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 entring 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 Tenour 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 Priviledg 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The Tenour therefore of the Promise now given unto Abraham could never be altered nor any ways evacuated or superseded by any future Dispensation that the Church was brought under but whatsoever Law or Covenant was afterwards given unto them must of necessity lye in an order of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 c. § 10. I shall now close this Chapter with some Coâ—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 it self until the times of Reformation nor had till then any outward Sign or Token immediately belonging thereunto For had it been so this Sign or Token as the Covenant it self 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 then to that Seed which is the promised Subject thereof 3. The Sum of all Gospel blessings being comprized 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 Sence and as suspended on uncertain Conditions but in a full Sence 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 Vnion 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 intirely purchased by him so are they intirely applyed 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 Priviledg only I conceive to be utterly inconsistent with the Promises of the Covenant it self 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 compleatly justified before God from the Guilt 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
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 implyed 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 it self 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 inlarge 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 Intanglements 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 then 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 then external and typical Blessings unto a typical Seed The stating of their Rights and Priviledges 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 Inlargement 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 c. 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 Sence 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 then Manasseth and more numerous in that his Seed should become the Fulness 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 signifie 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 expresly 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
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 Priviledg 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 Vnderstanding 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 sence 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-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 Patriarchs 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 intire Blessing of the new-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 diverse 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 Priviledges until the fulness 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 Priviledg that Abraham had in the Flesh and his Seed derived from him That they were set apart as a special Channel thro' which the promised Seed should be derived and brought forth into the World Rom. 9. 4 5. And therefore 5. On this account their Priviledg 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 then it was to cease the Nature of the thing it self sufficiently demonstrateth in that it was now brought to the limited Time
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 it self the Nature Promises and End thereof 3. The immediate and direct End therefore of God's entring 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 then the bringing of them into a blessed State in the eternal Fruition of himself And therefore when one Covenant thro' 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 entring 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 sence of our infinite distance from God as Creatures and the dependence we necessarily have upon him and the duty we owe 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 soveraign 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 chiefly 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 then another it is from thence denominated and for that reason to be esteemed a better Covenant then 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 Soveraignty 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 well-pleasing 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 paenal Sanction of the Covenant but are utterly dispoyled 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 publick 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 off-spring according to the flesh did claim the Rights and Priviledges 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 Knowledg 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 owe 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 Judgments 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 intangle 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 thro' the want of a due and humble attention to that Revelation of Truth which God hath given us in the holy Scriptures and indeavouring to collect the mind of God from thence without prepossession of Judgment which is a greater occasion of these mistakes then Men are generally aware 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 Holyness 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 Judgment 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 expresly mentioned and why it was so § 4. Adam a publick 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 threatned 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 implyed 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 publick 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 Epitomized and in the Transactions of God with him the Relation he had to God with the Event and Issue thereof we are all most nearely concerned for the right understanding of these things is not only necessary in order to but lies in the very Foundation of all useful Knowledg of our selves 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
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
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 rhe 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 explicite 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 referr'd 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 exprest In Gen. 6. 18. God thus speaks unto Noah But with thee will I establish my Covenant and thou shalt come into the Ark c. 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 it self 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 implyed 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 thro' 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 c. 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 c. and are afterwards put into the Promises of the Covenant wherein God ingageth himself to bestow them chap. 9. 8 9 c. 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 Judgment 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 my self 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 ensured 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 Soveraignty of God's Goodness with the Absoluteness of his Promise in this Covenant are instanced as a singular Incouragement 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 Stedfastness 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 dawn upon the Church with some more Clearness then formerly 3. This Covenant is said to be made with Noah and his Sons
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 Denyal 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 Houshold 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 enquire 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 justifie the Heathen thro' 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 confirm'd 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 intend 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 dealings 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 ensured 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 thro' a Relation to him as his Children which is yet more fully exprest 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 thro' 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 thro' 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 thro' 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. Vnto 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 Tenour 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 sence So is the Prohibition of breaking a Bone of the Paschal Lamb which was a Type of Christ applyed 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 Sence 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 thro' 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 fulness 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 sence 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 chiefly 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 istū sapius ac disertius quam caeteris est promissus Lud. Viv. 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
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 inlarge upon 2. Hitherto it is not expresly 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 Hand-maid 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 compleated 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 Priviledge 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 Proselites 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 Fathers having only his Alsufficiency ingaged 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 Stâ—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 c. 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 Ensurance of the Promises and then a strict and intire 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. Altho' 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 Priviledg thereby hath been before proved from Moses's 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 intrench upon the Covenant of Grace or the Right and Priviledg 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 thro' Faith in Jesus Christ by any Priviledg 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
