misfortunes. In their former captivities they had the comfort of being conveyed to the same place; they dwelt together in the land of Goshen, they were carried together to Babylon; but now they are dispersed all over the face of the earth. What nation hath suffered so much, and yet endured so long? What nation hath subsisted as a distinct people in their own country so long as these have done in their dispersion into all countries? And what a standing miracle is thus exhibited to the view and observation of the whole world! "Here are instances of prophecies-prophecies delivered above 3000 years ago, and yet, as we see, fulfilling in the world at this very time and what stronger proofs can : we desire of the Divine legation of Moses? How these instances may affect others, I know not; but for myself I must acknowledge they not only convince, but amaze and astonish me beyond expression. They are truly, as Moses foretold they would be, a sign and a wonder for ever' (ver. 45, 46). 'Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the Lord Thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee: and they shall be upon thee for a sign and a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever."" 7 Bp. Newton on the Prophecies, vol. i. Dissert vil. SECTION CLXVI. DEUTERONOMY XXIX. 1. 10-15. NUMBERS XXXVI. 13. 29. XXX. TITLE.-The Covenant of accepted repentance added to the Covenant of Sinai. The duty of covenanting with God. The nature of that duty is explained by the union of the word "Lord" with "God." The meaning of the word Covenant in revealed Religion. Three modes of covenanting with God. One only is to be adopted. The last general exhortation of Moses to the People. The future is the secret thing, known to God alone; the present is known to man, for his direction and guidance. The promise of the acceptance of repentance is a part of God's Covenant. The present dispersion of the Jews a pledge of their restoration. Eternal life, or eternal death, the result of the choice of man. INTRODUCTION. We are now brought to a subject which has very seldom been sufficiently considered by students of, or commentators on, the Holy Scriptures: -the Covenant of accepted Repentance. Moses had now completed, one month before his death, that exhortation to the people, in which he placed before them blessings and curses. The blessings were designed for their encouragement, the curses for their warning. But it was then as it is now. The language of the curses which the Almighty denounces against the sins of men is so fearful, so terrible, and the consciousness of infirmity, weakness, and innate tendency to disobedience is so powerful and overwhelming, that the heart of man would sink into utter despair, if he had not some hope given to him, that God, in the midst of his just judgments, would still remember mercy,-that mercy, if sought in truth and sincerity, with the removal of the cause of severity, would not be sought in vain. To meet this feeling of the human heart, God has promised mercy on repentance, if that repentance is demonstrated to be sincere, by im ploring God's mercy, not in the mere expression of the hope or desire of the heart, but by seeking for it in that manner which God has ordained and prescribed. Now the Covenant which God made with Israel in Sinai was merely, "Do this, and live: do it not, and die. Do this, and receive blessings: do it not, and receive the curses." The people heard, and trembled. Was there, then, no hope of pardon, none of mercy, none of forgiveness? None was expressly mentioned till the day came, the events of which are related in the present Section. The general exhortations of Moses were ended, and the conclusion of those general exhortations is here recorded, that God commanded the leader of Israel to make another covenant with Israel in the plains of Moab, beside, or in addition to, that which he had previously made with them in Sinai,—and that was the Covenant of accepted Repentance. The promise was made, that if, when the fearful curses he had denounced against them had all fallen upon them in the countries in which they should be scattered, they should repent, and return to God, and obey Him, then the Lord would have mercy upon them, and gather them from among the nations, and restore them to their own land again, and increase their spiritual religion'. Before, however, this promise is made to them, Moses is commanded to appeal to all the people, their army, their elders, their magistrates, their whole camp, their children, their wives, the stranger, the servants of all degrees, the present and the absent, to enter into a solemn covenant with God, that He might be their God, and that they might be his people. This solemn covenanting, therefore, took place after the promise on obedience, and the threatening on disobedience, and before the promise that repentance could be accepted; and it presents us