§ 5. The Parties to the Covenant of WorTcs.
It lies in the nature of a covenant that there must be two or more parties. A covenant is not of one. The parties to the orioji- nal covenant were God and Adam. Adam, however, acted not in liis individual capacity but as the head and representative of his whole race. This is plain. (1.) Because everything said to him had as much reference to his posterity as to Adam himself. Every- thing granted to him was granted to them. Everything promised to him was promised to them. And everything threatened against him, in case of transgression, was threatened against them. God did not give the earth to Adam for him alone, but as the heritage of his race. The dominion over the lower animals with which he was invested belonged equally to his descendants. The prom- ise of life embraced them as well as him ; and the threatening of death concerned them as well as him. (2.) In the second place, it is an outstanding undeniable fact, that the penalty which Adam incurred has fallen upon his whole race. The earth is cursed to them as it was to him. They must earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. The pains of childbirth are the common heritage of all the daughters of Eve. All men are subject to disease and death. All are born in sin. destitute of the moral image of God. There is not an evil consequent on the sin of Adam which does not aifect his race as much as it affected him. (3.) Not only did the ancient Jews infer the representative character of Adam from the record given in Genesis, but the inspired writers of the New T-^sta- ment give this doctrine the sanction of divine authority. In Adam, says the Apostle, all died. The sentence of condemnation, he teaches us, passed on all men for one offence. By the offence of one all were made sinners. (4.) This great fact is made the ground on which the whole plan of redemption is founded. As we fell in Adam, we are saved in Christ. To deny the principle in the one case, is to deny it in the other ; for the two are inseparably united in the representations of Scripture. (5.) The principle in- volved in the headship of Adam underlies all the religious institu- tions ever ordained by God for men ; all his providential dealings with our race ; and even the distributions of the saving influences of his Spirit. It is therefore one of the fundamental principles both of natural and of revealed religion. (6.) What is thus clearly revealed in the word and providence of God, finds a response in the very constitution of our nature. All men are led as it were instinctively to recognize the validity of this principle of representa-
122 PART n. Cii. VI. — THE COVENANT OF WORKS.
tion. Rulers represent their people ; parents tlieir children ; guardians their wards. All these considerations are in place here, when the nature of the covenant of works, and the parties to that covenant are under discussion, although of course they must come up again to be more fully examined, when we have to speak of the effects of Adam's sin upon his posterity. Men may dispute as to the grounds of the headship of Adam, but the fact itself can hardly be questioned by those who recognize the authority of the Scrip- tures. It has therefore entered into the faith of all Christian churches, and is more or less clearly presented in all their author- ized symbols.
§ 6. Perpetuity of the Covenant of Works.
If Adam acted not only for himself but also for his posterity, that fact determines the question, Whether the covenant of works be still in force. In the obvious sense of the terms, to say tliat men are still under that covenant, is to say that they are still on probation ; that the race did not fall when Adam fell. Bat if Adam acted as the head of the whole race, then all men stood their probation in him, and fell with him in his first transgression. The Scriptures, therefore, teach that we come into the world under condemnation. We are by nature, i. e., as we were born, the children of wrath. This fact is assumed in all the provisions of the gospel and in all the institutions of our religion. Children are required to be baptized for the remission of sin. But while tiie Pelagian doctrine is to be rejected, which teaches that each man comes into the world free from sin and free from condemnation, and stands his probation in his own person, it is nevertheless true that where there is no sin there is no condemnation. Hence our Lord said to the young man, " This do and thou shalt live." And hence the Apostle in the second chapter of his Epistle to the Ro- mans, says that God will reward every man according to his works. To those who are good. He will give eternal life ; to those who are evil, indignation and wrath. This is only saying that the eternal principles of justice are still in force. If any man can present him- self before the bar of God and prove that he is free from sin, either imputed or personal, either original or actual, he will not be con- demned. But the fact is that the whole world lies in wickedness. Man is an apostate race. Men are all involved in the penal and natural consequences of Adam's transgression. They stood their probation in him, and do not stand each man for himself.