〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deus non semel olim omnia sed particulatim deinde etiaâ— deâ—ersis modis sus notitiam ac cultum declaravit per Prophetas quò propius dies imminebat eo clariorem lucem edentes Bez. by diverse parts and after a diverse manner hath given out to his Church causing this Light gradually to encrease until the whole Mystery of his Grace was perfectly revealed in and by Jesus Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg And that God unto whom all his Works were known from the beginning hath in all ages disposed and ordered the Revelation of his Will to Men his Transactions with them all the works of his holy Providence towards them with a * Deus in omnibus Actionibus prisci seculi semper ob oculos habebat tempora Messia Grot. Respect unto the fulness of time and the gathering of all things unto an Head in Christ Jesus therein So that in all our search after the mind of God in the holy Scriptures we are to manage our Enquiries with a respect to Christ And therefore the best Interpreter of the Old Testament is the holy Spirit speaking to us in the New because there we have the clearest Light of the Knowledg of the Glory of God shining upon us in the face of Jesus Christ by unveiling those counsels of Love and Grace that were hidden from former Ages and Generations Nevertheless the greater Light of the New Testament doth no way abate the usefulness of the Old but rather obligeth us the more to an humble and diligent Study thereof and that as on many other accounts so for this reason also because the Mystery of the Gospel cannot be throughly apprehended by us without some good understanding of the Oeconomy of the Law yea and also of the State of things before the Law the mutual respect and dependence of the Old and New Testament being such as neither can be understood apart or without the other nor an intire Sysâ—eme of Truth as it is in Jesus collected but from both It must be acknowledged therefore to be of great use and concern to us to be well acquainted with those Transactions of God with Men and his Dispensations towards them that are recorded in the sacred History of the first Ages of the World and the Church of God therein And in this Enquiry I shall at present ingage my self so fâ—r as those times reach that preceded the giving of the Law by Moses and no farther And in the performance of this to avoid tediousness in repeating what hath been by others handled at large and fully cleared I shall for the most part confine my self to brief Observations upon the Records of these things as left to us in the holy Scriptures and more largely insist on such Passages only as I conceive not to have been so fully spoken to by others or at least not handled in that Method and Order as to me seems most suited to the nature of the things treated of and so most apt to convey a clear notion of them to our Minds § 2. And forasmuch as those Transactions of God with Men which in this Enquiry we shall meet with are of a Foederal Nature it will be requisite that in the first place something be spoken of Covenant-Relation to God in general The original Words whereby a Covenant making striking or entring into Covenant are signified with their various use and application to particular Cases Vid. Cooceii de foedere ca. 1. Râ—â—et in Gen. Exerc. 53. and Occasions have been fully explained by many and therefore passing that as to our present purpose it will be enough to mind you That a Covenant is to be considered either simply as proposed by God or as Man enters thereinto by Restipulation For 1. Whatsoever is transacted in a foederal way betwixt God and Men God hath the first hand in it As Christ said to his Disciples in another case that they had not chosen him but he had chosen them so may we say Man hath not at any time entred into Covenant with God but God hath entred into Covenant with Man seeing it only belongs to his Soveraign Majesty and is the fruit of his infinite Goodness to propose as of his Wisdom to choose and order the Terms of a Covenant-relation between himself and his Creatures And therefore the Covenant that he hath made with Men is frequently in Scripture said to be the Lord's Covenant as in Psal 25. 14. Isa 56. 4 6. and other places Howbeit 2. Covenant-relation to God and Interest in him doth not immediately result from the proposal of a Covenant and Terms of Covenant-relation to Man but it is by Restipulation that he actually enters into Covenant with God and becomes an interessed Party in the Covenant it is a mutual Consent of the parties in Covenant that states and compleats a Covenant-Relation and this is called an avouching of the Lord to be their God by consent to the Terms of a Covenant proposed to them Deut. 26. 16 17 18. a subscribing with the hand unto the Lord Isa 44. 5. and taking hold of his Covenant Chap. 56. 4 6. The formal notion of a Covenant entred or made includes Mutual Ingagement But yet 3. There can be no Covenant of mutual benefits betwixt God and Men as there may be betwixt one man and another for all Creatures do necessarily depend upon and have both their Being and Wel-Being from the Bounty of their Creator there is nothing that they have not received from him and therefore the most perfect of them can render nothing to him but what is due by the Law of their Creation None can be profitable to God tho' he that is righteous may be so both to himself Job 35. 7 8. Rom. 11. 35 36. and his Neighbour and therefore none can oblige God or make him their Debtor unless he condescend to oblige himself by Covenant or Promise § 3. The general notion of any Covenant of God with Men considered on the part of God or as proposed by him may be thus conceived of That it is * Est enim Dei Foedus nihil aliud quam divina declaratio de ratione percipiendi amoris Dei unione ac communione ipsius potiendi Cocceius de Foed A declaration of his Soveraign Pleasure concerning the Benefits he will bestow on them the Communion they shall have with him and the way and means whereby this shall be injoyed by them And for the better understanding of what I intend by this general Description I shall briefly propose some particulars that are either included in it or are the immediate and necessary consequents of it viz. 1. It implies a free and Soveraign Act of the Divine Will exerted in condescending Love and Goodness it is not from any necessity of Nature that God enters into Covenant with Men but of his own good Pleasure Such a priviledg and nearness to God as is
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
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-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
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
