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and carnal ordinances, which was often the case under the Jew ish state. Again,

These ordinances of the New Testament are much more easy, and less burthensome and expensive than those of the former dispensations. To wash with water, to break a little bread, to pour out a little wine, and to eat or drink in a small quantity, are no such yokes of bondage as those who went before us in every age have sustained. As for the Mosaic rites, they were exceeding expensive and burthensome indeed, beyond all our present power of description; and even the dispensations of Adam and Noah, with their continual sacrifices, and the rite of circumcision, which was added in Abraham's days, had something in them much more costly, bloody, and painful than these two easy ceremonies of the New Testament.

And as the ceremonies of christianity are fewer and easier, so they are much clearer in their design and manner of representation, than most of the rites annexed to the former dispensations: They have a more natural and direct tendency to explain and illustrate the covenant of grace, and to assist the observance of it. When the body is washed with water in baptism, it very clearly represents, that our souls must pass through the laver of regeneration, or that we must have the Spirit of God shed down upon us, to cleanse us from our defilements. and the wine poured out in the Lord's supper distinctly repre The bread broken, sent the body of Christ broken on the cross for our sins, and his blood poured out as an atoning sacrifice; and the actions of eating and drinking do as evidently hold forth our partaking of the blessings purchased by the blood and death of the Son of God. This rite also solemnizes and confirms the covenant of grace, which God hath made with us through his Son Jesus Christ, by our hearty consent thereto, which is expressed by eating and drinking in his presence, and at his table.

IV." The Son of God, who was the real Mediator of the covenant of grace, through all former dispensations, has condeseended to become the visible Mediator of this dispensation. So saith my text, he is the Mediator of this better covenant. He began his office of mediation between God and man indeed in those early counsels and transactions with God the Father, before the world was made, which are called the covenant of redemption, and of which you have heard in a former discourse; He appeared in the Old Testament in the form of God; and though he was sometimes called the angel of the Lord, and the angel of his presence, yet he often appeared as God himself, as Jehovah dwelling in a cloud of glory, in light or flame: and as he was one with the Father, so in his visible appearances he represented God, even the Father, both to the patriarchs and to the Jews,

in his grandeur and majesty, as well as his mercy. But in this last dispensation, he appears visibly and plainly as the one Mediator between God and man, when he discovers himself as the Son of God, and as the man Christ Jesus; John iii. 16. And so St. Paul more expressly speaks in 1 Tim. ii. 5. The Lord Jesus in the course of his ministry, and especially at the end of it, gave some notices that he was our Mediator with God, and that he came to give his life as a ransom for sinners, and to make peace with his blood: Before he died and rose again, and ascended, he gave us a pattern of his pleading with the Father, in the seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John; and he appears now as St. Paul represents him, as our Mediator and Intercessor in his human nature, before the throne of God. Moses the mediator of the Jewish covenant, with all his virtues and graces, with all the sacred intimaey to which God admitted him, and with all the shining honours with which God invested and surrounded him,' was not comparable to the Mediator of the new covenant, the Son of God himself, the brightness of his Father's glory, the express image of his person, who lay in the bosom of the Father before the foundation of the world, but seventeen hundred years ago, was made flesh and dwelt among us; John i. 14, 18.

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And let it further be observed here, that every thing which we have to do with God by a Mediator, is much more clearly and expressly set before us in the New Testament, than in all former dispensations. Though Jesus was always the Mediator of the covenant of grace, yet the ancients knew so little of him under this express character, that you find neither Abraham, nor David, nor Isaiah, nor those which were most enlightened in divine things, make much use of his name in their addresses to the Father, nor make plam mention of drawing near to God by a Mediator. But if we christians call upon God, and draw near to him, we have the prevailing name of Christ given us to plead at the throne; if we apply to the mercy of God, it is by Jesus Christ, the great Reconciler; if we offer our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to the Father, they will be well received through Christ, his first beloved Son. We must do all and every thing in the christian life through Jesus Christ, and there we are secure of finding acceptance with God; Col. iii. 17. Whatever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

V. "This dispensation of the gospel is not confined to one family or to one nation, or to a few ages of men, but it spreads through all the nations of the earth, and reaches to the end of time." That of Moses was confined to one nation only; that of Abraham to one family, and chiefly limited to his son Isaac. The dispensations of Adam and Noah are more general indeed, and

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be represented as given to all mankind; because these were the two great fathers of all, one before the flood, and the other after it: But then each of these revelations was left to the care of one family to publish it to all mankind, who were to be their posterity. But the christian dispensation is and shall be conveyed through the world, to all the heathen nations, as well as to the Jews, and that by a multitude of messengers, by apostles, and evangelists, prophets and teachers, endowed with the gifts and powers of the Blessed Spirit, and sent forth for this purpose. And it has been preserved and conveyed even to our nation, and to our day, by the writings of the apostles, and the ministrations of the preachers of the gospel through every age, and it spreads the rich grace of God, and the salvation of Christ, to the very ends of the earth; nor shall any other dispensation succeed it. Other religions of God's own appointment are worn out, and vanished away, but this being once introduced, must abide for ever.

