They are of the World: therefore Speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. P. 397, 425. SERM. [1] SERMON I. Of the Nature of FAITH in general. The first Sermon on this Text. HEB. XI. 6. 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 Epiftle, that so we may fee more clearly the relation that these Words have to the foregoing Discourse. Who the Penman of this Epiftle was B I Sermon 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 faft 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 Gospel is revealed to us by the Son of God; a Person, not only above Mofes, who was a meer man; but above Angels. The Gofpel is the fubftance 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 eternal Life, which were but darkly revealed in the Old Testament, that being establish'd either folely or pring cipally upon temporal Promises: and it is a perfect and compleat Difpensation, that hath in it all things requi fite to attain its end, and therefore shall : ! i |