1 Life and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, ii. 37}.
i34 THE NEW COVENANT
many centuries afterwards would be drawn out into the light under Apostolic direction ; but the solemn character of the trans- action was there and then profoundly felt. And at later periods of Israel's history this covenant was again and again renewed ; as by Joshua at Shechem, by King Asa at Jerusalem, by Jehoiada the priest in the Temple, and also by the priesthood and people under Hezekiah, and under the auspices of Ezra and Nehemiah in later days still, after the great Captivity. It was renewed because it was continually broken. It was a Divine work, and yet, through man's perverseness, it was a failure. Hence the words, " Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord."
TJ Jeremiah had played his part in establishing covenants between Israel and its God. He is not, indeed, even so much as mentioned in the account of Josiah's reformation ; and it is not clear that he himself makes any express reference to it ; so that some doubt must still be felt as to his share in that great move- ment. At the same time indirect evidence seems to afford proof of the common opinion that Jeremiah was active in the pro- ceedings which resulted in the solemn engagement to observe the code of Deuteronomy. But yet another covenant occupies a chapter in the Book of Jeremiah, and in this case there is no doubt that the prophet was the prime mover in inducing the Jews to release their Hebrew slaves. This act of emancipation was adopted in obedience to an ordinance of Deuteronomy, so that Jeremiah's experience of former covenants was chiefly connected with the code of Deuteronomy and the older Book of the Covenant upon which it was based. The Eestoration to which Jeremiah looked forward was to throw the Exodus into the shade, and to constitute a new epoch in the history of Israel more remarkable than the first settlement in Canaan. The nation was to be founded anew, and its regeneration would necessarily rest upon a New Covenant, which would supersede the Covenant of Sinai.1
TJ Oliver, we find, spoke much of " the Covenants " ; which indeed are the grand axis of all, in that Puritan Universe of his. Two Covenants; one of Works, with fearful Judgment for our shortcomings therein ; one of Grace and unspeakable mercy ; — gracious Engagements, " Covenants," which the Eternal God has vouchsafed to make with His feeble creature, man. Two; and
1 W. H, Bennett,
JEREMIAH xxxi. 31-34 135
by Christ's Death they have become One : there for Oliver is the divine solution of this our Mystery of Life. " They were Two," he was heard ejaculating: "Two, but put into One before the Foundation of the World !" And again: "It is holy and true, it is holy and true, it is holy and true ! — Who made it holy and true ? The Mediator of the Covenant ! " And again : " The Covenant is but One. Faith in the Covenant is my only support. And if I believe not, He abides faithful ! " When his Children and Wife stood weeping round him, he said : " Love not this world. I say unto you, it is not good that you should love this world!" No. Children, live like Christians: — I leave you the Covenant to feed upon ! " x
2. The Old Covenant had thus become, for practical purposes, an outworn safeguard. Israel in her successive generations had utterly failed to perform her part, and so had made it impossible for God to do what He had promised ; until at length He loathed the people with whom He was in covenant, and rejected them, and cast them forth out of their land. What if all this should happen over again in the history of our children as it happened in the days of our fathers ? Was such a result not all too likely ? Such doubting thoughts were most natural to one in Jeremiah's position, and they constituted, we may be sure, one of his direst spiritual trials. But faith's trials are but the precursors of new triumphs. Job despairs of relief in the present life, and his very despair causes faith to reach out beyond the tomb in search of the deliverance which, in spite of all present appearances, it believes will surely come. Even so Jeremiah, justly despairing of permanent prosperity for Israel on the basis of the Old Covenant, by a sublime act of Heaven — inspired faith — dares to predict the advent of a time when the old discredited and bank- rupt constitution or covenant shall be superseded by a new one furnished with conditions that shall insure it against failure.
% There follows the beautiful passage [in The Ancient Sage] in which the hopeful and wistful upward gaze of faith is de- scribed. While melancholy and perplexity constantly attend on the exercises of the speculative intellect, we are to " cling to faith " :
She reels not in the storm of warring words, She brightens at the clash of "Yes" and "No," She sees the Best that glimmers thro' the Worst,