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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
dispensation
of
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 which
was
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
of
sin,
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
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