Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/228

 power, all actions are of an indeterminate character, and for this reason they get their determinate character in an entirely external and arbitrary way. The keeping of the commandment which demands service, obedience to God, is the condition upon which the nation continues in the state in which it is. This is the other aspect of the covenant. It is possible for individuals, or for the whole nation, to fall away by self-will from the laws, but this is a falling away merely from definite commandments and from ceremonial service, and not a falling away from what is original or fundamental, for this latter is something which has the authority of what ought to be. Accordingly the penalty attached to disobedience is not an absolute penalty, but is merely external misfortune, namely, the loss of the possession, or its diminution and curtailment. The penalties which are threatened are of an external earthly sort, and have reference to the undisturbed possession of the land. Just as the obedience demanded is not of a spiritual and moral sort, but is merely the definite blind obedience of men who are not morally free, so also the penalties have an external character. The laws, the commands, are to be followed and observed merely as if by slaves or servants.

If we consider those penalties which are threatened in the form of frightful curses, the thorough mastery which this nation attained to in the matter of cursing is worthy of notice; and yet these curses have reference only to what is external, and not to what is inward and moral. In the third Book of Moses, in the twenty-sixth chapter, we read:—

“If ye shall despise My statutes, and will not do all My commandments, and break My Covenant, I will visit you with terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. Ye shall sow your seed in vain, and your enemies shall eat it; and they that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. And if ye will not