Chapter XIX.—The Minute Prescriptions of the Law Meant to Keep the People Dependent on God. The Prophets Sent by God in Pursuance of His Goodness.  Many Beautiful Passages from Them Quoted in Illustration of This Attribute.

But even in the common transactions of life, and of human intercourse at home and in public, even to the care of the smallest vessels, He in every possible manner made distinct arrangement; in order that, when they everywhere encountered these legal instructions, they might not be at any moment out of the sight of God. For what could better tend to make a man happy, than having “his delight in the law of the Lord?” “In that law would he meditate day and night.”601    Ps. i. 2. It was not in severity that its Author promulgated this law, but in the interest of the highest benevolence, which rather aimed at subduing602    Edomantis, cf. chap. xv. sub fin. and xxix. the nation’s hardness of heart, and by laborious services hewing out a fealty which was (as yet) untried in obedience:  for I purposely abstain from touching on the mysterious senses of the law, considered in its spiritual and prophetic relation, and as abounding in types of almost every variety and sort.  It is enough at present, that it simply bound a man to God, so that no one ought to find fault with it, except him who does not choose to serve God. To help forward this beneficent, not onerous, purpose of the law, the prophets were also ordained by the self-same goodness of God, teaching precepts worthy of God, how that men should “cease to do evil, learn to do well, seek judgment, judge the fatherless,603    Pupillo. and plead for the widow:”604    Isa. i. 16, 17. be fond of the divine expostulations:605    Quæstiones, alluding to Isa. i. 18: δεῦτε καὶ διαλεχθῶμεν, λέγει Κύριος. avoid contact with the wicked:606    Alluding to Isa. lviii. 6: “Loose the bands of wickedness.” “let the oppressed go free:”607    Isa. lviii. 6. dismiss the unjust sentence,608    A lax quotation, perhaps, of the next clause in the same verse:  “Break every yoke.” “deal their bread to the hungry; bring the outcast into their house; cover the naked, when they see him; nor hide themselves from their own flesh and kin:”609    Isa. lviii. 7, slightly changed from the second to the third person. “keep their tongue from evil, and their lips from speaking guile: depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it:”610    Ps. xxxiv. 13, 14. be angry, and sin not; that is, not persevere in anger, or be enraged:611    Comp. Ps. iv. 4. “walk not in the counsel of the ungodly; nor stand in the way of sinners; nor sit in the seat of the scornful.”612    Ps. i. 1. Where then?  “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity;”613    Ps. cxxxiii. 1. meditating (as they do) day and night in the law of the Lord, because “it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man; better to hope in the Lord than in man.”614    Ps. cxviii. 4. For what recompense shall man receive from God? “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”615    Ps. i. 3. “He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not taken God’s name in vain, nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour, he shall receive blessing from the Lord, and mercy from the God of his salvation.”616    Ps. xxiv. 4, 5. He has slightly misquoted the passage. “For the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their souls from death,” even eternal death, “and to nourish them in their hunger,” that is, after eternal life.617    Ps. xxxiii. 18, 19, slightly altered. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.”618    Ps. xxxiv. 19. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”619    Ps. cxvi. 15. “The Lord keepeth all their bones; not one of them shall be broken.”620    Ps. xxxiv. 20, modified. The Lord will redeem the souls of His servants.621    Ps. xxxiv. 22. We have adduced these few quotations from a mass of the Creator’s Scriptures; and no more, I suppose, are wanted to prove Him to be a most good God, for they sufficiently indicate both the precepts of His goodness and the first-fruits622    Præmissa. thereof.

CAPUT XIX.

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Sed et in ipsis commerciis vitae et conversationis humanae domi ac foris, adusque curam vasculorum omnifariam distinxit, ut istis legalibus disciplinis occurrentibus ubique, ne ullo momento vacarent a Dei respectu. Quid enim faceret beatum hominem, quam in lege Domini voluntas ejus, et in lege Domini meditabitur die ac nocte (Ps. I, 2)? Quam legem non duritia promulgavit auctoris, sed ratio summae benignitatis, populi potius duritiam edomantis, et rudem obsequio fidem operosis officiis dedolantis: ut nihil de arcanis attingam significantiis legis, spiritalis 0307A scilicet et propheticae, in omnibus pene argumentis figuratae. Sufficit enim in praesenti, si simpliciter hominem Deo obligabat, ut nemo eam reprobare debeat, nisi cui non placet Deo servire. Ad hoc beneficium, non onus legis adjuvandum, etiam Prophetas eadem bonitas Dei ordinavit, docentes Deo digna: Auferre nequitias de anima, discere benefacere,exquirere judicium, judicare pupillo, et justificare viduam, dirigere quaestiones, fugere improborum contactum , dimittere conflictam in integram, dissipare scripturam injustam (Is. LVIII, 1), infringere panem esurienti, et tectum non habentem inducere in domum tuam; nudum si videris, contegere, et domesticos seminis tui non despicere: compescere linguam a malo, et labia ne loquantur dolum (Ps. XXXIII, 13); 0307Bdeclinare a malo, et facere bonum; quaerere pacem, et sectari eam; irasci et non delinquere (Ps. IV, 5), id est, in ira non perseverare, sive saevire; non abire in concilium impiorum, nec stare in via peccatorum, nec in cathedra pestilentium sedere (Ps. I, 1). Sed ubi? Vide: quam bonum et quam jucundam habitare fratres in unum (Ps. CXXXII, 1), meditantes die ac nocte in lege Domini; quia bonum scilicet fidere in Dominum, quam fidere in hominem, et sperare in Dominum, quam sperare in principes (Ps. CXVII, 7---8). Qualis enim apud Deum merces homini? Et erit tanquam lignum quod plantatum est juxta exitus aquarum, quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo; et folium ejus non decidet, et omnia quaecumque faciet prosperabuntur illi (Ps. I, 3). Innocens autem et purus corde, qui non accepit in vanum 0307Cnomen Dei, et non juravitad proximum suum in dolo, iste accipiet benedictionem a Domino, et misericordiam a Deo salutificatore suo (Ps. XXIII, 4). Oculi enim Domini super timentes eum, sperantes in 0308Amisericordiam ipsius,ad eliberandas animas eorum de morte, utique aeterna, et nutricandos eos in fame (Ps. XXXII, 18), utique vitae aeternae. Multae enim pressurae justorum, et ex omnibus liberabit eos Dominus (Ps. XXXIII, 19). Honorabilis mors in conspectu Domini sanctorum ejus (Ps. CXV, 15). Dominus custodit omnia ossa eorum : unum ex ipsis non comminuetur. Redimet Dominus animas servorum suorum (Ps. XXXIII, 21-23). Pauca ista de tantis scripturis Creatoris intulimus, et nihil puto jam ad testimonium Dei optimi deest , quod satis et praecepta bonitatis, et promissa consignant.