()f the. Covtnant. ,227 .. thoufand years, from the firfi making of the . teil:a– ment, unto the death of the Tefiator, by which the Nsw-tefiament was confirmed. Now the ApoHle faith, That ,, a tefiament is of force afteJ." men are dead ; otherwife it is of no firength at all whiUl the tefiator liveth,' Heb. ix. 17·.' Was , , Chrifi's tefiament then of no force alJ that time ? yea, it \Vas of force; and that by means ofa pre-confirma– tion, being confirmed before,Gal.iii 17;The confirma– -tion of a tefiament, in the fenfe of the holy Scripture, :is ·by the death of the Tefiatgr; as the Apofile, in the forecited text, teacheth the Hebrews. And in Scrip– tun~·reckoning, there was a two-fold death of the Tefiator here : one typical, another real. In refpeB: · of the former of thefe, Chrifi was ' the Lamb fiain from the foundation of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8. hav– 'ing died typicaUy i~ the facrifice~ then offered, Gen. ·m. 21. ·and thereafter all along under the 0/d-teftament. And by that death of the Tefiator was _the pre-confirmation ·of the tefiament: fo that from the day it was firH made, it was of force, for the legatees obtaining the legacies therein bequeathed; forafmuch as it was then alfo confirmed. Wherefore the Apo– flle obferves, that, in full confifiency with th~t know11 .maxim anent tefiament$, Heb. ix. 17. above-cited, ' Neither the firfi tefiament dedicated without blood,~' Ver. 18. W'hat the Apofile means by dedication of ·the ,tefiament, will be plain, if it is confidered, that .what our Verfton of the Bible calls Dedication, is,- in the Scripture ufe ofwords fo rendred therein, nothing .~Ife but an entring on, or a firfi, or new ufing of a · pe.rfon or thing, to what they were defign'd for : in– .. fomuch that the very dedication of the tempJe, was no · more but that, as appears by comparing 2 Chron. ·v. 13. chap. vi. and.vi. 1, with 4, 5· · Wherefore, by the dedication of the Tefiament, muft be 'mean't the legatees beginning to ,claim and obtain their legacies, upon the tefiam~nt. And this, the ,c\pofile faith, was P· 3· n'ot
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