N03999:310
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety
Captives bound in chains, made free by Christ their surety: or, The misery of graceless sinners, and their recovery by Christ their Saviour. By T. Doolittel [sic]. ; [Three lines from Isaiah]
Boston: printed by Rogers & Fowle for J. Edwards, 1742
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Liberty to the Captives. › Chapter 12: Containing the Uses of the Whole.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Fifthly, Consider, That God was pleased to accept of the undertaking of Christ, and what he hath laid down for your ransom from captivity. God might have exacted the debt from man that did owe it. It is a voluntary act for a man to become a surety, no man is to be compelled to it; and it is a voluntary act of the creditor to accept of such a surety, they are both free and at their choice; but when the one offers himself to become bound, and the other doth accept of his suretyship, then is the debtor or prisoner relieved.
Fifthly, Consider, That God was pleased to accept of the undertaking of Christ, and what he hath laid down for your ransom from captivity. God might have exacted the debt from man that did owe it. It is a voluntary act for a man to become a surety, no man is to be compelled to it; and it is a voluntary act of the creditor to accept of such a surety, they are both free and at their choice; but when the one offers himself to become bound, and the other doth accept of his suretiship, then is the debtor or prisoner relieved.
It was free love in Christ to become our Redeemer, it was grace in God to accept of Christ's ransom for us. The Son might have said, Man hath sinned, why should I suffer? Man hath deserved the wrath of God, let him undergo it: And the Father might have said, Man hath transgressed my Law, and violated my Covenant, and I will make him suffer for it; they have brought themselves into bonds of misery, and they shall lie therein, and they that sinned, themselves shall die. Oh wonder then at this blessed agreement between the Father and the Son, for the bringing forth poor Souls in Bondage from their Captivity.
It was free love in Christ to become our Redeemer, it was grace in God to accept of Christ's ransome for us. The Son might have said, Man hath sinned, why should I suffer? Man hath deserved the wrath of God, let him undergo it: And the Father might have said, Man hath transgressed my Law, and violated my Covenant, and I will make him sruffer for it; they have brought themselves into bonds of misery, and they shall lie therein, and they that sinned, themselves shall die. Oh wonder then at this blessed agreement between the Father and the Son, for the bringing forth poor Souls in Bondage from their Captivity.