land, and was about to give an account of the Christ as some of them also tempted, and were most important ministry God had ever entrust- destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as ed to any mortal.

some of them also murmured, and were destroyI enter now upon the subject. And after ed of the destroyer," I Cor. x 5—10. You having again implored the aid of Heaven; after know the language of St. Paul. having conjured you, by the compassion of Farther still: whatever superiority our conGod, who this day pours upon us such an abun- dition may have over the Jews; in whatever dance of favours, to give so important a subject more attracting inanner he may have now rethe consideration it deserves; I lay down at vealed himself to us; whatever more tender once a principle generally received among bands, and gracious cords of love God may Christians. The legal, and the evangelical have employed, to use an expression of a procovenant. The covenant God contracted with phet, will serve only to augment our misery, if the Israelites by the ministry of Moses, and we prove unfaithful. “For if the word spoken the covenant he has contracted this morning by angels was steadfast, and every transgression with you, differ only in circumstances, being and disobedience received a just recompense of in substance the same. Properly speaking, reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so God has contracted but one covenant with great salvation?” Heb. ii. 2, 3.

" For ye are man since the fall, the covenant of grace upon not come unto the mountain that might be Mount Sinai; whose terrific glory induced the touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto Israelites to say, “Let not God speak with us, blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the lest we die," Exod. xx. 19. Amid so much soun a trumpet, and the voice of words, lightnings and thunders, devouring fire, dark- which voice they that heard, entreated that the ness and tempest; and notwithstanding this pro- word should not be spoken to them any more. hibition, which apparently precluded all inter- But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto course between God and sinful man, “Take the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeruheed-go not up into the mount, or touch the salem, and to an innumerable company of anborder of it: there shall not a hand touch it, gels, to the general assembly and church of the but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through;" first-born, which are written in heaven, and to upon this mountain, I say, in this barren wil God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just derness, were instituted the tenderest ties God men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator ever formed with his creature: amid the awful of the new covenant, and to the blood of punishments which we see so frequently fall sprinkling, that speaketh better things than upon those rebellious men; amid fiery serpents that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that which exhaled against them a pestilential breath, speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused God shed upon them the same grace he so him that spake on earth, much more shall not abundantly pours on our assemblies. The Is- we escape, if we turn away from him that raelites, to whom Moses addresses the words speaketh from heaven,” Heb. xii. 18425. of my text, had the same sacraments: they Hence the principle respecting the legal, and

were all baptized in the cloud; they did all evangelical covenant is indisputable. The codrink the same spiritual drink; for they drank venant God formerly contracted with the Isof that spiritual rock which followed them, and raelites by the ministry of Moses, and the covethat rock was Christ,” i Cor. x. 2, 3. The nant he has made with us this morning in the same appellations; it was said to them as to sacrament of the holy supper are but one coveyou, "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and nant. And what the legislator said of the first, keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar in the words of my text, we may say of the setreasure unto me above all people, for all the cond, in the explication we shall give. Now, earth is mine,” Exod. xix. 5. The same pro- my brethren, this faithful servant of God remises; for “they saw the promises afar off, and quired the Israelites to consider five things in embraced them,” Heb. xj. 13.

the covenant they contracted with their Maker. On the other hand, amid the consolatory ob- I. The sanctity of the place: “ Ye stand this jects which God displays before us at this pe- day all of you before the Lord; that is, before riod, in distinguished lustre; and notwithstand- his ark, the most august symbol of his presence.” ing these gracious words which resound in this II. The universality of the contract: “Ye church, “Grace, grace unto it.” Notwith- stand this day all of you before the Lord, the standing this engaging voice, “Come unto me captains of your tribes, your elders, your of all ye that labour, and are heavy laden;" and ficers, and all the men of Israel: your little amid the abundant mercy we have seen dis- ones, your wives, and the stranger who is in played this morning at the Lord's table; if we the midst of your camp, from the hewer of should violate the covenant he has established wood to the drawer of water." with us, you have the same cause of fear as the

III. Its mutual obligation: “That he may, Jews. We have the same Judge, equally aw- on the one hand, establish thee to-day for a ful now, as at that period; " for our God is a people unto himself; and on the other, that he consuming fire,” Heb. xii. 29. We have the may be unto thee a God.” same judgments to apprehend.

