A parallel passage with this is recorded by the prophet Ezekiel. He saith, ' Then will I [God] sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.' Ezekiel 36, 25, 26. The prophet here certainly refers to the days of the new testament dispensation, for he speaks of a new spirit, which has a reference to the administration of the Holy Spirit under the gospel ; further, he speaks of taking away the stony heart. Now the law was engraven on two tables of stone, and those that were under the law were kept in bondage, as the Apostle saith ; ' but before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith ; but after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster,' Gal. 3, 23 24 25. See also, chapter 4. Now it is likely the prophet alludes to such hearts as were under the stony law, or that had the spirit of bondage to fear, from which they should be liberated under the gospel, by the sprinkling of clean water and the new spirit. Thus the prophet also mentions water and the spirit, by which the people shall be cleansed from their filthiness and idols, and receive a new heart, which is nothing short of being born anew of water and of the spirit. The clean water mentioned by the prophet cannot mean spirit only, but an elementary water ; for if he meant by the term ' clean water' only spirit, he would not afterwards speak of a new spirit ; hence it is evident he means two distinct things by two distinct expressions,–viz : clean water, and a new spirit.

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