for them on tables of stone. This, on "the fleshy tables of the heart." Their old covenant declared the terms of the law, and cursed for disobedience: This gives the law in their hearts, and gives strength, and spirit, for its fulfilment.

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If we look into their prophetic Scriptures, we find them full of this glory of the new covenant, the inward sanctification, and divine renewal, of that whole nation. "I will give them (says God) one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant (this same new covenant) with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good; and I will plant them in this land, assuredly, (note this, that you may be sure, who they are that are here spoken of,) with my whole heart, and with my whole soul." (Jer. xxxii. 39-41.) So, again, by the prophet Ezekiel, "I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. (Note, again, this mark upon the people addressed.) Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you: a new heart also

will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers," &c.

xxxvi. 24, and following verses.)

(Ezek.

Now, here, we have this new covenant promise, of the gift of God's Spirit to dwell in his people, and sanctify them, given to that Israel, to whom God pledges himself that he will, at that same time, gather them again out of the countries, and give them the land that he gave to their fathers. This interweaving of their recovery from their dispersions, and restoration to their land, cuts off all escape from the proper and special application of this most glorious promise of God, to the literal seed of Jacob.

In that day of Israel's mercies, "the Spirit shall be POURED upon them from on high," (Isaiah xxxii. 15,) the Spirit of holiness, in a manner to which there has been, hitherto, no parallel; and of which the Pentecostal shower was but an earnest. This is that "gracious rain" which God will "send upon his inheritance," whereby he will "refresh it, when it is weary."

(Psalm lxix. 9.)

So St. Peter, in his sermon to the Jews, refers to

the times of this new covenant grace, as "times of refreshing (καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως) from the presence of the Lord:" and it is worthy of remark, that those words of Isaiah, "Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high," are, in the Greek version of Symmachus, rendered, "until there be REFRESHING (áváþvĝis ë§ vyovs, qu. for) from on high." "Repent ye, therefore, (says St. Peter, Acts iii. 19, 20,) and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out; that times of refreshing may come, from the presence of the Lord, and he may send Jesus Christ, which has been fore-ordained for you." (ὅπως ἄν ἔλθωσι καιροὶ ἀναψύξεως . . . . καὶ ἀποστείλῃ τὸν προκεχειρισμένον ὑμῖν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν.) These times, observe, are, when Israel's sin shall be blotted out; and the "refreshing" lies in the fulness of the effusion of the Holy Ghost, (the great "Comforter,") upon that whole people; writing God's holy, and good, and perfect law, in their hearts; turning them, in truth, to God; making their peace as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea." "I will put my law in their inward parts; for I will forgive their iniquity."

A second, of these promises of sanctification, is 2. Of Divine relationship. "And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This promise, clearly, implies one, or both, of

two things: either, that God shall be Israel's God, under this covenant, in another and better manner, than ever he was before: or, that he shall be their God again, and they his people, after they shall long have ceased to be to him in that relation.

In both these senses the words are true, and will be made good to Israel, in the day of their mercy.

The words occur, as part of the old covenant: but there is a fulness of glory in them, as they are adopted into the new covenant, which shall utterly eclipse all their former experience, when they had only the shekinah,-the shadow of the Divine Majesty, visibly displayed among them.

Further, the words are true, in the sense which implies, that Israel, at the time of God's making the new covenant with them, shall have ceased to stand to him in that relation which is here expressed. Such is, precisely, the present condition of that people. They have long been out of covenant with God: cast off, but not for

ever.

And herein (I may observe, by the way, from Ben Ezra) we have our two strongest proofs, that the splendid promises of God to Israel, by his prophets, had not their fulfilment in their return from Babylon. First, because these mercies are promised to Israel under a NEW covenant, an

EVERLASTING covenant; whereas it is notorious, that Israel returned from Babylon under their OLD covenant, and continued under it, until Christ. Secondly, because these mercies are promised to Israel, at a time when they shall long have ceased to be a people to God, and God a God to them: whereas, in Babylon, however God punished his people, certainly, they never ceased to be such to him. In their present dispersion, God has said to them, "Lo Ammi: ye are not my people, and I will not be your God."

But, "in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called, The sons of the living God." (Hos. i. 10.) "I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

This promise, like the foregoing, has, doubtless, a very blessed fulfilment, after a spiritual manner, in the experience of believers under the Gospel. It is true to God's spiritual Israel, the people chosen of him, in Christ, to be a people to his praise. But, if we look at the promise as part of a covenant with a nation, a body politic, dwelling together as one community, in their land, it is clear, it must have to them a fulfilment of another kind, than their individual, spiritual enjoyment and service of God, though that will be included.

In fact, God's own interpretation, by his acts,