I will display the Argument it self in all its Evidence and Force as it is bottomed on that Basis And this without concerning of my self in Other Arguments insisted on by others and also touched and reflected on by you The Mistakes you are under in your Apprehensions of the Grounds of my Argument are Two and very great ones The First That you conceive me to raise my Superstructure of Infants Baptism on this Foundation That the believing Gentiles and their Posterity are in All respects to be blessed as believing Abraham was which say you is Absurd And well you may say so for indeed Abraham had peculiar Blessings appropriated to his Person as to be the Father of all the Faithful and particularly of believing Gentiles the Father of many Nations and therefore instead of Abram he was called Abraham But though All the Blessings believing Abraham had did not descend on his Spiritual Children or his Seed the believing Gentiles yet if Any Blessing of believing Abraham's did descend as That of the Promise did it must be understood that the Obligations and Duties arising from the Nature of the Blessing which did descend or that are annexed to it if there be any Such must descend too And so that the Seed in that respect in which it is equally blessed with believing Abraham must be equally obliged with him to all the Duties and Incumbencies that are the Consequents and Results of that Blessing Your Second Mistake is That you apprehend me to conceive That every Child of a believing Parent by vertue of his Birth Priviledge and as he is a Natural Descendant of such a Father or Mother is a true Child of Abraham or a Believer for that I mean or in your own words That the Natural Posterity of Believing Gentiles barely as such are all of them the Spiritual Seed of Abraham or Believers and consequently such as are entitled on the Account of being his Spiritual Seed or Believers unto Abraham 's Covenant and Blessing And in Opposition unto This you much enlarge shewing the many great Absurdities and ill Consequences of it even to Fifteen Arguments which truly as to any other who hath Sense I think and I am sure as to my self are all needless and might all have been spared Certainly I demand not half so much to enforce the Argument I used I think not every Child of a Believer to be a Believer himself in any Sense much less that Saving Grace is as Original as Sin or that it comes by Traduction All I postulate to build my Argument is That the true believing Gentile doth not forfeit by believing his natural Right to his Child but that the Children of True Believers now under the Gospel are as much theirs and in the same Right as the Natural Children of Abraham were his This is all the Question that I beg and this sure you will not deny me Only by the way I pray you to make no more of my Concession than I intend it for for when some Pious and very Learned Men have argued for Infants Baptism from the Children of Believers their being Abraham's Spiritual Seed they mean not I suppose by calling them Abraham's Spiritual Seed as I do and as you do that they are Actual Believers and consequently Children of the Faith of Abraham but only that they are Persons of a Religious Consideration and in some sense Holy and related to God And meaning but So though I acknowledge Children not to be Abraham's Seed in the Sense I mentioned as Abraham's Seed is taken for Actual Believers and you have proved by Fifteen Arguments that they are not nor can be Abraham's Seed in this Sense my Concession gives you no advantage nor do your Arguments signifie any thing against Them who using the Expression in Another Sense are nothing concerned for if They take Spiritual Seed in One Sense and You in your Arguments take it in Another you do not really oppose them though you may think you do nor are your Arguments pertinent and the Dispute between you as to that is indeed but Strife about Words Thus I have with all the Clearness and Fairness imaginable let you see your Two Mistakes about the Argument I urged and therefore seeing you do not apprehend aright the Grounds on which I go in it I am only obliged to you for your charitable Endeavours towards my Satisfaction but not in the least for any Effect of those Endeavours It now remaineth that I perform what I promised in the Second Place which is To lay out the Argument for Pedobaptism as it is founded on the Covenant or Blessing of Abraham in all its Force and Evidence which to do to some purpose I will demonstrate First That the Covenant of Abraham which is called the Blessing of Abraham or the Promise of the Spirit is still in being and is that Covenant of Grace the true believing Gentiles are under