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OF GOD’S COVENANT WITH HIS ANCIENT PEOPLE, FOR TAKING AWAY THEIR SINS III.

James Dodson

DISCOURSE XVI.

Rom. xi. 27. “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

God’s dispensations, whether of mercy or of judgment, affect men, both in their personal and collective capacities. “When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only.” The state of a nation will not be

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materially changed by the comforts or troubles of some individuals in it; but the situation of all persons is more or less influenced, by the mercies or the miseries of their nation. The Divine administration of this covenant to a considerable number of Jews, though it is an unspeakable blessing to them, will make no alteration on the great body of that people, while they continue in their infidelity and sin. But when the Lord shall gather the dispersed of Israel into one, administer his covenant unto them as a people, and bring them to a national belief and profession of the Gospel, his name will be glorified on the earth, and the happiness of Israel’s seed will be greatly promoted.

Having spoken of God’s covenant unto his ancient people, and also of his work in taking away their sins as persons who shall be saved, I shall now proceed in the

III. place, To attempt a description of God’s work on the Jews, in their national capacity, for taking away their sins. In discussing this part of our subject, I shall refer to that part of Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple, when he poured out his heart to God in behalf of Israel, when they, on account of their sin, should be reduced to a state of captivity and dispersion. “If they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; yet if they bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; And so return unto thee with all their hearts, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling-place, and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them; For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron,” 1 Kings

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viii. 46—51. From these verses I shall illustrate the following particulars.

1. God will take away Israel’s sin, as a nation, by causing them to bethink themselves, verse 47. This will be the first motion of their souls toward the Lord their God. By his word, his Spirit, and providence, he will bring them to consider their ways. They will recall to their remembrance things that they had forgotten, and will meditate with deep concern on those matters which they had long despised. That which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall consider. They shall bethink themselves and consider the blessedness of their ancestors when they walked with God, and the misery in which they were involved when they departed from him. They will consider Christ’s appearance at the fulness of time, when Daniel’s weeks expired, and when the sceptre departed from Judah. They shall bethink themselves and consider the Redeemer’s doctrine, his miracles, his obedience to the law for making sinners righteous, his suffering for us the just for the unjust, his death as an atoning sacrifice for sin, his resurrection, and his ascension to glory for our salvation. They shall recall to their remembrance the guilt of their progenitors in crucifying the Lord of glory, in persecuting his Apostles, and in rejecting the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. They shall contemplate the misery which all the generations of their people have endured, because their fathers betrayed and murdered the Son of God, and exclaimed, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” With thoughts of the guilt which they have contracted by their unbelief, and rejection of the Gospel, their hearts will be deeply affected. They will be brought to believe and acknowledge, that all the calamities which have befallen them, since Christ’s death till the present time, are a most conspicuous fulfilment of Jesus’ predictions, and an incontestible proof of his Messiahship. They shall consider, also, the numerous predictions concerning their conversion and restoration, and the merciful promises that are applicable to their present condition. On the door of hope, opened to them in the Gospel, the mercy of the Gentiles that they may obtain mercy, their attention will be steadily fixed. On these, and on the like things, they will be directed, by the grace of God, to bethink themselves. This thoughtfulness will become very prevalent among them. They will

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encourage one another to meditate on the things that belong to their peace, when they shall be placed before their eyes.

2. The Lord will remove the sins of Jacob’s seed as a nation, by causing them to repent, verse 47. This repentance consists in a change of mind, or of judgment, producing in the penitent a change in the inward exercise of his heart, and in his outward conduct. This alteration in their views of things, and in their behaviour about them, will be the consequence of their bethinking themselves, by a serious consideration of their ways. They will condemn many things which they formerly approved, and will delight in other things that they once detested. They shall mourn bitterly for their own sins, and for the iniquities of their fathers. For the miseries that they have endured since their dispersion, they will afflict their souls. They will lament over the condition of those generations of Israel who have lived and died in a state of opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. They will experience bitterness of heart for all the dishonour that has been done to God, and for all the indignities that have been done to the Saviour, both by themselves and their past generations. They will then attain that godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of. Sorrow and repentance will produce in their hearts an earnest carefulness to be delivered from their guilt and misery; a desire to clear themselves, by forsaking the ways of error and immorality; a holy indignation at the sin which they and their fathers have committed; a religious fear of God’s sentence of condemnation; a vehement desire of pardon and acceptance with God; a holy zeal for God’s glory and the Saviour’s honour; and a spiritual revenge on themselves for acting this folly in Israel. In the strength of its principle, in the vigour of its exercise, and in the number of its subjects, this repentance will increase among the Jews till they, as a people, shall say, “Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely, after that I was turned I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth,” Jer. xxxi. 18, 19.

