the Holy Spirit of promise, who will superadd the personal to the judicial righteousness, and make us meet in character as well as meet in law for that heaven, the door whereof Christ hath opened to us-for the service of that glorious inheritance which He hath purchased by His obedience, and is the fruit of the everlasting righteousness which Himself hath brought in.

64

LECTURE LXXX.

ROMANS, X, 6-9.

"But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above;) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth. the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

THIS passage in the Epistle to the Romans is taken from a similar one in the book of Deuteronomy; and it has been made a question, whether it be strictly a quotation in the sense of its being applied by the two writers to one and the same subject, or if it be used only by Paul in the way of accomodation and applied differently because related to an essentially different covenant from that which is spoken of by Moses. For the covenants being the same, it is argued that the words of the text as they occur in the Old Testament were not uttered on the occasion of that covenant which was made with the children of Israel at the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai, but years afterwards, and on the eve of their entrance into the land of Canaan-when the address containing the sentences

from which our text is taken was delivered by Moses and with the following prefatory announcement-These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.' And certain it is, that in this latter covenant there are evangelical privileges held forth, and evangelical promises, which enter not into the description of that righteousness which is of the law, "That the man which doeth these things shall live by them." For we therein read of forgiveness to the penitent, "When thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God, he will have compassion upon thee❞— and of regeneration, "The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul"—and not only of forgiveness, but of positive beneficence and favour, “For the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good." These perhaps may identify this lat

ter of the Old Testament covenants with the covenant of peace and mercy under which we now live, and so identify the application of the words both as uttered by the Jewish legislator and by the Christian apostle to one and the same subject, even the gospel of Jesus Christ-leaving the distinction which there is in the righteousness of the law from the righteousness of faith to be exemplified and upholden by the earlier of these Hebrew covenants,

1 Deut. xxix, 1
3 Deut. xxx, 6.

VOL. IV.

2 Deut. xxx, 2, 3.

4 Deut. xxx, 9.

E

even the covenant of Horeb-under which we have this promise of hopeless fulfilment, that the man who doeth these things shall live by them; and this denunciation of terror and despair, universal because inclusive of the whole human race-" Cursed is every one who continueth not in all the words of the book of this law to do them."

But we must not spend further time in the settlement of this question. Whether the words of our text were employed both by Moses and Paul to characterise the same or two different economies, there is a common property ascribed by each to that one economy of which he is speaking. The condition upon which its blessings are suspended, and by the fulfilment of which these blessings will be realised, is not a distant and inaccessible secret —either imbedded in the fathomless depths below, or placed far out of sight among the unscaled heights of the firmament above us. "For this commandment," it is said by the founder of the old dispensation, "the commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off." "But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." And, in counterpart to this, it is said by the chief among the apostles of the new dispensation, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach; That if thou believe, thou shalt be saved."

But the great peculiarity in the verses of my 1Deut. xxx, 11, 14.

text, and to which I would at present direct your more special attention, is the precise and particular object of the ascent and the descent respectively which are there spoken of by the apostle. These objects are different from that which is spoken of in the book of Deuteronomy-where to bring the commandment or the word from afar, is the assigned purpose both of the imagined ascent into heaven, and of the imagined descent into the abyss or bottom of the sea. In the New Testament this is stated differently-the assigned purpose of the ascent being 'to bring Christ down from above,' and of the descent being to bring up Christ again from the dead.' It is still possible, notwithstanding this indifference-that Moses and Paul may after all have been dealing with the same truth, and looking to the same quarter of contemplation-the first, as is customary in the Old Testament, giving utterance to a doctrine, but couched in enigma or shrouded in hazy obscuration; the second as is customary in the New Testament, giving utterance to the identically same doctrine, but evolved from the dimness in which it lay hidden, and with the light of a clearer and broader manifestation thrown over it. However this may be, let us now hasten to our explanation of the verses here before us; and which we think fitted to throw a new and interesting light, over the gracious economy that has been instituted for the salvation of our world.

In the parallel verses of Deuteronomy there seems no difficulty. The children of Israel are