the fall of man to this time. Now it is complete,
and the top stone of the building is laid. In the.
progress of the discourse on this subject, we have
followed the church of God in all the storms and
tempests through which she has passed, till at length,
we have seen her enter the harbour, and land in the
highest heavens, in complete and eternal glory. We
have gone through time, and the several ages of it,
as the providence of God and his word have led us ;
and now we have issued in eternity, when time shall
be no more. We have seen all the church's ene-
mies fixed in endless misery, and the church pre-
sented before the Father in heaven, there to enjoy
the most unspeakable and inconceivable glory and
blessedness, throughout the never ending ages of
eternity.*

* Eternity, the various sentence past.
Assigns the severed throng- distinct abodes,
Sulplnireous or ambrosial : what ensues I
The deed predominant ! the deed of deeds !
Whicli makes a hell of hell, a heav'n of heav'n.
Tlie goddess, witli determined aspect, turns
Her adamantine ke3's, enormous size,
Tlnouj^h destiny's inextricable wards,



COMPLETED IN A FUTURE STATE. 375

Now all Christ's enemies will be perfectly put
under his feet, and lie shall have a most complete
triumph over sin and Satan, and all his instruments,
and death and hell. Now shall all the jiromises
made to Christ by the Father before the foundation
of the world, the promises of the covenant of redemp-
tion, be fully accomplished. Christ shall now per-
fectly have obtained the joy that was set before him,
for which he undertook those sufferings which he
underwent in the state of humiliation. Now shall
all the hopes and expectations of the saints be ful-
filled. The state of things that the church was in
before was a progressive and preparatory state ; but
now she is arrived to her most perfect state of glory.
All the glory of the best times of the church on earth
is but a faint shadow of this her consummate felicity
in heaven.

And now Christ the great Redeemer shall be most
perfectly glorified, and God the Father shall be glo-
rified in him, and the Holy Ghost shall be most fully
glorified in the perfection of his work on the hearts
of all the church. Now shall that new heaven and
new earth, or that renewed state of things, which had
been building up ever since Christ's resurrection, be
completely finished, after the material frame of the
old heavens and the old earth are destroyed. Rev.
xxi. 1. * And I saw a new heaven and a new earth :
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away.' — And who can conceive of the triumph of
those praises which shall be sung in heaven on this
great occasion. The beloved disciple John seems to
want expression to describe the joy on the fall of
antichrist, and says, ' It was as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, say-
ino-. Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.'



Deep drivinc? every bolt on both their fates.
Then from the chrystal battlements of lieav'n,
Down, down, she hurls it through the dark profound,
Ten thousand, thousand fathoms, there to rust,
And ne'er unlock her resolution more.

Young's Ni^dit's Thouirhts.



376 HISTORY OF REDEMPTIOjS.

But much more inexpressible will those praises be,
which will be sung in heaven after the final consum-
mation of all things : they will be mighty thunder-
ings indeed !

All the former things are now passed away, and
what a glorious state are things fixed in to remain
to all eternity! As Christ, when he first entered
upon the work of redemption after the fall of man,
had the kingdom committed to him of the Father,
and took on himself the administration of the afi"airs
of the universe, to manage all so as to subserve the
purposes of this affair ; so now, the work being
finished, he will deliver up the kingdom to God even
the Father. 1 Cor. xv. 24. ' Then cometh the end,
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God,
even the Father : when he shall have put down all
rule, and all authority and power.' Not that Christ
should cease to reign, or have a kingdom after this ;
for it is said, * He shall reign over the house of Jacob
for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.'
Luke i. 33. ' His dominion is an everlasting domi-
nion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.' Dan vii. 14.
Put the meaning is, that Christ shall deliver up that
kingdom or dominion which he has over the world,
as the Father's delegate or vicegerent, to be managed
in subserviency to this great design of redemption.
The end of this commission, or delegation, wdiich he
had from the Father, seems to be to subserve this
particular design of redemption ; and therefore,
when that design is fully accomplished, the commis-
sion will cease, and Christ will deliver it up to the
Father, from whom he received it.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENT.

