166 FOURTH SERMON to come which had been hidden from former ages and generations, and were by the ministry of the apostles made known unto the church in their time, which the prophets and righteous men of the former ages did not see nor attain unto. Thus it is said, " In these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son," Heb. i. 2. And, unto angels he did not put in subjection the world to come, Heb. ii. 5. and, Christ was made a High - priest of good things to come, Heb. ix. 11. and, the law had a shadow of good things to come, Heb. x. 1. and, the times of the gospel are called ages to come, Eph. ii. 7. and; the ends of the world, 1 Cor. x. 11. Thus legal and evangelical dispensa- tions are usually distinguished by the names of times past, and the last days of times to come, Heb. i. 1. Eph. iii. 9, 10. Col. i. 25, 26. The one an earthly and temporary, the other a heavenly and abiding administration, and so the septuagint render the ori- ginal word, isa. ix. 6. " Everlasting Father," which is one of the names of Christ, The Father of the world to come. The meaning then of the place seems to be this That sins of high and desperate presumption, com- mitted maliciously against known light, and against the evidence of God's Spirit, as they had no sacrifice or expiation allowed for them in the former world, or state of the Jewish church, but they who in that man- ner despised Moses and his law, though delivered but by angels, died without mercy, Num. xv. 27. 30, 31. Heb. ii. 2 -4. so in the world to come, or in the evangelical church, (though grace should therein be more abundantly discovered and administered unto men,) yet the same law should continue still, as we find it did, Heb. ii. 2 -5. vi. 4,-6. x. 26-28. neither the open enemies of Christ in the one, nor the false.
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