BEFORE CHRIST 1451. P ch. 28. 64. ch. 10. 16. Jer. 32. 39. Ezek. 11. 19. & 36. 26. ch. 28. 11. ther the LORD thy God his commandments and his 4 PIf any of thine be in this book of the law, thence will he fetch thee: 11 For this com t BEFORE CHRIST 1451. &e. 5 And the LORD thy mandment which I comGod will bring thee into mand thee this day, it sai 45. 12. the land which thy fathers is not hidden from thee, possessed, and thou shalt neither is it far off. possess it; and he will do 12 It is not in heaven, Rom. 18.5, thee good, and multiply that thou shouldest say, thee above thy fathers. Who shall go up for us 6 And the LORD thy to heaven, and bring it God will circumcise thine unto us, that we may heart, and the heart of it, and do it? thy seed, to love the LORD 13 Neither is it beyond thy God with all thine the sea, that thou shouldheart, and with all thy est say, Who shall go over soul, that thou mayest the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may live. hear 7 And the LORD thy hear it, and do it? God will put all these 14 But the word is very curses upon thine enemies, nigh unto thee, in thy and on them that hate mouth, and in thy heart, thee, which persecuted that thou mayest do it. 15 See, I have set ver. 1, 19. 8 And thou shalt re- before thee this day life turn and obey the voice and good, and death and of the LORD, and do all evil; thee. his commandments which 16 In that I command 9 And the LORD thy LORD thy God, to walk Jer. 32. 41. 17 But if thine heart 10 If thou shalt heark- turn away, so that thou en unto the voice of the wilt not hear, but shalt LORD thy God, to keep be drawn away, and wor ch. 11. 26. BEFORE CHRIST 1451. y ch. 4. 26. & 8. 19. ch. 4. 26. & 31. 28. . ver. 15. ship other gods, and serve that both thou and thy live : b BEFORE CHRIST 1451. 66.9. 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall love the LORD thy God, surely perish, and that ye and that thou mayest obey shall not prolong your days his voice, and that thou upon the land, whither mayest cleave unto him: thou passest over Jordan for he is thy life, and the ↳ Ps. 27. 1. & to go to possess it. length of thy days: that John 11. 25. 19 I call heaven and thou mayest dwell in the earth to record this day land which the LORD sware against you, that I have unto thy fathers, to Abraset before you life and ham, to Isaac, and to Jadeath, blessing and curs- cob, to give them. ing: therefore choose life, a NUMBERS XXXVI. 13. с 13 These are the com- Moses unto the children of mandments and the judg- Israel in the plains of ch. 26. 3. & ments, which the LORD Moab by Jordan near Jecommanded by the hand of richo. 33. 50. PRAYER.—LET US PRAY, that the Giver of Revelation, the Creator and Preserver of the world, be the Lord we honour, and the God we love. That we make our solemn covenant with God, praying for grace attendant on the means of grace. That we ever plead with God the merits of the great Sacrifice. And that we choose life before death—the blessing before the curse-and love God now, and rest with God and Christ for ever. O THOU, the infinite, the omnipotent, the omnipresent God, Creator and Preserver of the world, who hast been graciously pleased to reveal Thyself to man as the self-existent and eternal Jehovah, the Lord and God of the souls of men ; look down, we beseech Thee, in pity and compassion upon us Thy sinful and unworthy servants. We confess with shame, and confusion of face, that other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us; and that other gods have been loved before Thee. O be Thou henceforth and for ever our only Lord God. May no rival to Thy glory govern the thoughts of our minds, or the affections. of our hearts. May no object on earth, or in heaven, be dearer to our souls than the God who hath loved us, and given His only Son to be the perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for our sin, our example of life, our Redeemer, and our Intercessor at the throne of our Father which is in heaven. We thank Thee, O Lord our God, for the condescension which has invited, and commanded, and enabled us to enter into covenant with Thee. We humbly praise and bless Thy glorious name, that we, who are but vile dust and miserable sinners, should be graciously permitted to make a covenant with the King of kings and Lord of lords. We thank Thee for the means of grace; and we pray Thee so to pour out upon our hearts the influences of Thy Holy Spirit, that our Sabbaths and our Sacraments, our study of Thy Scriptures, our listening to the preaching of the truth of Thy Gospel, the meditations within our hearts upon the sinfulness and of our fallen nature, and the contemplations of our souls upon Thy mercy Thy love, be all made to us the seals of the Covenant between us on earth and Thee, our God, in heaven. More especially do we render unto thee our humble and hearty thanks for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of our Saviour Christ, both God and man. For the sake of the same Jesus Christ our Lord, grant us true repentance, and Thy Holy Spirit. