THE Creator of the universe, the Father of angels and of men, has always operated according to a previous purpose, and governed according to an antecedent law. Creation, providence, and redemption are, indeed, but the execution and development of eternal counsels. The universe is one grand system, the result of a well-matured plan, the consummation of a previously-existing scheme. It is not an accident, a contingency, a fortuitous concourse of atoms; but a sublime system of adaptations tending to a complete and perfect development of its author, according to the intellectual and moral capacities of his rational offspring. With our greatest apostle we say--"Of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen!"

      So much of the universe, its author, and plan, as man can understand and enjoy, as he is now constituted, God has kindly opened to his contemplation and apprehension. All beyond this is designed for future development, or for other ranks of intelligence above us. Meantime, a volume has been kindly presented to man, containing as account of himself, his origin, present condition, and future destiny. It is such a revelation of God and of man, such a record of the past, and such an [89] anticipation of the future, as meets all the intellectual wants and moral exigencies of the human race.

      This divinely-inspired volume proceeds upon the plan of a gradual and progressive development, adapting itself to all the conditions of human existence. The human family having an infancy, a childhood, a manhood, and an old age, the Book of God not only recognises these conditions of our existence, but admirably adapts itself to them all. We have the bud and the blossom, the green and the ripe fruit of humanity, as we have them in other departments of nature. So have we a characteristic unity of plan, a characteristic progression and development in all the works and ways of God to man. It is the same great mind, the same supreme intelligence, the same active benevolence, working everywhere and at all times in the communication of himself to his intelligent and moral offspring.

      God appears first as a Creator; next as a Preserver; then as Governor of his own universe. In all these attitudes, as in the special case of man's redemption, he not only uniformly acts according to a previous plan, but in all his plans and operations there is a peculiar unity or similarity of action. In creation he operated through authoritative precepts. "He spoke, and it was done;" he commanded, and, from nothing previously existing, the hosts of the universe arose at his bidding; his simple volition, assuming the form of an oral precept, gave birth to the universe and all that inhabit it. The six days' operations make but one imperative sentence, solemnly pronounced. The word of God is, therefore, the Constitution of the Universe.

      As the human body to the soul, so is the word of God to his volition. His word is but the vehicle through which his creative power manifests itself. It is the mere form or embodiment of his volition--the annunciation of his purpose. God always works by means, never without them. The means, indeed, are but the envelope of his will. The connection between the means and the end is not always apparent, and probably never fully understood.

      Can any one show the necessary connection between commanding light to spring out of darkness, and the shining forth of light? Yet, at the bidding of God, darkness brought forth light! We still enlighten the world by making the darkest and blackest of all things the parent of light, and the medium of general information. What is more opaque than a metallic [90] type? What is blacker than ink? Yet these are the suns and the stars of the intellectual and moral world. It is not the carte blanche, the pure white paper, but the dark letters upon it, that enlighten the world. Probably the means and the end were never more alike, nor more philosophically connected, than in the case of bringing light out of darkness by a metallic type covered with ink.

      The universe, resting upon the word of God, the embodiment of his will, has, therefore, a fixed and immutable constitution. Nature (a term not generally well understood) is but the constitutional operation of a conservative law. Man, in his physical constitution, is wholly at the disposal and under the control of the common law that presides over the destinies of all other terrestrial bodies.

      But he has a mind as well as a body. He has a moral as well as a physical constitution. His happiness is not earthly and sensual, but designed to be both spiritual and heavenly. Hence the necessity of a moral constitution for moral agents capable of enjoying a spiritual system. Man must, indeed, be governed by some supreme divinity. He must have a constituted and absolute sovereign Lord and Master. And there must be some supreme constitution, or law, or covenant, by which his Sovereign and himself can understand each other and maintain perpetual amity. He may honour the God that made him, or make a god for himself. A god he must have. And he may accept of a constitution or covenant from God, or make one with Satan and ruin. A covenant he must have.

      Thus advance we through the portico of experience to the threshold of the temple of revelation. Standing here on consecrated ground, we feel the need of just such a system--such constitutional provisions as are indicated in the "covenants of promise," with which the volumes of divine revelation abound, and by which these volumes are divided into several parts.

