THE PROMISED COVENANT:

A Solemn and Affectionate Address

TO THE

CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB,

CONTAINING

SOME SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS RESPECTING THE PRESENT STATE, THE HOPE, AND FUTURE GLORY OF ISRAEL.

"Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." (Isaiah lvii. 15-18.)

THE PROMISED COVENANT.

MEN and brethren Children of the stock of Abraham! You cannot be ignorant, that the Lord has made to your nation many very great and precious promises of peace and glory in the latter days. Are not these your grounds of hope and consolation in your present dispersion and affliction? and would not he be most unworthy of the name of Israel who should forget or despise them? It is perhaps not so well known to you, though it is certainly a fact, that there are many, who do not belong to the house of Israel after the flesh, but who are faithful disciples of Moses and the prophets, who are deeply concerned for your real prosperity, and affectionately desirous that those promises should be fulfilled to you; and who rejoice in hope that "the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' "For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Is. xxxv. 10; li. 3.)

I would humbly and affectionately introduce myself to you as one of that number; and, being convinced that those promised blessings ought to be diligently considered and sought after, I request your attention to some serious reflections, which have occurred to my mind, in studying the writings of Moses and the prophets, and in comparing those writings with your present situation. In order to give some degree of order and connexion to this address, I refer you to a passage in one of your prophets, which appears to me exceedingly precious and important, and

D

which yet is not, I think, sufficiently considered by your nation at present.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that 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 in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; (which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi. 31-34.)

In order to understand the full meaning and excellence of this promise, we must consider, in the first place, the nature of the Covenant made with Israel on Mount Sinai;

And, in the second, Wherein this new Covenant differs from and excels it.

In discussing these points, I shall give you, without reserve, what I conceive to be the truth of God, as revealed in those Scriptures which you admit to be His word. My first endeavour will be, to deal faithfully with you; and my appeal is to Moses and the prophets,-and to facts. I may seem to be severe: yet much should I rejoice, if, instead of the language of rebuke, which I must sometimes use,-I could see occasion for none other but that of encouragement, consolation, and thanksgiving to the Lord. But, if I am persuaded that a fellow-sinner is in the ways of danger and self-delusion, it seems to me no more than common humanity to warn him earnestly, and to tell him what I fear. The greatest Pattern of love and compassion that ever was seen upon earth tells us, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." And if you will receive in love the plain statements here extracted from the oracles of God, the time, I trust, will come, when you and I shall meet, with rejoicing and thanksgiving, in

that world, where the Lord shall be our everlasting light, and our God our glory. Consider, therefore, calmly what is here stated, and search the Scriptures daily, whether these things be so. Do this with earnest prayer; and then, if I have erred, you still will find the good and right way, and at length be guided into all truth; which is my one desire in addressing you.

CHAPTER I.

The History of the Institution of God's Covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai.

IN order rightly to understand the first point proposed, we must refer to the history of the events, which we find recorded Ex. xix.-xxiv.

In the third month, on the first day of the month, being the forty-sixth day from their setting forth to leave Egypt, the children of Israel came into the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped before the mount. "And Moses went up unto God," (probably on the following day,) " and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain,' and made the first proposal of entering into covenant with Israel. The Lord God Almighty might certainly have imposed His laws upon His creatures, according to His sovereign will, which none in earth or heaven can presume to question ;-but He was pleased, in infinite condescension and mercy, rather to send a gracious invitation ; "Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

"And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people