first husband. This power of divorce, however great an evil in itself, appears to have been an accustomed right, much valued by the Israelitish husbands. For it was by reason of the hardness of their hearts, the obstinacy with which they were likely to adhere to it, that they were allowed by the Law to retain it. See Matth. 19. 8. And we see in the two cases, in which the husband was liable to lose it, that the loss was to be inflicted as a punishment for very serious offences against the wife. See ch. 22. 19, 29. That this loss was in reality a gain, that it is better for them that are married to be bound together until parted by death, is a truth, which is both plainly taught by Christ, and happily confirmed by the experience of all Christian countries. For thus it is that differences and disagreements are most apt to be made up, when actual separation is felt to be unattainable; and thus it is that the mutual help and comfort, which each ought to have of the other, is most likely to abound, when neither party is at liberty to look for it elsewhere.

The exemption from serving in war, for a year after marriage, and the reason assigned for it, prove a gracious regard, in Him who gave these laws, for the domestic happiness of his people. Whilst a kind consideration for the poor is no less manifestly inculcated, by the commandment against taking a man's "millstone to pledge." For two small millstones used to form a part of every man's furniture. And when large public mills were unknown, these were his only means of grinding corn for daily food. The feelings of the poor also, as well as their necessities, are mercifully considered, in these other laws on the subject of pledging. Their clothes, if taken in pledge, must not be kept all night; for they might be all that a poor man had for a covering whilst he slept. Nor must he that had to lend go into a poor man's house to fetch his pledge; lest he should seem at the same time to spy out his poverty. What a profitable lesson might Christians hence derive, on the importance of studying the feelings of the poor, when engaged in relieving their necessities!

On the other precepts in this passage, we observe, that the only case of stealing to which the Law annexed the penalty of death, was the gross case of stealing a brother in Israel, and selling him for a slave. If with us it has till lately been lawful to steal men, whilst it was a capital offence to steal money, must we not fear that Christian states have been more careful of wealth than of humanity? must we not think, that Christian lawgivers would have done well to take a lesson from the righteous statutes of the Israelites? Circumstances may alter; but principles remain the same. In every society, man stealing ought to be far more severely punished than robbery of property. And though a nation be not subject to the plague of leprosy, it can never be exempt from the duty of doing, according to all that is taught by those, who teach God's will, according to God's commandment.

Against oppression and injustice. Of leaving gleanings.

14 Thou shalt not oppress an
hired servant that is poor and
needy, whether he be of thy bre-
thren, or of thy strangers that are
in thy land within thy gates:
15 At his day thou shalt give
him his hire, neither shall the sun
go down upon it; for he is poor,
and setteth his heart upon it:
lest he cry against thee unto the
LORD, and it be sin unto thee.
16 The fathers shall not be put
to death for the children, neither
shall the children be put to death
for the fathers: every man shall
be put to death for his own

sin.

17 Thou shalt not pervert the
judgment of the stranger, nor of
the fatherless; nor take the wi-
dow's raiment to pledge:

18 But thou shalt remember that
thou wast a bondman in Egypt,
and the LORD thy God redeemed

thee thence: therefore I com-
mand thee to do this thing.
19 When thou cuttest down thine
harvest in thy field, and hast for-
got a sheaf in the field, thou shalt
not go again to fetch it: it shall
be for the stranger, for the father-
less, and for the widow: that the
LORD thy God may bless thee in
all the work of thine hands.

20 When thou beatest thine olive
tree, thou shalt not go over the
boughs again: it shall be for the
stranger, for the fatherless, and
for the widow.

21 When thou gatherest the
grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt
not glean it afterward: it shall be
for the stranger, for the father-
less, and for the widow.

22 And thou shalt remember
that thou wast a bondman in the
land of Egypt: therefore I com-
mand thee to do this thing.

LECTURE 346.

Of God's visiting the sins of fathers on their children.
We consider this whole book as a rehearsing or repetition of
the Law, spoken aloud by Moses, under inspiration of God; with
a view to impress his righteous statutes so much the more forcibly
on the minds of the hearers. And it confirms this view, when we
find, that few of the laws are repeated without either some addi-
tion, or limitation, or explanation; and that some occur here for
the first time, in connexion with others which are repeated; and
that those are most frequently insisted on which demanded the
most urgent attention: and that those points also are here brought
forward, which would take effect upon the entrance of the Israel-
ites into their long expected enjoyment of the promised land.
Take for instance the law of paying the hireling his daily wages
without delay. In Leviticus we read it thus: "the wages of him
that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morn-
ing." Lev. 19. 13. What an affecting consideration is here added
to this law: "for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it:" and
again, "lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto
thee." And since God had declared, in the second of the ten com-
mandments, that He visited "the iniquity of the fathers upon the