3. The Lord will take away the sins of the Jews as a nation, by causing them to confess their sins unto him. “If they make supplication unto thee, saying, We have sinned and have done per-

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versely, and have committed wickedness.” Having been brought to bethink themselves, and to repent of their sin, they will also confess it before the Lord. Under deep convictions of their sin, they will present to God humble supplications, filled with sincere acknowledgments of their transgressions. The confession is particular and full. There is a gradation in this confession. They first acknowledge their sin; then they confess that it has proceeded from perverseness; and at last they pronounce it to be wickedness.—“We have sinned.” We have erred exceedingly, and violated thy law; we have not kept thy ordinances, nor believed thy word. We have despised him whom thou hast sent, rejected his Gospel, and continued in unbelief.—“We have done perversely.” We have manifested the enmity of our hearts against the Lord and his Christ, and the irreclaimable obstinacy of our will against the will of God.—“We have done wickedly.” They will acknowledge their sin to be wickedness, abhorred of God, abominable in itself, and hateful to them. That it has proceeded out of their hearts, which are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, they will then have the clearest conviction. That they have acted under the influence of that wicked spirit, the great destroyer, in opposing the Gospel of Christ, and in denying his Divinity and Messiahship, they will then have the most powerful assurance. When the sins of Israel shall be taken away, they will be constrained, as circumstances may require, to make, in the most solemn manner, secret, private, and public acknowledgments of their sin before the Lord. These exercises were exemplified in the days of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. If the Church found herself obliged to engage in these humbling exercises, upon her return from a captivity of seventy years in Babylon, how much more will the converted Jews be induced to employ themselves in the same duties, when they shall be gathered home from an ignominious dispersion of eighteen hundred years among the nations.

4. The covenant God of Israel will take away their sins as a people, by causing them to return to himself. “And so return unto thee, with all their heart and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies,” verse 48. These words contain an account of their exercise, the qualities of that exercise, and the place where it will be begun. They shall return to the Lord. The Jewish return to the Lord, in the days of the Gospel, must include their embracing the

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Christian religion, submitting to New Testament ordinances, and drawing near to God through the mediation of him who has said, “I am the way—no man cometh to the Father but by me.” At this happy time, that promise will be fulfilled on them. “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days,” Hosea iii. 5. By laying aside the ordinances that are peculiar to the Mosaic system, by improving those which belong to both dispensations, and those that have been appointed only for the Christian economy, they will return to the Lord and seek him, and the Lord Jesus, David’s root and offspring. They shall return by casting away their infidelity, and believing in Christ who is the glory of his people Israel. By taking hold of God’s covenant, of which Jesus is the Mediator, by embracing the promises that are yea and amen in Christ, and by taking upon them Christ’s yoke which is easy, and his burden which is light, that people will yet return to the Lord. The quality of this act is also mentioned. They shall return with all their heart and with all their soul. They will do it with the greatest sincerity, fervent desire, and earnest concern. In returning to the Lord, they will obey the Divine word, act according to the light of their understanding, comply with the dictates of their conscience, and the free choice of their own will. That they consider it as a matter of the highest importance, of the most urgent necessity, and of the greatest advantage to them, is plainly imported in their doing it with their whole heart and soul. All this will be begun in the land of their enemies. The conviction and conversion of many Jews will be accomplished in the lands where they sojourn. Their associating together, as Jews believing in Christ, will be a happy prelude of their national conversion to Christianity, and restoration to their own land.

