Deut. xxx. 19. / call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.
HOWEVER long a minister may continue with his people, he must part from them at last, and be summoned to give up his account of all his ministra- tions to them. Moses had now presided over Israel for the space of forty years : and the time was come that he must diea. But, before his death, he warned them with all fidelity, setting life and death before them: and, in the words which I have just read, he appealed to them, that he had discharged his duty towards them fully in these respects ; and urged them to improve the privileges which they had so long enjoyed.
Let me call your attention to, I. His appeal —
It is justly said of him, both in the Old Testament and in the New, that "he was faithful in all his house1'." And, indeed, not even Paul himself laboured under greater disadvantages, or persevered with more un- wearied diligence than he. The whole of God's laws, moral, ceremonial, judicial, did he make known to the people, enforcing the strict observance of them all (whether "commandments, statutes, or judgments") on the penalty of death. The violating of any one of them wilfully and presumptuously, was declared to be such an act of rebellion against God, that nothing less than utter excision was the punishment annexed to itc. On the other hand, he promised to them, that, if they were observant of God's blessed will, they should live, and long enjoy their promised inheri- tance'1. And so uniformly had he devoted all his time and strength to their service, that he could call both
a Deut. xxxi. 2. b Numb. xii. 7. Heb. iii. 2.
c Numb. xv. 30. a ver. 16—18.