every place, Isai. xi. 10. Mal. i. 11. The people of all nations could never be convened into one country, and worship at one place, and sacrifice on one altar. III. It is expressly foretold that there would be a new covenant, or a new administration of it; in that hab, a new covenant, he hath made the first old, Heb. viii. 8.-13. Christ's coming into the world to offer up himself a sacrifice for the sins of his people, was virtually saying, that God would have legal sacrifices no longer offered up, and would no more accept of them. And Daniel expressly says, that the Messiah would cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, Dan. ix. 27. And the Jews themselves say, "that all sacrifices will cease in time to come, and in the time of their vainly expected Messiah, but the sacrifice of praise."

The ark was something very remarkable in the former dispensation; in it was the Decalogue; it was a token of the divine presence, and a type of Christ. Now of this it is foretold, that there would be a time when is should be no more, and should not be so much as thought of any more, Jer. iii. 16. The ecclesiastical, as well as civil state of the Jews, was to be shaken and removed; the one is signified by the shaking of the heaven, as the other by the shaking of the earth, in Hag. ii. 6. which the apostle explains of the removing of things shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, Heb. xii. 26, 27. It was foretold that prophecy should be sealed up, finished, and cease, Dan. ix. 24. all the visions and prophecies of the Old Testament were to have, and had their accomplishment in Christ.

II. There are reasons to be given why the first covenant should and must cease. 1. It was a typical covenant ; and served to the example and shadow of heavenly things, Heb. viii. 4. 5.-ix. 23. 11. It was a faulty covenant, and therefore it was proper it should give way to a new and better covenant; For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have sought for the second, Heb. viii. 7. 8. 1. It did not exhibit Christ present, only in figure, in promise, and in prophecy

2. The sacrifices then offered were imperfect; for some sins there were no sacrifices appointed, as for Sabbath-breaking, murder, adultery, &c. and those that were appointed, could not really take away sin, Heb. ix. 13. 14. 3. There was but a small measure of the gifts and graces bestowed on men under the first covenant: the communication was made, for the most part, only to Israelites, to a remnant, according to the election of grace. 4. It was a state of darkness and obscurity under that covenant; it was like a night-season, in which lamps are lighted, and torches used ; such was the sure word of prophecy; it was like a light or lamp in a dark place. 5. It was a state of bondage; this covenant was signified by Hagar the bond-woman, and by mount Sinai, which gendered to bondage, and answered to Jerusalem, as it was in the apostle's time. Such a number of laws and ordinances being given them, to the breach of which, death was annexed without mercy; and they so liable to break them, they, through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage, Gal. iv. 24, 25. Heb. ii. 15 III. The rites and ceremonies by which this covenant was greatly administered, are by the apostle called, weak and beggarly elements; and being weak and unprofitable, there was, therefore, a disannulling of them, Heb. vii. 18, 19. which leads,

III. To the abrogation of the first covenant, or of the administration of it; it is expressed by breaking down the middle wall of partition, Eph. ii. 14-16. by a disannulling of the commandment, Col. ii. 16, 17. by a blotting out the hand writing of ordinances, Col. ii. 14. and by the fleeing away, and disappearance of shadows; to this the church has respect, Cant. ii. 17. Now the abrogation of the first and old covenant, was made gradually; that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away, Heb. viii. 13. It began to decay, and there were some symptoms of a decay of it at the Babylonish captivity; and though after a term of years there was a return of the people to their own land, and the temple was rebuilt, and worship restored; yet, the ark, and many other

things were wanting; great declensions there were, both in doctrine and worship; the sect of the Pharisees arose, and set up their own traditions upon a level with the written word; and great confusion was in the priesthood. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, came and proclaimed the near ap proach of the Messiah; he declared, that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, Matt. iii. 2. and directed the people to believe on Christ, who was to come, John i. 29. At the death of Christ, of right, though not in fact, all ceremonies ceased. Through the influence of Judaizing teachers over weak minds, it was thought advisable to continue the use of some of the ceremonies, at least for a time; after it was known, by Peter and others, that they were no longer in force; yet the saints were exhorted to stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ had made them free, and not be entangled with the yoke of bondage. Still the carnal Jews continued them, and even sacrifices, until the destruction of Jerusalem, which put an end to them; for according to the law of God, no sacrifice might be offered but at Jerusalem, and upon the altar there; so that when the city, temple, and altar were destroyed, they ceased to offer any sacrifice, and never have offered any since; whereby that prophecy is remarkably fulfilled; The children of Isra el shall abide many days without a sacrifice, Hos. iii. 4. as they have for seventeen hundred years, and still do. This being

