does. Now our Saviour instructs us, that the covenant 3. Wherein then doth a testament, properly so called, exceed a naked covenant? There may be, and usually are, many covenants wherein there is no free donation of either party covenanting, but a mutual reddition of quid pro quo, or (as some civilians speak) ratio dati et accepti: and such a covenant, or act of commutative justice, cannot properly be conceived be261 twixt God and man, or other creature; none of which are able to give their Creator any thing which was not his own before, or which was not received from him by free gift. Every last will or testament includes or presupposeth a free donation of some goods or lands, &c. by the testator, though oftentimes upon covenant or subsequent condition of executing or performing the will or testament; otherwise the legatee or executor may forfeit his estate or interest in the goods freely bequeathed unto him. And of this nature are both the old and new testaments. Neither of them was absolute in respect of all that had interest in the blessings bequeathed; which howsoever they were most freely bequeathed, did tie such as had interest in them unto performance of such conditions, as being neglected or contemned by them might deprive them of the inheritance or blessings bequeathed. The blessings bequeathed by Moses (God's ambassador both to Pharaoh and to his people; or, as the apostle instyles him, the mediator of the old testament) were, first, the deliverance of the sons of Jacob from Egypt, secondly, the inheritance of the land of Canaan. The blessings bequeathed by the Mediator of the new testament, and ratified by his blood, were, the deliverance of mankind from the powers of darkness, and the inheritance of the kingdom of light. 4. The parallel between the institution of the passover and of the Lord's supper, or of the two inheritances bequeathed, the one by Moses, the other by Christ, is so plain, that it needs no comment. It only requires a diligent reader or hearer; or what is wanting on the ordinary hearer's part may be supplied by every ordinary catechist before the receiving of the sacramental pledges. One point yet remains more pertinent to the unfolding of our apostle's meaning, Hebrews ix. 15—And 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, 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: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth-and it is this: As the Israelites did not enter upon the inheritance, or take possession of the land of Canaan, till after Moses, the testator or mediator of the old testa our everlasting inheritance, set open to all or any believers until Christ Jesus, the testator or mediator of the new testament, was crucified, dead, buried, and raised again to immortal glory. Since which time, as is the King, so is the kingdom or inheritance bequeathedso is the testament itself, being sealed by his bloody death-all and every of them truly everlasting. CHAP. XLVIII. The Parallel between the most solemn Services of the Law and the one Sacrifice of Christ: and the high Preeminence and Efficacy of this in comparison of those. The Romanists' Doctrine, that in the Mass Christ's Body is identically carnally present, and that there is a proper Sacrifice propitiatory offered, derogates from the absolute Perfection of Christ's Offering himself once for all. 1. THE principal terms of proportion in this parallel, which serve as so many several kens or marks for the right surveying of it, are the services of the law, or the offices of legal priests, and the perpetual function of our High Priest. The services of the law, 262 wherein our apostle instanceth, are the principal and most solemn sacrifices which were injoined to the priests after the order of Aaron. The one sort whereof were anniversaries, as of bullocks and goats, and to be offered every year upon the day of atonement, and so to be offered from the first erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, so long as the law of ceremonies was de jure to continue, until our Saviour's death upon the cross: since which time all bloody sacrifices have lost their legal use. The other service was that sacrifice of the red heifer, and the consecration of water by the sprinkling or mingling her ashes; which perhaps was not anniversary, nor often put in practice from the time of Moses' death until the ascension of our Saviour into heaven. Now our apostle takes it as granted, that if these choice sacrifices of atonement, and of the red cow, were altogether unsufficient to purify the hearts and consciences, or the souls and spirits of sinful men; the ordinary or meaner sacrifices of the law were much more unsufficient to all such purposes as the sacrifice of our High Priest was all-sufficient and most efficacious for. The eminency of Christ's bloody sacrifice upon the cross (in respect of all legal sacrifices of what rank soever) consisteth, first, in the efficacy which it had and hath for remission of all sins committed against the moral law of God; that is, of all such sins as immediately pollute the reasonable soul and conscience. The least degree of such purification no legal sacrifices could immediately effect, reach, or touch. To what use then did they directly serve? or what was the proper effect unto which they were immediately terminated? That was the purification of men's bodies from mere legal uncleanness; that is, from all such negligences, ignorances, or casual occurrences, as not being expiated by the priest did exclude the parties so offending from the tabernacle of the congregation; or, as our apostle speaks, to purify them for such uncleannesses of the flesh, as did but foreshadow or picture the uncleanness of the soul, or the dead works of sin, all which, being not expiated by a more excellent priest than any was after the order of Aaron, will exclude all from entering into the heavenly tabernacle. 2. Such legal uncleanness as did exclude the parties polluted with it from the tabernacle of the congregation, was many ways contracted; as, by touching of or by not eating meats allowed of by the law according to the rule or prescript for such ceremonial services -or by the like omissions or practices which were not in their own nature or to all men sinful, but sinful in the seed of Jacob only, to whom they were evil only because forbidden, not forbidden because they were evil in their own nature. Even in regard of such shadows or typical offices for purifying men legally unclean, the best and most solemn sacrifices of the law (though offered once at least every year, and otherwise as often as daily occasions or occurrences did require) were no way so efficacious or effectual, as the one sacrifice of the Son of God, offered by himself but once for all, is for the perpetual purifying of our souls from the dead works of sin, and for our consecration to the everlasting service of the everliving God, which is that freedom indeed wherewith his only Son hath promised to set all such free as believe in his name and abide in his word, John viii. 3. The eminency of Christ's priesthood and sacrifice, above the priesthood and services of the law, is deeply wronged by the doctrine and practice of secular and regular Roman catholic priests, as they do term themselves; and so is our apostle's doctrine in the ninth and tenth chapters to the Hebrews, more pe263 remptorily contradicted by them than it was by the incredulous or unbelieving Jews in his lifetime. The western Antichrist (so, the Lutherans distinguish them) hath in this particular so far outbid the Antichrist of the east, that if ὁ ἄνομος ὁ ̓Αντίχριστος, that law-opposer, or man of sin, were to be followed close with hue-and-cry, or his footsteps to be traced for these nine hundred years, by the Christian kingdoms or states, the chase and cry would sooner fall into Rome or Trent than into Constantinople, though that, |