UPON that natural affection whereof we discoursed last Lord's day, ariseth, as upon a basis, the superstructure of all covenants and agreements which man formally entereth into with man, and over which he taketh solemn instruments either before God or before men. These covenants, or contracts, were wont, in former times, to be confirmed by some notable act, and their memory to be preserved by some durable monument; for example, when Abraham entered into covenant with God; or, to begin more early, when God entered into covenant with Noah, it was done over a sacrifice, and the memorial of it was the rainbow in the heavens. And when God entered into covenant with Abraham for the possession of the land of Canaan, it was over the sacrifice of an heifer, and a ram, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon; and the memorial of it in due time was the rite of cir

cumcision. Again, when Jacob entered into covenant with God at Padan-aram, he set up a pillar for a memorial, and poured out upon it a libation of oil. And again, when he entered into covenant with Laban, it is thus written, "Let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be a witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar; and Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made a heap, and they did eat there upon the heap." And so in ancient times it was in general use, at the making of a covenant, to take God to witness, and to offer a sacrifice unto God, and to pour out a libation or drink-offering. For the drink-offering was that which perfected the sacrifice. Thus when God appeared the second time unto Jacob, at Padanaram, Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone; and he poured a drink-offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon. And at the daily offering of the lamb, morning and evening, upon the great altar they poured out the fourth part, or an hin of wine, for a drink-offering: so also at the offering of the feast of first-fruits, and at the consecration of the Nazarite, and on other public occasions. But this rite or ceremony was extended also to private vows and free-will offerings, as we see it written in the xv th of Numbers. And not only was it the order for the children of Israel, but also for the stranger that sojourned in the land.

This ordinance of making a libation, or pouring out a drink-offering upon occasion of any covenant entered into with God, or with our fellow-men, or even with our own conscience as in the making of avow, being thus authorised by God, and practised by his saints from the earliest times; being the daily practice of the holy and covenant people; came into general use amongst the heathen also, and indeed forms the root of the word which is translated "trucebreakers" in the text, and "implacable" in the corresponding passage of the Romans. The word being, when literally translated, "men without libations;" that is to say, men who took no interest whatever in the sacrifices and the feasts in which men were wont to make libations to the gods, for the sake of confirming friendship, or any holy covenant, or any holy agreement. The word includes not only such as betray their pledged faith, and break the covenants into which they have entered, but those also who burn with an implacable hatred against others, and admit, as it were, no libations of covenants human or Divine, of friendship or religion. And therefore, in the passage already referred to in the first of the Romans, it is translated "implacable," and represents another class besides covenant breakers: "Covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable;" that is, one who not only hath violated his covenants, but who hath so far departed from the reverence and the love of the sacred ordinances of society,

as to have become of a wild, inconstant, unrefrained, and unrefrainable disposition, who hath as it were undone the bonds and obligations of social life, and longeth to return back again into the savage and unsocial state; being indeed that very spirit which it was the object of Rousseau's writings to cultivate, and of Byron's poetry to express-the anti-social, dis-social, truce-breaking spirit, which we shall shew, in the sequel, worketh like a corrosive poison in the bowels of society. Having thus endeavoured to give you a distinct idea of this characteristic of the last times, we shall now proceed to open in order first, The nature and importance of the obligations referred to. 2dly, The things which tend to strengthen, and the things which tend to weaken and dissolve them. And lastly, Point out the operation of these dissolving and destructive principles in this our day.

With respect to covenants then, it is to be observed that they are of three kinds : 1st, Those which we enter into with God; 2dly, Those which we enter into with the state; and 3dly, Those which we enter into privately with one another. And I might perhaps add a 4th, Those which we enter into with ourselves. Of Divine covenants, the great sacrifice is the body of Christ; and the libation, or drink-offering, is his blood. And every man who sitteth down at the Lord's table doth bind himself unto this covenant; and every man who hath his child baptised doth likewise bind his child under this covenant,

which includeth the obedience of all the Divine commandments, and especially of all the ordinances and institutions of Christ; such as the only worship of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the keeping holy the Sabbath-day, the observance of all the ordinances of God's worship, the honour of the rulers of his church duly ordained to sacred things, the keeping of the marriage vow, the obedience of the magistrate, together with all the more private and personal duties enjoined in God's holy commandments. Of this covenant, so large and inclusive, the church is the guardian, and the discipline of the church is nothing else but the attendance of the rulers of the church upon this very thing; to see that the members of Christ fulfil those obligations for which Christ their Surety did impledge his precious life. The church, in the exercise of discipline, occupying exactly the same place between Christ and his members, which the judges occupy between the king and his liege subjects: in both cases, the laws are given to our hand, and may not by the guardians of the law be infringed. We have our laws in the word of God, which, if you, the members of Christ, do break, we, the guardians of the church's holiness, are obliged by our ordination vows to take cognizance of the same, according to the rules and ordinances of the word of God.-Of the same kind, and after the same way protected, are covenants of a public kind which we enter into, or rather are