towards God, a spirit which perpetually cries, Abba, Father, and consists in the spontaneous flow of the heart's purest and best affections towards Christ. If the mind could always be in this state, how easy it would be to avoid all sin, and perfectly to obey all the divine requisitions. This spirit, Christians often resolve to cherish. They find their resolutions, however, wholly inefficient to move the heart. To remedy the difficulty, they resort to their Bibles and to prayer, and renew their resolutions with increasing earnestness. Still the heart remains comparatively unmoved; and, whatever effect is produced by such means, very soon passes away, "like the morning cloud,"-leaving in the heart the same

aching void" as before. Now while the Christian is thus "resolving and re-resolving," and constantly sliding back to the cheerless state from which he started, while; in spite of his efforts, he is perpetually sinking deeper and deeper in the "mire and deep waters," suppose the divine Redeemer should pass along, and say to his weary and desponding disciple, "If you will at once cease from all these vain efforts, and yield yourself up to my control, relying with implicit confidence in my ability and faithfulness, I will enter into a covenant with you, that I will myself shed abroad in your heart, that "perfect love which casteth out all fear,”—that filial and affectionate spirit which you

have vainly endeavored to induce in your own mind. I will so present the truth to your apprehension, that your heart's purest and best affections shall constantly and spontaneously flow out toward me. I will secure you in a state of perfect and perpetual obedience to every command of God, and in the full and constant fruition of his presence and love. All this I will do in perfect consistency with the full, and free, and uninterrupted exercise of your own voluntary agency."

Such

a message would be to the believer, "afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted," as life from the dead. This, Christian, is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ offers to do for you, as the Mediator of the new covenant. With the Psalmist you can say, "I will run in the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart." Christ is now ready thus to enlarge your heart, that under the spontaneous flow of pure and perfect love, you may do the whole will of God. Till your faith is fastened upon Christ, as the life and light of the soul, as the "quickening spirit," who alone is able to breathe into your heart the breath of spiritual life, all your efforts after holiness will be vain.

My object in the present discourse, is to present to your contemplation and faith this new covenant, and Christ as the Mediator of this covenant. In

illustrating this subject, the attention of the reader is invited to a consideration of the following propositions :

I. The nature of the new covenant, as distinguished from the first, or the old covenant.

II. The relation of these two covenants.

III. The object of Christ in the provisions of divine grace.

IV. The conditions on which he will fulfil in us what he has promised as the Mediator of the

new covenant.

I. The nature of the new covenant, as distinguished from the first or the old covenant.

The old covenant, as was shown in a preceding discourse, is the moral law, the covenant originally made with Adam, re-announced at Mount Sinai, and which now exists between God and all unfallen spirits.

The new covenant, on the other hand, is the covenant of grace, obscurely disclosed to our first parents, in the promise, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," more distinctly unfolded in the promise to Abraham, and brought out in all its fulness in the new dispensation. As the Mediator of this covenant, Christ, as shown in the text and in a preceding discourse, promises to believers, on condition of their faith in him, the fol

lowing blessings-1. A confirmed state of pure and perfect holiness, such as is required by the moral law. 2. The full pardon of all sin, or entire justification. 3. The perpetual fruition of the divine presence and favor. 4. The consequent universal prevalence of the gospel. Such are the "riches of Christ's inheritance in the saints." Such is the "completeness of the saints in him," as the Mediator of the new covenant. We will now,

II.* Consider the relations of these two covenants. This subject was alluded to in a preceding discourse. My object now is, to present the whole subject with greater distinctness and fulness than I then could do for the want of space. I remark―

1. As then observed, the same standard of character, perfect holiness, is common to each of these

covenants.

2. In the first covenant, holiness is required of the creature. In the new covenant, the same thing is promised to the believer.

3. The condition on which the blessings promised under the first covenant are secured, is, Do and live. "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth these things shall live by them." The condition of the new

* Most of the distinctions here made between the two covenants, were suggested to my mind by my beloved associate, Rev. C. G. Finney.

covenant is, Believe and live. "Now the just shall live by faith." "But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above.) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

4. The "surety" of the first covenant is the creature himself. The "surety" of the new covenant is Christ. In other words, the salvation of a creature under the former depends upon the faithfulness of the creature himself. The salvation of a creature under the latter depends upon the faithfulness of Christ. Hence Christ is said, Heb. v. 22, to have been "made a surety of a better testament," [covenant.] In Heb. viii. 6, as the Mediator of the new covenant, Christ is also declared to be the "Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises."

5. The first covenant is adapted to the condition