had his Son that was most dear to him and most innocent so heavily afflicted except he had proposed some excellent end unto himself But this end to wit the proper end and most nearly adhering to that fact Scripture every where and reason it self in some respect by induction testifying can scarcely be any other but the obtaining the right of pardon by antecedent satisfaction But that we request you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God though according to the nature of the word it may signifie either cast ye away your hatred towards God or receive ye the remission of sins to wit by repentance as is shewed Mark 1.4 Luke 3.3 Acts 3.19 and 5.31 yet according to the nature of the thing discoursed of it more rightly admits the latter sense for a weaker person useth not to be requested to receive more
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as the Pagans in a thing falsly believed so the Apostles in a thing truly believed used in the same sense So in the Epistle to the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are put for the same thing as it appears Chap. 9. v. 12,14,15,22,23 Neither is it only there inferred that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Argument should be taken properly because no efficacious reason compels us to go to improperty but hence also much more because no place is brought either out of Sacred or Profane Writer in which the signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is stretched beyond the description set down by us Socinus brings no place out of Greek and out of Hebrew he brings one place only Prov. 13.8 in which is Chaphar But besides that Chaphar may be of a larger extent than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to deliver whereas Chaphar as we said before is a word of many significations it cannot by any Argument be proved that in that place any other thing is signified by the word Chaphar but that which can move him that was about to hurt that he hurt not whether he have only the power and affection of hurting or whether he have also the right and authority For that of Solomon Chaphar or if you would have it so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a man are his Riches is like the Sentence in Job 2.4 All that a man hath will he give for his life For this amongst other things is the use of Riches that they can pacifie either the just or unjust anger of many and so turn away the punishment that hanged over according to that Munera crede mihi placant himinesque Deosque Believe me Gifts appease both Gods and Men. And verily in that Sentence there is an elegant comparison of the Advantages that both Fortunes bring with them The rich man hath that wherewith he may appease the angry man the poor man is less liable to another man's anger What if it were very true that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be taken for any charges yea for such also by which no man is moved to deliver which hath been proved by no example yet the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Paul useth 1 Tim. 2.6 is more significant than to admit such a cold interpretation For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition signifies either contrariety or change here contrariety hath no place therefore compensation is signified Neither are they called in another sense in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who devote themselves unto death for another that they may deliver him So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which the deliverer undergoes something like that evil that hanged over the head of him that is delivered and there is as it were an excellent periphrasis of that word Galat. 3.13 Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redeemed us from the curse being made a curse for us concerning the sense of which place we treated before Moreover Peter compares the Blood of Christ to Gold or Silver as being something greater than them upon that very account that it is a price 1 Pet. 2.18 But Gold and Silver use to be a price truly and not figuratively wherefore it is necessary that blood should be as truly or also much more truly a price Now a price is that by the expence whereof some thing or right is acquired and that is the nature of a price that by its worth or estimation it moves another to grant some thing or priviledge as impunity To these may be added those places that shew that Christ gave his flesh or himself for the life of the world and that he might deliver us John 6.51 Tit. 2.14 for this phrase to give something for something is very sutable to a true price Socinus cannot invalidate these and many other places in which the Death and Blood of Christ are called the price of our deliverance but by saying that ou◠deliverance from punishment is indeed an effect of the death of Christ for here is no place of treating of the deliverance from the bondage of sin but in respect of us not in respect of God that is that God is not thereby perswaded to deliver us but we that we may come to the deliverance But both the things that we have said and also many other things shut up this refuge from him For first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and much more the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are of that nature that they signifie a thing the effect whereof is about the deliverer before the delivered Moreover though to buy is taken sometimes simply for to acquire as to sell for to enslave but the word price being added to the word buying as 1 Cor. 6.20 and 7.23 requires a nearer similitude For it most proper to a price that it should be esteemed by any man to be of as great worth as the thing Moreover the Apostle expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3.24 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is an act that is exercised about the deliverer before the person to be delivered And elsewhere to wit Hebr. 9.