before-mentioned Plainly importing That Men could not pretend ignorance of their Duty nor had any reason to desire that some Body would go to Heaven again for those things which Moses had already brought from thence And thus the Apostle most justly accommodates these words to the new Revelation from Heaven by the Son of God which was not abstruse and difficult but as plain and perspicuous as this now made by Moses Ver. 13. Neither is it beyond the Sea that thou shouldst Verse 13 say Who shall go over the Sea for us c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the words of Philo in his Book concerning Rewards and Punishments so as to need long and tedious Voyages laborious and wearisom Travels to fetch it from foreign Countries Such as the Greek Philosophers took who travelled into Egypt and the Eastern part of the World to learn Wisdom which God now taught his People in the Wilderness without any pains to attain it Ver. 14. But the word is very nigh unto thee Being Verse 14 brought to their very Doors by Moses the Servant of God who now delivered to them the Mind of God as the Son of God himself did afterwards when he came and dwelt among them In thy mouth and in thy heart Made so familiar to them that they might always have it in their common Discourse to teach it their Children and had now been so often repeated that it might well be laid up in their Memory never to be forgotten by them VI. 6 7 8 9. XI 18 19 20. It was also in the mouth of their Priests who were to teach them Knowledge II Malachi 7. and press it upon their hearts Here the forenamed R. Isaac in both the places forenamed observes That Repentance depends on the confession of the mouth and grief of the heart but the largest Confession and the sorest Grief will not avail them till they repent of their Crucifying the LORD Jesus and shall confess him with their mouth and believe in their heart that God hath raised him from the dead c. as St. Paul speaks X Rom. 9 10. That thou mayest do it That they might have nothing to do but to put it in practice and in order thereunto continually read it and keep it in mind In which the Jews were so diligent that as Josephus tells the Gentiles Lib. II. contra Apionem they could as easily recite all the Laws of God as tell their Names But here was their Error that they were not careful to do what they knew to be the Will of God and so when he sent his Son among them who plainly declared to them more fully the meaning of their holy Books they could not understand and receive that which they read every day And indeed this is the common Error as Dr. Jackson well observes of all corrupt Minds to seek that afar off as if they were Strangers to it which is really in their Mouth and in their Heart so that they would but be doers and not only hearers of the Word as St. James speaks alluding perhaps to these words of Moses As St. Paul applies this whole passage to the Gospel which is that Word of Faith so preached and published by the Apostles that it may be in all our Mouths and Hearts without going to seek for any other infallible Teacher Ver. 15. See I have set before thee this day life and Verse 15 good death and evil Life and Good Death and Evil may be but two words for the same thing viz. all manner of Happiness and all manner of Misery both which he had at large set before them in the Twenty eighth Chapter Or by Life may be meant long Life in the Land God had promised them and Good all the Prosperity they could wish for there as on the other side Death may signifie their being cut off from the Land of the Living before their time and Evil all the Calamities he had threatned while they lived And so the next Verse seems to interpret it Maimonides from these words observes that the wills of Men are under no force nor coaction but are free Agents and therefore have Precepts imposed upon them with a Punishment threatned to the Disobedient and a Reward promised to those who keep God's Commandments Of which he treats at large in his Preface to his Commentary upon Pirke Avoth Cap. VIII Ver. 16. In that I command thee this day to love the Verse 16 LORD thy God to walk in his ways and to keep his Commandments and his Statutes and Judgments This includes their intire Obedience to all God's Laws which are comprehended under these three Names See VI. 1 5. VII 11. X. 12 13. That thou mayest live and multiply and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the Land whither thou goest to possess it This is the Explication of the Life and Good which he set before them if they observed God's Laws with sincere affection to them v. 15. Ver. 17. But if thine heart turn away so that thou Verse 17 wilt not hear Want of Love to God and of a due Esteem of his wonderful Love to them made their Heart turn away to other things and not regard what he had revealed to them from Heaven And worship other gods and serve them This was the principal Breach of the Covenant of God Verse 18 Ver. 18. I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the Land whither ye go c. This is the Explication of the Death and Evil he set before them v. 15. Verse 19 Ver. 19. I call Heaven and Earth to record this day aginst you that I have set before you life and death God Angels and Men were Witnesses that he had done his duty See IV. 26. VIII 19. and therefore is owned by God himself to be faithful in all his house XII Numb 7. Blessing and cursing They are the same with