Goodwill Towards Men, Part 1
OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS. Part I.
Gen. 2.17.
But of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely dye, or dying thou shalt dye.
I Design (God assisting) to Discourse of the two Covenants betwixt God and Man. The Introduction.The right opening and understanding whereof might help to set and keep our Judgments right in many points of Divinity, and prevent our falling into many dangerous and prevailing errors. And as Luther said (as I remember) upon his understanding of the point of free Justification by Christ's righteousness, that thereupon he thought himself apertis portis in ipsum paradisum intrâsse, to have strait way entered into Paradise: And ibi continuò alia mihi facies totius Scripturae apparuit, forthwith the whole Scripture appeared to him with a new face; so it would no doubt to many, could they attain to a right and true notion of the Covenants.
Now I have made choice of this Text of Scripture, whereupon to ground my Discourse of the Covenant of works: As this was part of it; part of that first Covenant, God was pleased to make with Man in innocency.
I confess the Covenant of Works made with Adam in innocency, is more darkly spoken of than the Covenant of Grace.
And the Reason is obvious, because the first Covenant was soon broken, on man's part, that he can claim no priviledge or benefit by it. In this respect it is, as if it had never been. All man's hope of happiness depends wholly on that which is called the Covenant of Grace.
Therefore the promissory part of that first Covenant is not mentioned here, not spoken of expresly: but only implyed, and included in the threatning. The Text indeed runneth in the Form of a Law with a threatning. As we have no more expressed here; but,
1. A Precept, not to eat.—
2. The Sanction or penalty threatned, death in case man did eat, contrary to the charge, and precept God had given him.
Yet there is more included and implyed here: As,
1. A Promise: A promise of the continuance of Adam's life and happiness, upon Condition that he continued his Obedience.
When it is said [If thou disobeyest thou shalt dye.] it fairly intimates thus much, Poena enim denunciata inobedientiae non expectatur, ubi est obedientia. Cocceide foed. c. 2. Sect. 24. p. 29.[If thou wilt be Obedient in this thing, and whatsoever else I command thee, thou shalt surely live still, and be happy, thou shalt not dye.]
2. The Tenor of the first Covenant is included here, that it was [Do this and live, disobey and dye.] That the Stipulation, or Condition required of man in the first Covenant, was his perfect obedience to the will of God in all things, not only to the Law of Nature implanted in him, but also to any further Command of God's giving Forth.
As we see in this positive Law, where the thing forbidden was lawful in it self, and only sinful because forbidden, and forbidden, to prove and try his obedience. As this was indeed a fit trial of it, by a Law to restrain him from that, whereunto he had a Natural inclination, as unto other fruits in Paradise (Gen. 3.6.) and which was indifferent, (within mans liberty to take and eat) before the giving of that Law.
But I say the Condition of the first Covenant was obedience to the will of God in all things; therefore it is rightly called the Covenant of works. As Rom. 3.27. we read of a Law of works contradistinguished and opposed to the Law of Faith. The Tenor of it being [do this and live] implyed here in the threatning, If thou disobeyest in any thing, be it but so much as in tasting of this fruit, (which here to try thy Obedience, I forbid thee to eat of) Thou shalt dye. As Grotius (de Satis. c. 3.) per unam Speciem peccati omne peccati genus indicatur, ut exprimit Lex eadem clarius explicata, Maledictus qui non manserit in omnibus praeceptis Legis, Deut. 27.26. Gal. 3.10.
This [In the day thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt dye, meaneth as much as that [Cursed is he that continueth not obedient in all things.
3. That the Law of works, the Law given to Adam, was more than a penal, and praemiant Law, more than a Law with a promise, It is true Gods Law with its Sanction may be called his Covenant, before mans consent, as containing the matter of it; but it is most properly a Covenant when it is consented unto, having then also the form of a Covenant.and threatning annexed, that it was also a Covenant. I have this to say further, viz. that we cannot but suppose, that innocent Adam did fully consent to, and readily and thankfully accept of Gods Terms and proposals here [Obey and live, Disobey and dye.] When God had done so much for man in his Creation, making him a reasonable Creature; in, or after his own Image, able to yield perfect obedience, and when the said obedience was indisputably, indispensably his duty, whether God promised such a reward or not, to suppose now that man was not fully consenting to the Terms offered, (which were most just and reasonable) for the continuation of his happiness, were to suppose that man was not what he was indeed, (i. e. reasonable, and innocent,) This were to suppose, that God did not make man upright or perfect, but rather perverse, and to suppose that man lay cross to his Maker, even before he fell, which is (no doubt) prodigiously false.
4. One thing more included here, and to be inferred, is, that this Covenant, and Compact, was not made with Adam alone, but with him, and his posterity together. Their want of perfect conformity to Gods Will and Law, (the thing required, and insisted on in the Covenant of works) rendring his posterity guilty of death, even as if they had set their teeth in the forbidden fruit. The penalty threatned to Adam's breach of Covenant, we see inflicted on his posterity, that certainly they were involved in the Covenant with him, to be dealt withall upon the same Terms. Even Infants, who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression, yet through his disobedience (mediante corruptione, their nature by that means being corrupted) are subjected to the same death, and punishment.
Though Corrinus takes it thus, Cens. Amat. Arm. c. 9. p. 138.death being threatned unto Adam that very day he sinned, therefore his posterity could not but partake of his punishment. As they must all of necessity dye in him, who were in his loins. Yet by his leave, this account he gives of the matter is utterly short of that account the holy Scripture giveth of it. The Apostle concludeth further, Rom. 5.12. That by Adam's Sin, all the world of mankind became subject unto death; so as they are subject to it, not only to dye vertually in him but formally to undergoe the Sentence of death in their own persons.
Now hence I lay down this Doctrinal Conclusion.
Doct. That God was pleased to Covenant with man at first, when in the state of innocency, promising to give him eternal life, upon Condition of his obeying perfectly and constantly; withall threatning death, if in the least point he should disobey.
And to help your understandings, and to lead you on to a clearer conception, and apprehension of the Nature of this first Covenant, I shall proceed by certain steps, laying down several propositions about it: humbly begging the Spirit of truth so to guide me, that I may not mislead you here.