The Covenant of Life Opened, Part 1 · Chapter 2 – Chapter 3
CHAP. II. Propositions touching ADAMS Covenant-state.
THe Apostle, 1 Cor. 15.47. The first man is of the earth, earthie, the second man is the Lord from Heaven, speaking of the two eminently publick persons▪ the noble heads of great Families; makes the condition of the first Adam to be animal and earthly,The first and second Adam. & that of the second Adam to be spiritual and Heavenly. And without doubt, to be born of the house and seed of the second Adam, John 1.12, 13. must darken the glory of the first birth, so as there is no great ground to boast of the skin and empty lustre of Nobility and good blood;Nobility & self empty things. Although when the creature called (I) and (self) do creep in to lodge in a poor feeble piece of clay, that clay so lustred must be some God.
The flower and choisest of Adam his Paradise-state, is an earthly condition, as is evidenced by his eating, Gen. 2.9, 16. sleeping, 21, his being placed in a Garden, to dresse it, 8, 16, 17, his marriage, 23,The first Adam earthly, we have more in the second. 24. his Lordship over birds, beasts, fishes, Gen. 1.28. But in the second Adam, besides all these, we are gifted with a life of more worth then many acres of Vineyards. They declare therefore that there is much of the first Adam in them, little of the second; Who would conquesse again the many lands, that our first father Adam sold, and joyn house to house, and lay field to field, till there be no place, and disinherit all others, as if they were bastard heirs, and themselves the only righteous heirs of Adam, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth, Isa. 5.8. And the more spiritual any be, the more are they above the nothing world.
Mortality may be called supernaturall to the earthie part of Adam, Mortality & immortality how due to Adam.since it is not naturally due to a body of earth, to claim life for ever. Though immortality be due to whole Adam consisting of soul and body and endued with the image of God. For the soul cannot die.
But if we speak of such a life, to wit, of a heavenly communion with God,How life was due to Adam. as Adam was a comprehensor or one who is supposed now to have runne well, and won the Gold, and the Crown, such a life was due to Adam, not by nature, but by promise.
Adam in his first state was not predestinate to a law glory, and to influences of God to carry him on to persevere: Nor could he blesse God, that he was chosen before the foundation of the world to be Law-holy, Adam was predestinated to life, and how.as Eph. 1.3. What? Was not then Adam predestinated to life eternall, through Jesus Christ? He was: But not as a publick person representing all his sons, but as another single person, as Abraham, or Jacob: for Gospel predestination is not of the nature, but of this or that person: Therefore were we not predestinat to life eternall in him, but in Christ, Rom. 8.29, 30.
Therefore Adam fell from the state of Law-life both totally and finally, but not from the state of Gospel election to glory. For the Lord …ad in the Law-dispensation a love designe, to set up a Theatre and stage of free grace;The Law a transient Court for a time. And that the way of works should be a time-dispensation, like a summer-house to be demolished again: As if the Lord had an aime that works and nature should be a transient, but no standing Court for righteousnesse: Hence it is now the reliques of an old standing Court, and the Law, is a day of assyse, for condemning of malefactors, who will acknowledge no Tribunall of grace, but only of works: And it is a just Court to terrifie robbers, to awe borderers and loose men, but to beleevers it is now a Court for a far other end.
CHAP. III. What is the intent and sense of the threatning, Gen. 2.17. In the day thou eats, thou shalt die. And Gen. 3.20. Dust thou art, &c.
WE must distinguish between the intent of the threatner, and the intent and sense of the threatning.
