legally dispensed to the Jews, that it seems to be nothing else but the
pertinent resemblance, namely, by that of marriage, Romans 7:1-3.
All Adam's seed are married to one of these two husbands; either to
the law, or to Christ. He who is not spiritually married to Christ, and
so brought under his covenant—is still under the law as a covenant of
works; even as a wife is under the law of her husband while he is yet
alive. Certainly there were never any but two covenants made with
man, the one legal, the other evangelical; the one of works, the other
of grace; the first in innocency, the other after the fall. Ponder upon
Romans 4:13. But,
3. Thirdly, Let me premise this—that the covenant of grace was so
legally dispensed to the Jews, that it seems to be nothing else but the
repetition of the covenant of works; in respect of which legal
dispensations of it, the same covenant, under the law, is called a
covenant of works. Under the gospel, in regard of the clearer
manifestation of it, it is called a covenant of grace: but these were not
two distinct covenants, but one and the same covenant diversely
dispensed. The covenant of grace is the same for substance now to us
since Christ was exhibited, as it was to the Jews before he was
exhibited; but the manner of administration of it is different, because
it is:
(1.) Now clearer. Things were then declared, in types and shadows.
Heaven was then typed out by the land of Canaan. But now we have
things more plainly manifested, 2 Cor. 3:12; Heb. 7:22. In this
respect it is called "a better covenant," Heb. 8:6; not in substance,