Thirdly. Those who are in covenant with God will, as individuals and
communities, in some measure make and keep covenant engagements with
him. Every believer, that is, every one in covenant with God, will after
some manner practise such duties. Covenanting is an exercise of the
renewed nature, and is an essential manifestation of it. From
gravitation come the movement of the moon in her orbit, that of the
planets round the sun, and perhaps a progress of the whole solar system
through space; from the living energy of the plant cherished by the
moisture and heat of heaven proceed, the expanding of the leaf, and the
putting forth of the flower and fruit; from the laws of molecular
attraction, come the beautiful forms of the mineral, vegetable, and
animal creation; from the principle of love to God comes the habit of
delighting in him; from hope come the stimulating anticipations of
eternal good; from faith comes the exercise of believing; from the
heart, whose energies delivered from the dominion of sin by grace, are,
from their native constitution and by the claims of the God of
salvation, engaged to him in covenant, proceeds the habitual exercise of
Covenanting. Where there is motion, there and there only force prevails;
where organic effort is made, there only life exists; where Covenanting
is engaged in, there only a covenant relation and title can be found.
Every incorporate community that forms a part of the true Church of the
living God, with greater or less frequency, or more or less explicitly,
recognises its covenant obligations by acknowledging and endeavouring to
keep them. Where no attention is paid to covenant obligations, there is
no covenant relation. The body that does not attract iron, or possess
polarity, is not magnetic. That which does not transmit light or sound,
is not elastic. That which does not distribute heat is without life. If
a society bind not others to itself by religious Covenanting after some
manner, it belongs not to the Church of God. From the law of Covenanting
comes all the consistency of the union of believers--the family that is
named in heaven. That family, by displaying God's covenant, invites to
its communion many who would have perished. The invisible Church cannot
have associated to it any thing dissimilar to itself, but it binds to it
those who are congenial to it. It is to the fellowship of the Church
visible that the members of the Church of the first-born are drawn. God
prepares men for the communion of saints. It is by the power of the
Spirit accompanying the means of grace dispensed in the assemblies of
the faithful, that a transforming effect is produced on the natural man,
and that he is drawn. It is the power and glory of God that draws and
unites; and the whole body, like the virgin gold or silver in the veins
of the rocks, which is composed of what were grains scattered through
contiguous strata, and by a galvanic power continues to accumulate, has
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