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How immense must he be, who fills all space, and is intimately present with all his creatures!

2. We may learn from hence the nature of the Divine government over the rational world; which, though absolute, is nevertheless directed by the other perfections of his nature, and suited to the different capacities of his creatures.

3. The consideration of the Divine direction and influence over all human affairs, may administer some relief to good men under their present afflictions: "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust."

4. We may observe from hence, the excellency and perfection of those laws, by which God governs his reasonable creatures. "The law of God is perfect." (Ps. xix. 7.) "As many as walk by this rule, peace will be upon them, and mercy, and upon the whole Israel of God."

THE EXCELLENCY AND ADVANTAGES OF THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION WITH THE INVITATIONS AND PROMISES OF THE GOSPEL. He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.Heb. viii. 6.

THIS better covenant, which the apostle here commends, is the Christian religion, or the dispensation of the gospel under Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the Mediator. Now in order to shew the superior excellency of the Christian dispensation, it is necessary to take a brief review of all those former dispensations of grace.

The first is that of Adam. No sooner was man fallen from his state of innocency, and had lost all reasonable hopes of happiness, according to that constitution, but the goodness of God was manifested in

revealing to Adam the covenant or constitution of grace, as it was contained in this obscure promise, the "seed of the woman ;" which, in the language of the New Testament, signifies, that the Saviour, in the fulness of time, should be born of a woman, and should destroy this work of the devil. This covenant was also confirmed to Noah and his sons after the flood, with some farther precepts about the distinctions of meats, and the punishment of murder, and the promise that the earth should be no more destroyed by water.

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The same covenant was continued to Abraham, with some clearer promises of the Messiah, or Savi"The gospel was preached to Abraham,” (Gal. iii. 8.) together with the addition of a promised inheritance in the land of Canaan, as a type of heaven, and the peculiar precept of circumcision, which was a figure of the mortification of sin.

The same gracious covenant, or gospel, was yet farther revealed to Moses, and by him to the nation of Israel, in the wilderness of Sinai. This was called the Levitical, or Mosaical, or the Jewish dispensation: (Heb. iv. 2.) "The gospel was preached to them as well as unto us." And here the will of God was more explicitly set before them, and their encouragement to repentance. Here also there were a multitude of emblems, or signs and pledges, both of the blessings of God and the duties of man, which are usually called the Jewish ceremonies.

The great apostle, in his epistles to the Romans, and Galatians, and Hebrews, is often teaching them, that this Sinai covenant, this law of Moses, with all the ceremonies of it, could not give them life; (Gal. iii. 21.) and it is in this sense chiefly the apostle, in the ver

ses following my text, tells them, "the first covenant was not faultless," i. e. was not sufficient to save sinful men; he often warns them against trusting in it for salvation, and assures them, it 66 was vanishing away," ver. 7, and 13, and that a new covenant is now introduced; that is, the Christian dispensation, or the gospel in the most spiritual manifestation of it. Now, as Moses was the mediator of this covenant of Sinai, and Aaron the priest obtained the ministry thereof, so the Son of God, being manifest in the flesh, is that High-Priest who hath obtained a more excellent mi_ nistry than Aaron, and is the Mediator of this covenant, which is better than that of Moses, and which is established upon better promises.

I. The Christain dispensation, though it be a rich discovery of grace, yet it contains the fairest and fullest representation of the moral law.

The beauties of holiness, which run through this law, shine with a fairer light under the gospel of Christ. The duties of worship, obedience, and submission, we owe to God; the duties of justice, truth, &c. we owe to our neighbour; and of sobriety, which we owe to ourselves, are set forth more at large in the New Testament. Here the commands of the law of God are represented in their full extent, as they require the obedience of the heart as well as of the life.

II. In the Christian dispensation, the covenant or grace is revealed more perfectly.

Every covenant between God and man, in the most complete sense of the word, implies some engagements on our side, which are appointed duties; and some engagements on God's side, which are promised blessings. Now, in both these respects, the covenant of grace is revealed, in the New Testament, in a much

more plain and express manner. The blessings of the covenant of grace, are regeneration, pardon, justification, adoption, sanctification, assistance to perform duties, support under troubles, comfort in life and death, and everlasting joy; these are most plainly described. The duties of this covenant are faith, unfeigned repentance towards God, confession of sin, secret prayer, love to God as a father, delight in him, joyful hope in his promised mercy, zeal for his honour, and sincere obedience, arising from a principle of faith and love. All these are more expressly required.

The chief of these things were contained in the former dispensations, particular the Jewish; but many of them were there veiled under types and figures, and dark shadows; so that theJews were ready to take up with these shadows, instead of the substance.

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But now the Christian dispensation sets the covenant of grace and salvation before us, in its own spiritual language, in a clear and distinct light, and without a vcil. The vision of grace and glory in the New Testament is written so plain, "that he that runs may read it;" the highway of repentance, faith and holiness, which leads to eternal life, is laid so open, "that the. stranger and wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein."

III. The rites and ceremonies which are super-added to the covenant of grace, in the Christian dispensation of it, are much preferable to those in former times.

1. They are much fewer than the ceremonies of the Jewish state. What a multitude of ceremonies were they incumbered with! What washings and sprinklings, what numerous purifications, what innumerable ceremonies of worship! What frequent journies!

Whereas, in the Christian state, there are but two ceremonies appointed, viz. that of baptism and the Lord's-supper.

2. They are much more easy, and less burdensome and expensive, than those of the former dispensations. 3. They are clearer in their design and manner of representation. When the body is washed with water in baptism, it very clearly represents that our souls must pass through the laver of regeneration. The bread broken, and the wine poured out in the Lord'ssupper, distinctly represent 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.

IV. The Son of God, who was the real mediator of the covenant of grace, through all former dispensations, has condescended to become the visible mediator of this dispensation.

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. 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. Moses the mediator of the Jewish covenant, with all his virtues and graces, 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." John i. 14-18.

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