35.
Another argument of their great wickedness, was
the instances we have in Sodom and Gomorrali,
Admah and Zeboim, wliicli were some of the cities
of Canaan, though they were probably more emi-
nently wicked.
And they being thus wicked, were likely to have
the most bitter enmity against these holy men ;
agreeable to what was declared at first, ' I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed.' Their holy lives were a
continual condemnation of their wickedness. And
besides, it could not be otherwise, but that they
must be much in rej^roving their wickedness, as we
find Lot was in Sodom ; who, we are told, vexed
his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds, and
was a jHeacher of righteousness to them.
And they were the more exposed to them, being
strangers and sojourners in the land, and having no
inheritance there as yet. Men are more apt to find
fault with strangers, and to be irritated by any thing
in them, as they were with Lot in Sodom. He very
gently reproved their wickedness; and they say
upon it, * This fellow came in to sojourn, and he
will needs be a ruler and a judge;' and threatened
what they would do to him.
But God wonderfully preserved Abraham and Lot,
and Isaac and Jacob, and their families, amongst
them, though they were few in number, and they
might quickly have destroyed them ; which is taken
notice of as a wonderful instance of God's preserving
mercy toward his church. Psal. cv. 12, &c. ' When
they were but a few men in number; yea, very few,
and strangers in it. When they went from one na-
FROM ABRAHAIM TO MOSES. 55
tion to another, from one kingdom to another peo-
ple ; he suffered no man to do them wrong ; yea,
he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not
mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.'
This preservation was in some instances very re-
markable ; those instances that we have an account
of, wherein the people of the land were greatly irri-
tated and provoked ; as they were by Simeon and
Levi's treatment of the Shechemites. Gen. xxxiv.
30, &c. God then strangely preserved Jacob and
his family, restraining the provoked people by an
unusual terror on their minds. Gen. xxxv. 5. ' And
the terror of God was upon the cities that were
round about them, and they did not pursue after the
sons of Jacob.'
And God's preserving them, not only from the
Canaanites, is here to be taken notice of, but his
preserving them from all others that intended mis-
chief to them : thus his preserving Jacob and his
company, when pursued by Laban full of rage, and
a disposition to overtake him as an enemy ; God
met him, and rebuked him, and said to him, ' Take
heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or
bad.' Gen. xxxi. 24. How wonderfully did he also
preserve him from Esau his brother, when he came
forth with an army, with a full design to cut him
off! How did God in answer to his prayer, when
he wrestled with Christ at Penuel, wonderfully turn
Esau's heart, and make him, instead of meeting him
as an enemy, with slaughter and destruction, to
meet him as a friend and brother, doing him no
harm ! Thus were this handful, this little root that
had the blessing of the Redeemer in it, preserved
in the midst of enemies and dangers ; which was
not unlike to the preserving the ark in the midst of
the tempestuous deluge.
4. The next thing I would mention, is the awful
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neigh-
bouring cities. This tended to promote the great
design and work that is the subject of my present
undertaking, two ways. It did so, as it tended
50 HISTORY OF REDEMPTION.
powerfully to restrain the inhabitants of the land
from injuring those holy strangers that God had
brought to sojourn amongst them. Lot was one of
those strangers ; he came into the land with Abra-
ham ; and Sodom was destroyed through their dis-
regard of Lot, the preacher of righteousness, whom
God had sent among them. And their destruction
came just upon their committing a most injurious
and abominable insult on Lot, and the strangers that
were come into his house, even those angels, whom
they probably took to be some of Lot's former ac-
quaintance, come from his own country to visit him.
They in a most outrageous manner beset Lot's
house, intending a monstrous abuse of those stran-
gers that were come thither, and threatening to
serve Lot worse than them.
But in the midst of this God smote them with
blindness, and the next morning the city and the
country about it was overthrown in a most terrible
storm of fire and brimstone ; which dreadful destruc-
tion, as it was in the sight of the rest of the inhabi-
tants of the land, and therefore greatly tended to
restrain them from hurting those holy strangers any
more ; it doubtless struck a dread and terror on
their minds, and made them afraid to hurt them,
and probably was one principal means to restrain
them, and preserve the patriarchs. And when that
reason is given why the inhabitants of the land did
not pursue after Jacob, when they were so provoked
by the destruction of the Schechemites, viz. ' that
the terror of the Lord was upon them,' it is very
probable that this was the terror referred to. They
remembered the amazing destruction of Sodom, and
the cities of the plain, that came upon them, upon
their abusive treatment of Lot, and so durst not
hurt Jacob and his family, though they were so
much provoked to it.
