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to the divine blessing, God will hear them. Let us guard against biting usury, as the word signifies in v. 25. that is, extortion; taking pledges, where we should give and lend freely; keeping them beyond the proper time; exacting more than the bargain, or demanding more than is just and equitable. AM these are scandalous things, and the anger of God waxeth hot against such cruel oppressors: they shall have judgment without mercy, who have showed no mercy.

4. Let us maintain the honour of rulers, and not be forward in censuring and reviling them. Sometimes indeed, their conduct may be so wrong, that we cannot help seeing it. Let us lament it before God in prayer, especially their immorality, and entreat that he would give them a better mind. It does not become us to revile them; that would be doing mischief, and be apt to spread dissension and clamour. This petulant spirit, of rashly censuring every measure of government, is a great fault in the present day; but be it far from us. God hath honoured magistrates by his own name; he hath called them gods; and invested them with part of his authority. Let us show that we fear God, by honouring the king, and being subject to magistrates, not only for wrath, but conscience sake; and not increase their burdens, which are heavy enough already, and which all their honours and profits cannot balance.

5. Let young people give God the prime of their days without delay. This is intimated by his requiring the first ripe fruits, v. 29. God's soul discerns this, and is particularly pleased with it; therefore they should devote their time and strength to his service, whose they are, and whom they ought to serve ; and do it immediately, lest their hearts be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Let God, who is the best of beings, be served with our best; and let us all learn to glorify him with our bodies and our spirits, which are his.

CHAP. XXIII.

The political laws respecting slander and false witness; the sabbath; idolatry; and a blessing promised to the obedient.

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1 HOU shalt not raise or receive a false report, shalt not go by hearsay evidence, nor give credit to every idle report: put not thine hand, do not conspire or agree with the wicked, to be an unrighteous witness.

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Thou shalt not follow a multitude, the great men, either their counsel or example, to [do] evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest [judgment,] 3 not give false judgment because the many do so: Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause; but do right, without respect of persons.

4 If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass, or any other beast, going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldst forbear to help him, or, wouldst thou cease to help him? thou shalt surely help with him; though he be at difference with thee, yet join with him to help the beast: so shalt thou oblige thine enemy, and dispose him to reconciliation. 6 Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause, not oppress or injure a poor man, because he is poor, nor 7 deny him common justice. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not, and for the same reason inflict no other punishment on them; for I will not justify the wicked, that is, wicked judges; though they may escape in this world, I will judge them in another, severely and openly. 8 And thou shalt take no gift, not only no bribe, but no gifts or presents of any kind; for the gift blindeth the wise, corrupts the judgment, that it cannot or will not discern between right and wrong, and perverteth the words of the righteous, makes 9 good men pass a wrong sentence.* Also thou shalt not oppress

a stranger for ye know the heart of a stranger, their dejection and distress, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in 11 the fruits thereof: But the seventh [year] thou shalt let it rest and lie still; not so much that it may get strength, as to teach you that both yourselves and your land are God's! that the poor of thy people may eat whatever grows of itself from the seed that was scattered the last plentiful years :† and then all, both poor and rich, may have time to study and hear the law, which was then to be read in a solemn manner to all the people ; and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, [and] with thy oliveyard, thou shalt leave the produce of them for the poor. But lest they should think that the weekly rest was to cease on that year, the command is renewed.

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Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed.

And in all [things] that I have said unto you be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nei ther let it be heard out of thy mouth; endeavour entirely to forget them, lest ye be seduced by them.

The Roman and Grecian laws agreed in this, that judges should accept no gift or pres eht, but their settled salary only.

It is to be remembered, that in the sixth year, their land was to bring forth enough for that year, and the year of rest, and the next year after that, till the new corn was ripe. This Moses foretold, and it was a convincing proof of the divine authority of his law; for nothing could have been more imprudent in human policy, than to have left the ground fal low every seventh year, with such a promise of plenty beforehand, if he had not had divine authority for doing it.

There were three sorts of sabbaths or times of rest to the Jews; weekly, every seventh year, and the jubilee, every fiftieth year.

