pardoned and the guilt removed then the bonds that held his Soul are loosed Thou hast loosed my bonds says David Psal 116.16 And here our redemption begins according to that of the Apostle Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins So that when God pardons sin then he is gracious and says Deliver him from going down to the pit 2. This Redemption is compleated in Salvation There is a state to which he is redeemed as well as from which The state from which is a state of Condemnation There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 The state to which is Salvation and Glory It is not enough to be redeemed from Sin and Death and Hell and Satan unless we are redeemed to God The Blood of Christ purchased positive Mercies as well as negative He doth not see the travel of his soul to satisfaction in delivering us from Hell and Satan till he hath lodged us safe in the bosom of God And therefore this is that which compleats the Song of the Beasts and Elders Rev. 5.9 Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood And therefore Redemption is spoken of in Scripture as a thing to come a priviledge to be injoyed in the next World and therefore 't is to be waited for at present Rom. 8.23 We which have the first fruits of the Spirit groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body And when is that not till the general Resurrection Therefore that is called the Day of Redemption Ephes 4.30 Ye are sealed to the Day of Redemption We have Redemption now in the application but not in full possession It is bogun but it is not perfected We are redeemed from the guilt and power of sin but not from the defilement Gal. 1.13 and penal effects of sin We are now redeemed from the curse of the Law but we are not yet possessed of all the Comforts of the Gospel The Priviledges we now injoy are the Fruits of Christ's purchase but we do not injoy all which he hath purchased We have a right by Faith to the whole inheritance but we cannot as yet inherit upon that right Though Redemption be perfectly wrought by Christ yet it is applied but in part in the present state We must stay till the great Resurrection before we can be put into full possession This Body that is sown in dishonour 1 Cor. 15.43 must first be raised in glory and this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality Vers 54. and then as Elihu says in the words following the Text his flesh shall be fresher then a Childs Job 33 25 26. he shall return to the days of his youth And then God will be favourable to him and he shall see his face with joy All this is included in the Deliverance here mentioned 1 Thess 1.10 Eph. 1.14 It is not only a deliverance from wrath to come but a redemption to the purchased possession This Ransom reaches from Death to Life from Satan to God from the Pit to Paradise from Hell to Heaven It is such a Deliverance as carries a compleat Salvation in it and nothing short of this can be fully expressive of that Grace which found it out For he is gracious and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a Ransom And that brings me to a third Query Quest. 3. What Ransom is this that God is said to find and upon the account of which Souls are delivered from the Pit A Ransom properly is that which purchases Redemption It is a Redemption by price To be redeemed and to be ransomed is the same thing The redeemed shall walk there and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with Songs Isa 35.9 10. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that is the Ransom in the Text his Merit and Righteousness both in doing and suffering is the price of our Redemption and that from the Curse of the Law from the Justice of God from the Power of Satan and from Death spiritual and eternal There is a redemption by power and a redemption by price We are redeemed out of the Soul destroying hand of Satan by power but we are redeemed out of the Sin revenging hand of God by price And that price is no common price it is no less then the Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Therefore Christ is called the Redeemer Isa 59.7 The Redeemer shall come to Zion And under this Title Job appropriates him to himself Job 19.25 I know that my Redeemer lives And he is said to obtain eternal redemption for us Hebr. 9.12 And this is the Ransom in the Text and it implies two things 1. The Misery of the state sin had brought us into A state of Bondage and Thraldom a state of Death and Damnation That is the case of every Son of Adam by the Fall all Humane Nature was dropping into everlasting Destruction 2. It implies the voluntariness of Christ in giving himself for a Ransom Had not his undertaking been free and voluntary it could not have been meritorious For he who acts by constraint cannot merit by his doing He who parts with what he cannot keep can merit nothing by parting with it The Apostle tells us Rom. 4.4 what Merit is It is such an adjunct of obedience as whereby the reward is reckoned not of grace but of debt God in the covenant of Redemption having proposed to Christ a Law of Obedience with promises of such and such Rewards upon condition of his fulfilling the Obedience required and Christ having performed that Obedience hence the reward is reckoned to him of debt