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, even himself, which is an answerable, adequate, and full price for them. (1 Pet. i. 18.) The evils from which we are redeemed or delivered are, the curse of the law, sin, Satan, the world, death, and hell. The moving cause of redemption is the love of God: John iii. 16. the procuring cause Jesus Christ: 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. the ends of redemption are, that the justice of God might be satisfied, his people reconciled, adopted, sanctified and brought to glory.

So man, as is most just,

Shall satisfy for man, be judg'd, and die;
And dying rise, and rising with him raise

His brethren, ransom'd with his own dear life.

The Hebrew word for redemption importeth somewhat more than redeeming by price; but the Greek word that is here used, and elsewhere, imports only a redeeming by price, not a redeeming by force. When God came to deal about our salvation, considering us sinners, he saith, I will have a full price, or I will not save you ; I will be satisfied to the uttermost. He will have redemption by a price; so the Greek word signifieth. He will have them bought. What I give, I give, saith he; what I sell, I sell. I will sell their salvation, and I will sell it to the uttermost; I will have a full price for it. "You are bought with a price," saith the apostle; over bought. And 1 Tim. ii. 6. it is called an adequate price, a price that if you weigh it in the balance it is heavy, it weighs down the other, it is sufficient for it; it was a full price. In Rom, iii. 24, &c. you shall find there that when God came to justify a sinner, he saith, he will be just too: I would fain save the sinner, but I would be just too. Therefore he will have a price, a full price; and therefore it is called redemption by price. Dr. Goodwin.

That which I call, and that rightly, the mysterious act of our redemption, is Christ's sufferings as a common, though a particular person; and as a sinner, though always completely righteous. That he suffered as a common person, is true. By common,

I mean a public person, or one that presents the body of mankind in himself. This a multitude of scriptures bear witness to, especially that fifth chapter to the Romans; where, by the Apostle he is set before us, as the head of all the elect; even as Adam was once head of all the world. Thus he lived, and thus he died;

and this was a mysterious act.

And that he should die as a sinner, when yet himself "did no sin, nor had any guile found in his mouth," made this act more mysterious. That he died as a sinner, is plain: "He hath made him to be sin.” “And the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. That, then, as to his own person, he was completely sinless, is also as truly manifest, and that by a multitude of Scrip

tures.

Now I say, that Christ Jesus should be thus considered, and thus die, was the great mystery of God. Hence Paul tells us, that when he preached Christ crucified, he preached not only the "Wisdom of God," but the " Wisdom of God in a mystery," even his hidden wisdom: for, indeed, this wisdom is hidden, and kept close from the fowls of the air.

It is also so mysterious, that it goes beyond the reach of all men, except those to whom an understanding is given of God to appre hend it.

That one particular man should represent all the elect in himself; and that the most righteous should die as a sinner, yea, as a sinner by the hand of a just and holy God, is a mystery of the greatest depth.

But when we view thy strange design,

To save rebellious worms,
Where vengeance and compassion join
In their divinest forms:

Here the whole Deity is known,

Nor dares a creature guess

Which of the glories brightest shone,

Bunyan.

The justice or the grace.

WESLEY.

ATONEMENT.
(4th Link.)

The great work of redemption (as far as regarded the price to be paid for our ransom) being now "finished," we are naturally led forward to the consideration of the unspeakable advantages which accrue to man from it. And the first of these appears to be Atone ment, or reconciliation with God. For it was necessary, that after Christ had offered himself up as our sacrifice, he should go into the "holy place," as did the high-priest of the Jews, to sprinkle the blood upon the mercy-seat, to represent our cause before the throne of his Father, and to make atonement or reconciliation" for the sins of his people."

And they brought forth the he-goats for the sin-offering before the king and the congregation; and they laid their hands upon them; and the priests killed them; and they made reconciliation with their blood upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Israel. 2 Chron. xxix. 23.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Lev. xvii. 11.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Rom. v. 8-11.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled

to God.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor. v. 18-21.

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

And you that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,

In the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight. Col. i. 19–22.

Father! to me restore

That glory which was mine before all time,
Or ere the world was made, and man fell off
From his obedience, now at length redeem'd
From sin by my Atonement, and made heir
Of life eternal, purchas'd with my blood.
The act of mediation is complete;

Thy work is finish'd, and thy Name gone forth
To these of thine election: thine they were,

To me thou gav'st them; and they have receiv'd,
And kept as faithful witnesses thy word;

For them I

pray.

CUMBERLAND.

Atonement is the satisfying divine justice by Jesus Christ giving himself a ransom for us, undergoing the penalty due to our sins, and thereby releasing us from that punishment which God might justly inflict upon us. Rom. v. 11. The Hebrew word signifies covering, and intimates that our offences are, by a proper atonement, covered from the avenging justice of God. Buck.

The Feast of Expiation among the Jews, called by our translators the Day of Atonement, was held on the tenth day of Tini, or the seventh month of the Jewish year, answering to part of our September and October. It was instituted by God himself. Lev. xxiii. 27, &c. On that day, the High-priest, the figure or type of Jesus Christ, entered into the most holy place, and confessed his sins;

and, after several ceremonies, made an atonement for all the people, to wash them from their sins. English Encyclopædia.

Because God intended to make a full display of the terrors of his justice, and his divine resentment for the violation of his law; therefore he appointed his own Son to satisfy for the breach of it, by becoming a proper sacrifice of expiation or atonement. Now, both among Jews and heathens, the original notion and design of an expiatory sacrifice is, when some other creature or person is put in the room or place of the transgressor; and the punishment or pain due to the transgressor is transferred to that other person or creature. Therefore beasts were slain for the offences of men, who were supposed to deserve death. And when any person became a surety for a city or nation that was defiled with sin, among the heathens, that person was substituted in their room, and so devoted to death. So the Son of God became a surety for sinful men. It pleased the Father to make him their sacrifice, and substituted him in their stead. God ordained that he should put himself into their circumstances, as far as was possible, with a due condescendency to his superior character; and that he should sustain, as near as possible, the very same pains and penalties which sinful man had incurred. Since tribulation and anguish of soul and body, a sense of the wrath of God, and death, were the appointed penalties of the sin of man; therefore he determined that his own Son should pass through all these: and since the law curses all that continue not in all the commands of it; therefore Christ was made a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law. Gal. iii. 13. Hereby he gave a most awful and sensible demonstration to this visible world of mankind, and, perhaps, much more to the invisible world of angels and devils, how dreadful a thing it is to break the law of God; what infinite evil is contained in sin; and at what a terrible rate it must be expiated and atoned for.

The Son of God being immortal, could not sustain all these penalties of the law which man had broken, without taking the mortal nature of man upon him-without assuming flesh and blood. Thus his incarnation was necessary, that he might be a proper surety, substitute, and representative of man, who had sinned; and that