ence, the most effectual to inspire confidence on the part of those addressed,) he directs, that then their first. act shall be this solemn rite of national consecration.* But, before he proceeds to specify the designed formalities, he presents that statement of parts of the Law as before revealed, with additions and alterations, which is to make the subject of my next Lecture.

* Deut. xi. 26-31.

† xxvii.

LECTURE XIX.

DEUTERONOMY XI. 32.-XXVI. 19.

MOSES RECITES AND ANNOUNCES LAWS, RELATING TO IDOLATRY,TO WORSHIP, TO THE RELIGIOUS REVENUES, TO DISTINCTIONS OF FOOD, TO THE FESTIVALS, TO THE SECOND TITHE AND FIRSTLINGS, TO THE SABBATICAL YEAR, TO SLAVERY, - TO A FUTURE MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT, TO FALSE TEACHERS, WITH A PREDICTION OF THE GREAT TEACHER TO COME, TO RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP, -TO THE CUSTOMS OF WAR,-TO DOMESTIC RELATIONS, TO USURY, TO OFFICES OF JUSTICE, HUMANITY, COUR

ΤΟ

TESY, AND COMPASSION, TO MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS, CRIMES, PROCESSES, AND PUNISHMENTS. - HE GIVES DIRECTIONS RESPECTING OFFERINGS TO BE MADE AFTER THE ORderly SettleMENT OF THE COUNTRY, AND RENEWS HIS EXHORTATIONS TO OBEDIENCE, AND ASSURANCES OF THE DIVINE FAVOR.

IN fifteen chapters of the book of Deuteronomy, beginning with the twelfth, we find Moses represented as publicly repeating, with or without modification, various laws which had been previously established, and for the first time promulgating others, a greater or less portion of which, I have remarked,* are to be taken for the fruit of his meditations and experience, and the subject of revelations to him, during the long wanderings in the wilderness. A general remark, to be made upon the collection of rules here brought together, is, that they are of a character corresponding with the occasion to which the record refers them. They are declared to have been addressed to "all Israel,”. the people at large; and accordingly rules of that class, with which the people had no immediate concern,— which were intended for a directory to the sacred order

to

in the discharge of their functions, embraced in the collection.*

are not found

In the account which I am to give of these laws, (and in which I shall not treat of their principles, except as far as new provisions require it, having done this already in earlier parts of the discussion,) it will be convenient to bring together those which treat upon the same general subject, though we should find them dispersed in different parts of Moses' discourse. They were rehearsed to the end that they might be remembered and obeyed. It was not necessary to this end, as it would have been in the recital of historical facts, that they should be presented in a determinate order; and it would be fruitless to inquire why Moses has adopted the particular arrangement in which we find them, in preference to any other. Nothing is more probable, than that single rules took their places successively, as they chanced to occur to his mind.

The great subject, however, of True and False Worship, of idolatry and fealty to Jehovah, is placed, as we should expect, in the fore-ground, in a repetition of the rule respecting the destruction of the monuments of that licentious and flagitious form of heathenism, which prevailed in Canaan, as soon as that country should be possessed.† Further on, a caution is given

Compare Deut. xxiv. 8, where the people are expressly referred, for instruction in the provisions relating to leprosy, to the sacred order, to whom the administration of those rules had been committed in full detail (compare Lev. xiii. xiv.). "As I commanded them, so shall ye observe to do," is all that is said to the people, except that, to make them more ready to submit to the separation which the priests were directed to enforce, they are reminded (Deut. xxiv. 9), that Miriam herself had been subjected to the same exaction, and this, though the host had been detained upon its march for the purpose. (Compare Numb. xii. 15.) — The remark, however, in the text, is not to be taken without exception. See Deut. xviii. 6–8.

