SECTION 1.

In this section, we are to consider THE DIVINELY IN

STITUTED PRACTICE PREVIOUSLY TO THE NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATION, AND THE ABSENCE OF ALL EVIDENCE AUTHORIZING A DEPARTURE FROM THIS PRACTICE UNDER

IT.

We state our argument thus:-Before the coming of Christ, the covenant of grace had been revealed; and under that covenant there existed a divinely instituted connection between children and their parents; the sign and seal of the blessings of the covenant was, by divine appointment, administered to children; and there can be produced no satisfactory evidence of this connection having been done away.

It is not my purpose to enter very largely into the wide field which these propositions, directly and indirectly, embrace. I shall endeavor, as briefly as I can, to establish the following points:-1. That the covenant of promise made by God with Abraham was, in substance, the new covenant, the covenant of grace,-the same covenant which, under a fuller, and clearer, and simpler discovery of it, forms now the basis of the Christian church: -and, 2. That the ordinance of circumcision, was connected with the Abrahamic covenant, in this view of it.

1. Of the first of these two propositions, that the covenant made with Abraham was the gospel covenant, the proof is, or ought to be, very short. It is the plain and positive declaration of an inspired apostle. The reader will find it in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Gala

tians, the 17th and 18th verses :-" "And this I say, that the covenant which was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of God of no effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise."-I have never, I confess, been able to fancy to myself anything plainer than this; and though much has been said and written calculated to involve the subject in mystery, here it stands as plain as ever. The covenant spoken of in these words was not the law, or Sinatic covenant; for it existed four hundred and thirty years before it, and was not at all disannulled or set aside by it :—it was a covenant of promise, as opposed, in the apostle's reasoning, to anything resting on the conditions of law: it was "confirmed before of God in Christ,”- -an expression which, translate it as you wili, can be naturally applied to no other covenant but one-and believers in Christ, under the New Testament dispensation, are declared, in the concluding verse of the same chapter, to be "heirs according to the promise" of that covenant. Take the three expressions, in the 16th, the 18th, and the 29th verses in connection, (for there is nothing in the intermediate statement and reasonings to disjoin them, but only links that bring them together) and this will be strikingly apparent :-"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made :"-" If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise:"—"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."— Heirs of what? Of the inheritance promised, in the covenant, to Abraham and his seed. The covenant, therefore, contained the promise of the heavenly or eternal inheritance. But it contained no such thing, except as couched under the promise of the earthly, the temporal, the typical inheritance. Both the earthly and the heavenly, then, were the subjects of promise; and of both alike it is affirmed, that they were obtained and held, not by law, but by faith in the promise. Had it been otherwise, the type would have failed in one of the most important and interesting points of resemblance.-The same

lesson is taught with no less plainness and decision, in Rom. iv. 13, 14. "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousnes of Faith. For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect."-It is needless to enlarge on the particular phrase here used, "the promise that he should be the heir of the world." It holds the same place in the reasoning in this passage, that the simpler designation "the inheritance" does, in the epistle to the Galatians. It will be admitted to include the promise of the earthly Canaan;-for the literal terms of the covenant specified it, and it alone; and it were strange if the inheritance specifically mentioned in the terms of the covenant, should not be meant at all when the promise of the covenant is spoken of: and there can be as little doubt that in the apostle's reasoning the heavenly inheritance is assumed to be also included, since it is respecting it that his inferences and conclusions are drawn. The covenant, then, which was confirmed of God in Christ,"-which preceded the law by 430 years, and was entirely independent of it,-which was founded in free promise, in opposition to legal conditions,and which contained amongst its promises that of the heavenly inheritance, of which New Testament believers are heirs; this covenant must be in substance the same with the gospel, or the covenant of grace.

2. Our second proposition, and one of primary impor tance in the present discussion, is, that the rite of circumcision was connected with this covenant, as a covenant of spiritual blessings. I have dwelt the more briefly on the first, because the discussion of the second will serve further to illustrate and confirm it.

This second proposition appears to me as evident, as the terms of a plain historical narrative can make it. The following is the account of the matter in the book of Genesis :-" And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, As for me, bes

hold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram; but thy name shall be Abraham for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations. of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And 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. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee, in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep between me and you, 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 betwixt me and you." Gen. xvii. 1-11.

Such are the terms of the covenant to which the ordinance of circumcision was annexed, and which we affirm to be in substance the covenant of grace.-There are two theories of explanation, by which our baptist brethren have attempted to evade the conclusion to which this would lead. To each of these I must beg the reader's attention.

I. The first of the two, and the more ordinary one, is that which alleges, that the covenant made with Abraham consisted properly of two distinct covenants, the one a covenant of temporal promises, the other of spiritual; the former having reference to the natural, and the latter to the spiritual seed of Abraham; and that it was with the former, and not with the latter, that circumcision was connected.

On this representation of the case let it be observed,

In the first place, that no such distinction appears on the face of the narrative. Circumcision is enjoined, as the token of "the covenant," considered as comprehending all the blessings enumerated as pertaining to it. It is not said, that circumcision was to be the token of that

part of the covenant, that engaged for temporal blessings to Abraham's fleshy seed; but of the covenant throughout, as exhibited in the above passage. There is nothing whatever in the simple statement of the history, not even the most remote insinuation, that warrants the introduction of the distinction in question.

Secondly: No such distinction is any where discernible in the apostle's reasoning. It is neither directly made, nor even incidentally alluded to. The blessings of the covenant in general, all its blessings, temporal and spiritual, and especially the two inheritances, the earthly and the heavenly, the typical and the typified, are there represented as alike given by promise, as obtained and held by the same seed, on the same ground. Gal. iii. 15, 16. "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men though it be but a man's covenant, yet, if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.". -What we have at present to notice is, not the promises themselves, or the seed to whom they were made, but the simple fact, stated in terms the most plain, and unequivocal, that "the promises" of the covenant, without any hinted discrimination, were made to the same seed on the same ground.

Thirdly: The rite of circumcision itself is admitted by our baptist brethren in general, to be significant of spiritual blessings-who, indeed, that attentively reads. either Old or New Testament, can question it? It is significant, according to a writer on that side of the controversy, of "cleansing from sin"-and "not only of the purity of moral holiness, but also of the cleansing from the guilt of sin in justification." And agreeably to this spiritual import of the rite, we so frequently read of the "circumcision of the heart," with other equivalent phrases; which the apostle finely explains, when he says, "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."-Now it is not easy to perceive,