the case,

IV. The new covenant, or the new administration of the covenant of grace, took place; and as the one was gradually removed, the other was gradually introduced; and this observation will serve to reconcile the different æras fixed by different persons, for the beginning of the new dispensation; some placing it at the birth of Christ, others at the ministry of John the Baptist; others at the death of Christ, and his resurrection from the dead; and others at his ascension, and the effusion of the holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost; whereas these were so many gradual manifestations of it. The new administration lies in the following things. 1. In an exhibition

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of Christ as come, and as become the author of eternal sal vation; This is a faithful saying, &c. 1 Tim. i. 15. 1.In a more clear and extensive ministration of the gospel; it first began to be spoken by Christ in the clearest and fullest manner it possibly could be; and is made known to all nations, for the obedience of faith, Rom. xv. 25, III. In a freedom from bondage and servitude; from the rigorous exaction of the law, as a covenant of works; from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and from the judicial laws, as peculiar to the Jews: this is the glorious liberty of the children of Gocs IV. In a large communication of the gifts and and graces of the Spirit; of extraordinary gifts; of common and ordinary ones, to fit men for the ordinary ministry of the word; and of the special graces of the Spirit, in a greater degree to saints in common. Though John was greater than the prophets, the least in this kingdom of heaven, or gospel-dissation, is greater than he, Matt. xi. 11. v. In ordinances more spiritual than the ordinances of divine service under the first covenant were, which are called carnal ones; these are Baptism and the Lord's supper. Now the former adininistration of the covenant was carried through the various periods of time from the first exhibition, after the fall of Adam, to the first coming of Christ; so this second and new administration of the covenant is carried through various successive periods,, under his second coming.

OF THE LAW OF GOD.

THE word law is variously used, sometimes for a part of the scriptures only, the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; as when it is mentioned in the division of the scriptures by Christ, Luke xxiv. 44. and along with the prophets, as distinct from them, John i. 45. sometimes for all the books of the Old Testament, which in general go by the name of the law, as does the book of Psalms on that account, as the places quoted out of it, or referred to in it, shew, John x. 34.—xii. 34.xv. 25. sometimes it signifies the doctrine of the scriptures in general,

both legal and evangelical, Psal. xix. 7. and the doctrines of the gospels in particular, even the doctrine of the M ́ssiah, Isai. ii. 3. and xlii. 4. called in the New Testament the law, or doctrine of faith, Rom. iii. 27. and sometimes it signifies the whole body of laws given from God by Moses to the children of Israel, as distinct from the gospel of the grace of God, John i. 17. and which may be distinguished into the laws ceremonial, judicial, and moral.

I. The ceremonial law, of which little need be said, since much has been observed concerning it already. This law was a shadow of good things to come by Christ.

II. The judicial law, which respects the political state, or civil government of the Jews, and consists of statutes and judgments, according to which the judges in Israel determin ed all causes brought before them, and passed sentence; in which sentence the people were to acquiesce, Deut. xvii. 8

11. It may be required, whether the judicial laws, or the laws respecting the Jewish polity, are now in force or not, and to be observed or not? which may be resolved by distinguishing between them; there were some that were peculiar to the state of the Jews; these, with others ceased when the Jewish polity did, and are not binding on other nations. But then there were other judicial laws, which were founded on the light of nature, on reason, and on justice and equity, and these remain in full force; and they must be wise, as well as righteous laws, which were made by God himself, their King and Legislator, as they are said to be, Deut, iv. 6, 8.

III. The moral law, which lies chiefly in the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, Exod. xx. 3.-17. and which our Lord has reduced, even both tables of the law, to tw capital ones, love to God, and love to our neighbour, Matt. xxii. 36-40. as the apostle has reduced the commands of the second table to one, that is, love, which he calls the fulfilling of the law, Rom. xiii. 9, 10. I shall consider, 1. The author and giver of this law; God was the Author and Maker of it; Muses the giver and minister of it from God; it was God