the entering into covenant produces a closer relation and a stronger tie, and is much more engaging and attractive many ways, than naked precepts could bek; as will be evident of itself to any man that reflects, and I need not enlarge upon it.

6

In covenants between God and man, there is not, as in common covenants, an equal and mutual meeting of each other, or a joint concurrence: but God is the first mover to invite and propound; and man comes in after, sooner or later, to accept and conclude. We love God, because he first loved us:''Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.' And our Lord says to his Disciples, 'Ye have not [first] chosen me, but I have [first] chosen you,' &c. m Another thing observable is, that there are not here, as in covenants between man and man, mutual advantages, or benefits reciprocal; but all the advantage or benefit, properly so called, accrues to one party only, because the other is too perfect to receive any. Nevertheless, there is something analogous to benefits, or what may be considered as such, accruing to the Divine Majesty; namely, external honour and glory, and such delight as he is conceived constantly to enjoy in the exercise of his goodness, wisdom, power, and other his attributes or perfections. Neither does this circumstantial difference, arising from the infinite disparity of the parties contracting, at all affect the essence of the covenant supposed to be made between them. For a covenant is, in its general nature, (as Baron Puffendorf defines it",) an union, consent, and agreement of two wills. about the same thing: and if God proposes such and such terms, and man accepts them, there is then a formal covenant struck between them. God conditionally offers advantages

on his side; and man covenants to pay a suitable homage, adoration, and service, as required.

That God has transacted, and does yet daily transact, covenants with mankind in succession, shall be shewn presently. Only I may here hint by the way, that many considerable Divines have supposed also a previous covenant between God the Father and God the Son, in the affair of man's salvation. There are several things hinted in holy Scripture, which look like an agreement, or covenant, that upon our Lord's undertaking to be Mediator, and performing what belongs to it, a reconciliation should ensue between God the Father and mankind. The texts, which chiefly seem to countenance that notion, are collected into one view by the excellent Puffendorf, to whom, for brevity sake, I choose to refer the reader P.

2. I proceed to observe, that God has, time after time, transacted covenants with men, and under various formalities. There was a covenant of life made with man in Paradise, in his state of innocency 4; which commonly goes under the name of the first covenant, or old covenant, and which continued for a very short space. To that immediately succeeded the second covenant, or new covenant, called also the covenant of grace, and made with lapsed man, in and through Christ Jesus. It commenced from old time, in the world's infancy, as St. Paul testifies; though not clearly revealed nor fully executed till the days of the Gospel, but considered as executed from the beginning, so far forth as to be available for the remission of sin, in all ages, to men fitly

P Puffendorf, Jus fecial. sect. xxxvii. p. 144. Lat. p. 129. Engl. edit. Cp. Dodwell, Diss. Cyprian. P. 448. Zornius, Opusc. Sacr. tom. ii. pp. 240, 241, 242. In Zornius may be seen references to a multitude of writers, who have considered that article.

a See this proved and explained by Bishop Bull, Appendix ad

Animad. xvii., and Discourse concerning the first Covenant, Opp. Posth. vol. iii. p. 1065, &c. Compare Puffendorf, Jus fecial. sect. xxiv.

r Tit. i. 2. Πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων, before ancient times. Vid. Bull, Opp. Posth. vol. ii. p. 591. Cp. Rom. xvi. 25. Coloss. i. 26. 1 Pet. i. 20.

qualified according to the terms of it. Besides these two eminent and general covenants, God entered into other inferior or more special covenants, (together with renewals also of this,) as with Noahs, with Abraham t, with Isaac ", with Jacob, with Moses and Aaron y, and with Phinehas 7, and their families after them. The legal covenant, or Sinai covenant, was made between God and the Israelites, by the hand of Moses a. It was in itself a temporal covenant, containing only temporal promises: but in its retired, mystical meaning, it figured out the spiritual covenant before made, and was a shadow of good things to come b. That external covenant (representing as through a glass darkly the internal) was often renewed with the people of the Hebrews: as in the time of Joshua at Sichem, and in the reigns of Asa d and of Ahab, and of Joash f, Hezekiah 8, and Josiah h This I note to obviate a common mistake, as if, because a covenant has been once granted and fixed on God's part, it may not be properly said to be regranted, or renewed, with a fleeting body of men, as new generations come up. Indeed it seems highly expedient, that such covenants should be renewed frequently, because the men coming up in succession are new, though God is always the same; and it is proper

s Gen. vi. 18; ix. 9-18. In the first instance, there was express engagement on one side, tacit on the other. See Le Clerc in loc. In the second, there appears to have been no more than simple engagement on one side. But in the instances following, there were mutual or reciprocal engagements, taxit or express.