For whatever was promised to Christ upon a Condition he performing that Condition might righteously claim as the reward of his Merit There are two things in the Death of Christ payment and purchase satisfaction and procuration By the one we are ransomed from Misery by the other we are intitled to Glory The first fruit of his Death is Deliverance wrought the next is an Inheritance purchased Now the blood of Christ had been unavailable to both had it not been laid down freely Had he been compelled to die he could not have merited ought for us by dying What was the fruit of Force could not have been meritorious Therefore he says No man takes my life from me I lay down of my self John 10.18 And from the voluntariness of his Death in pursuance of the eternal compact between the Father and the Son and the insinite value of it as being the blood of God so it became a sufficient price not only to ransom us but to purchase all grace and glory for us O how great is the Grace of Christ how should the
but the precious blood of the Son of God can be a Ransom Infer 2. How is the Wisdom of God to be admired in the contrivance of such a way for the ransoming and redeeming of lost sinners His wisdom is to be adored in all his Works in Creation in Dominion in all his works of Providence but his wisdom in the work of Redemption transcends all This is the chief of all the works and ways of God Herein he is said to have abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence Ephes 1.8 Wisdom referreth to the mystery of it Prudence to the time and way of discovery Wisdom in the eternal counsel Prudence in ordering things to attain the end of his counsel There is all Wisdom in the contrivance and all Prudence in the accomplishment Here is the Debtor discharged without being at any cost and yet Satisfaction made without any abatement Sin punished without shewing mercy Rom. 8.32 and yet the sinner acquitted without bearing the penalty And so God at once infinitely righteous and yet infinitely gracious O how doth all wisdom and prudence abound herein The Apostle in Ephes 3.10 calls it the manifold wisdom of God It is as various as it is mysterious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A conjunction of excellent ends and excellent means to bring them about The ends are the glory of God and the salvation of man The means are God made Man the union of two infinitely distant Natures in one person and so made fit to be a Redeemer Ransoming us from Death by dying Delivering us from the pit by going down into the Grave Redeeming us from the Curse by being made a Curse O how should this Wisdom be admired by all who share in this Ransom Infer 3. How unspeakable great is the Love and Grace of God the Father in the work of Redemption We are more apprehensive of Christ's Love because he bled and died for us then we are of the Love of the Father because that lies more out of sight it is not so visible in its effects I would not speak one word that should look like a lessening the Love and Grace of Christ God forbid It was great it was wonderful All his Transactions were nothing else but Love expounded and made manifest What was his Incarnation but Love in Swadling Clothes What were his Sufferings but Love in travel What was his Burial but Love laid in the Grave What was his Resurrection and Ascension but love in its triumph Nothing could have brought Christ to do what he did and suffer what he suffered but Love He knew what the Redemption of Souls would cost how dear it would be to him and yet Love consents to be at all the charge He loved us and gave himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Let that new Song therefore be for ever sung to his praise Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood But yet the Father had the first hand in it Redemption had its first rise in the Eternal purpose of his Free Grace he ordained and anointed and sent Christ to bring it about so that the ransom was of his finding And therefore let all the ransomed of the Lord for ever admire the riches of his Grace herein Infer 4. How willing and ready must God be to pardon and save the worst of sinners who come to him by Christ What greater Argument can there be to prove it then giving the Lord Christ for a Ransom to effect it Who spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 It pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief Isai 53.10 What can be more abhorrent to the heart of a tender Father then to have a hand in the Death of his own Son especially if he be an only Son and a dutiful Son a Son that never in the least displeased or offended him Who can bear to part with such a Son It goes to the heart of a Parent but to stand by and see the Death of a Child And therefore Hagar when her Son was in distress lays him down and sat at a distance And why Alas she could not bear to see him die Let me not see the death of the Child said she and she lift up her voice and wept Gen. 21 16. But to contrive a Son's death to resolve it to have a hand in it to order all things about it who can do this and yet all this God did And can there be a greater proof of his willingness to save sinners Why then should any entertain such hard and unbecoming thoughts of God as many do O what