The Saints Encouragement in Evil Times, Chapter 4
CHAP. IIII.
Of the Covenant and Promises.Dicitur Hebraeis foedus foreign Berith vel à foreign Barah id est, eligendo, quod Foedus est ut Abenezra scribit mutuus cōsensus super aliqua revel à foreign Bara id est exscindē do, e… quod in foederibus semper ali …uid occide…atur▪ Gen. 15 10, 17. Foedus Latinis a ferie…do▪ Paul. Fag. Armot. in Deu. …9. 11.
I. Of the Covenant.
THE Hebrew word foreign Berith, is derived from foreign Barah, elegit, to choose, because God in the Covenant of works did choose out man especially with whom he made the Covenant, and because in the Covenant of grace he chuseth out of the multitude the elect, and because a Covenant is a thing which two chuse, and of which they mutually agree and promise betwixt themselves, although the word be used where ore alone doth promise with a simple promise, and so it may be referred to the Testamentary disposition. Or else it may come from foreign Barah, comedit, to eat, as if they should say an eating, because they used in the Eastern countries to establish Covenants by eating and drinking together. The condition was about eating in the Covenant of works. foreign Bara, signifieth to slay (whence some derive a Covenant) because God made the first Covenant of grace and sealed it by sacrifices*Berith quasi Cerith, because sacrifices were slain in making of Covenants, and therefore it is often construed with the verb foreign Carath fecijt, he s…ruck, vide Su… kii, Antiq. Conviv. l. 1. c. 30, See also M… Mede on Mal. 1. 11. and M. Cudworths discourse concerning the true notion of the L. Supper chap. 6. of beasts slain and divided.
The Covenant in generall may be described a mutuall compact or agreement betwixt God and man, whereby God promiseth all good things, specially eternall happinesse unto man, upon just, equall and favourable conditions, and man doth promise to walk before God in all acceptable, free and willing obedience, expecting all good from God, and happinesse in God according to his promise, for the praise and glory of his great name.
A Covenant is a solemn compact or agreement between two chosen parties or more, whereby with mutuall, free, and full consent they binde themselves upon select conditions tending to the glory of God and their common good. It differs from a promise gradually and in the formalities of it, not naturally or in the substance of it.
A Covenant usually is the collection of many promises, as a constellation is the collection of many starres, though it be but one promise, I will be thy God, yet it is such a one as comprehends many.
There is a difference between a Law and a Covenant. A Superiour may give a law whether the inferiour consent to it or no, but a Covenant is ratified by the consent of both parties. A Covenant is something unto which two persons by mutuall consent doe freely binde themselves.
There are divers distinctions of Covenants.
1. A Covenant of nature.
2. A Covenant of grace.
3. A mixt Covenant consisting of nature and grace.
Others make these three Covenants,
1. Foedus natura, the Covenant of nature made with Adam.
2. Foedus gratiae, the Covenant of grace made to us in Christ.
3. Foedus subserviens, a preparing Covenant to make way for the advancement of the Covenant of grace in Christ.
Others say, there were never any but two Covenants made with man, one Legall, the other Evangelicall, of works or grace, the first in innocency, the other after the fall.
Foedus operum, when it was first made with man, was foedus amicitiae, God and man were then friends, foedus gratiae is foedus reconciliationis inter i…imicos.
1. The Covenant of works wherein God Covenanteth with man to give him eternall life upon condition of perfect obedience in his own person.
2. The Covenant of grace which God maketh with man, promising eternall life upon condition of beleeving.
We reade not in Scripture the Covenant of works and of grace totide… syllabis, the nearest we come to it is Rom. 3. 27. the law of works opposed to the law of faith, which holds out as much as the Covenant of works and the Covenant of grace.
The Covenant of works was
1. That Covenant wherein God was the authour and the ground of it, was Gods free grace, it was reciprocall betwixt him and Adam. We call not the second Covenant a Covenant of grace, because there was no grace in the first Covenant, but in opposition to the condition of the first Covenant which was works, and because greater grace is manifested in it then the first,
2. It was the same Covenant under which the best of the creatures the Angels now stand and injoy their happinesse, and Adam should have been happy by observing this Covenant if he had stood. Christ was made under this Covenant.
3. The promises of this Covenant were very glorious.
1. For naturall life, in the body there was perfection without defect, beauty without deformity, labour without wearinesse.
