force and importance; and shall continue, though heaven and earth were dissolved.

and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is, among you.' "And again, “If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel: then shalt thou bring forth that man, or that woman, (which have committed that wicked thing) unto thy gates, even that man, or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three wit

put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people: so thou shalt put the evil away from among you."t

Did we not know, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:" did we not know, by fatal experience, that there is no absurdity too gross for men to adopt, no impiety too daring for them to commit, we should be astonished to think that the enactment of such laws should ever have been necessary; that having been enact

There is one law which Moses, in the prospect of death, presses with peculiar earnestness, as he knew it to be of special importance, and was but too well acquainted with the violent, the almost irresistible propensity of his auditory to infringe it-the law which prohibited and proscribed idolatry, that crime of complex enormity, against which the voice of the Eternal had uttered and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, so many thunders, and which had brought on Israel so many grievous plagues. Nothing can be more energetical than the expressions he employs to expose the guilt and danger of this offence against God; nothing more dreadful than the judgments which he denounces against those who should contract it themselves, or presume to decoy others into that odious practice. He leaves them desti-nesses, shall he that is worthy of death, be tute of every thing like a pretext for following the nations in this impiety and absurdity, by calling to the recollection of those who were witnesses of the awful scene, and urging upon the consciences of those who were since born, "that there was no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire;* that therefore to pretend to imitate what never was seen, what cannot be seen, was at once ridiculous folly, and daring, impious presumption. He solemnly enjoins, that the tenderest and most respectable ties of nature be disregarded in the case of those who should dare to set the example of vio-ed, there should be occasion to explain and lating the divine will in this respect; that the most intimate friends and nearest relations should become strange and hateful, if they presumed, by precept or by practice, to countenance this transgression. His own emphatic language will best express his meaning, and show with what oppressive weight the subject lay upon his heart. "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, (which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth,) thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear,

*Deut. xiv. 15.

enforce them by so many awful sanctions, and that notwithstanding, in defiance of sanctions so formidable, any should have been found bold enough to transgress.

3dly. Moses labours in this, his last discourse, to establish the importance and necessity of knowing the divine law, and for that end, of making it the subject of continual study and meditation. Every son of Israel must daily employ himself in the reading of it. The young must not plead exemption on account of his youth, nor the old plead the privilege of age. No closeness of application to secular business, no eagerness to prosecute a journey, no eminence of rank and station, no, not the state and necessary duties of royalty itself, must pretend to claim a dispensation from the superior obligations of the law of the Most High. "These words," says he, "which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." * Deut. xiii. 6-11. †Deut. xvii. 2-7. Deut. vi. 6— 9.

for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous, as all this law which I set before you this day!"*

Thirdly-The laws prescribed were imposed on them by a Being who had lavished miracles of mercy and goodness upon them and their fathers, and stood engaged to be a covenant God to their posterity, to the latest generations. "For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the

"And it shall be," speaking of the duty and office of the king who might hereafter be chosen to reign over God's people of Israel, "when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the command-other, whether there hath been any such ment, to the right hand or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom; he, and his children in the midst of Israel."

Some of the Rabbins accordingly pretend, that Moses, with his own hand, transcribed thirteen copies of the Deuteronomy, one for each of the twelve tribes, and one to be laid up till the time of electing a king should arrive, to be given him to transcribe for his private and particular use.

4thly. Moses displays, with singular skill and address, the motives suggested from their peculiar circumstances, to make the law of God the object of their veneration, and the rule of their conduct; such as, first-These laws all issue from the love of God as their source, and converge towards it as their centre. Their great aim and end is to engage us to love, with supreme affection, a God who is supremely amiable and excellent. "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. 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."+

thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else besides him. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he showed thee his great fire, and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire."t

In a word, the laws of God are in themselves just and reasonable, plain and intelligible; accommodated to the nature and faculties of man, and carry their own wisdom and utility engraven on their forehead. "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."‡

Moses, while he thus forcibly inculcates A second motive to obedience is, that the the motives of obedience, motives inspired observance of the laws has a native tendency and pressed by every tender, by every awful to procure and to preserve both public and consideration, finds himself under the unprivate felicity; to make them respectable pleasant necessity of venting his heart in the in the eyes of the nations, and thereby to keenest reproaches of that highly-favoured ensure their tranquillity. "Behold I have but rebellious nation, for their perverseness taught you," says he, "statutes and judg- and ingratitude; he deplores in the bitterness ments, even as the Lord my God commanded of his soul, the instability and transitoriness me, that ye should do so, in the land whither of their good motions and purposes, their faye go to possess it. Keep therefore, and do tal proneness to revolt, the inconceivable rathem, for this is your wisdom and your un-pidity of their vibrations from virtue to vice. derstanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him

