[170] Is. xliv. 5.
CHAPTER III.
COVENANTING A DUTY.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,—recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171]
The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and Lord of all. Being a part of his worship, it is thus urged,—"The Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods."—"O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To-day if ye will hear his voice."[172] And explicitly, in the same connection are the various observances included in it presented in precept. "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is."—"For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward."—"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name."[173]
The observance is a debt of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, as possessed of all power in heaven and in earth. He is King of Zion, the Governor among the nations, and Head over all things to the church, which is his body. As all are called to honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, the service that is due to God, as the righteous Ruler of all, is due to the Son—holding a universal mediatorial dominion which shall not pass away. The law of God is the law of Christ, and obedience to Christ is subjection to God. The Lord Jesus commands the performance as duty to himself. "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him."[174] In terms applicable in every age, as their Lord and Master, he said to his disciples, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."[175] And he having both died and risen, and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and living, claims the individual parts of the exercise as homage to his name. "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God."[176]
Believers engaging in personal Covenanting, act as being not without law to God, but under law to Christ. As the servants of God they thus transact with him. Jacob, as well as others who have vowed to God without being condemned, being represented as God's servant,[177] must in such acts have served him. Addressed individually as well as collectively in these terms, "Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen," those yield obedience, when in their practice is fulfilled the prophecy, itself a command, "One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." That the churches of Macedonia Covenanted with God is manifest from the words,—"This they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God."[178] But in writing to the Thessalonians—one of those churches, an apostle describes them, as in that, and in consequent performances, serving God. "They themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God."[179] Nor without entertaining an enlightened apprehension that in that exercise he served God, could the Psalmist performing it say,—"O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid."[180] Moreover, every believer is a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Each one of them is called by His authoritative command, as well as by the effectual influences of his Spirit. "He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."[181] Each, like the governors and people of Israel, who, on a memorable occasion, at God's command, offered themselves willingly—each made willing in a day of his power, resolving and vowing to follow the Lord fully, does obedience to the Lord of Hosts: bows to the mandate, "Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David:"[182] and dutifully engages by covenant and oath to serve him—given for a leader and commander to the people. Besides, each one who lawfully vows to God, in vowing discharges a function of a loyal subject of God's government. In the vow God is invoked as King. "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray."[183] As the swearing of allegiance to an earthly monarch is an act of obedience to law;—as when all the princes and the mighty men, and all the sons, likewise, of King David, submitted themselves,[184]—or by oath promised fidelity to Solomon, the king, they performed an act of subjection to his authority; so in vowing or swearing to God there is paid to him a tribute of duty. And, finally, in this service the Lord is obeyed as God. The titles of, a master, a lord, a captain, a king, among men, are valid only when held in subjection to the King and Lord of all. The highest supremacy that belongs to creatures is limited, and exercised only by deputation from Him who is over all and blessed for ever. And as the claims of those in power, because armed with His authority, cannot without rebellion against him be set aside; much more, his, without aggravated hostility to him, cannot be disputed. Accordingly, his power and authority—unspeakably glorious—extending immeasurably beyond the province of every creature; his dominion and all-wise determinations, they who invoke his dread name, in vowing to him acknowledge and approve. The refusal of his enemies to call upon him manifests their rebellion. His people avouching him to be their God obey him. It is in compliance with the mandate,—"Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people,"[185] that men take hold on his covenant, and in commemoration of their act, in terms recording the highest deed of appropriation, with the Psalmist say, "I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God."[186]
Social Covenanting engaged in by the Church of God, in an Ecclesiastical capacity, is an act of obedience to his word. That community, in its organization and laws essentially distinct from civil society, one throughout every age, and embracing the saints of every land, as one body, He designates, "My Servant." Whatsoever, therefore, is practised by the church in her collective capacity, however denominated, and without rebuke, is performed by her in this character. And hence, whether introduced as "Israel," or "Jacob," or "My People," or as bearing any other honourable epithet, and vowing or swearing to the Lord, she appears under the aspect of a chosen society performing duty; and each promise and prophecy delivered concerning this, as well as each other allowable exercise, assumes the features of a precept, and each performance of it in truth, the marks of a warranted service. And the church, in this, is said to serve God. At Horeb, before the mission of Moses to Egypt, for the deliverance of Israel, the Lord, with regard to the solemnities of Covenanting that were there to occur, said to him, "When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain."[187] Commanding and exhorting to engage in solemn covenant renovation, Hezekiah said to Israel,—"Now be ye not stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves (margin, give the hand) unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever; and serve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you."[188] And not less, than under a former dispensation, is the exercise represented as an act of obedience in New Testament times. There is no reason for maintaining that the apostle enjoined not the exercise of social, but merely that of personal Covenanting, when he thus addressed the Church of God at Rome,—"I beseech you there-fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."[189]