By
this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, and Seth obtained the pre-eminence,
and Enoch walked with God. It was this that strove with the old world,
and which they rebelled against, and which sanctified and instructed Noah
to salvation.
But the outward dispensation that followed the benighted state of man,
after his fall, especially among the patriarchs, was generally that of
angels; as the scriptures of the Old Testament do in many places express,
as to Abraham, Jacob, &c. The next was that of the law by Moses, which
was also delivered by angels, as the apostle tells us. This dispensation
was much outward, and suited to a low and servile state; called
therefore, by the apostle Paul, that of a schoolmaster, which was to
point out and prepare that people to look and long for the Messiah, who
would deliver them from the servitude of a ceremonious and imperfect
dispensation, by knowing the realities of those mysterious
representations in themselves. In this time the law was written on
stone, the temple built with hands, attended with an outward priesthood,
and external rites and ceremonies, that were shadows of the good things
that were to come, and were only to serve till the seed came, or the more
excellent and general manifestation of Christ, to whom was the promise,
and to all men only in him, in whom it was yea and amen, even life from
death, immortality and eternal life.
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