[The express promise of God to all who embrace the new covenant is, " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts '\" And this promise he fulfils, through the all-powerful operation of his Holy Spirit upon their souls. As he caused Moses to come up to him on Mount Horeb with tables of stone, on which with his own finger he wrote the law, so he causes the believing penitent to come up to him with his heart of stone ; and then, exchanging it for a heart of flesh, he inscribes upon it his law, even, as the Apostle says, upon the fleshy tables of his heart'. We are told respecting all the Lord's people, that they are " predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ'^ :" and in this their conformity to him pre-eminently appears : that, as He could say, " I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart V and as he was typically represented by the ark in which the law was deposited™, so these have the law treasured up in their souls ; and they delight in it, as their ever-faithful monitor, and infallible directory". From the time that it is deposited there, they regard it solely, constantly, and without reserve. Formerly the opinions of men, or the dictates of flesh and blood, formed their rule of action : now no inquiry is made,
but, "What saith the Lord?" Nor is it on great
emergencies only that this inquiry is instituted, but at all
times and on all occasions Nor are consequences any
longer regarded. If a furnace or den of lions be prepared as the recompense of fidelity, he says, " None of these things move me :" I shall " hearken unto none but God" himself ]
This forms his distinguishing character — [Others have the law of God in their head, and not un- frequently in their mouth also : but he alone has it in his heart. There may be amongst the ungodly as comprehensive a know- ledge of theology as of any other science, if taken in a mere speculative view : but this is widely different from a spiritual apprehension of God's law, and a conformity of mind and will to it: this pertains to him only who has it written on his heart by the Spirit of God : for so the prophet informs us : *' Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law°." To know, in a speculative way, how a sinner is to be made righteous before God, will consist with the grossest impiety : but the having of God's law in the heart infallibly designates, and proves, us the people of the Lord. There is in this respect the same difference between the nominal and the real Christian as there was formerly between different adherents to the Mosaic law. " All were not Israel who were
'» Jer. xxxi. 33. » Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. with 2 Cor. iii. 3.
k Rom. viii. 29. ' Ps. xl. 8. ^ Dent. x. 2, 5.
n Ps. i, 2. o Isai. li. 7.