I PROCEED now to enter upon some improvement
of the whole that has been advanced.

1. We may hence learn how great is the work of
redemption. We have now, in an imperfect man-
ner, considered its whole progress from its foundation



GENERAL IMPROVEMENT. 377

at the fall, through a long succession of wonderful
works, advancing higher and higher from one age to
another, till the top stone is laid at the end of the
world. Let us now consider how great this work is.
Do men, when they behold the palaces of princes,
admire their magnificence and grandeur ? How
then should we admire this building of God, which
he has been erecting for himself through a long suc-
cession of ages. There are three things which have
been mentioned, that especially show the greatness
of this work of redemption.

(1) The nature of those particular events and dis-
pensations of providence, by which it is accomplish-
ed. What great things were done in the world to
prepare the way for Christ's coming, and subsequent
purchase of redemption. How wonderful was the
incarnation of Christ, that God should become man,
should reside upon earth for four and thirty years, in
a mean and despised condition ; that he should
spend his life in such labours and sufferings, and
at last die upon the cross. And what great things
have been done to accomplish the success of Christ's
redemption. For this purpose he arose from the
dead, and ascended up into heaven, and all things
were made subject to him. How many miracles
have been wrought, what mighty revolutions have
been brought to pass in the world already, and how
much greater do we yet expect !

(2) The number of those great events by which
God carries on this work, shows the greatness of the
work. Those mighty revolutions fill up many ages.
The work of creation was completed in six days ;
but the great dispensations by which the work of
redemption is carried on, are so many, that they fill
up six or seven thousand years. The flood, the
building of Babel, the dispersion of the nations, the
shortening of the days of man's life, the calling of
Abraham, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ;
a long series of wonderful providences relating to
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph ; the wonders in
Esvpt, in the Red Sea, in the wilderness; and a

^^ 3 c-



378 HISTORY OF REDEMPTIOX.

long succession of wonderful providences from age to
age towards the nation of the Jews, all contributed
in some view to this great end. What great things
were done also in Christ's time, and since then, in
overturning Satan's kingdom in the heathen empire,
in preserving his church in the dark times of popery,
and in bringing about the Reformation. How many
great and wonderful things must be effected in ac-
complishing the glorious times of the church ; and
at Christ's last coming on the day of judgment, in
the destruction of the world, and in carrying the
whole church into heaven.

(3) The glorious issue of this whole affair, in the
just and eternal destruction of the wicked, and in the
consummate glory of the righteous. Let us once
more take a view of this building, now it is finished
and the top-stone laid. It appeared in a glorious
height in the apostles' time ; higher in the time of
Constantino, and will appear much more glorious
still after the fall of antichrist. But at the consuni-
mation of all things, it appears in its greatest magni-
ficence, as a complete lofty structure, whose top
reaches to the heaven of heavens ; a building worthy
of the great God, the Kin^ of kings.

From what has been said, we may infer, that the
work of redemption is the greatest of all God's works
of which we have any knowledge. This work is the
principal of all God's works of providence, and to
this they are all reducible. All the revolutions in
the world are to subserve this grand design. The
work of redemption is also greater than that of cre-
ation, as the use of a house is the end of building it.
The work of the new creation is more excellent than
the old. So it ever is, that when one thing is re-
moved by God to make way for another, the new
one excels the old. Thus the temple excelled the
tabernacle ; the new covenant, the old ; the new
dispensation of the gospel, the dispensation of Moses;
the throne of David, the throne of Saul ; the priest-
hood of Christ, the priesthood of Aaron ; the new
Jerusalem, the old ; and so the new creation far



GEXEllAL IMPROVEMENT. 379

excels the old. This work of redemption is so much
the greatest of God's works, that all the other are to
be looked upon either as parts or appendages of it,
or as some way reducible to it ; and so all the de-
crees of God do some way or other belong to that
eternal covenant of redemption which was between
the Father and the Son before the foundation of the
world. Every decree of God is some way or other
reducible to that covenant. And seeing this is so
great a work, we need not wonder that the angels
desire to look into it ; that it is so much insisted on
in the bible, being the great subject of its doctrines,
promises, types, songs, histories, and prophecies.

