SEEN. iii.) THE CHRI STIAN DISPENSATION. 3/ revealed to Moses, and by him to the nation of Israel, in the wilderness of Sinai. This was called the Levitical or Mosaical or the Jewish, dispensation. Heb. iv. Q. " The gospel was preached to them as well as unto us." And here the law and will of God were more explicitly set before them, and their encouragements to repentance, and hope in divine mercy for eternal life grew greater, by the many discoveries of grace they enjoyed, and by the dwelling of God among them upon the mercy-seat. Here also there were a multitude of emblems or signs and pledges, both of the blessings of God and the duties of man, which are usually called the Jewish ceremonies. But it must be observed, that in this dispensationof Moses, there were very many precepts and promises of a carnal and temporal kind superadded to the gospel of grace, which precepts and promises together with the ten commands considered apart from the gospel, made up that Sinai-covenant, which was really a covenant of works; it was made between God, as the political head or king of that people; and the Jews, as'his subjects; and it was by the observance of this outward covehant the Jews were to enjoy the land of Canaan, and temporal blessings therein. Let it be well considered, that this Sinai -covenant which is often called the law in scripture and which in this chapter is called the first covenant, was a distinct thing from the covenant of grace, or that gospel, which secretly ran through all the dispensations, and whichwas included in this dispensation also ; that gospel which in some clear expressions, and many types and dark hints, was " witnessed by the law and the prophets ;" Rom. iii. 21. and by which both Abraham and David, and the pious Jews, were pardoned and saved, as St. Paul proves in Rom. iv. 10---25. The 'great apostle in his Epistles to the Romans, and Galatians, and Hebrews, is often teaching them, that . this Sinai-covenant, this law of Moses, with all the ceremonies of it, could not give them life ; Gal. iii. 21. that is, pardon ofsin, and eternal sal- vation, when it is considered as a distinct thing from the constitution or covenant of grace, which was shadowed out by it : And it is in this sense chiefly the apostle, in the verses following my text, tells them, " The first co- venant was not faultless, that is, was not sufficient to 03
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