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he adds, This is my covenant in your flesh: Every man-child among you shall be circumcised -born in thy house or bought with thy money. And my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

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Olympas. This is, indeed, a "covenant in the flesh,' the covenant of circumcision," and became the basis of the Sinaic or old covenant, just as the promise or "covenant confirmed of God in reference to Christ" became the basis of the new covenant, or that from the Jerusalem above. Give us the sum of this matter, Reuben.

Reuben. Two promises made to Abraham-one filled with spiritual and eternal blessings, the other with fleshy and temporal advantages,-constitute the basis of two national institutions. The two Abrahamic covenants are denominated in in scripture, "The Covenant confirmed by God concerning Christ," and "the Covenant of Circumcision;" from which sprang, when dispensed nationally-one from Sinai, called The Old Covenant;" the other from Jerusalem, called The New Covenant."

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Olympas. These are the two covenants in the allegory-the first in the flesh; the second, in the spirit; the first stipulating a wordly and temporal possession of Canaan on certain carnal conditions; the second, stipulating a spiritual and eternal inheritance in the heavenly country on certain spiritual conditions-the one springing out of flesh, the other out of spirit-the one replete with law, the other with gospel-the one circumscribed by blood, the other by faith. Hagar and Ishmael, therefore, most aptly represent the whole fleshy state,-"covenant in the flesh," "born after the flesh," fleshy or carnal mind, and the earthly

inheritance; while Sarah and Isaac as fitly represent the new covenant of better promises-born after the spirit, living in the spirit, and the spiritual inheritance.

Eliza. What means the seals of the covenant? Olympas. Circumcision is the seal of the old covenant, and a holy spirit the seal of the new.

Reuben. Doctor Godfather says, "Circumcision and baptism are two seals of the same covenant." Olympas. Doctor Godfather never uttered a greater absurdity. A covenant made two thousand years before baptism, whose mark was in the flesh, to be sealed with two seals, one two thousand years before the other!-one made by cutting off the flesh, and the other by putting water on the face! Transubstantiation is a feasible tale compared with this. The mark on the flesh was the seal of the covenant concerning the flesh, and the mark on the spirit is the seal of the covenant concerning the spirit. There can be no outward mark of a spiritual change in heart or state. I, therefore, novel though it may seem, hazard the assertion that circumcision was adumbrative not of baptism, not a shadow of a shadow, not a figure of a figure! but of the circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit—not of the wetting of the skin, not of the bedewing of the face; but of the separating and sanctifying of the spirit to God by God's own Spirit.

Circumcision was a very apposite mark of a covenant concerning flesh and blood descent, flesh and blood relation, feelings, character, and inheritance. But water is no mark of any thing; and neither sprinkling, pouring, nor dipping could be the seal or mark of a spiritual covenant. Hence

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the baptized were "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise in their hearts." This is, indeed, the true antitype of circumcision; for, truly, now-adays circumcision is in the heart, in the spirit," and neither in letter nor in water.

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That circumcision was a sign as well as a seal, a shadow as well as a substance, was not only intimated in the law, but is also confirmed by the Apostles. Moses says, Deut. xxx. 6, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.' This is the true or real circumcision. So Paul says, "We are the true circumcision that worship God in the spirit." There never was a more glaring hoax ecclesiastic practised on mankind than that which makes baptism the antitype, the substitute, or substance, or the shadow of circumcision. They are not two seals of one and the same covenant-in one dispensation or in two dispensations. The new covenant is sealed by "the circumcision of Christ. The cutting off of his flesh, the shedding of his blood was the seal. "This," said he, "is the new testament in my blood." We formally enter into this covenant by baptism—that is, by putting on Christ; by dying, being buried, and rising again with him; and then he gives us the witness, that the sign, the sphragis, the seal of his own spirit, circumcising our hearts to the Lord. Only, then, in this most subordinate sense can baptism, not the water, but the putting off the old man and putting on Christ, be called a sealing of the covenant or a confirmation of our determination to serve the Lord.

What, Thomas, do seals to covenants mean?

Thomas. They are confirmatory marks affixed by the parties.

Olympas. Do both parties always make a mark in guarantee of the stipulations?

Thomas. So it would seem.

Olympas. But does God make any mark in person?

Thomas. No: he only appointed us to make some mark.

Olympas. He did more: he appointed a Mediator to sign and seal for him. For when Moses had spoken every word of the Hagar covenant to the Jews, he sprinkled the parchment and the people with blood, and so marked the bond and the people. Thus the parties were bound to fulfil the conditions. The old covenant in the circumcision and in the Sinaic form was sealed by blood. So is the new by better blood. But on the adoption of it we are immersed into Christ, and sealed by his Spirit in our hearts.

Thomas. Is a seal of any value when the covenant is dead or changed?

Olympas. It is then of no more value than a seal would be cut off from a bond. If the covenant and the seal be separated, or either of them changed, the other is of no earthly value.

Reuben. I wonder, then, how persons so learned as Dr. Godfather and Elder Miller could think and teach that circumcision was done away to infants, and baptism came in the room of it, and that they were both seals of the same covenant.

Olympas. Wonder not at this. The Pope and all his Cardinals believe and teach that a wafer is transubstantiated into the proper flesh of the Messiah, and wine into blood, by the breath of a

Priest; and they are much more learned than Dr. Godfather and Elder Miller. Besides, Elder Miller is one of the most hazardous and reckless men of the Princeton Chapel. He says that as the Jews' infants, by virtue of the flesh, were born members of God's political and worldly church, the commonwealth of Israel; so infants, by virtue of Dr. Godfather's faith, are born, by virtue of carnal generation, members of Christ's spiritual kingdom. Indeed, both Dr. Godfather and Elder Miller have found out that Dr. Nicodemus was right, and the Prophet of Nazareth wrong, when the latter asserted, and the former doubted the necessity of being born again. But I have several lessons for these scribes as soon as I can write them out. Meanwhile let us look back to the five points of the allegory. Which be they, Susan?

Susan. Hagar, Ishmael, born after the flesh, living according to the flesh, and the earthly inheritance.

Olympas. And what the contrast?

Susan. Sarah, Isaac, born after the Spirit, living according to the Spirit, and the eternal inheritance.

Olympas. And what, William, is thus allegorized?

William. The two covenants, the two seeds, the two births, the two ways of living, and the two inheritances.

Olympas. And, Eliza, what saith the Scripture as interpreted by Paul?

Eliza.

Cast out the bond-woman and her son; for the son of the bond-woman shall not inherit with the son of the free-woman.'

Olympas. Well, then, brethren, we are children