5. In taking away the sin of the house of Israel, the Lord will enable them to pray to him for deliverance. “And pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name.” After the Lord had made many precious promises to Israel, Ezek. xxxvi. 25—36, He adds, in verse 37, “I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.” The seed of Abraham will be excited to pour out prayers unto the Lord their God. When they pray with their faces toward the land of their

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fathers, it may signify that their re-establishment in it is one of the objects of their desire, and one of the blessings for which they pray. Their praying toward Jerusalem may intimate their lamentation over its ruins, and supplication that it may yet become the city of their religious solemnities, and the seat of their civil government. And their praying toward the temple may import the exercise of their faith on God, as he is on a mercy-seat, sprinkled with Christ’s blood, which cleanseth us from all sin. Encouraged by Christ’s call and promise, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you;” they will order their cause aright, and fill their mouth with arguments. The Spirit of grace and supplications shall then be poured upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, enabling them to say in truth, “For Sion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” When they are brought to this exercise, the Lord will perform to them that promise which chiefly relates to the Church’s millennial state; “And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” And what shall be the consequence of this? “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord,” Isa. lv. 24, 25. The season of earnest crying to God in the name of Christ among the Jews, will be the time of extraordinary deliverances to them; that their salvation may be an accomplishment of Divine promises, and an answer to their own prayers.

6. When the Lord shall take away Israel’s sin as a nation, he will enable them to claim an interest in himself as their God, and to plead with him, upon their relation to him as his people. “For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron.” Israel shall yet obtain a spiritual and saving view of their interest in the God of Abraham, through Christ the Patriarch’s blessed seed, as their own God, and of their relation to him in Christ as his people. This discovery will encourage and embolden their heart in prayer to God. To them this will be a most powerful argument at the throne of grace, and a prevailing plea which, in all the circum-

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stances attending it, no people but themselves can urge. Notwithstanding their criminal unbelief and miserable dispersion, they are, as to the purpose of God, “beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” The time is approaching when this love will take hold of them, and they shall be drawn with Divine loving-kindness. Then their prayer will be, “Doubtless, thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.” They will be enabled to consider all God’s extraordinary providences toward them, whether of mercy or of judgment, and to pray with humility, contrition, and an assured faith, that he would turn their captivity like streams in the south. When the Spirit is poured upon them from on high, they will cry mightily to the God of their salvation, that, as he brought their fathers out of Egypt, and caused their captivity in Babylon to return, so he may also recall them from their present dispersion, have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and be jealous for his holy name. The Gospel of Divine grace, makes a revelation and offer of Christ as a Saviour to all who hear it, and assures us that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses. When the Jews shall understand the Gospel and feel its power, they will embrace Christ, obtain an interest in God as their God, and become heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. On that happy day, the promise which has long been fulfilled on the Gentiles, will be accomplished to the Jews; “And I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God,” Hos. ii. 23.

7. The Lord will take away the sin of Israel as a nation, by bestowing on them the blessings of the covenant. There are four of them mentioned by Solomon in his prayer for Israel in captivity, verses 49, 50. When the Lord shall recall Israel’s bondage, he will enrich them with those favours. “Hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling-place.” He will no longer shut out their prayer when they cry aloud unto him, nor shall their prayer be turned unto sin when they call on him. He will incline his ear and hear their voice, open his eyes and behold their misery, and employ his power for their deliverance. In doing this he will remove from them the effects of his anger, and

