moved not God to grant us deliverance from the punishment of sin, yet it moved us to accept of it being offered, and to believe in Christ.'

That is; the blood of Christ, being paid as a price of our redemption, hath no effect in respect of him to whom it is paid, but only in respect of them for whom it is paid; than which imagination nothing can be more ridiculous.

4. The means of application of the redemption mentitioned, or participation in respect of us, is faith: It is dià πίστεως ἐν αἵματι αὐτοῦ, of this we have no occasion to speak.

5. The means of communication on the part of God, is in these words, ὅν προέθετο ὁ Θεὸς ἱλαστήριον ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation.' God set him forth for this end and purpose; the word "ρоɛTо, may design various acts of God: As,

1. His purpose and determination, or decree of giving Christ; whence our translators have in the margin rendered it 'fore-ordained,' as the word is used, Eph. i. 9. v πρоdεто iv aurų, which he fore-purposed in himself.' Or,

2. God's proposal of him before-hand, in types and sacrifices to the Jews; the preposition pò being often in composition used in that sense in this epistle, chap. iii. 9. xi. 35. xv. 4. Or,

3. For the actual exhibition of him in the flesh, when God sent him into the world. Or,

4. It may refer to the open exposition and publication of him in the world by the gospel; for as we shall afterward shew, the ensuing words hold out an allusion to the ark, which now in Christ the veil being rent, is exposed to the open view of believers: hence John tells us, Rev. xi. 19. when the temple was opened, 'there was seen in it the ark of the testament;' which, as it was not at all in the second temple, the true ark being to be brought in, no more was it to be seen upon the opening of the temple in the first, where it was, being closed in the Holiest of Holies; but now in the ordinances of the gospel, the ark is perspicuous; because Jeòç podero, God hath set it forth to believers.

Now he was set forth iλaornpiov, a propitiation.' There is none but have observed, that this is the name of the covering of the ark, or the mercy-seat, that is applied to Christ; Heb. ix. 5. but the true reason and sense of it hath scarce

been observed; ours generally would prove from hence, that Christ did propitiate God by the sacrifice of himself, that may have something from the general notice of the word, referred to the sacrificia' iλaorika (whereof afterward) but not from the particular intimated. The mercy-seat did not atone God for the sins that were committed against the law that was in the ark, but declared him to be atoned and appeased. That this is the meaning of it, that, as the mercy-seat declared God to be atoned, so also is Christ set forth to declare, that God was atoned, not to atone him, Socinus contends at large, but to the utter confusion of his cause. For,

1. If this declares God to be pacatus,' and 'placatus,' then God was provoked, and some way was used for his atonement. And,

2. This is indeed the true import of that type, and the application of it here by our apostle. The mercy-seat declared God to be appeased; but how? By the blood of the sacrifice that was offered without, and brought into the holy place; the high-priest never went into that place, about the worship of God, but it was with the blood of that sacrifice, which was expressly appointed to make atonement; Lev. xvi. God would not have the mercy-seat once seen, nor any pledge of his being atoned, but by the blood of the propitiatory sacrifice. So it is here; God sets out Jesus Christ as a propitiation; declares himself to be appeased and réconciled; but how? by the blood of Christ; by the sacrifice of himself; by the price of redemption which he paid. This is the intendment of the apostle; Christ by his blood, and the price he paid thereby, with the sacrifice he made, having atoned God, or made atonement with him for us, God now sets him forth, the veil of the temple being rent, to the eye of all believers, as the mercy-seat wherein we may see God fully reconciled to us. And this may serve for the vindication of the testimony to the truth insisted on; and this is the same with 2 Cor. iii. 17.

It would be too long for me to insist in particular, on the full vindication of the other testimonies, that are used for the confirmation of this truth. I shall give them therefore together in such a way, as that their efficacay to the purpose in hand, may be easily discerned.

