Evan. The law of works, opposed to the law of faith, (Rom 3:27), holds forth as much as the covenant of works; for it is manifest, says Musculus, that the word which signifies covenant, or bargain, is put for law: so that you see the law of works is as much as to say, the covenant of works; the which covenant the Lord made with all mankind in Adam before his fall; the sum whereof was, "Do this, and thou shalt live," (Lev 18:5); "and if thou do it not, thou shalt die the death," (Gen 2:17). In which covenant there was contained first a precept, "Do this"; secondly a promise joined unto it, "If thou do it thou shalt live"; thirdly, a like threatening, "If thou do it not, thou shalt die the death." Imagine, says Musculus, that God had said to Adam, Lo, to the intent that thou mayest live, I have given thee liberty to eat, and have given thee abundantly to eat: let all the fruits of paradise be in thy power, one tree excepted, which see thou touch not, for that I keep to mine own authority: the same is "the tree of knowledge of good and evil"; if thou touch it, the meat thereof shall not be life, but death.

Nom. But, sir, you said, that the law of the ten commandments, or moral law, may be said to be the matter of the law of works; and you have also said, that the law of works is as much as to say the covenant of works, whereby it seems to me, you hold that the law of the ten commandments was the matter of the covenant of works, which God made with all mankind in Adam before his fall.

Evan. That is a truth agreed upon by all authors and interpreters that I know. And indeed the law of works [as a learned author says] signifies the moral law; and the moral law, strictly and properly taken, signifies the covenant of works. ¹

Nom. But, sir, what is the reason you call it but the matter of the covenant of works?

Evan. The reason why I rather choose to call the law of the ten commandments the matter of the covenant of works, than the covenant itself, is, because I conceive that the matter of it cannot properly be called the covenant of works, except the form be put upon it; that is to say, except the Lord require, and man undertake to yield perfect obedience thereunto, upon condition of eternal life and death.

And therefore, till then, it was not a covenant of works betwixt God and all mankind in Adam; as, for example, you know, that although a servant ² have an ability to do a master's work, and though a master have wages to bestow upon him for it; yet is there not a covenant betwixt them till they have thereupon agreed. Even so, though a man at the first had power to yield perfect and perpetual obedience to all the ten commandments, and God had an eternal life to bestow upon him; yet was there not a covenant betwixt them till they were thereupon agreed.

Nom. But, sir, you know there is no mention made in the book of Genesis of this covenant of works, which, you say, was made with man at first.

Evan. Though we read not the word "covenant" betwixt God and man, yet have we there recorded what may amount to as much; for God provided and promised to Adam eternal happiness, and called for perfect obedience, which appears from God's threatening, (Gen 2:17); for if man must die if he disobeyed, it implies strongly, that God's covenant was with him for life, if he obeyed.

Nom. But, sir, you know the word "covenant" signifies a mutual promise, bargain, and obligation betwixt two parties. Now, though it is implied that God promised man to give him life if he obeyed, yet we read not, that man promised to be obedient.

Evan. I pray take notice, that God does not always tie man to verbal expressions, but doth often contract the covenant in real impressions in the heart and frame of the creature, ³ and this was the manner of covenanting with man at the first; ⁴ for God had furnished his soul with an understanding mind, whereby he might discern good from evil, and right from wrong: and not only so, but also in his will was most great uprightness, (Eccl 7:29); and his instrumental parts ⁵ were orderly framed to obedience. The truth is, God did engrave in man's soul wisdom and knowledge of his will and works, and integrity in the whole soul, and such a fitness in all the powers thereof, that neither the mind did conceive, nor the heart desire, nor the body put in execution, anything but that which was acceptable to God; so that man, endued with these qualities, was able to serve God perfectly.

Nom. But, sir, how could the law of the ten commandments be the matter of this covenant of works, when they were not written, as you know, till the time of Moses?

