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46
a:cE
ExcEtz.ExçY
OF
.
[4824t,
i.i#.
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 saint!,
who
see
the face
of
God,
and
the agonies and
onto-let
of
the sinner, who lifts up
his eyes
in the place
of
tor-
tuent,
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 put
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
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 con-
straining
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
esta-
blished,
appointed
or
con
stituted 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,
vigo-
rous
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
for ever
in
his
presence.,