ON THE

COVENANT BETWEEN GOD AND JUDAH,

IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH.

2 CHRON. xxix. 10.

TH

ding one.

HE accounts of this tranfaction are still more fparing than thofe of the preceWe fhall only,-I. Survey the Character of the Covenanters.-II. The Refolution into which they entered.-III. The Occa❤ fions of this Covenant.-And, IV. Deduce a few Inferences from the whole.

FIRST, I fhall furvey the CHARACTER OF the Covenanters in this tranfaction.

1. THE glorious party unto whom they were bound to furrender themfelves is, THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL. This defignation was relative, and led the covenanters back to review the relation in which the Moft High ftood

unto

unto them; he was their own God, and their fathers God: And alfo to review the obligations they were under to be for him, and not for another. They were his covenanted people; as he was their covenanted God, by virtue of the covenants of their ancestors. The Lord God of Ifrael was the character by which God faw meet to reveal himself under that œconomy.

2. THE perfons devoting themselves are, King Hezekiah, with the children of Judah, and fuch of the ten tribes as fubmitted to his government. The active part which King Hezekiah took in this covenant, probably was a little extraordinary; yet there was nothing in it either irregular in itself, or unbecoming his station and office: For, though he excited the proper officers of the Church to do their duty, as he well might in fuch a broken ftate of the Church, yet he did not wreft the adminiftration of holy things out of their hands; nor, like Uzziah, grafp them into his own. One of the most distinguished covenanters, then, was Hezekiah, a prince as eminent in his zeal for reformation as any of the line of David; and fignally rewarded by peculiar and miraculous deliverances from various afflictions. in the fucceeding part of his reign, and in almost every thing, except in being fucceeded by fuch a fon as Manaffeh, who, in the begin ning of his reign, proved the very worst of all

Happy

his race.
With this monarch joined the rulers
of the city of Jerufalem, and the Levites who
had the charge of the temple, and all the con-
gregation of the Lord. Matters had been
fuffered to fink to the loweft ebb in the days
of Ahaz; but, all of a fudden, the Lord had
fpirited up a number to put hand to his work,
to the great joy of Hezekiah and all the peo-
ple: "And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the
people, that God had prepared the people;
for the thing was done fuddenly." Happy co-
venanters,―a people prepared by the Lord!

SECONDLY, The RESOLUTION which thefe covenanters formed is the next thing before us. Said Hezekiah, "Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Ifrael, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us *." The refolution is formed, indeed, by Hezekiah himself; but it was certainly intended as a public example, to excite unto public covenanting. Had he intended perfonal covenanting only, there was no need for announcing his intentions to the people; nor, in doing fo, could he be well excufed from oftentaIn this refolution we may,

tion.

1. OBSERVE the matter of it, viz. To MAKE A COVENANT with the Lord God of Ifrael.

The facred phrafe is, To cUT A COVENANT, In one of the Abrahamic tranfactions the reafon of this phrafe has been explained *. When facrifices were offered for covenant-ratification, the creatures were cut in twain, denoting the feverity of the punishment incurred by covenant-violation: The violator deferved to be cut afunder, as the foederal facrifice had been when the covenant was ratified. This rite had alfo in it a reprefentation of the fubftitution of Chrift, the true facrifice, in the place of the finner; and of the feparation of his foul from his body, as he was made a curfe for us. Taking Hezekiah's refolution in this fenfe, it was accomplished when the whole congregation offered a fin-offering for the kingdom, and for the fanctuary; and the King and the congregation laid their hands upon the facrifice, and the priests made reconciliation with the blood of the facrifice upon the altar, to make an atonement for all Ifrael t. It is probable, however, that formal covenanting followed this folemn facrifice. Along with the oblation of a fin-offering, there was either an explicit or implicit acknowledgment of fin; and this acknowledgment was a proper introduction to covenant-renovation. This facrifice, then, was a federal one; and it was proper for Hezekiah to fay, I have it in mine heart to cut a

* Differt. II. Part ii. + 2 Chron. xxix. 20—24.

covenant,

covenant, or divide a foederal facrifice, unto the Lord God of Ifrael.

2. NOTICE the firmnefs of this refolution, it was deeply laid; even in his heart: "Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant *" &c. Or, WITH MY HEART, as others render it. This refolution was formed in his heart, and not merely by his tongue; and it was as deeply fixed as wifely formed. Covenanting took up the heart of a prince; it was really heartwork with him. He had laid fin to heart, on the one hand; and he was ready to make a hearty dedication of himself unto God, on the other. *

1

3. WE have a forcible motive unto this duty of covenanting with God: "That his fierce wrath may turn away from us." The Lord promifeth to accompany public reformation with public profperity.

THIRDLY, We fhall now attend unto the OCCASIONS of this Covenant. Between the beginning of the reign of Joash and that of Hezekiah there were not fewer than an hun

dred and twelve years. Some of the princes, who reigned in this interval, were favourers of

*Chron. xxix. 10. Nunc igitur CUM corde meo, i. e. Hebraifmus, poftquam hæc vidi conftitui, &c. Vatab, in Loc. As alfo Arias Montanus in his Verfion.