2. Hence we may learn that God is the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and end of all things. Such
are the characters and titles we find often ascribed
to God in those places where the scripture speaks of
the course of providential events. Isa. xli. 4. ' Who
hath wrought and done it, calling the generations
from the beginning ? I, the Lord, the first and the
last, I am he.' See also Isai. xlv. 6, 7. xlviii. 9, 12.
Therefore, when Christ reveals the future events of
providence relating to his church and people, and
this affciir of redemption to the end of the world, to
his disciple John, he often reveals himself under this
character. Rev. i. 8. 'I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is,
and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.'
Ver. 10, 11. 'I heard behind me a great voice as of
a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first
and the last.' Alpha and Omegan are the names of
the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, as A
and Z are of ours ; and therefore it signifies the same
as his being the first and the last, the beginning and
the ending. Thus God is called in the beginning of
this book, before the course of prophecy begins ; and
so again at the end of it, after the final issue of
events. ' And he said unto me, It is done. I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end —
Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is with
me, to give every man according as his work shall



380 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

be. 1 am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and tlie
end, the first and the last.' Rev. xxi. 6. xxii. 12, 13.

We have now seen how all things were from God
in the beginning ; on what design God began the
course of his providence, and how it has been car-
ried on agreeable to his design, without ever failing;
and that at last the conclusion and final issue of
things are to God. We may therefore exclaim with
the apostle, ' Oh the depth of the riches, both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God ; how unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.
For of him, and through him, and to him, are all
things : to whom be glory for ever, Amen.' Rom. xi.
33, 36. We have seen other states and empires, one
after another, fall and come to nothing, even the
greatest and strongest of them ; how the world has
been often overturned, and will be more remarkably
so yet than ever it has been. We have seen how
the world was first destroyed by water, and that at
last it shall be utterly consumed by fire ; but yet
God remains the same throughout all ages. He was
before the beginning of this course of things, and he
will be after the end of them. Psal. cii. 25, 26.
We have seen all other gods perish ; the ancient
gods of the heathen in the nations about Canaan,
and throughout the Roman empire, are all destroyed,
and their worship long since overthrown. We have
seen Antichrist, who has called himself a god on
earth, and Mahomet, who claims religious honours,
and all the gods of the Gentiles, perish : and even
Satan, the great dragon, that old serpent, who has
set up himself as god of this world, will be cast into
the lake of fire, there to suffer his complete punish-
ment. But Jehouah remains, and his kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and of his dominion there is no
end. We have seen mighty and numberless changes
in the world ; but God is unchangeable, ' the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Heb. xiii. 8.

We began at the head of the stream of divine pro-
vidence, and have traced it through its various
windings and turnings, till we are come to the end



GEXERAL IMPROVEMENT. 381

of it, and see where it issues. As it began in Gocl,
so it ends in God. God is the infinite ocean into
which it empties itself. Providence is like a mighty-
wheel, whose circumference is so high that it is
dreadful ; with the glory of the God of Israel above
upon it, as it is represented in Ezekiel's vision. We
have seen the revolution of this wheel, and how, as
it was from God, so its return has been to God
again. All the events of divine providence are like
the links of a chain ; the first link is from God, an.d
the last is to him.

