A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

It would not have been so fi• a time for Christ to come, after the flood, before Moses's time: for till then mankind were not so universally apostatized from the true God: they were not fallen universally into Heathenish darkness; and so the need of Christ, the light of the world was not so evident: and the woeful consequence of the fall with respect to man's mortality, was not so fully manifest till then; for man's life was not so shortened as to be reduced to the present standard till about Moses's time.

It would not have been so fi• a time for Christ to come, after the flood, before Moses's time: for till then mankind were not so universally apostatized from the true God: they were not fallen universally into Heathenish darkness; and so the need of Christ, the light of the world was not so evident: and the woful consequence of the fall with respect to man's mortality, was not so fully manifest till then; for man's life was not so shortned as to be reduced to the present standard till about Moses's time.

It was most fit that the time of the Messiah's coming should not be till many ages after Moses's time; till all nations, but the children of Israel, had lain long in Heathenish darkness; that the remedilessness of their disease might by long experience be seen, and so the absolute necessity of the heavenly physician, before he came.

Another reason why Christ did not come soon after the flood probably was, that the earth might be full of people, that Christ might have the more extensive kingdom, and that the effects of his light, and power, and grace, might be glorified, and that his victory over Satan might be attended with the more glory in the multitude of his conquests. It was also needful that the coming of Christ should be many ages after Moses, that the church might be prepared which was formed by Moses for his coming, by the Messiah's being long prefigured, by his being many ways foretold, and by his being long expected. It was not proper that Christ should come before the Babylonish captivity, because Satan's kingdom was not then come to the height. The Heathen world before that conied of lesser kingdoms. But God saw meet that the Messiah should come in the time of one of the four great monarchies of the world. Nor was it proper that he should come in the time of the Babylonish monarchy; for it was God's will, that several general monarchies should follow one another, and that the coming of the Messiah should be in the time of the last, which appeared above them all. The Persian monarchy, by overcoming the Babylonian, appeared above it: and so the Grecian, by overcoming the Persian, appeared above that: and for the same reason, the Roman above