Even in his prefatory remarks there is so much unaffected simplicity, and godly sincerity, and entire devotedness to his subject, as must bespeak the attention of all who read Christian books with a Christian spirit. In illustration we quote the conclusion of the preface of the volume of which we intend to give our readers a short analysis. "I occasionally consulted several of those writers upon the subjects treated of, who appear to me to have been the most judicious and consistent; especially Turretine, Witsius, Rutherford, Brown, Gib, Edwards, and Boston. These especially I consulted, not that they might in the smallest degree divert my attention from the sacred oracles, but that they might, in the hand of the Spirit of truth, afford me some assistance in searching them, and in extracting from them those heavenly treasures of which they are incomparably full. "I shall only add, that as, if I know myself, I have expressly intended this treatise for the glory of God and the welfare of immortal souls, without sinister views, I now lay it at his feet, looking up to him for a blessing upon it, that spiritual fruit may abound to the profit of many, that they may be saved." The following is the Table of Contents. Chap. I. Proofs of a Covenant of Works. Chap. II. Of the Contracting Parties in that Covenant. Chap. III. Of the Condition of the Covenant of Works, Chap. IV. Of the Promise of the Covenant of Works. Chap. V. Of the Penalty of that Covenant. Sect. 1st. It comprehends Natural Death. Sect. 2d, Spiritual Death. Sect. 3d. Eternal Death. Chap. VI. Of the Seals of the Covenant of Works. Chap. VII. Of the Reasonableness of God's entering into a Covenant of Works with Man, especially with Adam, as the Representative of his Natural Posterity. Chap. VIII. Of the Breach of that Covenant. Chap. IX. Of the Imputation of Adam's first sin, or breach of Covenant, to his natural posterity. Chap. X. Of the Subjection of mankind to the Broken Covenant of Works. Chap. XI. Of the dreadful and inevitable Misery of mankind under the curse of that violated Covenant. Sect. 1st, The Curse operates in this life on those who continue under it. Sect. 2d, It operates at death on them who still remain under it. Sect. 3d, It produces the most dreadful effect on all who remain under it after death and throughout eternity. Chap. XII. Objections answered. Chap. XIII. Conclusion. The Covenant of Works he defines to be "a "a free compact or agreement between Jehovah and the first Adam, as the head and representative of all his natural offspring; in which he promised to him life in all its possible extent and duration, if he would continue, for a limited time, to perform perfect obedience to his commandments; and threatened death, in all its awful extent and duration, if he would in the least instance disobey; to which Adam freely and fully consented." The proofs which he has produced to evince the reality of this Covenant are the following: That the contract between Jehovah and the first Adam, is, in Scripture, styled a Covenant *—that mention is made in Hosea of Adam's having transgressed a covenant-that, if a covenant had not been made with Adam for that purpose, he could not have been the moral representative of his natural posterity, and that, if he had not been their moral head and representative, they could not have sinned and died in him, as the records of truth declare they had done that the law of works and the law of faith are, in the epistle to the Romans, placed in opposition to each other-that the commandment was ordained to life-that the covenant of works is referred to by the Apostle of the Gentiles under We suspect that the worthy Dr. has here inadvertently fallen into what is called the Petitio principii. this title or designation, the old covenant-that there was such a covenant is shown from these words, * But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law; and from these words in the Apostle to the Romans, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye are also become dead to the law by the body of Christ." "But now are we delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the latter."-from the ardent desire after endless happiness which God, in his creation, impressed on the heart of the first man-from the parallel which, in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans, is stated between the first and the second Adam—and from the account given of this contract by Moses, in which we find all that is requisite to constitute a proper covenant. "The contracting parties in this Covenant" are, on the one hand, he who projected and proposed it-the eternal Jehovah, who, in doing so, manifested infinite condescension, immense goodness, supreme dominion, inflexible justice, and consummate wisdom; and, on the other, Adam, who, in consenting to it, is to be considered in a threefold capacity; as a holy and an upright man as the natural root of all his natural offspring-and the moral or public representative of all his natural descendants. "The two essential parts of the Covenant" were, its condition and its promise. Its condition was obedience to the moral law of God, founded in his nature, and afterwards promulgated in the ten commandments; and to the positive law of God, founded in his sovereign will or mere good pleasure, and promulgated in a special commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of know. ledge of good and evil. Its promise was the continuance of his natural or animal life, consisting in the union of his soul with his bodythe continuance of that spiritual life which he already possessed, consisting in the union and communion of his soul with God himself, and its perfect conformity to him— and his entrance upon the enjoyment of eternal