God in his Soveraignty set a punishmentGen.2.16. upon the breach of this his Commandement, that man might know his inferiority, and that things betwixt him and God were not as between equals. The subject of this Covenant is man intire and perfect, made after the Image of God in Righteousnesse and true holinesse, furnished not only with a reasonable soule and faculties beseeming, but with divine qualities breathed from the whole Trinity, infused into the whole man, lifting up every faculty and power above his first frame, and inabling and fitting him to obey the will of God intirely, willingly, exactly, for matter and measure. Whether this was naturall or supernaturall unto the first man, is a question needlesse to be disputed in this place, and peradventure if the termes be rightly understood, will be no great controversie. Only this must be acknowledged, that this was Adams excellencie above all the creatures, and that in the fallen creature this quality is supernaturall. Unto this mutuall Covenant God added a seale to assure the protoplast of his performance and persisting in Covenant with him, and further to strengthen his obedience, with the obedience of his posterity, which upon his breach with God was made void. This Covenant of works made with Adam should have been the same unto his whole posterity, if he had continued as in all after Covenants of God, they are made with Head and Root, reaching unto all the branches and members issuing from them, Rom. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 15. 22, 47. The proportion holding in Abraham to Christ, till the Covenant be rejected in after commers. But this Covenant was so made with Adam the root of all mankind, that if transgressed, his whole posterity should be liable to the curse temporall and eternall, which entred upon his fall. This Covenant was a Covenant of friendship not of reconciliation; being once broken it could not be repaired; it promised no mercy or pardon, admitted no repentance, accepted no obedience, but what was perfect and compleat. If Adam had a thought after his breach, that he might have healed the matter, it was but vaine presumption, and least he should rely upon a vaine confidence in eating of the tree of life, God drove him out of the Garden. But this Covenant was not peremptory, not the last nor unchangeable. Woe to all the posterity of Adam, if God should deale with them according to the sentence here denounced. When man had plunged himselfe into misery, it pleased the Lord to reveale his abundantGrace
