The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…

Obj. XIV. But it doth sapere scenam, sound like a Poetical fiction, that God should satisfy his own Justice, and Christ should die instead of our being damned, and this to appease the wrath of God, as if God were angry, and delighted in the blood or sufferings of the innocent.

Obj. XIV. But it doth sapere scenam, sound like a Poetical fiction, that God should satisfie his own Justice, and Christ should die instead of our being damned, and this to appease the wrath of God, as if God were angry, and delighted in the blood or sufferings of the innocent.

Answ. Ignorance is the great cause of unbelief. This objection cometh from many errors, and false conceits about the things of which it speaketh.¹ 1. If the word [Satisfaction] offend you, use only the Scripture-words, that Christ was a Sacrifice, an Atonement, a Propitiation, a Price, &c. And if this be incredible, how came it to pass that sacrificing was the custom of all the world? Doth not this objection ⟨p. 407⟩as much militate against this? was God angry?² or was he delighted in the blood and sufferings of harmless sheep and other cattle? and must these either satisfy him, or appease his wrath? What think you should be the cause, that sacrificing was thus commonly used in all ages through all the earth, if it savoured but of poetical fiction?

Answ. Ignorance is the great cause of unbelief. This objection cometh from many errours, and false conceits about the things of which it speaketh.¹ 1. If the word [Satisfaction] offend you, use only the Scripture-words, that Christ was a Sacrifice, an Atonement, a Propitiation, a Price, &c. And if this be incredible, how came it to pass that sacrificing was the custom of all the world? Doth not this objection