A DISCOURSE OF THE Covenants That God made with Men before the Law.  
Wherein, The Covenant of Circumcision is more largely handled, and the Invalidity of the Plea for Paedobaptism taken from thence discovered.  
By NEHEMIAH COX.  Search the Scriptures, Joh. 5. 39 
Printed by J. D. and are to be sold by Nathaniel Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultry; and Benjamin Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry. 1681.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
THE usefulness of all divine Truth revealed in the holy Scriptures, with the great Importance of what particularly concerns those Foederal Transactions which are the Subject of the ensuing Treatise, will not leave me without Apology for an Essay towards the Discovery of the mind of God in them.  
As for that part of the Discourse (which is most controversal) concerning the Covenant of Circumcision, I have been the farther engaged in it, upon occasion of Mr. Whiston's Treatises about Baptism, especially his last, entitled Infant Baptism plainly proved: For, observing the main Hinge of the Controversy about the right Subjects of Baptism, to turn upon Gen. 17. I concluded the only way to clear this great Point, must be to make a diligent search after that Account, which the Scripture gives us of the Nature and Ends of the Covenant there recorded: And tho' I have declined the handling these things in a Polemical way, and therefore have not undertaken to return a particular Answer to every thing that hath been asserted in Opposition to my Sentiments; Yet, I hope, the judicious Reader may observe such a Regard had to what hath been urged against those Principles which I proceed upon, as will excuse me from the Charge of crudely re-asserting those things that have been already answered or refuted, without giving any new Enforcement to them, or endeavouring to remove the Ground and Occasion of those Mistakes which I suppose in others.  
To the holy Scriptures I refer myself for the Trial of what is written, and do sincerely desire that nothing may pass for Truth, but upon their Testimony; And if I sometimes walk in an untrodden Path, it is not from any Affectation of Novelty, but in pursuance of that Light which they afford me; And, possibly, seeing those things which at first may seem New, are for the most part deduced from a plain Record of Matters of Fact, they may, upon second Thoughts, gain an assent to their Truth sooner than Opinions arising from more nice Speculation.  
That Notion (which is often supposed in this Discrourse) That the Old Covenant and the New do differ in substance, and not in the manner of their Administration only, doth indeed require a more large and particular handling, to free it from those Prejudices and Difficulties that have been cast upon it by many worthy Persons, who are otherwise minded; And accordingly I designed to have given a farther account of it in a Discourse of the Covenant made with Israel in the Wilderness, and the State of the Church under the Law. But when I had finished this, and provided some Materials also for what was to follow, I found my Labour for the clearing and asserting of that Point, happily prevented, by the coming forth of Dr. Owen's 3d Vol. upon the Hebrews, where it is largely discoursed, and the Objections that seem to lie against it, fully answered (especially in the Exposition of the 8th Chapter) whither I now refer my Reader for Satisfaction about it, which he will there find answerable to what might be expected from so great and learned a Person.  
That the Publication of this little Tract, hath been so long delayed, was partly occasioned by those Perplexities which the restless Plots of the Papists, and their bold Attempts to overwhelm us with the worst of Miseries, have caused, which I thought would scarcely give leisure for the Consideration of was might be offered in this kind; and partly by my own Aversion from any thing that looks like the moving of any Controversy with those that love the Lord Jesus, and sincerely espouse the Protestant Interest, tho' differing in Principle and Practice from me in some controverted Point; there being nothing that my Soul more longs for on Earth, than to see an entire and hearty Union of all that fear God, and hold the Head, however differing in their Sentiments about some things of lesser Moment; and together with these things a sense of Insufficiency to perform my undertaking with that Advantage to Truth as is to be desired, had its share: Howbeit, after I had weighed all Circumstances, the Satisfaction I have, that no Man is by me provoked by any undecent Reflections, or any Occasion given to uncharitable and unchristian Contention; with the Hope that what is here offered, may inform some, and give others Occasion of more accurate Thoughts in a farther Disquisition of the Truth's pointed at, prevailed with me at length to cast in this my Mite into the Public Treasury.  
This only I shall add, That in the whole, my Aim hath been to speak the Truth in Love; and to take my Notions from the Scriptures, not grafting any preconcieved Opinions of my own upon them. Where the Evidence of Truth appears, let it not be refused, because offered in a mean Dress, and presented under the disadvantage of a rude and unpolished stile; But consider rather the reason of what is said; and, with the noble Bereans, search the Scriptures, to see whether these things be so or not; and the Lord give you Understanding in all things.  
N. C.   

The Reader is desired to correct the following ERRATA.  
IN the marg. Note in P. 18. line 3. read judieantis. P. 48. l. 9 for if read of. P. 63. l. 2. del. now. P. 71. l. 15. read as tho' they wore. P. 75. marg. Note read by us ●s. P. 79. l. 2●. read promise second to. l. 28. del. as.  
Other literal Escapes and Errors in Punctation of less Moment are left to thy Candour to correct in reading.   

OF Covenant-Relation TO GOD in General.  

CHAP. I.  
A General Introduction to the following Discourse. §. 1. The particular design of this Chapter proposed. A Covenant to be considered either on the part of God, as proposed by him, or as Man enters thereinto. God is first in proposing a Covenant to Men. Covenant-Interest completed by Restipulation. No Covenant of mutual benefits betwixt God and Men. §. 2. The general notion of a Covenant as proposed by God. This further explained, with some necessary Consequences of it, in seven particulars. §. 3. God hath always dealt with men about their future state in a way of Covenant. Some Consectaries of it. §. 4. His Covenant always transacted with some Head, or representative for others. §. 5. Some general Inferences, and Directions for the right understanding of Covenant-Transactions. §. 6.  
THE great Interest of Man's present Peace, and eternal Happiness, is most nearly concerned in Religion; and all true Religion, since the fall of Man, must be taught by divine Revelation, which God 
* Heb. 1. 1, 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Deus non semel olim omnia, sed particulatim, deinde etia● de●ersis modis sus notitiam ac cultum declaravit. per Prophetas, quò propius dies imminebat, eo clariorem lucem edentes. Bez.  by divers parts, and after a divers manner hath given out to his Church, causing this Light gradually to increase, until the whole Mystery of his Grace was perfectly revealed in and by Jesus Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge. And that God unto whom all his Works were known from the beginning, hath in all ages disposed and ordered the Revelation of his Will to Men, his Transactions with them, & all the works of his holy Providence towards them, with a 
* Deus in omnibus Actionibus prisci seculi, semper ob oculos habebat tempora Messia, Grot.  Respect unto the fullness of time, and the gathering of all things unto an Head in Christ Jesus therein: So that in all our search after the mind of God in the holy Scriptures, we are to manage our Inquiries with a respect to Christ. And therefore the best Interpreter of the Old Testament, is the holy Spirit speaking to us in the New; because there we have the clearest Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God shining upon us, in the face of Jesus Christ, by unveiling those counsels of Love and Grace that were hidden from former Ages and Generations. Nevertheless the greater Light of the New Testament doth no way abate the usefulness of the Old; but rather obligeth us the more to an humble and diligent Study thereof; and that (as on many other accounts, so, for this reason also) because the Mystery of the Gospel cannot be throughly apprehended by us, without some good understanding of the Oeconomy of the Law, yea, and also of the State of things before the Law; the mutual respect and dependence of the Old and New Testament being such, as neither can be understood apart, or without the other, nor an entire System of Truth, as it is in Jesus, collected, but from both.  
It must be acknowledged therefore to be of great use and concern to us, to be well acquainted with those Transactions of God with Men, and his Dispensations towards them, that are recorded in the sacred History of the first Ages of the World, and the Church of God therein. And in this Enquiry, I shall at present engage myself, so f●r as those times reach that preceded the giving of the Law by Moses, and no farther. And in the performance of this (to avoid tediousness in repeating what hath been by others handled at large, and fully cleared) I shall for the most part confine myself to brief Observations upon the Records of these things, as left to us in the holy Scriptures; and more largely insist on such Passages only, as I conceive not to have been so fully spoken to by others, or at least not handled in that Method and Order, as to me seems most suited to the nature of the things treated of, and so most apt to convey a clear notion of them to our Minds.  
§. 2. And forasmuch as those Transactions of God with Men, which in this Enquiry we shall meet with, are of a Foederal Nature, it will be requisite that in the first place, something be spoken of Covenant-Relation to God in general.  
The original Words whereby a Covenant, making, striking, or entering into Covenant are signified, with their various use, and application to particular Cases 
Vid. Cooceii de foedere. ca 1. & R●●et. in Gen. Exerc. 53.  and Occasions, have been fully explained by many; and therefore passing that, as to our present purpose, it will be enough to mind you,  
That a Covenant is to be considered, either simply as proposed by God, or as Man enters thereinto by Restipulation. For,  
1. Whatsoever is transacted in a foederal way betwixt God and Men, God hath the first hand in it. As Christ said to his Disciples in another case, that they had not chosen him, but he had chosen them; so may we say, Man hath not at any time entered into Covenant with God, but God hath entered into Covenant with Man; seeing it only belongs to his Sovereign Majesty, and is the fruit of his infinite Goodness to propose, as of his Wisdom to choose and order the Terms of a Covenant-relation between himself and his Creatures; And therefore the Covenant that he hath made with Men, is frequently in Scripture said to be the Lord's Covenant, as in Psal. 25. 14. Isa. 56. 4, 6. and other places. Howbeit,  
2. Covenant-relation to God, and Interest in him, doth not immediately result from the proposal of a Covenant, and Terms of Covenant-relation to Man; but it is by Restipulation that he actually enters into Covenant with God, and becomes an interessed Party in the Covenant; it is a mutual Consent of the parties in Covenant, that states, and completes a Covenant-Relation; and this is called an avouching of the Lord to be their God; by consent to the Terms of a Covenant proposed to them Deut. 26. 16, 17, 18. a subscribing with the hand unto the Lord, Isa. 44. 5. and taking hold of his Covenant, Chap. 56. 4, 6. The formal notion of a Covenant entered or made, includes Mutual Engagement. But yet,  
3. There can be no Covenant of mutual benefits betwixt God and Men, as there may be betwixt one man and another; for all Creatures do necessarily depend upon, and have both their Being and Well-being from the Bounty of their Creator; there is nothing that they have not received from him, and therefore the most perfect of them can render nothing to him, but what is due by the Law of their Creation. None can be profitable to God, tho' he that is righteous, may be so both to himself, 
Job 35. 7, 8. Rom. 11. 35, 36.  and his Neighbour; and therefore none can oblige God, or make him their Debtor, unless he condescend to oblige himself by Covenant or Promise.  
§. 3. The general notion of any Covenant of God with Men, considered on the part of God, or as proposed by him, may be thus conceived of, That it is,  

* Est enim Dei Foedus nihil aliud quam divina declaratio de ratione percipiendi amoris Dei, & union, ac communione ipsius potiendi. Cocceius de Foed.  A declaration of his Sovereign Pleasure concerning the Benefits he will bestow on them, the Communion they shall have with him, and the way and means whereby this shallbe enjoyed by them.  
And for the better understanding of what I intent by this general Description, I shall briefly propose some particulars, that are either included in it, or are the immediate and necessary consequents of it, viz.  
1. It implies a free and Sovereign Act of the Divine Will, exerted in condescending Love and Goodness; it is not from any necessity of Nature, that God enters into Covenant with Men, but of his own good Pleasure. Such a privilege, and nearness to God, as is included in Covenant-Interest, cannot immediately result from the relation which they have to God as Creatures, no not as reasonable Creatures, tho' upright, and in a perfect state; for the Lord owes not unto Man the Good promised in any Covenant he makes with him, antecedently; but his first Right therein, is freely given him by the promise of the Covenant.  
2. The notion of a Covenant adds assurance to that of a promise, as it implies a special Bond of favour and friendship, which belongs unto Foederal-Interest and Relation; for a Covenant is the foundation of a special Relation betwixt the parties concerned therein; the kind and benefit of which Relation is determined by the Covenant itself, the Nature, Promises, and End thereof.  
3. The immediate and direct End therefore, of God's entering into Covenant with Man at any time (so far as concerns Man himself) is the advancing and bettering of his State; God did never make a Covenant with Man, wherein his Goodness to him was not abundantly manifest; yea such is his infinite Bounty, that he hath proposed no lower End to his Covenant-Transactions with Men, than the bringing of them into a blessed State in the eternal Fruition of himself; And therefore, when one Covenant (through the weakness of Man in his lapsed State) hath been found weak, and unprofitable, as to this great End of a Covenant, because insufficient to accomplish it; God finds fault, abolisheth it, and introduceth another, wherein full provision is made for the perfect Salvation of those that have interest in it: Heb. 8. 7, 8.  
4. The kindness, and condescending Love of God in entering into Covenant with Man, doth strengthen that Bond of Love and Obedience to God, that he is under by the Law of his Creation, by adding a new Obligation thereunto; And therefore the Sin of Man in breaking Covenant with God rises higher, and is accompanied with greater aggravations, than the bare Transgression of a Law, if no such Covenant-relation had been added thereunto. And therefore,  
5. The Revelation of the Counsel of God's Will in a Covenant proposed to Man, is so far from excluding a Restipulation on his part, as that it renders it a necessary duty upon him. It is not in this case as in Foederal Transactions betwixt Equals, where one is at liberty to refuse the Covenant offered by the other Party; but the sense of our infinite distance from God as Creatures, and the dependence we necessarily have upon him, and the duty we own to him by the unalterable Law of our Creation, (as well as our own advantage and profit thereby) obligeth us with holy fear, and thankfulness, to accept both the Benefits he offers to us, and the Terms on which they are offered, in his Covenant; and diligently to perform what we are by him commanded, and directed to, for the Ends proposed therein. But yet,  
6. This Restipulation (and consequently, the way, and manner of obtaining, as also the right in which we claim Covenant-Blessings) must of necessity vary, according to the different Nature and Terms of those Covenants that God at any time makes with Men: if the Covenant be of Works, the Restipulation must be, by doing the things required in it, even by fulfilling its condition in a perfect obedience to the Law of it; and suitable hereunto, the reward is of Debt (understand it not of Debt absolutely, but of Debt by compact) according the Terms of such a Covenant. But if it be a Covenant of free and sovereign Grace, the Restipulation required, is an humble receiving, or hearty believing of those gratuitous Promises on which the Covenant is established; and accordingly the Reward or Covenant Blessing, is, immediately, and eminently of Grace.  
7. Therefore the Good and Glory of any Covenant, that God makes with Men, whether it be considered absolutely, or in comparison with another Covenant, is chief to be measured by the Promises and Terms thereof; if one Covenant be established upon better Promises (i. e. either promising a more excellent Good, or in a more excellent Way) than another, it is from thence denominated, and for that reason to be esteemed, a better Covenant than the other. Heb. 8. 6.  
§. 4. And together with these things, it may not be unseasonable in this place, farther to observe,  
That the holy and wise God hath always dealt with the Children of Men in a way of Covenant; the Display of infinite Goodness hath always accompanied the discovery of his infinite Glory in his dealing with Men; and therefore he hath not acted towards them, to the utmost Right of his Sovereignty and Dominion over them; had he so done, there had never been any reward of future Blessedness assigned, and made Due to their Obedience, as by Covenant there hath been; nor had they been brought into any nearer Relation to God, then that which did result from their Creation by him: But the great God hath not so kept his distance from Man, but that he hath condescended to come to Terms with him; and as he hath required Obedience in some things beyond the immediate dictates of the Law of Nature, by positive Institutions; so he hath been pleased also to oblige himself, beyond the Debt of a Creator, by promise of a bountiful Reward. And hence it follows;  
That as all the Worship and Obedience that God hath required of, and accepted from the Children of Men, hath been upon Covenant-Terms; so their Ability, or moral capacity, of walking in wellpleasing before him, hath been also given to them, or wrought in them, pursuant to the ends of their Covenant-Relation; and therefore must be the inseparable Adjunct (not of the bare proposal of a Covenant to them, but) of that Covenant-Interest in which they have been stated. And of this, the consequence is,  
1. That persons once fallen under the guilt of breach of Covenant, are by their own default utterly disabled from yielding any acceptable Obedience to God upon the Terms of that Covenant, which they have violated; and in the Interest of that Covenant-relation which is forfeited and lost by them; they remain under the penal Sanction of the Covenant, but are utterly despoiled of Strength to answer the Ends of that Covenant, and have wholly lost their Right in the Reward of it.  
2. If they be without Strength, with respect to the Condition and end of that Covenant, which once they had Interest in, and Principles suited to; then are they so much more, while they remain in their lapsed state, with respect unto the terms of another Covenant more excellent and mysterious, and wholly supernatural as to the Doctrine and Terms thereof. And therefore,  
3. Spiritual Strength, and Ability to please God, can no way be restored to them, but by a new Covenant-interest, and that new Creation which is the adjunct thereof.  
§. 5. This also is worthy to be noted by us, That those Covenants which God hath made, wherein either Mankind in general, or some select number of Men in particular have been concerned, it hath pleased him first to transact with some public Person, Head, or Representative, for all others that should be concerned in them: Thus it was in the Covenant of Creation, which God made with Adam in his upright State, and with all Mankind in him; and the same is to be observed in the Noachical Covenant; as also in the Covenants made with Abraham, considered either as the Father of Believers, or of the Israelitish Nation; in the interest of a spiritual Relation to him, Believers claim the Blessings of the Covenant of Grace that was made with him; and in the interest of a natural Relation to him, his offspring according to the flesh did claim the Rights and Privileges of that Covenant of Peculiarity which was first made with him as the Head of that separate People; but more eminently, the Covenant of Grace is established in Christ as the Head thereof; all its Promises were first given to him; and in him they are all Yea, and Amen: It is by Union to him that Believers obtain a new-Covenant-interest, and from him they derive a new Life, Grace, and Strength, to answer the Ends of the New-Covenant.  
§. 6. Now as it is evident from what hath been already said, that all foederal transactions of God with Men flow only form his good pleasure, and the counsel of his Will; so upon that ground it is certainly to be concluded, that our Knowledge and Understanding of them, must wholly depend upon Divine Revelation; none can pretend acquaintance with the Secret of God, but as he hath pleased to reveal it in his Word; this Light must guide all our Inquiries after it; and our sentiments of things of this nature must be strictly governed by this Rule; seeing the nature of them is such as transcends the common Principles of Reason or natural Light, inasmuch as they own their original to the free acts of the divine Will and Wisdom, which are unaccountable till revealed by God himself; and therefore it becomes us to captivate all our thoughts of them, to the obedience of Faith, as knowing that Learning, and Strength of parts (tho' of excellent use in their place) not guided by Scripture-light in these Inquiries, can only form an ingenious error, and lose a Man in the Labyrinth of his own Imagination, and uncertain guesses; seeing the single advantage of those assistances (in this case trusted to, and stretched beyond their line) can reach no further than to enable him cum ratione errare; and so to wander from Truth, in a Path seeming more smooth, tho' no less dangerous, than others light upon.  
And therefore in these things lies the Spring of most Mistakes, and corruption of Doctrine and Practice in matters of Religion; Men do easily find out, and agree in the true dictates of the Law of Nature, but in things pertaining to the Covenants of God, how various are their Sentiments! Yea many great, learned, and good Men have been divided in their Judgements about some things of great importance to the Faith and Edification of the Church, tho' not absolutely necessary to her Being; and some one error admitted about the nature of God's foederal transactions with Men, doth strangely perplex the whole Systeme, or Body of Divinity, and entangle our interpretation of innumerable Texts of Scripture; and by this means Jars and Contentions have been perpetuated in the Church, to the great grief and hindrance of all, the offence of the weak, and greater scandal of the blind World; and all this hath been much occasioned through the want of a due and humble attention to that Revelation of Truth which God hath given us in the holy Scriptures, and endeavouring to collect the mind of God from thence without prepossession of Judgement (which is a greater occasion of these mistakes then Men are generally ware of) and a careful avoiding the undue mixture or confusion of things natural, with those that are purely of a foederal nature.  
Forasmuch then as the Covenant of God is his Secret, and he only can make us to know it; and yet our Faith and Practice, Comfort, and Holiness, is nearly concerned in a good acquaintance with it, we need no other Motive to a diligent and humble search of the Scriptures, for the right informing of our Judgement thereabout; nor no other Caution not to attribue overmuch to our own Wisdom or Abilities, but to manage all our Inquiries with earnest prayer to God for that holy spirit of Light and Truth, who only can lead us into all this Truth, and bring us to a clear acquaintance with the mind of God concerning it.   

Of God's Transactions with Adam. CHAP. II.  
The Importance of this Enquiry, the method proceeded in stated. §. 1. The original state of man; the Law that he was made under, both moral, and positive; the sanction of this Law, and the Reward proposed to him. §. 2. That he had a promise of Reward farther asserted and proved. §. 3. Some farther remarks upon this Transaction; Reward and Punishment not alike necessary; the sanction of the Law by the Curse most expressly mentioned, and why it was so. §. 4. Adam a public person, the consequent hereof. §. 5. That Transaction with Adam of a foederal nature; proof that it was so. herein consists the Mystery thereof; §. 6. The general nature of this Covenant; Man left to the freedom of his own Will under it; his mutability, the original of Sin. §. 7. The sin of our first Parents; some Remarks thereupon. §. 8. The state and condition of Man fallen, described in several particulars; the death threatened in the sanction of the Law was eternal death; two reasons urged for the proof of it; §. 9 The Mercy of God to fallen Man; two things premised to the consideration thereof, §. 10. God holds a treaty with man; the issue of it; A Promise of Redemption employed in the commination of the Serpent; A restraint and modification of the Curse ensuing thereon; this the occasion of temporal Death; the institution of Bloody Sacrifices; the Covenant of Grace not made with Adam as a public person; §. 11. The state and condition of Adam's Posterity after the Fall, described in some particulars; §. 12.  
§. 1. IN the former Chapter, I have briefly touched upon some things of a more general nature, which I thought needful to be premised to the handling of those Particulars which are to follow; and now my work is to consider the first state of Man, an account of which is to be taken from the state of Adam, in whom the world of Mankind was Epitomised, and in the Transactions of God with him, the Relation he had to God with the Event and Issue thereof, we are all most nearly concerned; for the right understanding of these things, is not only necessary in order to, but lies in the very Foundation of all useful Knowledge of ourselves, and of the mind of God in all Revelations, that he hath in following Ages made of his Will and Counsel to the Children of Men, either before, or in the Law of Moses, or by the word of the Gospel. The ignorance of this that was in them, is apparently the reason of the Blindness, and miserable Mistakes of the wisest Heathen Philosophers, in a thousand other things of the greatest Importance; if a Man miss the right account of this, he is certainly bewildered in all after search for that Truth which it most concerns him to know; and therefore it behoves us with all diligence to observe what the Holy Ghost hath left upon Record for our Instruction in this matter: The Discourse of which, may be reeferred to these three Heads.  

1. The Condition of Adam before he sinned.  
2. His Sin, and the immediate Consequents thereof. And,  
3. How God dealt with him in his fallen State: of each I shall discourse but very briefly: And first,   
§. 2. Concerning the Condition of Man before his Fall, we may observe these things;  
1. That God made him a reasonable Creature, and endued him with original Righteousness, which was a Perfection necessary for the enabling of him to answer the End of his Creation; and eminently in this respect, he is said to be created in the Image of God, Gen. 1. 26, 27. and to be made upright, Eccle. 7. 29. which Uprightness or Rectitude of Nature did consist in the perfect Harmony, of his Soul, with that Law of God which he was made under, and subjected to: which was,  
1. An eternal Law, and invariable Rule of Righteousness, whereby those things that are agreeable to the Holiness and Rectitude of the Divine Nature were required, and whatsoever is contrary thereto was prohibited; which Law was to Adam, internal and subjective only being communicated to him with his reasonable Nature 
* Jus naturale est dictamen recte rationis, judicans actui alicus, ex ejus convenientiâ vel disconvenientiâ cum ipsâ naturâ rationali inesse moralem turpitudinem, aut necessitatem moralem, & con 〈…〉 ab Authore Naturae, ipso Deo, talem accum aut Vet●● aut 〈◊〉. Grot. This 〈…〉 Philosopher 〈…〉eth it, was Nota Artificis operi suo impressa. And of some Dictates of the Law of Nature (as I remember) Cicero saith, that with respect to them, facti non docti, imbuti, non instructi 〈◊〉.  and written in his heart, so as that he needed no external Revelation to perfect his Knowledge of it. And therefore in the History of his Creation there is no other account given of it but what is 〈…〉 which 〈…〉 have 〈…〉 that he was made in the Image of God, which as the Apostle reacheth us doth consist in Righteousness and true Holiness, Eph. 4. 24. The Sum of this Law was afterwards given in ten Words upon Mount Sinai; and yet more briefly by Christ, who reduceth it unto two great Commands respecting our Duty both to God, and our Neighbour, Mal. 22. 37-40. And this as a Law and Rule of Righteousness is in its own Nature immutable and invariable, as is the Nature and will of God himself, whose Holiness is stamped thereon, and represented thereby.  
2. It pleased the 〈…〉 Majesty of Heaven; to add into the eternal Law a 〈…〉, wherein it charged Man not to 〈◊〉 of the Fruit of one Tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden, which Tree was called, The Tree of the Knowledge, of 〈◊〉 and Evil, Gen. 2. 16, 17. chap. 3. 3. The 〈◊〉 of this Fruit was not a thing evil in itself, but 〈◊〉 was made so by divine Prohibition; and therefore it was necessary that the Will of God concerning this, should be expressly signified and declared unto Man, who otherwise by the Light of Nature, had been no more directed to 〈◊〉 from the Fruit of this Tree, then of any other in the Garden, nor indeed had he been under any Bond of Duty thereunto. But the Command being once given forth, this positive Law had its Foundations 〈◊〉 laid in the Law of Nature, it being an 〈…〉 That it is a most righteous and reasonable thing that Man should obey God, and that the Will of the Creature should ever be subject to the Will of the Creator. And therefore the Heart of an upright Man could not but naturally close with, and submit to the Will of God by any means made known unto him; and there can be no Transgression of a positive Precept, without the Violation of that eternal Law that is written in his Heart.  
Secondly, This Law was guarded by a Sanction, in the threatening of Death to the Transgression thereof, Gen. 2. 17. which Commination is delivered in Terms denoting the utmost Misery that can befall a reasonable Creature, and the highest certainty of its befalling him in case of his Transgression; In the day thou eatest thereof (saith the Lord) in dying thou shalt die. And this Sanction belonged not only to the positive Precept unto which it was expressly annexed, but also to the Law of Nature, the Demerit of the Transgression of which Law, is known to man by the same Light as the Law itself is known to him; and this is made good by the experience of Mankind even in their fallen State, who do not only find some remaining Notions in themselves of the difference of Good and Evil, and some sense of their Duty to embrace the one, and eschew the other, but also have a Conscience of Punishment due to the Transgression of these Dictates of their Reason: And these Notions are connatural to them, and therefore to be observed as well in those that have not, as in those that have the Light of a written Law to guide them; Rom. 1. 32. chap. 2. 15. And if it be thus with fallen Man, then much more, as the Law itself, so also the Sanction thereof was perfectly and distinctly known unto Adam in his upright State, whose Conscience was pure, and his Mind irradiated with a clear Light, as being perfectly free from those dark Fumes of sensual Lust wherewith the Reason and Judgement of his lapsed Offspring is darkened and perverted.  
Thirdly, Adam was not only under a Commination of Death in case of Disobedience, but had also the Promise of an eternal Reward, on condition of his perfect Obedience to these Laws; which Condition if he had fulfilled, the Reward had been due to him, by virtue of this Compact that it pleased God to condescend unto for the encouraging of Man's Obedience, and the manifestation of his own Bounty and Goodness.  
§. 3. Now that such a Promise of Reward, was given to Adam, and indeed employed in the Commination of Death in case of Disobedience, may be concluded;  
1. From the State, and Capacity in which God set him; which was a state of Trial in a way to eternal Happiness, under a Law of Works and exercise of Obedience; which we cannot conceive of, but as in order to some Reward and highest End, proposed to him, and in this way attainable by him.  
