Believing Gentiles belong to the same church, that was established in the family of Abraham. They "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God."* It was implied in God's covenant with Abraham, and afterwards" revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."+

A multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," will, at the last day, be acknowledged, as the children of Abraham. God said to his ancient church, "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders."—‡ Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles." Arise, and shine; for thy light is come, and the glory * Eph. ii. 19. † Eph. iii. 5, 6. ‡ Is. xlix. 22. § Is. liv. 2, 3.

of the LORD is risen upon thee."-"The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.-The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee."* These promises imply a general accession of the Gentiles to the church of Goda full accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham, and renewed to Jacob in Bethel. "Thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Jesus says,

They shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down"-" with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob"-" in the kingdom of God.”‡

5. The everlasting covenant, which God made with Abraham, is distinct from the Sinai covenant, and comprizes the blessings of the new covenant, which, in the book of Jeremiah, and in the epistle to the Hebrews, is contrasted with the Sinai covenant.

Concerning the Sinai covenant, Moses said to the children of Israel, "The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with

* Is. lx. 1. 3. 5. † Gen. xxviii. 14. Luke, xiii. 29.

The

us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day." God confirmed the everlasting covenant with Abraham in Christ, or towards Christ, (eis Christon) that is, with special reference to Christ, as the seed, by way of eminence, 430 years before the Sinai covenant was given; and, as the apostle Paul tells us, the covenant made with Abraham was not disannulled by the law, or Sinai covenant. Sinai covenant was added to the Abrahamic, "because of transgressions, till the" glorious seed should come, to whom the promise was made." It was designed as a "school-master, to bring" the Israelites "to Christ."+ was to "wax old," and, having done its office, to "vanish away." But the everlasting covenant, made with Abraham, contains a summary of all gospel blessings, and is never to be abolished. This covenant was established primarily, with believers in the natural line of Abraham, but, eventually, with believing Gentiles also, who are called the seed of Abraham. So long as there shall be a church in this world, Abraham will have a seed on the earth, and this covenant will be established with them.

It

The Abrahamic covenant will be remembered by God, even when "the fulness of the * Deut. v. 3. + See Gal. iii. 17-25.

Gentiles" shall have "come in". "For," says the apostle, "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”* This is the covenant spoken of in Ps. cv. "He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations," that is, "forever." Compare Ex. iii. 15. and Is. Ix. 15.

The covenant, the blessings of which are enjoyed by Christians, is called the new covenant, in distinction from the Sinai covenant. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant, that I made with their fathers, in the day, when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the LORD. For this is the covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the LORD for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest: for

* Rom. xi. 25-29.

I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away."* The covenant, that God made with the Israelites, when he brought them out of Egypt, was the Sinai covenant.

The Sinai covenant consisted of the ten commandments, (see Deut. iv. 13.) which were given by Jehovah to the Israelites, while they were under the conduct of Moses, and which were written by God on tables of stone; of those moral, judicial, and ceremonial precepts, which God delivered to Moses, to be communicated to the people, and which were written by Moses in a book; and of promises to the obedient, and threatenings against the disobedient. This whole covenant, as a covenant, has ceased to be in force. "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." "The law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Though Christ came not

In certain places, God promises, by Moses, to show mercy to the penitent, in remembrance of his covenant with Abraham; but these promises are not to be considered, strictly speaking, as a part of the Sinai covenant.

*Heb. viii. 8-13.