“Truly, as it is the covenant of works, you are wholly and altogether delivered and set free from it; you are dead to it, and it is dead to you; and if it be dead to you, then it can do you neither good nor hurt; and if you be dead to it, you can expect neither good nor hurt from it.
Consider, man, I pray you, that, as I said before, you are now under another covenant, the covenant of grace; and you cannot be under two covenants at once, neither wholly nor partly; and therefore, as, before you believed, you were wholly under the covenant of works, as Adam left both you and all his posterity after his fall; so now, since you have believed, you are wholly under the covenant of grace.
Assure yourself then, that no minister, or preacher of God’s word has any warrant to say unto you hereafter, ‘Either do this and that duty contained in the law, and avoid this and that sin forbidden in the law, and God will justify thee and save thy soul: or do it not, and He will condemn thee and damn thee.’
No, no, you are now set free both from the commanding and condemning power of the covenant of works. So that I will say unto you, as the apostle says unto the believing Hebrews:
‘You are not come to Mount Sinai that might not be touched, and that burned with fire; nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempests; but you are come unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God: and to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant.’ (Heb. 12:18, 22, 24)
So that (to speak with holy reverence) God cannot, by virtue of the covenant of works, either require of you any obedience, or punish you for any disobedience; no, He cannot, by virtue of that covenant, so much as threaten you, or give you an angry word, or show you an angry look; for indeed He can see no sin in you, as a transgression of that covenant; for, says the apostle, ‘Where there is no law, there is no transgression,’ (Rom. 4:15).
And therefore, though hereafter you do through frailty transgress any of all the Ten Commandments, yet do you not thereby transgress the covenant of works: there is no such covenant now betwixt God and you.
And therefore, though hereafter you shall hear such a voice as this, ‘If thou wilt be saved, keep the commandments;’ or ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.’
Nay, though you hear the voice of thunder and a fearful noise; nay, though you see blackness and darkness, and feel a great tempest; that is to say, though you hear us that are preachers, according to our commission, (Isa. 58:1) ‘lift up our voice like a trumpet,” in threatening hell and damnation to sinners and transgressors of the law; though these be the words of God, yet are you not to think that they are spoken to you.
No, no; the apostle assures you that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, (Rom. 8:1). Believe it, God never threatens eternal death, after He has given to a man eternal life.
Nay, the truth is, God never speaks to a believer out of Christ; and in Christ He speaks not a word in the terms of the covenant of works. And if the law, of itself should presume to come into your conscience, and say, ‘Herein and herein thou hast transgressed, and broken me, and therefore thou owest so much and so much to Divine justice, which must be satisfied, or else I will take hold on thee,’ then answer you and say:
‘O law! be it known unto thee, that I am now married unto Christ, and so I am under covert; and therefore if thou charge me with any debt, thou must enter thine action against my husband Christ, for the wife is not sueable at the law, but the husband. But the truth is, I through Him am dead to thee, O law! and thou art dead to me; and therefore justice hath nothing to do with me, for it judgeth according to the law.’
And if it yet reply, and say, ‘Ay, but good works must be done and the commandments must be kept, if thou wilt obtain salvation;’ then answer you and say:
‘I am already saved before thou camest; and therefore I have no need of thy presence, for in Christ I have all things at once; neither need I any thing more that is necessary to salvation. He is my righteousness, my treasure and my work: I confess, O law! that I am neither godly, nor righteous, but yet this I am sure of, that he is godly and righteous for me. And to tell the truth, O law! I am now with Him in the bride-chamber, where it maketh no matter what I am, or what I have done; but what Christ my sweet husband is, has done, and does for me: and therefore leave off, law, to dispute with me, for by faith I apprehend Him who hath apprehended me, and put me into His bosom.’
Wherefore I will be bold to bid Moses with his tables, and all lawyers with their books, and all men with their works, hold their peace and give place: so that I say unto thee, ‘O law! be gone.’”
–Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Fearn, Scotland, UK: Christian Heritage, 1645/2009), 172-174.
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