2. From the natural 〈◊〉 of Men; to expect the Reward of 〈◊〉 Blessedness, for their Obedience to the Law of God, and to stand before him upon 〈◊〉 of a Covenant of Works, which must necessarily 〈…〉 Relation to God in such a Covenant at 〈◊〉 to which the Promise of such a 〈◊〉 did ●●long and the Knowledge of these Covenant-Terms communicated to him, together with the Law of his Creation.  
3. From the Sacramental Use of that Tree in the Midst of the Garden of Eden, which was called the Tree of Life, because institute of God for a Sign and Pledge of that eternal Life, which Adam should have obtained by his own personal, and perfect Obedience to the Law of God, had he continued therein; and that this Tree was appointed by God unto such an Use, and End, is collected,  
1. From the Allusion that Christ makes thereunto in the New Testament, 〈◊〉. 2. 7. where he promiseth and eternal Reward, to him that overcometh, in there 〈◊〉, I will give him 〈◊〉 of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God: The reason of which is taken from God's Appointment of this Tree to be an assurance of 〈◊〉 Life to Adam upon the Terms and Condition of a Covenant of Works, and the Ana 〈…〉 of that Reward which Christ gives to his faithful ones upon Terms of another Covenant, which Analogy consists in the general Nature of an eternal Reward promised, tho' there be not an Identity, or perfect Agreement in the Degree or particular Kind thereof: I will not pretend exactly to determine the Mode or Degree of that Blessedness which was set before Adam by the Covenant made with him, whether it was a Confirmation in his present State (which was very happy) or a Translation to a better, when the Course of his Obedience in this, was run out; however it seems reasonable to conclude that it was in some respects short of that Glory we are called to by Jesus Christ; but they both agree in the notion of an eternal, and in its kind, perfect Happiness; and therefore the one is expressed by those Terms that relate to a former Assurance of the other.  
2. From the Method of God's dealing with Adam in reference to this Tree, after he had sinned against him, and the Reason thereof assigned by God himself, Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever. You may read an account of the whole, Gen. 3. from Verse 22th, to the End. We are not to suppose that Adam could indeed have obtained eternal Life, by eating of the Fruit of that Tree, after he had sinned against God; but the whole Scheme of that Discourse is Ironical; and as I take the foregoing Words 
* En 〈◊〉 promissam!  Behold the Man is become like one of us, to be an holy upbraiding of the Folly of Man in aspiring to such a State, by the Breach of God's Law, upon the Credit of the Devil's Suggestion; so I take these Words also to intimate a farther Delusion that fallen Man was in danger of, by entertaining an Opinion (that vain Man is on any pretence ready to nourish in himself) of his being in a Capacity yet to recover his forfeited Happiness this way, or by any other Work of his own; howbeit they teach us what was the Use and End that this Tree was at first designed to, as also that Adam was not ignorant thereof, tho' now he was to be taught the utter impossibility of obtaining Life by a broken Covenant, by the guarding, and prohibiting all access to, that Tree, by the Cherubin's flaming Sword, that turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life.  
3. This also must not be forgotten, that as Moses' Law did some way include the Covenant of Creation, and serve for a Memorial thereof (on which account all Mankind was concerned in its Curse) it had not only the Sanction of a Curse awfully denounced against the Disobedient, but also a Promise of the Reward of Life to the Obedient; now as the Law of Moses was the same as to the moral Precept, with the Law of Creation, so the Reward in this respect proposed, was not a new Reward, but the same that by Compact had been due to Adam, in case of his perfect Obedience.  
§. 4. From what hath been said (I conceive) it is manifest, that Adam was set in his way but not actually brought to his eternal Rest, in that State wherein he was created; being capable of, and made for, a greater Degree of Happiness than he immediately enjoyed, which was set before him as the Reward of his Obedience by that Covenant wherein he was to walk with God; and of this Reward thus set before him, these things are farther to be observed;  
1. That altho' the Law of his Creation was attended both with a promise of Reward, and a threatening of Punishment, yet the reason of both is not the same, nor alike necessary; for the Reward is of mere Sovereign Bounty, and Goodness, and therefore might have been either less or more, as it pleased God, or not proposed at all, and yet no Injury done; but the Punishment threatened is a Debt to Justice, and results immediately from the nature of Sin with reference to God, without the Intevention of any Compact; it is due to the Transgression of a Divine Law as such, and therefore still due to every Transgrssion of it, even by those that are already cut off from hope of Reward by former Breach of the Covenant; and as it may not be more than the Offence deserves without Injury to Man, so neither may it be less, without a Diminution of the Glory of Justice, by the strict Rule of which it is always measured: that Death therefore which was threatened in the Curse, is in a strict and proper Sense the wages of Sin; Rom. 6. 23.  
2. In the History of this Transaction, as left upon record by the Holy Ghost for our Instruction, we have a more particular and express Mention made of the Curse threatened, than of the Reward promised, and so a more distinct Notion of that conveyed to our Minds then of this, altho' we have reason to think both were known to Adam with equal clearness; and this may be, because it more concerns us to be thoroughly humbled under a Sense of the present Misery of Mankind in their lapsed State, then curiously to inquire after the particular Mode, or Degree of that Blessedness which was once proposed, but can never be obtained by us in the Interest of that Covenant, which first gave Man a Right thereunto.  
§. 5. In this Transaction of God with Adam, he is not to be considered in a private Capacity, or as one concerned for himself alone; but God treated with him as the common Root and Representative of all Mankind, that were to spring from him according to the ordinary course of Nature, and were then reckoned to be in him both as a natural, and Foederal Root; and therefore in his standing all Mankind stood, and in his Fall, 
* Nos omnes eramus ille unus homo.  they all sinned, and fell in him, for by the Disobedience of one many were made Sinners; Rom. 5. And in this respect he is said to be the Type, and Christ the 〈◊〉, or, the Figure of him that was to come; because as Adam's Sin is imputed to all that were in him, and so the Judgement is come upon all unto Condemnation, that were represented by him; so also the Obedience of Christ is imputed to all that are in him, and the free Gift redounds upon them, unto the Justification of Life, by virtue of their Union to, and Communion with him.  
§. 6. From these things it is evident that God dealt with Adam not only upon Terms of a Law, but in a way of Covenant, and that this Transaction with him was of a Foederal Nature; and although it be not in Scripture expressly called a Covenant, yet it hath the express Nature of a Covenant, and there is no reason for Ni●●●y about Terms; where the thing itself, is sufficiently revealed to us; there is no express mention of a Covenant of Grace, before Abraham's time, and yet the thing is certain and clearly revealed in Scripture, that all who were saved before his time, were interested in such a Covenant, and saved only by the Grace thereof. The Evidence of Adam's Covenant-Relation to God, may briefly be summed up thus,  
1. It is probable, in that God set him, not only under the necessary Law of his Creation, but added thereunto a positive Law; which we may observe in all his After deal with Men to be an adjunct of a Covenant Transaction. But hen,  
2. It is certainly concluded from that Promise of Reward, and the Assurance thereof, that was given to Adam, which he could never have obtained, but by God's condescending to deal with him upon Terms of a Covenant.  
3. It could only be upon the account of such a Covenant, that his Posterity should be concerned as they were, in his standing, or falling; let the first be denied, and the latter is altogether unaccountable, for had he only been under a Law to God, his Sin had remained upon himself, and could not have redounded upon the whole World of Mankind, as now it doth by a just Imputation, no more than the Sin of any particular Person, can now be imputed to another Man that is not actually guilty thereof, at least the Sins of immediate Parents unto their Children.  
And herein lies the Mystery of the first Transaction of God with Man, and of his Relation to God thereupon, which did not result immediately from the Law of his Creation, but from the Disposition of a Covenant according to the Free, Sovereign, and wise Counsel of God's Will; and therefore tho' the Law of Creation be easily understood by Men, and there is little Controversy about it amongst those that are not degenerate from all Principles of Reason and Humanity; yet the Covenant of Creation, the Interest of Adam's Posterity with himself therein, and the Gild of original Sin redounding upon them thereby, is not owned by the generality of Mankind, nor can be understood but by the Light of Divine Revelation; nor is the Heart of Man humbled unto a due Acknowledgement of it, by a clear and deep Conviction, but by a Work of the Holy Ghost. And while Men will measure this Counsel of God by their own narrow and dark Reason, and refuse to submit their Sentiments thereabout, to the Revelation of his Sovereign Pleasure, his unaccountable Will, and Wisdom, they must necessarily fall into grievous Mistakes, and fill the World with fruitless Contentions through their darkening of Counsel, by words without Knowledge.  
§. 7. This Covenant that God made with Adam, and all Mankind in him, as to the Terms and Condition of it (we see) was a Covenant of Works; with respect to immediate Privilege and Relation, it was a Covenant of Friendship, and with regard to the Reward promised, it was a Covenant of rich Bounty and Goodness; but included not, nor intimated the least jota of pardoning Mercy; but as while the Law of it was perfectly observed it raised Man within a Degree of the Blessed Angels, so the Breach of that Law inevitably brought him under that Curse which did sink him to the Society of Apostate Devils, and left him under a Misery like to theirs.  
2. Under this Covenant Man was left to the Freedom of his own Will; It was in his own Power and Choice, either to obey, and be eternally happy, or to sin and so expose himself to eternal Misery; he was not so confirmed in Grace, as that he could not sin and die, but he was endued with that Power, and Rectitude of Nature, as that he might not have sinned, nor ever died, tho' he had not a non posse peccare, and so a non posse mori; yet he had a posse non peccare, and so a posse non mori; he was a perfect tho' a mutable Creature, and had all possible advantage of moral ●●●sion to make him constant in his Obedience; he could not be without a clear Conviction of the greatest Obligation thereunto, both in point of Duty and Gratitude, towards his Creator, and Covenant-God; he had present Happiness, and future Hope in the way of his Duty; and fair warning of the Misery that Sin would bring upon him, in the denouncing of that Curse which was the Sanction of the Law given unto him; and yet when the time of Trial comes, all this prevails not against the Temptation, but his Mutability becomes the Original of that Original Sin, whereby himself, and in him the World of Mankind, were ruined and made miserable.  
§. 8. The next thing therefore to be enquired into is, The Sin of our first Parents, and then State and Condition thereupon.  
As to the first, Their Transgression was actually completed, by eating of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil concerning which the Lord had commanded them that they should not eat thereof; Gen. 3. 6. and with respect to this let it be observed,  
1. That it was by the Breach of a positive Law that Mankind was lost: This was the Door through which Sin, and all the Miseries consequent thereto, invaded, and by their Entrance ruined this lower World.  
2. In that Man fell by the Transgression of this Positive Precept, his Breach of Covenant with God was so much the more conspicuous; inasmuch as this Precept belonged not immediately, and necessarily to the law of his Creation, but was superadded thereto, as a special Term and Condition of his Covenant-Relation.  
3. The Breach of this positive Law doth suppose and necessarily infer, a Violation of the eternal Law of his Creation; this Transgression was a total Apostasy from God, and in it all conceivable Wickedness was included, even the lust of the Flesh, the lust of the Eyes, and the pride of Life; 1 Joh. 2. 16. yea all the Villainies that to this day have been, or ever shall be perpetrated in the World, are the genuine Fruit thereof; and upon a strict search its Aggravations will be found to be unaccountable.  
§. 9 The State and Condition of Man thus fallen, is 〈◊〉 to be enquired into; and that was midst miserable and dreadful; for having after this ma●●ier broken Covenant with God, by a wicked and wilful Transgression of his holy Law,  
1. He thereby utterly forfeited and lost all Covenant-Interest in God; he could no more claim a Right in, or hope for, that Reward which was promised on Condition of his perfect Obedience to the Law of that Covenant, which God had made with him; but immediately fell under Gild, being by the Sentence of his own Conscience bound over to punishment, under the just Wrath of the Almighty; and therefore he dreaded nothing more than the Approach of God to him, Gen. 3. 8, 9, 10.  
2. He did not only forfeit his Right, and present Relation to God by this Sin, but moreover he was thereby rendered uncapable of true Happiness, inasmuch as he was now apostatised from a Covenant of Friendship, to a State of Enmity against God, and Alienation from him, which is the necessary Adjunct of Wickedness; He fell under the Dominion of Sin; and that Image of God wherein he was created, was in a manner wholly defaced; he sinned and fell short of the Glory of God; Rom. 3. 23. And now instead of that original Righteousness wherewith he was at first beautified, there was nothing to be found in him, but abominable Filthiness, and horrid Deformity; his Mind was covered over, yea possessed with hellish Darkness, Hatred of God reigned in his Heart, and his Affections were no longer subject to right Reason▪ but became vile, and rebellious; and in this State it is evident, he must be utterly uncapable of Communion with God, and of the Fruition of him, wherein alone the true Happiness of a reasonable Creature doth consist.  
3. The Curse of the Law in its utmost Rigour, and prime Intendment, was immediately and only due to him; and no less than the utmost Execution thereof was every Moment to be expected by him; and that was Death, even the worst of Deaths, eternal Death, which is, An everlasting Punishment of Soul and Body, under the wrathful Vengeance of a provoked Deity.  
Now that this was the prime Intendment of the Threatening, might be evinced by many Reasons, but at present I shall content myself with the mention of two only.  
1. This Punishment will be inflicted on many of the ungodly Posterity of Adam who have been guilty of no other Transgression but that of the Light and Law of Nature; such were those wicked Heathens that Paul speaks of Rom. 1. 20. etc. and Chap. 2. 6,— 16. who, tho' they never had the Law written, or knew of any repeated Promulgation thereof, (and therefore we may conclude them much more unlikely to be acquainted with the new-Covenant and its Terms) yet being a Law to themselves, were for the Transgression of this Law liable to this Punishment: Now this Punishment must be the Fruit of that Curse which is the Sanction of that Law which they were under, and which was transgressed by them, which was the Law of Creation, even the same Law that Adam was made under; and if the Law be the same, the same Penalty was incurred by the Transgression thereof; and if they are liable to eternal Death for the Transgression of this Law, there is no rational doubt but Adam was so.  
2. If the just Demerit and Wages of Sin was contained in the threatening (as no doubt it was) it could be no less than an eternal Punishment that was threatened; for if that be not the Desert of every Sin, it cannot be due to any Sin; for the Reason why the Punishment of any Sin is eternal, is that the Penalty inflicted on the Sinner may be adequate to the Offence; the Punishment hath an Infinity in its Eternity, because the Fault is infinitely aggravated, and that can only be in regard of its Object; there is nothing that can be an infinite Aggravation of Sin, but its being committed against a God of infinite Greatness, Glory, and Goodness; and this Aggravation attends every Sin, as it is Sin against God, and tho' other Circumstances may increase the Provocation, and so intent the Degree of the Sinners Pain, yet none but this can reach Infinity: The Punishment therefore due to Adam for Sin against God, could be no other or no less than eternal Death, which is that intended in the Sanction of the Law given to him.  
Fourthly, The whole Creation of this visible World became liable to Destruction with fallen Man, as an Inheritance forfeited by his Treason against the Supreme Majesty: By the Sin of Man the Frame of Earth, and the Heavens made for his Service and Delight, was loosed, and their Foundations so shaken, as would have issued in an utter Ruin, had not Christ interposed and upheld the Pillars thereof; Psal. 75. 3. with Heb. 1. 3. and if the Curse had been immediately executed in its Rigour, with these Desolations following thereupon, there had been an Hell ready prepared for Man; for suppose, I pray you, all the Lights of Heaven to be put out, the whole Order, Symmetry, and Beauty of the Creation to be destroyed, and all reduced to a Chaos of Confusion, and horrid Darkness about Man, and the burning Wrath of God kindled upon him, now cast into the Jaws of eternal Despair, and tormented by a Worm that never dies, (think I say of this) and you will hardly be able to conceive of a state more dreadful and dismal than this, that Man stood at the very Brink of.  
Fifthly, In this Condition Man was altogether helpless and without Strength, being utterly disabled to stand before God upon Terms of a Covenant of Works, and as uncapable to bring himself upon other Terms with God; for he was not able to move one step towards a Reconciliation with God, or the ransoming of himself out of these Miseries: The Door of Repentance was not opened to him by the Covenant of Creation, or if it had, there was in him now neither Power, nor Will to enter in thereat; He was utterly disabled from obeying God acceptably upon any Terms, until made a new Creature: And therefore it was impossible, not only that this Covenant now broken should be renewed with him, or any of his Posterity, for the same Ends, and in the same manner as it was at first made with upright Man; but moreover that ever any Covenant should be immediately stricken with him or them, wherein fallen Man should have been the first, and immediate Covenanter with God for himself, as Adam was in his State of Integrity.  
§. 10. Thus miserable (yea more than we have expressed, or can express) was the State of fallen Man; Let us now see how the boundless Mercy of God was revealed unto him, when he was thus lost, and miserably ruined by his own Sin. And for the better understanding of what is to follow, I shall premise two things, which are necessary to be kept in our Eye.  
1. That the infinitely Wise and Gracious God, who from Eternity foresaw the Fall of Man, had also from Eternity a gracious Purpose in himself, according to the Counsel of his own Will, to redeem 
2 Tim. 1. 9, 10. Tit. 1. 1, 2.  and save a Remnant of lost Mankind from their lapsed and fallen State, and by his All-powerful Grace through the Merits of Christ, to recover them from Misery to the Inheritance of a Kingdom and Glory far greater than that set before Adam in his Integrity; And these eternal Counsels that were hid with himself, were transacted in a way of Covenant between the Father and the Son, even in a Covenant of Redemption now revealed in the Scriptures of Truth: And to this Covenant belong all the Promises of the Father to the Mediator, and the restipulatory Engagements of the Redeemer, about the Salvation of Sinners and the way and method of its Accomplishment: And with respect to these Counsels the Son of God is said to be the Father's Delights, and himself also to have his Delights in the habitable World, when the Head of the Dust thereof was form; Prov. 8. 22,— 31. In which Context the mutual Acquiescence both of the Father and the Son, in this admirable Contrivance of infinite Grace and Wisdom, is not obscurely set forth.  
2. In pursuance of this Covenant of Redemption, and the Suretyship of Christ taken therein, upon the Fall of Man, the Government of the World was actually put into the hands of the Son of God, the designed Mediator, who interposed himself for the Prevention of its present and utter Ruin: And by him were all future Transactions managed for the Good of Man, and all Discoveries of Grace and Mercy were made to the Children of Men in him, and by him: And all things in Heaven and Earth were brought into an order subservient to the Ends of the new Creation, and the Redemption of lost Man to be accomplished in the fullness of time by the Son of God incarnate: Fallen Man could have no more to do with God, nor God with him in a way of Kindness, but in a Mediator.  
§. 11. And from this Design of Love and Mercy it was, that when the Lord God came unto fallen Man in the Garden, in the cool of the Day, and found him filled with Horror and Shame in the Conscience of his own Gild, he did not execute the Rigour of the Law upon him, but held a Treaty with him, which issued in a Discovery of Grace, whereby a Door of Hope was opened to him, in the laying of a new Foundation for his acceptance with God, and walking unto well pleasing before him. For,  
1. In the Sentence passed upon the Serpent (which principally concerned the Devil, whose Instrument he had been in tempting Man, and who probably was made to abide in his Possession of the Serpent, till he had received this Doom) Gen. 3. 5. there was couched a blessed Promise of Redemption and Salvation unto Man, which was to be wrought out by the Son of God made of a Woman, and so her Seed; which Salvation thus promised, Man was to receive by Faith, and to hope in it; for in this employed Promise was laid the first Foundation of the Church after the Fall of Man, which was to be raised up out of the Ruins of the Devil's Kingdom by the Destruction of his Work by Jesus Christ; 1 Joh. 3. 8.  
2. In this Commination of the Serpent there is not only employed a Promise of raising up a Saviour of the Seed of the Woman, and sending him into the World for the breaking of the Serpent's Head, that is, the perfect Conquest of Satan, and the utter ruining of his Kingdom; but also of propagating and preserving a Church in the World that should be Heirs of that Salvation, and should maintain a spiritual War with Satan and his Kingdom, which on their part should end in perfect Conquest and Victory; The God of Peace bruising Satan under their Feet, while he is nibbling at their Heel, and making them to be more than Conquerors through him that loved them; for the Seed of the Woman is to be understood collectively of Christ and his members (as the Seed of the Serpent includes all wicked Men) tho' it hath a principal respect to Christ personal, who alone hath obtained the Victory over the infernal Power, and destroyed the Works of the Devil; But altho' this was done by himself alone, yet was it not for himself only, but for his Body the Church, of which every true Believer is a Member, and shall certainly obtain Victory through the Faith of his Name; And against this Church the Gates of Hell can never prevail, but a Church there ever shall be in the World, so long as the World continues, and ever was since the first Promise, tho' maligned and persecuted by the Devil and wicked Men, as early appears in that Instance of Cain and Abel; Gen. 4. compared with 1 Joh. 3. 12. And something of this nature is intimated in the Name of Seth, and the Reason given by Eve of her imposing that Name: Gen. 4. 25.  
3. Hereupon there was a present Restraint and Modification of the Curse in the Sentence pronounced upon Adam and Eve Gen. 3. 16,— 19 whereby altho' they and their Offspring were necessarily subjected to many Evils and Miseries while they lived, and Dissolution by a temporal Death at last, yet they were not immediately laid under a Sentence of eternal Death which was the Punishment they had deserved: And concerning this Sentence we may farther observe,  
1. That the Promise of breaking the Serpent's Head which was revealed to our first Parents, did not give them a Deliverance from all Misery, but only an Exemption from eternal Death; But notwithstanding this Promise, and all that Christ hath now done for the full Accomplishment thereof, it is the Will of God that all Men, even Believers as well as others, shall in this World be exercised with Miseries, and remain subject to temporal Death, or Dissolution of the Body into Dust.  
2. The Corruptibility of Man, all the Miseries he is subject to while he lives, and temporal Death at last, are the Fruits of Sin, and of the Curse due to it, as they are natural Evils, or Punishments; but yet they are not the Fruit or Result of the Curse only, nor the full Wages of Sin; As they are evil they flow from the Curse, but as temporal only, the Evil of them is limited, and thus modified by Mercy, or compassionate Goodness at least: The Position of temporal Death, concludes indeed that Sin is in the World; but this Limitation of Death doth also prove, that there is Mercy reserved for some, and that such as obtain not Mercy must be brought to an after reckoning, inasmuch as the Fruit of their Do hath not fully been repaid to them in this World. And hence,  
3. There are none of these Evils but are capable of a Change, as to their penal Nature, together with the Change of that Man's State upon whom they come; for tho' they fall as so many Drops of Wrath that bided a dreadful Storm coming upon the wicked, yet are they 
* De primâ igitur Corporis Morte, a●ci potest quod bonis bona sit, malis mala, secunda vero sine dubio sicut nullorum bonorum est, it a nulli bona. Aug. De Civit. Dei Lib. 13. Cap. 2.  all sanctified unto a Believer, and turned into real Blessings; which change the utmost Execution of the Curse is not capable of, for eternal Punishment can never be turned into a Blessing upon any.  
Yea supposing (as there is Reason to do) that God did not only promise a Redeemer to Adam before he pronounced this Sentence, but also gave him Faith in the Promise, it came immediately upon him as a fatherly Chastisement, and not as a Fruit of unpacified Anger.  
It is also true on the other side, that the Godness and Forbearance of God is, through the Wickedness of Man, turned into a Judgement upon the Ungodly and Impenitent, who abuse the day of his Patience unto the treasuring up of Wrath against the day of Wrath, and Revelation of the righteous Judgement of God: Rom. 2. 5. So that both temporal Mercies and temporal Evils are wholly subservient to the Design of God's Glory in the future and eternal State of Man; and we may conclude there had been no such thing as temporal Death, if there had not been a day of Patience.  
4. It is more than probable that at the same time, or immediately after, God did institute those bloody Sacrifices, that were offered unto him from thenceforth, and accepted by him when offered in Faith, for the further Instruction of Man in the general Notion of the way of his Redemption by the promised Seed, and for the Help and Confirmation of his Faith in the Promise: Yea even the Coats of Skins which the Lord made, and wherewith he clothed Adam and Eve, then confounded with the shame of their own Nakedness, seem to be designed of God not only for a natural, but also a mystical Use, were for their Instruction concerning that imputed Righteousness wherein they must now stand before him, and without which they could find no acceptance with him; Especially if these Coats were made of the Skins of those Beasts that Adam was then directed to offer in Sacrifice to God (as some conjecture they were) we can hardly imagine less to be intended thereby; for no doubt with the Institution of Sacrifices, something of the Use and End of them was revealed unto Adam.  
5. This also must be noted, That altho' the Covenant of Grace was thus far revealed unto Adam as we have heard; yet we see in all this, there was no formal and express Covenant-Transaction with him, much less was the Covenant of Grace established with him as a public Person or Representative in any kind; but as he obtained Interest for himself alone, in the Grace of God thus revealed, by his own Faith, so must those of his Posterity that are saved thereby: And therefore altho' the Corruption of fallen Adam, and the Gild of his Fall, be from him derived to all his Offspring, because they were in him as a public Person and foederal Root when he fell; yet can they not derive from him any Interest in his renewed State, or in the Grace or Holiness thereof; seeing with respect thereunto God dealt with him only as a private Person; and the Good of the Promise now given out, was no more entrusted with him, then with his Posterity, or any of them in particular.  
§. 12. The State and Condition that the World of Adam's Posterity are now in, is as followeth.  
1. They are all born in original Sin, in the Image of the first Adam fallen, and so under a broken Covenant, being by Nature Children of Wrath, unholy, and without Strength.  
2. Yet are they necessarily under the Obligation of a Law, to obey, worship, and serve their Creator, tho' they have no Covenant-Interest in him; for it is impossible, and implies a Contradiction that reasonable Creatures should be brought forth into the World, and not be subject to the Law of their Creator, or that eternal Death should not be due to the Breach of that Law by them; The Law of Creation binds, when the Covenant of Creation is broken; tho' the Transgression of Man hath forfeited his Interest in the one, yet it cannot dissolve the Obligation of the other. But yet,  
3. The World is set under a general Reprieve, and the full Execution of the deserved Curse is delayed until the day of Judgement; until which time the Children of Men are under a Dispensation of Goodness, and sparing Mercy, and so in a remote Capacity or Possibility of obtaining Salvation by Christ, where it pleaseth God to send the Gospel, the Dispensation of which is made effectual for the Salvation of all the Elect, who are thereby gathered into the Kingdom of Christ.  
4. The Lord Christ hath undertaken in the close of his Mediatorial Kingdom, when all his Sheep are brought into his Fold, for whose sake alone the day of his Patience is lengthened out to the World, to raise all Mankind again in an incorruptible State, prepared for that eternal Duration unto which they were designed in their first Creation; And then will he glorify all those with himself for whom he hath satisfied the Justice of God, born the Curse of the Law, and wrought out everlasting Righteousness, who have been also called by his Grace to a Participation of these Benefits through Faith; and others he will deliver up by a righteous Sentence, unto the full Execution of that Curse upon them in its utmost Rigour, which till then, for the Ends aforesaid, was suspended.   

Of God's Covenant with Noah. CHAP. III.  
