Although enough hath been said already to evince the truth of this, yet I shall farther put it out of question by the ensuing observations and inferences:·-

1. To the payment of a price or ransom properly so called,—which, as is acknowledged, is not necessary that it should be money or the like, 1 Pet. i. 18, but any thing that may satisfy him that detains the captive, it is not required that it should be paid into the hand of him that is said to receive it, but only that it be some such thing as he requires as the condition of releasing the captive. It may consist in personal service, which is impossible to be properly paid into the hand of any. For instance, if a father be held captive, and he that holds him so requires that, for the delivery of his father, the son undertake a difficult and hazardous warfare wherein he is concerned, and he do it accordingly, this son doth properly ransom his father, though no real price be paid into the hand of him that detained him. It is sufficient to prove that this ransom was paid by Christ unto God, if it be proved that, upon the prescription of God, he did that and underwent that which he esteemed, and was to him a valuable compensation for the delivery of sinners.

2. The propriety of paying a ransom to any, where it lies in undergoing the penalty that was due to the ransomed, consists in the voluntary consent of him to whom the ransom is paid and him that pays it unto this commutation; which in this business we have firmly evinced. And the price paid by Christ could be no other; for God was not our detainer in captivity as a sovereign conqueror, that came upon us by force and kept us prisoners, but as a just judge and lawgiver, who had seized on us for our transgressions: so that not his power and will were to be treated withal, but his law and justice; and so the ransom was properly paid to him in the undergoing that penalty which his justice required.

3. There must some differences be allowed between spiritual, eternal, and civil, corporeal, temporal deliverances; which yet doth not make spiritual redemption to be improper, nay, rather the other is said to be improper wherein it agrees not thereunto. The one is spiritual, the other temporal; so that in every circumstance it is not to be expected that they should agree.

4. There are two things distinctly in God to be considered in this business:-(1.) His love, his will, or purpose; (2.) His justice, law, and truth. In respect of his love, his will, his purpose, or good pleasure, God himself found out, appointed, and provided this ransom. The giving of Christ is ascribed to his love, will, and good pleasure, John iii. 16, Rom. v. 8, viii. 32, 1 John iv. 9, 10, as he had promised by his prophets of old, Luke i. 67-70. But his justice, and law, and truth, in their several considerations, required the ransom; and in respect of them he accepted it, as hath been showed at large.

So that nothing in the world is more vain than that of our adversaries, that God procured and appointed this price, therefore he did not accept it. That is, either God's love or his justice must be denied; either he hath no justice against sin or no love for sinners;—in the reconciliation of which two, the greatest and most intense hatred against sin, and the most inexpressible love to some sinners in the blood of his only Son, lies the great mystery of the gospel; which these men are unacquainted withal.

5. That God may be said to receive this price, it was not necessary that any accession should be made to his riches by the ransom, but that he underwent no loss by our deliverance. This is the difference between a conqueror or a tyrant and a just ruler, in respect of their captives and prisoners. Says the tyrant or conqueror, "Pay me so much, whereby I may be enriched, or I will not part with my prisoner;" says the just ruler and judge, " Take care that my justice be not injured, that my law be satisfied, and I will deliver the prisoner." It is enough, to make good God's acceptance of the price, that his justice suffer not by the delivery of the prisoner, as it did not, Rom. iii. 25; yea, it was exalted and made glorious above all that it could have been in the everlasting destruction of the sinner. These things being thus premised, it will not be difficult to establish the truth asserted, namely, that this price or ransom was paid to God; for,

1. A price of redemption, a ransom, must be paid to some one or other; the nature of the thing requires it. That the death of Christ was a price or ransom, properly so called, hath been showed before. The ridiculous objection, that then it must be paid to Satan or our sin, hath also been sufficiently removed: so that God alone remains to whom it is to be paid; for unless to some it is paid, it is not a price or ransom.

