A Discourse of Christian Religion, Part 4
CHRIST THE Great Redeemer of Body and Soul.
1 COR. VI. 20.
For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
CHAP. I.
FOR ye are bought with a price, &c. i. e. with the Price of the Blood of Christ, who has redeemed us to himself, and purchased an everlasting Right in, and Dominion over our bodies and souls; therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Or thus:
Obs. The absolute Dominion that God has over us, and the special right that he hath in us, and to us, not only as our Creator, but as our Redeemer, lays a strong Obligation upon us to glorifie God in our body, and in our Spirit, which are his.
'Tis fit that man should have the use of his own things, what he has bought and paid for; we stand much upon our Property, would not have that invaded, meum & tuum must be preserved inviolable to every one: Pray see you don't invade God's property, which you cannot do without manifest injustice to God, and wrong to your selves; we are depending Creatures, because we are Creatures; our being, well-being, our safety, comfort, and sufficiency lyes in another, and not in our selves. A Creature separated and cut off from all Divine influences, must needs wither away and sink into nothing; God hath bought you, have a care of selling your selves away from him, into other hands, of alienating your selves from God, as if you could shift well enough without him; have a care of living to your selves, of bringing forth fruit to your selves, Hos. 10. 1. All that you are and have, is God's, and all that you do, should be for God. 'Tis a rule in Civil Law, quodcunque per servum adquiritur, id Domino adquiri: Whatever a Servant gets, he gets to, and for his Master; and that a Servant running away from his Master, does furtum sui facere, he steals away himself, he takes away that which is none of his own; a Servant was reckoned among the Goods, Utensils, and Possessions of his Master; he had nothing at his own disposal, all was his Masters, and for his use: So are all Believers, vessels of honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work, 2 Tim. 2. 21. Whose they are, and whom they serve, Acts 27. 23. Did we better consider whose we are, we should quickly see whom we ought to serve: They live without God indeed, who cast him off, will not be governed by him, but resolve to live as they list, to speak and act as they please; our lips are our own, Psal. 12. 4. Our hands, our strength, our estates are our own, who is Lord over us? I shall from this Text shew you whose you are, to whom you belong, who is your Lord and Master, to whom you are accountable for every thing done in the Body; even to him who hath bought you, and hath the first right to every thing that is your; his servants must serve him, Rev. 22. 3.
That I may the better clear up the interest and right that God hath in you, and the Service and Duty you owe to him as your Lord and Master, I shall cast all I have to say from this Text, under these following heads, viz.
1. Who are they, who are said to be bought.
2. Who was the Buyer.
3. What was the price paid by Christ for our Redemption.
4. Who set the price of our Redemption so high.
5. To whom was the price paid.
6. For whom, and to what end was it paid.
7. How by the Law of Redemption, the Redeemed pass over Body and Soul into the possession of the Redeemer.
First, Who are they who are said to be bought.
Ye are bought, i. e. The believing Corinthians, and all other Believers, whose hearts God has drawn to close in with Christ, by a true saving Faith, as their only Redeemer and Saviour. Till Faith be wrought in us, we can have no sure evidence that we are among God's Redeemed ones; 'tis Faith only that tells us this from the word of God, ye are bought; this implies that we were sold under sin, reduced to a miserable state of Bondage by our Apostacy from God, which none could deliver us from, but Jesus Christ our mighty Redeemer and Saviour.
Secondly, Who was the Buyer.
Christ our Redeemer, who was God and Man. The right of Redemption among the Jews lay in the next Kinsman, who was to purchase the Widow's land, and to marry her person, Deut. 25. 5. comp. with Ruth 4. 3, 4. That Christ might claim kindred with us, in order to a Marriage afterwards to be compleated, he took part of our flesh, Heb. 2. 14. A body hast thou prepared me, Heb. 10. 5. I am willing to take it up, lo, I come to dye in that Body for all the Elect; that having overcome death, I may be Married to them, and become their Head and Husband; had an Angel offered himself, supposing him otherwise qualified, he could not have been our Redeemer, because he must be akin to us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, who undertakes that Office; therefore I say, Christ took up that Body prepared of the Father, died in it, rose in it, ascended into Heaven in it, is now glorified in it, to shew what he intended to bring fallen Man unto, as many as should believe in him.