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expounded by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is expiation concerning the force of which word we shall afterwards treat Add to these things that when an effect is attributed to a thing very frequently and so that it was never found attributed to other things as the effect of Redemption is referred to the Death and Blood of Christ Gal. 3.13 Matth. 20.28 Mark 10.45 Tit. 2.14 Hebr. 9.15 Apoc. 5.9 and 20.28 Rom. 3.24 Eph. 1.7 then it is necessary that an end more proper and near than common and remote should be understood But about us the effect of deliverance is both removed many degrees from the Death of Christ and also so far from being proper that is agrees much more to other things to which it useth not to be ascribed For any thing that Socinus saith of the connexion of our deliverance with the Death of Christ may be summarily explained thus Deliverance as he thinks follows from holiness of life holiness from the hope of reward Hope firstly and chiefly proceeds from the Resurrection but it is attributed unto Death either in respect that it is a way to the Resurrection and compared with it it confirms the same hope Whence it follows Socinus also confessing it that we are much more delivered by the Resurrection then by the Death of Christ Yea if we acknowledge the truth Death is only joyned with that effect by accident for the Resurrection makes not Faith but as it is a part of the Glory of Christ but the greatest glory could have happened to Christ though he had not been dead But that Christ by suffering shewed us an example
that we should follow that cannot at all be applied to the remission of sins that happened not to Christ Wherefore then is that so often repeated mention of Death in this business of Redemption Socinus brings two things first because in Death there is some Expence which is not in the Resurrection therefore the mention of Death is fitter for Redemption also because the Love of God and Christ is more declared by Death As touching the first we go back to the same thing for if by the Death of Christ the effect of our deliverance did not follow of it self which is the profession of Socinus himself expressed in manifest words there was no need that Christ and his Apostles should have mentioned either Redemption or Price especially so often sith Deliverance might be expressed more conveniently in other words But that other consideration though it may belong to those Sentences that commemorate the Love of God yet is not very sutably brought to explain other Sentences which do not nor yet the very word Redemption It may also here be mentioned that Love is not shewed by this thing because it was not so much the cause as the naked occasion of our good Socinus thinks he pursueth our Opinion when he says That the Scripture so treats of the Redemption purchased by the Death of Christ that it sets something manifest before the eyes but not that it may declare some hidden Vertue such as he thinks that to be which we deduce from Scripture But when he says this he wounds not us but rather furnishes us with a Dart against themself For those things which are God's who knows but the Spirit of God and he to whom he will reveal them 1 Cor. 2.10,11 But that the Death of Christ is procured by God for this purpose that the punishment of our sins might be required of him and that he might become our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isaiah said it long before Christ himself said it neither did the holy Rites in the Old Covenant signifie any other thing So that he who should take notice of these things could not be ignorant of God's Will and Decree about this business though I may now also say that Nature it self says that Death is the wages of sin This Will of God being known by Oracles there is afterwards gathered the great love of God towards us as John speaks 1 Epist 4.10 and Paul Rom. 5.10 Neither is it any other thing that is signified by the word witness 1 Tim. 2.6 as it is easie to understand by those things that go before vers 4. And verily the words of Scripture themselves simply understood bring these things with them whereas it is so impossible for any man to gather that consequence of deliverance from Death which Socinus deduceth through so many Degrees and so variously from the words of Scripture themselves that it cannot be easily understood out of Socinus himself what he would have to be the proper sense of Scripture in these Expressions Therefore true Redemption hath been proved by us as just now true Reconciliation hath been proved But either of those being proved that which is intended is proved to wit That we are delivered by the punishment of Christ which he paid for our sins Not that all Redemption and Reconciliation is such but because the subject matter admits of no other Therefore it is vain and nothing to the purpose that Socinus so often says both that a man may be appeased though nothing is performed