with the opportunity of remarking, that as the will of God is thus known from the actions of God, we may justly say that the same solemn covenanting with the same God of Israel is the bounden duty of all, who, believing in the Revelation of Christianity, know well both the promises and the threatenings of their Creator, the weakness of their own hearts, and the certainty of the acceptation of their repentance. Much objection, however, has been made to this opinion. It has been said, that the making of solemn vows, framing solemn covenants, binding the soul by peculiar acts of devotion, or consecrating the spirit by promises of sacred dedication of the thoughts and affections to the God and Judge of all, is a snare and a temptation. To this it may be justly answered, that every prayer we offer is, in one sense, a solemn covenant that if we hope for God's mercy we will obey God's commandments: and, therefore, because prayer is our duty, covenanting with God is our duty. The nature of this duty is implied in the union of the two words which are constantly joined together in the Bible, but which are too often confounded together; these are LORD and GOD. In the Section before us Moses repeatedly unites them, to describe the great and holy Being with whom the soul of man is required to enter into covenant. By the word LORD, then, we mean the Ruler of the soul. By the word God, we mean the object of our affections. By the words LORD GOD, we mean, therefore, that the Deity who 1 Deut. xxxi. 6. 2 Deut. xxix. 10-15. created and judges us is the Ruler whom we should love; and by covenanting with the Lord God, we mean that we make our promises of homage to that Ruler of the world who is the proper object of the affections of the heart, and therefore, of the result of affection,-regard and obedience; and all true religion is nothing else but this Covenant. It is necessary, however, to remove the obscurity in the meaning of the word Covenant. The word Covenant, then, as it is used in religious inquiries to describe the mode in which the homage of man is rendered to the Divine Ruler who is the object of his love, together with the manner in which that love has been shown to man, may be defined as an agreement between two parties, who had been separated from each other, to become reunited to each other. A place is assigned for their meeting, and a sanction is fixed upon to cement the agreement, which at once expresses the cause of the reconciliation on the one part, and the results of the breach of the Covenant on the other part. God and man are the two parties, whom sin had separated. God reveals His will to be again the Friend of man; man, the sinner, when knowing that will, has some yearnings left him in the midst of his sin to become reconciled to the Lord God. God promises reconciliation; man promises obedience and love. The mutual observance of the promise is their reunion. The place where the parties meet to promise pardon, and to promise obedience, is the Tabernacle, the Temple, the Church, the Altar, the home where God ordains the offering of the prayer for pardon to be made, and that pardon to be more peculiarly spoken. The one, solemn, holy sanction, to the Covenant in all ages is the institution of sacrifice. Before Christ came the sacrifices were slain in front of the Tabernacle, or of the Temple. When Christ, the true Sacrifice came, those typical sacrifices had no longer any significance, and consequently no acceptance with God. When Christ had returned, the commemoration of His Sacrifice is continued. The sacrifice is the proof of God's love, the sacrifice is the pledge which cements the union; for it at once expresses the causes of God's becoming reconciled, as the God of His Covenant, to His creature man, that it is the whole atoning work in the life and death of Christ. The sacrifice expresses also the result of man's breach of the Covenant,—that it must be the endurance of God's anger for ever; and the result of the observance of the Covenant, that it is repentance, faith, love, and prayer for obedience accepted and blessed for Christ's sake for ever. Such is the Covenant between God and man in all ages. And there are three ways of covenanting with God. One is, the general vow and prayer, independently of the means of grace. The second is, the vowing that which God has not required, such as pilgrimages, penances, and retirement from the world. The third is, to unite the vow and the prayer for grace which God has appointed, and thus to meet the God of the Covenant in the spirit of the Covenant. This last alone is to be adopted as acceptable, because commanded and revealed. We omit the repetition of God's blessings on the observers of the Covenant, and His curses on the transgressors of it, as they are given in this last exhortation of Moses; remarking only his declaration that the secret, or the hidden things relating to the future