The Children of God stated in a new Relation, and their Obedience upon a new Foundation from the first Promise. §. 1. The Word of God the Rule of their Faith and Obedience; how revealed to them. §. 2. Enoch's Translation; the Instruction and Benefit the whole Church had thereby: His Prophecy; how written in the Old Testament. §. 3. The ordinary Propagation of the Church in those times: Mixed Marriages one cause of the general Defection of Mankind: Noah finds Grace in the Sight of God. §. 4. The Ark its typical Respect; the general nature of such a Type illustrated by conference of some other like extraordinary Works of Providence: The form of the Ark, its mystical Use: how Baptism answers to the Ark: Noah not altogether ignorant of the mystical Signification of the Ark: How he became Heir of the Righteousness of Faith by building it. §. 5. The Covenant of God with Noah; the establishing thereof at his entering into the Ark; the Benefit of the Church thereby. §. 6. The farther management of God's foederal Transaction with Noah, when he came out of the Ark; the Promises obtained in the Interest of his Sacrifice; what signified thereby: The reason of his Name: the particular Benefits of this Covenant: the spiritual Extent thereof. §. 7. The curse of Cham opens the way to Shem's Blessing: Circumcision a warning to Israel not to imitate Canaan's Wickedness: Special regard to the Messiah in Shem's Blessing: This the cause of Japhet's Blessing also; The extent thereof. §. 8. The building of Babel, and confusion of Tongues. §. 9 The Evils involved in this confusion of Language: how removed by the gift of Tongues at Jerusalem: The days of Man shortened. §. 10.  
§. 1. THE first Dawning of the blessed Light of God's Grace unto poor Sinners being broken up in that Promise intimated Gen. 3. 15. the Redeemed of the Lord were from that time brought into a new-Relation to God in and by Christ the promised Seed, through Faith in him as revealed in that Promise; and hereupon their Obedience, and religious Service, was stated, and accepted of by God upon a new Foundation, viz. that of pardoning Mercy, and Forgiveness through the Redeemer, Psal. 130. 4. They were no longer upon Terms of personal, and perfect Obedience, or doing of a Law; but upon Terms of Faith, or believing a gratuitous Promise; which wholly changed the order of their Acceptation with God: For by the Covenant of Creation, the Work of Obedience was to maintain the Relation, and secure the Acceptance of the Person with God; but by the Covenant of Grace and Redemption, the Relation and previous Acceptance of the Person in Christ, was the reason of the good Acceptance of all their sincere, tho' imperfect Obedience, which did now spring from Faith: And hence it is said Heb. 11. 4. God had respect to Abel and his Offfering; first to the Person, and then to his Work; And this order, and way of Salvation, as to the general Nature thereof, ever was, and must be, the same and invariable in all Ages, and under all different Dispensations of God towards his Church.  
§. 2. And as holy Men then lived by Faith, so consequently they had the Object of Faith with them, viz. The Revelation if God's Counsel by his Word; Tho' the Word was not written till Moses' time, yet was the Church never without God's Oracles; which in those days were made known to it, by those ways and means, that the infinite Wisdom, and Goodness of God made choice of; This we have seen in the first Promise, and in the Institution of Sacrifices, which could not have been offered in Faith, as Abel's was, if God had not commanded and appointed them; yea it appears also that God had given them some particular Directions what Beasts they might offer in Sacrifice, and what not; for in Noah's time the distinction of Beasts clean and unclean, is mentioned as a thing well known before: See Gen. 7. 2, 3. chap. 8. 20. Unto this we may add that (at least divers of) the Names of Seth's Line were imposed by a Spirit of Prophecy; Enoch was a Prophet; and Noah a Preacher of Righteousness; all which do infer a Revelation of the Mind of God, and of his Counsels then made unto the Church, distinct from the Light, and Law of Nature, and transcending all the Dictates thereof; altho' it must be granted, This Light did not shine upon them with the same Clearness, as it did upon after Ages.  
§. 3. Moreover, The extraordinary Dispensation of God's Providence towards Enoch, who by Faith walked with God, and then was translated to the heavenly Inheritance without being made subject to the common Lot of Mankind in Dissolution by temporal Death, was not only a singular favour to himself, but also an eminent Discovery to the rest of the Believers of that Age, that the right of Adoption, and claim of an Inheritance in Light by Faith, was restored to them in the promised Seed; and therefore did greatly tend to encourage their Faith and Hope, in the Expectation of a glorious State for Soul and Body, to be enjoyed in a blessed Immortality, and eternal Life hereafter; an Earnest of which they had, in the present Enjoyment of one Member of that Body to which they were all united. Conf. Gen. 4. 24. Heb. 11. 5.  
And the very time wherein this was done, doth cast some farther Light upon the mystical Import thereof: Enoch was the seventh from Adam; and this Septenary Number is famous in Scripture, for its mystical Signification of that perfect Rest or Sabbatism that Christ should bring his Church unto: And therefore by Matthew, the Genealogy of Christ is counted by septenary Generations: Again, The Translation of Enoch happened soon after the Death of Adam (the first whose natural Death is mentioned in Scripture) Enoch in the seventh Generation was translated, that he should not see Death; As they had seen the Fruit of the Curse exemplified in Adam's Death; so they saw that Life which the Promise gives exemplified in Enoch's Translation; who before he was translated walked with God, or, as the Apostle gives it, had this Testimony, That he pleased God; and indeed the Hebrew Phrase used Gen. 5. 22. doth not only signify Integrity, and eminent Holiness, in a private Capacity, but also (as the learned Ainsworth notes upon the place) is often used for a pleasing Administration of Office before God, in which respect he was a special Figure of Christ; and his Translation, of Christ's entering into Heaven, as a Forerunner for us.  
Three hundred Years the Church had enjoyed his Ministry; and seven Patriarches were left alive as Witnesses of his Translation; so that the whole number of the Sons of God had the Benefit and Comfort of Instruction thereby. He prophesied of the Destruction of wicked Men, and summed up his Prophecy in the Name he gave to his Son Methuselach, which may be interpreted, They die by a Dart: or He dyeth, and then is the Dart; (i. e. the Dart of Divine Vengeance in Punishing the ungodly) or, he dyeth and then it is sent: This was almost 1000 years before the Flood; but was exactly fulfilled in the issue; For Methuselach died but about the space of one Month before the Flood came. This Prophecy is more fully set down by Judas v. 15. (which may be taken as a divine Paraphrase upon this Prophetic Name; like Daniel's Interpretation of the Writing upon the Wall) and applied analogically to the Sinners of his time: for as this first Judgement, was a Type of future Judgements upon wicked Men, especially of the Destruction of the Jewish State by the Fire of God's Wrath, for their rejecting of Christ; and each of these was a Praeludium of the general Judgement of the World, so the threatening of this first Judgement to the ungodly then living, was a denouncing of Judgement against all ungodly Sinners, in future times also.  
§. 4. In these Ages of the Church it was generally propagated in that Line, through which the Blood of the promised Seed did run; Yet do we not find any such Partition-Wall set up between one Family and another, but any that would might freely associate themselves, and join with the true Worshippers of God; 
* Potuit fieri ut quidam privati Hominer ex Generation● Caln, Instinctu divino, se ad Adam conjunxerint, 〈◊〉 salvati sint. Luther in Gen.  nay it is possible that even some of the Line and Race of Cursed Cain might do so; as on the other hand, it is more than probable that others of the Children of Adam, besides Cain, did revolt with him from all true Religion and Holiness, and joined Issue in an open Contempt of God, and Rebellion against him. However the Nature and Necessity of the thing in itself, in reference to religious Worship, and that Obedience that was due to God therein, did oblige his Servants to keep themselves distinct and separate from the rest of the World: And whilst they did so, the general Defection of Mankind was prevented: But towards the Period of the old World, all things declined and grew worse, and worse; Gen. 6. 5, 12, 13. The Violence and Corruption of Mankind abounded; and even the Sons of God were taken with the bait of sensual Delights: And those who had formerly kept up a pure and distinct Communion for the solemn worshipping of God by calling upon his Name, and therefore had also his Name called upon them, Gen. 4. ult. being denominated the Sons of God; did now lose the sense of Religion, and broke the Bounds of their just Separation, and mingled themselves with the Daughters of Men, Gen. 6. 24. These were the Women of Cain's Offspring, or of Confederacy with his Seed, by whose Beauty they were entangled, while they regarded more the gratifying of their Lust, than the true Ends of Marriage; and being thus entangled were also drawn in a Partnership with them in their Abominations; Insomuch that when the time of the Flood came, the pure Worship of God was maintained in the Family of Noah only, who found Grace in the sight of God; Gen. 6. 1-11. and was preserved in the Ark, that by him and his Sons the desolate Earth might be again replenished with Inhabitants, after the Foundation of the Wicked had been destroyed with a Flood: Job 22. 16.  
§. 5. Now in the deal of God with Noah there are some things call for our diligent Attention, as carrying on to a farther degree of Light, the Discovery of Grace and Redemption by Christ; and so the farther Establishment of the Church in Expectation thereof. For,  
The Ark which Noah being warned of God, built by his special Direction, for the saving of himself, and his House, which were eight Souls, 1 Pet. 3. 20. did not only afford him and them a temporal Deliverance from the Deluge of Waters, by which God in his Wrath then swept away a disobedient World; but was moreover useful by its typical Respect for their farther Instruction about the Redemption of Man, from the Floods of divine Vengeance to be hereafter poured out in eternal Wrath upon the World of Unbelievers. For this is to be observed concerning the State of the Church before Christ came in the Flesh; That as the Gospel was preached unto them by Types and dark Shadows, so this kind of Instruction was afforded them, not only by the stated Ordinances of Ceremonious Worship, but also by many extraordinary Works of Providence, which were so ordered by Divine Wisdom, as that they might bear a typical Respect unto, and be an apt Representation of, spiritual things: This may be observed in many Instances in the History of Abraham, and of his offspring the Children of Israel: On this account the Manna they did eat in the Wilderness is called spiritual Meat, and the Water of the Rock which they drank, spiritual Drink; and the Rock Christ: 1 Cor. 10. 3, 4. and yet we read of no special Ordination, or Appointment of these things unto such an End, but what they had from the Order and Voice of Providence, together with the peculiar Circumstances of the People concerned in them. And under this Consideration doth Noah's Ark come, which either was a Type of Christ, (as the Ark in the Jewish Sanctuary) or of the Church considered as guarded with his Salvation; which in the Issue will come near to the same thing.  
And this Type is rendered the more lively by the Form of Structure which God commanded; and also the unwonted Use of one Term in the Direction given for the securing of their Preservation who were to enter into the Ark.  
1. The Form in which the Ark was built, in the Proportion of its Dimensions comes nearest to that of the Body of a Man; for it was in length 300 Cubits, in breadth 50, and in height 30: So that in Figure is was shaped like a Coffin; and there was a Resemblance of Burial in the entering thereinto, and of a Resurrection in coming out of it; In which respect the Apostle Peter makes Baptism to be the Antitype to the Ark, 1 Eph. 3. 19, 20. And thus was the Ark an extraordinary Sacrament, or Prefiguration of the Church's Redemption and Salvation, by the Death and Resurrection of Christ; and of her Union, and Communion with him that died and risen again, so as to enjoy all the Benefits of his Death and Resurrection.  
2. In the Directions given for the building of the Ark, Noah is commanded to pitch it with Pitch both within and without, Gen. 6. 14. the Words in the Hebrew are Caphartà Baccophèr: The first sense of the Verb [〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉] is to cover; and thence by a Metaphor it signifies to expiate, or make Atonement; because as things covered are hid from Sight, so Sin expiated, is blotted out, and no more remembered against the Sinner: And the Noun viz: Cophèr is never used in the like sense in all the Bible, for the Hebrews have other Words that properly signify such kind of Stuff as was now to be made use of; see Exod. 2. 3. but in the Law it is often used for the Covering of, or Propitiation for Sin: So that these Terms seem to be especially adapted by the holy Ghost, unto the typical respect of the Ark, which was to prefigure the Salvation of the Church through the Expiation of Sin, and Atonement made by the Death of Christ; in the Merit of whose Blood is her only Defence against the swelling Waters of Divine Wrath, and the Curse of the Law, under which the whole World of Unbelievers must inevitably perish.  
Now tho' we have no reason to think that these things could be then apprehended so distinctly and clearly, as we now see them by the Light of the New Testament; yet have we good ground to believe that some general Knowledge of them was conveyed to the Minds of the Faithful, in the time of this Type, and by means thereof: And this will inform us how Noah became an Heir of the Righteousness of Faith by building the Ark, and entering thereinto: Heb. 11. 7. seeing there was not only a Proof of his Obedience herein, whereby the Truth of his Faith was manifested, but moreover his Faith did reach, and in some Degree apprehend, the Mystical use of the Ark which he was building; and while his hands were busied in the external Work thereof, and his Life secured by his abode in it, his Faith was exercised about that spiritual and eternal Salvation, that was shadowed and typically represented by it.  
§. 6. Upon the entrance of Noah into the Ark, and also at his coming out thence, we find mention made of God's establishing his Covenant with him: see Gen. 6. 18. & chap. 9 11. And this is the first Place and Occasion of the explicit mention of a Covenant in the Scriptures; and therefore we are the more obliged to a serious inquiry after the true Nature, and import of this Covenant; some Observations upon it we shall collect, according as things are presented in the order of their Narration by Moses; only let this be premised;  
That tho' God's establishing of a Covenant with Noah, be mentioned at two distant times, in the Texts before referred to, yet they are not two different Covenants that are so mentioned, but in substance one and the same Covenant, the Benefits whereof are first more generally, and afterwards more particularly expressed.  
In Gen. 6. 18. God thus speaks unto Noah; But with thee will I establish my Covenant, and thou shalt come into the Ark, etc. God's making of a Covenant, is the Establishment thereof, because his Promise is a full, and sufficient Assurance, that he will perform to the end, what is engaged for therein: The Benefit immediately promised, is, the Preservation of Noah, and all that were with him in the Ark; and the Restipulation required of him, was, A believing Resignation of himself to God, in an obedient use of those Means of safety which he had ordained.  
This at first view seems to import no more than an outward and temporal Favour; but if diligently looked into, we shall discern a great deal more in it; for,  
1. In this Benefit of Noah's Covenant there was not only a temporal Salvation secured to him, and his House, but moreover his eternal Salvation, yea, the Salvation of the whole Church was included therein, and did wholly depend thereupon; seeing, the promised Seed which should break the Serpent's Head was not yet brought forth; and therefore if all Mankind had been now destroyed, that first and great Promise (which was a Revelation of the Sum of the Covenant of Redemption) had failed, and so the whole Covenant unto which it did belong, had been evacuated, and made of none effect: And with respect to this also as well as the Certainty of it in itself, the Promise here given to Noah in a foederal way, is aptly said to be an establishing of God's Covenant with Noah, seeing this Covenant was made with him pursuant of that gracious Design of Man's Redemption before revealed, which as it was never suspended upon the Worthiness of Man, so God by Covenant assures Noah, its Accomplishment should never be prevented by his Wickedness.  
2. Add to this the typical Respect of the Ark, and you will discern that under this Covenant was employed, and darkly shadowed, the Covenant of eternal Salvation by Christ; even as the Promise of the heavenly Inheritance unto Believers, was afterwards couched in the Promise of Canaan to Abraham and his Seed.  
§. 7. What past after Noah was come out of the Ark, you have recorded in Gen. 8. from v. 20, to the end of the Chapter, and in Chap. 9 In which History you may observe;  
1. That before any farther Transaction of God with Noah, there was a Sacrifice offered unto the Lord by him, in which the Lord smelled a sweet Savour, or, a savour of Rest, Gen. 8. 21. This Phrase of smelling a sweet Savour, signifies the Acceptance of his Offering; and this Savour did arise from the typical respect of this Offering to the Sacrifice of Christ (Confer Eph. 5. 2.) and the Faith of him that sacrificed, which was through it directed to the same Object: And this is to inform us, That all which follows, was transacted in the 
* Christ's Mediation and Sacrifice is the cause of God's Forbearance towards the World  Interest of this Sacrifice, and is some way to be referred to the ends thereof. From this Passage you may look back to Gen. 5. 29. and you will find the reason of Lamech's giving the name of 
* And he called his Name Noah, saying, This shall comfort us, etc.  Noah to his Son explained thereby.  
2. The Blessings of Noah's Covenant are first conceived in a gracious Purpose of God's Heart; And the Lord said in his Heart, I will not again curse, etc. and are afterwards put into the Promises of the Covenant wherein God engageth himself to bestow them; chap. 9 8, 9, etc. And this is reckoned equivalent to an Oath, Isa. 54. 9 I have sworn that the Waters of Noah should no more go over the Earth.  
3. The particular Benefits and Blessings given to Mankind by this Covenant, were, 1. Fruitfulness for the replenishing of the Earth. 2. Dominon over the Creatures, and the free use of them for Food. 3. Assurance that the Judgement which they had now escaped should not be repeated; notwithstanding that after-Generations were like to prove as wicked as those that had gone before them, seeing the same Root and Spring of Corruption remained in them, Gen. 8. 21. And the Rainbow was appointed to be the visible Sign and Token of this Covenant: Gen. 9 12-17.  
These things I shall content myself to have thus briefly pointed at; and farther we have to Note,  
1. That the Dispensation of Goodness, and Forbearance which the World was set under by the first Promise, was now ratified by a solemn Covenant; wherein also was insured the Successive Generation of Mankind for the Production of the promised Seed, both as 
* Viz, The Messiah, and his Members.  personally, and collectively considered: And this Assurance raised the Faith of the Church one Degree higher than it had before attained to.  
2. This Covenant had also its Mystical Use to the Faithful, as shadowing the Covenant of Grace by Christ; and the Ratification thereof in the Blood of his Sacrifice, by which we are saved from the Curse, and restored to a sanctified Right in Creature-Comforts, and the Hope of eternal Life: And the Sovereignty of God's Goodness, with the Absoluteness of his Promise in this Covenant, are instanced as a singular Encouragement to the Faith of the Church in reference to the Promise of that Grace that reigns in the New Covenant: Isa. 54. 9 And the Token of this Covenant, is made the Emblem of the Steadfastness, and eternal Memorial of the other 
* The Rainbow about the Throne, notes God's regard to his Coveannt in the Government of the World; All the Administration of Providence is bounded by his Faithfulness.  Rev. 4. 3. so that in the typical respect of this Covenant, the Light of divine Grace, and Mercy, did down upon the Church with some more Clearness then formerly.  
3. This Covenant is said to be made with Noah, and his Sons, and their Seed after them, and that for perpetual Generations; the Terms are parallel with those we meet with in the 17th Chapter in the Covenant made with Abraham for his Seed in their Generations: And yet here two things are evident;  
1. That remote Generations to the end of the World, are as much concerned in this Covenant as their immediate Offspring with whom it was first made, and have equal Claim to the Blessings of it with them, without any consideration had of their immediate Parents. And  
2. That altho' the Grace of the New-Covenant was mystically held forth in this Covenant with Noah, which was thus stricken with him for all his Posterity, yet were not the Grace and Blessings thereof by this means entailed upon all Mankind; 
* The same may be said of the Promises of typical Blessings to Abraham's carnal Seed, and their Interest in them.  They have all, indeed, an interest in that Covenant that signified, and some ways included spiritual Blessings, but those Blessings appertain not to all that have the Signs of them, but remain the peculiar Right of those that do by Faith receive them, Who are born not of Bloods, nor of the Will of the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of God. Joh. 1. 13.  
§. 8. In the following Part of this History Gen. 9 25, etc. we may observe,  
1. That the Curse of Cham upon his Son Canaan, prepared the way to the Blessing of Shem in his Posterity by Abraham; for by the Execution of this Curse were the Canaanites afterwards disinherited, and Israel planted in their room. And in this prophetic Curse on Canaan, and the Blessing on Shem you may read, what is after noted by Moses, Deut. 32. 8. It is also worthy of our Notice; That the Seal of Israel's Covenant by virtue of which they inherited the Land of Canaan, kept alive the Remembrance of Cham ' s Wickedness, and was a perpetual warning to them, not to degenerate into his Steps: He was condemned to servitude for looking upon the Nakedness of his Father, and they were circumcised in the foreskin of their Flesh.  
2. In the Blessing of Shem, special Regard is had to the Messiah, whose bringing forth into the World, was now limited to the Line of Shem; and therefore in his Blessing is the Spring of Japhet's Blessing also. Shem is the first of whom it is expressly said, that the Lord was his God: And by the Lord God of Shem Christ who is now over all, God blessed for ever, is intended; whose Name is here celebrated by Noah, as the only Hope and Salvation of the Church.  
3. The Blessing of Japhet in the Interest of Shem's Blessing, doth not only signify his personal Interest in the Messiah who was to come of Shem, but also the calling of the Gentiles of his Posterity, to be joint Heirs with the Jews in the Blessings of the New-Covenant; yea his dwelling in the Tents of Shem, doth intimate moreover the Succession of the Gentile Church unto the Church of the Jews, who were to be disinherited of all Covenant-Interest for their rejecting of the Messiah: In that Passage, God shall 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  persuade Japhet, there is an Allusion to his Name; and the calling of the Gentile Church is prophesied of in like terms, Hos. 2. 14, 15.  
§. 9 Some time after these things, viz. about the fourth Generation, we find that according to the Blessing of God upon Noah and his Sons Gen. 9 1. there was a very great Increase of Men in the World; and as they increased, they evidently drew upon themselves the same Charge that was laid upon the Old World; viz. That the Imagination of their Heart was evil from their Youth; For in the days of 
* Gen. 10. 25.  Peleg there was a very general Conspiracy, and Rebellion against God, managed by the Children of Men at Babel; in pursuance of which they began to build a Tower there: Gen. 11. 1-9. And it is very probable Nimrod that mighty Hunter was one chief Doer in the Business: (for, A Defection from the true Religion, and Tyrannous Oppression, usually go hand in hand) But this their rebellious Enterprise was interrupted by the 
* This gave the Name to the place Babel signifying Confusion.  Confusion of Languages that God brought upon them; And hereupon the Hebrew Tongue which before was universal, remained in its Purity only with the Family of Heber (from whom it also had its particular Denomination) and such other of the Patriarches and holy Men then living as had not joined themselves with these Workers of Iniquity in their cursed Design; And on this occasion Heber hath a special Honour put upon him, as you may collect from Gen. 10. 21. where Shem is in a peculiar manner said to be the Father of all the Children of Heber. And Abraham with his Posterity the Heirs of Shem's Blessing, are from him denominated Hebrews.  
§. 10. Now by this Confusion of Languages the Children of Men fell under a greater Evil, than possibly at the first thought we may be ware of; for it did not only frustrate their present Design, and also render the means of their civil Converse difficult for the future, and the Attainment of all Knowledge in things natural, full of Labour and Travel; but, which is far more.  
1. It was virtually a kind of Excommunication from the Church then in being, with whom the Hebrew Tongue remained, that was from this time unintelligible to the greatest part of the World besides; And,  
2. In the after Dispensation of God towards the Hebrews, this Diversity of their Language from that of the rest of the World, was as the Addition of a natural Fortification to that Wall of Separation, whereby the Nations were excluded from the Privileges of the Church, and left destitute of that Blessing (which of all other was the greatest Israel had, Rom. 3. 1, 2.) of the Oracles of God, which were committed to them in the Hebrew Tongue: And therefore for many Ages they remained Strangers to the Covenant of Promise, Eph. 2. 12. living in the darkest Cloud of Ignorance and Idolatry, and so without Hope, and without God in the World. And this dismal Effect of the present Judgement, remained upon them generally, until the times of Restitution and Refreshing, even until the last Days, wherein God would persuade Japhet, and bring him into the Tents of Shem: And then a Door was opened for the breaking up of Light to the Gentiles, by the Gift of Tongues at Jerusalem, whereby the Apostles and Prophets of the New-Testament were enabled to preach the Gospel to all Nations in their own Tongue; and thus the Salvation of God in Zion became a Light to the Gentiles, whose Darkness was originally brought upon them by the Confusion of Tongues at Babel.  
3. Neither did the Judgement of God upon this Evil Generation stop here, for their Days were also shortened, and cut off in Anger for their Sin, and that to the half of them: for you may observe in the Genealogy, Gen. 11th, that as none which were born after the Flood, attained to the Years of those that lived before it, so most manifestly the ordinary Age of Man was again shortened from the time of this Defection at Babel; insomuch that none of the Generations after Heber, attained to more than about half the number of his Years.   

Of the Covenant of Grace, as revealed to Abraham. CHAP. IU.  
God puts a special Honour upon Abraham by his Covenant-Transactions with him. §. 1. Abraham's Descent, and Contemporaries: his seeming Incapacity for that Covenant-Relation which God brought him into. §. 2. Abraham to be considered in a double capacity; the Covenant not made with him as an ordinary believing Parent: The Method of the following Discourse proposed. §. 3. The Covenant of Grace revealed to Abraham: Gal. 3. v. 6, 7, 8, 9, & 16, 17. proposed. §. 4. The time of this Covenant-Transaction exactly noted: some Inferences from thence. §. 5. The Sum of all spiritual Blessings included in it: Abraham made the Father of the Faithful by it. §. 6. This Covenant confirmed of God in Christ: Gal. 3. 16, 17. farther opened; why Abraham and David so particularly named in the Genealogy of Christ. §. 7. Abraham a Root of Covenant-Blessings, and common Parent to Believers: why Paradise called Abraham's Bosom. §. 8. An eternal Settlement of the way of Salvation by Faith in Christ, in this Covenant. §. 9 The Promise of this Covenant given to Abraham twenty five years before the Covenant of Circumcision: no outward Sign added, nor Ordinances of Worship peculiar to it, till Christ's time: the Seed, as well as the Blessing, promised; their Interest in the promised Blessing complete and full: the Reason of this; and a mistake removed: the Claim of Believers in the Interest of Abraham's Seed, and not as Coordinate with him. §. 10.  
§. 1. THE next signal Advance that was made of the Discovery of God's Grace to Men, was in Abraham's time, and by the Foederal Transactions of God with him, whereby he was brought into such a Relation to God, and the whole Church, as was in some respects peculiar to himself, and never was the Lot of any other of the Children of Men either before or since his time; in respect of which Abraham may be considered as a Type of Christ, who is eminently the Head and Prince of the new Covenant; And because of that special Grace and Favour that the Lord bestowed upon him in his Transactions with him, is he styled The Friend of God: And the Covenant is said to be Mercy to Abraham, and Truth to Jacob; Mic. 7. ult. intimating the beginning of it to be with Abraham which was of mere Grace and Mercy, tho' when once made with him, the Truth and Faithfulness of God was engaged to make it good to the succeeding Heirs thereof: not but that the Covenant of Grace as made with Abraham was the same for Substance, that had been more darkly revealed in the Ages before, but it pleased God to transact it with him as he had not done with any before him. It may be noted also that Abraham is the first Man in the World unto whom God is said to have appeared or been seen, Act. 7. 2. with Gen. 12.  
§. 2. This Abraham was of the Posterity of Shem, descended from him in the Tenth Generation, and chosen of God from amongst all his rumerous Offspring to be in an especial manner the Heir of his Blessing: Gen. 11. Yet are we not to imagine that Abraham and his Family were the only People that God had in the World in his Days; for altho' there was then a very great Defection of the World from God and his true Worship, yet was it not universal as in Noah's time; but there were many alive that did truly fear God, and were accepted with him, besides Abraham and those immediately depending on him; for even Shem lived till Abraham was 150 years old; and Arphaxad lived till he was 88, which was 13 years after that Covenant was confirmed with him, mentioned Gen. 12. Salah lived until Abraham was 118 years of Age, which was about 19 years after the Covenant of Circumcision was given to him: And Heber lived after his Death, even until Jacob was about 19 years old (for he was the longest Liver of all that were born after the Flood) And there is no doubt but these Patriarches with their Houses, and others joining with them, and under their Conduct, did worship and serve the true God; yet it pleased the Lord to single out Abraham, call him to his Foot, and make him an Head of all future Covenants with Men; And this, notwithstanding such a Bar lay in his way at the time of his calling, as to his entering into any such Relation, as was impossible to have been removed, but by Omnipotent Grace and Power; And that both upon a Moral and Physical Account.  
1. Upon a Moral Account: Abraham was not a Person eminent for Holiness and Religion; when God called him to inherit Shem's Blessing, he was not better or more deserving then any of the rest of his Posterity, but was swimming down the Stream of a wicked World, being degenerated from the Religion and Piety of his Ancestors, unto false Worship and Idolatry; Josh. 24. 2, 3. And therefore it is not without reason that the Prophet Ezekiel, chap. 16. 3. upbraids the People of Israel with this, that their Father was an Amorite, and their Mother an Hittite, not properly but metaphorically so called, because even they had been involved in the Gild of like Apostasy from God as these Nations, before the Lord graciously called them out of it.  