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grant them the blessings they have asked of him. Through the merit and intercession of our great High Priest, who stands with his golden censer and much incense at the golden altar before the throne, the smoke of the incense with the prayers of Israel shall ascend before God out of the Mediatorial Angel’s hand.—He will also maintain their cause, or vindicate their right. “And maintain their cause.” He will give them those blessings to which they are entitled. He will fulfil on them his gracious purposes, and accomplish to them his covenant promises. He will maintain their cause by bringing in their fullness, and vindicate their right, by settling them again in their own land. With all temporal and spiritual blessings he will fill their treasures.—The Lord will also pardon their sins. “And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee.” The guilt and punishment of their fathers’ sin in crucifying the Lord of glory, and of their own unbelief, by which they have approved of that dreadful wickedness, shall remain on them no more. The awful curse they imprecated, saying, “His blood be on us and on our children,” shall then be removed. The misery they incurred by crying out, “Away with him, away with him; crucify him, crucify him,” they shall feel no more. The wrath that came upon them to the uttermost, for killing the Lord Jesus, and has continued on them in all their generations, shall then be entirely dispelled. In the faith of pardoning mercy through their Redeemer’s righteousness, they shall then sing; “Lord, thou hast been favourable to thy land; thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath. Thou hast turned from the fierceness of thine anger,” Psal. lxxxv. 1, 2, 3. The last blessing for which Solomon prays, they shall also obtain. “And give them compassion before them that carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them.” For this mercy, the Church celebrated the praises of her God. “He made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.” There are three most important things to which God hath excited, or will excite, Gentile christians to manifest their compassion to the scattered posterity of Jacob. By employing every possible and instituted mean for removing their unbelief, and for bringing them to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.—By making provision for

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the temporal comfort and support, and the Christian instruction of converted Israelites whose circumstances imperiously require it.—And by assisting them in their return to their own land, and in their peaceful enjoyment of it. In our own day, God has remarkably stirred up the spirits of christians in many lands, to exercise compassion on the house of Israel, for converting them to Christianity. With respect to their further instruction and outward accommodation, their sympathy to them has also been awakened. When the season for their re-establishment in Canaan shall arrive, christians will be active in assisting them to return, whether by land or sea, to the inheritance of their fathers. The conversion and restoration of Israel belong to the wonders of the last days, and will greatly contribute to the progress and perfection of the Church’s millennial state.

With a few inferences, this subject may be concluded.

1. From it we may see the truth and certainty of national conversions. Israel, as a nation, was chosen to know the will of God, to enjoy spiritual privileges, and to make a national profession of the true religion. When they, by their iniquities, were cast off, their national enjoyments were lost, and their national profession came to an end. But when the Lord shall again administer his covenant to them, their religious privileges shall be restored with great enlargement, and they will again nationally profess the true religion. Their national privileges and profession will be consequences of their national conversion. That all this will be the blessedness of Israel, is evident from Divine predictions concerning them. Ezek. xxxix. 15—28, and many other prophecies, clearly ascertain it.—That national conversion will be the happiness of the Gentiles also, Scripture predictions plainly demonstrate. At the mouth of three witnesses this truth may be established. Isa. ii. 2, Dan. vii. 14, 27, Rev. xi. 15. In these prophecies, nations and kingdoms are mentioned; all nations, the kingdoms of this world, and all people, nations, and languages shall flow into the Gospel Church, shall serve the Lord Jesus, and shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. Since the kingdom of Satan has been established and maintained among them during many ages, the kingdom of our Redeemer, throughout the thousand years, shall be erected and preserved among all nations.

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2. From what has been said, the method of accomplishing a national conversion may be understood. It will be effected in every land in the same manner in which it shall be performed among the Jews. By his word and Spirit, Christ will cause the people of all nations to “Bethink themselves.” He will convince them of the evil of their ways, the hatefulness of their religion, and the vanity of their hopes of salvation. He will also cause them to repent. They shall then mourn for sin, and be in bitterness for their iniquities. He will lead them to himself, by making them confess their transgressions, in the assured hope of pardon and salvation through him who saves his people from their sins. He will carry on his work in the nations, by enabling them to turn unto the Lord with all their heart and all their soul. They shall then forsake their idols, and turn from these vanities unto the living God. By the diffusion of scriptural knowledge among them, they will be enabled to embrace the Saviour, and to claim a relation to God in Christ as their God. Then shall that promise be fulfilled to them, “I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy; I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God,” Hos. ii. 23. At that time, the compassionate Saviour will bestow on them the blessings of his salvation. He will hear their prayers, maintain their cause, forgive their sins, and make them the objects of the sympathy and love of the whole christian community. This blessed work, by the means of Divine appointment, accompanied with Almighty power, will begin with individuals whose numbers will increase rapidly, till the great body of the inhabitants of every land shall believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, and embrace his religion. As a most encouraging prelude of what God will perform among the nations, this has been effected already, on a small scale, in our own eventful times.