Thirdly, What was the price paid by Christ for our Redemption.
Viz. His own Blood, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. Pretium pretiorum, the greatest price that ever was paid for any thing that ever was bought; all the Gold and Silver in the World heaped together, is not to be compared to the value of the Blood of Christ; by this you see the great love of Christ to the Souls of Men, who in themselves were hopeless and helpless; could do nothing towards the Redemption of their own Souls, but Christ being God and Man, pours out his Soul as man, and takes it up again as God, when he had done his work, that we might have a sure ground for our Faith and Hope to rest upon; not doubting but as Christ raised himself from the dead, so he will also raise us at the last day, who dye in him; that we may live by him, with him, and upon him for ever; who is the Resurrection and the life, as his death is imputed to us, and spiritually acted over upon us, in the mortification of sin; so is his life actually communicated in some degree to all Believers here, by the same spirit that dwells in him, and in them; and this eternal spirit of life in Christ will never cease, working higher and higher in the mystical Body of Christ, diffusing it self more abundantly through all the Members, till Mortallity be quite swallowed up of life; this will be more manifest, when Christ, who is our life shall appear. You see that God went not out of himself for a Mediator, but appointed the Second person of the Trinity to that Office, that the whole transaction between God and Man, might go through his hands, who is both God and Man.
Fourthly, Who set he price of our Redemption so high?
1. God the Father, who also found out this Ransom; he knew the whole world could not raise it; it must come out of the Treasury of Heaven; God himself was at the charge of our Redemption, and whatever it cost him, was resolved to effect it; and therefore he spared not his own Son, but parts with the greatest Jewel in the Crown of Heaven, to buy off sinful man from that Thraldom and Bondage he was involved in, and could never have extricated himself out of.
2. The Law sets the price by consequence, not that the Law provides a Mediator; the Law seeks its own satisfaction, in saving, and damning men; it promises Salvation upon our perfect Obedience, and all who come short of that, it threatens with eternal Damnation; Cursed is every one, &c. In the day thou eatest, thou shalt die. Nothing does establish this Law, and give it its full course towards Believers, but faith in Christ Jesus, who was made a curse, and died according to Law for our sins; and being risen again, he brings those whom he freed from the curse of the Law, under the blessing of the Gospel, giving eternal Life as a free-gift to all who thankfully receive it from his hand by faith, owning him as the Author and Donor of it.
3. The nature of the Offence, as committed against an infinite God, requires a price equivalent to it, of infinite value; none but God could satisfie God; the wrath of God is asswaged by the blood of God; and that he might bleed, he became Man; the Second Person of the Trinity, as incarnate, died for man, tasted death for us in our nature, which he still kept hypostatically untied to his own Divine Person; for Christ by dying, did not lay down humane Nature, but humane Life only, which he took up again, and now lives for ever as a quickning Spirit; communicating eternal Life to Believers, through his humane nature, now glorified in Heaven: Therefore Christ is said to be our life, Col. 3. 4. And this life is in his son, 1 John 5.11. Hid with Christ in God, Col. 3. 3. The life which we derive from mere humane nature, will quickly fail; but the life which we derive by faith form the Divine Person of the Son of God, is everlasting, John 3. 16. As the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself, John 5. 26. i. e. He is life essentially, the essence of the Deity is communicated by the Father to Christ incarnate, and so he becomes the Fountain of life to us; therefore let all those who hope to inherit eternal life, join themselves by faith to Christ the only Fountain of life: How little of this hidden life does appear in the effects of it among Professors! We live more by sense than faith; very solicitous about natural life, but how few do carry it as those who have eternal life abiding in them? 1 John 3. 15. Living in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God, Gal. 2. 20. Who fell a Sacrifice for our sins, but rose again, and now lives for ever; And gives eternal life to as many as the father hath given him, John 17. 2. He has undertaken to the Father to draw all the Elect into a participation of that eternal life, which he as man possess now in Heaven; and because he lives, we shall live for ever in him.
The Second person in the Trinity died as a man in our human nature, to satisfie the Law; and to evidence the reality of his death, he lay buried three days in the Grave, he was alive as God, when dead as Man; what a profound Mystery is this, that the Deity of Christ should suffer his human Body to fall under the power of death for three days; this shews the strength of sin, the strength of the law, and the strength of the wrath of God: that so great a man as Christ was, could not stand under, and live; die he must by the sanction of the law, being found in the likeness of sinful flesh, Rom. 8. 3. bearing our sins in his own Body on the Tree; but the dignity of his person was such, and the extremity of his sufferings so great, that his three days death, was equivalent to eternal death, he did that in three days, which a damned sinner in Hell cannot effect to eternity; for that which is doing to eternity, can never be actually done and compleated, i. e. Christ gave full satisfaction to the Law in three days, and therefore could not longer be detained in the Grave; there was no Law nor Reason for it, having paid the utmost farthing of our whole Debt, the Prison-doors were opened, and Christ let out: That which keeps the Damned in Hell for ever, is, because they can never fully satisfie the law of God by all their sufferings, therefore they must suffer on still to eternity; but Christ by one offering, hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, Heb. 10. 14. Christ could have chose whether he would have died or no, but for this end he came into the World, and did voluntarily yield up himself to the Death of the Cross; but rising the Third Day he lives for ever, and has brought eternal life into human Nature, to be communicated to all his Members; who cannot forfeit that life which they derive from the second Adam, as we all did that which we derived from the first Adam. In Adam all die, and in Christ all are made alive, 1 Cor. 15. 22.
CHAP. II.
To whom was this PRICE paid?
FIfthly. To whom was this Price paid? viz. Into the hands of God the Father, to appease his wrath under which we were, Joh. 3. 36. God's justice requires this, 'tis foreign, the judgment of God, that sinners are worthy of death, Rom. 1. 32. To this end Christ is our propitiation, Rom. 3. 25. Reconciling God to us, that we may be received into his favour again; hence God declares in the new Covenant, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness; and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more, Heb. 8. 12. Sing, O ye heavens, &c. Isa. 44. 23. vide. That satisfaction that Christ gave to the Justice of God, lay in his bearing the Punishment of our sins, which is the wrath of God in all the dreadful effects of it. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 24. He was made a curse for us, Gal. 3. 13. Died for us, Mat. 20. 28. Isa. 53. 5. Was cut off for our sins, Dan. 9. 26. Death was required to make satisfaction for sin; In the day thou eatest, &c. The Wages of sin is death, Rom. 6. 23. There is no escaping this death for us, but by dealing with the Justice of God in some way, that may satisfie Justice and save the sinner; this Christ undertook, and by his own Death effected for us. He gave himself for our sins, Gal. 1. 4. His Blood was the Price of our Redemption. Price here is not taken (as vulgarly) for Money, but whatever may satisfie him in whose hands the captive is; that is the Price of Redemption: God does not seek to make a gain of us; that which he stand upon, is the vindication of the honour of his Law and Justice, the maintaining his Truth and Faithfulness. To declare his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth ion Jesus, Rom. 3. 26.