Life and Death but he uses several words to make them sensible that both proceeded from God the one being the Effect of his Love and Favour and the other of his Anger and high Displeasure Therefore chuse life that thou and thy seed may live That is chuse to be Obedient without which they could not be happy Or he wishes them to set their hearts on the happiness God had promised them that it might incline them to do as follows Verse 20 Ver. 20. That thou mayest love the LORD thy God and obey his voice Love is the noblest and the strongest Spring of Obedience And that thou mayest cleave unto him Obedience to God is the surest Preservative from Apostasy For he is thy life and the length of thy days Chapter XXXI The Author and Giver of Life which he preserves and prolongs unto those who are obedient That thou mayest dwell in the Land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob to give them Which Promise confirmed
Evil but he serves God truly because he is the Truth and the chiefest Good that he may be admitted to Communion with him And a Man ought to love him with the most vehement and intense Affection so that he languish with love to him just as a Man that is in love with one he desires to make his Wife Wheresoever he is at home or abroad when he eats and drinks when he lies down and rises up he thinks of her To which Solomon compares the Love of the Spouse who saith I am sick of Love 2 Cant. 5. To this purpose Baal Chasidim mentioned by Wagenseil upon Sota Cap. V. p. 611. By the Heart may be here meant the Will which is the Original of all that a Man doth as the Jews speak whether Good or Evil By the Soul the Affections to which St. Mark adds the Mind i. e. the Understanding or Rational Faculty and by Might or Strength is meant the Power of the Body for Action which four all together make up the whole Man And the word ALL added to each of these doth not exclude all other things from any share in our Thoughts and Affections but only from an equal Interest in them The Love of God ought to be superiour and direct all our other Motions to serve him as Maimonides expresses it in his Preface to Pirke Avoth Ver. 7. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy Children In the Hebrew the words are as our Margin observes shall whet or sharpen them signifying Verse 7 as some think that they should endeavour to make them pierce their Hearts But De Dieu rather thinks it signifies Beat them into them as things are hammered on an Anvil with repeated Strokes Which the famous Bochartus doth not so well approve who observes that the word Sanan which in Arabick signifies in the first place to sharpen or whet signifies also Exquisitè docere c. to teach exquisitely so that he who is taught be made thereby more acute and perspicacious Which is the intention he thinks of the Hebrew word here L. 2. Canaan Cap. XVII However it be expounded it imports the Diligence they should use as we translate it to instil this Principle into their Children's Minds that there is but One God and to work in them a fear and love of his Divine Majesty For to that which goes before v. 4 5 6. these words have a particular respect By which it appears that Moses thought his Law was so plain that every Father might be able to instruct his Sons in it and every Mother her Daughters And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou risest up As much as to say they should take all occasions to inculcate this great thing at home and abroad Night and Day never ceasing their most earnest Endeavours to perswade their Children not to worship any other God nor to fail to worship the LORD their God with sincere Affection The Jews have made from hence one of their affirmative Precepts That twice a Day at least they should recite these words Hear O Israel c. which is a very dilute Sence of this Precept Wherein Moses requires not meerly their saying these words in which there might be a great deal of Superstition but taking all opportunities to imprint them upon the Minds and Hearts of their Children Verse 8 Ver. 8. And thou shalt bind them for a Sign upon thine Hand and they shall be as Frontlets between thine Eyes Just thus he commands them to preserve the Memory of their Deliverance out of the Land of Egypt almost in the same words See XIII Exod. 9 16. where this is sufficiently explained And it appears to be a Proverbial Speech from XLIX Isa 16. There are some learned Men indeed who take these words literally notwithstanding St. Hierom hath delivered his Opinion to the contrary that there is no Command for Phylacteries which are grounded upon these words particularly Jos Scaliger in his Elench Trihaeres Nic. Serarii Cap. 7. 