What Special Act of Providence Did God Exercise Toward Man in the Estate Wherein He Was Created?

Answ. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

Q. What part of God’s providence should we chiefly consider? A. His providence towards man.

Q. In what different estates is God’s providence exercised towards man? A. In his primitive, his fallen, his recovered, and his eternal estate.

Qj, What providence did God exercise towards man in his primitive estate?

A. He instituted the Sabbath for his rest, appointed marriage, and put him into the garden of Eden and especially he entered into a covenant with him, Gen. ii.

O. What is a covenant? A. It is an agreement

between two or more parties upon certain terms.

Qj What is requisite lo the making of a covenant?

A. That there be parties, a condition, and a promise j and also a penalty if any of the parties be fallible.

Q. What understand you by the parties? A. The

persons who make the agreement with one another.

Q. What is the condition of a covenant?

A. That which, when performed, doth, according to paction, give right to claim the reward.

Qj What call you the promise of it? A. The engagement to reward the fulfilment of the condition.

Q. What is the penalty? A. That which is agreed shall be inflicted upon the breaker of the covenant.

Q. Why hath God all along dealt with men by covenant? A. To shew his own condescension, and how ready he is to bestow favours upon men 5 and to encourage a willing obedience, by promising to reward it.

Q. How many covenants hath God made for the eter-Quest. 12. Of the Covenant of Works. #§’

nal happiness of men? A. Two; the covenant of

works, and the covenant of grace, Gal. iv. 24. Heb. viii.

Q. How prove you that there are only two covenants respecting man’s eternal happiness? A. The scripture

mentions only two such covenant j and represents all men asunder the one or the other, Gal. iv. 24, — 31.

Q. -How prove you. that there was a covenant made with Adam in his innocent estate? A. In Gen. ii. 16, 17.

we have all the requisites of a covenant, vi%. parties, condition, and penalty, which includes the promise: and Hos. vi. 7. margin, it is said, They, like Adam, transgressed the covenant: nor could Adam’s sin be charged on his posterity, if no covenant had been made with him.

Qy Was Adam, by virtue of his creation, under this covenant? A. No he was only under the lain of God.

Q. Wherein did that law, and the covenant made with him, differ? A. The law made him God’s servant,

and required perfect obedience, without promising any reward j but this covenant made him God’s friend and ally, and promised a glorious reward to obedience to which himself had engaged.

O. How is this covenant made with Adam ordinarily called? A. The covenant of works or life, the law

or legal covenant, and the first covenant.

Q^ Why is it called the covenant of works £

A. Because man’s good works was the condition of it.

£X Why is it called a covenant of life?

A. Because life was the reward promised for keeping it.

Q. Why is it called the law or legal covenant?

A. Becau-e it was not made between equals, but injoined by the great Lawgiver on his subject.

Q^Why is it called the first covenant? A. Because, though last made, it vj&sfrst made known to man.

Qj Who were the parties in this covenant?

A. God and Adam, Gen. ii. 16, 17.

Q. What moved God to enter into this covenant?

A. His own free favour and bounty, Job vii. 17.

£L How do”h that appear? A. Because God as a

Creator might justly have exacted all the service man was capable of, without giving him any reward: and, notwithstanding, punished him for disobedience, Luke xvii. 10.

£). Was very much grace manifested in the covenant of works? A. Yes -p very much free favour and bounty,

E3

Q. How so? A. In God’s not only promising

to reward man’s obedience but also in so framing this covenant, as to admit a covenant of grace, if it was broken.

Q. Why then is it not called a covenant of ’ gr ace?

A. Because there was far less grace manifested in it than is in the second covenant, Rom. v. 20, 21.

Q. How could Adam Le bound by this covenant, when %ve never read of his consenting to the terms of it?

A. Being made perfectly holy, he could not with-hold his consent from any terms which Gcd proposed to him*

Q^ For whom did Adam stand bound in this covenant?

A, For himself and all his natural posterity, Rom. v.

Q. Who are Adam’s natural posterity? A. All

mankind descending from him by ordinary generation.

Qj Did Adam stand bound for Christ as man?

A. No ‘, for Christ descended not from him by ordinary generation, and had not the person of a man, Isa. vii. 14.

Qj How doth it appear that Adam stood bound for all his natural seed? A. They are often called by his

name Adam; and his breach of covenant is charged upon them all, Rom. v. 12. 1 Cor. xv. 22.

Q. Why did God make Adam to stand bound for all his posterity? A. Because this was a shorter and

safer way of securing their happiness than if each man had stood bound for himself.

£). How was it a shorter way of securing their happiness? A. Because if Adam’s obedience had been once finished, none of his posterity could have ever fallen.

Q. How was it a safer way of securing their happiness?

A. Adam was formed in an adult state, fully capable of perfect obedience; and had not only a proper regard to his own happiness, but a fatherly concern for his whole natural seed, to engage him to obedience.

Q. How could Adam be justly bound for persons who never chose, nor consented to his being their covenant-head? A. He was the common father of them all; and God, who is wiser than they, chose him, and therefore they could not, without sin, have refused their consent.

Q. For what was Adam bound in the covenant of works?

A. For performing the condition of it.

O. What was the condition of the covenant of works?

A. Personal and perfect obedience to God’s law

Qj How was this obedience to be personal .?

A. It was to be performed by Adam himself in his own proper person, Gen. ii. 16, 17. Gal. iii. 12.

Qj In what was Adam’s obedience to be perfect?

