Part I — OF THE TRUTH AND NATURE OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS
Copyright ©Monergism Books
A View of the Covenant of Works
from the Sacred Records
by Thomas Boston
WHEREIN
THE PARTIES IN THAT COVENANT, THE MAKING OF IT, ITS PARTS, CONDITIONARY AND PROMISSORY, AND MINATORY; OUR FATHER ADAM'S BREAKING OF IT; THE IMPUTATION OF
THAT BREACH TO HIS POSTERITY; AND THE STATE OF MAN UNDER THAT BROKEN COVENANT, AND UNDER THE OURSE
THEREOF, ARE DISTINCTLY CONSIDERED:
TOGETHER WITH
A PARTICULAR APPLICATION OF THE SUBJECT, FOR THE
CONVICTION BOTH OF SAINTS AND SINNERS
"Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat Sighing, through all
her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost."—MILTON.
Table of Contents
Preface
PART I.—OF THE TRUTH AND NATURE OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS
PART II.—OF THE BREACH OF THE COVENANT OF WORKS
PART III.—OF THE IMPUTATION OF ADAM'S FIRST SIN TO HIS POSTERITY
PART IV.—SECT. I. THE STATE OF MAN UNDER THE BROKEN COVENANT OF WORKS
PART IV. SECT. II.—THE MISERY OF THOSE WHO ARE UNDER THE BROKEN COVENANT OF WORKS
PREFACE
THOUGH the doctrines and precepts of Christianity are unalterable in their nature, and must necessarily be the same in all ages and places; yet we find that the foolish caprice of men has made them appear in various shapes, in different periods and countries.
In the golden days of Christianity, before men had learned the art of making gain of godliness in a literal sense, and contracted the ridiculous humour of modelling religion according to their respective tastes and tempers, the religion of Jesus was then seen in its native simplicity, unadulterated with the unnatural additions and embellishments of human invention. In process of time, when it was found that religion was not unsubservient to worldly interest, some of its votaries, inclining to make the kingdom of Christ resemble the kingdoms of this world, stripped religion in a great measure of its
native unadorned simplicity, and dressed it in garments of their own manufacture.
This dangerous spirit of innovating, when it once begins, knows no bounds or limits. It is like a river, or flood, whose current has been stopped, when once let loose it will disregard its proper channel, and carry every thing down with its impetuous torrent. The rapid progress which this wild spirit has made, is clearly seen in those enormous corruptions which gradually crept into the Church of Rome, until at length she arrived at the monstrous absurdity of a wafer god, created by the benediction of a priest.
It had not however been so fatal to the interests of true religion, if the inventions of men had been confined to circumstantials, or things of lesser importance. Had this been the case, the blessed religion of Jesus would not have had so much reason to put on her widow's weeds. The Christian world was pleased to indulge some ingenious triflers in forming refined theories of the creation of all things, and was not offended whether they chose a volcano or a long tailed comet for the instrument of their dissolution; nor has the Christian denied the same gracious indulgence to such of the same kidney as have tried to lash their lingering "moments into speed," by attempting curious calculations with respect to the prophecies in the book of the Revelation, nor will he laugh, I am persuaded, when they out-live their calculations. A decent company will not readily quarrel with a conceited cook for garnishing the dishes with herbs that are not eatable; but if he infuses these herbs into the sauce, every one who regards his life and health, will immediately take the alarm, and refuse to eat. In like manner the friends of Jesus, for the sake of peace, will be disposed to bear with men's foibles and humours, when they are, comparatively speaking, harmless, and do not alter the system, or affect the essentials of our holy religion; but, on the other hand, if men take it into their heads to new-model the system of Christianity, and to prescribe a new plan of salvation, such criminal liberty can never be permitted, and those who regard the
health and welfare of their souls, will neither taste, relish, nor digest such poisonous unwholesome food.
That such attempts have been made (and with considerable success too), the present state of the religious world is a sufficient proof. The rusty armour of Pelagius and Socinus has, with unparalleled effrontery, been buckled on, and the self-flattering doctrines of Arminius have, with sanguine hopes of success, been furbished up anew. Nor has the wild-fire stopt here. As Pelagius took away original sin, another adventurer, determined not to be out-done by the arch-heretic, at one blow rids us of actual transgression. Strange hypothesis! Sin, revelation as well as expereince and fact tell us, has an actual existence in the world. There are only two kinds of it, viz. original and actual; how then can any of these species of sin exist, if man is guilty of neither?