Another way that this awful destruction tended
to promote this great affair of redemption, was, that
hereby God did remarkably exhibit the terrors of
his law, to make men sensible of their need of re-
F 110 iM A B U A HAM TO MOSES. \, /V 57<-^ -^ '^'V^^^
deeming mercy. The work of redemption rfe¥©¥-
was carried on without this. The law, from the
beginning-, is made use of as a schoolmaster to bring
men to Christ. Gal. iii. 24.
But under the Old Testament there was much
more need of some extraordinary, visible, and sen-
sible manifestation of God's wq^ath against sin, than
in the days of the gospel ; since a future state, and
the eternal misery of hell, is more clearly revealed,
and since the awful justice of God against the sins
of men has been so wonderfully displayed in the suf-
ferings of Christ. And therefore the revelation that
God gave of himself in those days, used to be ac-
companied with much more terror than it is in these
of the gospel. So when God appeared at Mount
Sinai to give the law, it was with thunders and
lightnings, and a thick cloud, and the voice of the
trumpet exceeding loud. But some external, awful
manifestations of God's wrath against sin were on
some accounts especially necessary before the giving
of the law: and therefore, before the flood, the ter-
rors of the law handed down by tradition from
Adam served. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty
years himself, to tell the church of God's awful
threatenings denounced in the covenant made with
him, and how dreadful the consequences of the fall
were, of which he was an eye-witness and subject ;
and others that conversed with Adam, lived till the
flood. And the destruction of the world by the
flood served to exhibit the terrors of the law, and
manifest the wrath of God against sin ; and so to
make men sensible of the absolute necessity of re-
; deeming mercy. And some that saw the flood were
; alive in Abraham's time.
But this was now in a great measure forgotten ;
now therefore God w^as pleased again, in a most
amazing manner, to show his wrath against sin, in
the destruction of these cities ; which was after
such a manner as to be the liveliest image of hell of
any thing that ever had been; and therefore the
apostle Jude says, ' They sufler the vengeance of
I
58 HISTORY OF UEDEMPTION.
eternal fire.' Jude 7. God rained storms of fire and
brimstone npon them. The way that they were
destroyed probably was by thick flashes of lightning.
The streams of brimstone were so thick as to burn
up all these cities ; so that they perished in the
flames. By this might be seen the dreadful wrath
of God against the ungodhness and unrighteousness
of men ; which tended to show men the necessity
of redemption, and so to promote that great work.
5. God again renewed and confirmed the cove-
nant of grace to Isaac and to Jacob. He did so to
Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 3, 4. 'And I will perform the oath
which I sware unto Abraham thy father ; and I will
make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven,
and will give unto thy seed all these countries ; and
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed.' And afterwards it was renewed and con-
firmed to Jacob ; first, in Isaac's blessing of him,
wherein he acted and spoke by extraordinary and
divine direction. In that blessing the blessings of
the covenant of grace were established with Jacob
and his seed ; as Gen. xxvii. 29. ' Let people serve
thee ; and nations bow down to thee ; be lord over
thy brethren, and let thy mother s sons bow down
to thee : Cursed be every one that curseth thee,
and blessed be he that blesseth thee.' And there-
fore Esau, in missing of this blessing, missed of
being blessed as an heir of the benefits of the co-
venant of grace.
This covenant was again renewed and confirmed
to .Jacob at Bethel, by his vision of the ladder that
reached to heaven ; which ladder was a symbol of
the way of salvation by Christ. For the stone that
Jacob rested on was a type of Christ, the stone
of Israel, which the spiritual Israel or Jacob rests
upon ; as is evident, because this stone was, on this
occasion, anointed, and was made use of as an altar.
