But all this language applied, not so much to the moral conduct and personal character of the Israelites taken individually, as to their external state as a community taken collectively; separated from the rest of the world by a peculiar ritual; consecrated to the service of God, for the purpose of maintaining a standing memorial and testimony against idolatry. Now in all these respects there was a remarkable analogy in the condition and circumstances of the primitive Christian church. They were a little flock, which had been separated from their unbelieving neighbours, both among Jews and Gentiles, to be the subjects of a new and better covenant; and that without any previous merit on their part entitling them thereto, but through the special favour of God. Hence they, too, were called, elected; they were a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people; called to be saints, saved, redeemed, purchased, &c. All these terms, and a multitude of others, which frequently occur in the apostolic writings, will be found, on comparison, to have been derived from the language employed by the writers of the Old Testament in speaking of God's ancient people; and it was natural that the apostles, being themselves Jews, should be led by the analogous circumstances of the old and the new covenant, and by their previous familiar acquaintance with the style of their own sacred writings, to adopt similar expressions. Another consideration which still further favoured this transference of forms of expression, was the actual transference of the covenanted relation to God, from the Jews as such, to the church gathered unto Christ from among all nations. The