3. We may see by what has been said, how Christ
in all things has the pre-eminence. For this great
w^ork of redemption is all his work ; and therefore
being as it were the sum of God's works of provi-
dence, this shows the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,
as being above all, and through all, and in all. That
God intended the world for his Son s use in the
affair of redemption, is one reason given why he
created it by him, as seems to be intimated by the
apostle in Ephes. iii. 9 — 12. What has been said
shows how all the purposes of God are in Christ ;
that he is before all, and above all, and that all things
consist and are governed by him, and for him. Col.
i. 15—13. That God has made him his firstborn,
higher than the kings of the earth, and set his throne
above their thrones ; and upheld his kingdom, when
theirs have all come to an end. We see that what-
ever changes there are, and however Christ's ene-
mies may exalt themselves, yet finally all his
enemies shall become his footstool, and he shall
reign in uncontrouled power and immense glory ;
also that in the end his people shall be all perfectly
saved and made eternally happy. Thus God gives
the world to his Son for his inheritance.

4. Hence we may see the consistency, order, and
beauty, of God's works of providence. If we behold
these events in any other view than that in which
they have been set before us, they will all look like
confusion ; like a number of jumbled events comhig
to pass without any order or method, like the tossing



382 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

of the waves of the sea. Things will look as though
one confused revolution came to pass after another,
merely by blind chance, without any regular or cer-
tain end.

But if we consider the events of providence in the
light in which the scriptures set them before us,
they appear an orderly series of events, all wisely
directed in excellent harmony and consistence, tend-
ing all to one end. The wheels of providence are
not turned round by blind chance, but they are full
of eyes round about, as Ezekiel represents, and they
are guided by the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit
goes, they go : and all God's works of providence,
through all ages, meet in one at last, as so many
lines in one centre. Ezek, i. 18 — 20.

It is with God's works of providence, as it is with
his work of creation ; it is but one work. The
events of providence are not so many distinct, inde-
pendent works, but they are rather so many differ-
ent parts of one work, one regular scheme. The
works of providence are not disunited and jumbled
without connection or dependence, but are all united,
just as the several parts of one building. There are
many stones, many pieces of timber, but are all so
joined, and fitly framed together, that they make but
one building : they have all but one foundation, and
are united at last in one top-stone.

God's providence may not unfitly be compared to
a large and long river, having innumerable branches,
beginning in different regions, and at a great dis-
tance one from another, and all conspiring to one
common issue. After their very diverse and contra-
ry courses which they held for a while, they all
gather more and more together, the nearer they
come to their common end, and all at length dis-
charge themselves at one mouth into the same ocean.
The- different streams of this river are apt to appear
confused to us, because of the limited nature of our
sight, so that we cannot see the whole at once, nor
discover how they unite in one. Their course ap-
pears very crooked, and different streams seem to



GEXERAL IMPROVEMENT. 383

run for a while different and contrary ways : and if
we view things at a distance, there seem to be innu-
merable obstacles and impediments in the way of
their ever uniting, and coming to the ocean, as rocks,
mountains, and the like ; but yet if we trace them,
they all unite at last, disgorging themselves into
one and the same great ocean.

5. From what has been said we infer, that the
scriptures are the word of God, because they alone
inform us what is God's design in all these works.
It is most reasonable to suppose, that there is some
certain scheme to which providence subordinates all
the great successive changes in the affairs of man-
kind ; that all revolutions, from the beginning of the
world to the end of it, are conspiring to bring to
pass that great event which the Creator and Gover-
nor of the world has ultimately in view ; and that
the plan will not be finished, nor the ultimate event
fully accomplished, till the end of the world.

Now there is nothing else that informs us what
this scheme and design of God in his works is, but
only the holy scripture. Nothing else pretends to
set in view the whole series of God's works of pro-
vidence from beginning to end, and to inform us how
all things were from God at first, and to what end
they shall be brought at last. Nothing but the
scripture sets forth how God governed the world
from the beginning, in an orderly history ; or how
he will govern it to the end, by an orderly prophecy
of future events ; agreeable to the challenge which
the God of Israel makes to the gods, and prophets,
and teachers of the heathen. ' Let them bring them
forth, and show us what shall happen : let them
show the former things what they be, that we may
consider them, and know the latter end of them ; or
declare to us things to come. Show the things that
are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye
are gods.' Isai. xli. 22, 23.