2. Upon a natural Account; For Sarai the Wife of Abraham was barren, and noted to be so before God called him, Gen. 11. 30. And yet the Blessing of Shem must have been lost, the hope of the Church perished, and all Covenant-Transactions with Abraham proved of none Effect, if he had not had Seed; forasmuch as by virtue of God's Covenant to be established with him, the Messiah (as concerning the Flesh) was to come of him; And yet all this was no Impediment, or Obstruction in his way, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth the things that are not as tho' that were. Rom. 4.  
§. 3. There is one thing more to be premitted to the Consideration of God's Covenant-Transactions with Abraham in particular, which we have most clearly stated in the New Testament, viz.  
That with respect to them Abraham is to be considered in a double Capacity, both as the Father of all true Believers, and as the Father and Root of the Israelitish Nation, and for both these Seeds God did enter into Covenant with him; howbeit these Seeds being formally distinguished the one from the other, their Covenant Interest must of necessity be divers, and fall under a distinct Consideration; and the Blessings appropriate to either, must be conveyed in a way agreeable to their peculiar and respective Covenant-Interest; And these things may not be confounded without a manifest Hazard of the most important Articles in the Christian Religion; And yet such is the mutual respect of all God's Covenant-Transactions with Abraham, and such was to be his Dispensation towards the Church for some Ages following, as did require a present Intermixture of the Promises, and an involving of spiritual Blessings in the shade of temporal, and of a spiritual Seed in a natural. This I suppose is more evident then to admit a Denial; and other Relation of Abraham in the Covenants made with him the Scripture speaks not of; neither can we prove thereby, That any of the Covenants given to him, were transacted with him simply under the Notion, or in the Relation of, an ordinary believing Parent, or Head of a particular Household.  
And therefore for the better understanding of these things, it is necessary that with due Attention both to the History of the Old Testament, & the Light of the New, we humbly inquire concerning,  

1. The Covenant of Grace as made with Abraham.  
2. The Covenant made with him for his natural Offspring; And  
3. Their mutual Respect, and Dependence one upon the other.   
§. 4. To begin with the first: That God did reveal the Covenant of Grace to Abraham, as also the general nature of that Covenant, and the Seed concerned in it, we have plainly declared in that Account which the Holy Ghost gives of it, in Gal. 3. 6, 7, 8, 9, & 16, 17. Verses; which I shall here transcribe at large;  
Vers. 6. Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for Righteousness.  
7. Know ye therefore that they which are of Faith the same are the Children of Abraham.  
8. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through Faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham (saying) In thee shall all Nations be blessed.  
9 So then they which be of Faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham.  
16. Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made: he saith not, And to Seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Christ.  
17. And this I say, that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the Law which was four hundred and thirty years, after cannot disannul, that it should make the Promise of none effect.  
These Words contain the whole of what I intent in this Discourse; the Sum of which, as to my present Purpose, I shall briefly collect in some Observations upon them.  
§. 5. First, That the Gospel was preached to Abraham, and the Covenant of Grace revealed to him, we have asserted in such full Terms in this Context as none can rationally doubt thereof; and moreover in ver. 17. we have the Time of God's establishing this Covenant with him exactly noted: It was (saith the Text) 430 years before the giving of the Law; Gal. 3. 17. (viz. on Mount Sinai) Now the Law was given in a very little time after the Children of Israel came out of Egypt; And from the giving of the first Promise to Abraham, which we have recorded Gen. 12. 2, 3. unto that very Night in which the Children of Israel were brought out of their Egyptian Bondage, is the Computation of these Years made, as will be evident to him that shall diligently compare the Chronology of those times with the express Testimony of Moses, Exod. 12. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, even the self same day it came to pass that all the Hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt. From the time of the first Promise to the end of Israel's sojourning in Egypt was 430 years, tho' their Abode in Egypt was not near so long. And from hence we collect,  
1. That in the Transaction of God with Abraham, recorded Gen. 12. he did solemnly confirm his Covenant with him (altho' Moses makes not express mention of the Term Covenant until another occasion be offered Gen. 15. 18.) For the Promise there mentioned, the Apostle asserts to be the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ unto Abraham.  
2. The Mercy of Israel's Redemption out of Egypt was in some respect to be referred to this Covenant as the Spring thereof (tho' it was not immediately and in its own nature a New Covenant-Blessing to all that did partake in it) And all the deal of God with them as a select and peculiar People in Covenant with himself, were in Subserviency to the great Ends of this Covenant with Abraham; and therefore none of them may be interpreted to the Prejudice or disannulling of those Promises in which the Gospel was preached unto Abraham.  
3. By the Computation of Moses, Exod. 12. it appears, That the Promise we are speaking of was given to Abraham on the 15th day of the Month Abib (the first Month according to the religious Account of the Jews) on which day Israel a Typical Church, obtained a Typical Redemption, in the Interest of a Typical Passover; And on that same day Christ our true Passover was sacrificed for us upon the Cross, obtained eternal Redemption, and by confirming the Covenant of Grace with his own Blood, passed all the Promises thereof into 
* The Covenant of Grace is to be considered by us a Testamentary Covenant. Conf. Heb. 7. 22. with Chap. 9 16.  an unalterable Testament.  
§. 6. Secondly, The Sum and Substance of all spiritual and eternal Blessings was included in the Covenant and Promise given unto Abraham Gen. 12. In these words: I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a Blessing; The Grace and Blessings of the New-Covenant were given and insured unto Abraham for himself; and moreover this Honour was conferred on him, That he should be an Head of Covenant-Blessings, as the Father of all true Believers; No less is intended in those words, thou shalt be a Blessing; They suppose indeed that He should be blessed, but the Promise terminates not in himself, but also conveys Blessedness to many others through a Relation to him as his Children; which is yet more fully expressed in that which follows: In thee shall all Nations be blessed; This general Promise intends not, that every individual Person in every Nation should at any time be blessed in Abraham; but that his Blessing should not be confined to any one Nation excluding others, and that all in every Nation that were blessed, should be so by virtue of the Covenant now made with Abraham, and in a Relation to him as their Father: This was the Gospel preached unto Abraham; and a Promise of the Justification of the Heathen through Faith: Gal. 3. 8. and in the Interest of this Blessing of Abraham they receive the Promise of the Spirit as being his Seed ver. 14. And this Promise, of a believing Seed which should with himself inherit the Blessings of the Covenant of Grace, was farther confirmed unto Abraham a considerable time after this, Gen. 15. compared with Rom. 4. 3, 18.  
§. 7. Thirdly, This Covenant was made with Abraham in and through Jesus Christ; It is not Abraham but Christ that is the first Head thereof; in and by him all the Promises of it are ratified, as he was the Surety of the Covenant: Heb. 7. 22. and in him they are all Yea and Amen, 2. Cor. 1. From whom all the Grace of the Covenant is derived upon poor Sinners through Faith in his Name. This the Apostle asserts most clearly, Gal. 3. 17. and argues it from the Form of the Promises as made unto Abraham ver. 16. Unto Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made; he saith not unto Seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Christ.  
The Scope of the Apostle's Discourse will teach us that those Promises are meant which relate to the Justification and Salvation of poor Sinners; even such as include that Grace by which the Gentiles are called to inherit eternal Life; some do principally refer this to Gen. 17. 7. and it will readily be granted that some of those Promises that ultimately respect the spiritual Seed and spiritual Blessings, are sometimes given to Abraham under the Covert of those Terms that have an immediate respect unto his natural Seed and temporal Blessings as made Types of the other; and when they are so, the Promise still runs to his Seed, in the singular Number; which the holy Ghost may here teach us to be on set purpose to gather up our Thoughts to Christ alone, as the Spring and Root of Abraham's Blessing, when we consider the mystical import of such Promises. But this being allowed, That the Apostle hath the form of that Promise in his Eye, we cannot from thence conclude that the Promise is made to Abraham's Seed both natural and mystical in one and the same Tenor; but only thus much will fairly follow upon it, That the Apostle argues from the carnal Seed as typical, to the spiritual Seed as typified thereby; and so arguing makes special Use of the Terms in which the Promise is made, as purposely fitted to its typical respect or mystical sense. So is the Prohibition of breaking a Bone of the Paschal Lamb, which was a Type of Christ, applied by John to Christ himself who was typified thereby: Joh. 19 36. with Exod. 12. 46.  
Howbeit (I conceive) the Apostle hath here a direct and special Eye to that Promise Gen. 22. 18. 
* This Promise is particularly cited by Peter, as a summary of the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham; Act. 3. 25.  In thy Seed shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed, which runs directly parallel both in Terms and Sense with the Promise given to Abraham Gen. 12. 3. which was before pleaded by him: Gal. 3. 8. This Promise was given forth in the Repetition and Confirmation of the Covenant before made with him, upon the occasion of Abraham's having offered up Isaac, whereby the Death and Sacrifice of Christ Jesus was in a most lively manner prefigured; And clearly holds forth thus much, That as all Nations should be blessed in a relation to Abraham as his Children, so that Blessing should be derived upon them through Interest in Christ his promised Seed, and by the Efficacy of his Mediation in the Interest of that Sacrifice and Offering of a sweet smelling Savour, Eph. 5. 2. that in the fullness of time he should make unto God. And if it be objected, that the Promise there is made of or concerning Abraham's Seed, and not to his Seed; let it be minded that all the Promises made of this Seed (viz. Christ) in one respect, may be said to be made to this Seed in another, because they are originally established in the everlasting Covenant of Redemption that was between the Father and him.  

* See Strong of the Covenant p. 126.  Some do interpret this Text in Gal. of Christ mystical, because of the order of the Words, The Promise is made first unto Abraham, then unto his Seed; therefore (say they) it is such a Seed as comes to have Right in the Promise; Secondly, to Abraham and as his Children; And also because the Apostles Scope is to prove that the Gentiles are justified by Faith, as Abraham was. But I should rather apply them to Christ as personally considered; For the Seed to whom the Promise is made, is the same in whom all the Nations of the Earth are blessed, Gen. 22. 18. Now altho' as all Believers being the Seed of Abraham, are blessed with faithful Abraham, yet are they not that Seed in whom all Nations are blessed, but the Nations who are blessed in this Seed: And in the very next Verse the Covenant is said to be established of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or unto Christ, who is the same Seed spoken of in the preceding Verse; Now the Covenant is confirmed in Christ personal, not in Christ mystical; hence Paraeus concludes it is to be understood individuè de uno Christo, ex quo omnis spiritualis Benedictio in fideles diffluit. But this also is to be observed, That Christ is given for a Covenant of the People, Isa. 42. 6. and therefore the Covenant is established in him, and with him for all Believers, who by Union with him, become that One Seed of Abraham unto whom the Blessing of his Covenant doth belong; And so in this sense it as strongly concludes for Justification only by Faith in Christ, as in the other. And for the order of the Words, it need not seem strange that Abraham is first mentioned, and then Christ his Seed; for besides that of the Promises chief intended, the first saith in thee, and that given afterwards, in thy Seed shall all Nations be blessed (which is the order the Apostle observes.) This is also to be considered, That Abraham was really the Father of Christ according to the Flesh, and by Covenant appointed so to be, as was David also; and yet Christ is not only the Offspring, but also the Root both of Abraham and David; And altho' the Mercies of the Covenant, are called the sure Mercies of David, because of the Covenant which God made with him; yet are they all originally from Christ in one respect, tho' mediately by Christ in another, as they flow from a Covenant first made with David, which was to be after ratified and fulfilled in Christ the Son of David 
* Duorum maximè Filius dicitur Christus Abrahae & David, quoniam istum sapius, ac disertius, quam caeteris, est promissus, Lud. Viu.  And perhaps it is upon the account of the Covenants made with Abraham and David concerning this Matter, that in Mat. 1. 1. they are so peculiarly mentioned in the Genealogy of Christ as recorded by that Evangelist.  
§. 8. Fourthly, This Covenant was made with Abraham as a Root of Covenant-Blessings, and common Parent unto all true Believers: Indeed Abraham himself obtained the Grace of this Covenant by Christ his Seed, and so came into it at the second hand with respect to the Son of God who is the Prince of the Covenant; but with respect unto us, The Covenant was first given unto Abraham, and we are brought into it in the Interest of Relation to him as Children, which also is by Faith in Jesus Christ: This special Honour did God put upon Abraham by the manner of his entering into Covenant with him, that thenceforth no People should be taken into Covenant with himself but as his Seed. This is evident as to Israel after the Flesh in the Old Testament, that their Covenant-Interest was derived from Abraham; and it appears as plainly concerning the spiritual Seed and Israel of God in the New-Testament, that Abraham is their Father Rom. 4. and all true Believers are blessed in him, as his Seed, Gal. 2. 8. & 29. with Gen. 12. 3. for by that Promise in Genesis, Abraham was ordained, and constituted of God the Father of the faithful, as hath been before touched: And hence it is that their Fruition of Paradise is called a resting in Abraham's Bosom, Luk. 16. because as they have their Entrance into a State of Grace, so they are also brought into the Kingdom of Glory, and made to possess Heaven, as his Children. They are also said to sit down with Abraham in the Kingdom of of Heaven. Mat. 8. 11.  
§. 9 Fifthly, The last thing I shall note is, The eternal Settlement of the way of Salvation according to the Tenor of the Covenant, which is by Faith in Christ: This is a Covenant that conveye the Grace of Life to poor Sinners by a free and gracious Promise; which admits of no other Restipulation in order to Covenant-Interest but Believing; 〈◊〉 is of Faith because it is of Grace; Rom. 4. 16. And this way is the only way of Life; There is but one Covenant of spiritual and eternal Blessings in Christ Jesus, founded in the eternal Decree and Counsel of God's Love and Grace, which is now revealed unto Abraham; and there is but one Seed, which is of true Believers in Union with Christ; promised to him as the Heirs of this Covenant, and the Grace given thereby; and thus is the Way of their Justification and Acceptance with God determined, not by a natural Descent from Abraham, or any external Privilege appendent thereunto, but by a walking in the Footsteps of Abraham ' s Faith, Rom. 4. 13. who is made the Exemplar of Justification unto all in future Ages, for whose perpetual Instruction this is recorded; That he believed God, and it was accounted to him for Righteousness. The Tenor therefore of the Promise now given unto Abraham could never be altered, nor any ways evacuated, or superseded by any future Dispensation that the Church was brought under; but whatsoever Law or Covenant was afterwards given unto them, must of necessity lie in an order of Subserviency unto it, and be directed towards the 〈…〉 ring in of the Perfection of that Dispensation of Grace which was unalterably fixed thereby Gal. 3. 17. It was the everlasting Gospel that was now preached unto Abraham, which was afterwards to break forth with the fullest Glory and Lustre in the days of the Messiah, when the Lord performed his Mercy to Abraham, and remembered his holy Covenant. Luk. 1. 72, etc.  
§. 10. I shall now close this Chapter with some Co●laries deduced from the things already cleared; and then proceed in the Method before propounded:  
1. This Covenant of Grace whereof we have been speaking, and which the Holy Ghost in the New-Testament hath so remarkably pointed out 〈◊〉 us, whereby Abraham was made the Father of the Faithful, and all Believers according to it were to be considered as a Seed that God would give to him, was confirmed and ratified by a sure Promise unto Abraham a considerable time before the Covenant of Circumcision was given to him; viz. about twenty five Years before it; and had then no outward Sign or Seal annexed thereto; And indeed that which hath been of late affirmed, That the Covenant of Grace always had an outward Sign on Seal added to it, is so wide a Mistake, that on the contrary it may be affirmed, That altho' the Efficacy of its Grace did reach Believers in all Ages, yet it was not filled up with Ordinances of Worship proper, and peculiar to itself, until the times of Reformation; nor had till than any outward Sign or Token immediately belonging thereunto; For had it been so, this Sign or Token, as the Covenant itself, had remained without Change, and not vanished away with the other Shadows of the Mosaical Oeconomy.  
2. The Promise made unto Abraham gives the Seed, as well as the Blessing of that Seed unto him; Believers are the Children of Promise Typified by Isaac afterwards, being begotten unto God of his own Will by the Efficacy and Grace of his free Promise and in the Virtue thereof; yea the Seed is first supposed in the Promise, and then the Blessing of that Seed is promised, which being of Grace, is made sure unto all of them, Rom. 4. 16. And as the Blessing is spiritual, so is the Seed also, nor can it be extended farther than to that Seed which is the promised Subject thereof.  
3. The Sum of all Gospel blessings being comprised in this Promise, it will hence follow, That the proper Heirs of this Blessing of Abraham have a Right (not only in some, but) in all the Promises of the New Covenant; and that not in a limited Sense, and as suspended on uncertain Conditions, but in a full Sense, and as secured by the infinite Grace, Wisdom, Power, and Faithfulness of God, and accordingly they are in time made good to them all.  
And this will be more manifest, if we consider, that all the Blessings of this Covenant redound upon Believers by means of their Union and Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the Head, and Root of the New-Covenant, and the Fountain from whence all its Blessings are derived to us, which as they were entirely purchased by him, so are they entirely applied to all that are in him, and to none other;  
The Limitation therefore of a New Covenant-Interest to the Grant of an external and temporary Privilege only, I conceive to be utterly inconsistent with the Promises of the Covenant itself; even such as these Isa. 54. 13. chap. 59 21. Jer. 31. 33, 34. Ezek. 36. 26, 27. with Heb. 8. and many others of like import; Neither will these Texts admit of another Notion of late insisted on for the Commendation of Paedo-Baptism. viz.  
That the Infant Seed of Believers, during their Infancy, have all of them a certain and definite Interest in the Covenant of Grace by virtue of which they are completely justified before God from the Gild of original Sin▪ both Originans, and Originatum; and yet when they come to Years of Discretion may, (yea must) by their actual closing with, or refusing the Terms of the Covenant, either obtain the Continuation and Confirmation of their Covenant-Interest, or be utterly and finally cut off from it, and so perish eternally in their Ignorance of God, and Rebellion against him.  
And as the Promises of the Covenant will admit of no such partial Interest therein, so neither can this Opinion consist with the Analogy of Faith in other Respects; For either the Slain of original Sin in these Infants is purged, and the Dominion of Concupiscence in them destroyed, when their Gild is pardoned, or it is not; If it be, than the case of these Infants in point of Perseverance, is the same with that of Adult Persons that are under Grace by their actual Faith; and then a final Apostasy from the Grace of the New Covenant must be allowed possible to befall the one as well as the other, notwithstanding all the Provisions of the Covenant, and Engagement of God there●n, to make the Promise sure unto all the Seed: But this the Author will not admit: If he say that their Gild is pardoned, but their Natures are not renewed, nor the Power of original Corruption destroyed, so as that Sin shall not have Dominion over them; It will be replied; that then notwithstanding their supposed Pardon, they remain an unclean thing, and so uncapable of Adminion into the Kingdom of Glory; But the Truth is, None are at any time justified before God, but such as Christ hath loved, and washed from their Sins in his Blood; Rev. 1. 5. And none are washed by him: but those that are in him, as the second Adam; It is by Union to him as the Root of the New-Covenant, that the free Gift comes upon them to the Justification of 
Rom. 5. 14, etc.  Life; And none can have Union to him but by the indwelling of his holy Spirit; and wherever the Spirit of God applies the Blood of Christ for the Remission of Sins he doth it also for the purging of the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God; And as certainly as any derive a New-Covenant Right from Christ for Pardon, they also receive a vital Influence from him for the Renovation of their Natures, and conforming their Souls to his own Image. And therefore to assert, That the Grace of Christ is applied to some for the Remission of Sins only, or that the Gild of any Sin can be pardoned to any Person, and yet that Sin retain its Dominion over him, is (so far as I can discern) both unscriptural, and incoherent with the Doctrine that is according to Godliness.  
4. To conclude; It is plain, That a Believers Claim to the Blessings of the New-Covenant is in the Interest of Abraham's Seed, and by virtue of the Promises given to him relating to such a Seed, and not as Coordinate with him in Covenant-Interest; They are not each one by this Covenant made the Father of a blessed Seed, as Abraham was the Father of the Faithful; neither can they claim the Promise for themselves and their Seed according to the Tenor of Abraham's Covenant, and as he might; but they must rest in a Relation to him as Children, and so receive his Blessing, that is, the Blessing promised to him for his Seed, and that by their own Faith, and for themselves alone: Believers because they are Abraham's Seed, are blessed with faithful Abraham; And, If we be Christ's, then are we Abraham ' s Seed, and Heirs according to the Promise. Gal. 3. 29.   

Of the Covenant of Circumcision. CHAP. V.  
The Subject of our present Inqiury; the Promises gived to Abraham for his natural Offspring; these given forth gradually; all summed up in the Covenant of Circumcision §. 1. Gen. 12. 2. farther opened in its respect to the carnal Seed; Abraham called out of Ur of the Chaldees; Heb. 11. 8. conferred with Gen. 11. 32. their Harmony shown. §. 2. Abraham comes into Canaan, and builds an Altar; his Journey into Egypt, Return to Canaan; parting from Lot; the renewing of the Promise thereupon. §. 3. Gen. 13. 15. opened; how the Promise of the Land of Canaan was made good to Abraham; in what sense said to be an everlasting Possession. §. 4. The History in Gen. 15. considered; the 6th Verse explained; the Promise renewed, and enlarged; the Bondage of Israel in Egypt foretold; The time limited to 400 Years; when they began; one reason why the Promise was no sooner to take place; the Iniquity of the Amorites not yet full; how the Curse of Parents comes righteously upon their Children. §. 5. The Seed of Abraham, and their Inheritance first given by Promise; One consequence of this. Abraham goeth in to Hagar; the Reason of it; as yet no mention of a Distinction of Abraham's natural Offspring among themselves; nor any distinguishing Character appointed for them; his Seed in remote Generations, as well as in an immediate Descent from him, intended in the Promises. §. 6. The Covenant of Circumcision; why so called; Gen. 17. 1. opened; This a Praeludium to the Sinai Covenant. §. 7. Gen. 17. 4, 〈◊〉. opened; The Promise of the New-Covenant rehearsed; Two reasons thereof; Abrams Name changed to Abraham; How Circumcision became a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith, briefly touched; The necessity of distinguishing of the Promises given to Abraham, and of the Seed to which they belong. §. 8. Gen. 17. 6. opened; the first Intimation of a distinction of 〈◊〉 in Israel. §. 9 The general Scope of Gen. 17. 7, 8. the word Everlasting how to be taken as applied to this Covenant; no proof of its being a Covenant of spiritual Blessings deducible from thence. §. 10. The Church-State of Israel after the Flesh, the principal Blessing of this Covenant; This evinced by the Story of Ishmael and Esau; Their Exclusion from this Covenant; The preference of Israel's Lot. §. 11.  
§. 1. THE Method before laid down leads us in the next place to inquire after the Promises given to Abraham for his natural Offspring and the Assurance of them, which it pleased God to give him by Covenant-Transactions: And here (as formerly) I shall diligently review the History that Moses wrote of these things by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and comparing the Promises made, with the Records of their Accomplishment in other parts of holy Writ, endeavour to collect from both, the true Import and Extent of them, with the proper Nature and Ends of that Covenant, unto which in a peculiar manner they do belong. Only this I shall premit to the whole,  
That these Promises were not all made unto Abraham at one time, Nor the Covenant of them perfected by one Transaction, but they were given forth by several Parts and Degrees, until at last the whole Charter of Privileges and Blessings granted to the natural Offspring of Abraham was fairly drawn, and the Covenant of them sealed by Circumcision: This will immediately appear in the historical Account we shall have of these things; and some Regard hereunto may be also remarked in the Progression of Stephen's Discourse when he gives a Recapitulation of them. Act. 7. 5, 6, 7, 8.  
§. 2. In Gen. 12. 2. we find, That when the God of Glory first appeared unto Abraham, and called him out from his own Country, from his Kindred and from his Father's House, besides the Promise of spiritual Blessings that was given to him both for himself and his spiritual Seed, he had also the Promise of a numerous Offspring which should naturally descend from him: No less can be intended in these Words, I will make of thee a great Nation, than this; Thou shalt be the Father of a great Nation which shall spring, and issue from thy Loins: such is the plain Sense of the like Words to Moses Num. 14. 12. And this Promise with the rest, Abraham embraced by Faith; for to an Eye of Reason there was no present Likelihood of its Accomplishment, seeing at this time he had no Child (for want of which he also makes Complaint a considerable time after this Gen. 15. 2, 3.) and Sar● his Wife was barren; Yet esteeming him faithful and able to make good his Word that ha● given him these Promises, he embraced them, and upon the Call of God 
* Cui non magis est dulce proprium tugurium quam palatia Poregrina? & Voluntaria Casa, quam digesta Praetoria? Cui non est durum illos conscio● n●●alium Par●●tes, dulcia ill● 〈◊〉 mina atque amabilem larem, quem & parentum memoria, & ipsius Infantiae Rudimenta commendant— Inter 〈◊〉 ergo tam 〈…〉 dulcia, 〈…〉 Exi, ait, de 〈…〉. Quis haec 〈…〉? August.  forsook all that before was dear unto him, and went out, not knowing whither he went; Heb. 11. 8. For it doth not appear that the Land of Canaan was mentioned to him at his first calling, but rather an absolute Resignation of himself unto divine Goodness and Conduct was required of him; and he knew no more than this, that he must travel from his own to another Country, which was to a Land that God would show to him; tho' as yet he knew not what, or where it was; And therefore tho' we read Gen. 11. 32. That he went from U● of the Chaldees to go into the Land of Canaan; I conceive those Words are to be taken as an historical Anticipation, and not a Relation of what fell within Abraham's Knowledge and Intention, when he first undertook his Journey; 
* Vid. Riveti exercitationes in 〈…〉  His Peregrination was in the Counsel of God determined to the Land of Canaan, and by a divine Conduct he was brought thither tho' himself knew not the Place designed, at least, not till he came nearer to it, viz. unto Haran, where the Lord gave him a second Call after the Death of Terah, to proceed in his Journey to the Land of Canaan. 
Gen. 12. 4, 5.   
§. 3. When Abraham came into the Land of Canaan unto the Place of Sichem the plain of Moreh (the Progeny of cursed Canaan being then the Inhabitants of the Country) the Lord appeared unto him again, and gave him a full and express Promise of that Land (which for Pleasantness and 
Gen. 12. 6, 7.  Fertility was the Glory of all Lands) for an Inheritance unto his Seed; And there he first built an Altar unto the Lord, that by worshipping him he might testify his Gratitude for the Promise so freely given to him, and also receive a Ratification of it in the Blood of his accepted Sacrifice. Soon after this a Famine drives Abraham into Egypt; and there Sarai's Chastity was endangered by the Egyptian King, but the 
Gen. 12. 17. Psal, 105. 13, 14, 15.  Lord's rebuke upon him, delivered his Servant from that Affliction; and by his good Providence he was again brought back in Peace to the Land of Canaan: All this time Lot, Abraham's Brother's Son was with him; but now their Substance being increased and some Contention happening between their Servants Abraham, to take up the present Controversy and prevent the like, makes a Proposal for their parting the one from the other, which was accepted of by Lot; Gen. 13. And after that Lot was separated from Abraham, the Lord again renew and confirms the Promise of the Land of Canaan to him, and of the great Increase of his Seed that should possess it, with a special Command to Abraham to walk through it in the Length thereof, and the Breadth thereof, to survey, and by Faith to take Possession of it; while as yet he was a Stranger and had no Inheritance in it; no not so much as to set his Foot on. Act. 7.  
§. 4. In the Promise thus renewed there are two things that require some farther Explanation.  
