Gen 17:7-8

Many precepts and promises in the Old Testament had both a literal and a spiritual meaning. The literal accomplishment was both a representation and pledge of the spiritual… Some have argued, that the covenant with Abraham was carnal, others that it was spiritual. Both are true. The covenant was, that Christ should spring from him. Three promises were then given, in order that this might be accomplished, and they were fulfilled both in a literal and spiritual sense…

The term God is relative, and the promise implied that he would stand in a peculiar relation to him and to his seed. Accordingly we find, that God not only preserved Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their families, when they were few in number; but, after they had multiplied in Egypt, and were cruelly oppressed, he “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them,” Exod. ii. 24, 25. He accordingly sent Moses to say unto them, that he would redeem them, and take them to him for a people, and that he would be their God, Exod. vi. 6, 7. He brought them out of the house of bondage, at the same time declaring to them, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which ye shall speak unto the children of Israel,” Exod. xix. 4,—6.

He delivered to them the law from Sinai, and gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments. Here they entered into covenant with him, and became his, Ezek. xvi. 8. Hence the Lord is represented as the husband of Israel, and their children are called his, Ezek. xvi. 21. This was a new thing on the earth, for the Lord to take to him a nation from the midst of another nation, in the manner he had taken Israel, and to make them hear his words out of the midst of the fire, Deut. iv. 32, 36. All this was owing to his love to the fathers of that nation. “And because he loved thy fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power, out of Egypt,” ver. 37.

When Moses was about to leave them, he thus addresses the nation of Israel, “Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God ; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel. Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp; from the hewer of thy wood, unto the drawer of thy water; that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee; and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,” Deut. xxix. 10, — 13.

Here then we see the accomplishment of his promise to be a God to the seed of Abraham. He dwelt in the midst of them; he was their God, their judge, their lawgiver, and their king “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel, He hath not dealt so with any nation ; and as for his judgments, they have not known them,” Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. Hence he addresses them, “Hear this word which the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities,” Amos iii. 1, 2.; and when threatening to cast them off, he declares he will not be their God, Hosea i. 9.

…We have seen how Jehovah was a God to the nation of Israel; but there is a higher sense in which he is the God of his people, Heb. xi. 16; viii. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 9. 10… the prophet Hosea foretold the rejection of Israel according to the flesh, and at the same time declared, that the number of the children of Israel should be as the sand of the sea. “Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered: and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God,” Hos. i.9, 10. The believing Gentiles are here called the children of Israel; for this passage is quoted by the apostle in proof of the calling of the Gentiles, Rom. ix. 26. consequently every argument in favour of infant-baptism, drawn from the promises made to the children of God’s ancient people must be altogether inconclusive.

__Reasons of a change of sentiment and practice on the subject of baptism, p. 64ff

See also: Kline’s Two-Level Fulfillment 184 Years Before Kingdom Prologue

Chapter Seven
The Covenant of Circumcision (III)
The True Meaning of the Great Promise

§. 1. It will be expedient in the next place, to more fully search out the true meaning and extent of that great promise in the covenant of circumcision which was only briefly touched on before; that is, “I will establish my covenant to be a God to you, and to your seed after you” (Genesis 17:7). Also, the promise of Canaan to be an everlasting possession for Israel is backed with the same assurance; “and I will be their God” (verse 8). This inquiry is all the more necessary because many conceive that the entire blessing of the new covenant is comprehended in these words since the same promise is given as the summary and assurance of that covenant in Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8. On this basis they conclude that it is the covenant of grace God is now making with Abraham which he sealed with circumcision. So then spiritual blessings are by it directly transmitted to him both for himself and his seed. Consequently, it was nothing other than interest in the grace and promise of the new covenant that was sealed to his infant seed by circumcision.

This notion militates against various things that have been pointed at before in the account we have given of this transaction. But on a more thorough disquisition1 this idea will be found without sufficient strength to shake those principles already laid down and which must yet be built on in the progress of our discourse. So in order to free you from any entanglement by objections raised from it, I will proceed gradually to the solution of the doubt removed…

Israel Considered in Two Ways under the Mosaic Economy

§. 3. So then, the carnal and the spiritual seed, like the covenants in which their respective privileges are stated, were distinct from one another in their own nature from the beginning. During the minority of the church, that is, under the Mosaic economy, these different blessings ordinarily met in the same subjects, for in that time the seed of Abraham after the flesh comes under a twofold consideration.*

*See Dr. Owen’s Exercitations on the Hebrews, Vol. 1. [See John Owen, Commentary on Hebrews, Vol. 1, (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), 446ff.]

