Afp. Such is the Redemption procured for Sinners by our LORD JESUS CHRIST. Of fuch a Nature, (though incomparably more grand and august in all its Circumstances) and expressed by the very fame Word. The Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minifter; and to give his Life a Ranfom for Many.

CHRIST alfo paid a Price-a real Price-a moft fatisfactory Price. In Confideration of which, our Freedom from Death, from Hell, from every penal Evil is granted. Ye are redeemed †, fays the Apostle, not with corruptible Things, Silver and Gold, but with the precious Blood of CHRIST.-Let me add one Text more; which, in the fame Style of commutative Justice, afferts the fame Truth. CHRIST has redeemed Us ‡, not by way of En

treaty,

Aulpov arhulpow, are used in this precife Signification, by the most approved Authors of Greece. AT TE λύρα των Ανίβα, και τες αιχμαλωτες απέλαβε, fays Plutarch. Ο νιώ τε ανθρωπος ήλθε δεναν την ψυχην αυτε λερου αυτο awv, fays our bleffed SAVIOUR, Matt. xx. 28.ATTEND Wσ Taλarlow, is the Language of Demosthenes. Εν ω εχομεν την αποκείρωσιν δια τα αίματα αυτο, are the Words of St. Paul, Eph. i. 7.-To establish this important Point, and to familiarife the comfortable Idea to our Minds, the facred Writers abound in this PhrafeoloSee Luke i. 68. ii. 38. xxiv. 21.-Rom. iii. 24gy. Tit. ii. 14.-Heb. ix. 12.

t1 Pet. i. 18. We have an equivalent Expreffion, ufed in the fame Signification, by one of the correcteft Writers in the World;

Et Fratrem Pollux alterna Morte redemit. VIRG. ↑ Gal. iii. 13. Epaon-We are faid to be bought, 1.Cor. vi. 20. Not in a metaphorical Senfe, but really and properly. For, here the Price is mentioned in general; by St. Peter the Price is particularly specified, i Pet. i. 18, 19.

treaty, but by paying a Redemption-Price. He hath bought, not begged Us off, from the Curse of the Law. Yes, my Friend,

The Ranfom was paid down. The Fund of Heav'n,
Heav'n's inexhaustible exhaufted Fund,

Amazing and amaz'd, pour'd forth the Price,
All Price beyond. Though curious to compute,
Archangels fail'd to caft the mighty Sum *

Ther. Hold a little, good Afpafo.
Confequence of what You maintain.

Confider the If there was a Ranfom in the Cafe, to Whom was it paid?—The Devil had led Sinners captive. They are faid to be the Slaves of Satan. And fhall the bleffed JESUS pay his Life to that accursed Fiend? Shocking to imagine!-Yet, fhocking as it is, it must follow from your own, and your Poet's Affertion.

Afp. You mifapprehend the Cafe, Theron. The Ranfom was paid to GOD. Thou haft redeemed Us to GOD t, is the Confeffion of the Saints in Light. He is the great Law-giver, against whom our Sins are committed. He is the great Houfholder, to whom the Debt is due . Satisfaction, therefore, was made to the divine Law, and to the divine Justice. The one of which was offended; the other violated; and both concurred to denounce the Tranfgreffor's Doom.-Of which Doom Satan was only the deftined Executioner. Whofe Malignity, and implacable Rage, GOD is pleased to make the Inflrument of inflicting his Vengeance.

*

Night-Thoughts, No IV.

† Pfal. li. 5.

As

† Rev. v. 9.

Matt. xviii. 23, 24.

+

As He formerly used the idolatrous Kings of Affyria and Babylon, to chastise the disobedient Ifraelites.

When We were without Strength*, utterly ruined, yet abfolutely helpless-when None, in Heaven or Earth, could afford Us Succour any then our

LORD JESUS CHRIST moft graciously and most seasonably interpofed. He faid, as it is very emphatically reprefented by Elihu ; Deliver them from going down into the Pit; I have found a Ranfom +. He did, what is very beautifully defcribed by our English Claffic;

So Man, as is most just,

Shall fatisfy for Man, be judg'd, and die;
And dying rife, and rifing with Him raife
His Brethren, ransom'd with his own dear Lifè ‡.