3. In every national conversion there will be many personal conversions. When the Sun of Righteousness shall arise and shine on any nation, he will savingly enlighten and sanctify many of its inhabitants. When the Spirit, in his common operations, is poured out on a people, enabling them to understand and embrace the Gospel, he will, by his special influences, make many individuals his temple, that in Christ they may be builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. A national conversion will neither be effected nor maintained without the spiritual conversion of many

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of those who are members of that body. The Gospel was never sent to any people merely to make them general professors; but it has always been, wherever it has gone, mighty through God, for pulling down of strong-holds, and for accomplishing the everlasting salvation of many. “Simon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.” In proportion as the number of real converts in any place is great or small, so will the beauty and purity of the Church there be illustrious or clouded.

4. In every national conversion there will be many nominal christians. Though the Gospel will be effectual on many, we have neither assurance nor example that it has been effectual upon all who have heard it in any country. In God’s husbandry, tares have been found among the wheat; and in his threshing-floor, chaff is mingled with the corn. Universal saintship is peculiar to that place, into which nothing that defileth can enter. There is an analogy between the condition of a believer in this world, and the state of Christ’s Church on the earth. As the believer, at his best times, has the remains of corruption abiding in him, as well as the principles of grace; so the Church, in her purest condition here, will have among her members those who are christians only by profession, as well as those who are believers in deed and in truth. While the Spirit, by his word and ordinances, and in the exercise of his special love renews some in the spirit of their minds, and sanctifies them in soul and body; there are others to whom, by these means, he has conveyed only christian and official gifts.

5. The conversion of a nation is a great blessing to its inhabitants. By this change they become a kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. To them the Psalmist’s words are applicable, “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord; Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” The Christian religion, in its purity, has a powerful tendency to enlighten men in the knowledge of truth and duty, to bring them from barbarism to civilization; and, above all, it shows to ruined sinners the only way of obtaining the salvation of their souls. When God’s word and ordinances are enjoyed in a land, real conversion will be effected on many persons, whose prayers, example, and advice will be a blessing to their friends and neighbours. A people in this situation become interested in many Divine promises of external prosperity, by which their condition is made comfortable.

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How great must the privileges of the rising generation be, when they are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, instead of being trained to error, delusion, idolatry, and crime.

6. A national conversion is a Divine work, and a national profession of the true religion is a Divine ordinance. That the conversion of a people is the work of God, the verses we have been considering are a most satisfactory confirmation. If we ask who shall take away ungodliness from Jacob? They answer, The Deliverer will come out of Sion to perform that work. If we ask further, who will take away their sins? They reply, The covenant God of Israel. And if we still further inquire, Who is the author of that salvation which all Israel shall enjoy? Consistently with our text and context, the Psalmist replies, Salvation belongeth unto the Lord, thy blessing is upon thy people.—A national profession of the true religion is a Divine ordinance. In almost every prediction that has been mentioned in the foregoing Discourses, concerning the Jews’ deliverance, this truth is confirmed. From them it is evident, that Israel, in their collective capacity, shall be brought into the bond of God’s covenant, shall enjoy God’s ordinances, shall belong to his Church, shall be interested in him as their God, and shall become his people. They shall therefore collectively profess his holy religion. Since this shall be the privilege of the house of Israel, it will also be the enjoyment of the Gentile nations, when their fulness shall come in. Persons who are blessed with the knowledge and belief of the religion of Jesus, will profess it in all those capacities in which they are capable of acting. In their personal, and in their social capacities of every description, the Lord has ordained that they should honour his name, profess his truths, and avouch their relation to him before men. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

