ons by acknowledging and endeavouring to
keep them. Where no attention is paid to covenant obligations, there is
no covenant relation. The body that does not attract iron, or possess
polarity, is not magnetic. That which does not transmit light or sound,
is not elastic. That which does not distribute heat is without life. If
a society bind not others to itself by religious Covenanting after some
manner, it belongs not to the Church of God. From the law of Covenanting
comes all the consistency of the union of believers--the family that is
named in heaven. That family, by displaying God's covenant, invites to
its communion many who would have perished. The invisible Church cannot
have associated to it any thing dissimilar to itself, but it binds to it
those who are congenial to it. It is to the fellowship of the Church
visible that the members of the Church of the first-born are drawn. God
prepares men for the communion of saints. It is by the power of the
Spirit accompanying the means of grace dispensed in the assemblies of
the faithful, that a transforming effect is produced on the natural man,
and that he is drawn. It is the power and glory of God that draws and
unites; and the whole body, like the virgin gold or silver in the veins
of the rocks, which is composed of what were grains scattered through
contiguous strata, and by a galvanic power continues to accumulate, has
its affinities for each of the precious family of grace. The law by
which these are drawn is not merely moral, but gracious. The communion
of saints was confederated, that, by attracting others to it, it might
grow. As a covenant society, and in the use of Covenanting, it attracts.
It has a tendency to give utterance to its intention, and that by
professing the truth, that sinners may be won. "As it is written, I
believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore
speak."[475] "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners
shall be converted unto thee."[476] By taking the Covenant of God
publicly in their mouth, his people in measure fulfil the Redeemer's
mandate,--"Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with
another;"[477] and the corresponding duty,--"Let your speech be alway
with grace, seasoned with salt."[478] It is a serious mark of a Church's
imperfection for it to recognise only implicitly or virtually its
covenant obligations. The greater the living energy that inhabits the
society, the more regard its obligations