† Deut. xi. 32-xii. 3. Compare Ex. xxxiv. 13; Numb. xxxiii. 52; Deut. vii. 5.-It will be observed, that I take Deut. xi. 32 into this division of the book. There it seems to me to belong. As arranged in VOL. I. 57

against any disposition, after the power of the ancient inhabitants should be broken, to revive their senseless and brutal practices.* Whoever, among the people, shall attempt to seduce others to the sin, is forthwith to be put to death without mercy, however artfully he may sustain his attempt at imposture; † to such a conspirator against the common well-being, the closest ties of blood and friendship are to afford no protection from the swift vengeance of him, on whom he has dared, in the confidence of intimacy, to try his baleful arts; and the

the received division of chapters, I think it not only makes a very frigid conclusion of the first part, but deprives that part of the emphatic conclusion, which belongs to it, in verse 31. On the other hand, arranged as I propose, verse 32 makes a most appropriate opening of the second section. It is true, that the words "this day" are capable of being used with much latitude; but in the present instance I understand Moses as saying, “Ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day," as well as what I have commanded at other times; and then he goes on to exhibit them.

* Deut. xii. 29–32. This is a new rule, e majori securitate. The occasion for it probably was the prevailing notion, which might beguile the Israelites, that every territory had its patron god, without whose favor its occupants could not thrive. Compare 2 Kings xvii. 26. Deut. xiv. 1,2; compare Lev. xix. 27, 28, and my note thereupon. - Deut. xvi. 21, 22; compare Lev. xxvi. 1; 1 Kings xv. 13.

Deut. xiii. 1-5.-"If there arise among you a prophet" &c. (1, 2). Nothing could be more unfounded than to imagine, that there is an implication here of the actual possibility of a false teacher's performing a miracle, or uttering a prediction with supernatural wisdom. The people are warned against the pretence and appearance of such things, - against appeals for the defence of false doctrine, to tricks pretending to be miracles, or to prognostics of the future, with which (merely because they were sagacious anticipations, or lucky guesses) the event proves to correspond. The words nix and nin signify a sign; something observable and striking, something remarkable and surprising, whether miraculous or not. The Egyptian wise men gave signs and wonders (pp. 119 et seq.) in the same general sense in which these false teachers might give them. "The Lord your God proveth you" &c. (3); look upon it as only a trial, which God's providence has permitted to come upon you, and use it so as to manifest and confirm your loyalty.

† xiii. 6-11. But the criminal counsellor was not to be slain privately, which would have been a liberty subject to extreme abuse. He was to be

city which has suffered itself to harbour the crime, is to. be made the subject of a more memorable judgment; not only are its inhabitants to be put to the sword, their cattle are to share their fate, its movables are to be consumed with fire, and its walls and dwellings are to be razed to the ground, to remain thus for ever, a warning monument of desolation.* Even he who does no more than offer idolatrous worship, though he should design it to be done in secret, is to be led forth, as soon as solemnly convicted, to public execution;† nor is the presence of any of the pretended practitioners of magic, and those other kindred arts, which connected themselves with heathen belief and worship, to be tolerated within the holy realm of Israel.‡

In respect to Worship, the principal regulations, embraced in this collection, have reference to that altered condition of things, in which the people, soon to be possessed of a permanent habitation, might have a permanent place of resort for the duties of their religious ceremonial. What that place should be, Moses does not determine,§ perceiving, probably, that a premature decision of the question might create jealousy among the tribes, and that circumstances might require any

informed against by the person whom he had solicited, and then executed pursuant to a judicial sentence. (Compare 9, 10, with p. 482.) The Septuagint reads, more expressly to this point, avayysāsïs wegì abroû. — Perhaps (6) the law dispensed a wife or child from informing.

* Deut. xiii. 12-18. The severe provisions in this passage, extending even to the destruction of animals and property, with the strictest prohibition to spare any thing, not only tended to exasperate the sentiment, which they expressed, of abhorrence of the crime which had called for such vengeance, but they secured the further point, that a city should not be exposed to become a prey to the cupidity of its neighbours, under pretence of punishing its sins. All the provisions in this chapter are new. † xvii. 2-7.

xviii. 9-14. Compare Ex. xxii. 18; Lev. xix. 26, 31; xx. 6, 27. § xii. 5, 11, 14, 21.