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quently the Jews, by such an agreement on their part, became bound to the obedience of the whole.

to the remotest period, is virtually asserted, Deuteronomy xxix. 14, 15: "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and "this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day "before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here "with us this day."

Cf. generally, Exod. xxiii. 20-25; xxix. 45, 46; xxxiii. 16: Deuteronomy iv. 7. 20. 23. 31. 34; vii. 6. 9; x. 15; xiv. 2; xxvii. 9, 10; xxix. 9—13.

The promises attached to the observance of the covenant on the part of God, are found recorded, more particularly, Exod. xxiii. 25, 26: Levit. xxvi. 4-13: Deuteron. vii. 12-16; xxviii. 5-14. The performances required of them in their turn are of course a perfect obedience of the whole Law, an equal observance of all and singular the particulars contained in that revelation of the will of God.

Almost the last act of the life and ministry of Moses was the renewal of this covenant with the generation which had grown up in the wilderness; prior to their actually entering into possession of the promised inheritance, to the borders of which he himself had already conducted them. The result of that renewal of the covenant, between both the parties in it, is thus summed up at that time also: Deuteronomy xxvi. 17, 18: "Thou hast "avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his 66 ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his "judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: and the LORD hath "avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath "promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his command"ments."

The same covenant was solemnly renewed at Shechem, in the time of Joshua, after the people had been put in possession of their inheritance, and not long before his own death: Joshua xxiv. 22-25. It was also renewed, under circumstances of corresponding solemnity, after a long period of the national forgetfulness, and national infraction of it, as the first step in the national reformation, at two much later periods; once in the first of Joash, king of Judah, under the auspices of the good high priest Jehoiada: (2 Kings xi. 17: 2 Chron. xxiii. 16:) and

declared will of God, as the federal head whom they had voluntarily chosen, and the Deity on the other hand, was pledged by his own veracity, to withhold no good thing from his chosen people, so long as they continued faithful to his will-and in particular, never to renounce or forsake them, never to deprive them of their peculiar relation to himself, or to transfer it to others in their stead; was shewn by me on a former occasion, and need not be now repeated m

From the time of the conclusion of this covenant with the owner of the vineyard, the husbandmen acquired a new character, that of his tenants in the possession of his vineyard; a character which must distinguish them from every class of husbandmen besides and from the time of the conclusion of the covenant of Horeb, the Jews acquired a new character, that of the people of God, and the chosen possessors of his visible church; which must so far distinguish them, as one of the nations of the world, from the rest of mankind, and the rest of mankind from them. The existence of a preliminary stipulation with their landlord, left it no longer to the option of the tenants, whether they should respect his rights or not; and the engagement to which again, in the eighteenth of Josiah, (2 Kings xxiii. 3: 2 Chron. xxxiv. 31. Cf. Jeremiah xi. 1-10.) It appears too from 2 Chron. xv. 12. that it was renewed in the days of Asa; and Nehemiah ix. 1–38; x. 1–28, 29. it was renewed with great solemnity in his time; and that renewal is almost the last thing in the public history of the Jews, so far as it is recorded in scripThe canon of scripture may therefore almost be said to close with the placing on record the fact of the renewal so made. m Vide vol. iv. 378–381.

ture.

the Jews had voluntarily bound themselves, by their part in the covenant of Horeb, left them no longer free to obey or disobey the Law of God as they thought proper-but made it incumbent upon them to render the obedience to which they stood pledged, or to incur the penalty of disobedience-to which they stood obnoxious.

The possession of the vineyard by the husbandmen, even on such terms, was a valuable privilege; and in proportion as the privilege was valuable, its deprivation would amount to a punishment. The privilege of standing to God in the relation of his chosen people, was justly the boast and glory of the Jews. No circumstance of distinction, in which one nation may possibly excel another, can be mentioned in their behalf, but this; and this is a distinction singular of its kind, and capable of compensating for every other defect. When Moses would specify in what the Jews were really superior to the rest of mankind, he instances in nothing but this; and when St. Paul would answer the question, what advantage then hath the Jew? it is by the mention of a circumstance of distinction derived exclusively from such a relation-that unto them were committed "the "oracles of God ";" that theirs was the adoption, the covenant, and the promises. Other nations might surpass them in numbers, in wealth, in antiquity; in extent of country; in conquest and empire; in military glory; in the arts and refinements of social life. No people were the people of God but they; and in that capacity, in religious knowledge and in moral eminence, in true intellectual dignity and

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practical holiness, they were far superior to the rest of mankind.

Among the advantages resulting to the husbandmen from the possession of their trust, subject to the conditions on which they held it-it would scarcely be necessary to mention that the maintenance of those, who had the care of the vineyard, from the fruits of it, the production in part of their own labour, must of course have been one; but that the temporal blessings, promised to the Jews as the reward of the faithful observance of their proper covenant, are among the most express and prominent of the sanctions by which it is known to have been enforced P.

The husbandmen, first placed in possession of the vineyard, by virtue of their original covenant, are supposed to be retained in possession of it to the end, by virtue of the same; a representation, which, the husbandmen standing collectively for the nation of the Jews, may be admitted to be only just and proper, notwithstanding the length of time embraced by the parable from first to last. The individuals who compose a nation, necessarily differ at different times but the nation itself continues the same; and what is done with the nation, or must be ascribed to the nation, at one time, may be said to have been done with it, and must still be ascribed to it, ever after. It is a principle of human law, that a corporate body never dies, though the individuals who compose it, are perpetually changing; and that its acts at one time are its acts at another. Thus it is,

P Vide Exod. xxiii. 25, 26: Lev. xxvi. 4-13: Deuteron. vii. 12-16; xxviii. 5—14.

that the treaties which nations conclude with each other, hold good for ever; so long as the reasons or causes which gave occasion to them, remain unaltered. The rights of the master of a family are transmitted to his heirs; the obligations which the ancestors contracted, are binding upon their posterity. If God, then, made a covenant with the Jews, as a people, on their coming forth from Egypt, he made it with every succession of their descendants, unto the advent of Christ; if the nation of the Jews contracted such and such obligations, with respect to God, at that beginning of their existence as a nation, the same obligations became binding on their descendants, the Jews of all future generations, so long as they continued in being 9.

The departure of the owner left the husbandmen to themselves, and so far as concerned the fulfilment of their covenant, to their own sense of honour, and the regard due to their own good faith. It is essential to a state of probation, that while it lasts, the subjects of it should be left to themselves; and though they have a definite part to perform, and a proper duty to fulfil, and are sensible of it accordingly; yet whether they will discharge that part, and perform that duty, must be left to their own free choice, and to the usual motives which influence moral agents to right or wrong actions accordingly. The visible church of God, whether among the Jews first, or among Christians since, has never been placed in any other state but this. Nor was this state of probation, as concerned the husbandmen,

¶ Vide Deuteron. xxix. 14, 15, and the note supra, page 56.

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