They are of the World: therefore Speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. P. 397, 425 SERM. 1 But without Faith it is impossible to please God. B EFORE I come to the Words themselves, in order to our better understanding of them, we will take into confideration the Design of this Epistle, that so we may fee more clearly the relation that these Words have to the foregoing Difcourse. Who the Penman of this Epistle was I shall not tell you, because I do not Volume know, nor is it much material to know XII. it; but whoever wrote it, he had this very good Design in the writing of it, to perfwade the Jews to hold fast the Profeffion of the Gospel, notwithstanding all the Sufferings and Perfecutions it exposed them to. And to this purpose he shews at large, what Prerogatives the Gofpel hath above the legal Administration. The Law was given by the disposition of Angels, in the hand of a Mediator, that is, Mofes: but the Gofpel is revealed to us by the Son of God; a Person, not only above Mofes, who was a meer man; but above Angels. The Go• spel is the substance and reality of the Types and Ceremonies, and the very good things themselves, that were obscurely represented by those Shadows. It is a Testament establisht upon better Promises, the clear Promises of eter nal Life, which were but darkly revealed in the Old Testament, that being establish'd either folely or principally upon temporal Promises: and it is a perfect and compleat Difpenfation, that hath in it all things requi fite to attain its end, and therefore shall : |