(Owen, Trinity. part 10) sufferings of Christ, is, as far as I can understand, to subvert the whole gospel. Moreover, as was said, this has been variously exemplified among the nations of the world; whose acting in such cases, because they excellently shadow out the general notion of the death of Christ for others, for sinners, and are appealed unto directly by the apostle to this purpose, Rom. 5: 7, 8, I shall in a few instances reflect upon. Not to insist on the voluntary surrogations of private persons, one into the room of another, mutually to undergo dangers and death for one another, as before mentioned, I shall only remember some public transactions, in reference unto communities, in nations, cities, or armies. Nothing is more celebrated amongst the ancients than this, that when they supposed themselves in danger, from the anger and displeasure of their gods, by reason of any guilt or crimes among them, some one person should either devote himself or be devoted by the people, to die for them; and therein to be made, as it wets, an expiatory sacrifice. For where sin is the cause, and God is the object respected; the making of satisfaction by undergoing punishment, and expiating of sin by a propitiatory sacrifice, are but various expressions of the same thing. Now, those who so devoted themselves, as was said, to die in the stead of others, or to expiate their sins, and turn away the anger of God they feared, by their death, designed two things in what they did. First, That the evils which were impendent on the people, and feared, might fall on themselves, so that the people might go free. Secondly, That all good things which themselves desired, might be conferred on the people. Which things have a notable shadow in them of the great expiatory sacrifice, concerning which we treat, and expound the expressions wherein it is declared. The instance of the Decii is known; of whom the poet, - "Plebeiae Deciornm animae, plebeian fuerunt Nomina; pro totis legionibus Hi tamen, et pro Omnibus auxiliis, atque omni plebe Latina, Sufficiunt Diis infernis." The two Decii, father and son, in imminent dangers of the people, devoted themselves, at several times, unto death and destruction. And says he, "Sufficiunt Diis infernis,- "they satisfied for the whole people; adding the reason whence so it might be: - "Pluris denim Decii quam qui servntur ab illis." Juv., Sat. vii. 254-8 They were more to be valued than all that were saved by them. And the great historian does excellently describe both the actions and expectations of the one and the other in what they did. The father, when the Roman army, commanded by himself and Titus Manlius, was near a total ruin by the Latins, called for the public priest, and caused him, with the usual solemn ceremonies, to devote him to death for the deliverance and safety of the army; after which, making his requests to his gods, ("dii quorum est potestas nostrorum hostiumque,") "the gods that had power over them and their adversaries," as he supposed, he cast himself into death by the swords of the enemy. "Conspectus ab utraque acie aliquanto augustior humano visu, sicut coelo missus piaculum omnis deorum irae, qui pestam ab suis aversam in hostes ferret;" - "He was looked on by both armies as one more august than a man, as one sent from heaven, to be a piacular sacrifice, to appease the anger of the gods, and to transfer destruction from their own army to the enemies," Liv., Hist. viii. 9. His son, in like manner, in a great and dangerous battle against the Gauls and Samnites, wherein he commanded in chief, devoting himself, as his father had done, added unto the former solemn deprecations': - "Prae se agere sese formidinem ac fugam, caedemque ac cruorem, coelestum, inferorum iras," lib. x. 28; - "That he carried away before him, from those for whom he devoted himself, 'fear and flight, slaughter and blood, the anger of the celestial and infernal gods.'" And as they did, in this devoting of themselves, design "averruncare malum, deum iras, lustrare populum, aut exercitum, piaculum fieri," or |G: peripsema, anathema, apokatharma|, - "expiare crimina, scelus, raetum," "or to remove all evil from others, by taking it on themselves in their stead; so also they thought they might, and intended in what they did, to covenant and contract for the good things they desired. So did these Decii; and so is Menoeceus reported to have done, when he devoted himself for the city of Thebes, in danger to be destroyed by the Argives. So Papinius Statius introduces him treating with his gods: - "Armorum superi, tuque o qui funere