the law, and as such an obedience (at least in this spe- cial form of it) was not obligatory, but voluntary on his part, it became available for an infinite righteous- ness.
Such was the covenant of grace as formed in eter- nity. To this must be added its actual administration in time. Of course the only administrator of it was the Son of God himself, the mediator between God and man. He has power over all flesh, in order to give eternal life to as many as had been given him. He it was wlio represented the divine Kuler in all those dis- pensations of mercy of which the sacred history in- forms us. Although at different periods of human his- tory the outward forms of religion have been changed, the covenant of grace, which lay at the basis of them all, was alwaj's the same. Salvation has in all cases been by Christ, even where the subjects of it knew lit- tle or nothing respecting him. None have ever been saved by the law of works, and none have had their hopes bounded bj' promises of an earthly home. The antediluvians, the patriarchs. Job and his friends, the Israelites in Egj'pt and under the Mosaic dispensation, looked for forgiveness under certain prescribed condi- tions, and for a city bej'ond the present world whose builder and maker is God. The only difference be- tween them was that salvation was presented with greater obscurity, under more symbolical forms, with narrower restrictions to families and nations, and with less enlarged measures of the divine Spirit at some pe- riods than at others. Ordinarilj' there have been reck- oned but two principal economies or dispensations, viz. that under the Old and that under the New Testa- ment. Although the same word in the original lan- guages of the Bible is applied to all covenants between God and man, the advocates of the federal sj'stem have translated them dift'erentlj- when applied on the one hand to the great covenants of nature and of grace, and on the other to the different economies under the covenant of grace. Availing themselves of the double meaning, especially of the Greek word (ciaBi'iKi]'), they have usually designated these latter economies by the name of testaments, to indicate that they were that peculiar kind of arrangements which acquire validity only after the decease of hini who makes them. Though the Redeemer had not, in fact, died before the earlier dispensation, he was looked upon as slain from the foundation of the world, and the dispensations of mercy were even then constituted in anticipation of his death. Hence, when speaking of the communication of benefits to men, no mutual conditions are implied, but Jesus Christ is said to bequeath them by testa- ment. The death of the testator is indispensable to render the grant valid, and to make the promises sure (Heb. ix, 10-17). Conditions, in the proper sense of the word, on the part of God's people, are not required, but benefits arc supposed to be bestowed absolutely, by free donation, and by an irrevocable will. Men are indeed to believe, to be holy, and to persevere faithfully unto the end, but all this is supposed to be secured by the free grace of God in Christ.
The Christian dispensation is the ultimate form in which the covenant of grace will be administered,- for, since all national restrictions have been removed, and the Holy Spirit is given in his plenitude, no other is conceivable. Jesus Christ will continue to administer it until the whole world shall be subdued unto him. Finall}^, the present economy of things shall cease, the dead shall be raised, the living shall be changed, every human being shall be judged at Christ's bar for sins, not only against God as a moral ruler, but against himself as the mediatorial king, and sentence shall be passed upon each according to his works. Christ will claim the right to do this even with respect to such as are not under his spiritual headship, inasmuch as they too are in one sense purchased by him (2 Pet. ii, 1), and hence power over all flesh has been given him b}' the Father (John xvii, 2). Then, having obtained full pos«
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session of his kingdom, he -wiU present it to the Father j as the economical representative of the Godhead, either in token of the completeness of his work, or as indica- [ ting the close of his mediatorship. But, whether he demits his peculiar office (1 Cor. xv, 28), or only brings his mediatorial kingdom into some new relation, he will then complete the scheme of the covenant of grace, and receive his cternallj' betrothed Church into an everlasting union with himself.