Covenant of Deuteronomy. —Solemn promises, doubtless through the mediation of Moses, of obe dience on the part of the new generation, and of blessing and protection on the part of Jehovah,* followed the conclusion of the Deuteronomic law (xxvi. 17-19). Moreover, a solemn ceremonial was ordered to be observed after the conquest of Canaan, in which tablets containing the new enact ments were to be set up in a most prominent place, and sundry curses and blessings were to be pronounced on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim (chap. xxvii., xxviii.), the counterpart of those which we have seen sanctioning the legislation of Mount Sinai. .11 Purport of the Law.—Such was the law of Moses, and such the protracted history of its pro mulgation. The purity of the patriarchal religion was gone, and polytheism with its attendant idolatry had overspread the nations, when Jehovah called Israel to be the depositary of truth, and to be 'a holy people and a peculiar treasure to him self' in the earth. The institutions which he gave them were admirably fitted to discourage idolatry, and to secure their allegiance to himself. In book I. of his most learned treatise, De Legibus Nebr. ritualibus, Spencer has examined the chief of these Mosaic institutions, and shown how, in pur suance of the direct teaching of the moral law, the rite of circumcision and the Sabbath, by keep ing the Israelites separate in the world, were remedies so far against the world's sin of idolatry (chap. vi.) ; the distinctions of food had a like ten dency (chap. vii.); so had the specific ordinances of time, place, and person, in the Mosaic ritual (chap. viii.) ; while the great festivals, with almost dra matic force, reminded the chosen people of God's historical providence over them, and associated this with the annual stages of his ever-recurring care (chap. ix.) How deeply rooted in the national heart was the impression produced by the Passover, to quote one instance, as a protest against the ido latry of Egypt and other Gentiles, appears from David's reflections (2 Sam. vii. 22-24). And this ritualism was supported by the direct instruction of the law, which always provided for the honour and reverence of God, and of the sacred names and services, and ministers, which had reference to him (chap. x.) The God of Israel was a holy and jealous God ; his glory he would not give to another ; his name must not be vainly used or blasphemed ; neither must blemished offering nor unsanctified priest be employed in his service ; and, as we have seen, his people must emulate his holiness—` Be ye holy, for I the Lord am holy.' But it was not the sole, if indeed it was the pri mary, purport of the law to educate the chosen nation. God had not forgotten his Abrahamic covenant and promises. In the patriarch's seed the nations of the earth were still to be blessed. Israel had, therefore, a wider function than to cherish the truth for himself alone ; he was a steward of the divine mysteries, or rather a trustee thereof, for the good of mankind. From its reve lation of God, as well as from its prescribed rites and sacrifices, it is manifest that the law kept in view a principle wider than the theocratic. At the beginning of this article we dwelt on the pro minent feature of the Mosaic code as a theocratic constitution. Jehovah's regal relation, as the poli tical king of the nation, is everywhere apparent. But besides this, his higher character as God, the heavenly King, may be discovered underlying some of the Mosaic ordinances. The vessels of the tabernacle being of gold were suited to him as the national King ; but being moreover designed for the presentation of sacrificial gifts, they referred to him as the Divine Being. The twelve loaves of the shewbread seemed to indicate the nation's pro vision for its King ; but then, as they remained intact, and were consumed only by the priests of the tabernacle, they pointed to God as one who needed not human food. The tabernacle, too, as adorned with gold and costly furniture, looked like the residence of a king ; but as anointed and covered with cherubim, it was really only con sistent with the habitation of the most high God. Again, the priests in their beautiful apparel resembled the ministers of the nation's king ; but as they ministered in holy things (r(.7.1v a-yitov XEcroupyoi), their services implied no less than the divinity of the God they adored. In like manner a double aspect is assigned to every part of the tabernacle, furniture, and service (see Spencer, Dissertatio de Theocrat. `lied. ad calcem libri I. tractatus De legibus Heir.), a circumstance which accounts for the ascription in many passages both of regal and divini honours to Jehovah ; for both characters would a pious Jew behold in him, as David did, when he said, Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my Cod' (Ps. V. 2 ; comp. xx. 9 ; xliv. 4, 8, 21 ; lxviii. 24 ; lxxxix. IS ; XCV. 3 ; xcviii. 6, 9 ; Is. xliii. rs ; Zech. xiv. 16, 17 ; Mal. i. 14) ; for the law, which is the basis of the entire O. T., proposes Jehovah as the God of the heavens and the earth, as well as King of Israel ; and the taber nacle, which was his dwelling-place, gave signs alike of his creative and of his regal power* (71007714S eel pacrIXtrip, as Philo expresses it). But in no part of the Mosaic system did its ulterior aim appear more prominent than in the sacrificial services. In the significant variety of these, Israel was not only himself educated in a pious apprecia tion of his own relation, fallen and imperfect as he was, to a holy God, but he was the minister and upholder of a religious worship, which led by an inevitable progress to ' the bringing in of a better hope '—the institution of a better testament' (Heb. vii. 19, 22).
