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holy mountain and such as were like wolves, and leopards, and bears, shall be as tame as lambs, kids, and calves; and shall feed and lie down together: there shall be an abundance of peace of every kind, and of it no end; and particularly internal and spiritual peace; for as grace will be high in exercise, joy and peace will increase and abound.

v. There will be a great degree of holiness in all saints, of every class and rank; all the Lord's people will be righteous; Every pot in Jerusalem, and in Judea; that is, every member of the church, shall be holiness unto the Lord; in his sight, and to his glory; yea, holiness to the Lord shall be upon the bells of the horses; signifying how common it should be, and appear in every civil action of life, as well as in religious ones; and that holiness shall then be as common, as unholiness is now; and that it shall be visible in the lives and conversations of saints; and be seen of all; sce Isai. lx. 21. Zech. xv. 20, 21,

The other period of time in which Christ will, in a most glorious manner, reign with his people on earth, and which may be called, his personal reign; being what will take place at his second coming to judgment, and personal appearance then, and upon the first resurrection; it will be most proper to defer it, until those articles come under consideration.

BOOK III.

OF THE BLESSINGS OF GRACE,

WHICH COME BY CHRIST; AND OF THE DOCTRINES IN WHICH THEY ARE HELD FORTH.

OF REDEMPTION BY CHRIST.

HAVING, in the preceding Book, gone through the twofold state of Christ, his Humiliation and Exaltation; and considered the several offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, sustained and exercised by him therein; I shall now proceed to consider the blessings of grace, which come by him, through the exercise of them; and especially his priestly office; for he is come an High-Priest of good things to come, which under the former dispensation, were promised, prophesi ed of, and prefigured in it; but not accomplished; for the law had only a shadow of these good things to come, but now they are come, and are actually obtained, through Christ's coming in the flesh; and through what he has done. and suffered in it; as redemption, satisfaction, and reconciliation for sin, remission of sin, justification, adoption, &c. and as redemption stands in the first place; and is a principal and most important blessing and doctrine of grace, I shall begin with that.

I. shall settle the meaning of the word; and shew what it supposes, includes, and is designed by it. Our English word Redemption, is from the Latin tongue, and signifies, buying again; and several words in the Greek language, of the New Testament, are used in the affair of our Redemption, which signify the obtaining of something by paying a proper price for it; sometimes the simple verb avogaçu, to buy, is used: so the redeemed are said to be bought unto God by the blood of Christ; and to be bought from the earth; and to be bought from among men; and to be bought with a price; that is, with the price of Christ's blood, 1 Cor. vi. 20. hence the church of God is said to be purchased with it, Acts xx. 28. Sometimes the compound word yogaw, is used; which signifies, to buy again, or out of the hands of another; as the redeemed are bought out of the hands of justice; as in Gal. iii. 13. and iv. 5. In other places urgow, is used, or others derived from it; which signifies, the deliverance of a slave, or captive, from his thraldom, by paying a ransom-price for him: so the saints are said to be redeemed, not with silver or gold, the usual

price paid for a ransom; but with a far greater one, the blood and life of Christ, which he came into this world to give, as a ransom-price for many; and even himself, which is avTaut pov, and answerable, adequate, and full price for them, 1 Pet. 1. 18. There are various typical redemptions, and that are of a civil nature, which may serve to illustrate our spiritual and eternal redemp tion by Christ.

1. The deliverances of the people of Israel out of their captivities, Egyptian and Babylonian; the latter I shall not much insist upon; since, though the Jews were exiles in Babylon, they did not appear to be in much slavery and thraldom: but built houses, planted gardens, and had many privileges; insomuch that some of them, when they might have had their liberty, chose rather to continue where they were; and though their deliverance is sometimes called a redemption, yet sparingly, and in an improper sense, Jer. xv. 21. for they were redeemed without money; and Cyrus, their deliverer, neither gave nor took a price for them; and is never called a redeemer. But the deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt, was a very special and remarkable type of redemption by Christ, out of a worse state of bondage than that of Egypt. The Israelites were made to serve with rigour, and their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, in brick and mortar, and service in the field; and they cried to God, by reason of their bondage, it was so intolerable; and it was aggravated by the task-masters set over them; who, by the order of Pharaoh, obliged them to provide themselves with straw, and yet bring in the full tale of brick as before; which fitly expres ses the state and condition that men are in; who, through sin, are weak and unable to fulfill the law; yet it is as regardless of want of strength, as the Egyptian task-masters were of want of straw: it requires sinless and perfect obedience to it; and curses and condemns such as continue not in all things to do it The deliverance of the people of Israel, is called a redemption; God promised to rid them of their bondage, and to redeem them with a stretchedout arm; and when they were delivered, he is said to have led forth the people he had redeemed: and the bringing them out of the house of bondage, or redeeming them out of the house of bondmen, is used as an argu ment to engage them to regard the commandinents of God, Exod. vi. 6. and XX. 2. And which redemption by Christ, from sin, the law, and death lay the redeemed under a still greater obligation to do; Moses, who was the instrument God raised up, and whom he called and sent to redeem Israel, is said to be a deliverer, or as it should be rendered, a redeemer, Acts vii. 35. in which he was a type of Christ, whom God raised up, called, and sent to be a Redeemer of his spiritual Israel: and there was, in some sense, a price paid for the redemption of literal Israel; since they are expressly said to be a purchased people, bought by the Lord, and their deliverance was owing to blood, the blood of the passover-lamb, sprinkled on their door-posts; typical of the blood of Christ, the price of our redemption. Besides, as it has been observed by some, the redemption of the people of Israel, being the Lord's people, was by virtue of

their future redemption by Christ: whose sufferings and death were for the re. demption of transgressions, or of transgressors, who were under the first testament; and that the temporal deliverance of none but the Lord's poople is called a redemption, not that of his and their enemies.