and also that a man may be truly redeemed that owes nothing and therefore without payment For we treat of that Propitiation and Redemption which the Scripture declares to be made by the performance of something to wit by Death and of that Redemption by which the same Scripture testifies that we are delivered from deserved punishment but such a performance which frees the Debtor of punishment from punishment is both rightly and properly called Satisfaction which Socinus seeing that he might take away Satisfaction he took away also Propitiation and true Redemption Here I think good to censure some other things which he did not discourse of whilst he handled the Argument of Redemption yet he discoursed of them elsewhere as belonging to this Argument He would not have the word Mediator to signifie any other thing in the holy Scripture but the Interpreter of God Two places do perswade me of another thing the one 1 Tim. 2.5 where there is said to be one Mediator of God and Men Jesus Christ who gave himself an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all The other Hebr. 9.15 where Christ is called the Mediator of the New Covenant that Death intervening for the Redemption of Transgressions they that are called might obtain eternal life To which fitly may be added a third Hebr. 12.24 which shall be discoursed of afterwards it appears here that Mediation is placed in Redemption it self neither is the word contrary For it belongs no less to the Office of a Mediator to be in the room of Men with God than to be in the room of God with Men. Neither is a Mediator only among the unlearned called he that appeaseth a man but also amongst those who speak elegantly Whence Suidas interpreted that word Peace-maker Elsewhere Socinus says The dignity of the Person makes nothing for the estimation of the punishment and consequently that the Divine Nature of Christ and his great Perfection brings no value to the punishment But we believe otherways to wit that this punishment was thence to be esteemed that he who suffered the punishment was God though he suffered not as God For hitherto belongs that Expression whereby God is said to have purchased the Church with his own Blood Acts 20.23 After which manner also elsewhere the Lord of Glory is said to have been crucified 1 Cor. 2.8 Also the Dignity of the whole Person that is Christ contributes not a little to this estimation Therefore in the Scripture it is called emphatically the Blood of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.27 the Blood of Christ Hebr. 9.14 The blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God 1 John 1.7 both the most perfect innocency and holiness of Christ comes into the same estimation Hence it is called precious blood to wit of the Lamb without blame 1 Pet. 1.19 making allusion to the custom received not only by the Hebrews but also the Gentiles that they sacrificed Beasts excellent for whiteness and all beauty of Body which because they were exempted from the whole Flock thence by a word invented in holy things but presently translated to prophane they were called eximiae excellent To the same purpose belong these also My righteous servant shall justifie many Isai 53.11 He made him that knew no sin to become sin 2 Cor. 5.21 But that Socinus disputes because the Divinity it self doth not suffer therefore that this comes not into the consideration of punishment it is just as if you should say that it is the same
received the pleasure of Wickedness But if the price of Redemption belongs to no other but the Possessour I ask to whom was this offered and for what cause If you say that it was offered to that wicked one fie upon that Blasphemy whereas this thing proceeds from God only Yea if it were so a Robber would receive God for a price of Redemption and thereby a Reward over and above of his Tyranny for which it was just to spare us But if it was offered to the Father first how for we were not kept in Bondage by him But what a saying is that that the Blood of the only begotten delights the Father who did not accept of Isaac offered by his Father but he exchanged the Sacrifice delivering a Beast instead of the reasonable Sacrifice Or it is evident that the Father receiveth not having asked nor having been requested but for the dispensation and because of the necessity that man should be sanctified by the Humane Nature of God that he might deliver us having laid hold on the Tyrant by force and might bring us to himself by his Son being Mediator and dispensing this for the honour of the Father Gregory Nyssene to Olympius the Monk concerning the Form of a perfect Name But we learn that Christ is the price of Redemption having given himself a price for us This we are taught by such a saying that we should learn how he having paid a certain price for every man's soul made immortality the peculiar possession of them that were by him redeemed from Death unto Life Ambrosius lib. de Tobia cap. 10. Behold the Prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing of his own in me he owed nothing but he payed for all as he himself bears witness saying Then I restored that which I took not away The same in his Book concerning Joseph the Patriarch Joseph was sold in Egypt because Christ was to come to them to whom it was said Ye were sold for your sins And therefore he redeemed them whom their own sins had sold But Christ was sold by undertaking the Condition not the Fault And he owes no price