66 CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. daughter of Adam. If hope and fear have any power in man- kind, 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 constraining kind. But this leads me to the second part of my text, which cor- responds with the. appointed themeof my discourse ; and that is, " The excellency of the promises of the new covenant ;" as St. Paul tells us, this new covenant is established, appointed or con- stituted, upon a. set of better promises. Thepromises of the New Testament willappear to be much superior to those of the Old, if we consider what washinted be- fore, that they contain in them such blessings as were scarce known under the former dispensations, or at least were to ex- pressed, that it was hard to read them : But in the gospel these future scenes of solemn glory are set before our eyes in the clear- est language. We hear the voice of the archangel, and the trump of (sod ; 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, vigorous and im- mortal. We behold Jesus the Saviour and the Judge upon the throne, and his faithful followers at his right hand, invest- ed with public honours. We hear the happy sentence pronoun- ced upon them, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- dom. We behold them, as it were, reigning with Christ, upon his throne, and ascending with their Lord, to dwell forever in, his presence. Again, the apostlehas taught us to look uponall the promises, as sealed to believers by the blood of the Son'of God, and secured to christians by the resurrection and exaltationof their Mediator; for the Father bath put all power into his hand, and he has taken possession of the heavenly inheritance in our name; Because 1 live ye shall live also; John xiv. 19. Yet farther, the NewTestament confirms all the best pro- misesof the Old, and claims them for itself; for they wereemi- . nently Made with a design for the days of the Messiah, as many of them expressly inform us. New hearts andnew spirits, tak- ing away iniquity; and remembering sins no more, writnig the law in the heart, and the dwelling of God amongst them, and their assuranceof not departing from God, are such promises as the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel more directly pronounced on- the subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah. And there is a new light cast upon them in the gospel, which teaches plain christians to make use them, and apply them to their own consolation and joy. They were all writtenfor our learning, that we throughpati- enceandcomfort ofthe scriptures might havehope; Rom. xv. 4.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=