Jealousies and Fears arise in awakened sinners concerning God! from a sense of the greatness of their sins and unworthiness They dare not come to God they dare not pray they dare not believe will God own such a vile sinner such a polluted wretch as I am They look on him as a God of Wrath rather then as a God of Peace rather with a Sword in his hand then Love in his heart Aggravate thy sins to the highest in order to humbling but let it not work to discouragement for this Red Sea of Christ's blood is deep enough to drown all these Egyptian Lusts tho they are a mighty Host Whatever thy Bondage and Vassalage is by reason of them yet here is a sufficient ransom For with him there is plenteous Redemption Psal 130.7 None shall ever be able to lay their Destruction at God's Door nor to say Lord I was willing to come to thee but thou wouldst not receive me I would have renounced all my sins and took thee upon thy own terms and thou wouldst not No for God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 He makes a free tender of his Ransom to all in the Ministry of the Gospel Act. 20.25 And therefore if the Apostle Paul could say I am pure from the blood of all men because he had preached Christ surely God may say so much more who hath freely given Christ that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 How should the consideration of this scatter all our Doubts and Fears for ever If God had not been infinitely willing to save the worst of sinners from going down to the pit he would never have found out such a Ransom Infer 5. What precious Jewels are our immortal Souls The Ransom found out and paid down for them is a sufficient evidence of the value of them Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Gold and Silver may redeem Men from Algier or Trepoly but not from Hell and Eternal Misery Only the blood of God is an equivalent price for the redemption of Souls from that state And yet which is sad to consider at how cheap a rate do most Men
to such a Man his uprightness Job 3.23 i. e. to convince him that his heart is right tho his way be dark 2. Some understand the uprightness here called his uprightness of the righteousness of Jesus Christ in and by which we are reconciled to and made one with God And this says a late Expositor is the uprightness chiefly intended here And indeed there is no Righteousness like this especially when a Man's case is such as Elihu here speaks of when he is so chastened with pain upon his bed Job 33.19 22. that his soul draws near to the grave and his life to the destroyers Let a Messenger then shew to him this Righteousness and he will say of it as David did when he asked Ahimeleck for a Sword 1 Sam. 21.8 9. and the Priest told him here is the Sword of Goliah if thou wilt take that take it O says David there is none like that give it me No Righteousness like the Righteousness of Christ to such a one Tell him of his own Duties and Good Works his Prayings Repentings Fastings Alms-Deeds c. and he counts them all but Dung in compare with this Righteousness Phil. 3.8 This is a Righteousness which satisfies offended Justice appeases the Wrath of God silences the Curse and the Tumults of our own Consciences This Righteousness affords a Remedy for the sting of sin and the doubts and fears of our minds It is a righteousness which covers our Nakedness and beautifies our Souls Thy beauty was perfect through my Comliness which I put upon thee Ezek. 16.14 It is a Righteousness that pleads for us in Heaven that hath more strength then our sins and more prevalency then our Accuser It is a Righteousness that secures us against the Terrours of Death and intitle us to the Glory of Heaven And therefore no Righteousness like this for it is not the Righteousness of a meer Man but of God blessed for ever Wherever God sees this Righteousness he imputes no sin he discharges the Person from Guilt and receives him into Grace and Favour And that is the sense of the next words Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going to the Pit I have found a Ransom As in the former words you had the Messenger described in these you have the Message declared And that is a Deliverance from the Pit by a Ransom found out by God In which you have The Inventor I. The Invention A ransom The manner of Inventing Found The fruit of the Invention Deleverance from the Pit The Spring and Source of all The Grace of God Then he is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going down to the Pit I have found a Ransom I cannot speak to the words so distinctly as I would I shall indeavour to open them a little in speaking to four Questions 1. What Pit is it that is here intended 2. What Deliverance is it that is here spoken of 3. What Ransom is this that is said to be found 4. Who finds this Ransom and where doth he sind it Quest. 