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over all evil. Soon after the world was created evil entered into the world in the fall of the angels and man. Presently after God had made rational creatures, enemies rose up against him from among them; and in the fall of man evil entered into this world; where also God's enemies rose up against him. Satan endeavored to frustrate his design in the creation of this world, to destroy his workmanship, to wrest the government of it out of his hands, to usurp the throne, and set up himself as the god of this world, instead of him who made it. To these ends he introduced sin into the world; and having made man God's enemy, he introduced guilt, and death, and the most dreadful misery.

One great design of God, in the work of redemption, was to subdue those enemies. " He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." 1 Cor. 15:25. Things were originally so planned, that he might disappoint, confound, and triumph over Satan; and that he might be bruised under Christ's feet. Gen. 3:15. The promise was given, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. It was a part of God's original design in this work, to destroy the works of the devil, and confound him in all his purposes: "For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John, 3: 8. It was a part of his design to triumph over sin, and over the corruptions of men, and to root them out of the hearts of his people, by conforming them to himself. He designed also that his grace should triumph over man's guilt, and sin's infinite demerit. Again, it was a part of his design to triumph over death; and though this is the last enemy that shall be overcome, yet this

shall finally be vanquished and destroyed. Thus God appears glorious above all evil, and triumphant over all his enemies by the work of redemption.

2. God's design was perfectly to restore all the ruins of the fall, so far as concerns the elect part of the world, by his Son; and therefore we read of the restitution of all things, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things," Acts, 3:21; and of the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Jesus, 'Repent ye and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." Acts, 3:19.

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Man's soul was ruined by the fall; the image of God was defaced; man's nature was corrupted, and he became dead in sin. The design of God was to restore the soul of man to life, and the divine image in conversion, to carry on the change in sanctification, and to perfect it in glory. Man's body was ruined; by the fall it became subject to death. The design of God was to restore it from this ruin, and not only to deliver it from death in the resurrection, but to deliver it from mortality itself, in making it like unto Christ's glorious body. The world was ruined, as to man, as effectually as if it had been reduced to chaos again; all heaven and earth were overthrown. But the design of God was to restore all, and as it were create a new heaven and a new earth: "We, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Pet. 3:13; lsa. 65: 17.

The work by which this was to be done was be

gun immediately after the fall, and so is carried on till all is finished, when the whole world, heaven and earth, shall be restored. There shall be, as it were, new heavens, and a new earth, in a spiritual sense, at the end of the world. Thus it is represented, Rev. 21: 1. "And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."

3. Another great design of God in the work of redemption, was to "gather together in one all things in Christ, in heaven and in earth," and to unite all in one body to God the Father. This was begun soon after the fall, and is carried on through all and shall be finished at the end of the world.

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4. God designed by this work to perfect and complete the glory of all the elect by Christ-glory, "such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man." He intended to bring them to perfect excellency and beauty in his holy image, which is the proper beauty of spiritual beings; and to advance them to a glorious degree of honor, and raise them to an ineffable height of pleasure and joy. Thus he designed to glorify the whole church in soul and body, and with them to bring the glory of the elect angels to its highest elevation under one head.

5. In all this God designed to accomplish the glory of the blessed Trinity in an eminent degree. God had a design of glorifying himself from eternity; yea, to glorify each person in the Godhead. The end must be considered as first in order of nature, and then the means; and therefore we must conceive that God having professed this end, had then as it were the means to choose; and the prin

cipal means that he adopted was this great work of redemption. It was his design in this work to glorify his only begotten Son Jesus Christ; and by the Son to glorify the Father. John, 13: 31, 32. "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." It was his design that the Sou should thus be glorified, and should glorify the Father by what should be accomplished by the Spirit to the glory of the Spirit, that the whole Trinity conjunctly, and each person singly, might be exceedingly glorified. The work that was the appointed means of this, was begun immediately after the fall, and is carried on till the end of the world, when it will be finished, and all this intended glory shall be fully accomplished in all things.

With these explanations, I proceed to the proposed History: to show how what was designed by the work of redemption is accomplished, in its progress from the fall of man to the end of the world. And in order to this I would divide this whole space of time into three periods: 1. from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ: 2. from Christ's incarnation till his resurrection; or the whole time of Christ's humiliation: 3. from thence to the end of the world. Some may be ready to think this a very unequal division; but the second period, although so much shorter than either of the others, in this work embraces more than both.

I proceed to show distinctly how the work of redemption is carried on through each of these periods in their order, under three propositions.

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I. That from the fall of man to the incarnation of Christ, God was doing those things which were preparatory to his coming, as forerunners and earnests of it.

II. That the time from Christ's incarnation to his resurrection, was spent in procuring and purchasing redemption.

III. That the space of time from the resurrection of Christ to the end of the world, is all taken up in bringing about or accomplishing the great effect or success of that purpose.

PERIOD I.

FROM THE FALL TO THE INCARNATION.

The great works of God in the world, during this whole space of time, were all preparatory. There were many great changes and revolutions, and they were all only the turning of the wheels of providence to make way for the coming of Christ. Hither tended especially all God's great works towards his church. The church was under various dispensations, and in very various circumstances, before Christ came; but all these dispensations were to prepare the way for his coming. God wrought salvation for the souls of men through all that space of time, though the number was very small to what it was afterwards; and all this was by way of antici pation. All the souls that were saved before Christ came, were only the carnests of the future harvest. God wrought many deliverances for his church

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