George Paxton I.6
James Dodson
SECT VI.
THE PERSONS REPRESENTED IN A RELIGIOUS COVENANT.
THE congregation of Israel at Sinai and Jordan represented both their natural and moral descendents. The stranger entered into cove-
[Page 40]
nant along with the native Israelite; and himself and children were bound to observe its conditions, as well as the lineal and natural seed of Abraham. “Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes—and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water: that thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath*.” These Gentile strangers were then made to represent their posterity in a religious covenant; and it is just as easy to understand how they can do so still. The Gentiles were never altogether cast off and excluded from all share in the blessings of salvation, for there were many of them in Israel all the time the Old Testament church existed; and they suffered for their breach of covenant as well as the native Israelites. To be admitted into the Israelitish church, the Gentile convert renounced his kindred and nation, and fixed his permanent abode within the limits of the promised land, that he might be able to observe the Ceremonial Law. He became an Israelite—a federal son of Abraham. But these circumstances have passed away with the other peculiar and exclusive observances of the Jewish people. Under the present dispensation, the covenant made with Abraham embraces the Gentile nations as his spiritual seed, without requiring those conditions which the Ceremonial Law imposed. The promise runs no more in blood but in faith. And when the Jews are recovered from their infidelity and restored to the church, it will not be as the lineal descendents of the Patriarch, but as the professed disciples of Jesus. It is conceived that they will come into the church, in the same manner as others, not as a nation, but as individual believers.
The persons whom our fathers represented by the gracious constitution of God, are, in like manner, their natural and spiritual seed, their own children, and all others who accede to their principles and profession. These two classes still constitute the descendents of the church. The children of professing parents are affected by the federal obligations of their fathers as soon as they are born. From the moment of their birth, they are members of the church by the same gracious constitution of God which comprehends them in the religious covenants of their ancestors. They belong to the household of faith, and have a federal right to all the privileges of the family suited to their years†.
_____
* Deut. xxix. 11, 12.
† The Israelitish infants had a Right to Circumcision, for God commanded them to be circumcised; and what can give a more perfect right than the command of God? To the Hebrew infants circumcision was a real and great advantage; it was the to-
[Page 41]
Therefore, from that moment the obligation of the covenant reaches them, and they are bound as strongly as their progenitors to fulfil their engagements as divine Providence puts it in their power. When these children arrive at maturity, it is their duty to confess the name of Christ as their fathers had done before them, by renewing their covenant with God; but they do not now come under this obligation for the first time. As members of the church they were covenanters from the beginning.
When adults declare their adherence to a covenanted church, and ask admission to her solemn ordinances, they put themselves under the obligation of that religious covenant which the society has sworn. Those foreigners who are naturalized and become subjects and citizens in this country, are from that moment bound by all our national compacts, as much as any other class of men. Under the Law, those Gentiles who acceded to the Jewish church became an integral part of that covenanting people. Thus, there is no difference between the children of the original members of the church, and those strangers who embrace her profession at a mature age.
Of these two classes the spiritual progeny of the church consists: and the church, as such, can have none but spiritual or moral descendents. Adult converts are obviously of this character; and the children of church-members must be considered in the same light, from the mo-
_____
[continued from page 40] ken of God’s covenant which exhibited them as the rising hopes of the church, in and by whom the true religion was to be preserved and transmitted to the generations following; and also, as the objects of that special Providence that watches over the members and interests of the church. This token, also, pointed them out as the approved and primary objects of the church’s concern, prayers, and nurture, Gen. xvii. 9, 10, 11, 12. Their right to this ordinance may be justly inferred from the sentence of excommunication to which the want of it exposed them. The unconscious infants were punished for want of circumcision in their own persons, their negligent parents only in a remote and indirect manner, in the persons of their excommunicated children, verse 14. But to punish them for wanting that to which they had no right, and in which they had no interest, seems to be absurd. Therefore, the infants of New Testament parents have a right to Baptism; otherwise, infants under the Old Testament dispensation were in a far better condition than those under the New, and the privileges of the Old Testament church more numerous and extensive, contrary to the express declarations of scripture, 2 Cor. iii. 9, 10, 11. The mode of administering the covenant may be altered; but, if the scripture be true, the number of the church’s privileges will remain undiminished, and their value unimpaired. Nay, the words of the Apostle teach us to expect, under the present dispensation, advantages, if not more numerous, at least more precious, than the Jewish church enjoyed; for the ministration of righteousness—the New Testament dispensation exceeds in glory, yea, is much more glorious.
