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the legal dispose of them, in answer to the moral subjection to him, and the obedience he requires of them.

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2. That as he be a King, and have supreme government, so he be a judge to put in execution his justice. Thus God is judge himself. Psal. 1. 6. He is the judge of the world.' Gen. xviii. 25. Psal. xciv. 2. Psal. lxxv. 7. Isa. xxxiii. 22. as in innumerable other places. Now as God is thus the great Governor and Judge, he pursues the constitutive principle of punishment, his own righteous and holy will, proportioning penalties to the demerit of sin.

Thus in the laying our sin on Christ, there was a twofold act of God: one as a governor, the other as a judge properly.

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1. The first is, 'innovatio obligationis,' the innovation of the obligation,' wherein we were detained, and bound over to punishment. Whereas in the tenor of the law as to its obligation unto punishment, there was none originally but the name of the offender, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die :' and Cursed is every one that continues not:' and the soul that sinneth it shall die;' God now puts in the name of the surety of Jesus Christ; that he might become responsible for our sins, and undergo the punishment that we were obliged to. Christ was ὑπὸ νόμον γενόμενον, he was made under the law; that is, he was put into subjection, to the obligation of it unto punishment: God put his name into the obligation, and so the law came to have its advantage against him, who otherwise was most free from the charge of it. Then was Christ made sin, when by being put into the obligation of the law, he became liable to the punishment of it. He was the Mediator of the new covenant, the Mediator between God and man;' 1 Tim. ii. 5. So a Mediator, as to lay down his life a ransom' for them, for whom he was a Mediator, ver. 6. and the surety of the covenant is he also; Heb. vii. 22. Such a surety, as paid that which he never took, made satisfaction for those sins which he never did.

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2. The second act of God as a judge, is inflictio pœnæ.' Christ being now made obnoxious, and that by his own consent, the justice of God finding him in the law, layeth the weight of all on him. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in his mouth;' well then, it will be well with him; surely it shall be well with the innocent,

no evil shall befall him; nay but said he, ver. 10. 'Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief;' yea, but what was the reason of this? Why was this the will of God? why did this seem good to the just Judge of all the world? The reason is in the very next words, 'His soul was made an offering for sin,' which before is expressed ⚫he bare our grief, he was wounded for our transgressions ;' being made liable to them he was punished for them.

By that which is said it is evident from this first expression, or the assignation of an action to God in reference to him, that this death of Christ was a punishment, he who had power to do it, bringing in him (on his own voluntary offer) into the obligation to punishment, and inflicting punishment on him accordingly.

The second expression whereby the same thing is farther convinced is on the part of him that was punished, and this in ver. 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,' or which is more evident, ver. 11. He shall bear their iniquities.'

For the right understanding of the words, I shall give a few brief previous observations, that may give light to the matter we treat of. And the first is,

1. That as this whole thing was done in the justice of God, as hath been declared, so it was done by the counsel and appointment of God. The apostles confess the death of Christ to have proceeded thence; Acts iv. 28. ii. 23. Now as laying of our sins on Christ, being designed our mediator, and undertaking the work, was an act of God, as the governor of all, and the righteous judge, so this of the determinate counsel, and fore-appointment, or the eternal designation of Christ to his office, is an act of sovereign power and dominion in God, whereby he doth as he pleaseth, according to the counsel of his will. As he would make the world in his sovereign good pleasure, when he might have otherwise done, Rev. iv. 11. so he would determine, that Christ should bear our iniquities, when he might otherwise have disposed of it, Rom. xi. 34-37.

2. In respect of us, this pre-appointment of God was an act of grace, that is, a sovereign act of his good pleasure, whence all good things, all fruits of love whatever to us do flow. Therefore, it is called love; John iii. 16. and so in

the fruit of it is it expressed; Rom. viii. 32. And on this John often insists in his Gospel and Epistle; 1 John iv. 9 —11. His aim on his own part was the declaration of his righteousness; Rom. iii. 25. and to make way for the praise of his 'glorious grace,' Eph. i. 6. on our parts, that we might have all those good things, which are the fruits of the most intense love.