1. What Pit is it that is here intended Answ A Pit in general is any Mischief or Evil that a Man falls into either Temporal Spiritual or Eternal Sometimes Temporal Evils tho outward are called a Pit So Psalm 7.15 He made a Pit and digged it and is fallen into it himself i. e. He devised Mischief against others and the Mischief is fallen upon his own Head Sometimes the Grave is called a Pit and that frequently So Psalm 88.3 4. My life draws nigh to the grave I am counted with them that go down to the pit So Job 17.16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit when our rest together is in the dust The Grave is a Pit with bars The Decree of God is the Bar of the Grave and his Purpose locks it up till the appointed time comes when all shall arise to Judgment and then the sound of the last Trumpet shall break the bars of the Pit and bring forth all both good and bad to make their Appearance at the Bar of God Sometimes Spiritual Evils are called a Pit either Sins or Temptations or Desertions So Psalm 40.2 He brought me up out of an horrible Pit It is meant of Soul Distresses And Zech. 9.11 By the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners cut of the Pit wherein is no water Tho this literally is spoken of their deliverance from Babylon yet it points to the deliverance of the Soul from the misery of a natural state and the bondage of Corruption Sometimes Hell is called a Pit So Rev. 9.1 you read of the bottomless pit and of the smoke of the pit and of the Angel of the bottomless pit Verso 11. and of the Beast out of the bottomless pit Rev. â—1 7 In all these places the Pit is meant of Hell You see there are many Pits in Scripture The Pit of Mischief the Pit of the Grave the Pit of Temptation the Pit of Desertion and the Pit of Hell And all these Pits sin digs to bury the Comforts of the Soul in Now I take the Pit in the Text to be chiesly intended in the last sense And so it is in the 18th and 28th verses He will deliver his Soul from going into the pit Now what Pit is that the Soul goes into not into the Grave but into Hell And if we take it thus the sense of the Text will be more plain and obvious Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom All for whom Christ is a ransom are not delivered from the Pit of the Grave Job 30.23 for that is the House appointed for all living But they are all delivered from the Pit of Hell The highest degree of Spiritual Life as Man is constituted cannot free him from Natural Death Wherever sin hath but a being Death will have a footing And therefore as dieth the fool so dieth the wise man Eccles 2.16 that is as to the first death but not as to the second for over such the second death hath no power Rev. 20.6 And why because the Grace of God hath signed a Warrant sealed with the Redeemers Blood for his Discharge so ye have it in the Text He is gracious to him and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit for I have found a ransom Quest. 2. What Deliverance is this that is here spoken of Why such as the Pit is such is the Deliverance As the Pit is intended of Death and Damnation so the Deliverance carries in it a compleat Redemption A Redemption from sin the cause of Damnation and a Redemption from Damnation the fruit of sin 1. It implies a redemption from sin A state of sin is a state of bondage and thraldom As while he is under the power of sin he is inslaved to Satan so while he is under the guilt of sin he is bound over to damnation When sin is
our own progress in grace and frights and scares others from coming into the ways of God which are attended with such consequences And therefore he uses all Arts and Devices to obstruct the Christian's comfort Sometimes he sills the Soul with Doubts and Despondencies about its spiritual state Sometimes he tempts it to downright sinning against God And when upon any fall into sin the Spirit of God comes with new Convictions and opens the sluce of godly sorrow then doth Satan set in and aggravates the guilt till the Soul concludes it unpardonable and thus he raises a flood that the waters do even sink the Soul And this was David's case Psal 69.1 2. I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me Some times he lays his Brats at the Believer's door charging those sins to his account which are properly his own This is very common especially in the case of thought-sins unclean thoughts murderous thoughts blasphemous thoughts c. Satan doth inject them into the mind and then the Believer not discerning the cunning of Satan on the one hand and knowing the filthiness of his own heart on the other takes them to be his own and charges himself with the guilt of them as if he were the filthiest sinner and vilest blasphemer in the World And this must needs extinguish comfort Some times he charges our Duties with sin and then argues from the sinfulness to the non-acceptance of them Is not God a holy God and can Duties that are done with such a dead frame such a wandering mind such distracted thoughts and such carnal affections ever sind acceptance with such a God Thus by discouraging the Christian in his work he cuts off his comfort which usually comes in this way Some times he puzzles him about his Election and so sets him to the wrong end of his work that he may have no comfort in working whereas we are not to intangle our selves with the intricacies of Election but to look to our Calling This being cleared clears the other Tho God's choosing be the first act yet our believing is the first Evidence The Husbandman knows it is Spring by the putting forth of the Earth tho he be altogether ignorant in the position of the Heavens Some times he poses him about the time of his Conversion and so robs