It is of the utmost importance rightly to understand the covenant made with Israel at Sinai, which next claims our consideration.

This is essential to the proper interpretation both of the Old and of the New Testament Scriptures. It is, moreover, deeply involved in the question of Baptism; and therefore it demands especial notice in connexion with the Abrahamic covenant. Strictly speaking, indeed, it is the Abrahamic covenant in a further stage of its fulfilment, with a vast body of figurative appendages. The exact question, then, to be determined in this section, is,"What was the position of the Jews under the Sinaitic covenant of the Mosaic dispensation?" Two extremes have been, respectively, held and patronized upon the subject, the one, that it was all law; the other, that it was all grace. In opposition to this, Scott judiciously observes that, "Hardly anything can be more absurd, than to suppose, that the whole nation of the Jews was under the covenant of Works, which contains nothing about repentance, faith in a Mediator, forgiveness of sins, or grace; yet we often meet with language in Christian authors, which conveys this idea. And it is, perhaps, more

common to hear the whole nation of

Israel spoken of as if they all bore the character, and possessed the privileges, of true believers, actually interested in the covenant of grace; and conclusions

principle, which ought never to be lost sight of, and which serves as a key to the whole matter :-the Jews, both in Egypt and in the wilderness, were under the Abrahamic covenant, which was the covenant of grace; and under this they continued up to the fearful hour which brought them to the "mount that burned with fire, unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words."--At that hour the Lord gave them the covenant in question, but he did not thereby abrogate the Covenant of Grace, or in any manner alter its character. The Abrahamic covenant remained as entire as if the covenant established at Sinai had not existed; the latter added to the former, but changed it not—it subjoined to it a system of temporary political and ecclesiastical arrangements, subservient to the great ultimate object, the manifestation of the Son of God. Examination will show-First, that the covenant which was here made with the Jews was national; it was, in fact, the charter upon which they were incorporated, as a people, under the government of Jehovah. Hereby God engaged to give Israel possession of Canaan, and to protect them in it; to render the land fruitful, and the nation victorious and prosperous, and to establish and perpetuate His ordinances amongst them; so long as they did not, as a people, reject His authority, apostatize to idolatry, and tolerate open wickedness. These things constituted a forfeiture of the covenant, as did afterwards their national rejection of Christ (Lev. xxvi. 3-14; Deut. vi. 10-12; vii. 12-21; viii. 7-18; xi. 13-25.) The constitution which, as a nation, they received through this covenant, had the strongest conceivable tendency to keep them wholly apart from the other nations of the earth; and thus

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at last, it was with the utmost certainty demonstrable, that the promised Messiah had sprung from them. Second-It will also appear that the plan of mercy to a lost world, was greatly advanced by the covenant established at Sinai: the worship of the true God received a definite and orderly form; a regular priesthood was appointed; a settled system of sacrifice was instituted; one altar was appointed for the whole of the Israelites; the descendants of Abraham were embodied into a nation, became the peculiar people of God, and were ultimately placed in the promised land. Nor was this all: the leading design of this covenant was to afford a more ample illustration of the character and work of the salvation and kingdom of Christ, than could otherwise have been imparted; and accordingly, it, in many respects, prefigured the dealings of God with His people, under. the Christian dispensation; in which the new covenant of grace and mercy, made with all true Delievers, is more clearly exhibited than under any of the preceding dispensations of it; yet it "had not the very image," but only "a shadow of good things to come." "When, therefore," as Scott observes, "the nation had broken this covenant, the Lord declared that he would make a new covenant with the house of Israel,'...putting his law," not only in their hands, but "in their inward parts," and "writing it," not upon tables of stone, "but in their hearts; forgiving their iniquity, and remembering their sins no more.' (Jer. xxxi, 32, 34; Heb. viii. 7-12; x. 16-17.) In the Scriptures referred to, the covenant spoken of, as ready to vanish away," is evidently not the covenant of works, but the national covenant with Israel, which the Israelites had vacated by their sins." Much less, then, can the covenant spoken of as "ready to vanish," be the Covenant of Grace, for unquestionably this is the very thing denominated the "new covenant," which is designated "new," not because it had no previous existence, but because it was to be exhibited in a new and more spiritual

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form. The covenant in question, then, was distinct both from the covenant of works, of which Adam was the surety, and under which every unbeliever, in every age and nation, is found, and also from the covenant of grace revealed to Adam after the Fall, renewed with Noah after the Deluge, ratified with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mediated by Christ, and the basis of the present dispensation. The mercy of the covenant of grace was in full operation during the whole period of the Mosaic dispensation; it was, in fact, also the basis of that dispensation; and thus, the law of Moses, so far from superseding the spiritual promises, was added unto them, and was subservient to their accomplishment. The whole matter amounts to this:-"The Scriptures represent the Mosaic economy as established with the following views:—First, to exhibit the will of God as the moral governor of the world, and the curse consequent on every transgression of His law. Secondly, to afford a typical exhibition of the Gospel, by a system of figures and shadows. Thirdly, to be in connexion with their views, a rule for the guidance of the Israelites, as a people redeemed from bondage, and dedicated to God. And finally, in subserviency to all these objects, to be a political order for the government of Israel, as a people separated from the nations, for the sake of the Messiah and His kingdom.

