(Owen, Trinity. part 9)
proceed and arise from a law-constitution, compact, and agreement.
Now, the way constituted and appointed is that of faith, or believing,
as explained in the Scripture. If men believe not, they are no less
liable to the punishment due to their sins than if no satisfaction at
all were made for sinners. And whereas it is added, "Forgetting that
every one en must appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, to
receive according to the things done in the body, yea, and every one
must give an account of himself to God;" Closing all with this, "But
many more are the gross absurdities and blasphemies that are the
genuine fruits of this so confidently-believed doctrine of
satisfaction:" I say it is, - 3. Certain that we must all appear
before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive according to the things
done in the body; and therefore, woe will be unto them at the great
day who are not able to plead the atonement made for their sins by the
blood of Christ, and an evidence of their interest therein by their
faith and obedience, or the things done and wrought in them and by
them whilst they were in the body here in this world. And this it
would better become these persons to retake themselves unto the
consideration of, than to exercise themselves unto an unparalleled
confidence in reproaching those with absurdities and blasphemies who
believe the Deity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ, the Son of the
living God, who died for us; which is the ground and bottom of all our
expectation of a blessed life and immortality to come.
The removal of these objections against the truth, scattered of late
up and down in the hands of all sorts of men, may suffice for our
present purpose. If any amongst these men judge that they have an
ability to manage the opposition against the truth as declared by us,
with such pleas, arguments, and exceptions, as may pretend an interest
in appearing reason, they shall, God assisting, be attended unto. With
men given up to a spirit of railing or reviling, - though it be no
small honour to be reproached by them who reject with scorn the
eternal Deity of the Son of God, and the satisfactory atonement that
he made for the sins of men, - no person of sobriety will contend. And
I shall farther only desire the reader to take notice, that though
these few sheets were written in a few hours, upon the desire and for
the satisfaction of some private friends, and therefore contain merely
an expression of present thoughts, without the least design or
diversion of mind towards accuracy or ornament; yet the author is so
far confident that the truth, and nothing else, is proposed and
confirmed in them, that he fears not but that an opposition to what is
here declared will be removed, and the truth reinforced in such a way
and manner as may not be to its disadvantage.
An Appendix
The preceding discourse, as has been declared, was written for the use
of ordinary Christians, or such as might be in danger to be seduced,
or any way entangled in their minds, by the late attempts against the
truths pleaded for: for those to whom the dispensation of the gospel
is committed, are "debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians;
both to the wise and to the unwise," Rom. 1: 14. It was therefore
thought meet to insist only on things necessary, and such as their
faith is immediately concerned in; and not to immix therewithal any
such arguments or considerations as might not, by reason of the terms
wherein they are expressed, be obvious to their capacity and
understanding. Unto plainness and perspicuity, brevity was also
required, by such as judged this work necessary. That design, we hope,
is answered, and now discharged in some useful measure. But yet,
because many of our arguments on the head of the satisfaction of
Christ depend upon the genuine signification and notion of the words
and terms wherein the doctrine of it is delivered, - which, for the
reasons before mentioned, could not conveniently be discussed in the
foregoing discourse, - I shall here, in some few instances, give an
account of what farther confirmation the truth might receive by a due
explanation of them. And I shall mention here but few of them, because
a large dissertation concerning them all is intended in another way.
First. For the term of satisfaction itself, it is granted that in
this matter it is not found in the Scripture, - that is, it is not so
(here follows transcribed Greek:) |G: retoos|, or syllabically, - but
it is |G: kata to pragma anantirretoos|; the thing itself intended is
asserted in it, beyond all modest contradiction. Neither, indeed, is
there in the Hebrew language any word that does adequately answer unto
it; no, nor yet in the Greek. As it is used in this cause, |G: engue|,
which is properly "sponsio," or "fide-jussio," in its actual
discharge, makes the nearest approach unto it: |G: hikanon poiein| is
used to the same purpose. But there are words and phrases, both in the
Old Testament and in the New, that are equipollent unto it, and
express the matter or thing intended by it: as in the Old are, (here
follows transcribed Hebrew:) |H: pidjon padah| [Ps. 49: 9], and |H:
kofer| This last word we render "satisfaction," Numb. 35: 32, 33,
where God denies that any compensation, sacred or civil, shall be
received to free a murderer from the punishment due unto him; which
properly expresses what we intend: "Thou shalt admit of no
satisfaction for the life of a murderer."