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men, we acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time have grievously committed by thought, word, and deed, against Thy Divine Majesty. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings. The remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burthen of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us; for Thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, forgive us all that is past. We pray that we be enabled to present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee. Give us the desire to follow the example, as well as to believe and trust in the Sacrifice, of Thy Son our Lord; that our hope in His death be not presumption, nor our faith in His atonement the source of that worst of sinscontinuance in sin, that grace may abound. As thou didst set before Thy people Israel the blessing and the curse, the life and the death of the souls to which Thy word was spoken-the souls with which Thy Covenant was madeso hast Thou been pleased to set before us the promise of a better blessing in a better country-the true Canaan of rest; and the threatening of a worse curse than the miseries of this present life. Ever may we remember the word which Thou hast spoken,-That if they who broke the Covenant which Thou didst make with Thy servant Moses died without mercy, of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath despised the Covenant which is sealed to us by the blood of Christ! Now, even now, may we love the Lord God the Creator for His providence and care over us in this day of our pilgrimage. Now, even now, may we love the Lord God the Saviour for His mercy in redemption. Now, even now, may we love the Lord God the Sanctifier, who makes us fit and prepared for the heaven which the Creator hath promised, and the Saviour hath purchased, and of which the Holy Spirit gives the posse sion. O God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be Thou our God, of portion, and our life for ever. We ask all in the name and for the sake of Him, who, when on earth, as our Teacher, instructed us when we pray, to say, Our Father, &c. The grace of our Lord, &c. NOTE. NOTE, On the interpretation of "The secret things that belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deut. xxix. 29. If we set aside some wild fancies of the Rabbins respecting the meaning of this text, we shall find that the probable interpretations are reducible to two: First, bearing in mind that, in this chapter, and in the three preceding ones, Moses had been telling the people what special judgments would befal them and their children if they should be guilty of disobedience and apostasy, -judgments which Moses could not have fore told without the gift of prophecy, we shall see that the Hebrew will admit of a rendering which has not only the sanction of some of the most eminent expositors, both Jewish and Christian, but which commends itself to every reader by its fitness, and by its complete cou sistency with the context. "These secrets of the Lord our God are made known unto us and to our children, that we and they may be persuaded to observe the covenant for ever." With a full view before him of the revealed counsels of Jehovah respecting the future fate and fortunes of the chosen people, Moses ex horts them to obedience, in a posture of mind similar to that in which St. Paul admonished the Corinthian converts :-" Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Cor. v. 11). The Apostle, like the Prophet, had been recounting some of "the secret things of God” (iv. 13—18 ; v. 1—9) ; and, concluding his prophetic declarations with this solemn appeal, " We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ," he adds the words I have cited above, which I cannot help thinking were suggested to him by the very words of Moses in the text before us, to which (if the interpretation I now put forward be correct) they are strictly parallel. I find that Grotius (in loc.) takes nearly the same view of Deut. xxix. 29 :-" Quæ antea penes se retinuerat Deus, illa nobis patefecit, ut habeamus normam, ad quam componeremus vitam." Cajetan (in Corn. à Lapide) interprets thus:-Hæc flagella futura, prævisa et decreta a Deo, sunt inter occulta Dei judicia, quæ tamen nobis manifestavit, ut eorum metu legem ejus faciamus. "These secrets are revealed to us; and, as they are written in a durable record, they are given, i, 'for ever,' so that our children, to the latest generation, will never want motives to obedience.". Onkelos, a high authority, removes the ob each other ; τὰ κρυπτὰ——τὰ δὲ φανερά. Secondly, other commentators interpret the passage as our Translators have done, who seem to have taken the same view of it that was maintained by Calvin, who says, Mihi dubium non est, hic per antithesin conferri patefactam in Lege doctrinam cum occulto et imcomprehensibili Dei consilio, de quo scisci. tari fas non est. Quare (meo judicio) copula [] vice adversativæ particulæ capitur, acsi dictum esset, 'Deus quidem apud se continet secreta quæ scire nostra nihil interest, neque enim expedit, et quæ sensum nostrum transcendunt at hæc quæ nobis promulgavit, ad nos et filios nostros pertinent.' Locus insignis, et observatu apprime dignus, quo tam audacia et nimia curiositas damnatur, quam excitantur piæ animæ ad discendi studium... Priore igitur membro breviter castigat Moses et cohibet illam temeritatem, quæ transilit metas divinitus fixas. Altero autem hortatur ad amplexandam Legis doctrinam, in qua nobis exposita est Dei voluntas, açsi coram nobiscum loqueretur. SECTION CLXVII. NUMBERS XXVII. 