children;" Exod. 20. 5; how needful was the warning here given, against applying this rule, in the punishment of man by man, in the administration of the law by judges upon the earth! Again, after the people had been commissioned to destroy by warfare so many nations, who were strange to them; was it not most seasonable to remind them, that in the administration of justice, when they should be in peaceable possession of the land, there must be no favour shewn, against a stranger, to an Israelite? "thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger." And when they were now about to enjoy possession of a land so fruitful in all good things, was it not most appropriate, to enter, more minutely than before, into the particulars of the law for leaving gleanings for the poor; and to enforce it by the motive not before insisted on, in connexion with this subject? "Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, therefore I command thee to do this thing." See Lev. 19. 9; 23. 22. And in like manner we might profitably compare each repeated statute with the same when it first occurs. For in every case there doubtless is fresh proof, and in most cases we should be able to discern it, of the wisdom and goodness of God, and of his kind consideration for man's wants and weaknesses.

But here we may with reverence put a question, which is so often asked in levity, unbelief, or curiosity, that it is well for all to be familiar with the answer: How can it be good for God to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children; especially since He has here Himself forbidden any such treatment of mankind by each other? Now we have but to remember, that the Law has respect only to temporal punishments, and to temporal rewards, to adversity or prosperity in this present life; and then the righteousness of God's thus dealing with the Israelites will be evident. We have but to confine our notions of the threatened visitation, to what takes place in this present world; and we shall see at once that He may thus deal righteously with all mankind. For seeing that this transitory life is only our probation for an eternity, in which God will give to every one a just recompense of reward, his justice is not concerned to distribute worldly wealth, and worldly want, according to the measure of our conduct here. And if so, though He bound Himself to deal thus with the Israelites and covenanted to allot to them prosperity or adversity on earth, according to their obedience or disobedience, yet might He most righteously except the children of the wicked from the operation of this equal providence, and declare that they should suffer here for their parents' sins, instead of faring according to their own conduct. Nay, if want and affliction be means most likely to lead to repentance and amendment, is not this very dispensation most graciously fitted, to balance, if we may so express it, the ill counsel and example of wicked parents; and so to lead their children by the way of suffering on earth to eternal joy in heaven?

O. T. VOL. I. PART II.

Y y

Of scourging; of the husband's brother; of weights; of Amalek.

1 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.

2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number.

3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee. 4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.

6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.

7 And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.

8 Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;

9 Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house.

10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

11 When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:

12 Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. 13 Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.

14 Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small.

15 But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.

17 Remember what Amalek did

unto thee by the way, when ye
were come forth out of Egypt;
18 How he met thee by the way,
and smote the hindmost of thee,
even all that were feeble behind
thee, when thou wast faint and
weary; and he feared not God.

19 Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given

thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it,

that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

LECTURE 347.

The Law compared in some instances with the Gospel. The directions to judges, that they should "justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked," may well remind us of the judgment to come, and of the rule by which our Lord will give sentence unto every man. The limitation of punishment by scourging, to , forty stripes, and the command that it should take place in the presence of the judge, shew us how careful we ought to be, that all judicial punishments should be inflicted with due solemnity, and with due regard to the feelings of humanity. The statute against muzzling the ox, when engaged in treading out corn, extends our humane feelings to the brute creation; and we know from St. Paul that it has a spiritual application, to the duty of providing for the ministers of the Gospel. See 1 Cor. 9. 9, 10. The law charging a brother, under certain circumstances, to espouse his brother's widow, is an exception to the general commandment, against a man's taking his brother's wife. See Lev. 18. 16; 20. 21. It shews us how important it was thought, to have a man's name preserved in Israel, by children to succeed him. And Christians, who have no children of their own, to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, might hence be well inspired with the holy purpose of training up some brother's children, who might otherwise be apt to be neglected, as inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. The offence, which was to be punished by cutting off the right hand of the offender, is not the only case in which we have met with the expression, "thine eye shall not pity her." See ch. 19. 13. It means, that the testimony of the witnesses must by no means be withheld, that the sentence of the judge must by no means be remitted. It is far from forbidding, what we learn elsewhere to be our duty, that we should have compassion for the most vile offenders, and be sorry for the sufferings of the worst of our fellow creatures. The use of just weights and measures is enforced in the Law, by the promise of lengthened life. In the Gospel we are taught to look forward to eternity, and are charged "that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because the Lord is the avenger of all such." 1 Thess. 4. 6. To "remember what Amalek did," is the injunction of the Law, to those who were commissioned to take vengeance in God's behalf. The prominent duty of the Gospel is to love as we have been beloved. And the chief thing which we have to remember is, not the treatment we meet with from each other, but the free and full and undeserved forgiveness which we have received at the hand of God.