Gen. xii. 2, 3; xv. 18; xvii. 2-22. Ecclus. xliv. 20.

u Gen. xvii. 19; xxi. 2; xxvi. 2, 3. Ecclus. xliv. 22. Psalm

Numb. xxv. 12, 13. Here the covenant was conditional, (as appears by the forfeiture of the priesthood afterwards,) and accepting the priesthood was accepting the conditions: therefore, in this instance, the engagement was reciprocal, amounting to a formal

covenant.

a Exod. xix. 3; xxiv. 8. Deut. V. 5. Gal. iii. 19.

b Heb. viii. 5; x. I.

c Joshua xxiv. 14-25.

d

2 Chron. xv. 12, &c.

e 1 Kings xviii. 39.

that the contracting parties should make it their own act and deed. The stipulations, which I have now been speaking of, were between God and his people collectively considered. But besides these, there were also standing forms of covenanting between God and particular persons. Such were sacrifices in general, and such also were the Sacraments of the old Law, and more especially Circumcision and the Passover, to which respectively the Christian Sacraments succeeded.

That sacrifices were federal rites, is a point generally allowed by the learned, and which I need not here be at the pains to prove. What I shall more particularly insist on shall be the Jewish Sacraments previous to ours, the two most eminent, just before named.

6

I begin with Circumcision; which was manifestly a federal rite, a formal stipulation between God and man; carrying in it mutual engagements of blessings on one hand, and service on the other. It is said of Circumcision,This is my covenant,' &c., and it shall be a token of the covenant;' and a little after, my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant;' and the uncircumcised shall be cut off,' as having broken my covenant k.' All which imply that it was a covenanting rite, a contract, or stipulation, passed between two parties, namely, between God and man. But for the clearer apprehending of this matter, we may consider in Circumcision, as in every other sacrament, a sign, and a thing signified, or both together, as one transaction. If the name be applied to the bare sign, then Circumcision is not a stipulation, but the token of it; and if it be applied to the thing signified, it means the terms of agreement: but if it be applied to the whole transaction between both parties, then it is formally the contract or stipulation entered into

1 See Mede, Opp. p. 370. Dodwell, One Altar, &c. c. vii. pp. 145, &c., 136, &c. Archbishop Potter on Church Government,

p. 266. Spencer de Leg. Hebr. tom. ii. p. 766. edit. Cant.

Gen. xvii. 9-14.

here and there. So that according to different views, the word circumcision may either stand for the sign, token, seal of the contract, or for the contract itself, passing under those forms. This observation will be of use hereafter, for the clearer apprehension of the two Christian Sacraments; which in like manner are either signs and seals of a covenant, or the very acts of covenanting, according as you understand the word sacrament in a stricter or larger sense. But I pass on. That Circumcision carried in it a bond of obligation on man's part, is very plain, since it made a man a debtor to the whole law. And that it likewise carried in it a correspondent engagement on God's part, is as plain from God's promises made at the institution of it m, and from its being styled a 'seal of the righteousness of faith' that is to say, a kind of instrument, by which God sealed or assured to the parties his acceptance of such righteousness, as Abraham was accepted in; and such as was signified under that outward rite, styled in Scripture the 'circumcision of the heart o.' But it would be tedious to dwell longer upon a by-point, and one so often discussed by knowing and judicious Divines P.

The other ordinary Sacrament of the Jewish church was the Passover. That it was a federal rite, may be strongly argued from several topics, which I shall barely touch upon in passing. 1. From its being a proper sacrifice; a point now concluded among the learned 1, and scarce admitting

lib. 3. p. 231, &c.

Cudworth on the Lord's Supper, ch. ii. Bochart. Hierozoic. tom. ii. p. 573. Hottinger in Notis ad Tho. Goodwin, p. 535. Outram de Sacrificiis, lib. i. c. 13. pp. 146, 147. Reland, Antiq. Vet. Heb. par. iii. p. 378. Bishop Patrick in Exod. xii. 27. Clericus in Num. ix. 7. Vitringa, Observ. Sacr. tom. i. p. 295. Deylingius, Obs. Sacr. tom. iii. p. 332; tom. i. p. 287. Moshemius, Not. ad Cudworth. pp. 18, 19.