;

triarchs. "The LORD our God made a covenant "with us in Horeb; the LORD made not this co"venant with our fathers, but with us." Is it likely that fuch language would have been ufed, had the difference confifted merely in form?

2. The law is fpoken of as added, for a fpecial reason, and for a certain time, to the covenant made with Abraham; and therefore as fomething different in its nature. It is even described by the apostle, as poffeffing fuch characters that men might be apt to view it as " against the co"venant," and as tending to "difannul" it. While he teaches that the law was given in fubferviency to the covenant of grace, he admits that it was fo different, that it could not give life, because this comes only by a free and gracious promise. Now, if the law or Sinaitic covenant included the covenant of grace as its principal fubftance, only under a darker form; how is the law contrafted with the promife? how could Paul fay, "If the inheritance be of the law, it is no "more of promise ?"

3. These two are pointed out, not merely as different difpenfations, but as different covenants: Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I "will make a new covenant with the house of Ifrael, and with the houfe of Judah, not ac"cording to the covenant that I made with "their fathers, in the day that I took them by "the

"the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt,

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(which my covenant they brake, although I "was an husband unto them, faith the LORD) t." The fame contraft is stated in the account given of the allegorical meaning of the history of Sarah and Hagar; "These are the two covenants." The covenant of grace is not here contrafted with that of works made with Adam, but with that peculiar covenant made with Ifrael at Sinai :"The one from the Mount Sinai, - which is Agar "."

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4. The fuperior excellency of the miniftry of Chrift is proved from his being " the Mediator "of a better covenant; of the new covenant This covenant is exprefsly faid to be better, as being" established upon better promifes." Now, if there be a difference as to the promife, there must be a difference between the covenants to which they respectively refer: because the promife is to be viewed as an effential part of a covenant. The promises, on which the covenant at Sinai was established, although figurative of better bleffings, in themselves respected those that were temporal. They immediately referred to the poffeffion of the land of Canaan, to victory over external enemies, to abundance of earthly good things, to long life and prosperity in the courfe of obedience. These promifes were also conditional. Their fulfilment was fufpended on the obedience of the covenant people.

6. If ye

" will

↑ Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.

n Gal. iv. 24 v Heb. viii. 6,, xii. 18, 24.

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“will obey my voice indeed, and keep my cove"nant, then ye fhall be a peculiar treasure unto "me above all people w." This is the general ftrain of the promises made in this covenant. Even that promife refpecting God's relation to them, is conditionally expreffed: "If ye walk in 66 my ftatutes, and keep my commandments, and "do them; I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people ." But the promises of the new covenant, as they are spiritual, are abfolutely free. Their fpirituality appears from the fummary given of them, Heb. viii. 10.-12. especially as including the writing of the law, not on tables of ftone as formerly, but on the fleshly tables of the heart; and the great bleffing of pardon, not as confifting in the removal of external and ritual guilt, or deliverance from the punifhment connected with it, but in a complete deliverance from condemnation. All these promifes are expreffed abfolutely, fo that their fulfilment depends not on any thing to be done by us. On the contrary, they fecure ftrength for the performance of duty.

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5. The Sinaitic covenant tended to produce a fervile fpirit. "The one from the Mount Sinai -gendereth to bondage "." It has been obferved, that the apostle does not here speak of the abuse of that covenant, as indeed it was greatly abused by the generality of the Ifraelites, as if it had

Z

VOL. I.

w Exod. xix. 5.

x Lev. xxvi. 3.-12.

y Gal. iv. 24.

had been meant to enfure eternal life, on the ground of their obedience; but of its native tendency, which was to produce a fervile frame of fpirit, entirely different from that which is the fruit of the covenant of promife.

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6. This was a covenant that might be broken.

They continued not in my covenant, and I re"garded them not, faith the Lord a." This language has no respect to the change of difpenfation. It denotes, that fuch was the frame of that covenant, that God might be provoked by the tranfgreffions of the Ifraelites, to caft them out of it. This was actually done with refpect to the ten tribes. Now, the covenant was thus broken, and those who were once within it, were caft off by God, many centuries before there was any change of the difpenfation.

7. When the Ifraelites, in different inftances, obtained the forgiveness of their breach of covenant, it was not in confequence of any mercy referved for them in the tranfaction at Sinai, but by a gracious recurrence, on the part of their offended Lawgiver, to the covenant which he made with their fathers. On this ground alone does he promise to vifit them in the day of their calamity, "If they fhall confefs their ini"quity, then will I remember my covenant "with Jacob, and alfo my covenant with Ifaac, " and alfo my covenant with Abraham will I "remember,

"remember, and I will remember the land b." Mofes, in his interceffion for the Ifraelites, when they had greatly provoked God by worshipping the golden calf, does not ground his plea on the covenant recently made with them at Mount Sinai, but on that with their ancestors: "Turn," he fays, "from thy fierce wrath, and repent of

this evil against thy people. Remember Abra"ham, Ifaac, and Ifrael thy fervants, to whom "thou fwareft by thine own felf, and faidft unto "them, I will multiply your feed as the ftars of

heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of "will I give unto your feed, and they fhall in"herit it for ever." And God's refpect to this covenant is given as the reason of all that longfuffering which he exercifed towards Ifrael, amidft their aggravated iniquities: "The LORD was gracious unto them, and had compaffion

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on them, and had refpect unto them, because "of his covenant with Abraham, Ifaac and Ja"cob, and would not deftroy them, neither caft "he them from his prefence as yet 1."

It must be remembered, however, that this, which is called the old covenant, was not given to Ifrael as a covenant of works, promifing eternal life for their obedience. As to their external ftate, they were previously under the covenant of grace. Even the Sinaitic covenant contained a typical revelation of redeeming mercy, a thing totally unknown to the covenant of works. Had this been its nature, there could have been no falvation

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b Ley, xxvi. 40.—42. c Exod. xxxii. 12, 13. d 2 Kings xiii. 23.