2. The price of redemption is to be paid to him who detains the captive by way of jurisdiction, right, and law-power. That God is he who thus detained the captive was also proved before. He is the great householder that calls his servants, that do or should serve him, to an account, ovvapas λóyov, Matt. xviii. 23, 24; and wicked men are narápas réxva, 2 Pet. ii. 14, the children of his curse, obnoxious to it. It is his judgment "that they which commit sin are worthy of death,' Rom. i. 32; and Christ is a propitiation to "declare his righteousness,' chap. iii. 25; and it is his wrath from which we are delivered by this ransom, chap. ii. 5, 1 Thess. i. 10; the law was his to which Christ was made obnoxious, Gal. iv. 4; the curse his which he was made, chap. iii. 13; it was his will he came to do and suffer, Heb. x. 7,-it was his will that he should drink off the cup of his passion, Matt. xxvi. 42; it pleased him to bruise him, Isa. liii. 10; he made all our iniquities to meet upon him, verse 6: so that, doubtless, this

ransom was paid to him. We intend no more by it than what in these places is expressed.

3. This ransom was also a sacrifice, as hath been declared. Look, then, to whom the sacrifice was offered, to him the ransom was paid. These are but several notions of the same thing. Now, the sacrifice he offered to God, Eph. v. 2; to him, then, also and only was this ransom paid.

4. Christ paid this ransom as he was a mediator and surety. Now he was the mediator between God and man, and therefore he must pay this price to one of them, either to God or man, and it is not difficult to determine whether. 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6, gives us this fully. He is the mediator, and as such he gave himself avriλurpov, a price of reἀντίλυτρον, demption to God.

From this description of redemption properly so called, and the application of it to the redemption made by Jesus Christ, we thus argue:

He who by his own blood and death paid the price of our redemption to God, in that he underwent what was due to us, and procured our liberty and deliverance thereby, he made satisfaction properly for our sins; but when we were captives for sin to the justice of God, and committed thereon to the power of sin and Satan, Christ by his death and blood paid the price of our redemption to God, and procured our deliverance thereby: therefore he made satisfaction to God for our sins.

For the farther confirmation of what hath been delivered, some few of the most eminent testimonies given to this truth are to be explained and vindicated, wherewith I shall close this discourse of our redemption by Christ. Out of the very many that may be insisted on, I shall choose only those that follow:

1. Rom. iii. 24, 25, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Redemption in itself, in its effect in respect of us, with all its causes, is here expressed. Its effect in respect of us is, that we are "justified freely," dixievos dwpsáv: not brought easily, and with little labour, to be righteous or honest, as some vainly imagine (Grot. in loc.), but accepted freely with God, without the performance of the works of the law, whereby the Jews sought after righteousness. The end on the part of God is the declaration of his righteousness. The means procuring this end is the blood of Christ, redemption by Christ and in his blood. The means of communicating this effect, on the part of God, is the setting forth Christ a propitiation; on our part, as to application, it is faith in his blood.

(1.) As to the effect of our justification, it shall afterward be considered. The manner, or rise of it rather (for both may be denoted), on the part of God, is dwpsáv, that is, "freely;" or, as it is expounded

in the next words, rã avroũ xápiri, “by his grace." Our redemption and the effects of it are free on the part of God, in respect of his purpose and decree, which is called ixλoyǹ xápiros, Rom. xi. 5, his great design and contrivance of the work of our salvation and deliverance. This he did "according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace," Eph. i. 5, 6; " according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself," verse 9; "according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," verse 11. And it is free in regard of the love from whence Christ was sent, John iii. 16; which also is ascribed rã xápri

sou, Heb. ii. 9. And it is free in respect of us; we do not obtain it by the works of the law, Rom. iv. 6, neither can it be so attained, nor is that required of us: and free on our part, in that nothing of us is required in way of satisfaction, recompense, or ransom. "He spared not his own Son," but " with him freely gives us all things," Rom. viii. 32. Dinaioúμevos dwpɛáv, “We are justified freely;" that is, we are delivered from our bondage without any satisfaction made by us, or works performed by us to attain it, God having freely designed this way of salvation, and sent Jesus Christ to do this work for us.

They are [says Grotius] brought to righteousness without that labour that is required for lesser, even philosophical virtues. Faith makes an abridgment of the work.'