That exquisitely beautiful and pathetic song with which he closes his tender expostulation, and which contains a striking abridgment of this whole address, consists in a great measure of just and severe, yet affectionate upbraidings and remonstrances upon their *Deut. iv. 5-8. †Deut. iv. 32-36. Deut. xxx. 11-14,

past conduct. "They have corrupted them- | their power is gone, and there is none shut selves, their spot is not the spot of his chil- up, or left. And he shall say, Where are dren; they are a perverse and crooked gene- their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, ration. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O fool- which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and ish people and unwise? is not he thy Father drank the wine of their drink-offerings? Let that hath bought thee? hath he not made them rise up, and help you, and be your prothee, and established thee?"* tection. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I

ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain, and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy."* But the time to favour revolted, returning Israel shall come at length; and together with them the time to irradiate and deliver "the nations which were sitting in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death;" and the prophetic soul of Moses hastens forward to conclude the sacred song, with a grand chorus of harmonious voices, the voices of the ransomed of the Lord from every nation, every kindred and tribe, rejoicing together in one common salvation: "Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, to his people."†

Finally, this long, this instructive, this powerful farewell sermon of the man of God, contains predictions clear, pointed, and strong, of the fearful judgments which should over-lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for take that sinful people, and involve them and their posterity in utter destruction. Many learned men, and not without the greatest appearance of reason, have supposed that the spirit of prophecy by the mouth of Moses has foretold the final dissolution of the Jewish government, and their dispersed, reproachful, despised state to this day, until the time of their restoration to the divine favour, and their re-establishment under the bond of the new and everlasting covenant, "a covenant established on better promises, ordered in all | things and sure." This idea seems justified by the following and the similar prophetic denunciations. "Of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have How powerfully must all this have been provoked me to anger with their vanities: impressed on the hearts of his audience by and I will move them to jealousy with those the sight of their venerable instructer, bendwhich are not a people; I will provoke them ing under the weight of "an hundred and to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is twenty years:" exhausted by labours performkindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the ed in the public service, no longer capable lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with of "going out and coming in;" excluded by her increase, and set on fire the foundations the inflexible decree of Heaven from any of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs up- part or lot in the land of promise; lying under on them, I will spend mine arrows upon the bitter sentence of impending death; his them. They shall be burned with hunger, power and glory departing, and passing beand devoured with burning heat, and with fore his eyes to the hand of another! Why bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth are not impressions of this sort more lasting, of beasts upon them, with the poison of ser- and more efficient? Shall "the righteous pents of the dust. The sword without, and perish, and no man lay it to heart?" Is "the terror within shall destroy both the young merciful man taken away, and will none conman and the virgin, the suckling also, with sider?" "The righteous is taken away from the man of gray hairs. I said I would scat- the evil to come." By his departure the ter them into corners, I would make the re-earth is impoverished, but heaven is enmembrance of them to cease from among riched. Remove the veil, and behold him men."t "Is not this laid up in store with me "entering into peace:" "they shall rest and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his servants; when he seeth that † Deut. xxxii. 18-26.

*Deut. xxxii. 5, 6.

in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." I hear a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them."

* Deut. xxxii. 34-42. † Deut. xxxii. 43. Rev. xiv. 13.

HISTORY OF MOSES.

LECTURE LXXIX.

And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong, and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee, he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.-DEU. TERONOMY Xxxi. 7, 8.

It is pleasant to a dying father to entertain the sweet hope that the children of his care, of his love, will remember the lessons which he taught them, will follow out his views, The thoughtless and impious insensibility will support the credit of his name, will inwith which many advance to their latter end, struct and bless the world by the example of is not more mournful and distressing, than their wisdom, their piety, their virtues, though the steadiness and composure of piety and he is not to be the happy spectator of it: but habitual preparation are pleasing and instruc-ah! more cruel than the pangs of dissolving tive. Blessed is the state of that man to nature, the dreadful conviction of approachwhom life is not a burden, nor death a terror, ing folly and disorder: the sad prospect of who has "a desire to depart and to be with