Eliza. This is only implied here; for it was promised just at the altar. Olympas. Read the

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passage, Susan.

Susan. And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth neither will I smite any more every living thing as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Thomas. I never could understand why the Lord assigned the wickedness of man as a reason why he would not again destroy the race.

Olympas. This is a mistranslation. It ought not to read, "For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." It ought to read according to the original, "Though the imagination of man's heart should be evil from his youth.' Ki in Hebrew signifies though, although, as well as for and on account of. If man should be ever so wicked, I will not again drown the earth. He has

promised to burn it.

The present earth is re

served for fire, not water.

Olympas. And what, Thomas, concerning the token of this covenant? Was there no rainbow before the flood?

Thomas. It is a physical effect; and I think it probable that there were as many rainbows as there were the causes which now produce them. But did you not teach us that the consecrating of a stone into a monument, or the ordaining of any thing in nature for a sign, token, or pledge, was just the same as originating that thing altogether, because it has received a new meaning.

Olympas. Substantially you are right. It is not important to decide the question whether this was the first rainbow; it is certain that it then became a new sign and received a meaning which it had not before. It is now a speaking token to all who believe the Bible-a solemn pledge that we shall have the present course of things physical till the day of fire and everlasting destruction.

Thomas. May not covenants be regarded simply as promises and pledges from the Lord, and as the ground-work and reason of all human expectation?

Olympas. They are indeed the rule and measure of all human hope and expectation. God has promised and covenanted all that he ever will do for us, and these covenants make requisition of our duty and obligations to him, based upon his gifts and covenants. We must be in the covenant, however, before any of its provisions are ours, or before we can justly claim any thing from it. In what covenants are we in consequence of our birth Eliza?

Eliza. We are born within the covenant with Adam, and within the covenant with Noah, and the covenant with Abraham.

Olympas. Then we must have been represented by three great men. In what respects did Adam, Noah, and Abraham represent us, Reuben?

Reuben. Adam and Noah were the fathers of all mankind, and whatever they had guarantied to them as such belongs to their children, their heirs, and successors for ever. But I do not understand how Abraham is our father according to covenant as Adam and Noah were. They were the heads

and fathers of all mankind.

father of nations.

Abraham is only the

Olympas. Abraham is indeed the natural and covenanted father of only a part of mankind; but Adam and Noah of all. They are all, however, covenantees. There was a covenant with Adam, else we could not die for his sin. There was a covenant with Noah, as you have now read, under which we enjoy all temporal blessings: and in virtue of the covenant with Abraham his descendants by Isaac and Jacob became the inheritors of a certain country, a rich and beautiful land. They also inherited the right to the flesh of the Messiah, and various other worldly blessings, in none of which we are interested as partakers with them. Eliza, then, is mistaken when she says that we are born in covenant with Abraham. How did you, Eliza, imbibe that idea?

Eliza. On the last fast day at Mr. Paido Raino's chapel I heard him say that all his congregation were in the covenant with Abraham as much as with Adam; for that Abraham was a natural and a spiritual father, the natural father of all the Jews, Edomites, Ishmaelites, and other nations, and the spiritual father of believers of all nations.

Olympas. Well, my daughter, when you hear any one speak on the Bible, you must learn to try what they say by what is written in the book, and not to try the book of God by what they say. This Mr. Paido Raino is the pleader for a practice which falls to the ground, unless he could sustain that point. And yet the very ideas which you have quoted from him prove him to be in error. He said that the Ishmaelites, Idumeans, and Jews were the natural seed of Abraham.-This is true, and

once his circumcised seed too; but he added that Abraham was the father in covenant of all his congregation, because he is the father of all them that believe of all nations; and yet he dare not say that all his congregation are believers in the Messiah, the promised seed and heir of all Abraham's covenanted spiritual blessings. It is indeed true that Abraham is the natural father of the Jews, Edomites, Ishmaelites, &c., and he is the covenanted father of all the Jews, as well as their literal and true progenitor; and it is true that he is the spiritual and covenanted father of all believers of all nations, but not of the fleshly seed of true believers. This last point is the corner stone of Mr Paido Raino's chapel, church, and congregation. The fleshly seed of true believers are not the natural nor spiritual seed of Abraham and therefore are neither in the temporal nor spiritual covenant with Abraham. Paul teaches that if Gentiles are in Christ, then, and only then, are they Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise" They who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham." But it no where says in the whole Bible, Old Testament or New, that the natural posterity of believers are the children of Abraham in any sense whatever; and therefore they are not in covenant with Abraham. But of this we may speak more fully when we come to the Abrahamic covenants. What, Thomas, think you of the entails upon our race in virtue of the Adamic and Noahic covenants?

Thomas. By the former mortality is ours, and by the latter a freedom from another destruction of the species, the earth and its inhabitants, by water, is secured to us.

Olympas. True, we inherit death and the curse, as well as life and all that is desirable in it, from Adam. We are the sons of a degenerate and degraded father, and participate with him in all the consequences of his violation of covenant, whether it be in constitution, person, or estate : for when a covenant is broken by one party it is not disannulled. The other party demands the fulfilment of its conditions or the penalty of a failure from all the covenantees to the expiration of the last item in its provisions. Observe, therefore, that all the gifts and callings of God are on his part without repentance or change, and that we are all living, while in Adam the first, under the consequences of a broken covenant. How many covenants, William, can you find in the Old and New Testaments of divine authority?

William. There are six in the Old Testament: The Adamic, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Sinaitic, the Aaronic, or sacerdotal, and the Monarchic with David and his line.

Olympas. Do you concur, Reuben, with that view of the matter?

Reuben. I think there are a plurality of covenants with Abraham-one concerning his natural offspring and their inheritance, and another concerning Christ.

Olympas. Can you give us the names of these covenants?

Reuben. Paul speaks of the "covenant concerning Christ," made four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law. Gal. iii. 17. And Stephen calls the covenant found in Gen. xvii.

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the covenant of circumcision." This was some twenty-four or twenty-five years after the former