      The Bible covenants are connected with the names of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Aaron, David, Jesus the Messiah. These are all, more or less, public transactions. We shall, therefore, severally examine them, and deduce from the analysis some practical and useful conclusions.

      But first it may be asked, What do we understand by a covenant? An analysis of the covenants themselves will best [91] indicate this. But in anticipation of the result of such an examination, we shall now define the term.

      Amongst men we have covenants. In these there are parties. One may sometimes be the covenanter--the other the covenantee. The former propounds--the latter accepts the stipulation. These terms are, however, seldom used. Both parties are most generally both covenanters and covenantees. They both stipulate and re-stipulate. Such covenants are agreements or bonds entered into between two or more parties on certain terms. Such the Greeks called a suntheekee--the Latins a fœdus--we a covenant, because that word literally indicates a coming together--an agreement. With us, indeed, a constitution, or a form of government, because an agreement on certain principles between the government and the citizens, is; to all intents and purposes, a covenant.

      The Hebrew term berith, derived from barar, to purify, indicating a purification, usually by sacrifice, is that used to represent these transactions in the book of Genesis and throughout the Jewish Scriptures. This word is represented in the Septuagint, or Greek version, by the term diatheekee, and never by suntheekee. In a suntheekee, or covenant between man and man, the parties are or may be equal. They are always human beings. But in a diatheekee one of the parties may be so far above the other in rank and nature, as to propound all the items of the institution or covenant to the other party; to which that party must accede in order to the participation of the blessings or benefits proposed in the institution. Hence, precepts as well as promises are called covenants when they emanate from God, and have any benefits annexed to them. When any service is exacted, or any duty commanded, by an offended party, and made the condition of friendship or agreement with the offending party, it may be called a diatheekee in the Jewish acceptation. Divine covenants having always been founded upon sacrifice is, indeed, the best reason for their having been called berith. It is very obvious that without sacrifice to purify the party taken into covenant with God, no transaction of this sort was ever valid, or regarded as ratified. This may, indeed, be the reason why the first covenant or charter given to man is not called anywhere in the Scripture a covenant, though possessing all the constituents of a covenant, sacrifice only excepted. But as theologians of all schools have called this transaction a [92] covenant, wanting sacrifice, we shall in our list of covenants give to it its usual title, and proceed to adduce these public transactions as they occur in the Jewish writings.

      When God instituted human society by the creation of the original pair, he immediately granted to them a charter or institution indicative of their relations to him, and declarative of the conditions of their future happiness. This has sometimes been theologically called a covenant of works, in contrast with a covenant of grace. But there were no works prescribed in this institution. It was a charter, a stipulation, and a guarantee of liberty and life to man. It removed all suspense and uncertainty as to the extent of his liberty or the continuance of his felicity. It was liberty and life secured by an immutable charter on no other condition than to observe a prescribed limit. Its seal was the tree of life, by the fruit of which our progenitors might have lived for ever, did they but keep within the precincts of that liberty and bliss kindly secured to them by this Divine institution. Such was the original charter vouchsafed to man.

      The second covenant or institution of favour bestowed upon our race was that conferred on the father and founder of the postdiluvian world. After the deluge God kindly gave to Noah an assurance that he would never repeat that calamity again. It was a charter concerning "day and night, seed-time and harvest, summer and winter," in all coming time. Jer. xxxiii. 20-25. Gen. ix. 1-9. Its seal or pledge is the rainbow.

      The third institution was that tendered to Abraham in the seventy-fifth year of his life, and of the world 2083, guarantying to him a son, a great public benefactor, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. These three institutions were of a very public character, being tendered to the human race. The whole world is interested in each of them. Life and liberty were covenanted in the first; day and night, seed-time and harvest in the second; a redeemer and benefactor is promised in the third.