But we know that Christ is the anointed of God,
and is the only true altar. While Jacob was resting
on this stone, and saw this ladder, God appears to
him as his covenant God, and renews the covenant
I
FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES. 59
of grace with him. Gen. xxviii. 14. * And thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth ; and thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to
the north, and to the south : and in thee, and in thy
seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'
Jacob h.ad another remarkable confirmation of
this covenant at Penuel, where he wrestled with
God, and prevailed ; where Christ appeared to him
in a human form ; in the form of that nature which
he was afterwards to recei\e into a personal union
with his divine nature.
God renewed his covenant with him again, after
he was come out of Padan-aram, and was come up
to Bethel, and to the stone that he had rested on ;
and where he had the vision of the ladder. Gen.
XXXV. Thus the covenant of grace was now often re-
newed, much oftener than it had been before. The
light of the gospel now began to shine much
brighter, as the time drew nearer that Christ should
come.
6. The next thing I would observe, is God\s re-
markably preserving the family of which Christ was
to proceed from perishing by famine, by the instru-
mentality of Joseph. When there was a seven-years
famine approaching, God was pleased by a wonder-
ful providence, to send Joseph into Egypt, there to
provide for, and feed Jacob and his family, and to
keep the holy seed alive, which otherwise .would
have perished. Joseph was sent into Egypt for that
end, as he observes, Gen. 1. 20. * But as for you,
ye thought evil against me ; but God meant it unto
good, to save much people alive.' How often had
this holy root, that had the future Branch of righ-
teousness, the glorious Redeemer in it, been in dan-
ger of being destroyed ! But God wonderfully pre-
served it.
This salvation of the house of Israel by the hand
of Joseph, was upon some accounts very much a
resemblance of the salvation of Christ. The children
of Israel were saved by Joseph their kinsman and
brother, from perishing by famine ; so He that saves
60 HISTORY or llEnEMPTION.
the souls of the spiritual Israel from spiritual famine
is their near kinsman, and one that is not ashamed
to call them brethren Joseph was a brother whom
they had hated, and sold, and as it were killed ; for
they had designed to kill him. So Christ is one that
we naturally hate, and by our wicked lives have
sold for the vain things of the world, and whom we
have slain by our sins. Joseph was first in a state
of humiliation ; he was a servant, as Christ appeared
in the form of a servant ; and then was cast into a
dungeon, as Christ descended into the grave ; and
then when he rose out of the dungeon, he was in a
state of great exaltation, at the kings right hand
as his deputy, to reign over all his kingdom, to
provide food, to preserve life ; as Christ was exalted
at God's right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to
his brethren, and received gifts ior men, even for
the rebellious, and them that hated and had sold
him.
7. After this there was a prophecy given forth
of Christ, on some accounts, more particular than
ever any had been before, even that which was ini
Jacob's "blessing his son Judah : this was more parti-
cular in showing of whose posterity he was to be.
When God called Abraham, it was revealed that he
was to be of Abraham's posterity. Before, we have
no account of any revelation concerning Christ's;
pedigree confined to narrower limits than the pos-
terity 01 Noah : after this it was confined to limits
still more narrow ; for though Abraham had many
sons, yet it was revealed that Christ was to be of:
Isaac's posterity. And then it was limited more
still : for when Isaac had two sons, it was revealed i
that Christ was to be of Israel's posterity. And 1
now, though Israel had twelve sons, yet it is re-
vealed that Christ was to be of Judah's posterity :
Christ is ' the lion of the tribe of Judah.' Respect
is chiefly had to his great acts, when it is said. Gen.
xlix. S/d ; ' Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren
shall praise ; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine
enemies: thy father's children shall bow down be-
FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES. 61
fore thee. Jiidah is a lion's whelp ; from the prey,
my son, thou art gone np : he stooped down, he
couched as a lion, and as an old lion ; who shall
rouse him up ? ' This prediction is afterwards more
particular concerning the time of Christ's coming,
verse 10. ' The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come ; and unto him shall the gathering of the peo-
ple be.' The prophecy here, of the calling of the
Gentiles consequent on Christ's coming, seems to
be more plain than had yet been, in the expression,
' to him shall the gathering of the jDCople be.' Thus
you see how that gospel-light which dawned im-
mediately after the fall of man was gradually in-
creased.
