knowledge, &c., thou shalt live; even as in the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" is plainly implied, Thou shalt preserve thy own life and the life of others. And thus it is explained by Moses; Rom. x. 5, "The man which doth those things shall live by them." Besides, the license given him to eat of all the other trees, and so of the tree of life, which had a sacramental use, imports this promise.

2. The condition required to entitle him to this benefit; namely, obedience. It is expressed in a prohibition of one particular, "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.” There was a twofold law given to Adam; the natural law, which was concreated with him, engraven on his heart in his creation. For it is said, Gen. i. 27, that " God created man in his own image;" compared with Eph. iv. 24, "That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." This law was afterwards promulgated on Mount Sinai, being much obliterated by sin. Another law was the symbolical law, mentioned in the text, which, not being known by nature's light, was revealed to Adam, probably by an audible voice. By this God chose to try, and by an external action, exemplify his obedience to the natural law concreated with him. And this being a thing in its own nature altogether indifferent, the binding of it upon him by the mere will of the divine lawgiver, did clearly import the more strong tie of the natural law upon him in all the parts of it. Thus perfect obedience was the condition of this covenant.

3. The sanction, or penalty in case of the breach of the covenant, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." For if death was entailed on a doing of that which was only evil, because it was forbidden; much more might Adam understand it to be entailed on his doing of anything forbidden, because evil, or contrary to the nature or will of God, the knowledge of which was impressed on his mind in his creation. The sanction is plainly expressed, not the promise; because the last was plainly enough signified to him in the tree of life, and he had ample discoveries of God's goodness and bounty, but none of his justice, at least to himself. And it does not appear that the angels were yet fallen; or if they were, that Adam knew of it.

4. Adam's going into the proposal, and acceptance of those terms, is sufficiently intimated to us by his objecting nothing against it. Thus the Spirit of God teaches us Jonah's repentance and yielding at length to the Lord, after a long struggle, chap. iv. 11; as also Adam's own going into the covenant of grace, Gen. iii. 15. Besides, his knowledge could not but represent to him how beneficial a treaty this was; his upright will could not but comply with what a bountiful

God laid on him; and he, by virtue of that treaty, claimed the privilege of eating of the other trees, and so of the tree of life, as appears from Eve's words, Gen. iii. 3, "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

Now it is true, we have not here the word covenant; yet we must not hence infer, that there is no covenant in this passage, more than we may deny the doctrine of the Trinity and sacraments, because those words do not occur where these things are treated of in scripture, nay, are not to be found in the scripture at all. But as in those cases, so here we have the thing; for the making over of a benefit to one, upon a condition, with a penalty, gone into by the party it is proposed to, is a covenant, a proper covenant, call it as you will. The Covenant of Works, between God and Adam, a proper covenant.

The truth deducible from the words is this:

DOCT. There was a covenant of works, a proper covenant, between God and Adam the father of mankind.

In handling this important point, I shall,

I. Confirm the great truth expressed in the doctrinal note, and evince the being of such a covenant.

II. Explain the nature of this covenant.

III. Conclude with practical uses.

The truth of the Covenant of Works confirmed.

1. I shall confirm this great truth, and evince the being of such a covenant. It is altogether denied by the Arminians that there was any such covenant, and amongst ourselves by Professor Simson,* that it was a proper covenant. The weight of this matter lies here, that if the covenant made with Adam was not a proper covenant, he could not be a proper representing head; and if he was not, then there cannot be a proper imputation of Adam's sin unto his

* Mr. John Simson was Professor of Divinity in the College of Glasgow, and was twice prosecuted before the judicatories of the church, first for Pelagian and Arminian errors, and lastly for Arianism. Among his Arminian and Pelagian errors, vented in his answers to the libel exhibited against him by the Rev. Mr. James Webster of Edinburgh, and in his letters to Mr. Rowan, he held, in express terms, "That there was no proper covenant made with Adam for himself and his posterity: That Adam was not a federal head to his posterity; and that if Adam was made a federal head, it must be by divine command, which is not found in the Bible." These dangerous errors were solidly and judiciously refuted by the Rev. Messrs. James Flint and John Maclaren, both ministers of Edinburgh.

posterity. None could ever dream, but there must be a manifest difference betwixt covenants between God and man, and those between men and men. There is no manner of equality betwixt God and man; God could require all duty of men without any covenant ; yea, they have nothing but what is from him, and so owe it to him. But those things do not hinder, that, upon God's condescending to enter into a covenant with man, there may be a proper covenant betwixt them. Though all similitudes here must halt; yet let us suppose a father to propose to his son, that if he will obey his orders, and especially in one point give him punctual obedience, for instance, labour his vineyard, he will give him a certain sum of money; and the son having nothing to labour it with, the father furnishes him with all things necessary thereto; the son accepts of this proposal. Can any man say that there is not a proper bargain, or covenant, in this case betwixt the father and his son, although the son was tied by the bond of nature to obey his father's commands in all this antecedently to the bargain, and though he has nothing to labour it with, but what he has from the father? Let him perform his father's orders now according to the covenant, and he can challenge the sum as a debt, which he could not do before. For proof of this, consider,

