ses his promise of sanctification. Baptism speaks too by scriptural appointment and expresses reliance upon Christ for remission of sins. The Master says: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." He therefore who comes to God's minister to be baptized, professes to believe. The apostles summon men to be baptized for the remission of sin. He therefore who seeks baptism applies for justification by faith in Christ; while God, in administering baptism, signifies his acceptance of the subject upon the righteousness presented. Thus, by natural import and scriptural teaching, the ordinance of baptism clearly expresses the whole religious transaction between God and man: on the one hand both the repentance and the faith required of man; on the other, both the sanctification and the forgiveness promised by God. But baptism is not language merely, but conduct also. It executes the covenant. He who enters God's house and receives baptism at the hand of God's minister thereby speaks out before heaven and earth his repentance toward God and his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this with a view to present and eternal covenant with God for salvation. So when God, through his appointed representative solemnly administers the ordinance upon the person of the applicant, He too thereby speaks out on his part and closes the covenant with the believer by pledging the symbolized purification and forgiveness. But baptism goes still one step further. By baptism, as through a door, the subject verily enters into the household of God; while through baptism as by a personal embrace, God welcomes him to the adoption.

of a son.

What now is Christian baptism? It is neither more nor less than the great covenant of salvation between God and man expressed and executed, signed and sealed by both parties. Surely baptism is of God. The ordinance brings up every faculty of man's nature and every word of God's truth to impress upon man's soul the responsibility and the consolation of his covenant-stand at the moment when he first assumed it; and works to secure his final perseverance by solemnly renewing these impressions during every period of his subsequent life.

The final mark of the New Testament Church-what is it?

It is this. The Church has its sign and seal in an emblematic ordinance appointed by God for this purpose. Now if the Abrahamic covenant had been established and administered without any such sign and seal, although scripturally identical with the New Testament Church, as all the world must see, in the five important preceding particulars, there would still have existed one important difference between them.

It is not enough to say that the Abrahamic covenant, like the New Testament Church, has its divinely appointed sign and seal. More than this is true. Substantially the sign and the seal of the Abrahamic covenant is the sign and the seal of the Gospel covenant. This is true in a general sense. Each in its general nature is an outward sign of an inward grace. "Baptism is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." 1st Peter iii. 21. "Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter." Rom. ii. 29. Each too, in its general office, is the covenant of a purity required of man (Gen. xvii. 11), and promised by God (Deut. xxx. 6). But the similitude between baptism and circumcision is not confined to their general features; it is exact in every important particular. Four things define Christian baptism: 1. By its nature, baptism expresses purification from defilement. So does circumcision. Jer. iv. 4. 2. By scriptural appointment, baptism stands for faith a righteousness. So does circumcision. Rom. iv. 11. 3. By baptism the subject speaks out his repentance and faith covenanting with God, and God pledges purification and pardon covenanting with the subject. Precisely this is the operation in circumcision. Gen. xvii. 11. 4. In the very use of baptism the subject literally enters into God's family, and is received by Him. Exactly so was it with him who was circumcised of old. Phil. iii. 3.

Respecting this last feature of the New Testament Churchthe appointed seal, an emblematic rite-is not the Abrahamic covenant identical with the New Testament Church? The covenant of the Church in our day carries a sign and a seal appointed of God, and embodying the substance of the covenant, both on God's part and on man's. The covenant of the Church in Abraham's day employed a sign and a scal equally appointed

of God and descriptive of the respective pledges of the parties. It follows that the Abrahamic covenant and the Gospel economy, or New Testament Church, are one and the same. institution.

It will be readily granted if we separate from any given institution a permanent character, and make it of temporary obligation; or if we separate from it its parties, God and man, and substitute any other parties; or if we separate from its provisions, the Son and the Spirit; or if we separate from its requirements, faith a righteousness; or if we separate from its promise, eternal salvation; or if we separate from its consummation, a divine seal emblematic of the covenant; if any of these things be separated, we thereby prove that it is not the New Testament Church. But if we show an institution of which these six things are true: First, it is a divine arrangement as durable as the world. Second, its parties are God and man. Third, its provisions are the Son and the Spirit. Fourth, its requirement is faith a righteousness. Fifth, its promise is final salvation. Sixth, its consummation is a divine rite embodying the covenant. Is not that institution the Gospel economy? the New Testament Church? If any man denies this proposition what can he say? Certainly such an institution fills up the definition of the Church precisely. What is lacking? Here is the Founder of the Church! And the permanency of the Church! And the parties of the Church! And the provisions of the Church! And the requirement of the Church! And the reward of the Church! And the seal of the Church! And what of the Church is not here? If any man will do himself the justice to study out what he means by "The Church," we are persuaded he will find every constituent of it in the patriarchal economy.

