New Old Book: Samuel Petto & Mt. Sinai

I was delighted to discover at The Interpreter's House that Tentmaker is republishing (no pun intended!) Samuel Petto's important work The Great Mystery of the Covenant of Grace: or The Difference between the Old and New Covenant Stated and Explained (1647).

The release of this book is significant for several reasons, not least of which is John Owen's preface to the volume (see my post). Anyone interested in covenant theology and the relationship of law/gospel should pick up this book.

Several years ago, I worked through a 19th century reprint of Petto's work (Aberdeen: D. Chalmers & Co., 1820). Here is the table of contents.

1. Of a Covenant in general, and the distribution of the Covenant into that of works and of grace.
2. Of the oneness of the Covenant with Jesus Christ and us.
3. Of Christ as the sum of the Covenant.
4. Of the date of Covenant Mercies
5. General Inferences from the whole
6. Of the Old and New Covenant, what they are, and how distinct,
7. Of the nature of the Mount Sinai Covenant
8. Of the Sinai Covenant, whether ceased or continuing
9. Of the good that was in the Sinai Covenant
10. Of the differences between the Old and New Covenant, and the excellency of the latter above the former
11. Of the time of first coming into Covenant
12. Of the use of Absolute Promise
13. Of those that are called Conditional Promise

To give you a flavor for the work, here are some notes I jotted down. I am quoting from the 19th century edition.

Petto gives a full exposition of the relationship of Sinai to the covenant of grace – an issue he calls “a knotty question in divinity” (p. 103). He asks the question, “What manner of covenant was that at Mount Sinai, which is called the worse covenant? What kind of covenant was it?” (p. 102). To which he gives a straight forward answer, “In general, it was a covenant of works, as to be fulfilled by Jesus Christ, but not so to Israel. Or, it was the covenant of grace as to its legal condition to be performed by Jesus Christ, represented under a conditional administration of it to Israel” (p. 102). Petto is perhaps most helpful in his explanation of Sinai as the "legal condition" of the covenant of grace.

Petto expands this statement by giving a negative and positive affirmation. Negatively, he gives four propositions. First, “The Sinai law was not given as a covenant of works to Israel. It was designed to be a covenant of works, as to be accomplished by Jesus Christ…” (p. 103). Second, “That the Sinai law was not a mixed covenant for eternal life to Israel. It was not partly a covenant of works to them, and partly of grace” (p. 109). Third, “That the Sinai law was not only a covenant for temporal mercies, as the land of Canaan, and such like, but did in some further way belong to the covenant of grace, and had the great concernment thereof, even our eternal salvation, as its principal aim and end” (p. 112). Fourth, “That the Sinai law is not merely a gradually different administration of the covenant of grace to Israel, for that with us in the new and better covenant” (p. 116). Therefore, for Israel, Sinai was not a covenant of works whereby they were expected to earn salvation; it was not a mixed covenant of works and grace; it was not only concerned with the temporal blessings; and it was not an altogether different administration of the covenant of grace.

Positively, he gives two propositions. First, “That the Sinai covenant, did hold forth the covenant of grace, as to its legal condition, to be performed by Jesus Christ, and so was a covenant of works, as to be fulfilled by him” (p. 121). Second, “That Sinai covenant, under a typical servile administration of the covenant of grace, promised temporal mercies to Israel, upon the condition of their obedience” (p. 136). Therefore, Sinai was a covenant of works to be performed not by Israel but by Christ, and it did provide temporal blessing for obedience for Israel.

Petto’s notion of Sinai as the legal condition of the covenant of works is a helpful clarification regarding the relationship of Sinai to the covenant of grace. He surmises, “The great difficulties about this Sinai covenant vanish, if we understand it primarily of the legal condition of the covenant of grace to be performed by Jesus Christ, and any other way they will hardly be removed” (p. 136). It is not that Sinai held forth a works-principle salvation that Israel could achieve herself, but the conditionality of Sinai pointed Israel to the promise of One who would accomplish the legal demands of the covenant on her behalf. Thus, according to Petto, Sinai can be called the legal condition of the covenant of grace.