SERMON V. The Qualifications and Bleffings of a Preached before the Right Honourable the LORD DEUT. i. II. Take ye wife Men, and understanding, and known among your Tribes, and I will make them Rulers over you. I N this Book of Deuteronomy (or of the SER M. fies) Mofes repeats to the Children of Ifrael before he left them, (which he knew he was to do about two Months afterwards) the chief Laws which GOD had given them, during their Journyings in the Wilderness for forty Years paft, in their Paffage from Egypt to the Land of Canaan. And this he does, because all that were of Age and Understanding, when the Law was firft given, were now dead: And a new Generation, that VOL. I. M were V. SERM. V. were speedily to enter and take Poffeffion of the promised Land, were fprung up in their Room. And Mofes being not permitted to live and enter it with them; he therefore acquaints them, before he dies, with the principal Statutes and Ordinances, which God had given them, and by many warm and affectionate Exhortations endeavours to awaken, and to excite them to a ftrict Observance of them. Introductory to this he premises, in the three first Chapters of the Book, a short Narrative of all that had paffed fince their coming from the Mount of Horeb to the Time of his fpeaking. And one of the very first Things he recounts, was a Proposal that he had made to their Fathers foon after their Departure from Egypt, concerning the Appointment of a Number of fubordinate Magistrates and Judges; that fo the Burthen of governing every individual Perfon in fo great a Multitude might not lye upon him. This he had done upon Counsel given him by his Fatherin-Law, Jethro, Priest or rather Prince of Midian, Exod. xvíii, 13, &c. Though in the Recital of it here he fays nothing of Jethro, left the Ifraelites perhaps, always a proud and conceited People, fhould have the less Opinion of the Advice, becaufe proceeding from a foreign Adviser. He V. He therefore only relates what had paffed S ER M. between himself and the People. I spake unto you at that Time, Deut. i. 9. (i. e. I spake unto your Fathers) faying, I am not able to bear you myself alone. The Lord your GOD bath multiplied you; and behold, you are this Day as the Stars of Heaven for Multitude, Verse 10. And indeed fo GOD had promised Abraham his Seed fhould be, Gen. xv, 5. And therefore, though, all the Souls of the Houfe of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were but threescore and ten*, Gen. xlvi. 27. yet at their leaving Egypt, 215. Years afterwards, the Number of the Men only, of those that were able to go forth to War, exclufive of Women, and all in general under 20 Years old, amounted to fix hundred and three thoufand, five hundred and fifty Souls, Exod. xxxviii, 26. Num. i. 46. Too many indeed for any one Man to bear the Government of alone. Not that Mofes was troubled at this great and vaft Increase: He bleffed GOD for it. (The Lord GoD of your Fathers (faith he) make you a thousand Times so many more as ye are, and bless you, as he had promifed you,) Deut. i. 11. But How can I myself alone bear your Cum *The lxx. here and in Deut. x. 22. read threescore and fif teen Souls, (agreeably with St. Stephen, A&s vii. 14.) including five Names which they infert at the End of Gen. xlvi. 20. V. SER M. brance, and your Burthen, and your Strife? ver. 12. How fhall I be able of myself, how poffibly can my Time fuffice, to hear every fingle Complaint, which fuch a Multitude must have to make? How can any one Man alone remedy all the Grievances, and decide all the Controverfies which muft unavoidably arife among you? The last Word fignifies Suits at Law, as we commonly speak: The two former Words fignify other Differences which would neceffarily arise between one Man and another, about fuch Things as are mentioned in the 21 ft, and two following Chapters of Exodus, which contain the Laws relating to them. The first Word which our English Tranflation renders Cumbrance, fignifies the vexatious Proceedings of too many who get into their Hands the Management of Caufes before a Judge: It means what, were I to explain it now, would require a thousand hard Words, all fignifying harder Things, fuch as would difcourage the patienteft Man from bearing the Impertinencies, and indeed fuch as are beneath any one to practise, but Barreters, and those who have Meannefs of Soul, to fubfift upon the Gall and Spleen of Mankind, upon Enmities and Malice, upon Quarrels and Litigations, and who delight in inftructing Men, how to worry and devour one another, But V. But fuppofing Men to be more peaceably S E R M. difpofed, than generally fpeaking they now are, or than they can be thought in the Times. of Mofes to have been; yet in the Nature of Things, Difputes must arise, unavoidable Difputes, Cafes nice and hard to be decided. And this must occafion Plaintiffs on the one Hand, and Defendants on the other; who, when neither defires any Thing more, than what is equitable and right, ought to have their Cause heard by fome Perfon of Judgment and Abilities, that fo Juftice may be done on either Side. And when these Cafes become numerous and frequent (as among Multitudes they must do) they must of Course be more than one Man can determine. We will suppose again that the People under Mofes's Command were as regular as poffible, as little offenfive to him in his Government, and as little injurious to the Lives, the Liberties, or the Properties of their Brethren, as upwards of 600,000 Men can be imagined to be yet ftill fome Irregularities would certainly happen, fome Enormities of a groffer Size, and fuch as deferved the immediate Notice and Correction of a Judge, too many to bring before, or to wait for the Cenfure of, a fingle Man. This again must convince Mojes M 3 |