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The total diffolution of the covenant made at mount Sinai, is defcribed by the two Staves called Beauty and Bands. This is recorded in Zachariah xi. 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14—“ And I took unto me two Staves; the one I called BEAUTY, and the other I called BANDS; and I fed the flock. And I took my ftaff, EVEN Beauty, and cut it afunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day; and fo the poor of the flock that wailed upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD. And I faid unto them, if ye think good, give me my price, and if not forbear; fo they weighed for my price thirty pieces of Silver. And the Lord faid unto me, caft it unto the potter; a goodly price that I was prized at of them! And I took the thirty pieces of filver, and cast them to the potter in the houfe of the Lord. Then I cut afunder mine other staff, even BANDS, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Ifrael."

What is faid in these verfes plainly fhews, that the conduct of the Jews in rejecting the Son of God was the great fin, for which their covenant, and nation was diffolved, and they carried captive into all nations, while Jerufalem is trodden under foot to this day, and the kingdom is given to another nation bringing forth the fruits there of. Paul told the Jews that their covenant had waxed old, and was ready at that time to vanish away. The only hope now left for the Jews, is the new covenant which God will hereafter make with Judah and Ifrael in the latter days.

The first covenant is faid to be faulty; the fault appears to me to be that there was no furety on the fide of the people; but in the new covenant Chrift will be the furety, as Paul has faid, Heb. vii. 22, "By fo much was Jefus made a furety of a better teftament."

These few remarks may ferve to give the reader fome light on the covenant made with the Ifraelites at mount Sinai, which covenant they broke.

SERMON III.

"WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD

OF PROPHECY, &c."

IN this difcourfe will be noticed, the new covenant which will bereafter be made with the houfe of Ifrael and Judah.

THA

HAT there will be a new covenant made hereafter with the house of Judah and Ifrael, is plain from the writings of the prophets, and apoftles. It is alfo evident that the new covenant will be fomething different from that which was made with the posterity of Abraham at mount Sinai,

I here fet before the reader the prophecies concerning this new covenant, yet to be made with the feed of Abra

ham.

The first prophecy concerning the new covenant, is recorded in Jeremiah xxxi. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, "Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Ifrael, and with the houfe 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, faith the LORD;) but this fhall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael; after those days, faith 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 fhall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, faying, know the LORD; for they fhall all know me,

from the leaft of them unto the greatest of them, faith the, LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their fin no more. Thus faith the LORD, which giveth the fun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the fea when the waves thereof roar; the LORD of hosts is his name; if thofe ordinances depart from before me, faith the Lord, then the feed of "Ifrael alfo fhall ceafe from being a nation before me, forever. Thus faith the LORD, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth fearched out beneath, I will alfo caft off all the feed of Ifrael, for all that they have done, faith the Lord."

Any perfon of small difcernment may fee by reading this, that there is yet another covenant to be made with the Ifraelites; not like the one made at Sinai; and it is also evident, that this new covenant has never been made with them; for their land is in the poffeffion of the Gentiles, and they are caft off to this day; but when this new covenant is made, they will dwell in the land of Canaan, and never be caft out again.

This fame new covenant yet to be made with the Jews and Ifraelites, is mentioned by Paul, who confidered it not made in his day. Heb. viii. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, "But now hath he obtained a more excellent miniftry, by how much alfo he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promifes. For if that first covenant had been faultlefs,then fhould no place have been fought for the fecond. For finding fault with them, he faith, behold the days come, faith the LORD, when I will make a new crvenant with the house of Ifrael, and with the houfe of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not faith the LORD. For this the covenant that I will make with the house of Ifrael; after thofe days, faith the LORD, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they fhall be to me a peo.

ple; and they fhall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, faying, know the LORD; for all fhall know me, from the leaft to the greatest; for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their fins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he faith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now, that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."

What Paul has faid here agrees with what is faid by Jeremiah, upon the fame fubject. When Paul faw the fcattered, and forlorn state of the Jews; this was his comfort that God would hereafter make a new covenant with the Jews, the amount of which was-That he would be their God-that they fhould be his people-that they fhould hereafter return to the land of Canaan, and be one people never more to be driven out or difperfed. This he mentions in Rom. xi. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, "For I would not, brethren, that ye fhould be ignorant of this myftery, (left ye fhould be wife in your own conceits,) that blindness in part is happened to Ifrael, until the fulnefs of the Gentiles be come in. And fo all Ifrael fhall be faved; as it is written, there fhall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and fhall turn away ungodlinefs from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I fhall take away their fins. As concerning the gofpel, they are enemies for your fakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's fake's. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." It is evident that what Paul has faid here of God's covenant, has reference to fomething concerning the Jews which has not yet taken place.

of

It has been, and is now by many Minifters and others thought, that this new covenant means the covenant grace which all believers are now in; but where is the proof of it? there is no fuch thing as the covenant of grace, or the covenant of redemption in the bible. The reafon why there has been, and now is, fo much dispute about the covenant of grace is this, because they do not confider that there is no such covenant as they are contending about.

Some warmly declare that all covenants are condition. al,others with as much zeal and honefty boldly affert that all are unconditional: the fact is, fome are conditional and fome are not. When God made a covenant with Abraham to be his God-to make him the father of many nations-to give him and his feed the land of Canaan for an everlafting poffeffion, it was upon this condi tion, that he should obey the Lord in what he required. When he offered up his fon on Moriah, the LORD faid, "Because thou haft done this thing, and haft not withheld thy fon, thine only fon, that in bleffing, I will blefs thee." &c. Gen. xxii, 16, 17, Abraham believed, and having performed what was required in the covenant, was entitled to what God had promised.

A particular reafon is given why God would give Ifaac the land of Canaan and multiply his feed as the ftars. Gen. xxvi. 5, "Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my ftatutes, and my laws." Suppofing he had not obeyed? Would he have been entitled to the bleffings of the cov enant? Surely no. The covenant made with the Ifraelites at Sinai was conditional; God promised them, if they were obedient that he would be their God, to give them the land promised to Abraham, to give them reft from their enemies; to increafe them, and that they should dwell long in the land they were journeying too, but if they disobeyed, that they fhould flee before their enemies, and be driven out of the good land; when they obeyed it was well with them, when they disobeyed it was ill with them; they have difobeyed, and have not performed the conditions of the covenant, on their part, and fee the confequences of it. They are called" a difobedient and gainfaying people," "Who have not obeyed the gofpel;" and for this, they are driven out of their land, and are fcattered alkover the world to be a proverb and a byword, according to what Mofes faid fhould come upon them, if they broke the covenant which they entered into at Sinai.

This new covenant which we are now fpeaking upon, is different from that which was made at Mount Sinai. God has promised to make a new covenant with that

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