62 CHRISTIAN DISPPNSATION. 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 for- mer dispensations. To wash with water, to break a little bread, to pour out a little wine, and tó 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 ofdescription ; and even the dispensationsof Adam and Noah, with their continual sacrifices, and the rite of circum- cision, 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 repre- sentation, than most of the rites annexed to the former dispen- sations : 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 bodyis washed with water in baptism, it very clearly represents, that our souls must pass through the laver of regeneration, or thatwe must have theSpirit of God shed down upon us, to cleanse us from our defilements. Thebread broken, and the wine poured out in the Lord's supper distinctly repre- sent the body of Christ broken on the cross for our sins, and his blood poured out as an atoning sacrifice ; and theactions of eating and drinking do as evidently hold forth our partaking of the bles- sings purchasedby the blood and death of the Son of God. This rite also solemnizes and confirms the covenant of grace, which God hails made with us through his Son Jesus Christ, by our hearty consent thereto, which is expressed by eating and drink- ing in his presence, andat his table. IV. " The Son of God, who was the real Mediatorof the covenant of grace, through all former dispensations, has condes- cended to become the visible Mediator of this dispensation. So saith my text, he is the lllediator of this better covenant. He be- gan his office of mediationbetween 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 whichyouhave heard in a former discourse ; He appeared hi 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 hisvisible appearances he represented God, even the Father, both to the patriarchs and to the Jews,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=