12-14. DEUTERONOMY XXXI. 1-6. NUMBERS XXVII. 15, TO THE END. DEUTERONOMY XXXI. 9-13. 24-29. XXXI. 14, 15. XXXI. 7, 8. TITLE.-The Lord God of the Old Testament is the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. The will of God is known by the actions and laws of God. It is the will of God that all to whom the knowledge of Revelation is granted should die at peace with God, and be happy with Him in their immortality. That there should be a constant succession of spiritual teachers, and political rulers. That the Holy Scriptures be read and studied by all, of all ranks. And that every political society be also one religious society. The knowledge of the will of God is the best guide to modern theological controversialists. INTRODUCTION.-Though I have been most anxious in these Sections to avoid any allusion to the controversies which, prevailing among us, constitute the weakness of Christianity, and the triumph of infidelity, the present Section suggests so many reflections which are applicable to our existing divisions, that I shall not hesitate to submit them to all those of my readers who desire to know the will of God, as it was once revealed, upon the subjects which alienate us from each other. Two propositions will, I think, be received by all who believe in the Divinity of Christ, and accept the Scriptures as a Divine Revelation. One is, that every law, and therefore every law of God, continues so long as the causes of its enactment continue. The second is, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Head of the Church since the fall of Jerusalem, was the Lord God of Israel, the Divine Head of the Church before the fall of Jerusalem. Such as the Father is, such is the Son; eternal in His duration, unchangeable in His will, and, therefore, unchangeable in the spirit, though not in the letter, of His laws. But the will of God is known only by the actions and words of God, which declare His law; and if we can discover the reasons and the causes for which a law has been once given, we may be assured that the one unchangeable Divine Head of the Church informs us of His unchangeable will, as to the obedience required to the spirit of that law. The lamb, for instance, was commanded to be offered to God in sacrifice. For reasons which do not require to be detailed, we believe that we are no longer commanded to offer one lamb to God every morning and evening, or two lambs on the Sabbath day, or one at the one great season of the Passover. The letter of the law of sacrifice, therefore, may be said to be done away. It is not, however, probable that any Christian will deny that the spirit of that law still continues. It is not probable that any Christian will deny that every morning, and every evening, he is required by the will of God to offer his prayers to God in the name of the great Sacrifice, or to approach Him in the same name on the Lord's day, or to commemorate more peculiarly at the great season of Easter the passion, and death, and resurrection of the Lamb of God. The sacrifice of the lamb was the com mand of God. The morning, and evening, and Lord's day, and Easter commemoration of that sacrifice we believe to be the will of God. The commanded action, and the written law, are unitedly sufficient to assure us of God's will. We apply the same mode of reasoning to the actions and law of God, recorded in this Section. It begins with the command of God to His servant Moses, that he should go up to mount Abarim, and thence survey the land of Canaan; then be gathered to his people, to be reunited to the spirits of his fathers, and to the spirit of his brother Aaron. We are not thus commanded to ascend to any particular spot to die there; but we may be assured that it is the will of God that the Christian should be always ready to die, and always prepared to contemplate with delight and joy the promises which reveal the glories of the true Promised Land, and always be ready to meet again, with hope and peace, the spirits of his kindred and friends who have departed this life in the faith and fear of God'. The Section then goes on to the exhortation of Moses to his people,—that because the Lord their God should be the defender and the leader of Israel in their approaching warfare with the nations of Canaan, and would destroy them as He had destroyed the Amorites, therefore they were to persevere till they had conquered; they were to be strong and of good courage; for the Lord their Ruler would neither fail them nor forsake them. This was the law of God. We are not commanded to go up to fight with the weapons of carnal warfare; but 1 Numb. xxvii. 12-14. and |