mount to which those who believe in Christ are come : " they are come to Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," a place not visible to mortal eyes, nor like to any place which mortal hands have formed : it is a place formed by Almighty God for his own immediate resi- dence, and for the fullest manifestations of his glory.]
2. To a nobler society —
[Angels indeed were present at the giving of the law: but the Jews had no communion with them : they were only God's agents for augmenting the terror of the scene''. Their whole tribes too were there convened : but it was only that they might all be filled with the same dread of God's wrath, and be made to unite in that urgent request, that God would speak to them no more by an audible voice, but only through Moses as a mediator^. But those who believe in Christ are come to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." Yes, the glorified saints and angels all belong to the same blessed assembly to which believers are now called : and " God, even as a Judge," is no longer to them an object of dread, because they know that he at the same time is their Father: and they have "Jesus as their Mediator" with him; and " the new covenant" as the rule according to which they shall be dealt with by him. Here all is no longer fear and terror, but peace and joy.]
3. To far more exalted privileges —
[Moses, the morning after the giving of the law, offered burnt-offerings ; with the blood of which he sprinkled both the book of the covenant which had been made with the people, and the people themselves, saying, " Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words s." But what did this covenant avail them? The very blood with which it was ratified served only to testify against them as violating their own engagements, and making void every promise contained in it. But the blood of sprink- ling to which the Christian is come, effectually removes from him all his sin, and prevails for his perfect reconciliation with God. The blood which Abel offered in sacrifice, received a visible and most honourable token of God's acceptance of it'': but, however blessed that external testimony was, it was not worthy to be compared with that internal " witness of the
e Acts vii. 53. with Ps. Ixviii. 17. *■ Deut. v. 22 — 28.
s Exod. xxiv. 4 — 8. '' Heb. xi. i.