Oath: By my felf have I fworn, faith the Lord for because thou hast done this Thing, and haft not with-held thy Son, thine only Son, that in bleffing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy Seed like the Stars of Heaven, and as the Sand which is upon the Sea-pore; and thy Seed fhall poffefs the Gates of his Enemies; and in thy Seed fhall att the Nations of the Earth be bleffed, because thou haft obeyed my Voice.

This is God's Covenant with Abraham in the feveral Branches of it; which you fee contains no express literal Promife of another Life, or a heavenly Canaan. But if we will expound this Covenant fo, as to be worthy of God, and a peculiar Mark of his Grace and Favour to Abraham, we must understand something more Divine and Spiritual in it than what the mere Letter fignifies. That the Patriarchs did fo understand it, I have already fhewn, not only from the Authority of the Apoftle, but from the Force and Evidence of that Reafon whereby he receives it. These all died in Faith, not having receiv'd the Promifes, but having feen them afar off; and were perfuaded of them, and embraced them, and confefs'd that they were Strangers and Pilgrims in the Earth; for they that fay fuch things, declare plainly that they feek a Countrey. And truly had they been mindful of that Countrey from whence they came out, they might have bad Opportunity to have returned; but now they feek a better Countrey, that is, a Heavenly: Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepar'd for them a City, Heb. 11. 13, 14, 15, 16. And that they had reafon thus to believe and hope will appear, if you confider with me thefe following Particulars: For indeed the whole is very unaccountable, if we confine God's Covenant with Abradam to this prefent Life.

For,

For, 1. It seems very unaccountable, that God out of great Grace and Favour fhould enter into Covenant with Abraham, and give him nothing but Promifes, which he should never live to fee accomplish'd; which indeed is to give him nothing, when he to whom the Promife is made fhall never enjoy it. And yet thus it was, if thefe Promifes made to Abraham were merely Temporal; For, excepting the Birth of Ifaac, he faw the accomplishment of none of them. The Land of Canaan was merely a Land of Promise to him, not an Inheritance; he was but a Pilgrim and Stranger in it; and fo were Ifaac and Jacob, and the other Patriarchs, till they remov'd into Egypt; which prov'd not only a ftrange Land, but a Land of Bondage to them. And it will puzzle any Man upon these Terms to fay wherein God was fo peculiarly gracious to Abraham above the rest of Mankind, to whom he gave nothing while he liv'd, and if there be no Life after this, could give him nothing after Death.

2. It seems as unaccountable alfo, that God fhould bless the Pofterity of Abraham for his Sake, and in remembrance of his Covenant with him, and fuffer Abraham himself to perifh, without Hope, and without a Reward. There are indeed Examples of this kind among Men, who reward the Children for their Parents Sake, when they are dead and gone: And there is good Reafon for this, because we can't preferve the most beloved and deferving Perfons from Death; and, when they are Dead, we have no better way to fhew our Love and Honour to them, than by being kind to their Pofterity: But then fuch Perfons, whofe Memory is fo dear to us, that for their Sakes we do good to their Children, would certainly have had the greateft Share of our Kindness themselves, had it been in our Power to preserve them. What then shall we

fay

fay to this Cafe? No Man doubts but God can make us Immortal, if he please; and is it not reafonable then to believe, that, when God expreffes fuch a peculiar Favour for any one, as to enter into Covenant with him, and with his Pofterity to all future Generations for his Sake, he will preferve this beloved Perfon from falling into Nothing? If God do Good to Abraham's Pofterity for Abrahams Sake, we have reafon to conclude, that Abraham ftill himself is very dear to God; that he who remembers his Covenant with Abraham, has not forgot Abraham himself, and therefore that Abraham ftill lives to God.

