1. This contract between God and the first Adam, is in sacred writ, expressly styled a covenant. “These are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.” Here are two covenants mentioned, the one of which, genders to bondage, and the other, to liberty or freedom. The covenant of grace, or “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” is the one which genders to liberty, or which makes free from the law of sin and death. The one, therefore, which genders to bondage, must be that law or covenant of works, which was republished to the Israelites, from mount Sinai; which required perfect obedience to the ten commandments, on pain of death, and contained a promise of life, to the man who should do, or perform such obedience.

—John Colquhoun (1748–1827), A Treatise on the Covenant of Works, 5 (HT: Jack Miller)

Post authored by:

• R. Scott Clark

  

  R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.

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