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
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
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