Christ did not pay the Price of our Redemption to the Devil, but to God the Father, who had power to condemn us, and as a Judge to detain us in prison, till his Justice was satisfied; therefore Christ deals with the Law-giver, takes the penalty upon himself. Whilst the condemning power of the Law is in force against us, the Devil has a right in us, and to us, as God's Executioner by virtue of that Law which casts us into his hands; but when the Law is satisfied, and the Curse taken off, the Devil's claim ceases; where there is no condemnation, there can be no punishment inflicted: Just punishment is according to Law; but where no sentence of judgment can be passed, there can be no execution of the minatory part of the Law upon that man; Currat lex, & fiat justitia; but where the due course of Law is stopped, and by some means prevented, there can be no trial, and consequently no judgment pass upon that man unto condemnation: The Devil detains us Captives, not in his own right, but in God's, whose Prisoners we are.
Our Redemption by Christ, is a spiritual Redemption, both of our Bodies and Souls; as we are said to be sold under sin by our own default, so we are said to be Redeemed or freed from sin, by Christ's giving satisfaction for our offences; the Price was paid to God, Christ offered up himself to God, Heb. 9. 14. Who as a Righteous Judge has power to cast Body and Soul into Hell: 'Twas his Divine Majesty that we offended, 'twas his wrath we lay under, Rom. 1. 18. John 3. 36. We don't ask pardon of the Devil, but of God; 'tis to his judgment that we are bound over, Gal. 3. 22. Rom. 3. 9. Rom. 11. 32. 'Twas God that cast the Devils into Hell, 2 Pet. 2. 4. So he delivers Impenitent sinners up to the Devil as his Executioner, as that Lord delivered the unjust servant to the tormentors, Mat. 18. 34. And the Judge to the officer, Mat. 5. 25. The power of the Devil over us, mentioned Col. 1. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 26. is but a secondary power derived from God the Judge, as Christ said of his Murtherers, You could have no power over me, if it were not given from above, John 19. 11. 'Tis God who has power over all plagues, Rev. 16. 9. Even over death it self, Heb. 5. 7. He hath the keys of hell and death, Rev. 1. 18. When we are redeemed from the curse of the law, and from the wrath of God, 1 Thes. 1. 10. we are Redeemed from all the adjuncts and effects of these, as a vain conversation, from the power of Sin, Satan, and Death: Our Captivity lies in our alienation and distance from God; and when we are brought nigh by the Blood of Christ, and reconciled to God, the ransom being paid by Christ, we are delivered from the wrath of God, and all the consequents of it. As in Civil Corporal Redemptions, the Price is paid, not to the Jaylor, to the Hangman, to the Tormentors, but to the Supreme Judge, in whose power the Prisoner is; if he be discharged by the Judge, he is freed of course from his Chains, from the Dungeon, and the noysome stench of it.
Thus you see how we are bought with a Price; not one Penny or Farthing of this comes out of our own Purses, Isa 45. 13. Isa. 53. 3. No good thought, no good word, no good work of our own, no not any act of our own Faith does belong to this sum, as part of the Price. We buy, but without money, Isa. 55. 1. what is so bought, is freely given: The hope of eternal Glory, is proposed in the Gospel as a motive to, and reward of our good works; but still 'tis Faith in Christ alone, that lets us into this hope, begets it in us, and being justified by Faith, perfectly justified in this life, our good works, though imperfect in themselves, are rewarded of mere grace; yet the imperfection of them makes them uncapable of a reward from Justice; and if that imperfection were not covered and pardoned, Grace it self would turn away from them, and disregard them; but being justified from the guilt of all our sins, God remembers them no more, he will not see iniquity in Jacob; there it is, but God having pardoned it, he passes it by, and overlooks it, so as not to charge it upon us to our condemnation. God considers the Holiness of his children, as if it were by it self, shining out under the covering of all their infirmities, through their Faith and Sincerity: 'Tis not the degree, but the truth of their Holiness, that God takes most notice of; he is pleased to see the fruits of his own Spirit in Believers; he looks through their good works, upon their Faith from whence they spring, and so accepts both of their persons and their works for his Son's sake. Though Faith be an appointed means instrumentally necessary to apply and put on Christ, by whom alone we are justified in the sight of God; we shall never be the less justified for deriving all from Christ alone; converting our own inherent holiness to those proper uses the Gospel hath assigned it unto, viz. the glory of God in this World, a testimony of our obedience and thankfulness to him, an example to others, provoking them to good works, and a meet fruit of true, saving, justifying Faith; these are motives strong enough to good works, without advancing them into the room and place of Christ, robbing him of the Glory of our full and free Redemption.
