(1.) They do not understand the nature of that covenant to purpose, Gal. iv. 21. Any notion they have of it, is lame and weak, without efficacy. They see not how forcibly it binds to perfect obedience and satisfaction, how rigorous it is in its demands, and will abate nothing, though a man should do to the utmost of his power, and with cries and tears of blood seek forgiveness for the rest. They are not acquainted with the spirituality of the law, and the vast compass of the holy commandment, but stick too much in the letter of it. Hence they are alive without the law, Rom. vii. 9. They narrow the demands of it, that so they may be the more likely to fulfil them.

(2.) They are not duly sensible of their own utter inability for that way of salvation; "There is one that accuseth them, even Moses," or the law, "in whom they trust," John v. 45. They know they are off the way, and that they have wandered from God; but they hope they will get back to him again by repentance; while, in the meantime, their heart is a heart of stone, and they cannot change it; and "the Ethiopian shall" be able as soon to "change his skin, the leopard his spots, as they may do good that are accustomed to do evil," Jer. xiii. 23; and there is no coming to God but by Christ, John iv. 6. They know they have sinned, and provoked justice against them; but they hope to be sorry for their sin, to pray to God for forgiveness, and bear any thing patiently that God lays on them; while in the meantime they see not that none of those things will satisfy God's justice, which yet will have full satisfaction for every the least sin of theirs, ere they see heaven. They know they must be holy; but they hope to serve God better than ever they have done; while in the meantime they consider not that their work-arm is broken, and they can work none to purpose till they be saved by grace.

Application of the Doctrine of the Condition of Men under the broken Covenant of Works.

This doctrine may be applied for information and exhortation. USE I. Of information. Hence learn,

1. That some, yea many of mankind, are under the curse, bound over to wrath. For that is the case of all persons under that covenant. Their necks are under a heavy yoke; they are liable in payment of a penalty, which they will never be able to discharge, and to put off their heads. They may pay more or less of it in this world; but if they get not rid of it another way, it will not be paid out through all the ages of eternity.

2. See here whence it is that true holiness is so rare, and wicked

ness and ungodliness so frequent in the world. Most men are under that covenant, under which sin and death reign; and there is no holiness, there are no good works under it, Rom. vi. 14. It has, being broken, barred communion betwixt God and sinners under it; and therefore of necessity there must be a pining away in iniquity while one is under it. It is only in the way of the second covenant that sanctifying influences are had.

3. Here ye may see the true spring of legalism in principles as well as in practice. Many are really under that covenant; no wonder then there be many to set up for that way. It is the way that backsliding churches in all ages have gone. It soon began in the primitive apostolical churches; and that mystery of iniquity wrought till it issued in Popery, the grand apostasy under the New Testament.

4. See whence it is that the doctrine of the gospel is so little understood, and in the purity of it is looked at as a strange thing. It is like other things which are not known in the country in which one is bred, and therefore stared at, and often mistaken. Hence it gets ill names in the world. When Christ himself preached it, he was called a friend of publicans and sinners; when Paul preached it, they would not believe but he made void the law by it, and that he opened a door for licentiousness of life, Rom. iii. 8.

USE II. Be exhorted then seriously and impartially to try what covenant ye are under. It is true there is a covenant of grace made, proclaimed and offered unto you, and ye are all under the outward dispensation of the covenant of grace; but yet many are notwithstanding really under the covenant of works still. As ye love your own souls, try impartially, whether ye be under it or not, but under the covenant of grace. For motives, consider

MOTIVE 1. Ye are all born under the covenant of works, being "by nature children of wrath," Eph. ii. 3. It is in the region of the law that we all draw our first breath. And no man will get out from its dominion in a morning dream. We owe it to our second birth, whoever of us are brought into the covenant of grace; but that is not our original state. The law is the first husband to all and every one of Adam's children. I would have you try whether ye be dead to it, and divorced from it or not.

MOTIVE 2. Till once ye see yourselves under the covenant of works, and so lost and ruined with the burden of that broken covenant on you; ye may hear of the covenant of grace, but ye will never take hold of it in good earnest, Gal. ii. 6. Here lies the ruin never slain by the

of the most part who hear the gospel; they were law, and therefore never quickened by the gospel; they never find the working of the deadly poison conveyed to them from the first Adam,

and therefore they see no beauty in the second Adam for which he is to be desired.

What

MOTIVE 3. Your salvation or ruin turns on this point. covenant ye are under. If thou be within the bond of the covenant. of grace, thou art in a state of salvation; "He that believeth shall be saved," Mark xvi. 16. David could say, "God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. If thou art under the covenant of works, thou art in a state of death; for, says the text, "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." And is this so light and trivial a matter that thou shouldst be unconcerned which of these covenants thou art under? MOTIVE 4. There is no ease for a poor sinner but severity and rigour, under the covenant of works. One may easily see that we are not able to abide that now, when we are become weak and guilty; for, says the Psalmist, Psalm cxxx. 3, "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities; O Lord, who shall stand?" But while thou remainest under the first covenant, thou canst expect nothing but wrath and fury. There is no pardon under that covenant; the law-statute being, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 17. The sinner must die the death. That ever we heard of pardon is owing to the second covenant, which secures pardoning mercy to those who come under the bond of it; for "by him (Christ) all that believe are justified from all things, from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses," Acts xiii. 39. Though there is no question but the covenant of works requires repentance, a turning to God under pain of the curse; yet there is no grace for helping the sinner to it under this covenant; and suppose one could attain to it, it could not help him. There is no accepting the will for the deed under it. It is not good will, but perfectly good works that will satisfy it.

