You are a child of Abraham: but have you Abraham's faith? and do you do the works of Abraham? You are outwardly circumcised: but is your heart circumcised unto the Lord? Have you cast away all your transgressions, and made you a new heart and a new spirit, according to the Word of God, by his prophet Ezekiel? (xviii. 31, 32.) Hath God taken away the stony heart out of your flesh, and given you a heart of flesh, and put his Spirit within you, to cause you to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judgements and do them? (Ez. xxxvi. 26, 27.) These and similar questions you should put very closely to yourself, as in the sight of the heart-searching God: and you should seriously "consider your ways." (Hag. i. 7.)

It is vain to make your boast of Abraham and the Prophets, unless you follow the example of their faith and holiness. God is no respecter of persons. (Deut. x. 17, and 2 Chron. xix. 7.) If you are a highly favoured and peculiar people, the greater will be your condemnation, if you abuse your privileges: for thus it is written in one of your own prophets, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore will I punish You for ALL your iniquities." (Amos iii. 2.) As if it were said, 'Other nations are in darkness and ignorance. Their privileges and opportunities are few and small. Little has been given, and therefore little will be required. They will be punished indeed in a measure, for "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." (Ps. ix. 17.) But you are highly favoured; you have the Scriptures in your hands, which are able to make you wise unto salvation. Therefore, every iniquity and transgression which you commit has great aggravations and must be visited accordingly, when "God shall bring every work into judgement, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." (Eccl. xii. 14.) According to your singular privileges, is your singular guilt, if you transgress and equally singular must be your heavy condemnation and punishment, when the Lord shall whet his glittering sword, and his hand shall take hold on judgement, and He will render vengeance to his enemies, and will reward them that hate Him.' (Deut. xxxii. 41.)

That you are the children but what you ought to be.

of Abraham, proves nothing Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,

were the children of Abraham as well as you;-and so were all the people of that evil generation, respecting whom the LORD sware in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest. (Ps. xcv. 11.) And so were those whom Jeremiah and Ezekiel so severely rebuked; and who yet remained impenitent under the plainest declarations of God's wrath, and even amid the execution of his judgements against them. It is, therefore, very easily possible, that, with all your privileges as a chosen and peculiar people, you may yet be altogether uncircumcised in heart;for such was the case in the time of Jeremiah. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL are UNCIRCUMCISED IN THE HEART." (Jer. ix. 25, 26.) It is equally evident, that this was the case with the nation generally in the time of Moses, or it would never have been needful to rebuke and exhort them in such terms as these, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked." (Deut. x. 16.) And, by referring to different passages of the historical and prophetical books, it would be very easy to point out many other periods, in which the great mass of your nation were evidently strangers to that new heart and new spirit of which we are speaking.

What has been so often, and so generally, the case heretofore, may be so still, and at this present day. It is, therefore, not at all improbable that you, who are now reading this exhortation, are yet uncircumcised in heart. And, if so, what a mighty change has need to be wrought in your soul! and how seriously and earnestly should you seek that it may! On that supposition it is, that I address you in the words of your own prophets; "Hear, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness." (Jer. xiii. 15, 16.) "I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn from

all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD; wherefore turn, and live ye." (Ez. xviii. 30—32.) Say unto Him, "O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise." (Jer. xvii. 13, 14.)

I conclude with urging upon you the necessity of diligent enquiry and earnest prayer. "My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil, It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones." (Prov. ii. 1-6, iii. 5—8.) "Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." "And if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be." (Eccl. ix. 10, xi. 3.) We have already seen, that David was very earnest in prayer for this new heart;-and you cannot do better than adopt the earnest language of his soul, as you find it in the fiftyfirst, and in many other Psalms. And the Lord gives you a very important declaration on this point:-for, in reference to those precious and most free promises of a new heart and a new spirit, which we have already quoted, He tells us expressly, "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for

them." (Ez. xxxvi. 37.) Whence we learn, that waiting humbly upon God with earnest prayer, is His appointed way of obtaining this inestimable blessing. Begin, therefore, without delay. The precious moments of irrevocable time are rapidly passing away. Eternity-Eternity is just at hand! And, oh! who can tell what will be the miserable condition of your soul, if, after this warning, you should be swept into eternity unprepared? "Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?Now, therefore, hearken unto me, O ye children: for, blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death." (Prov. viii. 1, 32-36.) "To-day, if you will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest." (Ps. xcv. 7-11.)