…[T]he covenant of circumcision belonged to the body of the carnal seed, even to the Jewish church. The foundation of their state is laid there and their right and privilege is in it expressly stated to be “in their generations.” Therefore, as we readily grant the promise now under consideration to belong to the seed of Abraham after the flesh, so we with good reason affirm that it must be taken in such a sense as is verified in that people and nation to whom it belonged and that will in no way contradict or interfere with the general design of the gospel or the plain and indisputable sense of other texts of Scripture.

The Promise Fully Explained

§. 5. These things being premised, we will now come closer to the words themselves and inquire what that good and blessing is which is ensured to this seed of Abraham.

It is evident that this promise, “I will be their God,” and the earlier one found in Genesis 17:7 give a general assurance of some good to the people in covenant. But it should not be supposed that they are promises of some particular good or blessing that is of a higher nature than is comprehended in any other promises of the covenant…

These things being so, no one from here can prove a grant of spiritual blessings to or 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 contained such a grant or give such a right to them.

This Explanation Further Confirmed

§. 6. So what is principally intended and fully expressed in this engagement is no more than the necessary result of any covenant transaction of God with men. For where his truth is once engaged in a promise, all the properties of his nature are engaged respectively for the making good of that promise. Therefore, such a promise in its own nature contains no more than a general assurance of any covenant that God makes with men. It cannot by itself be the distinguishing character of any one covenant in opposition to or contradistinction from another. Neither does it determine the kind of promised blessings or the way in which they will be enjoyed.

And so this promise is 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 comparison of Hebrews 8 with Jeremiah 31 and that with Genesis 17, Exodus 6:7, and Deuteronomy 26:17, 18. There is no reason therefore to conclude because we find this promise in the covenant of grace, that 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.

The History of its Accomplishment to Israel

Much of this you have summed up in Nehemiah 9, Psalm 105, and Psalm 144 with Acts 7.

The Blessings of Israel after the Flesh

§. 8. In all these respects and others of a similar nature asserted before, there was a glory on the ministry of the Old Testament (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). The Jew had a great advantage and there was profit in circumcision. But the chief advantage was this: that to them was committed the oracles of God (Romans 3:1; 9:4). Theirs were the covenants of promise and the solemn worship of God was maintained among them. Salvation was of the Jews (John 4:22). In these things was the promise fulfilled that the Lord would be a God to them in their generations. And yet all this lies short of an actual, personal, and saving interest in the covenant of grace8 as the apostle Paul argues at large in his epistle to the Romans and particularly in chapters 9, 10, and 11.

__Covenant Theology from Adam to Christ, p. 107-114

Obj. But ’tis positively said, That God did promise in the Covenant of Circumcision, to be a God to him, and to his seed after him, in their Generations, when he promised them the Land of Canaan, Gen. 17:8, 9, 10.

Answ. I do not deny it, but not by way of special Interest (that is, the thing we differ in) so he was not the God of his Seed as such, according to the Nature of the Covenant of Grace, and that for the Reasons before urged; therefore it behoveth us to consider, in what respect we are to understand the Holy Ghost. I do not say neither, that ever God made himself over to Men, to be their God, by way of special Interest, upon the Terms of the Sinai Covenant, that was impossible for them to Answer, (nor can I believe, notwithstanding what Mr. Flavel has affirmed, that my Reverend Brother, Mr. Philip Cary, will assert any such thing) the Inheritance was not by the Law.

