Page 83 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XVI. 77

saith Jehovah. For thus saitli the Lord Jehovah, I
also will act toward thee as thou hast acted, who hast
despised the oath, breaking the covenant. Neverthe­
less I will remember my covenant with thee in the days
of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an ever­
lasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember thy ways,
and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters,
thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto-
thee for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I
will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt
know that I am Jehovah: that thou mayest remember,,
and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more
because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
(Ver. 58—63.) It is the final restoration of Jerusalem
under the new covenant, expressly here as elsewhere
designated an everlasting covenant, and so in contrast
with that of Sinai, under which restoration from guilty
above all from such unparalleled guilt, had been im­
possible. How painful to find wrong doctrine like
that of Fairbairn and Havernick who confound the
two covenants, maintaining their substantial sameness,
however different in form; still more to see that the
modern error is but the inheritance from the greatest
expositor of the Reformation, as his came down from the
Fathers! It is fundamental ignorance of grace thus to-
confound it with law; and the mention of Samaria and
Sodom especially ought to have afforded a distinct guard
against the error. For it is of the deepest interest to see
that the most guilty of the cities before the law and after'
it, are assured of restoration at the same time and on the
same ground as Jerusalem. She will have them for