them, and bring upon themselves fwift deftruction; but it is not clear that our Lord Jefus Chrift is there meant, or the purchase of his blood there fpoken of; but rather, that the God of Ifrael is intended, and his peculiar dealings in providence with that people, on account of which he is faid to buy them: but supposing that Christ and his purchase are defigned, this may be understood not of his real purchase of those who were eventually deftroyed, but of their former profeffion of him as the Lord that had bought them, which they fuppofed and claimed, though it was not really fo. The people of Chrift are a diftinct people; distinguished by the love of God to them, by his choice of them to eternal life, and by the covenant of grace into which they are peculiarly taken, and are interested in all the bleffings and promifes of it; and by the effectual vocation of them and as they are a diftinct people in Chrift's interceffion, for whom he prays, and not for the world; fo in redemption by his blood, they are a peculiar people, whom he has redeemed from all iniquity; to whom he has a peculiar right, for whom he has a peculiar value; on whom he bestows peculiar bleffings; and whom he admits to a peculiar nearness to himself: they are indeed the church of God which he has purchafed with his own blood; that church of which he is the head, and for which he has given himself, that he might fanctify, and cleanse it, and prefent it to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, or any fuch thing; even the general assembly and church of the first-born, whofe names are written in heaven; that is to fay, the elect of God: these and every one of them are bought by Christ, and all of them, their fouls and bodies; and though the redemption of them is of their fouls principally and chiefly, yet of their bodies alfo; wherefore being not their own, but bought with a price, they are under obligation to glorify him that bought them, in their body and fpirit, which are his": these are they which are called the purchased poffeffion; not heaven, as fome have thought, to which redemption cannot with any propriety be afcribed; but a people for the Lord's poffeffion, which he has bought for that purpose; nor are any but perfons ever faid to be purchased by Chrift; which leads me to obferve,

2. That Chrift, and he alone, is the purchaser of these people.. The Son of God was appointed the redeemer of them in eternity, and was fent in the fulness. of time to redeem them; and Christ has redeemed his people from sin, law, hell, and death; the Lamb has redeemed them, or bought them again by his blood; being God over all, blessed for ever, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; the only potentate, whofe is the earth and the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein; he was able to make this purchase, and none but a divine perfon was equal to it; wherefore God is faid to purchase the church with his blood.

and

į

and as he was able to make this purchafe, he was willing to do it; God in his infinite wisdom found him, and pitched upon him to be the ransom-price of his people; upon which he faid concerning them, Deliver them from going down to the pit and Chrift voluntarily agreed to be that ransom, and faid, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; and accordingly he did come in human nature, in the form of a fervant, not to be miniftered unto, but to minifter, and give his life a ranfom for many; and indeed by his becoming man, and fo our Goel or near kinfman, the right of purchase and redemption belonged unto him. If a man, according to the Levitical law, could not redeem himself when fold, his uncle, or his uncle's fon, or any near of kin, might do it; and fo the redemption and purchase of inheritances belonged to fuch, as in the cafes of Boaz and Jeremiah. Thus Christ, partaking of the fame flesh and blood with his people, and they being fold, and in a state of bondage; the right of redemption or purchase devolved on him, as it was agreed it should in the counfel and covenant of grace and peace; and accordingly he has actually made the purchase: he has purchased the church with his blood; the thing is done; ye are bought with a price; this has been teftified in due time; full proof is to be, and has been made of it. But I go on to obferve,

3. The price with which these people are purchased by Chrift; the purchasemoney that was laid down for them, or given as a valuable confideration on their account and this is fometimes faid to be the flesh of Chrift, which he gave for the life of the world; for the obtaining and fecuring the life of his chosen ones, even his whole human nature, which he took into union with his divine perfon; and fo is faid to be made flesh'; or a partaker of the fame flesh and blood with his people; in which flesh or human nature he was put to death, and fo obtained eternal redemption for them. Sometimes his blood is represented as the purchase-price; not corruptible things, as filver and gold, but the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot or blemish: he is faid to purchase the church with his own blood'; and to redeem us unto God by his blood"; which was a fufficient price, fince it was the fame blood with ours; for he partook of the fame flesh and blood with us: it was not the blood of bulls and goats which was given as the purchase-price; but it was the blood of a man, and the blood of an innocent perfon, who did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth. It was the blood of the harmlefs and innocent Lamb of God, without spot or blemish, either of original or actual fin, and fo fit to be the ranfom-price; and besides, what gave it its value, virtue, and efficacy, is, that it is the blood of him that is God as well as man, and both in one perfon; the blood of Jefus

Chrift, the Son of God; and fo as it has a virtue to take away fin, and cleanse from it, has an intrinfic worth and value in it to make a purchase of all God's elect. Sometimes the life, which is in the blood, the life of Christ, is made to be the ransom-price: he laid down his life for the sheep"; which his father gave. him, and made his care and charge; his life went for theirs, and for the redemption of them; he gave his life a ransom for them: yea, he is faid to give himself, arriλurpos, "a ranfom-price" for all his people, Jews and Gentiles, men of all nations, ranks and claffes; and all forts of finners, greater and leffer; even his whole human nature, foul and body, as in union with his divine perfon, which were given, as for a facrifice and offering for the fins of men, fo for the ransom of them. And how great muft this be! we fometimes hear of a king's ransom, given either by a king, or for one; such is the ransom of Christ, it is given by him the King of kings, and is no other than himself; and it is given for his people, who are made kings and priests to God by him; which must needs be a great one. Now it may be proper to inquire,

