Two dissertations, I. Concerning the end for which God created the world. II. The…

7. 'TIS manifest from scripture, that God's glory is the last end of that great work of providence, the work of redemption by Jesus Christ. This is manifest from what is just now observed, of its being the end ultimately •ought by Jesus Christ the redeemer. And if we further consider the texts mentioned in the proof of that, and take notice of the context, it will be very evident, that it was what Christ sought as his last end, in that great work which he came into the world upon, viz. to procure redemption for his people. It is manifest that Christ professes in Joh. 7. 18. that he did not seek his own glory in what he did, but the glory of him that sent him. He means that he did not seek his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him, in the work of his ministry; the work he performed, and which he came into the world to perform, and which his father sent him to work out, which is the work of redemption. And with respect to that text, Joh. 12. 27, 28. it has been already observed, that Christ comforted himself in the view of the extreme difficulty of his work, which was the work of redemption, in the prospect of that which he had respect to, and rejoiced in, as the highest, ultimate and most valuable excellent end of that work, which he set his heart most upon, and delighted most in. And in the answer that the father made him from heaven at that time, in the latter part of the same verse, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again", the meaning plainly is, that God had glorified his name in what Christ had done, in the work he sent him upon, and would glorify it again, and to a greater degree, in what he should further do, and in the success thereof. Christ shows that he understood it thus, in what he says upon it, when the people took notice of it, wondering at the voice; some saying, that it thundered, others, that an angel spake to him. Christ says, "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes". And then he says (exulting in the prospect of this glorious end and success) "Now is the judgment of this world; now is the prince of this world cast out, & I, if I be lift up from the earth, will draw all men unto me". In the success of the same work of redemption, he places his own glory, as was observed before, in these words in the 23, and 24, verses of the same chapter. "The hour is come, that the son of man should be glorified.