have been successful in my exposition of this sacred ode, the second of the responsive parties were taught to intermingle in their song all along, the anticipation of greater mercies to come, and the destruction of mightier foes than Pharaoh and his armies. Not, indeed, by overwhelming waters, as this first oppressor of the church had been destroyed; but by anger bursting forth in flaming fire, and consuming them as chaff by the earth opening her mouth, and swallowing them up alive and subsequent Scriptures will show, that we have not supposed an untrue event to be the subject of this part of the song. In this view, we shall see a particular force in the reference to this song in the fifteenth chapter of Revelation; where those that obtain the victory over the last enemy, are said to "sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou KING OF SAINTS *!" We are to notice also, in this song, the magnificent language in which God's taking possession of the mountains of Zion, for the habitation of his sanctuary, is described: and we may suspect that this does not merely refer to the tabernacle of Moses, or to the temple of Solomon; but relates to some circumstances of the everlasting reign. * Ver. 3. SECTION I. Moses' Song of Remembrance. No Scripture, however, will afford us a better opportunity of taking a transient glance at the summary of Jewish affairs, and of ascertaining their bearings upon the intro duction of the final mercies of redemption, than the song taught by the divine command to the Israelites, which we find recorded in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. On God's foreknowledge, as we read in the former chapter, that the Israelites would prove an apostate race, and bring upon themselves all the calamities threatened in the law, that specified the conditions of the covenant by which they were to hold the land of Canaan, in that provisionary grant of it, which they were then to receive in virtue of what we have called the second covenant, made with Abraham; on God's foreknowledge of this, he commanded Moses: "Write ye this song for you, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land that I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come to pass, that when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouth of their seed: for I know their imaginations which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware. Moses, therefore, wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the, children of Israel." The song, which we shall often have occasion to refer to under the title of "Moses' Song of Remembrance," begins with a remarkable proem, that may be justly said to consecrate the beauties of poetry to the service of religion: 1. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, And attend, O earth, to the words of my mouth; 2. Let my instruction drop as the rain, Let my speech distil as the dew; As the dew-drops upon the grass, * The rain, and especially the dew, are among the most frequent images of the more modern poetry of the East, to describe whatever is acceptable and delightful: the word I have rendered dew-drops means that dewy moisture which, in a still and calm morning, stands erect; as the word implies, is bristled on the spray of the plants on which it settles; an exact parallel to the drizzling rain of the next line, unshaken from the loaded bough. The whole is metaphorical, I conceive, of the silent attention, as well as delight, with which the divine instructions ought to be received. 4. The Founder of Israel,' + his work is perfect, Surely all his ways are right! A God of truth, and without iniquity, Just and upright is He. The Founder or Creator of Israel, is not to be understood of the great Maker as forming man from the dust of the earth; but of God, as the framer and institutor of the civil and ecclesiastical existence of Israel as a people and church. The sentiment meant to be expressed in the text is the same as that in the parable of the vine .שעירס صور † from, arcteré, premere, ligare, formare; like the Arab. and the Syr. 3. Bishop Horsley prefers the rendering of Aquila, στερεος. yard in Isaiah,* or more briefly by Jeremiah: "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" It follows: 5. This is a corruption, their blemish is not of his children, 'It is' a generation perverted and distorted. The sacred song proceeds to expostulate with this apostate people; and in all his dealings with his professing, but not spiritually quickened, church, God will be found"true," as St. Paul remarks, though "certain of them have not believed."+ 6. Is this your return unto Jehovah, O people, weak and unwise? Was not he thy Father who formed thee,' Is it not he who created and established thee? 7. Remember the days of old," Consider the years of generation beyond generation; 8. When the Most High portioned out the nations, He set the boundaries of the peoples, 4 According to the survey of the sons of Israel. This is justly considered as a difficult passage. The last verse might, perhaps, be rendered," he set the boundaries of the tribes according to the number of the sons of Israel." But, upon the whole, I believe, it signifies not only that the Most High, in his original division of the earth among mankind, predestined the Holy Land to be the future residence of Israel; but that in fixing the bounds of the several nations of the earth, both in regard of time and place, he had in his view the future instrumentality to which he destined that people-to be the keepers and promulgators of his holy religion so that, in the first instance, by their means, a remnant of all might be saved; and, finally, that in Abraham, and his seed, all the families of the earth may be blessed. f Has not the apostle this text in his view, when he tells the Athenians, "The Lord of heaven and earth has made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him," &c. And when we * consider the central position of the land of Canaan, and its advantages for communication by water with all parts of the globe, by the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Euphrates, not to mention a remarkable alteration in the face of the country, that the word of prophecy seems to foretell, we cannot but be struck with the suitableness of the Holy Land to be the spot selected for the grand emporium of spiritual light and blessing, to all the nations that dwell on the face of the whole earth. * Acts, xvii. |