have chosen."[539] They were therefore chosen to serve
him, by vowing and swearing to him in secret, by testifying to his
truths by oath before the world, and by adhering faithfully to his
testimony.

The people of God were elected to privileges that can be enjoyed only by
those in covenant with him. Theirs is the heavenly calling; and this
they enjoy, "that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth."[540] All the saints being
called, and chosen, and faithful, Abraham had been a partaker of this
calling when God delivered to him the command to leave his native land,
which the patriarch obeyed. That effectual call led him to obey the
special mandate to go forth to Canaan, and to believe the precious
promise that had been made to him. When the Covenant of God was
established with him by that call, he laid hold upon it, testifying to
his acquiescence in it, by believing in the Lord, by sacrificing unto
him, and by receiving circumcision as a covenant sign. And that, as the
promise of that covenant was to the Jews who were called, so its
seasonable duties, and consequently the exercise of engaging to it, were
incumbent upon them, appears from the record of the specially momentous
day of Pentecost. Manifestly keeping in view the Covenant, by
inculcating on the people a regard to baptism--its sign, "Peter said
unto them, repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to
all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call."[541] Not merely to the Jews was its precious promise of the
"seed," Christ, but to the Gentiles also. And faith in him, and the duty
of keeping and of entering into covenant with him, under the latter
dispensation, are obligatory on all. "The Scripture, foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they
which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."[542] And the
gospel is preached, that men receiving the external call may be called
effectually, and thus brought to receive the promise, and fulfil the
duties required. Like the Israelites, who, after His manifestation in
the flesh, believed in Jesus, all the people of God feel and acknowledge
their covenant obligations, that the