Vindiciæ legis & fœderis

This I utterly deny, and will try whether you have any better Success in the Proof of your second, than you had in your first Position; and to convince you of your mistake, let us consider what the general nature of this Ordinance of Circumcision was, what its ends were, and then prove that it cannot be what you affirm it to be, the very same Covenant God made with Adam before the Fall, but must needs be a Covenant of Grace.

(1.) Circumcision in its general Nature, was (1.) an Ordinance of God's own Institution in the 99th year of Abraham's Age, at which time of its Institution, God renewed the Covenant with him, Gen. 17. 9, 10. (2.) That it consisted (as all Sacraments do) of an external Sign, and a Spiritual Mystery signified thereby. The external part of it (which we call the Sign) was the cutting off the Foreskin of the Genital part of the Hebrew Males, on the eighth Day from their Birth. The Spiritual Mystery thereby signified and represented, was the cutting off the Filth and Guilt of Sin from their Souls, by Regeneration and Justification, called, the Circumcision of the heart, Deut. 10. 16. And though this was laid upon them by the Command, as their Duty, yet a gracious Promise of Power from God to perform that Duty, was added to the Command, Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love him, &c. just as Promises of Grace in the New Testament, are added to commands of Duty: (3.) Betwixt this outward visible Sign, and Spiritual Mystery, there was a Sacramental Relation, from which Relation ⟨p. 39⟩it is called the Token of the Covenant, Gen. 17. 12. The Sign and Seal of the Covenant, Rom. 4. 11