your nation? And, if God is inflicting the curse, what can be more evident, than that you have broken the Covenant? To deny your guilt and transgression, would be nothing else but impiously charging the glorious God with breaking his promise, and wantonly punishing the innocent. O the pride and madness of sinful men, that will rather charge their Maker with sin, than humbly acknowledge their own! that will glory in their shame, and put their confidence in that which is their greatest and most aggravated condemnation! It may be, that I am bringing very strange things to your consideration, and that what I say to you appears very harsh. But I say no more than, after diligent enquiry, I find written in your own Scriptures. These are the only rule, by which to try and examine whatever is brought against you,whoever it may be that speaks. "To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Is. viii. 20.) Search then the writings of Moses and the prophets. If what I say is agreeable to their declarations, it is not I that speak, but God himself who declares, that, however you may be disposed to make your boast in His Name, and in His Covenant, you do but deceive yourselves, for, at this time, YOU ARE NOT HIS PEOPLE,-not the heirs of his blessings and mercies, but the people of his curse, and the generation of his wrath: your real name is LO-RUHAMAH and Lo-AMMI. (Hos. i. 6; 9.) If this be not the real case, Why are you outcasts from your own land? The first blessing secured by the Covenant made at mount Sinai, was the possession of Canaan. (Ex. xxiii. 20; 23-31.) And the final and extreme curse threatened, if you broke it, was, that you should be cast out of your own land, and scattered among the heathen, as it is this day. (See Lev. xxvi. 31-39, and Deut. xxviii. 63-68.) So that if any one should enquire, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this people? and why bath He cast them out and scattered them? neither you, nor others, could devise to give any reason, but that which is written in the word of God; "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God." (Jer. xxii. 9; with ix. 11-16; and Deut. xxix. 24-28.) We might multiply passages from the Scriptures without end, which,

directly or indirectly, confirm this truth,-leaving no room to question, That the single circumstance of your present banishment and dispersion fully proves, that you are outcasts from the favour of God, and under His curse ;that the Old Covenant is altogether broken and annulled, and that nothing remains of it but the exaction of its penalties.

This argument is very important-for it adds a fearful weight to the proofs already advanced, of the utter folly of seeking acceptance with God upon the terms of the Old Covenant; which yet, it is to be feared, is the only ground upon which most of you have any idea of seeking His favour at all. Consider, then, how different is your situation from that of your fathers! They in their own land, with all the mercies and miracles of God around them and among them; with all the solemn ordinances and festivals to remind them of His presence, care, and love, and of their own duties and obligations; with all the warnings and instructions of the prophets and messengers of the Lord, and with all the wonderful provisions of the Ceremonial Law, by which (in all ordinary cases) transgressors might find healing and pardon; they, with all these assistances and encouragements, never did observe the terms of the Covenant, nor obtain the blessings by any obedience of their own. And will you, who have none of these helps, expect to do it? Have you gained strength by your losses? Are you enabled, by the circumstances of oppression, misery, and destitution, into which the just anger of the LORD has plunged you, to accomplish a more difficult task, than that, in which your fathers, with every assistance and advantage, failed?

3. Every hope and expectation of future blessings which you have, or can have, is to be sought in the promises and provisions of this New and better Covenant alone. In this are shut up all the real glories of your nation. Take away the hope of restoration, held forth in these promises, and you would be, in every respect, the most miserable and degraded people upon earth. The glories and blessings of your former state, the mercies and privileges bestowed upon your fathers,-do but serve to make your present shame and ruin more awful and more lamentable.

You are now sunk as much below other nations by the curse of God, as once you were exalted above them by His blessing. No people have experienced such mercies; therefore none have so deeply and inexcusably sinned, as you have done by abusing them. The remembrance of the past, and every consideration of the Old Covenant, ought to humble you in the dust, and make you to exclaim, "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed!-The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!" (Lam. iv. 1; v. 16.) But, in the hopes held forth by the promised Covenant, you are admitted to be glorious still. And in this must all your joy and blessedness be sought. Search therefore the declarations of the Scriptures respecting it. Consider how exceedingly great and precious are the promises it contains. Only think what is summed up in that single expression, which is so often repeated—“They shall be my people, and I will be their God"! What an unspeakable privilege, that any, from among the children of fallen Adam, should be permitted to contemplate the fulness and the glories of the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy, and to say, "This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death!" (Ps. xlviii. 14,) and to have the witness in themselves of the full, free, and everlasting pardon of all their sins!

Surely these blessings are not to be despised. Yet it is to be feared, that few among you ever bestow a thought upon this New Covenant, in which alone you can look for either temporal or spiritual blessings. Do you not remain in wilful ignorance of its nature and terms? And what is this but despising and rejecting the greatest blessings which ever God proposed to a reasonable and immortal creature? If sin is at all to be measured by the magnitude and multitude of the mercies against which it is committed, then is the perverse rejection of this Covenant a far greater sin than all your violations of the Old. And this reflection should make you tremble for yourselves.

O then that you would apply your hearts and minds to the earnest consideration of this subject;-that you

would diligently seek these blessings that you would never rest, till you can humbly rejoice in the assurance, that God has put His law in your inward parts and written it in your hearts,-that your iniquities and sins He will remember no more!

"And how must we seek those blessings? what are we called upon to do, that we may inherit those promises ?" O that these questions might indeed come from your hearts! then, I think, the following directions might be useful: and with them I will conclude:

ever.

1. You must humbly acknowledge your manifold transgressions and utter violation of the former Covenant. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ONLY ACKNOWLEDGE THINE INIQUITY, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion." (Jer. iii. 12-14.) The LORD, in promising the New Covenant, plainly represents the Old as broken; "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-WHICH MY COVENANT THEY BRAKE." (Jer. xxxi. 31, 32.) Therefore we find, that, when this Covenant is to be established with them, the children of Israel are represented as returning to the LORD with deep humiliation and contrition. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised. me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I WAS ASHAMED, YEA, EVEN CONFOUNDED, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, GOING AND WEEPING: they shall go, and seek

"In

"Then

the LORD their God." (Jer. xxxi. 18, 19; l. 4.) shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall LOATHE YOURSELVES IN YOUR OWN SIGHT FOR YOUR INIQUITIES AND FOR YOUR ABOMINATIONS. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel." (Ez. xxxvi. 31, 32.) The Lord declares, "I will go and return to my place, TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE, AND SEEK MY FACE." And an exhortation is addressed to you, "O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." (Hos. v. 15; xiv. 1, 2.) And the whole of that remarkable passage, Is. Ixiii. 7-lxiv. 12, may be regarded as a confession of sins, extremely suitable to your present condition. Let such be the language, not only of your lips, but of your hearts.

Observe too, that you have great encouragement to turn to the Lord your God, with such humble confession of your sins: for it is written; "IF THEY SHALL CONFESS THEIR INIQUITY, AND THE INIQUITY OF THEIR FATHERS, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also THEY HAVE WALKED CONTRARY TO ME; And that I ALSO HAVE WALKED CONTRARY UNTO THEM, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: THEN Will I remember my Covenant with Jacob, and also my Covenant with Isaac, and also my Covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land." (Lev. xxvi. 40-42.)

Every word of this passage is worthy of your deepest consideration.

2. You must believe the great and precious promises of the Lord. All these mercies are secured by promise: and the promise can only fail by being disbelieved. He that will not believe it, indeed, can have no profit,-no comfort from it; for unbelief is a total rejection of the promise, and of all the mercies proposed in it. But to him that accepts and believes it, it brings abundant conso