though it may have a mean, can be suspended upon no condition whatever. The seed was the election. The most perfect faithfulness with respect to all others, would of course be wholly ineffectual. Probably Isaac was as faithful to Esau, as to Jacob. Aaron, for aught that appears, was as faithful to Nadab and Abihu, as to Eleazer and Ithamar. David was probably as faithful to Absalom as to Solomon. Circumcision was not therefore administered upon the ground of such an infallible universal connexion.

5. It is plain from the foregoing premises, that the covenant of circumcision was the basis of a society, and such a kind of society as there was nothing like it in all the world. It was a society, which embraced the heirs of the eternal inheritance. It was a society which, as to its descriptive character, consisted of the seed which was the blessed of the Lord. It was appropri ated by Jehovah, as, his family, his inheritance,his por tion. Those who composed it were his people, and he was their God. They were under his special government and care as his; as those whom all the promises of his covenat respected. Christ was united to this society as its saviour. Its institutions and laws were holy. Its character was holy. Its relations and interests were holy. In a moral view therefore it was the contrast of all institutions among men, merely national and civil. There was not, indeed, a vestige of any thing. national, or civil belonging to it; according to the common import of those terms, as signifying combinations and laws, of a mere worldly design. The society was not a kingdom of the earth; but the kingdom of heaven:

6. It is evident, that this society, formed by the cov enant of circumcision, and of which this covenant was ⚫ the constitutional basis, was indissolvable. It was to last forever. Whether the members of it should be in heaven or upon earth; whether it should occupy, as its place of rest, Egypt, or the Wilderness, or Canaan, or the territories of the Gentiles; whether it should have one modification, or another; be under this dispen

sation, or that; it was to be of interminable duration. The covenant is declared to be everlasting. The establisher of it is the living God. The promises of this covenant respect a redeemed seed; and they are redeemed in such a high and exalted sense, as that they are made unto God, kings and priests forever.

7. It is evident that the infant offspring of those adults who belonged to this society, whether in the line of the natural posterity of Abraham, or of the adoption, were members of it. They were so by birth; and as completely members then, as when they became adults. They were the seed constituting the society; and whom the promises of the covenant respected. Hence the fact, which is so uncontrovertible as not to be denied by any denomination of Christians, that the infants of Israel were considered and treated as compleatly mem. bers of the body. With their parents, they came under all the collective epithets, which designated the society.

8. It is evident from the foregoing view of the covenant state of the seed, that those who died in their infancy, not having been excepted from the body of the seed by any express testimony, or in the execution of the laws of the covenant, were to be considered as saved. None will deny this, who do not deny the possibility of the salvation of infants altogether. But surely they are as capable of salvation, as of being made subjects of promise. And their being subjects of an unconditional gracious promise, concludes in favor of their being considered heirs of the inheritance.__The kingdom is in heaven as well as upon earth. Death therefore does not dismember from it. This was a very important part of the blessing secured in the covenant, and made a wide difference, between the covenanted people of God, and the heathen world. On account of this difference, the heathen are called by Paul, Ephesians ii. 12. σε ξενοι των διαθήκων της επαγγελίασ,” strangers from the covenants of promise; and are said to be without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world.

9. It is evident from the illustrations which have been brought into view respecting the seed, that individual descendants from Abraham could be deprived of the blessings of the covenant, or fail of having God, for their God, in the strict sense of the promise, but in one way; i.. by refusing the covenant alliance. I do not now speak of the divine sovereignty, which is the cause why one is taken and the other left; but of the part which man acts as a moral agent. The external administration of the covenant, involved a proposal on the part of God, to be the God of all to whom it was addressed. This was another point of great difference between the posterity of Abraham, and the rest of the world. This proposition has never been made to mankind, univer. sally. It has been made in connexion with the preservation and promulgation of the covenant only.The way, and the only way, then, by which individuals lived and died, without any interest in the blessings of the covenant, was unbelief. Hence those who were chargeable with unbelief, were openly cut off from the

covenant.