1. Therefore we are to consider, That God may be said to be the God of a People, in a Covenant way, Two manner of ways.

1st. By the Free Promise, or Covenant of Grace in a spiritual Gospel Sense, which gives special and Soul-saving Interest in him, as all Abraham’s Spiritual Seed, i.e. True Believers have; or,

2d. God may be said to be the God of a People, by entering into an external, legal Covenant with them: And thus he gave himself to be the God of Abraham, and his natural, or fleshly Seed, i.e. He took them into a visible external Covenant Church-State, and separated them from all other People and Nations in the World, to be a peculiar People (in that Covenant) unto himself; and, in this sense, he was said Fœderally, or by Covenant, to be married to the whole House of Israel, as so considered, and to be an Husband to them: See Jer. 31:31. God there makes a Promise to Israel and Judah, that he would make a New Covenant, 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 break, although I was an husband to them saith the Lord) ver. 32

In this Covenant God gave them their Church State, and many external or earthly Blessings, Laws and Ordinances, and they formerly struck Hands (as I may so say) with God, and promised Obedience, Exod. 24:3, 7, 8. And he took the book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people, and they said, all that the Lord hath said, will we do and be obedient: And thus God became as an Husband to them, i.e. He fed them, and took special care of them, and to lead them with great Bowels in the Wilderness, and bestowed the Land of Canaan upon them, with other Temporal Blessings, according as it was promised to them in the Covenant of Circumcision: Like as a Husband cares for, and provides for the Wife, so did God care and provide for them and preserved them, so long as that Law (I mean the Law of their Husband) did continue: But that Law is now dead, Rom. 7:4. and God now is no longer such a Husband to them, nor hath he Married in that Sense any other external Nation, or People of the World; but now God, in the Gospel Covenant, is an Husband indeed; to them he was but a Typical Husband, and their God in an external Fædoral Relation: And thus he was the God of all Abraham’s natural Off-spring; for, in him, he first espoused them as a National Church, and People, and gave them the Covenant of Circumcision, as the Sign, or Token thereof, with many Ecclesiastical and Civil Rites. And this is further confirmed by a Reverend and Learned Writer:

‘Howbeit from the strict Connexion of this 7th. verse with the 6th. and the Assurance here given, that God will establish his Covenant with Abraham’s Seed, to be their God: It is evident (saith he) that the Number of Abraham’s carnal Seed and the Grandeur of their Civil State, is not all that is promised, nor yet the Principal Blessing bestowed on them therein, but rather the forming them into a Church State, with the establishing of the Ordinances of publick Worship among them, wherein they should walk in Covenant Relation to God, as his peculiar People: Understand it still (saith he) of the Old Covenant, wherein they had their peculiar Right and Privilege, no less can be intended in this, I will be a God unto them, in their Generations; and it is also made more evident by the following Account that is given of this Transaction, with respect to Isaac and Ishmael, Gen. 17:18, 21. When the Lord had promised unto Abraham a Son, by Sarah, whose Name should be called Isaac, he thus prayed, O that Ishmael might live before thee! which the Chaldee Paraphraseth thus, i.e. Might live and worship before thee. No doubt, his Prayer was, that Ishmael might also be an Heir of the Blessing of this Covenant; but that was not granted to him; for the Lord would have his Covenant Seed called by Isaac only: With him God would establish his Covenant, having appointed and chosen him alone, to be the Heir thereof, who was to be the Child of the Promise, and Son of the Free woman; and yet for Ishmael, in special Favour with Abraham, whose Seed he was: Thus much he obtained, i.e. That he should be made Fruitful, and multiply exceedingly, Twelve Princes, or Heads of great Families, should spring of him; which imports some Analogy to the Twelve Tribes of Israel after the Flesh, and God would make him a great Nation; and yet, all this fell short of the Blessings of Abraham’s natural Off-spring, by Isaac, from which Ishmael was now excluded: It is plain therefore, that the Privilege of the Ecclesiastical, as well as the flourishing of the Civil States of Israel, did arise unto them out of the Covenant of Circumcision.

We conclude therefore (saith he) That notwithstanding the carnal Seed of Abraham, could not as such, claim a Right in the spiritual and eternal Blessings of the New Covenant, because of their Interest in the Covenant of Circumcision, yet their Privileges, and Advantages in their Church-State, tho’ immediately consisting in things outward and typical, were of far greater Value and Use, than any meer Worldly, or Earthly Blessings, as to giving them choice means of the Knowledge of God, and setting them nearer to him, than any Nation in the World besides.

Thus far this Learned Author. Dr. Bates also, in his Sermon preach’d at Mr. Baxter’s Funeral, shews, That God may be said to be the God of a People, several manner of ways.

