Thomas Boston’s Notes
Promise and Threat
That the conditional promise (Lev. 18:5, to which agrees Exodus 19:8) and the dreadful threatening (Duet. 27:26) were both given to the Israelites, as well as the ten commands, is beyond question; and that according to the apostle (Rom.10:5, Gal 3:10), they were the form of the covenant of works, is as evident as the repeating of the words, and expounding them so, can make it. How, then, one can refuse the covenant of works to have been given to the Israelites, I cannot see. Mark the Westminster Confession upon the head of the covenant of works; ‘The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience’ (WCF 7:2). And this account of the being and nature of that covenant is there proved from these very texts among others, Romans 10:5, Galatians 3:10.
(Lev 18:5) Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
(Exo 19:8) And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
(Deu 27:26) Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
(Rom 10:5) For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
(Gal 3:10) For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
WCF
Chapter 7:2
THE first covenant made with man was a covenant of works,(2) wherein life was promised to Adam, and in him to his posterity,(3) upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.(4)
(1) Isa_40:13-17; Job_9:32-33; 1Sa_2:25; Psa_113:5-6; Psa_100:2-3; Job_22:2-3; Job_35:7-8; Luk_17:10; Act_17:24-25. (2) Gal_2:12. (3) Rom_10:5; Rom_5:12-20. (4) Gen_2:17; Gal_3:10.
Sinai a mixed Dispensation
The transaction at Sinai or Horeb (for they are but one mountain) was a mixed dispensation: there was the promise or covenant of grace, and also the law; the one a covenant to be believed, the other a covenant to be done, and thus the apostle states, the difference betwixt these two. ‘And the law is not of faith, but the man that DOETH them shall live in them’ (Gal 3:12). And to the former, viz. the convent to be believed, it was given to their fathers as well as to them. Of the latter, viz. the covenant to be done. Moses speaks expressly, ‘The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire, and he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to PERFORM (or DO) even Ten Commandments’ (Deut. 4:12-13). And he tells the people no less expressly, that ‘the Lord made not THIS COVENANT with their fathers’ (Deut.5:3).
(Gal 3:12) And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
(Deu 4:12) And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
(Deu 4:13) And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
(Deu 5:3) The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
pp. 78-79 Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher
