the covenant which GOD made with ABRAHAM; and therefore, in the fecond place, the way to find out the nature of the Abrahamical or pure Jewish church, is to confider the nature of the covenant or promise upon which it was founded; and if we examine the scriptures, we fhall find, that it was an Evangelical covenant, for fubftance the fame with that which is fince made betwixt GoD and us, thro' CHRIST. This will appear upon a review of those fcriptures which teach us, That faith was the condition of this Abrahamical covenant; that it was made with ABRAHAM,* as the father of the faithful, and in him with all believers, with his fpiritual as well as carnal feed, proceeding from him by Spiritual as well as carnal generation; and that the bleffings or promises of this covenant belonged unto them upon the fame account of their faith."||

* "Fide autem ftare juftitiam, et illic effe vitam predictum eft apud HABAKKUC. Justus autem ex fide vivet. Inde ABRAHAM Pater Gentium credidit. In Genes. credidit ABRAHAM DEO, et deputatum eft ei ad juftitiam. Cognofcitis ergo qui ex fide sunt, hi funt filii ABRAHÆ, providens fcriptura quia ex fide, &c."

CYPRIAN advers. Judæos. "Succeffiffe verò in eorum locum Chriftianos fide Dominum promerentes, et de amnibus gentibus, ac toto orbe venientes."

CYPRIAN ad Quirin. Testim. l. iii. 11 "Cafe of Infant Baptifm by the Dean of Worcester." See London Cafes, No. 15,

The covenant, then, that was made by GoD with ABRAHAM, was the Gospel covenant, containing the promise of bleffing to all nations in CHRIST. Of admiffion into this covenant circumcifion was, at that time, the appointed feal. Circumcifion, therefore, was not a legal inftitution, but the feal of the Gospel covenant, administered to ABRAHAM four hundred and thirty years before the introduction of the law. Agreeably to which our SAVIOUR told the Jews, that "MOSES gave unto them circumcifion, not because it was of Moses, but of the fathers."

All the alteration that took place in this business, upon our SAVIOUR'S establishment of his church, was in the nature of the feal of the covenant; our SAVIOUR having exchanged the fevere and painful one of circumcifion, for the more mild and practicable one of baptifm. The feal, then, is altered, but the covenant remains the fame.

The covenant, therefore, into which Christians are admitted by baptifm, being the fame Gospel covenant, which was confirmed before to ABRAHAM in CHRIST; the mere change in the no difference with refpect to the

parties to be admitted into it.

ritual can make

capability of the

Confequently the

precept delivered to ABRAHAM, (Gen. x. 17) re

fpecting the admiffion of infants into the Gospel covenant by circumcifion, applies with equal force to the admiffion of infants into it by baptifm; circumcifion and baptifm being feals or tokens of the fame covenant, appointed by GOD to be made ufe of for the fame purpose, at different periods. Hence it comes to pafs, that the Church Chriftian is called in the New Testament, the new and supernal Jerufalem; to let us know that Christianity is nothing but fpiritual Judaism; the fame city new reformed, constituted upon a new charter, bleffed with more noble and ample privileges than formerly, and every way better built, and more august than it was. Thus in Rev. iii. 12, "Unto him that overcometh (faith the Son of Man) I will write the name of my Gop, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerufalem, which is come out of heaven from my GOD;" that is, I will acknowledge him that holds out to the end for a perfon truly godly, and for a true member of the pure Catholic-Christian church, which is the spiritual Jerufalem defcended from above. And sọ, c. xxi. 2, "I faw the holy city (New Jerufalem) coming down from GOD, down out of heavens, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband," meaning JESUS CHRIST. So, in Gal. iv. “ Jerufalem,

which is from above, is a free city, which is the mother of us all."*

To what has been faid, it need only be added, (for I avoid entering at large into a subject which has been fo frequently and fully handled) that our SAVIOUR found the Jews in the practice of infant baptifm; as has, I think, upon the ground of the strongest probability, been maintained by learned men. He, therefore, only transferred this ceremony from the Jewish church to his own, by making it the facrament of initiation into it. It is to be concluded therefore, that the Apostles, who were Jews

themselves, and who were

first offer of the Gofpel to

directed to address the

"the last sheep of the

houfe of Ifrael;" in baptizing them into the church of CHRIST, or rather into the new difpenfation of it, would obferve the general practice to which they had been accustomed, if they had received no express precept from CHRIST to direct them otherwise.

But the commiffion delivered to them by CHRIST was of a moft general and comprehenfive nature:"Go ye, and baptize all nations." In confequence of which commiffion, we read of their baptizing

*See "Cafe of Infant Baptifm, by the Dean of Worcester," London Cafes.

whole houses, without any exception being made to any perfons contained in them. If our SAVIOUR had not defigned that baptism should be administered to infants, the commiffion to his Apostles would certainly have been accompanied with an express prohibition to that effect, to prevent their falling into fo obvious a mistake. No fuch prohibition appearing, is a circumstance that, in reasonable construction, amounts to a confirmation of the practice then in ufe. For a rule that has once regularly obtained, if unrepealed, ftill remains in force. This is the argument made ufe of upon this fubject by one of the most learned writers* of our church, and it appears to be unanfwerable: " If baptifm and the baptizing of infants had been a new thing, and unheard of until JOHN Baptift came, as circumcifion was, until GOD appointed it to ABRAHAM; there would have been, no doubt, an exprefs command for baptizing infants, as there was for circumcifing them." But, "fince it was ordinary in all ages to have infants baptized, if CHRIST would have had that custom abolished, he would have exprefsly forbidden it. So that his and the fcriptures' filence in this matter does confirm and establish infant baptifm for ever."

* LIGHTFOOT.