1. ‘Upon the Account of Creation: Thus he is our God and Father O Lord thou art our father, we are the clay, and thou art our potter, and we all are the work of thy hands, Isa. 64:8

2. ‘Upon the Account of external Calling, and Profession, there is an intercurrent Relation of the Father and Son, between God and his People: Thus the Posterity of Seth, are called, the Sons of God, Gen. 6. and the entire Nation of the Jews are so styled: When Israel was young, I called my son from Egypt, Hos. 11. And all that have received Baptism, the Seal of the Holy Covenant, and profess Christianity, in this general Sense, may be called the Children of God.

Thus he clearly confirms what I have said; but observe, in this Sense, God is not said to be the God of a People by way of special Interest.

‘But ’tis not (saith he) the outward Dedication, entitles Men to saving Interest in God, unless they live according to that Dedication. There are Baptised Infidels, as well as Unbaptised, &c.’ Then say I, some Infants Baptised, are in his Opinion, but in an external Covenant with God, and so have no special Interest.—Moreover

Sure none can deny, but, by gross Idolatry, the Israelites broke this Covenant; and yet, when they, in Ezekiel’s time, became guilty of vile Abominations, the Lord still claimed an Interest in their Children, by vertue of this Covenant. Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured: Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, Ezek. 16:20, 21. The Children they begat in a natural way, when by cursed Idolatry, they had Apostatized from God, (by vertue of this Covenant) God calls his Children, which could not have been, if their Covenant Interest had been as our Brethren affirm, i.e. suspended on the good hearing, or Faith of immediate Parents: But, as the Apostacy of Parents could not hinder their Children from that external Covenant Interest they had in God, and God in them, so the Faith and Holiness of Parents, could not Interest their Children in the special Blessings of the Covenant of Grace.

Lastly, ’Tis remarkable, that when God gave the Sinai Covenant, Exod. 20:1, 2. where he pleads Interest in them as his People, he mentions expresly, upon what account he so owned them; read the Text, I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. I am Jehovah, and thy God, having chosen you to be a People to my self above all People; as ’tis said elsewhere, not that as they were thus his People, and a chosen Nation, they had special Interest in God by eternal Election, and peculiar Adoption, no, but a few of them (as it appears) were in that sence, his People: But their God, by vertue of that legal and external Covenant he made with their Fathers, and now again with them, and so bestowed temporal Blessings upon them; therefore ’tis added, That brought thee out of the land of Egypt, not Land of spiritual Darkness, nor house of spiritual Bondage, but literal Bondage, &c.

In the Covenant of Works, (saith Reverend Mr. Cotton) the Lord offered himself, upon a Condition of Works; he bid them obey his Voice, and provoke him not; for I will not pardon your Transgressions.—But, in the Covenant of Grace, he will do this, but not in the Covenant of Works; all is given upon Condition of Obedience. The Lord giving himself, &c. tho’ it be but to work, yet he is pleased to receive them into some kind of relative Union expressed, Jer. 32:32. Which my Covenant they break, as though I was an Husband unto them. He was married to them in Church-Covenant; he was their God, and they were his peculiar People, and yet the Lord cast them off from this Marriage-Covenant, from this Union.

Thus Mr. Cotton on the Covenant. P. 39. 40. So much shall serve to the answering this grand Objection.

__The Ax Laid to the Root, Parts I & II (EEBO, Logos)

It is of great importance to the right interpretation of many passages in the Old Testament, that this particular be well understood and kept in view. Jehovah is very frequently represented as the Lord and God of all the ancient Israelites; even where it is manifest that the generality of them were considered as destitute of internal piety, and many of them as enormously wicked. How then could he be called their Lord, and their God, in distinction from his relation to Gentiles, (whose creator, benefactor, and sovereign he was) except on the ground of the Sinai Covenant? He was their Lord as being the sovereign whom, by a federal transaction, they were bound to obey, in opposition to every political monarch, who should at any time presume to govern them by laws of his own. He was their God, as the only object of holy worship ; and whom, by the same National Covenant, they had solemnly engaged to serve according to his own rule, in opposition to every Pagan idol.

