Hebrews 8:6

Heb. 8:6. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

In response to Edwards' Qualifications for Full Communion, the Rev. Solomon Williams published a refutation, The True State of the Question concerning the Qualifications Necessary to Lawful Communion in the Christian Sacraments to which Edwards responded with Misrepresentations Corrected, and Truth Vindicated (1752). Williams had maintained that moral sincerity alone qualified for admission to the Lord's Supper. Edwards answered using our text as part of his response:

I. There is no such thing as moral sincerity, in the covenant of grace, distinct from gracious sincerity. If any sincerity at all be requisite in order to a title to the seals of the covenant of grace, doubtless it is the sincerity which belongs to that covenant; and that is a gracious sincerity: the covenant of grace has nothing to do with any other sincerity. There is but one sort of faith belonging to that covenant; and this is saving faith in Jesus Christ, called in Scripture unfeigned faith. As for the faith of devils, it is not the faith of the covenant of grace.

Here the distinction of an internal, and external covenant, will not help at all; as long as the covenant, of which the sacraments are seals, is a covenant of salvation, or a covenant proposing terms of eternal salvation. The sacraments are seals of such a covenant: they are seals of the New Testament in Christ's blood, Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:28, a testament which has better promises than the old, Hebrews 8:6, and which the apostle tells us, "makes us heirs of the eternal inheritance," Hebrews 9:15. Mr. Williams himself speaks of the covenant sealed in baptism, as, "the covenant proposing terms of salvation," p. 23. So he speaks of the covenant entered into by a visible people, as the covenant "in which God offers everlasting happiness," p. 24, 25. But there is no other religion, no other sincerity, belonging to this covenant of salvation, but that which accompanies salvation, or is saving religion and sincerity. As it is written, Psalms 51:6, "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts."

Heb. 8:7