      But to secure and develop all the blessings of the third, other institutions were annexed. One concerning an inheritance for the family from which the world's benefactor was to arise; the other concerning a special providence which in all temporal favours would distinguish the family of this most illustrious philanthropist. That concerning the inheritance is [93] recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, and that concerning the special providence in the seventeenth. The former occurred immediately before the birth of Ishmael, in the eighty-sixth of Abraham, and the latter about the same time before the birth of Isaac, in the ninety-ninth of Abraham.

      The covenant guarantying the inheritance was confirmed over sacrifice; that concerning the family, by circumcision. The land was to be bought at the price of the blood of its inhabitants,--the family blessings by insulating the people of Abraham from all other families by the circumcision of the males of his household while yet infants, without their knowledge or consent. This is the transaction which Stephen denominated the "covenant of circumcision." The covenant first stipulated with Abraham on his departure from Ur of Chaldea is by Paul called "the covenant concerning Christ." That concerning Christ was in the seventy-fifth, while that concerning the flesh or circumcision was in the ninety-ninth of Abraham. These transactions, though not so extensive and public as the three former institutions, are nevertheless both public and national. The whole world is interested in the first three; the whole family of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob in the last two.

      True, the Gentiles as well as the Jews derive advantages, though not the same advantages, from these institutions. By locating the family of Abraham in a well-defined country, whose boundaries are given, and by putting upon every male child an indelible mark in the flesh declarative of the covenant with Abraham, the Gentiles are assisted in deciding the pretensions of Jesus of Nazareth to be the covenanted Saviour of the world.

      But as there were two great promises in these institutions vouchsafed to Abraham, one concerning his natural, the other concerning his supernatural offspring--and as the whole human race was interested in the one or the other, or in both, each one of these promises was at a proper period developed in a great national institution--one represented by Sarah and the other by Hagar, the typical mothers of Abraham's offspring. Two kingdoms, one of this world, and one "not of this world," were built upon these two institutions. That of this world Paul allegorically sets forth in the character and relation of Hagar and her son Ishmael; the other, "not of this world," he sets forth in the same style in the relation and character of Sarah and her son Isaac. One of these was dispensed to all Israel by the mediator [94] Moses--the other to all the believing sons of Abraham in all nations by the mediator Jesus. One of these institutions, from Mount Sinai, is now called the Old Covenant, generating to bondage; the other is called the New Covenant, from Jerusalem above, of the character of the free woman, the mother of all the free-born sons of God.

      Besides these public institutions, we shall allude to two others--one concerning the priesthood of Aaron, the other concerning the throne of David; one concerning the mitre, the other concerning the sceptre of Israel. The priesthood was covenanted to Aaron, the sceptre to David. Each of these is designated as a covenant. "Thou shalt anoint the sons of Aaron as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister to me in the priest's office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations." Ex. 41. 13-15. Again, "Behold I give unto the son of Eleazer, the son of Aaron, my covenant of peace: and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood." Num. xxv. 12,13.

      Concerning the kingdom he saith--"The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, better than thou. The STRENGTH OF ISRAEL will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a man that he should repent." 1 Sam. xv. 28. "The Lord hath sworn to David to translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba." 2 Sam. iii. 9, 10. "I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations." Ps. lxxxix. 3. "Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David: his seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me." Ps. lxxxix. 35, 36.

      From all these transactions of divine authority, these gifts and promises of God, considered in the aggregate, and each one minutely analyzed, we come to the following conclusions:--

      1. Of these nine covenants, God was always one party. They mere all divine institutions.

      2. Seven of them were made with individual men. These men were Adam, Noah, Abraham, renewed to Isaac, and again to Jacob, Aaron, and David; but they were all public men, heads and representatives of families and nations. [95]

      3. Each of them had a blessing peculiar to itself. They were all gracious. The first guarantied life and liberty; the second, day and night, seed-time and harvest, without a second and universal deluge; the third, the blessing of all nations, spiritually and eternally, in a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the fourth secured an inheritance; the fifth promised a special providence; the sixth conferred the office of the priesthood--atonement, intercession, and benediction, in the name of Jehovah, to Aaron and his first-born sons; the seventh gave the sceptre and throne of Israel to David and his sons for ever.

