ed by subscription.
Probably in imitation of the practice of the people of God, covenants
among idolaters were written. "Your covenant with death shall be
disannulled,"[168] (that is, _covered_ or _blotted_ out, as if it had
been written.) The application of the seal was equivalent to the
signature of the hand. It must have been made on occasions of federal
ratification, and it might then have accompanied the subscription of the
name. There is reason to believe that Nehemiah referred to an imitation
of an ancient practice when he said, "And because of all this, we make
a sure covenant, and write it: and our princes, Levites, and priests,
seal unto it."[169] But to whatever extent the practice may have
obtained in the earlier times, it possesses the highest warrant during
every period that should succeed. "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."[170]

Hence, in the first place, religious Covenanting is an exercise distinct
from every other. The vow cannot be mistaken for anything else; and the
swearing of the oath is marked by a character of its own.

Every religious act is, or ought to be, performed with a solemn regard
to Covenant obligation. But each one of these is not Covenanting. The
spirit of Covenanting enters into praise and prayer, and every other
exercise of a devotional kind; but the exercise itself, performed in an
explicit and solemn manner, is a part of worship different from all
these. To argue that it is not, as some who are opposed to the explicit
performance of it do, would be to go to the extreme of maintaining that
Covenanting should be engaged in, not merely personally on one occasion,
but habitually in the discharge of every religious duty; and thus to
lead to a very frequent, and, we might add, therefore unwarrantable
performance of the service, instead of discountenancing it altogether.
To perform a vow is not to vow a vow. To vow to do one thing is not to
vow to perform another that is distinct from it. To vow to do duty that
might have been clearly apprehended before, is not to engage by vow to
do duty for the first time now unfolded before the mind. Prayer includes
praise; but to pray is not to sing praise. Covenanting may include in it
every religious exercise. But to perform any or all of these, excepting
the use of the seals of the Covenant, may not be formally to Covenant.
Indeed, the