up in him and established in the Faith ver 6 7. And saith he Beware lest any Man spoile you through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ ver 8. The Men which the Apostle brands in these last Words are those that endeavour'd the Subversion of the Liberty of the Gentile Churches and intangling them again in the yoke of Legal Bondage in order whereunto they did not only assert the Levitical Ceremonies to be still and in their own nature acceptable Service to God but also that they were of perpetual Use because of those Philosophick Secrets and Mysteries of Nature which they pretended were wrapt up in them which Conceit they had no ground for God having at no time appointed them to such an End but from the Tradition of their Elders This it is which the Apostle intends by Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men And to prevent their being insnared with this corrupt Doctrine he informs them how Christ was the End and Substance of all those Shadows and that all Fulness dwels in him in whom they were compleat and therefore ought not to turn back to the Law or its Ceremonies to seek Perfection from them seeing by Christ they were made Partakers of that real Benefit which was but darkly pointed at and shadowed by the Ceremonies of the Law For so he adds in this 11th Verse In whom also ye are circumcised mind They are not said to be circumcised in themselves but in Christ because in him they were compleately justified by the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness which Circumcision under the Law as an Ordinance of the Old Covenant did oblige Men to and as subordinate to the Promise did prefigure Hence the Apostle affirms that Believers are the Circumcision who place their whole Trust in Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 3. and whereas they are also described to be such as worship God in the Spirit this doth not restrain the Notion of their Circumcision to the Righteousness of Sanctification but rather describes the Persons by another Fruit and Property of that Grace whereby they are justified Confer Rom. 8. 4. In the following words of this Text in Colos the Circumcision spoken of is said to be In the putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh which is primarily intended of our Justification and includes Sanctification as a necessary Concomitant thereof It is by Justification that we are compleatly delivered from a State of Sin and the Mass of Corruption as Joshua was from his filthy Garments Zach. 3. 4. by an Implantation into and Union with Christ who dyed for our Sins and rose again for our Justification and therefore this change of their State is said to be by their being quickned together with Christ ver 13. and this quickning is that of Justification wherein they were raised from that deadly state of Guiltiness in which they were while dead in their Sins and the uncircumcision of their Flesh unto a state of Life Righteousness and Acceptance with God who forgives them all Trespasses Now this putting off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh is By the Circumcision of Christ I know Expositors do generally take that Circumcision which is the work of the Spirit of Christ in the Soul to be here intended as they do apply the whole Verse to our Sanctification but I conceive as our Justification is primarily intended in the Context so the scope of the Apostle's Discourse leads us rather to interpret this to be that Circumcision wherewith Christ was circumcised the Sign being put for the thing signified viz. the Circumcision of Christ for his perfect Obedience and fufilling of the Law In Circumcision was the first bearing of the Yoke of the Law and by it the Person circumcised was bound to keep the whole Law otherwise his Circumcision became Vncircumcision Rom. 2. 25. so then the Circumcision of Christ is a convincing Evidence of his being made under the Law and by a perfect fulfilling thereof he brought in that everlasting Righteousness thro' the Imputation of which all that are in him are justified before God And this Communion that Believers have with Christ in his Benefits thro' the Faith of the Operation of God is in a lively manner held out and signified to them in their Baptism wherein they are said to be both buried and risen together with him Col. 2. 12. The Immersion of the Body into the Water bearing an Analogy to his Burial as the raising of it again out of the Water doth to his Resurrection This the Apostle intends that even their Baptism upon their first receiving and profession of the Christian Religion did teach and oblige them to live upon Christ alone and to joyn no other thing with him in the Foundation of their Hope These things being so Circumcision was of Use no longer neither had Christians any Concernment in it for having reached the Accomplishment of its utmost End in Jesus Christ it expired in Course and vanished away with the whole Frame of the Mosaical Oeconomy And so far is the Apostle from intimating that Baptism came in the room of Circumcision that he discourses of them as appertaining to two Covenants so differenced one from the other and in their compleat Ministration opposed the one to the other as that they could by no means in this last respect consist together § 7. In the next place It is to be noted That there was A typical Representation of the future State of the Church viz. in the days of the Gospel in the present Transactions of God with Abraham and the State of his Family thereupon The Explication of all Particulars belonging hereunto would require an inlargement of this Discourse beyond its intended Bounds And therefore to our present Purpose I shall only point at the Heads of those things which the Apostle sets before us in Gal. 4. from ver 21 to the end of the Chapter Upon the reading of this Context you will observe that the Allegory insisted on by the Apostle is grounded upon this historical Verity 1. That Abraham had a twofold Seed the one proceeding from him according to the ordinary Course and by the Strength of Nature the other brought forth by virtue of a Promise the one was Ishmael by Hagar a Bond-woman the other Isaac by Sarah a Free-woman 2. The Bond-woman and her Son had the Precedence in time of Conception and Birth to the Free-woman and her Son 3. In process of time the Son of the Bond-woman who was born after the Flesh persecutes the â—on of the Free-woman who was born after the Spirit i. e. in the virtue of the Promise And thereupon the Bond-woman and her Son are cast out of the Family and Isaac remains there as the only Heir of his Father's Blessing That these things were disposed of God with a typical Respect to Gospel-times the Apostle affirms and thus applys them Hagar was a Type