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PART 1]

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WORK OF REDEMPTION.

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words of God there was an intimation of another surety to be
appointed for man, after the first surety had failed. This was
the first revelation of the covenant of grace; this was the first
dawning of the light of the gospel on earth.

This lower world before the fall enjoyed noonday light;
the light of the knowledge of God, the light of his glory, and
the light of his favor. But when man fell, all this light was
at once extinguished, and the world reduced back again to to-
tal darkness; a worse darkness than that which was in the
beginning of the work, that we read of Gen. i. 2. “ And the
earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep." This was a darkness a thousand times
more remediless than that. Neither men nor angels could
find out any way whereby this darkness might be scattered.
This darkness appeared in its blackness then, when Adam and
his wife saw that they were naked, and sewed fig leaves, and
when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden, and hid themselves among the trees of the garden;
and when God first called them to an account, and said to
Adam, What is this that thou hast done?" Hast thou eaten
of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not
eat?" Then we may suppose that their hearts were filled with
shame and terror. But these words of God, Gen. iii. 15. were
the first dawning of the light of the gospel after this darkness,
Now first appeared some glimmering of light after this dis-
mal darkness, which before this was without one glimpse of
light, any beam of comfort, or any the least hope. It was an
obscure revelation of the gospel; and was not made to Adam
or Eve directly, but it was in what God said to the serpent....
But yet it was very comprehensive, as might be easily shown
would it not take up too much time.

Here was a certain intimation of a merciful design by "the seed of the woman," which was like the first glimmerings of the light of the sun in the east when the day first dawns. This intimation of mercy was given them even before sentence was pronounced on either Adam or Eve, from tenderness to them to whom God designed mercy, lest they should be overborne with a sentence of condemnation, without having any thing held forth whence they could gather any hope.

One of those great things that were intended to be done by the work of redemption, is more plainly intimated here than the rest, viz. God's subduing his enemies under the feet of his Son. This was threatened now, and God's design of this was now first declared, which was the work Christ had now undertaken, and which he soon began, and carried on thenceforward, and will perfectly accomplish at the end of the world. Satan probably had triumphed greatly in the fall of man, as though he had defeated the designs of God in the creation of man and the world in general. But in these words God gives him a plain intimation, that he should not finally triumph, but that a complete victory and triumph should be obtained over him by the seed of the woman.

This revelation of the gospel in this verse was the first thing that Christ did in his prophetical office. You may remember, that it was said in the first of those three propositions that have been mentioned, that from the fall of man to 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. And one of those things which God did in this time to prepare the way for 'Christ's coming into the world, was to foretel and promise'it, as he did from time to time, from age to age, till Christ came.. This was the first promise that ever was given of it, the first prediction that ever was made of it on earth.

III. Soon after this, the custom of sacrificing was appointed, to be a standing type of the sacrifice of Christ till he should come, and offer up himself a sacrifice to God. Sacrificing was not a custom first established by the Levitical law of Moses; for it had been a part of God's instituted worship long before, even from the beginning of God's visible church on earth. We read of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, offering sacrifice, and before them Noah, and before him Abel. And this was by divine appointment; for it was a part of God's worship in his church, that was offered up in faith, and that he accepted: Which proves that it was by his institution; for sacrificing is no part of natural worship. of nature doth not teach men to offer up beasts in

The light sacrifice to

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God; and seeing it was not enjoined by the law of nature, ifit was acceptable to God, it must be by some positive command or institution; for God has declared his abhorrence of such worship as is taught by the precept of men without his institution; Isa. xxix. 13. “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men; therefore behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work," &c. And such worship as hath not a warrant from divine institution, cannot be offered up in faith, because faithhas no foundation where there is no divine appointment. It cannot be offered up in faith of God's acceptance; for men have no warrant to hope for God's acceptance, in that which is not of his appointment, and in that to which he hath not promised his acceptance: And therefore it follows, that the custom of offering sacrifices to God was instituted soon after the fall } for the scripture teaches us, that Abel offered "the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof," Gen. iv. 4; andthat he was accepted of God in this offering, Heb. xi. 4. And there is nothing in the story that looks as though the institution was first given then, when Abel offered up that sacrifice. to God; but it appears as though Abel only therein complied with a custom already established. ·

And it is very probable that it was instituted immediately after God had revealed the covenant of grace, in Gen. iii. 15; which covenant and promise was the foundation on which the custom of sacrificing was built. That promise was the first stone that was laid towards this glorious building, the work of redemption, which will be finished at the end of the world. And the next stone which was laid upon that, was the institution of sacrifices, to be a type of the great sacrifice.'

