The Ordinance of Covenanting

by John Cunningham

Covenanting, whether Personal or Social, ought to embrace present and permanent duty. The Ten Commandments are of perpetual obligation on all; and so is every moral precept included in them. And not less than these, is every positive statute which is applicable to this last dispensation. But the words of the Covenant of Grace were written on the tables of the Covenant. "And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments."[232] Hence, every Divine statute, obligatory on men, being in accordance with the decalogue, or forming a part of it, every duty that can be performed, whether at present or afterwards, is incumbent, and ought to be engaged to as a Covenant duty. Certain observances, not merely because they were signs of the Covenant of God, but were also duties of it, were denominated a covenant; and their continuance during an appointed term, was enjoined. And if circumcision and the seventh-day sabbath being thus denominated, and commanded for specified periods, were duties of the Covenant, ought not all services, decreed by Divine authority, even as they were, not merely to be performed because enjoined in the Divine law, but also to be preceded by solemn Covenant engagement to discharge them aright? In reference, not merely to one statute of the Divine law, but likewise to each, is uttered, therefore, to all in the Church of God, the command which, with respect to the keeping of the second commandment, was delivered to Israel—"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you."[233] And in remembering that the saints vow and endeavour constantly to keep all these commands, thus the Psalmist vowed, "So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever."[234] And thus the people of God, as a nation of kings and priests, chosen, and called, and consecrated, to his service, have the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.

All that God requires of man, is commanded as the keeping of his Covenant. There is no statute of inspiration concerning faith or practice, which might not, in innumerable ways, be shown to be included in its appointments. All the exhibitions of Divine truth, are representations of the provisions and duties of it. And however they may be described in the sacred volume, the statutes ordained for the regulation of the conduct of men, embody completely its demands. To unfold the dictates of the Divine law, is to present the claims of that covenant; and to endeavour to obey those dictates, is to use means to satisfy these claims.

I. A covenant with God ought to engage all to duties to each one's self. The Divine law inculcates upon men, not selfishness, but love to themselves. The evils forbidden therein none should perpetrate, either on others or on himself. The good to all that is there represented as due, ought to be done not less to the individual who obeys, than to others. In the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," it is implied that men ought to love themselves. Calculated to show at once the duty of all, and the practice of those who fear God, is the declaration, "No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church."[235] Those who do not make use of all the means which God has appointed for promoting the true happiness of all individually, do not love themselves. Aware of this, the believer, entering into a Covenant engagement with God, vows to perform to himself the duties which correspond to his condition. These are,

The cultivation of personal religion. Vowing and swearing to God in secret are a part of this. That, and the other observances of it, are incumbent, and behove to be kept; and as they ought to be regarded, they ought to be promised in covenant. "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised."[236] Self-examination should be Covenanted. Not less was it obligatory to vow that duty than to exhort to the performance of it in these terms, "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."[237] Religious meditation should be vowed. "I will meditate also of all thy work."[238] "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word."[239] So should prayer. "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice."[240] So also should godly fear. "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous judgments. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."[241] And the glad offering of praise should be vowed. "I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name for ever and ever."[242] In one word, to the whole worship of God the soul that clings to His Covenant will cordially bind itself in his dread presence. "As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple."[243] "I will praise thee with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving-kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."[244]

Sobriety and temperance. These are to be distinguished from austerities devised by men, and are commanded in the Scriptures. They are maintained when this world is used so as not to be abused;[245] and are cherished when the causes of sin are altogether avoided, and its occasions are shunned to the utmost limit compatible with duty. Along with other excellencies of character, they are inculcated in the command, "Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy." The force of habit alone is insufficient to keep them, at all times, safe from invasion; much less is the momentary tumultuous resolution to resume these, that may be made by those who have suffered by falling from them. Divine grace alone can enable to adhere to them in an acceptable manner. To be distinguished by them is not beneath the resolution of the most free from the corruptions of the world. In order to be observed, they must be vowed. Thus, the sin that doth most easily beset is to be laid aside; thus, the purity of heart and life that adorns the Christian is to be assumed. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."[246]