      4. Two of them became the constitutions of kingdoms. The Jewish state was founded upon that mediated by Moses at Mount Sinai. The Christian church is founded upon that promised in Jeremiah xxxi. 31-34, developed in the Apostolic Records--especially Hebrews, 8th chapter.

      5. Each of them had an appropriate seal, pledge, or token connected with it. They were solemnly closed and confirmed bonds, or charters. There is a singular appositeness and congeniality between the; seals and pledges of these institutions and their provisions. For example, the Covenant of Life and Liberty, or the Adamic Institution, had the Tree of Life for its pledge and security. The Covenant against a Deluge, guarantying day and night, seed-time and harvest, has the Rainbow in the bosom of a dark and portentous cloud; that concerning the Messiah had a simple oath; that concerning an inheritance bought with blood was sealed by the usual signs of ancient treaties--the parties passing between the divided bodies of victims; that concerning temporal blessings connected with the fleshly offspring of Abraham, was confirmed by circumcision; that at Mount Sinai, ministered by Moses, was sealed with animal blood and sacrifices; the New Covenant, with the most precious blood of the Son of God; the Covenant of Peace with Aaron and his sons, by an oath; and that with David concerning the sceptre and throne of Israel, with an oath; the kingdom of the Messiah, as now administered by a Royal Priest, Melchizedeck's antitype, is also confirmed by an oath. The seals of all these public charters, institutions, or covenants, (for these words in their respective prominent attributes fully represent them,) were, then--the Tree of Life, the Rainbow, Sacrifice, Circumcision, Animal Blood, smeared or sprinkled, (whence came the red wafer and the red wax,) the Oath of God. [96]

      Of these institutions those sealed with the oath of God are the most sublime. "The covenant confirmed of God" in relation to the Messiah, had no seal but the oath of God. Hence the two covenants emblematic of its virtues--the mitre and the throne--were solemnized by oaths. The covenant of peace through blood, and covenant of royalty and power, complete the official glory of the Messiah. The Lord has given him for a covenant, a sacrifice, a purifier to his people. "He is made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption."

      Concerning seals or signs, wherever God has annexed them, we have to remark, that they are either monumental of the facts on which the covenant is founded, or they are pledges and seals securing to the covenantees the blessings of the institution.

      Circumcision was both a sign and a seal. So Paul affirms. Of Abraham he says, "He received the sign of circumcision," a "seal of the righteousness of that faith" which yet uncircumcised he possessed. He uses terms indicative of very different ideas. A sign, (seemeion,) a token or monument of a transaction; and a seal, (sphragis,) a guarantee, a pledge of approbation, a pledge confirmatory. Circumcision was then a sign to all the circumcised, a token, a monument significant of the separation of Israel to God under a special providence.

      Signs intimate the same things to all the proper subjects of them; consequently, as a sign, circumcision intimated the same thing to every individual--Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac--or any infant son or servant taken into that institution. But it sealed to Abraham what it did not seal to Ishmael, Isaac, or any other person. It was to him A SEAL of righteousness before possessed--a "righteousness of faith." This it could not be to them, nor to any infant or unbelieving Pagan. Nor, indeed, was it ever a seal to any other human being of any moral excellence, faith, or righteousness possessed before it. Its being a divine token, or mark confirmatory or approbatory of the single faith of Abraham, was altogether peculiar; because by his faith he became the father of all believers in all ages; and, therefore, the covenant of circumcision was given to him alone in approbation of his faith. His faith is thus made a model faith. If a million of believing men had been circumcised after the manner of Abraham, not one of them could say his faith was a model faith, or that his circumcision was a divine seal approbatory of his faith, nor could any one say it of them. On this subject there [97] are volumes of false and absurd reasonings from men who, on other subjects, are learned and rational.

      The style of the Apostle is, indeed, itself indicative of all this difference. He says "he received the sign of circumcision--"the token of the covenant--"a seal of the righteousness of the faith." It was the token and a seal. To all it was the token--to Abraham alone it was a seal of the righteousness of a faith before possessed. As the token, it was common to all--as a seal, it was peculiar to one, and only one man of all the race.