tanto Indulges mihi, Phoebe, mori, date gaudia Thebis, Quae pepigi, et toto quae sanguine prodigus emi." - [Theb. x. 757.] He reckoned that he had not only repelled all death and danger from Thebes, by his own, but that he had purchased joy, in peace and liberty, for the people. And where there was none in public calamities that did voluntarily devote themselves, the people were wont to take some obnoxious person, to make him execrable, and to lay on him, according to their superstition, all the wrath of their gods, and so give him up to destruction. Such the apostle alludes unto, Rom. 9: 3; 1 Cor. 4: 9, 13. So the Massilians were wont to expiate their city by taking a person devoted, imprecating on his head all the evil that the city was obnoxious unto, casting him into the sea with these words, |G: Peripsema hemoon genou| - "Be thou our expiatory sacrifice." To which purpose were the solemn words that many used in their expiatory sacrifices, as Herodotus [lib ii. 39] testifies of the Egyptians, bringing their offerings. Says he, |G: Katapeontai de, tade legontes, teisi kefaleisin, ei ti melloi e sfisi toisi thuousi, e Aiguptooi tei sunapasei kakon genesthai es kefalen tauten trapesthai| - "They laid these imprecations on their heads, that if any evil were happening towards the sacrificer, or all Egypt, let it be all turned and laid on this devoted head." And the persons whom they thus dealt withal, and made execrate, were commonly of the vilest of the people, or such as had rendered themselves detestable by their own crimes; whence was the complaint of the mother of Menaeceus upon her son's devoting himself: - "Lustralemne feris, ego te puer inclyte Thebis, Devotumque caput, ilis seu mater alebam?" - [Statius, Theb. x. 788, 789.] I have recounted these instances to evince the common intention, sense, and understanding of that expression, of one dying for another, and to manifest by examples what is the sense of mankind about any one's being devoted and substituted in the room of others, to deliver them from death and danger; the consideration whereof, added to the constant use of the words mentioned in the Scripture, is sufficient to found and confirm this conclusion: - "That whereas it is frequently affirmed in the Scripture, that 'Christ died for us, and for our sins,' etc., to deny that he died and suffered in our stead, undergoing the death whereunto we were obnoxcious, and the punishment due to our sins, is, - if we respect in what we say or believe the constant use of those words in the Scripture, the nature of the thing itself concerning which they are used, the uncontrolled use of that expression in all sorts of writers in expressing the same thing, with the instances and examples of its meaning and intention among the nations of the world, - to deny that he died for us at all." Neither will his dying for our good or advantage only, in what way or sense soever, answer or make good or true the assertion of his dying for us and our sins. And this is evident in the death of the apostles and martyrs. They all died for our good; our advantage and benefit was one end of their sufferings, in the will and appointment of God: and yet it cannot be said that they died for us, or our sins. And if Christ died only for our good, though in a more effectual manner than they did, yet this alters not the kind of his dying for us; nor can he thence be said, properly, according to the only due sense of that expression, so to do. I shall, in this brief and hasty discourse, add only one consideration more about the death of Christ, to confirm the truth pleaded for; it and that is, that he is said, in dying for sinners, "to bear their sins.". Isa. 53: 11, "He shall bear their iniquities;" verse 12, "He bare the sin of many;" explained, verse 5, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him." 1 Pet. 2: 24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree," etc. This expression is purely sacred. It occurs not directly in other authors, though the sense of it in other words do frequently. They call it "luere peccata;" that is, "delictorum supplicium ferre," - "to bear the punishment of sins." The meaning, therefore, of this phrase of speech is to be taken from the Scripture alone, and principally from the Old Testament, where it is originally used; and from whence it is transferred into the New Testament, in the same sense, and no other. Let us consider some of the places: - Isa. 53: 11, |H: awonotam hu yisbol|. The same word, |H: saval|, is used verse 4, |H: umach'oveinu svalam|, - "And our griefs, he has borne them." The word