and End appointed to it And hereupon all the carnal Priviledges 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 Vigor and all their carnal Priviledges 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 Priviledges are stated were from the Beginning in their own Nature distinct the one from the other Altho' 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 formed into a typical State by the Law of Moses vested with carnal Priviledges 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 Priviledg 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 thro' the promised Seed was made known tho' but darkly among them and the Blood of God's special Elect did generally run in their Veines 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 First-borne 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 Rigor as to their spiritual and eternal State but being Children under Age the Paedagogy they were under differed nothing from that of Servants neither could they be discharged of this School-Master 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 it self 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 Hand-maid to And therefore those that rested in their carnal Priviledges 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 Priviledg is thereby expresly 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 sence 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 Sence of other Texts of Scripture § 5. These things being premised we shall now come more close to the Words themselves and enquire what that Good and Blessing is which by them is ensured 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 then 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 ingaged 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 Sence 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 express'd in this Ingagement is no more than the necessary Result of any Covenant-Transaction of God with Men For where his Truth is once ingaged in a Promise there all the Properties of his Nature are ingaged 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 it self 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 injoyed 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 indeavoured to set before you the Genuine Sence 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 brake the whole Staff of Bread in the Land of Canaan and the adjacent Countrys 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 remembred his Covenant with their Fathers and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them Then was his Bowe 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 thro' 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 formed 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 dryed 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 ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken concerning them Josh 23. 14. but their State was made prosperous and happy bcause the Lord was their God Psal 144. ult
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 Priviledg 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 administred extended no farther than to Abraham and his Family And therefore we have no ground to conclude that Lot tho' nearly allyed 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 Patriarchs 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 Tythes 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 ministred 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 applyed 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 judg 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 thro' 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 Controversie 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 applyed to any particular Society of Men united in one Body in order to the maintaining of the publick and solemn Worship of God among themselves before the Children of Israel were compleately formed 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 laxe sence call any Family or Society of Men truly worshiping 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 formed can be called a Church in so strict and proper a sence as they might for no other were so formed 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 applyed either to Infants or adult Persons And therefore there could be no Inauguration of this kind or solemn Right of Initiation to Church Priviledg 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 thro' all these Fences and revolt to a wicked and irreligious Life they actually joyned 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 Patriarchs 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 expresly set down in the Institution For Circumcision was to be applyed 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 it self 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 Mony 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 Priviledg 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 Priviledg of the Jew which was in the very Foundation of their national Church-state as separated from the Gentiles cannot be transfer'd 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 Priviledg from the Covenant of Circumcision then 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 administred 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 Tryal 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. c. 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 Vse 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 Vse 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 Perspiouity 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 expresly 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 infolded in and to be inferred from the typical Respect of the other thereunto which leaves the Glory of Gospel-grace still under that Vail 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 intangled one within another The like is to be observed in After-times in the Revelation of the Mind of God to Israel by the Prophets For in the prophetick 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 wofully 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 Sence 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 weakned 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 rejoycing at the Birth of this Son who hath his Name from Laughter and Rejoycing Gen. 17. 17. and Chap. 21. And to this in part may be referred the saying of our Saviour Abraham rejoyced 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 Tryal 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 Tryal 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 Victime adds yet much more to the Tryal 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 unparallell'd 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 Hâ—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 Acknowledgment 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 first-born 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 compleat 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 thro' 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 Priviledges 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 Priviledges of the New-Covenant but by an Interest in the Righteousness of Christ thro' 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 intend 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 Vnion to Christ and Justification thro' 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 rejoyce 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 thro' the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3. 24. and to caution them not to be led away by the Errour 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
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 foreshew 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 expresly call that Covenant-Transaction unto which Circumcision belonged and wherein the Right and Priviledg 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 Priviledges 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 no more give them Interest in and Right to the spiritual Blessings of Abraham then 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 Birth-right and proper Claim in the Interest of their Covenant did fall as far short of Gospel-blessings as Ishamel's did of their Priviledges For as Ishmael was in a literal Sence born after the Flesh and the Son of a Bond-woman so were they mystically and as Ishmael did persecute Isaac so they being puft up with a vain Confidence in their carnal Priviledg 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 Priviledg 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 ought 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 Bond-woman and his Rejection Now from hence we may infer that 1. The carnal Seed of Believers can obtain no greater Priviledg by the Covenant of Circumcision than the Seed of Abraham by Isaac had and their Priviledg 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 Priviledges 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 Priviledges 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 Vse which being their principal End and Intent a fair Occasion is ministred 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 Common-wealth of Israel which in its intire Body was a typical Church 2. That the Children of God after the Spirit tho' as Children under Age they were subject to the Paedagogy 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 wrapt 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 applyed 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 Sence 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 c. which the Apostle affirms it to have bin 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 shew you wherein it was verified and offer something for the strengthening and Eviction of the Sence 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 Vncircumcision And he received the Sign of Circumcision i. e. Circumcision which was a Sign It is genitivus Speciâ—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 thro' 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 supplyed by the Translators to fill up the sence 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 sence of the Text which I refer the Reader to as not unworthy his Consideration but shall here rest satisfied with that sence which our Translation affords us It follows That he might be the Father of all that believe in Vncircumcision the sence 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 expresly 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 implyed 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 Vncircumcision 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 Priviledg to them as also of his own Justification thro' Faith while uncircumcised And moreover The Covenant of Circumcision not being so compleat in it self as to bring the Church unto that Perfection which in the eternal Counsels of God's Soveraign Grace was intended and therefore not capable to make any thing perfect by it self 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 fulness 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 c. 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 Vncircumcision 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 it self 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 thro' 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 stiled 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 compleat 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 Practise thereof with the Liberty of their present State See for Instance the Epistle to the Galatians and in Chap. 5. 13.
