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peace and good-will come into God's heart. he remembers his covenant of mercy for us, to remember our fins against us, then we remember our fins against ourselves with fhame.

And in the latter part of the verse he adds, "When thou shalt receive thy fifters, thine elder and thy younger:" that is, when the Gentile nations, fome of them greater than thou art, and fome leffer, both ancient and modern, fhall be received into church-communion, and owned as members of the church of God; "And I will give them to thee for daughters:" they fhall be my gift unto thee as daughters; they fhall be nurfed up and educated by that gospel, that word of the Lord that shall come forth from Zion, from the Jews; infomuch, that Jerufalem below may, in fome fenfe, be called the mother; and Jerufalem, which is above, which is free, fhall be acknowledged to be the mother of us all, Gal. iv. 26. "They fhall be thy daughters, but not by thy covenant;" that is, thy covenant of duties, or which thou turnedft to a covenant of works: not by that old covenant, which was violated; but by that covenant, which promised to write the law in the heart, and to put the fear of God into the inward part. Now, when thou fhalt receive them, and when Jews and Gentiles fhall be united in Christ, the covenant-head, "Thou fhalt be afhamed of thine own evil ways." Thou fhalt blufh to look a Gentile in the face, remembering how much worse than the Gentiles thou waft in the day of thy apoftacy.

He farther fignifies his gracious purpose, verse 62. “I will establish my covenant with thee." He had before faid, "I willeftablifh unto thee an everlasting covenant," ver.60.. This covenant is God's covenant: it is of his making with his Son Jefus Chrift: "I have made a covenant with. my Chofen and it is eflablished in him unto us; and therefore may be faid to be established with us. As if. he had faid, As I will eftablish it with him, unto thee;. fo I will re-establish it in him, with thee. And then the effect of that re-establishment of it fhall be, "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord;" that I am JEHOVAH, a God of power, and faithful to my promife... It had often been faid in wrath, "You fhall know that I am the Lord;"

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you fhall know it to your coft: but here it is faid in mercy, "You fhall know that I am the Lord;" you fhall know it to your comfort. And it is one of the most precious promifes of the covenant, " They fhall all know the Lord:" by a juftifying knowledge; fo as to be delivered from the rule of fin, and from the punishment threatened in the law: by a fanctifying knowledge; fo as to be delivered from the rule of fin, and to be fitted for gofpel-fervice and obedience: by an evangelical knowledge; a knowledge of God in Chrift, which is the beginning of eternal life; "This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom thou haft fent:" and likewife by a humbling knowledge; and here is the humbling effect of it defcribed in the words of the text, "That thou mayeft remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, becaufe of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou haft done, faith the Lord God."

Here you may obferve both the nature of true Humiliation, and the ground of it.

1. The nature and properties of true humiliation, Thou shalt remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame.

2. The ground and fpring of it, When I am pacified towards thee, for all that thou haft done: when thou fhalt fo know the Lord, as to view him to be a reconciled God in Chrift. He had before faid, I will remember my covenant;" and when he puts them in mind of the covenant, then they mind their fin and mifery, their evil ways, and are ashamed. And here, when the covenant is further opened, the humiliation is further enlarged alfo. Why, the clearer evidence that perfons have of God's being reconciled to them, the more grieved and afhamed will they be for offending of him.

I fhall farther explain the words, in difcourfing upon the following doctrine.

OBSERV. "True gofpel-humiliation is rooted in the

believing knowledge and view of divine reconci"liation: or, Then is a foul truly humbled, when "it apprehends God as truly pacified, and well"pleafed in Chrift Jefus."

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To this purpose are thefe and the like words of fcrip. ture, They fhall fear the Lord, and his goodness, in the latter days. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" the kingdom of grace, reigning thro' the righteoufnels of Jefus, declaring God to be pacified in him, it is at hand, it is proclaimed in your ears. Repent, and in order to this, believe the gofpel; the gospel of reconciliation. "Let the wicked forfake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord." Why?" He will have mercy; he will abundantly pardon."

The method we would lay down, for profecuting this obfervation, as the Lord fhall be pleafed to affift, fhall be the following.

I. We would speak a little of this humiliation. II. Of this reconciliation; or, of God's being pacified. III. Of the connection between them; or the influence which the view and knowledge of God's being pacified, hath upon this humiliation.

IV. Make fome application of the whole.

I. We will touch a little at that humiliation here before us. And, O Sirs, fince we are here met about hu miliation-work, let us look upon it as the fubject-matter of a divine promife, "Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayeft remember and, be confounded."