8. Where he thinks God gave this Command to the Israelites to prevent their following the Rites of other Nations who armed themselves against Dangers with superstitious Amulets in their Foreheads which the Egyptians he thinks called Totaphot But since neither here nor in Exodus there are any such words as thou shalt make thee Frontlets but Moses only saith the things he is speaking of shall be for Frontlets between their Eyes I take it not to be meant literally Tho' it 's likely they intended well who so understood it For our blessed Saviour doth not seem to reprove the Jews for wearing Phylacteries but for their Ostentation in making them broader than ordinary Ver. 9. And thou shalt write them upon the Posts of thy House and on thy Gates This looks more like a literal Command than the former and it might Verse 9 have been very useful to them when they went in and out of their House to read these words Hear O Israel the LORD thy God is one LORD c. But the Jews are too scrupulous about the Words they should write and upon what part of the Posts and Gates they were to put them c. as Mr. Selden observes Lib. III. De Synedr Cap. XIII N. 2. Tho' after all it may be this was not intended but only that they should never let this Principle slip out of their Mind but think of it when they went out and came in as well as when they were in their Houses and by the Way when they rose up and when they lay down Yet it must be observed that other Nations used to write their Laws upon their Gates as Huetius notes in his Demonstratio Evangelica p. 58. which it 's likely they did in imitation of the Jews who to this Day have written in a Parchment these Words from v. 4. to the end of this Verse with that other passage Chap. XI from v. 13. to v. 20. which they roll up and writing on it the Name of Shaddai put it into a piece of Cane or other hollow Wood and fasten it to the Doors of their Houses and of each particular Room in them and as often as they go in and out they make it a part of their Devotion to touch this Parchment and kiss it As Leo Modena tells us in his History of the Jews P. 1. Cap. 2. Ver. 10. And it shall be when the LORD thy God Verse 10 shall have brought thee into the Land which he sware c. Of this he speaks with the greatest assurance there being no doubt to be made that God would immediately give them possession of the good Land promised to them The only danger was lest they should be thrown out of it for their Disobedience Great and goodly Cities which thou buildedst not For they did not lay all waste as they did Jericho for which there was a particular Reason but dwelt in them
rewarded their Obedience to them as if he had received the Benefit thereof Verse 14 Ver. 14. Behold the Heaven Where the Sun Moon and Stars shine And the Heaven of Heavens And all the glorious Regions beyond them Is the LORD 's thy God Are all his Possession as they are his Work The Earth also with all that therein is As well as this Earth and all the Creatures that are in it Ver. 15. Only the LORD had a delight in thy Fathers to love them and he chose their Seed after them Verse 15 even you above all People c. He would have them sensible therefore that the Possessor of Heaven and of Earth could have no need of them or of their Services who were a very inconsiderable Part of his Creatures But it was his own meer good Will and Pleasure which moved him to show such Love to Abraham as he had done and to his Posterity for his sake above all other Nations on Earth Ver. 16. Circumcise therefore the fore-skin of your Verse 16 heart Do not satisfie your selves therefore with the bare Circumcision of your Flesh and the Observance of such External Rites and Ceremonies but cut off and cast away all your naughty Affections which make you insensible both of God's Mercies and Corrections and disobedient to his Commands And be no more stiff-necked As he had often before complained they were particularly XXXII Exod. 9. and see IX 6. of this Book It is a Metaphor as I observed from Oxen who when they are to draw in a Yoke and go forward pull back their Neck and their Shoulder to withdraw themselves from the Yoke To both which the Scripture alludes IX Nehem. 29. And sometime severally we find mention of them as in the place before-named in Exodus he speaks of their stiff-neck and in VII Zachar. 11. he saith They pull'd away the shoulder St. Stephen puts both these together in his Character of the wicked Jews that killed our blessed Saviour VII Acts 51. that they were stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart Therefore the contrary disposition God promises towards the Conclusion of this Book as the greatest Blessing he could bestow on them XXX 6. Ver. 17. For the LORD thy God is God of gods and Verse 17 Lord of lords Superiour to all other Beings whether Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven A great God a mighty and a terrible Who can do what he pleases every where and therefore is to be greatly dreaded Which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward The most righteous Judge of Men who will not connive at your Sins because you are Circumcised nor be bribed by any Sacrifices to overlook your Wickedness XXIII Exod. 8. XIX Lev. 15. I Deut. 17. Nor on the contrary reject those that uprightly obey him though they be not Jews So St. Peter learnt to understand these words X Acts 34. Verse 18 Ver. 18. He doth execute the Judgment of the Fatherless and Widow Takes their part as we speak and defends them against those that would oppress them And loveth the Stranger in giving him Food and Raiment Provideth for those who are driven unjustly out of their own Country or travelling on their honest Occasions fall into want For he seems here to speak of those who were neither Proselytes of Justice nor of the Gate as the Jews speak but were meer Gentiles Verse 19 Ver. 19. Love ye therefore the Stranger Be kind and hospitable to such distressed Persons which is a Vertue that flows from the Love of God v. 12. to which it is in vain to pretend if we love not all Mankind This Love consists in imitating God's Care of such Persons whereof he speaks in the foregoing Verse viz. doing them Justice equally with others and affording them Food and Raiment For ye were strangers in the Land of Egypt This Vertue was peculiarly required of the Jews who had been in that Condition which he commanded them to pity See XXIII Exod. 9. XIX Levit. 