8. The work of redemption was carried on in this
period, in God's wonderfully preserving the children
of Israel in Egypt, when the power of Egypt was
engaged utterly to destroy them. They seemed to
be wholly in the hands of the Egyptians ; they
were their servants, and were subject to the power
of Pharaoh, who set himself to weaken them by
hard bondage. And when he saw that did not do,
he set himself to extirpate the race of them, by
commanding that every male child should be drown-
ed. But after all that Pharaoh could do, God
wonderfully preserved them ; and not only so, but
increased them exceedingly ; so that instead of
being extirpated, they greatly multiplied.
9. Here is to be observed, not only the preser-
vation of the nation, but God's wonderfully pre-
serving and upholding his invisible church in that
nation, when in danger of being overwhelmed in
the idolatry of Egypt. The children of Israel being
long among the Egyptians, and being servants under
them, and so not" having the advantage of keepmg
God's ordinances among themselves, or maintaining
any pu]:)lic worship or instruction, whereby the true
religion might be upheld ; and there being now no
written word of God, they, by degrees, in a great
measure lost the true religion, and borrowed the
62 IIISTOKY OF REDEMPTION.
idolatry of Egypt ; and the greater part of the peo-
ple fell away to the worship of their gods. See
Ezek. XX, 6, 8. xxiii. 8.
This now was the third time that God's church
was almost swallowed up and carried away with the
wickedness of the world ; once before the ilood ;
a second time before the calling of Abraham ; and
now, in Egypt. But yet God did not suffer his
church to be c{uite overwhelmed ; he still saved it,
like the ark in the flood, and as he saved Moses in
the midst of the waters, in an ark of bulrushes,
where he was in the utmost danger of being swal-
lowed up. The true religion was still kept up with
some ; and God had still a people among them, even
in this miserable, corrupt and dark time. The pa-
rents of Moses were true servants of God, Heb. xi.
23. ' By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid
three months of his parents, because they saw that
he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of
the king's commandment.'
T have now gone through the third part of the
Old Testament period ; and have shown how the
work of redemption was carried on from the calling
of Abraham to Moses ; in which we have have seen
many great things done towards this work, and a
great advancement of this building, beyond what
had been before.
TV. FROM MOSES TO DAVID.
I PROCEED to the fourth period, which reaches
from Moses to David, to show how the work of
redemption was carried on through this also.
The first thing that offers itself to be considered
is the redemption of the church of God out of Egypt ;
the most remarkable of all the Old Testament deli-
verances, and that which was the greatest pledge
and type of the future redemption of Christ ; and
is much more insisted on in scripture than any
FROM MOSES TO DAVID. G'3
other. This was by Jesus Christ, who appeared to
Moses in the bush ; sent him to redeem that people,
as is evident, because he is called the angel of the
Lord. Exod. iii. 2, 3. The bush represented the
human nature of Christ, who is called the Branch.
This bush grew on mount Sinai or Horeb,* which
last name signifies a dry place, as the human nature
of Christ was ' a root out of dry ground.' The bush
burning with fire, represented the sufferings of
Christ, in the fire of God's wrath. It burned, and
was not consumed ; so Christ, though he suffered
extremely, yet perished not ; but overcame at last,
and rose from his sufferings. Because this great
mystery of the incarnation and sufferings of Christ
was here represented, therefore Moses says, ' I will
turn aside, and behold this great sight.' A great
sight he might well call it, when there was repre-
sented, God manifest in the flesh, suffering a dread-
ful death, and rising from the dead.
It was this glorious person that redeemed Israel
out of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh ; as
afterward, by his death and sufferings, he redeemed
his elect from Satan, the spiritual Pharaoh. Those
he delivered from hard service and cruel drudgery ;
these from the cruel slavery of sin and Satan.
Those he redeemed from the iron furnace; these
from everlasting burnings. Those he redeemed with
a strong hand and outstretched arm, and great and
terrible judgments on their enemies ; these with
mighty grace triumphing over principalities, and
powers, and executing terrible judgments on their
enemies. Those he saved when others were de-
stroyed, by the sprinkling of the blood of the paschal
lamb ; these from death and hell by the sprinkling
of his own blood. Those he brought forth sorely
against the will of the Egyptians, when they could
not bear to let them go • these he rescues out of the
* Horeb is a mountain in Arabia Petraea, at so small a distance
from mount Sinai, that they seem to be no more than two tops belong-
ing: to the same mountain. Sinai lies to tlie east, and Horeb to the
west ; they are frequently mentioned in scripture promiscuously.
