[2 ] They agree in the moving cause, which in both was the grace of God. The first covenant, it was grace for God to make it. It was the grace of God to accept of man's perfect obedience, so as to make him sure of eternal life on the performance of it. Though the last covenant hath the honour by way of eminency to be styled the covenant of grace, yet the first was so, though the condition of it was perfect obedience, and the reward had respect to personal righteousness. It was of grace also that God would at all covenant and enter into bonds with man, who was not his equal, and give his word to any of the works of his hands. It was grace that endowed man with original righteousness, and fitted him, and enabled him to keep that covenant. His absolute sovereign owed him no more than the rest of the creatures which he had made. Grace engaged the reward, there was no more merit in Adam's obedience than in ours : Luke xvii. 10, ' So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which was our duty to do.' Nor did his work bear proportion to the eternal reward.
[3.] They agree in the parties, God and man in both covenants, not any other creatures superior or inferior to man, rational or irrational ; the principal contracting parties were public persons, Adam, Jesus : Eom. V. 18, ' Therefore as by the offence of one man judgment came upon all to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life ; ' 1 Cor. xv. 47, * The first man is of the earth earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven,' The first and second Adam, for them and all their heirs.
[4.] That God giveth sufficiency of strength in both these covenants to the parties with whom he made them to fulfil the conditions thereof To Adam : Eccles. vii. 29, ' Lo this only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but ihey have sought out many inventions.' To Adam natural, to us supernatural strength : Ezek. xxxvi. 27, ' And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them ;' Heb. viii. 10, ' This is
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the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.'
[5.] In both God kept up his sovereignty, and by his condescension did not part with anything of his dominion over man. In the cove- nant of works he ruled by a law written on men's hearts : Rom. ii. 15, * Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their con- sciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.' So by grace the believer is not freed from the law of nature, which being almost obliterated and blotted out of the heart of man, and become very illegible, it pleased God to set it forth in a new edition, and to write it over again in the heart of a renewed man : Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my law into their minds, and write it in their hearts ;' Eph. iv. 24, ' And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.' Though God admitted us to new conditions of favour, yet he still requireth subjection on our part, and that we own him as Lord and sovereign, requiring obedience and service at our hands, or else he taketh a liberty to visit our transgressions with rods : Ps. Ixxxix. 31, 32, ' If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.'
[6.] In both covenants there is a mutual obligation on both parties ; this ariseth from tlie very nature of a covenant. Coniractus est con- sensio ad constituendam obligationcm., qua alter alteri fit ohnoxius. In every covenant there is a tie on both sides, and some reason of right. There is no obligation of debt between God and us, but an obligation of grace. Deus non est debitor, saith Aquinas, quia non est ad alia ordi- natus ; reddit dehita, nidla debet. His covenant doth infer a debt of favour, not of justice. We may challenge him upon his promise : Ps. cxix. 49, ' Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.' But God doth it not with respect to our work, but his own promise. In covenants of justice between man and man, there is a proportion and correspondence between the conditions on the one part and the other. In the covenant betv/een God and us is a deed of favour, containing large grants of privileges, and noble conditions, upon terms and re-stipulations, which had no proportion to the favours granted. As if some prince or person of honour should, out of pure love to a poor mean virgin that hath no portion, covenant to give her a rich dowry and jointure, suitable to his own degree ; so doth God with us in the covenant of grace : Ezek. xvi. 8, ' Now when I passed by thee and looked on thee, behold thy time was a time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness, yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine ;' Jer. xxxi. 3, ' The Lord hath appeared of old unto thee, saying. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.' Indeed, in the covenant of works, justice hath a greater predominant influence than grace ; though in exact justice, God is not bound to remunerate us there neither.