in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe,” (not only in himself, but in them), and that because they were believers; 2 Thess. i. 10. When "we have fought the good fight, and finished our course, and kept the faith, we shall find that there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give us, and all that love his appearing at that day;" 2 Tim. iv. 8. He will justify and applaud them before all the world, yea, and judge them to everlasting life, with a "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Iwill make thee ruler over many things; even because they had been faithful in a little;" Luke xix. 17. Matt. xxv. 21. 23. Because they shewed their love to him in his members, he will say to them, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; Matt. xxv. 34-36. He that now commandeth us to say to the righteous, "It shall be well with him," (Isa. iii. 10.), will in righteousness cause it then to be well with him. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father;" Matt. xiii. 43. And the righteousness and mercy of their Father shall as conspicuously and gloriously shine in them. For it is a day appointed for the " revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds :" Rom. ii. 5, 6. "The present faith and patience of the saints in all the persecutions and tribulations which they endure, is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that they may be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they suffer. It being a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble us, and to us that are troubled, rest with the saints;" 2 Thess. i. 5-7. "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness;" Psal. xi. 7. "And in righteousness will he judge the world ;" Acts xvii. 31. Rev. xix. 11. And, therefore, "in the keeping of his word there is a great reward;" Psal. xix. 11. Yea, a cup of water given in love to him, shall not be unrewarded; Matt. x. 41, 42. "To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward;" Prov. xi. 18. If in this life men are forced to say, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth;" Psal. lviii. 11. Much more when we receive the reward of the inheritance;" Col. iii. 24. This causeth the saints to forsake the pleasures of sin, because

they have respect to the recompence of reward; Heb. xi. 29. This is that that maketh them rejoice and be exceeding glad in their persecutions, because that great is their reward in heaven. And, therefore, it is that they cast not away their confidence, because it hath great recompence of reward; Heb. x. 25. If we let no man beguile us of our reward, (Col. ii. 18.), and if we look to ourselves that we lose not those things that we have wrought, we shall receive a full reward; 2 John viii. For the Lord hath said, " Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be; Rev. xxii. 12.

(7.) Another end of Christ's undertaking in this blessed work, is, the complacency and glory of God in the love and praise, and service of his redeemed ones; in some measure here, but in perfection when they are perfected. Sin had made us unserviceable to God. And bringeth us back into a fitness for his service. He disposeth us Godward by faith and love. And he hath " redeemed us from our iniquity, and purifieth to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works;" Tit. ii. 14. "To which he createth us, that we should walk in them;" Ephes. ii. 10. And with such sacrifice God is wellpleased; Heb. xiii. 16. Phil. iv. 18. "The blood of the covenant" was, therefore, shed, "to make us perfect in every good work to do his will, who worketh in us that which is wellpleasing in his sight;" Heb. xiii. 20, 21. "And this must be our care, to walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing, being fruitful in in every good work;" Col. i. 10. "And then whatsoever we ask, we shall receive of him, because we keep his commandment, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight;" 1 John iii. 22. See 1 Thess. i. Heb. xi. 6. Rom. viii. 8. 2 Tim. ii. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 32. Heb. xi. 5.

But principally when we are glorified, and fitted by our perfection for the perfect love and praises of God, then will God perfectly take pleasure in us, and in our love and praise. The glory of the new Jerusalem and the harmony of everlasting praise and thanksgiving will be his delight. "He will rejoice over us with joy, he will rest in his love; he will joy over us with singing;" Zeph. iii 17.

(8.) Another end of Christ's undertaking this blessed work, is, the everlasting glory of God which shall shine forth in the glorified manhood of the Redeemer, and the

everlasting complacency that God will have in him, for his own perfection, and the work that he hath wrought.

Phil. ii. 8-10.

Matt. xxviii. 18, 19.