Law-threatnings may be well exponed, by the execution of them, upon persons, against whom they are denounced: As, 1 King. 11.30. compared with 1 King. 12.15, 16. Ten Tribes are taken from Davids house according to the Word of the Lord. Because therefore the threatning of death was executed upon Christ, 1 Pet. 3.18. Gal. 3.10, 11, 12, 13, 14. then must the threatning, Gen. 2.17. Deut. 27.26. have been intended against the Man Christ, and because beleevers die, as all do, Heb. 9.27. the threatning must have been intended against them also,The death threatned, Genes. 2.17. was according to the intent of the Threatner, partly legall, partly Evangelick. for that they sinned in Adam, and because it is out of question that the reprobate die the first and second death, the threatning must also have been intended against them. And therefore, in the intent of the threatner, the threatning was mixed, partly Legall, partly Evangelick; According to the respective persons, that the Lord had in his eye: He had therefore in his heart both Law and Gospel. It is therefore to no purpose to aske what kind of death, and whether purely legall, which the Lord threatned to Adam: For the Question supposeth that the Covenant of Works was to stand, and that the Lord was to deny a Saviour to fallen man. But we may say what death the Lord actually inflicts, that death he intended to inflict, nor did the Lord decree to inflict a meerly legall death personall first and second, upon Adam and all his race.
Obj. Adam was to believe he should certainly die; For so was the threatning, Gen. 2.17. if he should sin, or then we must say, that Adam was to beleeve he should not actually die, the latter cannot be said, for then he was to believe the contradicent of the Lords true threatning; which was the lie of the Serpent, Gen. 3. Ans. What threatnings are, and what sorts there be of them.He was to beleeve neither of the twain according to the event, for there are two sort of threatnings, some pure and only threatnings, which reveal to us, what God may, in Law, do, but not what he hath decreed and intended, actu secundo & quoad eventum, to do, and bring to passe; These threatnings contain some condition, either expressed in other Scripture, or then reserved in the mind of the Lord. 1. Because the Lord so threatned Adam, as he remained free and absolute either to inflict the punishment, or to provide an Evangelick remedy, even as Solomon, 1 King. 2.37. saith to Shimei (in the day thou passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt surely die) that is, thou shalt be guilty of death, reus mortis: Threatnings that are pure threatnings in law show what the Law-giver may jure inflict, but not what he shal actually doe, and what shall come to passe.Yet it cannot be denyed, but Solomon reserved his own Kingly power, either to pardon Shimei, or to soften, or change the sentence. 2. The words of the Law do reveal, what the Magistrate may do, jure, and what the guilty deserves by the Law, but do not …eveal the intention and absolute decree of the Law-giver, and what punishment actually, & quoad eventum shall be inflicted upon the guilty, and what shall come to pass as a thing decreed of the Lord: So, Gen. 9.6. the Murtherer shall die by the Sword of the Magistrate, and Exod. 22.18, 19, 20. the Witch, the man that lyes with a beast, he that sacrifices to a strange god, shall die the death jure, merito, and by Law-deserving, but it followeth not, but such as commit these abominations, do live, as is clear in the Kings of Assyria, Chaldaea, and many of Israel, who were not put to death, but lived quoad eventum, though contrary to the Word of God. 3. The expresse Precepts of the Decalogue, Thou shalt have no other gods before me, &c. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, &c. do shew what in Law we ought not to do, but not what actually shall come to passe: For there be not a few who do actually, & quoad eventum, worship strange gods, kill, and steal.Threatnings that are both threatnings and also Prophesies, reveal both the deserving of the transgressor, and the event. But there are other threatnings which are both threatnings, and also Prophesies, and these reveal both the Law and the fact, and what the Law-giver may, jure, and, in Law, inflict, and what shall actually come to passe upon the transgressours, if they continue in impenitency, Rom. 2.1.2, 3, Rom. 1.18. 1 Cor. 6.9, 10.
