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

I. The times of this period, for the most part, are those which in the O•d Testament are called the latter days. We often, in the prophets of the Old Testament, read of such and such things that should come to pass in the latter days, and sometimes in the last days. Now these expressions of the prophets are most commonly to be understood of the times of the period that we are now upon, They are called the latter days, and the last days; because this is the last period of the series of God's providences on earth, this last period of that great work of providence, the work of redemption; which as it were the sum of God's works of providence, the time wherein the church is under the last dispensation of the covenant of grace that ever it will be under on earth.

I. The times of this period, for the most part, are those which in the O•d Testament are called the latter days. We often, in the prophets of the Old Testament, read of such and such things that should come to pass in the latter days, and sometimes in the last days. Now these expressions of the prophets are most commonly to be understood of the times of the period that we are now upon, They are called the latter days, and the last days; because this is the last period of the series of God's providences on earth, this last period of that great work of providence, the work of redemption; which as it were the sum of God's works of providence, the time wherein the church is under the last dispensation of the convenant of grace that ever it will be under on earth.

II. The whole time of this period is sometimes in scripture called the end of the world, as, 1 Cor. x.11. "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they were written from our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." And the Apostle, Heb. ix.26, in this expression of the end of the world, means the whole of the gospel day, from the birth of Christ to the finishing of the day of judgment: "But now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." This space of time may well be called the end of the world for this whole time was taken up in bringing things to their great end and issue, to that great issue that God had been preparing the way for, in all the great dispensations of providence, from the first fall of man to this time. Before, things were in a kind of preparatory state; but now they are in a finishing state It is the winding up of things which is all this while accomplishing. An end is now brought to the former carnal state of things, which by degrees vanishes, and a spiritual state begins to be established, and to be established more and more. First, an end is brought to the former state of the church, which may be called its worldly