of the scripture, he pleased God*; draws an inference in favour of Enoch's faith, because without faith it is impossible to please him†. This general principle of faith, while it reconciles and unites the religion of both Testaments, serves to detect every false religion that has been or can be invented; because in such there can be no faith properly so called; in as much as it will either have false objects, or none at all.

In the religion of the Gentiles, there was a sort of faith, but it was chiefly directed to objects fabulous and false. The Mythology (by which I mean the religious mysteries) of the Greeks, gave them a traditionary account of the world's original; of its destruction by the flood; of a future paradise (called Elysium) for the virtuous; and a place of torment (called Tartarus) for the punishment of departed souls, after a formal trial and condemnation by the judges of the infernal regions; and they preserved the institution of sacrifice; thereby confessing their dependence on invisible powers for the expiation of sin. They also maintained the doctrine of man's natural blindness and impotence without the assistance and inspiration of their deities, for which they never failed to in

voke

Gen. v. 22, and Ecclus. xliv. 16. + Chap. xi. 6.

voke them in their compositions and great undertakings. Modern times have been refining upon the reformation, till by degrees they have conceived and brought forth a sort of philosophical religion, distinct from every thing the world had seen before; because it is a religion without faith. The scheme of our Deists, as they call themselves, has nothing in it of things past; no fact or tradition to ground itself upon: it has no sacraments, nor services of any kind, to keep up an intercourse with heaven; it expects no predicted judgment, and has no particular view of any thing after this life. Thus having no objects of faith, it teaches no dependence, which alone renders the most just man acceptable to God. It actually inculcates independence, and glories in it: it has neither church nor sacraments, nor religious worship, nor allegiance, nor submission to God or man; and therefore, it comes more nearly up to the wishes of the Devil, the great author and first father of independence, than any religion ever professed in the world before. If dependence upon God be the characteristic of a religious man, then it must be better to believe the labours of Hercules, the future judgment of Rhadamanthus, and to do sacrifice to Jupiter, than to be of this persuasion; because the worst religion,

4

religion, professed in natural ignorance and sincerity, must be preferable to that proud and incorrigible ignorance, which wilfully rejects all the religion in the world.

From the two general reasons I have now given you, it appears, that the law and the gospel are the same religion under different forms: for they have the same name, and are distinguished by the same character; that is, by the great principle of faith, which is essential to both. To these two general reasons, I shall now subject as many particular ones as are necessary, from the Epistle under our consideration; in all of which it is required of me to shew, that as the principle of faith is common to both Testaments, so the articles of faith were in general the same.

1. We have seen already, that the Son of God had been revealed to the Hebrews as the Creator of the world, and sitting at the right hand of God, in certain passages, of which the worst of the Jews did not dispute the application; and with all this, that he should yet be partaker of flesh and blood*, and in all things made like unto his brethren; as Moses had before declared in the law; the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst

* Chap. ii. 14.

midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me So particular is this prophecy, that it is twice given in the book of Deuteronomy, and twice reasoned from in the Acts of the Apostles, first by St. Peter, and afterwards by St. Stephen, in their discourses to the Jews t.

2. The necessity of mediation with God on the behalf of man, was signified by the priesthood of the law; to teach the people, that prayer could not be heard, nor sin pardoned, without a priest to intercede, and blood to expiate. But then, that this was only a figurative priesthood, a figurative intercession, a figurative atonement, serving for a time, to describe what should come after, and supersede the descriptive services of the law; the apostle here proves from the Old Testament itself, where a prophet pronounces them insufficient: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure-Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second: that is, he taketh away the services of the law, that he may bring in Christ to do the will of God. In the volume of the book it had been written of him; for the book of the law spoke this language in

*Deut. chap. xviii. 15. 18.

every

+ Acts iii. 22. and vii. 37.

Chap. x. 6. 9.

every part of it, that Christ should come to do the will of God for our sanctification.

3. The law shewed moreover, how this should be effected: for it was dedicated with blood, and its precepts and promises were called a Testament, that is, a Will, such as is made and witnessed amongst men for the conveying and settling an inheritance in a lawful way. Hence it followed, that no service could be accepted without the offering of blood; and that the death of the testator should intervene, before the promises of God could descend to his children. So argues the apostle*: for this cause 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 (and could not be purged away by the blood of animals) they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead -whereupon, neither the first Testament was dedicated without blood.

4. It was also foretold, that there should be a new covenant †; not such as was made with the fathers when they were brought out of Egypt,

* Chap. ix. 15.

+ Chap. viii, 8 &c.