The Excellence and the Imperfection of the Law. —This twofold relation of the law to the present and the future gives it a paradoxical cast ; and hence in the N. T.—especially in the more precise statements of St. Paul—it is spoken of in appa rently contradictory terms. On the one hand, we have passages which predicate such excellence of it as becomes a revelation and transcript of Je hovah's will ; on the other hand, it is charged, with weakness and imperfection. The law,' says St. Paul [that is, the entire Mosaic system], is holy, and the commandment [that is each detail. of the ivrsXi)] holy, just, and good' (Rom. vii. is) ; but in the next chapter be speaks of the law's incapability (rd dativarov Tog ;Alloy), ver. 3 ; an idea which is enlarged in Heb. vii. 18 into its weakness and inefficacy (cio-B-Ever xnl (1.mypcX/s), and more categorically still in the next verse, into a statement that it failed in the accomplishment of its end yap P6uos); or, as A. V. renders it, The law made nothing perfect.' The explanation of this paradox is given by St. Paul himself in a single clause, Stet rijs o-apx6s, in which he attributes the failure of the law not to itself or its author, but to the sinful ness of human nature (Rom. viii. 3). What the apostle here explains, in the light of the gospel, was less lucidly stated by the ancient prophets, who saw and lamented the law's perversion by their countrymen. One of the latest of them, retracing the history of his nation, says : I [the Loan] gave them my statutes, and spewed them my judgments, which if a man do he shall even live in them ; but the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness, they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them ; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted' (Ezek. xx. 13). The intrinsic excellence, however, of the law is here vindicatedi in the words of the divine legislator himself, and the failure of it imputed to the wilful nation. We are, therefore, left to an appreciation of the law's intrinsic perfection, undis turbed by an inefficacy which was really not its own. Nor was this inefficacy more final than normal. God's work of elaborate beauty and wisdom could not be permitted to succumb in per manent weakness before the very objects it was designed to benefit. It keeps its ground to the last in the ancient dispensation. Prophecy,' it has been elegantly said, expired with the gospel on its tongue.' But it is equally true that the law —` the law of Moses, with its statutes and judg ments '—had an equal share of its last solicitude (Mal. iv. 4) ; and one of the earliest assurances of the N. T. consistently resumes that solicitude in the words of Christ : Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy [or abrogate, earaXvaai], but to fulfil : for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled' (Matt. v. 17, 18). How stands the case then ? The answer to this question demands a recapitulation of the subjects we have already adduced in this article. The law, with its great derivative of prophecy, came between the rudimental promise of the prot evangelium, as expanded in the A brahamic cove nant, and the accomplishment thereof in the gospel. its divine author adapted it with admirable wisdom for the dispensational pnrpose of leading from one to the other. The patriarchal society having failed to preserve the truths which had been originally communicated to it, it was necessary that these should be recovered, and a means provided for their safe custody and transmission. The family of Abraham, to whom this sacred charge was com mitted, having grown into a nation, God was pleased to fence it round with a special organisa tion, that it might be separate among the nations, and so be able to maintain its trust uninjured, and not, as heretofore, reduced to heathen perversions. For this purpose Jehovah became the King of Israel, and he inaugurated his covenant with his chosen,' by giving them the theocratic institutions which were to regulate their entire life—social, moral, and religious. In these institutions all intermediate sanctions of conduct and policy dis appear ; everything is referred at once to the Divine Sovereign—' Ye shall do my judgments and keep my ordinances, to walk therein : I am the Lord your God.' This lofty standard is in every relation of life apparent. In all departments of education the appeal is, Ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine ;' and in the tenure of all property this is the underlying principle, 'The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; ye are strangers and sojour ners with me.' Thus did the theocracy, with its apparatus of political and religious ordinances, teach the Israelite, not indeed by explicit revela tion, but by irresistible inference, to connect the finite present with the infinite future in God.