G4 HISTORY Ol" REDEMPTION.
hands of the devil, when his proud heart cannot bear
to be overcome.
In that redemption, Christ did not only dehver
the people from the Egyptians, but he redeemed
them from the demons, their gods ; for before, they
had been in a state of servitude to the gods of
Egypt, as well as to the Egyptians. And Christ,
the seed of the woman, did now, in a very remarka-
ble manner, fulfil the curse on the serpent, in bruising
his head. Exod. xii. 12. ' For I will pass through
the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast,
and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute
judgment.' Hell was as much, and more, engaged
in that affair, than Egypt itself. The pride and
cruelty of Satan, that old serpent, was more con-
cerned in it than PharaolVs. He did his worst
against the people, and to his utmost opposed their
redemption. But it is said that when God redeem-
ed his people out of Egypt, he broke the heads of
the dragons in the waters, and broke the head of
leviathan in pieces, and gave him to be meat for
the people inhabiting the wilderness. Psal. Ixxiv.
12—14. God forced their enemies to let them go,
that they might serve him; as also Zacharias ob-
serves with respect to the church under the gospel.
Luke i. 74, 75.
The people of Israel went out with a high hand,
and Christ went before them, in a pillar of cloud and
fire. There was a glorious triumph over earth and
hell in that deliverance. And when Pharaoh and
his host, and Satan by them, pursued the people,
Christ overthrew them in the Red Sea. ' The Lord
triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he
cast into the sea,' and there they slept their last
sleep, and never followed the children of Israel any
more ; as all Christ's enemies are overthrown in his
blood, which by its abundant sufficiency, and the
greatness of the sufferings with which it was shed,
may well be represented by a sea. The Red Sea
might represent Christ's blood, as is evident, be-
FROM MOSES TO DAVID. G5
cause the apostle compares the children of Israel's
passage through it. to baptism ; and we know that
the water of baptism represents the blood of Christ.
1 Cor. X. 1, 2. Thus Christ, the angel of God's
presence, in his love and in his pity, redeemed his
people, and carried them in the days of old as on
eagle's wings, so that none of their proud and ma-
licious enemies could touch them.
This was another new thing that God did to-
wards this great work of redemption. God never
had done any thing like it before. Deut. iv. 32— -34.
This was the greatest advancement of the work of
redemption, that had been begun and carried on
from the fall of man ; a great step taken in divine
providence towards a preparation for Christ's coming
into the world, and working out his great and eter-
nal redemption : for this was the people of whom
Christ was to come. And now we may see how
that plant flourished that God had planted in Abra-
ham. Though the family of which Christ was to
come, had been in a degree separated from the rest
of the world before, in the calling of Abraham, yet
that separation appeared not to be sufficient. For
though by that they v/ere kept as strangers and so-
journers, and from being united with other people
in the same political societies ; yet they remained
mixed among them, by which means, as it had
proved, they were in danger of wholly losing the
true religion, and of being overrun with the idolatry
of their neighbours. God now, therefore, by this
redemption, separated them as a nation from all
other nations, to subsist by themselves in their own
political and ecclesiastical state, without having
any concern with the heathen nations, that they
might so be kept separate till Christ should come ;
and so that the church of Christ might be upheld,
and might keep the oracles of God, till that time ;
that in them might be exhibited those types and
prophecies of Christ, and those histories, and other
divine instructions, that were necessary to prepare
the way for Christ's coming.
K
Go MISTOIir OF REDEMPTION.
2. As tliis people were separated to be Gods pe-
culiar people, so all other people upon the face of
the whole earth were wholly rejected and given over
to heathenism. This, so far as the providence of
God was concerned in it, belongs to the great affair
we are now upon, and was one thing that God or-
dered in his providence to prepare the way for
Christ's coming, and the great salvation he was
to accomplish : it was to prepare the way for the
more glorious and signal victory and triumph of
Christ's power and grace over the wicked and mi-
serable world, and that Christ's salvation of the
world of mankind might become the more sensible.