and power. It is what it is because God is in it. So of the human soul, it is said to be full of God when its inward state, its affections and acts, are determined and controlled by him, so as to be a constant manifestation of the divine presence. Then the soul is pure, and glorious, and free, and blessed. This is what God promises to accomplish in us, when he says, " I will dwell in you and walk in you." It is only a variation of form whem it is added, I will he their God^ and they shall be my people. This is the great promise of the covenant with Abraham and with all the true Israel. It is one of the most comprehensive and frequently repeated promises of the Scrip- tures. Gen. 17, 8. Deut. 29, 13. Jerem. 31, 33. Heb. 8, 10, &c., &c. There is unspeakably more in the promises of God than we are able to understand. The promise that the na- tions should be blessed in the seed of Abraham, as unfolded in the Xew Testament, is found to comprehend all the blessings of redemption. So the promise, I will be their God, and they shall be my people, contains more than it has ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. How low are our concep- tions of God ! Of necessity our conceptions of what it is to have a God, and that God, Jehovah, must be entirely inade- quate. It is not only to have an infinite protector and bene- factor, but an infinite portion ; an infinite object of love and confidence ; an infinite source of knowledge and holiness. It is for God to be to us what he designed to be when he created us after his image, and filled us with his fulness. His people, are those whom he recognizes as his peculiar property, the objects of his love, and the recipients of his favours.
17. Wherefore come out from among tliem, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the un- clean (thing) ; and I will receive you.
This is a free citation from Is. 52, 11. 12, where the same exhortation to separate themselves from the wicked, and spe- cially from the heathen, is addressed to the people of God. The words and I will receive you have nothing to answer to them in the passage in Isaiah, unless it be the words " God shall be your rere-ward ; " literally, " he that gathereth you." In Judges 19, 18 the same word is rendered to receive^ " There is no one receiveth me to house." It is more proba- ble, however, that they are borrowed from Ezekiel 20, 34, as