Obj. Then in all threatnings and promises we are not to believe, that though we sin, we shall actually & quoad eventum die, and though we obey and beleeve, wee are not to beleeve that GOD shall fulfill his promise, and that our salvation shall come to passe, only we are to believe jure, that we deserve to die, and that we shall have eternall life, jure promissionis, but not actually and according to the event. Answ. Something is to be said of the threatnings, then of the promises: As▪ touching the sense, we are to beleeve. In the threatnings conditionall as (yet fourty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed) and (in that day thou eats thou shalt surely die, in thy person and all thine the first and second death) we are not to believe the event, nor is it carnall security, not to beleeve such an event,What is carnall security in beleeving legal threatenings what not. we are only to have a godly fear and to tremble, at the dreadfu…l deserving of such threatnings legall, as alway are to be exponed and beleeved by all within the Visible Church, with an Evangelick exception of repentance. If therefore Adam did beleeve that he and all his should in their own persons actually suffer the first and second death, and that irrecoverably, he had no warrand, for any such belief, and the like may be said of Nineveh. For when the Lord said, in the day that thou eats thou shalt die, the first and second death, thou and all thy children personally; His meaning was, except I provide an Evangelick remedy and a Saviour. Godly fear trembles more at the darkning of the glory of the Lord in a broken Law, then at the event of inflicted wrath, were it even Hells fire.
Obj. Adam was to beleeve no such exception. Answ. True. Because it was not revealed, nor was he to beleeve the contrary that he should irrecoverably and eternally perish, because that was not revealed: But the threatning of the Law doth not deny the Evangelick remedy, as it neither doth affirme it.
What Adam was to beleeve in the threatning, what the lying Serpent would have him to beleeve.Obj. Then was Adam to believe, it was true which the Serpent said, ye shall not surely die, & quoad eventum, but ye shall be as Gods living and knowing good and evill.
Ans. Neither doth that follow, for in the meaning of the liar, it was not true, that they should not die, either by deserving (for Satan brangles the equity and righteousness of the Law and threatning) or actually and in the event, for both were false and neither revealed, and faith is not to go beyond what is revealed of God. And Sathan disputed against both the equity of the threatning, as if it had been unjust, in Law, and against the event, as a fiction and a thing that should not come to passe in the event, which indeed did not come to passe: but not according to the Serpents lying and false principles.
Obj. Was then Adam to despair and to beleeve nothing of a Saviour. Ans. He was not obliged to despaire, but to rely, by vertue of the first Commandement of the Decalogue, upon God infinitly powerfull, mercifull, gracious, and wise to save, for that was revealed and written in his heart, and that is far from despairing: But in the intervall between the fall and the Lords publishing the blessed Gospel, and news of the seed to come, he was so to trust in God for possible deliverance in generall (as the Law of Nature requireth) but he was to beleeve nothing of unrevealed particulars, far lesse of the mystery of the Gospel, which was kept secret, since the world began, Rom. 16.25.
Obj. Then may also the damned in Hell, who are not loosed from their obligation to the Law of Nature, The damned in hell not loosed from the first Command are not obliged to despair, and yet are not to believe actuall deliverance.and the first Command, be obliged to rely on an infinite and Almighty God, for their deliverance, for they are not obliged to despair, nor is there an obligation to any sin.
Ans. There is not the like reason, for though the damned be not loosed from the Law of Nature, but are to rely upon God in his whole al-sufficiency, yet with exception of his revealed Justice and Truth: Now he hes expresly revealed, that their worm never dieth, and their fire never goeth out. And to believe that, is not to despaire. Obj. What are then such Heathens to beleeve as touching that threatning, who never heard of the Gospel? What heathens are to believe. The Covenant of Works is not contrair to the Gospel. How the Gospel may be deduced from the Law, if an act of the free-will, grace and infinit wisdome of GOD be added to make good the assumption. How the promises are to be beleeved, and how in them, we are to beleeve both the equity and event of the promises, if the condition be performed, and how the difference must be made between them and the threatningsAns. They are under the Law of Nature, and to beleeve that sin deserves wrath, according to the infinitnesse of the Majesty, against whom it is committed, and to obey the Law of Nature, and read the Book of the Creation carefully: But and if the news and rumor of a Saviour come to their ears, their sin cannot but be Evangelick, in not pursuing the reality and truth of such a soveraign remedy. Yet it is not to be thought, that though the Gospel be come to all Nations, Rom. 16.26. that that is to be meant. 1. Of every Generation of all Nations. Or, 2. of the individuall persons, either young, or come to age, of every Nation under Heaven, experience and Scripture speaketh against both.