The cultivation of the various powers of the soul. When these are directed to good objects, and are wisely employed, they are healthfully expanded, and rendered capable of enlarged application for good. It is the bounden duty of men, gifted with such a precious boon, to improve it. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." The heart, in the Scriptures, means, in addition to the bodily organ known by that name, the soul; the seat of the various affections; the understanding; the seat of the will: and it has attributed to it the functions of an active, voluntary intelligence, and accordingly, the faculty of conscience approving or reproving, as the case may be. The injunction, "My son, give me thine heart," claims the surrender of all these to God, not in an enfeebled and inactive state, but in their utmost; vigour; and demands the promise, by vow, that; they shall be so called into dutiful operation as that they may become efficient. It is obeyed when there are used, the words of the Psalmist's engagement, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength."[247] It is bowed to where any other like noble application of the intellectual or moral faculties is vowed; and is honoured when that purity of heart, which cannot be attained to without the direction of the exercises thereof to God, is aspired at in the act of drawing nigh unto him in Covenanting. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."[248]

The proper application of every capacity. Each is given that it may be employed. The gift demands the voluntary use of it for the end intended; and the Giver requires that the gift be consecrated to him. By setting every attainment, whether natural or acquired, apart to his service, all are called to glorify God with their bodies and spirits, which are his. Without making thus a resolution to serve Him by the legitimate use of every capacity, there cannot fail to be incurred the charge preferred against some who, either by neglecting the duty of vowing to God, or by disregarding their solemn obligations, voluntarily accepted, had sinned so as to have it said of them, "Their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant."[249] The Apostle does not mean less than that there should not merely be an acknowledgment of incumbent obligations to serve God, but, by the exercise of Covenanting, a strengthening of engagements to duties specified, when he says, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."[250] And the Covenant engagements of those faithful servants who, having improved the talents committed to them by their Lord, were commended of him, are a pattern for all. Being servants, they were engaged by Covenant to obey him. That they should occupy till he would come, they had therefore solemnly promised. Others, who are denominated citizens, hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. These had either refused to Covenant to obey him, or had promised to him deceitfully. Their end was destruction. It was not merely because that the faithful servants performed the service laid upon them, but because that they had engaged to do it, and while others declared their resolution to rebel, kept their promise of fidelity, that they were ultimately approved. As their obedience without their engagement would have been deficient, so the use of every talent committed to man is insufficient without the exercise of vowing that use; and equally with the one is the other required.[251]

All such vows are widely different from those restraints which have no higher recommendation than human authority. "Popish monastic vows of perpetual single life, professed poverty, and regular obedience, are so far from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are superstitious and sinful snares, in which no Christian may entangle himself."[252] The latter are countenanced by no class of vows lawfully made, either in Old Testament times or in a later period. The vows of the Nazarite were dutiful under the former dispensation. There is no good ground for the statement made in reference to that class of vows, that "they are merely arbitrary, prior to the making of them." Had not Providence, by the light of the word, with a precision not less complete than the tenor of any definite precept, dictated the service vowed, it had been unlawful to vow it, or to keep the vow. When the vows of the Nazarite were made lawfully, their matter was not indifferent. And even as these were acceptably made when duty presented itself, vows may be made with acceptance still, when duty by whatever means is made manifest. No more did there exist under the former dispensations a class of services that might or might not be performed, than there does under the present. And though there may be no evidence that the things vowed by the Nazarite are incumbent in these last times, yet the laws that enjoin the duties of vowing and paying, were not less applicable to the observances, which, on the mistaken ground that they were obligatory only according to the will of men, have been improperly denominated "indifferences," than they are to every duty, however exhibited, that is obligatory now. If certain things which may be done by some in given circumstances, but not in others, may be denominated "indifferent," then those things which should be performed only by some in given stations in the Church or in civil society, may be called indifferent too. The manner of representation is altogether objectionable. Nothing is indifferent. Men may err in their sentiments concerning duty, and call some things indifferent either in regard to time or to matter; others not. But there is nothing which ought to be done, that is strictly indifferent. There is nothing which men ought to do merely of their own good pleasure. What God makes known, and that alone, should be vowed and performed.