IV. The extent of the engagement: an enof them, God was not well pleased; for they gagement with reserve. God covenants to were overthrown in the wilderness. Now give himself to the Israelites, as he had sworn these things were for our examples, to the in- to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. tent we should not lust after evil things, as The Israelites covenant to give themselves to they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as God, and abjure not only gross, but refined some of them. Neither let us commit fornica- idolatry. Take heed, “lest there should be tion as some of them committed, and fell in among you man or woman, or family, or tribe, one day twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt ) whose heart turneth away this day from the

"With many

Lord your God, to go and serve the gods of in its clearness;" an emblem which God chose these nations; lest there should be among you perhaps, because sapphire was among the Egypa root that beareth gall and wormwood." tians an emblem of royalty; as is apparent in

V. The oath of the covenant; “ Thou enter the writings of those who have preserved the est into the covenant and the execration by an hieroglyphics of that nation. oath."

The eyes of your understanding, were not 1. Moses required the Israelites to consider they also enlightened this morning God was the sanctity of the place in which the covenant present at this house; he was seated here on a was contracted with God. It was consecrated throne, more luminous than the brightest sapby the divine presence. “Ye stand this day all phire, and amid the myriads of his host. It was of you before the Lord.” Not only in the vague before the presence of the Lord descended in sense in which we say of all our words and ac- this temple as on Sinai in holiness, that we aptions, “God sees me; God hears me; all things peared this morning; when, by the august symare naked and open to him in whose presence bols of the body and blood of the Redeemer of I stand;" but in a sense more confined. The mankind, we came again to take the oath of Most High dwells not in human temples. fidelity we have so often uttered, and so often "What is the house ye build to me, and where broken. It was in the presence of God that is the place of my rest? Behold the heaven and thou didst appear, contrite heart! Penitent sinthe heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, ner! he discerned thy sorrows, he collected thy much less the house that I have built.” He tears, he attested thy repentance. It was in chose, however, the Tabernacle for his habita- the presence of the Lord thy God that thou tion, and the Ark for his throne. There he de- didst appear, hypocrite! He unmasked thy livered his oracles; there he issued his supreme countenance, he pierced the specious veils commands. Moses assembled the Israelites, it which covered thy wretched heart. It was in is presumed, near to this majestic pavilion of the presence of the Lord thy God that thou the Deity, when he addressed to them the words didst appear, wicked man! Thou, who in the of my text; at least I think I can prove, from very act of seeming to celebrate this sacrament correspondent passages of Scripture, that this is of love, which should have united thee to thy the true acceptation of the expression, “Before brother as the soul of Jonathan was knit to Dathe Lord."

vid, wouldst have crushed him under thy feet. The Christians having more enlightened no- What a motive to attention, to recollection! tions of the Divinity than the Jews, have the What a motive to banish all vain thoughts, less need to be apprized that God is an omni- which so frequently interrupt our most sacred present Being, and unconfined by local resi- exercises! What a motive to exclaim, as the dences. We have been taught by Jesus Christ, patriarch Jacob, “How dreadful is this place! that the true worshippers restrict not their de- This is none other than the house of God, and votion to Mount Zion, nor Mount Gerizim; this is the gate of heaven." they worship God in spirit and in truth. But JI. Moses required the Israelites in renewing let us be cautious, lest, under a pretence of re- their covenant with God, to consider the unimoving some superstitious notions, we refine versality of the contract. “ Ye stand all of you too far. God presides in a peculiar manner in before the Lord." The Hebrew by descent, and our temples, and in a peculiar manner even the strangers; that is, the proselytes, the heads “where two or three are met together in his of houses, and the hewers of wood, and drawers name:" more especially in a house consecrated of water; those who filled the most distinguished to his glory; more especially in places in which offices, and those who performed the meanest a whole nation come to pay their devotion. services in the commonwealth of Israel; the woThe more august and solemn our worship, the men and the children; in a word, the whole more is God intimately near. And what part without exception of those who belonged to the of the worship we render to God, can be more people of God. It is worthy of remark, my breaugust than that we have celebrated this morn-thren, that God, on prescribing the principal ing? In what situation can the thought, “I am ceremonies of the law, required every soul who seen and heard of God;" in what situation can refused submission to be cut off, that is, to susit impress our hearts if it have not impressed tain an awful anathema. He hereby signified, them this morning?

