(as it was a representation of the true sacrifice of
Christ, which is a sweet savour indeed to God) gives
Noah a new grant of the earth, founded thereon ; oi
on that covenant of grace which is by the sacrifice
of Christ, with a promise annexed, that now the
earth should no more be destroyed, till the consum-
mation of all things ; as you may see in Gen. viii.
20—22, and chap. ix. 1 — 3, 7. The reason why
such a promise was added to this grant made to
Noah, and not to that made to Adam, was because
this was founded on the covenant of grace, of which
Christ was the surety, and therefore could not be
broken. And therefore it comes to pass now, that
though the wickedness of man has dreadfully raged,
and the earth has been filled with violence and wick-
edness a thousand times, one age after another, and
more dreadful and aggravated wickedness than the
world was full of before the flood, being against so
much greater light and mercy, especially in these
days of the gospel; yet God's holds out; he does
not destroy the earth ; his mercy and forbearance
abides according to his promise ; and his grant es-
tablished with Noah and his sons remains firm and
good, being founded on the covenant of grace.

4. On this, God renews with Noah and his sons
the covenant of grace. Gen. ix. 9, 10. ' And I, be-
hold, I establish my covenant with you, and with
your seed after you, and every living creature that
is with you,' &c. ; which even the brute creation
have this benefit of, that it shall never be destroyed
again until the consummation of all things. When
we have this expression in scripture, ' my covenant,'
it commonly is to be understood of the covenant of
grace. The manner of expression, ' I will establish
my covenant with you, and with your seed after
you,' shows plainly that it was a covenant already in
being, that had been made, and that Noah would by



FROM KOAH TO ABRAHAM.



43



that denomination understand what covenant it was,
even the covenant of grace.

5. God's disappointing the design of building the
city and tower of Babel belongs also to this great
work of redemption. For that was undertaken in
opposition to this great building of God which we
are speaking of. Men's going about to build such a
city and tower was an effect of the corruption that
mankind were now again fallen into. This city and
tower was set up in opposition to the city of God,
as the god that they built it to was their pride.
Being sunk into a disposition to forsake the true
God, the first idol they set up in his room, was
themselves, their own glory and fame. And as this
city and tower had its foundation laid in the pride
and vanity of men ; so it was built on a foundation
exceedingly contrary to the nature of the foundation
of the kingdom of Christ, and his redeemed city,
which has its foundation laid in humility.

Therefore God saw that it tended to frustrate the
design of that great building which was founded,
not in the haughtiness of men ; but in the purposes of
God : thus the thing that they did displeased the
Lord, and he confounded the design, not suffering
them to bring it to perfection ; as he will frustrate
all other designs set up in opposition to the great
building of the work of redemption.

In the second chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet
is describing God's setting up the kingdom of Christ
in the world, he foretels that he will, in order to it,
bring down the haughtiness of men, and how the
day of the Lord shall be on every high tower, and
upon every fenced wall, &c. Christ's kingdom is es-
tablished by bringing down every high thing to
make way for it. ' For the weapons of our warfare
are mighty through God, to the pulling down of
strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God.' "what is done in a particular soul, to make
way for the setting up of Christ's kingdom, is to
destroy Babel in that soul.



44 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

They intended to have built Babel up to heaven.
That building which is the subject we are now upon,
is intended to be built so high, that its top shall
reach to heaven indeed, as it will to the highest
heavens at the end of the world, when it shall be
finished : and therefore God would not suffer the
building of his enemies, that they designed to build
up to heaven in opposition to it, to prosper. If they
had gone on and prospered in building that city and
tower, it might have kept the world of wicked men,
the enemies of the church together, as was their
design. They might have remained united in one
vast, powerful city, and so have been too powerful
for the city of God, and quite swallowed it up.

This city of Babel is the same with the city of
Babylon ; for Babylon in the original is Babel : but
Babylon was a city that is always spoken of in
scripture as chiefly opposite to the city of God.
Babylon and Jerusalem, or Zion, are often opposed
to each other, both in the Old and New Testament.
This city was a powerful and terrible enemy to the
city of God afterwards, notwithstanding this great
check put to the building of it in the beginning.
But it might, and probably would have been vastly
more powerful, and able to vex and destroy the
church of God, if it had not been thus checked.

