obey him For otherwise those Scriptures and these would be inâ—onsistent For if men cannot be pardoned nor delivered from the curse nor be safe from destruction until they have repented are regenerate do love Christ and obey the Gospel as the forecited Scriptures do assure us they cannot then no Faith whatsoever is justifying or can entitle them to Pardon and Salvation acording to the Tenour of God's Promise until it hath produced that Repentance Regeneration Love and Obedience Which is a full and an undenyable proof of the necessity of such a consent of the Will as aforesaid to render Faith justifying and saving Now this consent and resolutionof the Will to repent and obey Christ and to forsake all for him is the Moral change of the Soul and the new life in its first beginning And so a mans first effectual Belief is his whole Christian life in its beginning And a mans first Faith is perfected afterwards by Works Iam. 2. 22. as a Child is perfected in his manly state as he grows up to manly actions or as the Seed is perfected when it grows to a full Ear. By this first consent of the Will we restipulate and strike Covenant with God and not only so but we thereby begin also to keep and perform Covenant with him on our part When this consent is first wrought in the Will then the Laws of the new Covenant are first put into the mind and written in the heart And by this we first begin to become savingly a people unto God to believe in him to love and serve him as he by Covenant and Promise becomes a God unto us to make us happy Heb. 8. 10. This is the Convenant that I will make I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people 3. The other act of the Soul which I call the act of the Understanding of the Will conjunct is an affiance in God through Christ a trusting in him or a relying on him for the fulfilling of his Promise of saving Benefits while we continue sincerely to consent resolve and endeavour to perform the Condition on our part This is that or part of that which is called a believing on God a believing on Christ and a trusting in him Noting the Souls dependence upon Christ â—or the saving benefits which accrue to Men by his Mediation Office and Undertaking and on the Truth and Faithfulness Power Wisdom and Goodness of God to perform all that he hath promised them through his Son and upon the terms he hath promised and not otherwise For the Promise of saving Benefits being made but upon the Condition before mentioned a true Believer or he that is rational wise considers as well upon what terms the benefits are promised as who hath promised them and what they are and expects the one no otherwise than as he sincerely resolves and endeavours to perform the other And therefore if any shall rely on God and Christ for those benefits in whom yet the qualifying condition of the Promise of them is not found Such a relyance is but a groundless presumption and not Faith or Affiance duly so called For such do not only rely on Christ for that for which they have no Promise but for that which God hath expresly declared they shall have no share in whilst they remain destitute of that qualification which is the Condition upon which and not without it the promise of those benefites is made These three acts of the Soul exercised on their Objects do make up that Faith which is justifying and saving And when justifying Faith in the compleat nature of it is spoken of in Scripture all these three acts of the Soul are to be understood and especially the two first though perhaps they are many times mentioned severally and apart Faith being described sometimes by one of them and sometimes by another As God himself is represented to us sometimes by one Attribute sometimes by another II. Wherein the Defect lyes of that Faith which is not saving By what hath been discoursed touching the nature of that Faith which is saving it is easie to disâ—ern wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not so And the defect lyes chiefly in the Will in its not consenting to perform the condition of the Promise in repenting and in receiving Christ as Lord to be governed by his Laws I will not deny but the defect in part may be in the Understanding when its assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is so weak as that it can make but a too weak and â—aint impression upon the Will to procure its consent unto the Condition of the Promise But then that defect in the assent of the Understanding doth usually at least in great part proceed from the Will as I shall shew afterwards Now that the defect lyes mainly in the Will 's not consenting to the Condition of the Promise appears by this because unregenerate men may assent unto the truth of God's Testimony and may trust that they shall be saved by Christ which contain the other two acts of the Soul but no man truly consents to perform the Condition of the Promise but in doing so he is regenerate in the first Act and justified 1. Unregenerate men may have the same Faith of assent in the Understanding to a degree as the regenerate may They may believe God to be the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ to be his only Son and the rest of the Articles of the Creed and they may believe in great part that to be their duty both towards God and Man which is so indeed and yet hold that truth in unrighteousness which they do believe Rom. 1. 18. Many of the chief Rulers believed on Christ who yet loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God and durst not confess him Joh. 12. 42 43. As also did many others when they saw his Miracles who yet were such as Christ had no mind to commit himself to Ioh. 2. 23 24. And Simon Maguâ— believed wondering and being astonished at the signes which were done by Philip who yet remained in the bond of iniquity Acts 8. Such as are resembled by the stony ground believed who yet loved their ease and worldly interest more than Christ And those that St. Iames expostulates with Chap. 2. were thus far believers also 2. Excepting the consent of the Will to the Condition of the Promise unregenerate Men may hope to be saved by Christ and rely on him for Salvation as well as the Regenerate Only for want of their performing the Condition of the Promise their hopes and confidence are groundless and will deceive them But otherwise men that are but carnal and live in some known sin may and oftimes do perswade themselves that they shall be saved by Christ Jesus because they believe that he dyed for sinners and
