vil engagement; but every such compact is
forbidden. When, therefore, as in many passages, swearing falsely is
denounced with a heavy curse, swearing properly is virtually enjoined,
and consequently, there is in like manner enjoined, every species of
Covenanting in which the oath is applicable.

Personal Covenanting is commanded. Every individual, willing or
unwilling, is a moral subject of the Mediator. On every one, therefore,
as an individual, obedience to his law is obligatory. To every one He
says, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve." These words were indeed addressed at first to the Israelites;
and they imply the existence of a Covenant relation between God and
them. But they address a command to engage in Covenanting to all to whom
they are known. On the same principle, that the application of them
would be confined to the people of God, might every precept of the moral
law be reckoned obligatory on believers alone. But even as the epistles
of the inspired servants of Christ, though addressed to saints,
commanded the attention of all who were in the churches that received
them, and invited the regard of them as under an obligation to sustain
in reality the character which they professed, so those precepts which
were addressed to the Church of God in every age, not merely commanded
obedience to the duties inculcated in them, but enjoined all to
endeavour to attain to the character of the Covenant people to whom they
were first delivered. The saints of God alone can render acceptable
obedience; but all are commanded to obey. Commands enjoining
Covenanting must be obligatory on men, in an individual, or in a social
capacity, or in both. But they cannot be obeyed by men in an incorporate
condition, without being obeyed by each member as an individual. The
whole engage, only by each giving consent. If the whole society were
reduced to one, the moral duties engaged to by the whole, ought,
according to his circumstances, to be engaged to by that one alone. And
as the duties frequently incumbent on a given person could not be
explicitly engaged to by a society, so he himself is called to Covenant
to discharge these duties; and each precept, enjoining the service in
general, may be considered as addressing each one as an individual.

Social Covenanting is commanded. The exercise is acknowledged in the
Scriptures as a fact, and stands there uncondemned. And seeing that the
law of God ought