o them the Christ who was to come.

Besides, in the Old Testament God introduced a twofold
government,--an external and an internal. There He undertook to rule
His people, both inwardly in the heart, and outwardly in person and
in property. Therefore He gave them such a variety of laws,
commingled one kind with the other. So it was under the government
that pertained to the person, that a man might give his wife a bill
of divorce and put her away.

But to the spiritual government pertained the command, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. But now He rules in us only
spiritually, by Christ; while the government that pertains to the
body and the outward state, he exercises through the instrumentality
of civil magistracy. So that when Christ came the external ceased,
and God gives us direction no more as to the _outward_ person, time
and place. But He rules us only spiritually through the word, so that
we may direct as to all that is outward, and be bound in nothing that
pertains to the body.

But what pertains to His spiritual government has not been abandoned,
but stands forever, now as then,--the law of love to God and our
neighbor, contained in the books of Moses, which God will still have
sustained, and by which He will condemn all the unbelieving.

Besides, the figures, as to their _spiritual_ import, remain; that
is, whatever is signified by the outward figures, although the
outward part has been done away. Thus that a man should separate from
his wife and send her away, because of adultery, is a figure and type
which even now is spiritually fulfilled; for thus also has God
rejected the Jews when they would not believe on Christ, and has
chosen out the Gentiles. So, also, He does still; if any one will not
walk in the faith, He suffers him to be excluded from the Christian
Church, that he may be led to reform.

Of a similar import also is this, that a woman after her husband's
death must take her husband's brother, and bear him children, and he
must suffer himself to be called by his name, and must enter on his
possessions. This, although it has now ceased, or rather become
invalid, so that it may be done or neglected without sin, is a figure
which even now has a significance in respect to Christ. For He is our
brother, for us has died and ascended to heaven, and has commanded us
that we, through the Gospel, should plant the seed in our souls and
make them fruitful, be named after him, and enter on his pos