SECTION II.

TRANSITION OF THE CHURCH FROM THE JEWISH TO THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

There is no such difference between circumcision and baptism, as to make the former a proper medium for introducing infants into the Church, and the latter an insuperable barrier to that privilege.JERRAM.

The identity of the churches of the Old and of the New Testament has been already proved; but this great fact upon which the authority of Infant Baptism so mainly rests, will receive

still further corroboration by examining the process of transition. That the Church, which existed among the Jews, was to be perpetuated, with substantial identity, among Christians, is absolutely certain beyond all reasonable doubt from the Saviour's declaration to the Jews: "The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. xxi. 43.) By "The kingdom of God," is unquestionably meant the Church, which then existed among the Jews; and Jesus solemnly intimates that this Church shall be taken from them and given to the Gentiles-the very same thing was taken and given—it was simply a transfer. The Jews lost what the Gentiles gained, but no change took place in the gift :—it remained the same in all its essential features,-nothing was added, nothing subtracted. But if the Church, while it existed among the Jews, was composed of adults and infants, parents and their children, must it not follow that the same Church, when transferred to the Gentiles, consisted of the same subjects? Does not this seem the honest, the inevitable conclusion? The first Church at Jerusalem, therefore, becomes a peculiarly interesting object of attraction. This was at the time a concentration of all the faith and love of the city; such were the true seed of Abraham, Jews inwardly. This illustrious society, as well as the multitude of sister Churches, speedily gathered together throughout Judea, were composed of Jews, real descendants of Abraham both as to the flesh and the spirit. In these societies we behold the Church in a state of completed transition, of glorious renovation; her light has come, and the glory of the Lord has arisen upon her;-she is consoled, purified, and perfected. Yet everything remains substantially the same as before, notwithstanding their knowledge, privilege, and experience, were prodigiously advanced. New ordinances were instituted; yet even these guided the mind of the worshipper to the same objects; the Passover had

looked forward to Jesus, the Supper looked back to Him; both circumcision and baptism pointed to the work of the Spirit on the heart, being a seal to believing parents and a sign to their favoured children. In these Churches, then, composed of Jewish penitents who believed in Christ, and their offspring, we behold the "root," and such of the "branches" as remained, and in the vast unbelieving majority we see the branches that were "broken off." All things being ready, God in mercy "visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name (Acts xv. 14-17), and to build again the tabernacle of David, that the residue of men might seek the Lord." Those who from among the Gentiles were turned unto God, with their offspring, constituted the branches of the wild olive-tree that were grafted in among the remaining branches partaking of the root and fatness of the good olive-tree. Thus the Mosaic dispensation melted into the Christian; and the Churches were composed of a mixed multitude of Jews and Gentiles. The Jewish societies died off, and succession failing, the Church became entirely, or nearly so, a society of Gentiles-believing Gentiles and their

children.

SECTION III.

THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION. The ancient Church is spoken of, not as annihilated, and succeeded by another, but as visited, comforted, purified, raised up, and gloriously restored from decline and corruption.-DR. Wardlaw.

Christianity is the final and perfect dispensation of the Everlasting Covenant, which was first announced at the fall of man; and, while the Abrahamic and Mosaic form of the Church was now changed, its essential character remained the same. This fact is of vital moment in the argument for infant baptism; for if the fact alleged can be proved, then the doctrine is infallibly certain. This having been perceived, it has been attempted to establish the contrary, and to show that the Old and New Testament

