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

THE same is spoken of as the end of the work of redemption in the old-testament. Psal. 79. 9. "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake". So in the prophecies of the redemption of Jesus Christ. Isai. 44. 23. "Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and GLORIFIED HIMSELF in Israel." Thus the works of creation are called upon to rejoice at the attaining of the same end, by the redemption of God's people, that the angels rejoiced at, when Christ was born. See also chap. 48. 10, 11. and 49. 3.

THUS 'tis evident that the glory of God is the ultimate end of the work of redemption.—Which is the chief work of providence towards the moral world, as is abundantly manifest from scripture: the whole universe being put in subjection to Jesus Christ; all heaven and earth, angels and men being subject to him, as executing this office: and put under him to that end, that all things may be ordered by him, in subservience to the great designs of his redemption: all power, as he says, being given to him, in heaven and in earth, that he may give eternal life to as many as the father has given him: and he being exalted far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and made head over all things to the church. The angels being put in subjection to him, that he may employ ⟨p. 72⟩them all as ministering spirits, for the good of them that shall be the heirs of his salvation: and all things being so governed by their redeemer for them, that all things are theirs, whether things present or things to come: and all God's works of providence in the moral government of the world, which we have an account of in scripture history, or that are foretold in scripture prophecy, being evidently subordinate to the great purposes and ends of this great work. And besides, the work of redemption is that work, by which good men are, as it were, created, or brought into being, as good men, or as restored to holiness and happiness. The work of redemption is a new creation, according to scripture representation, whereby men are brought into a new existence, or are made new creatures.