One could scarce believe that such chimeras as these would ever enter into men's heads, to whom the uncorrupted sources of divine truth are accessible. But the truth is this:—Men have generally formed such conceptions of the present state of human nature, and the extent of its powers, as they wish to be true, and wishing them to be true, have asserted them to be so; and after dressing her up in a gay attire of their own making, to complete her honour, and fix the crown of glory upon her head, have complacently enough given her salvation of her own working out. Hence it is, that human merit and personal righteousness pass so currently in this refined age as the only, conditions of our acceptance with God, and justification in his sight. The success of this modern method of Christian-making is easily accounted for. For as it ascribes the whole praise of his salvation to man himself, it is much more agreeable to the pride of the human heart, than the gospel method of salvation, which resolves the whole into the free grace of God in Christ Jesus. But though such a scheme of salvation is greedily swallowed by the human heart, yet if it has not the sanction of the infallible oracles of truth, it must be looked upon as "a cunningly devised fable."
Whilst such unscriptural principles as these, with respect to the way of access to the divine favour, are assiduously propagated by some, and greedily swallowed by others, the following publication cannot be deemed an unseasonable one. It turns upon a capital article in the Christian system, upon our notions of which all our views of the method of acceptance with God must depend. For if one man maintains that human nature, by proper culture and improvement, may acquire strength and integrity equal to that which it had in the days of primæval rectitude, salvation by works will to him appear quite practicable. But on the other hand, if another man, according to sacred writ, believes that the descendants of Adam are obnoxious to the curse of the law, and "dead in trespasses and sins," he will clearly see the necessity of Christ's satisfaction to remove the one, and the power of the Spirit to raise from the other.
As the following sheets therefore are designed to give us the scriptural account of the original transactions betwixt God and the first parent of the human race, to express, the nature and extent of the effects of the fall, and consequently to lead us to right conceptions of the method of salvation prescribed in the gospel; they will not, the editor fondly hopes, be an unacceptable offering to the public.
As to the performance itself, the reader, when it comes into his hand, must judge of its merit. To attempt a character of it, would be too delicate a task for the pen of so near a relation as the author's grandson. He only begs leave to inform the public, that the work is genuine, and is printed from the author's manuscript, without any alterations or additions, but such as are merely verbal, and do not affect the sense. It was preached in a course of sermons to his own congregation by the worthy author, in the latter end of the year 1721, and in the beginning of the year 1722. And it appears from the following paragraph, extracted from his diary, that he was led to undertake the subject, on account of the controversy agitated before several General Assemblies of this National Church, concerning a book entitled "The Marrow of Modern Divinity." "I was now led,"
says the author, "for my ordinary, to treat of the two covenants, which lasted a long time. I began on the covenant of works, August 27, this year [1721], and handling it at large from several texts, I insisted thereon till May in the following year. I studied it with considerable earnestness and application, being prompted thereto, as to the close consideration of the other covenant too, afterwards, by the state the doctrine in this church was then arrived at."—N.B. The author here alludes to the controversy above mentioned.
The Editor did not think himself at liberty to change its orignal form of sermons. He has, however, for the ease of the reader, divided the treatise into parts, and added general titles to them, as well as to the subdivisions of each part, which he thought himself sufficiently warranted to do, as the author himself has followed the same method in his "View of the Covenant of Grace."
The reader will find, in the book, several references to the celebrated Dr. Witsius' "Economy of the Covenants," which, though they are not in the original manuscript, the Editor has added, with a view of referring the reader to that great work, for a further illustration of some of the subjects of this essay.
It would be unnecessary to offer to the public the reasons why this performance remained so long in manuscript, or why it now emerges from its obscurity so long after its rev. Author's death. Readers of a certain class will perhaps think that it has come to light soon enough, and those of another complexion will not relish it less because they have wanted it long. It now ventures out an orphan into the world; and as some of the same family ["The Fourfold State," &c., &c.], have met with a candid reception from the public, the orphan hopes, even under the disadvantages common to posthumous publications, that it will meet with some regard for its parent's sake.
MICHAEL BOSTON.