VI. I might add here some other characters of the christian dispensation, which the apostle gives it in 2 Cor. iii. 6-18. whereby he exalts it above all the religion of the Jews, and especially far above the Sinai-covenant. That was, saith he the ministration of the letter, a dispensation which consisted much in outward forms and figures and types: This is the ministration of the Spirit, that is, either of the substance and the thing signified in these types, or wherein the Spirit of grace is more eminently poured out on mankind, for conversion and salvation :Either of these senses may give it this name. That was written only in tables of stone: This in fleshly tables of the heart, by the Spirit of the living God. That was a ministration of terror and condemnation and death, in outward terrible appearances of God on Sinai, and it kept the people under a spirit of bondage and fear: This is the ministration of righteousness and life, inasmuch as all the springs of pardon and life, hope and happiness are set open in the gospel of Christ. But I proceed to the

VII. And last particular. "The encouragements and persuasive helps which christianity gives us to fulfil the duties of the covenant, are much superior to those which were enjoyed under any of the former dispensations." Now these consist chiefly in examples and motives.

Do examples invite us to our duty, and by a soft and secret influence encourage and lead us on to the performance of it? Such indeed were the names of Abraham and David, each in their day a happy pattern to their several ages: But in my opinion all the praises which are due to David, and Abraham, fall far short of the labours and sufferings, the zeal and patience, the holiness and the love of that divine man, St. Paul, whose life is

recommended as an example to the christian world: And neither David nor Abraham, nor any of the ancient saints, who had each of them their blemishes, are to be compared with the more excellent and perfect pattern of Jesus the Son of God, who was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners; who was without the least blemish in heart and life: He hath given us a glorious example of piety, virtue, and goodness, incomparably superior to all former ages; it is most inviting indeed, and yet inimitable by all that follow.

Let us next consider our various motives to duty under the New Testament.

Are the motives of love and gratitude powerful principles to encourage aad persuade us to every active service? Such indeed were the blessings and gifts which God bestowed on men under former dispensations. But what were all those gifts and blessings in comparison of the unspeakable gift of his own Son, to die as a sacrifice in our stead, which is one of the chief themes and glories of the christian revelation? The love of God to us, made visible in the sufferings of the Son of God for our sins, carries with it a more abundant force of persuasion to work upon our gratitude and our love, than all the discoveries of grace from the days of Adam till this day. How can we sin against such astonishing goodness: Against such a sublime instance of divine compassion?

Are the promises and threatenings of God another set of motives to duty? Do the awful glories and terrors of a future and eternal world work upon all the springs of our activity and diligence, by hope and fear? Yes certainly, in a high degree. But the former dispensations had but few of these eternal terrors and glories, these threatenings and promises relating to an invisible state. All beyond death and the grave had a gloom and darkness upon it in former times, except here and there a glimpse of light that was shot in between the clouds. A few bright sentences collected from David, Isaiah, and Daniel, were some of the chief discoveries that we know of in those ancient ages; but in the New Testament the gates of the other world are thrown open; a heaven of happiness, and a hell of misery are discovered there, and set before us in a divine light. The blessedness of departed saints, who see the face of God, and the agonies and outcries of the sinner, who lifts up his eyes in the place of torment, are revealed to us and described in the speeches of Christ, and the writings of his apostles. The awful and glorious scene of the day of judgment is spread out at large in the christian dispensation, together with the decision of the eternal states of the righteous and the wicked according to their works, when everlasting joy, or everlasting sorrow shall be the portion of every son and VOL. II.

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daughter of Adam. If hope and fear have any power in mankind, to awaken them to an abhorrence of sin, and the practice of holiness, surely these motives of the New Testament, which have so transcendent an influence on our hope and fear, are of the most effectual and constraining kind.

But this leads me to the second part of my text, which corresponds with the appointed theme of my discourse; and that is, "The excellency of the promises of the new covenant;" as St. Paul tells us, this new covenant is established, appointed or constituted, upon a set of better promises.

The promises of the New Testament will appear to be much superior to those of the Old, if we consider what was hinted before, that they contain in them such blessings as were scarce known under the former dispensations, or at least were so expressed, that it was hard to read them: But in the gospel these future scenes of solemn glory are set before our eyes in the clearest language. We hear the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God; we see the dead arising out from their graves, a glorious army of saints and martyrs springing at once out of the dust, and their bodies all bright and active, vigorous and immortal. We behold Jesus the Saviour and the Judge upon the throne, and his faithful followers at his right hand, invested with public honours. We hear the happy sentence pronounced upon them, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. We behold them, as it were, reigning with Christ, upon his throne, and ascending with their Lord, to dwell forever in his presence.

Again, the apostle has taught us to look upon all the promises, as sealed to believers by the blood of the Son of God, and secured to christians by the resurrection and exaltation of their Mediator; for the Father hath put all power into his hand, and he has taken possession of the heavenly inheritance in our name; Because 1 live ye shall live also; John xiv. 19.

Yet farther, the New Testament confirms all the best promises of the Old, and claims them for itself; for they were eminently made with a design for the days of the Messiah, as many of them expressly inform us. New hearts and new spirits, taking away iniquity, and remembering sins no more, writing the law in the heart, and the dwelling of God amongst them, and their assurance of not departing from God, are such promises as the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel more directly pronounced on the subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah. And there is a new light cast upon them in the gospel, which teaches plain christians to make use them, and apply them to their own consolation and joy. They were all written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope; Rom. xv. 4.