him of the comfort of the thing by puzzling him about the time as if the work could not be wrought unless I know the time of working it Will a man question the water in the stream because he knows not the head of the River Shall I deny that the Sun shines because I do not know what hour it rises the truth of Grace is best known by the fruits of it the fruit shews that the Tree lives tho we know not when it took root Some times he makes a man question the truth of all his former evidences tho they have been many and great He so far unravels the work within as to perswade the Soul all was but delusion which he took for a well-grounded hope Thou a Believer what hast to shew thy deeds are all forged thy evidences were never sealed in the Spirit 's Office but with the counterfeit Seal of a self-deluded heart That which thou hast taken for assurance of the goodness of thy state is nothing but groundless presumption And thus by bringing a man to let go his evidences he cuts off all his comfort at once These are some of the many ways which Satan hath to rob a Christian of his comforts But they that are the ransomed of the Lord may setch comfort and support from this truth under all the temptations of Satan for neither principalities nor powers shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Tho Satan be a potent enemy yet he is a conquered enemy his Temptations may vex and trouble Believers and possibly may in this or that particular case draw them to sin and defile them but they shall never prevail so far as finally to overcome them If he should finally conquer any one Saint he would conquer Christ for every Saint is a Member of Christ Matth. 16.18 and he hath said it That the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against them He who hath delivered them from going down to the pit will e're long deliver them from all Satan's snares Rom. 16.20 It is his promise to tread Satan under your feet shortly Christ don't think it enough to have him under his feet unless he hath him under yours too John 16.33 In Christ we have peace now but shortly we shall have Victory and a Crown And is not this comfort 4. Here is comfort against that which is so much the matter of our fear and that is Death Why should you be afraid to die Would not every good man be willing to injoy the utmost of what Christ hath purchased Why then he must be willing to die for the best lies beyond the Grave When God calls you to die it is only a call to come and inherit the full of what Christ purchased for you when he gave himself a ransom O what comfort is this against the fear of Death it may dissolve us but it cannot hurt us nor hold us Deliver him from the pit I have found a ransom Lastly It is comfort in that this ransoming work will never be compleated till every Believer be brought to Heaven He never reckons he hath a full return of the purchase made by his Blood till all his Members are glorified Christ took up our flesh redeemed us from Hell in our flesh purchased Heaven for us in our flesh ascended thither in our flesh and is glorified there in our flesh and all this as our Head and therefore every Member of his shall in his own flesh be e're long glorified with him It is his will it should be so John 17.24 Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold i. e. partake of my glory Therefore every true Believer may say with as much confidence as Job did Job 19 26. Tho worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall Psee God And this is the next great work which our Lord Christ hath to do here in this World for tho he is gone yet he is to come again there is a great deal of business yet lies upon his hand unfinished He said of the work of his Satisfaction Joh 19.30 It is finished But he never said so of the work of Salvation that will not be finished so long as one Believer is out of Heaven And therefore this is the business of his next coming He came before to finish transgression Dan. 9.24 but when he comes again it is to finish Salvation So says the Apostle Hebr. 9.28 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the
is of the Father's drawing but the injoyment of mercies is of Christ's purchasing He pays the ransom which is the price of our redemption but the Father finds the ransom by choosing him to be a redeemer I have found a ransom 3. This finding a ransom implies the acquiescency of the heart of God in it It is a ransom by such a price as is every way satisfactory to the Justice of God and that was the blood of the Son of God Nothing less could have been a sufficient Satisfaction For pray mind this Whence doth the satisfactoriness of Christ's undertaking result It is not from the dignity of his person no that indeed makes it to be of infinite value and worth but it doth not make it to be a Satisfaction For God might have refused it notwithstanding the dignity of the Person that offered it had nothing else interposed As Christ was under no necessity to give Satisfaction so the Father was under no necessity to accept it The same might be said of the greatness of his Sufferings the Satisfaction of Justice doth not arise from them No but it arises from that Agreement that passed between the Father and the Son in the Covenant of Redemption Such a Covenant