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❝ed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful "and gracious, long suffering, and abundant "in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for "thousands, forgiving iniquity, and trans"greffion, and fin."

When Mofes foretels the final difperfion of the Ifraelites, in confequence of their idolatry, and other vices, he at the fame time gives them the most folemn affurances of the divine favour in cafe of their repentance. I fhall quote two remarkable paffages for this purpofe, Deut. iv. 25. &c. "When "thou shalt beget children, and children's "children, and fhalt have remained long in "the land, and fhall corrupt yourselves, "and make a graven image, or the likeness "of any thing, and fhall do evil in the fight "of the Lord thy God, to provoke him to

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anger: I call heaven and earth to witness

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against you this day, that ye fhall foon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jorden to poffefs it: ye "not prolong your days upon it, but fhall utterly be deftroyed. And the Lord shall "fcatter you among the nations, and ye

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"fhall

"fhall be left few in number among the

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heathen, whither the Lord fhall lead you. "And there ye fhall ferve gods, the work of "men's hands, wood and ftone, which nei"ther fee, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But "if from thence thou shalt feek the Lord thy God, thou fhalt find him, if thou seek "him with all thy heart and with all thy "foul. When thou art in tribulation, and "all these things are come upon thee, even "in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord

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thy God, and fhalt be obedient unto his "voice: (for the Lord thy God is a mer"ciful God) he will not forfake thee, neither deftroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he fware unto them.' Deut. xxx. 1. &c. "And it fhall come to

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pafs when all these things are come upon "thee, the bleffing and the curfe, which I "have fet before thee, and thou fhalt call

them to mind, among all the nations whi"ther the Lord thy God hath driven thee, "and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, "and fhalt obey his voice according to all "that I command thee this day, thou and "thy children, with all thine heart and

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"with all thy foul: that then the Lord thy "God will turn thy captivity, and have 'compaffion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither "the Lord thy God hath feattered thee. If of thine be driven out unto the out

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moft parts of heaven, from thence will the "Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee. And the Lord 'thy God will bring the into the land "which thy fathers poffeffed, and thou shalt

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poffefs it, and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."

To thefe promifes Daniel had recourse, when he made confeffion and prayer to God on the behalf of Ifrael, during the Babylonifh captivity Dan. ix. 8. &c. “O Lord, "to us belongeth confufion of face, to our

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kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, "because we have finned against thee. To "the Lord our God belong mercies and for

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giveneffes, though we have rebelled against "him." The prophet Jeremiah alfo repeats the fame promifes of mercy and restoration, with a view to the fame cafe, Jer. iii.

12. &c.

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"Go and proclaim these words "toward the north, and fay, Return, thou backfliding Ifracl, faith the Lord, and I "will not caufe mine anger to fall upon you, "for I am merciful, faith the Lord, and I "will not keep anger for ever. ----Turn, "O backfliding children, faith the Lord, "for I am married unto you: and I will "take you one of a city, and two of a fami"ly, and I will bring you to Zion."

The declarations of divine mercy to penitent offenders, upon a great variety of occafions, in the courfe of the Jewish hiftory, and especially in the book of Pfalins, and of the prophets, who wrote in times of great degeneracy, are remarkably emphatical; and to give us the ftronger foundation for our confidence in the divine mercy it is always represented as arifing from himfelf only, from that love and compaffion which is effential to his nature, and which he bears to all the works of his hands. We cannot fo much as collect from any of them the most distant hint of its arising from any foreign confideration whatever; and this was certainly a

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matter of the greatest confequence; fince a fufpicion of this kind would tend to beget an idea of uncertainty, or partiality in the diftribution of the divine mercy.

Indeed every idea of this nature feems to be exprefly excluded in feveral paffages of fcripture, as in that declaration which the divine being makes by the prophet Ifaiah, xliii. 22. &c. 66 Thou haft not called

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upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been

<< weary of me, O Ifrael. Thou haft made

me to ferve with thy fins, thou haft "wearied me with thine iniquities. I, "even I am he that blotteth out thy tranf

greffions for mine own fake, and will not "remember thy fins." David, it is evident, had no other idea when he prayed for the forgiveness of his fins, Pf. xxv. 6. &c.

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Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, "and thy loving kindneffes, for they have "been ever of old. Remember not the fins of my youth, nor my tranfgreffions; according to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness fake, O Lord. Good "and upright is the Lord; therefore will

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