"cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites,"
and that he had "made priests after the manner of the nations of other
lands;" but encourages himself that he and Judah had the Lord for their
God, because they had not forsaken him; "and the priests which
ministered unto the Lord were the sons of Aaron." 2 Chron. xiii. 6, 10.
(6.) By an entire forsaking and disowning the obligation of the
covenant, Dan. xi. 30. "He------shall have intelligence with them that
forsake the holy covenant." (7.) By a stated opposition to the covenant,
and persecuting of these who adhere thereunto. Thus Elijah justly
charges Israel, 1 Kings xix. 10, that they had forsaken God's covenant,
because they had thrown down his altars, slain his prophets, and sought
after Elijah's life. And in a use of lamentation deduced from the
foresaid doctrine, he showed, that all ranks in the land had reason to
mourn over their breach of covenant, in regard that some of all ranks,
from the throne to the dunghill, in church and state, are, or have been
guilty of dealing falsely in God's covenant, in all and every one of
these diverse ways, and of declining from it: and in regard that there
has been so much ignominy and contempt cast upon these sacred covenants,
not only by breaking them openly, but also avowedly disowning and
disdaining their obligation, and making the adherence to them criminal;
and, which is above all, burning them by the hand of the hangman, and
burying them so long in forgetfulness. This guiltiness he applied not to
great persons only, but also to professors, to ministers, and
particularly to ourselves, who are called dissenters from the present
establishment; pressing upon us no less than others, the absolute and
indispensable necessity of being convinced of, and mourning over these,
not as the sins of others only, but also as our own--we having a chief
hand in the trespass; pressing upon all present concerned in the work
the duty of self-examination, and putting themselves to the trial,
concerning their knowledge of the covenant obligations, both as to their