II. Covenanting should engage all to duties to society in general. Imperative upon all is the command, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."[253] The constitution of the various relations of human society, and the law and varied providential arrangements of the Most High—all require that mutual regard for the welfare of one another, should be cherished by all. And as those who love not their brother give no evidence that they love God, so they who fear Him ought to manifest their love to Him by using all those means, of which Covenanting is one, by which the utmost efficiency for good may be given to their resolution to serve the Lord, and to their interest in the prosperity of their neighbour. These duties—that ought not merely to be performed but vowed, are owing,

First, to Families. The relations of the domestic circle are of Divine appointment.[254] To be mutual helpers to one another, husband and wife are associated by marriage; and the duties of parents to their children, and of these to their parents, are numerous and definite. The common obligation of all of them to God, behoves in vowing to Him to be acknowledged,—not merely as individuals, but as members of families, ought all to perform the duty in secret, and in a public social capacity. "At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people."[255] Each member of a family in secret ought to Covenant as a member of the family with God, and the whole family on warranted occasions of public solemn Covenanting, even though there might be no more associated in the service than themselves, ought to engage to duties not merely to others, but to themselves in their domestic capacity. The wrath of God is threatened on those families which, not calling on the name of God, do not vow to Him. "Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name."[256] Noah and his family in their associate capacity Covenanted with God. And by their families did Israel in the land of Moab, taking hold upon his Covenant, present themselves before him.[257] In the marriage covenant husband and wife bind themselves in the presence of God to the duties of that relation. But though that engagement may not be repeated, these are called on suitable occasions to vow the performance of definite duties that may be incumbent upon them in their associate capacity. Submission to one another in the fear of the Lord, which is manifested in the service of vowing to him, is inculcated upon them. "Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it."[258] And to support, and govern, and bring up their families in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is incumbent on them, and ought to be the subject of solemn vows. The children of believing parents are the Lord's. "Children are an heritage of the Lord." They are his gift. In them he possesses a Covenant right. He has his eye upon them for good. They ought to be set apart to himself. In baptism they are dedicated to him; and even as the reception of any other gift of God, brings under an obligation not merely to improve it for his service, but also to vow to do so; the inheritance of children demands that solemn Covenant engagements in reference to them, should be habitually made to the Most High. The people of Israel Covenanted to obey the command,—"These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children."[259] And the following words of the Psalmist, speaking the language at once of inspiration and of believers, must be considered both as a promise and a vow which should be adopted by all. "I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old; which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come, the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful work, that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments."[260] Not less than the performance of the duties of parents to their children ought the obedience of children to their parents or guardians to be Covenanted. When the duties of the moral law are promised in covenant, these are vowed. The performance of the duties of the fifth commandment is due to parents. That and the service of vowing to discharge these duties all owe to God. Obedience to parents in the Lord cannot be fully performed without the resolution to render it solemnly expressed to the Lord. In one word, the various duties to one another obligatory on members of families ought to be performed, by being specially Covenanted, in and to the Lord. "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."[261] What a blessedness would reign in families, were they thus consecrated to the Lord! Then love in the midst of them would not be an impulse that might be neutralised by selfishness or any other evil propensity, but a flame kindled and sustained by the grace of God, and diffusing an influence for lasting good; fanned by every fresh breath of Divine influence drawn in by the soul living on the provision of God's covenant, sanctified by the word and prayer—including the solemn vow, intense as the flame on God's altar kindled from above, holy because from the Holy Spirit of promise, it would go out on the members of the hallowed circle, subduing as the power of an ever active principle, ennobling as all the gifts of God, and as the bond of a glorious union, that may not be broken in life, beyond the dissolving power of death, to survive to eternity.