{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050211.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050211.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050211.htm","text":"Chapter 35 [XX.]\u2014The Old Law; The New Law.\nThe one was therefore old, because the other is new. But whence comes it that one is old and the other new, when the same law, which said in the Old Testament, \u201cThou shalt not p. 98 covet,\u201d 860 is fulfilled by the New Testament? \u201cBecause,\u201d says the prophet, \u201cthey continued not in my covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord.\u201d 861 It is then on account of the offence of the old man, which was by no means healed by the letter which commanded and threatened, that it is called the old covenant; whereas the other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact is placed, that men who bare faith are unwilling to trust in themselves: \u201cBecause,\u201d says he, \u201cthis is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.\u201d 862 See how similarly the apostle states it in the passage we have already quoted: \u201cNot in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,\u201d 863 because \u201cnot with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.\u201d 864 And I apprehend that the apostle in this passage had no other reason for mentioning \u201cthe New Testament\u201d (\u201cwho hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit\u201d), than because he had an eye to the words of the prophet, when he said \u201cNot in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,\u201d inasmuch as in the prophet it runs: \u201cI will write it in their hearts.\u201d 865","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}