for you to be at some labour in seeking it ? Did our
salvation lie with such weight on the mind of Christ
as to induce him to become man, and to suffer even
death itself, in order to procure it for us ; and is it
not worth while for you who need this salvation,
and must perish eternally without it, to take earnest
pains to obtain an interest in it after it is procured,
and all things are ready ?
IMPROVEMENT OK PERIOD J I. 217
[4] Shall the great God be so concerned about
this salvation, as often to overturn the world to make
wa}^ for it : and when all was done, is it not worth
your seeking after ? What great, what wonderful
things has the Lord of heaven and earth done from
one age to another, casting down and setting up
kings, raising up a great number of prophets, sepa-
rating a distinct nation from the rest of the world,
overturning one kingdom and another, and often the
state of the world ; and so has continued bringing
about one change and revolution after another, for
forty centuries in succession, to make way for the
procuring of this salvation. And when he had done
all ; is it not worthy of your being concerned about
it, but that it should be thrown by, and made no-
thing of, in comparison of worldly gain, youthful
diversions, and other such trifling things ? Oh that
you who live negligent of this salvation, would con-
sider what you do ! What you have heard from this
subject, may show you what reason there is in that
exclamation of the apostle : ' How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation — Behold, ye des-
pisers, and wonder and perish : for I work a work
in your days, a work which you shall in no wise
believe, though a man declare it unto you/ Heb. ii.
3. Acts xiii. 41. God looks on such as you as great
enemies of the cross of Christ, and adversaries and
despisers of all the glory of this great work. And
if God has made such account of the glory of sal-
vation as to destroy many nations, and so often
overturn all nations, to prepare the way for the
glory of his Son in this affair ; how little account
will he make of the lives and souls of ten thousand
such opposers and despisers as you that continue
impenitent, in competition with his glory! Why
surely you shall be dashed in pieces as a potter's
vessel, and trodden down as the mire of the streets.
God may, through wonderful patience, bear with
hardened careless sinners for awhile ; but he will
not always bear with such despisers of his dear Sop,
and his great salvation, the glory of which he has
2 F
218 HISTORY OF IIEPEMPTION.
had SO much at heart, but will utterly consume them
without remedy, and without mercy.
2. I conclude with a use of encouragement to
burdened souls, to put their trust in Christ for sal-
vation. To all such as are not careless and negli-
gent, but sensible in some measure of their need of
an interest in Christ, and afraid of the wrath to
come ; to such, what has been said on this subject
holds forth great encouragement, to venture their
souls on the Lord Jesus Christ ; and as motives
proper to excite you so to do, let me lead you to
consider two things in particular.
(1) The completeness of the purchase which has
oeen made. As you have heard, this work of pur-
chasing salvation was wholly finished during the
time of Christ's humiliation. When Christ rose from
the dead, and was exalted from that abasement to
which he submitted for our salvation, the purchase
of eternal life was completely made, so that there
was no need of any thing more to be done in order
to it. But now the servants were sent forth with
this message : * Behold I have prepared my dinner ;
my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things
are ready, come unto the marriage.' Matt. xxii. 4.
Therefore all things being ready, are your sins many
and great ? Here is enough done by Christ to pro-
cure their pardon ; there no need of any righteous-
ness of yours to obtain your justification. No, you
may come freely, without money and without price.
Since therefore there is such a free and gracious in-
vitation given you, come ; come naked as you are.
Come as a poor condemned criminal ; come and cast
yourself down at Christ's feet, as one justly con-
demned, and utterly helpless in yourself. Here is
a complete salvation wrought out by Christ, and
through him offered to you ; come therefore, accept
of it, and be saved.
(2) For Christ to reject one who thus comes to
him, would be to frustrate all those great things
which you have heard that God brought to pass
from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ.
