An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-fifth, thirty-sixth, and thirty-seventh chapters of…

First, The people of God are sometimes ransomed or delivered by the destruction and ruin of the wicked; that's their Ransom, and that, not seldom, proves a great Ransom. It is said expressly (Prov. 21.18.) The wicked shall be a Ransom for the righteous; how, a Ransom for the righteous! will a wicked man p•y a Ransom for the righteous? or will the wicked man offer himself a Ransom for him, and say, I'll dye instead of the righteous man? surely there's no such thing to be expected from him. Peradventure for a good man (saith the Apostle, Rom. 5.7, 8.) one would even dare to dye; that is, one good man may possibly be willing to lay down his life for another good man. Scarcely for ⟨p. 303⟩a righteous man would one dye; that is, for a man, who only gives every man his due, o• doth every man right: but for a good man, that is, for a man that hath been very kind and bountiful to others, some would even dare to dye; yet he that doth so, must be supposed to be a righteous and a good man himself. For it cannot be thought that a wicked man would give himself a Ransom for the righteous, that he would dye for him whom he doth not love, yea, whom he usually hates to the death. How then is it affirmed by Solomon, that the wicked shall be a Ransom for the righteous? The meaning is, God will destroy the wicked, to save the righteous, or he will save the righteous, even through the blood and destruction of the wicked: In that sense the wicked are many times a Ransom for the righteous, rather than the righteous shall perish, the Lord will destroy the wicked. Thus the Lord spake by his Prophet of old (Isa. 43.3.) I gave Egypt for thy Ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. How was Egypt a Ransom for Israel? had they any mind to deliver the people of God? no; but rather than God would not have Israel saved, he destroyed Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea. Thus the Lord makes the wicked a Ransom for the righteous. Though Egypt were a very goodly Country, yet God destroyed it by ten Plagues, that he might deliver Israel. Though Pharaoh was a great Prince, he drowned him in the Sea, rather than his people should go back into Captivity. Solomon gives us this sense of the Prophets words fully in his own (