call your attention to the way in which he undertakes to keep them : it is not through the medium of a bold, presump- tuous unhallowed confidence, such as you see in many profes- sors of religion, and such as betrays itself in rash, unscriptui'al assertions : it is by " putting his fear into their hearts," and causing them to " walk humbly before him," and to " work out their own salvation with fear and trembling." I would that this matter were better understood in the Christian world ; and that they who profess to believe with Abraham, would, with Abraham, " fall upon their face before God," and walk before him with a perfect heart k.
That such a covenant shall be made with them in that day, is fully declared in the chapter preceding our text : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah : 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 : but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people1." The interest also which " their children" shall have in this covenant is further declared : " They shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt ; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them ; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them : and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them ; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people : and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore m."]
2. The power of God —
[At their first espousal to God, " he rejoiced over them to do them good:" and since his rejection of them for their unfaithfulness, " he has rejoiced over them to bring them to nought n." But at the period we are now speaking of, he will again "rejoice over them to do them good;" as says the Prophet Zephaniah, " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty : he will save ; he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love ; he will joy over thee with singing0." It
k Gen. xvii. 1 — 3. ] Jer. xxxi. 31 — 33. with Heb. viii. 8 — 10. m Ezek. xxxvii. 25 — 28. n Deut. xxviii. 63. ° Zeph. iii. 17.