INTRODUCTION TO PERIOD II I> 219
It would also frustrate all that Christ did and suf-
fered while on earth ; yea, it would frustrate the in-
carnation of Christ itself, for all these things were
for that end, that those might be saved who should
come to Christ. Therefore you may be sure that he
will not be backward in saving those who come to
him, and trust in him ; for he has no desire to frus-
trate himself in his own work. Neither will God
the Father refuse you ; for he has no desire to frus-
trate himself in all that he did for so many hundred
years, to prepare the way for the salvation of sin-
ners by Christ. Come therefore, hearken to the
sweet and earnest call of Christ. ' Come unto me,
all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls ; for
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' Matt. xi.
28—30.
PERIOD III.
FROM THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TO THE END
OF THE WORLD.
In discoursing on this subject, we have already
shown how the work of redemption was carried on
through the two first of the three periods into which
we divided the whole space of time, from the fall
to the end of the world : and we are now come
to the third and last period, beginning with Christ's
resurrection, and reaching to the end of the world ;
and are now to show how this w^ork was also car-
ried on through this period, from the following pro-
position —
â– That the space of time from the Resurrect iofi of
Christ to the End of the World is all engaged in bring-
ing about the great eficct o'' success of Christ's Pur-
chase.
220 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.
Not but that there were great effects and glorious
success of Christ's purchase of redemption before,
even from the beginning. But all that success was
only preparatory, and by way of anticipation ; as
some few fruits are gathered before the harvest.
There was no more success before Christ came than
God saw needful to prepare the way for his coming.
The proper time of the success or effect of Christ's
purchase of redemption is after the purchase has
been made ; as the proper time for the world to en-
joy the light of the sun is the day time, after the
sun is risen, though we may have some small matter
of it reflected from the moon and planets before.
And even the success of Christ's redemption, while
he himself was on earth, was very small, in compa-
rison of what it was after the conclusion pf his hu-
miliation.
But Christ having finished that greatest and most
difficult of all works, the work of the purchase of
redemption, now is the time for him to obtain the
joy that was set before him. Having made his soul
an offering for sin, now is the time for him to see
his seed, and to have ' a portion divided to him with
the great, and to divide the spoil with the strong.'
Isai. liii. 1.
One design of Christ's humiliation was, to lay a
foundation for the overthrow of Satan's kingdom ;
and now is come the time to effect it ; as Christ a
little before his crucifixion said, * Now is the judg-
ment of this world ; now shall the prince of this
world be cast out.' .John xii. 31. Another design
was, to gather together in one all things in Christ.
John xii. 32. * And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all
men unto me;' which- is agreeable to Jacob s pro-
phecy of Christ, that ' when Shiloh should come, to
him should the gathering of the people be.' Gen.
xlix. 10.— A third design is the salvation of the
elect. Now when his sufferings are finished, and
his humiliation is perfected, the time is come for
that also. Heb. v. 8, 9. ' Though he were a Son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he
INTRODUCTION TO PERIOD III. 221
suffered ; and being made perfect, he became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
him.'— Another design was, to accomplish by these
things great glory to the persons of the Trinity.
Now also is come the time for that, John xvii. 1.
* Father, the hour is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee.'— Lastly, another design
was the glory of the saints, John xvii. 2. ' As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.'
—And all the dispensations of God's providence
henceforward, even to the final consummation of all
things, are to give Christ his reward, and to fulfil
the joy that was set before him.
Before I enter on the consideration of the par-
ticular things accomplished in this period, I would
briefly observe, how the times of this period are
represented in scripture.
1. The times of this period, for the most part, are
those which in the Old Testament are called the * lat-
ter days.' We often, in the prophets of the Old
Testament, read of such and such things that should
come to pass in the * latter days, ' and sometimes
in the ' last days. ' Now these expressions of the
prophets are most commonly to be understood of
the times of this period. They are called the latter
days, and the last days, because this is the last pe-
riod of the series of God's providences on earth, the
last period of that great work of providence, the
work of redemption, which is as it were the sum of
God's works of providence, the time wherein the
church is under the last dispensation that ever will
be given on earth.
