earth were to be blessed*; blessed with a justifying righteousness, and falvation from the guilt of fin and the curse of the law: yet we are far from thinking, that the repetition of the moral law, as a covenant of works, included the whole of that folemn transaction between God and Ifrael at Mount Sinai.

Both the ceremonial and judicial law, doubtless, belonged to the Sinai-covenant, as made with Ifrael; and thus the different views that are given of that covenant in the apoftolic writings may easily be accounted for. There was something in that tranfaction which equally concerned all mankind, and something in it that was peculiar to Ifrael. So far as it contained a repetition of the covenant of works, promifing life upon the condition of yielding perfect obedience to the moral law, and threatning death for the leaft tranfgreffion of it, it was not peculiar to the children of Ifrael, but declarative of the natural state and condition of all mankind: and in this respect the new covenant, or covenant of grace, which requires no obedience; nothing to be done or yielded, by finful men themselves, as a condition of life and falvation; but

* Facta est ista fæderis operum commemoratio, ad Ifraelitas peccatorum & miferiæ fuæ convincendos, ex Je ipfis expellendos, de neceffitate fatisfactionis edocendos, & ad Chriftum compellendos : & fic infervit fæderi gratie, Rom. x. 4. That is; "The covenant of "works was repeated at Mount Sinai, to convince "the Ifraelites of their fins and misery, to beat them

out of their self-confidence, to instruct them con"cerning the necessity of an atonement, and drive " them to Chrift, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth: and thus it is " subservient to the covenant of grace." Witsii. Animadverfio. Iren. p. 99.

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promises eternal happiness and all spiritual bleffings freely, is constantly opposed to it in the New Teftament.

The law to which the Apostle Paul, in his epiftles to the Romans and Galatians, opposes the promise and doctrine of the gospel, which he calls the law of faith, is a law that promises life to the obedient, and threatens death to the tranfgreffor, for the least breach of it; and a law which he still fuppofes all mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, to be originally, naturally, and neceffarily under the obligation of. It is therefore abundantly evident, that by the law of works we are to understand the covenant of works made with Adam*, in which all his pof

* There is one text of Scripture in which, if the most obvious and natural sense of the words may be admitted, the law of works given to Adam, in the state of primitive integrity, is expressly called a covenant. The passage is in Hof. vi. 7. which our tranflators have rendered, They like men have tranfgreffed the covenant; but in the Hebrew it is באדם They

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like Adam have tranfgreffed the covenant. Thus the very same phrafe is rendered, Job xxxi. 33. If I covered my tranfgreffions as Adam : by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. Here there seems to be a plain allufion to what is recorded of Adam, the first man, Gen. iii. 8-12. who, after he had eaten the forbidden froit, not only fought to hide himself from the Lord God among the trees of the garden"; but, when God questioned him about what he had *done, endeavoured to palliate and conceal his fin. Though he could not deny the fat, he attempted to cover and excuse the fault: and in this all his posterity are naturally inclined to follow his example. Some learned interpreters, among whom are the authors of our English translation of the Bible, have

in

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pofterity have an equal concern: and thus far the diftinction between the old and new covenant, or between the law of works and the law of faith, and the distinction ordinarily made betwixt the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, do exactly coincide; so that the latter cannot be denied, or fet afide, without rejecting the former, and thus impeaching the wisdom of the Holy Ghoft the author of it; to do which would be both impious and blafphemous. When the letter-writer therefore acquaints us, that he has no concern with the distinction betwixt the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, on which, he is pleased to say, our systems are formed *; he might as well have told us, that he has no concern with the diftinction which the apostle Paul makes betwixt the law, which has concluded all under fin, and the promise, or the law of faith.

However little concern he may think he has with this distinction, it is of so great importance to mankind, and a particular attention to it so necefsary to the obtaining any true knowledge of God, and of themselves, or any due apprehenfion of their state before God, that we make no fcruple to affirm, that they who are ignorant of it, or imagine

indeed taken Adam, in the first of these texts, for an appellative rather than a proper name; but we fee no reason why it should not be understood in its natural, and most proper sense, in that, as well as in the text last mentioned, especially, as this affords a much more plain and easy view of the passage. However, as the stress of the argument is not laid upon the exposition of this single text, if any should still refuse to admit the interpretation just now given, I have no inclination to contend with them.

* Letters on Theron, &c. p. 354.

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they have no concern with it, " are ignorant both "of the gospel and of the true God."

But as the revelation and promulgation of the moral law at Mount Sinai, shewing on what terms men were to expect life according to the tenor of the covenant of works, or rather declaring their guilty and miferable state; that state of condemnation and death which they had brought themselves into by fin; was a very confpicuous part of the transaction between God and Ifrael on that occafion, and fuch a part of it as all mankind were equalJy concerned in; so that from the condition, the performance of which was required, without the least abatement or defect, as absolutely neceffary in order to obtain the blessings promised, they might fee the utter impossibility of obtaining life and salvation by their own works; by works of any kind, legal or evangelical; and in the awful curse and threatnings of the law read their doom, or the dreadful fentence of condemnation they were under on account of their fin original and actual, even for the least breach of the divine law that ever they were guilty of in thought, word or deed: there was also in that transaction something peculiar to Ifrael, and the then infant-state of the church: for it included the whole ceremonial law, or all those typical inftitutions and ordinances which belonged to the Mofaic economy. Hence the apostle refers the Levitical priesthood, facrifices, offerings for the errors of the people, and other ceremonial institutions, to the first or Sinaitic covenant*. As all those types and ceremonies had evidently a respect to Jesus Christ, the great antitype prefigured by them, undoubtedly they contained 2 more obfcure and imperfect administration of the

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covenant of grace. And as the great design of promulgating the moral law, with the conditional promife and terrible threatnings annexed, at Mount Sinai, was not to put the children of Ifrael upon seeking life by their own obedience to the law, but to shew, that, without a perfect righteoufness, answering all the demands of the law, neither they nor any belonging to the human race could have any title to everlasting life and happiness, or any promised blessing; so by the ceremonial law, and typical facrifices fuperadded thereto, they were directed to seek that righteousness in another, namely, the Meffiah, the feed promised to Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be bleffed. It is evident therefore, that the law of works, in fo far as it made a part of that folemn transaction at Mount Sinai, was only subservient to the gospel, or that typical administration of grace which was contained in the several ceremonies and ritual institutions belonging to the law of Moses.

Upon the whole, if we view the different parts of the transaction at Mount Sinai, it may be affirmed, that it contained a promulgation of the law as a covenant of works, requiring perfect obedience to all its precepts, as the condition of life and happiness, and threatning death, or everlasting misery, for the leaft tranfgreffion or failure in obedience; in respect of which the covenant of grace, promise, or law of faith, is conftantly opposed to it in the New Testament. And it likewife included a typical, obscure, legal and fervile administration of the covenant of grace; in respect of which the more clear, full, spiritual and glorious administration of this covenant, under the New

Teftament, is also opposed to it in the apoftolic writings.

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Hence