generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Hence we collect it a Gospel-Covenant From 1. The language and expression of it 2. The continuance and duration of it 3. The blessings and benefits conveyed by it For the language and expression the voice is the voice of Jacob. The speech agreeth thereunto not to betray it as it did Peter to his shame and sorrow but to discover this covenant to its honour and our comfort to be an Evangelical Covenant That very phrase to be a God unto thee is a Gospel-phrase Otherwise how cometh he who upon the breach of the covenant of works was left our enemy our inraged judge to be a God unto us I see here Matthew in Moses the New couched in the Old Testament Parallel is the expression Mat. 1. 23. And they shall call his name Emanuel which being interpreted is God with us God with us and to be a God unto us differ something in sound nothing in sence Secondly for the continuance and duration of it An Everlasting Covenant that with Adam was but a short-lasting covenant Some conceive Adam never naturally slept in his Innocency accounting that caused deep sleep Gen. 2. 21. before Eve her creation supernatural but forfeited his Innocency before night As there be some kind of insects called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Naturalists say survive but a day so some conceive Adams integrity of no longer duration And though we dare not certainly close with their opinion the Scripture not acquainting us with the date of Adams perseverance in paradise we may be confident that covenant of works was of no long continuance before it was broken This short-liv'd covenant thus expired it was never reviv'd again on the same conditions but utterly extinguished Yea herein God magnified his mercy that upon any termes he would treat with mankind whom he might have condemned as incapable of any future contract for once breaking of Covenant Yet now he draweth up a second agreement with them being a covenant of grace and that everlasting such his goodnesse that though we if strictly examined break it with him he will not break it with us I confesse everlasting in Scripture is sometimes taken for long-lasting in which sense the Hebrew tongue accepteth of an ever after an ever but here it is taken truly for eternity seeing whom God loveth he loveth to the end without end The third argument to prove the evangelical nature of Gods covenant with Abraham is drawn from the blessings and benefits conveyed thereby whose size and measure is so great they are only of a Gospel proportion to be a God unto thee Could lesse be said then this so short the words yet could more be said then this so large the matter All things herein are comprized a promise to give repentance faith hope and charity patience in afflictions preservation from or in them competency of outward maintenance perseverance unto the end in a word grace and holinesse here glory and happinesse hereafter How tedious are the instruments of our age a span of ground being scarcely passed under a span of parchment in comparison of the concise Grants of our ancient Kings some of whose Charters contain not so many words as they convey Manours therein Yet even those Patents are prolix if compared with Gods Covenant in my text to be a God unto thee promising therein more then what man can ask or desire God hath set us a pattern therefore let thy words be few Eccles 5. 2. not to be babling to him in our prayers seeing he is so plain and pithy to us in his promises couching all things in so short an expression To put all out of doubt this Covenant of Circcumcision made with Abraham and his seed appears to be a Gospel Covenant because S Paul so expoundeth it If any scruple arise about the sence of a Law to whom should people repair for satisfaction but to the makers thereof if alive Thus on the emergency of doubts about the nature of this Covenant we may and must have recourse unto the Author thereof Now the same spirit who indited Genesis by Moses indited the Epistle to the Romans by S. Paul who plainly affirmeth Rom. 4. 11. that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision the seal of righteousness by faith Object It is strange to conceive how in that age there could be a Covenant of faith the word faith appearing properly but once Habac. 2. 4. in all the old Testament and once afterwards with a negation before it in reference to the Jews Deut. 32. 20. Children in whom is no faith Seeing therefore such silence of faith in the Old Testament so frequently resounded in the New this Covenant with Abraham seemeth suspicious to be an old Covenant of Works and to have nothing of Gospel therein Answ The word Faith only not the thing signified thereby is wanting in the old Testament What Christ and his Apostles call faith and believing that the Prophets and pen-men of the old Testament expresse by Trusting The Religion and Creed of the Ancient Patriarchs is briefly drawn up by David Psal 22. 4. Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded I will not say the Triplication of the word Trust denotes their belief in the Trinity Father Son and holy Spirit but here it plainly appears they had their confidence in and dependence on God though then not so clearly revealed unto them which sheweth the sameness in substance of their belief with ours Vse This serveth to confute such who account the Jews a meer husk shell and shadow of Gods people as if all the promises made unto them meerly terminated in temporal happinesses Thus they feed the Jews bodies with milk and fill their bellies with hony even to a surfeit flowing from the fruitfulnesse of the land of Canaan whilest in the mean time they starve and famish their souls excluding them as incapable of heavenly and spiritual blessings Their uncharitable errour is grounded on this argument because when their blessings are reckoned up Deut. 28. 3. it extendeth only to the city field fruit of their bodie ground cattle kine sheep c. but no mention of their eternal beatitude hereafter in heaven Yea when Isaac cordially blessed Jacob desiring no doubt to make the same as compleat as he could bestow and Jacob receive his expressions Gen. 27. 28. amount no higher then to the dew of heaven the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine On the other side when the Jews curses are solemnly pronounced Deut. 28. 16. they are confined to city field basket store fruit of the body land kine sheep c. Here a deep silence of hell and damnation so that the smiles or frowns of God to the Jews seem to reach no farther then to their well or ill being in this life To this it
Literally and not spiritually as the unbelieving Jews of whose foederal right largely in the next chapter 3. Spiritually and not literally as Proselytes and believing Gentiles Proselytes or Advenae were Aliens by extraction and Jewes by profession and these again were either the Primitive Proselytes or their successours in all Ages By Primitive Proselytes I understand those of Abrahams family when Circumcision was first instituted therein These I may call the Founders of that Order and the first stock wherewith that Society began Amongst the succeeding Proselytes we may take notice of two most memorable â—nd conspicuous accessions to their company The one when Israel came out of Egypt and Gods miraculous hand made many Converts to their Religion when besides the six hundred thousand Israelites and their children Exod. 12. 38. and a mixed multitude went up also with them and although this mixed multitude Numb 11. 4. afterwards fell a lusting infecting also the Israelites therewith and probably many of them then perished yet certainly a competent Representation of Pious proselytes stil continued in the congregation of Israel The other remarkable Addition of Proselytes was Joshua 9. 27. When the Gibeonites were condemned by Joshua to the servile work of the Temple hewing of wood and drawing of water Whereby no doubt thousands of them got the knowledge of the true God and were therefore called Nethinims people given over to divine service Yea what an estimate God set upon them plainly appears by his careful counting them after their Return from the Captivity of Babylon Ezra 2. 43. with the children of Solomons servants in all three hundred ninety two Besides these two grand and conspicuous Additions of Proselytes there was scarce any Country confining on Canaan as some a good way distanced thence but now and then did drop in a Proselyte into the congregation of Israel Rahab the Hittite Ruth the Moabite Naaman the Assyrian c. And to show God stands as little on the difference of colours as Countries Ebed-Melech the Black-more the Treasurer of the Queen Candace the Ethiopian Indeed these Proselytes amongst the Jews were divided into two sorts some Proselytes of the gates admitted only into civil society and cohabitation with them others call'd Proselytes of Justice who did professe and undertake all the Law and these only we account the seed of Abraham Secondly believing Christians are the spiritual seed of Abraham and are so generally reputed in the Scripture These to be true born on both sides must have 1. Abraham to their Father 2. Sarah to their Mother When we see a child like unto his father we use to say of him Thy father will never be dead whilest thou art alive so Abraham surviveth and Sarah is still alive in those which John 8. 39. do the works of Abraham What these works are must be collected out of Abrahams life who was faithful to God loving to his wife tender to his children equal to his servants kind to his nephew courteous to his neighbours the children of Heth just in his bargains valiant to his enemies in a word worthy in all his relations Sarah likewise is exemplary for her duty to her husband and other feminine vertues and all those are her daughters 1 Peter 3. 