What the Socinians object against this, purposely to overthrow the satisfaction of Christ, denying any Price to be really paid to the Father for our Redemption, I shall speak to next time, and clear the Text from their Cavils.
The Socinians, that they may overthrow the necessity of Satisfaction for Sin, deny the Divinity of Christ, and that he paid any Price to the Father, for our Redemption: They say the word Redemption is but a Metaphor, signifying only simple deliverance or freedom from Bondage, without any Satisfaction given to any; they make Mercy and Justice no essential Properties in God, but only mere voluntary effects of his Free-will, because God, say they, may pardon sin without satisfaction, by an Arbitrary Act of his Absolute Power: For this they quote many Scriptures, speaking of God's redeeming his people out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, Deut. 7. 8. Deut. 15. 15. Neh. 1. 10. Jer. 15. 21.
Answ. 'Tis granted, that the Hebrew word used in all those formentioned places, is foreign which signifies redimere absque pretio, and 'tis applied to civil, bodily, temporal Redemptions; but when the Holy-Ghost speaks of our Spiritual Redemption by Christ, either in the thing it self, or in the Type: He uses another word foreign redimere pretio: So Exod. 15. 13. foreign redimisti, That this word foreign signifies to redeem by price, appears plainly, Lev. 25. 49, 50, 51. in buying the Field of Naomi, Ruth 4. 6. and the field of Hanameel, for money, seventeen shekels of silver, I weighed him the money, Jer. 32. 7, 8, 9, 10. The same word is applied to Christ, Gen. 48. 16. The angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. The Angel in the precedent verse is called God. And he blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day; the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads. Hence Christ is called our foreign, Isa. 43. 14. Thus saith the Lord your redeemer, the holy One of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts, Isa. 44. 6. foreign, Redemptor ejus. This word foreign, signifies a near kinsman, as well as a Redeemer, Ruth 4. 4. Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, foreign, a Redeemer, foreign, Redemptor propinquus, Ruth 3. 12. a near kinsman: Christ was both, Heb. 2. 14. ad finem, vide.
So in the New Testamen, the word used for Redemption, or to redeem, is, foreign, from foreign, forum, to buy, as in a market, with ready money, as in the Text, foreign, Ye are bought with a price. So Rev. 5. 9. Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. And Rev. 14. 3, 4. The Hundred forty four thousand, were foreign, redeemed, or bought from the earth, and from among men. Hence foreign, Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, emercatus, as Merchants who give a valuable consideration for the Commodities they buy; so Christ, emendo, exemit, has redeemed us by buying us off: The same word you have, Gal. 4. 5. God sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the Law, by laying down a sufficient price. Hence Christ is said to give his life a ransom for many, Mat. 20. 28. He gave himself a ransom for all, 1 Tim. 2. 6. The words used in those places are, foreign, from foreign, solvo, to loose one from his bands, as Paul was, Acts 22. 30. foreign, he loosed him from his bands. It signifies also to loose from sin, by the Free Pardon of it; foreign; Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in Heaven, Mat. 16. 19. The same word is applied to Christ, 1 Pet. 1. 18, 19. foreign: Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ; or with the honourable, invaluable Blood of Christ; foreign.
As Servants under the Law were redeemed by Price or Compensation, Lev. 25. 52. so are we under the Gospel; we are Servi emptitii, bought Servants.