history of the transgressions, and consequent punishments, to which he had alluded, belong to God; the revealed commandments, and promises, and threatenings, and exhortations to the Covenant of Repentance, which he was about to deliver to them, belonged to them, and to their children. He then concludes his exhortation by relating once more the events of the latter days of the Jewish History, such as our own eyes see, in their dispersion, with the promise which still remains to be fulfilled, that they shall be finally restored to their own land. I believe their present dispersion to be the pledge of their future restoration. I believe that the time must and will come, when the house of Israel shall cease to expect a temporal Messiah only. They were scattered among all nations at the last overthrow of Jerusalem. The promise, therefore, and the prophecy of the final exhortation of Moses cannot have been accomplished in their return from Babylon. The time must come when the remembrance of the unchangeable love of God to their fathers shall be overruled to their conviction, that an earthly Messiah, who shall give victory to armies, and empire to their chiefs, and wealth to the people, cannot be the worthy objects of a Covenant which was cemented by the blood of Christ; but that the promises of God must refer to higher blessings, and a heavenly state3. The clearness of these promises, thus interpreted, is plainly declared', and is alluded to by St. Paul'. And the exhortation concludes with the solemn appeal to them, that life and death, and good and evil, are set before them; and with the charge, that they choose life, and love the Lord God, the Ruler of their destinies and the true object of their love. And we can only add, that it is with us as it was with Israel. The same exhortation is addressed to us. The wilderness in which Moses spake was a type of this world. The promised land before him was a type of that world beyond the grave. The same covenant-that repentance under the punishments we have deserved will be accepted for the sake of the Sacrifice-is made to us. And the appeal is now made to us,—that eternal life or eternal death is before us; and that we must choose whether God's grace shall be accepted or refused. If we look within, and find that this question is to us a matter of indifference, the symptoms of spiritual death are apparent. The same sun which softens the wax hardens the clay. If the appeals of God to the conscience do not make us love life, they make us love death. If they do not make us embrace the truth, they make us hate it. If they do not save, they condemn. If they do not soften, they harden. If they do not cause within us the beginning of future happiness, they cause within us the beginning of future misery. If they are not life, they are death. If they are not a blessing, they are a curse. At this very moment they constitute our sorrow, or our joy. They speak peace with God, or war with God. They exhibit to us our own character. They reveal to us what we are, as well as what we know. They are our present greatest good, or they are our present most intolerable evil. 3 Deut. xxx. 1-10. 4 Deut. xxxii. 11-14. 5 Heb. iv. 1–11. BEFORE CHRIST 1451. 21, 23, 27. DEUTERONOMY XXIX. 1. CHRIST 1 These are the words of Israel in the land of BEFORE of the covenant, which the Moab, beside a the cove- 1451. LORD commanded Moses nant which he made withch. 5. 2, 3. to make with the children them in Horeb, 13 That he may esta- ch. 28. 9. e all of you before the LORD blish thee to-day for a Exod. 6. 7. Gen. 17. 7. See Josh. 9. from the hewer of thy 14 Neither with you wood unto the drawer of only do I make this co- Jer. 31. 31, thy water: venant and this oath; 12 That thou shouldest + Heb. pass. enter into covenant with 15 But with him that standeth here with us this the LORD thy God, and day before the LORD our 32, 33. Hebr. 8. 7, 8. 39. Neh. 10. 29. © into his oath, which the God, hand also with him "See Acts 2. LORD thy God maketh that is not here with us 1 Cor. 7. 14. with thee this day: * ch. 28. this day. DEUTERONOMY XXIX. 29. 29 The secret things unto us and to our chilbelong unto the LORD our dren for ever, that we may God: but those things do all the words of this which are revealed belong law. DEUTERONOMY XXX. ¡ Lev. 26. 40. 1 And it shall come and shalt obey his voice to pass, when all these according to all that I things are come upon command thee this day, thee, the blessing and the thou and thy children, curse, which I have set with all thine heart, and ch. 4. 29, 30. before thee, and thou with all thy soul; 1 Kings 8. 47, 48. Neh. 1. 9. 1 sai. 55. 7. shalt call them to mind 3 n That then the LORD among all the nations, thy God will turn thy 2 And shalt return return and gather thee Jer. 32. 37. Joel 2. 12, 13. unto the LORD thy God, from all the nations, whi Lam. 3. 40. VOL. II. PART VI. 3 с Ezek. 34. 13. & 36. 24. |
