children by Adoption, in distinction from wicked men, who were children of God by Creation only, and had forfeited this relation by their apostacy. By this title they professed themselves to be penitents, believers, obedient; to have the disposition of children; and to reverence, love, and serve God. As this title is adopted afterward by the Divine Writers throughout the Scriptures; it is fairly presumed to have been directed, originally, by God himself: for it is scarcely credible, that God would every where call his Church by a name, derived from mere human assumption.

I have observed, that this phraseology is ever afterwards used to denote the Church. The members of the Church are called Sons of God twelve times in the Scriptures; his children twice in the Old, and ten times in the New, Testament; and his people, in instances too numerous to be reckoned. In all these instances the Sons, and Children, of God denote those, who are such by adop tion; and, in very many, the phrase, the People of God, has the same meaning. But the adopted Children of God are Christians. The original Church, therefore, consisted of Christians; or, in other words, those, who were subjects of faith, repentance, and holiness. This is evident, also, from the fact, that the holy Angels are called the Sons of God: an application of the phrase, which indicates that holy beings, only, are designated by this title.

The same Doctrine is also illustrated by the Ordinance of Baptism. In the administration of this ordinance, persons are baptised not in, but into, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: that is, by his appointment they are introduced into his family, and take his name upon them, as being his Children.

This title, also, was adopted at first, to distinguish those by whom it was adopted, from persons who were destitute of faith, repentance, and holiness; and therefore was a direct profession of piety on the part of those, by whom it was assumed.

II. The Doctrine is illustrated by the Establishment, and Character, of the Jewish Church, as exhibited in the Scriptures.

The Establishment of the Jewish Church was not the formation of a new Church, but a continuation of the original, or patriarchal, Church, under a form, in some respects new. Particularly, it was confined to a single family; that of Abraham; was furnished with a series of written revelations, from the time of Moses; and had new Sacraments instituted; viz. Circumcision in the time of Abraham, and the Passover in the days of Moses.

A new Ritual was also given, at this latter period, for the universal direction of its worship; typifying, in a decisive manner, the Mediation of Christ, and the worship of Christians. Agreeably to this scheme, the Church was established on the same foundations, as before. In the 17th of Genesis we have an account of this establishment, from the 4th verse to the end of the 14th. The amount of this Covenant was plainly, That God would be the God of Abraham and his seed: as God himself explains this subject, VOL. IV.

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Ezek. xvi. 8; where, speaking of the Jewish Nation, as his Church, he says, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee; and thou becamest mine. In accordance with this exhibition God directed Moses to say to Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my Son, even my first-born.

The same thing is also evident from the manner, in which the Israelites renewed, and took upon themselves individually, the covenant made with Abraham. Of this transaction we have an account in Deut. xxvi. 16, &c. This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments. Thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice; and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee; and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments, and to make thee high above all nations, which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.

Here it is manifest, that the Israelites avouched, that is, publicly and solemnly declared, JEHOVAH to be their God; whom they chose, as such; and whom, as such, they covenanted faithfully to obey in all his commandments, with all the heart, as an holy people. Equally evident is it, that God avouched them to be his people; whom he had chosen to be a peculiar people to himself. Accordingly, on the one hand, it was perpetually enjoined upon them, that they should love the Lord their God with all their heart; in which case he promised to keep his Covenant with them; (see Deut. vii. 9) and on the other, he declared repeatedly, that he had chosen them to be a special and peculiar people unto himself. Deut. vii. 6, and xvi. 2.

The same thing is also evident from God's express prohibition, to the wicked, of taking his covenant into their mouths. Ps. 1. 16. Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do, to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant into thy mouth? Unto the wicked; that is, to all, included under this title, or to all wicked persons, God saith, that is, universally, as an expression of his will at all times.

This declaration was made immediately to the Israelites; to the wicked members of the Jewish Church; and contains an absolute prohibition of this conduct on the part of sinful men. No national connexion, therefore, with a church, no descent from Abraham, gave a right to any wicked Israelite to take the covenant into his mouth. Although he had been circumcised, he was still abhorred in this transaction; and exposed himself in a peculiar degree to the anger of God.

Finally; The same thing is evident from the manner in which God speaks of their sin in breaking his Covenant. In Lev. xxvi.

15, &c. God says, If ye shall despise my statutes; or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant; I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain; for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, &c. In Deut. xxix. 22, and onward, Moses says, So that the generation to come of your children, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of your land, and the sickness which the Lord hath laid upon it, and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, salt, and burning, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim: Even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto his land, and what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers. See also Jer. xxii. 8, 9. Ezek. xvi. 59.

Hos. x. 4.