Evan. Though they were not written in tables of stone until the time of Moses, yet were they written in the tables of man's heart in the time of Adam: for we read that man was created in the image or likeness of God, (Gen 1:27). And the ten commandments are a doctrine agreeing with the eternal wisdom and justice that is in God; wherein he hath so painted out his own nature, that it does in a manner express the very image of God, (Col 3:10). And does not the apostle say, (Eph 4:24), that the image of God consists in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness? And is not knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, the perfection of both the tables of the law? And indeed, says Mr. Rollock, it could not well stand with the justice of God, to make a covenant with man, under the condition of holy and good works, and perfect obedience to his law, except he had first created man holy and pure, and engraven his law in his heart, whence those good works should proceed.

Nom. But yet I cannot but marvel that God, in making the covenant with man, did make mention of no other commandment than that of the forbidden fruit.

Evan. Do not marvel at it: for by that one species of sin the whole genus or kind is shown; as the same law, being more clearly unfolded, doth express, (Deut 28:26, Gal 3:10). And, indeed, in that one commandment the whole worship of God did consist; as obedience, honour, love, confidence, and religious fear; together with the outward abstinence from sin, and reverend respect to the voice of God; yea, herein also consisted his love, and so his whole duty to his neighbour; ⁶ so that, as a learned writer says, Adam heard as much [of the law] in the garden, as Israel did at Sinai; but only in fewer words, and without thunder.

Nom. But, sir, ought not man to have yielded perfect obedience to God, though this covenant had not been made betwixt them?

Evan. Yea, indeed; perfect and perpetual obedience was due from man unto God, though God had made no promise to man; for when God created man at first, he put forth an excellency from himself into him; and therefore it was the bond and tie that lay upon man to return that gain unto God; ⁷ so that man being God's creature, by the law of creation he owed all obedience and subjection to God his Creator.

Nom. Why, then, was it needful that the Lord should make a covenant with him, by promising him life, and threatening him with death?

Evan. For answer hereunto, in the first place, I pray you understand, that man was a reasonable creature; and so, out of judgment, discretion, and election, able to make choice of his way, and therefore it was meet there should be such a covenant made with him, that he might, according to God's appointment, serve him after a reasonable manner. Secondly, It was meet there should be such a covenant made with him, to show that he was not such a prince on earth, but that he had a sovereign Lord: therefore, God set a punishment upon the breach of his commandment; ⁸ that man might know his inferiority, and that things betwixt him and God were not as betwixt equals. Thirdly, It was meet there should be such a covenant made with him, to show that he had nothing by personal, immediate, and underived right, but all by gift and gentleness: so that you see it was an equal covenant, ⁹ which God, out of his prerogative-royal, made with mankind in Adam before his fall.

Nom. Well, sir, I do perceive that Adam and all mankind in him were created most holy.

Evan. Yea, and most happy, too: for God placed him in paradise in the midst of all delightful pleasures and contents, wherein he did enjoy most near and sweet communion with his Creator, in whose presence is fullness of joy, and whose right hand are pleasures evermore, (Psa 16:11). So that if Adam had received of the tree of life, by taking and eating it, while he stood in the state of innocency before his fall, he had certainly been established in a happy estate for ever, and could not have been seduced and supplanted by Satan, as some learned men, do think, and as God's own words seem to imply, (Gen 3:22). ¹⁰

