The Messengers composing the Madison Association of Baptists, to the Churches we represent:DEAR BRETHREN IN THE LORD: - According to custom, you will expect from us a Circular address, and as we are unwilling to disappoint an expectation so ancient and laudable, we propose to offer for your consideration a few thoughts on: "The Two Covenants." These are alluded to by the Apostle in Galatians, iv. 21-34: 'Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law; for it is written, that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory: for these are the two Covenants: the one from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, for this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia: and answered to Jerusalem which now is; and is in bondage with her children.' It is clear that the, apostle designs to show the difference between the Law and the Gospel; or the superiority of gospel grace above the carnal ordinances of the ceremonial law. In treating on this subject we shall show: 1st, why these are called the two Covenants; and 2nd, contrast these Covenants in their design, their ministration, their guarantees, &c.
1st, we are to show why these are called two Covenants; the margin renders it testaments; and in showing why they are called the two Covenants, we shall divide them and show, first, why the Law is called a Covenant; and secondly; why the Gospel is so called.
1st. The ceremonial law is called a Covenant because it was an appointment to Israel, for their government as a nation until the coming of the promised seed, and the opening of the gospel dispensation, and again because it was delivered in the form of a Testament; bequeathing certain blessings and privileges to its subjects.
But in order to treat more fully on this Covenant, we shall shew the manner in which it was introduced.
And in doing this, we shall begin with the Covenant of Circumcision, which was established about one year before the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was about ninety-nine years old - Genesis 17, 24, - and was designed to distinguish the natural seed of Abraham from all the rest of the world, until the promise made to Abraham about twenty-four years before should be fulfilled. Under this covenant, the descendants of Abraham were distinguished, for more than four hundred years, while they lived amongst other nations of the earth; during which time they had increased to the number of six hundred thousand men of war, &c. And now the set time being come for them to go and possess their land, Moses is sent to them with a rod of wonders; confirms his mission by working miracles; 1eads the family of Abraham out of the house of bondage and through the Red Sea, and "in the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai: for they were departed from Rephidim; and were come to the desert of Sinai; and had pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount." This being the spot appointed of God, to constitute the circumcised family into a nation, or place them under a national form of government, he called Moses, their leader, up into the mountain and delivered to him the national form of government for all Israel, comprising the whole ceremonial law. This covenant was designed for the same use that the covenant of circumcision was, with this difference: circumcision was to distinguish Abraham's family, as a family; and the covenant from Sinai was to distinguish them as a nation; and the latter may be understood as a large edition of the former.
2nd. The gospel is called a covenant for the same reason that the law is so called; for as the law was a constitution for the natural seed of Abraham, so the gospel is a constitution for the spiritual seed of Abraham under the present dispensation.
The promise made to Abraham is called a covenant because it constituted Abraham the father of all the faithful; and so the apostle saith "if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." So we shall proceed to the second thing proposed, which is, to contrast those covenants in their designs, their ministrations, &c.
As we have seen already, the design of the first covenant was to distinguish the natural seed of Abraham from the rest of mankind until Christ should he born; so the new covenant was to distinguish the spiritual seed of Abraham from Christ's first to his second coming. The first covenant is designed to teach us our duty to each other and of all men to God; but the new covenant is designed to show the medium through which any of our duties can be acceptable to God.
The old covenant, with its carnal ordinances, vanishes away when the new one, with its spiritual blessings, is published by its august mediator. The first is cast out at the appearing of the second, as Agar and her son was cast out at the appearance of Isaac the son of Sarah, "which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants." In the worship under the first covenant, all was temporal - See Hebrews ix, 1, 10. Then, verily, the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary, &c.
Dear Brethren - let us with thankful hearts, and hands, lay hold on the promises and blessings of the new covenant. New, not because the promise was not confirmed in early times, for "this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect;" but new because its blessings are spiritual and can never wax old.
O may the superior glories of the new covenant burst upon our hemisphere until the true light of the Gospel shall illuminate the hearts of all God's people and all shall be prepared to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience the race that is set before us.
========== [From Madison Baptist Association (IN) Minutes, 1845, pp. 5-8. Document from Franklin (IN) College Special Collections. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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