life immediately upon his accomplishing his covenant obedience. "The penalty of the Covenant" was death in all its latitude, extent, and duration-death natural, spiritual, and eternal-natural, consisting in a separation of the soul from the body-spiritual, consisting in the loss of the moral image of God, and a separation from his favour, friendship,and fellowship-eternal,consisting in the irretrievable loss of all that is good, and the most tormenting sense of the infinite wrath of Jehovah. Which penalty flows not from a mere act of the will of God, but from the essential perfections of his nature, particularly from his supreme majesty, his immaculate holiness, and his vindicative or vindictive justice. "The Seals of the Covenant" were " the tree of life, in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." "As the existence," says our worthy author," and properties of objects which we see before our eyes are better known, more firmly believed, and make a deeper impression on the mind, than those of objects at a distance, of which we only hear, God has wisely and graciously condescended to appoint certain visible symbols or signs for sealing his covenant with men. He appointed the rainbow to be the seal of his covenant of safety with Noah; the sign of circumcision to be a seal of the righteousness of faith, and, conse quently, of the covenant in which Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed; circumcision and the passover to be seals of the covenant of grace, in its old dispensation to the Israelites; and baptism and the Lord's supper to be the seals of it in its new dispensation to us. In like manner, when he made the covenant of works with the first Adam, as the head and represent ative of his posterity, he appended seals to that covenant. The tree of life was a seal to Adam of that natural and spiritual life which he would enjoy as long as he continued to yield perfect obedience to the law of the covenant; and it was a seal to him of that eternal life upon the enjoyment of which he was to enter as soon as he fulfilled the condition of it." "The reasonableness of God entering into the covenant," appears from its subserving these two great purposes; 1st, The manifestation of God's own glory; his astonishing condescension; his boundless goodnes; his justice, faithfulness, and unsearchable wisdom. 2d, The promotion of the good of man; admitting him into still more intimate intercourse with God; establishing him in obedience to his law; rendering his obedience more free and voluntary, and putting the highest respect upon man. The breach of the covenant” was Adam's eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil which JEHOVAH had forbidden him; a sin which included in it, 1st, unbelief, as the radical, the main ingredient in it; 2d, The vilest ingratitude, and the basest d scontentment; 3d, Intolerable pride and ambition; 4th, The strangest inadvertency; 5th, The most atrocious murder; in short, the most unnatural rebellion and revolt. It was a sin by which the whole law of God was violated; and it was exceedingly aggravated from the condition of the person who committed it; the number and circum. stances of the persons who are injured by it; the small value of the thing for which it was committed; the circumstance of the time in which it was committed; and the place where it was committed. "The imputation of Adam's breach of the covenant to his natural posterity," is shown from the express testimony of Scripture; from the death of such a great proportion of them in their infancy; and from the universal corruption of human nature. The ground of this imputation are Adam's being one with his posterity by a natural union, and by a federal or legal union. "The subjection of mankind to the broken covenant of works," is elucidated under the following articles: 1st, No sooner did Adam violate that covenant, than his representation of his posterity in it ceased. 2d, The covenant though broken is still binding on all who continue under it. It was, indeed, violated by man, but it was so far from being repealed or annulled by God, that by his appointment, it continues to retain all its original force and obligation. 3d, All the posterity of Adam, while in their natural state, are under the covenant of works. 4th, They may know this by the following marks: if they be under the dominion or reigning power of sin; if they have not believed in the second Adam as JEHOVAH their righteousness; they be not led by the Spirit of Christ; if they be of a slavish spirit; and if they be legalists, i. e. of a self-righteous spirit. 5th, The power of the covenant over those who are under it, is commanding, binding them to yield perfect obedience as the condition of eternal life; condemning, binding them over to suffer the wrath of Jehovah; for a sinner cannot continue under the jurisdiction, without continuing at the same time under the condemnation, of the broken law; retaining, holding them if fast, under the dominion and influ- From this short analysis of the work, our readers may form a pretty we. write. It is the result of Biblical investigation, of close study, and a judicious attention to the operations of nature and grace in his own experience, and in that of others. Were we required to point out what portion of the work our venerable friend has most successfully executed, we would, without hesi tation, fix on those practical addresses, with which he usually concludes the chapters, into which he has divided the treatise. In these he is evidently most at home, and coines into a more familiar and affectionate intercourse with his readers. We select a few passages, the perusal of which, we are sure, will afford to the serious mind a full proof of the truth of our obser