The next thing that we have an account of after God had pronounced sentence on the serpent, on the woman, and on the man, was, that God made them coats of skins, and clothed them; which by the generality of divines, are thought to be the skins of beasts. slain in sacrifice; for we have no account of any thing else that should be the occasion of man's

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slaying beasts, but only to offer them in sacrifice, till after the flood. Men were not wont to eat the flesh of beasts as their common food till after the flood. The first food of man in paradise before the fall was the fruit of the trees of paradise; and when he was turned out of paradise after the fall, then his food was the herb of the field: Gen. fi. 18. « And thou shalt eat of the herb of the field." The first grant that he had to eat flesh as his common food was after the flood: Gen. ix. 3. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things." So that it is likely that these skins that Adam and Eve were clothed with, were the skins of their sacrifices. God's clothing them with these was a lively figure of their being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. This clothing was no clothing of their own obtaining; but it was God that gave it them. It is said, « God made them coats of skins, and clothed them;" as the righteousness our naked souls are clothed with, is not our righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God. It is he only clothes the naked soul.

Our first parents, who were naked, were clothed at the experice of life. Beasts were slain, and resigned up their lives a sacrifice to God, to afford clothing to them to cover their nakedness. So doth Christ,to afford clothing to our naked souls. The skin signifies the life: So Job, ii. 4. «Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life;" i. e. life for life. Thus our first parents were covered with skins of sacrifices, as the tabernacle in the wilderness, which signified the church, was, when it was covered with rams skins died red, as though they were dipped in blood, to signify that Christ's righteousness was wrought out through the pains of death, under which he shed his precious blood.

We observed before, that the light that the church enjoyed from the fall of man, till Christ came, was like the light which we enjoy in the night; not the light of the sun directly, but as reflected from the moon and stars; which light did foreshow Christ, the Sun of righteousness, that was afterwards to arise. This light of the Sun of righteousness to come they had chiefly two ways: One was by predictions of Christ to conte,

33 whereby his coming was foretold and promised; the other was by types and shadows, whereby his coming and redemp tion were prefigured. The first thing that was done to prepare the way for Christ in the former of these ways, was in that promise that was just taken notice of in the foregoing particular; and the first thing of the latter kind, viz. of types, to foreshow Christ's coming, was that institution of sacrifices that we are now upon. As that promise in Gen. iii. 15. was the first dawn of gospel light after the fall in prophecy; so the institution of sacrifices was the first hint of it in types. The giving of that promise was the first thing that was done after the fall, in this work, in Christ's prophetical office; the institution of sacrifices was the first thing that we read of after the fall, by which especially Christ exhibited himself in his priestly office.

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The institution of sacrifices was a great thing done towards preparing the way for Christ's coming, and working out redemption. For the sacrifices of the Old Testament were the main of all the Old Testament types of Christ and his redemption; and it tended to establish in the minds of God's visible church, the necessity of a propitiatory sacrifice, in or der to the Deity's being satisfied for sin and so prepared the way for the reception of the glorious gospel, that reveals the great sacrifice in the visible church, and not only so, but through the world of mankind. For from this institution of sacrifices that was after the fall, all nations derived the custom of sacrificing. For this custom of offering up sacrifices to the gods, to atone for their sins, was common to all nations. No nation, however barbarous, was found without it any where. This is a great evidence of the truth of the Christian religion; for no nation, but only the Jews, could tell how they came by this custom, or to what purpose it was, to offer sacrifices to their deities. The light of nature did not teach them any such thing. That did not teach them that the gods were hungry, and fed upon the flesh which they burnt in sacrifice; and yet they all had this custom; of which no other account can be given, but that they derived it from Noah, who had it from his ancestors, on whom God had enjoined it as a VOL. I.