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(Eph. i. 17-19.) We shall find the subject eminently suited, with his blessing, thus to enlarge our views, strengthen our faith and hope in the gospel, and animate us to renewed zeal and diligence in our walk with God.

I

propose to open it by a few remarks,

I. On the general notion of a covenant of God with man.

II. On the particular features of this "BETTER COVENANT."

III. On the administration of it by Christ, as Mediator.

I. On the general notion of a covenant of God with man.

By a covenant among men we understand an agreement or compact, by which the parties bind themselves, and each the other, to the fulfilment of certain conditions. When such a covenant has been duly ratified, it is thenceforward binding on both, and either party is accounted infamous who shall recede from the terms of it without the consent of the other. When therefore a person is under covenant to perform certain things stipulated therein, we have the strongest security which man can devise that his conduct will be ordered according to the tenor of it.

Now, when we speak of a covenant of God with men, one important difference is to be observed. In this case there is no natural equality between the parties, nor independence of one upon the other, and therefore no such mutual adjustment of terms may take place between them. God wills, and man must obey. But this revealed mind and purpose of God is called a covenant, because,

1. As respects God, he who has no rule of action but his own will is pleased hereby to bind himself, in his dealings with men, to the observance of certain specified terms. See Note 1 at the end of the volume.

2. As respects men, they are bound to fulfil the conditions herein prescribed to them, under pain of forfeiting the offered benefits, and incurring the attendant penalties.

A covenant further supposes the existence of peace and mutual good-will between the contracting parties, or is a basis of reconciliation between such as have been at enmity. In this respect the covenants of God and of men agree.

A covenant of peace, made in the case of previous enmity existing between the parties, must be negotiated by a Mediator, with whom the terms on either side may be arranged; and who is Surety to both for the fulfilment of the conditions on

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which it is to rest. But in the case of previous good-will no mediator is required.

Further, a covenant supposes mutual advantage resulting from it to the parties concerned, with a view to which it is entered into. The advantage in any covenant of God is obvious, as respects man. The advantage (so to speak) which God aims at herein, is, the delight of his own nature in the exercise of goodness, the communication of blessing to his creature; which he therefore bestows by covenant, to assure man of its unchangeable character, by the obligation under which he is thus pleased to lay himself.

Such is the general notion of a covenant as made by God with his creatures: it expresses "the immutability of his counsel." God's ways, whether of mercy or of judgment, are not arbitrary all proceed strictly according to a method laid down by himself, and revealed in his word for our guidance. Clearly then, our hopes and prospects depend, entirely, upon the nature of that particular covenant or dispensation of God under which it may be our lot to live. General notions of mercy, not directed by God's revelation of his mind towards us, or an unauthorized blending of the grace of one covenant with the meritorious obedience of another, will prove vain and ruinous in the issue. On the other hand, great and unmerited as may be the blessings held out

to men under any dispensation, this name, covenant, under which God has taught us to cóntemplate it, forbids us to doubt their sure communication to all who come to him in his appointed way} for their bestowal.

It is plain, from the word of God, that there redam are TWO COVENANTS in which men are principally i concerned, and upon the terms of one or other of

which they must stand for life or death before. God.

The covenant under which all men are born, as children of Adam, is that oF WORKS; and under this they continue, until, of their own accord, they abandon it, as one by which they can only merit death. This is, in other words, the moral law, which was the law of Adam's nature, written in his heart while he continued in his integrity, and was given afterwards formally, and in detail, from Mount Sinai, for discovering to his posterity the conditions of life or death eternal, to which, as creatures of God, they are naturally subject. Its terms, spiritually understood, are, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength; and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Luke x. 27; Mark xii. 29-31; from Deut. vi. 5, and Leviticus xix. 18.) The sanctions by which it is enforced are, on the

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8

THE BETTER COVENANT.

one hand, "This do, and thou shalt live;" (Luke,
x. 28, from Leviticus xviii. 5;) and on the other,
"Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
things which are written in the book of the
law, to do them." (Gal. iii. 10, from Deut.
xxvii. 26.)

wtb All men who live and die, as they are born, un-
der this covenant are dealt with according to the
exact tenor of it. Of mercy to transgressors the
law knows absolutely nothing. It is a law for
man, as God made man-perfect—and to man in
this condition, and in this only, it was a law that
could give life. (Gal. iii. 21.)

"

6 It must be evident to every one, that, if he be tried according to the letter of this covenant, there fem remains no hope for him before God, for he is a transgressor of it from the womb. And thus the hat he has be Scriptures every where testify, “ As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” (Gal. iii. 10.) "The law worketh wrath." (Rom. iv. 15.) Now we know that, what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God: therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Rom. iii. 19, 20.)

This covenant, then, is one by which an un

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