evermore, is an Evidence to us, that he hath obtained an eternal Redemption for us: and he is a Pledge and Affurance to us, that our Bodies fhall be redeemed from the Grave, and live in Heaven eternally with him. This likewife is the Notion of Redemption in the 8th Chapter to the Romans; Ver. 23. there, fays the Apoftle, We ourselves, who have the Firft-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourfelves groan within ourselves, waiting for the Adoption, to wit, the Redemption of the Body. Where you may observe, that that Confummation of Happiness at the general Day of Judgment, which St. Paul and other Chriftians here waited for, and groaned after, is called by two Names; first, the Adoption, or Sonship: And the Reafon 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 Refurrection. For this we have our Saviour's exprefs Authority, who, speaking of thofe who fhall be thought wor-. thy of the Rewards of the other World in Luke 20. that Day, tells us, that they are the Children of God, being (or because they are) the Children of the Refurrection. The other Term, by which that State of future Happinefs is expreffed, is the Redemption of the Body; which is a very proper Expreffion. As for our Souls, they were redeemed before, by being delivered from the Power of Sin, and from the eternal Punishment confe

36.

Rom. 8.

19.

confequent 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 fhall be restored from the Grave to live for ever with the Soul in unfpeakable Happiness. Another Text, wherein the Word Redemption is taken in that Notion we are fpeaking of, is in the first Chapter to the Ephefians, where the Apoftle faith, After that ye be-Ver. 13, lieved ye were fealed with the Holy Spirit of 14. Promife, which is the Earneft of our Inberitance, until the Redemption of the purchafed Poffeffion. In which Text there is no Difficulty, when we know what is meant by the purchased Poffeffion, or, as it is render'd in the Margin, peculiar Treasure. And, without doubt, this must be underftood of the Church, the whole Body of faithful Chriftians, whom Chrift purchased with his Blood; upon which Account they may truly be called his purchased Poffeffion, or his peculiar Treafure, as the Ifraelites Exod. 19. were called by God after he had brought them out of Egypt. Well then, if the Re- Pfal. 135. demption of the purchased Poffeffions be no more than the Redemption of the Church, or the whole Body of Chriftians; then the plain Sense of the Place is, that God gives us his Holy Spirit as an Earneft of that Inheritance which he will beftow upon us at the general Redemption of the Church, which will be at the Day of the Refurrec

5.

Luke 21. 28.

tion.

And there is no doubt but this Paffage and my Text are directly parallel, and mean the fame Thing. No doubt but the Redemption here must be the fame with the Redemption there, viz. not any Redemption that is paft or prefent, but that of Chriftians, 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 feems to fpeak, where, having mentioned the Signs that fhould precede his Approach to Judgment, he fays, When ye fee 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 feveral Notions of Redemption, and fhewn from thence how we are to underftand the Day of Redemption in my Text; let us, in the next place, enquire what is meant by being fealed to this Day of Redemption of which I fhall fpeak more briefly.

II. A Seal hath always been used for two efpecial Purposes; either for the Confirmation of Covenants and Contracts between God and Man, or for marking any Thing for one's own. Now to either of thefe Ufes of a Seal, we may fuppofe the Apostle to allude, when he fays that we are fealed by the Spirit. If we take it in

the

the former Notion, then the Senfe is this; that as it is the Cuftom amongst Men, to confirm their Agreements and Covenants by mutually fetting their Seals to the Inftruments wherein the Articles of them are recorded, fo God having made a Covenant with all faithful Chriftians, wherein he promises to give them eternal Life in the other World, he is pleafed to ratify this Covenant, and the Promifes therein made on his Part, by fending down the Holy Spirit into their Hearts; which is the Strongest Affurance that he can poffibly give, that he fincerely intends to make good to us what he has promised, and that on his fide the Contract is inviolable. And fuch a Seal hath God fet 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 Flefh, viz. Circumcifion : But this is an inward Seal, a Seal in the Heart and Mind. The Ifraelites were fealed in their Flesh to the Poffeffion of the earthly Land of Canaan; but Chriftians are fealed in the inward Man by the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon their Minds, to the Poffeffion of that Inberitance that is eternal in the Heavens. we may well fuppofe that the Apostle doth by this Phrase of fealing allude to the other

But

Use

Ufe of a Seal, as it was, and is ftill ufed by Merchants and Men of Trade, viz. as a Declaration of their Right and Propriety in a Thing. Thus it was the Cuftom of thofe Perfons, [that] whatever Commodity was bought by them, or confign'd to them, to have their Seal or Mark put upon it, whereby it might be diftinguished from all others, and known to be theirs only: Nay, in thofe Times they did not only fet their Seal upon Goods, but upon Perfons too, whom they bought or had any Property in. And accordingly, in Allufion to this, we find in the Revelations, that the true Worshippers of Jefus Chrift, that were to be faved in the midft of the Judgments and Calamities that were to fall upon the Antichriftian Churches, are faid to have the Seal of God on their Foreheads: And on the other fide, they who belonged to the Beaft, who were Subjects of Antichrift, are faid to have the Mark of the Beast upon them. And in this Senfe the Phrafe is ufed even of our Lord Jefus Chrift, for he is faid John 6.26.to be fealed by the Father, viz. God, by his fending the Holy Spirit down upon him at his Baptifm, did declare to all the World, that Jefus Chrift was owned by him. And in this Sense all Chriftians may be truly faid to be fealed 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

them