Secondly That in respect of that Covenant of Promise which is called the Blessing of Abraham and the Promise of the Spirit or the Spiritual Promise all the Seed that hath the Benefit of it are under equal Obligations to the Duty and Incumbence arising from it with Abraham himself Thirdly I will shew That the Duty and Incumbence to which Abraham was obliged arising from the Covenant or Blessing given to him was by way of Restipulation to dedicate and give himself and all his to God and in token of that Dedication of himself and of all that was his to wear himself the Signe of the Covenant and put it as a Cognizance and Badge and Mark of God upon all his that was capable of it Fourthly I will also shew That from Abraham's Dedication of himself and of all his to God there arises a Distinction of Holiness into Internal and External Absolute and Relative and that this Distinction of Holiness is Evangelical And having evidenced these Four things I will then proceed in short to form my Argument In order to the evidencing of the First Particular which is That the Covenant of Promise made to Abraham which is called the Blessing of Abraham and the Promise of the Spirit or the Spiritual and Evangelical Promise that this is still in being and is the Covenant of Grace into a Participation of which the true believing Gentiles are taken I only Premise That That is the Covenant of Grace the believing Gentiles are under Which is the true Ground and Foundation of all their Hopes and of all their Comforts and Which by having a Title to it and Interest in it doth give them a Title to and Interest in the Coelestial Inheritance the Heavenly Country the Everlasting Mansions in the Father's House and in a word to Salvation And This the mentioned Covenant the Blessing of Abraham and the Promise of the Spirit is and doth This is the true Ground and Foundation of all the Hopes of Gentile-Believers and of all their Comforts and a Title in This is the only Title they
the Flesh from Abraham For if you mind it this Distinction of Seeds did take no place in the Antitype and Truth before the Law for all that long space of above four hundred Years that did precede it So that firstly they do not signifie single Persons but Peoples I say Ishmael and Isaac are not primarily and immediately the Elect and Reprobate as Elect and Reprobate are commonly taken but are Jew and Gentile The Seed which is of the Law and the Seed which is of the Faith of Abraham According to Rom. 4. 16. there are Elect and Reprobate among both Seeds Yes Ishmael and Isaac do signifie but Peoples namely Ishmael signifies the Jews who being Descendants of Abraham according to the Flesh were under the Bondage of the Law and so in the Mystery were Children of Hagar the Bond-Woman as Ishmael was in the Letter For Hagar answereth unto Sinai where the Law was given And Isaac represents the believing Gentiles who are no longer under the Bondage of the Law but under the Grace of the Promise and so in the Mystery are the Children of Sarah or of the Free Woman as being the Children of the Faith of Abraham as Others were of his Body Hagar and Sarah are the Two Covenants and Dispensations Sinai and Sion and the Jews under the Law and Gentiles under the Gospel are the Children of Them or Ishmael and Isaac So that before the Law no Distinction in the Antitype or Mystery of those Two for the Children could not be before the Mothers were And therefore what is this to the State of the Promise four hundred and thirty Years before Now in the Gospel being freed from the Law we are put again into the State of the Promise which was before Christ the Seed the Principal Object of the Promise being now come I 'le be a God to Thee and thy Seed Thus I have finished my Argument But happily in Evasion of it for it cannot be in Solution of or Satisfaction to it you will persist to say as you have already That the External Administration of the Covenant now being vastly different from what it was in Abraham's Time therefore the Incumbence is so also And that therefore though believing Gentiles who have the Benefit of Abraham's Covenant and to whom it is made are under equal Obligation to that Proper Duty and Service which is Now required of them as Abraham was to His yet it follows not that their Infant-Seed are under the same Obligation according to the Gospel-Institution till put into the same Capacity by believing with themselves But how pertinently this is said I do not see For to what Proposition in my Argument can this your Answer be adjusted and applied Besides it goes upon a Mistake much vaster than the Difference between the External Administration of the Covenant in Abraham's Time