The πprov dos of the great man, in the whole interpretation of that epistle, as of others of sundry sorts besides himself, is, that to be justified is to be brought to righteousness by the practice of virtue and honesty (which answers to that the Scripture calls sanctification), with as gross a shutting out of light as can befall any man in the world. This, with that notion which he hath of faith, is the bottom of this interpretation. But,

Let him tell us freely what instance he can give of this use of the word dwpeάv, which here he imposeth on us, that it should signify the facility of doing a thing; and withal, whether these words, dinaioúμevor dwpɛáv, denote an act of God or of them that are justified; whether "being justified freely by his grace" be his free justifying of us, as to what is actively denoted, or our easy performance of the works of righteousness? That dwpsáv in this place should relate to our duties, and signify "easily," and not to the act of God accepting us, and import " freely," is such a violence offered to the Scripture as nothing could have compelled the learned man to venture on but pure necessity of maintaining the Socinian justification.

As for the "philosophical virtues," which the gods sold for labour, they were "splendida peccata," and no more.

1 "Ad justitiam vero perducuntur etiam sine labore qui ad minores virtutes, id est, philosophicas requiri solet: Fides enim ejus laboris compendium facit." [gratis] proprie opponitur impensæ, sed et labor impendi dicitur,.et emi aliquid labore.

Epicharmus Τῶν πόνων

Πωλοῦσιν ἡμῖν πάντα τ ̓ ἀγαθ' οἱ θεοί.—Grot. in loc.

As to this part of the words, Socinus himself was not so far out of the way as the annotator. Saith he, "Justificati gratis, sensus est, partam nobis esse peccatorum nostrorum absolutionem (id enim ut scis quod ad nos attinet reipsa justificari est) non quidem per legis opera, quibus illam commeriti sumus, sed gratis per gratiam Dei," De Servat. lib. i. part. ii. cap. ii.

(2.) The end on the part of God is vdiği dinaiσúvns, “the declaration of his righteousness." Aixaosuvn is properly God's justice as he is a judge. It is true, is often rendered by the LXX. dixarúvn, and by us from thence, " righteousness," which signifies, indeed, benignity, kindness, and goodness,-and so PTY, which is "righteousness," is rendered by them sometimes λsos, "mercy," and the circumstances of the place may sometimes require that signification of the word,—but firstly and properly, it is that property of God whereby as a judge he renders to every one according to their ways before him, rewarding those that obey him, and punishing transgressors. This I have elsewhere declared at large. Hence he is PTY DD, Ps. ix. 5; which, as Paul speaks, 2 Tim. iv. 8, is dixamos xpirns, the " righteous judge." So Rom. i. 32; 2 Thess. i. 6; Rev. xv. 5: so Isa. lix. 16, "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him." His righteousness sustained him in executing vengeance on the enemies of his church. This is the righteousness that God aimed to manifest and to declare in our redemption by Christ, "that he might be just," as the words follow, namely, that he might be known to be just and righteous in taking such sore vengeance of sin in the flesh of Jesus Christ, his Son, Rom. viii. 3. Hence did God appear to be exceeding righteous, -of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He declared to all the world what was due to sin, and what must be expected by men if they are not partakers of the redemption which is in the blood of Jesus Christ, Rom. viii. 3.

Grotius would have dixaovn here to signify "goodness" and "bounty;" which as we deny not but that in some places in the Old Testament where it is used by the LXX. it doth or may do, so we say here that sense can have no place which nowhere is direct and proper; for the thing intended by it in that sense is expressed before in these words, Δωρεάν τῇ χάριτι αὐτοῦ, and is not consistent with that that follows, Εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν δίκαιον, which represents God as he is δίκαιος κριτής, as was spoken before.

Socinus goes another way. Says he, "In Christo, Deus ut ostenderet se veracem et fidelem esse, quod significant verba illa, justitiæ suæ," etc., referring it to God's righteousness of verity and fidelity in fulfilling his promise of forgiveness of sins. But says Grotius,

1 Diatrib. de Justit. Div. vol. x.