2. The duty of the law is to rest contented or satisfied with our own portion, or the lot which God hath afforded us, so as not to desire to increase it, or to have anything to ourselves with the loss of another. It is notable that instead of what is here said, ' Defraud not,' it is, Mat. xix. 19, ' Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' which, though it be a general that runs through the whole second table, yet it hath a special regard to the tenth commandment, and shows we are to desire the good of others as well as our own, and to think our neighbour as fit to enjoy anything that belongs to him as to think ourselves fit to enjoy that which is our own ; to have a full complacency with our own, with- out a lustful wishing we had anything that is theirs. Not coveting their goods, or desiring any advantage by their loss, or lessening, is the sin forbidden.
Well, now, out of all we may conclude thus : The young man, as to the present posture and frame of his heart, was not fit to be taught faith in Christ, nor the doctrine of the gospel ; being conceited of per- fection by the works of the law, he was not fit to be sent to the gospel. In effect Christ saith to him thus : Examine thyself truly, whether thou hast or canst keep the law, for till that point be over, thou art not fit for other things. Go take the second table, the easier part of the law, art thou not defective there ?
The point that may be observed from hence will be this — Doct. That the best way to convince justiciaries or self-righteous men is by holding them to their own covenant, or the covenant of works. Or thus : The true way to prepare men for Christ is to cause them to see their misery and impotency by the law.
438 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. III.
To evidence this I will show — (1.) What is the covenant of works ; (2.) I will prove that all men by nature are under this covenant ; (3.) This is that covenant which natural conscience sticks to ; (4.) This covenant, rightly understood, is the most ready way to convince a justi- ciary, or to prepare men for Christ.
First, What is the covenant of works ? I answer — It is the covenant made with Adam in innocency, in which life was promised under the condition of perfect obedience to be performed by a man by his own natural strength.
The parties contracting in this covenant are, God on the one side, and man created in the perfection of nature on the other side, God and Adam with all his posterity ; and the terms of this covenant.are perfect and unsinniug obedience, and this perfect obedience to be performed by us by our own strength : Gal. iii. 12, ' The law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them ; ' that is, the law covenant only promiseth life to him that observeth what the law prescribes, and so hath perfect inherent righteousness of his own ; it offers life upon no easier terms than constant, universal, perfect obedience. Now the sanction and confirmation of this covenant is by a terrible curse ex- plained by the apostle : Gal. iii. 10, ' As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' The law pronounceth a curse upon every man who fulfils it not in every tittle and every jo^ of it, and who continues not so to do from the first minute of his life to the hour of his death, which fallen man can never do ; and therefore as long as he is under this covenant, he remains under God's curse and wrath. If he omit anything that is required, or commit anything that is forbidden, so that though he should but once sin, he is under the curse.
Secondly, I shall prove that all men by nature are under this cove- nant till they be reconciled to God by Christ. This covenant concerns all Adam's children until they have a new claim in the second Adam, for God contracted with Adam as a public person, representing all his posterity, and so it concerns not him only, but all his heirs. Take them in their infancy, they are under this covenant, therefore they are said ' to be by nature children of wrath as well as others,' Eph. ii. 3. All men are under the deserved curse of the law by reason of sin. Or take them in their grown estate : John iii. 18, ' He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not in the name of the only- begotten Son of God ; ' that is, because he is not freed from the covenant of works and the curse of the law by the Son of God. Every unbeliever is condemned already by the sentence of the law, which they lie still under before they lay hold upon Christ, the only remedy for their deliverance. The sentence of the law stands in force till you get it repealed by Christ. And some men will find that this covenant is in force against them at the day of judgment, for then there will be pro- ceedings against them according to it. All the world are judged according to one of these two covenants : James ii. 12, 13, ' Some shall be judged according to the law of liberty, others shall have judgment without mercy.' Impotency doth not free any of Adam's sons from this covenant, because this impotency was contracted by our own sin,