the Scripture holds out in which there are certain Articles and Conditions concerning the redemption of Man voluntarily consented to and to be persormed by each party There was something to be performed by Christ to the Father and something by the Father to Christ Christ's part was to take up Humane Nature Rom. 8 3. to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh to become a Surety for Man to God to be made sin to bear the Curse due to it to answer all the Demands of Justice for the dishonour sin had done to injured Majesty that so God and Sinners might be brought into a state of Reconciliation and Amity The Father on his part ingages to prepare him a Body to accept him as a Surety to fit him for the work to strengthen him in it and to accept his performance as a full Satisfaction to his Justice and thereupon to pardon and save all that lay hold of his Righteousness And this expounds that dark place in Zech. 9.11 As for thee by the Blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water Most understand this of the redeeming the captived Jews out of Babylon I do not deny this sense but sure they have a farther sense then this I take them as the words of the Father to the Son The pit wherein is no water is the natural slate The prisoners in the pit are not sinners in general for all are not sent forth But such as the Father gave to Christ to redeem therefore called thy prisoners Prisoners in regard of their bondage to sin thy prisoners as being given to Christ to ransom and redeem The sending forth the Prisoners being spoken of as the Fathers act I have sent them forth is an evidence of his full satisfaction for sin And that which satisfies him is the blood of Christ as it is the blood of the Covenant viz that Covenant of Redemption that passed in Eternity between the Father and the Son By the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners So that this Scripture is of one sound and sense with the Text Deliver him from going down to the pit I have sound a ransom I should have spoken to one thing more mentioned in the Text viz. the spring and source of this Ransom and Deliverance and that is the Grace of God This had the first hand in the work He is gracious to him and says Deliver him from going down to the pit What a woful Abyss of Misery was poor Man plunged into by the Fall obnoxious to all the Severities of Divine Vengeance so that his case was become desperate and nothing to be looked for but Wrath and Damnation Now what shall prevent this Where is there a Remedy to be found It lies only in the Soveraign Grace of God Man in his lapsed state cannot deserve a Ransom much less such a Ransom as this in the Text made up of such a price as the blood of God Where nothing remains but deformity and desilement there can be no desert Innocency it self cannot merit of God much less Pollution and Filth Redemption is from meer Grace a Favour not procured by the worth of Man who receives it but excited by the Grace of God who dispenses it Nothing can be an Obligation upon God to redeem Man t is his own Grace obliges him Man was so far from laying Obligations upon God by desert that he never once attempted to ingage his Compassion by request Tho he was sunk into the depth of Misery yet he had no desire of a better state Supplications and Tears are prevailing Solicitors with melting Bowels and such are the Bowels of God but the sinner was so far from drawing them forth that by his contemptuous Refusals he rather indeavoured to stop them up And yet our misery and undoneness moved God when there was nothing else to draw forth his Compassions Grace runs through every part of this ransoming work from first to last Grace pitched upon Christ to undertake it And oh how early was God in it for the Ransom was provided long before the Vassalage commenced Sin was never thought on by the Creature when a Redeemer was ordained of God Nay Man's redemption was contrived before his being was bestowed for it was laid from Eternity whereas he began to be in time God foresaw Man would sin and be miserable and therefore provided him a Goel 1 Pet. 1.10 a Redeemer before the Foundation of the World And as Grace ordained Christ to this work so it was Grace that fitted him for it and it was Grace that called him to it and Grace that accepted him in it Justice must have Satisfaction for sin but it is Grace that spares the sinner and takes the Surety Gen 22.13 as Abraham spares Isaac and offers the Ram in his stead There can be no Deliverance out of the hands of Justice but by a full price and therefore Grace finds out a Ransom So that the whole of Redemption is Grace and Riches of Grace so the Apostle calls it Ephes 1.7 In whom we have Redemption through his blood according to the Riches of his Grace It is Grace to find out a Ransom it is Grace to accept it and to deliver and save sinners upon the account of it Thus is God gracious and says Deliver him from going down to the pit I have sound a ransom But I shall proceed no farther in Explication I must make some improvement of these things by Application Infer 1. What a cursed thing is sin how dreadful are the fruits of it Rom. 6.21 the end of these things is death It brings the Soul down to the pit yea to such a pit from which nothing