Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

1. 'Tis Goodness, that he should condescend to make another Covenant with Man. To Stipulate with Innocent and Righteous Adam for his Obedience, was a stoop of his Sovereignty: Though he gave the Precept as a Sovereign Lord, yet in his Covenanting he seems to descend to some kind of equality with that Dust and Ashes with whom he treated. Absolute Sovereigns do not usually Covenant with their People, but exact Obedience and Duty, without binding themselves to bestow a Reward; and if they intend any, they reserve the purpose in their own breasts, without treating their Subjects with a solemn declaration of it. There was no obligation on God to enter into the first Covenant, much less after the violation of the first, to the settlement of a new. If God seemed in some sort to equal himself to Man in the first, he seemed to descend below himself in treating with a Rebel upon more condescending terms in the second. If his Covenant with Innocent Adam was a stoop of his Sovereignty, this with Rebellious Adam seems to be a stripping himself of his Majesty in favour of his Goodness; As if his happiness depended upon us, and not ours upon him. 'Tis a Humiliation of himself to behold the things in Heaven, the glorious Angels, as well as things on Earth, mortal Men;^† much more to bind himself in gracious bonds to the glorious Angels, and much more if to Rebel Man. In the first Covenant there was much of Sovereignty as well as Goodness; In the second there is less of Sovereignty, and more of Grace: In the first there was a Righteous Man for a Holy God; In the second a polluted Creature for a pure and provoked God: In the first he holds his Sceptre in his hand, to Rule his Subjects; In the second he seems to lay by his Sceptre, to Court and Espouse a Beggar: ^*In the first he is a Lord; in the second a Husband, and binds himself upon Gracious Conditions to become a Debtor. How should this Goodness fill us with an humble astonishment, as it did Abraham, when he fell on his face, when he heard God speaking of making a Covenant with him!^† And if God speaking to Israel out of the Fire, and making them to hear his voice out of Heaven, that he might instruct them, was a Consideration whereby Moses would heighten their admiration of Divine Goodness, and engage their affectionate Obedience to him