That which is to! be put into this spiritual receptacle is in these words, Tods véuous wov, “My laws;” in the plural number. Expositors inquire what laws are here intended, whether the moral law only, or others also. But there is no need of such inquiry. There is a metonymy of the subject and _ effect in the words. It is that knowledge of the mind and will of God which is revealed in the law, and taught by it, which is pro- mised. The “laws of God,” therefore, are here taken largely, for the whole revelation of the mind and will of God. So doth 7)" originally - signify “doctrine” or “instruction.” By what way or revelation soever God makes known himself and his will unto us, requiring our obe- dience therein, it is all comprised in that expression of “his laws.”
» From these things we may easily discern the nature of that grace
Aidous.
Tovs vouous ov.
' See his treatise on the Holy Spirit, vol. iii. of his miscellaneous works.—Ep.
150 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [owaP. VIIL
which is contained in this first branch of the first promise of the covenant, And this is, the effectual operation of his Spirit in the renovation and saving illumination of our minds, whereby they are habitually made conformable unto the whole law of God,—that is, the rule and the law of our obedience in the new covenant,—and enabled unto all acts and duties that are required of us. And this is the first grace promised and communicated unto us by virtue of this covenant, as it was necessary that so it should be. For, 1. The mind is the principal seat of all spiritual obedience. 2. The proper and peculiar actings of the mind, in discerning, knowing, judging, must go before the actings of the will and affections, much more all outward practices. 3. The depravation of the mind is such, by blindness, darkness, vanity, and enmity, that nothing can inflame our souls, or make an entrance towards the reparation of our natures, but an internal, spiritual, saving operation of grace upon the mind. 4. Faith itself is principally ingenerated by an infusion of saving light into the mind, 2 Cor. iv. 4, 6. So,—
Obs. VII. All the beginnings and entrances into the saving know- ledge of God, and thereon of obedience unto him, are effects of the grace of the covenant.
The second part of this first promise of the covenant is expressed
ie) ta sep in these words, “And will write them upon their hearts ;” Yas wirav io Which is that which renders the former part actually ypeta airods. effectual.
Expositors generally observe, that respect is had herein unto the gwing of the law on mount Sinat,—that is, in the first covenant; for then the law (that is, “the ten words”) was written in tables of stone. And although the original tables were broken by Moses, when the people had broken the covenant, yet would not God alter that dispensation, nor write his laws any other way, but commanded new tables of stone to be made, and wrote them therein. And this was done, not so much to secure the outward letter of them, as to represent the hardness of the hearts of the people unto whom they were given. God did not, God would not by virtue of that covenant otherwise dispose of his law. And the event that ensued hereon was, that they brake these laws, and abode not in obedience. This event God promiseth to obviate and prevent under the new cove- nant, and that by writing these laws now in our hearts, which he wrote before only in tables of stone; that is, he will effectually work that obedience in us which the law doth require, for he “ worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.” The heart, as distinguished from the mind, compriseth the will and the aftfee- tions; and they are compared unto the tables wherein the letter of the law was engraven. For as by that writing and engraving, the tables received the impression of the letters and words wherein the
VER. 10-12.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 151
law was contained, which they did firmly retain and represent, so as that although they were stones still in their nature, yet were they nothing but the law in their use; so by the grace of the new cove- nant there is a durable impression of the law of God on the wills and affections of men, whereby they answer it, represent it, comply with it, and have a living principle of it abiding in them. Where- fore, as this work must necessarily consist of two parts, namely, the removal out of the heart of whatever is contrary unto the law of God, and the implanting of principles of obedience thereinto; so it comes under a double description or denomination in the Scripture. For sometimes it is called a “ taking away of the heart of stone,” or “cireumcising of the heart;” and sometimes the “ giving of an heart of flesh,” the “writing of the law in our hearts;’—which is the re- novation of our natures into the image of God in righteousness and the holiness of truth. Wherefore in this promise the whole of our sanctification, in its beginning and progress, in its work upon our whole souls and all their faculties, is comprised. And we may ob- serve,—