Sermons

of the Spirit:" a new creation of the soul, to . be wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost. And so St. Paul, speaking of all who are living in holy obedience to God, saith to them, "We are His workmanship," the workmanship of God,"created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

Awakened sinner, what dost thou desire? it not this, to be changed in heart, to have thy soul renewed, to be freed from the law and dominion of thy sins, to have thyself subjected and conformed to the law of thy God?

Then learn this day whither thou must go to have all this acomplished in thee. God alone can do it. And God himself undertakes the work. The Holy Spirit it is who makes it his own special office to cleanse the hearts of sinners from their sin, to put the law of God into their minds, and write it in their hearts: He has done it already for thousands: He will do it for thee. Go then, and ask Him: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

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But, perhaps, some of you will inquire what right you have to expect so great a blessing? What claim have you on the Divine regard? It is true, God makes a promise, but then, you say, are not you to do something on your part to make yourselves deserving that the promise shall be fulfilled to you? In answer to this, I would have you notice a still further and very important matter in our text.

III. We remark THE PECULIAR WAY IN WHICH THE LORD DECLARES HIS PLAN OF GRACE.

It is by a new covenant. The promise of our text is a new covenant engagement. "This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts."

You remember the Lord is speaking of Israel; the Jewish people. Now there was a covenant which He had once made with them, even at the time when He led them forth out of Egypt, and was about to fix them in the land of Canaan. Then it was that He entered into his first covenant with them. He gave them a law: and He told them that as long as the nation kept that law, as long as they obeyed and served their God, so long He would favour them, protect them, and bless them: but if they broke his law, and departed from his service, and obeyed not his voice, then would He "turn to be their enemy," and they should feel all the weight of his wrathful indignation.

Now you notice the nature of this covenant: it was conditional: that is to say, God's favour, or wrath, depended on their own conduct: if they obeyed his will, He would bless them if they disobeyed, He would cast them off.

So you read in the book of Deuteronomy how Moses sums up this covenant: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, in that I command thee to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, that thou mayest live, and

the Lord thy God shall bless thee but if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not fear, ye shall surely perish. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing."

These were then the terms of the covenant. If, as a nation, Israel served God, then, as a nation, they should prosper. If they sinned against Him, then, as a nation, they should suffer.

Now what did Israel do? Did they serve God? No. They wofully departed from Him, and rebelled against Him. What was the consequence? God kept to his word. He poured his wrath

most terribly upon them. He has cast them They are under his curse. first covenant, Israel is a lost

out of their land.

So then, by the

and ruined race.

Now, therefore, what hath God done? In wondrous mercy He proclaims a new covenant: a very different covenant from the first: it is the covenant of the Gospel. That Gospel, Israel, as a nation, shall ere long receive: and then shall we see our text fulfilled in them.

Meanwhile, let us mark wherein this new covenant differs from the old: the second from the first.

Surely it differs in many points. But the particular I want to have noted now is this, the kind of engagement which this new covenant makes. The old covenant, as we have seen, made every thing depend on Israel's own conduct. The new covenant is altogether of another kind. It leaves nothing to depend on Israel.

It all depends on the good and gracious will iw 2uoicious will of
God, and this is its glory, its beauty, its excellen geIssXO
Mark how you have this particular brougUOrd 18lar brought

I will make a new covenant with the house
Israel, and with the house of Judah, not accord-
ing to the covenant that I made with their fathers,
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt." No, it was to
be of another description altogether. And why
so? For this plain reason, that by that covenant
Israel had become a ruined people. The Prophet
gives that reason, because they continued not
in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord." Then follow the terms of the new
This is the covenant that I will
covenant.
make with the house of Israel after those days,
saith the Lord: I will put my laws into their

minds, and write them in their hearts."

You see no conditions here. Nothing is left
suspended on Israel's behaviour. Jehovah makes
an absolute, a free, an unconditional promise.
The covenant is a simple declaration, on his own
part, of grace, and goodwill toward the people.
And hence when St. Paul speaks of this new
covenant, and calls it a better covenant, better
than the first, he explains the reason why it is
so much better, because, "it is established on
better promises." Truly they are better, inasmuch

as the promises of the old
ional, but those of the new are unconditional: