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. IV. 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 compleat 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 meer Grace and Mercy tho' when once made with him the Truth and Faithfulness of God was ingaged 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 Patriarchs with their Houses and others joyning 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 swiming 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 Guilt of like Apostacy 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 distinguisht the one from the other their Covenant Interest must of necessity be diverse and fall under a distinct Consideration and the Blessings appropriate to either must be conveyed in a way agreable to their peculiar and respective Covenant-Interest And these things may not
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 Canaans 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 shortned § 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 thro' 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 thro' 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's 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 diverse 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 injoyed in a blessed Immortality and eternal Life hereafter an Earnest of which they had in the present Injoyment 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 signifie 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 entring into Heaven as a Forerunner for us Three hundred Years the Church had injoyed his Ministry and seven Patriarchs 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 dyed but about the space of one Month before the Flood came This Prophecy is more fully set down by Jude v. 15. which may be taken as a divine Paraphrase upon this Prophetick Name like Daniel's Interpretation of the Writing upon the Wall and applyed analogically to the Sinners of his time for as this first Judgment was a Type of future Judgments 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 Judgment of the World so the threatning of this first Judgment to the ungodly then living was a denouncing of Judgment against all ungodly Sinners in future times also § 4. In these Ages of the Church it was generally propagated in that Line thro' 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 joyn with the true Worshippers of God * Potuit fieri
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 sence 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 easie to him that consults the Use of these Terms in other Texts and the necessary Restriction of their Sence when applyed 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 sence 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 Priviledge 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 intermixt the Promises before given to Abraham concerning his carnal Seed and their Inheritance are renewed and farther explained in diverse 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 Tryal of his Faith then formerly and the present acting of it being rendred 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 Inlargement 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 Judgments 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 buryed 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 Judgment 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 bare 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 expresly 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 past 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 Priviledges 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