3. Now the covenant between God and Abraham was made in this manner, (Gen. xvii. 7, 8): _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. 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 possession; and I will be their God._ Now it was necessary to institute some sign, whereby Abraham and his seed should retain the memory of this covenant; wherefore _circumcision_ was added to the covenant, but yet as a sign only, (verse 10, 11): _This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and thee, and thy seed after thee; every man-child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you._ It is therefore covenanted, that Abraham shall acknowledge God to be his God and the God of his seed, that is to say, that he shall submit himself to be governed by him; and that God shall give unto Abraham the inheritance of that land wherein he then dwelt but as a pilgrim; and that Abraham, for a memorial sign of this covenant, should take care to see himself and his male seed _circumcised_. [Sidenote: In that covenant is contained an acknowledgment of God, not simply, but of him who appeared unto Abraham.] 4. But seeing that Abraham, even before the covenant, acknowledged God to be the Creator and King of the world; (for he never doubted either of the _being_ or the _providence_ of God); how comes it not to be superfluous, that God would purchase to himself with a price and by _contract_ an obedience which was due to him by nature; namely, by promising Abraham the land of Canaan, upon condition that he would receive him for his God; when by the right of nature he was already so? By those words therefore, _to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee_, we understand not that Abraham satisfied this _covenant_ by a bare acknowledgment of the power and dominion which God had naturally over men, that is to say, by acknowledging God indefinitely, which belongs to _natural reason_; but he must definitely acknowledge him, who said unto him, (Gen. xii. 1, 2): _Get thee out of thy country; &c._ (Gen. xiii. 14): _Lift up thine eyes, &c._: who appeared unto him, (Gen. xviii. 1, 2), in the shape of three celestial men; and (Gen. xv. 1), in a _vision_; and (verse 13), in a _dream_, which is _matter of faith_. In what shape God appeared unto Abraham, by what kind of sound he spake to him, is not expressed. Yet it is plain that Abraham believed that voice to be the voice of God and a true revelation, and would have all his to worship him, who had so spoken unto him, for God the Creator of the world; and that his faith was grounded on this, not that he believed _God to have a being_ or _that he was true_ in his promises, that