First, The Conveyance of this Inheritance is directly made first unto Abraham himself, and then, unto his Seed; All the Land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy Seed, Gen. 13. 15. Now it is evident, Abraham had no Possession in it all his Days, save that of a Burying-place which he after purchased for his Money paid to the full value thereof; Gen. 23. And like was the Case also of Isaac and Jacob, who were the Heirs of this Promise together with Abraham, Heb. 11. 9 A Question therefore ariseth, How was this Promisemade good to Abraham?  
In Answer hereunto (waving at present the Typical Respect of the promised Land, and Abraham's Inheritance of the spiritual and heavenly Blessings signified thereby) observe,  
1. That as to those Words to thee, and to thy Seed, the latter may be taken as an Interpretation of the former, and then the sense is, to thee, that is, to thy Seed: The Hebrew Particle here used, is undoubtedly to be taken in this sense in some other 
See Ainsw. Annot.  places, and is to be interpreted not as Copulative by And, but as explicative by Even, or that is, See 1 Chron. 21. 12. where it is so rendered; And the like Interpretation must be given of it in 2 Sam. 17. 12. Of him and (rather that is) of all the Men that are with him there shall not be left so much as one. Now this rendering removes all appearance of Difficulty from the Text.  
2. A Man may have jus ad rem that hath not jus in re; All Right, is not persently actionable, but a Man may have a Right to an Inheritance by Promise or otherwise, without the Right of present Possession, which he may not enter upon till a long time after, or perhaps not himself, but his Posterity are to be possessed of it by that Right which is at present made over to him; Neither doth the annexing such Terms render the Promise vain or fruitless unto him that first receives it; for the Assurance that the Good promised shall in its time certainly redound upon his Offspring, is a present Comfort to himself, as it is an Honour also for him this way to be made capable of transmitting such a Right to them. And therefore it was a pleasing Thought to old Jacob when he lay dying, That God would surely visit his Children and bring them up out of Egypt to inherit the promised Land; Gen. 48. 5, 20, 21. tho' he went to his Fathers without sight of its Accomplishment: As it was also a special Favour to Ephraim and Manasseth, that by Jacob's Blessing each of them obtained a Right in Canaan equal with the Brethren of their Father, and yet themselves enjoyed not the temporal Good of that Blessing, but their Posterity after them. And indeed, that 
Lege Riveti exercitationem in Locum; ubi dubium hoc proponitur & accuratè solvitur.  is properly said to be given to Parents which is given to their Posterity upon the Account of that Promise which they have received, and which makes them the Heads of that Covenant-Blessing which descends upon their Offspring. And that the Fathers embraced the Promise in this sense, is put beyond doubt, by the express Limitation of the time of its Accomplishment in Gen. 15. 13, 16.  
Secondly, The other Difficulty ariseth from the Extent of the Pomise in point of time; for here God promiseth to give this Land to Abraham and to his Seed for ever, and again Gen. 17. 8. for an everlasting Possession; whereas it is evident they have now for many Ages been disinherited of it. But the Solution of this Doubt will be easy to him that consults the Use of these Terms in other Texts, and the necessary Restriction of their Sense when applied to the State or Concernments of Abraham's Seed in the Land of Canaan; For the Priesthood of Levi is called an everlasting Priesthood Num. 25. 13. and the Gates of the Temple everlasting Doors Psal. 24. 6. and this in the same sense, as Canaan, is said to be an everlasting Inheritance; no more being intended than the Continuance of these for a long time, viz. throughout the Old Testament Oeconomy, until the days of the Messiah commonly spoken of by the Jews under the Notion of the World to come; wherein a new State of things was to be expected, and when their old Covenant Right and Privilege was to expire, as having its proper End and Degsin now fully accomplished.  
§. 5. In Gen. 15. we have an account of another solemn Transaction of God with Abraham, wherein (besides other things included and intermixed) the Promises before given to Abraham concerning his carnal Seed and their Inheritance, are renewed, and farther explained in divers Particulars. And Abraham being now more stricken in years than when he first received the Promise, and as yet having no Son, tho' his eternal Happiness, as well as other Blessings, depended on the Seed that should be given to him, he was now brought to a greater Trial of his Faith then formerly; and the present acting of it being rendered the more Illustrious by the Difficulties it overcame, the Holy Ghost is pleased in this Place to give an express Testimony thereto; ver. 6. He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for Righteousness. And 
Conf. Rom. 4.  this is the first time that either Believing or the Imputation of Righteousness is in terminis mentioned in the Scripture; Not but that both these were true of Abraham before, even from the first giving out of the Promise to him Gen. 12. He then believed in the Lord; and he accounted it to him for Righteousness; but as his Faith was now manifested in a higher Degree, so it pleased God from this time to leave upon Record a more particular Encomium thereof than formerly. And as a farther Token of Favour, immediately hereupon follows that Explication and Enlargement of the Promise to his natural Offspring that was before mentioned. Many things I shall pass over, and only note here these few that follow, as direct to my present Purpose.  
1. The Lord informs Abraham of the Affliction that should befall his Posterity, and the seeming Death that should be upon the Promise before they were brought into the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan; And also particularly limits the time thereof; they should be afflicted four hundred Years, the Account of which (I suppose) must take its Rise from the mocking of Isaac the Heir of the Promise by Ishmael the Son of Hagar the Egyptian, from which to the deliverance of Israel from their Bondage in Egypt is exacty four hundred Years.  
2. The Lord gives Abraham an Assurance that in the appointed time he will redeem them from their Servitude, and that by signal Judgements upon their Oppressors, and so great Favour to them, as should suddenly change their Condition from Want and Penury, to the Enjoyment of great Riches and Substance: Gen. 15. 14. And as for Abraham; himself should go to his Fathers in Peace, and be buried in a good old Age; and in the fourth Generation the Blessing of this Promise should certainly come upon his Posterity; ver. 15, 16. The exact Accomplishment of all this you may read in the Book of Exodus; all the Wonders there recorded being the Birth of these Promises; 
Exod. 2. 24. Act. 7. 17.  for it was not the Goodness of the People, but the Stability of the Promise that all those things are to be ascribed to.  
3. A Reason is given for the referring of the Accomplishment of the Promise to this time; Because the Nations whose Land they were to possess were not yet ripe for Judgement; and the Measure of their Iniquity must be filled up before the Curse of Canaan was fully executed upon them. Thus we see, that although the Children of Canaan bore his Curse many Generations after him, yet this Curse descended not upon them without a full Measure of their own Sin; as there is no doubt but Canaan's partnership with Cham in his Wickedness did at first bring the Curse of his Father upon himself. But to return,  
4. These things are expressly said to have been transacted in a way of Covenant with Abraham: and also the Bounds of Israel's Inheritance are set, and those Nations marked out by Name 
Gen. 15. 18, 19, 20, 21.  that were to be dispossessed and destroyed by them.  
§. 6. Before we pass on farther in the History of God's Transactions with Abraham respecting his natural Offspring; Let it be observed;  
1. That as this Seed was afterwards raised up to Abraham by virtue of a Promise, so the first Grant of the Land of Canaan to them for an Inheritance was by a gratuitous Promise also; and that Promise passed into the Form of a Covenant with Abraham long before the giving of the Law as a Condition of their Inheritance therein, yea before the Institution of Circucmision; And the Original of their Claim being from a free Promise, the Severity of that Law which afterwards they came under, was so far restrained thereby, as that (notwithstanding their manifold Breach of Covenant with God, and Forfeiture of all legal Claim of their Rights and Privileges in the Land of Canaan thereby) they were never utterly cut off from that good Land, nor ceased to be a peculiar People unto God, until the End of their being made so, was fully answered, and that Promise expired with the Accomplishment of its Design, in the Introduction of the Israel of God, to the full Enjoyment of those spiritual Blessings, which were the Substance of what was but darkly shadowed, by their temporal Enjoyments. This will be of great Use in our Reflections upon the Typical State of that People, which I shall not now enlarge upon.  
2. Hitherto it is not expressly signified, That Sarai shall be the Mother of this Seed; And therefore in the delay of the Promise, Abraham and Sarai (not knowing but it might be fulfilled that way) agreed about Abraham's going in to Hagar the Handmaid of Sarai, that by her they might obtain Children; Gen. 16. It will be granted that on good grounds they might have other Apprehensions of the Promise before (as it will appear they had, by Conference of Gen. 15. with Rom. 4.) and that this proceeded from some Vacillation, and weakness of Faith in them; but yet it was not such as did directly cross, and call into Question the Promises before given; neither doth any thing appear to the contrary but that Abraham accounted of Ishmael as Heir of the Promise, until the Lord appeared to him again Gen. 17. and fully completed his Covenant with him about his natural Offspring.  
3. Much less was there as yet any Intimation given of a Distinction to be made, in point of Privilege or Covenant-Right, betwixt the Children that might in one way or another be brought forth unto Abraham: But the Claim of such (suposing, as it after proved, that there might be many) seemed to be equal; until the farther stating thereof Gen. 17. Neither was there as yet any distinguishing Character appointed for his Seed as a Foundation for their rising up into such a Church-State, as that the solemn Institutions of divine Service should be appropriate to them, and none accounted Members of the visible Church but themselves, and such as became Proselytes to them. Tho' its true all that hath been before mentioned, was disposed in order hereunto, being in the wife Counsel of God directed towards such an End; for known unto him are all his Works, from the Beginning; And therefore the former Promises are still recollected, and taken in, in the after Transactions about this People.  
4. The Promises hitherto given unto Abraham for his natural Offspring, do as much concern them in remote Generations, as in an immediate Descent from him; nay in some Respects were more fully made good unto them than the other; for it was not until the fourth Generation that God was known to them by his Name JEHOVAH, Exod. 6. in the actual Accomplishing of his Word; the Father's having only his Alsufficiency engaged for the after fulfilling of the Promise in its proper Season. It was not Abraham's immediate, but his mediate Seed that became numerous as the Dust of the Earth, and took Possession of the Land flowing with Milk and Hony.  
§. 7. We shall now pass on to Gen. 17. And what is there more largely recorded, we have briefly pointed at by St●phen in his general view of the History of Israel Act. 7. 8. And he gave him the Covenant of Circumcision; And so Abraham begat Isaac etc. By the Covenant of Circumcision, we are to understand that Covenant of which Circumcision was the Sign or Token; or that Covenant in which a Restipulation was required by the Observation of this Rite or Ordinance; as in Gen. 17. 9, 10, 11.  
It is observable, That in this Transaction of God with Abraham we first meet with an express Injunction of Obedience to a Command (and that of positive Right) as the Condition of Covenant-Interest; And the whole is ushered in with this Prologue Gen. 17. 1. I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect. In which Words, first the Alsufficiency of God is revealed for the Insurance of the Promises; and then a strict and entire Obedience to his Precepts is required in order to the Inheritance of the good things that were to be given by this Covenant; And in this Mode of transacting it, the Lord was pleased to draw the first Lines of that Form of Covenant-Relation, which the natural Seed of Abrahim, were fully stated in by the Law of Moses, which was a Covenant of Works, and its Condition or Terms, Do this and live. For altho' the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham hath in all Respects (as well in point of time, as Excellency) the Precedence to the Covenant made with his carnal Seed in Isaac's Line; yet in the wise Counsel of God things were so ordered, That the full Revelation of the Covenant of Grace, the actual Accomplishment of the great Promises thereof, and its being filled up with Ordinances proper thereunto, should succeed the Covenant made with Israel after the Flesh, And take place upon the Dissiolution thereof when it waxed old and vanished away. And therefore the Covenant-Interest of the natural Seed, was to be perfected by the Law of Moses, before the Gospel preached unto Abraham, was unveiled; and accordingly this Chapter leads us on a great Step towards the Sinai Covenant, and the Terms thereof.  
§. 8. Although this Covenant of Circumcision do properly and immediately belong to the natural Seed of Abraham, and is ordered as a Foundation of that Oeconomy which they were to be brought under until the times of Reformation; yet by way of Preface thereunto you have (in Gen. 17. 4, 5.) a Recapitulation of former Transactions, and a renewed Confirmation of one great Promise of the Covenant of Grace before given to Abraham, viz. A Father of many Nations have I made thee; That this is principally to be understood of his believing Seed, collected out of all Nations indifferently, appears from Rom. 4. 17. And that Abraham was constituted the Father of the faithful before this Covenant of Circumcision was made, and did not obtain the Grant of this Privilege thereby, hath been before proved from Moses' History, and is also argued by the Apostle strongly in the former part of that forementioned Rom. 4. Nevertheless, That it should be thus repeated in this place, there is very great reason, upon a twofold Account;  
1. That it might be evident; that the Covenant of Peculiarity with the carnal Seed, which was first to take place, and that Wall of Separation which was to be raised up betwixt them and other Nations (the corner Stone of which was now to be laid in Circumcision) should not evacuate, or entrench upon the Covenant of Grace, or the Right and Privilege of the spiritual Seed stated therein, or of any part of it; but was added, and made subservient to the great Ends thereof: The Springs of New-Covenant-Mercy, which God had before opened to all Nations were not to be shut up again by this Covenant; nor the Heathen 
* Read diligently Gal. 3.  excluded; from inheriting the Blessing of Abraham, through Faith in Jesus Christ, by any Privilege or Right conferred upon the Jew: And therefore when the Covenant of Circumcision was given to the carnal Seed, in order to a full Separation of them from other Nations, It pleased God, therewith to revive the Remembrance of that Promise of the Covenant of Grace, which should in due time bring forth Salvation to the Gentiles; That so there might be no colour of Reason left for interpreting this Covenant to their Prejudice, in the straitening of the Grace of the Gospel, which was designed of God only as an Handmaid thereto.  
2. Because, Things were so ordered by God in this Covenant, that as the Promises thereof, should be subordinate to the great Promise; so also spiritual Blessings should be mystically employed in them; so Abraham's being the Father of Believers of many Nations, was typified in his numerous Offspring by Isaac, viz. Israel after the Flesh: And hence, a Confirmation and sealing of the one, must include a Ratification of the other also: And therefore at the same time, to assure Abraham that he should certainly become the Father of 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  a Multitude, or, of many Nations his Name is changed into Abraham; and also Circumcision is instituted for the sealing of the Promises made to his carnal Seed; The mutual respect of these different Promises, and the order observed in their Establishment, being such; Circumcision itself was so far from everting the Covenant of Grace, in its Promise to the Gentiles, as that it became to Abraham a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith: Rom. 4. 11. This it had, not from its next and peculiar End, or its proper Nature, with respect to all the carnal Seed, or others, that were to be the Subjects of it; but from the Disposition of the Covenant to which it was annexed, and the present Circumstances of Abraham, with whom it was made, and to whom Circumcision was now given for a Seal thereof. But this we must farther enlarge upon, in speaking to The mutual respect of God's Foederal-Transactions with Abraham; And at present it shall suffice to remind you,  
That there is no way of avoiding Confusion and Entanglements, in our Conception of these things, but by keeping before our Eyes the distinction of Abraham's Seed, which is either spiritual or carnal, and of the Promises respectively belonging to either: For this whole Covenant of Circumcision, as given to the carnal Seed, can no more convey spiritual and eternal Blessings to them as such, than it can now inright a Believer (tho' a Child of Abraham) in their temporal, and typical Blessings in the Land of Canaan; Neither can I see any reason for an Assignment of Covenant-Interest in all spiritual Blessings typified, as well as in the temporal Blessings that were the Types of them, to the carnal Seed; and yet not to admit the Conveyance of the same Covenant to hold good in point of temporal Blessings, to the spiritual Seed; seeing (as some conceive) both are directly included in the same Covenant; and the Promise of both was sealed with the same Seal.  
But the Truth is, Notwithstanding the respect this Covenant hath to the Covenant of Grace, it yet remains distinct from it; and can give no more than external and typical Blessings unto a typical Seed: The stating of their Rights and Privileges, in Subserviency, and with a typical Respect, to the Dispensation of Grace to the Elect, in the New-Covenant, is the proper End, and Design of this Transaction in Gen. 17. as will more fully appear in the particular Account of the Promises given therein.  
§. 9 The Sum of those Promises is set before us in Gen. 17. 6, 7, 8. In the 6th Verse; The Promise of a numerous Offspring is repeated in such Terms as do import (if not Enlargement, yet at least) a farther Explication of what was before promised in Gen. 13. 16. And I will make thy Seed as the Dust of the Earth, etc. For here the Promise runs thus; I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make Nations of thee; and Kings shall come out of thee. These Words in their first and literal Sense had their Accomplishment in the natural Offspring of Abraham; and are particularly intended of his Seed by Isaac; For tho' it be true that other Nations besides Israel did spring from Abraham, yet the Context will evince it to be that Seed with which the Covenant of Circumcision should be established, that is here meant; and that was with the Seed of Abraham by Isaac only. To see therefore the fulfilling of this Promise, we must look to the twelve Tribes of Israel, that were as so many distinct Peoples, and Nations, with respect to their Power and Number; tho' with respect to Religion and Government united in one Polity, and so but one people: And to this Promise Jacob hath an Eye in his blessing of the Sons of Joseph Gen. 48. 19 where he saith that Manasseth (the Father of one of the Tribes of Israel) shall be a People, and shall become great: i. e. His Seed shall be numerous and strong, and shall make up one People, or one of the Nations, that God had promised should come of Abraham; And yet Ephraim his younger Brother must have the Preeminence in being the Father of another distinct People, or Tribe, that should be stronger than Manasseth and more numerous; in that his Seed should become the Fullness of Nations (so it is in the Hebrew) i. e. a very great Nation and People. That Distinction of Tribes which was after observed among the Israelites, seems to be first pointed at in these Words, I will make Nations of thee; And the following Words, viz. Kings shall come out of thee; do not only signify the Eminency of Abraham's Seed in general, but more particularly respect their forming under a distinct Polity, and Government of their own, or (as Ezekiel speaks Chap. 16.) prospering into a Kingdom; and living under the Rule and Conduct of Judges, and Princes raised up among themselves; as they were from Moses his time (who was King in Jeshurum, when the Heads of the People and the Tribes gathered themselves together, Deut. 33. 5.) by whose Ministry God settled their State, and Government, by Laws peculiar to themselves; and fulfilled the Covenant of their Fathers therein. This Branch of the Promise contains more than was expressly given to Abraham before.  
§. 10. In the following Words Gen. 17. 7. we have the Assurance of this, and of the ensuing Promises also, which God gives unto Abraham by passing them into a solemn Covenant, and consequently, an Interposition of himself, and Engagement of all the Perfections and Properties of his divine Nature, to be exerted for the making of them good: Thus you read; And I will establish my Covenant between me and thee; and thy Seed after thee in their Generations; for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee.  
Unto this is added the Promise of their Inheritance, Ver. 8. And I will give unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee, the Land wherein thou art a Stranger, all the Land of Canaan for an everlasting Possession; and I will he thire God.  
The Difficulty arising from those Terms in the Promise which give the Right of the Inheritance of Canaan to Abraham in the first place, hath been already considered and cleared; as also how the Land of Canaan may be said to be an everlasting Possession: And in the same fence is this Covenant said to be everlasting: Israel could not be finally cut off from the promised Inheritance, until the Covenant itself, by which it was given to them did expire: As was, therefore, the Duration of the Inheritance, and of Israel's Right therein, so was the Duration of this Covenant, Everlasting, not absolutely, but with such a Limitation as the Nature of the things spoken of doth necessarily require, and as is usual in those Scriptures that speak of things pertaining to the Jewish State. There is therefore, no more Reason to conclude from this Term, That the Covenant of Circumcision was directly and properly a Covenant of spiritual and eternal Blessings, than there is to affirm that the Land of Canaan and the good things thereof, were a spiritual and eternal Inheritance.  
§. 11. Howbeit, From the strict Connexion of this 7th Verse with the 6th, and the Assurance here given that God will establish his Covenant with the Seed of Abraham, to be their God; it is evident;  
That the Number of Abraham's carnal Seed, and the Grandeur of their civil State, is not all that is promised in this Covenant, nor yet the principal Blessing bestowed on them therein; but rather, The forming of them into a Church-State, with the Establishment of the Ordinances of public Worship among them, wherein they should walk in a Covenant-Relation to God, as his peculiar People (understand it still of the old Covenant, wherein they had their peculiar Right and Privilege) No less can be intended in this, I will be a God unto them in their Generations; And it is also made more evident by the following Account that is given of this Transaction with respect to Isaac and Ishmael; Gen. 17. 18-21.  
When the Lord had promised unto Abraham a Son by Sarah, whose Name should be called Isaac; he thus prays for Ishmael, O that Ishmael might live before thee! which the Chaldee paraphraseth thus, might live, and Worship before thee: No doubt his Prayer was, that Ishmael might also be an Heir of the Blessing of this Covenant; But that was not granted to him; for the Lord would have his Covenant Seed called in Isaac only: with him God would establish his Covenant, having appointed and chosen him alone to be the Heir thereof, who was to be a Child of Promise, and Son of the Freewoman: And yet for Ishmael (in special Favour to Abraham, whose Seed he was) thus much is obtained, that he should be made fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly; twelve Princes, or Heads of great Families, should spring of him (which imports some Analogy to the twelve Tribes of Israel after the Flesh, whose old Covenant-State was typified in Ishmael) and God would make him a great Nation: And yet all this lay short of the Blessing of Abraham's natural Offspring by Isaac; from which Ishmael was now excluded; It is plain therefore, that the Privilege of the Ecclesiastical, as well as the flourishing of the Civil State of Israel did arise unto them out of the Covenant of Circumcision.  
The like may be observed of Esau afterwards, whom the Lord rejected before he was born; excluding him from the Privilege and Blessing of this Covenant, which descended upon Jacob only: And yet Esau was also the Father of a great Nation, and of many Kings, and had the Inheritance of many outward Blessings assigned to him, Gen. 27. 39  
We conclude therefore, That notwithstanding the carnal Seed of Abraham could not, as such, claim a Right in the spiritual and eternal Blessings of the New-Covenant, because of their Interest in the Covenant of Circumcision; yet their Privileges and Advantages in their Church-State, tho' immediately consisting in things outward and typical, were of far greater Value and Use, than any mere worldly, or earthly Blessing; as giving them choice means of the Knowledge of God; and setting them nearer to him than any Nation in the World besides.   

Of the Covenant of Circumcision. CHAP. VI  
The general design of this Chapter: Two Propositions laid down. §. 1. The first Proposition; that the mediate and remote Seed of Abraham in Isaac's Line are included in the Covenant of Circumcision: Proved from the Terms of the Promise; and the Instance of their Children who fell in the Wilderness. §. 2. Farther confirmed from Ezek. 16. 20, 21. §. 3. The Current of sacred History; and accomplishment of the Promises pleaded. §. 4. The Church-State of Israel built upon this Covenant. §. 5. This proved: Circumcision the Door of Entrance into, and Boundary of, their Communion: and an Obligation to keep the whole Law. §. 6. Rom. 3. 1. proposed: How Levi paid Tithes in Abraham. §. 7. Israel brought out of Egypt and planted in Canaan by virtue of this Covenant: An Objection prevented. §. 8. The second Proposition; Some of the immediate Seed excluded; proved from Gen. 17. 19, etc. An Objection answered. §. 9 The Instance of Esau insisted on: why so particular Mention made of Isaac and Jacob; Act. 7. 8. §. 10. An Objection, from the Application of the Seal of the Covenant, stated: Answer; 1. The express Testimony of Scripture removes it. 2. Abraham was bound to circumcise his Servants as well as his Children. 3. No Covenant-Interest, without Interest in the Promises of the Covenant; These not made to all that were circumcised. §. 11. Circumcision a Seal of the Covenant upon all, but not to all the Subjects thereof: This farther explained; The Command of God, not Covenant-Interest, the Rule of applying Circumcision. §. 12. Some Inferences from the Discourse foregoing. §. 13.  
§. 1. THose Passages in Genesis that have been last discoursed of, give me an Occasion of Enlargement upon some things, which as they are deduced from the Texts that have been in part considered already; so the farther clearing and strengthening of them, will not only confirm what hath been already hinted, but also contribute very much to the right Understanding of the Nature and End of this Covenant of Circumcision that I am treating of; and to a removal of the Grounds of many mistaken Deductions from it, by those that would from thence determine the right Subjects of Baptism.  
What I intent, is summed up in these two Propositions;  
1. The mediate and remote Seed of that Line to which the Promises of the Covenant of Circumcision did belong, were as fully included, and interested in them, as the immediate Seed.  
2. From the first establishing of this Covenant, some of the immediate Seed of Abraham were excluded from Interest in it.  
§. 2. I shall begin with the First: The Truth of which appears sufficiently in the express Terms of the Promises now given to Abraham, which run to him, and to his Seed after him in their Generations; and the Covenant itself is said to be an everlasting Covenant, which they are strictly commanded to keep in their Generations; Gen. 17. 7, 9, 13. These Terms are used, because it was a Covenant in force, as well for the Benefit of more remote, as nearer Generations; Its Promises did include, and its Law did equally bind both, during the whole State of the Mosaical Oeconomy. The Right of the remotest Generation, was as much derived from Abraham, and the Covenant made with him, as that of his immediate Seed was; and did not at all depend upon the Faithfulness of their immediate Parents: And therefore the immediate Seed of those Israelites that fell in the Wilderness under the Displeasure of God, were made to inherit the Land of Canaan, by virtue of this Covenant with Abraham; who otherwise could never have enjoyed it by virtue of their immediate Parent's Steadfastness in the Covenant.  
§ 3. I suppose it cannot be denied but gross Idolatry, was a manifest and full Breach of this Covenant, on the part of the Idolater; And yet when the Israelites in Ezekiel's time became guilty of the vilest Idolatries, the Lord still claims an Interest in their Children by virtue of this Covenant: Eezek 16. 20. 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy Sons and thy Daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured: Is this of thy Whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slam my Children, etc. The Children of an Apostatise Israelite were God's as well as those of his faithful Servants; which could not have been, if their Covenant-Interest had been suspended on the good abearing of immediate Parents.  
And to this agrees the Story that we have of Mattathias his proceeding in the Reformation of the Church in his day; who, finding that many had denied their God, and forsaken his true Worship, in that time of Persecution, did (according to the Law of Moses) execute Justice upon as many of the Apostates as he could lay Hands on, by slaying them; (as Josephus witnesseth) but the Children that he found to be left uncircumcised in this Time of Apostasy, he took and circumcised them: The Words of the Author in 1 Maccab. 2. 46. are, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This I know hath no farther Strength than of an humane Testimony; But it speaks fully what the sense of those Times was concerning the Covenant-Interest of Children; viz. That the Apostasy of their immediate Parents could not prejudice it, so as to render them uncapable of Circumcision; which strongly concludes their Covenant-Right to be derived from Abraham, and not suspended upon them. And Mattathias who did this, was not only a Man zealous for the Law, but also one that may be presumed to have understood it better than many others, seeing he was a Priest.  
§. 4. And not only the Passages before insistted on, but the whole Current of Scripture, where these things are mentioned, runs very smoothly this way; but especially that Phrase before touched [thy Seed in their Generations] will admit no other Sense; being by no means capable of a restraint to the immediate Seed, but even as the like Expression Gen. 9 12. secures Noah's Children from drowning, by the Waters of an universal Deluge, to the end of the World; so did this Promise give a Covenant-Interest to the Seed of Abraham till the times of Reformation.  
We exclude not the immediate Seed, viz. Isaac, but the Promise passeth on much farther, and is to be fulfilled in a Seed multiplied exceedingly, and form into a Kingdom, which it was not until Isaac, and his immediate Offspring also, were laid in the Dust.  
Moreover; The Inheritance promised in the Land of Canaan, is given to this Seed for an everlasting Possession; which was fulfilled in their successive inheriting of it from Generation to Generation; therefore the Seed intended was such as should be propagated through many Generations, the last of which are as directly here spoken of as the first; Circumcision being to be observed by them (upon the account of the Promise, and Command now given) for an everlasting Covenant: The Relation of the carnal Seed, to God, in an external, typical Covenant; the Inheritance of Canaan by virtue thereof; and the Seal of Circumcision; are all of one Date, and did all expire together.  
§. 5. That these things may be the better understood, we must farther observe,  
This Covenant of Circumcision was the Foundation upon which the Church-State of Israel after the Flesh was built.  
I do not say, that their Church-State was exactly, and completely form by this Ordinance alone; But this I intent; That in the Covenant of Circumcision were contained the first Rudiments of that in the Wilderness; and the latter was the filling up, and completing of the former; yea it was made with them in Pursuance of it; and for the full Accomplishment of the Promises now made to Abraham; And therefore the Privilege of the carnal Seed of Abraham by virtue of the Covenant of Circumcision, can rise no higher than the Advantage, and Privilege of a Jew, by virtue of the Covenant in the Wilderness.  
§. 6. For the Confirmation of this, I shall offer these things.  
First, Circumcision was the Entrance into, and Boundary of Communion in the Jewish Church; and it was made so by the express Command of God himself; who straightly enjoined, that whosoever broke the Covenant by the neglect of Circumcision; should be cut off from his People: Gen. 17. 14. And as it was to them a Gate of Privilege, so was it no less a Bond of Duty; not only obliging them to obey the Will of God so far as it was now made known to Abraham; but also, to the Observation of all those Laws and Ordinances that were after delivered to them by Moses, when so delivered: For the circumcised Person was a Debtor to keep the whole Law: Gal. 5. 3. And this Obligation did result from its proper Use and End, in its primitive Institution; for we read not of its Appointment to any new End by Moses, nor of any Use it was assigned to, de novo, which it had not (at least virtually) from its first Appointment: It was from first to last, a visible Character upon this People as separated unto God from other Nations, and as such they made their Boast of it: And therefore it may be concluded to belong unto that Covenant, from which all their Rights, and Privileges, as such a People, did spring; and where the Sign was not varied, there was no essential Variation, or Change in the Covenant itself.  
§. 7. Secondly, All the Advantage, and Privilege of Israel after the Flesh, is in the New Testament, expressly referred to the Covenant of Circumcision; For thus the Holy Ghost speaks by Paul Rom. 3. 1. What Advantage then hath the Jew? Or what Profit is there of Circumcision? You see these Phrases; [The Advantage of the Jew] and [The Profit of Circumcision] are set down as Convertible; they import the same thing; what belongs to the one, belongs to the other: And wherever Circumcision is mentioned in the New-Testament, it is spoken of as no less belonging to the Mosaical Oeconomy (tho' the first Institution was not of Moses, but of the Fathers) than any other part of the Law first given by him; and boasting in Circumcision is esteemed a boasting in the Flesh, as much as boasting in any other Old-Testament Privilege of the Jew; Phil. 3. From all which we may safely conclude, that the Covenant of Circumcision was of the same Kind with the Levitical Covenant, afterwards annexed to it, or rather built upon it, for the full accomplishing of its Design  
I might also insist upon Levi's paying Tithes in Abraham; which could not have been reckoned to him, if he had not been in Abraham considered as an Head in some Covenant Transaction, wherein Levi was Covenanted for, by Abraham: Neither could this have been pleaded by the Apostle as it is in Heb. 7. 9, 10. if that Covenant in which the Levitical Priesthood was founded, and to which it did belong, had not been originally made with Abraham. But I pass this.  
§. 8. Thirdly, The Scriptures do every where affirm, That the Lord brought up Israel out of Egypt, form their Church-State by establishing the Order of his solemn Worship among them, and gave them the Land of Canaan in Possession, in Remembrance of his Covenant with Abraham; and for the fulfilling of the Promises thereof: For Instance let these Places be well weighed; Exod. 2. 24, 25. Deut. 29. 10,— 13. Neh. 9 7, 8, 9, etc. Psal. 78. with Psal. 105. And herein was he known to them by his Name JEHOVAH, as giving Being to his Promise in the actual Accomplishment of it, which their Fathers did depend upon his Alsufficiency for: Conf. Exod. 6. with Gen. 17. 1. Thus if we follow the Clue of Scripture in our Inquiries after the Original of the Covenant of Peculiarity made with Israel after the Flesh, it will certainly guide us to that Covenant which God made with Abraham for his natural Offspring, and sealed by Circumcision. And yet that Covenant of Peculiarity is in the New Testament always styled Old, and Carnal; a Covenant from which the Gospel Covenant is distinguished; and to which it is in many Respects opposed: See Jer. 31. 31,— 34. and Heb. 8. 8,— 13.  
Neither doth there lie any just Exception against what hath been said, from the Enlargement of the Terms and Articles of this Covenant in the Consummation thereof in the Wilderness; for that will not in the least infer any substantial Difference of this Covenant from the Covenant of Circumcision; seeing it is no more than God hath done by the Gospel, with respect to the New-Covenant that was confirmed in Christ unto Abraham; which being first summed up in one Promise, In thee shall all Nations be blessed, was abundantly enlarged, cleared, filled up with its own Ordinances, and made the entire Rule of the Church's Obedience, when the Fullness of Time came which that Promise had respect to; And yet the New Testament is not another Gospel differing from that preached to Abraham, or another Covenant differing from that before confirmed of God in Christ; In like manner the filling up of this Covenant of Circumcision was reserved to the time of God's performing what he now promised unto Abraham, without the least change of the Nature or Design of the Covenant itself.  
§. 9 We come now to the second Proposition: viz. That from the first Establishment of this Covenant, some of the immediate Seed of Abraham were excluded.  
The Promises thereof did belong to Isaac's Line in their Generations, from Age to Age; but they did not appertain to the immediate Seed of Abraham by Hagar or by Keturah; Their extent being restrained by the express Caution of God himself, to whom it belonged to set the Bounds of this Covenant-Relation and Interest, and that in the very first making of the Covenant of Circumcision with Abraham: Read diligently Gen. 17. 19, 20, 21. In Isaac shall thy Seed be called; It was Isaac's Seed and not Ishmael's that the Lord would set apart for himself, and would give the Land of Canaan unto, and establish his solemn Worship among them, to be a God unto them. And ●et Abraham was as much a Believer, and as much in Covenant with God, as to his personal Interest in the ●ovenant of Grace, when he begat the one as when he begat the other.  
If it be objected, That Ishmael was at first included, and interested in the Covenant, but was afterwards rejected and cast out for his profane mocking at Isaac: It will be answered;  
That such a Supposition is against the express Words and Letter of the Text before urged▪ and the Limitation which God the Author of the Covenant made of its Promises therein; Before Ishmael was circumcised God declares that he gave not the Promises of his Covenant unto him, but to Isaac with whom it should be established: So that Ishmael's being cast out of Abraham's Family afterwards, will in no wise infer that till than he was in Covenant; but only thus much, That then it was made more manifest than ever, that the Covenant appertained not to him, and that he must be concluded under the Exception that was before laid in against him. And the divine Confirmation of what Sarah then required is grounded upon that Revelation of his Will that he now made unto Abraham; as will be evident to him that compares Gen. 17. with Chap. 21. 12, 13. Cast out the Bond Woman and her Son, For in Isaac shall thy Seed be called. And therefore Abraham did afterwards voluntarily send his Sons by Keturah, far away from Isaac, and from the promised Land: Gen. 25. 1,— 6. altho' these were guilty of no such Wickedness as Ishmael who mocked at Isaac; but for aught appears might be very holy and good Men, the true Children of Abraham by Faith, according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace; tho' they might not be joint-heirs with Isaac, according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Circumcision.  
§. 10. It is moreover to be observed; Notwithstanding the Covenant-Seed of Abraham was called in Isaac, and his immediate Children were only two Sons, Esau and Jacob; yet the Right of this Covenant-Blessing did not equally descend upon them both, but once more the Lord restrains it by the Rejection of Esau and choosing of Jacob, and that before the Children had done either good or evil; That the purpose of God according to Election might stand; and that he might here set before us an awful Type of his Soveraingty in the after Dispensation of the Grace of the Gospel: Esau (indeed) did afterwards by the profane selling of his Birthright, and despising the Inheritance, render himself manifestly unworthy 
Conf. Gen. 25. 23. with Mal. 1. 2, &. Rom. 9 10,— 13.  of the Blessing; but before this, God had declared that Jacob and his Seed, and not Esau, should inherit the Promises of this Covenant.  
And possibly it may be from hence that Isaac and Jacob are so particularly mentioned Act. 7. 8. because of the special Limitation of the Promises to them; and because they were the Seed brought forth in the virtue of the Promise given to Abraham.  
§. 11. Thus plain do these thing lie before us in the History of the Scripture, That they will hardly be called into Question, if our minds be not prepossessed with some particular Notion unto which they are not suited: But it is earnestly pleaded by some, That all the immediate Seed of Abraham were interested in this Covenant, and that the first Right in its Promise, did belong unto them; inasmuch as the Seal of the Covenant was applied to them all, in their Circumcision; the doing of which must be absurd, and useless, if they had not been Parties in that Covenant unto which this Seal did belong.  
To this, I answer:  
1. It is no way meet our uncertain Conjectures, or Inferences, should be opposed to the express Testimony of God himself; or that his Wisdom should be called into Question upon their Account: Now tho' God laid his Command upon Abraham to circumcise Ishmael, yet at the same time he tells him that his Covenant should be established with Isaac, excluding Ishmael; unto whom he will not grant (though by Abraham interceded for) a joint-interest with Isaac in this Covenant; but dismisseth his Claim, and lays out his Portion by himself, in another inferior Blessing.  
2. Abraham was as strictly bound to circumcise all the Males in his Family, that were bought with his Money of the Stranger, that was not of his Seed, and the Children of those Bond-Servants, that were born in his House, as he was his own Children, Gen. 17. 12, 13. And this Obligation remained upon the Heirs of his Covenant in their Generations; And yet none of these Servants (no nor yet Ishmael) were hereby made Parties in the Covenant, so as that the Promises of it should be sealed unto them, by Circumcision, as their own Inheritance: And,  
3. To suppose an Interest in the Covenant, without a Right to the Promises thereof, is to introduce a mere Chimaera or Fancy, instead of a real Covenant-Interest: Now the Promises of this Covenant are, that God will give unto the Seed of Abraham, called in Isaac, the Land of Canaan for an everlasting Possession; and that he will be a God to them in their Generations, and they shall be a peculiar People unto him: And can we suppose that these Promises did belong to Ishmael, and to the Bond-Servants in Abraham's Family? or were they ever made good to them? If not; seeing the Performance of these Promises was the fulfilling of the Covenant on God's part, whose Faithfulness is to all Generations, we must conclude they never had the Grant of them, or an Interest in them: And if the Promises of the Covenant did not belong to them, than were they not Parties in Covenant: and if not in Covenant; then they were not circumcised upon the account of their own Covenant-Interest, but in obedience to the particular, and positive Command of God.  
§. 12. It appears therefore, from what hath been already said; that Circumcision was a Seal of the Covenant upon all, but not to all, that were circumcised; it was a Seal of the Covenant unto the Children of the Covenant, and gave them admission to all the Blessings promised therein; but it did not make their Slaves free of the Commonwealth of Israel, nor was it given for their sakes; And if they could not claim the outward Privilege of an Israelite thereby, it will hardly be granted that singly upon the account of their being bought by a Jew (tho' their Master himself, perhaps, had no Interest in the Covenant of Grace) they should be made the Subjects of a New Covenant-Blessing; and that, whether they knew, or were capable of consenting to the Terms of that Covenant, or not; For that might be the Case of many of them, seeing the Law concerned such as were purchased in their Infancy, as well as those of riper Years; As well the one as the other must needs be circumcised, because of the Command given to his Master. Perhaps this might belong to the typical Holiness of the Family of an Israelite; but whether we can fully understand the Reason of it or not; it sufficeth, that the wise God ordained it so to be. However this is certain, that it was the positive Command of God, and not simply Covenant-Interest, that was the Rule according to which Circumcision was administered, and by which, both the Subjects, and Circumstances of it, were determined: And so must it be in all things of like Nature; For in Matters of positive Right, we can have no Warrant for our Practice but from a positive Precept: For things of this kind fall not within the compass of Common Light, or general Principles of natural Religion; but have their Original from; a particular, distinct, and independent Will of the Lawgiver: And therefore Inferences built upon general Notions may soon lead us into Mistakes about them; if upon such Inferences we form a Rule to ourselves of larger Extent than the express Words of the Institution do warrant.  
§. 13. The Propositions laid down, being thus far explained and confirmed; I shall draw to a close of this Chapter with an Inference or two, grounded upon the foregoing Discourse.  
1. He that holds himself obliged by the Command, and interested in the Promises of the Covenant of Circumcision, is equally concerned in the whole of them; seeing they together are that Covenant; And therefore (omitting now to speak of the Yoke of the Law belonging thereunto) he that will apply one Promise or Branch of this Covenant to the carnal Seed of a believing Parent (esteeming every such Parent to have an Interest in the Covenant coordinate with Abraham's) ought seriously to consider the whole promissory Part of the Covenant, in the true Import and Extent thereof; and see whether he can make such an Application of it together, without manifest Absurdity; For, (to pass by other things) If I may conclude my Concern in this Covenant to be such as that by one Promise thereof I am assured, That God hath taken my immediate Seed into Covenant with himself, I must on the same ground conclude also, that my Seed in remote Generations shall be no less in Covenant with him, seeing the Promise runs to the Seed in their Generations; yea, and that this Seed shall be separated from other Nations as a peculiar People unto God, and shall have the Land of Canaan for an everlasting Possession; seeing all these things are included in the Covenant of Circumcision: But inasmuch as these things cannot be allowed, nor are by any that I know of pleaded for; we must conclude, That Abraham was considered in this Covenant, not in the Capacity or Respect, of a private believing Parent, but of one chosen of God, to be the Father of, and a Foederal Root unto a Nation, that for special Ends should be separated unto God by a peculiar Covenant: And when those Ends are accomplished, the Covenant itself by which they obtained that Right, and Relation, must cease; And the like cannot be pleaded for by any other, without a reviving of the whole Oeconomy built thereupon.  
2. Their Notion, who assert this Covenant-Interest, to be the Basis of such a foederal Holiness of Believers Children under the New-Testament, as gives them a Right to Baptism, doth moreover labour under these Inconveniencies.  
1. They generally straiten the Terms of Covenant-Interest (if we consider it as derived upon Isaac's Line) by restraining it to the immediate Offspring, which in this Covenant was not so restrained, but came as fully upon remote Generations; and also by excluding the Servants and Slaves of Christians, with the Children born of them, from that Privilege which they suppose them to have enjoyed under the Old-Testament, in being sealed with the Sign or Token of the Covenant of Grace. But then;  
2. On the other hand (according to what hath been already proved) they make a Believer's Interest in this Covenant of larger Extent, than ever Abraham's was in Truth; For they will have all the immediate Seed of Believers to be included in it; whereas we see, of all the Sons of Abraham according to the Flesh, but one only Isaac was admitted to the Inheritance of the Blessing, and Promises of this Covenant.   

Of the Covenant of Circumcision. CHAP. VII.  
The great Promise, Gen. 17. 7, 8. proposed, in order to a more strict Enquiry into the proper meaning, and extent thereof: What some collect from it. §. 1. Several things are premised in order to a right Understanding of it. §. 2. Israel to be considered in a twofold Respect under the Mosaical Oeconomy; 1. As the whole Body of the People was constituted in a typical Church-state. 2. As many of them were by Faith, Members of the spiritual Church. §. 3. The Israel of God in Israel, remained under the Law till Christ came: Tho' they obtained eternal Life in Circumcision, and under the Law, yet not by Circumcision, nor by the Law: The Promise inquired into belongs to the Jewish Church; and was fulfilled to the Body of that People. §. 4. The Promise fully opened; It was an Engagement of God to make good the Covenant: It gives no particular Good beyond what is contained in particular Promises. §. 5. The sense given, farther confirmed; This Promise added both to the Old Covenant, and the New: No proof that the Covenant of Circumcision was the Covenant of Grace deducible from it. §. 6. A brief view of the History of its Accomplishment to Israel. §. 7. All the Blessings of Israel after the Flesh, as such, fall short of the Blessings of the New-Covenant: The first Tender of the Gospel belonged to the Jews; Act. 2. 38, 39 opened. §. 8. The Covenant of Circumcision was not that Covenant of Grace, which God brings all the Elect into; nor immediately a Covenant of spiritual Blessings: The solemn Worship of God not presently confined to Abraham's Family thereby. §. 9 The Patriarches, and other holy Men then living, were not bound to be circumcised, tho' interested in the Covenant of Grace as well as Abraham; The Consequence hereof. §. 10. The Question about Infants Church-membership considered. §. 11. Five things proposed in order to the clearing of it: No Argument for Paedo-Baptism can be taken from thence. §. 12.  
§. 1. IT will be expedient, in the next Place, more fully to search out the true meaning, and extent of that great Promise in the Covenant of Circumcision, which was before but briefly touched upon; viz. I will establish my Covenant— to be a God unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee. Gen. 17. 7. And again, The Promise of Canaan to Israel for an everlasting Possession, is backed with the same Assurance; and I will be their God; v. 8. This Enquiry is the more necessary, because many conceive, That the entire Blessing of the New-Covenant is comprehended in these words; seeing the like Promise is given forth as the Summary and Assurance of that Covenant in Jer. 31. and Heb. 8. And hereupon they conclude it is the Covenant of Grace that God is now making with Abraham, and which he sealed with Circumcision; and that spiritual Blessings are thereby directly bequeathed to him both for himself, and his Seed; and consequently, it was no other than Interest in the Grace and Promise of the New-Covenant, that was sealed to his Infant Seed by Circumcision.  
This Notion militates against divers things that have been before pointed at in the Account we have given of this Transaction; But I conceive, upon a more thorough Disquisition, it will be found without sufficient Strength to shake those Principles that are already laid down, and must yet be built upon, in the Progress of our Discourse: In order therefore to free you from any Intanglement by Objections raised from hence; I shall proceed gradually, to the Solution of the doubt moved.  
§. 2. And, that I may not be misunderstood in what is to follow, I shall prepare my way by offering these things to serious Thoughts:  
1. A considerable time before this Transaction recorded Gen. 17. the Covenant of Grace was by God confirmed unto Abraham in Christ Jesus; and that not only in the Capacity of a private Believer; but as one bearing the Relation of a Father to all Believers: And this Relation is peculiar to himself; none can claim a Partnership with him therein.  
2. In the establishment of this Covenant, there was a Seed promised unto him, that should certainly inherit the spiritual and eternal Blessings thereof; for the Promise was sure unto all the Seed: But this was a Seed of Believers collected out of all Nations, and united to Christ by Faith, and not the Children of Abraham according to the Flesh; as is manifest almost in every Page of the New-Testament. And,  
3. It hath been moreover proved, That God did choose Abraham to be the Root, and Father of a typical People, even of a Nation, the whole Body of which he would take into a peculiar Relation, and Nearness to himself; and upon whom he would bestow many great Favours and Privileges, until the fullness of Time came for the bringing forth of that Seed unto which the Promises of the New-Covenant did eminently appertain.  
4. One great End of this Separation of Abraham and his Seed by Isaac from all other Families in the Earth, was the bringing forth of the Messiah in his Line, and the evident Accomplishment of the great and first Promise therein: This was a Privilege that Abraham had in the Flesh, and his Seed derived from him; That they were set apart as a special Channel, through which the promised Seed should be derived and brought forth into the World: Rom. 9 4, 5. And therefore;  
5. On this account their Privilege, and Covenant-state was secured unto them, so as they could never 
See Dr. Owen's Exercitations on the Heb. Vol. 1.  be utterly divested of it in their Generations; until the great End of it was accomplished by the Messiah's being come in the Flesh: And that than it was to cease, the Nature of the thing itself sufficiently demonstrateth, in that it was now brought to the limited Time, and End, appointed to it: And hereupon all the carnal Privileges, and Ordinances of Worship suited to that State, did necessarily cease and become useless also.  
6. During the time wherein their Covenant retained its full Vigour, and all their carnal Privileges remained good to them in their utmost extent, all their Advantage lay short of Interest in the Covenant of Grace; This they could never claim by virtue of a carnal Descent from Abraham: Mat. 3. 9 For it was not a carnal Relation to Abraham, but walking in the steps of his Faith, that alone could interest them in this Covenant, and the Blessings thereof: This the Apostle professedly discourses in Rom. 4. and many other places: So then,  
§. 3. 7. The carnal, and the spiritual Seed, as also the Covenants wherein their respective Privileges are stated, were from the Beginning, in their own Nature distinct the one from the other; Although, during the Minority of the Church, under the Mosaical Oeconomy, these different Blessings did ordinarily meet in the same Subjects: For in that time the Seed of Abraham after the Flesh comes under a twofold Consideration.  
1. The whole Body of them is to be considered as a People separated unto God for the Ends before mentioned, and form into a typical State by the Law of Moses, vested with carnal Privileges, and having an earthly Inheritance; which things were typical of spiritual Blessings under the Gospel.  
2. As a great number of them were made the true and real Members of the spiritual Church, and Assembly of the redeemed of the Lord, who did by Faith inherit and enjoy those spiritual Blessings, which the outward Privilege of the carnal Jew, was but a shadow of: For that Nation was so made a typical Church; as that they were also the only true visible Church that God then had i● the World: And therefore while the Wall of Separation stood betwixt them and the Gentiles, the Oracles of God were committed to them, and his true Worship wa● settled among them; the Covenants of Promise were given to them, and the way of Salvation by a Covenant of Grace, through the promised Seed, was made known (tho' but darkly) among them; and the Blood of God's special Elect did generally run in their Veins; that People who were savingly interested in God, and truly holy, being, for the most part found amongst them, while the Gentiles lived without God in the World: (Thus, I say, it was ordinarily; for even then the Grace of God might superabound to some few among the Gentiles) And therefore that Church that was really, and not only typically, Holiness to the Lord, was found within the Compass of their Enclosure: Thus as Isaac was not only a Type of the Children of Promise in the New-Testament, but was also one of them that did by Faith truly inherit the spiritual Blessing of Abraham; and Jacob was not only a Type of the Elect Seed, but also a real Part thereof; so the like may be said of all that came after of the Circumcision, who were not of the Circumcision only; but, did also walk in the Steps of the Faith of their Father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised; They were in one respect a Type, and in another, true Members, of the general Assembly and Church of the Firstborn: Tho' the one of these they found as pertaining to the Flesh; the other, they obtained by Faith.  
§. 4. And, of this Israel in Israel, two things are to be observed;  
1. That notwithstanding their Interest in the Promise by Faith, they were not freed from the Yoke and Discipline of Moses his Law, until Christ came: They were indeed, Children, even the Children of Abraham on a spiritual Account; and by the Grace of a free Promise, which the Law could not disannul, they were relieved from its Rigour, as to their spiritual and eternal State; but being Children under Age, the Pedagogy they were under, differed nothing from that of Servants; neither could they be discharged of this Schoolmaster before Christ came.  
2. They were blessed with spiritual Blessings, and had Interest in eternal Life, in Circumcision and under the Law; but none of them obtained this by Circumcision, or by the Law: That whole Oeconomy that Israel after the Flesh was under, was, in, and by, itself insufficient and weak as to the End of eternal Happiness, and the Justification of a Sinner before God, in order thereto: It could not make the Comers thereunto perfect; nor make the carnal Seed Heirs of spiritual Blessings; But a Right to them was evermore grounded upon a spiritual Relation to Abraham, and Interest in that Promise which the Covenant of Circumcision was but an Handmaid to: And therefore those that rested in their carnal Privileges, and sought eternal Happiness from them, did pervert their true End, and could never obtain what they followed after.  
Lastly, To conclude; The Covenant of Circumcision did belong to the Body of the carnal Seed, even to the Jewish Church; The Foundation of their State is laid therein, and their Right and Privilege is thereby expressly stated, in their Generations; And therefore, as we readily grant the Promise, now under consideration, to belong to the Seed of Abraham after the Flesh; so we do with good Reason affirm, that it must be taken in such a sense as we may find verified in that People and Nation, unto whom it did belong; and that shall no ways contradict, or interfere with, the general Design of the Gospel, or the plain and indisputable Sense of other Texts of Scripture.  
§. 5. These things being premised, we shall now come more close to the Words themselves, and inquire what that Good, and Blessing is, which by them is insured unto this Seed of Abraham.  
That this Promise, I will be their God; with that foregoing in Gen 17. 7. do give a general Assurance of some Good to the People in Covenant, is evident; but that they are Promises of some particular Good, or Blessing, that is of an higher Nature than is comprehended in any other Promises of the Covenant, is not to be supposed; For, the true Import of this general Promise is; That God hath engaged himself, and all the Properties of his Nature, for the exact fulfilling of all the Promises of the Covenant now made with them, according to the true Tenor, and Conditions of the said Covenant. All the divine Perfections 
See Mr. Whist. Prim. Doctr. p. 124.  are laid in as Pledges, that the Promises shall not fail on God's Part; seeing as need requires they shall be all exerted for the Good and Advantage of this People in fulfilling the Promises given to them: But still these Communications of God to them, and Actings for them, both in respect of the Blessings he will bestow, as also the Terms and Conditions on which they shall be bestowed, are limited by the Covenant he hath made with them, and the Nature, and Extent of the Promises thereof.  
And this will more plainly appear to be the true Sense, if we duly weigh the Terms of the Promise enquired into; (I will be their God, i. e. a God to them; They shall have Interest in all the Perfections of my Nature) For,  
Either God is obliged by this Promise to communicate himself, in the highest Degree possible to all those to whom it is made, and to do the utmost for them that may be done, without implying a Contradiction to his Being, and, the infinite Perfections thereof, and so to bring them absolutely to the utmost Degree of Happiness, that omnipotent Goodness can raise them to; or else the Good promised must fall under some particular Limitation: If it fall under any Limitation; (as certainly it doth) Those Bounds must be set, either by the Import of the Terms in which the Promise is made, as considered absolutely, and by themselves; or some other way: The first cannot be affirmed, for the Terms are general, and indeterminate; Therefore it is some other way to be limited; and that must be by the particular Promises, and Conditions of that Covenant, unto which this general Promise doth belong; And if so, then there is not, nor can be, any greater Good promised thereby, then what the Nature of that Covenant admits of, and its particular Promises give a Right in, to them that are Parties concerned.  
And these things being so; None can from hence prove a Grant of spiritual Blessings to, nor yet a Right in Gospel Ordinances for, the carnal Seed of Abraham, or of any Believer, as such; unless he could produce a particular Promise which did contain such a Grant, or give such a Right, unto them.  
§. 6. So then, That which is principally intended, and fully expressed in this Engagement, is no more than the necessary Result of any Covenant-Transaction of God with Men; For where his Truth is once engaged in a Promise, there all the Properties of his Nature are engaged respectively, for the making good of that Promise: And therefore, Such a Promise as in its own Nature, contains no more, than a general Assurance of any Covenant that God makes with Men, cannot by itself be the distinguishing Character of any one Covenant, in Opposition to, or Contradistinction from, another; neither doth it determine of what kind the promised Blessings are, or the way wherein they shall be enjoyed.  
And hence it is that you find this Promise, equally and indifferently annexed both to the Old Covenant and the New; the Covenant of Works and that of Grace: The Truth of this will be manifest by a diligent Conference of Heb. 8. with Jer. 31. and this with Gen. 17. and Exod. 6. 7. and Deut. 26. 17, 18. There is no Reason therefore to conclude, Because we find this Promise in the Covenant of Grace, every Covenant in which it is found, must be of the same Nature, for the Covenant is not measured by this Promise; but è contra, its special Import, is limited by the Covenant to which it belongs.  
§. 7. Thus far I have endeavoured to set before you the Genuine Sense, and true Interpretation of this great Promise in the Covenant of Circumcision, and to give you the Reasons by which it is confirmed; And it may add some farther Light to what hath been said, briefly to represent the History of its Accomplishment, from the holy Scriptures, which take, as followeth.  
