Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
... The life promised in the Covenant of works, is a life of glory in heaven: the promise is life, Gal. 3.12. The man that doth them, shall live in them; some have thought that Adam should have had only the continuance of that blessedness which he was created in, if he had kept the Covenant: it is very true, that there is no mention in the Covenant of his going to heaven: but we have clear ground to conclude from Scripture, that if man had stood, he should have gone to heaven; according to this promise:
1. Because hell, where the devils are, is the reward of disobedience by the covenant of works, therefore heaven, where the holy angels are, is the reward of Obedience: it is meet the rewards should be proportionable: I know it is answered, that sin deserves evil at God’s hands, but holiness which is due unto God does not deserve any rewards; but this does not take off the force of the argument: for it is by the Law that sin merits as well as holiness: and hence wicked men are punished only for such sins as they commit in this life, 2 Cor. 5.10. and there is as much goodness in holiness, as evil in sin; and it is a meet thing that God should bestow as much good in a way of obedience, as he inflicts evil in a way of disobedience: besides the Law expresses the punishment of sin by death Rom. 6.23. The wages of sin is death: and the reward of obedience by life. Gal. 3 12. the man that doth them shall live by them: therefore it is a life directly opposite to that death, a life that contains as much good … it, as that death doth evil: those terms do mutually explain one the other. ...
For more, see Solomon Stoddard on the reward of the covenant of works.
1. Because hell, where the devils are, is the reward of disobedience by the covenant of works, therefore heaven, where the holy angels are, is the reward of Obedience: it is meet the rewards should be proportionable: I know it is answered, that sin deserves evil at God’s hands, but holiness which is due unto God does not deserve any rewards; but this does not take off the force of the argument: for it is by the Law that sin merits as well as holiness: and hence wicked men are punished only for such sins as they commit in this life, 2 Cor. 5.10. and there is as much goodness in holiness, as evil in sin; and it is a meet thing that God should bestow as much good in a way of obedience, as he inflicts evil in a way of disobedience: besides the Law expresses the punishment of sin by death Rom. 6.23. The wages of sin is death: and the reward of obedience by life. Gal. 3 12. the man that doth them shall live by them: therefore it is a life directly opposite to that death, a life that contains as much good … it, as that death doth evil: those terms do mutually explain one the other. ...
For more, see Solomon Stoddard on the reward of the covenant of works.
