Treasury of Scripture
In all the signs Rather, `with respect to all the signs and wonders,' etc.
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or has God assayed to go and take him a nation from the middle of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war...
Deuteronomy 7:19 The great temptations which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm...
Psalm 78:43-58 How he had worked his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan...
Psalm 105:26-38 He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen...
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON DEUTERONOMY AND THE PENTATEUCH
Thus ends the book of {Deuteronomy}, and with it the {Pentateuch}, commonly called the {Law of Moses}; a work every way worthy of God its author, and only less than the {New Testament}, the {Law} and {Gospel} of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Its {antiquity} places it at the head of all the writings in the world; and the various subjects it embraces render it of the utmost importance to every part of the civilized world. Its {philosophy}, {history}, {geography}, and {chronology} entitle it to the respect of the whole human race; while its system of {theology} and religion demonstrably proves it to be a revelation from God. {The Law of Moses} is more properly the {Law of Jehovah}, [], {torah yehowah}, the grand title of the Pentateuch. Could we conceive Moses to have been the {author} of this system, we must consider him more than mortal:- no wisdom of man has ever yet invented such a {Code of Laws}. His merit, however, has been disputed, and his laws severely criticised, by persons whose interest it was to prove religion a cheat, because they had none themselves. To some, whose mental taste and feeling are strangely perverted, everything in {heathenism} wears not only the fascinating aspect, but appears to lay claim and posses every excellence; and hence they have called up Confucius, Menu, Zoraster, and Mohammed himself, to dispute the palm with Moses.
On this subject in general, it may be just necessary to add, that the utmost that can be said of all laws, merely {human}, is, that they {restrain vices}, through the terror of punishment. God's law not only restrains {vice}, but it infuses {virtue}. It alone brings man to the footstool of his Maker; and keeps him dependent on the strong for strength, on the wise for wisdom, and on the merciful for grace. It abounds with promises of support, and salvation for the {present life}, which no false system dare ever to propose: every where, Moses, in the most confident manner, pledges his God for the fulfilment of all the exceeding great and precious promises, with which his laws are so plentifully interspersed; and while they were obedient they could say, Not one word hath failed us, of all the good things which the Lord our God spoke concerning us. Who that dispassionately reads the {Pentateuch}, that considers it in itself and in its reference to that glorious {Gospel} which it was intended to introduce, can for a moment deny it the palm of infinite superiority over all the systems ever framed of imagined by man? Well might the Israelitish people triumphantly exclaim, There is none like the God of Jeshurun! and with what striking propriety does the glorious legislator add, Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto {thee}? O people, saved of the Lord!
Finally, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which are amassed in these five books, have enriched the whole civilized earth, and, indeed, greatly promoted that very civilization. They have been a kind of {text-book} to almost every writer on {geology, geography, chronology, astronomy, natural history, ethics, jurisprudence, political economy, theology, poetry, and criticism}, from the time of Moses to the present day--books to which the choicest writers and philosophers in Pagan antiquity, have been deeply indebted; and which were the text-books to all the {prophets}--books from which the flimsy writers against Divine Revelation have derived their natural religion, and all their moral excellence--books written in all the energy, and purity, of the incomparable language in which they are composed; and lastly, books, which for importance of matter, variety of information, dignity of sentiment, accuracy of facts, impartiality, simplicity, and sublimity of narration, tending to improve and ennoble the intellect and ameliorate the physical and moral condition of man, have never been equalled, and can only be paralleled by the Gospel of the Son of God! Fountain of endless mercy, justice, truth, and beneficence! How much are thy gifts and bounties neglected by those who do not read {this law}; and by those who having read it, are not morally improved by it, and made wise unto salvation!