2. For spirituall life, Adam should not have had terrours in his conscience, sorrow, fear, shame.
3. For death, he should have been translated without dissolution.
The Faederati were God and Adam together with all his posterity. God made a Covenant with Adam as a publick person,Omnes nos eramus ille unus. Aug. which represented all mankinde.
The reasons of it may be these,
1. From the imputation of Adams sin to all mankinde, Rom. 5. 12. In whom, or for as much as all have sinned, they sinned not all in themselves, therefore in Adam, see vers. 14. In him all died, 1 Cor. 15. 47.
2. Those on whom the curse of the Covenant comes, they are under the bond and precept of the Covenant, all mankinde is directly under the curse of the Covenant,Deut 29. 21. Rom. 8. 20. 21. Gal. 3. 13.
Adam did consent to it and understood the terms of the Covenant, for God dealt with him in a rationall way, and expected from him a reasonable service. Either he knew the tenour of the Covenant, or else he broke it out of ignorance, but the first sin could not be a sin of ignorance, he knew whatsoever was necessary to know in a way of duty.
God dealt with Adam not only in a way of sovereignty but in a way of Covenant, God did this for divers reasons.
1. For the speciall manifestation of his free grace.
2. That it might be the greater obligation to Adam to obey, God made a promise and he gave his consent.God required mans service, non ex indigē tia, sed ex abūdantia.
3. To sweeten his authority to man, Deut. 6. 24.
4. To encourage man to obedience, Heb. 12. 2.
5. That this might be a ground to Adam to exercise
His faith in beleeving whatsoever God had revealed or should reveal.
2. His love, 1 John 4. 19.
3. His hope.
6. To leave man inexcusable if he sin, that a clear way might be made for Gods justification and mans conviction.
Objection,
God is a free Agent, how can it stand with his honour and absolute liberty to be bound to the creature?
Answer,
In a strict sense, 1. God cannot be said to be bound, but promittendo s… fecit debitorem, saith Austins, and he is rather bound to himself,Aquinas. and his own faithfulnesse, then the creature.
Objection,
How can it stand with Gods justice to involve Adams posterity in a Covenant, which themselves never consented to.
Answer,
It is not an injustice among men for parents to conclude their children, their acts binde them and their heirs. 2. God hath reserved to himself a liberty to visit the sins, not only of the first, but immediate parents on their children, Gen. 9. 22. 1 Thes. 2. 26. The Sodomites children were punisht with their parents. 3. Adam was our parent, there was the will of the nature, which was enough to inwrap them in originall sin, the sin of the nature. 4. This Covenant was made with Adam and his posterity out of free grace, therefore all his posterity was bound by way of thankfulnesse to consent. 5. They ought to rejoice in Adams exaltation being so advanced, and to agree to the Covenant made with him. 6. God made the best choice for them in the first Adam (as he did in the second) in so doing, seeing he made him so perfect.
The first Covenant consists of three parts.
Gal. 3. 10, 11, 12. 1. The precept, that continueth not in all things. 2. The promise, live, the man that doth them shall live. 3. The curse in case of transgression, cursed in every one.
The precept requires perfect and personall obedience.
The condition of the Covenant on mans part was
1. Perfect obedience.
1. The commandment then did (and still doth as it refers to the first Covenant) call for perfect obedience, Lev. 18. 5. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. Ezek 20. 25.
2. Because there is a curse denounced against the least transgression, Gal▪ 3. 10. One sinne and that but in thought, broke the Angels Covenant, Rom. 5. 17.
3. Gods holinesse is such, that he requires from the creature perfect obedience, Job 4. 18. Heb. 1. 13.
4. There are two things in the law,
1. The principall part of it, the precept.
2. The accidentall, the curse: man is bound to the precept, jure creatoris, to the curse, jure judicis.
5. He gave us a perfect ability to obey in our creation, Ephes. 4. 22, 23. Eccles. 7. ult.
6. He requires perfect obedience in Christ, Rom. 8. 4.
2. Personall obedience.
1. There is a perfect obedience to the law required of every particular man, Gal. 3. 10.
2. The curse is denounced against the person, the soul that sins shall die.
3. This was required of Christ our surety, Gal. 4. 4.
4. It was required for the acceptation of our persons and salvation of our souls.
5. The righteousnesse of the first Covenant might easily be lost by transgression, Dan▪ 9. 23.