that no one should claim the privileges of an God, in contracting this covenant with the Israelite, without conformity to all the instituIsraelites on Sinai, which Moses induced them tions he had prescribed. So persuaded were to renew in the words of my text, apprized them the people of this truth, that they would have that he would be found upon that holy hill. regarded as a monster, and punished as a deHe said to Moses, "Lo I come unto thee in a linquent, any man, whether an Israelite by thick cloud, that the people may hear when I choice, or descent, who had refused conformity speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. Go to the passions, and attendance on the solemn unto the people, and sanctify them to-day, and festivals. to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, Would to God that Christians entertained the and be ready against the third day: for the third same sentiments! Would to God, that your day the Lord will come down in the sight of all preachers could say, on sacramental occasions, the people, upon Mount Sinai," Exod. xix. 9. as Moses said to the Jews in the memorable disIt is said expressly, that Nadab and Abihu, and course we apply to you:

" Ye stand all of you the seventy elders, should ascend the hill, and this day before the Lord your God; the captains contract the covenant with God in the name of of your tribes, your elders, your officers, your the whole congregation; they saw evident marks wives, your little ones, from the hewer of wood of the Divine presence, a paved work of sap- to the drawer of water." But alas! how dephire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven fective are our assemblies on those solemn oc

casions! But alas! where were you, temporizers, with Christians. This being considered, what Nicodemuses, timorous souls? Where have you idea ought we to form of those Christians (if we been? it is now a fortnight since you appeared may give that name to men who can entertain before the Lord your God, to renew your cove- such singular notions of Christianity,) who vennant with him. Ah! degenerate men, worthy tured to affirm, that the ideas of conditions, and of the most pointed and mortifying reproof, such reciprocal engagements, are dangerous expresas that which Deborah addressed to Reuben: sions, when applied to the evangelical covenant; Why didst thou stay “among the sheep-folds, that what distinguishes the Jews from Christo hear the bleating of the flocks,” Judges v. 16. tians is, that God then promised and required; You were with your gold, with your silver, sor- whereas now he promises, but requires nothing. did objects, to which you pay in this nation the My brethren, had I devoted my studies to comhomage which God peculiarly requires in cli- pose a history of the eccentricities of the human mates so happy. You were, perhaps, in the mind, I should have deemed it my duty to have temple of superstition; while we were assembled bestowed several years in reading the books, in in the house of the Most High. You were in which those systems are contained, that I might Egypt, preferring the garlic and onions to the have marked to posterity the precise degrees to milk and honey of Canaan; while we were on which men are capable of carrying such odious the borders of the promised land, to which God opinions. But having diverted them to other was about to give us admission.

pursuits, little, it is confessed, have I read of Poor children of those unhappy fathers! this sort of works: and all I know of the subject Where were you, while we devoted our off- may nearly be reduced to this, that there are spring to God who gave them; while we led persons in these provinces who both read and those for admission to his table, who were ade- believe them. quately instructed; while we prayed for the fu- Without attacking by a long course of causes ture admission of those who are yet deprived and consequences, a system so destructive of by reason of their tender age? Ah! you were itself, we will content ourselves with a single victims to the indifference, the cares, and ava- test. Let them produce a single passage from rice of those who gave you birth! You are as the Scriptures, in which God requires the acsociated by them with those who are enemies quisition of knowledge, and engages to bestow to the reformed name; who, unable to convince it, without the least fatigue of reading, study, the fathers, hope, at least, to convince the chil- and reflection. Let them produce a passage, dren, and to extinguish in their hearts the mi- in which God requires us to possess certain vir nutest sparks of truth! O God! if thy justice tues, and engages to communicate them, withhave already cut off those unworthy fathers, out enjoining us to subdue our senses, our temspare, at least, according to thy clemency, these perature, our passions, our inclination, in order unoffending creatures, who know not yet their that we may attain them. Let them produce right hand from their left; whom they would one passage from the Scriptures to prove, that detach from thy communion, before they are God requires us to be saved by the merits of acquainted with its purity!

