perfect consistency with his own honour. He tells us, He will do it " in righteousness," having accepted the sacrifice of his only dear Son in their behalf f. He will do it "in judg- ment," having from all eternity determined so to act towards themg. He will do it "in loving-kindness," having " loved them with an everlasting loveh. He will do it " in mercies," having freely forgiven them all their trespasses1. He will do it " in faithfulness," seeing that " his gifts and calling are without repentance k. And, that he is determined to do it, he makes clear by a threefold repetition of his purpose, " I will betroth thee, I will, I will : " and, because it seems a stretch of mercy beyond all reasonable hope, he says," I will even betroth thee in faithfulness."]
He further declares that in this his renewed con- nexion with them he will far exceed all his former mercies —
[His former espousal of them issued in their being repu- diated : but this shall be " for ever1." And, whereas their former knowledge of his character was very imperfect, they shall now have such discoveries of him as they had no concep- tion of before ; they shall behold all his perfections as harmo- nizing in this stupendous act of mercy"1, and all " his glory as shining in the face of Jesus Christ"."]
But " is God the God of the Jews only ? Is he not also of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also :" and to them also does my text refer : so that, to enter fully into it, we must further notice,
II. What glad tidings are here announced to the Gentile Church —
To the Christian Church does St. Paul expressly apply this prophecy, saying, " God saith in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people ; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people ; there shall they be called the children of the living God0."
Now, in fact, Christ stands in the same relation to us as Jehovah did to the Jews —
f Rom. iii. 21, 22. s Eph. i. 8 — 11. h Jer. xxxi. 3.
• Rom. xi. 27. k Rom. xi. 29. ! Jer. xxxi. 31 — 33.
m Isai. xlv. 21. n 2 Cor. iv. 6. ° Rom. ix. 24 — 2(5.