If

you had this view, then you would have the more hope of coming speed, and meeting with fuccefs. This view may help you to know that you are not come to do fome great work of yourself, as if God were ftill ftanding upon terms with you, according to the old covenant of works; but that you are come to get all the humbling and healing grace that you need, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, which is a giving covenant. But now, I fhall mention four ingredients of this humiliation that is here promifed, and that we are to look for, and pray for, to be brought forth out of the womb of the promife, namely, remembrance, confufion, fhame, and filence.

I. The

1. The first ingredient is remembrance; That thott mayft REMEMBER. The very firft beginning of true repentance is, God's making a man thoughtful; "I thought upon my ways, and turned my feet to thy teftimonies." Hence we are called to confider our ways. We forget God, and forget our fins against him; but whenever God begins the good work, he makes the man to remember and call to mind his fins: as the prodigal, when he came to himfelf, confidered matters. This remembrance, I think, includes illumination and con viction. The first part of the phyfic that God gives, is the eye-falve, that they may fee; for, until their eyes be opened, they will not turn from darknefs unto light, Acts xxvi. 18. The first creature that ever God made in the primitive creation, was light; and the first thing in the new creation, is fpiritual light. The finner, before repentance, is like a man fleeping in a dark pit, in the midst of a great many vipers, afps, and ferpents, and venomous beafts: while he lies in the dark pit, they neither hurt him, nor is he afraid of them himself; but whenever a ray of light comes in at a hole or window, prefently they fall upon him, and fting and torment himi, and he fees himfelf to be furrounded with them. Sa here, before repentance, the finner fleeps in the dark. nefs of ignorance, atheifm, error, and unbelief; but whenever a beam of fpiritual light breaks in upon the mind and confcience, by an effectual conviction and illumination, then fin revives, and the finner finds himfelf encompaffed, as it were, with living ferpents, tainted and corrupted with the poifon of afps, deftroyed and defiled with all the trafh of hell in his heart.

It is not a bare fpeculation, or notion of our finful ways, that is imported here. We many times, by a bare notion of our fins and mercies, write them, as it were, upon the waters: they are no fooner thought, or fpoke of, but they are forgot again; but it is a feeling remembrance, and an abiding remembrance: fuch as that the pfalmift had, when he faid, "My fin is ever before me:" they haunt me like a ghoft. The ghoft of Uriah is ftill before me, might he fay; the thoughts of my murder and adultery never go out of my mind. Yea, it is a remembrance of fin, as VOL. VII.

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against God; " Againft thee, thee only have I finned, and done this evil in thy fight," Pfalm li. 4. This is the remembrance here alfo fpoken of; "Thou fhalt know that I am the Lord; and fo thou fhalt remember thine evil ways and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame." It is a remembrance of fome fin or cther, fo as to bring in the remembrance of the reft, like that of the woman of Samaria, when Chrift told her of her lewdnefs, fhe got, as in a map, a view of all that ever fhe did. Yea, it leads back to the fountain of fin in the nature; "Behold, I was conceived in fin, and brought forth in iniquity," Pf.li. 5.

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2. Confufion is another ingredient of the humiliation here mentioned; That thou mayft remember, and be conFOUNDED. It is true, this confufion may be thought to be the fame with the fhame afterwards mentioned; but, I think, they may be viewed as diftinct. There is a confufion of heart, and á confufion of face. thefe I take to be the fame with fhame; but the former, namely, confufion of heart, I think feems, especially here, to be intended; because it is joined with heartremembrance of fin: Thou shalt remember, and be confounded; q. d. Thou shalt have a heart-confounding remembrance of thy fin. And this confusion of heart, I think, takes in heart-contrition, or fome degree of brokennels; heart-compunction, whereby the heart is pricked and pierced; heart-forrow and anguifh, and most of thefe ingredients of repentance and godly forrow mentioned, 2 Cor. vii. 11. "For behold, this felf-fame thing that ye forrowed after a godly fort, what carefulness it wrought in you; yea, what clearing of yourselves; yea, what indignation; yea, what fear; yea, what vehement defire; yea, what zeal; yea, what revenge," &c. Yea, it feems to import the heart's being ftruck with aftonifhment at its own finfulness, and with amazement at its own madness; like a man plunged into the deep, his fenfes are inftantly confounded. O! when a man's thoughts are, by a fpiritual remembrance, plunged into the depth of fin and wickednefs, that he fees into his heart and ways, how he is confounded, fo as he knows not what to think! His fins are beyond his understand