God might have dealt with us in a supreme way of mere sove- reignty and dominion, commanding what duties he pleased, and es- tablishing his commands by what penalties he pleased, and never have brought himself under the tie and obligation of a covenant to his own creatures : but he chuses to deal familiarly with his people by way of covenanting, being a familiar way, 2 Sam. vii. 19. Is this the manner of men, O Lord God, or, (as Junius renders it) and that after the manner of men, O Lord God! it is a way full of condescending grace and goodness : he is willing hereby his people should know what they may certainly expect from their God, as well as what their God requires of them. Hereby also he will fur- nish them with mighty pleas and arguments in prayer, succour their faith against temptations, strengthen their hands in duties of obedi- ence, sweeten their obedience to them, and discriminate his own peo- ple from the world.
As soon therefore as man was created and placed in paradise, being made upright and thoroughly furnished with abilities perfect- ly and completely to obey all the commands of his Maker, the Lord immediately entered into the covenant of works with him, and all his natural posterity in him : And in this covenant his standing or falling was according to the perfection and constancy of his personal obedience. Gen. ii. 17. Gal. iii. 10. But in this first covenant of works no provision at all was made for his recovery (in case of the least failure) by his repentance or better obedience ; but the curse immediately seized both soul and body : and sin, by the fall entering into man's nature, totally disabled him to the per- fect performance of any one duty, as that covenant required it to be done, Rom. viii. 3. nor would God accept any repentance or af- ter-endeavours in lieu of that perfect obedience due by law. So that from the fall of Adam to the end of the world this covenant ceaseth as a covenant of life, or a covenant able to give righteous- ness and life unto all mankind for evermore, Rom. iii. SO. " There- " fore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in '< his sight."" Gal. ii. 16. " By the works of the law shall no " flesh be justified."" Gal. iii. 11. " But that no man is justified by ** the law in the sight of God, is evident.'' And it being so evi- dent, that righteousness and Ufa being for ever impossible to be
542 VINDICIARUM VINDEX.
obtained upon the terms of Adam's covenant, it must therefore be a self-evident truth, That since the Jail God never did, and to the end of the zcorld he never ivill open that way or door to life (thus blocked tip by an absolute impossibility) Jbr the justification and salvation of any man.
Thesis. 2. Soon after the violation and cessation of this first co- venant, as a covenant of life, it pleased the Lord to open and publish the second covenant qf grace by Jesus Christ, the first dazvning ichercqf lie find in Gen. iii. 15. where the seed is promised which shall bruise the serpenfs head. And though this be but a very short, and somewhat obscure discovery of man's remedy and salva- tion by Christ; yet was it a joyful sound to the ears of God's peo- ple, it was even life from the dead to the believers of those times. For we may rationally conclude, That that space of time betwixt the breaking of the first and making * of the second covenant was the most dismal period of time that ever the world did or shall see. This covenant of grace now took place of the covenant of works, and comprehended ail believers in the bosom of it. The covenant of w^orks took place from the time it was made until the fall of Adam, and then was abolished as a life-giving covenant. The second co- venant took place from the time it was made soon after the fall, and is to continue to the end of the world. And these only are the two covenants God hath made with men ; the latter succeeding the for- mer, and commencing from its expiration ; but both cannot possi- bly be in force together at the same time, and upon the same per- sons, as co-ordinate covenants of life and salvation. For in co-ordi- nation they expel and destroy each other, Gal. v. 4. " Whosoever *' of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace." The first covenant M'as a covenant without a mediator ; the second is a covenant with a mediator. Place a believer under both at once, or put these two covenants in co-ordination, and that which results will be a pure contradiction, viz. That a man is saved without a medi- ator, and yet by a mediator. Moreover, if there be a way to life without a mediator, there was no need to make a covenant in and with a mediator ; nor can those words of Christ be true, John iv. 6. " I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the *' Father but by me."
The righteousness of the first covenant was within man himself; the righteousness of the second covenant is without man in Christ. Put these two in co-ordination, and that which results is as pure a contradiction as the former, viz. That a man is justified by a righ- teousness within him, and yet is justified by a righteousness without him, expressly contrary to the apostle's ccnclusion, Rom. iii. 20.
* That is, the revelation. Editor,
VllffDICIARUM VINDEX. 54-3
*= Tlierefore by the deeds of the law there sliall no flesh be justi- *' fied in his sight/' It is therefore an intolerable absurdity to place behevers under both tliese covenants at the same time ; under the curse of the first, and blessing of the second. For whensoever the state of any person is changed by justification, his covenant is changed >vith his state, Col. i. 13. It is as unimaginable that a believer should thus stand under both covenants, as it is to imagine a man may be born of two mothers, Gal. iv. 22, 23, 24s 25. or a woman lawfully married to two husbands, Rom. vii. 1, 2, 3, 4. and more absurd (if it be possible any thing can be more absurd) to attribute the most glorious privilege of the covenant of giace, (viz. " I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee," Gen. xvii. 7.) to the impotent and abolished covenant of works ; both which ab- surdities are asserted in defence of Jntipcedo-haptism.