Prolegomena — Position 2

That Abraham's Covenant (Genesis 17) is an Adam's Covenant of Works also, because Circumcision was annexed to it, which obliged men to keep the whole law.

The controversy between us in this point is not whether Circumcision were an ordinance of God, annexed by him to his Covenant with Abraham; nor (2.) whether Abraham's ordinary and extraordinary seed ought to be, and actually were signed by it; nor (3.) whether it were a seal of the righteousness of faith to any individual person, for he allows [reconstructed: i]t to be so to Abraham; nor (4.) whether it pertained to the ceremonial law, and so must cease at the death of Christ. But the difference between us is: whether (1.) it was a seal of the Covenant to [reconstructed: n]one but Abraham; and (2.) whether [reconstructed: i]n the very nature of the act, or only from the intention of the agent, it did oblige men to keep the whole law, as Adam was obliged to keep it in innocence; (3.) whether it were utterly abolished at the death of Christ, as a condition of the Covenant of Works; or being a sign of the same Covenant of Grace we are now under, it has not been succeeded by the new Gospel-sign, which is Baptism. Mr. Cary affirms that it was [reconstructed: in] itself a condition of the Covenant of Works, and being annexed to God's Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 17), it made [reconstructed: t]hat a true Adam's Covenant of Works [reconstructed: a]lso. This I utterly deny, and say, [reconstructed: A]braham's Covenant was a true Covenant [reconstructed: o]f Grace. (2.) That Circumcision was a seal of the righteousness of faith, and therefore could not possibly belong to the Covenant of Works. (3.) That as it was applied both to the ordinary and extraordinary infant seed of Abraham, during that administration of the Covenant, so it is the will of Christ that Baptism should take its place under the Gospel, and be applied now to the infant seed of all Abraham's spiritual children. These are the things wherein we differ about the second Position. And lastly, as to the