THE FATHER of the faithful,and first in the kingdom of God by covenant,was Abraham.For with him was the covenant first made;wherein he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledge and obey the commands of God;not only such as he could take notice of (as moral laws)by the light of nature;but also such as God should in special manner deliver to him by dreams and visions.For as to the moral law,they were already obliged,and needed not have been contracted withal,by promise of the land of Canaan.Nor was there any contract that could add to or strengthen the obligation by which both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty:and therefore the covenant which Abraham made with God was to take for the commandment of God that which in the name of God was commanded him,in a dream or vision,and to deliver it to his family and cause them to observe the same.
In this contract of God with Abraham,we may observe three points of important consequence in the government of God's people.First,that at the making of this covenant God spoke only to Abraham,and therefore contracted not with any of his family or seed otherwise than as their wills (which make the essence of all covenants)were before the contract involved in the will of Abraham,who was therefore supposed to have had a lawful power to make them perform all that he covenanted for them.According whereunto God saith,"All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him,for I know him that he will command his children and his household after him,and they shall keep the way of the Lord."From whence may be concluded this first point,that they to whom God hath not spoken immediately are to receive the positive commandments of God from their sovereign,as the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham their father and lord and civil sovereign.And consequently in every Commonwealth,they who have no supernatural revelation to the contrary ought to obey the laws of their own sovereign in the external acts and profession of religion.As for the inward thought and belief of men,which human governors can take no notice of (for God only knoweth the heart),they are not voluntary,nor the effect of the laws,but of the unrevealed will and of the power of God,and consequently fall not under obligation.
From whence proceedeth another point;that it was not unlawful for Abraham,when any of his subjects should pretend private vision or spirit,or other revelation from God,for the countenancing of any doctrine which Abraham should forbid,or when they followed or adhered to any such pretender,to punish them;and consequently that it is lawful now for the sovereign to punish any man that shall oppose his private spirit against the laws:for he hath the same place in the Commonwealth that Abraham had in his own family.
There ariseth also from the same a third point;that as none but Abraham in his family,so none but the sovereign in a Christian Commonwealth,can take notice what is or what is not the word of God.For God spoke only to Abraham,and it was he only that was able to know what God said,and to interpret the same to his family:and therefore also,they that have the place of Abraham in a Commonwealth are the only interpreters of what God hath spoken.
The same covenant was renewed with Isaac,and afterwards with Jacob,but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians and arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai:and then it was renewed by Moses (as I have said before,Chapter thirty-five),in such manner as they became from that time forward the peculiar kingdom of God,whose lieutenant was Moses for his own time:and the succession to that office was settled upon Aaron and his heirs after him to be to God a sacerdotal kingdom forever.
By this constitution,a kingdom is acquired to God.But seeing Moses had no authority to govern the Israelites as a successor to the right of Abraham,because he could not claim it by inheritance,it appeareth not as yet that the people were obliged to take him for God's lieutenant longer than they believed that God spoke unto him.
And therefore his authority,notwithstanding the covenant they made with God,depended yet merely upon the opinion they had of his sanctity,and of the reality of his conferences with God,and the verity of his miracles;which opinion coming to change,they were no more obliged to take anything for the law of God which he propounded to them in God's name.We are therefore to consider what other ground there was of their obligation to obey him.For it could not be the commandment of God that could oblige them,because God spoke not to them immediately,but by the mediation of Moses himself:and our Saviour saith of himself,"If I bear witness of myself,my witness is not true";much less if Moses bear witness of himself,especially in a claim of kingly power over God's people,ought his testimony to be received.His authority therefore,as the authority of all other princes,must be grounded on the consent of the people and their promise to obey him.And so it was:for "the people when they saw the thunderings,and the lightnings,and the noise of the trumpet,and the mountain smoking,removed and stood afar off.And they said unto Moses,Speak thou with us,and we will hear,but let not God speak with us lest we die."Here was their promise of obedience;and by this it was they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto them for the commandment of God.