duty, under the law and under the Gospel, is in its first general principles the same: yet Jesus, in his sermon on the Mount, points out imperfections in certain particulars of the Mosaic law, in some of its political institutions; arising from that necessary accommodation to inveterate prejudices and general corruptions with which every rational scheme of reformation must begin; and the Mosaic institution is to be considered as the beginning of a plan of Providence for the gradual amendment of mankind, which Christianity was to finish and complete. He tells the multitudes, that it would not be sufficient that they should abstain from such criminal actions as were prohibited by the letter of the Decalogue, that they must master the passions which might incline them to such actions. He taught that the law was fulfilled in the true and undissembling love of God and man; and although he did not, during his own life on earth, release men from the observance of the Mosaic rites, he seized all occasions of explaining to them the higher works of intrinsic goodness. Nor does his covenant differ less from the Mosaic in the blessings it offers than in the duties it prescribes. The promises of the Mosaic covenant were of temporal blessings: the disciples of Christ are taught to look for nothing in this world but persecution and affliction, with the grace of God to support them under it; but they are to receive hereafter an inheritance that fadeth not away. Thus new, thus different from the Mosaic, is the covenant of Jesus; agreeing well in this particular with that which is described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Another circumstance of the covenant foretold by these prophets was, that it should be universal, comprehending all

the nations of the earth. And such was the covenant of Jesus. He commanded the apostles to go into all nations, and to preach the Gospel to every creature ; with a promise of salvation to every one that should believe; and he scrupled not to tell the unbelieving Jews, "that many should come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God." A third character attributed by Jeremiah and Ezekiel to the covenant which they foretold was, that it should be everlasting. And such the covenant of Jesus, in the very nature of the thing, appears to be: it has no respect whatever, either in its requisitions or in its promises, to any peculiarities of place or time. In the Mosaic institution, we find much attention to the particular tempers and manners of the Jewish people, to the notions they had imbibed in Egypt, -to the circumstances in which they were afterwards to be placed, to the situation of the land of promise with respect to other nations, to the customs and dispositions of their neighbours. They were commanded to offer in sacrifice the animals which they had seen the Egyptians worship; that they might not adopt the same superstitious veneration for them. They were forbidden to use a particular tonsure of the hair; because a neighbouring nation used it in honour of a dead prince whom they worshipped. They were forbidden certain rites of mourning in use among the bordering people, who deified their dead. None of these local and temporary intendments are to be found in the covenant of Jesus, -no accommodations to the manners of any particular nation,—no caution against the corruptions of any particular age or place: the

whole is planned upon a comprehensive view of human nature in general, of the original and immutable relation of things, and of the perfections of the unchangeable God. The things commanded are such as ever were and ever will be good; the things forbidden, such as ever were and ever will be evil; ever good and ever evil, not from their adjuncts, their accidents, or their circumstances, which may admit of change; but intrinsically, in their own formal natures, which are permanent and invariable as the ideas of the Divine Mind, in which the forms of things originate. Thus the religious fear and love of God are every where and always good, because his power and goodness are every where active; and power in act is by its formal nature, not by accident, the object of fear; and goodness in act the object of love. For the same reason, the neglect and disregard of God are always evil. Again, the love of man is always good; because man always bears in the natural endowments of his mind somewhat of that glorious image in which he was created; and because by this resemblance man partakes of the Divine nature, to be enslaved by the appetites which are common to him with the brutes, is always evil. And since the whole of the Christian duty is reducible to these three heads, the love of God, the love of man, and the government of self, it is evident that in this part of it the Christian covenant is in its very nature calculated to be everlasting. Nor do the promises of this covenant less than its requisitions demonstrate its everlasting nature. Its promises are such as cannot be improved; for what can God promise more than everlasting life? what better reward can Omnipotence bestow than the participation of the pleasures which

are at his own right hand? Evidently, therefore, in the duties it enjoins, and in the promises it holds out, the covenant of Jesus appears in its nature to be everlasting. Another character of the covenant foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is, that it should be a law written in the hearts of God's people. And such is the Gospel; if we consider either the motives by which it operates, those of hope and love, rather than of fear and awe, or the gracious influences of the Spirit on the heart of every true believer.

Let us now briefly collect the sum of this investigation. The covenant foretold by Jeremiah and Ezekiel was to be different from the Mosaic, general, for all nations; everlasting, for all ages; a law written in the hearts of the faithful. The covenant which Jesus, as God's messenger, propounded is altogether different from the Mosaic: it is propounded, generally, to all nations; and, in the terms of it, is fitted to be everlasting, for all ages; it is a law written in the heart. Assuredly, then, Jesus of Nazareth was the Messenger of the Covenant foretold by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But it is to be observed, that during his life on earth he was only the Messenger of this covenant: it was propounded, but not established by him, during his own residence among the sons of men. The hand-writing of ordinances

remained in force till it was nailed with Jesus to his cross then the ritual law lost its meaning and obligation; but still the new covenant was not established till it was sealed by the effusion of the Holy Spirit after Christ's ascension, and the Mosaic law was formally abrogated by the solemn sentence of the apostles in the council of Jerusalem: this was the authori

tative revocation of the old and the establishment of the new covenant. You see, therefore, with what accuracy of expression the Messiah is called by the prophet the Messenger of the Covenant, and how exactly this second characteristic was verified in Jesus of Nazareth.

Having now traced in Jesus these two characters of the Lord, and the Lord's Messenger, it is not likely that any other will be wanting for since we are assured by the prophets that these two characters should meet in the Messiah, since we have no reason to believe that they ever shall meet in any other person, and since we have seen that they have met in the person of Jesus, it follows, undeniably, from the union of these two characters in his person, that Jesus was the Messiah; and of consequence, that all the other characteristics of that extraordinary personage will be found in him. The third is that of the Judge, who shall execute God's final vengeance on the wicked. This, it must be confessed, is a character which Jesus of Nazareth hath not yet assumed, otherwise than by declaring that hereafter he will assume it. His first coming was not to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. "Nevertheless, the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son; who shall come again, at the last day, in glory, to judge both the quick and dead." It must be confessed, that the prophets have so connected the judgment to be executed by the Messiah with his first appearance, that any one not acquainted with the general cast and genius of the prophetic language might not easily suspect that they speak of two advents of this great personage, separated from each other by a long interval