unto thy Fathers to give thee Deut. 11. 21. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children as the days of Heaven upon Earth A great variety of outward blessings is promised as the reward of keeping that Covenant And therefore Wisdom under that Dispensation is described as having length of days in her right hand and in her left haâ—d Riches and Honour whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace Prov. 3. 17. And as this Covenant was National so there were Promises of National Blessings such as was the setting them on high above all the Nations of the Earth making them the Head and not the Tail The giving them victory over â—nemies multiplying the Nation and bestowing on it Health Peace and Plenty Deut. 28. Lev. 26. When it 's said once by Moses thrice by Ezekiel and twice by St. Paul that the Man that doth them shall live in them Lev. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11 13 21. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. thereby Epitomizing the first Covenant I conceive that by living is meant a long and prosperous life in this World As on the contrary the condition of one greatly afflicted is in Scripture-Dialect a kind of Death and such an one said to be free among the Dead Psal. 88. 5. And that which inclines me so to think is not only the Reasons already given to prove that no other life was promised in the first Covenant but also the congruity of this sense with other passages in the Writings of Moses As Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evil. If you would know what is meant by Life here the next verse will inform you That thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the Land whither thou goest to possess it The contrary whereunto is the death he had set before them saying I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish and that ye shall not prolong your dayes upon the Land c. Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present reward a reward which was received even while the work was doing according to that Psal. 19. 11. In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20. 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Nation But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they dâ—spised my Iudgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would pour out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I would have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the reward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the second St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Gal. 4. 24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the children of Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave gifts in present and sent them away as in Gen. 25. 5. and those that adhered to the second by the Son of the Free-woman Isaac who was Abrahams Heir to whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoption of Sons as the Priviledge of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4. 7. And what are they adopted to but to an Inheritance for the future for by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ an Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an Inheritance Incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 4. And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the resurrection Rom. 8. 23. Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for thâ—m hereafter in another world when they shall come to age But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their obedience by the expectation of present reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from pardon Heb. 10. 28. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the Condition In other Cases that with confession of Sin was the Condition And in some other Cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the Condition And afflicting of the Soul as well a the Sacrifice for Atonement on the day of general Expiation was always a Condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 16 and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the Condition of the Promises of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects of them was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Unclean Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did not free the Conscience from all Obligation to Eternal punishment but only freed the
it be a grievous torment to the corrupt nature of Men in another morld to retain their lusts and the violent cravings of them and yet to be without all hope of having wherewith to satisfie them which yet is like to be the condition of men in Hell Here mens unnatural lusts are not such a torment to them because they can make provision to satisfie them or live in hopes so to do and in the mean while drown the noise of them by diversion But in Hell it will be quite otherwise And therefore its easie to imagine that the torment which will arise from the corruption of mens natures there will be unspeakably great besides the piercing sence of the happiness they have lost and the other intollerable pains which they must indure and therefore as whoever hath not his nature renewed in this World is never like to have it renewed in another so without renewing of it it is impossible he should be happy there Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. That is he cannot enjoy it and why It is not only from Gods Decree or established Law to the contrary that he cannot but also from the utter incapacity of his Nature as corrupt Wherefore all the Vessels of Mercy are such as God aforehand prepares unto glory Rom. 9. 