promised on Gods part this holds forth more than a Legal Covenant Is there a more gracious and a more comprehensive Promise and fuller of the Grace of God in all the Book of God than this Here the Lord doth give and make over himself yea all his glorious Attributes Names Titles Grace Love all Temporal Spiritual and Eternal Blessings here God doth give himself the Father the Son the Holy Ghost the whole Nature of God and all the Persons the Godhead with all the Attributes of that Nature and all the Offices of those Persons Thus saith Judicious Cotton in his Treatise upon the Covenant The Lord through this Covenant gives himself and all his to his covenanted People through all the Generations of the World I would willingly understand what may be the reason if there can be any given when this Excellent Promise is repeated in many other places of Scripture that it is allow'd to be of Grace and not here notwithstanding if I mistake not when this Promise is inserted in other places it is often taken from this Jer. 24.7 and 31.33 and 32.38 Ezek. 11.20 and 34.24 31. and 36.38 and 37.27 Here we have the same Promise and full of Grace and why not in Gen. 17.7 Oh! there would be great ground of fear should this be granted for then the Seal of the Covenant must follow as we shall see in the close of this Discourse This is that Covenant that Believers and their Seed be under since the Ascension of the Messiah and that we may clearly discern it God is pleased to use the old Phrase and Form of the Promise 2 Cor. 6.18 Heb. 8.10 The same Language and Dialect we have speaking of the New Jerusalem Priviledges and Glorious State Rev. 21.3 And I heard a voice out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God There is the other Branch of the Promise here that we must by the Rule of Relatives understand If God doth give himself to Abraham and his Seed then he takes them and chuseth them to be his People and Portion for ever when the Lord is pleased to say I will be thy God and the God of thy seed this must reeds be involv'd thou and thy seed shall be my people for ever and so it is relatively exprest often in the Covenant-Language Now I pray is not all this of pure Grace 4. Reason This is a Covenant made in the Hands of Christ the Mediatour and it was confirmed in him the great Seed of the Covenant and the Head and Foundation of all those that God doth take into Covenant with him This Covenant was ratified and confirm'd by the Efficacy and Blood of the Mediatour otherwise neither Abraham nor Isaac could have been saved and hence the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 Now the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great sheperd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant c. God in making this Covenant had respect to the efficacious and meritorious Blood of his Son otherwise he could never have made such a Promise here of being such a gracious God to Abraham and his Seed for ever It is judiciously said of a Learned Authour that in this Covenant the Lord taketh the chiefest of the Seed of Abraham viz. the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Mediatour and Surety of it and so through him are all the Promises and Blessings of the Covenant convey'd unto Abraham and his Seed his faithful Seed all the World over therefore he is called the Mediatour of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 and 8.6 And as it was made with Abraham and his Seed in the Hands of Christ so when it was translated unto the Gentiles it was by and through him and confirmed unto them by him Gal. 3.14 That the blessing of Abraham may come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith The Blessing of Abraham viz. the Covenant of Abraham Rom. 15.8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers He was the Minister of Circumcision the great Instructer of the Jews and did first confirm the Covenant to them and then to the Gentiles Ver. 9. And that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy viz. for the Mercy of God through Christ by and through whom the blessed Covenant was confirmed unto them So that we may see that Christ was the Mediatour of this Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed witness those many Types of Christ which were annexed unto it viz. Their expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifices injoined the whole Congregation in case of Sin also the two Goats one for a Sin-offering for the whole Congregation and the other the Scape-goat over which all the Sins of the Children of Israel were to be confess'd by the Priests c. 5. Reason Because this is a Covenant that freely holds out and offers pardon of Sin without Works therefore then it cannot be a Covenant of Works It holds out pardon of Sin freely by believing in Christ The Covenant of Works we know holds forth no pardon of Sin no Mercy to Transgressors that violate and break the smallest point of it Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 I but this Covenant doth it holds out pardon of Sin to the vilest and worst of Sinners to those that did barbarously and maliciously pour out the Blood of the Mediator of this Covenant Exod. 2.37 38 39. This is a Covenant that did freely offer remission and pardon of Sin without the Works of the Law Abraham himself through this Covenant by believing in the Mediatour and Testator of it was justified and pardoned read Rom. 4.1 2 3 4 5 c. That must surely be a Covenant of Grace that brings in remission of Sin and Justification by Christ through Faith God did promise to be a God to him and his Seed a God to pardon 6. Reason Because of that Seal the Lord did command to be affixed to this Covenant which was Circumcision Who can deny but that the Lord did command this Seal Sign or Token to be set to the Covenant to confirm and establish it Gen. 17.10 This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee Every man-child among you shall be circumcised This God did Institute as the Initiating Ordinance by this they were to enter as visible Persons into this Covenant or to be visibly discovered and own'd such that were in covenant with God and in a covenant way devoted and given up unto him Let me here ask this Question Did not this Seal of the Covenant denote that that Covenant it did appertain unto to be a Covenant of Grace It is next to a