1. Here is a concurrence of all that is necessary to constitute a true and proper covenant of works. The parties contracting, God and man; God requiring obedience as the condition of life; a penalty fixed in case of breaking; and man acquiescing in the proposal. The force of this cannot be evaded, by comparing it with the consent of subjects to the laws of an absolute prince. For such a law proposed by a prince, promising a reward upon obedience to it, is indeed the proposing of a covenant, the which the subject consenting to for himself and his, and taking on him to obey, does indeed enter into a covenant with the prince, and having obeyed the law may claim the reward by virtue of paction. And so the covenant of works is ordinarily in scripture called "the law," being in its own nature a pactional law.

2. It is expressly called a covenant in scripture, Gal. iv. 24, "For these are the two covenants, the one from the Mount Sinai," &c. This covenant from Mount Sinai was the covenant of works as being opposed to the covenant of grace, namely, the law of the ten commandments, with promise and sanction, as before expressed. At Sinai it was renewed indeed, but that was not its first appearance in the world. For there being but two ways of life to be found in scripture, one by works, the other by grace; the latter hath no place, but where the first is rendered ineffectual; therefore the co

venant of works was before the covenant of grace in the world; yet the covenant of grace was promulgated quickly after Adam's fall; therefore the covenant of works behoved to have been made with him before. And how can one imagine a covenant of works set before poor impotent sinners, if there had not been such a covenant with man in his state of integrity? Hos. vi. 7, "But as for them; like Adam, they have transgressed the covenant." Our translators set the word Adam on the margin. But in Job xxxi. 33, they translate the very same word, as Adam." This word occurs but three times in scripture, and still in the same sense. Job xxxi. "If I covered my transgressions, as Adam," Psalm lxxxii. 7, "But ye shall die like Adam." Compare ver. 6, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the Most High;" compared with Luke iii. 38, "Adam, which was the son of God." And also here, Hos. vi. 7. While Adam's hiding his sin, and his death are made an example, how natural is it that his transgression, that led the way to all, be made so too? This is the proper and literal sense of the words; it is so read by several, and is certainly the meaning of it.

33,

3. We find a law of works opposed to the law of faith, Rom. iii. 27, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith." This law of works is the covenant of works, requiring works, or obedience, as the condition pleadable for life; for otherwise the law as a rule of life requires works too. Again, it is a law that does not exclude boasting, which is the very nature of the covenant of works, that makes the reward to be of debt. And further, the law of faith is the covenant of grace; therefore the law of works is the covenant of works. So Rom. vi. 14, "Ye are not under the law, but under grace." And this was the way of life without question, which was given to Adam at first.

4. There were sacramental signs and seals of this transaction in paradise. As it has pleased the Lord still to deal with man in the way of a covenant, so to append seals to these covenants. God's covenant with Noah, that he would not destroy the earth again with water, had the rainbow as a sign of it to confirm it, Gen. ix. 12, 13. The covenant with Abraham had circumcision; that with the Israelites, circumcision and the passover; and the new covenant with the New Testament church, baptism and the Lord's supper. So to the covenant of works God appended the two trees; the tree of life, Gen. iii. 22, "And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever;" and the tree of the . knowledge of good and evil, mentioned in the words of the text.

When we find then confirming seals of this transaction, we must own it to be a covenant.

5. Lastly, All mankind are by nature under the guilt of Adam's first sin; Rom. v. 12, "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." And they are under the curse of the law before they have committed actual sin: hence they are said to be "by nature children of wrath," Eph. ii. 3, which they must needs owe to Adam's sin, as imputed to them. This must be owing to a particular relation betwixt them and him; which must either be, that he is their natural head simply, from whence they derive their natural being; but then the sins of our immediate parents, and all other mediate ones too, behoved to be imputed rather than Adam's, because our relation to them is nearer; or because he is our federal head also, representing us in the first covenant. And that is the truth, and evidences the covenant of works made with Adam to have been a proper covenant.

The Nature of the Covenant of Works.

II. I shall explain the nature of the covenant of works. In order to this, I shall consider,

1. The parties contracting in this covenant.

2. The parts of the covenant; and,

3. The seals of it.

The parties in the Covenant of Works.

FIRST, I shall consider the parties contracting in this covenant. These were two.

God the first party in the covenant.

First, On the one hand God himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Gen. ii. 16, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying," &c. God, as Creator and Sovereign Lord of man, condescended to enter into a covenant with man, his own creature and subject, whom he might have governed by a simple law, without proposing to him the reward of life. Thus it was a covenant betwixt two very unequal parties. And here God shewed,

1. His supreme authority over the creature man, founded on man's natural dependence on him as his Creator, Rom. xi. 36, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things." He gave him a law which he was to obey, under the greatest penalty; not only the natural law, but that positive law depending on the mere will of the Lawgiver; Job xxv. 2, "Dominion and fear are with him." The