means of grace to those of other
nations of the world. In the covenant made with Abraham, provision was
made for the introduction of the stranger into the visible Church of
God, by granting to him the privilege of circumcision. The people of
Israel were the children of that Covenant, and recognised its
engagements as obligatory upon them. Among them, accordingly, every
circumcised person, not excluding the stranger, had a right to eat of
the passover. In the decalogue, the stranger dwelling among them is
recognised. In the covenant made at Sinai, express provisions, besides,
were made for such. "The stranger that dwelleth with you, shall be unto
you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself."[288] In
that it is said to the priests, "That ye may teach the children of
Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand
of Moses."[289] These were therefore to teach it to the stranger also.
In all these things Israel, by Covenanting, acquiesced, when they were
first proposed, and also at succeeding times when the covenant of Sinai
was renewed. The Church is therefore under a debt to their descendants
which should be paid in kind. In order to confer upon her the honour of
fulfilling the high obligation, her members should make and keep
Covenant engagements to send missionaries to all the remnants of
Israel. To her and to each other, individually, they owe it thus to use
means to add to the communion of saints, the descendants of
Jacob,--whose restoration will be so advantageous,--"For if the casting
away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving
of them be, but life from the dead?"[290] How pleasing to think of
Israel again graffed into their own olive tree!--to reflect upon the
fulfilment of the promise, "And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is
written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall
take away their sins"![291]--and to look forward to that universal joy
which shall be expressed, when, the fulness of the Gentiles having been
brought in, and all Israel gathered, the kingdom shall universally be
acknowledged to be the Lord's!

III. Covenanting should engage all to duties to the Mediator as Lord of
all. It is by God that all live, and move, and have their being; and to
him all are called to live. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no
man dieth to himself. F