first-fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches The Root is Abraham and the Fathers and they may be said to be the First-fruits because they were first consecrated to God and the Branches are denominated from the Root Exod. 19.6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation Here the whole Nation was called holy How could it be called so Not because all the Individuals of the Nation were personally holy partaking of a saving Work of Holiness upon their Hearts There were but a few such But because as a Nation the Adult and Children were in covenant with the Lord for the Children were no small part of the Nation We have this very Phrase conferred upon the Christian Church in the Times of the Gospel 1 Pet. 2.9 But ye are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people Believing Gentiles with their Seed were ingrafted into the same Place from whence the Jews were broken off and are become a holy nation unto God 7. Demonst Those unto whom the Promises of the Covenant are made and do appertain they are in Covenant with the Lord Some time the Covenant is exprest by the Promise as in our Text and the Covenant of Promise the gracious promises of the word are the branches of the Covenant of grace Some do stile the Covenant a Collection or bundle of Promises which God hath bound up and conferred through Christ upon his People unto which there are annext the duties of the Covenant unto the performance Of which there is provision made in the same Covenant of grace and divine assistance But the promises of the Covenant are made to the Children of those that are themselves in Covenant as well as to the parents it seems to be very cruel and irrational to turn those out of the Covenant unto whom are assured the gracious promises of it not only Temporal and external but Spiritual and eternal blessings are promised unto the Children of Believers Those that are the opposers of this truth must first Obliterate all the Promises that are comprehended in the Covenant as the inheritance of the Seed of the Parents that themselves are in Covenant with the Lord. As to any common ordinary rule appointed to us belonging to our duties and hopes concerning our off-spring we have nothing as I know to build upon but Covenant promises What an excellent one is our Text unto pious Parents as to their Children and in this it is founded for the Promise is to you and your Children To illustrate and amplifie this I shall in several particulars shew you some of the Ranks of Covenant-Promises that are extended unto such little Ones that are the undoubted Proprietors of them 1. That great and Capital promise of the Lords being their God this comprehends all the rest and is instar omnium Is not this Promise made to the Seed of Believers wrote in Capital Letters in many places in the word of God This is Gods great record in the Covenant of grace and the great foundation the Church of God is built upon viz. this of Gods promising to be the God of his people and of their Seed in every age and generation of time yea to the end of the World usque ad consummationem omnium unto the compleating and fulfilling of all things Thus the blessed constitution and promulgation of the Covenant hath alwayes run this is wrote with a Noverint universi That which every one under the sound of the Gospel should know and understand yea even those that are but raw and rudely instructed in the very Principles and Rudiments of Religion This gracious promise is the golden Frontis-piece of this Covenant The heart of God was so full of grace and love to the Seed of the faithful that when he called Abraham to establish his Covenant the fountain of his grace did immediately emit this sacred sweet and most refreshing Stream Viz. That I will be thy God and the God of thy Seed and that in all Successions and periods of time unto the utmost bound and period of all read the Scriptures following Gen. 17.7 Jer. 24.7 and 31.33 and 32.38 Ezek. 11.20 and 34.24 31. Chap. 36.28 Chap. 37.27 Mat. 22.27 2 Cor. 6.17 18. These rare promises must be expung'd out of the Book of God before I can unless left by God to fall into error put this Article out of my Creed that the Children of Believers naturally Springing from their Loins are in the Covenant with them I have spoke much already to prove that the Covenant in Gen. 17.7 made unto Abraham did referre to the Covenant of Grace Some may be making of some Query about that because they see what must be the Consequence of granting of it Wherefore I would desire them to return back unto what hath been said upon that Point Only I will add one or two things here 1. In this form run the promises which are acknowledged by all that know any thing of the Gospel-Covenant or Covenant of grace let all the places of Scripture immediately here before mentioned be examined as to the Phrase of them I will be a God to you or your God and you my people which includes Believers and their Seed Now in as much as this in the 17. of Gen. runs in the same Phrase of the Covenant of grace that we see in other places that are allowed to be such we may conclude that such is this also Doctor Ames saith thus against Bellar. Omnia illa quae spectant ad novum foedus eadem phrasi summatim explicantur So that when we are challenged to prove the Covenant with Abraham to be a Covenant of grace and Circumcision to be a Seal of the Covenant of grace Note that in this Point we have to do with our old Adversaries the Papists tho' marching forth under the banner of a People of another Denomination for their Doctrine as to the Covenant made with Abraham in the place mentioned is thus that it was a Covenant of outward blessings this is indeed the Doctrine of the worst of them thus saith Bellar. Legimus Deum promisisse Abrahamo quando illi injunxit Circumcisionem terrena tantùm ad literam i. e. propagationem posteritatis terram palestinae Again Illis verbis ero Deus tuus significat totum promissum peculiaris protectionis Thus we may see that our great disputant doth sweetly lick up the Doctrine of this great Doctor of the Church of Rome tho' to give him his due I believe he is not overmuch versed in him to which Doctor Ames answers Legimus benedictionem illam Abrahamo promissionem fuisse plane eandem cum illâ quâ jam fideles ex gentibus justificabantur Gal. 3. Now when the Holy Ghost testifies in Scripture every where that the Gospel-Covenant runs in that form why should we fall in with the Papists and take their word for it that that is