The Lord did abundantly bless Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and guided them with his Eye in all their Peregrinations from Nation to Nation, and from one Kingdom to another People; and when he broke the whole Staff of Bread in the Land of Canaan, and the adjacent Countries, he made Provision, by a wonderful Series of Providences, for the Sustentation of Jacob's Family, by sending Joseph before them into the Land of Egypt, and for their Sakes raising him unto a Capacity, not only to secure them from Want, but also to preserve the Lives of thousands more: And when the House of Jacob was by this means brought into the Land of Egypt, the Lord was with them there; and when the time of the Promise drew nigh, he caused them to increase and multiply exceedingly; and tho' the Egyptians sought by all means to oppress them, and dealt subtilely with them, yet by all their Artifice and Cruelty they could make no Earnings of their Work, for the more they oppressed them, the more they grew: And in the midst of their calamitous Distress Moses was brought forth, whom the Lord had designed for a Deliverer and a Saviour unto them; and in order thereunto he was preserved in a miraculous manner from all Dangers and Temptations, from his Birth to the time that he was sent about his great Work. And in the time when the Bondage of Israel grew to its Extremity, the Lord's Eye was still open upon them, and he heard their Cry, and remembered his Covenant with their Fathers, and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them; Then was his Bow made quite naked, Hab. 3. 9 in a Course of Miracles, by Signs, and Wonders, and mighty Works, for which his Name is celebrated unto all Generations; and in that very day which he had set in the Promise to their Fathers, he brought them out of the Land of Egypt, and delivered them from the House of their Bondage with an high Hand; yea he divided the Red-Sea before them, and led them through the Deep as on dry Land, but buried Pharaoh and all his Host in the same Waters that had been as a Wall on the Right-hand and on the Left, while the redeemed of the Lord passed over: He guided them also in the Wilderness, and afforded the visible Token of his Presence with them, in a Pillar of Cloud by Day, and of Fire by Night: From his Right-hand there went forth a fiery Law for them, because he loved them, by which he form both their Civil, and Ecclesiastical Polity; wherein they were immediately subjected to himself, and made a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation; and the Lords Tabernacle was pitched in the midst of them, so that there was no Nation under Heaven that had God so nigh, as the Lord their God was unto them in all that they did call upon him for. Moreover he gave his good Spirit to instruct them, which was poured upon Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, with the seventy Elders, and those Prophets which from time to time, God raised up among them: He fed them also with Manna from Heaven, and gave them Water out of the Rock to drink; and all the time of their forty Years Travel in the Wilderness, their Feet were not swollen, neither did their Garments wax old: He dried up Jordan also, and brought them into the Land of Canaan, and drove out before them Nations more in number, and mightier than they; and there he blessed them with the Blessings of Heaven above, and of the Earth beneath; so that there failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken concerning them; Josh. 23. 14. but their State was made prosperous and happy, because the Lord was their God; Psal. 144. ult. And notwithstanding all their Provocations, he had Compassion upon them, when in their Distresses they cried unto him; and delivered them, so that the Sceptre did not departed from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet until Shiloh (i e. Christ) came. Much of this you have summed up in Neh. 9 Psal. 105 and Psal. 144. with Act. 7.  
§. 8. In all these Respects (with others of like Nature before insisted on) there was a Glory, 2 Cor. 3. 7,— 11. upon the Ministration of the Old Testament; The Jew had a great Advantage, and there was Profit of Circumcision; but chief in that to them were committed the Oracles of God; Rom. 3. 1. and Chap. 9 4. Theirs were the Covenants of Promise; and the solemn Worship of God was maintained among then; For Salvation was of the Jews; Joh. 4. 22. and in these things was this Promise fulfilled, That the Lord would be a God to them 
Many to whom the Lord was a God according to the Tenor of the Old Covenant, died in their Sins, and were eternally lost; But those to whom he is a God, according to the Tenor of the New Covenant, receive from him, the Blessings of a new Heart, Remission of Sins, and eternal Salvation.  in their Generations; And yet all this lies short of an actual, personal, and saving Interest in the Covenant of Grace; as the Apostle Paul argues at large in his Epistle to the Romans, and particularly in Chap. 9, 10, 11. Neither could he have affirmed that the committing of the Oracles of God to them was the chief Profit or greatest Benefit of Circumcision, if ever God had appointed it to be the Seal of their Interest in the Covenant of Grace; which undoubtedly is much greater than any external Benefit or Advantage: But moreover,  
This Privilege the Jews had, That as the Son of God was to be made Flesh of the Seed of Abraham; and to be manifested among them, being made a Minister of the Circumcision for the fulfilling of the Promises made unto the Fathers: Rom. 15. 8. so also, the first Tender of the Grace, and Salvation of the Gospel, did of Right belong unto them: The preaching of Repentance and Remission of Sins in Christ's Name was to begin at Jerusalem: Luk. 24. 47. And as this was an Argument of God's great Favour, so it might be unto them a great Encouragement to receive the Gospel, and expect Salvation by Christ according to the Tender made therein; And for this End is it urged by Peter, Act. 2. 38, 39 Repent and be baptised every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins, and Ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost. For the Promise is to you and to your Children, etc. The Promise which he hath a particular Respect to, is that before cited, of the Salvation of all who in the day of the Gospel call upon the Name of the Lord, and the pouring out of his Spirit upon all Flesh, etc. see ver. 17, 21. (The Promise of the Spirit is also mentioned by Paul, as the great Blessing of the Gospel Gal. 3. 14.) The Spirit was then to be poured out upon many in the miraculous and extraordinary Gifts thereof; and upon all true Believers in a New-Testament Measure; accordingly the Apostle exhorts them to the Obedience of the Gospel, that they might obtain the Remission of their Sins, and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost; which he assures them of, upon the Terms proposed, For (saith he) the Promise is to you, and your Children: You are in no wise excluded from the Hope of this Blessing, tho' you have been the Betrayers and Murderers of Christ himself; but on the contrary, you (as Jews) have a special Interest in the Promise, so far as that its Accomplishment is to be begun among you, and the first Offer of its Blessing belongs to you; An actual Interest in the Promise unto Salvation, they could not have until they believed, and repent; but as before explained, the Promise was to them while Unbelievers; and in a like sense the, the Apostle Paul saith of them, That the Covenants, and the Promises (as well as the giving of the Law, and Levitical Service) were theirs Rom. 9 4. Their Covenant brought Salvation to them; but it was the receiving of it by Faith, when so tendered, that gave them particular Interest in it. And the Interest of their Children, or Posterity, in the Promises, can reach no farther than theirs, from whom it is supposed to be derived. And it is the same thing in Effect, that Peter urgeth upon the same People, to persuade their Obedience to the Doctrine of Christ, Act. 3. 25, 26. Ye are the Children of the Prophets, and of the Covenant which God made with our Fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy Seed shall all the Kindred's of the Earth be blessed. Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from his Iniquities.  
And suitable hereunto, we find the Apostles in all Places, where they came with the glad Tidings of the Gospel, first applied themselves unto the Jews; as holding it necessary that the Word of God should first be preached unto them, Act. 13. 46, 47.  
§. 9 From that Account which hath been given of the Covenant of Circumcision, the Nature, and Promises thereof; these corollaries do follow;  
1. That this was a Covenant of Grace and Mercy, as having its Original from the mere Goodness, and undeserved Favour of God towards Israel, Deut. 7. 7, 8. whereby many excellent Privileges were given to them, which no other Nation under Heaven had a Right in, but themselves; and these were conferred on them in Pursuance of the great Design of God's Grace in the Covenant of Redemption by Christ: Yet was it not that Covenant of Grace, which God made with Abraham for all his spiritual Seed, which was before confirmed of God in Christ, and through which all Nations (that is, true Believers in every Nation) have been ever since, now are, and shall be, blessed with the spiritual and eternal Blessing of Abraham.  
2. Although it be granted, This Covenant had ultimately a respect to spiritual Blessings, as it was disposed in the manifold Wisdom of God in a Subserviency to the Covenant of Grace, and as added to the Promise until the fullness of Time came; yet was it not immediately and directly, a Covenant of spiritual Blessings, nor could it ever convey to the carnal Seed of Abraham, as such, a Right, and Interest in them.  
3. Notwithstanding the Promises made in this Covenant of Circumcision, and the Separation of Israel to be the peculiar People of God, in Pursuance of them, whose Church-state was completed by the Covenant in the Wilderness, when the set Time for the fulfilling of those Promises in that respect was fully come; Yet for the present this Covenant did not confine the solemn Worship of God (by Sacrifices or otherwise) to Abraham's Family; nor were other holy Men then living, under any Obligation to incorporate themselves thereinto, by Circumcision, or at all to take upon them that Sign or Seal of this Covenant of Peculiarity that God now made with Abraham; which yet without doubt they should have done if in its first Institution it had been given simply, and directly, as a Seal of the Covenant of Grace; for then by reason of their Interest in that Covenant, both in point of Duty, and Privilege, it had equally belonged unto them, as to the Seed and Family of Abraham.  
§. 10. But, from the sacred History it is evident, That the Command by virtue of which Circumcision was administered, extended no farther than to Abraham, and his Family; And therefore we have no ground to conclude, that Lot (tho' nearly allied to Abraham) was circumcised, seeing there is nothing in the Command of God, or first Institution of Circumcision that obliged him thereunto, or interested him therein; and yet there is no Doubt to be made of his Interest in the Covenant of Grace: Neither was Lot the only righteous Man then living in the World, besides those of Abrham's Family; for of the Patriarches, Heber, Salah, and Shem were now living; and as they had their distinct Families, and Interests, so there is no Question but the pure Worship of God was maintained in them; and they promoted the Interest of true Religion to the utmost of their Power while they lived; Yea Melchisedeck was in Being about this time (whether he was Shem before named, or another, it concerns not us to inquire, much less to determine; but this is certain that it was he) who was the Priest of the most high God, and King of Salem, and in both these respects the most eminent Type of Jesus Christ that ever was in the World; a Person greater than Abraham, for Abraham paid Tithes to him, and was blessed by him; Now considering that he was both King and Priest, there is no doubt but there was a Society of Men that were ruled by him, and for whom he ministered; for a Priest is ordained for Men in things pertaining to God; and this Society was at this time, as much a Church of God as Abraham's Family was, and as truly interested in the Covenant of Grace as any therein; yet were they not concerned as Parties in this Covenant of Circumcision, nor to be signed thereby; And hence it is manifest, that Circumcision was not at first applied as a Seal of the Covenant of Grace, nor did an Interest therein presently render a Man the proper Subject of it.  
Again; To suppose that all good Men then living, should have been circumcised, as Abraham was, and their Offspring bound to keep this Covenant in their Generations, as his were, would necessarily frustrate one great (if not the greatest) End of Circumcision, and the Covenant thereof, which was the separating of one Family, and People from all others in the World, for the bringing forth of the Messiah, that promised Seed, of them, and among them, for the establishing of all the Promises made unto the Fathers. And moreover the Promise of this Covenant touching the Inheritance of the Land of Canaan could never have been made good to them all; And yet certainly the sealing of that Promise, was one thing intended in Circumcision. From the whole it appears;  
That as on the one hand, there was a positive Command which made it necessary to circumcise many that never had Interest in the Covenant of Grace; so, on the other hand, from the first Date of Circumcision there were many truly intersted in the Covenant of Grace, who were under no Obligation to be circumcised. So far it is from Truth that a New Covenant-Interest, and Right to Circumcision, may be inferred the one from the other.  
§. 11. I should here have put a close to this Chapter; but that I judge it may be convenient in this place, briefly to touch upon that Notion of Infant's Church-membership, which is much spoken of with Reference to those Times, the History of which we have already past through; And the rather, because of the Light we may receive from the things already discoursed, to guide us to a right Understanding of the true State of the Question about it; By many such a thing is affirmed to have been from the Beginning, and great Weight is laid upon it in the Controversy about the right Subjects of Baptism; It being judged to afford a sufficient ground for applying the Seal of the Covenant to the Infant Seed of Believers. For my own part I find not in the Scriptures Occasion given for any long Discourses about it; and I shall not desire to be wise above what is written; And therefore I shall endeavour in few Words to represent some things grounded upon the records of matter of Fact, in the Scripture, which I conceive may be sufficient to determine our Thoughts, as to the Issue of our present Enquiry about it. And they are these that follow:  
§. 12. First; The term Church in the Scriptures is not (that I find) applied to any particular Society of Men united in one Body, in order to the maintaining of the public and solemn Worship of God among themselves; before the Children of Israel were completely form into a Church-state, by the Covenant that God made with them in the Wilderness; They are called the Church in the Wilderness, Act. 7. 38. Yet I doubt not but all good Men before that time did belong to that general Assembly, and Church which Christ hath redeemed with his Blood, and made the Members of his Body; and I grant that we may (using the Term in a more lax sense) call any Family or Society of Men truly worshipping God, a Church of God. Nevertheless, if we consider the Circumstances relating to the different State of things in those different Times, it will appear, that no Society before the Jewish Church was form, can be called a Church in so strict, and proper a sense as they might; for no other were so form into a Church-state as they were.  
2. Before Abraham's time, there was no Institution of an outward Sign, or, Seal of any Covenant to be applied either to Infants or adult Persons; And therefore there could be no Inauguration of this kind, or solemn Right of Initiation to Church Privilege then in Use among them. All that can be said of the Children born in those Families and Societies, must issue in things of another Nature: viz. That they were under a more special and gracious Providence of God than others, as being Members of a Family peculiarly interested therein: They had also the Benefit of continual Prayers for them, and the Advantage of early and diligent Instruction, being brought up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord; and so preserved from many Snares and Temptations that others are liable to, by the Discipline they were under; And being provoked to Religion by the pious and holy Example of those they conversed with; as soon they were capable of it (if, when grown up, they did not break through all these Fences, and revolt to a wicked and irreligious Life) they actually joined with that Family and Society to which they belonged, in the solemn Worship of God.  
3. If we consider Church-membership in such a Notion of it as will agree to that time wherein Circumcision was first instituted, we can by no means conclude that a Right to Circumcision did result therefrom; For certainly the Patriarches, and other good Men then living, and their Families, were as truly Church-members, as Abraham and his Family; yet were they not therefore to be circumcised, but the particular, Law and positive Institution of this Ordinance, did alone determine the Subjects thereof. And moreover;  
4. It was not Membership in Abraham ' s Family singly and simply considered, that brought a Person under the Law of Circumcision, without respect to other Circumstances of Time and Sex expressly set down in the Institution; For Circumcision was to be applied to the Males only, tho' the Right of Church-membership belonged as as well to the Females as to them: And it is no satisfactory Answer to say the Female is not a Subject capable of Circumcision; For if it had pleased God to have made Church-membership the reason and ground of applying this Seal of the Covenant, he could easily have appointed such a Sign, as all Members had been capable of; Besides, how doth it appear that the Females were utterly uncapable of any kind of Circumcision? Save that God required no such thing: Vitriacus reports that the Jacobites use Circumcision of both Sexes; and so do the Habassines; and therefore the thing 
Breerw. Inquir.  in itself is not impossible; that which hath been done, may be done: Moreover we find the circumcising of the Males was limited to the eighth day; it might not be done sooner, nor delayed longer: and the Slaves that were bought with Money must needs be circumcised, tho' they were no Church-members, nor the Children of such; from all which it is manifest, that they proceeded not upon a Notion of Church-membership, but were strictly governed by Divine-Institution in the matter of circumcising or not circumcising.  
5. To conclude; It is granted that the Jewish Infants were born Members of that Church; This Privilege they had in the Flesh; But this evidently belongs unto the national and typical Church-state of that People; which State by the Gospel is dissolved, and is so inconsistent with the Ministration thereof, that the Position of the one, necessarily infers the Abolition of the other; And therefore this Right and Privilege of the Jew which was in the very Foundation of their national Church-state, as separated from the Gentiles, cannot be transferred into, because it will not comport with, the Gospel-dispensation.  
Besides, It is evident throughout the whole Gospel, that Right of Membership in the Jewish Church, could never give to any, either Infant or Adult, a like Right of Membership in the Gospel Church; nor was there ever any one received thereinto, co nomine, because he had such a Right according to the State of the Old Covenant. And there is good Reason to conclude, that the carnal Seed of Believers can derive no higher Privilege from the Covenant of Circumcision, than the carnal Seed of Abraham obtained thereby: And if it could not bring the one into the Gospel Church, nor give them a Right to Baptism without an actual Compliance with the Terms of the Gospel, by Repentance and Faith, it can by no means do so for the other, tho' we should suppose them concerned in it, as indeed they are not.  
It remains therefore; That as Circumcision of old Time was administered according to the positive Law, and express Will of the Lord; so ought Baptism to be now, and no otherwise; neither can I see any ground to conclude for Paedobaptism, until such a divine Law can be produced for the warrant of it, as was of old given, for circumcising the Male Infants of the Jews.   

Of the mutual Respect of the Promises made to Abraham. CHAP. VIII.  
An Introduction to the general Design of this Chapter. §. 1. The present Intermixture of the Promises of spiritual, with those of temporal Blessings, suitable to the Darkness of the Old-Testament-dispensation: The like observed in the Writings of the Prophets: The mistake of the Jews hereupon. §. 2. The mutual Respect, and Dependence, of these Promises: The Concern of Abraham's Faith in the Promise of Isaac's Birth. §. 3. Wherein the Greatness of Abraham's Trial in offering up Isaac did consist: All the Promises made to Abraham meet in one general Issue. §. 4. The typical Respect and Analogy of the Covenant of Peculiarity to the Covenant of Grace: Israel, in one respect, a Type of Christ mystical: This explained: The typical Respect of Circumcision to his perfect Righteousness. §. 5. Colos. 2. II. proposed, and explained. §. 6. A typical Representation of the future State of the Church in Abraham's Family: Gal. 4. 21. etc. proposed; and the Sum of that Context collected. §. 7. Some farther Observations, and Inferences from thence. §. 8. Several things recollected, and Direction given for their Use as a Key to many Prophecies and Promises in the Old Testament. §. 9 Rom. 4. 11. proposed, and the Terms explained. §. 10. How Circumcision became unto Abraham a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while uncircumcised. §. 11. The Account given of it confirmed, by the Words of the Text, Scope of the Context, and its Harmony with other Scriptures that speak of Circumcision, and its Use: The Conclusion of the Treatise. §. 12.  
§. 1. IN the Chapters foregoing, I have endeavoured to treat distinctly of the Promises given to Abraham; first of those that belong to his spiritual, and then of such as appertain to his carnal Seed; which Promises (notwithstanding their different Nature, and Importance) we have found frequently intermixed in the same Transaction of God with Abraham, they being in the sacred History presented to us interwoven the one with the other; And now the order of our Discourse leads us to make a more particular Enquiry into that mutual Respect of the Promises, which might give Occasion for, and render necessary, such an Intermixture of them.  
§. 2. And the first thing which I shall offer to be considered upon this Head, is;  
That this Order and Disposition of the Promises is excellently suited to the Dispensation of those Times wherein they were given forth, and to that State of the Israelitish Church which was, not long after, to be built upon them: For these things were transacted long before the time appointed for the clear breaking up of Gospel-light to the World, which was not to be expected till Christ came in the Flesh, before whose coming the Law was to take place, and the Oeconomy of the Old Covenant to remain for many Generations: And therefore, altho' the Gospel was preached unto Abraham; yet was it not delivered unto him with that Plainness and Perspiovity as it is in the New-Testament, but for the most part as shadowed and figured by outward things: And hence, That which concerns the State of Israel under the Mosaical Oeconomy is more expressly and fully declared unto Abraham, than what concerns his spiritual Seed under the Gospel; And therefore tho' this latter be the chief thing intended and aimed at (because the perfection of all the rest) in all divine Transactions with Abraham▪ yet is it, for the most part, mystically enfolded in, and to be inferred from, the typical Respect of the other thereunto; which leaves the Glory of Gospel-grace still under that Veil, which accompanied the Old Testament-state of the Church; the full opening of those Promises that did immediately belong to the Covenant of Grace, being reserved for another State of things in the Church; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect: Heb. 11. 40. A dim Light was suited to those Times; and it could be but dim, so long as the Promises lay so much entangled one within another. The like is to be observed in Aftertimes, in the Revelation of the Mind of God to Israel by the Prophets; For in the prophetic Writings (as it appears that the temporal Deliverances of Israel, are considered as typical of the spiritual Redemption of the Church; so) we often meet with sudden, and (seemingly) abrupt Transitions from the Promises of things relating to the present State of Israel after the Flesh, unto Promises and Prophecies of those things which are accomplished in the New-Testament by the Ministration of the Spirit, which being generally delivered in Terms suitable to the present Dispensation of things, and their typical Respect, are by the Jews woefully perverted unto this day, while they contend that themselves are the only People concerned in them, to whom the Blessings, promised and prophesied of, do belong; and that they are to be fulfilled unto them in a way agrecable to their former State, and suited to their own carnal Lusts and Imaginations; whereby they harden themselves in their Contempt of the Grace of God in Christ, and the spiritual Blessings of the Gospel, wherein the Accomplishment of those Prophecies, according to the true Sense of them, is only to be sought. And thus Jesus Christ himself became a Stone of stumbling, and Rock of Offence to them; because the State of his Kingdom suited not their carnal Minds, nor answered their groundless Expectation.  
§. 3. It is also to be observed; That there is not only a singular Congruity, and Fitness in this Method of giving forth the Promises, in regard of the Time wherein they were made to Abraham, and that State of the Church which was next to follow upon these Transactions; but there is also in some respect a Necessity of it arising from the Nature of the things promised, and their mutual Dependence one upon the other. For,  
All the Promises of a spiritual Seed, and spiritual Blessings to be bestowed on that Seed, (which belong to the Covenant of Grace as revealed to Abraham) are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus: And this Messiah, in whom the Covenant was confirmed, was to be made of the Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh; and for the bringing of him forth, according to the Promise, was the Seed of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob, separated unto God for a peculiar People, and kept distinct from all other Families in the World; and in this respect, the Blessing of Grace and eternal Life given unto Abraham, and his believing Seed, was suspended upon the Effect and Accomplishment of the Promises concerning his natural Offspring; and particularly upon the Promise of Isaac's Birth; who was to be begotten by Abraham, and brought forth by Sarah, at such a time, when Nature in them both was so weakened by Age, that they were as unapt, he to beget, and she to conceive a Son, as if they had been already dead, Rom. 4. 19 And hence it is, that the Apostle doth lay so great Weight upon Abraham's Faith in this Particular, even in the Business of his Justification before God; The Object of justifying Faith, the Messiah to come, being thus included in the Promise of Isaac's Birth: On this account his Parents had the greatest Cause of rejoicing at the Birth of this Son, who hath his Name from Laughter, and Rejoicing: Gen. 17. 17. and Chap. 21. And to this (in part) may be referred the saying of our Saviour, Abraham rejoiced to see my Day, and he saw it, and was glad: Joh. 8. 56. He saw it in the Birth of Isaac (and afterwards in the offering of him up) who was a Type of Christ, and from whom he was to come; whose miraculous Birth, in the virtue of a Promise, when Nature could not have effected it, afforded also some Adumbration of, and was a Praeludium to, the more miraculous Birth of Christ, who was conceived and brought forth by a pure Virgin (the Power of the most High overshadowing her) for the fufilling of that Promise, The Seed of the Woman shall break the Head of the Serpent. As Isaac in the Type, so Christ more eminently, sprang up as a Root out of a dry Ground; Isa! 53.  
§. 4. Now from these things we may collect with Ease, and great Clearness, wherein the Greatness of Abraham's Trial, and the Eminency of his Faith in offering up Isaac, did specially consist: To part with a Son, an obedient Son; a Son grown up (as Isaac now was) yea an only Son, was indeed a great Trial; howbeit Abraham was not only required to part with him, but to sacrifice him; and for a Father to become the Executioner of his Son, the Son of his old Age, and the Object of his most endeared Affections; for him (I say) to be appointed the Priest that must slay this Victim, adds yet much more to the Trial; And in Abraham's addressing himself to such a Service (had there been no more in it) without Debate, murmuring, or delay, we have an unparallelled Instance, and Example of Piety, and Obedience: But alas! There is a Concern infinitely greater, in this Case, than all that hath been yet mentioned; Isaac was the Son of the Promise, (And upon this account the Holy Ghost places it— he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son: Of whom it was said, in Isaac shall thy Seed be called; Heb. 11. 17, 18.) Abraham had no other Son in whom he might expect the fulfilling of the Promise when Isaac was lost; and yet upon the Accomplishment of this Promise, in the bringing forth of the Messiah in Isaac's Line, the eternal Salvation of Abraham, and of the whole Church depended; and therefore he is called his only begotten, not because Abraham had no other Son, but because he was the only H●ir of the Promise. This might have caused the greatest Anxiety of Mind imaginable, in Abraham, had he at all consulted with Flesh and Blood in the case; but his Faith overcame this Difficulty, and silenced all carnal Reasonings about the Impossibility of the Accomplishment of the Promise, if this Command were obeyed; Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the Dead, from whence also he received him in a Figure: Heb. 11. 19 And the Issue made it abundantly manifest, that the readiness of Abraham to obey in this Case, did put the Promise to no real Hazard; for it brought forth means of farther Confirmation of his Faith, by the Exhibition of an eminent Type of the Redemption of the Church by the Death and Resurrection of Christ; unto which was added the renewing of God's Promises to him, both for his spiritual and carnal Seed and that with their Confirmation by the Oath of the great God: Gen. 22. 17, 18. But to return to that which concerns our present Purpose.  
From these things we may certainly collect, that all the Promises made to Abraham, were ordered of God to meet in one general Issue; For as the Promises concerning the carnal Seed, and their State, were subservient unto the Ends of of God's Covenant with the spiritual Seed: so also the the Promises peculiarly belonging to the spiritual Seed, were to have their Effect and Accomplishment in a Seed that must descend from Abraham according to the Flesh: And therefore that Interchange of the Promises which hath been observed to you, ought not in any wise to seem strange.  
§. 5. Again, The typical Respect and Analogy of the Covenant of Peculiarity unto the Covenant of Grace, as after to be more fully revealed, and accomplished in Christ, affords another Occasion of, and Reason for, the interweaving of those Promises which require a distinct Application: some of them belonging immediately to the carnal, and others to the spiritual Seed, as arising from the springs, and ordered towards the Ministration of two distinct Covenants: That there was a Disposition of things in the Old Testament with a typical Respect to the things that are of a spiritual Nature, and Concern, in the New, is so fully, and clearly asserted by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures, that it hath obtained a general Acknowledgement from those that own their Authority; as also that many things in the Transactions of God with Abraham were of this Nature; largely to insist on these things is besides my present Design; only for the better clearing of the Point under Consideration, I shall briefly touch upon something of this kind: And first, let it be observed;  
That the Body of the Israelitish Nation, considered as an holy People, and the Lord's firstborn, Exod. 4. 22, 23. Jer. 2. 3. bearing in their Flesh the Character of Circumcision (which laid them under an Obligation to perform the Righteousness of the Law) was not only a Seed separated unto God for the bringing forth of the Messiah, but also, was a Type of Christ mystical, viz. of that Seed, and Body, whereof Christ is the Head, and true Believers are the Members (who in this Relation are considered as complete in him) and so did eminently point at his being made under the Law, Gal. 4. 4. and (by the perfect fulfilling thereof) becoming the End of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth; Rom. 10. 4.  
Thus much (I suppose) may be fairly gathered from that saying of the Prophet in Hos. 11. 1. 