66

Though Christ had no need to suffer for any sin or want of his own, yet was it his personal dignity, dominion, and everlasting glory, as well as our salvation, that was intended by him and by the Father in this work, and which he was to receive as the reward of his performances; Rom. xiv. 7. Matt. xxviii. 18, 19. Heb. i. 3, 4.6. Eph. i. 22. Nay, if we may make comparisons, this seemeth the highest part of God's end in the sending of his Son. As there is no part of all the works of God to be compared to the person of the Redeemer, so consequently there is none in which the glory of God will shine forth so admirably and illustriously as in Christ. If on earth the heavenly voice bear witness that it was in him that the Father was wellpleased," (Matt. iii. 17. xvii. 5. xii, 18.) which was uttered both at his baptism, and his transfiguration, when his disciples saw a glimpse of his glory, and he was the "chosen servant of God, in whom his soul delighted; Isa. xlii. 1. much more is it apparent, that in his heavenly glory he will be the Father's everlasting pleasure and delight: and in him, and by him, and for the work that he hath wrought, the redeemed in glory will honour him for ever; Rev. v. 9. “He is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell;" Col. i. 17-19. And, therefore, in him the glory of God will shine in fulness, and he shall have the preeminence in the Father's everlasting love. When Christ prayed (John xii. 28.), "Father, glorify thy name," he was answered by a voice from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again :" even in the Son that thus desired it. He hath done it on earth, and he will do it again more perfectly in heaven. "He hath glorified the Son, that the Son also may glorify him ;" John xvii. 1. As he "glorified his Father on earth, and finished the work which he gave him to do," so the Father hath now glorified him with himself, that in his glory he may be yet more glorified; John xvii. 4, 5. In his transfiguration his face did shine as the sun; John xvii. 2. And in his appearance to Paul, his shining light did cast him blindfold and trembling on the earth; Acts ix.

4.6. It was Stephen's encouragement to the suffering of his martyrdom to see the glory of God, and Jesus standing on God's right hand; Acts vii, 55, 56. When John saw him on the Lord's day in the Spirit, he beheld his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet like burning brass in the furnace, and his voice was as the sound of many waters, and in his right hand were the stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword, and his countenance was the sun that shineth in his strength; Rev. i. 14-16. His voice also did proclaim his glory, "I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death; ver. 17, 18. It was the Lord of glory that was crucified; 1 Cor. ii. 8. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory, (1 Tim.iii. 16.), where he is glorified with the Father in the praises of the saints; Rev. xii. 13. The glory in the holy mount was great at the giving of the law; but it was no glory to that of the Gospel administration, (2 Cor. iii. 7. 10.), much more to that of the glorified Redeemer, who hath overcome, and is set down with the Father in his throne; Rev.iii. 21. Yea, the glory that will be given to God for ever, will be through Jesus Christ; Rom, xvi. 17.

And indeed it is a very great question whether we shall immediately see the essence of God in heaven, or only see him in the glorified Redeemer; and whether Christ will not then be the Mediator of our fruition, as he was here the Mediator of acquisition. But certain we are, that God will be everlastingly pleased and glorified in the person of the Redeemer, as well as in the church which is his body.

(9.) And reductively it may be said to be God's end in this blessed work, that he may more fully demonstrate his vindictive justice, according to the Gospel, or law of the Redeemer, upon them that finally reject his grace, than it would have been manifested on the terms of the law of the creation on Adam and his offspring. Though Christ came not into the world (primarily) to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved; yet was it his purpose that unbelievers that love darkness rather than light should fall under the special condemnation; John iii. 18, 19. And that they should not “see life, but the wrath of God should abide upon them;" ver. 36. God would not so much

as permit them to reject his salvation, but that he knows how he may be no loser by them: "He suffereth with much patience the vessels of wrath, to make his wrath and power known;" Rom. ix. 22. The mouths of the condemned will be utterly stopped, and they will be left speechless when they are judged on terms of grace, much more than they would have been if they had been judged only by the first law when they see Christ and heaven that was offered them, and remember their wilful and obstinate contempt of them, their own consciences and tongues shall justify God, and confess that he is righteous in the most dreadful of his judgments. "If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward, how shall they escape that neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and then was confirmed by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost;" Heb. ii. 3, 4. And "if they escaped not, that refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not they escape that turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: for our God is a consuming fire;" Heb. xii. 25. 29. So much of the ends of Christ's undertaking in our redemption.

In which you may see that there are divers things which demonstrate the glory of the forementioned attributes of God, in this Gospel dispensation. (1.) It shineth forth in the person of the Redeemer as he was on earth, in his nature and wonderful conception, and his perfections. (2.) And it also shineth forth in the actions of his life, overcoming the world, and the devil, and perfectly fulfilling the law of God: so that the image of his Father did shine forth in his conversation. (3.) And also in his death and sufferings was the Father glorified, as I shewed before. (4.) And also in the most wise and holy frame of those laws by which the grace of the Mediator is conveyed, and the church governed. (5.) And by the image of God, by the impress of those laws on the souls of his saints, and by the holiness of their lives, the glory of God is also demonstrated. (6.) As also by the justifying sentence of the judge, and the glorious reward bestowed on the faithful. (7.) And by the condemning sentence and execution on the ungodly, in whom vindictive justice will be honoured. (8.) And in the perfection of the