Ther. But pray, do not You allow, that CHRIST is truly and properly GOD?

Afp. We not only allow it, but We infift upon it, and make our boaft of it. This is the very Foundation of his Merit, and the Support of our Hope.

Ther. This may aggrandize the Merit of CHRIST, but it will increase the Difficulty of your Tafk. For, according to this Opinion, CHRIST must make Satisfaction to Himfelf. And is not this a Practice quite unprecedented? A Notión perfectly abfurd ?

Afp. It is quite unprecedented, You fay.-On this Point, I fhall not vehemently contend. Only let me mention one Inftance. Zaleucus, You know, the Prince of the Locrians, made a Decree, That whoever

* Rom. v. 6. B. III. 294.

+ Job xxxiii. 24.

+ MILT.

whoever was convicted of Adultery, fhould be pu nished with the Lofs of both his Eyes. Soon after this Eftablifhment, the Legiflator's own Son was apprehended in the very Fact, and brought to a public Trial. How could the Father proceed, in fo tender and delicate a Conjuncture?-Should He execute the Law, in all its Rigour? This would be worse than Death to the unhappy Youth. Should He pardon fo notorious a Delinquent? This would defeat the Defign of his falutary Inftitution. To avoid both these Inconveniencies, He ordered one of his own Eyes to be pulled out, and one of his Son's. By which Means, the Rights of Justice were preserved inviolate; yet the Tenderness of a Parent was remarkably indulged. And may We not venture to say? That, in this Cafe, Zaleucus both received and made the Satisfaction.Received it, as a Magistrate; even while He made it, as a Father.

:

Ther. I cannot fee, how this Suffering of the Father was, in any Degree, fatisfactory to the Law fince the Father and the Son could not be confidered, as one and the fame Perfon. It may pafs for an extraordinary Inftance of parental Indulgence. It may strike the benevolent and compassionate Hearer. But, if tried at the Bar of Equity and Reafon, it will hardly be admitted as any legal Satisfaction. It will probably be condemned, as a Breach of Nature's firft and fundamental Law, Self-prefer

vation.

Afp. Your Objection, I must confefs, has Weight. It will oblige me to give up my Illuftration.-Nevertheless, what my Friend urges against the Propriety of the Comparison, tends to establish the

6

Certainty

Certainty of the Doctrine. For, CHRIST and his People are actually confidered, as one and the fame Perfon. They are one myftical Body: He the Head, they the Members: fo intimately united to Him, that they are Bone of his Bone, and Flesh of his Flesh*. By Virtue of which Union, their Sins were punifhed in Him; and by his Stripes they are healed †, they obtain Impunity and Life.

Though there may be nothing, in the Procedure of Men, which bears any Refemblance to this Miracle of heavenly Goodnefs; it receives a fufficient Confirmation from the Language of Scripture. He, who wrote as an Amanuenfis to the unerring SPIRIT, has declared; That GOD was in CHRIST, reconciling the World-unto Whom? Unto fome third Party? No; but reconciling it, by the Death and Obedience of CHRIST-unto Himfelf. And I can very readily grant, that this divine Exertion of Benignity and Wisdom, fhould be without a Precedent, and without a Parallel .

Difficulties, I own, may attend the Explication of this Article, or be interwoven with its Confequences. But fince our Apprehenfions of heavenly Things, efpecially of the adorable TRINITY, are fo obfcure and inadequate, We may very eafily mistake; and fanfy that to be abfurd, which is VOL. I.

Eph. v. 30.

Col. i. 20.

G

only

+ Ifai. liii. 5. + 2 Cor. v. 19.

Fancy, in the Perfon of Horace, faid of Jupiter and his fabulous Exploits,

Cui nihil viget fimile aut fecundum.

Much more will Reason, in the Character of a Believer, fay the fame of JEHOVAH, and his marvelous Grace.