and that in Ours For I know no other Difference in respect of the Sign of it but that Circumcision then Was that Sign and that Baptism Is now Nor will any Difference in the External Administration if it should be much greater make Any as to the Argument from the Duty and Incumbence which I insisted upon which is To keep the Covenant in the Sign of it as Abraham did for this Incumbence and Duty is not bottomed and grounded on the Administration of the Covenant which is mutable and doth differ but on the Substance and Nature of it which is immutable and everlastingly the same I will be a God to Thee and to thy Seed And God being as much a God to the Seed of Abraham as he was to Abraham himself the Seed are as much obliged to the Duty Office and Incumbence arising and resulting from his being so as ever Abraham was Ay you will say The believing Gentiles on whom the Blessing and Covenant of Abraham doth descend are as much obliged to that Proper Duty and Service which is Now required of them as Abraham was to His Then Yet it follows not I use your own words that Their Infant-Seed are under the same Obligation according to the Gospel-Institution till put into the same Capacity by be ieving with themselves And indeed it follows not that the Infant-Children are under the same Obligation for They are under None The Obligation is not on the Children which are but passive But it follows well enough for the Parents that believe that the same Obligation lies on Them they being the true Seed to keep the Covenant in the Sign of it both by taking of it upon themselves and by putting of it on their Children that did of old upon Abraham for himself and his And This is the Proper Duty and Service required of them as they are Partakers of the Blessing of Abraham Nor are we to expect any New Commands in the Gospel Dispensation for Duties settled of Old on lasting and immutable Reasons The Obligation abides if the Reason of the Precept abides a Principle that is the Ground of the Apostle's Reasoning 1 Cor. 9. 8 9 10. And shall the Promise indeed abide and not the Duty which arises from it The Covenant abide and not the Restipulation without which it is not a Covenant This you dare not say Ay but you will tell me again Tho' you do acknowledge that the Proper Duty and Incumbence arising from the Covenant hath an Eternal Obligation upon all the true Heirs of Promise and in particular That such are bound by way of Restipulation not only to assign dedicate and give themselves to God but also all that is Theirs Yet that you do mean that it Must only be in the way that he himself hath appointed and who I pray ever meant otherwise and that is say you but by Prayer and Supplication for them and by Educating of them as far as they are capable in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord and Not by the Parent 's putting on them any Sign of the Covenant as a Badge and Cognizance of God in Recognition and Testimony of his Right and Title to them But all this is but to deny the Conclusion after Concession of the Premises for I have evinced that the Proper Obligation of the Covenant and in the way that God himself hath appointed is That those with whom it is immediately made and who are first Partakers of the Benefits of it to whom God is firstly and immediately a God are not only to dedicate and give themselves and all they have to Him but to do it in this Particular way manner by keeping of the Covenant in the Sign of it I will be a God to Thee and thy Seed Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore Thou and thy Seed So that to dedicate and give our Infant-Children to God by Prayer and Supplication and to educate and bring them up in the Fear and Admonition of the Lord which also must be done and which Abraham also did is not to answer the Obligation and Incumbence of the Covenant if we do not
do it also Solemnly by keeping of the Covenant in the Sign thereof our selves and by putting of it also on Them God loves Solemnity it makes for his External Glory He will be Owned to be our Lord and Owner and the Lord and Owner of our Children by our taking of his Name upon us our selves and by putting of it on them And whereas you have said with a Modesty as great as the Truth of what you say That if my Argument be truly stated and as without wresting it ought the proper Language of it will be this That Abraham being in Covenant was to be Circumcized both himself and Half his Family the same Covenant descends on believing Gentiles Therefore they are to be signed and the Whole of theirs But whether such an Argument as this This being you say the True State of the Case be convincing or no you refer to my Second