knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. (Hos. vi. 6.) Lastly, we read in the Prophet Micah,- Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Mic. vi. 6, &c.) If then the Jews placed their dependence on an external show of religion, they must stand condemned by their own Law, and their Prophets.

But, however excellent the Mosaic institution was in itself, and admirably adapted to the Jews, for the purposes for which it was intended, yet it was imperfect, as being only one part of the grand revelation of the divine purpose to save mankind through the blood of the Messiah, and also as being designed for a small nation, and not for the whole world. It was indeed strictly of a local and temporary nature. One part of its design being to separate the Israelites from the rest of mankind, (which it effectually accomplished,) many of its ordinances are therefore of such a nature, that they are not calculated for general adoption. The Jewish dispensation was only temporary, and preparatory to that fuller manifestation of the divine will, which in the fulness of time was to be made known to the world. This is not only implied in its typical character, which has already been noticed, but is also intimated, in no obscure terms, in those predictions which announce its abrogation, the substitution of the evangelical laws by the advent of the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentiles. To omit the prophecies concerning the Messiah, which have already been noticed, the cessation of the Mosaic dispensation is foretold by Jeremiah in the following explicit terms: Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with the house of their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband to them saith the Lord); but this shall be the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel. After those days saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying, Know ye the Lord: for they shall ALL know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will for-give their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jer. xxxi.

1 Thus the Jews were commanded to appear personally in Jerusalem at their three great festivals: and if all men had been converted to Judaism, this law would have been equally binding upon them. But it would have been impossible for the greater part of mankind to repair to Jerusalem three or four times in the year; for, if this was a necessary part of religion, the lives of half the world would be entirely spent in a wearisome never-ending pilgrimage. Faber's Hora Mosaicæ, vol. ii. p. 435.

2 See pp. 334-342. supra, and the Appendix, No. IV.

31-34.) From which passage, Paul infers (Heb. viii. 7—13.), that the mention of a new covenant necessarily implies the first to be old, and that, if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for the second. Compare also Haggai ii. 6. with Heb. xii. 26, 27.

Equally important are all those predictions, which mention the calling of the Gentiles.1 All these are punctually fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospel, but are not so much as possible, supposing the law to be still in force, which confined all solemn worship and sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Nay, further, this enlargement of the church plainly supersedes those other ceremonies, which were designed to distinguish the Israelites as God's peculiar people; for the partition wall must necessarily be broken down, and Jew and Gentile both made one whenever those prophecies should be accomplished.

Let us then adore the wisdom and goodness of God in all his dispensations. His statutes are right and rejoice the heart, and all his commandments are righteous. (Psal. xix. 8.) And these same righteous commandments and holy doctrines are delivered to us in the Gospel (as will be shown in the following pages), with still greater purity and perfection, and free from that burthen of ceremonies, which the circumstances of the Jewish age and people rendered ne

cessary.

3. A SUMMARY view of the DOCTRINES AND PRECEPTS OF THE GOS

PEL DISPENSATION.

1. Divine character of the founder of the Christian religion. II. The leading doctrines of the Gospel, worthy of the character of the Almighty; particularly, 1. The account of God and of his perfections, and the duty and spiritual worship which we owe to him.-2. The vicarious atonement made for sin by Jesus Christ.-3. Forgiveness of sins. 4. Justification by faith.-5. The promise of the Holy Spirit to sanctify and renew our nature.- 6. The immortality of the soul; and a future state of rewards and punishments. -III. The moral precepts of the New Testament admirably adapted to the actual state of mankind. - 1. Summary of the duties it enjoins between man and man, particularly integrity of conduct, charity, forgiveness of injuries.-2. The duties of governors and subjects, masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children.-3. The personal duties of sobriety, chastity, temperance, &c.-4. The holiness of the moral precepts of the Gospel, a proof of its divine origin.-5. Considerations on the manner in which the moral precepts of the Gospe are delivered; and on the character of Jesus Christ as a moral teacher. IV. Superiority of the motives to duty presented by the Gospel. They are drawn, 1. From a consideration of the reasonableness of the duty. 2. From the singular favours bestowed by God. 3. From the example of Christ. 4. From the sanctions of duty, which the civil relations among men have received from God. 5. From the regard which Christians owe to their holy profession.