But that National relation between Jehovah and Israel being long since dissolved and the Jew having no prerogative above the Gentile; the nature of the Gospel Economy, and of the Messiah’s kingdom, absolutely forbids our supposing, that either Jews or Gentiles are warranted to call the Universal Sovereign their Lord or their God, if they do not yield willing obedience to him, and perform spiritual worship. It is, therefore, either for want of understanding, or of considering the nature, aspect, and influence of the Sinai Constitution, that many persons dream of the New Covenant, in great numbers of places where Moses and the Prophets had no thought of it, but had the Convention at Horeb directly in view…

Again : As none but real Christians are the subjects of our Lord’s kingdom, neither adults nor infants can be members of the gospel Church, in virtue of an external covenant, or of a relative holiness. A striking disparity this, between the Jewish and the Christian Church. Of this difference we may be assured by considering, that a barely relative sanctity, supposes its possessors to be the people of God in a merely external sense; that such an external people, supposes an external covenant, or one that relates to exterior conduct and temporal blessings : and an external covenant supposes an external king. Now an external king, is a political sovereign : but such is not our Lord Jesus Christ, nor yet the divine Father. Once, indeed, it was otherwise : for, concerning the Israelitish nation, it is written : ” I,” Jehovah, ” will be thy king…

Yes, Jehovah, as a temporal monarch, stood related to the ancient Israelites, and entered into a federal transaction with them at Sinai, not only as the Object of their worship, but as their King. Their judicial and civil institutes, their laws of war and of peace, various orders respecting the land they occupied, and the annual acknowledgments to the great Proprietor of it, were all from God, as their political sovereign. Hence all the natural posterity of Jacob were Jehovah’s people, on the ground of an external covenant made with the whole nation…

__The Kingdom of Christ

Booth’s An Essay on the Kingdom of Christ is an extended treatment of the difference between how God was a God to Israel and how God is a God to the church of Christ.

That such appellations as God’s people, God’s Israel, and some other like phrases, are used and applied in Scripture with considerable diversity of intention… And with regard to the people of Israel, it is very manifest, that something diverse is oftentimes intended by that nation being God’s people, from their being visible saints, visibly holy, or having those qualifications which are requisite in order to a due admission to the ecclesiastical privileges of such. That nation, that family of Israel according to the flesh, and with regard to that external and carnal qualification, were in some sense adopted by God to be his peculiar people, and his covenant people. This is not only evident by what has been already observed, but also indisputably manifest from Rom. ix. 3, 4, 5. “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers; and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came.” It is to be noted, that the privileges here mentioned are spoken of as belonging to the Jews, not now as visible saints, not as professors of the true religion, not as members of the visible church of Christ; but only as people of such a nation, such a blood, such an external and carnal relation to the patriarchs their ancestors, Israelites according to the flesh. For the apostle is speaking here of the unbelieving Jews, professed unbelievers, that were out of the christian church, and open visible enemies to it, and such as had no right to the external privileges of Christ’s people. So, in Rom. xi. 28, 29.. this apostle speaks of the same unbelieving Jews, as in some respect an elect people, and interested in the calling, promises, and covenants God formerly gave to their forefathers, and as still beloved for their sakes…

To that nation he fixed his blessing by his covenant with the patriarchs… On the whole, it is evident that the very nation of Israel, not as visible saints, but as the progeny of Jacob according to the flesh, were in some respect a chosen people, a people of God, a covenant people, an holy nation; even as Jerusalem was a chosen city, the city of God, a holy city, and a city that God had engaged by covenant to dwell in… That nation was a typical nation. There was then literally a land, which was a type of heaven, the true dwelling-place of God; and an external city, which was a type of the spiritual city of God; an external temple of God, which was a type of his spiritual temple. So there was an external people and family of God, by carnal generation, which was a type of his spiritual progeny. And the covenant by which they were made a people of God, was a type of the covenant of grace; and so is sometimes represented as a marriage-covenant. God, agreeably to the nature of that dispensation, showed a great regard to external and carnal things in those days, as types of spiritual things.

