X. The covenant does, on the part of God, comprize three things in general. Ist. A promise of consummate happiness in eternal life. 2dly. A designation and prescription of the condition, by the performance of which, man acquires a right to the promise. 3dly. A penal sanction against those, who do not come up to the prescribed condition. All these things regard the whole man, or λanges, in Paul's phrase, as consisting of soul and body. God's promise of happiness is to each part, he requires the sanctification of each, and threatens each with destruction. And so this covenant makes God appear

glorious in the whole man.

XI. To engage in such a covenant with the rational creature, formed after the divine image, is entirely worthy of, and by no means unbecoming of God. For it was impossible but God should propose himself to the rational creature, as a pattern of holiness, in conformity to which he ought to frame himself and all his actions, carefully keeping, and always exerting the activity of that original righteousness, which he was, from his very origin, endowed with. God cannot but bind man to love, worship and seek him, as the chief good nor is it conceivable, how God should require man to love and seek him, and yet refuse to be found by man, loving, secking, and esteeming him as his chief good, longing, hungering, and thirsting, after him alone. Who can conceive it to be worthy of God, that he should thus say to man, I am willing that thou seekest me only; but on condition of never finding me: to be ardently longed for above every thing else, with the greatest hunger and thirst: but yet, never to be satisfied. And the justice of God no less requires, that man, upon rejecting the happiness, offered on the most equi table terms, should be punished with the privation of it, and Jikewise incur the severest indignation of God, whom he has despised. Whence it appears, that, from the very consideration of the divine perfections, it may be fairly deduced, that he has prescribed a certain law to man, as the condition of enjoying happiness, which consists in the fruition of God; enforced with the threatening of a curse against the rebel. In which we have just now said, that the whole of the covenant consisted. But of each of these we shall have fuller scope to speak hereafter.

XII. Thus far, we have considered the one party of the covenant of God: man becomes the other, when he consents thereto, embracing the good promised by God, engaging to an exact observance of the condition required; and upon the violation thereof, voluntarily owning himself obnoxious to

the

the threatened curse. This the scripture calls, 193 2, "to enter into covenant with the Lord," Deut. xxix. 12. "and to enter into a curse and an oath," Neh. x. 29. In this curse (Paul calls it, 2 Cor. ix. 13. ooya, professed subjection) conscience presents itself a witness, that God's sti pulation or covenant is just, and that this method of coming to the enjoyment of God is highly becoming; and that there is no other way of obtaining the promise. And hence the evils, which God threatens to the transgressors of the covenant, are called "the curses of the covenant;" Deut. xxix. 20. which man on consenting to the covenant, voluntarily makes himself obnoxious to. The effect of this curse on the man who stands not to the covenant, is called "the vengeance of the covenant," Lev. xxvi. 25. The form of a stipulation or acceptance we have, Psal. xxviii. 8." When thou saidest, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee; thy face, Lord, will I seek." Where the voluntary astipulation or acceptance, answers to the stipulation or covenant, made in the name of God by conscience, his minister.

XIII. Man, upon the proposal of this covenant, could not, without guilt, refuse giving this astipulation or acceptance. Ist. In virtue of the law, which universally binds him, humbly to accept every thing proposed by God: to whom it is the essential duty of every rational creature to be subject in every respect. 2dly. On account of the high sovereignty of God, who may dispose of his own benefits, and appoint the condition of enjoying them with a supreme authority, and without being accountable to any and at the same time enjoin man, to strive for the attainment of the blessings offered, on the condition prescribed. And hence this covenant, as subsisting between parties infinitely unequal, assumes the nature of those, which the Greeks called Injunctions, or covenants from commands; of which Grotius speaks in his Jus Bell. and Pacis lib. 2. c. 15. § 6. Hence it is, that Paul translates the words of Moses, Exod. xxiv. 8, behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you," thus, Heb. ix. 20. "this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you." It is not left to man to accept or reject at pleasure God's covenant. Man is commanded to accept it, and to press after the attainment of the promises in the way pointed out by the covenant. Not to desire the promises, is to refuse the goodness of God. To reject the precepts is to refuse the sovereignty and holiness of God; and not to submit to the sanction, is to deny God's justice. And therefore the Apostle affirms of the covenant of

God

God, that it is vivoμa reduced to the form of a law, Heb. viii. 6. by which man is obliged to an acceptance. 3dly, It follows from that love, which man naturally owes to himself, and by which he is carried to the chief good; for enjoying which there remains no method beside the condition prescribed by God. 4thly, Man's very conscience dictates, that this covenant is in all its parts highly equitable. What can be framed even by thought itself more equitable, than that man, esteeming God as his chief good, should seek his happiness in him, and rejoice at the offer of that goodness? Should chearfully receive the law, which is a transcript of the divine holiness, as the rule of his nature and actions? In fine, should submit his guilty head to the most just vengeance of heaven, should he happen to make light of this promise, and violate the law? From which it follows, that man was not at liberty to reject God's covenant.

