cvermore, is an Evidence to us, that he
hath obtained an eternal Redemption for
us: and he is a Pledge and Assurance to us,
that our Bodies shall be redeemed from the
Grave, and live in Heaven eternally with
him. This likewise is the Notion of Re-

demption in the 8th Chapter to the Romans; Ver.23. there, says the Apostle, We ourselves, who

have the First-fruits of the Spirit, even we
ourselves groun within ourselves, waiting for
the Adoption, to wit, the Redemption of the
Body. Where you may observe, thai that
Consummation of Happiness at the general
Day of Judgment, which St. Paul and other
Christians here waited for, and groaned
after, is called by two Names; first, the
Adoption, or Sonship : And the Reason of
this Name is clear, because Christians are
not, and shall not be compleatly manifested
to be the Sons of God, till they be made
Partakers of the Resurrection. For this we
have our Saviour's express Authority, who,
speaking of those who shall be thought wor-

thy of the Rewards of the other World in Luke 20. that Day, tells us, that they are the Chil

dren of God, being (or because they are)
the Children of the Resurrection. The other
Term, by which that State of future Hap-
piness is expressed, is the Redemption of the
Budy; which is a very proper Expression.
As for our Souls, they were redeemed be-
fore, by being delivered from the Power
of Sin, and from the eternal Punishment

36. Rom. 8. 19.

consequent upon it ; and to no other Kinds
of Death were they obnoxious. But our
Bodies are not redeemed till that glorious
happy Day, when they shall be restored
from the Grave to live for ever with the
Soul in unspeakable Happiness. Another
Text, wherein the Word Redemption is
taken in that Notion we are speaking of,
is in the first Chapter to the Ephesians,
where the Apostle faith, After that ye be-Ver. 13,
lieved

ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of 14.
Promise, which is the Earnest of our Inhe-
ritance, until the Redemption of the pur-
chased Poffeffion. In which Text there is
no Difficulty, when we know what is
meant by the purchased Pofesion, or, as it
is render'd in the Margin, peculiar Treasure.
And, without doubt, this must be under-
stood of the Church, the whole Body of
faithful Christians, whom Christ purchased
with his Blood; upon which Account they
may truly be called his purchased Polefon,
or his peculiar Treasure, as the Israelites Exod. 19,
were called by God after he had brought
them out of Egypt. Well then, if the Re- Plal. 135.
demption of the purchased Polesions be no
more than the Redemption of the Church,
or the whole Body of Christians; then the
plain Sense of the Place is, that God gives
us his Holy Spirit as an Earnest of that In-
heritance which he will bestow upon us at
the general Redemption of the Church,
which will be at the Day of the Rclurrec-

tion. And there is no doubt but this Par-
fage and my Text are directly parallel, and
mean the same Thing. No doubt but the
Redemption here must be the same with
the Redemption there, viz. not any Re-
demption that is past or present, but that
of Christians, which is yet to come at the
general Judgment. In truth, there is no
other Notion of Redemption that will fit
the Place. And of this it is that our Lord
himself seems to speak, where, having
mentioned the signs that should precede
his Approach to Judgment, he says, When
ye see these things come to pass, then lift up
your Heads, and look up, for your Redemption
draweth nigh.

Having thus given a particular Account
of the several Notions of Redenıption, and
shewn from thence how we are to under-
stand the Day of Redemption in my Text;
let us, in the next place, enquire what is
meant by being sealed to this Day of Re-
demption : of which I shall speak more
briefly.

VN

Luke 21. 28.

II. A Seal hath always been ufed for two especial Purposes; either for the Confirmation of Covenants and Contracts between God and Man, or for marking any Thing far one's own. Now to either of these Uses of a Seal, we may suppose the Apostle to allude, when he says that we are sealed by the Spirit. If we take it in

the

the former Notion, then the Sense is this ; that as it is the Custom amongst Men, to confirm their Agreements and Covenants by mutually setting their Seals to the Instruments wherein the Articles of them are recorded, so God having made a Covenant with all faithful Christians, wherein he promises to give them eternal Life in the other World, he is pleased to ratify this Covenant, and the Promises therein made on his Part, by sending down the Holy Spirit into their Hearts; which is the strongest Assurance that he can possibly give, that he sincerely intends to make good to us what he has promised, and that on his side the Contract is inviolable. And such a Seal hath God set to this Covenant of Christianity, as hath infinitely the Preeminence above the Seal of the Jewish Covenant that was before it, and gives greater Security to us that God will perform it. The Seal of that Covenant was only an outward Seal, an external Mark in the Flesh, viz. Circumcifion : But this is an inward Seal, a Seal in the Heart and Mird. The Israelites were sealed in their Flesh to the Possession of the earthly Land of Canaan; but Christians are fealed in the inward Man by the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon their Minds, to the Possession of that Inheritance that is eternal in the Heavens. But we may well suppose that the Apostle doth by this Phrase of fealing allude to the other

Ule

Use of a Seal, as it was, and is still used by Merchants and Men of Trade, viz. as a Declaration of their Right and Propriety in a Thing. Thus it was the Custom of those Persons, [that] whatever Commodity was bought by them, or consign’d to them, to have their Seal or Mark put upon it, whereby it might be distinguished from all others, and known to be theirs only: Nay, in those Times they did not only set their Seal upon Goods, but upon Persons too, whom they bought or had any Property in. And accordingly, in Allusion to this, we find in the Revelations, that the true Worshippers of Jesus Christ, that were to be saved in the midst of the Judgments and Calamities that were to fall upon the Antichristian Churches, are faid to have the Seal of God on their Foreheads : And on the other side, they who belonged to the Beast, who were Subjects of Antichrist, are faid to have the Mark of the Beast upon them. And in this Sense the Phrase is used

even of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is said John 6.26.to be sealed by the Father, viz, God, by his

sending the Holy Spirit down upon him at his Baptism, did declare to all the World, that Jesus Christ was owned by him. And in this Sense all Christians may be truly said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit to the Day of Redemption ; that is, God, by giving them the Spirit, hath marked them for his own; they have an Evidence in