It pleased God also, in process of time, as the attention of man was led
astray by bad customs, by pleasures, by the cares of the world, and
other causes, that the same Christ, in addition to this his inward
striving with him, should afford him outward help, accommodated to his
outward senses, by which his thoughts might be oftener turned towards
God, and his soul be the better preserved in the way of salvation.
Christ accordingly, through Moses and the Prophets, became the author of
a dispensation to the Jews, that is, of their laws, types, and customs,
of their prophecies, and of their scriptures.
But as in the education of man things must be gradually unfolded, so it
pleased God, in the scheme of his redemption, that the same Christ, in
fulness of time, should take flesh, and become personally upon earth the
author of another outward, but of a more pure and glorious dispensation,
than the former, which was to be more extensive also; and which was not
to be confined to the Jews, but to extend in time to the uttermost
corners of the earth. Christ therefore became the Author of the inspired
delivery of the outward scriptures of the New Testament. By these, as by
outward and secondary means, he acted upon men's senses. He informed
them of their corrupt nature, of their awful and perilous situation, of
another life, of a day of judgment, of rewards and punishments.
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