William Cooper: There Is A Repetition Of The Covenant Of Works

OBJECTION. If any shall say, “By ‘first and old covenant’ was meant God’s covenant with Israel, and not with Adam; and so, by ‘covenant of works’ the same is meant; namely, that which the Lord made at Mount Sinai:” (Heb. 8:7–9:)

ANSWER. Hereunto I answer, There is a repetition of the covenant of works with Adam in the law of Moses; as in that of the apostle to the Galatians: “The law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth” these things “shall live in them.” (Gal. 3:12.) So likewise to the Romans: “Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man who doeth those things shall live by them.” (Rom. 10:5.) Thus it was with Adam principally and properly: therefore he was under a covenant of works, when God gave him that command in my text.

—William Cooper (fl. c. 1653), “Sermon VI: The Covenant of Works” in James Nichols, ed. Puritan Sermons (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 5.97.

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