III. This doctrine is illustrated, also, by the Nature of the Covenant between God and the Members of the Church.

As there have been various opinions, relative to this subject; it seems necessary, that it should be considered with some particu larity. I observe, therefore,

1. That the Israelites were required, expressly, to enter into an open, public covenant with God.

Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Deut. vi. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God: him shalt thou serve: to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. Deut. x. 20. In that day shall five Cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of Hosts. Is. xix. 18. And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth; (as they taught my people to swear by Baal) then shall they be built in the midst of my people. Jer. xii. 16. Them that worship the Host of Heaven the house top, and them that worship, and swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham. Zeph. i. 5.

upon

It is observed by President Edwards, that the phrase, Swear by the Lord, ought to be rendered, swear to, or unto, the Lord; and that the true meaning of the phrase is, Ye shall enter into covenant with the Lord your God. Accordingly, the transaction, already quoted from Deut. xxvi. 16, in which God avouched the Israelites to be his people, and they avouched him to be their God, is styled both a Covenant, and an Oath. Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God, says Moses to the whole people of Israel, that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his Oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee to-day for a people unto himself, that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither

with you only do I make this covenant, and this oath, but with him that standeth here with us this day, before the Lord our God, and also of him who is not here with us this day.

Of the transactions, here recorded, I observe,

First. That it is styled both an Oath, and a Covenant.

Secondly. That it was entered into by all the Israelites, both old and young, and by the strangers, who were with them; and was made, on the part of God, with their posterity; Him, that is not here with us this day.

Thirdly. It was a covenant, of the same tenour with that, which God made with Abraham: That he might be unto thee a God, as he had sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, &c.

Fourthly. That the Covenant, or Oath, was the same with that recorded in Deut. xxvi. JEHOVAH avouched them to be his people; and they avouched him to be their God.

Fifthly. That it is the same covenant afterwards prophesied of by Jeremiah, xxxi. &c., and quoted by St. Paul, Heb. viii. 8, as the covenant of the Christian Church: I will be to them a God; and they shall be to me a people.

From these remarks it is plain, that the Oath, here sworn by all the people of Israel, was no other than a Religious Covenant between God, and them as members of his Church. Scarcely one in one thousand of these persons could have any lawful occasion for swearing in any other sense; and at the time here specified, no such occasion existed to any individual : their whole business being merely to enter into this covenant with God.

As they are accused frequently of having broken this covenant in their succeeding generations; it is plain, that throughout those generations they entered into it in a similar manner. Several instances of this nature are particularly recorded. A remarkable one is found in 2 Chron. xv. 12, &c. Here it is said of all Judah, and Benjamin, and strangers from Israel, that they entered into a covenant, to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart, and with all their soul. Of this transaction it is said, That they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice; and all Judah rejoiced at the oath for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire. The Covenant, and the Oath, therefore, were the same thing. It was, also, a service commanded for it is subjoined, And he was found of them: that is, he blessed them. But God blesses men, to whom he has made a revelation of his will, in no religious service, which he hath not commanded. In vain, saith our Saviour, (quoting from the prophet Isaiah) do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Another instance is alluded to in 2 Chron. xxix. 10.

Another is recorded 2 Chron. xxiii. 16.

Another, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31, 32.

In a word, the whole tenour of the Old Testament teaches us, that the Israelites were required publicly to enter into covenant

with God in this manner; and that this covenant is styled indifferently a Covenant, and an Oath. As, therefore, there is no hint of any other oath, ever taken to God by this people, as a nation; as there is no conceivable occasion, upon which a whole nation can be supposed, throughout its successive generations, to enter into any other oath to God; it is plain, that the precepts, requiring them to swear to God, required them solely thus to take upon them this covenant.

2. The Members of the Christian Church are in my view, required to enter into the same covenant, in the same public manner.

In Is. xlv. 22, God says, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God; and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return; that unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear. In this passage, as quoted Rom. xiv. 11, by the Apostle Paul, the word rendered swear, is translated confess; soμodoyndera; as it had before been by the LXX. This, I think, is a direct proof of the real meaning of the word, swear, when used in this manner in the Old Testament. The same meaning appears to be given by God himself in the following verse, in Isaiah. Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. The verb quoλoysw, signifies indifferently to profess and confess; and being thus a translation, both by the LXX and St. Paul, of the Hebrew verb, which signifies to swear, may be considered, wherever it is used with the same reference, or in the absolute manner, as having the same meaning. In allusion to the same passage of Isaiah, and with an almost literal translation of it, St. Paul says, Phil. ii. 10, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Here the same verb is used, and translated confess. In 1 Tim. vi. 12, the same verb, and its kindred substantive, are rendered profess; as also in 2 Cor. ix. 13; Heb. iii. 1; Heb. iv. 14; Heb. x. 23. &c. The truth is, the words profess, and confess, differ only in this; that one of them denotes an acknowledgment made with, the other without, any supposed present, or previous, reluctance. Wherever such reluctance is not supposed, it ought to be translated profess. The duty of men to make this profession and their future performance of it, our Saviour clearly discloses in Matt. x. 32. Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, him will I confess, also, before my Father who is in Heaven. In exact conformity to this declaration, St. Paul says, Rom. ix. 10, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead; thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. In both these passages the word ought to be profess, and profession. It is not easy to conceive how, in so short a compass, the