those who form them might by degrees be drawn so closely
together, not merely in love and zeal, but also in sentiment, that,
instead of being distinguished by so many differences as they now
exhibit, they would appear as but one church united in a single
consentaneous doctrinal and practical profession of the truth as it is
in Jesus.

Fourthly. This act implies all that is included in personal Covenanting.
The community as a body engage in it. But without the concurrence of
each individual the transaction cannot be the deed of the whole. The
whole accept of the promise by each receiving it. The whole engage to
duty by each entering into an engagement. Between God and each
individual a covenant is made when the whole Covenant. The work of
acceding to the covenant conditions on the part of each is personal. The
provision on which all as a body lay hold is accepted by each in
particular. The promise may be one which is not suited to each
individually, but adapted to a whole, made up of individuals, each of
whom is interested in it. The services promised, one might not of
himself have been able to perform; but, in order to the performance of
them, each, with the others, might be called to unite. What is not
required of all individually, may not be conjoined to form one demand on
all. And what is not promised to men personally, cannot be offered to a
community in general. The act of the Covenanting Society is complex, and
is the aggregate of the actings of all who compose it. And the
responsibility of the whole is a responsibility which each bears. Each,
as a Christian, as interested in the prosperity of Christ's kingdom, as
a voluntary agent engaged in promoting the truth, as called to endeavour
to seek the welfare of men, and as seeking the advancement of the glory
of God,--each associates with the others in the transaction, and gives
it its Covenant character.

Fifthly. This act is, on the part of the Covenanting community as a
body, the acceptance of the benefits of God's Covenant in general, and
of special benefits of it, in particular. It is a reception of the
benefits, the attainment of which the Covenant as a mean contemplates.
These benefits are offered in exhibitions of Divine grace. In the
Covenant they are laid hold on by acquiescence and acceptance. The
enjoyment of them may belong to a period near, or even long posterior,
and may be attained to through the use of other means besides; but in
Covenanting they