4. To whom this price was paid for the purchase of these people. Not into the hands of Satan; for though he is the god of this world, he is fo by usurpation; and though he works effectually in the children of disobedience, and even leads captive God's own people, in a state of unregeneracy; yet he has no rightful claim unto them, nor just poffeffion of them; and therefore, as there was. no neceffity of making a purchase of them from him, so neither has any been made: they are indeed ranfomed from the hand of him who is ftronger than they, even the strong man armed, in whofe power they were whilst in a state of nature; but then this is done by power; and though in confequence of a price paid, yet not into his hands, but into the hands of another; and fo the prey is taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive is delivered. But the price of Redemption is paid into the hands of God, into the hands of divine justice. Christ has redeemed his people unto God by his blood; by giving himself an offering and a sacrifice unto him; by fulfilling his law, and fatisfying his justice. God has a fovereign right unto them, and a fovereign difpofal of them, and could give them to whom he will; and he gave them to his Son: thine they were, and thou gavest them me', on condition of his making his foul an offering for fin; or giving himself to redeem them from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people. God is he against whom they have finned, and whofe law is broken by fin: for fin is the tranfgreffion of the law; and the dishonour done to that must be removed, and the honour of it repaired and restored; and Christ, by his obedience, fufferings and death, has magnified the law, and made it VOL. I.

honourable.

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honourable. Juftice by fin is injured and offended; and the judge of all the earth will do right, and infist upon a full satisfaction to his justice; and therefore Chrift is fet forth to be the propitiation for fin, to declare the justice and righteousness of God; which is glorified by Christ being made fin and a curfe for bis people, and by laying down his life a ranfom-price for them. Sins are fo many debts, and they are exceeding numerous; more than ten thousand talents are owing, and man has nothing to pay with; he has run into debt with God, and to him must the payment be made, either by himself, or by his furety; and now Chrift, the furety of his people, in paying off their debts, has put a valuable confideration for them into the hands of God, to whom he has made the payment; and fo he has blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that lay against them. To conclude this head of discourse, let us briefly confider,

5. The nature of this purchase. It is a special purchase; a peculiar people that Chrift has redeemed; a special people that he has purchased; a special price which he has laid down for them, and which arifes from his fpecial love of them, and from whence flow special bleflings and favours to them. It is a proper purchase there is a purchafing or buying things in an improper fenfe, which is. done without money, and without price; fo grace, and the bleffings of it, are bought of Chrift; that is, by making application to him, they are freely had and enjoyed: but this purchase is made with a price; ye are bought with a price"; though not with the price of gold and filver, and fuch like corruptible things; yet with the price of Christ's blood, with his flesh, his life, himself, as has been before obferved. It is a legal purchase, good and valid, and against which no objection can be laid; it is a fufficient price that is given, what was agreed to by the parties concerned; by God, to whom it is paid, who is fatisfied with it; by Christ, who engaged to give it, and has made payment of it; nor can any thing be alledged to invalidate the purchase either by law or juftice; nor can any one, for the future, lay any claim to the perfons purchased, but he to whom they of right belong; who has a moft clear and indubitate right and title to them; as by his Father's gift, who gave them to him to be his portion and inheritance, fo by his own purchase: wherefore he claims an intereft in them on this account, faying, I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine"; and they are neither their own, nor another's, but the Lord's; and as they are not the vaffals of Satan, they ought not to be the fervants of men, but ferve and glorify the Lord, and him only. As the purchase Jeremiah made of the field of his uncle's fon was firm and valid, when the evidence of the purchafe was fubfcribed and fealed, the witneffes taken, and the money weighed and paid, fo the purchase which Chrift has made is much more fo, being fealed with

with his blood, and testified in due time in the everlasting gofpel, the evidence of this purchase; the fcriptures are the writings which contain it, fhew and prove it. It is a full and complete purchase; it is a purchase of the whole election of grace; of all the children of God fcattered about in the world; of all the Lord's people that ever have been, are, or fhall be, in it: thefe may truly be faid to be the pearl of great price, which Chrift the merchant-man came into this world to feek for, and found; and finding it, fold all that he had, shed his blood, parted with his life, and gave himself for it, and bought it and it is the greatest purchase that ever was made, or can be made, and which none elfe could ever make; fuch as are poffeffed of the greatest riches, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him; for the redemption of their foul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever *; it must do so, for any thing that they can give as a redemption-price for it; they are not able with all they have, and had they the whole world, and all that is in it in their pos feffion, they would not be able to purchase one fingle foul, or give a fufficient ranfom-price for it: whereas Chrift has purchased the whole church of God, thousands and millions of the fouls of men; even a great multitude out of all nations, kindred, people, and tongues, which no man can number. But I proceed to confider,

II. The paffage of this purchased people over Jordan's river, or through the ford of death; and the neceffity of it, and their safety in it.

1. Death is a paffage from this world to another, out of time into eternity. It is a going from hence elsewhere: fays our Lord, the Son of man goeth; that is, he is about to die, as it is determined; which is going the way of all the earth; and he expreffes his own death by departing out of the world, and going to the Father; and the apostle Paul fignifies his defire to die in the fame language; namely, to depart, and to be with Chrift, which is far better than to ftay in this world. Death is like taking a journey or a voyage, and it is a long one; it is a man's going to his long home, and a long one it is; for he goes the way, and to the place whence he fhall return no more; the place that knew him, or the people of it, fhall know him no more there; he will not return to the fame place, fituation, and circumstances in which he was before. Death is fometimes represented as a paffage through a low, lonesome, and dark valley; though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; and here the emblem is, paffing over a river, and croffing from fhore to fhore, wading in the midst of it, in order to get to land; particularly a paffing over the river Jordan to get into Canaan's land. Now,

2. This