Thus it was in kindness to his church in the
world, and in prosecution of the great design of re-
demption, that God put a stop to the building of
the city and tower of Babel.

6. The dispersion of the nations, and dividing the
earth among its inhabitants, immediately after God
had caused the building of Babel to cease. This
was done so as most to suit that great design of re-
demption ; and particularly, God therein had an eye
to the future propagation of the gospel among the
nations. * When the Most High divided to the na-
tions their inheritance, when he separated the sons
of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel.' Deut. xxxii.
8. ' And hath made of one blood all nations of



FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAAr. 45

men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth ; and
hath determined the times before appointed, and the
bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek
the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and
find him.' Acts xvii. 26, 27. The land of Canaan
was the most conveniently situated of any place in
the world for the purpose of spreading the light of
the gospel thence among the nations in general. In
the times immediately after Christ, the Roman em-
pire included most of the known world, particularly
the countries round about Jerusalem, which was
therefore properly situated for the purpose of diffus-
ing the light of the gospel among them from that
place. The devil seeing the advantage of this situa-
tion of the nations for promoting the great work of
redemption, and the disadvantage of it with respect
to the interest of his kingdom, might perhaps lead
away many into the remotest parts of the world, to
get them out of the way of the gospel. Thus some
were led into America ; and others into cold north-
ern regions, almost inaccessible.

7. Another thing I would mention in this period,
was God's preserving the true religion in the line of
which Christ was to proceed, when the world in
general apostatized to idolatry, and the church was
in imminent danger of being swallowed up in the ge-
neral corruption. Although God had lately wrought
so wonderfully for the deliverance of his church, and
had shewed so great mercy towards it, as for its
sake even to destroy all the rest of the world ; and
although he had lately renewed and established his
covenant of grace with Noah and his sons ; yet so
prone is the corrupt heart of man to depart from
God, and to sink into the depths of wickedness;
and so prone to darkness, delusion and error, that
the world soon after the flood fell into gross ido-
latry ; so that before Abraham, the distemper was
become almost universal. The earth was become
very corrupt at the time of the building of Babel ;
and even God's people themselves, even that line of
which Christ was to come, were corrupted in a



46 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

measure with idolatry. * Your fathers dwelt on the
other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the
father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor : and
they served other gods.' Josh. xxiv. 2. The other
side of the flood means beyond the river Euphrates,
where the ancestors of Abraham lived.

We are not to understand that they were wholly
drawn ofl" to idolatry, to forsake the true God. Fox
God is said to be the God of Terah : Gen. xxxi. 53.
* The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the
God of their father, judge betwixt us.' But they
only partook in some measure of the general and
almost universal corruption of the times ; as Solo-
mon was in a measure infected with idolatrous cor-
ruption ; and as the children of Israel in Egypt are
said to serve other gods, though yet there was the
true church of God among them ; and as there were
images kept for a considerable time in the family of
Jacob; the corruption being brought from Padan-
aram, whence he fetched his wives.

This was the second time that the church was
almost brought to nothing by the corruption and
general defection of the world from true religion.
But still the true religion was kept up in the family
from which Christ was to proceed, which is another
instance of God's remarkably preserving the church
in the time of a general deluge of wickedness ; and
wherein, although the god of this world raged, and
had almost swallowed up God's church, yet he did
not suffer the gates of hell to prevail againt it.

III. FROM THE CALL OF ABRAHAM TO MOSES.

I PROCEED now to show how the work of re-
demption was carried on through the third part of
this period, beginning with the call of Abraham, and
extending to Moses. And

1. It pleased God now to separate that person of
whom Christ was to come, from the rest of the



FROM ADUAHAM TO ]\IOSES. 47

world, that his churcii might be upheld in his ili-
mily and posterity till that time. This he did in
calling Abraham out of his own country, and froni
his kindred, to go into a distant one, that God
should show him, and bringing him first out of Uf
of the Chaldees to Haran, and then to the land of
Canaan.