1 See Isa. ii. 2. x. xi. xix. 24. xlix. lx. Mic. iv. Mal. i. 11.

6. From the acceptableness of true repentance and the promise of pardon. 7. From the divine assistance offered to support men in the practice of their duty.-8. From our relation to heaven while upon earth.-9. From the rewards and punishments proclaimed in the Gospel.

I. THE third and last dispensation of religion is that which was introduced by that divine and glorious person whom the prophets had foretold. This is properly the Christian dispensation, which was designed and fitted for an universal extent, and in which, considered in its original purity, religion is brought to its highest perfection and noblest improvement. An admirable wisdom, goodness, and purity, shone forth in the whole conduct and character of the great author of it. He came in the fulness of time, the time which had been pointed out in the prophetical writings. In him the several predictions relating to the extraordinary person that was to come were fulfilled, and the several characters by which he was described, were wonderfully united, and in no other person. He appeared, as was foretold concerning him, mean in his outward condition and circumstances, and yet maintained in his whole conduct a dignity becoming his divine character. Many of his miracles were of such a kind, and performed in such a manner, as seemed to argue a dominion over nature, and its established laws, and they were acts of great goodness as well as power. He went about doing good to the bodies and to the souls of men, and the admirable instructions he gave were delivered with a divine authority, and yet with great familiarity and condescension. And his own practice was every way suited to the excellency of his precepts. He exhibited the most finished pattern of universal holiness, of love to God, of zeal for the divine glory, of the most wonderful charity and benevolence towards mankind, of the most unparalleled self-denial, of a heavenly mind and life, of meekness and patience, humility and condescension. Never was there so perfect a character, so godlike, venerable, and amiable, so remote from that of an enthusiast or an impostor. He is the only founder of a religion in the history of mankind, which is totally unconnected with all human policy and government, and therefore totally unconducive to any worldly purpose whatever. All others, as Mohammed, Numa, and even Moses himself, blended their religious and civil institutions together, and thus acquired dominion over their respective people: but Christ neither aimed at nor would accept of any such power; he rejected every object which all other men pursue, and made choice of all those which others fear to encounter. No other founder of a religion ever made his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his original plan, and essential to his mission. Jesus Christ, however, most expressly foretold his own sufferings, the cruel and ignominious death he was to undergo, his resurrection from the dead on the third day, his ascension into heaven, the dreadful judgments and calamities that should be inflicted on the Jewish nation, and, what seemed the most improbable thing in the world, the wonderful progress of his own Gospel from the smallest beginnings, notwithstanding the persecutions and

VOL. I.

51

difficulties to which he foretold it should be exposed. All this was most exactly fulfilled; he rose again on the third day, and showed himself alive to his disciples after his passion by many infallible proofs, when their hopes were so sunk, that they could hardly believe that he was risen, till they could no longer doubt of it, without renouncing the testimony of all their senses. He gave them commission to go and preach his Gospel to all nations, and promised that, to enable them to do it with success, they should be endued with the most extraordinary powers and gifts of the Holy Ghost. This accordingly they did, and though destitute of all worldly advantages, without power, riches, interest, policy, learning, or eloquence, they went through the world preaching a crucified Jesus, as the Saviour and Lord of men, and teaching the things which he had commanded them; and by the wonderful powers with which they were invested, and the evidences they produced of their divine mission, they prevailed, and spread the religion of Jesus, as their great master had foretold, in the midst of sufferings and persecutions, and in opposition to the reigning inveterate prejudices both of Jews and Gentiles.

