another heart; and still there may not be bestowed a new heart. To seek this, however, that they may live, and hence, as a Covenant people, serve the Lord, all are thus enjoined,--"Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"[720] Under various aspects is the new heart presented as a Covenant sign. As a heart circumcised is it thus described. To the people of Israel, as debtors to the whole law, Moses declares,--"Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart." And in illustration of the duty required of them thus commanded to obey, at the same time he gives the injunction,--"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God: him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name."[721] And in like manner, along with the injunction, "circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem," is given the promise, "Thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory." Strangers brought into God's sanctuary to pollute it, and charged by him with having broken his covenant, are described as uncircumcised in heart and in flesh;[722] and in an evil age the house of Israel are classed with the uncircumcised heathen, as uncircumcised in heart.[723] Yea, to the unbelieving Jews the martyr Stephen applies the same character. But of those who are in covenant with God, as the Jews were, an apostle furnishes the delineation,--"He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."[724] Again, as a perfect heart, is the new heart obviously a Covenant sign. The new heart is that which believes. That is the true heart; and those possessed of it, like Hezekiah, who walk before the Lord in truth, manifest an integrity which distinguishes all who, being at peace with God, are in covenant for ever dedicated to him. Thus, before the Lord, David walked in integrity of heart; and of a descendant who sat upon his throne, and who with his people "entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul,"[725] is left the record to his honour,--"Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days."[726] And finally, as one heart is this sign a Covenant token. Contrasted with the heart in its natural sinful condition, which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, it is constituted a reprover of those who, vowing to the Lord, swear deceitfully. Different from the double heart vainly attempting at once to do homage to God and mammon, it is wholly devoted to the Lord. And due to the operation of