XIV. God, by this covenant, acquires no new right over man; which, if we duly consider the matter, neither is, nor can be founded on any benefit of God, or misdemeanor of man, as Arminius argues: nor in any thing without God; the principal or alone foundation of it being the sovereign majesty of the most high God. Because God is the blessed, and selfsufficient being, therefore he is the only potentate, these two being joined together by Paul, 1 Tim. vi. 15. Nor can God's power and right over the creatures, be diminished orencreased by any thing extrinsic to God. A thing which ought to be deemed unworthy of his sovereignty and independance: of which we shall soon treat more fully. Only God, in this covenant, shews what right he has over man. But man, upon

his accepting the covenant and performing the condition, does acquire some right to demand of God the promise. For God has, by his promises, made himself a debtor to man. Or, to speak in a manner more becoming God, he was pleased to make his performing his promises, a debt due to himself, to his goodness, justice and veracity. And to man in covenant, and continuing stedfast to it, he granted the right of expecting and requiring, that God should satisfy the demands of his goodness, justice, and truth, by the performance of the promises. And thus to man as stipulating, or consenting to the covenant, "God says, that he will be his God," Deut. xxvi. 17. That is, he will give him full liberty to glory in God, as his God, and to expect from him, that he will become to man, in covenant with him, what he is to himself, even a fountain of consummate happiness.

XV. In Scripture, we find two covenants of God with man : The

The Covenant of Works, otherwise called the Covenant of Nature, or the Legal; and the Covenant of Grace. The Apostle teacheth us this distinction, Rom. iii. 37. where he mentions the law of works, and the law of faith; by the law of works, understanding that doctrine which points out the way in which, by means of works, salvation is obtained; and by the law of faith, that doctrine which directs by faith to obtain salvation. The form of the covenant of works is, "the man, which doth those things shall live by them," Rom. x. 5. That of the covenant of grace is, "whosoever believeth in him, shall not be ashamed," ib. ver. 11. These covenants agree, 1st, That in both, the contracting parties are the same, God and man. 2dly, In both, the same promise of eternal life, consisting in the immediate fruition of God. 3dly, The condition of both is the same, viz. perfect obedience to the law. Nor would it have been worthy of God to admit man to a blessed communion with him, but in the way of unspotted holiness. 4thly, In both, the same end, the glory of the most unspotted goodness of God. But in these following particulars they differ. 1st, The character or relation of God and man, in the covenant of works, is different from what it is in the covenant of grace. In the former God treats as the supreme law-giver, and the chief good, rejoicing to make his innocent creature a partaker of his happiness. In the latter, as infinitely merciful, adjudging life to the elect sinner consistent with his wisdom and justice. 2dly, In the covenant of works there was no mediator: in that of grace, there is the mediator Christ Jesus. 3dly, In the covenant of works, the condition of perfect obedience was required, to be performed by man himself, who had consented to it. In that of grace, the same condition is proposed, as to be, or as already performed, by a mediator. And in this substitution of the person, consists the principal and essential difference of the covenants. 4thly, In the covenant of works, man is considered as working, and the reward to be given as of debt; and therefore man's glorying is not excluded, but he may glory as a faithful servant may do upon the right discharge of his duty, and may claim the reward promised to his working. In the covenant of Grace, man in himself ungodly is considered in the covenant, as believing; and eternal life is considered as the merit of the mediator, and as given to man out of free grace, which excludes all boasting, besides the glorying of the believing sinner in God, as his merciful Saviour. 5thly, In the covenant of works, something is required of man as a condition, which performed entitles him to the reward. The covenant VOL. I. G

of

of grace, with respect to us, consists of the absolute promises of God, in which the mediator, the life to be obtained by him, the faith by which we may be made partakers of him, and of the benefits purchased by him, and the perseverance in that faith; in a word, the whole of salvation, and all the requisites to it, are absolutely promised. 6thly, The special end of the covenant of works, was the manifestation of the holiness, goodness, and justice of God, conspicuous in the most perfect law, most liberal promise, and in that recompense of reward, to be given to those, who seek him with their whole heart. The special end of the covenant of grace is, the praise of the glory of his grace, Eph. i. 6. and the revelation of his unsearchable and manifold wisdom: which divine perfections shine forth with lustre in the gift of a mediator, by whom the sinner is admitted to complete salvation, without any dishonour to the holiness, justice and truth of God: There is also a demonstration of the all-sufficiency of God, by which not only man, but even a sinner, which is more surprising, may be restored to union and communion with God. But all this will be more fully explained in what follows.

CHAP. II.

Of the Contracting Parties in the Covenant of Works.

I. WE begin with the consideration of the covenant of works, otherwise called, of the law and of nature because prescribed by the law, requiring works as the condition, and founded upon, and coeval with nature. This covenant is an agreement between God and Adam, formed after the image of God, as the head and root, or representative of the whole human race; by which God promised eternal life and happiness to him, if he yielded obedience to all his commands; threatening him with death if he failed but in the least point and Adam accepted this condition. To this purpose are these two sentences, afterwards inculcated, on the repetition of the law, Lev. xviii. 5. and Deut. xxvii. 26.

II. The better to understand this subject, these four things are to be explained. 1st, The contracting parties. 2dly, The condition prescribed. 3dly, The promises. 4thly, The threatening.

III. The contracting parties here, are God and Adam. God, as sovereign and supreme Lord, prescribing with absolute power, what he judges equitable: as goodness itself, or

the