Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
HERE we call attention to the precise state of the question. When we affirm our national covenants to be still binding on the country, many suppose that we thereby make our fathers a sort of federal heads to their posterity in this country, as Adam was a covenant head to our whole race. This is a misconception of the case. Our opinion on this subject is grounded, not on any thing peculiar to our fathers, but on a characteristic of organised society, common to it at all times, and in all places. We are also supposed to maintain that one party may contract moral obligation, which descends on another and a different party. This idea has been fostered by that unfortunate phrase, “the descending obligation of the covenants,” as if it descended from one party to another; whereas we maintain that it is a continued obligation on the same party.
The view of the matter entertained by us is this:- We believe that organised society has a standing before God distinct from that of its individual members that it is possessed of a permanent identity — that, notwithstanding the changes taking place upon its members, it is regarded by God as one during the whole course of its existence, just as an individual is morally one during his whole immortality, in despite of the changes taking place upon him during every period of his being. From the fact that society has this permanent character, it follows that every succeeding age is bound to fulfil all the unfulfilled engagements of those which preceded; and in doing so, it is not one class of persons discharging obligations come under by another class of persons; it is one society fulfilling the obligations contracted by itself — the same society represented by different members.
For the reference, see:
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
The view of the matter entertained by us is this:- We believe that organised society has a standing before God distinct from that of its individual members that it is possessed of a permanent identity — that, notwithstanding the changes taking place upon its members, it is regarded by God as one during the whole course of its existence, just as an individual is morally one during his whole immortality, in despite of the changes taking place upon him during every period of his being. From the fact that society has this permanent character, it follows that every succeeding age is bound to fulfil all the unfulfilled engagements of those which preceded; and in doing so, it is not one class of persons discharging obligations come under by another class of persons; it is one society fulfilling the obligations contracted by itself — the same society represented by different members.
For the reference, see:
William White on the continuing obligation of social covenants
HERE we call attention to the precise state of the question. When we affirm our national covenants to be still binding on the country, many suppose that we thereby make our fathers a sort of federa…
reformedcovenanter.wordpress.com