In the New Testament: |G: lutron, antilutron, apolutroosis, time,
hilasmos| and the verbs, |G: lutroun, apolutroun, exagapozein,
hilaskesthai|, are of the same importance, and some of them
accommodated to express the thing intended, beyond that which has
obtained in vulgar use. For that which we intended hereby is, the
voluntary obedience unto death, and the passion or suffering, of our
Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, whereby and wherein he offered himself
through the eternal Spirit, for a propitiatory sacrifice, that he
might fulfil the law, or answer all its universal postulate; and as
our sponsor, undertaking our cause, when we were under the sentence of
condemnation, underwent the punishment due to us from the justice of
God, being transferred on him; whereby having made a perfect and
absolute propitiation or atonement for our sins, he procured for us
deliverance from death and the curse, and a right unto life
everlasting. Now, this is more properly expressed by some of the words
before mentioned than by that of satisfaction; which yet,
nevertheless, as usually explained, is comprehensive, and no way
unsuited to the matter intended by it.
In general, men by this word understand either "reparationem
offensae" or "solutionem debiti," - either "reparation made for
offense given unto any," or "the payment of a debt."Debitum" is either
"criminale" or "pecuniarium;" that is, either the obnoxiousness of a
man to punishment for crimes or the guilt of them, in answer to that
justice and law which he is necessarily liable and subject unto; or
unto a payment or compensation by and of money, or what is valued by
it; - which last consideration, neither in itself nor in any
seasonings from an analogy unto it, can in this matter have any proper
place. Satisfaction is the effect of the doing or suffering what is
required for the answering of his charge against faults or sins, who
has right, authority, and power to require, exact, and inflict
punishment for them. Some of the schoolmen define it by "Voluntaria
redditio aequivalentis indebiti;" of which more elsewhere. The true
meaning of, "to satisfy, or make satisfaction," is "tantum facere aut
pati, quantum quantum satis sit juste irato ad vindictam." This
satisfaction is impleaded as inconsistent with free remission of sins,
- how causelessly we have seen. It is so far from it, that it is
necessary to make way for it, in case of a righteous law transgressed,
and the public order of the universal Governor and government of all
disturbed. And this God directs unto, Lev. 4: 31, "The priest shall
make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him." This
atonement was a legal satisfaction, and it is by God himself premised
to remission or pardon. And Paul prays Philemon to forgive Onesimus,
though he took upon himself to make satisfaction for all the wrong or
damage that he had sustained, Epist. verses 18, 19. And when God was
displeased with the friends of Job, he prescribes a way to them, or
what they shall do, and what they shall get done for them, that they
might be accepted and pardoned, Job 42: 7, 8, "The LORD said unto
Eliphaz, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two
friends: therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams,
and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a
burnt-offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I
accept: lest I deal with you after your folly." He plainly enjoins an
atonement, that he might freely pardon them. And both these, - namely,
satisfaction and pardon, with their order and consistency, - were
solemnly represented by the great institution of the sacrifice of the
scapegoat. For after all the sins of the people were put upon him, or
the punishment of them transferred unto him in a type and
representation, with "Quod in ejus caput sit," the formal reason of
all sacrifices propitiatory, he was sent away with them; denoting the
oblation or forgiveness of sin, after a translation made of its
punishment, Lev. 16: 21, 22. And whereas it is not expressly said that
that goat suffered, or was slain, but was either |H: azazel| "hircus,"
|G: apopompaios|, "a goat sent away," or was sent to a rock called
Azazel, in the wilderness, as Vatablus so and Oleaster, with some
others, think (which is not probable, seeing, though it might then be
done whilst the people were in the wilderness of Sinai, yet could not,
by reason of its distance, when the people were settled in Canaan, be
annually observed), it was from the poverty of the types, whereof no
one could fully represent that grace which it had particular respect
unto. What, therefore, was wanting in that goat was supplied in the
other, which was slain as a sin-offering, verses 15, 16.