signifies, properly, to bear a weight or a burden, as a man bears it on his shoulders, - "bajulo, porto." And it is never used with respect unto sin, but openly and plainly it signifies the undergoing of the punishment due unto it. So it occurs directly to our purpose, Lam. 5: 7 |H: avoteinu chat'u einam anachnu awonoteihem savalnu| - "Our fathes have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities;" the punishment due to their sins. And why a new sense should be forged for these words when they are spoken concerning Christ, who can give a just reason? Again; |H: nasa| is used to the same purpose, |H: wehu chet-rabim nasa| Isa. 53: 12, "And he bare the sin of many. |H: nasa| is often used with respect unto sin; sometimes with reference unto God's acting about it, and sometimes with reference unto men's concerns in it. In the first way, or when it denotes an act of God, it signifies to lift up, to take away or pardon sin; and leaves the word |H: awon|, wherewith it is joined under its first signification, of iniquity, or the guilt of sin, with respect unto punishment ensuing as its consequent; for God pardoning the guilt of sin, the removal of the punishment does necessarily ensue, guilt containing an obligation unto punishment. In the latter way, as it respects men or sinners, it constantly denotes the bearing of the punishment of sin, and gives that sense unto |H: awon|, with respect unto the guilt of sin as its cause. And hence arises the ambiguity of these words of Cain, Gen. 4: 13, |H: gadol awoni minso|. If |H: nasa| denotes an act of God, if the words be spoken with reference, in the first p]ace, to any acting of his towards Cain, |H: awon| retains the sense of iniquity, and the words are rightly rendered, "My sin is greater than to be forgiven." If it respect Cain himself firstly, |H: awon| assumes the signification of punishment, and the words are to be rendered, "My punishment is greater than I can bear," or "is to be borne by me." This, I say, is the constant sense of this expression, nor can any instance to the contrary be produced. Some may be mentioned in the confirmation of it. Numb. 19: 33, "Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years," |H: wenasu et-znuteichem| "and shall bear your whoredoms." Verse 34, |H: tisu et-awonoteichem arba'im shanah| - "Ye shall bear your iniquities forty years;" that is, the punishment due to your whoredoms and iniquities, according to God's providential dealings with them at that time. Lev. 19: 8, "He that eateth it |H: awono yisa| shall bear his iniquity. How? |H: nichretah hanefesh hahi| - "That soul shall be cut off." To be cut off for sin by the punishment of it, and for its guilt, is to bear iniquity. So chap. 20: 16-18, for a man to bear his iniquity, and to be killed, slain, or put to death for it, are the same. Ezek. 18: 20, |H: hanefesh hachotet hi tamoet ben lo-yisa ba'awon ha'av| - "The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the sin of the father." To bear sin, and to die for sin, are the same. More instances might be added, all uniformly speaking the same sense of the words. And as this sense is sufficiently, indeed invincibly, established by the invariable use of that expression in the Scripture so the manner whereby it is affirmed that the Lord Christ bare our iniquities, sets it absolutely free from all danger by opposition. For he bare our iniquities when |H: wa'adonai hifnia bo et awon kulanu| - "the LORD made to meet on him, or laid on him; the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53: 6; which words the LXX render, |G: Kai Kurios paredooken auton tais hamartiais hemoon| - "The LORD gave him up, or delivered him unto our sins;" that is, to be punished for them, for other sense the words can have none. "He made him in sin for us," 2 Cor. 5: 21. So "he bare our sins," Isa. 53: 12. How? "In his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. 2: 24; that when he was, and in his being stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded bruised, slain, so was the chastisement of our peace upon him. Wherefore, to deny that the Lord Christ, in his death and suffering for us, underwent the punishment due to our sins, what we had deserved, that we might be delivered, as it everts the great foundation of the gospel, so, by an open perverting of the plain words of the scripture, because not suited in their sense and importance to the sin imaginations of men, it gives no small countenance to infidelity and atheism. (conclusion, owen, trinity) ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-01: owent-10.txt .