Thoughts I answer That I have Reason to be at the utmost Degree of Despair of ever receiving of any good Answers from You as long as from what Cause I now enquire not you understand an Argument no better For Mine even in Your Terms of Half and Whole would run thus If Abraham and all his Seed must keep the Covenant in the Sign of it by taking it themselves and putting it on all theirs that are capable of it Then though Abraham and but Half his Family for so you compute it did keep it in the Sign thereof as long as Circumcision was that Sign yet the Seed of Abraham the true Believing Gentile and the Whole of theirs must keep it now Now that Baptism is the Sign the Sequel is evident For as but Half of Abraham's Family was capable of Circumcision the Sign of the Covenant Then All the Off-spring of the Believing Seed of Abraham are Capable of Baptism which is the Sign of it Now. And observe it I argue not from Circumcision as it is Circumcision to Baptism but I argue that because the Children of Abraham by vertue of the Covenant were signed with the Sign of it which then was Circumcision Therefore the Children of the Seed by vertue of the same Covenant must be signed with the Sign of it too which now is Baptism For the Immediate Obligation is not to keep the Covenant either in Baptism or in Circumcision but in the Sign of it Now the Sign of Old was Circumcision and the Sign Now is Baptism It is true had it pleased God to have abolished Circumcision the Sign before and not to have instituted Baptism which is the Sign now it would have been a high Presumption in any Person to go about to make One But when the Covenant remains and the Proper Obligation of the Covenant is to keep it in the Sign thereof and God though he hath taken away One Sign yet hath pleased to Institute Another What can be plainer than that as to be in Covenant is our Priviledge so that to observe and keep it in the present Sign thereof is our Duty Thus you have my Second Thoughts and make the most of them So much by way of Obviation to what you do object to my Argument I am now to reply to Yours and it is ad Hominem viz. Either the Children of Believers are in Covenant with their Parents or they are not If they are in Covenant as you say I affirm they are because I said the Children of Believers are Holy not without God in Covenant but given to God in Covenant then say you They are the Spiritual Seed and as such entituled to the Covenant and Blessing of Abraham which I formerly denied and which cannot be for fifteen Reasons But on the contrary if I say the Children of Believers are not the Spiritual Seed of Abraham and consequently such as are not You should have added On that Account any wise intituled unto Abraham's Covenant and Blessing then neither can they justly pretend to any Covenant Holiness by Vertue of their Birth Priviledge which yet You say but Mistakingly I make the Ground of their Admission to Baptism when I say That God becometh not related unto any nor is any related unto God in Scripture so as to be stiled Holy but in and through the Covenant Thus I am in a Dilemma and driven from Corner to Corner but safe in none But pray consider that I never said either directly or in consequence That the Children of Believers are Immediately and firstly in the Covenant of Promise and as their Parents are I only said and still do that they are dedicated and given by their Parents to God who is in Covenant with those Parents And yet for all this even in my Opinion They may pretend if that must be the word to Some Holiness by vertue of the Covenant of Promise and This too though they be not Abraham's Spiritual Seed For though they be not themselves the Spiritual Seed of Abraham yet being the Children of those that are they become thereby intituled to the Priviledge of being Dedicated and Sacred to God by vertue of the Covenant in the Same Right and all as much as the Slaves and Natural Children of Abraham were Abraham's Natural Children and Slaves were intituled on His Account and the Children of Believers are intituled on Theirs The true Spiritual Seed of Abraham are obliged to dedicate their Children not as His but as Theirs they give Theirs as he gave His. I pray were not the Natural Seed of Abraham and his Slaves also some way Holy in and through the Covenant by vertue of the Dedication and Signing which That obliged to And as His Children and Slaves were some way Holy so are Ours also And in this Sense of Federal Holiness as it is a Relative and External Holiness do I ascribe it to our Children in and through the Covenant namely as This obliges the Parent to assign and dedicate them and they accordingly are dedicated And