afunder, and caft away their cords from us, Pfal. ii. 3. 1 But they should remember, that he that fitteth in the heavens fhall laugh: the Lord fhall have them in derifion, verfe 4. The day is haftening on, when be fhall Speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his fore difpleafure, ver. 5. He will break them with a rod of iron, and dafb them in pieces like a potter's veffel, ver. 9. The day is coming, when he fhall appear in power and great glory, and all the oppofers of his caufe and intereft fhall be fifted before his throne, and hear this dreadful fentence pronounced against them, Thofe mine enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and flay them before me, Luke xix. 27. 4. Then this fhould make the faints patient under all their trials and fufferings. They have no reason to be ashamed of fuffering difgrace for Chrift; for he will abundantly reward them at the great day. Whatever injuftice they have got from men, they will have righteous judgement from God. This fhould make them defpife the reproaches and cenfures of their most malicious adverfaries. There is a day appointed, wherein oppreffed innocence shall obtain the nobleft victory, and difgraced godlinefs the moft public and highest honour, They may fuffer under the tyranny of time, but they fhall reign in the kingdom of eternity. The belief of this is enough to make them glory in the fharpeft tribulations, and joyfully triumph over Satan with his perverted malignant world, Heb. xi. 25. 26. 2 Cor, iv. 17. 18. that 5. Lastly, Make the Judge your friend in time, by receiving and embracing him as your only Saviour, offered to you as fuch in the gofpel; and give all diligence ye may be found in him, clothed with his righteoufnels, in that terrible day. There will be no standing before his awful tribunal, unlefs ye be clo thed in the garments of your elder brother; and there will be no accefs into the gueft chamber, unless ye have on the wedding garment of imputed righteoufnels. Therefore kifs the Son, and be reconciled to him, and fo fhall ye appear before him as your Judge at the last day. Acquaint now yourselves with him, and be at peace; for thereby good fhall come unto you, particularly that of a folemn acquittal in the last judgement. But if ye will not now fubmit unto the fceptre of his grace and righteousness, and fubject yourfelves to him as your only rightful Lord and Sovereign, willing to have him to reign over you, and to be ruled by his laws, ye fhall not be able to stand in judgement, but be condemned with his enemies, and have your eternal habitation in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord, be perfuaded to flee from the wrath to come, and fo iniquity fhall not be your ruin. Of the Application of Redemption, TITUS iii. 5. He faved us, by-the renewing of the Holy Ghost, H AVING taken a view of our glorious Redeemer in his perfon, incarnation, offices, and his twofold ftate of humiliation and exaltation, let us now proceed to confider the application of that redemption which he purchased for us by his obedience and death. If we caft our eyes backward to the preceding words, we find, (1.) Our wretched natural ftate, wer. 3. For we ourselves alfo were fometimes foolish, difobedient, deceived, ferving divers lufts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. This is a dreadful picture of the depravity and mifery of human nature; in which not only Pagans, who lived without God in the world, but Jews, the peculiar people of God, of which nation was Paul, were deeply involved. (2.) Redemption purchased for us by Je fus Chrift, which is the way in which the love of God to man appeared. And this redemption is as extenfive as the wretched condition of man. As all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, are by nature in a ftate of wretchedness, fo redemption was purchased by Chrift for both, and both are warranted to come to Chrift for it; though none but the elect among both will obtain it. And in the text we have the application of that redemption, He faved us, &c. In which we have, 1. Sinful creatures made partakers of Chrift's redemption, He faved us. He fpeaks of himself and other faints yet in the world, whom he fays God has faved, faved by virtue of Chrift's death, from fin and wrath, put them into a ftate of, and given them a right to eternal complete falvation. 2. How they are made partakers of this redemption. Where we may obferve, (1.) The impulsive caufe; not according to our good works, these were not the moving causes of our falvation; but his own mercy: the fame mercy that moved him to fend our Redeemer, moved him to apply the redemption purchafed by him. (2.) The way and manner of accomplishing it, By the renewing of the Holy Ghoft. The Holy Spirit makes the application of that redemption, regenerating us, whereof baptifm is the fign, and fo renewing and making us new creatures. Thus Christ made the falve for our fore by his obedience and death, and the Spirit applies it. Hence we have a proper anfwer to that Quest. "How are we made partakers of the redemp❝tion purchafed by Chrift?" DocT. Anf." We are made partakers of the reσε demption purchased by Chrift, by the effectual ap"plication of it to us by his Holy Spirit." In handling this fubject I fhall, 1. Confider the purchase of this redemption. III. Apply the fubject in some practical uses. I. As to the purchase of redemption or falvation fpoken of in the text, four things are to be confidered. 1. What the redemption is. 1. It is deliverance by payment of a price, 1 Pet. i. 18. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, &c. Sinners were the lawful captives of juftice, If. xlix. 24. Shall the lawful captive be delivered? And without fhedding of blood there is no remiffion. This redemption confifts of two parts. (1.) Deliverance from evil. (2.) Reftoration to the good loft. (1.) Deliverance from fin, the chief evil, Matth. i. 21. He fhall fave his people from their fins. This is the house of bondage which our Redeemer finds all his people in, where they are in their chains held faft to their drudgery. He came to deliver them and fet them free from this flavery, Rom. vi. 6. 7. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of fin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not Serve fin. For be that is dead, is freed from fin. (2.) Deliverance from wrath, 1 Theff. i. ult.-Jefus which delivered us from the wrath to come. The wages of fin being death, even eternal deftruction of the finner in hell, all mankind were liable unto it: but now a ranfom is paid, whereby there is purchafed to finners freedom from wrath, the taking off the fentence of death lying on them, whereby they were bound over to everlasting mifery. 2. Redemption includes in it a restoration to the good loft; or a poffeffion of all that happiness and all those bleffings which men forfeited by the primitive tranfgreffion, which may be all fummed up in eternal life, begun in every believer in this world, and perfected in the world of glory. Even Jefus 2. Who purchased this redemption. Chrift, the Son of God in our nature, 1 Theff. i. ult. forecited. He took on him our nature, and became our near kinfman, that he might redeem the flaves and the captives, and redeem to them their mortgaged inheritance. For he made a full redemption; not only buying finners from under the curfe, but withal pur chafing for them the bleffing they had forfeited. This was a work too great for any lower perfon: rivers of oil would not have done it; the flock of angels could not have anfwered this ftrait of mankind. But God laid help upon one that is mighty, Pfal. lxxxix. 19. 3. What was the ranfom paid. All that Chrift did and fuffered for finners comes under the name of the ranfom. For he himself was the ranfom, 1 Tim. ii. 6. Who gave himself a ransom for all. He did not give gold, money, or lands, for us; for fuch mean things could not have been accepted: but he gave himself for us: Who gave himself for me, fays Paul, Gal. ii. 20. He gave body for body, foul for foul, bare our fins in his own body, and made his foul an offering for fin. And as our ranfom, (1.) He obeyed; gave punctual perfect obedience unto all the commands of the law, and fo fulfilled all righteousness. Whereas we were born finners, he was born holy; whereas we lived finners, keeping none of the commands, he lived finless, and kept them all. So that the law had all its demands of obedience from him. (2.) He fuffered and bare what the law threatened; and fo fatisfied juftice in the room of finners. Both thefe we have Gal. iv. 4. 5. When the fulness of time was come, God fent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons. Phil. ii. 8. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Hence when the fcripture attributes our redemption to his blood, Eph. i. 7. 1 Pet. i. 18. 19. it is not to be understood exclufively of his obedience and other fufferings, but of his bloody death, which was the completing of the ranfom; John xix. 30. Jefus cried, It VOL. II. R |