1. We are bought by Christ, saith the apostle; nyopάodηte,

6

'ye are bought,' 1 Cor. vi. 20. but this buying may be taken metaphorically for a mere deliverance, as certainly it is, 2 Pet. ii. 1. denying the Lord that bought them: i. e. delivered them, for it is spoken of God the Father. It may be so, the word may be so used, and therefore to shew the propriety of it here, the apostle adds rñs runs, 'with a price; ye are bought with a price. To be bought with a price, doth nowhere signify to be barely delivered, but to be delivered with a valuable compensation for our deliverance; but what is this price wherewith we are bought? 1 Pet. i. 18. Not with silver or gold,' but riuíq aiμarı xpiσrov; with the 'precious honourable blood of Christ:' why rípov aipa, 'the precious blood?' That we may know, that in this business it was valued at a sufficient rate for our redemption; and it did that, which in temporal civil redemption is done by silver and gold, which are given, as a valuable consideration for the captive. But what kind of price is this blood of Christ? It is λúrpov Matt.xx. 28. that is, a price of redemption; whence it is said, that he gave himself for us;' va λvrpwonTai Ĥμãs, Tit. ii. 14. that he might "fetch us off with a ransom :' but it may be that it is called Xúrpov, not that he put himself in our stead, and underwent what was due to us; but that his death was as it were a price, because thereon we were delivered. Nay, but his life was λúrpov properly, and therefore he calls it also ἀντίλυτρον, 1 Tim. ii. 6. ἀντὶ in composition signifies either opposition, as 1 Pet. ii. 25. or substitution and commutation, Matt. ii. 22. in the first sense, here it cannot be taken, therefore it must be in the latter; he was ȧvríλvтρov: that is, did so pay a ransom, that he himself became that which we should have been, as it is expressed, Gal. iii. 13. He 'redeemed us from the curse, being made a curse for us?' to whom he paid this price was before declared, and the apostle expresseth it, Eph. v. 2. What now is the issue of all this? we have redemption thereby ; i. 7. 'In whom we have ἀπολύτρωσιν διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ, redemption by bis blood; as it is again asserted in the same words, Col. i. 14. But how came we by this redemption? He obtained it of God for us, he entered into heaven, αἰωνίαν λύτρωσιν εὑράμενος, having 'found, or obtained everlasting redemption for us;' by the price of his blood he procured this deliverance at the hand of God.

And that we may know that this effect of the death

of Christ is properly towards God, what the immediate issue of this redemption is, is expressed. It is forgiveness of sins;' Eph. i. 7. Col. i. 13. Rom. iii. 24, 25.

And this is as much as is needful to the first notion of the death of Christ, as a price and ransom, with the issues of it, and the confirmation of our first argument from thence for the satisfaction of Christ.

CHAP. XXIX.

Of reconciliation by the death of Christ as it is a sacrifice.

THE next consideration of the death of Christ, is of it as a sacrifice; and the proper effect thereof is reconciliation by his death as a sacrifice.

1. Reconciliation in general, is the renewal of lost friendship and peace between persons at variance. To apply this to the matter treated of, the ensuing positions are to be premised.

1. There was at first in the state of innocency, friendship and peace between God and man. God had no enmity against his creature: he approved him to be good and appointed him to walk in peace, communion, confidence, and boldness with him; Gen. iii. Nor had man, on whose heart the law and love of his Maker was written, any enmity against his Creator, God, and rewarder.

2. That by sin there is division, separation and breach of peace and friendship introduced between God and the creature; Isa. lix. 2. 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you;' Isa. lxiii. 10. They rebelled against him, therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them.' There is no peace to the wicked, saith my God;' Isa. xlviii. 22. and therefore it is that upon a delivery from this condition we are said (and not before) to 'have peace with God; Rom. v. 1.

3. That by this breach of peace and friendship with God, was alienated from the sinner, so as to be angry with and to renounce all peace and friendship with him, conred as such, and in that condition. He that believeth not,

the wrath of God abides on him;' John iii. 36. And therefore by nature, and in our natural condition, we are 'children of wrath;' Eph. ii. 3. that is, obnoxious to the wrath of God, that abides upon unbelievers; that is, unreconciled

persons.

4. This enmity on the part of God, consists

1. In the purity and holiness of his nature, whence he cannot admit a guilty defiled creature to have any communion with him; he is a God of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; Heb. i. 13. And sinners cannot serve him because he is a 'holy God, a jealous God, that will not forgive their transgressions nor their sins;' Josh. xxiv. 19.

2. In his will of punishing for sin, Rom. i. 32. It is the judgment of God, that they which commit sin are worthy of death;' and this from the righteousness of the thing itself; 2 Thess. i. 6. It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulations to sinners: he is not a God that hath pleasure in iniquity;' Psal. v. 4-6.

3. In the sentence of his law, in the establishing and execution whereof his truth and honour were engaged; 'In the day thou eatest thou shalt die ;' Gen. ii. 17. And cursed is every one that continueth not,' &c. Deut. xxvii. 29. And of this enmity of God against sin and sinners, as I have elsewhere at large declared, there is an indelible persuasion abiding on the hearts of all the sons of men, however by the stirrings of lust and craft of Satan, it may be more or less blotted in them. Hence,

4. As a fruit and evidence of this enmity, God abominates their persons, Psal. i. 4-6. rejects and hates their duties and ways, Prov. xv. 8, 9. and prepares wrath and vengeance for them to be inflicted in his appointed time; Rom. ii. 5. All which make up perfect enmity on the part of God.

2. That man was at enmity with God as on his part, I shall not need to prove; because I am not treating of our reconciliation to God, but of his reconciliation to us.

5. Where there is such an enmity as this, begun by offence on the one part, and continued by anger and purpose to punish on the other, to make reconciliation is properly to propitiate, and turn away the anger of the person offended, and thereby to bring the offender into favour with him