Jesus Christ, and engages to do it, without the Would to God that this was all the cause of slightest sorrow for our past sins,—without the our complaint! Oh! where were you, while we least reparation of our crimes,—without precelebrated the sacrament of the Lord's supper? cautionary measures to avoid them, -without You, inhabitants of these provinces, born of re- the qualifying dispositions to participate the formed, families, professors of the reformation! fruits of his passions. What am I saying! Let You, who are married, who are engaged in bu- them produce a text which overturns the hunsiness, who have attained the age of forty or dred, and the hundred more passages which we fifty years, without ever participating of the oppose to this gross supralapsarian system, and holy eucharist! There was a time, my bre- with which we are ever ready to confront its thren, among the Jews, when a man who should advocates. have had the assurance to neglect the rites We have said, my brethren, that this system which constituted the essence of the law, would destroys itself. Hence it was less with a view have been cut off from the people. This law to attack it, that we destined this article, than has varied in regard to circumstances; but in to apprize some among you of having adopted essence it still subsists, and in all its force. Let it, at the very moment you dream that you rehim apply this observation, to whom it pecu- ject and abhor it. We often fall into the error liarly belongs.

of the ancient Israelites; frequently forming as III. Moses required the Israelites, in renew- erroneous notions of the covenant which God ing their covenant with God, to consider what has contracted with us, as they did of that he constituted its essence: which, according to the had contracted with them. This people had views of the Lawgiver, was the reciprocal en- violated the stipulations in a manner the most gagement. Be attentive to this term reciprocal; notorious in the world. God did not fulfil his it is the soul of my definition. What consti- engagements with them, because they refused tutes the essence of a covenant, is the reciprocal to fulfil their engagements to him. He reengagements of the contracting parties. This sumed the blessings he had so abundantly is obvious from the words of my text; that thou poured upon them; and, instead of ascribing the shouldst (stipulate or) enter. Here we distinctly cause to themselves, they had the assurance to find mutual conditions; here we distinctly find ascribe it to him. They said, " The temple of that God engaged with the Israelites to be their i the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple God; and they engaged to be his people. We of the Lord,” Jer. vii. 4. We are the children proved, at the commencement of this discourse, of Abraham; forget not thy covenant.- And that the covenant of God with the Israelites, how often have not similar sentiments been was in substance the same as that contracted cherished in our hearts? How often has not the

a

same language been heard proceeding from our illustration of the original terms which our lips! How often, at the moment we violate versions render "gall and wormwood.” They our baptismal vows; at the moment we are so include a metaphor taken from a man, who, far depraved as to falsify the oath of fidelity finding in his field weeds pernicious to his we have taken in the holy sacrament; how grain, should crop the strongest, but neglectoften, in short, does it not happen, that at the ing to eradicate the plant, incurs the inconmoment we break our covenant with God, we venience he wished to avoid. require him to be faithful by alleging—the The metaphor is pertinent. In every crime cross the satisfaction—the blood of Jesus we consider both the plant and the root proChrist. Ah! wretched man! fulfil thou the ductive of gall and wormwood; or, if you please, conditions to which thou hast subscribed; and the crime itself, and the principle which proGod will fulfil those he has imposed on him- duced it. It is not enough to crop, we must self. Be thou mindful of thy engagements, eradicate. It is not enough to be exempt from and God will not be forgetful of his. Hence, crimes, we must exterminate the principle. what constitutes the essence of a covenant is, For example, in theft, there is both the root, the mutual stipulations of the contracting par- and the plant productive of wormwood and ties. This is what we engaged to prove. gall. There is theft gross and refined;

