baptism and crucifixion of the promised Messiah; which were then proved to have respectively taken place, in the 27th and 34th years of the Christian era. The paramount circumstance, by which, as the prophet discloses, it would be distinguished, was "the strengthening of the Covenant with the multitude,” while" in the midst of it the sacrifice and oblation should cease." And the opposition which is thus marked, and which we shall soon see, was precisely fulfilled, leaves us at no loss to decide, that the federal compact, to which the prediction specifically applies, is that "New and better Covenant, which was established upon better promises ;"* the terms of which were proposed, and its ratification effected, within the seven years, which had been fixed with so much precision.

That of it alone, the prediction of the text can be understood, the entire tenor of the prophecy compels us to acknowledge. It directs our attention to that expected time, of which the prophets had severally foretold; which was "to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." This great consummation, they had disclosed with one voice, was not to be looked for under an old and waning, but a new and everlasting Covenant. "Behold the days come,

* Heb. x. 16.

+ Dan. ix. 24.

saith the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah... This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.”* for sin.”* The allusion, therefore, of the prophet, in the text, admits not of dispute. In declaring," that the oblation and sacrifice should cease," he places it beyond controversion, that he intended the accomplishment of the prediction should be sought, not in the old, but the new dispensation. The abolition of those rites was not more consistent with the spirit of the Christian Covenant; than it was incompatible with the nature of the Mosaical. For sacrifice was the federal rite, under which the obligations of the latter were formally contracted;

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gather my saints together," as the royal prophet has stated the compact, “who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." A palpable contradiction is therefore implied in the supposition, that this could be the Covenant which should be "confirmed and strengthened," when the cessation of "the oblation and sacrifice" was projected, by which their very existence was affected.

* Heb. x. 16. seq. comp. Jer. xxxi. 3. seq.

+ Ps. 1. 5.

The Covenant to which the prophet alludes being so far determined; and the period of its confirmation defined, within the limits of the seven years, marked out by our Lord's baptism and crucifixion; no difficulty remains in proving, that within this period, which comprised the ministry of Christ, it was solemnly promulgated and ratified. The difference between the Testaments, mediated by Moses and Jesus, has been just noticed. The new was to consist of a law, which, as contradistinguished from the sacrificial and ritual observances of the old, was to be inculcated on the mind and impressed on the heart. By no characters does the Gospel dispensation, as contrasted with the Levitical appear to have been so plainly and permanently distinguished. To this purpose, the divine teacher, who spake as never man spake,"* uniformly addressed himself. It was his unwearied endeavour to wean them, in practice, from a ceremonial and hypocritical service, and to elevate their thoughts to the worship of God," in spirit and in truth."† He ever instructed them, that in his Father's sight" oblation and sacrifice" were of no avail ; that the offering of the lips, where the heart was estranged, was vain and abominable. What God required from his votarists, he ever taught them, was justice, mercy and humility; and that

* John, vii. 46.

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+ Ibid. iv. 23, 24.

he would hold them accountable, not merely for their words and works, but answerable, before his tribunal for their intentions and inclinations And the internal spiritual character, which the Covenant thus assumed, it preserved for the exact period which had been prescribed. As its promulgation commenced with the ministry of the Baptist, its ratification, directly followed up with its plenary administration, was accomplished in the sacrifice offered by the Redeemer. Within the limits of the seven years, which thus witnessed the dispensation of grace and truth,* under the Mediator of the New Covenant, previously to his assumption in glory; it is expressly comprised by those inspired persons, who wrote with no view to the verification of the prediction in which it had been defined; but merely to transmit a plain unembellished narrative of what they had heard and seen: as the appointed "witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem." The exact time, from whence its commencement was to be dated, is thus expressly fixed by them, in recording his declarations ;-that "the law and the prophets were until John, since that time the kingdom of God was preached and all men pressed into it." As they have equally fixed the time, in relating the circumstances, of its

* John, i. 17.

+ Acts, x. 39.

↑ Luke, xvi. 16.

close, while they assure us, on the same authority, that "this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."*

II. It seems to have alone consisted with the divine intentions, in accomplishing the great purpose, which was thus limited in the time of its occurrence; that it should be effected in the ordinary course of divine providence. For this purpose, it became expedient, that instruments should be employed in its accomplishment, to whom, it would seem to our short-sighted views, it might be least safely entrusted. The prejudices of the Jews to the valueless part of the old Covenant, the abolition of which was now decreed, had become so deeply seated, that the strong arm of authority was, in the first place, necessary to withdraw the motives of their attachment; and, in the last, when the measure of their transgression was filled up, to preclude the possibility of their recurrence. So deeply had the root spread its ramifications, that to prevent its reproduction, it became necessary to extirpate the last fibre. In furtherance of these objects, as it was mercifully contrived, that, at

* Heb. x. 12, 13, 14.