Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume IMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume I
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
Human language would utterly fail us to set forth the immense
difference, in every respect, between these two covenants. In their
basis, in their character, in their accompaniments, and in their
practical result, they are as different as any two things could
possibly be. The Horeb covenant rested upon human competency for the
fulfillment of its terms, and this one fact is quite sufficient to
account for the total failure of the whole thing. The Abrahamic
covenant rested upon divine competency for the fulfillment of its
terms, and hence the utter impossibility of its failure in a single
jot or tittle.
Having in our "Notes on the Book of Exodus" gone somewhat fully into
the subject of the law, and endeavored to set forth the divine object
in giving it, and, further, the utter impossibility of any one
getting life or righteousness by keeping it, we must refer the reader
to what we have there advanced on this profoundly interesting subject.
It seems strange, to one taught exclusively by Scripture, that such
confusion of thought should prevail amongst professing Christians in
reference to a question so distinctly and definitively settled by the
Holy Ghost. Were it merely a question of the divine authority of
Exodus xx. or Deuteronomy v. as inspired portions of the Bible, we
should not have a word to say. We most fully believe that these
chapters are as much inspired as the seventeenth of John or the eighth
of Romans.
But this is not the point. All true Christians receive, with devout
thankfulness, the precious statement that "all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God;" and, further, they rejoice in the assurance that
"whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning; that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope;" and, finally, they believe that the morality of the law is
of abiding and universal application. Murder, adultery, theft, false
witness, covetousness, are wrong--always wrong--every-where wrong: to
honor our parents is right--always and every-where right. We read, in
the fourth chapter of Ephesians, "Let him that stole steal no more;"
and again, in chapter vi, we read, "Honor thy father and mother; which
is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee,
and thou mayest live long on the earth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account