2. The whole time of this period is sometimes
i:a scripture called ' the end of the world. ' 1 Cor.
X. 11. ' Now all these things happened unto them
for ensamples ; and they are written for our admo-
nition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. '
The apostle in this expression, ' the end of the
world,' means the whole of the gospel day, from the
222 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.
birth of Christ to the finishing of the day of judge-
ment. Heb. ix. 26. ' But now once in the end of
the world hath he appeared, to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself.' This space of time may well
be called * the end of the world,' for this whole
time is taken up in bringing things to that great
issue which God had been preparing the way for, in
all the great dispensations of providence, from the
first fall of man to this time. Before, things were
in a kind of preparatory state, but now they are in
a finishing state : it is the winding up of things
which is all this while accomplishing. Heaven and
earth began to sh&ke in order to a dissolution, ac-
cording to the prophecy of Haggai, before Christ
came, that so only ' those things that cannot be
shaken may remain ; ' or that those things that are
to come to an end, may come to an end, and that
only those things may remain, which are to remain
eternally. Heb. xii. 27.
So, in the first place, the carnal ordinances of the
Jewish worship came to an end, to make way for
the establishment of that spiritual worship, the wor-
ship of the heart, which is to endure to eternity.
John iv. 21, 23. ' Jesus saith unto the woman.
Believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither
in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to
worship him.' This is one instance of the temporary
world's coming to an end, and the eternal world's
beginning. Another instance that the outward tem-
ple, and the city of Jerusalem, came to an end, to
give place to the setting up of the spiritual temple
and the city, which are to endure for ever, which is
also another instance of removing those things which
are ready to vanish away, that those things which
cannot be shaken may remain. Again, the old hea-
then empire comes to an end, to make way for the
everlasting empire of Christ. Upon the fall of anti-
christ, an end will be ]nit to Satan's visible kingdom
IKTRODUCTIOX TO PERIOD III. 223
on earth, to establish Christ's eternal kingdom. Dan.
vii. 27. ' And the kingdom and dominion, and the
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven,
shall be given to the saints of the Most High,
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all
dominions shall serve and obey him.' This is ano-
ther instance of the ending of the temporary world,
and the beginning of the eternal one. And then,
lastly, the very frame of this corruptible world shall
come to an end, to make way for the church to
dwell in another dwellingplace, which shall last to
eternity ; which is the concluding instance.
Because the world is thus coming to an end by
various steps and degrees, the apostle perhaps uses
this expression, that not the end, but the ' ends' of
the world are come on us ; as though the world
has several endings one after another. The gospel
dispensation is the last state of things in the world ;
and this state is a finishing state ; it is all spent in
finishing things off which before had been preparing,
or abolishing things which before had stood. It is
all spent as it were in summing things up, and
bringing them to their issue, and their proper ful-
filment. Now all the old types are fulfilled, and
the predictions of all the prophets from the begin-
ning of the world shall be accomplished in this
period.
3. That state of things which is attained in the
events of this period is called ' a new heaven and a
new earth.' Isai. Ixv. 17, 18. 'For behold, I create
a new heaven and a new earth : and the former
shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But
be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I
create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,
and her people a joy.' And chap. Ixvi. 22. ' For as
the new heavens and new earth which I make, shall
remain before me ; so shall your seed and your name
remain.' See also chap. li. 16. As the former state
of things, or the old world, by one step after another,
is tlirough this period coming to an end ; so the new
state of things, or the new world, which is a spi-
224 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.
ritual world, is beginning and setting up. In conse-
quence of each of these finishings of the old state
of things, there is the beginning of a new and eter-
nal one. So that which accompanied the destruc-
tion of the literal Jerusalem, was an establishing of
the spiritual. So with respect to the destruction of
the old heathen empire, and all the other endings
of the old state of things, till at length the very out-
ward frame of the old world itself shall come to an
end ; and the church shall dwell in a world new to
it, or to a great part of it, even heaven, which will
be a new habitation : and then shall the utmost be
accomplished that is meant of the new heavens and
the new earth. Rev. xxi. 1.