By all this it appears, That our Redemption by Christ is not a bare simple deliverance and freedom from Misery, by a meer act of Power only, but a real Price was paid. It pleased God to redeem man in a way of Justice, as most agreeable to his holy Nature, who as a Righteous God punishes sinners, Psal. 11. 5, 6, 7. Rev. 16. 15, 16. Rom. 3. 26. Natural Conscience is convinced of the equity of this, that a sinner is worthy of death, Rom. 1. 32. Justice cannot be taken off from inflicting this Punishment, but by Satisfaction given by Christ: If sin could have been forgiven without it, Christ would never have undergone such Sufferings as he did. A Believer may plead both Mercy and Justice for the Pardon of Sin: Art thou afraid Grace will not reach thee? then know, that Justice it self will discharge thee: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died, Rom. 8. 33, 34.
CHAP. III.
SIxthly, For whom, and to what end was this Price paid?
For all the Elect, that not one of them might be lost, John 6. 39. 'Twas the love of God that procured this Ransom; God so loved the world, &c. John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 24, 25. We are brought nigh to God by the blood of Christ, Eph. 2. 13. Justice being satisfied, nothing can now obstruct the free course of his mercy towards us; Christ knew he was able to rescue us out of the power of Sin and Satan, undertook this when he laid down the ransom; but the actual accomplishment of this in us, is a work of time; many for whom Christ shed his Blood, are not presently freed from Sin and Satan; they both have power over them, till Christ by his Word and Spirit hath subdued them, and set his Elect at perfect liberty; some degrees of this liberty they attain in this World, but not their full and perfect liberty till the Resurrection; then the strong man shall be quite cast out, by one stronger than himself; then will those Scriptures, (Heb. 2. 14. Col. 2. 14, 15.) be fulfilled in us. Our Redemption by Christ, is the greatest expression of God's love to us, that ever was, Rom. 5. 8. Rom. 8. 32. Joh. 15. 13.
Seventhly, By the law of Redemption, the Redeemed pass over Body and Soul into the possession of the Redeemer, they become his, Isa. 43. 1. vide. His peculiar people, the lot of his Inheritance, Deut 4. 20. Deut. 32. 9. God calls them so, from their Redemption out of Egypt, which was a Type of our Redemption by Christ: therefore Believers are called in the New Testament, foreign a peculiar people, or a purchased people, 1 Pet. 2. 9. To buy, is to acquire, or procure unto ones self a special right in any thing so bought; thus the Church is purchased by the Blood of Christ foreign, Act. 20. 28. Possession follows Purchase, the Purchased Possession, Eph. 1. 14. foreign is to do something about us; God does clasp us round as it were, and incircle us; he draws us to himself; separating us from the rest of Mankind; These are mine, says Christ; I am the sole Proprietor; I have purchased an everlasting right in them, and dominion over them; they are my own, I am their Lord and King, they are at my disposal, 1 Cor. 7 23. I am their father and redeemer, Isa. 63. 16. A dwelling-house in a walled city, if it were not redeemed within a whole year after 'twas sold, it was established for ever to him that bought it, Levit. 25. 30. But the Saints are Christ's own for ever; as soon as he has bought them, he will never sell them, never part with them.
What right did God recover in and to us, by Redeeming us?
1. God has an original right to, and dominion over all Creatures, by the Law of Creation: Hath not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make what vessels he pleases unto honour or dishonour? Rom. 9. 21.
