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God, who was also man, united in one Christ, came into the world to redeem us. And the same person being both God and man, must merit for us as God, in what he did for us as man. Accordingly by the merits of his obedience and sufferings he paid the price of our redemption, and we were no longer the servants of sin; and by his most precious blood shed upon the cross, by his death and resurrection, he overcame both death, and him who had the power of death: and by delivering us in this manner from slavery and captivity, he fulfilled the third part of the redeemer's office for Satan was the murderer from the beginning, who had given both body and soul a mortal wound of sin, which was certain death, and eternal misery. And the Redeemer came to avenge the murder. He took our cause in hand, as being our nearest kinsman, and it cost him his own life to avenge ours. He shed his own blood upon the cross to avenge our blood, and he died that we might be brought back to life, and then he rose again to demonstrate his victory over the infernal murderer. And he has now all power in heaven and earth, that he may effectually redeem every one, who desires to be freed from the slavery of sin, from the captivity of Satan, and the power of death. Such is our all-sufficient Redeemer! And when we know and taste of his redeeming love, how can we then forbear to be thankful? Since he has redeemed us from the hand of the enemy, we cannot be silent in his praises: we must speak of them. He has been so good and gracious to us, that it would be acting against our own sense and feeling, if we did not praise his holy name : for we were in vile slavery to sin, and he redeemed us -we were in cruel captivity to Satan, and he redeemed us-we were under the power of death temporal and eternal, and he redeemed us. And can we possibly forget how miserable we were in ourselves, and yet how happy we are become in the Redeemer? And while we remember this, what must we be, if ever we cease to give him thanks and praises? He was to us a most

blessed and most loving Redeemer: for that he, whom all the heavenly host adore, would vouchsafe to look down with pity upon our wretched state, and would descend from the throne of his eternal glory to visit us ⚫ vile sinners-slaves-and captives-nay, would become our brother, our nearest kinsman, that he might be our lawful Redeemer-nay more, would come to suffer and to die for his own rebellious creatures; this was the most wonderful condescension of our Lord Jesus. And ought it not to endear him to us exceedingly? Should not our hearts overflow with gratitude, and our tongues incessantly break forth into praise for such unmerited love? O may he raise our hearts, and exalt our affections from every lower object to the contemplation of his infinite love! There never was, nor is to be, any love like our Redeemer's to us; happy are we, if there be no love in our breasts, like what we bear to him! The love of our God, coming from heaven, taking our na ture, obeying and suffering in it, bleeding and dying upon the cross to redeem us-us miserable vile sinners, here is all that we can admire; here is all that we can adore. Jesus our Lord claims our highest admiration, our lowest adoration; so that his praises are a subject which can never be exhausted for they are to be our employment and happiness for ever, and we become fitted for them, indeed we begin them, by our present thankfulness. O thou almighty Saviour, make us daily more and more thankful, that by the continual exercise of thanksgiving upon earth, we may be prepared to sing the praises of our redeeming God for ever and ever.

The next motive mentioned in the third verse, is peculiar to us heathen nations, viz. that Christ "hath "redeemed us and gathered us out of all lands, from "the east, and from the west, from the north, and "from the south." If any thing can inspire us with gratitude, this motive should prevail, because we cannot but feel the force of it, as it reminds us of that misery, from which we in particular were redeemed.

