"Ye shall fee greater things SECT. II. had faid, "Ye fhall fee ~ "than these." And the pfalms, formerly composed to celebrate the deliverance of Ifrael from Egyptian and Babylonian captivities, are now used by the church Christian to praise God for falvation from fin, death, and Satan: they are fung new in the kingdom of Meffiah. "Old things are paffed away, be"hold all things are become new :" legal figures are vanished, and the terms employed to describe them are transferred to Evangelical truths. When the prophets compofed pfalms on occafion of temporal deliverances, they looked forward to a future fpiritual falvation; as Zacharias, in his hymn, the fubject of which is a fpiritual falvation, looks back, and has a reference to past temporal deliverances. 5. "To perform the mercy promi"fed to our fathers, and to re"member his holy covenant --" THE " mercy promised to our fa"thers" was, therefore, a spiritual mercy; and the "covenant" made with them them was a gospel covenant; for other- SECT. II. wife, God could not be faid, by raifing up Chrift, to have "performed that mercy," and " remembered that co"venant." Accordingly, we are elsewhere told, "the Gospel was preached "to Abraham ;" and the covenant made with him is ftyled "the covenant "of God in Chrift b. The Gofpel, a then, was prior to the law, and was the patrimony of all the children of Abraham. "The law, which was four hun"dred and thirty years after," whatever might be it's intention, could not difpoffefs them of this their inheritance ; it could not "difannul the covenant, "and make the promise of none effect." But if, on the contrary, it was defigned to keep up, and further the knowlege of them; if it was a standing prophecy; if it was "a schoolmafter," by it's elements training up and conducting it's scholars "to Chrift;" then certainly nothing was wanting on the part of God. The Jews minded earthly things; but to infer from thence, that they were never a Gal. iii. 8. Ibid. 17. D 2 taught SECT. II. taught the knowlege of things heavenly, would be a method of arguing too hazardous to be ventured upon; fince, from the behaviour of many, who profess the Christian religion, it might as fairly be concluded, that their Mafter promised nothing but " loaves and fishes." Ifraelites might set their hearts too much on "fields and vineyards," forgetting or neglecting better things, as men are apt to do, who are bleffed with profperity. in this prefent world. But when they did fo, they did wrong: prophets were fent to reprove the error, and judgments to convince them, that Canaan was not the end of the "covenant," nor a plentiful harvest "the mercy promised." 6. "THE oath which he fware to. "our forefather Abraham ---” * THE amazing condefcenfion of God in vouchfafing, for man's fatisfaction and affurance, to confirm his, promise by an oath, is finely touched upon in the epiftle to the Hebrews. "When "God made promise to Abraham, be"cause he could fwear by no greater, he "fware "fware by himself, faying, furely bleff- SECT. II. ing I will bless thee, and multiplying "I will multiply thee ---- For men verily fwear by a greater, and an oath "for confirmation is to them an end of "all ftrife. Wherein God, willing to "fhew to the heirs of promise the im"mutability of his counfel, confirmed "it by an oath; that by two immuta"ble things, in which it was impof"fible for God to lie, we might have "a ftrong confolation, who have fled "for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope "fet before us." O the goodness of God, who hath given his creatures the affurance of an oath! O the infidelity of his creatures, who diftruft that affurance b! 7. "That he would grant unto a Heb. vi. 13. O beatos nos, quorum caufa Deus jurat! O miferri mos, fi nec juranti Domino credimus! Tertull. 8. "In SECT. II. 8. IN holiness and righteousness " before him, all the days of "our life." THE promife, made with an oath to Abraham, was made, after the intentional facrifice of Ifaac, in the following terms; "By myfelf have I fworn that in bleffing I will blefs thee, "and in multiplying I will multiply thy feed as the stars of heaven, and "as the fand which is upon the fea "shore; and thy feed fhall poffess the gate of his enemies; and in thy feed "fhall all the nations of the earth be a " bleffed "." The objects of the bleffing here promised are the faithful children of Abraham, whether Jews or Gentiles; the " feed," in whom they are bleffed, is Chrift; the manner in which he obtains the bleffing, is by "poffeff 66 ing the gate of his enemies," that is, by fubduing them, and feizing their ftrong holds; the bleffing itself confisteth in a redemption from bondage under those enemies, and an admiffion into a Gen. xxii. 16. the |