2. God as a Creator and Judge, hath a right to man fallen, to dispose of him according to justice, to execute his vengeance upon him, To make his power known upon vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, Rom. 9. 22. But
3. God's Justice would not permit, that man should be received into favour, and freed from that misery he had brought upon himself, 'till a sufficient Price was paid for his ransom; nothing but the Blood of Christ could quench that flaming Sword of God's just Anger, that kept man, when cast out of Paradise, from the Tree of Life. So that the right that God recovered, was for the good of man, a right to shew Mercy to the worst of Penitent sinners, without any reflection upon his Justice, That he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, Rom. 3. 26. That a Holy God should justifie a sinful man, is the greatest Mystery that ever the World heard of; but God, who works wonders, hath in his infinite Wisdom, Job 28. 23. glorified his Justice and Mercy both in our Salvation by Christ. God had a special right by Election in all his chosen Ones; but foreseeing the fall of his Elect, he provides for their Redemption in case of Transgression; Election was unto Eternal Life; but sin intervening between Election and Salvation, threatens Eternal Death, puts such a rub in the way, which must be removed, or else the Elect themselves could not be Saved; therefore that Election might stand and obtain its end, Rom. 11. 7. God provides for our Redemption, laies help upon one that is Mighty; we were chosen in him, in whom we have redemption, Eph. 1. 4, 7. God had an Eye to Christ in our Election, 'tis that makes it sure: What wonderful difficulties does Election meet with! enough, if it were possible, to hinder the Salvation even of the Elect, Mat. 24. 24. But Christ has secured them, John 10. …8. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. The end of our Redemption, was, not to rescue us quite out of the hand of God, to take us out of his power, for that cannot be; but to let us into his Love, to reconcile us to him, to bring us to a nearer conjunction with him than ever, John 17. 21. That which moved God to Redeem us, was his Love and Pity, Isa. 63. 9.
CHAP. IV.
Seventhly. How by tbe Law of Redemption, the Redeemed pass over Body and Soul into the possession of the Redeemer.
LAstly. The relation that Christ hath to, and the interest and propriety that he hath in all Believers as their Redeemer, obliges them in Reason, Justice, Equity and Conscience, to Dedicate and Devote themselves, all that they are, and have, to his Service, to Glorifie God in their Body and Spirit, which are God's.
All the Persons of the Trinity have a special Interest in the Persons of all true Believers.
1. God the Father. Their Body and Spirit are God's, says the Text, they are Redeemed unto God, Rev. 5 9.
2. God the Son, as they are Members of Christ, 1 Cor. 6. 15.
3. God the Holy Ghost, as they are the Temples of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 6. 19. 1 Cor. 3. 6. Eph. 2. 21. 2 Cor. 6. 16. The Spiritual House of God, 1 Pet. 2. 5. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, 1 Cor. 3. 17. for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Redemption, fixing such a right and propriety in the Redeemer, over the Redeemed, must necessarily imply obedience and subjection on our part; Ye are not your own. How shall we live any longer in sin? Rom. 6. 2. Being made free from sin, we should become servants of righteousness, v. 18. Believers are not sui juris, to live as they list. Rom. 14. 7, 8, 9. 1 Pet. 4. 2. For me to live is Christ, Phil. 1. 21. My business is to serve him, not to comply with the lusts of men. 1 Cor. 7. 23.
What to Glorifie God in our body? viz.
When in all our outward actions we govern our selves by the law of Christ, following the rule of his word, and the guidance of his Spirit: The Body is for the Lord, who is our Head to govern our bodies in all their motions; Christ is the Saviviour of the body, and will raise it up to eternal life, Rom. 6. 5. and make it conformable to his glorious body: Our Bodies are the Members of Christ; and as such, they ought to subject themselves to the command of the Soul under Christ, mortifying the deeds of the Body through the Spirit, Rom. 8. 13. The whole man is the temple of the Lord, 1 Cor. 3. 16. Our Bodies are, as it were, the Porch of this temple, therefore we should not touch any unclean thing, 2 Cor. 6. 16, 17. lest we grieve the Spirit of God who dwells in us. The Sanctification and Holiness of the Body, is opposed to any outward pollution of it, by which we do defile and dishonour the Body, 1 Thes. 4. 3, 4, 5. If Christ has such an undoubted right to your Bodies as they are his members, and temples of the Holy-Ghost; then be sure you keep them holy and undefiled. I need not exhort you to flee Fornication, you are all convinced of the evil of that; but the outward Attire, I will not say of whom, (Prov. 7. 10.) lest I put some to the blush, does not become serious Worshippers of the true God; a more grave, sober, modest Apparel, would convincingly testify to others, the due respect and reverence you have for the holy Spirit dwelling in you; your Bodies are the temples of the Holy-Ghost; do not then prophane these temples by antick exotick dresses, the sure emblems of a vain mind; such plumes and wethercocks as some wear upon their heads, become not the Pinacle of these Temples of the Holy-Ghost: Therefore if there be any fellowship of the Spirit, cloathe your selves as women professing Godliness; and that I may apply this to both Sexes, 1 Cor. 11. 14. I must tell you, it argues a very Effeminate age, to see so many men's head thatch'd with Womens hair; what may be brought by some, as an argument in point of health for the cutting of their own Hair, will never justifie what is put on by most in the room of it.