23. They are such as are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. Such as God hath wrought for the self same thing 2. Cor. 5. 5. So that as I said there is a necessity in the nature of the thing that if God would design the Restoration of the Nature of Man to happiness that in order thereto he should design a Restoration of it to holiness as indeed he hath He hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. And therefore the end of Christs great undertaking for the Redemption and Restauration of Man is described by his saving his people from their sins By his redeeming them from all â—niquity and purifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works By his washing and sanctifying of them that he might present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing That this was the design of Gods promise to Abraham appears in that at the very first it was propounded to him by way of Motive to quit the Idolatry of his Fathers and the evil customes of his Countrey for they served other Gods Iosh. 24. 2. Get thee out of thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house and I will make of thee a great Nation and thou shalt be a blessing and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12. 1 2 3. In which God had a farther design than to reform Abraham only His design in him and by him was to set on foot the Reformation of the World and the recovering the Nations thereof from the dregs of Idolatry into which they were sunk And therefore God said unto him Thou shalt be a blessing And this he designed not only in giving him a numerous Issue and making them a great Nation whose Education in the worship of the true God was founded in Abraham but also in making both him and them eminent examples of his special favour in the â—ight of the Nations by which they might see how much better it was to serve the God of Abraham than the Gods of the Nations And thereby to invite and draw them from their Idolatry Superstition and Ungodliness to worship and serve the true God And God in promising to Abraham both the Messias in his Seed and also that he would bless them that should bless him and curse them that should curse him and that his Seed should possess the gate of his enemies had it should seem this in design viz. to encourage and quicken them to a holy life Luke 1. 72 73 74 75. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant The Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life But besides all this considering that the Promise made to Abraham was the New Covenant as it was then exhibited as I have shewed before the benefits therein promised had a proper tendency in them to restore Man again to a likeness to God in the Moral perfections of his Nature For the great and precious Promises contained in the New Covenant as such are given for this very end that by them we might be partakers of a Divine Nature the glory whereof is knowledge purity and charity 2 Pet. 1. 4. And for God by such promises to make overtures unto Man of love and good-will and of desires of reconciliation is the direct way and method of recovering faln Man from a state of enmity against God to a mind reconciled to him to think well of him to love him and delight in him For we love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4. 19. And God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself and how by not imputing their trespasses to them but being willing upon their repentance and returning to their duty to forgive them 2 Cor. 5. 19. God useth the same way of overcoming mans enmity against him which he hath taught us to use to overcome mans enmity against us and that is by overcoming their evil with our good Rom. 12. 21. David dealing so with Saul though a bitter enemy melted him into tears and made him cry Is this thy voice my son David 1 Sam. 24. 16. And to whom much is forgiven the same person loveth much Luke 7. 42 47. And if God by these methods do once recover Mans love to him he will quickly recover him to his loyalty and duty of which Love is the proper Source and Spring If a man love me he will keep my words Joh. 14. 23. Now that God's promise to Abraham did contain expressions of wonderful grace and love and consequently what is most apt to beget in Man a love to God again and all the desirable effects of it will appear if we consider the special benefits comprehended in that Promise Which is the third thing now to be considered Sect. 3. The special benefits contained in the Promise made to Abraham were such as these 1. It contained a Promise of the Messias a promise of sending Christ into the world and that he should come of his Seed In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12. 3. and 18. 18. and 22. 18. which Seed is Christ as is said Gal. 3. 16. And in this promise of sending Christ were implyed the things he was sent for the things by which he should bless the world as his Death and Resurrection
