By the covenant between God and Adam, all dispute is forbidden concerning[concerning] the commands of superiors.
2. In the beginning of the world God reigned indeed, not only naturally, but also by way of covenant, over Adam and Eve; so as it seems he would have no obedience yielded to him, beside that which natural reason should dictate, but by the way of covenant, that is to say, by the consent of men themselves. Now because this covenant was presently made void, nor ever after renewed, the original of God’s kingdom (which we treat of in this place) is not to be taken thence. Yet this is to be noted by the way; that by that precept of not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, (whether the judicature of good and evil, or the eating of the fruit of some tree were forbidden), God did require a most simple obedience to his commands, without dispute whether that were good or evil which was commanded. For the fruit of the tree, if the command be wanting, hath nothing in its own nature, whereby the eating of it could be morally evil, that is to say, a sin.
The manner of the covenant between God and Abraham.
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.
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 which all men believe, but that he doubted not him to be God, whose voice and promises he had heard, and that the God of Abraham signified not simply God, but that God which appeared unto him; even as the worship, which Abraham owed unto God in that notion, was not the worship of reason, but of religion and faith, and that which not reason, but God had supernaturally revealed.
The laws to which Abraham was tied were no other, but those of nature and that of circumcision.
5. But we read of no laws given by God to Abraham, or by Abraham to his family, either then or after, secular or sacred; excepting the commandment of circumcision, which is contained in the covenant itself. Whence it is manifest, that there were no other laws or worship, which Abraham was obliged to, but the laws of nature, rational worship, and circumcision.
Abraham among his own was the interpreter of the word of God and of all laws.
6. Now Abraham was the interpreter of all laws, as well sacred as secular, among those that belonged to him; not merely naturally, as using the laws of nature only, but even by the form of the covenant itself; in which obedience is promised by Abraham, not for himself only, but for his seed also; which had been in vain, except his children had been tied to obey his commands. And how can that be understood, which God says (Gen. xviii. 18, 19): 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 to do justice and judgment: unless his children and his household were supposed to be obliged to yield obedience unto his commands?