3. If we confider this Matter well, it will feem very ftrange, that God fhould enter into Covenant with Abraham upon mere temporal Accounts; for such a fhort momentary Life, and the vanishing Joys of it, are not worthy fo great a Concernment. A Covenant has fomething facred and folemn in it, it fignifies a more peculiar Favour, than Creatures can challenge from an ordinary and common Providence; fuch Acts of Grace as no Creature can have any Right to, but only by Promife. Let any Man then judge, whether mere temporal Bleffings can be the proper Matter for fuch a Covenant; whether they can be the diftinguishing Marks of God's Favour; whether they are the greatest things God can beftow upon those Men, whom he delights to blefs and honour. A little Philofophy taught even the Heathens themfelves to defpife this vanishing Scene, though never fo gloriously painted and adorn'd. And what the wifer and better Men are, the more they despise, can never alone be a proper Object of fuch peculiar Covenanting Grace: Which is a good Reafon to believe, that there was fomething more divine contained under these temporal Promises. For as God's entring into Covenant with Man, is a

peculiar

peculiar and diftinguishing Favour, fo the Matter of the Covenant must be fomething great and peculiar too, and worthy of God; especially if we add,

4. That in the mere Letter of this Covenant there is nothing extraordinary promised to Abraham, beyond what other Men enjoy'd, with whom God never entred into Covenant. God promised Abraham a Son, and made him wait for the Performance of this Promife till the Strength and Vigor of Nature was fpent: But it is no extraordinary Matter to have a Son, which is a common Bleffing of Nature: And had he had a Son in his Youth, as other Men have, the Miracle had not been fo great, but the Bleffing, as far as merely concerns having a Son, had been greater; for it had given him his Defire fo much fooner, and a longer Enjoyment of it. But God promifed Abraham a very numerous Pofterity, like the Stars in the Heaven. and like the Sand upon the Sea-fhore. But if we confider this as a mere temporal Bleffing, it is hard to fay wherein it confifts: It is at moft but an imaginary Happinefs, though we fhould live to fee great and mighty Nations defcend from our Loins. And yet Abraham never faw this, nor was like to fee it in this World; he had only a Promise of it, and faw him from whofe Loins this numerous Iffue was to defcend: But what was this to him, if he must fall into Nothing himself, and lofe all Senfe and Knowledge of this, as well as of all other things, as foon as Death clofed his Eyes? And yet this was not peculiar to Abraham neither. Adam was the Father of all Mankind, and lived to fee the World well peopled with his Pofterity, and that not much to his Satisfaction neither; as we may eafily guess from the Impiety of Cain, and the Wickedness of that whole Generation which defcended from him. Noah was a fecond univerfal

Father,

Father, whofe Pofterity peopled the new World; and Sem, Ham, and Japhet, had each of them a much more numerous Pofterity than Abraham had; and fo had many other Heads of Families and Nations; as we may conclude from the Hiftory of the Difperfion. So that hitherto God had promised nothing fo peculiar to Abraham, as to be the diftinguishing Marks of his Grace and Favour. Well, but God promised to give the Land of Canaan to his Seed for an Inheritance: But were there not other Countries in the World as pleafant and fruitful as Canaan, where Men lived in as much Ease and Plenty, and enjoy'd as great Conveniencies of Life? And why then was it fo extraordinary a thing to allot them Canaan for their Inheritance? So that if we understand all these Promises in a mere temporal Senfe, here are no such extraordinary and diftinguishing Marks of the divine Favour, as required, or will justify fuch a folemn Covenant as God made with Abraham.

5. If we confider the Accomplishment of these Promifes, we fhall not find the Ifraelites, upon a mere temporal Account, the most happy or prosperous People in the World. There were greater and more flourishing Princes at that time than Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob. We know the Hiftory of Abraham's difficult Trials, and of Jacob's Troubles, which occafion'd that Anfwer he gave to Pharaoh, when he asked how old he was; Jacob faid unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my Pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have the days and years of my Life been; and I have not attain'd to the days and years of my Fathers, in the days of their Pilgrimage, Gen. 47. 8, 9. Would any one have expected fuch an Anfwer and Confeffion as this, from a Man in Covenant with God, had mere temporal Profperity been the Matter of that Covenant? If God intended nothing more for

them,