and what else pertained to his Mediatory Office because these are the things by which the Nations of the Earth became blessed in him which was the thing expresly promised That such things were implyed in the promise appears not only by the reason of the thing but also from St. Paul's testimony Acts 13. 32 33. We declare unto you glad tidings how that the Promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Iesus again I do not say that Abraham from a Promise that was but so generally expressed as that was could apprehend in particular what the Messias should both do and suffer though they were wrapt up in it He apprehended so much by it in general that God would send the Messias into the World and that he would send him upon such terms as that his coming should be matter of great benefit to the world Abraham had such a prospect of this though at that distance as made him rejoyce and be glad So saith our Saviour himself Iohn 8. 56. Your Father Abraham rojoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad And the promise to Abraham as it was a Promise of sending Christ to be the Saviour of the world was expressive of the greatest love For in this was the love of God manifested towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4. 9 10. A Propitiation for our sins That is one that by his Death hath procured favour having taken off that sore displeasure which God by his Law had declared against all the transgressors of it For the wise and just God did not think the righteousness of his Government and the honour and reputation of his Law would be sufficiently salved and his great hatred of sin sufficiently manifested without some considerable satisfaction given for the dishonour done to Him and his Law by Mans transgression And yet that this might not be exacted at the hands of the guilty in executing the curse of the Law on them themselves he was most graciously pleased to accept of the sufferings of his own dear Son instead of what the sinners themselves were to have undergone He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. Christ suffered for sins the Iust for the unjust or in their stead 1 Pet. 3. 18. Upon account of which undertaking of Christ for us all the benefits of the Covenant do accrue to Man What ever is required of Man by way of condition of his acceptation with God becomes accepted to that end upon account of Christ's suffering And His Intercession in Heaven through which all our sincere though otherwise imperfect performances become acceptable to God and rewardable by him is made in the virtue of it For the whole Covenant it self is founded in the Blood of Christ which he shed for the remission of sins Therefore it is called the New Testament in his Blood Mat. 26. 28. And his blood the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Hebr. 13. 20. 2. It contained a Promise of Iustification or remission of sin through Christ unto all that should so believe as thereupon to repent of their former folly and become sincerely obedient for the future For that is necessarily implyed in the Promise of blessedâ—ess to the Nations in Abrahams Seed it being impossible men should be blessed without Remission of sin which consisteth in removing the curse of the Law in remitting the penalty Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered Psal. 32. 1. St. Paul acquaints us that this blessing of the New Covenant was declared to Abraham in the Promise Gal. 3. 8. The Scripture foreseeeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached the Gospel before unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Nations be blessed 3. It contained in it tacitly a Promise of Divine assistance unto men in their endeavours to fulfil the condition of the Promise For God in promising blessedness to the Nations through Abrahams Seed therein promised all that was absolutely necessary for him to vouchsafe to make them blessed and without which they could not be blessed And if so then he therein implicitly promised to assist the endeavours of men to perform the condition of the Promise without the assistance of whose grace they cannot savingly believe repent and obey And so it should seem the Old Testament-Church understood Gods subduing of sin as well as his pardoning of sin to be comprized in the Promise to Abraham Mich. 7. 19 20. He will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Thou wilt perform the truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn to our Fathers from the days of old And Christ his turning men from their iniquities which he doth accomplish by appointing them means by assisting them in the use of them to that end is part of the blessing contained in the Promise made to Abraham and was so reckoned by St. Peter Acts 3. 25 26. Ye are the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers saying unto Abraham And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed Vnto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus Christ sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquities 4. It implicitly or somewhat obscurely contained in it a Promise of eternal Life I say implicitly For I do not find that eternal Life was expresly promised to Abraham But yet that was expresly promised him from which the hope of eternal Life might well be inferred As first Blessedness through his Seed the Messias And secondly That God would be a God to him and his Seed For blessedness is a happiness that runs parallel with the duration of Man's immortal Soul And God's Promise of being a God to Abraham carried in it a Promise of a happiness worthy of God to bestow such as everlasting Life or happiness is And therefore he was not ashamed to be called their God meaning Abraham Isaac and Iacob because he had prepared for them a City meaning that in so doing he had answered that title of relation of being their God and done like himsel Heb. 11. 16. And upon these and the like Revelatioâ—s of of God's mind to him Abraham looked for a City which hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God and a heavenly Countrey Heb. 11. 10 16. If Abraham did but use his reason about these Promises as he did about reconciling God's Promise that in Isaac his Seed should be called with his command to sacrifice him Heb. 11. 17 18 19. he might discern eternal Life in them though but very obscurely in comparison of
