misery from which we are redeemed the death, not of
a few enemies, but of God's only dear Son, by which that
redemption is effected and the blessedness to which,
both in this world and the next, we are brought forth
and all comparison fails : their mercy in comparison of ours is only as the light of a glow-worm to the meridian sun.]
Every thing therefore should serve to bring it to our remembrance —
[God has instituted some things for this express purpose, namely, baptism and the Lord's supper. But why should not the same improvement be made of other things? Why may not the sight of a first-born, whether of man or beast, suggest the same reflections to our minds, that the redemption of them did to the Jews ? Why should not the revolutions of days, months, and years, remind us of the darkness and misery from which we are brought through the bright shining of the Sun of Right- eousness ? What is a recovery from sickness, but an image of the mercy vouchsafed to our souls ? As for the Scriptures, I had ahnost said that we should literally imitate the mistaken piety of the Jews, who wore certain portions of them as brace- lets and frontlets ; but, if not, we should have them so much in our hands and before our eyes, that the blessed subject of our redemption by Christ should never be long out of our minds.]
But the redemption of the first-born was to be
observed also,
II. As an acknowledgment of their duty —
God, in addition to the claim which he has over all his creatures as their Maker, has a peculiar claim to those whom he has redeemed. In this view he called upon the Jews, and he calls upon us also,
1. To consecrate ourselves to him —
[The Jewish first-born of beasts (as has been observed) were sacrificed to God; and his right to the first-born of men was ac- knowledged by a redemption-price paid for themb. The same price too was paid by all (five shekels, or about twelve shillings), to shew that every man's soul was of equal value in the sight of God. With us, there are some important points of difference. All of us, whether male or female, and whether first or last in order of nativity, are accounted as the first-born c : nor can any price whatever exempt us from a personal consecration of our- selves to the service of the Lord. The Levites were afterwards substituted in the place of the first-born d : but for us no sub- stitute can be admitted. " We are not our own, we are bought
b Numb. iii. 46, 47. c Heb. xii. 23. d Numb. iii. 44 — 50.
c c 2