the act IV. Moses required the Israelites to consider, of theft, and the principle of theft. To steal in renewing their covenant with God, the ex- | the goods of a neighbour is the act, the gross tent of the engagement: “ That thou shouldest act of theft; but, to indulge an exorbitant enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, wish for the acquisition of wealth; to make and into his oath; that he may establish thee enormous charges;—to resist the solicitations to-day for a people unto himself; and that he of a creditor for payment;-to be indelicate as may be unto thee a God.” This engagement to the means of gaining money;-to reject the of God with the Jews implies, that he would mortifying claims of restitution, is refined fraud; be their God; or to comprehend the whole in or, if you please, the principle of fraud produce a single word, that he would procure them tive of wormwood and gall.— It is the same a happiness correspondent to the eminence of with regard to impurity; there is the act and his perfections. Cases occur, in which the at the principle. The direct violation of the tributes of God are at variance with the hap- command, “ thou shalt not commit adultery,” piness of men. It implies, for instance, an in- is the gross act. But to form intimate conconsistency with the divine perfections, not nexions with persons habituated to the vice, to only that the wicked should be happy, but also read licentious novels, to sing immodest songs, that the righteous should have perfect feli- to indulge wanton airs, is that refined impurity, city, while their purity is incomplete. There that principle of the gross act, that root which are miseries inseparable from our imperfections speedily produces wormwood and gall. in holiness; and, imperfections being coeval V. Moses lastly required the Israelites to with life, our happiness will be incomplete till consider the oath and execration with which after death. On the removal of this obstruc- their acceptance of the covenant was attendtion, by virtue of the covenant, God having ed: “that thou shouldest enter into covenant,” engaged to be our God, we shall attain supreme and into this oath. What is meant by their felicity. Hence our Saviour proved by this entering into the oath of execration. That argument, that Abraham should rise from the they pledged themselves by oath, to fulfil dead, the Lord having said to Moses," I am every clause of the covenani; and in case of the God of Abraham; God is not the God of violation, to subject themselves to all the curses the dead, but of the living,” Matt. xxii. 32. God had denounced against those who should This assertion, “I am the God of Abraham,” be guilty of so perfidious a crime. proceeding from the mouth of the Supreme And, if you would have an adequate idea of Being, was equivalent to a promise of making those curses, read the awful chapter preceding Abraham perfectly happy. Now he could not that from which we have taken our text, “If be perfectly happy, so long as the body to thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord which nature had united him, was the victim thy God, to observe and do all his commandof corruption. Therefore, Abraham must rise ments, and his statutes, which I command thee from the dead.

this day, then all these curses shall come upon When God engaged with the Israelites, the thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and Israelites engaged with God. Their covenant cursed shalt thou be in the field; in the fruit implies, that they should be his people; that is, of thy body, in the fruit of thy land, in the inthat they should obey his precepts so far as crease of thy cattle. Cursed shalt thou be human frailty would admit. By virtue of this when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be clause, they engaged not only to abstain from when thou goest out. The Lord shall send gross idolatry, but also to eradicate the princi- upon thee cursing and vexation, in all thou ple. Keep this distinction in view: it is clearly settest thine hand for to do, until thou be expressed in my text. “ Ye have seen their destroyed; because of the wickedness of thy abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. And silver and gold.” Take heed, “lest there thy heaven, that is over thy head, shall be should be among you man or woman, or family, brass; and the earth that is under thee shall or tribe, whose heart turneth away from the be iron. The Lord shall cause thee to be smitLord, to go and serve the gods of these na- ten before thine enemies, thou shalt go out tions." Here is the gross act of idolatry. one way against them, and flee seven ways " Lest there should be among you a root that before them; and thou shalt be removed into beareth gall and wormwood." Here is the all the kingdoms of the earth. And thou shalt principle. I would not enter into a critical grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in dark

VOL. II.-39

ness. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be sage. "I will give the men that have transgiven unto another people. Thine eyes shall gressed my covenant, which have not performsee it; because thou servedst not the Lord thy ed the words of the covenant, that they made God with joyfulness, and gladness of heart, before me, when they cut the calf in twain, for the abundance of all things. Therefore and passed between the parts, the princes of thou shalt serve thine enemies which the Lord Judahı,- I will even give them into the hands shall send against thee, in hunger, nakedness, of their enemies.” If we do not find the whole and want. The Lord shall bring against thee of these ceremonies observed, when God cona nation swift as the eagle; a nation of fierce tracted the covenant on Sinai, we should mark countenance. He shall besiege thee in all thy what occurs in the twenty-fourth chapter of gates, until thy high and fenced walls come Exodus; “ Moses sent the young men of the down, wherein thou trustedst. And thou shalt children of Israel, which offered burnt-offereat the fruit of thy own body, the flesh of thy ings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen sons and thy daughters, in the siege, and in unto the Lord. And Moses took half of the the straitness. So that the man that is tender blood, and put it in basins: and half of the among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be blood he sprinkled on the altar; and the other evil towards his brother, and towards the wife half he sprinkled on the people, and said, Beof his bosom; so that he will not give to any of hold the blood of the covenant which the Lord them of the flesh of his children whom he shall hath made with you. And he took the book eat,” Deut. xxviii. 15, &c.

