WORK OF REDEMPTION.

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man proceeds, and to understand the various steps he takes, in
order to accomplish a piece of work, we need to be informed
what he is about, or what the thing is that he intends to accom-
plish; otherwise we may stand by, and see him do one thing
after another, and be quite puzzled and in the dark, seeing
nothing of his scheme, and understanding nothing of what he
means by it. If an architect, with a great number of hands,
were a building some great palace, and one that was a strang-
er to such things should stand by, and see some men digging
in the earth, others bringing timber, others hewing stones,
and the like, he might see that there was a great deal done ;
but if he knew not the design, it would all appear to him con-
fusion. And therefore, that the great works and dispensa-
tions of God that belong to this great affair of redemption may
not appear like confusion to you, I would set before you
briefly the main things designed to be accomplished in this
great work, to accomplish which God began to work present-
ly after the fall of man, and will continue working to the end
of the world, when the whole work will appear completely
finished. And the main things designed to be done by it are
these that follow.

I. It is to put all God's enemies under his feet, and that the
goodness of God should finally appear triumphing over all
evil. Soon after the world; was created, evil entered into the
world in the fall of the angels and man. Presently after God

had made rational creatures, there were enemies who rose up
against him from among them; and in the fall of man evil
entered into this lower world, and God's enemies rose up
against him here. Satan rose up against God, endeavouring
to frustrate his design in the creation of this lower world, to
destroy his workmanship here, and to wrest the government
of this lower world out of his hands, and usurp the throne
himself, and set up himself as god of this world instead of the
God that made it. And to these ends he introduced sin into
the world; and having made man God's enemy, he brought
guilt on man, and brought death and the most extreme and
dreadful misery into the world.

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Now one great design of God in the affair of redemption was, to reduce and subdue those enemies of God, till they should all be put under God's feet: 1 Cor. xv. 25. “He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” Things were originally so planned and designed, that he might disappoint and confound, and triumph over Satan, and that he might be bruised under Christ's feet, Gen. iii. 15. The promise was given, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. It was a part of God's original design in this work, to destroy the works of the devil, and confound him in all his purposes: 1 John iii. 8. « For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." It was a part of his design, to triumph over sin, and over the corruptions of men, and to root them out of the hearts of his people, by conforming them to himself. He designed also, that his grace should triumph over man's guilt, and that infinite demerit that there is in sin. Again, it was a part of his design, to triumph over death; and however this is the last enemy that shall be destroyed, yet that shall finally be vanquished and destroyed.

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God thus appears gloriously above all evil; and triumphing over all his enemies, was one great thing that God intended by the work of redemption; and the work by which this was to be done, God immediately went about as soon as man fell; and so goes on till he fully accomplishes it in the end of the world.

II. In doing this, God's design was perfectly to restore all the ruins of the fall, so far as concerns the elect part of the world, by his Son; and therefore we read of the restitution of all things, Acts iii. 21. " Whom the heaven must receive, until the times of the restitution of all things ;" and of the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Jesus, Acts iii. 19. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

Man's soul was ruined by the fall; the image of God was ruined; man's nature was corrupted and destroyed, and man became dead in sin. The design of God was, to restore the

soul of man; to restore life to it, and the image of God, in conversion, and to carry on the restoration in sanctification, and to perfect it in glory. Man's body was ruined; by the fall it became subject to death. The design of God was, to restore it from this ruin, and not only to deliver it from death in the resurrection, but to deliver it from mortality itself, in making it like unto Christ's glorious body. The world was ruined, as to man, as effectually as if it had been reduced to chaos again; all heaven and earth were overthrown. But the design of God was, to restore all, and as it were to create a new heaven and a new earth: Isaiah Ixv. 17. « Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth; and the former shal not be remembered, nor come into mind." 2 Pet. iii. 13. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

The work by which this was to be done, was begun immediately after the fall, and so is carried on till all is finished at the end, when the whole world, heaven and earth, shall be restored; and there shall be, as it were, new heavens, and a new earth, in a spiritual sense, at the end of the world. Thus it is represented, Rev. xxi. 1. « And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."

III. Another great design of God in the work of redemption, was, to gather together in one all things in Christ, in heaven and in earth, ï. e. all elect creatures; to bring all elect creatures, in heaven and in earth, to an unión one to another in one body, under one head, and to unite all together in one body to God the Father. This was begun soon after the fall, and is carried on through all ages of the world, and finished at the end of the world.

IV. God designed by this work to perfect and complete the glory of all the elect by Christ. It was a design of God to advance the elect to an exceeding pitch of glory, "such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has ever entered into the heart of man." He intended to bring them to perfect excellency and beauty in his image, and in holiness, which is the proper beauty of spiritual beings; and to advance them to a

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glorious degree of honor, and also to an ineffable pitch of
pleasure and joy; and thus to glorify the whole church of e-
lect men in soul and body, and with them to bring the glory
of the elect angels to its highest pitch under one head. The
work which tends to this, God began immediately after the
fall, and carries on through all ages, and will have perfected
at the end of the world.

V. In all this God designed to accomplish the glory of the
blessed Trinity in an exceeding degree. God had a design
of glorifying himself from eternity; to glorify each person
in the Godhead. The end must be considered as first in the
order of nature, and then the means; and therefore we must
conceive, that God having professed this end, had then as it
were the means to choose; and the principal mean that he
pitched upon was this great work of redemption that we are
speaking of. It was his design in this work to glorify his on-
ly begotten son, Jesus Christ; and it was his design, by the
son to glorify the Father: John xiii. 31, 32. “Now is the
Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God
be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and
shall straightway glorify him." It was his design that the
Son should thus be glorified, and should glorify the Father by
what should be accomplished by the Spirit to the glory of the
Spirit, that the whole Trinity, conjunctly, and each person
singly, might be exceedingly glorified. The work that was
the appointed means of this, was begun immediately after the
fall, and is carried on till, and finished at the end of the world,
when all this intended glory shall be fully accomplished in all
things.

HAVING thus explained the terms made use of in the doctrine, and shown what the things are which are to be accomplished by this great work of God, I proceed now to the proposed History; that is, to show how what was designed by the work of redemption is accomplished, in the various steps of this work, from the fall of man to the end of the world.

In order to this, I would divide this whole space of time into three periods:

The

1st. Reaching from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ;

the

2d. From Christ's incarnation till his resurrection; or the whole time of Christ's humiliation;

the

3d. From thence to the end of the world.

It may be some may be ready to think this a very unequal division: And it is so indeed in some respects. It is so, because the second period is so much the greatest: For although.it be so much shorter than either of the other, being but between thirty and forty years, whereas both the other contain thousands; yet in this affair that we are now upon, it is more than both the others. I would therefore proceed to show distinctly how the work of redemption is carried on from the fall of man to the end of the world, through each of these periods in their order; which I would do under three propositions; one concerning each period.

I. That from the fall of man till the incarnation of Christ, God was doing those things that were preparatory to Christ's coming, and working out redemption, and were forerunners and earnests of it.

II. That the time from Christ's incarnation, till his resurrection, was spent in procuring and purchasing redemption.

III. That the space of time from the resurrection of Christ to the end of the world, is all taken up in bringing about or accomplishing the great effect or success of that purchase.

In a particular consideration of these three propositions, the great truth taught in the doctrine may perhaps appear in a clear light, and we may see how the work of redemption is carried on from the fall of man to the end of the world.