the carnal Israel which is of one nation, by newness of grace,
112 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [BOOK III nation of which it is elsewliere said, " For thoiigli the nunibei of the chiklrcn of Israel he as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of tliem shall be saved," ^ but also the other nations
Avhich were promised to their fathers and our fathers ; and tliat there is here a promise of that washing of regeneration which, as we see, is now imparted to all nations, no one who looks into the matter can doubt. And that saying of the apostle, when he is commending the grace of the New Testament and its excellence in comparison with tlie Old, " Ye are our epistle . . . written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart," ^ has an evident reference to this place where the prophet says, " A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within }'ou ; and I wiU take away the stony
Kow the heart of flesh from which the apostle's expression, " the fleshy tables of the heart," is drawn, the prophet inheart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh."
tended to point out as distinguished from the stony heart by the possession of sentient life ; and by sentient he understood intelligent life. And thus the spiritual Israel is made up, not of one nation, but of all the nations which were promised to the fathers in their seed, that is, in Christ.
49. This spiritual Israel, therefore, is distinguished from the carnal Israel which is of one nation, by newness of grace, not by nobility of descent, in feeling, not in race ; but the prophet, in his depth of meaning, while speaking of thecarnal
Israel, passes on, without indicating the transition^ to speak of tlie spiritual, and although now s^^eaking of the latter, seems to be still speaking of the formerj not that he gi'udges us the clear appreliension of Scripture, as if we were enemies, but that he deals with us as a pliysician, giving us a wholesome exercise for our spirit. And therefore we ought to take this saying,
" And I will bring you into your own land," and what he says shortly afterwards, as if repeating himself, " And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." not literally, as if they referred to Israel after the flesh, but spiritually, as referring to the spiritual Israel. For the Church, without spot or -^Tinkle, gathered out of all nations, and destined to reign
1 Ud. X. 22. » 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. » Ezck. xxxviii. 26.