II. If we examine the nature and tendency of the Gospel Dispensation, and of the doctrines taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles, we shall find it to be in every respect worthy of God, and adapted to the necessities of mankind. They retain all that is excellent in the Old Testament revelation: for Christ came, not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, and to carry the scheme of religion there laid down to a still higher degree of excellency. Accordingly, he taught all the fundamental doctrines of the Christian system, which are necessary to be believed and obeyed in order to the attainment of salvation. Such, for instance, are the existence and perfections of God; the righteous and reasonable character of his law; the rebellion, apostacy, and corruption of man; the impossibility of justification by the works of the law; Christ's own divine character, as the Son of God and the Saviour of men; justification by faith in him; the deity and offices of the Holy Spirit; the nature and necessity of regeneration, faith, repentance, holiness of heart and life; a future state; a judgment to come; and a recompense of reward to the righteous and the wicked, and the spiritual nature of his kingdom. These are the leading subjects taught by Jesus Christ and his apostles: to adduce all the passages of the New Testament that assert them would extend this section to an undue length. A few of the principal testimonies may properly claim to be noticed.

1. The account of God and of his perfections contained in the Scriptures commends itself to our reason, as worthy of the highest and most excellent of all beings, and the most suitable affections and dispositions towards him. He is represented as a pure spirit, the Creator and Governor of the world, possessed of infinite wisdom, holiness, truth, justice, goodness, and perfection; the witness and judge of our actions; eternal, immortal, invisible, unchangeable, and omnipresent. At the same time, his majesty is softened (if we may be

1 John iv. 24. Rom. i. 20. Heb. iii. 4. Matt. xxiii. 9. Eph. iv. 6. Matt. x.

allowed the expression) by his benevolence, which is liberal and unwearied in diffusing good throughout the universe: " his tender mercies are over all his works," embracing at once the interests of our souls and our bodies; and while he bestows in abundance the blessings and consolations of the present life, he has provided for us perfect and exalted felicity in the life to come. Of all the views of God which had ever been given, none was so calculated to endear him to us, and to inspire our hearts with confidence, as this short but interesting description, of which the scheme of redemption affords a sublime illustration, "GOD IS LOVE!" (1 John iv. 16.) But the Gospel not only makes known to us the nature of God: it also imparts to us a full discovery of our duty to him, clothed in ideas the most venerable, amiable, and engaging. We are required to fear God, but it is not with a servile horror, such as superstition inspires, but with a filial reverence. We are directed and encouraged to address ourselves to him as our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ the Son of his love, and in his name to offer up our prayers and praises, our confessions and thanksgivings, with the profoundest humility, becoming creatures deeply sensible of their own unworthiness, and yet with an ingenuous affiance, hope and joy. We are to yield the most unreserved submission to God as our sovereign Lord, our most wise and righteous Governor, and most gracious Benefactor; to resign ourselves to his disposal, and acquiesce in his providential dispensations, as being persuaded that he orders all things really for the best; to walk continually as in his sight, and with a regard to his approbation, setting him before us as our great all-seeing witness and judge, our chiefest good and highest end. Above all we are required to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and mind, and strength, and to show that we love him, by keeping his commandments, by aspiring after a conformity to him in his imitable perfections, and by endeavouring, as far as we are able, to glorify him in the world.

The external worship of God, according to the idea given of it in the New Testament, is pure and spiritual, and is characterised by a noble simplicity. As God is a spirit, he is to be worshipped, not in a formal manner, but in spirit and truth. (John iv. 24.) The numerous rites of the Mosaic dispensation, which, though wisely suited to that time and state, were marks of the imperfection of that œconomy, are now abolished. The ordinances of Christianity prescribed in the Gospel, are few in number, easy to be observed, and noble in their use and significancy; and those ceremonies, which are necessary in order that all things may be done decently and in order, are left to be filled up, in every country, at the discretion of pious men lawfully appointed. A glorious plan of religious worship this! grounded upon the perfections of the divine nature, and admirably corresponding with the case and necessities of sinful man.

2. That man should love God with all his heart, is not the lan

29, 30. Luke x. 24-28. 1 Tim. i. 17. John xvii. 11. Rev. iii. 7. xv. 4. John vii. 28. 2 Cor. i. 18. 1 John i. 9. Rev. xv. 3. Eph. i. 23.