When you have trickt up your selves, according to the Mode and Fashion of the world, before you go forth to be seen of others, put this question to your selves, Is this to Glorifie God in my body? or will it not rather open the mouths of many to blaspheme that profession of Godliness that I have taken up? Answer it to your Consciences if you can: He that does not keep his body in a due subjection to the Spirit of Grace, will never keep his heart long in a right frame.
What to Glorifie God in our Spirit?
To serve God only with our bodies, is Hypocrisy, it must be with Body and Spirit, else our service is not reasonable service, Rom. 12. 1. If our minds are not pure in the sight of God, and our outward profession answerable thereunto in the sight of men; Paul sets forth this inward service Rom. 1. 9. God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, and with a pure conscience. 2 Tim. 1. 3. void of offence towards God. Acts 24. 16. In simplicity and godly sincerity, 2 Cor. 1. 12. When with our minds we serve the law of God, Rom. 7. 25. God is a Spirit, and will be Worshipped in spirit and truth: You have reason to enure your selves to this Spiritual worship, because ere long you will be all Spirit, when you have laid down these earthly tabernacles. I mean, it is the will of God, that the Souls of men should after death, live a while out of the body in a separate state, till the Resurrection, conversing with an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect. Though Believers now are Spiritually joined to the general Assembly of the First-born, and in the apprehensions of their Faith do rejoyce in that relation they stand in to the Church-triumphant; yet after death they will have actual communion with those blessed Spirits above; though we cannot so clearly apprehend what this happy Paradisical state is after death; yet those who are spiritually minded, conceive so much of it by Faith, as makes them long to be dissolved and to be with Christ; they grow weary of all earthly converses, waiting till their change comes, that they may enter into rest from all their Labours, and from that hard travel of Soul, which they cannot be freed from till their warfare be fully accomplish'd; then they put off their Armour as more than Conquerors, and sit down in an everlasting Peace, with palms in their hands, and crowns upon their heads, triumphing in the Grace of Christ to all Eternity.
Could we look through the dark Entry of the Grace into Eternity, lifting up our heads within the Vail, we should see a Glorious Light that would dazzle our eyes; we should have a stronger taste of the powers of the world to come. The wiser sort of Heathens were not without some thoughts of a future happy estate; they did praesentire in posterum: They had some bodings in their minds, of some great good or evil that should befal them after death. What a shame is it for Christians to be so little affected with the future eternal state of their Immortal Souls?
Believers, while they are in this world, are joyned to the Lord in one Spirit; i. e. in one spiritual body, or in the same spiritual nature with Christ, Heb. 2. 11. We live the life of Christ; the Head and the Members being acted by the same Spirit. Christians have not every one a diverse spirit, as every man hath a divers Soul, numerically distinct from the Soul of another man; but as all Members of the Body have the same Soul, though each of them divers operations, Rom. 12. 4. so we have all of us one and the same Spirit, though the operations of it be divers, 1 Cor. 12. 4, 13. Therefore if there be any fellowship of the Spirit, let us glorifie God in our bodies, and in our spirits, which are God's.