It was before observed, that the corruption of the
world with idolatry was now become general ; man-
kind were almost over-run with it ; God therefore
saw it necessary, in order to uphold true religion,
that there should be a family separated from the rest
of the world ; for even Abraham's own country and
kindred had most of them fallen, and, without some
extraordinary interposition of Providence, in all like-
lihood, in a generation or two more, the true religion
would have been extinct. And therefore God saw
it to be a fit time to call Abraham, the person in
whose family he intended to uphold religion, out of
his own country, and from his kindred, to a far dis-
tant country, that his posterity might there remain
a people separate from all the rest of the world ; so
that the true religion might be upheld there, while
all mankind besides were swallowed up in heathen-
ism.

The land of the Chaldees, that Abraham was called
to go out of, was the country about Babel ; Babel or
Babylon, was the chief city of the land of Chaldea.
Learned men suppose that it was in this land that
idolatry first began ; that Babel and Chaldea were
the original and chief- seat of the worship of idols,
whence it spread into other nations. And therefore
the land of the Chaldeans, or the country of Babylon,
is in scripture called the land of graven images : as
Jer. 1. 35, 38. * A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith
the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and
upon her princes, and upon her wise men.— A
drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried
up ; for it is the land of graven images, and they are
mad upon their idols.' God calls Abraham out of
this idolatrous country, to a great distance from it.



48 HISTOUY OF UEDl',]MPTIO\^.

And when he came there, he gave him no inheri-'
tance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on ;
but he remained a stranger and a sojourner, that he
and his family might be kept separate from all the
world.

This was a new thing : God had never taken such
a method before. His church had not in this man-
ner been separated from the rest of the world till
now ; but were wont to dwell with them, without
any bar or fence to keep them separate ; the mis-
chievous consequences of which had been found re-
peatedly. The effect before the flood, of God's peo-.
pie living intermingled with the wicked world,
without any remarkable wall of separation, was,'
that the sons of God joined in marriage with others,
and thereby soon became infected, and the church
was almost brought to nothing. The method that
God then took was to drown the wicked world, and
save the church in the ark. And now the world;
before Abraham was called, was become corrupt
again. But here God took another method. He
did not destroy the world, and save Abraham, and
his wife, and Lot in an ark ; but he calls these per-
sons to go and live separate from the rest.

This was a new and a great thing, that God did
toward the work of redemption. It was about the
middle of the space of time between the fall of man
and the coming of Christ ; about two thousand years
before his incarnation. But by this calling of Abra-
ham, the ancestor of Christ, a foundation was laid
for the upholding the church in the world, till Christ
shouhl come. For the world having become idola-
trous, there was a necessity that the seed of the
woman should be thus separated from the idolatrous
world in order thereunto.

It was also needful that there should be a par-
ticular nation separated from the rest of the world,
to receive the types and prophecies that were to be
given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming :
that to them might be committed the oracles of
God ; that by them the history of God's great



FROM ABRAHAM TO JMOSES. 49

works of creation and providence might be pre-
served ; that so Christ might be born of this nation ;
and from hence the light of the gospel shine forth to
the rest of the vs-^orld. These ends could not w^ell
be obtained, if God's people, through all these two
thousand years, had lived intermixed with the hea-
then world. So that this calling of Abraham may-
be looked upon as a kind of a new foundation laid
for the visible church of God, in a more distinct and
regular state, to be built on this foundation from
henceforward, till Christ should actually come, and
then through him to be propagated to all nations.
So that Abraham being the person in whom this
foundation is laid, is represented in scripture as
though he were the father of all the church, the
father of all them that believe ; as it were a root
whence the visible church rose as a tree distinct
from all others ; of which tree Christ was the branch
of righteousness ; and from which, after Christ
came, the natural branches were broken off, and
the Gentiles were grafted in. So that Abraham still
remains, through Christ, the father of the church.
It is the same tree which from that small beginning
in Abraham's time, has in these days of the gospel
spread its branches over a great part of the earth,
and will fill the whole in due time, and at the end
of the world be transplanted from an earthly soil
into the Paradise of God.

