[4.] Since the gospel is more clearly preached under this present dispensation, than it was before; this tends to aggravate the sin of those who despise Christ, as revealed therein, as our Saviour says, _This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil_, chap. iii. 19. Before our Saviour’s incarnation, the Old Testament-church might be said to reject the covenant of promise, or not regard the gospel contained therein; but, under the New Testament-dispensation, sinners reject the covenant of grace, as confirmed, ratified, and sealed, by the blood of Christ; and, as the apostle says, _Count the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and_ therefore _are thought worthy of much sorer punishment_, Heb. x. 29. Footnote 103: _See Quest._ xcii. Footnote 104: _Vid. Spencer. de leg. Hebr. and ejusd. Dissert. de Urim & Thummim; & Marshami Can. Chron._ Footnote 105: _Vid. Witsii Egyptiaca._ Footnote 106: _Præcepta observantiæ._ Footnote 107: αντιτυπος. Footnote 108: _See Psal._ lxii. _the title, compared with the subject-matter of the Psalm, which speaks of Christ in the person of Solomon._ Footnote 109: _See Vol. I. pages 53-56._ Footnote 110: _The first, he and his followers call_, Oeconomia promissionis, _or_, ante-legalis; _the second_, Oeconomia legalis; _the third_, Oeconomia evangelica. Footnote 111: Minus plena, _or_ minus vera. Footnote 112: _For the proof of this, they often refer to that scripture in_ Rom. iii. 25. _in which it is said_, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through, _or after_, the forbearance, of God, _which they suppose to contain an intimation of the privilege which the gospel-church enjoyed, namely, remission of sins; whereas, under the legal dispensation, there was nothing else apprehended by them, but the forbearance of God: so that the Old Testament-church had_ παρεσιν αμαρτιων; _the New Testament church_, αφεσιν; _and they all suppose, that they looked upon Christ as_ Fide-jussor, _and not_ Expromissor, _which are terms used in the civil law; the former of which signifies a person’s undertaking to be a surety, and, at the same time, leaving the creditor at his liberty to exact the debt, either of him, or the debtor himself; whereas_, Expromissor, _signifies, a person’s undertaking to be a surety, in so full and large a sense, as that, by virtue hereof, the debtor is discharged. Therefore, since they did not, so clearly, know that God would discharge them, by virtue of Christ’s undertaking to be a Surety, but concluded that he might exact the debt, either of him, or them; this was the foundation of that terror and bondage, which they were perpetually subject to._ Quest. XXXVI., XXXVII.