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them to our children;" by taking every opportunity of conversing with them on religious subjects.

If it should please Gop to bless us with prosperity, let us be careful not to forget from whom our blessings flow; and, above all things, let us remember our great deliverance from the bondage of sin, and never suffer any change of fortune to make us distrust the power or providence of God.

By swearing in the NAME of the LORD GOD, Moses meant, that they should confirm their covenants, whether among themselves, or with other nations, in His HOLY NAME, by solemnly calling upon the LORD GOD to witness the agreement, and to bless and prosper them, or send his judgments upon them, according as they kept their oath, or broke it; as GOD is a GOD of truth, it is very impious to promise or declare any thing in His name, without intending to perform it. The violation of a solemn oath is called perjury, it is a presumptuous sin.

We find that Moses supposed that children would enquire the meaning of the religious rites and ceremonies observed by their parents: from whence we may infer, that GoD is well pleased with those that seek Him early; and it is certainly the interest, as well as the duty of YOUTH to do so; for there is no other way of securing the blessing of Heaven, or of guarding their minds against the allurements of the world. If the study of religion be deferred, other things will get possession of the affections of the heart, to the exclusion of Gon; and the soul will remain (perhaps for ever) a stranger to the highest and most rational delight it is capable of enjoying.

GOD graciously promised the Israelites, "that an observance of His Divine coinmands should be their righteousness." From which we may understand, that

VOL. II.

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though

though they could have no natural claim to God's blessings without unerring goodness, he would make allowances for the infirmities of human nature, and on condition that they would regulate their conduct by the moral law, and offer the sacrifices which he had ordained as means of grace, He would remit the punishment due for their offences, and accept of their best endeavours, instead of unsinning obedience, provided they were accompanied with faith and trust in his mercy.

The righteousness of Christians consists in believing what has been revealed in the Scriptures concerning the salvation of makind, partaking of the sacraments of Baptism and the LORD's Supper, and conforming their lives to the Divine Precepts of the Gospel.

SECTION XXVII.

MOSES' EXHORTATION CONTINUED.

From Deut. Chap. vii.

WHEN the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when the LORD thy GOD shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them; nor shew mercy unto them; neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.

For they will turn away thy son from following me,

that

that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

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But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

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For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy GOD: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the

face of the earth.

The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people (for ye were the fewest of all people), but because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bond-men, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is GOD, the faithful GOD, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate him, to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him; he will repay him to his face.

Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them; that the LORD thy GOD shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee : he

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will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which thou knowest) upon thee: but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy GOD shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods, for that will be a snare unto thee.

If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I, how can I dispossess them? thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt: the great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched-out arm, whereby the LORD thy GOD brought thee out so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid.

Moreover, the LORD thy GOD will send the hornet among them, until they that are left and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy GoD is among you, a mighty GoD and terrible.

And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little; thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee,

and

and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.

And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them.

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire; thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God.

Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.

All the commandments which I command thee this day, shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy GOD led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna (which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know) that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years.

Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy GoD chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear G. 3

him.

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