It seems very fit and requisite, that the rational
part of the creation should know something of God's
scheme and design in his works, for they doubtless



384 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

are the beings principally concerned in them ; es-
pecially as God has given them reason, and a capa-
city of seeing him in his works ; for this end, that
they may give him the glory of them. But how can
they glorify God in his works, if they know nothing
of his designs ? And this seems farther reasonable,
because they are made capable of actively falling in
with and promoting that design, acting herein as
his friends and subjects ; it is therefore reasonable
to suppose, that God has given mankind some reve-
lation to inform them of this. But there is nothing
else that does it, except the bible. In that we may
learn the first original of things, and an orderly ac-
count of the scheme of God's works from the begin-
ning, through ages beyond the reach of all other
histories. Here we are told what is the grand end
that God proposes, and the great things he desires
to exhibit. Here we have an account of these wor-
thy of God, and the glory of his perfections. Here
we learn the connections of the various parts of the
work of providence, in a regular, beautiful, and glo-
rious frame, and have an account of the whole
scheme of providence, from the beginning of the
world to the end of it, either in history or prophecy,
and how they issue in the subduing of God's ene-
mies, and in the salvation and glory of his church,
and erecting the everlasting kingdom of his Son.
How rational, useful, and excellent a book is the
bible, and what characters it bears of being a divine
revelation ; a book, without which, we should be
left in miserable darkness and confusion.

6. From what has been said, we may see the
glorious majesty and power of God in this affair of
redemption. His power appears in upholding his
church for so long a time, and carrying on this work ;
preserving it oftentimes when it was but as a little
spark of tire, or as smoking flax, in which the fire
was almost extinct. Yet God has never suffered it
to be quenched, but will bring forth judgment unto
victory. God glorifies his strength in his. church's
weakness ; in causing his people, who are only like



GKNERAL I M PllOV EM E XT. 385

little infants, finally to triumph over earth and hell;
so that they shall tread on the lion and adder, the
young lion and the dragon shall they trample under
foot. Psal. xci. 13. The power of God appears
also in conquering his many and mighty enemies
by that Jesus who was once an infant in a manger,
and afterwards a poor, weak, despised man ; yet he
conquered, and triumphed over them in their own
weapon, the cross.

God's power gloriously appears in conquering
Satan when exalted in his strongest and most po-
tent heathen kingdom, the Roman empire. Christ,
our Michael, has overcome him, and the devil was
cast out, and there was found no more place for him
in heaven ; but he was cast out unto the earth, and
his angels with him. Again, his power gloriously
appears in conquering him in his proud, subtle,
and above all cruel, antichristian kingdom; parti-
cularly in Satan's most violent exertions just before
its final fall. The mighty kingdoms of Antichrist
and Mahomet, which have made such a figure for
many ages together, and have trampled the world
under foot, when Christ appears, will vanish away
like a shadow, or as the darkness in a room does,
when the light is brought in. What are God's ene-
mies in his hands ? How is their greatest strength
weakness, when he rises up ; and how weak will
they all appear together at the day of judgment.
Thus we may apply those words in the song of
Moses : * Thy right hand, oh Lord, is become glo-
rious in power : thy right hand, oh Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy.' And how great doth
the majesty of God appear in overturning the world
from time to time, to accomplish his designs, and
at last in causing the earth and heavens to flee
away, for the advancement of the glory of his king
dom.

7. From what has been said, we may see the glo-
rious wisdom of God. This wisdom appears in
creating the world for such great and important
ends ; in bringing so great good out of such ev'l, in



38G HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

making the fall and ruin of mankind, which in itself
is so lamentable, an occasion of effecting such a
glorious work as this of redemption, and of bringing
his elect to a state of such unspeakable happiness.
How doth the wisdom of God appear also in the long
series of revolutions which take place in the world,
in bringing such order of confusion, in so frustrating
the devil, and turning all his subtle machinations to
God's glory, and the honour of his Son Jesus Christ ;
and in causing the greatest works of Satan to be
wholly turned into occasions of glorious triumph of
the great Redeemer. How wonderful is the wisdom