many nations-that they who are of faith are the children of Abraham, and to Abraham and his seed were the promises made-and much more to the same purpose.

One

Now if we are the seed of Abraham, for whom the covenant with him was established, and are still under the self same cove nant, then the same privileges that were herein granted to him, belong to us. grant of that covenant was, that infants should be received with their parents by the same sign and seal; and therefore we, as the seed of Abraham, may claim this privilege for our infants. Yea, God not only allowed, but commanded, that the appointed token of the covenant should be affixed to ev ery male child who was not under eight days old. Here then is a plain command given to Abraham our father, and consequently to us his children, to apply the to ken of this very covenant, which we are now under, to our infant seed. The only question is, whether there be now any token of the covenant? Had circumcision. been continued, none could doubt but infants were still subjects of it by virtue of the com

mand given to Abraham, unless they would expunge the 4th chap. to Rom. and 3d to Gal. Circumcision has ceased. But has Christ appointed any token of the gospel covenant? Baptism is certainly such. This then is to be applied to the same subjects as that was. If there was an express command to affix the covenant seal to infants in Abraham's time, and the covenant still remains; then the covenant seal, whatever it is, ought to be affixed to infants now, unless the command has been repealed. The change of the seal makes no change of the subject. There must be a command to warrant our rejecting the old subject, as well as to justify our dropping the old seal. If our brethren ask, why we have discontinued circumcision, and now make use of baptism? We answer, Christ has so commanded. Let them produce as good authority for affixing this new seal of the same covenant to believ ers only, and not to their children, and we will comply with them. We demand of them to shew us some plain, positive order of Christ to deny the seal of the covenant to those subjects, to whom it was first or

dered to be applied. Until such order appears, we boldiy affirm, that the old com mand remains, and to act in disobedience to it, is presumption.

6

To evade the force of this argument, our brethren assert, that the christian church is an institution entirely new; a structure erected on a new foundation, distinct from, and unconnected with the foundation of the patriarchal and Jewish church; for they easily see, that if the christian church is the ancient church, continued under the same covenant which was made in ancient times, then the admission of children with their parents into this church, will stand secure on the foot of the former institution. It may not therefore be improper to pursue our present argument a little farther.

*

The foundation of the ancient church is, the discovery of God's mercy to fallen men through a redeemer. This discovery was

first made to Adam in the sentence on the tempter; and afterward more fully to Abraham in the promise already mentioned. This God expressly calls his everlasting covenant. This is always considered by Moses and the

prophets, as the ground on which the faith and hope of the Jewish church rested. Moses says,* Ye stand all of you before the Lord, your wives and little ones, that thou shouldst enter into covenant with him, that he may be a God to thee, as he hath sworn to Abraham. The prophet Jeremiah, foretelling the gospel dispensation, describes it by an allusion to the covenant with Abraham, which he distinguishes from the covenant of peculiarity made with the Jews at Sinai, when they came out of Egypt. The apostle to the Hebrews applies the prophet's description to the gospel state. The old covenant, which, he says, was decayed and ready to vanish, is not the covenant with Abraham; for this he calls the covenant which God would make in the latter days, or would explicitly renew in the gospel time, promising, I will be their God; but the old covenant, which was to vanish away, no more to be renewed, is the ceremonial covenant, or that which Gods made with the Jews, when he brought them out of Egypt.

Deut. xxix. + Chap. xxxi. 31.

Chap. viii..

When the prophets foretel the call of the Gentiles, they speak of them as joining themselves to the church then subsisting. In the 49th chap. of Isaiah, God comforts Sion, the Jewish church, in her despondency, with a promise that he will never forsake her, but her walls shall be continually before him. Lift up thine eyes round about,' says her God, and behold! all these gather themselves together, and come unto THEE. The children, which thou shalt have after thou hast lost the other, shall say, the place is too strait for me. Then shalt thou say, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my other children? Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and they shall bring thy sons, in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.' The children of these Gentile proselytes are called the sons and daughters of the church. They are brought -in the arms of their parents to the church "to be nursed at her side.'-No words can more plainly describe the admission of Gentile proselytes into the very church which was then in being, and the solemn dedica