---

I. GOD APPROPRIATES THIS WORK TO HIMSELF. Real religion is of a Divine original: it never would have had an existence in the world without the revelation of God; and it will never have an existence in the soul without the operation of God.

1. The doctrine has been much abused. It has often been so managed as to make the sinner, while in his natural state, to appear unfortunate rather than criminal, and to render the use of means and exertions needless.

2. If "all things are of God," is religion to be excluded, and to form the only exception? "Does the river of the water of life" spring from a source on this side "the throne of God and of the Lamb"?

3. To know things in their causes has been deemed the highest kind of knowledge: to know salvation in its source is indispensable.

(1) It is necessary, to guide and to encourage the concern of awakened sinners, who are asking, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Seeing so many difficulties and dangers before them, and feeling their corruption and weakness, after a few unsuccessful struggles, they will sink down in hopeless despair; unless, with a sense of their own inability, you exhibit that grace which is sufficient for them, and meet them in their conviction with the promise, "Ask, and it shall be given you"; etc.

(2) It is necessary to call forth the acknowledgments, and to regulate the praises of those who are sanctified by Divine grace.

II. THE DISPOSITION which it produces.

1. He promises to give them one heart; and this shows the sameness of religion, as to the leading views, sentiments, and pursuits of its possessors.

2. "I will put a new spirit within you" — not only different from that which still animates others, but distinguished from that which once influenced them. In this manner the Lord qualifies His people for their situation and engagements: and thus they are at home in them: there is a suitableness productive of ease and enjoyment.

3. He gives "them an heart of flesh." It was a heart of "stone" before. Take a stone — feel it — how cold! Strike it — it resists the blow. Lay upon it a burden — it feels no pressure. Apply to it a seal — it receives no impression. Such were your hearts once. What a mercy to have this curse removed, — to be able to feel; to feel spiritually; to be alive to "the powers of the world to come!" to be no longer insensible to Divine and heavenly things, when they come in contact with us!

III. THE PRACTICE WHICH RELIGION DEMANDS — "That they may walk in My statutes," etc.

1. Observe the order in which these things are arranged. Principle precedes practice, and prepares for it. Behold a man hungry — he needs no argument to induce him to eat. See that mother — she needs no motive to determine her to cherish her darling babe — nature impels. The obedience of the Christian is natural, and hence it is pleasant and invariable: "he runs and is not weary, he walks and is not faint."

2. It is equally true that practice must follow principle. The one is the necessary consequence of the other, This influence will operate: if it be fire, it will burn; if it be leaven, it will pervade and assimilate; if it be in us "a well of water," it will "spring up into everlasting life." The one is the proper evidence of the other. The cause is ascertained by the effect.

IV. THE BLESSED PRIVILEGE OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

1. It is more than if He said, I will be thy friend, thy helper, thy benefactor; for these are relations derived from creatures, and therefore notions of limited significancy.

2. He is really yours. In nothing else have you such a propriety. Your time is not your own; your riches are not your own; your children are not your own; your bodies, and your spirits, are not your own; but God is yours by absolute promise and donation.

3. Consider the final issue of the connection. The relation is intended to display the immensity of His benevolence, and of His munificence, towards His people. It does much for them here. But they "shall see greater things than these." They have now only "the first fruits of the Spirit, the earnest of their inheritance." Their alliance with God is often concealed from others, and from themselves; and the advantages it produces are circumscribed by the world in which we live, and the body of this death. It has not room in which to operate, or time in which to expand. Behold, then, an eternity succeeding time: a new system prepared to receive them: an happiness in reserve, of which they can now form no adequate conception!

(W. Jay.)

---

---

KJV: And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

WEB: I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;