      To every other human being circumcised according to the covenant, it signified the same thing. It did not mean one thing to A and another to B. It signified no spiritual blessings, it sealed no eternal blessings to Isaac more than to Ishmael--to Jacob, more than Esau--to John, more than to Judas. This is true, whether contemplated as a sign or a seal. The seal to a bond confirms and secures just the specifications of the bond; and neither more nor less than the specifications to every one named in it. Now, Annas and Caiaphas, Judas and Paul, were just as proper subjects for circumcision as David or Daniel, as Moses or Aaron. It secured only the provisions of that covenant. But neither the promise of the Holy Spirit, nor remission of sins, nor eternal life, were among the provisions of the covenant of circumcision. It, therefore, was neither the sign nor the seal of them. It was a covenant in the flesh, pertaining to the flesh, and confined to the flesh, specified in the covenant. It was not for all flesh, but for some flesh--for that flesh only which was in Abraham, or which would amalgamate with the flesh of Abraham. Abraham's son, Abraham's servant, or any one with or without faith, that would join with them in their fortunes, might receive it; but no one else. Indeed, of all covenants, human or divine, it may be affirmed that their benefits belong alike to every covenantee--that whatever is legally covenanted in them to one, belongs alike to every other legal subject of them. This single truth, as plain as any other Bible truth, for ever settles all debates among reasonable men as to the provisions of this or any other covenant.

      The covenant with Noah, the covenant concerning Christ, the covenant concerning the worldly inheritance, the covenant of the priesthood, the covenant of the sceptre, the covenant at Mount Sinai, and the covenant of circumcision are all alike in this particular. Every covenantee inherits equally and [98] identically the same constitutional or chartered rights and immunities, just as every naturalized citizen of the United States has all the same constitutional rights and privileges of every other naturalized citizen. Every one in Noah's covenant, every first-born son of Aaron, every one in the national covenant mediated by Moses, and every one in the covenant of circumcision derived the same advantages from the covenant of which he was a proper subject.

      Paul, indeed, asks and answers the question "what profit was there in circumcision," and "what advantage hath the Jew?" Many advantages, indeed, were connected with it. But what was the chief advantage? Regeneration? Remission of sins? The Holy Spirit? Life everlasting? No, no: not any one of these--but "chiefly to them were committed the oracles of God." The Gentiles now have these oracles without faith, without circumcision, without baptism. This, indeed, makes faith, regeneration, spiritual and eternal salvation possible; and this, indeed, is a great blessing. So, then, the matter of circumcision, as to its advantage, is settled by high authority. It gave the oracles of God in keeping to the Jewish nation. This was its nighest approach to spiritual blessings!

      But circumcision became a type. Of what? The circumcision of the heart. The manna became a type, the Sabbath became a type, the stricken rock became a type, Jordan became a type, and why should not circumcision become a type? We, believing Gentiles, are now "the circumcision," because (not in the flesh, but) "in the spirit we worship God, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," neither in cutting, nor washing, nor cleansing the flesh. This once was the outward circumcision in the flesh; but neither baptism nor any other ordinance came in room of it. Such talk is a scandal to the age. The circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit came in room of the circumcision of the flesh by the knife of a Jewish father or a mother, a master or a mistress. Circumcision is now "that of the heart," and, not of the law in the flesh, "but in the spirit," "whose praise" (because the operation is invisible) "is not of man, but of God." The ancient prophets that preached concerning Christ and his kingdom were wont to say, "Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts." "Make you a new heart," &c.

      It was the stress of the tempest of debate that first compelled [99] a portion of Protestant Christendom to make baptism instead of the Holy Spirit stand in the room of circumcision. And yet of all theological logicians, they are the least entitled to our confidence who can make the sign of a covenant concerning the flesh, the sign of a covenant concerning the spirit;--who can tear away the seal from one bond, and patch in its stead the seal of another bond. Or, what is the same thing, write a new bond over an old seal! From such logicians and theologians we all pray for a deliverance.

