ld Testament dispensation, to distinguish, in reference to the
sacrifices, between the substance and the form, considering the latter
as a thing merely accidental, is seen from passages such as Hosea xiv.
3 (2): "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord and say unto Him:
_Take_ all iniquity, and _give_ good, and we will recompense to thee
bulls, our lips." Here the thanks are represented as the substance of
the thank-offering, and, indeed, so perfectly, that the thank-offering,
the bullocks, is _entirely_ where only thanks, the lips, are. The
outward sacrifice is the vessel only in which the gift is presented to
God. _Farther_--Ps. iv. 14, where, in contrast to the merely external
sacrifices, it is said: "Offer unto God thanksgivings;" Mal. i. 11, and
many other passages.

Vers. 19, 20. "_And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: Thus
saith the Lord, If ye will make void my covenant, the day, and my
covenant, the night, so that there shall be no more day and night in
their season_; Ver. 21. _Then also shall be void my covenant with
David, my servant, that he shall not have one who reigns on his throne,
and with the Levitical priests, my servants._"

The word [Hebrew: tprv] is very significant. _Calvin_ says: "The
Prophet indirectly reproves the wickedness of the people, because, as
much as lay with them, they destroyed the covenant [Pg 469] of God by
their obstreperous cries.... This incredulity, therefore, the Prophet
blames, and it is as if he were saying: To what are these complaints to
lead? It is just as if you were trying to draw down sun and moon from
heaven, and to do away with the difference between day and night, and
overturn all the laws of nature, because it is I, the same God, whose
will it was that the night should follow the day, who have also
promised, &c."--[Hebrew: hivM] and [Hebrew: hlilh] are appositions to:
My covenant. The day and night in their regular succession are the
covenant which is here spoken of The phrase [Hebrew: ivmM vlilh], which
signifies "by day and night," "daily and nightly," stands here for:
_tempus diurnum et nocturnum_. "The covenant," [Hebrew: brit], does not
by any means stand here in the signification _stabilis ordinatio_; nor
is it be considered as being entered into with the day and night;
these, on the contrary, are the covenant-blessings. God, who vouchsafed
_them_, and all that is connected with them, that the sun shines by
day, and the moon by night, enters t