of the covenant, and read in the audience of These are but part of the execrations which the people: and they said, all that the Lord the infractors of the covenant were to draw hath said, will we do, and be obedient. What upon themselves. And to convince them that is the import of this ceremony, if it is not the they must determine, either not to contract the same which is expressed in my text, that the covenant, or subject themselves to all its exe- Israelites, in contracting the covenant with crations, God caused it to be ratified by the God, enter into the execration oath; subjecting awful ceremony, which is recorded in the themselves, if ever they should presume de chapter immediately preceding the quotations liberately to violate the stipulations, to be I have made. He commanded one part of the treated as the victims immolated on Sinai, Levites to ascend Mount Ebal, and pronounce and as those which Moses probably offered, the curses, and all the people to say, Amen. when it was renewed, on the confines of PaBy virtue of this command, the Levites said, lestine. “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father Perhaps one of my hearers may say to himor his mother; and all the people said, Amen. self, that the terrific circumstances of this cereCursed be he that perverteth the judgment of mony regarded the Israelites alone, whom God the stranger, the fatherless, and widow; and addressed in lightnings and thunders from the all the people said, Amen. Cursed be he top of Sinai. What was there then no victim that smiteth his neighbour secretly; and all the immolated, when God contracted his covenant people said, Ainen. Cursed be he that con- with us? Does not St. Paul expressly say, firmeth not all the words of this law to do that “ without the shedding of blood, there is them; and all the people said, Amen;" Deut. no remission of sins.” Heb. ix. 22. And what xxvii. 17--26.

were the lightnings, what were the thunders The words which we render, “that thou of Sinai? What were all the execrations, and shouldest enter into covenant,” have a peculiar all the curses of the law? They were the just energy in the original, and signify, “ that thou punishments every sinner shall suffer, who neshouldest pass into covenant.” The interpre- glects an entrance into favour with God. Now, ters of whom I speak, think they refer to a these lightnings, these thunders, these execraceremony formerly practised, in contracting tions, these curses, did they not all unite against covenants, of which we have spoken on other the slaughtered victim, when God contracted occasions.

his covenant with 118;—I would say, against On immolating the victims, they divided the the head of Jesus Christ? O my God! what flesh into two parts, placing the one opposite revolting sentiments did not such complicated to the other. The contracting parties passed calamities excite in the soul of the Saviour! in the open space between the two, thereby The idea alone, when presented to his mind, testifying their consent to be slaughtered as a little before his death, constrained him to those victims, if they did not religiously con- say, "Now is my soul troubled,” John xii. 17. firm the covenant contracted in so mysterious And on approaching the hour; “My soul is

exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. O The sacred writings afford examples of this my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass custom In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, from me,” Matt. xxvi. 38, 39. And on the Abraham, by the divine cominand, took a

cross; “My God, my God, why hast thou forheifer of three years old, and a ram of the same saken me!” Matt. xxvii

. 46.—Sinner! here is and dividing them in the midst, he placed the victim immolated on contracting thy covethe parts opposite to each other: “and behold, a nant with God! Here are the sufferings thou smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed didst subject thyself to endure, if ever thou between those pieces.” This was a symbol shouldest perfidiously violate it! Thou hast that the Lord entered into an engagement with entered, thou hast passed into covenant, and the patriarch, according to the existing custom: into the oath of execration which God has rehence it is said, that "the Lord made a cove- quired. nant with Abraham.” In the thirty-fourth chapter of the prophe

APPLICATION. cies of Jeremiah, we find a correspondent pas- My brethren, no man should presume to dis

a manner.

age,