to be Federally Holy in this Sense they need not sure be the true Spiritual Seed of Abraham seeing All even the Natural Children of Abraham though so Holy were not all accounted for Seed In fine Observe that if by vertue of the Dedication required of Abraham by the Covenant made with him his Children were Members of the Church Then Old-Testament-Church you call it it will follow that by vertue of the same Covenant making the same Obligation and Incumbence of Dedication if It be still in force as I have evinced it to be the Children of the Seed continue Members still even in the New-Testament-Church And well they may not only for that the Church is One and the same though the Testaments be not but for that Children were not only Members of the Jewish or Legal Church but of the Gospel-Church for above four hundred Years before the Law For it was Gospel that was Preached to Abraham Gal. 3. 8. And therefore Circumcision was at first a Gospel-Sign And remember I make not the Childrens being in Covenant the
yet in the Mystery it meaneth Christ and that Principally So though in the Letter it speaketh but of Canaan as given for a Possession and enjoyed so by the Carnal Seed yet in the Mystery it means the whole World of which Canaan was a Part in which indeed he took Possession or had Livery and Seisin given him but as I said in the Name of the Whole Abraham was Heir of the World and so are all Believers as Abraham's Seed for All is Ours But how For We are Christ's and Christ is God's And it is I will be a God to Thee and thy Seed which Seed is Christ. This is the Believer's Title and this his Deed his Charter by which he holds All. And having evidenc'd the First Particular That the Covenant made with Abraham or the Blessing of Abraham the Promise of the Spirit is still in force and is that Covenant of Grace by which believing Gentiles the true Seed now both have and hold their Title to Heaven and to Earth too It will not I suppose require either much Time or much Argument to secure the Second which is That the true Spiritual Seed of Abraham the believing Gentiles who have the Benefit and Advantage of that Spiritual Promise and Blesing and to whom it is made as well as to Abraham are under equal Obligation to the Duty and Incombence arising from it or annexed to it with Abraham himself For it is a common Notion a Sentiment approved by the Light of Nature That he that reapeth any Profit and Advantage by a Grant ought to bear the Burthen and answer the Duty and Incumbence that accompanies It. And indeed to hope for Salvation and other Benefits convey'd in the Covenant and Charter of Abraham without submitting to the Duties and Obligations that do arise there-from or are annexed thereto were for a Person to claim an Inheritance by a Deed of Conveyance without holding himself obliged to the Covenants and Provisions with which It is granted Therein Certain it is as I have shewn already that the believing Gentile claimeth hath holdeth nothing but in by and under Abraham He is Christ's and so Abraham's Seed and so Heir according to the Promise And he that claimeth hath holdeth nothing but in by and under Abraham must claim have hold as Abraham did according to the Tenor and Obligation of the Deed of Gift the Charter the Covenant of Promise which it pleased God to convey it by and with the same Incumbence and Duty And this remindeth me of the Third Particular which I promised to demonstrate namely That the Duty and Incumbence to which Abraham was obliged arising from the Covenant or Blessing given to him was in way of Restipulation to dedicate and give himself and all his to God and in token of that Dedication of himself and all his to put the Sign of the Covenant as the Cognizance and Mark and Badge of God on all his that was capable of it as well as to wear it himself I know it cannot be difficult to You if it can to any Other to conceive that in Restipulation unto God who had made over unto Abraham not Himself only but All he has that Abraham Correspondently should give Himself and All he had to God And indeed this Mutual Stipulation between God and Abraham That God and all His should be Abraham's and Abraham and all his should be God's is the very Essence and Substance of the Covenant I will be Theirs and They shall be Mine I will be a God to Thee and thy Seed and Thou and thy Seed stall keep my Covenant It is true the Covenant doth run in Absolute and Promissory Terms and therefore is called the Covenant of Promise but yet to be a Covenant as there must be Parties so there must be a Mutual Stipulation between them And here the Stipulation on the Part of Abraham though it be not so express and literal is plainly implied in the Duty and Incumbence God imposes on him in relation to the Covenant as an Obligation and Consequence arising from the Nature and Merits of It Which Duty and Incumbence and the Consequentialness of it from the Covenant is Gen. 17. Ver. 9. Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore thou and thy Seed after thee in their Generations Or more consonantly to the Letter of the Original but to the same Sense and in Covenant-form I will be a God to thee and thy Seed and I will give to thee and thy Seed c. and Thou and thy Seed shall keep my Covenant In the Former is the Stipulation or Promise God is pleased to make to Abraham and to his Seed And in the Latter the Obligation and Consequence it lies upon them and which therefore God expects too as importing Their Stipulation and that Acknowledgment they owe for His. Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore Therefore wherefore Therefore because I have Established my Covenant to give my Self and all I have to thee to give my Self and give Canaan and in Canaan the World Therefore thou shalt give thy self and all thine to Me And in token of it that thy self and all thine is Mine thou shalt observe my Covenant in the sign of it and that so both as to wear the sign thy self and to put it upon all thine that is capable of it This is evident Gen. 17. 9 10 11 12 13. Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore c. This is my Covenant namely the sign Circumcision c. You may here perhaps not a little wonder that I use so General and comprehensive Terms and that I say the Obligation which lay on Abraham from the Covenant was to dedicate and give Himself and All His to God and in token of it not only himself to wear the Sign and Token of the Covenant which then was Circumcision but to put it on all His that were capable of it I say Happily you may not a little wonder why I said not all his Seed but all His Which if you do you will no longer have no cause to continue it than till I tell you It is to signifie that the Obligation on Abraham arising from the Covenant was Solemnly to dedicâ—te and give to God together with himself All that he had Property in and Title to and was Owner of not his Natural Seed only the Off-spring of his own Body but even his Servants or Slaves And here observe if Abraham by vertue of the Incumbence and Obligation which the Covenant of Promise did lay upon him Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore was Not only to circumcize his Natural Off-spring But his Slaves and Servants as he was Gen. 17. 10 12. It must needs follow that the putting of the Sign and Token of the Covenant upon Children even then arose Not from their being comprehended in the Seed and as God was a God to Abraham's Seed and from God's requiring the Seed to keep the Covenant For His Infant Slaves and Servants whom Yet he was obliged by
God that in all he Is and Hath and Doth is To and For God He is a Priest and he is an Offering and he is a Temple too So that now Holiness is on the Bells of the Horses and the Pots Vessels of common Use are as the Bowls before the Altar all Holy and Consecrated No Action of a Believer much less his Marrying and giving in Marriage and the consequent Actions of that State must be common but holy and every Action of an Unbeliever is common and unholy To the Pure all things are Pure but to the Vnbeliever nothing so Even the Lawful Actions of the Unbeliever who is without God in the World are unholy Holy Christian Matrimony and holy Christian Use of one another differs much from Unholy and Unchristian Infidels do Lawfully come together but they do not Holily They never think on God in Covenant in it Now in your second Thoughts I pray consider which of the given Senses is the most probable either That which agreeth not to the Text so much as in the Grammar but is far fetcht violent and forced or That which is not only Natural and Genuine without Constraint and Violence to the words but also agreeth both to the Analogy of Faith and to the Design of the Apostle As which not only resolves the Case proposed but by obviating the Ground of the Scruple doth fully satisfie the Conscience A Sense not mean and low as that is which makes the Holiness to be but Civil to be a meer Lawfulness but a High Lofty Spiritual Evangelical Sense a Sense truly worthy of our great Apostle who breatheth nothing but Sanctity nothing but Holiness Thus having fortified my Premises I should immediately proceed to deduce my Conclusion but that before I do so it may not be amiss to consider one Question which is Why Seeing the Sign and Token of the Covenant of Promise was the Sign and Token of it not only on