After this it pleased God to speak to Abraham, and (_Gen._ xvii. 7, 8) to make a covenant with him in these words, _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 to 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_. In this covenant _Abraham promiseth for himself and his posterity, to obey as God, the Lord that spake to him; and God on his part promiseth to Abraham the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession_. And for a memorial, and a token of this covenant, he ordaineth (_Gen._ xvii. 11) the _sacrament of circumcision_. This is it which is called the _old covenant_ or _testament_; and containeth a contract between God and Abraham; by which Abraham obligeth himself, and his posterity, in a peculiar manner to be subject to God’s positive law; for to the law moral he was obliged before, as by an oath of allegiance. And though the name of _King_ be not yet given to God, nor of _kingdom_ to Abraham and his seed: yet the thing is the same; namely, an institution by pact, of God’s peculiar sovereignty over the seed of Abraham; which in the renewing of the same covenant by Moses, at Mount Sinai, is expressly called a peculiar _kingdom of God_ over the Jews: and it is of Abraham, not of Moses, St. Paul saith (_Rom._ iv. 11) that he is the _father of the faithful_; that is, of those that are loyal, and do not violate their allegiance sworn to God, then by circumcision, and afterwards in the _new covenant_ by baptism. [Sidenote: That the kingdom of God is properly his civil sovereignty over a peculiar people by pact.]