Churches are altogether distinct from each other. The proof, however, is as simple as it is irresistible; for when the prophets foretell the calling of the Gentiles, they expressly represent them as brought into the previously existing, that is, the Jewish Church; as in Isa. xlix. 20-22, where Zion, or the ancient Church, bewails the loss of her children, in the prospect of the rejection of so vast a multitude of the Jews, and where she is comforted and cheered with the assurance of an abundant increase from among the Gentiles. The same fact is set forth with great beauty in Amos ix. 11-12, of which we possess an inspired interpretation (Acts xv. 14-17); but the Epistle to the Romans (xi. 23-24), is entirely decisive of the question, where Paul, speaking of Jewish unbelief, says, "And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in again; for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou (the Gentile Church), wert cut out of the olive-tree, which is wild by nature (brought out of a state of heathen idolatry), and wert grafted, contrary to nature, into a good olivetree (into the true Church of God, as it existed among the Jews), how much more shall these (the present Jews), which be the natural branches (the offspring of the original Church), be grafted into their own olive-tree" (be restored again to the original Church.) Nothing can be more clearly instructive than this figure. The tree is not represented as cut down or rooted up; it stands immoveable in its original soil: only "some of the branches were broken off" (ver. 17); and if some were broken off, surely the rest remained; and when the branches of the wild-olive were engrafted, the tree continued-the root, a body being still the same, though mutilated by the removal of a number of its branches, and filled up with grafts upon the lopped boughs. The branches broken off, we repeat, were the unbelieving Jews, who received him not;" those that remained

were the spiritual members of the ancient Church, who "did receive him;" to whom he gave "power to become the sons of God." The Gentiles were not introduced into the national Church of Israel, but into the Church of the living God, in its renovated and glorious condition. Here, then, the Old and New Testament Churches are proved to be one and the same. The national character of the former, and the congregational character of the latter, leave their identity quite unaffected. The unbelieving Jews, therefore, were not broken off from the Church as national; nor will they be grafted into her again as national; but they were broken off, and they will be grafted into her again as a spiritual body, the body of Christ. In a word, upon the principle of two distinct Churches, one carnal and the other spiritual, the above, and many other Scriptures, are utterly inexplicable; for, if by the "tree," from which the Jews were cut off, is meant the national Church of Israel, into that Church the converted Gentiles were not grafted; and if by the "tree," is meant the New Testament Church as an institution entirely new, and having no previous existence, from that Church the unbelieving Jews were not cut off, for they never belonged to it If it was neither the Old Testament, nor the New Testa ment Church, what Church was it? Is it not as clear as language can make it, that the believing Gentiles were grafted into the same stock from which the unbelieving Jews were broken off? If they were grafted into the same stock, did they not become branches of the same tree, and occupy the place of those who had been cut away? It cannot, therefore, be too often repeated, that the Church, as well as the covenant in which it is rooted, though varying its form and external constitution and aspect, has been substantially the same from the beginning.

J. C.

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THIS language is not true of any land in every season, but may always be rightly used respecting some land or other. At the present season it forcibly applies to Britain-" our native isle;" and the beauteous scene to which it relates should have the effect of prompting to a grateful consideration of the general love and beneficence of Him who is "good to all," His "tender mercies" being" over all His works." "O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness!" The earth is capable of yielding an ample supply of sustenance for all the dwellers upon it, and the Lord hath given it to the children of men" that they may "replenish and subdue it,” “dress it and keep it.” And as through Divine agency, diffusing itself and operating through human agency and appliances, "the valleys. are covered over with corn," to the end there may be an abundant supply of the "bread which strengtheneth man's heart," so 'mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other," in order that it may be practicable and easy for all to obtain "the true bread from heaven," and obtaining it live for ever. Neither temporal nor spiritual bread can, however, be righteously desired irrespectively of "patient continuance in welldoing;" those and those only have a right to eat of either who perseveringly and patiently work for it, or at least are habitually willing. A mind or disposition to work is what is first required, and in case of inability to do more, nothing more is required: "For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man bath, and not according to what he hath not." The valleys now so beautiful, fruitful, and joyous may be viewed as emblematical of humanity enlight

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ened, renovated, fruitful, happy, and communicative, in the service of the Lord. We see the product of human agency in connexion with Divine, the former being subservient to the latter, God influences His creatures "to will and to do of His good pleasure," or according to the counsel of His own will," in respect to providence as well as grace. The valleys are beautiful and rich with corn because of preparation of the soil. Reasonable expectation of beholding the fields white or yellow for harvest can never be but in connexion with diligent and judicious cultivation; so none of the fruits of holiness can reasonably be looked for in the character of "the natural man," but "evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, pride, foolishness" these are poisonous plants diffusing a pestiferous influence, poisonous reptiles creeping forth to envenom and corrupt; and "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Cultivation to the extent of producing" a new creation" being here necessary, in order to the beauty and fruits of holiness, a power more than human is clearly essential; at the same time, it may be affirmed that anxious and earnest operation of the moral agency of an unrenewed man is indispensable to being "created in Christ "Cleanse Jesus unto good works": your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded”; “Cast

away from you all your transgressions,

whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit." The unrenewed, unholy heart may also be likened to "fallow ground," destitute of fruitfulness and the genial influences which produce it, and hope