not be so in that day : for, like Abraham of old, the parents will " command their children, and their households after them, to fear the Lord ; " and the whole nation, for many suc- cessive generations, will be " an holy people unto the Lord."
Here it will be proper to observe, that this diffusion of piety will not precede, but follow, their restoration to their own land : at least, so, I think, the Prophet Ezekiel has plainly intimated; saying, " When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; then shall they know that I am the Lord : neither will I hide my face any more from them ; for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Godh." But in that day, I hesitate not to say, they, even the whole nation, will be eminently holy; since " then God will sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean : from all their fil- thiness, and from all their idols, will he cleanse them : a new heart also will he give unto them, and a new spirit will he put within them : he will even put his Holy Spirit within them, and will cause them to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judgments, and do them : and they shall dwell in the land which he gave to their fathers ; and they shall be his people, and he will be their God1."]
As we speak with confidence respecting their final possession of these blessings, it will be proper to shew,
II. What security they have for the enjoyment of them —
In the behalf of this desolate and outcast people are pledged,
1. The veracity of God —
[God will make a covenant with them ; not like the covenant which he made with them in former days, wherein the possession of his blessings was suspended upon their fidelity to God, and which, being violated by them, was utterly dissolved; but he will make one, which, in consequence of God's undertaking every thing for them, as well as for himself, shall never be broken, but shall endure for ever. This may well be called a Covenant of Grace ; for in it God gives all, and man receives all : God engages, not only that he will not depart from his people to do them good, but that he will put his " fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from him." And here I would particularly
h Ezek. xxxix. 25 — 29.
1 Ezek. xxxvi. 24 — 28. and Jer. xxiv. 6, 7.