ised." Rom. 4:11. The seal of circumcision, then, did not make
the covenant valid, for the covenant existed many years before the rite
of circumcision was instituted. Faith was the only condition of
Abraham's justification. "He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to
him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6.

And if we look at the promise contained in the Abrahamic covenant, "In
thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed," we find it to be
the very substance of the gospel, as the apostle Paul says: "The
Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith,
preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all
nations be blessed." Gal. 3:8. The incarnation and work of Christ are,
according to the uniform representation of the New Testament, nothing
else but the carrying out of the covenant made with Abraham, for this
covenant was made for all mankind, was purely spiritual, being
conditioned on faith alone, and its substance is Christ, in whom all
nations are blessed.

And while God has thus indissolubly linked to the incarnation of his Son
this high transaction with Abraham, we see how he has at the same time
connected it with the first promise made in Eden, and thus with the fall
of man through the subtilty of Satan. The promise in Eden is that the
seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. The promise to
Abraham is that in his seed, which is also the seed of the woman, all
the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now it is by the bruising of
the serpent's head, or, in New Testament language, by destroying the
works of the devil, that Abraham's seed blesses all the families of the
earth. The two promises, then, are in their inmost nature one and the
same, and their fulfilment constitutes the work of Christ.

_Thirdly_, the end of the Mosaic economy is Christ. Its general scope is
thus briefly summed up by Paul: "The law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Gal. 3:25. But not
to insist on this, let us contemplate its three great institutions--the
prophetic, the kingly, and the priestly order.

The mode of communication which God employed on Sinai the people could
not endure, and they besought him, through Moses, that it might be
discontinued: "Speak them with us," they said, "and we will hear: but
let not God speak with us, lest we die." Ex. 20:19. Of this request God
approved, and promised: "I will raise them up a Prophet fr