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Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year, 15 in spring, summer, and autumn: Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread :* (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the 16 month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty, but shall bring oblations and provisions for the priest) And the feast of harvest, (which was the second and greatest feast, seven weeks after the former) in the beginning of wheat harvest, thou shalt bring the first fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in thy field: and the feast of ingathering [which is] in the end of the year, which was their third great feast, at the end of harvest, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field, then thou shalt bring the first fruits of thy wine 17 and oil. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God, that is, those who were of competent years, and at their own disposal.‡

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Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, as the heathens do in the worship of their idols; neither 19 shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. The first of the first fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

20 Behold, I send an Angel, my messenger, that is, Christ, before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the 21 place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions, but will punish you for them; for my name [is] in him, he acts by my authority, and we are intimately united, (John 22 x. 30.) But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries, or, I will afflict them that af23 flict thee. For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut 24 them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, pay them neither outward nor inward worship, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images, and all monuments of idol25 atry. And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall

This was joined to the passover, ch. xii. 18.`

Some render it, none shall appear before me in vain; intimating that God would accept and reward their services.

At those times, all their frontiers were unguarded, and it would have been the ruin of their country, if God had not promised by a special providence to preserve it then.

Dr. Cudworth tells us, that it was the custom of idolaters at the end of harvest, to take the broth of a kid, boiled in the milk of its dam, and sprinkle the fields, as a libation or thank offering to the deity which they supposed presided over them. God says, thou shalt not do thus. And, by the way, this shows us how wise and rational many of the laws of the Jews were, though, for want of being better acquainted with the ancient heathen cus toms, we cannot at present understand, or see the reasonableness of them.

bless thy bread, and thy water, all thy provisions, and give them power to nourish thee; and I will take sickness away from 26 the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor

be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil, 27 thou shalt live to a good old age. I will send my fear before thee, strike terror into the hearts of thine enemies, and will de stroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will 28 make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, a large kind of wasps, terrible creatures, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before thee. Those nations are put for the 29 rest, because they were the most powerful. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become deso30 late, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By lit tle and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

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And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, the Mediterranean sea, and from the desert of Arabia, or Paran, unto the river Euphrates: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. This wus accomplished in the times of David and Solomon, and not before, because of 32 their disobedience. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, 33 nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest

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they make thee sin against me for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee, an occasion of further sin, and utter ruin.

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REFLECTIONS.

E hence see the wisdom of being religious, whatever it may cost us. God is ever ready to protect his servants in the way of duty; he preserved the Israelites in going to Jerusalem, without danger of invasion, or loss of their substance; he promised he would bless them, drive out their enemies, and give them all desirable prosperity. See hence how acceptable obedience is to God, and how able and ready he is to promote the real interests of those who sincerely serve him; he will be an enemy to their enemies, and espouse their cause. If we adhere to him, he will bless our comforts, and give them a relish, and deliver us from those things which are burdensome in his service. We have neither such feasts to attend, nor such long journeys to go to his house, nor the great expense of lodgings, provision, &c. to bear. The law of God is now known more entirely, and his commandments are not grievous. If his will seems in any instance inconvenient, a resolute compliance with it will be our highest wisdom; for godliness is profitable unto all things

having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to

come.

2. See how much religion consists in justice and humanity, and how tender God is of the property and reputation of his creatures, yea, of the welfare of the brute creation. Let us keep ourselves far from a false matter; not be free in censuring others, or raising a false report; nor assert a thing is so and so, when we only suspect, or fear it. We should not readily receive an evil report; it is inconsistent with that charity which hopeth all things. Let us discourage talebearers, drive them away by an angry countenance; and be careful in this and every other instance, not to follow a multitude to do evil. Let us not be ashamed to be singularly religious. Being on the side on which numbers are, will not vindicate our conduct. Their sins will not excuse ours; nor will their torments lessen our own. Let us therefore set our faces like a flint in God's way; and though we should be scorned and reproached for our singularity, let none of these things move us, neither should we count our lives dear unto us, so that we may finish our course with joy.

CHAP. XXIV.

This chapter is preparatory to the giving of the ceremonial laws ; Moses is called up into the mountain; the people promise obedience; and the glory of God appeareth.

ND he said unto Moses, Come up unto the LORD, thou,

and Aaron, and his two eldest sons, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; probably such as were chosen out by Jethro's advice; and worship ye afar off. The people were to worship at a distance, the elders and priests to 2 approach nearer. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

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And Moses, after these directions, came down and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments, that is, the ten commandments, and all that was delivered in the last three chapters and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said, will we 4 do. And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD in a book, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar, which represented God, the first and chief party in the covenant, under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of $ Israel, to represent the people. And he sent young men of .the children of Israel, persons fit for service, probably the first

korn, who were priests, till the Levites were taken in their

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