your attention from it, my Beloved Brethren, longer than while I observe, that the frequent recurrence which we meet with in Scripture of such passages as this, in which a whole system of sound divinity is, as it were, without the least premeditation, embodied in two or three sentences, furnishes the reflecting mind with an irresistible internal evidence of their divine original. For the depth of reasoning contained in these passages calls forth all the powers of our understandings. Their consistency and systematic arrangement excite our astonishment. Their simplicity demands our admiration. And their entire tenor proves, beyond doubt, that they were the spontaneous effusions of a mind completely imbued with its subject, and deeply convinced both of the certainty and importance of those things whereof he was treating.

"And for this cause (saith the Apostle) He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." With respect to the word Mediator, (which signifies a middle agent, or one who acts between two parties,) it may not be unseasonable to observe, in answer to those who object against the doctrine of mediation between God and His creatures, that it is no new idea.

12

For, exclusive of the fact, that all God's works of creation and providence are carried on by the instrumentality of middle agents or second causes, we find, on reference to the writings of the ancients, that the existence of mediators, or middle spirits who act between the Creator and His creatures, was one of the doctrines of heathen mythology, derived doubtless from an original, but corrupted revelation. Thus Plato saith, "Every demon (or genius) is a middle agent between God and mortal man." 'God is not

And again,

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approached by man, but all the commerce and intercourse between Gods and men, is by the mediation of demons," (or inferior spirits*). Apuleius also, a later philosopher, gives a similar description: "Demons," he says, "are middle powers, by whom both our desires and deserts pass unto the Gods; they are carriers between men on earth and Gods in heaven, they convey to and fro petitions and supplies, &c.Ӡ

Hence we learn that the doctrine of a mediator between the Creator and his creatures, so far from being contrary to reason, as some assert, is, on the contrary, almost deducible from it alone. And the grand distinction between the notions of Polytheism, and the doctrine of the New Testament on this subject, is, that whereas the former in

*Platonis Sympos. p. 202. vol. 3. Ed. Ser.

↑ Apul. de Deo Socratis, p. 674. &c. Delph.

structed its deluded votaries to trust in "Gods many and Lords many," the latter assures us that

there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." For as Moses was, in a sense, the mediator between God and the Israelites, inasmuch as it was through his instrumentality that the law was revealed to them, so, in a far more exalted sense, the Lord Jesus Christ, the well-beloved Son of God, is "the Mediator of a better covenant, founded upon better promises.

N

And this leads me further to observe, what most of vor you are probably already aware of, that the very same word which in our text is translated

'a

1

Testament," is, in various other passages of St. Paul's writings, (as for instance in the latter verses of the preceding chapter,) translated "Covenant,” nor is it easy to conjecture what motive could have induced our venerable translators to render it by a different word in the passage before us; for here, as in some other places, the diversity of terms occasions, to the unlearned reader, an uncertainty with regard to the real meaning of the passage. For clearness, therefore, I shall take the liberty, in the following discourse, of using the word in that sense which the context proves to be most applicable to it; and shall beg to substitute the word

Covenant" instead of "Testament.""" And for this cause," saith Paul, "He (the Lord Jesus

Christ) is the Mediator of the New Covenant." Why? In order that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." These words, my Brethren, lead us to consider, in the first place, the nature of that which the Apostle calls "the First Covenant," and, Secondly, of that which he terms "the New Covenant."

With respect to that which the Apostle here calls the First Covenant, and which, in the last verse of the preceding chapter, is alluded to under the name of the "covenant which waxeth old and was ready to vanish away"- we learn, by a quotation adduced by the Apostle from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, that it was the same with that made by Almighty God with the children of Israel "in the day," or at the time, when He brought them up out of the land of Egypt. "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 which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them up out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord." These words, I say, of the Prophet and Apostle, manifestly refer us to the period of Israel's deliverance from Egypt,

for the commencement of the old covenant between God and His people. And accordingly, in the 19th chapter of Exodus, and 5th verse, we find Him entering into the following agreement with them; "Now, therefore, saith the Lord, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be unto Me a peculiar treasure above all people, for all the earth is Mine, and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” And again, in the 24th chapter of Exodus, 6th, 7th, and 8th verses, we are informed that "Moses took half of the blood of the oxen which he had slain in sacrifice, and put it into basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar, and he took the book of the covenant (i. e. the law of the ten commandments) and read in the audience of all the people, and they said, 'All that the Lord hath spoken we will do, and be obedient.' And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words."

With respect to this sprinkling of blood, and calling it the "blood of the covenant," (which expression is also applied by the blessed Jesus Himself to His own blood,) it is to be kept in mind, not only that the "law was a pattern of good things to come," of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, but also, that the word