The Gentiles had wandered from God, and were so lost and bewildered in the mazes of error and superstition, that nothing but the almighty love of our Lord Jesus could have gathered them together into one church. All the heathen world lay in darkness and in the shadow of death, until the sun of righteousness arose upon them with the bright beams of the gospel: they were ignorant, immoral, idolatrous, and because they had no desire to retain God in their memory, he therefore gave them over to a reprobate mind; and then being utterly forsaken of him, they ran greedily into every kind of impurity and abominable uncleanness. St. Paul has given us a melancholy account of the Roman morals, at a time, when we have been taught, that polite learning flourished among them in its highest perfection. Read his first chapter to the Romans and you will find that they were monsters of impiety, although they could write with all the elegance and beauty of classical learning. And the rest of the heathen nations were not indeed so corrupt, but they were sunk as low in ignorance and superstition as the Romans, and particularly our ancestors in this island, who were poor blind idolaters; they used to worship stocks and stones, and to fall down before trees and groves. And when the face of the whole earth was thus covered with the dark night of idolatry and immorality, then it pleased God to send the day spring from on high to visit us. Our blessed Redeemer came to call us out of darkness into his marvellous light, and to gather us into the mystical body of his church, out of all lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. His church is the mystical body, of which he is the head, and whoever partakes of his redemption must be gathered from the world into this mystical body, and must be so united, as to become a true living member of it. It was foretold by Moses-that unto Christ should the gathering of the people be-he was to gather the dispersed into one body. And the prophet Isaiah declares" the

"Lord God which gathereth the out-casts of Israel "saith, yet will I gather others to him: for I will "gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come "and see my glory." Happy for us these prophecies are now fulfilled. The love of our gracious Redeemer hath gathered some out of all nations and tongues: and blessed be his holy name for that he is daily gathering more, who come to Christ, and see his glory, and are thankful. O that more of the people were daily gathered unto him! we ought to pray earnestly for it, because there is no salvation for them, who are not gathered into his mystical body, and united as closely to it, as the branches of a vine are to the stock upon which they grow: for I am the vine, says the Redeemer himself, ye are the branches-abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in

me.

From hence it is evident, that our blessed Redeemer has a mystical body, into which all the redeemed are gathered, and in which they are living members, united to their sovereign head, enlivened by his grace and actuated and influenced by his good Spirit, and where the Spirit of Christ is, there is liberty-a liberty from error a liberty from sin and Satan-a liberty from death and the grave, so that in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, there is full and plenteous redemption. And can persons who partake of this redemption forbear to be thankful? It is impossible. While they have a lively sense of the Redeemer's love, they must be speaking his praises; and they will retain this lively sense, so long as they remember from whence he redeemed them. When they lay dispersed he gathered them, when they lay in ignorance, he enlightened them. When they were in the grossest idolatry, he converted them to the worship of the true God. When they were in the sink of sin and immorality, he brought them into the ways of righteousness, pardoning their past offences, by his merits; and enabling

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them by his grace to proceed in the work of sanctification and having thus gathered them together, he united them to himself, and made them living members of his mystical body; and in this happy union, how many spiritual comforts and blessings must they find? Their hearts will certainly overflow with love and gratitude to their most adorable Redeemer, and it will be to them indeed a joyful and pleasant thing to be thankful : for he claims all their affections-they would live only to him-and therefore it would be really offering them violence to hinder them from speaking of him with the mouth, what the heart feels. He is so much the delight of their souls, that they had rather cease to breathe, than cease to be thankful to their dearest Lord and Saviour. Daily will they be telling the wonders of his redemption, and giving thanks and honour unto him, so long as they have any being.

And

May God enable every one of us to join our hearts and voices with theirs in giving praise and honour to our redeeming Lord. And having finished the paraphrase upon the three verses of the text, I come now to call upon you to join your thanksgiving with all the other members of Christ's mystical body. You have heard what the duty is, it consists in the service of a grateful heart, which is perfectly sensible of the divine love-having not only experienced God's goodness, but also his mercy, even the eternal mercy of the covenant of grace, being redeemed from the slavery of sin, from the captivity of Satan, and from the power of death, and these redeemed of the Lord cannot but speak with gratitude of what he has done for their souls, especially such of the redeemed, who were gathered out of all lands, who were scattered and alienated from God by sin, were in heathen idolatrous countries, out of the covenant of promise, and without hope in the worldwhen such persons are made to partake of the blessings of redemption, how will their hearts burn within them? How will their affections be fired, and with what a pure

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