7. The conversion of the Jews will be a most rational and powerful work. No violence will be done to any principle of reason, but the work will be performed on them, in perfect consistency with their rational nature. On this occasion, as formerly, God will have cause to say, “I taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love,” Hos. xi. 3, 4. The means he is employing with them will draw forth the exercise

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of their mental faculties, and bring them to bethink themselves, to repent of their evil ways, to confess their sin to the Lord, to return to him with all their heart and soul, to pray unto him, and to claim an interest in him as their God. By these means will the Lord work on his ancient people, till they are convinced that the change they are called to make, in their belief and conduct, is their “reasonable service.”—But it will also be a most powerful work. In their conversion, both as a nation and as individuals, the power of the Lord will be present to heal. The means of grace of themselves cannot make men become either nominal or real christians. “Wherefore,” says the Apostle, “I give you to understand that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,” 1 Cor. xii. 3. No man can acknowledge that Jesus is the Lord, by a rational conviction, or by a saving faith, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. To bring men to the former his common operations are necessary; and to produce in them the latter, his saving influences are indispensably requisite. The conversion of the Jews, therefore, whether to nominal or real Christianity, will be effected by the Holy Spirit, accompanying God’s word and ordinances with his convincing or converting influences, by which they shall be brought either to the credible profession, or to the saving faith of the Gospel.

8. How earnestly ought we to pray that the days of Israel’s mourning may be ended! This was their exercise, when they sanctified a fast, after they returned from Babylon. The reverential manner in which they addressed God, their prayer to him concerning their trouble, and the view they took of its duration, are most affectingly expressed, Neh. ix. 32. Under a deep impression of God’s goodness to them, and their rebellion against him, acknowledged in the preceding part of the chapter, they claim an interest in him as their God, and they express their belief in his infinite greatness, his almighty power, his terrible majesty, his faithfulness in keeping covenant for ever, and his bowels of compassion in keeping mercy for thousands. Their prayer follows: “Let not all the trouble seem light before thee, that hath come upon us.” Account the sufferings we have endured as an adequate correction for our sins, and a sufficient vindication of thy government. Do to us as thou didst to Israel, when they suffered for the sin of numbering the people. “The Lord repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; stay now thine hand.”

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They also advert to the duration of their trouble: Since the time of the kings of Assyria unto this day.” The interference of these kings in the affairs of Canaan began in the days of Ahaz, about 300 years before the captives’ fast. Soon after this, they carried the ten tribes into captivity, and several times invaded and distressed the kingdom of Judah. The king of Babylon afterwards ravaged that kingdom, carried the Jews captives to Chaldea, and held them in bondage seventy years. This long period is the time of trouble to which they allude. Let the friends of Israel, at the present time, imitate this example. Let them cry to Israel’s God; the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepeth covenant and mercy; Let not all the trouble seem little before thee, that has come on thine ancient people, since the Roman wars with them, after Christ’s death, unto this day, a period of 1800 years; but repent thou of the evil, say it is enough, stay now thy hand, that the days of their mourning may be ended, and that the time of their prosperity may begin.

To conclude. A serious consideration of the different parts of this mystery, is our indispensable duty. To contemplate the Divine purposes concerning these important matters, as he has revealed them in his word, and as they are fulfilled by his providence, is pleasant to a religious mind. If we survey the doings of the Lord in our own time, we must be convinced that He is working marvellously among the nations, both in the way of mercy and judgment. The events which had their origin about the end of Daniel’s second number, and are operating powerfully at the beginning of the third, are most important, and seem to produce the most interesting consequences. For these we are commanded to watch and pray, till he bring to pass the unfulfilled parts of this mystery. The grateful and adoring songs, recorded in the book of the Revelation, will be sung, when this work is finished. And shall not we, beholding its commencement, contemplating its progress, and by faith anticipating its completion, be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Let every one, according to his situation, exert himself with all his might, in carrying on this work of the Lord, till the uttermost ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and till all the house of Israel shall know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom their fathers crucified, both Lord and Christ.

FINIS.

ANDREW YOUNG, PRINTER,

150, Trongate.