vers at every
time, under former dispensations, acknowledged the Church's federal
character; while, by recognising the Lord as their God, and acting faith
in a Saviour then yet to come, they acknowledged that the Covenant into
which they were taken, was that revealed and dispensed by him, and which
was a manifestation of that to which He had acceded, who said, "Lo, I
come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy
will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart."[405] And after the
work of Him who came "to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring
in everlasting righteousness," was accomplished, the people of God, by
observing the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, by vowing and
swearing to him, and by attending to the other institutions of his
grace, continue to acknowledge their faith in him, as "the Mediator of
the New Testament," and as the "one Mediator," in whom the Covenant was
confirmed with Abraham, and who was present with his people in
Sinai;[406] and to manifest their decided conviction, that the
appointment of all the means of grace, flowed from that glorious
transaction concerning which it is said, "As for thee also, by the
blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit
wherein is no water."[407]

First. In the Everlasting Covenant, provision was made for Covenanting
under the Patriarchal and Levitical dispensations.

The acknowledgments and conduct of believers in those times illustrate
this. These showed an acquaintance with the subject peculiarly striking.
Where the engagements into which Noah and his family were brought are
spoken of, no hint is dropped that the nature or design of the duty was
new to them. The terms in which the covenant of God was made known to
him, would appear to have been quite familiar to him; and the alacrity
with which he engaged in performing the rite of sacrifice, would seem to
indicate that neither he nor his family were strangers to that, as an
accompaniment of Covenanting. The manner in which certain distinguished
individuals, who lived anterior to the Mosaic economy, employed and
desired the oath, showed that the information concerning it, which must
have been communicated by Noah and his family, had been, by some at
least, carefully preserved. Not merely Abraham, who may have received
special information from above concerning the exercise, but some of his
contemporaries in the region of Canaan would appear to