for sin because he himself did no sin Therefore he drew on debt by our price not his own he took away the Hand-writing removed the Usurer freed the Debtor he alone paid that which was due from all Ambrose concerning Esau cap. 7. God therefore took flesh upon him that he might abolish the Curse of sinful flesh and was made a Curse for us that the Blessing might swallow up the Curse the Integrity the Sin the Indulgence the Condemnation and Life Death For he undertook Death that the Sentence might be fulfilled and that the Judgment due to sinful Flesh by the Curse might be satisfied unto the Death Therefore nothing was done against the Sentence of God because the Condition of the Divine Sentence was fulfilled for the Curse was unto Death and after Death came Grace The same Lib. 9. Epist 7. The Lord Jesus when he came forgave all men the sin which no man could avoid and blotted out our Hand-writing by the shedding of his own Blood that is as he saith Sin abounded by the Law but Grace superabounded by Jesus because after all the World was subdued the took away the sin of all the world Lib. 1. Epist. 11. See whether that is the saving Sacrifice which God the Word offered in himself and sacrificed in his own Body And a little after But that he pours out the Blood at the Altar thereby may be understood the cleansing of the World the remission of all sins For he pours out that Blood at the Altar as a Sacrifice to take away the sins of many For the Lamb is a Sacrifice but not a Lamb of an unreasonable Nature but of a Divine Power Concerning whom it was said Behold the Lamb of God behold him that taketh away the sins of the world for he hath not only with his Blood cleansed the sins of all but also endued them with a Divine Power The same upon Luke lib. 7. cap. 12. The Adversary esteemed us at a base rate as Captive-slaves but the Lord hath redeemed us by a great price as being beautiful Bond-slaves which he made after his own Image and Likeness who is a fit Judge of his own handy-work as the Apostle said For ye are bought with a price and well it may be called great which is not prized by Money but by Blood because Chrst died for us who delivered us by his precious Blood c. And well it may be called precious because it is the Blood of an unspotted Body because it is the Blood of the Son of God who hath not only redeemed us from the Curse of the Law but also from the perpetual death of Impiety The same Lib. 10. upon Luke Chap. 22. I have sinned because I have betrayed innocent Blood the price of Blood is the price of the Lord's Passion Therefore the World is bought by Christ with the price of Blood Lib. 3. concerning Virginity near the end We were put in pledge to an evil Creditor by sins we drew on the Hand-writing of the Fault we owed the price of Blood The Lord Jesus came he offered his own Blood for us And presently Therefore do thou also behave thy self worthy of such a price lest Christ come who hath cleansed thee who hath redeemed thee and if he find thee in sin he say unto thee What profit hadst thou by my blood What hath it profitted thee that I went down into Corruption Lib. 1. of the Apology of David cap. 13. The Apostle says excellently Because the Lord Jesus hath forgiven our sins blotting out the Hand-writing of the Decree which was against us and he hath taken it away saith he having fixed it to the Cross He blotted out the Ink of Eve with his own Blood he blotted out the Obligation of the hurtful Inheritance On the Epistle to the Hebrews cap. 9. But all the bodily cleansing of the Old Testament belonged to him but now there is a Spiritual cleansing of the Blood of Christ Therefore he saith This is the blood of the New Testament for the remission of sins In those there was an outside sprinkling and again the sprinkled person was rinsed for the People did not always walk besprinkled with blood But it is not so in the Soul but the Blood is mingled with its Essence making that clean Fountain and bringing forth unspeakable beauty For this cause was the killing of the Lamb and its blood was sprinkled on the Door-posts of them that were to be delivered For this cause also we read of all the Sacrifices of the Old Testament which were appointed to typifie this Sacrifice by which comes the true remission of sins and the cleansing of the Soul for ever The same or rather the Writer of the Commentary on the Epistles of Paul attributed to Ambrose on 1 Cor. cap. 6. Because we are bought with a dear price we
the Manich cap. 4. Christ undertook our punishment without guilt that thereby he might take away our guilt and also put an end to our punishment The same in the eight Sermon concerning Time There is a twofold cause chiefly why the Son of God became the Son of Man One is that as Man through suffering all things for us he might set us free from the bonds of Sins for so the Prophet Isaiah had foretold he bore our sins c. But the other cause of the Lord's Passion is that he might stir us up whom he redeemed from sins and wickedness by his own blood unto the study of Piety not only by the help of Doctrine and Grace but also by his own Example De Temp. Serm. 51. Death could not be overcome but by Death therefore Christ suffered Death that an unjust Death might overcome just Death and might deliver them that were jusâ—ly condemned whilst he was unjustly slain for them And Serm. 141. Our Lord Jesus Christ by partaking with us of the punishment without the sin hath taken away both the