Neither does it follow, that, on the supposition of the satisfaction
pleaded for, the freedom, pardon, or acquitment of the person
originally guilty and liable to punishment must immediately and " ipso
facto" ensue. It is not of the nature of every solution or
satisfaction, that deliverance must "ipso facto" follow. And the
reason of it is, because this satisfaction, by a succedaneous
substitution of one to undergo punishment for another, must be founded
in a voluntary compact and agreement. For there is required unto it a
relaxation of the law, though not as unto the punishment to be
inflicted, yet as unto the person to be punished. And it is otherwise
in personal guilt than in pecuniary debts. In these, the debt itself
is solely intended, the person only obliged with reference whereunto.
In the other, the person is firstly and principally under the
obligation. And therefore, when a pecuniary debt is paid, by
whomsoever it be paid, the obligation of the person himself unto
payment ceases "ipso facto." But in things criminal, the guilty person
himself being firstly, immediately, and intentionally under the
obligation unto punishment, when there is introduced by compact a
vicarious solution, in the substitution of another to suffer, though
he suffer the same absolutely which those should have done for whom he
suffers, yet, because of the acceptation of his person to suffer,
which might have been refused, and could not be admitted without some
relaxation of the law, deliverance of the guilty persons cannot ensue
"ipso facto," but by the intervention of the terms fixed on in the
covenant or agreement for an admittance of the substitution.
It appears, from what has been spoken, that, in this matter of
satisfaction, God is not considered as a creditor, and sin as a debt;
and the law as an obligation to the payment of that debt, and the Lord
Christ as paying it; - though these notions may have been used by some
for the illustration of the whole matter, and that not without
countenance from sundry expressions in the Scripture to the same
purpose. But God is considered as the infinitely holy and righteous
author of the law, and supreme governor of all mankind, according to
the tenor and sanction of it. Man is considered as a sinner, a
transgressor of that law, and thereby obnoxious and liable to the
punishment constituted in it and by it, - answerably unto the justice
and holiness of its author. The substitution of Christ was merely
voluntary on the part of God, and of himself, undertaking to be a
sponsor, to answer for the sins of men by undergoing the punishment
due unto them. To this end there was a relaxation of the law as to the
persons that were to suffer, though not as to what was to be suffered.
Without the former, the substitution mentioned could not have been
admitted; and on supposition of the latter, the suffering of Christ
could not have had the nature of punishment, properly so called: for
punishment relates to the justice and righteousness in government of
him that exacts it and inflicts it; and this the justice of God does
not but by the law. Nor could the law be any way satisfied or
fulfilled by the suffering of Christ, if, antecedently thereunto, its
obligation, or power of obliging unto the penalty constituted in its
sanction unto sin, was relaxed, dissolved, or dispensed withal. Nor
was it agreeable to justice, nor would the nature of the things
themselves admit of it, that another punishment should be inflicted on
Christ than what we had deserved; nor could our sin be the impulsive
cause of his death; nor could we have had any benefit thereby. And
this may suffice to be added unto what was spoken before as to the
nature of satisfaction, so far as the brevity of the discourse
whereunto we are confined will bear, or the use whereunto it is
designed does require.
Secondly. The nature of the doctrine contended for being declared
and cleared, we may, in one or two instances, manifest how evidently
it is revealed, and how fully it may be confirmed or vindicated. It
is, then, in the Scripture declared, that "Christ died for us," that
he "died for our sins;" and that we are thereby delivered. This is the
foundation of Christian religion as such. Without the faith and
acknowledgment of it, we are not Christians. Neither is it, in these
general terms, at all denied by the Socinians. It remains, therefore,
that we consider, - 1. How this is revealed and affirmed in the
Scripture; and, 2. What is the true meaning of the expressions: and
propositions wherein it is revealed and affirmed; - for in them, as in
sundry others, we affirm that the satisfaction pleaded for is
contained.
1. Christ is said to die, to give himself, to be delivered, |G:
huper hemoon|, etc., for us, for his sheep, for the life of the world,
for sinners, John 6: 51, 10: 15; Rom. 5: 6; 2 Cor. 5: 14, 15; Gal. 2:
20; Heb. 2: 9. Moreover, he is said to die |G: huper hamartioon|, for
sins, 1 Cor. 15: 3; Gal. 1: 4. The end whereof, everywhere expressed
in the gospel, is, that we might be freed, delivered, and saved. These
things, as was said, are agreed unto and acknowledged.