A. In extent, degrees, and duration.

O. How was his obedience to be perfect in extent?

A. His whole man, soul and body, was to obey the whole of God’s law, Gal. iii. 10, 12. Matth. iii. 12.*

Qj How was it to be perfect in degrees?

A. He was to love and obey the Lord with all his heart and strength,

Qj. How was his obedience to be perfect in duration?

A. It was to be constantly continued in till his time of trial was over, Gal. iii. 10.

Q. Would Adam have ever been freed from obedience to God? A. He would have been freed from obedience to the law as a covenant, but never from obedience to the law as a rule of righteousness, Matth. v. 4S.

O. What command, besides the law of nature, did God require Adam to obey? A. The command of not

eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which grew in the midst of the garden of Eden, Gen. ii. 16, 17.

Q. Why was this tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evil? A. Because God thereby iried Adam’s obedience: and he, by eating it, knew experimentally the good which he fell from, and the evil he fell into.

(). Why did God forbid Adam to eat of this fruit?

A. To, manifest his own absolute dominion over, and interest in all things; and to try whether man would obeyout of regard to his mere will and authority, or not.

Qj Was there no other reason against man’s eating of this fruit, but merely God’s forbidding it?

A. No; the thing was quite indifferent in itself.

Q. Was God’s forbidding Adam to eat of this fruit a snare to entrap him? A. No; it was, in itself, a

means to secure him in holiness and happiness?

Q. How did it secure him in holiness and happiness?

A. It shewed him, that he was but a subject, and in danger of falling into sin j and that his true happiness was in God himself.

Q. Would any other sin, besides eating this fruit, have broken the covenant of works? A. Yes, Gal. iii, 10.

Q^ For what was God bound in this covenant?

A. To fulfil the promise, if man kept it; and to execute the threatening, if he should break it.

Q^. What was promised to man in this covenant?

A. Life temporal, spiritual and eternal, Gal. iii. 12.

Q. What was this temporal life? A. The happy

Uniun and communion or soul and body in this world.

Q^. Wherein did that spiritual life consist? A. In

union to, and perfect fellowship with God in this world.

Qj, Wherein doth eternal life consist? A. In the

full enjoyment of God in heaven for ever, Psal. xvi. 11.

Q. How could temporal and spiritual life be promised to Adam when he had it already A. The continuance of this life was promised to him while he did his duty, and the besiovving of it promised to his seed.

Q. How prove you that eternal life was promised in the covenant of works? A. Because eternal death

was included in the threatening: and Christ shews that according to the law of works, men would enter into eternal life by keeping the commandments, Matth. xix. 1G, 17.

Q. What was the penalty of the covenant of works?

A. Death legal, or being laid under a sentence of condemnation; and death real, which includes death temporal, spiritual, and eternal, Rom. v. 12. &. vi. 23.

Q. What is that temporal death?, A. The wrathful separation of the soul from the body, vHth much sorrow and trouble while united together in this world.

Q. What is death spiritual?

A. An accursed separation of the soul from God, and the loss of his favour and image.

O. What is death eternal? A. The accursed separation of the whole man from God, and lying under his wrath in hell for ever, Matth. xxv. 46.

Q. Did Adam die that very day in which he ate the forbidden fruit? A. He died spiritually that very moment, and fell under the sentence of temporal and eternal death.

Q. vVhy was his natural and eternal death suspended?

A. That the seed whom he represented might be born, and m-.nv of the human race saved by the covenant of grace. Q. Would Adam’s sin have been punished with death, though no covenant had been made wlih him? A. Yes -y the law of nature being connected with God’s vindictive justice, requires that every sin be punished with eternal death, Rom. vi. 23. Psalm xi. 6, 7.

£). Did then his obedience in itself deserve any reward?

A. No -? man in his best estate is but vanity.

Q. By what charter then had man his happiness secured? A. Only by the promise of the covenant of works.

Q. By what sacramental seal was this promise to be confirmed? A. By the tree of life, Gen. iii. 22.

Q. How was this a sacramental seal?

A. The eating of its fruit was a pledge of eternal life*

Q. In what manner did this fruit seal that promise?

A. Only conditionally, if Adam continued in perfect obedience till his time of trial was over, Gal, iii. 10.

Q. If Adam had perfectly fulfilled the condition of this covenant, what title would he have had to the reward?

A. A mere pactional title, secured by the promise of God.

Q. Why might not Adam’s obedience have strictly merited or deserved a reward from God? A. Because he owed it wholly to God as the author of his being j and when he had done all, he would have been an unprofitable servant, Luke xvii. 10. Job xxii. 3.

Q. Was the obtaining of the reward to be Adam’s chief end or motive in his obedience? A. No •, but the glory of God, Prov. xvi. 4. 1 Cor. x. 31. Isa. xliii. 21.

Qj Is the covenant of works still binding?

A. Yes*, it is still binding upon all that are out of Christ,

Q^ Doth not man’s breach of it disannul ils binding force? A. No; it still continues to demand perfect

abea’ience, and “has a new claim of infinite satisfaction for offences committed, Gal. iii. 10, 12. Heb. ix. 22.

Q. Doth not Christ by his obedience and suffering, or believers by receiving that as their righteousness, injure or destroy this covenant? A. No j they fulfil, establish, and exalt it, Rom. X. 4. — iii. 31.