MOTIVE 5. While ye are under that covenant, ye are without Christ, Eph. ii. 12. As a woman cannot, by the law of God, be married to two husbands at once, so one cannot be under the covenant of works and married to Christ at once. The first marriage to the law must be dissolved by death or divorce, ere the soul can be married to Christ, Rom. vii. 4. And being without Christ, ye have no saving interest in his purchase.

Lastly, All attempts you make to get to heaven, while under this covenant, will be vain. The children of that covenant are, by an unalterable statute of the court of heaven, excluded from the heavenly inheritance; so that, do what you will, while ye abide under it, you may as well fall a-ploughing the rocks, and sowing your seed in the sand of the sea, as think to get to heaven that way; for what saith

the scripture? "Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman," Gal. iv. 30. The way to heaven by that covenant is blocked up to sinners, the angel with the flaming sword guards the tree of life, so that there is no access to salvation that way, but under a condition impossible for you to perform.

Now, to set this matter in a due light to you, I will,

1. Give some marks and characters of those that are under this covenant.

2. Discover the vanity of some pleas that such have, to prove that it is not to their own works that they trust for salvation, but to Christ.

First, I will give some marks and characters of those that are under this covenant.

1. They have never yet parted with the law, or covenant of works, lawfully, which all the saints have done. There are two ways of parting with that covenant. One is by running away from it; and thus we may apply to this case Nabal's tale concerning David, 1 Sam xxv. 10, "There be many servants now-a-days, that break away every man from his master." They break its bonds, and cast away its cords, value neither its commands nor threats; for they look on it like an almanack out of date, as a thing that they are not concerned with. This is no lawful parting, and therefore it cannot dissolve the relation betwixt them and it. A servant or a wife that is run away, is a servant or a wife for all that still. And the master can bring back the one, and make him serve or suffer; and the husband the other. And so will this covenant deal with such, and make them sensible they are under it still, in the strictest bonds. It will take them by the throat here or hereafter, saying, Pay what thou owest.

The other is parting with it, after fair count and reckoning with it, and payment instructed; a parting with it upon a divorce obtained, after a fair hearing given it before the Judge of all the earth. It is brought about in this manner. There is a summons given at the instance of the law, or covenant of works, to the conscience of the secure sinner, to compear before the tribunal of God. Hereby the conscience being awakened, it appears and stands trembling at the bar; in the meantime the King's Son offers himself in a marriage covenant to the guilty soul, with his righteousness, obedience, and satisfaction. The law appears and pleads,

(1.) So much and so much owing by the sinner, for his breaking its commands. Mountains of guilt appear innumerable articles in its accounts; and the charge must be owned just, for it is just in

every particular. Here the sinner, betaking himself to Christ, pleads by faith the satisfaction of Christ for him; and, embracing the gospel offers, he sets betwixt him and the law the death and sufferings of Christ, as full payment of that debt.

(2.) So much to be done before the sinner can be saved, according to the condition of the covenant, perfect obedience due to it by all the children of Adam. The sinner cannot deny the debt; but pleads by faith the Mediator's payment of it, by his obedience even to the death. He counts upon this score unto the law, all that Christ the Son of God did for the space of about thirty-three years on the earth, in the perfect obedience of all its commands,

Thus the sinner, embracing Christ, has wherewith to answer it. And the plea of payment that way is sustained, and the soul is declared free from the law or covenant of works, and so lawfully parted from it. What experience have ye of this? This will, for the substance of it, pass in every soul freed from the covenant of works. But alas! how many are there, [1.] Who were never troubled about that, how to get a discharge of that bargain from the Judge of all the earth, but have lived at ease without it? [2.] Who never saw a necessity of reckoning with the law, in order to their getting clear of it? [3.] Who have still aimed at putting off the demands of the law, with their own obedience and suffering, such as they were?

2. They are of a legal spirit, and have not the spirit of the covenant of grace. Caleb and Joshua had another spirit than the rest of the Jews, so have those who are within the bond of the covenant of grace, Gal. iv. 24. In the saints indeed there are wretched remains of that spirit, but it does not reign in them as in others.

1st, They are of a slavish spirit who are under that covenant; whereas the saints are acted by a son-like spirit. For, says the apostle, Rom. viii. 15; "ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." As the slave is moved with fear, not with

love; so is it with them. This slavish spirit appears in them thus: (1.) They are driven from sin, and to their duty, by the fear of hell and wrath, rather than drawn from the one to the other by any hatred of the one, and love of the other, in themselves; like the Israelites of old, of whom it is said; Psalm lxxviii. 34, "When he [God] slew them, then they sought him; and they returned, and enquired early after God." It is the influence of the covenant of works in its terrible sanction, that moves them. Take away that, secure them but from hell and damnation, and they would give themselves the swing in their lusts; they have no other kind of