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even until now, over these Ihe tribes of KphraimandManas-^h^and their con- federates which have been lost, which have been ha if they were not thene two thonfl^aml five humlred yeant. And lheSpir>t of Oud dothnigiiify, that tlie event ofRamah was the act in which the character of the jtidgment of thoee lon^ ages wa« exempli- ficd : groM cruelty, great inhumanity, a vi^^itation of the jealousy of kings, because they had been jealous of the King of kingrt. Bur the Lord com- fortGth Rachel, and declareth, " That they shall again come from the land of the enemy/' Now, seeing' that to Ephraim, and the Ten Tribes, tbero hath been atvardcd hitheno nothing but wrath, and cruel, and inhuman massacre on Mes- iitah'5 account, ahall there not, think you, be to Ephoiiu n ^lorion?^ risiping timet Rltall he be (he only nation of the earth who shall not profit from the promised seed of Abraham ? God's faithful- ncs«, God's f^race forbid. He hath not bo cast 'IIM rilK KINO& OF TH£ £AftT, [JX$. ^awaybi8 people. For Ephmim shall be great ha frhall bo blessed, he shall he mighty, he fthall be Uie arrow of the Lonl, and his bovr, ami bis haadx «bal) be made stroag by the hands of ibe mighty God of Jucob. Yea, Ephraim «.baU be hU first- born. For it 19 expressly so written in this very fruitrul chapter of Jeremiahs prophecy, Ver. §,0: " Behold, 1 will bring Ihcmfrom the north coun- try, (whether Judah and Uenjamin were ne^'er csist.) and galiirr Iheiti from the coa^t^ of the earth, and with them the bUad and the lame, tlte womaJi with child and her tliat travailetb with ' child toji^thcr : a great company ^ball rcttjm thi- ther. They ahall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: i will cause them to walk by the riverB of waters in a straight wny, wherein they f^hall not ^tiiinblo; for 1 am a Puther to Israel, and Gphraim is my tirst-bom." What this mcancth I know not, save tltat Ephraim as a nation shall be the first-bom unto Cbnst. when he shall come to be the Shepherd and the fttooe of Israel : for Ephraim hath sowed verj^ bitterly ; and he aUo shall have his reaping-iime of joy. This expression^ "Ephraim ik my first-bora," gives me the key to another passage with which I have been mtich puzzled ; and which ia wrttlen in the book of llo^a(xi< 1): "When UracI was a child lliun I liivccl hJin, wiid rallerl my S*in oiil of Egypt," Xow we know that this is applied by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament as a pre- diction of Christ's being called out of Egypt upon the death of Herod, (Matt. li.