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reproach of my youth, the burden of my former fins.20 To this penitent language God graciously replies, [Is] Ephraim my dear fon? or, Is he not my dear fon? [is he] not a pleasant child? for fince I fpake against him, by threatenings and judgments, I do earnestly remember him ftill therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will furely have mercy upon him, faith the LORD; I retain my former parental kindness, and will certainly deliver and 21 bless him. Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps, that is, tall poles, finger-posts, or pillars for direc tion, to make their way plain; fet thine heart toward the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wenteft: turn again, O virgin of Ifrael, turn again to thefe thy

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cities.

How long wilt thou go about, O thou backfliding daughter, fluctuating between doubt and hope? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man; or, a woman fhall put to the rout a Strong man; that is, God will give the Ifraelites extraordinary ftrength, fo that, tho' weak as women, they shall be 23 able to refift and overcome all oppofition. Thus faith the LORD of hosts, the God of Ifrael; As yet, or, hereafter, they fhall use this fpeech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I fhall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, [and] mountain of holiness; they shall become a 24 reformed, upright, and honourable people. And there fhall dwell in Judah itself, and all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they [that] go forth with 25 flocks; the countries and cities fhall be inhabited. For I have fatiated the weary foul, and I have replenished every forrowful foul; I will comfort them under their forrows, and fupply them with all good.-The next are the prophet's 26 own words. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my fleep was sweet unto me; these things God revealed to me in a vifion; I awaked, reflected upon them, and found them very comfortable to my foul; I was much refreshed with thefe gracious intimations of deliverance.

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E are here taught, that it is good in times of trouble to look back to former inftances of God's care and kindness. The Ifraelites in their captivity are directed to confider what God had done for their fathers, to prevent them from being disheartened by the difficulties that were in the way of their return. fhould we think how often God hath fupported his church and intereft, and particular faints, in times of distress; how often we have found grace, even when in the wildernefs, and been drawn by his loving kindness. Let this recollection and experience encourage our hope, that he who hath delivered and doth deliver, will fill deliver.

2. When God has defigns of mercy for a finful people, he ftirs up a spirit of penitence, prayer, and reformation. Thus it is foretold that the Ifraelites fhould return with weeping and fupplication, and that Jerufalem fhould be called The habitation of justice, and The mountain of holiness: and we may hope for the continuance of divine favours, and the restoration of profperity, if God's goodness difpofe us to repentance, fill us with fhame and forrow for our iniquities; if we earnestly call upon his name, and live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.

3. The common bounties of providence are to be enjoyed and acknowledged as the fruits of divine goodness. When our wheat, and wine, and flocks are increased, it becomes us to adore the goodness of God therein; to acknowledge it with seriousness at our meals; to flow together to the folemn affembly, and there fing his praises. Efpecially should we praise him for that divine influence which makes the fouls of men like a watered garden. Thus fhall we be fatisfied with his goodness; tafte his love in all our comforts; find them doubly pleasant; and be in little danger of abufing them.

4. Let us learn to moderate our forrows for the death of our pious friends and children, from the confideration of the favour God intends for them. He is reprefented as comforting weeping Rachel; affuring her that her children.

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fhould return to their borders, and that therefore she fhould not weep as tho' they were loft. It becomes chriftians, on fuch occafions efpecially, to weep as tho' they wept not; for their work, the pious pains they have taken in the education of their children, or for the service of their other relatives, fhall be rewarded. There is hope that they will return from the captivity of the grave, enter on the good land, and be bleffed at the refurrection of the juft.

5. Let us obferve with pleasure and thankfulness the great mercy of God to a penitent people. There is fcarcely a more affecting description of this in all the bible, than is given us in this paffage concerning Ephraim. God repreTents himself as feeling and encouraging all the workings of paternal affection toward returning prodigals. He afflicts them only to instruct them, and bring them back to duty; and when they begin to relent, he relents, receives them as his dear children, and restores them to his favour. Nay, their very return is the effect of his gracious work in them. Let us hence learn, what our behaviour fhould be in times of affliction, and what abundant reason there is for hope, if, in the language of Ephraim, we fincerely fay, Turn thou us, and we shall be turned, for thou art the Lord our God.

CHA P. XXXI. 27, to the end.

The former part of this chapter referred to the ftate of the jews after their return from captivity; this, to their ftate in the latter day.

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EHOLD, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will fow the houfe of Ifrael and the house of Judah with the feed of man, and with the feed of beast ; 28 they shall become very populous and fruitful. And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; fo will I watch over them, to build and to plant, faith the LORD; every

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thing feemed to be against them before, but now every thing Shall be for them; God will appear in the whole courfe of his providence to favour and bless them.

In those days they shall fay no more, The fathers have eaten a four grape, and the children's teeth are fet on edge; they shall be no more punished for the iniquities of their ancestors, as they have formerly been for per30 fifting in their idolatry. But every one fhall die for his own iniquity every man that eateth the four grape, his teeth fhall be fet on edge.

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Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the houfe of Ifrael, and with 32 the house 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, that is, led them in the kindest, gentlest manner; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, faith the LORD; and have fulfilled 33 my part of the covenant relation: But this [fhall be] the covenant that I will make with the houfe of Ifrael; After those days, faith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, not a new law, but the old law in its moral precepts and evangelical truths, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be 34 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 least of them, unto the greatest of them, faith the LORD; that is, mere human inftruction fhall not be the only, nor the chief way of teaching; they shall have plenty of religious advantages, and a clearer knowledge of God, by the inftructions of the fpirit; an extraordinary effufion of which they fhall enjoy: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their fin no more; I will thus teach them, because I will forgive them; they shall be brought into my covenant again; and, thro' the blood of Christ, their fins Shall

* There may be a reference here to that imprecation of the jevs, His blood be upon us and our children, which lies upon them till; but when they are converted it shall be fo no more.

The apoftle quotes this, Heb. viii. 8. as referring to gospel times.

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fhall be forgiven, and all the tokens of my difpleasure against them be removed.

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 36 [is] his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, faith the LORD, [then] the feed of Ifrael alfo fhall cease from being a nation before me for ever; that is, my covenant is as fure as the ordinances of heaven; the jews fhall always continue a distinct people, and when they are converted they shall never apoftatife any more, but continue 37 to the end of the world faithful, holy, and obedient. Thus faith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth fearched out beneath, I will also caft off all the feed of Ifrael for all that they have done, faith the LORD; tho' for their fins they deferve to be rejected, yet for their fathers' fake, and my covenant with them, they fhall at last be restored.

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Behold, the days come, faith the LORD, that the city fhall be built to the LORD from the tower of 39 Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the mea

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furing line fhall yet go forth overagainst it upon the 40 hill Gareb, and fhall compass about to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, or Tophet, and of the afhes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, [shall be] holy unto the LORD; it fhall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.TM

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E have great reafon to rejoice in the gospel covenant, and the bleffed purport of it. The covenant God would make with the jews in the latter day,

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This is a prophecy that Jerufalem should be rebuilt and fanctified, and that multitudes of the converted jews fhould fettle there, that they thould enlarge the circumference of their temple and city, and that what was now polluted fhould become holy ground: but whether thefe expreffions are literal, or only figurative, time alone can difcover.

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