reeds, Confessions,
and Covenants, obtained in that period; summaries of Christian doctrine,
received and adhered to, are recorded by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen,
and others. To oppose the manifestation of error, these would appear to
have been made. The primitive Christians, in order to the attainment of
Church membership, were required not merely to assent to such creeds or
confessions, but also to confirm their acquiescence by oath.[781] The
younger Pliny represents them as meeting on a certain day--obviously the
Sabbath--and among other exercises, then engaging in addressing
themselves in prayer to Christ, binding themselves by a Solemn Oath, to
what we know to be duty. Justin Martyr represents Baptism to adults as
given only to those of them who vowed to live according to the
confession of their faith. And to the practice of Covenanting by oath,
on the reception of Baptism, Tertullian and Jerome also allude. The
service, as authenticated, continued till the days of Gregory Nazianzen.
During the period too, covenants were subscribed; and at some stages at
least of it, those who had become exposed to the censures of the Church,
on being restored, were required explicitly to enter into covenant
again. Such procedures were, in measure, more or less perfect, according
to the statutes of the word of God, enjoining vowing to Him; and they
have a claim to be regarded as the fulfilment of some of the prophecies
regarding the duty of Covenanting, that refer to the last times. The
beneficial practical consequences of them, in many cases, gave
corroborative evidence that they were warranted.

The federal transactions of the Churches of the Reformation recommend
the duty. To what extent the practice may have been engaged in by the
few in Europe who held the truth during the dark ages, we do not well
know. That it was much attended to, we may rather infer, than use as an
argument. But with the dawn of the Reformation came the practice of
Covenanting. Step by step the Churches proceeded in opposition to
Popery, by solemn engagements. By them the friends of truth were united
together. By them, where they stood, successively through grace, they
triumphed, even when they fell;--they knew not to flee. The history of
the Church's reformation is written in her Covenants.

First. The federal transactions of the Churches abroad. The Waldensian
and Bohemian Churches--the forlorn hope of the Reformation, nobly led
the way by Covenanting.