356 HARMONY-OF ALL RELIGIONS. contained in Moses', writings, if we can but learn to distinguish them, andnot confoundthem. XIV. Nor indeed can I think of any other way, to account for this conduct of St. Paul, in citing so frequently the law of Moses in dif isrent parts of it, both to prove the universal con- demnation of.all mankind, both Jew and Gentile, by the law of innocence or covenant of works, and also to prove our justifica- cion by faith, through the grace of the gospel. This is the only clue, that I can find to lead me into the sense and meaning of the apostle in such texts, and the only method that I knowof, to reconcile the reasoningof that great and holy writer, in the account he gives us -of the Jewish and christian dispensations. But I now proceed. CHAP. VII. Of the Christian Dispensation. I. Notwithstanding God had done so much before in several ages, towards the salvation and recovery of mankind, from the ruins of their fall, and had set up his church in the Jewish nation, to maintain the light of true religion there, within sight of the Gentile kingdoms round about, yet the Gentiles multi- plied their iniquities and idolatries, and the Jews turned almost alltheir religion into superstition and empty formalities, so that true vital gödliness and morality were in a groat measure lost out of the world. Therefore the blessed God saw it a proper season to put an end to this dispensation of Moses or Judaism, and to bring in the last and best of all the dispensations, and that is christianity, which is revealed to us in the New Testa- ment : This is the last edition of the covenant of grace, and is eminently called the gospel. Herein we have manyplainer dis- coveries of the transactions of God with men, even from the creation ; we have much clearer notices of our duty, and many richer promises of divine grace, than ever we had before, with greater assistances and encouragements to repentance, faith, and holiness. H. All this comes by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the promised seedof the woman, the Messiah, . &e. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ ; John i. 17. Jesus, who was theSon of God, before all worlds, theappointed Mediator of the new covenant, foretold by Moses, and by the prophets, is now actually come down from heaven, and dwelt with men. In his incarnation, his poverty, his -preaching, his holy life, his many miracles, his obedience and death, in his-sa- crifice of atonement, his burial and his resurrection from the . dead, in his ascension to heaven, his intercession and exaltation to the kingdom, he fulfils the various offices of his mediation, which the ancient prophets foretold, and which the apostles have described, and explained to us, viz. that he was a teacher
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