Obj. But is not the Covenant of Grace contrary to the Law and Covenant of Works? Answ. A diversity there is, but contrary wills in the holy Lord cannot be asserted. Yea the Gospel may be proven out of the Law, and from the first Commandement of the Decalogue, if any act of the Lords free will and infinite wisedome shall be added to prove the Assumption. So,
If the first Command teach that God is infinitely wise, mercifull, gracious, just, and able to save, then, if so it please him, he shall save;
But the first Command teacheth the former: And the Gospel revealing the unsearchable riches of Christ, Eph. 3.8. expresly saith so much. Ergo.
As to the promises, they contain not only the jus, equity and goodnesse of the thing promised, but also that the Lord shall actually perform, yea and intends to perform, what he hath promised upon condition that we perform the required condition. And in this the promises differ not a little from these threatnings, that are only threatnings, of what God may do in Law, but not from these threatnings which are both threatnings and also Propheticall predictions of what shall come to passe, therefore must we here difference betwixt threatnings, and such and such threatnings.
The promises are considered as they are Preached and anunciated to all within the Visible Church, and as they are made in the intention of God with the Elect and Sons of the promise: The same way the threatnings admit of a two-fold consideration. The promises to the Elect as intended of God,The promises as annunciated, and as made. The Gospel promises to the Reprobate are legal, & how. reveal that both the Lord minds to give the blessing promised, and the condition that is grace to perform the condition, and so they are promises Evangelick both in the matter, and in the intention of the Lord: But as proponed to the reprobate, who are alwayes from their birth to their death under a Covenant of Works, really as touching the LORDS holy Decree, they are materially Evangelick promises, but formally and in the Lords intention legall, as every dispensation to them is legall, forasmuch as the Lord hath decreed to deny the grace, by which they may or can fulfill the condition of the promise, which is proper to the Law, as it is peculiar to the Gospel, that the Lord both gives the mercy promised and also the grace to fulfill the condition of the promise.
The threatnings to beleevers, especially such as are legall (if you beleevers fall away, The Law-threatnings to the Elect are Evangelick, and how.ye shall eternally perish) are to beleevers, though materially legall, peremptorie, and admit no exception, yet they are formally and in the Lords intention directed to them upon an Evangelick intention, nor do they say that the Lord intends and decrees that they shall eternally perish, for he hath predestinate them to the contrary, to wit, to grace and glory, Ephes. 1.4. Nor that he wills that they should beleeve either their eternall damnation, or their finall and totall falling away, which inevitably leads thereunto. For they, knowing that they are in Christ, 2 Cor. 13.5. Rom. 8.16, 17. and freed from condemnation, Rom. 8.1. are to beleeve the contraire of the former, to wit, life eternall, John 4.24. 1 Thes. 5.9. John 3.16. and the contraire of the latter, to wit, the promise of perseverance made to them, Jer. 32.39, 40. Isa. 59.21. John 10.27, 28. John 17.20, 21. 1 Pet. 1.3, 4, 5. Mat. 16.16, 17, 19. Therefore these threatnings are not to be beleeved by the regenerate, as certainly to come to passe in their persons, but only as Law-motives to presse them to work out their salvation in fear and trembling, and to cleave so much the closser to Christ, as the condition of such as are under the Law is apprehended to be dreadfull. But reprobats and unbeleevers are not to beleeve that God decrees and intends to them the thing promised, and grace to perform the condition, but only to beleeve their obligation to fiduciall relying upon, and Gospel-faith in God, revealed in the Mediator; and that if they continue in a way of opposing Christ, they not only deserve by Law (which Law-deserving also beleevers are to apprehend) to be broken, but actually and quoad eventum shall eternally perish. Believers are to believe the Decree of God to save them, though they hear the threatnings, for its revealed. But the Reprobate are to beleeve only the sense and Law-deserving and event of the threatning, if they repent not, but are to beleeve no decree to save them.