* Vid. Junii Annotationes in locum, & ejusdem Parallela.  Out of Egypt have I called my Son; compared with Mat. 2. 15. where the Evangelist applies it unto Christ. And, probably for this reason is Christ prophesied of by the Name of Israel, Esa. 49. 3. Christ was the Seed in whom the Substance of that Righteousness, that was shadowed in the Circumcision of Israel, was to be found; and from whom it is derived upon all true Believers for their Justification before God, and Introduction into such a State wherein they should acceptably walk before God, and worship him in newness of Spirit: Thus Circumcision did not only oblige to the keeping of the Law (in which respect, it was an heavy Yoke Act. 15. 10.) but did also (as subservient to the Promise) point at the Messiah who was to come under a legal Bond to fulfil all Righteousness, that through Faith in his Name such a Righteousness might be obtained, as is witnessed to both by the Law and the Prophets: Rom. 3. 21. It is Christ alone, in whom the Design of Circumcision is fully answered: And as under the Old Testament-Ministration, no Man could enjoy the Privileges of the Covenant of Peculiarity without Circumcision, none being admitted to walk before God in that Covenant, without this Sign of a perfect Righteousness and Purity according to the Law; so now, none can have entrance into the Kingdom of Grace, nor obtain a Right in the spiritual Blessings and Privileges of the New-Covenant, but by an Interest in the Righteousness of Christ through Faith, and by coming under the Imputation of his Obedience, wherein the Law was fulfilled for us. And seeing this was one (and that the most comfortable, if not the chief) end of Circumcision, as it served the Design of the Covenant of Grace towards the Elect; the Continuance of it now, with the same respect which it had in its first Institution, would be in effect, to deny that Christ is come in the Flesh.  
I intent not by any thing I have said to intimate a Denial of the typical respect of Circumcision to the Sanctification of Believers also; neither is that Notion of it in the least weakened, but rather strengthened in its proper Place; For as the real Holiness of Believers springs from their Union to Christ, and Justification through the Faith of his Name; so I take Circumcision, first to look towards that perfect Righteousness which we have in Jesus Christ; and then to that sincere (tho' imperfect) Holiness that is wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ: For we are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit; and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no Confidence in the Flesh: Phil. 3. 3.  
§. 6. And I conceive if those other Texts in the New-Testament that look towards the mystical use of Circumcision, be well weighed, and the scope of the Context in which they are, duly considered, they will cast a great Light upon the Notion proposed to you; I cannot stay upon all, But for Instance, let us repair to Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the Circumcision made without hands, in putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh, by the Circumcision of Christ.  
The design of the Apostle's Discourse in the whole Context, is, to confirm the Souls of the believing Colossians in the Faith of the Gospel, and particularly in that great Article of the Christian Religion concerning our being justified freely by the Grace of God, through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus; Rom. 3. 24. and to caution them not to be led away by the Error of the Wicked from the Simplicity of Truth which they had received; But as they had received Christ Jesus the Lord; so they should walk in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the Faith; ver. 6, 7. And (saith he) Beware lest any Man spoil you through Philosophy and vain Deceit, after the Tradition of Men, after the Rudiments of the World, and not after Christ; ver. 8. The Men which the Apostle brands in these last Words, are those that endeavoured the Subversion of the Liberty of the Gentile Churches, and entangling them again in the yoke of Legal Bondage; in order whereunto, they did not only assert the Levitical Ceremonies, to be still, and in their own nature, acceptable Service to God; but also, that they were of perpetual Use, because of those Philosophic Secrets, and Mysteries of Nature, which they pretended were wrapped up in them; which Conceit they had no ground for (God having at no time appointed them to such an End) but from the Tradition of their Elders: This it is which the Apostle intends, by Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men: And, to prevent their being ensnared with this corrupt Doctrine, he informs them how Christ was the End and Substance of all those Shadows, and that all Fullness dwells in him, in whom they were complete; and therefore ought not to turn back to the Law, or its Ceremonies, to seek Perfection from them; seeing by Christ they were made Partakers of that real Benefit, which was but darkly pointed at, and shadowed by the Ceremonies of the Law: For so he adds in this 11th Verse, In whom also ye are circumcised; (mind) They are not said to be circumcised in themselves, but in Christ; because in him they were completely justified by the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness, which Circumcision under the Law, as an Ordinance of the Old Covenant, did oblige Men to, and as subordinate to the Promise did prefigure: Hence the Apostle affirms, that Believers are the Circumcision, who place their whole Trust in Jesus Christ: Phil. 3. 3. and whereas they are also described to be such as worship God in the Spirit; this doth not restrain the Notion of their Circumcision to the Righteousness of Sanctification, but rather describes the Persons by another Fruit, and Property, of that Grace whereby they are justified; Confer. Rom. 8. 4. In the following words of this Text in Colos. the Circumcision spoken of, is said to be,— In the putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh; which is primarily intended of our Justification, and includes Sanctification as a necessary Concomitant thereof; It is by Justification that we are completely delivered from a State of Sin, and the Mass of Corruption (as Joshua was from his filthy Garments) Zach. 3. 4. by an Implantation into, and Union with Christ, who died for our Sins, and rose again for our Justification; and therefore this change of their State, is said to be, by their being quickened together with Christ; ver. 13. and this quickening is that of Justification, wherein they were raised from that deadly state of Guiltiness, in which they were, while dead in their Sins, and the uncircumcision of their Flesh, unto a state of Life, Righteousness, and Acceptance with God, who forgives them all Trespasses. Now this putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh, is,  
— By the Circumcision of Christ. I know Expositors do generally take that Circumcision which is the work of the Spirit of Christ in the Soul, to be here intended; as they do apply the whole Verse to our Sanctification; but I conceive as our Justification is primarily intended in the Context, so the scope of the Apostle's Discourse leads us rather to interpret this to be that Circumcision wherewith Christ was circumcised; the Sign being put for the thing signified; viz. the Circumcision of Christ, for his perfect Obedience, and fufilling of the Law: In Circumcision was the first bearing of the Yoke of the Law; and by it the Person circumcised was bound to keep the whole Law, otherwise his Circumcision became Uncircumcision; Rom. 2. 25. so then, the Circumcision of Christ is a convincing Evidence of his being made under the Law; and by a perfect fulfilling thereof, he brought in that everlasting Righteousness, through the Imputation of which, all that are in him are justified before God: And this Communion that Believers have with Christ in his Benefits through the Faith of the Operation of God, is in a lively manner held out, and signified to them in their Baptism, wherein they are said to be both buried and risen together with him; Col. 2. 12. The Immersion of the Body into the Water bearing an Analogy to his Burial, as the raising of it again out of the Water doth to his Resurrection. This the Apostle intends, that even their Baptism upon their first receiving, and profession of the Christian Religion, did teach and oblige them to live upon Christ alone, and to join no other thing with him in the Foundation of their Hope.  
These things being so, Circumcision was of Use no longer, neither had Christians any Concernment in it; for having reached the Accomplishment of its utmost End in Jesus Christ, it expired in Course, and vanished away with the whole Frame of the Mosaical Oeconomy: And so far is the Apostle from intimating that Baptism came in the room of Circumcision, that he discourses of them, as appertaining to two Covenants so differenced one from the other, and in their complete Ministration opposed the one to the other, as that they could by no means (in this last respect) consist together.  
§. 7. In the next place; It is to be noted,  
That there was A typical Representation of the future State of the Church (viz. in the days of the Gospel) in the present Transactions of God with Abraham, and the State of his Family thereupon. The Explication of all Particulars belonging hereunto, would require an enlargement of this Discourse beyond its intended Bounds; And therefore, to our present Purpose, I shall only point at the Heads of those things which the Apostle sets before us in Gal. 4. from for 21, to the end of the Chapter.  
Upon the reading of this Context, you will observe that the Allegory insisted on by the Apostle is grounded upon this historical Verity,  
1. That Abraham had a twofold Seed; the one proceeding from him according to the ordinary Course, and by the Strength of Nature, the other brought forth by virtue of a Promise; the one was Ishmael by Hagar, a Bondwoman, the other Isaac by Sarah a Freewoman.  
2. The Bondwoman and her Son, had the Precedence, in time of Conception and Birth, to the Freewoman and her Son.  
3. In process of time the Son of the Bondwoman who was born after the Flesh, persecutes the ●on of the Freewoman who was born after the Spirit; i. e. in the virtue of the Promise; And thereupon the Bondwoman and her Son are cast out of the Family, and Isaac remains there as the only Heir of his Father's Blessing.  
That these things were disposed of God with a typical Respect to Gospel-times, the Apostle affirms, and thus applies them:  
Hagar was a Type of mount Sinai, and the Legal Covenant there established; and Ishmael was a Type of the carnal Seed of Abraham, as under that Covenant: Sarah was a Type of the New-Jerusalem, or of the Gospel-Church founded on the Covenant of Grace; And Isaac, a Type of the true Members of that Church, who are born of the Spirit; being converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, for the fulfilling of the Promise of the Father, unto Jesus Christ the Mediator: And, the Ejection of Hagar and Ishmael was to foreshow the Abrogation of the Sinai-Covenant, and dissolving of the Jewish Church-state; that so the Inheritance of spiritual Blessings might be clearly devolved upon the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ.  
There are many other things worthy to be observed, which it is not my present Work to insist upon; this general View which hath been taken of the Context being sufficient to prepare our way to the following Observations.  
§. 8. First, The Apostle who in Gal. 3. 8, & 17. calleth the Promise recorded in Gen. 12. the Gospel preached to Abraham; and the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ: doth here expressly call that Covenant-Transaction unto which Circumcision belonged, and wherein the Right and Privilege of the natural Seed of Abraham was stated, the Law; and their desire of being under it he condemns, as proceeding from their Folly and Ignorance: Gal. 4. 21.  
2. Notwithstanding all the Privileges of Israel after the Flesh, they remained in a state of Bondage under the Law: And their being Parties in the Sinai Covenant, and in the Covenant of Circumcision, and Children of the earthly Jerusalem (or Members of that Church whose State was founded on the Covenants before mentioned) and so interested in all the Worship there to be performed, (all this I say) could not more give them Interest in, and Right to, the spiritual Blessings of Abraham, than Ishmael's carnal Descent from him, could either inright himself or his Seed, in the Covenant of Peculiarity made with Israel, and the outward Blessings thereof: For altho' the Seed of Abraham by Isaac were under the Dispensation of those Blessings that were the shadow, and Type of the good things of the Gospel; yet their Birthright, and proper Claim in the Interest of their Covenant; did fall as far short of Gospel-blessings, as Ishamel's did of their Privileges; For as Ishmael was, in a literal Sense, born after the Flesh and the Son of a Bondwoman, so were they mystically; and as Ishmael did persecute Isaac, so they (being puffed up with a vain Confidence in their carnal Privilege, and Prerogative) did not only reject the Gospel themselves, but also persecuted the Children of the New Jerusalem; And therefore as he was cast out of Abraham's Family, and excluded from any part in the Inheritance of the Son of Promise, so must they be excluded from the Kingdom of God, and the Inheritance of the Blessings thereof.  
Thus did God, in the very beginning of the Covenant-state of Israel after the Flesh, in this Type set before their Eyes the Imperfection-thereof, and the sad End they would bring themselves to, by a resting in it, and overweening of it.  
3. Howbeit, The Covenant of Peculiarity made with Israel, and the Dispensation that God brought them under pursuant to the Fnds thereof, was typical of the Gospel-Covenant and the State of things therein. In Isaac we have a Type of the Children of God by Faith; and as he (in his Seed) was the Heir of Canaan, so are they Heirs of Heaven; And as he was persecuted by Ishmael, so must they expect Trouble in the World, and look to be maligned by all carnal and Pharisaical Spirits, that seek to establish their own Righteousness, and refuse to submit to the righteousness of God; In a word, the People, their Worship, and Inheritance, was all typical; And yet, as Abraham's spiritual Seed may behold the shadow of their own State and Privilege, in the mystical Respect, and typical Oeconomy of the Jewish Church; 
Pars quaedam terrenae Civitatis, Imago coelestis Civitatis effecta: est, non se significando, sed alteram, & ideô servieus. Neque enim propter seipsam, sed propter aliam significandam est instituta, & praecedente aliâ significatione, & ipsa praefigurans, praefigurata est: Namque Agar ancilla Sarae, ejusque Filius, Imago quaedam hujus Imaginis fuit. August. de Civita. Dei, Lib. 15. Cap. 2.  so they again might, and aught to consider themselves in their outward State to be but typical; and while they were figures of the Children of Promise, both themselves, their State, and End, was figured in the Son of the Bondwoman and his Rejection.  
Now from hence we may infer, that;  
1. The carnal Seed of Believers, can obtain no greater Privilege by the Covenant of Circumcision, than the Seed of Abraham by Isaac had; and their Privilege reached not to an Interest in Gospel-Blessings, or in the New Covenant, unless they obtained that Right for themselves by believing; otherwise they had no more Right in them, by their natural Descent from Abraham, than Ishmael had in the Blessings of their Covenant of Peculiarity; And their Interest in typical Privileges, must needs cease, and vanish away, when the things typified were exhibited.  
2. The State of Israel after the Flesh being typical; The Israel of God among them, were taught to look above, and beyond their external Privileges, unto those things that were shadowed by them, as set before their Faith in the Promises of Grace by Christ; and so to live upon the Grace of that Covenant, which their outward State, and Covenant of Peculiarity was subservient to; And unto them, all these things had a spiritual, and evangelical Use; which being their principal End and Intent, a fair Occasion is ministered for such an Intermixture of the Promises of Typical, with those of real Blessings, as we have now had under Consideration; Because the Covenant of Grace, and that of Circumcision have their mutual Respect, as the Type to its Antitype.  
§. 9 And these things are not only necessary to the right Understanding of those divine Transactions with Abraham which we have been treating of; but also are of Use for the opening, and right Application of very many Prophecies, and Promises of the Old Testament; and for the avoiding of those stumbling Blocks (and others like unto them) which the blind Jews have fallen, and do fall upon to this day.  
The Phraseology of the Old Testament will hardly be understood in divers Places, without due regard to many of those things that we have been treating of: viz.  
1. That during the time of the Law, the true Church was impaled within the Bounds of the Commonwealth of Israel; which in its entire Body was a typical Church.  
2. That the Children of God after the Spirit (tho' as Children under Age, they were subject to the Pedagogy of the Law, yet) as to their spiritual and eternal State, did walk before God, and found Acceptance with him, upon Terms of the Covenant of Grace.  
3. That the whole Oeconomy this People were under, did in its typical respect, subserve the Ends of the Covenant of Grace to the Elect, who were the true and spiritual Worshippers of God; And the greatest, and only visible Number of them, was to be preserved among that People, until the Gospel Church-state should take place.  
4. But yet, this spiritual Relation to God according to the Terms of the New-Covenant which the truly Godly then had, was not so clearly held forth under the Old Testament as it is in the times of the New, and by the Dispensation of the Gospel: But the things relating thereto, were very much wrapped up in dark Shadows, and Figures. And therefore,  
Many times the things, and People typified, are spoken of in prophetical Scriptures, under the names of those Things, and that People, which were the Types of them; And the Promise of the choicest Gospel-blessings, and most glorious State (with respect to spiritual Glory) of the New-Testament Church, are given forth to Israel of old in those Terms that did suit the present State of things; and are peculiarily directed unto them, and their Seed; but these Promises being given to them as considered in their Relation to God, as his only visible Church, and Covenant-people, are not to be applied to Israel after the Flesh, as such, but had their Accomplishment in the Church when Israel was rejected, and the Gentiles called to inherit the Blessing of Abraham; Howbeit they being directly given out to Israel and Jacob, as the only true Church then in being, and a People in whom the Church, which should be, was typified; it was but meet and necessary (especially considering that the spiritual Glory of the Gospel, and the calling of the Gentiles, was a Mystery not to be unfolded in those times, but kept under a Veil) that the Terms made use of in those Prophecies and Promises, should be acommodated unto that Oeconomy under which the Church then was; which yet must be interpreted in a Sense agreeable to those times, and that Dispensation, in which they were to have their full Accomplishment. And therefore seeing the Church was then continued in a Line of natural Descent from Abraham, being propagated by Generation as long as the Old Covenant state thereof remained unshaken, the Promises made to the Church respecting her future Glory, Peace, and Blessedness in the days of the Messiah, are given forth as to the Seed and Offspring of the Church then in Being; tho' they did really belong to, and were intended for, (not a carnal Offspring, but) those that God should continue to own as his Covenant-People and Church; even such as should walk in the steps of Abraham's Faith, the Gentiles, as well as Jews.  
§. 10. All that now remains to be done before I draw to a Period of this Discourse, is to consider how far the mutual Respect of the Promises made to Abraham may guide us towards a right understanding, how Circumcision became unto Abraham, a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith, etc. which the Apostle affirms it to have been, Rom. 4. 11. And in opening that Text, the grand Objection against that Notion of the Covenant of Circumcision which I have insisted on, will be obviated. In order hereunto, I shall first set down the Text, and give you a brief Exposition of it; then show you wherein it was verified: and offer something for the strengthening and Eviction of the Sense given.  
The words of the Text are;  
And he received the Sign of Circumcision, a Seal of the Righteouness of Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised; that he might be the Father of all them that believe, tho' they be not circumcised, that Righteousness may be imputed unto them also.  
In the Verses foregoing the Apostle is discoursing of the time wherein Abraham's Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness, and proves from thence the equal Right of the uncircumcised Gentile (if a Believer) with the circumcised Jew, in the Blessings of the Gospel, by means, of a spiritual Relation to Abraham, inasmuch as his Faith was reckoned to him for Righteousness, not in Circumcision, but in Uncircumcision;  
And he received the Sign of Circumcision; i. e. Circumcision which was a Sign; It is genitivus Speci●i; as when we read the City of Jerusalem; for the City Jerusalem; and the like: Some Greek Copies do here read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. This belongs to the general use, nature, and end of Circumcision, it was a Sign; but moreover, unto Abraham it was;  
— A Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith, which he had being yet uncircumcised; A Seal is for Confirmation, and Assurance; and in this notion of a Seal there may be some respect to that visible Mark and Character which remained in the Flesh of him that was circumcised; for we read not that any other Ordinance (no not Baptism) is so called in Scripture; but in the New Testament the sealing of Believers is attributed to the Holy Ghost.  
— Of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised; that is, of his being Righteous before God through believing; which Faith he had, and which Righteousness was imputed to him (the Relative may agree with either Antecedent) while he was uncircumcised: There are some Words supplied by the Translators to fill up the sense in our English Phrase, which the learned Dr. Lightfoot in his Hor. Hebraic. on Cor. 7. 19 fills up by another Supply that gives somewhat a differing sense of the Text, which I refer the Reader to, as not unworthy his Consideration; but shall here rest satisfied with that sense which our Translation affords us. It follows,  
— That he might be the Father of all that believe in Uncircumcision: the sense is, that he might be manifested to be (things are in Scripture oftentimes said to be, when they are by any solemn Act declared, or confirmed) the Father of all believing Gentiles, tho' they be not circumcised; inasmuch as they also are a part of that spiritual Seed promised to him in Uncircumcision.  
— That Righteousness might be imputed to them also: take it as before, that it might be made manifest, and confirmed, that Righteousness is, and shall be imputed to thm also: See ver. 23, 24.  
§. 11. Having given this brief Explication of the Terms used in the Text, the next thing to be enqurired is; wherein are the Contents of it verified? or how, or in what respect, was Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which Abraham had being yet uncircumcised?  
For answer to this Enquiry; observe,  
1. That in the Prologue to this Covenant of Circumcision Gen. 17. God did expressly renew, and confirm to Abraham, the great Promise of the Covenant of Grace, concerning the justifying of the Gentiles by Faith in Christ, which Blessing they should receive in the Relation of Children to Abraham, and so he should become the Father of many Nations; And the Covenant of Circumcision being added to former Transactions wherein God had confirmed his Covenant in Christ with Abraham; the use of Circumcision (as to him) was not limited to that Covenant of Peculiarity unto which it did immediately belong, but must necessarily reach farther, and include a Confirmation of all preceding Transactions, & the Promises given in them; especially of that which was repeated, immediately before the Institution thereof. The Promises of God to Abraham (tho' of a different Nature) did not interfere one with another; but the latter still employed a Confirmation and Ratification of the former; This Covenant therefore did not supplant, but confirm the Truth of the Gospel before preached to Abraham, it was not added to disannul the Promise, but to serve the Ends thereof; and therefore Circumcision did not only seal to Abraham the Promises of typical Blessings now given, but also was a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of all that believe in Uncircumcision.  
2. It was so (tho' more indirectly) on this account also:  
Abraham's Faith (as we have seen before) was much concerned in the Promise of Isaac's Birth, and the separating of his Seed from other Nations for the bringing forth of the Messiah; and he knew well that the Covenant of Circumcision was made with him in pursuance of the great Promises before given; and so the Seal of this Covenant became unto him, a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had before, and confirmed him in his paternal. Relation to Believers in all Nations, which was an Honour before conferred on him. It is the Discovery of the Subserviency of Circumcision, as received by Abraham, to the great End and Design of the Covenant of Grace (which was confirmed to Abraham before he was circumcised) that the Apostle particularly aims at in this Place; and he proves that the Covenant of Circumcision is so far from excluding the Gentiles from inheriting the Blessing of Abraham by Faith; as that it was, to him an Assurance and Seal of the Promise of so great a Privilege to them; as also of his own Justification through Faith, while uncircumcised.  
And moreover; The Covenant of Circumcision not being so complete in itself, as to bring the Church unto that Perfection which in the eternal Counsels of God's Sovereign Grace was intended; and therefore not capable to make any thing perfect by itself; must needs be established as typical, and subservient to the Covenant of Grace, in a temporary Dispensation that should usher in, and then give place to the Gospel, in the fullness of Time; and in respect of this Disposition of the Covenant now made, the Sign by which it was confirmed, became ultimately and in its typical respect, a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which Abraham had before.  
§. 12. It is no ways difficult to conceive, that Circumcision might have a different Respect, according to the differing Circumstances and Capacity of its Subject; Yea that it had so, in another Instance hath been already proved. It was a Seal of the Inheritance of Canaan to the Children of Israel, and did ensure the Promise thereof to them and their Seed; But it gave their Bond-servants no such Right or Claim; Even so, it was to Abraham a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had, etc. but this arose from the peculiar, and extraordinary Circumstances, and Capacity that he was in; for it is not possible to conceive that Circumcision should be a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of all that believe in Uncircumcision, to one that never had Faith, either before or after his Circumcision, nor ever had, or should have, the Relation of a Father to all Believers, as Abraham had.  
Now that the Apostle speaks of Circumcision here with respect to the peculiar Circumstances, and Capacity of Abraham who received it, is evident from the scope of his Discourse in the Context; in which the Argument that he manageth, is to prove that neither could Circumcision give to any an Interest in that Grace, that justifies a Sinner before God, nor the want of it hinder any from obtaining that Interest, in the way, and upon the Terms of the Gospel; seeing Abraham himself obtained it not by his carnal Prerogative, but was justified before he was circumcised; And the whole stress of his Argument, lies upon the Supposition of Abraham's being a Believer, and justified by his Faith, before he received Circumcision; Remove this, and his Discourse concludes nothing of what he intends; And hence he infers, that Abraham received Circumcision so, as that it was to him, a Seal (not simply, of the Righteousness of Faith, or of the New-Covenant, but) of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised; as also of his paternal Relation to all Believers tho' they be not circumcised; for so it follows, that he might be the Father of all them that believe; And it is equally absurd to say that Circumcision was a Seal unto all its Subjects, of the Righteousness of Faith which they had while uncircumcised, as to affirm that it was the Seal of a paternal Relation to all Believers, unto every one that received it: Both these must necessarily be resolved into the peculiar Circumstances of Abraham, the particular Relation he had in the Covenants made with him, and the order of their Disposition; and not into the nature of Circumcision considered simply, and in itself.  
And moreover it is observable, That immediately after, in the continuance of his Discourse in Rom. 4. the Apostle refers Circumcision to the Law, in contradistinction from the Gospel; for when he hath told us that the circumcised Jew could not obtain the Blessing of a spiritual Relation to Abraham by virtue of his Circumcision, unless he did walk in the steps of Abraham ' s Faith, which he had while uncircumcised, ver. 12. he assigns this as the reason of it in the 13th Verse; For the Promise that he should be the Heir of the World, was not to Abraham or to his Seed, through the Law, but through the Righteousness of Faith. And I cannot see how the Conclusion which the Apostle makes concerning the Inefficacy of Circumcision, is enforced by this Reason, if Circumcision immediately and in its own Nature had not belonged to the Law; but, to the Righteousness of Faith, or Covenant of Grace, as an ordinary Seal thereof.  
Again; The Interpretation made of this Text is farther strengthened by the conference of other Places in the New-Testament, where we find that Circumcision is styled an unsupportable Yoke, Act. 5. 10. and is said to lay Men under an Obligation to keep the whole Law; Gal. 5. 3. and the complete Dispensation of Grace in the Gospel according to the New-Covenant, is constantly insisted on as that which renders it utterly useless to the Gospel-Church, and manifests the Inconsistency of retaining the Practice thereof, with the Liberty of their present State: See for Instance the Epistle to the Galatians, and in Chap. 5. 13. the Apostle tells them if he did yet preach Circumcision, than was the Offence of the Cross ceased; and he might have lived free from the Persecutions he now suffered from the unbelieving Jews: It was the Apostles preaching Christ, so as therein to assert the shaking and removing of that Old Covenant, unto which Circumcision did belong, and by which the Jews held the Right of their peculiar Privileges (tho' now in Truth, the Continuance of those could not longer have been a real Privilege to them) that was the ground of the Controversy betwixt them, and of their unreasonable Opposition to him: For if the Controversy had been about the Mode of administring ●he same Covenant, and the Change only of an external Rite, by bringing Baptism into the place of Circumcision, to serve for the same Use and End ●ow, as that had done before, the heat of their Contests might soon have been allayed; especially considering the latter is far less painful and dangerous than the former: But he will certain●y find himself engaged in a very difficult Task, ●hat shall seriously endeavour to reconcile the Apostles discourses of Circumcision, with such a Notion of it: Circumcision was an Ordinance of the Old Covenant, and appertained to the ●aw, and therefore did directly bind its Subjects ●o a legal Obedience; but Baptism is an Ordinance of the Gospel, and (besides other excellent, and most comfortable Uses) directly obliges its Subjects to Gospel-Obedience; And therefore is rather, in this respect opposed to, than substituted in the place of Circumcision: And certainly it is more safe to interpret one Text according to the general Current of Scripture, and in a full Harmony therewith, than to force such a sense upon many Texts, which in no wise they will admit, to bring them into a Compliance with that Notion of one which our minds are prepossessed with; And it is plain that the Notion I have insisted on, fully agrees with other places where Circumcision is discoursed of according to its immediate and direct Use in the old Covenant: For there can be no Contradiction in ascribing a different, and seemingly opposite, Use and End, to the same thing, if it be done in a different Respect: What Circumcision was directly and in its immediate Use, is one thing; and what it was as subordinate to a better Covenant, and Promise, that had Precedency to it, is another; And it is easy to conceive, that it might be that to the Father of the faithful, in its extraordinary Institution, that it could not be to the Children of the Flesh, or carnal Seed, in its ordinary Use.  
To conclude, if Circumcision and Baptism have the same Use, and are Seals of the same Covenant, I can hardly imagine how the Application of both to the same Subjects should at any time be proper; and yet we find those that were circumcised in their Infancy, were also baptised upon the Profession of Faith and Repentance, and that, before Circumcision was abrogated; yea according to the Opinion that hath been argued against, The Jews that believed before Christ had suffered, were at the same time under a Command both of circumcising and baptising their Infant-seed. But if the Principles that this Discourse is built upon, be well proved by Scripture, as I take them to be, there must be allowed a vast Disparity, betwixt Circumcision and Baptism: The Old Covenant, is not the New, nor that which is abolished, the same with that which remains; and till these become one, Baptism and Circumcision will never be found so far one, as that the Law for applying this, should be a sufficient Warrant for the Administration of that, unto Infants.  
We have now past through the Covenant-Transactions of God with Abraham; after which we find no signal Alteration in the state of the Church, by any New Transactions, until the Law was given upon Mount Sinai. And therefore I shall here put a Period to my present Discourse, it being intended only, of the Covenants that God made with Men before the Law.    
FINIS.