ce, it appears that the Sinaitic covenant existed, in substance,
from the moment that the Lord led Israel out of Egypt. By apostatizing
from the Lord, the people would have broken the covenant, even if it
had not been solemnly confirmed on Sinai; just as their apostacy, in
the time between their going out and the transactions on Sinai, was
treated as a violation of the covenant. It would have been a breach of
the covenant, if the people had answered, in the negative, the solemn
questions of God, whether they would enter into a covenant with Him.
This appears so much the more clearly, when we keep in mind, that the
New Covenant was not at all sanctioned by such an external solemn act.
But if, nevertheless, it is a covenant in the strictest sense; if,
here, the relation is independent upon its acknowledgment,--then, under
the Old Testament too, this acknowledgment must be a secondary element.
The same is the case with all the other passages commonly quoted in
proof, that [Hebrew: krt brit] may also be used of mere blessings and
promises. Thus, _e.g._, Gen. ix. 9: "Behold, I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after you." That which is here designated
as a covenant is not the promise _per se_, that in future the course of
nature should, on the whole, remain undisturbed, but in so far only, as
it imposes upon them who receive it, the obligation to glorify, by
their walk, the Lord of the order of nature. In part, this obligation
is afterwards outwardly fixed in the commandments concerning murder,
eating of blood, &c. Gen. xv. 18: "In the same day God made a covenant
with Abraham, saying: Unto thy seed I give this land." In what
precedes, a promise only is contained; but this promise itself is, at
the same time, an obligation; and this obligation existed even then,
although it was at a later period only, solemnly undertaken by
receiving the sign of the covenant, circumcision. Exod. xxxiv. 10: "And
He said: Behold I make a covenant; before all thy people I will do
marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation;
and all the people among whom thou art, shall see the work of the Lord;
for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." The covenant on
Sinai is here already made; the making of the new covenant here spoken
of consists [Pg 432] in the mercies by which God will manifest himself
to His people as their God. Every one of these mercies involves a new
obligation for the people; every