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,