We present two brief confirmations of this doctrine.

1st. The necessary identity of the Church in the two dispen

sations.

The Church must be the same in all ages, because the foundations are the same. What is the Church? The body through which is accomplished the plan of God for saving lost man, through Jesus Christ. What are the foundations of the Church? The great governing foundations are two-fold-God's nature

and relations on the one part, and man's nature and relations on the other. These are always the same. On the one hand, God's perfect character and His creating, preserving, blessing, and governing relations are always one and the same to all men. Man's accountable nature, fallen state, and infinite dependence are certainly one and the same in all ages of the world. Clearly, therefore, the plan of mercy growing up out of these elements can never essentially vary. Now if the nature of things, the history of the Church, and the word of God assure us that the two dispensations are not two religions, then the unity of the Church in both makes it certain that our interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant is correct. For the Gospel properties ascribed to the Abrahamic covenant must be found somewhere in the Old Testament. Can we find them in the Decalogue? Can we find them in the covenant of Sinai? Where are they if not in God's gracious covenant with the patriarch.

2. Express Scripture declarations.

It is the word of Paul, "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal. iii. 29). If you are Christ's, you are as closely identified with the Gospel, with our New Testament Church, as you can possibly be. But if you are Christ's, if you are in the Gospel, if you are of the Church, this very fact makes you the seed of Abraham, connects you this day with that covenant which God of old made with the patriarch. Settle this fact that you are a Christian, and you have settled another fact, that you are under the Abrahamic covenant. You cannot be in Christ and out of Abraham. For an apostle says, "If ye are Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." is just saying, if you cannot tear away the Gospel from Christ, you cannot tear it away from the Abrahamic covenant.

This

Again. Paul opens his way to the previous text by this announcement: "The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. iii. 8. This, in substance, is the summing up of the Abrahamic covenant. The first thought, justification by faith, and the second, the blessing of the nations in the seed of Abraham,

make up its ordinary description. This passage identifies itself with the Gospel in two ways. The apostle's description of the Abrahamic covenant is an exact description of the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Christ for man and justification by faith. The Abrahamic covenant includes them both. First, "In thy seed-Christ-shall all the nations be blessed." Here in the Abrahamic covenant we have Christ for man. Again, "Foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith," as well as Abraham, the Jew. Here in the Abrahamic covenant we have justification by faith. Thus the Abrahamic covenant is the Gospel, that is, it is a system of salvation by Jesus Christ which of old justified Abraham by faith, and is now justifying the heathen on the same principle. But this passage involves express as well as argumentative testimony to the identity of the New Testament and the Abrahamic covenant. The New Testament name is given to the Old Testament covenant. The apostle expressly affirms this covenant with Abraham to be "The Gospel." God of old made a covenant with Abraham. In so doing, the apostle says, "He preached the Gospel unto Abraham." If the Scripture, or the Scripture's God, knows what the Gospel is, the Abrahamic covenant is the Gospel: nor can mortal deny it save at the expense of being wise above what is written.

INFERENCE.

If the doctrine advanced be true, then CHRISTIAN PARENTS

ARE BOUND TO PRESENT THEIR CHILDREN FOR BAPTISM.

It is a remarkable fact that there is one duty enjoined by the Abrahamic covenant which is not only styled the keeping of the covenant, but in one form or other is frequently repeated in the language of the covenant. This is the application of the sign and the seal of the covenant to the person of the seed. God says to the patriarch, "Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you." He whose alone right it was to limit or extend the covenant and its token, of His own good pleasure, has placed on record this additional emphatic language," This is the covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee, every male child among you shall be circumcised." The VOL. III.-35