33 34. And if they had sincerely practised this Duty towards Aliens the Grace of God shown to the Gentiles in our blessed Saviour would not have seemed so strange to them as it did Ver. 20. Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God him Verse 20 shalt thou serve This was explained before v. 12. To him shalt thou cleave Serve that is and Worship none but him And swear by his Name See VI. 13. Ver. 21. He is thy praise Whom thou oughtest Verse 21 therefore to praise Or rather in whose Love and Favour thou oughtest to glory and to think it the highest honour to be his Servant and to have him for thy God as it here follows He is thy God Who hath bestowed upon thee all the good things which thou enjoyest That hath done for thee all these great and terrible things which thine eyes have seen In bringing them out of Egypt destroying Pharaoh in the Red-sea leading them through the Wilderness giving them the Country of Sihon and Og c. Whom therefore they were bound to Love and Serve and to confide in his Mercy and not in their own Power or Righteousness VIII 17 18. IX 4 5 6. Ver. 22. Thy Fathers went down into Egypt with Verse 22 threescore and ten persons See XLVI Gen. 27. I Exod. 5. Their Family he would have them remember was very small Chapter XI about Two hundred Years ago And now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the Stars of Heaven for multitude Vastly increased them according to his Promise unto Abraham XV Gen. 5. XII Exod. 37. XXVI Numb 51 62. Which alone as Conradus Pellicanus here notes was sufficient to fill their Hearts with his Love and their Mouths with his Praise CHAP. XI Verse 1 Verse 1. THerefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God Who of so small hath made thee so great a Nation And keep his charge A Phrase used frequently concerning the Levites III Numb 7 8 c. But here comprehends all the Particulars following His Statutes and his Judgments and Commandments which he had charged them to observe See VI. 1. Verse 2 Ver. 2. And know you this day Consider seriously what I have said to you till you be sensible of it VIII 5. IX 6. For I speak not with your Children which have not known and which have not seen The words I speak are not in the Hebrew and they may as well be supplied thus For not with your Children have these things been done c. Which agrees well with v. 7. The Chastisement of the LORD your God The Plagues he sent upon the Egyptians His greatness Which appeared by the many great things he did only upon the stretching out of Moses his Rod. His mighty hand and stretched out arm These are more words to express the same thing Ver. 3. And his miracles and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt Or His miraculous Acts c. Verse 3 He uses so many words to make them sensible how much they were
Jordan This being a Profession of the True Religion to eat at God's Altar as to eat of things sacrificed to Idols was to profess the Heathenish Religion So all have understood it as Elmenhorstius hath shown from a great heap of Authors in his Annot ad Minutium Foelicem Fol. LXIX And ye shall rejoyce in all that ye put your hand unto ye and your Housholds wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee This signifies either that they should rejoyce at these Feasts in the Goodness of God who had blessed the Labour of their Hands of which the Tithe they brought thither was a Fruit or that doing thus God would bless all their future Labours and make them and their Families prosper and take comfort in all their Enjoyments Verse 8 Ver. 8. Ye shall not do after all the things that ye do here this day This doth not signifie as if there was no Civil Government or that the Courts of Justice did not sit and execute Judgment between Man and Man but relates to the place of offering Sacrifice as Mr. Selden observes Lib. II. de Synedr Cap. XV. n. IV. which in their wandring condition they did not so strictly observe as God expected when they came to be settled Our Learned Dr. Spencer thinks it relates also to other old Customs which were rather childish than prophane and therefore tolerated by God for the present To which he thinks those words of St. Paul have respect XIII Acts 18. Many things also perhaps they omitted which they could not or did not observe in the Wilderness as their New Moons and other Solemn Days with several Rites of Purification and Cleansing prescribed by the Law of Moses Every Man whatsoever is right in his own eyes This doth not import that there was no good order kept among them or that they were left at liberty to Sacrifice where they pleased but that in such an uncertain state when they were removing from place to place many took the liberty in such matters to do as they thought good Ver. 9. For ye are not yet come to the rest This Verse 9 explains what goes before and gives the Reason why God connived at some Irregularities because they were not fixed to a place but uncertain when they should have the sign to pack up their Goods and be gone to another station To the Inheritance which the LORD your God giveth you Where they were to abide as long as they observed God's Commands Ver. 10. And when ye go over Jordan and dwell in Verse 10 the Land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit When their Condition was altered for the better God expected that they should be so too And when he giveth you rest from all your Enemies round about so that ye dwell in safety This intimates that the fear they were in while they wandred in the Wilderness of the Incursions of their Enemies might make them sometimes offer Sacrifice where they ought not and commit other Disorders Verse 11 Ver. 11. Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall chuse to cause his Name to dwell there God was not pleased as Maimonides observes to declare any where in the Law where this place should be But though he often determines them to one place v. 26. XIV 23. XVI 6. yet he leaves the place undetermined Which he imagines might be for these three Reasons First Lest the Gentiles should get possession of it and make War upon that account thinking that this place was the end of the Law as he speaks And secondly lest they in whose hands it was should do all they could to destroy it And thirdly which is the truest Reason lest every Tribe should desire to have it in their Lot and Strife should arise among them about it More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLV Thither shall ye bring all that I command you your Burnt-offerings your Sacrifices c. All that he mentioned before v. 6. This may seem an heavy imposition that they might not offer them in any place and at any time but Maimonides makes this wise Reflection upon it That God intended to teach them not to have so high an Opinion of Sacrifices as of Prayers and Deprecations and such like parts of Divine Worship viz. acknowledging his Goodness Praising him and giving him Thanks which are the Things God mainly intends and may be offered every where Whereas Sacrifices are not of that account with him which made him limit them to one place where he should appoint them to be offered and not suffer any but one certain Family to discharge this Office These and such like things were to diminish the value of Sacrifices for which reason the Prophets often reprehend Men for their too great diligence and zeal in bringing Sacrifices of which God had no need and did not principally intend as the Worship he delighted in For which he cites 1 Sam. XV. 22. I Isa 11. VII Jerem. 22. Sacrifices being appointed and one place for them not for any good in themselves but only that all Idolatry might be abolished and the belief of the Unity of God preserved More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXII All your choice Vows In the Hebrew the words are as our Margin notes The choice of your Vows So their Peace-offerings which were Vows were called because they were to be select out of those Creatures which were perfect and without the least desect Whereas those Creatures which had something superfluous or lacking in any part might be accepted for a Free-will-offering which a Man was not bound to make but brought it meerly out of good will So we read expresly in XXII Levit. 23. Ver. 12. And ye shall rejoyce before the LORD your Verse 12 God ye and your Sons and your Daughters and your Men-servants and your Maid-servants The whole Family was to feast with God and one with another whereby brotherly Love and Friendship was increased and strengthned by their meeting and eating together at one place And nothing is more joyful than to see Brethren dwell together in Vnity See v. 7. And the Levite that is within your Gates for asmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you See X. 9. This whole Tribe as Maimonides well notes being devoted to the Divine Service and the Study of the Law neither minded ploughing nor sowing but were wholly consecrated unto God And therefore we find them very commonly reckoned among the Strangers the Fatherless and the Widows because they had no certain Possessions which made it the more reasonable they should constantly be entertained at these Feasts which were kept at God's House More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XXXI Verse 13 Ver. 13. Take heed to thy self that thou offer not thy Burnt-offerings Under Burnt-offerings are comprehended all the other Offerings before-mentioned for these were the chief and the most usual and if they might not be offered but at a certain place much less might any other as every body might understand
Egypt and the LORD thy God redeemed thee And did not bring them empty out of their Slavery but loaded with Silver and Gold and Raiment XII Exod. 35. By which Bounty of God to themselves they might take the best measure of their Duty to their poor Brethren when they were dismissed from Servitude Therefore I command thee this thing to day In remembrance of that great Benefit he enjoyned this Benevolence to poor Slaves Ver. 16. And it shall be if he say I will not go away Verse 16 from thee Refused to enjoy his Liberty when his six years Service was expired Because he loveth thee and thine house The Phrase in Exodus XXI 5. being Saying shall say I love my Master c. Abarbinel from thence gathers that it was necessary he should often profess how loth he was to leave his Master and his Family and make repeated Declarations of his Affection to them Because he is well with thee Lives happily Out of these words Maimonides infers that there was to be reciprocal Love between the Servant and his Master for if the Servant loved his Master yet if his Master