2. There accompanied this a more particular and
full revelation and confirmation of the covenant of
grace than ever before had been. There were be-
fore this two particular and solemn editions or con-
firmations of this covenant ; one whereby it was
revealed to our first parents, soon after the fall ; the
other whereby God solemnly renewed the same
covenant with Noah and his family soon after the
flood ; and now a third, at the calling of Abraham,
which being much nearer the time of the coming of
Christ than either of the former, it was much more
full and particular. It was now revealed, not only
that Christ should come, but that he should be Abra-



50 HISTORY OF redp:mption.

ham's seed ; and that all the families of the earth
should be blessed in him. God repeatedly pro-
mised this to Abraham. First, when he first called
him, Gen. xii. 2. * And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
great: and thou shalt be a blessing.' The same
promise was renewed after he came into the land
of Canaan, chap. xiii. 14, &c. Again after Abraham
returned from the slaughter of the kings, chap. xv.
5, 6. And a fourth time, after his offering up Isaac,
chap. xxii. 16—18.

In this renewal of the covenant of grace with
Abraham, several particulars concerning it were re-
vealed more fully than before ; not only tliat Christ
was to be of Abraham's seed, but also, the calling of
the Gentiles, and the bringing all nations into the
church, that all the families of the earth might be
blessed, was now made known. And the great con-
dition of the covenant of grace, which is faith, was
now more fully revealed. Gen. xv. 5, 6. ' And he
said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And Abraham
believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness.' Which is much taken notice of in
the New Testament, and from thence Abraham was
called • the father of them that believe.' Rom. iv.
2—11.

And as there was now a farther revelation of the
covenant of grace, so there was a farther confirma-
tion of it by seals and pledges, than ever had been
before ; as, particularly, God did now institute a
certain sacrament, to he a standing seal of this
covenant in the visible church, till Christ should
come, viz. circumcision. Circumcision was a seal
of this covenant of grace, as appears by its first
institution, in the xviith chapter of Genesis. It
there appears to be a seal of that covenant by which
God promised to make Abraham, a father of many
nations: compare the 5th with the 9tli and 10th
verses. And we are expressly taught, that it was
a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom. iv. 11.
Speaking of Abraham, the apostle says, ' He re-



FROI\I ABRAHAM TO MOSES. 51

ceived the sign oi circumcision, a seal of the righ-
teousness of faith.' And the sacrament chiefly dis-
tinguished Abraham's seed from the world, and kept
up a separation between them more than any other
particular observance whate ver.

Besides this, there were other occasional seals,
and confirmations, that Abraham had of this cove-
nant ; as particularly, (1) God gave Abraham a re-
markable pledge of the fulfilment of the promise he
had made him, in his victory over Chedorlaomer
and the kings that were with him. Chedorlaomer
seems to have reigned over a great part of the world
at that day ; and though he had his seat at Elam,
which was not much if any thing short of a thousand
miles from the land of Canaan, yet he extended his
empire so as to reign over many parts of that land,
as appears by Gen. xiv. 4—7. It is supposed by
learned men, that he was a king of the Assyrian
empire, which had been begun by Nimrod at Babel.
And as it was the honour of kings in those days to
build new cities to be made the seats of empire,
chap X. 10—12, so it is conjectured, that he had
built him a city in Elam, and made that his seat ;
and that the other kings, who came with him, were
his deputies in the several cities and countries where
they reigned. But yet as mighty an empire as he
had, and as great an army as he now came with,
Abraham, only with his trained servants that were
born in his own house, conquered and subdued them
all. This victory he received of God as a pledge of
the victory that Christ, his seed, should obtain over
the nations of the earth, whereby he should possess
the gates of his enemies. It is plainly spoken of as
such in Isaiah. In chap. x]i. is foretold the future
glorious victory the church shall obtain over the na-
tions of the world ; as you may see in verses, 1, 10,
15, &c. But in verses 2, 3, this victory of Abraham
is spoken of as a pledge and earnest of the victory oi
the church. ' Who raised up the righteous man
from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations
before him, and made him rule over kings ? He gave



52 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.

them as the dust to the sword, and as driven stubble
to his bow. He pursued tliem, and passed safely ;
even by the way that he had not gone with his
feet.'