just Procedure of God against them even their utter Exclusion out of the Covenant How sad will it be with such when God shall reckon with them and avenge the Quarrel of his Covenant This is a Sin that a Jealous God doth resent with great complaint and with high displeasure Psal 78.37 For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant Ezek. 44.7 Isa 24.5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the laws changed the ordinance broken the everlasting covenant Jer. 31.32 Not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which covenant they brake though I was a husband unto them How unkindly did God take this of them in breaking such a Covenant in which the Lord stood in the gracious relation unto them of a husband which should have obliged them to Honour Chastity and Obedience for ever 6. This doth inform us of one great ground that we have and proceed upon for the baptizing of the Infants of believing Parents that be in covenant with God because their Children are in covenant with them This is very evident in our Text Acts 2.39 Those the Apostle had here to deal withal he doth exhort them to repent and be baptized and so to enter into the then Establishing Administration of the Covenant they and their Children also for the Promise was to both Children that are taken into covenant with their believing Parents ought to partake of this Seal of the Covenant with them for the Covenant is to the Children as well as unto them If Children be Foederati then they ought to be Signati there is a necessary connection between the Covenant and the Seal when the Lord was pleased to take Abraham and his Seed into covenant with himself the Seal of the Covenant was upon strict command to be Administred unto the Infant-Seed Gen. 17.10 The neglect of which was very displeasing to God To talk of being in covenant and to deny the Seal to such that are is very absurd for this is to cross and contradict the Express Command and Institution of God Therefore our Friends the Anabaptists being very apprehensive of this endeavour to evade the Stroke of this Blow by their miserable Shifts and fruitless Attempts to prove that that Covenant in Gen. 17. made with Abraham was a Covenant of Works herein they have laboured in the Fire altogether in vain for the Tenor and Circumstances of that Covenant do loudly proclaim it to be a Covenant of Grace and the natural Language of it if it be sincerely hearken'd unto will be Grace Grace Abraham's Natural Seed were in covenant with God therefore had the Seal of the Covenant which was Circumcision injoin'd them as a Singular Priviledge So in proportion thereunto in Gospel-days the Seed of Believers in covenant with God ought to have and to injoy the Seal of it which is Baptism 'T is brought in as a great Objection against Infant-Baptism That there is no Command for it but if Men will but lay aside all prejudice and make use of the Reason that God hath furnish'd them withal they may here see a clear Command for it though it be by consequence Was it not the manifest Will of God that they to whom the Covenant belonged should partake of the Seal of the Covenant Therefore the Seal is called the Covenant Gen. 17.10 as if to have the Seal was to have the Covenant or to be in it there is such an inseparable communion and connexion between them nay we may carry it home here we may easily see a clear Command for it for it was the obvious and the undoubted Command of God that those in covenant should have the Seal of the Covenant tho' the Seal be altered as to the Instrument yet not as to the Substance and the Command for the affixing of it remains inviolable As in the Sabbath though the Day of it be changed yet the Command for it remains untouched not in the least abrogated If we renounce the baptizing of Infants upon a presumption that it can only be prov'd by consequential Commands then we shall involve our selves into an inextricable plunge and intanglement of other great Truths of the Gospel which can chiefly be proved this way that the Administration of the Lords Supper must continue to the End of the World must be drawn consequentially from such places as Mat. 28.19 20. 1 Cor. 11.26 So when it is said As often as ye do this our Divines do infer a Command that it ought often to be done and not once or twice or thrice a Year as the manner of some is What Rule can we have of dealing with Women and censuring them in case they offend but by the way of consequence for the Rule is expressy If a Brother doth offend thee c. Nor is a Brother of the common Gender Mat. 18.15 2 Thess 3.6 Here I might make mention of some great Things in matters of Faith That Great Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead that was something sparingly and darkly expressed in the Old Testament our Lord and Saviour proves by undeniable consequence to the Learned Sadducees that were vehement Deniers of it Mat. 22.31 32. But as touching the resurrection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Mark this is founded by way of consequence upon that place Exod. 3.6 Thus the Fathers proved against the Arrians that denied Christ to be Essentially one with the Father they held him out to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consubstantial or co-essential with the Father This is a great Point of Divinity and a great Article of our Faith yet there is no direct Scripture to prove it This is the way that is taken in Reasoning with those that deny and dispute against the Deity of the Holy Ghost How can it be proved but by infallible consequence of the Scripture that there are Three distinct Persons in One Divine Essence or Godhead or that there is in our Blessed Mediatour but one Person and yet Two distinct Natures Essentially distinguished Thus also we may read in Matters of Fact where the same Rule doth hold and must be strictly observed as for Instance where it is said Acts 4.4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the men was about five thousand What were there no Women among them none of their Wives The word here is not the common Gender that might comprehend the Woman for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is strange if here should be no Woman that did at this time believe and were baptized I perswade my self the Anabaptists will yeild