2. The meaning and importance, we say, of these expressions is, that
Christ died in our room, place, or stead, undergoing the death or
punishment which we should have undergone in the way and manner before
declared. And this is the satisfaction we plead for. It remains,
therefore, that from the Scripture, the nature of the things treated
of, the proper signification and constant use of the expressions
mentioned, the exemplification of them in the customs and usages of
the nations of the world, we do evince and manifest that what we have
laid down is the true and proper sense of the words wherein this
revelation of Christ's dying for us is expressed; so that they who
deny Christ to have died for us in this sense do indeed deny that he
properly died for us at all, - whatever benefits they grant that by
his death we may obtain.
First. We may consider the use of this expression in the Scripture
either indefinitely or in particular instances.
Only we must take this along with us, that dying for sins and
transgressions, being added unto dying for sinners or persons, makes
the substitution of one in the room and stead of another more evident
than when the dying of one for another only is mentioned. For whereas
all predicates are regulated by their subjects, and it is ridiculous
to say that one dies in the stead of sins, the meaning can be no other
but the bearing or answering of the sins of the sinner in whose stead
any one dies. And this is, in the Scripture, declared to be the sense
of that expression, as we shall see afterward. Let us, therefore,
consider some instances: -
John 11: 50, The words of Caiaphas' counsel are, |G: Sumferei hemin,
hina heis anthroopos apothanei huper tou laou, kai me holon to ethnos
apoletai| - "It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation perish not:" which is expressed
again, chap. 18: 14, |G: apolesthai huper tou laou|, "perish for the
people." Caiaphas feared that if Christ were spared, the people would
be destroyed by the Romans. The way to free them, he thought, was by
the destruction of Christ; him, therefore, he devoted to death, in
lieu of the people. As he, -
"Unum pro multi dabitur caput;" -
"One head shall be given for many."
Not unlike the speech of Otho the emperor in Xiphilin, when he slew
himself to preserve his army; for when they would have persuaded him
to renew the war after the defeat of some of his forces, and offered
to lay down their lives to secure him, he replied, that he would not,
adding this reason, |G: Polu gar pou kai kreitton, kai dikaioteron
estin, hena huper pantoon e pollous huper henos apolethai| - "It is
far better, and more just, that one should perish or die for all, than
that many should perish for one;" that is, one in the stead of many,
that they may go free; or as another speaks, -
"|G: Exon pro pahtoon mian huperdounai thanein|" - Eurip.
Frag. Erec.
"Let one be given up to die in the stead of all."
John 13: 37, |G: ten psuchen mou huper sou thesoo|. They are the
words of St. Peter unto Christ, "I will lay down my life for thee;" -
"To free thee, I will expose my own head to danger, my life to death,
- that thou mayest live, and I die." It is plain that he intended the
same thing with the celebrated |G: antipsuchoi| of old, who exposed
their own lives |G: psuchen anti psuches| for one another. Such were
Damon and Pythias, Orestes and Pylades, Nisus and Euryalus. Whence is
that saying of Seneca, "Succurram perituro, set ut ipse non peream;
nisi si futures era magni hominis, aut magnae rei merces;" - "I will
relieve or succour one that is ready to perish; yet so as that I
perish not myself, - unless thereby I be taken in lieu of some great
man, or great matter;" - "For a great man, a man of great worth and
usefulness, I could perish or die in his stead, that he might live and
go free."
We have a great example, also, of the importance of this expression
in these words of David concerning Absalom, 2 Sam. 18:33, |H: mi-yiten
muti ani tachteicha| - "Who will grant me to die, I for thee," or in
thy stead, "my son Absalom?" [Literal rendering of the Hebrew.] It was
never doubted but that David wished that he had died in the stead of
his son, and to have undergone the death which he did, to have
preserved him alive. As to the same purpose, though in another sense,
Mezentius in Virgil expresses himself, when his son Lausus,
interposing between him and danger in battle, was slain Aeneas: -
"Tantane me tenuit vivendi, nate, voluptas,
Ut pro me hostile paterer succedere dextrae
Quem genui? tuane haec genitor per vulnera servor,
Morte tua vivens?" - Aen. 10. 846.
"Hast thou, O son, fallen under the enemies' hand in my stead? Am I
saved by thy wounds? Do I live by thy death?"
