Blake - Houston-Packer Collection BT155 .B53 1653

8 The Covenant of Works Cháp.2, God entered Covenant with man in his e- mate of inte- -grity. Grace is the fountain and -fiat rife of e- very Covenant of God with 'man. and baptized. Exceptions cannot be taken againfl, or challenge made of this definition of Covenants in general, nor of the Co- venant which God in particular entereth with man ; and thefe handing, they will givens light, and afford us fingular help for a right underítanding of the Covenant of God entered with man in the feveral fpecies, and diftinft wayes of adminiftration ofit. CHAP. II. The Covenant of God entered with mankinde, difitinguifbed. Here is a two -fold Covenant, which God out of his graci- ous condeíceñfion, bath vouchfafed to enter with man. The firft immediately upon the creation of man, when man yet flood right in his eye, and bore his image, the alone creature on earth, that was in a capacity to enter Covenant. We have not indeed the word Covenant till after man was fallen, nor yet in any place of Scripture, in reference to the tranfaftions, pail between God and man in his 'late of integrity, neither have we fuck expreffions that fully and explicitely hold out a Covenant to us, but we finde it implyed, and fo much expreffed, from whence a Covenant with the conditions of it is evinced. That Law with the penalty an- next, given to our firft parents, (Gen. 2.17. Of the tree of knout- ledge of good and evill thou 'halt not eat; for in the day that thou eateft,thou shalt furely die;) plainly implies in it a Covenant enter - ed;man was in prefent poffeflion of life (that is according to Scri- pture- phrafe happineffe) in his whole perfon full and compleat according to his prefent capacity, this is to be continued (as is ,there evidently implied) till fin difpofeffe him of it ; till he fin, he (hall not die; as long then as he perfifts in his integrity , his life is to be continued, of which the Tree of Life (as is not to be doubted) was a Sacrament. The fecond God was pleafed to en- ter with man upon his fall, which was a Covenant of reconcili- ation, the molt unhappy variance between earth and heaven ha- ving intervened. The former is ufuallycalled a Covenant of works, the later is caller! a Covenant ofGrace,though indeed the fountain and firft rife of either, was the free grace and favour of God. For

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