CHA P. IX.

Of GOD's Jealoufy over His Laws.

HIS may be faid to form a

Tconfiderable part of the fubject of

holy writ, and indeed to pervade, and, like the warp through the woof, to run throughout the whole. The more we contemplate thofe authentic records of. the mind and will of GOD, the more awfully shall we find this truth illuftrated both by precept and example.-I the LORD thy GOD am a jealous GOD, vifiting the fins of the fathers upon the children, unta the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Exod. xx. 5.-and again, Nah. i. 2. GOD is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth and is fu-, rious, the LORD will take vengeance on His adverfaries, and He referveth wrath for His

enemies.

An exemplification of this character of the holy GOD, began with the first act of man's difobedience-By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin. Rom. v. 12.

-The

-The wages of fin is death. Rom. vi. 23. -In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt furely die. Gen. ii. 17. Nor was this

death a mere perfonal punishment, inflicted merely on the perfon of the fit offender but on his whole pofterity:-In Adam all die. 1 Cor. xv. 22.

When men multiplied on the earth, tranfgreffion multiplied, till GOD's jealousy was awakened and provoked to destroy the whole world, except eight perfons, 1 Pet. iii. 20.) by a flood of waters.

Afterwards we fee Sodom and Gomorrah, with the five cities of the plain, together with their inhabitants, deftroyed by fire. and brimstone rained down upon them from the LORD out of heaven. Gen, xix. 24. i

ང་ པར་ ནི

Not to dwell on general topics, let us, for a while defçend to particulars, and we hall find GoD's jealoufy over His laws displayed throughout the fcripture. Even the ceremonial inftitutions furnifh us with examples of this. For inftance, in the cafe of Nadab and Abihu, Lev. x, 1.—of Korab, Dathan, and Abiram, and all that appertained unto them, Numb. xvi. 32, 33. who were fwallowed up by the earththe 250 who were confumed by fire, for burning incenfe and befide thefe, 14,700 who died of the plague. ver. 35. 49. In 1 Chr.

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1 Chr. xiii. 10. we fee Uzza ftruck dead for only touching the ark, which belonged alone to Aaron and his fons to do. Numb. iv. 5, 15. To thefe inftances may be added that of 50,070* men ftruck dead for looking into the ark at Bethshemesh, 1 Sam. vi. 19. Comp. Numb. iv. 19, 20. See Chron. xv. 13. So that, even in. respect of breaches of the ceremonial law, the men of Bethshemesh might well faywho is able to ftand before this holy LORD GOD!

Likewife on the breach of pofitive precepts, though but occafional and temporary, the jealousy of GOD over his laws is terribly manifefted; as in the cafe of Achan, Jofh. vii. 25.-in the cafe of Saul, king. of Ifrael, i Sam. xv. 23.—of the difobedient prophet, 1 Kings xiii. 21.-of Ahab, king of Ifrael, 1 Kings xx. 42.

From hence let us look to the moral law, which was ordained to be a rule of life to all nations, people, and tongues

*Thus it ftands in our tranflation: but there is not any abfolute neceffity to understand it of fo many, or of more than 70 men out of 50,000 men→→→ Septuaginta viros quinquaginta millia virorum.: Mont.-which may certainly be looked upon as a fair rendering of the Hebrew.

See fome ingenious remarks on this paffage in Let ters of certain Jews to M. de Voltaire, vol. i. 320-1.

upon

upon the face of the earth, whitherfoever the word of GOD fhould come. This can

never vary nor decay, because it is founded in the very nature of that relation which men bear to GOD and each other. The commandment which ftands firft, and is evidently the ground of all the reft, faith-Thou shalt bave no other GODS but me. How all contempts of this law were punished, may be feen in the fearful destruction of the seven nations in the land of Canaan-allo in God's delivering the Gentiles into the hands of those worst of tyrants and deftroyers, their own vile affections, fo ftrikingly defcribed by the apostle, Rom. i. 21, &c.-As to what the Jews fuffered for turning from. Gop to idols, it is fo often mentioned, as to form a chief part in the hiftory of all the calamities which were brought upon them by the righteous judgment of GOD. Not only the actual breach of this commandment, but even the enticing another to it, whether the enticer prevailed or not, was punished with death, and that without mercy, even though the enticer was a man's dearest friend, his nearest relation, the wife of his bofom. See Deut. xiii. 6, &c.

As

As the first commandment was to lecure God's honour, as the only object of worship, fo the fecond was like unto it, for it was to fecure that worship's being paid Him in the way which He Himself had appointed. Hence the worship of Him under the form of images, molten or graven by art and man's device, was exprefsly forbidden. What His jealoufy over this law was, may be learned from Exod. xxxii. when the people changed their glory into the fimilitude of an ox that eateth grafs. (Pf. cvi. 19, 20.) And there fell in that day about 3000 men, (ver. 28.) befides what fell by the plague afterwards, ver. 35. Nay GOD would have destroyed them (all) had not MOSES His chofen ftood before him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, left He fhould deftroy them. Pf. cvi. 23.

All image-worship was abfolutely forbidden by this law, whether the idol was meant as reprefentative of the true GOD, as in the cafe of the golden calf (fee Exod. xxxii 4, 5.) or of the deities of the Heathen, as was the cafe of the Ifraelites in the matter of Baal- Peor. The apostle

1 Cor. x. 8.) alludes to this, when he fays Neither let us commit fornication, as fome of them committed, and fell in one day 23,000.

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