And the word |H: tachat|, used by David, does signify, when applied
unto persons, either a succession or a substitution; still the coming
of one into the place and room of another. When one succeeded to
another in government, it is expressed by that word, 2 Sam. 10: 1; 1
Kings 1: 35, 19: 16. In other cases it denotes a substitution. So Jehu
tells his guard, that if any one of them let any of Baal's priests
escape, |H: nafsho tachat nafsho| - his life should go in the stead of
the life that he had suffered to escape.
And this answers unto |G: anti| in the Greek; which is also used in
this matter, and ever denotes either equality, contrariety, or
substitution. The two former senses can here have no place; the latter
alone has. So it is said, that Archelaus reigned |G: anti Herodou tou
patros outou|, Matt. 2: 22, - "in the room" or stead "of his father
Herod." So |G: ofthalmos anti ofthalmou, hodous anti hodontos|, Matt.
5: 38, is "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." And this word
also is used in expressing the death of Christ for us. He came |G:
dounai ten psuchen hautou lutron anti polloon}, Matt. 20: 28, - "to
give his life a ransom for many;" that is, in their stead to die. So
the words are used again, Mark 10: 45. And both these notes of a
succedaneous substitution are joined together, 1 Tim. 2: 6, |G: Ho
dous heauton antilutron huper pantoon|. And this the Greeks call |G:
tes psuchen priasthai|, - to buy any thing, to purchase or procure any
thing, with the price of one's life. So Tigranes in Xenophon, when
Cyrus asked him what he would give or do for the liberty of his wife,
whom he had taken prisoner, answered, |G: Kan tes psuches priaimen
hooste latreusai tauten| - "I will purchase her liberty with my life,"
or "the price of my soul." Whereon the woman being freed, affirmed
afterward, that she considered none in the company, but him who said,
|G: hoos tes psuches an priaito hooste me me douleuein|, "that he
would purchase my liberty with his own life," [Cyrop. lib. iii.]
And these things are added on the occasion of the instances
mentioned in the Scripture; whence it appears, that this expression of
"dying for another" has no other sense or meaning, but only dying
instead of another, undergoing the death that he should undergo, that
he might go free. And in this matter of Christ's dying for us, add
that he so died for us as that he also died for our sins; that is,
either to bear their punishment or to expiate their guilt (for other
sense the words cannot admit); and he that pretends to give any other
sense of them than that contended for, which implies the whole of what
lies in the doctrine of satisfaction, "erit mihi magnus Apollo," even
he who was the author of all ambiguous oracles of old.
And this is the common sense of "mori pro alio," and "pati pro
aito," or "pro alio discrimen capitis subire;" a substitution is still
denoted by that expression: which suffices us in this whole cause, for
we know both into whose room he came, and what they were to suffer.
Thus Entellus, killing and sacrificing an ox to Eryx in the stead of
Dares, whom he was ready to have slain, when he was taken from him,
expresses himself, -
"Hanc tibia, Eryx, meliorem animam pro morte Daretis
Persolvo." - Aen. v. 483.
He offered the ox, a better sacrifice, in the stead of Dares, taken
from him. So, -
"Fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit." - Aen. vi. 121.
And they speak so not only with respect unto death, but wherever any
thing of durance or suffering is intended. So the angry master in
the comedian: -
"Verberibus caesum te in pistrinum, Dave, dedam usque ad
necem;
Ea lege atque omine, ut, si te inde exemerim, ego pro te
molam." -
Ter. And., i. 2, 28.
He threatened his servant, to cast him into prison, to be macerated to
death with labour; and that with this engagement, that if he ever let
him out, he would grind for him; - that is, in his stead. Wherefore,
without offering violence to the common means of understanding things
amongst men, another sense cannot be affixed to these words.
The nature of the thing itself will admit of no other exposition
than that given unto it; and it has been manifoldly exemplified among
the nations of the world. For suppose a man guilty of any crime, and
on the account thereof to be exposed unto danger from God or man, in a
way of justice, wrath, or vengeance, and when he is ready to be given
up unto suffering according unto his demerit, another should tender
himself to die for him, that he might be freed; let an appeal be made
to the common reason and understandings of all men, whether the
intention of this his dying for another be not, that he substitutes
himself in his stead, to undergo what he should have done, however the
translation of punishment from one to another may be brought about and
asserted; for at present we treat not of the right, but of the fact,
or the thing itself. And to deny this to be the case as to the
(continued in part 10...)
----------------------------------------------------
file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-01: owent-09.txt
.
