:354 HARMONY OF ALL RELIGIONS. saints were pardoned, justified, and accepted of God, unto eter- nal life. And indeed this covenant of grace, or gospel of salvation, through faith'in the mercy of God by a Mediator, with all the benefits thereof, viz. pardon, justification, adoption, sanctifica- tion and heavenly glory, was included therein, was witnessed by the law and prophets, and was typified by many shadows and figures of the Mosaic dispensation. See Rom. iii. 21. and. iv. 5 -7. and Heb. iv. 2. To them was the gospel preached, as well as unto us, as the words should be translated : Even that same gospel, which was preached to Abraham ; Gal. iii. 8. That gospel, which was the blessing ofAbraham, containing the promise of the Spirit, to be received by faith ; Gal. iii. 14. as well as the hope of righteousness. See this made further evi- dent by St. Paul, explaining the types ofthat dispensation ; -Hob. chapters ix. x. X. It Maybe objected here, indeed, that the Jewish dispen- sation could never include in it the covenant of grace, because Paul the apostle, and Jeremy the prophet, both say, concerning the gospel, Behold thedays come, when I will make a new cove- nant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, when I led them out ofthe land ofEgypt: But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, in thosedays saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: For I will be merciful to their unrighteonsness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remem- ber no more; lieb. viii. 8-12. by ,which it seems evident, that the first or old Jewish covenant, did not promise sanctificationof the heart, and pardon of sin, which are promised in the new covenant, or the gospel of Christ. To this I answer, that the Jewishcovenant of Sinai, taken alone by itself was, as I have saidbefore, a temporal covenant, or law of works, and an emblem of the original covenant of works, and did not include spiritual and eternal blessings, viz. pardon, of sin and sanctification of heart : and yet it was upon this Sinai covenant, that the carnal Jewsdepended, and would depend for these blessings, or for acceptance before God. But the whole Jewish dispensation taken altogether, did include these spiritual and eternal blessings in it, and they were bestowed in souse measure on all the Jewish saints, though they were mingled with many darknesses, and left the people under great fears of death, and many doubts and much bondage of soul ; as lleb. ii. 15. and x. 1 -3. Gal. iv. 24. But in, the days of chris- tianity; and the proposal of the gospel to the Jews, these better promises of pardon and sançtification are much more numerous, more clear and explicit, and led sinful men more directly into this
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