      The myriads of Jews converted to the faith of Jesus as the Messiah that were baptized, notwithstanding their former circumcision, and the myriads of baptized Christian Jews that, during much of the apostolic age, continued to circumcise their children, one would think might have thrown some obstacle in the way of such reasoners as find for infant baptism a pretext in infant circumcision. They have, indeed, a faith that removes mountains;--a faith in human authority that removes the mountains interposed by Apostles and Prophets between their premises and their conclusions.

      That Jesus and the Holy Twelve had all been circumcised and afterwards baptized; that all the first converts to Christianity were circumcised persons, had upon them the sign of circumcision, yet commanded every one to be baptized, is, in their vision, no obstacle to the theory of baptism in room of circumcision. Hundreds of years passed away before anyone thought of making baptism a substitute for infant circumcision.

      Our main object, indeed, in thus inquiring into covenants, their signs and seals, is rather to enforce the necessity of covenanting with the Lord, than to descant upon the false reasonings and erroneous conclusions of such fathers as are looked up to for authority in introducing a new covenant for infants to sign before they can read it, or hear it read. Faith and repentance, of which we have taken some notice in former essays, are peculiar to no dispensation of religion, nor to any age of the world. Since man fell till the present moment, faith and repentance have always been indispensable to deliverance from sin. "He that cometh to God must first believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." But the institutions and charters of privilege have differed in some respects, as time has advanced. Covenants of promise and of privilege have, indeed, always been in existence; and God's [100] people have always been in covenant with God. The gospel is, indeed, presented in the form of a covenant. The Messiah seals it as his covenant--"the new," "the better," "the everlasting covenant." He is himself both the covenant, and the Mediator of it, as he is himself the victim, the altar, and the priest. We are said to be "in Christ;" but before we are in him, we must come into him by covenant. He is the oath of God accomplished, and we take the vow; God is the covenanter, Christ the covenant, and we the covenantees; we are reconciled to God through him. He sealed the covenant with his own blood. The Lord's supper is the pledge of it. But he will have us to die, to be buried, and to rise again for him, as he died, was buried, and rose again for us. Hence the institution of Christian baptism. We must pass through the solemn sign, and must lie with him in the grave and rise with him to a new and better life. These are outward signs of an inward and true and real covenant with the Lord, by and through which we individually, each one for himself, are made partakers of the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ. Every covenant propounded by God to man since his fall is based upon sacrifice. No intercourse between God and rebel man can be instituted upon any other principle. Every Divine stipulation is a stipulation of mercy dictated by a pure benevolence, a Divine philanthropy, and based upon such a sacrifice as inflexible justice and immaculate purity can approbate and acquiesce in. There is no covenant of redemption based upon human effort or human merit. All God's overtures are the offspring of pure, unmerited favour. The conditions propounded are not merely to justify God before the universe, though that must be always secured; but benevolence requires that man should believe what God says, feel in harmony with all his requisitions, and obey from his heart every precept. The conditions of believing what God says and of doing what God commands, are all conditions of grace, of justice, and of pure benevolence. God, with all reverence be it spoken, can make no sinful man happy in any other way than the gospel propounds. Our duty, our honour, our interest, and our happiness are equally consulted and secured in accepting the covenant of life through the obedience unto death of God's beloved Son. This we do by obeying from the heart the precepts of righteousness and mercy delivered to as by the holy Apostles. Thus we enter into covenant with [101] God, we become his, and he becomes ours the instant we obey from the heart the Apostles' doctrine.

      Before closing, for the present, the whole subject of covenanting, we may add that there are times, occasions, and circumstances requiring us, or, at least, making it expedient for us, to stipulate private and personal covenants with God--indeed, times when communities may and ought to enter into covenant with one another and with the Lord. We can adduce good examples for such transactions from the history of the age of revelation. Individual men and communities of good men may, and indeed in some cases ought, to enter into a covenant with God. Jacob, on his way to Padan-Aram, is one case of this sort; and Nehemiah and the reformers of his time are another case in point. But of these we cannot now speak particularly.

[CBAC 89-102]