vation. "Was Adam's whole hope of receiving good from God, in his state of innocence, to proceed upon the positive promise of God? It plainly follows that those do miserably deceive themselves who satisfy themselves with general conclusions and expectations from the goodness or mercy of God's nature; such conclusions as man, even in innocence, was not warranted immediately to proceed upon. If Adam in innocence was not to depend for happiness immediately upon the goodness of God's nature, but on the promise of his covenant, how evidently does that sinner expose himself to woful disappointment, who trusts to general, to uncovenanted mercy! Consider, secure sinner, that though goodness is essential and necessary in JEHOVAн, yet the egress of it upon creatures is not necessary; but, on the contrary, infinitely free. Consider, too, that since the fall, no benefit from the promise of the first covenant, is to be expected by any of the sons of Adam. No good thing, as issuing from the favour of God, is now to be expected but in the way of disclaiming all confidence, both in the general mercy of God's nature, and in the promise of the covenant of works: and, of taking hold of the covenant of grace, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the ground of the promises of this everlasting covenant. O that this, reader, may now, and may often be thy exercise!" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," &c. "Was the first Adam's state of innocence his state of trial? Then a state of trial or probation is not properly speaking the state of man since his fall. Man is no longer innocent, no longer able to perfect obedience to the law. Before the covenant of works was broken, man was in a state of probation for eternal life. If he had stood during the period of that state, and so fulfilled the condition of life; his state of probation would forthwith have issued in a state of confirmation. But now, since he has failed in his obe dience, and broken his covenant, his state of trial has issued in a state of condemnation. This is the deplorable condition of all Adam's posterity, while they remain under the first covenant. Were we then to say that fallen, that condemned sinners are notwithstanding in a state of probation, as Adam was, it would be to insinuate that they are still under a covenant that can justify the doer, or that they are under a law that can give life; but says the Apostle Paul, If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.' Every individual of mankind now is either in a state of condemnation in the first, or in a state of justification in the second Adam. The Lord still, however, deals with men as rational creatures, capable of rewards, whether of debt or of grace, of justice or of mercy, according to their state or their works. How deeply concerned then should the sinner be to pass, in the use of the means of grace, and by the exercise of faith, from condemnation in the first, to justification and sanctification, in the second Adam."-Pp. 84, 85, 86, Here also, as in a glass, we may contemplate the transcendent love of God to sinners of mankind. He so loved us as to give his only begotten Son to endure, as our surety, that tremendous penalty. O what infinite obligations are we under to adore, to serve JEHOVAH who sent him, and him who came in the name of the Lord to save us! Behold, reader, what manner of love this is. Contemplate the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of it,' that you may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and be filled with all the fulness of God.' Oh where is that supreme, that strong, that glowing, that vehement love, that such unparalleled loving kindness deserves! Alas! how few are suitably affected with such matchless love; or constrained by it to love, and live to him who died for them and rose again! O bless the Lord that the penalty of the first covenant left room for the substitution of such a glorious surety, to endure the execution of it. O the kindness and love of God our Saviour! It is he who died, and who by dying and rising again has converted natural death, from being an old enemy to believers, to be their new friend. "We may likewise learn from what has been stated above, that natural death is not a debt to nature, as some choose to speak; but, on the contrary, is in the case of all, who live and die under the covenant of works, the wages of sin,' a debt due to the sinner. The wages of sin is death." The sin of human nature, and the death due for sin, are not so ancient as human nature itself. "How unable is man now to attain eternal life, by the works of the law! Adam was able to work for life, having a sufficiency of strength afforded to him, and yet he failed in his work. How then can it prosper in the hands of the sinner who is without strength! Adam had much less to do than the sinner now has. Only perfect obedience was at first required of him; but of the sinner now is demanded, not merely perfect obedience, but full satisfaction for sin. Not only is he obliged to perform that perfect obedience, which was the original condition of life; but to en.. dure the whole penalty of the violated agreement. Art thou, then, self-righteous professor, able to do all this? Thou hast far more work and far less strength than Adam had. O be persuaded that it is altogether impossible for thee to attain justification and life, on the footing of thine own righteousness. Thy passive obedience is as insufficient to secure thee against eternal death, as thy active obedience is to entitle thee to eternal life. Betake thyself then without delay to the second' Adam, who is the end of the law for righteous. ness to every one that believeth."" "Pp. 108, 109, 110. The following quotation gives not |