6. which imitate the same I need not be longer in so plain and pregnant a point that believing Gentiles are Spiritually Abrahams Seed so frequently inculcated by the Apostle in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians who were as meer Gentiles as we English-men are Come we now to show how far the Seed of Abraham Naturally though not Spiritually participate of the covenant in Circumcision conceiving the clearing thereof of concernment to our present controversie CHAP. IV. That all visible Members of the Jewish Church had a foederal Right to the Sacraments WE must carefully dinstiguish betwixt the reaping of spiritual Benefit by and the having of a temporal Right to the Sacraments It is confessed that the former belong'd wholly and solely to the true Israel of God but in the latter the worst and wickedest Jew equally shared with the best and holiest of that Nation as all alike corporally descended from Abraham For the proof whereof in the first place it is worth the observing how our Saviour in the same chapter and discourse namely John the 8 th affirmeth and denieth the wicked Pharisees to be and not to be the Seed of Abraham To be verse 37. I know that you are Abrahams seed but you seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you Not to be verse 44. Ye are of the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do Here is no contradiction but a consent if the several respects be considered By Pedegree they were by Practice they were not by Linage they were by life they were not by extraction they were by conversation they were not the children of Abraham Now to look only on the Jews in the first capacity who are Israelites according to the flesh we find S. Paul Rom. 9. 4. giving in an Inventory of their Priviledges which amount to eight particulars and it were high injustice in any Christian to deny the least branch thereof Theirs were 1. The adoption 2. The Glory 3. The Covenants 4. The giving of the Law 5. The service of God 6. The promises 7. The fathers 8. Christ conceiv'd in the flesh Herein the Apostle intendeth not onely the elect Jewes but the diffusive body of that Nation Yea in this present point with heavinesse of heart he sadly singleth out such Apostate Jewes for whom verse 3. he desired in exchange to be accursed and yet even to those did this survey of priviledges belong This is farther cleared by the acknowledgement of the same Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 2 3 4. affirming that all the Fathers were baptized into Moses all ate and drank of the same spiritual meat and drink yet adding afterward that with many of them God was not well pleased Lastly it is evidenced by those frequent phrases in Scripture wherein the disobedient Jewes are threatned to be cut off from his people and from Gods presence Levit. 22. 3. Such could not be cut off from spirituall holinesse or happinesse wherein they were never truly planted and whereof never really possessed but onely from being outward members of that Church which intitled them to a true right of the aforementioned prerogatives Indeed one reason which makes many men loth to entertain this truth to allow a foederall right to the worst of the Jewes is a suspition that the holding hereof will betray them to the dangerous opinion of falling off from grace if that such who once were actually estated in such a Covenant-right should afterwards make a finall defection from the same Now as I cannot blame them to be jealous with a godly jealousie and to decline what is introductory of so comfortless an errour as maintaining the apostasie of Saints so I must condemn their over caution herein to fear where
which we ought to follow and vainly strive to follow those his actions which we ought to admire Oh that we all would learn of him Mat. 11. 29. to be meek and lowly of heart to think more humbly of our selves and more charitably of others I say would we could learn this thing of Christ and leave such things to Christ which were personal in him and not precedential to us Object Had Christ in his judgement allowed and approved the baptizing of Infants surely he would have baptized such children which Mark 10. were brought unto him whereas his omission thereof plainly argues Christs disaffection to the same Answ Christ in his own person Baptized none at all as we read John 4. 2. an office improper for him to perform How unfit had it been for our Saviour thus to Baptize those Infants I Jesus Baptize this Infant into the Name of Jesus If S. Paul accounted it beneath his place to Baptize 1 Cor. 1. 17. For Christ sent me not to Baptize but to preach the Gospel How much was the ministration thereof too mean for our Saviour Indeed Christ came in all humility to be a pattern of patience unto us and condescended to mean imployments as John 13. 5. the washing of his Disciples feet yet alwayes he observed though not state decency in all his actions and stood much though not on the pomp on the propriety of what he performed as here in his declining to Baptize any When a Lord hath signed a Letter with his own hand it is usual with him to consign the sealing thereof to his Secretary or some other servant so when Christ had instituted Baptism and with his own hand confirmed the soveraign vertue of that Sacrament it well befitted his dignity to command and his disciples duty to perform the administration thereof Object Grant that Christ for the reasons by you alledged concluded it unfitting for himself to Baptize those Infants yet had he approved Pedo-baptism in his own judgement he would have designed some of his Disciples for the doing thereof This not done we may infallibly infer his dislike of the same Answ A negative argument of this nature is of no validity No mention is made of these Infants Baptizing Ergo they were not Baptized we may observe a gradation in the Evangelists relating this story Luke 18. 