The end of God's creating the world was to pre-
pare a kingdom for his Son, for he is appointed heir
of the world ; and that he might have the possession
of it, and a kingdom in it, which should remain to
all eternity. So far as the kingdom of Christ is set
up in the world, so far is the world brought to its
end, and the eternal state of things set up. So far
are ail the great changes and revolutions of the
world brought to their ultimate issue. So far are
the waters of the long channel of divine providence,
which has so many branches, and so many windings
and turnings, emptied out into their proper ocean,
which they have been seeking from the beginning
and head of their course, and so are come to their
rest. So far as Christ's kingdom is established in
the world, so far are things wound up and settled
in their everlasting state, and a period put to the
course of things in this changeable world ; so far
are the first heavens and the first earth come to an
end, and the new heavens and the new earth esta
blished in their room.— This leads me to observe,
4. That the state of things which is attained by
the events of this period, is what is so often called
* the kingdom of heaven,' or the kingdom of God.
We very often read in the New Testament of the
kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist preached
that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and so did
INTRODUCTION TO PERIOD III. 225
Christ, and his disciples after him ; referring to
something that the Jews in those days expected by
that name. They seem to have taken their expec-
tation and the name chiefly from that prophecy of
Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Dan. ii. 44.
* And in the days of these kings shall the God of
heaven set up a kingdom.' Also chap. vii. 13, 14.
Now this kingdom of heaven is that evangelical
state of things in his church, and in the world,
wherein consists the success of Christ's redemption
in this period. There had been often great king-
doms set up before : but Christ came to set up the
last kingdom, which is not an earthly but a heavenly
kingdom, and so is properly called the kingdom of
heaven. John xviii. 36. ' My kingdom is not of
this world.' Luke xxii. 29. ' My Father hath ap-
pointed unto me a kingdom.'— Under this head I
would observe several things particularly, for the
clearer understanding of what the scriptures say
concerning this period.
(1) The setting up of the kingdom of Christ is
chiefly accomplished by four successive great events,
each of which is in scripture called Christ's ' coming
in his kingdom.' The first is Christ's appearing in
those wonderful dispensations of providence in the
apostles' days, in erecting his kingdom, and destroy-
ing his enemies, which ended in the destruction of
Jerusalem. This is called Christ's coming in his
kingdom, Matt. xiv. 28. ' Verily I say unto you,
there be some standing here, which shall not taste
of death till they see the Son of man coming in his
kingdom.' The second was accomplished in Con-
stantine's time, in the destruction of the heathen
Roman empire. This also is represented as Christ's
coming, and is compared to the last judgment. Rev.
vi. 13 — 17. The third is to be accomplished at the
destruction of antichrist, which is represented as
Christ's coming in his kingdom, in the prophecy of
Daniel, and in other places, as I may possibly show
hereafter. The fourth and last is his coming to
judgment in the end of time, which is the event
2 G
22G HISTORY Ol" REDEMPTION,
])rincipally signified in scripture by Christ's coming
in his kingdom.
(2) I would observe, that each of the three former
of these is a lively image of the last, viz. Christ's
coming to the final judgment ; as the principal dis-
pensations of providence before Christ's first coming
were types of that event.— -As Christ's last coming
to judg-ment is accompanied v/ith a resurrection of
the dead, so is each of the three foregoing with a
spiritual resurrection. The coming of Christ to the
destruction of Jerusalem was preceded by a glorious
spiritual resurrection of souls in the calling of the
Gentiles, and bringing multitudes to him by the
preaching of the gospel. Christ's coming in Con-
stantine's time was accompanied with a spiritual
resurrection of the greater part of the known world,
in a restoration of it to a visible church state, from
a state of heathenism. So Christ's coming at the
destruction of antichrist will be attended with a spi-
ritual resurrection of the church after it had been
long as it were dead, in the times of antichrist.