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11. The ransom of the people of Israel, when numbered, was typical of the ransom by Christ; which mas made by paying half a shekel, called the atonement-money for their souls, and which was paid alike for a rich man, as a poor man; whereby they were preserved from any plague among them, Exod. xxx, 12-16. None but Israelites were ransomed; and none are ransomed by Christ, but the spiritual Israel of God, whom he has chosen, Christ has redeemed, and who shall be saved with an everlasting salvation; even the whole Israel of God, Jews and Gentiles: they were a numbered people for whom the ransom was paid; and so are they that are ransomed and redeemed by Christ; whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life, who have passed under the hands of him that telleth them, and have been told into the hands of Christ; and are particularly and distinctly known by him, even by name; the sheep for whom he has laid down his life; and are a special and peculiar people. The half-shekel was paid alike for rich and poor, for one neither more or less, Christ's people, though some may be redeemed from more greater sins than others; yet they are all redeemed from all their sins, and with the same price, the price of his blood, and which is, as the half-shekel was, an atonement for their souls; by which peace and reconciliation, and full satisfaction are made for sin, so that no plaguė shall come nigh them; they are delivered from going down to the pit of destruction; and are saved from the second death.

III. The buying again of an Israelite, waxen poor, and sold to another, by any near akin to him; is a lively representation of the purchase and redemption of the Lord's poor people, Lev. xxv. 47-49. who, in a state of nature are poor, and wretched, and miserable; even so as to be like beggars on the dunghill; when such was the grace of Christ, who, though rich, for their sakes became poor, that they, through his poverty might be made rich; and to such a degree, as to be raised from the dunghill and sit among princes, and inherit the throne of glory. Though some may not sell themselves to work wickedness, as Ahab did, yet all are sold under sin; for if this was the case of the apostle Paul, though regenerare, much more must it be the case of an unregenerate man; who, through sin, is brought into subjection to it, a servant of it, and a slave to it; as the poor Israelite, sold to a stranger, was a bond-man to him: and such an one cannot redeem himself, being without strength, unable to fulfil the law, and to make atonement for sin; nor can any of his friends, though ever so rich, redeem him, or give to God a ransom for him; such may redeem a poor relation, or friend from prison, by paying his pecuniary debts for him; but cannot redeem his soul from hell and destruction; may give a ransom-price to man for one in slavery and bondage; but cannot give to God a ransom to

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deliver from wrath to come: only Christ, the near Kinsman of his people, can do this, and has done it; he that is their Goel and Kinsman, partaker of the same flesh and blood with them, is their Redeemer, who has given himself a ransom for them.

IV. The delivery of a debtor from prison, by paving his debts for him, is an emblem of deliverance and redemption by Christ: a man that is in debt, is liable to be arrested, and cast into prison, as is often the case; where he must lie till the debt is discharged, by himself or another: sins are debts; and a sinner owes more than ten thousand talents, and has nothing to pay; he cannot answer to the justice of God for one debt of a thousand; nor can he, by paying a debt of obedience he owes to God, pay off one debt of sin, or obligation to punishment; and so is liable to a prison, and is in one; is concluded under sin, under the guilt of it, which exposes him to punishment; and he is held with the cords and fetters of it; which he cannot loose himself from; and he is shut up under the law, in which he is held, until delivered and released by Christ; who, as he has engaged to pay the debts of his people, has paid them, cleared the whole score, and blotted out the hand-writing that was against them; in consequence of which is proclaimed, in the gospel, liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; and in effectual vocation Christ says to the pri soners, go forth, opening the prison-doors for them; and to them that sit in darkness, in the gloomy cells of the prison, shew yourselves; all which is done in virtue of the redemption-price paid by Christ for his people.

v. The ransoming of persons out of slavery, by paying a ransom-price for them, serves to give an idea of the redemption of the Lord's people by Christ. They are in a state of slavery, out of which they cannot deliver themselves; Christ is the ransomer of them out of the hands of such that are stronger than they; his life and blood are the ransom-price he has paid for them; and they are called, the ransomed of the Lord; their deliverance from present bondage, and future ruin and destruction, is in consequence of a ransom found and given; I have found a ransom, Job xxxiii. 4. In which there is an illusion to a custom in the Eastern countries, to put their slaves in an evening into a pit, where they are close shut up till the morning, and then taken out, to be put to their slavish employnients; but not delivered, unless a sufficient ransom is given for them; and such is the blood of the covenant. Now all these views of redemption, plainly point out to us the following things, with respect to the redemption of the Lord's people.

1. That they are, previous to their redemption, and, which that supposes, in a state of captivity and bondage; they are sinners in Adam, and by actual transgressions; and so come into the hands of vindictive justice, offended by sin; and which will not clear the guilty, without satisfaction given to it; which is made by paying a price: Redemption by Christ, is nothing more nor less, than buying his people out of the hands of justice, in which they are held for sin: and that is with the price of his blood; which is therefore paid into the hands

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