Abraham's Part to whom it was made but on God's who made it Why since it signified that God did convey and make Himself and all His to Abraham as well as that Abraham ought to restipulate and surrender and make himself and all his again to God That all along I do mention but This and not the Other To This I answer That I insist not on the Latter to exclude the Former I well know the Sign and Token of the Covenant to be a Sign and Token between God and Abraham and â—o as much signifie what God hath promised to Abraham as what Abraham was obliged to answer But the Reason I insist mainly on the Latter is That It seemeth mostly to be imported in Putting of the Sign upon Abraham For any other Sign that God had pleased to have given him either in the Heavens above or in the Earth below might have been as the Bow in the Clouds a Confirmation of the Truth of God as Covenanting But it Would not with so much Clearness and Significancy have represented Abraham's Stipulation and his assigning and giving of himself and his again to God as Now it doth seeing that That in common Sense is God's which hath his Sign upon it and wears his Mark. And 't is as observable that as Circumcision was upon Abraham and on all his in token of his Answer and Restipulation to God That he did dedicate and assign himself and all he had to him so Baptism the Evangelical initiating Token is on the Person too to whom God is a God and signifieth the same Restipulation and Answer which Circumcision did The Which many Learned not improbably conceive the Apostle means when he says 1 Pet. 3. 21. That Baptism is Not the putting away of the Filthiness of the Flesh but the Answer or Restipulation of a good Conscience towards God And so Beza ad loc on second Thoughts doth render it and Tertullian happily doth allude to it too when l. de Resur Car. he tells us Anima non Lavatione sed Responsione sancitur Besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Juridical word as may be seen in the Glossary And though in Classick Authors It primarily and in the First place do signifie Interrogation yet even thence it came in the Second to signifie Stipulation the Sense the Jurists take it in And the Reason is evident for in Spigelius Stipulatio est firma verborum conceptio quâ quis Aliquid se facturum daturumve promittit Alteri super hoc Ipsum Interroganti utpote promittis mihi te daturum xx Philippeos Alter Respondebat promitto And Thus also Surrenders and Deditions were antiently made as is to be seen in Livy l. 1. c. 36. and in Calepine ad voc ded out of him in the Dedition of the Collatines to the Romans But yet my Argument doth not stand and fall with the Sense of this Text no more than with that in the 1 Cor. 7. Well then I have evinced That the Covenant of Promise which is the Blessing of Abraham is the Covenant of Grace and That it doth descend upon the true Believing Gentiles I have also evinced That all who have the Benefit and Advantage of the Blessing of Abraham and are the Seed on whom it doth descend are equally obliged to the Duty Office and Incumbence arising from the Nature of that Blessing or annexed to it as Abraham himself And I have evinced That the Duty Office and Incumbence arising from the Blessing of Abraham in the Covenant of Promise was in Restipulation and Answer to God to dedicate assign and give himself and all he owned to Him and in token of that Dedication Gift and Assignment to put the Sign and Token of the Covenant the Mark and Cognizance of God both on himself and on them And now take my Argument which is this That Seeing the Believing Gentiles are the Seed of Abraham and consequently are Partakers of his Blessing in that Covenant of Promise confirmed afore in Christ as is evident in the first Particular And Seeing the Seed of Abraham who are Partakers of his Blessing are under equal Obligation to the Duty Office and Incumbence of that Blessing as Abraham himself was which is the Second Particular And Seeing also That the Duty Office and Incumbence lying on Abraham as he had the Blessing was that he should both dedicate and assign and give himself and all his to God and in token of it take himself and put on them the Sign of the Covenant which is called to keep the Covenant viz. in the Sign of it which is the Third It Follows That the true Believing Gentiles who are the Seed of Abraham and as much Partakers of the Blessing in the Covenant of Promise as Abraham himself are as much obliged to observe and keep that Covenant of Promise in the Sign and Token of it be it what it will as he himself and his Natural Seed That is in plain words Seeing God is as much a God to the Believing Gentiles as he was to Abraham