This is called the first resurrection in the Revelation,
chap. XX. 5.
Again, as Christ in the last judgment will mani-
fest himself in the glory of his Father, so in each of
the three foregoing events Christ gloriously mani-
fests himself in judgments upon his enemies, and in
grace and favour to his church. As the last coming
of Christ will be attended with a literal gathering-
together of the elect from the four winds of heaven,
so were each of the preceding attended with a spi-
ritual ingathering. As this gathering together of the
elect will be effected by the angels with a great
soimd of a trumpet. Matt. xxiv. 31, so are each of
the ])receding by the trumpet of the gospel, sounded
by the ministers of Christ : as there shall precede
the last appearance of Christ, a time of great de-
generacy and wickedness, so this has been, or will
be, the case with each of the other appearances.
Before each of them is a time of great opposition to
the churcli. Before the first, by the Jews ; before
INTKODUCl'[ON TO PERIOn FII. 227
the second, by the heuthen ; before tlie third, ])y
antichrist ; and before the hist, by Gog and Magog,
as described in the Revelation.
By each of these comings of Christ, God works a
glorious deliverance for his church; each of them is
accompanied with a glorious advancement of the
state of it. — The first, which ended in the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem, was attended with bringing the
church into the glorious state of the gospel ; the
second, in Constantine's time, with an advancement
of the church into a state of liberty from persecution,
and the countenance of civil authority, and triumph
over their heathen persecutors. The third, which
shall be at the downfal of antichrist, will be accom-
panied with an advancement of the church into that
state of the glorious prevalence of truth, liberty,
peace and joy, that we so often read of in the pro-
plietical parts of scripture. The last will be attended
with the advancement of the church to consummate
glory in heaven. — Each of these is accompanied with
a terrible destruction of the wicked, and the enemies
of the church: the first, with the terrible destruction
of the persecuting Jews ; the second, wnth dreadful
judgments on the heathen; the third, with the awful
destruction of antichrist, the most cruel and bitter
enemy that ever the church had ; the fourth, with
divine wrath and vengeance on all the ungodly. —
Farther, there is in each of these appearances of
Christ an ending of the old heavens and the old
earth, and a beginning of new heavens and a new
earth ; or an end of a temporal state of things, and
a beginning of an eternal one.
(3) Each of those four great dispensations which
are represented as Christ's coming in his kingdom,
are but so many steps and degrees of the accom-
plishment of one event. They are not the setting-
up of so many distinct kingdoms of Christ, but only
several degrees of the accomplishment of one event.
Dan. vii. 13, 14. 'I saw in the night visions, and
behold, one like the Son of man came with the
clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days.
228 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.
and they brought him near before him. And there
was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,
that all people, nations, and languages, should serve
him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and
his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.'
This is what the Jews expected, and called ' the
coming of the kingdom of heaven ; ' and what John
the Baptist and Christ had respect to, when they
said, ' The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
(4) As there are several steps in the accomplish-
ment of the kingdom of Christ, so in each one of
them the event is accomplished in a farther degree
than in the foregoing. That in the time of Constan-
tino was a greater and farther accomplishment of the
kingdom of Christ, than that which ended in the
destruction of Jerusalem. That which shall be at
the fall of antichrist, will be a still farther accom-
plishment of the same thing, and so on with regard
to each ; so that the kingdom of Christ is gradually
prevailing and growing by these several great steps
of its fulfilment, from the time of Christ's resurrec-
tion to the end of the world. And because these
four great events are but images one of another, and
the three former but types of the last, and since
they are all only several steps of the accomplishment
of the same thing; hence we find them all from time
to time prophesied of under one, as they are in the
prophecies of Daniel, and likewise in the twenty
fourth chapter of Matthew, where some things seem
more applicable to one of them, and others to
another.
(5) It may be observed, that the providences of
God between these four great events are to make
way for the kingdom and glory of Christ in the great