[Page 42]
ment of their birth. Children of Christian parents are the natural offspring of individuals, but the spiritual seed of the church as much as the full grown convert. By the appointment of God, indeed, their moral descent is inseparably connected with their natural; but they are perfectly distinct. It is the duty of a parent to dedicate his progeny to God, from whom he received them. But when he enters into covenant along with the church to which he belongs; it is not as a father, but as a church member. His children are comprehended among those of the church; for Jerusalem which is above, is the mother of us all. And they are, together with the present rising generation, and every succeeding race, set apart by their general parent, at the same time, to the service of God. In the covenanting period, our fathers seem to have viewed this matter in the same light, for they have contented themselves with general expressions, which are in no respect inconsistent with the sentiments maintained here. Accordingly, the National Covenant contains these words; “And finally, being convinced in our minds, and confessing with our mouths, that the present and succeeding generation in this land, are bound to keep the foresaid national oath and subscription inviolable.” The same indefinite language is used in the Solemn League and Covenant: “That we and our posterity after us, may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us.” Many among our ancestors, when they entered into their covenants, had no children of their own bodies, and not a few, in all probability, had ceased to hope for this enjoyment; for this is ever the case among all large bodies of men. Therefore it would have been absurd for them to have devoted their posterity to the Lord, but as members of the society. Those who were blessed with children might have their eye particularly upon their own offspring, as in duty bound; but, if they acted properly, their proceeding could not be confined to them. Our fathers endeavoured to confine their obligations to the “succeeding generations in this land;” but, perhaps, this is an improper limitation. It was certainly proper to have a particular respect to those generations which were to succeed them in this country, whether their own lineal descendents or others: but they ought to have inserted a general clause, embracing all those individuals, or bodies of men, who might put their trust under the wings of their God, by adopting the same principles, and making the same profession in connection with them.
The church’s descendents are all those who accede to her Testimony, and live under her laws. It is of no consequence where they dwell, or to what nation they belong, or what civil institutions they live under.
[Page 43]
In Christ Jesus, there is neither Barbarian, Scythian, Bond nor Free. Those who embrace the Testimony and Profession of the covenanted church of Scotland, are the lawful progeny of our fathers in their religious capacity, though their lot were cast in the remotest parts of the earth. It is the folly, the presumption, and the carnal policy of worldly men, which have set up their particular regulations as walls of separation among Christians. Far from countenancing such partialities, the scripture endeavours to combine all the families of Adam, into one delightful fraternity. Covenanting, or avouching the Lord to be our God, is a religious duty, and competent only to the church of Christ, or to the individuals who compose it. The design is not carnal and worldly, but spiritual—“That we may walk in the ways of the Lord, that we may keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and hearken to his voice.” We know not what a Nation or Kingdom, as such, has to do with this duty more than with the Lord’s Supper, or any other ordinance. What has this spiritual duty, which is the business of the church alone, to do with the limits of an earthly kingdom, or with the particular forms of civil government? Did the Apostolic churches mould themselves upon these civil, political, or local institutions or circumstances? Or, in what part of the New Testament is it required, or any encouragement given to attempt it? All the people of a nation may, and ought to be church members, and in this capacity enter into covenant to discharge their respective duties to God, to themselves, and to their neighbour, with integrity: and this may, with sufficient propriety, be called National Covenanting. But, in any other sense, the term is inconsistent with the spiritual nature of the Messiah’s kingdom. The Law of God prescribes the duty of Magistrate and People, and the church insists upon all her members to fulfil their respective duties; but has no knowledge of such distinctions. High and Low, Rich and Poor, Magistrates and People, are all melted down into church members, forming one society with the same laws and privileges. With the church, constituted according to scripture, there is no respect of persons. All her members, by whatever names or stations they are known in the world, are equally members of Christ’s mystical body. “For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread*.”
_____
* 1 Cor. x. 17.