frame to yourself. I imagine the learned person had in his eye, Rom. v. 13. for until the law, sin was in the world. But in what manner soever this may be explained, the apostle never and no where says that I know, that the sins, for instance, committed by the inhabitants of the first world, existed, in a peculiar manner, under the economy of the Mosaic testament. And in what sense, pray, should they be said to have then existed? Because, says he, they were then imputed and charged. But to whom? Not certainly to those very persons who, dying in the faith, were received into heaven. And how imputed and exprobated by the introduction of the Mosaic testament? Seeing it was so much later than their death and salvation, it does not greatly regard those departed pious and happy persons, at least as to its rigour. I refuse not, that the Israelites were convinced of their sins by the Mosaic law, and that a remembrance of sin was made, and that all mankind was condemned in the Israelites: but that the sins of the more ancient believers were then imputed and charged, and then in a peculiar manner existed, is neither asserted in scripture, nor consonant to reason.

X. But this also deserves consideration, that he would have the apostle expressly mention the Mosaic testament, because that tended to amplify the virtue of Christ's death, as peculiarly shining forth therein; seeing it has removed all remembrance of those very sins which were often imputed and charged upon them by the law. Which does not indeed appear to me to be very pertinent to that matter. For, since the commemoration and remembrance of sins are made in the repeated offering of the same sacrifices which could not take away sins, and seeing sacrifices of that kind began to be used immediately upon the promulgation of the testament of grace; these very sins were commemorated and charged by sacrifices, before the Mosaic economy took place. But if, on the introducing the law of Moses, that exprobation or charging of sin was more frequent and strong; the promise, in the same law, was likewise more frequent and strong, as likewise the sign and seal of the remission of sins, which the Messiah was to procure. For, the same institution which commemorated sin, signified also and sealed the future expiation of it by the Messiah. If therefore, on one hand, it may seem strange, that those very sins were also expiated by Christ, which were so often commemorated and charged; on the other hand, the expiation of those sins, which was so often signified and sealed, appears less strange. But the pious meditation of the redemption purchased by Christ stands in no need of any such subtleties of idle disputation. It is sufficient to say with Paul, that the efficacy of the death of

Christ, who is the Mediator of the New Testament, is such that it has purchased for the elect, in every age, the redemption of those transgressions, which could never be expiated by any blood of bulls or goats. Our argument therefore remains in its full force, and is in vain attacked by the windings and mazes of a perplexed discourse. The transgressions under the first Testament, are sins committed from the most ancient period of the world; therefore the first Testament comprises all the ages from the first origin of the world.

XI. Moreover, in this economy of the Old Testament several periods are distinctly to be observed. For "God at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers," Heb. i. I. The first period reaches from Adam to Noah, and comprehends the whole time of the first world, in which every thing was very simple and plain. The first gospel promise was published by God, received by faith by our first parents, was inculcated on their children by incessant catechising, or instruction, sealed by sacrifices offered in faith. The death of the Messiah, the righteous one, the most beloved of God, who was to be slain by his envious brethren, was prefigured in the person of Abel, who was murdered by Cain; his ascension into heaven, with all his faithful people, was foreshewn in the type of Enoch, who also, according to Jude ver. 14. prophesied of his return to judgment with ten thousands of his saints: and in fine, the separation of the sons of God from the sons of men for the pure worship of God.

XII. The second period begins with Noah, in whom his father Lamech seems to have beheld a certain type of the Messiah, when he said, "this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands," and therefore he called his name Noah, which signifies rest, Gen. v. 29. He was a just and upright man in his generation, and a preacher of righteousness, 2 Pet. ii. 5. By him Christ preached to the spirits in prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19. He was not only heir of the righteousness of faith, Heb. xi. 7. but the head and restorer of a new world, and in that respect an eminent type of Christ. For the same purpose the ark was built by him; the sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour offered to God; God's gracious covenant, entered into with the habitable world after that sacrifice, and sealed by the rain-bow; and many other things of the like kind, full of mystical sense, which shall be explained in due time. This second period reaches down to Abraham.

XIII. To this succeeds the third period from Abraham te Moses. There were indeed very great and precious promises made to Abraham; as of the multiplying his seed, of giving that seed the land of Canaan, of the Messiah to spring from his

loins, of the inheritance of the world, and the like. The covenant of grace was solemnly confirmed with him, and sealed by the new sacrament of circumcision: and himself constituted the father of all the faithful both of his own seed according to the flesh, and of the Gentiles, Rom. iv. 12. Melchizedek, priest and king of righteousness and peace, meets him fatigued after the overthrow and pursuit of his enemies, who also blessed him, and presented to him in himself, as in an eminent type, a view of the Messiah. Hence was kindled in Abraham a desire of seeing still more clearly the day of Christ, which he both saw and rejoiced at, John viii. 56. This favour of the Supreme Being was continued to Abraham's son and grand-son, Isaac and Jacob, to whom he often made himse'? known by repeated revelations which confirmed to them the promises made to that great patriarch, and proposed them to future generations as the chiefs of his covenant. And thus the old promises of the covenant of grace were enlarged with many additions, and enriched with a fuller declaration.

