fame nation; but not fuch an one as the others, "not according to the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt." That was upon conditions of obedience; but this new covenant will be without any condition. "I will be their God, and they fhall be my people," is the terms of it, and when this is once made with them, they will nev er more be fcattered; Chrift being their furety will stand for them, as their only fafety; according to Daniel xii. I, "And at that time fhall Michael ftand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people.

Many people fuppofe that this new covenant to be made with Judah and Ifrael, means one made with all believers; but where is the believer that can fay God has made a covenant with him? He can fay God has forgiven him, who was before a finner condemned to die ; but fhould we say that those with whom the first covenant was made were our fathers and mothers, did God make a covenant with them; did he bring them out of Egypt? these things are fufficient to prove that this covenant does not mean one made already with believers ; or one yet to be made with them; it means one which is not yet made; but will be made hereafter with the posterity of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; by which, God will be their God, Chrift their king, and the land of Canaan their poffeffion and quiet dwelling place according to God's promife to Abraham.

That this covenant has reference to the land of Canaan and the bleffings the Jews will there enjoy of a temporal and spiritual nature is plain from the prophecies of Jeremiah xxxii. 37, 40, 5, "And I will bring them again into this place, and I will caufe them to dwell fafely; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good: Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land affuredly, with my whole heart, and with my whole foul." One thing mentioned in this covenantcalled an everlasting one is, that the Jews fhould be planted in the fame land they were carried from when they were lead into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzer. It is mentioned

in verse 4, 3, that fields fhould be bought in the land which was then defolate without man or beaft, being in the hand of the Chaldeans.

As it is plain that this new covenant refers to that which the Jews fhall enjoy in the land of Canaan when they return there. I fhall in the next fermon mention fome of the prophecies concerning the return of the Jews to their own land, or the accomplishment of what God has promised concerning the new covenant. This idea of the new covenant, is very different from the covenants men have invented, and named the covenant of Grace, Redemption, and Mercy; fuch things have ferved to distract the world, and lead thinking men to conclude that the fcriptures are a collection of nonfenfe,becaufemen have collected a heap of confusion and named it from the fcriptures. As though a man fhould call a heap of rubbish, ancient Rome in its glory.

We have been told by our confufed ancestors, and fome of our cotemporaries, that there was a secret covenant made between the father and fon from all eternity, concerning a very small part of the human family; and that all the reft were fhut out, and tho' they pretend that it is a fecret, yet they tell us they know there are but few in it-though they fay they do not know who are in it; yet they pretend they know themselves to be of that little fecret number. Some gravely tell us the covenant was made with Adam, but the only proof of it is from the catechism, a book daily growing into difufe. Some have found a covenant of grace made with Abraham, in which they can find Abraham, Sarah, Ifaac, Haggar, Ifhmael, and all the mocking tribe befides. One would think to hear them read their paper covenants, fprinkle children and talk of Abraham, circumcifion, children blessed with and in Abraham, that they were in possesfion of the manuscript which Abraham had willed to all the world. Whoever reads the covenant made with A. braham will find that it had particular reference to him, his feed, the land of Canaan, and to the bleffing the Gentiles should receive, when under the reign of Christ, wars

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fhall ceafe to the ends of the earth,and all nations fhall call him blefied.

When we leave the plain words of fcripture, and undertake to fpiritualize plain pofitive declarations, there is no telling what lengths imagination will carry us. I confefs that if the fcriptures do not mean as they fay concerning these great and important things, the author of them meant to deceive the world; and if the prophecies concerning the covenant with the Jews, with other things are to be understood different from what they fay, we must consider the Prince of this world to be the author of them, instead of the Prince of peace; for the devil is a deceiver, and a leading trait in a deceiver is, that he fays one thing and means an other. Laying afide all human covenants, let us now attend to the fure word of prophecy and fee what is faid concerning the new covenant,as it refpects the land of Canaan, and the return of the Jews to their own land in a future day.

SERMON IV.

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WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF

PROPHECY, &c."

IN the following discourse I shall take notice of the prophecies which fpeak of the return of the Jews to the land of Canaan; according to the new covenant that will hereafter be made with the Jews.

ALMOST

LMOST every prophet from Ifaiah to Malichi, was called to testify against the house чepnf jo and Ifrael, and to declare to them their difperfion for wickedness; yet with this they left on long record, a prophecy of their certain return to the fame land, in confequence of the oath made to Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, connected with his promife of a new covenant with their feed.

As Ifaiah ftands first in the lift of prophets, I fhall begin with what he fays upon this important and glori ous subject.

In chap. xi. 11, 12, 13, are thefe words-" And it fhall come to pafs in that day, that the LORD fhall fet Iris hand again the fecond time to recover the remnant of his people, which fhall be left from Affyfia, and from: Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cufh, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the Iflands of the Sea. And he fhall fet up an enfign for the nations, and fhall affemble the outcafts of Ifrael, and gather together the difperfed of Judah, from the four cor ners of the earth."

This prophecy is fpoken of as fomething to take place, when the root of Jeffe fhall ftand for an enfign of the people. Ver 10, It is faid that the outcafts of Ifrael, and the dispersed of Judah fhall be affembled from the four corners of the earth. Has any fuch thing ever taken place? No. They now remain in a fcattered fituation but the time will come when this prophecy will be accomplished.

This fame fubject is mentioned in chap. xlix. 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. "Thy children fhall make hafte; thy defroyers, and they that made thee wafte, fhall go forth of thee. For thy waste and thy defolate places, and the land of thy deftruction, fhall even now be too narrow by reafon of the inhabitants,and they that swallowed thee up fhall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou haft loft the other, fhall fay again in thine ears, the place is too trait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then fhalt thou fay in thine heart, who hath begotten me thefe, feeing I have loft my children, and am defolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up thefe? Behold I was left alone; thefe, where had they been? Thus faith the LORD GOD, Behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and fet up my ftandard to the people; and they fhall bring thy Sons in their arms, and thy daughters fhall be carried upon their fhoulders. And kings fhall be thy nurfing fath ers, and their queens thy nurfing mothers; they shall bow down to thee, with their faces towards the earth, and lick up the duft of thy feet; and thou fhalt know that I am the LORD; for they fhall not be afhamed that wait for me."

This is a clear prophecy of the return of the Jews to their own land according to the new covenant. 1. It is mentioned that those who deftroyed the Jews and held their land, fhall leave it and go forth; refigning the land to the original owners, verfe 17. 2. It is declared that the very land where they were once destroyed, shall be too narrow for the people there will be fo many of them, when all those who had formerly fwallowed them up fhall be removed at a great distance from them, verfe 19.