did not love him his Ear was not bored for he could not take Content in his staying with him But these words suppose his Master's kindness to him by his good usage of him Ver. 17. Then shalt thou take an Awl and thrust it through his ear unto the door c. But first he was to bring him before the Judges that he might there in Verse 17 open Court profess the same that he had done to his Master and thereby make it appear there was no fraud or deceit in the business and that his Master did not keep him against his will contrary to this Law See XXI Exod. 6. where all this is explained And also unto thy Maid-servant thou shalt do likewise This relates only to the not sending Maid-servants away empty not to the boring their Ears if they had no mind to be freed for that was not used if we may believe the Hebrew Doctors to Maid-servants It was sufficient if they had a mind to stay with their Masters that they addicted themselves in solemn words to their Service for ever But there were many differences between a Man-servant and a Maid-servant at least in some Cases See upon XXI Exod. 7. which are explained with great nicety by the Hebrew Doctors with which I need not trouble the Reader because there is no such Slavery among us in these days Verse 18 Ver. 18. It shall not seem hard unto thee when thou sendest him away free from thee It is plain by this that he returns to what he was speaking of v. 12 13 c. concerning their not letting their Servants go away empty when they had their Freedom For this was the chief thing that could seem hard to them For he hath been worth a double hired Servant to thee Who served at most only for three years and had Wages paid him all the time XVI Isaiah 14. In serving thee six years Twice as long as an hired Servant and for nothing So that considering what Wages he gave the other and how small a price perhaps they paid for him they would find themselves gainers by such Slaves and therefore should not think much to give them a Gratuity when they send them away And the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all that thou doest He incourages them to hope they should be greater gainers otherways by this Charity which would procure God's Blessing upon their future Labours This Argument he had pressed twice or thrice before in this Chapter v. 4 6 10. Ver. 19. All the firstling-males that come of thy herd Verse 19 and of thy flock shalt thou sanctifie unto the LORD thy God All the first-born Males were the LORD's by a Law made at their coming out of Egypt and he gave them to his Priests for their Portion XIII Exod. 2 15. XVIII Numb 15. Thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thy Bullock nor shear the firstling of thy Sheep Besides the Firstling-Males which alone were separated to the LORD there were also Firstling-Females which though they were not sanctified to him as the Males were yet were not to be employed by the Owners as the rest of their Cattle but offered as Peace-offerings to God Of which they themselves had a good share though some part of them was given to the Priests Ver. 20. Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God Verse 20 It is evident from hence that he speaks of such Female-firstlings as I mentioned in the foregoing Verse for of the Males they might not eat but they belonged entirely to the Priests Year by year At their Solemn Festivals when they were first to offer them unto God and then the Feast upon these Peace-offerings followed In the place which the LORD shall chuse thou and thy houshold With the Levites and Strangers c. whom they were to invite to these Sacred Entertainments For this is but a Repetition of the Law twice or thrice mentioned before XII 6 7 c. 17 18 26. XIV 23. and upon this occasion here again inculcated because it was of exceeding great moment to preserve them in the Worship and Service of God alone Verse 20 Ver. 20. And if there be any blemish therein as if it be lame or blind or have any ill blemish This is another Reason why he mentions these Feasts again that he might admonish them what to do with these First-lings if there were any blemish in them which made them unfit for Sacrifice These blemishes he had spoken of in XXII Levit. 21 22 24. But here adds the Lame to those there named Which the Prophet Malachi also mentions and so do the Heathens as unacceptable unto God I Mal. 8. Thou shalt not sacrifice it to the LORD thy God No not to make such a charitable Feast at the Sanctuary Verse 22 Ver. 22. Thou shalt eat it within thy gates It was free for them to eat it at home though it is very probable God expected they should invite the Levites and the Strangers the Fatherless and Widows to partake of it as they did of the third Tithe XIV 29. because if it had been without blemish it must have been so imployed at the Sanctuary The unclean and the clean person shall eat it alike Whereas if it had been sacrificed at their Feasts only the clean could have eaten of it As the Roe-buck and the Hart. See XII 15 22. Verse 23 Ver. 23. Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof thou shalt pour it upon the ground as water He takes all occasions to mention this because it was designed to preserve them free from Idolatry See XII 16 23 24. CHAP. XVI Chapter XVI Verse 1. OBserve the Month of Abib Which God Verse 1 by a special order made the beginning of their Year See XII Exod. 2. XIII 4. XXXIV 18. And keep the Passover unto the LORD thy