338 HARMONY OF ALL RELIGIOLF. following require further, that man should not only have faith or trust in general in thedivine mercy, butas itis particularly pro- mised to be manifested, by some mighty Saviour, as far as he is revealed to them, who should be the seed of the woman, or one of her offspring, and who was afterwards called the Messiah, that is, the annointcd or the Christ, and was to be expected under this character. III. The great and final blessing to be expected, under this first dispensation, as also, under the following dispensation of grace, is not immortality, or a continuance in life without dying The blessed God has determined that diseases and afflictions, mortality, anddeath, which were brought in by sinning, or by the breach of the law of innocency, should so far remain through- out all the generations of men, as to be a constant memorial of that broken law, and of the evil of sin. Since, therefore the goodmen of all ages, as well as the bad, pass through thesedis- eases, sorrows, sufferingsand death : And there is but little dis- tinction made between the righteous and the wicked in this life, by the providence of God ; it remains, that the final blessings of good menunder all the dispensations of grace, must become felicity to be enjoyed in a future world or another life : And that is the happiness of the soul in the everlasting love of God, and in the sense of his love, when the body is dead, together with some obscure hints. of the resurrection of thebody. These bles- sings were more clearly revealed by degrees, as the dispensation of grace went onward, and especially in the last dispensation, that is, christianity. But, even in these early times, God trans- lated Enoch, a most holy man, to heaven without dying, in in order to give. notice to the wórld by a visible example, that there was some future state of reward and felicity for such as walked with God. IV. The emblem or sign annexed to this dispensation, was the appointment of sacrifices tobe offered ; and it is justly infer- red from the words of Moses, that with the 'skins thereof man was clothed, since beasts were not then slain for food ; Gen. iii. 21. These sacrifices were figures of Christ, the seed or son of thewoman, the great Mediator between God and man, and the true sacrifice of atonement, by which God is reconciled, and man is secured from deserved misery, as the skins of beasts secure him from harm. This is called the Adamical dispensation of grace,which in the proposal of it belonged to all the familyof Adam, that is, to all mankind, forlie taught it to them, and ac- cordingly righteous Abel offered lus sacrifice of a lamb, with accep- tance before God ; Gen. iv. 4. This dispensation reached till Noah's flood. V. Observe, that under this first, and under all the following dispensations of the gospel or covenant of grace, as they are
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