10. It is evident, that if the covenant of circumcis ion, be altogether of a gracious nature, as it has been largely shewn that it is, then the dutiful observance of the ordinance of circumcision, by the adult, must have been understood to be an act of faith. 'Circumcision was a token of promise. The promise was embraced by faith only. The application of the token then, when dutifully applied, was an act of faith. It was of course, believer's, and not unbeliever's circumcision. Yet,

11. It evidently appears from the view which has been taken of the covenant, that actual faith was by no means an essential qualification in the subject of circumcision.* It was a requisite, respecting the adult proselyte; butnot at all respecting the seed. Their passivity in circumcision, and as subjects of the covenant initially,

"The most plausible agrument against the baptism of infants, has been founded on this principle, viz, that actual faith is a necessary qualification for that ordinance. This argument is the dernier resort of the antipodobaptists, and the whole weight of their cause rests and, depends upon it."

Anizi Lewis.

was understood, because they were only covenanted about.

12. We are shewn in these illustrations the reason why the term circumcision is so often used in the scriptures, as characterising and designating the people of God, in distinction from the world. Romans iii. 10. "Seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith," &c. Philippians iii. 3. "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh." The reason is, that circumcision was a seal of the absolute promises of the covenant, and designated the seed, to whom it was applied, as visible subjects of these promises. This is the evident reason also, why circumcision is so often mentioned as representing internal sanctification. The seed whom the promise embraced were really sanctified. Circumcisfon was expressive of their being so. The peculiar nature, time, and circumstances of the ordinance, all concurred to make this expression in the most perfect manner. *

13. To the common question, (expressive either of ignorance or unbelief,) what good could it do to circumcise an infant child, who in the act must have been altogether passive? We have the very best answer. Circumcision, when applied to the infant, much more clearly expressed the nature of the covenant, than when applied to the adult proselyte. The covenant, in all the promises of it, had respect to blessings which were to take place by descent. It respected a seed naturally, and adoptatively. Circumcision, therefore, when applied to infants, was attached to the very subjects on which the promise terminated. The language of it was precisely that of the covenant, that the seed was bles sed. It marked the subjects as belonging to God, by. a most gracious covenant relation. It was the grand

"The time of performing this rite, was on the eighth day, because it was hot till then, sufficiently cleansed from the impurities of its birth; nor was the mother past her greatest pollution, and consequently, could not touch it without rendering it unclean.-That member which is the instrument of generation, was made choice of, that they might be an holy seed, consecrated unto God from the beginning." Lewis's Hebrew Republish.

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public seal of the charter, not merely of their temporal, but of their eternal inheritance. It was especially such as applied to the seed in their infancy. Had it been de ferred to adult years, its peculiar meaning would have been lost. Accordingly, to the question, What profit is there in circumcision? The apostle answers, "much every way; chiefly, because, that unto them were committed the oracles of God." They had the word of promise. This involved the security of the salvation of the seed, embraced in the promise. What impiety then, to treat with disrespect, as a burdensome, unmeaning, carnal ceremony, an institution, the language of which is so infinitely gracious; and which is of such solemn consideration in the account of God! 14. It is evident, from the view which has been taken of the covenant of circumcision, that it made pro vision for, and was to be carried into effect by means of, a strictly pious education. It was to be established with the seed in their generations. The blessing was to go down the lapse of time, in a succession of pious recipients. These recipients were to become pious, and inherit the promises, through the instrumentality of instruction. For, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. God accomplishes all his purposes of grace by means. These means are to be used with diligence; and, as they are covenant means, and given for the express purpose of being channels, by which the blessing is to flow down from generation to generation, this diligence has every possible encouragement, short of being universally effectual. As a general principle, it is designed to be effectual, in proportion to the fidelity exercised, in teaching and governing, persuading and praying for. This is clearly exhibited in the testimony of God respecting Abraham, which we have had occasion before to introduce. "I know Abraham, that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that God may bring upon Abraham, that which he hath spoken of him." Accordingly, Moses, to subserve