(2) Another remarkable confirmation Abraham re-
ceived of the covenant of grace, was when he re-
turned from the slaughter of the kings ; when Mei-
chizedek the king of Salem, the priest of the most
high God, that great type of Christ, met him, and
blessed him, and brought forth bread and wine.
The bread and wine signified the same blessings of
the covenant of grace, that the bread and w^ine does
in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. So that as
Abraham had a seal of the covenant in circumcision,
that was equivalent to the Lord's supper. And Mel-
chizedek's coming to meet him w^ith such a seal of
the covenant of grace, on the occasion of this vic-
tory, evinces that it was a pledge of God's fulfilment
of the same covenant ; for that is the mercy which
Melchizedek takes notice of. Gen. xiv. 19, 20.

(3) Another was, the vision that he had in the
deep sleep that fell upon Abraham, of the smoking
furnace, and burning lamp, that passed between the
parts of the sacrifice. Gen. xv. That sacrifice, as
all sacrifices do, signified the sacrifice of Christ.
The smoking furnace that passed through the midst
of that sacrifice signified the sufferings of Christ ;
but the burning lamp that followed, which shone
with a clear bright light, signifies the glory that
followed Christ's sufferings, and was procured by
them.

(4) Another pledge that God gave Abraham of
the fulfilment of the covenant of grace, was his gift
of that child of whom Christ was to come, in his
old age. This is spoken of as such in scripture.
Heb. xi. 11, 12, and also Rom. iv. 18, &c.

(5) Again, in his delivering Isaac, after he was
laid upon the wood of the sacrifice to be slain. God
gave Abraham another confirmation of his faith in
the promise that God had made of Christ, that he
should be of Isaac's posterity ; and was a repre-



FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES. 53

sentation of the resurrection of Christ. Heb. xi.
17—19. And because this was given as a confir-
mation of the covenant of grace, therefore God re-
newed that covenant with Abraham on this occasion.
Gen. xxiv. 15, &c.

Thus you see how much more fully the covenant
of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham's
time than it had been before ; by means of which
Abraham seems to have had a clearer understanding
and sight of Christ, the great Redeemer, and the
future things that were to be accomplished by him,
than any of the saints preceding him ; and therefore
Christ informs us, that ' Abraham rejoiced to see
his day, and he saw it, and was glad.' John viii. 56.
So great an advance did it please God now to make
in this building, which he had been carrying on
from the beginning of the world.

3. The next thing that I would take notice of
here, is God's preserving the patriarchs so long in
the midst of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and
from all other enemies. The patriarchs, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, were those of whom Christ was
to proceed ; and they were now separated from the
world, that in them the church might be upheld :
therefore, in preserving them, the great design of
redemption was carried on. He preserved them,
and kept the inhabitants of the land where they
sojourned from destroying them ; which was a re-
markable dispensation of Providence : for the inha-
bitants of the land were at that day exceedingly
wicked, though they grew more wicked afterwards.
This appears by Gen. xv. 16. * In the fourth ge-
neration they shall come hither again ; for the ini-
quity of the Canaanites is not yet full : ' as much as
to say, Though it be very great, it is not yet full.
And their great wickedness also appears by Abra-
ham and Isaac's aversion to their children marrying
any of the daughters of the land. Abraham, when
he was old, could not be content till he had made
his servant swear that he would not take a wife for



54 HISTORY OF llEDEMPTIOX.

his son of the daughters of the land. And Isaac
and Rebecca were content to send away Jacob to so
great a distance as Padan-aram, to take him a wife
thence. And when Esau married some of the
daughters of the land, we are told, that they were
a grief of mindto Isaac and Rebecca. Gen. xxvi.