__XI. INQUIRY CONCERNING QUALIFICATION FOR COMMUNION. PART III. Objections answered. OBJ. II. Israel was God’s people.

See also Jonathan Edwards on the Nation of Israel as a Type of the Church

That God was one of the parties, in the Mosaic covenant, is universally acknowledged. It is, however, necessary to observe, that God entered into that covenant, under the character of King of Israel. He is termed so in Scripture (Judges 8:23, 1 Sam 8:7, 12:12) and he acted as such, disposed of offices, made war and peace, exacted tribute, enacted laws, punished with death such of that people as resufed him allegiance and defended his subjects from their enemies…

The party, with whom God made this covenant, was the Jewish nation, not excluding these unregenerate, and inwardly disaffected to God and goodness. In the original records of the Sinai covenant (Ex 19:8, 24:3, Deut v:1-3), all the people are expressly said to enter into it, and yet the greater part of that people, were strangers to the enlightening and converting influences of the spirit, and to a principle of inward love to God and holiness (Deut 29:3, 5:29).

…Descent from Israel gave any one a title to the benefits of this covenant, for which reason the children even of unregenerate Israelites, were circumcised the eighth day, and were said to be born unto God (Ezek.xvi. 20) (p. 4-6)…

…[P]romises of temporal blessings and threatenings of the opposite evils are almost every where to be found in the Scripture accounts of the Sinai covenant, whilst there is a remarkable silence as to spiritual and heavenly blessings. (p. 28)

The blessings of the Sinai covenant, were patterns of the heavenly things (Heb 9:9,23), shadows of good things to come (Col 2:16,17), and surely patterns and shadows differ in nature from the things of which they are patterns and shadows. (33)

Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, which was as it were the foundation of the Sinai covenant, was only an outward redemption. Is it then reasonable to suppose, that the blessings founded upon it were spiritual and heavenly? (24)

…The difference of the Christian dispensation from the Sinai covenant, in these respects, is hinted, John i. 13. and 1 Peter i. 23. and in that celebrated expression of Tertullian, “Christiani fiunt, non nafcuntur.” It needs no proof, that men might be interested in the blessings of the Sinai covenant, in any of the ways mentioned above, and yet notwithstanding be slaves of Satan, and dead in trespasses and sins. When God promised the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed, circumcision was instituted for this among other purposes, to shew that descent from Abraham was the foundation of his posterities right to these blessings. But, in gospel times, when not the children of the flesh, but the children of the promise are counted for a seed, Rom. ix. 8. in consequence of this the circumcision of the flesh is of no more avail, and the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ becomes necessary, Col. ii. ir. Rom. ii. 28. (9)

__Dissertation I: The Nature of the Sinai Covenant, and the Character and Privileges of the Jewish Church

Scottish Presbyterian William Cunningham said Dr. John Erskine was “probably the greatest divine in the Church of Scotland in the latter part of last century.”

From CHAPTER 6, “The Abrahamic Covenant in the Thought of John Tombes,” Michael T. Renihan, Ph.D., from Recovering a Covenantal Heritage: Essays in Baptist Covenant Theology.

1. The Covenant made with Abraham, is not a pure Gospel-covenant, but mixt, which I prove; The Covenant takes its denomination from the promises; but the promises are mixt, some Euangelicall, belonging to those to whom the Gospel belongeth, some are Domestique, or Civill promises, specially respecting the House of Abraham, and of Israel; Ergo…

Domestique and Civill promises were many; of the multiplying the seed of Abraham, the birth of Isaac’ of the coming of Christ out of Isaac; the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt, and deliverance thence; of possessing the Land of Canaan, Gen. 15.13. 18. Gen. 17.7, 8. 15.16. Act. 7.4, 5, 6, 7, 8. and many other places…

Secondly, The seed of Abraham is many wayes so called: First, Christ is called the seed of Abraham, by excellency, Gal 3.16. Secondly, all the Elect, Rom. 9.7. all believers, Rom. 4.11,12. 16.17, 18. are called the seed of Abraham, that is spiritual seed. Thirdly, there was a natural seed of Abraham, to whom the inheritance did accrue; this was Isaac. Gen. 21.12. Fourthly, a natural seed, whether lawfull, as the sons of Keturah, or base, as Ishmael, to whom the inheritance belonged not, Gen 15.5. But no where do I find, that the Infants of Believers of the Gentiles are called Abrahams seed, of the three former kinds of Abrahams seed, the promise recited, is meant, but in a different manner thus: that God promiseth, he will be a God to Christ, imparting in him blessing to all nations of the earth, to the spiritual seed of Abraham in Euangelicall benefits, to the natural seed inheriting, in domestick and politicall benefits.