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3. That Christ himself was willing to undergo this burden and undertake this work; and this as it is consistent with his death being a punishment, so it is of necessity to make good the other considerations of it, namely, that it should be a price and a sacrifice. For no man gives a price, and therein parts with that which is precious to him unwillingly; nor is a sacrifice acceptable that comes not from a free and willing mind. That he was thus willing himself professeth, both in the undertaking and carrying of it on ; in the undertaking; Heb. x. 9. Lo I come to do thy will O God. It is the expression of one breaking out with a ready joy to do the thing proposed to him. So the church of old looked on him, as one that came freely and cheerfully, Cant. ii. 8, 9. It is the voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping on the mountains, skipping on the hills: my beloved is like a roe, or a young hart, he standeth behind the wall, he looketh forth at the window, shewing himself through the lattice.' The church looked on Christ as yet at a distance from the actual performance of the work he had undertaken, and so herself kept off from that clear and close communion which she longed after, and thence she says of him, that he stood behind the wall,' that he 'looked forth at the window, and shewed himself at the lattices.' There was a wall yet hindering the actual exhibition of Christ; the 'fulness of time was not come.' The purpose of God was not yet to bring forth; but yet in the meantime, Christ looked on the church through the window of the promise, and the lattice of the Levitical ceremonies.

And what discovery do they make of him, in the view they take in the broad light of the promises, and the many glimpses of the ceremonial types. They see him coming, leaping on the mountains, and skipping on the hills,' coming speedily with a great deal of joy and willingness.

So of himself he declares what his mind was from old,

from everlasting; Prov. viii. 30, 31. 'Rejoicing always before him,' that is, before God his Father;' but in what did he rejoice? in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delight was with the sons of men.' When this joy of his was, he tells you ver. 22, 23. 26, 27. He rejoiced before God his Father in the sons of men, before they were created; that is, in the work he had to do for them.

His will was also in the carrying of it on unto accomplishment, he must be doing his Father's business, his will who sent him, Luke xii. 50. Tüç ovvéxoμai. He was pained as a woman in travail to be delivered, to come to be baptized in his own blood. And when he was giving himself up to the utmost of it, he professes his readiness to it, John xviii. 11. when Peter who once before would have advised him to spare himself, now being his counsel was not followed, would have rescued him with his sword; as for his advice he was called Satan, so for his profferred assistance he is now rebuked; and the reason of it is given,ʻshall I not drink of the cup?' It is true, that it might appear, that his death was not a price, and a sacrifice only, but a punishment also, wherein there was an immission of every thing that was evil to the suffering nature, and a subtraction of that which was good, he discovered that averseness to the drinking of the cup, which the truth of the human nature absolutely required (and which the amazing bitterness of the cup overpowered him withal), yet still his will conquered and prevailed in all; Matt. xxvi. 53, 54.

4. Christ's love was also in it, his delight was in the sons of men; his love towards them carried him out to the work; and Paul proves it by the instance of himself; Gal. ii. 20. Who loved me.' And John applies the same to all believers, Rev. i. 5, 6. To him that loved us,' &c. And thus was this great work undertaken.

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These things being premised, let us look again to the words under consideration.

1. For the word he bare our grief, ver. 4. it is NW; a word of as large, and as many various acceptions as any, if not absolutely the most extensive in the whole Hebrew tongue. It hath usually assigned unto it by the lexicographer eight or nine several significations; and to make it ovident, that it is of various acceptions, it is used (in the

collections of Calasius) eight hundred and eighteen times in the Old Testament, whereof not a third part is answered in any language by one and the same word. With those senses of it that are metaphorical we have not any thing to do. That which is the first, or most proper sense of it and what is most frequently used, is to carry' or 'bear,' and by which it is here translated as in very many other places.

Socinus would have it here be as much as 'abstulit,' he took away, so saith he, 'God took away our sin in Christ, when by him he declared, and confirmed the way whereby pardon and remission is to be obtained; as he pardoned our sin in Christ, by discovering the new covenant, and mercy therein.' Now because the word is of such various significations, there is a necessity that it be interpreted by the circumstances of the place where it is used. And because there is not any circumstance of the place, on the account whereof the word should be rendered' abstulit,' he took away, and not 'tulit,' he took,'' bare,' or' suffered,' we must consider what arguments or reasons are scraped together aliunde' by them, and then evince what is the proper signification of it, in this place.

1. This very expression is used of God Exod. xxxiv. 7. NWferens iniquitatem,' as also it is again repeated; Numb. xiv. 18. In both which places, we translate it 'forgiving,''forgiving iniquities, transgressions, and sins.' Nor can it be properly spoken of God, to bear; for God cannot bear, as the word properly signifies.

The sum of the objection is; the word that is used so many times, and so often metaphorically, is once or twice in another place used for to take away, or to pardon; therefore, this must be the sense of it in this place. God cannot be said to bear iniquities, but only metaphorically, and so he is often said to bear, to be pressed, to be weary, and made to serve with them; he is said to bear our sins, in reference to the end of bearing any thing, which is to carry it away; God in Christ taking away, pardoning our sins, is said to bear them, because that is the way which sins are taken away; they are taken up, carried, and laid aside. But he of whom these words are spoken here, did bear properly, and could do so, as shall be shewed.

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