procure, or he can improve. And reft perfuaded. that your fincere and pious Endeavours will not be in vain.. The Nature of Things, and the Promife of God infure. Succefs.

I prefent you with this, not because I think it exceeds what others may have done; but because I hope it will engage the greater Regard on Account of the Hand from which it comes.

May the Fountain of all Being, Wisdom, and Happiness, shower down the choiceft Bleffings. on you and yours. May our Pofterity rife up in fucceffive Generations to honour and serve him: And may he direct and guard us all through the Temptations and Uncertainties of this World to the unspeakable Joys of his Prefence, is the hearty. Prayer of, dear Daughter, your affectionate Father,

c.

THE

XHE hebrew Word ', berith, from Twhichalone the English Word Covenants is always rendered in the Old Testa※淡淡淡 ment, may come from, bara, to create, as that fignifies to put Things into a new State or Condition, by a new Conftitution, Difpo fition, or Settlement of Affairs; which is alfo the Senfe of ann, Covenant, in the Greek both of the Old and New Teftaments. This general No tion will naturally include the two principal Acceptations of the Word, Covenant: Namely, as it fignifies, either a free, unconditional Donation and Affurance of Bleffings from God, which put Life into a new State of Happinefs: Or an Agreement or mutual Engagement between Parties, upon certain Conditions, which fettles Affairs upon a new Foundation.

In the first Senfe, God's Covenant, after the Flood, with Noah, and his Seed after him, that is to fay, all Mankind, for perpetual Generations, Gen. vi. 18.-ix. 9, &c. is to be understood namely, as a free and abfolute Grant, or Promife, from the fole Pleasure and Goodness of God, that all Flefb, notwithstanding the Wickedness

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edness of the World, fhould not any more be cut off with the Waters of a Flood: But that, while the Earth fhould remain, Seed-time and Harvest, and Cold and Heat, and Summer and Winter, and Day and Night, fhould not ceafe. Of a fimilar, but much fuperior Nature, was the Covenant, or free Grant of Bleffings, which God at several Times made to Abraham; as Gen. xii. 2, 3. In thee, Abraham, fhall all Families of the Earth be bleffed. Gen. xvii. 7. And I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy Seed after thee, in their Generations, for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee. Gen. xxii. 16, 17, 18. By myself have I fworn, faith the Lord, for because thou haft done this Thing, and baft not withheld thy Son, thine only Son: That in bleffing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy Seed as the Stars of the Heaven, and as the Sand which is upon the Sea-fhore: And thy Seed fhall poffefs the Gate of his Enemies; and in thy Seed hall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed; becaufe thou hast obeyed my Voice. The fame Grant was alfo repeated to Ifaac his Son, and to Jacob his Grandfon, Gen. xxvi. 4.-xxviii. 13, 14. This Donation is of the very higheft Importance; and we are all of us concerned in it. I call it the Abrahamic Covenant. But at the fame time, and by the fame free Gift, God, the abfolute Proprietor of all Worlds and Countries, was pleased to inveft Abraham, and his natural Seed, or Pofterity, the Jews, in a Right to the Land of Canaan, and in other Privileges peculiar to themfelves. Gen xv. 18. In that fame Day, the Lord made a Covenant with Abram, faying, unto thy Seed bave I given this Land, from the River of Egypt unto the great River, the River Euphrates, &c. Gen.

xvii.

xvii. 8. And I will give unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee, the Land wherein thou art a Stranger, all the Land of Canaan, for an everlasting Poffeffion and I will be their God. So alfo Gen. xxvi. 4.xxviii. 13, 14. This Conveyance, I apprehend, gives the Jews, notwithstanding their prefent Ejectment, an indefeafable Right to the Land of Canaan, which will hold to the End of the World. I call this the Covenant of Peculiarity. Thus, Covenant, in the firft Senfe, is to be understood. In the other Senfe, as a Compact or mutual Engagement between Parties, between Man and Man, or between God and Man, it ftipulates certain Articles and Conditions to be performed, in order to an Intereft in the Advantages, or Bleffings, propofed. "God, on his Part, will "continue Life; if Man, on his Part, will con

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tinue to be obedient: But if Man is once guilty "of Tranfgreffion, his Life is forfeited." This was the Horeb Covenant, which God made with the Ifraelites when be brought them out of the Land of Egypt, and not before that Time. [Deut. xxix. 1. 1 Kings viii. 21.] This Paul the Apostle, calls Law; and informs us, that it was not given to the Ifraelites as a Rule whereby they might obtain Life; but to fhew them the Nature and Demerit of Sin, and to bring them to Chrift. Still the Abrahamic Covenant, before mentioned, was the Rule of their Juftification.

And, as this, the Abrahamic Covenant, is the Subject of this Treatife, I fhall attempt a further Explication of it by obferving;

I. That it included the Seed, or Pofterity, of Abraham, and gave them, before they were born, a Right to the Bleffings of it, as well as himself.

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Gen.

Gen. xvii. 7. I will establish my Covenant,-for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy Seed after thee, in their Generations, to the End of the World. In like Manner, the Covenant with Noah and his Sons, after the Deluge, was established with them, and with their Seed after them, for perpetual Generations, or with all Mankind, and indeed with all Animals upon the Globe, to the End of the World. Gen. ix. 9-12. This demonftrates, that the Beffings conveyed in the Abrahamic Covenant, were fuch as might be freely, o gratuitoufly given; or, that they ar to be confidered only fo far as they can be freely, abfolutely and unconditionally given: For they must be fuch as a new-born Child could have a Right to, who could have no Right or Irtereft in them but upon the Foot of Grace or free Gif; the very fame Foot, upon which the feveral rifing Generations of Mankind, and of other Animals, have an Interest in the Covenant with Noah: And upon the very fame Foot that every new-born Heir hath a Right to an Effate abfolutely given to a Man and his Heirs for ever. It must be a Right of free Donation; because it exifts before there is a Capacity of performing any Conditions previous to it. Hence this Covenant takes the Nature of a PROMISE, and is called ayya the Promife, Rom. iv. 13, 14. Gal. iii. 17. [Obferve, that in this Verfe adnan, the Covenant, and yea, the Promife, are Synonymous.-V. 18. [God, xxsa, gave it freely to Abraham by Promife. See Heb. vi. 13.V. 21. Exaga, Promifes of God. [Obferve, in thefe Texts, the Promife, or Promifes of God, are opposed to the Law, in the Sense above explained.] It is called nya, the BLESSING,

Gal.