JER. 1. 4, 5.—In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, that shall not be forgotten.

THE words of this text are a prophecy; and the design of my reading them to you at present is, that I may open up to you the nature, and instruct the warrantableness, of public religious covenanting, and direct you in the performance of that duty. Their appositeness to the purpose in tended will plainly appear, if you consider the four following things: namely, the object of the prophecy, the exercise foretold, the manner of its performance, and the period to which the prophecy refers.

The objects of the prophecy, you will observe, are, "the children of Israel, and the children of Judah." By

the children of Israel are meant the ten tribes, which were carried captive to Assyria by Shalmanezer, king of that country. By the children of Judah are meant the two tribes, which were afterwards carried captive to Babylon, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. The objects of this prophecy are not merely a few individuals of either of those two classes of people, but the great body of both.*

The exercise here foretold concerning them is, their "joining themselves to the Lord." There is a two-fold joining of persons to the Lord spoken of in scripture.The one is internal; the other is at least partly external. In the one persons are passive; in the other they are active. The one is called their being joined to the Lord; the other is called their joining themselves to him. The first is the work of the Holy Spirit, taking up his residence in men's hearts, and thereby becoming a bond of union between Christ and them. Of this the apostle speaks in 1 Cor. vi. 17. « He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." The last, though performed under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is the deed of believers themselves, in which, with their whole hearts, they èmbrace Christ Jesus the Lord in the exercise of faith and love, and make an entire devotement of themselves to

* Though these two classes of people be the immediate and pris mary objects of this prophecy, it is not to be so completely confined to them, as utterly to exclude the Gentiles from being in any respect the objects of it. The literal Israel were in some respets typical, or figurative of the whole church of God in all after ages; and we have the most unquestionable authority for saying, that the Gentiles are now become fellow-heirs with the Jews, of the same promises, Eph. iii. 6,

him, to be his peculiar people. This is the joining spoken of in the words of our text, as also in Isa. lvi. 6. where the sons of the strangers are said to "join them"selves to the Lord to serve him, and to love the name "of the Lord." And herein doth the very essence of covenanting consist.

The third thing we take notice of in the words is, the manner in which they are represented as joining themselves to the Lord; and this is said to be "in a perpet"ual covenant, that shall not be forgotten." Two things may be intimated to us by this manner of expression.— First, That in this work they shall bring themselves under covenant-engagements to the Lord, to be his; like the people of Judah in the days of Jehoiada, of whom we are told, 2Chron. xxiii. 16. that "they made a covenant "that they should be the Lord's people." And, secondly, That therein they should have a special regard to the covenant of grace, and study a believing improvement of it. This is the perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. It is never forgotten by God in any of his dealings with his people; "he is ever mindful of his covenant." And it ought never to be forgotten by them, in any of their dealings with him. They should have a respect to it in every act of gospel worship, but particularly in the art of joining themselves to him, or covenanting to be his people. It is in this way the sons of the stranger are represented as acting, in that passage of Isaiah already referred to. In joining themselves to the Lord to serve him, "every one taketh hold of God's co"venant." Here, then, we have covenanting both in substance and form; for what is it but just a professing

"

people joining themselves to the Lord "in a perpetual "covenant, that shall not be forgotten ?"

The only other point to be attended to in the explication of the words is, the period to which the prophecy refers, expressed by the phrase, "in those days, and in "that time." This evidently refers to the time of the destruction of Babylon, foretold in the three preceding verses. And if we had nothing but the phrase itself to determine our views, we should have been ready to think, that this was the period of the destruction of the literal Babylon. But the account given of the objects of the prophecy, taken in connection with the whole matter of it, will not admit of this interpretation. The objects of it, you see, are the children of Israel and the children of Judah; that is, the body, both of the ten tribes which were carried captive to Assyria, and likewise of the two which were afterwards carried captive to Babylon.And the prophecy concerning them is, that both of them should return from the land of their captivity, should be restored to their church-privileges, and engage in the work here mentioned. Now, it is well known, that no such thing did take place at the period of the destruction of the literal Babylon. It was but a small part even of the two tribes that returned at that time; and as for the ten tribes, none but a mere handful of them returned. This prophecy, therefore, must have a reference to something yet to come. Let it then be observed, that there are two Babylons mentioned in scripture; the one the literal, the other the mystical Babylon; the one the capital of the ancient Chaldean empire, the other the kingdom of Antichrist. This last often bears the designation of Babylon in scripture, particularly in the book of Reve

lation. It also is to be destroyed, as well as the former; and the time of its destruction is the period to which the words before us bear an ultimate and principal respect. They, no doubt, bear a partial respect also to the exercise the Jewish church was brought to in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah; but that was far from being their full accomplishment. This is reserved for the time when the Antichristian kingdom, the mystical Babylon, shall come to its full end, and the Jews shall be brought in with the fulness of the Gentiles. This prophecy, therefore, bears a respect to New-Testament times, and even to the latter part of the new dispensation, the more eminent glory of the latter days.

These words, therefore, plainly afford us this doctrinal observation

That public social covenanting is a duty well warranted in scripture, and incumbent upon the church under the New-Testament dispensation.

The method in which we propose, through divine aid, to treat this subject, is as follows:

I. To give some account of the nature of public religious covenanting.

II. To evince the warrantableness of this work, or show that it is a duty incumbent upon the church under the New-Testament dispensation.

III. To specify some of the seasons in which there is a special call to the performance of it.

IV. To give some account of the manner, both external and internal, in which this work should be bout.

B

gone a