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 Judgment 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 vertue 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 altho it be not in Scripture expresly called a Covenant yet it hath the express Nature of a Covenant and there is no reason for Niâ—â—â—y about Terms where the thing it self 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 summ'd 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 dealings 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 denyed 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 then 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 Soveraign and wise Counsel of God's Will and therefore tho' the Law of Creation be easily understood by Men and there is little Controversie 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 Guilt 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 Acknowledgment 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 Soveraign Pleasure his unaccountable Will and Wisdome they must necessarily fall into grievous Mistakes and fill the World with fruitless Contentions thro' their darkening of Counsel by words without Knowledg § 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 Priviledg 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 Iota 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 dye but he was indued with that Power and Rectitude of Nature as that he might not have sinned nor ever dyed 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 â—â—â—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 compleated by eating of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledg 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 thro' which Sin and all the Miserie 's 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 Apostacy from God and in it all conceiveable 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 Villanies 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
whom they come for tho' they fall as so many Drops of Wrath that bode a dreadful Storm coming upon the wicked yet are they * De primâ igitur Corporis Morte aâ—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 sanctifyed 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 Chastisment and not as a Fruit of unpacified Anger It is also true on the other side that the Godness and Forbearance of God is thro' the Wickedness of Man turned into a Judgment 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 Judgment 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 cloathed 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 Vse 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 Vse 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 publick 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 Guilt of his Fall be from him derived to all his Offspring because they were in him as a publick 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 intrusted 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 Judgment 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 glorifie all those with himself for whom he hath satisfyed 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 thro' Faith and others he will deliver up by a righteous Sentence unto the full Execution of that Curse upon them in its utmost Rigor 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 Mixt 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 Vse 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 entring 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
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-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 intailed 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 c. 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 prophetick 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 expresly 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 signifie his personal Interest in the Messiah who was to come of Shem but also the calling of the Gentiles of his Posterity to be joynt 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 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswade 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 Enterprize 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 Patriarchs and holy Men then living as had not joyned 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 aware 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 Knowledg 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 Priviledges 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 Judgment remained upon them generally until the times of Restitution and Refreshing even until the last Days wherein God would perswade 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 Judgment of God upon this Evil Generation stop here for their Days were also shortned 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. 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
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 Stain of original Sin in these Infants is purged and the Dominion of Concupiscence in them destroyed when their Guilt is pardoned or it is not If it be then 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 Apostacy from the Grace of the New Covenant must be allowed possible to befal the one as well as the other notwithstanding all the Provisions of the Covenant and Engagement of God thereâ—n to make the Promise sure unto all the Seed But this the Author will not admit If he say that their Guilt 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 replyed 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 c. 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-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 applyed to some for the Remission of Sins only or that the Guilt 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 Doctrin 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 Tenour 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 Christs 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 Off-spring 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 shewed § 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 sence said to be an everlasting Possession § 4. The History in Gen. 15. considered the 6th Verse explained the Promise renewed and inlarged 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 Abram's 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 applyed 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 Off-spring 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 indeavour 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 Priviledges 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 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 Priviledg 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 formed 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 c. 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 Enquiries 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 lye any just Exception against what hath been said from the Inlargement 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 inlarged cleared filled up with its own Ordinances and made the intire Rule of the Church's Obedience when the Fulness 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 it self § 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 â—et Abraham was as much a Believer and as much in Covenant with God as to his personal Interest in the â—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 prophane 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 then 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 therfore 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 ought appears might be very holy and good Men the true Children of Abraham by Faith according to the Tenour of the Covenant of Grace tho' they might not be Joynt-Heirs with Isaac according to the Tenour 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 Birth-right 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 lye before us in the History of the Scripture That they will hardly be called into Question if our minds be not prepossest 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 applyed 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 tho by Abraham interceded for a Joynt-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 Mony 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 meer Chimera 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 then 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 Priviledge 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 administred 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 Law-giver And therefore Inferences built upon general Notions may soon lead us into Mistakes about them if upon such Inferences we form a Rule to our selves 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 it self 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
And notwithstanding all their Provocations he had Compassion upon them when in their Distresses they cryed unto him and delivered them so that the Scepter did not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his Feet untill Shiloh i. e. Christ came Much of this you have summ'd 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 chiefly in that to them were committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 1. and Chap. 9. 4. Their's 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 dyed 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 Priviledg 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 Incouragement 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 baptized 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 c. 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 c. 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 Murtherers 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 repented but as before explained the Promise was to them while Unbelievers and in a like sence 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 then their's from whom it is supposed to be derived And it is the same thing in Effect that Peter urgeth upon the same People to perswade 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 Kindreds of the Earth be blessed Vnto 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 Tydings of the Gospel first applyed 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 Corolaries do follow 1. That this was a Covenant of Grace and Mercy as having its Original from the meer Goodness and undeserved Favour of God towards Israel Deut. 7. 7 8. whereby many excellent Priviledges 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 thro' 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. Altho' 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 fulness 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 compleated 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