thus God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause thy Face to shine upon us That thy way may be known on Earth thy saving health unto all Nations Psal. 67. 1 2. and concludes ver 7. that if God should so do his fear would be propagated through the World God shall bless us and all the ends of the Earth shall fear him Deut 4. 6 7 8. Keep therefore and do them for this is your Wisdom and your Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations who shall hear all these Statutes and say surely this great Nation is a Wise and an Vnderstanding people For what Nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Iudgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day To them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. They were committed in trust to them as Feoffees for the World to communicate the knowledge of God and of his Laws to the Nations to carry on further the Reformation of the World begun in their Father Abraham and which was Promised to be more compleatly effected by the Messias in that all Nations of the Earth should be blessed in him And as God's Judgements on the Iews for breaking his Laws was Admonitory to the Nations about them Deut. 29. 24 28. So his famous Deliverances wrought for them upon their Repentance for breaking his Laws made God known abroad to be a great favourer of such as repent of their worshipping and serving other Gods and such a one as could and would save deliver and bless them that turned to him to serve him only Which seems to be his meaning when he saith he will be sanctified before the Heathen when he should gather them from among the people where they were Captives and that the Heathen should know that he was the Lord Ezek. 20. 41. 36. 23. And by this means be brought them to fear worship the God of Israel Psal. 102. 13 15. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion So the Heathen shall fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth thy glory When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion they said among the Heathen The Lord hath done great things for them Psal. 126. 1 2. 6. The whole Law was given to be a Political Instrument of governing the Israelites according to that state of their minority as a peculiar Republick of which God himself was the Soveraign Legislator But of this more afterward CHAP. III. Shewing by what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved I Câ—me now to shew by what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved And doubtless what ever it was it became available to that end upon the account of what Christ was to suffer when he should come For as I shewed before that God's Covenant with Abraham and his Seed by virtue of which the faithful then were saved was confirmed in Christ was established with them in reference to what he was to do and suffer as Mediatour afterwards Gal. 3. 17. And by means of his death there was Redemption for the transgressions that were under the first Testament Heb. 9. 15. And the Sacrifices and Priesthood were a Figure for the time then present of what Christ should afterwards do and suffer and for what end But when I say so I do not say that all that were saved did understand so much For we see the Apostles of Christ though they did believe him to be the Messias which the Iews expected yet they did not understand or expect that he should suffer death as a Sacrifice till he told them so Nay the thing was so far from their thoughts as that they did not understand him when he plainly foretold them of his death Luke 18. 32. And if the Doctrine touching the resemblance that is between the Priesthood of Melchizedech and the Priesthood of Christ was not in the Apostles sense Meat which Babes in Christanity could well digest in their understandings but was Meat for strong Men Heb. 5. 10. 14. we may well guess by that how little the Iews understood the Typical and Spiritual sense of those Types about which they were frequently conversant and wherefore it 's said that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than Iohn the Baptist though he was so great that there was none greater before him Hence we may see that one Reason why those Iews were all their life time under a spirit of bondage to fear was the great Obscurity of the Declaration of God's purpose of Grace to the World through Christ and the Way and Method of Salvation by him Moses was but a servant for a Testimony of those things which were after to be spoken and so declared afterwards as that the Typical meaning of them might be understood Heb. 3. 5. In the mean while as touching those things they were shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed Gal. 3. 23. It is said of the Prophets whereof Moses was one that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us by them that have preached the Gospel to us 1 Pet. 1. 12. Add we to all this Heb. 9. 8. where having spoken in ver 7. of the High Priests entering alone into the Holy of Holiâ—s with the blood of the Sacrifice in behalf of the people once every year he saith The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet standing By the Holiest of all here is meant Heaven signified of Old by the Holy of Holies as appears ver 12 24. And the plain meaning seems to be this That the peoples entring into Heaven by the Sacrifice and Blood and Intercession of Christ was not made manifest while the Tabernacle-Worship continued For Christ is our way into Heaven to the place within the Vail by his Blood shed as a Sacrifice Heb. 10. 19 20. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us thâ—ough the Vail that is to say his flesh But this way he tells us was not made manifest while the first Tabernacle was standing But as obscure as this way was as to what was to be done and suffered in particular by the Messias yet they had some general Grounds of Faith and Hope that upon their Faith Repentance and sedulous endeavours to walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord they should obtain remission of their sins and a future happiness in another World Among which Grounds these were not the least 1. They had the knowledge of the Promise of Blessedness to all Nations in Abrahams Seed and of the Promise of those