17. mentioneth their blessing only without any manner of gesture at all used by our Saviour unto them Mat. 19. 15. only takes notice that Christ laid his hands on them and departed thence Mark 10. 16. registreth all three remarkable actions He took them up in his arms laid his hands on them and blessed them Saint John addeth chap. 21. 21. And there are also many other things which Jesus did which are not written amongst which for ought appears to the contrary the Baptizing of these infants might be one of them However grant they were not formally and solemnly Baptized yet we may observe Baptism consisteth of two parts the application of water which we may call the body and the impression of the blessing which we may terme the soul of Baptism The later which indeed was the principal was here conferr'd on babes which shews them capable of the other as being the lesse Spiritual part of the Sacrament Object Sacraments ought not to be prostituted to profane persons Mat. 7. 6. cast not pearls before swine But many Infants are impious and profane therefore they ought not to be Baptized Answ This Objection may with equal advantage be also enforced against the Baptizing of men arrived at years of discretion many of them are profane in their hearts though they cunningly dissemble the same Hypocrites will never be kept out of the Church Be the doors thereof barr'd and bolted never so close they will creep in at the windows yea through the chinks and crevesses thereof As for Infants Baptism ought to be denyed unto them if they manifested any profanenesse Till which time charity commands us to believe them not Swine but Lambs and capable of the Sacrament Object Children are unable to discharge an essential requisite to Baptism Seeing what equipage Baptism is martialled by Christs own Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. 1. Go ye therefore and teach all Nations 2. Baptizing in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost c. 3. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Here we have the safe and sure position of Baptism as God himself ordered it It is placed in the middle betwixt adouble teaching one in the front and another in the rear thereof a precedent teaching must usher in Baptism and the subsequent teaching must afterwards wait upon it Children therefore being incapable of this praevious and preparative teaching are incapable also of Baptism which dependeth thereupon Answ The method prescribed here by Christ to his Apostles was only to be used by them in their preaching to pure Pagans grown up to be men and this their commission properly extended unto the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Going therefare that is in due time leaving this land of Palestine wherein you live for the present when you shall be accomplished with the Spirit make your progresse into far distant parts and there teach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Nations the word properly importing Heathens formerly unacquainted with God his word Such people must first be taught before they may be Baptized This text therefore may justly be charged against the Papists in America where thousands of Natives were cruelly driven with whips to the Font to be baptized before they were ever Catechized in any rudiments of Christian Religion but cannot at all be objected against the baptizing of infants the children of Christian parents the teaching of Heathen and those of full age being only intended in this command Thus have we given the true and genuine sence of these words Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them c. However we will not omit another interpretation which godly Divines give thereof consonant to Scripture phrase They render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 make disciples in which sence they maintaine that infants are capable of disciple-ship and may be inlisted therein For proof hereof they produce Acts 15. 10. why tempt ye God to put a yoak upon the neck of the disciples Now this yoak was Circumcision which some stickled so zealously for and these disciples were infants eight days old on whom that Sacrament was fastened In this sence children may be taught that is discipled before baptism and so the text nothing favouring the purpose of the objectors though I rather adhere to the former answer as most proper to the text Here will it be seasonable to interpose an admonition to parents You see in Christs commission to his Disciples the Divine method in dispensation of ordinances to Ethnicks 1. Teach 2. Baptize 3. And Teach But towards the children of Christian parents