[Back] [1] The moral law is an ambiguous term among divines. (1.) The moral law is taken from the decalogue, or ten commandments, simply. So the law in the ten commandments is owned to be commonly called the moral law, Westm. Confess. chap. 19, art. 2, 3. And thus our author has hitherto used that term, reckoning the moral law not the covenant of works itself, but only the matter of it. (2.) The moral law is taken for the ten commandments, having the promise of life, and threatening of death annexed to them; that is for the law, or covenant of works. Thus the moral law is described to be, "the declaration of the will of God to mankind, directing and binding every one to personal, perfect, and perpetual conformity and obedience thereunto, in the frame and disposition of the whole man, soul and body, and in performance of all these duties of holiness and righteousness, which he oweth to God and man, promising life upon the fulfilling, and threatening death upon the breach of it." Larger Catech. Quest. 93. That this is the covenant of works, is clear from Westm. Confess. chap. 19, art. 1, "God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it." And this our author owns to be the sense of that term, strictly and properly taken; the reason whereof I conceive to be, that the moral law, properly signifying the law of manners, answers to the Scripture term, the law of works, by which is meant the covenant of works. And if he had added, that in this sense believers are delivered from it, he had said no more than the Larger Catechism doth, in these words: "They that are regenerate, and believe in Christ, be delivered from the moral law as a covenant of works," Quest. 97. But, in the meantime, it is evident he does not here use that term in this sense; and in the next paragraph, save one, he gives a reason why he did not so use it.

[Back] [2] Not a hired servant, for there is a covenant betwixt such an one and the master, but a bond-servant, bought with money, of another person, or born in the master's house, who is obliged to serve his master, and is liable to punishment in case he do not, but cannot demand wages, since there is no covenant between them.

This was the case of mankind, with relation to the Creator, before the covenant of works was made.

[Back] [3] The soul approving, embracing, and consenting to the covenant; which, without any more, is plain language, though not unto men, yet unto God, who knoweth the heart.

[Back] [4] The covenant being revealed to man created after God's own image, he could not but perceive the equity and benefit of it; and so heartily approve, embrace, accept, and consent to it. And this accepting is plainly intimated in Eve's words to the serpent, (Gen 3:2,3), "We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; 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."

[Back] [5] Executive faculties and powers, whereby the good known and willed was to be done.

[Back] [6] That one commandment was in effect a summary of the whole duty of man, the which clearly appears, if one considers that the breach of it was a transgressing of all the ten commandments at once, as our author afterwards distinctly shows.

[Back] [7] God having given man a being after his own image, a glorious excellency, it was his natural duty to make suitable returns thereof unto the Giver, in a way of duty, being and acting for him; even as the waters, which originally are from the sea, do in brooks and rivers return to the sea again. Man, being of God as his first cause, behoved to be to him as his chief and ultimate end, (Rom 11:36).

[Back] [8] The punishment of death upon the breach of his commandment touching the forbidden fruit.

[Back] [9] That is, an equitable covenant, fair and reasonable.

[Back] [10] The author says, that some learned men think so, and that the words, (Gen 3:22), seem to imply so much; but all this amounts not to a positive determination of the point. The words are these, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever," &c. Whether or not these words seem to imply some such things, I leave to the judgment of the reader, whom I incline not to entertain with mine own or others' conjectures upon this head; but three things I take to be plain, and beyond conjecture, in this text, (1.) That there is no irony nor scoff here, as many think there is; but, on the contrary, a most pathetic lamentation over fallen man. The literal version and sense of the former part of the text runs thus: "Behold the man that was one of us," &c., compare for the version, Lamentations 3:1; Psalm 3:7; and for the sense, Genesis 1:26, 27, "And God said, Let us make man in our image.—So God created man in his own image," &c. The latter part of the text I would read thus, "And eat that he may live for ever." Compare for this version, Exodus 4:23; 1 Samuel 6:8. It is evident the sentence is broken off abruptly; the words, "I will drive him out," being suppressed; even as in the case of a father, with sighs, sobs, and tears, putting his son out of doors. (2.) That it was God's design, to prevent Adam's eating of the tree of life, as he had of the forbidden tree, "lest he take also of the tree of life"; thereby mercifully taking care that our fallen father, to whom the covenant of grace was now proclaimed, might not, according to the corrupt natural inclination of fallen mankind, run back to the covenant of works for life and salvation, by partaking of the tree of life, a sacrament of that covenant, and so reject the covenant of grace, by eating of that tree now, as he had before broken the covenant of works, by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (3.) That at this time Adam did think, that by eating of the tree of life he might live for ever. Farther I dip not here in this matter.