faith hath been made the principle of a moral and legal union with Christ, so that all his merits are imputed to the believer, and become his title with divine justice, as if he were one with the Redeemer. This union is represented in the holy scriptures under different images which indicate it to be of the most intimate kind. It is the union of the members with the head-the connexion of the branches with the vine -the junction of the whole building with the corner stone upon which it rests. Expressions which convey, in lively figures, the relation of believers to Christ through faith, and the intimacy of union which subsists between them.-Such is the virtue of the grace of faith, on which it becomes a rational, as it is acknowledged to be the scriptural ground of bestowing on the believer all the blessings of the New Covenant.

OF THE

EXTERNAL SEALS

OF THE

COVENANT OF GRACE.

As God has been pleased to exhibit his grace to the world under the idea of a covenant which he condescends to enter into with the penitent and believing sinner, and provisionally offers to all who, by the gospel, are called from among our fallen and corrupted race, to seek the inheritance of eternal life, we have just ground to expect that every ordinary form, which usage has annexed to a transaction of this kind among men, will be preserved in this appointment of God. Therefore, to the gracious promise of the covenant, which, as has before been shewn, constitutes its essence, he has annexed his seal, in order to add greater authenticity to this object of our faith, and give it a more affecting impression on the heart.

BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER BOTH SEALS OF THE

COVENANT OF GRACE.

A seal is usually, any emblematic symbol employed in consequence of the agreement of parties, or appointed by

public authority, to be a sign, and memorial of consent in covenants, or an authentic testimonial, that any transaction into which we have entered, is our own act. For the same purpose, in the early and rude ages, parties forming a solemn compact frequently erected a pillar as a permanent memorial of the fact, or, more solemnly, built an altar, confirming their paction by an act of religion. Often they gave a small portion of the soil which was transferred by the contract, a penny of the sum which was to be paid, or some earnest or pledge of possession or fulfilment of the covenant. All these acts were of the nature of seals. In ages more refined instead of these rude devices, some hieroglyphic or symbolic representation was added to written contracts for the same purpose. In the church God has instituted symbolical actions, by which the Covenant of Grace is visibly ratified, when he offers it to the acceptance of believers and their offspring, as in the ordinance of baptism; or by which they solemnly declare their acceptance of its terms, as in the Lord's Supper. Baptism may be called the hieroglyphic, or symbol of regeneration; as the Lord's Supper is of the sacrifice of our redemption, and of the charity which should unite believers in love to their 'common Lord, and to one another. These actions, therefore from their nature, and from the uses to which they are applied, partake of the essence of seals.

Their being appointed by Almighty God to be employed as seals of the Covenant of Grace, may be further established, from the express words of the apostle, by whom circumcision is styled, a seal of the righteousness which is by faith; Rom. iv. 11: and from the analogy which subsists between the ordinances of baptism and circumcision. Both are emblems of purification; both administered on the condition of believing the promise of God in the Messiah; both are the external sign and confirmation of this faith; and both are applied, as shall be shewn, hereafter, for attaining all the gracious purposes of the covenant to believers, and to their infant seed. And this style has been used, with respect to baptism in particular, by the earliest writers in the christian church; and by those who were cotemporary with, or who immediately succeeded the apostles.

OTHER DENOMINATIONS APPLIED TO THEM.

Besides the denominations which these ordinances have respectively received, arising from circumstances peculiar to each; such as the regeneration of water applied to baptism, and the eucharist, and communion applied to the Lord's Supper, they have, from the earliest ages, been entitled mysteries and sacraments. The former term was borrowed from the pagan worship, and cherished by the converts from that superstition, through a natural attachment to ancient forms and usages, from which cause it was early introduced

into the temples of christianity. The sublime principles of natural religion which were discovered by the philosophers, or had been handed down by tradition from the remotest antiquity, and preserved in their temples by their priests, who had mingled them, however, with the grossest superstitions of the vulgar, were considered as too elevated for the popular understanding. They were separated, therefore, from the common mass of pagan doctrines, and reserved to be communicated only to a few men whose rank gave them superior means of information, or who had rendered themselves worthy the distinction by eminent virtue and prudence. When men of this character offered themselves to the college which presided over the public religion, they were, with great solemnity introduced into the recesses of their temples, and there instructed in those theological principles which it was supposed the body of the people were not capable of under standing, or were not worthy to receive. Those who were thus instructed were called the initiated, and the rites accompanying these instructions, were named mysteries, from a Greek term implying silence, because they respected doctrines which were not to be communicated to the people. And the initiated were laid under the most sacred obligations not to reveal aught, which passed on those occasions, within their temples. Since the sacraments of the christian church were designed, in like manner, to discriminate the faithful from the profane, and were not to be imparted promiscuously, but reserved for those only who had attained a spiritual, and sub