sin and the punishment De Serm. Dom. on Luke 37. It is thy fault that thou art unjust but it is thy punishment that thou art mortal He that he might be thy Neighbour he undertook thy punishment but he took not upon him thy sin or if he took it upon him he took it upon him to abolish it not to do it And presently after by taking upon him the punishment and not taking upon him the sin he abolished both the sin and the punishment Cyrillus on Leviticus lib. 10. Then all the People cried that he should let Barrabbas go free but delier up Jesus to Death Behold thou hast the Goat that was sent away alive into the Wilderness carrying with him the sins of the People crying and saying Crucifie Crucifie He then is the Goat was sent alive into the Wilderness and he is the Goat that was offered to the Lord for a Sacrifice to make Atonement for sins and he made a true Propitiation for the People that believe in him The same against Julian lib. 9. See therefore the Sacrament and how it is well delineated by the two Goats For the Goat was slain for the sins of the Priest and People according to that which was commanded in the Law And because Christ was sacrificed for our sins he is compared to a Goat For so saith the Prophet Isaiah We all went astray like sheep every man wandred in his own way and God delivered him up for our sins For two Goats are taken not that there are two Christs that is two Sons as some supposed But rather because it was requisite that he should be seen who was also to be slain for us dying indeed according to the flesh but living according to the spirit The same on John lib. 2. cap. 1. One Lamb is slain for all that he may offer all kind of men to God One for all that he may gain all and that all may no longer live to themselves but to Christ that died for all and that rose again for all For because we were in sin and were therefore a due debt to Death and Destruction the Father gave his Son for our Reddemption He gave one for all both because all are in him and he is better then all The same in the Homil. that was said at Ephesus against Nestorius Verily these wicked Hereticks are the Sons of Perdition and the wicked Seed which deny the Lord that bought them for we are bought with a price not corruptible as Gold and Silver but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and spot But how could the blood of a common man like us have been the Redemption of the World In the Exegesis to Valerianus concerning the Incarnation of the Word which is extant Concil Eph. 6. c. 17. He who was without a Body as God confesseth that he hath a Body prepared for him that being made an oblation for us he might heal us all by his stripes according to the saying of the Prophet But how could one dying for all pay a sufficient price for all if we say that was the suffering of any meer man But if the Word having suffered according to the Flesh translated unto himself the Sufferings of his own Flesh as if they were his own Sufferings and claimed them to himself then indeed we do very well affirm that the Death of one according to the Flesh was of greater value than the life of all men Theodoretus quaest 9. on Numb For the Lord Christ only as Man is unblameable and the Prophet Isaiah fore-seeing this cries out Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth For this cause also he took upon him the sins of others having none of his own for he saith he doth bear our sins and is in anguish for our sakes And the great John Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World For this cause he is free among the dead as having suffered Death unjustly The same Serm. 10. concerning Providence he brings in the Lord speaking thus For I have paid the Debt for that Generation for not owing Death I suffered Death and being made subject to Death I undertook Death and though being unblameable I was reckoned among them that were worthy of blame and being free from Debts was reckoned amongst the Debtors I therefore paid the Debt of nature and having suffered an unjust Death I abolish the just Death and I having been unjustly detained do free them that were justly detained from their bondage Behold the Nature's Bill of Indictment taken away O bitter Death behold it nailed to the Cross Behold it being a Bill of wickedness not received for the eyes of this very body have paid for the eyes that beheld wickedly the ears of this body for the ears that received pollution this tongue likeways these hands and the other parts for those Members that committed any manner of sin But the Debt being paid it is requisite that they who were kept in bondage upon this account should be freed from their bondage and receive their former liberty and return to the Country of their Father Proclus the Constantinopolitan Homil concerning the Nativity of Christ. The nature of man was deeply indebted through sins and was in distress about the Debt for through Adam all were made guilty of sin the Devil kept us in slavery The first Inventer of our Miseries stood up arguing the Debt upon us and demanded of us Justice Therefore it was necessary that one of these two things should be that either Death should be brought upon all according to the Condemnation because all have sinned or that such a price should be given in recompense that contained all Righteousness that was required Now then Man could not save us for he was liable to the Debt of Sin An Angel could not redeem the Human Nature for the was not capable to