XIV. But things put on a quite different aspect under the fourth period, which was introduced by the ministry of Moses. The people were delivered out of Egypt by an out-stretched arm and by tremendous prodigies. The Son of God, before all the congregation of the people, declared himself to be the king of Israel, by the solemn manner in which he gave the law from mount Sinai, amidst thunderings and lightnings. The tabernacle and the ark of the covenant with propitiatory, or the mercy-seat, the gracious residence of God, were constructed with wonderful art. An incredible number of ceremonies was added to the ancient simplicity. So many myriads of men (strange to relate) were fed with manna from heaven in the horrid and scorched deserts of Arabia for forty years, and supplied with water from the rock, which Moses struck with his rod. Whole nations were cast out before them and devoted to destruction. Israel, as the favoured inheritance of God, was introduced, after a very great destruction of their enemies, to the promised possession of Canaan; and who can pretend to enumerate all the things with which this period was ennobled above the others; of which we cannot now speak particularly, Heb. ix. 5.

XV. Seeing all the institutions of former ages were renewed under the direction of Moses, and enlarged with very many additions, and reduced to a certain form of worship, and as it were, into one body or system; and the covenant was solemnly renewed with Israel both at mount Sinai, and in the plains of Moab; therefore it is that in the sacred writings the Old Tes

tament covenant is ascribed to Moses, and to his ministry and times, Heb. viii. 9. from Jer. xxxi. 32. Not that either at that time all these things on which the Old Testament depended were first instituted, or that on no account it is to be referred to the preceding times; for the religion of both times, namely, both before and after Moses, was the same; and many rites the very same, as sacrifices, the distinction of clean and unclean beasts, circumcision, and many others: but that then the confirmation both of old and new rites was reduced into a certain form of a ritual, and that period was so distinguished by a solemn renovation of the covenant, and by many additions, that it seemed to swallow up as it were all that went before. We likewise at other times read, that something is said to be given by Moses, which was long before Moses' time. Our Lord says, John vii. 22. "Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers." God also is said, Ezek. xx. 11. to have "given Israel in the wilderness his statutes, which if a man do he shall even live in them.". Yet we could not from thence conclude, that the origin of those statutes was only to be derived from that time: seeing it is plain that they were cotemporary with man, and from the beginning made known to all believers by the teaching of the Spirit of God. This Mosaic period lasted, though under the kings David and Solomon, there was a great accession of magnificence made to the public worship, by the superb structure of the temple, and the appointment of its ministry, even to the Lord Jesus, or his forerunner John. For thus we are taught, John i. 17. " the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ;" and Luke xvi. 16. "The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached."

XVI. When the Old Testament evanished, the New succeeded; whose beginning and epocha divines do not fix in one and the same point of time. Some begin the New Testament from the birth of Christ, because of that expression of the apostle, Gal. iv. 4. in which he asserts the fulness of time was come, when God sent his Son made of a woman: to which they add, that on that very day the angels proclaimed the Gospel concerning Christ manifested, Luke ii. 10, 11. Others begin the New Testament from the year of Christ's preaching, alleging Mark i. 1. where the evangelist seems to refer the beginning of the Gospel to that year in which John and Christ began to preach, which is more clearly taught in that passage just cited from Luke xvi. 16. Others again place the beginning of the New Testament at the moment of Christ's death, upon the authority of the apostle, who says, that the New Testament

was ratified by the death of Christ the testator, Heb. ix. 17. Some in fine, on the day of Pentecost, or the effusion of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, on which the New was as it were sealed, and its law came out of Zion, Isa. ii. 3.

XVII. But all these things are easily reconciled, if we allow some latitude to that fulness of time, in which the New succeeded the Old Testament. God indeed began to prepare for the New Testament from the very birth of Christ, on which very day the Gospel of Christ exhibited, began to be preached to the shepherds; but those beginnings were very small, but were soon after more illustrious by the preaching of John proclaiming the kingdom of heaven to be at hand, Matt. iii. 2. and of Christ himself, asserting it was already come, and even among the people of the Jews, Luke xvii. 21. Yet the kingdom of heaven did not directly and all at once attain to its full state of maturity, but by slow degrees acquired strength till Christ having finished the work which the Father gave him to do, completed all by his death, and ratified the New Testament. By this death of Christ, the Old Testament was of right abrogated. Yet there was an accession of greater solemnity to the New, when after the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, upon the plentiful effusion of the Spirit on the apostles, the doctrine of salvation was proclaimed over all the habitable world, God at the same time, bearing witness by signs and wonders, and various virtues and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, the church did not enjoy the full liberty of the New Testament, till after God had rejected the people of Israel, who stiffly adhered to their ceremonies, till their temple was burnt, and their whole land was smitten with a curse, which time of full liberty the apostle in his day, Heb. ii. 5. called the world to come.

XVIII. Hence we see, that the close of the Old Testament gradually vanishing away, and the beginning of the new gradually gaining ground, both centered in one point of time. For, as on the birth of Christ, a more joyful period shone forth, and the songs of the pious were heard, concerning the truth of God's covenant confirmed by the accomplishment of the promises; so Christ acknowledged himself to be subject to the laws of the Old Testament by his circumcision, and the rites following upon it. And as the kingdom of heaven, which is a kingdom of liberty, was preached by our Lord, John iv. 21, 23. so he ordered, in the mean time, the person cleansed of his leprosy to offer the sacrifices enjoined by the law of Moses, Matt. viii. 4. Which is an evident indi