But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD your God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our GoD, to go and serve the gods of these nations, lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood :

And it come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst ;

The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from. under heaven.

And the LORD shall separate him unto evil, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law :

So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein like the overthrow of Sodom,. and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his wrath:

Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORDdone thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger

?

Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD GOD of their fathers, which he

made

made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: for they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them and the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book and the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

The secret things belong unto the LORD our GOD; but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the LORD thy GOD hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the LORD thy GOD, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; that then the LORD thy Gon will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy GOD gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: and the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

And the LORD thy God will correct thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy GOD with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

And

And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day.

And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy GOD to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy GoD with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judg ments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy GOD shall bless thee in the land whither thou Igoest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your

days

days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan, to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy GOD, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD thy God.

This day the LORD thy GOD hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy GOD, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: and the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath pro-mised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken.

Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the LORD thy GOD, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day.

ANNOTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS.

As many of the people were either not born, or too

young,

young, to understand the covenant which was made with their fathers at Horeb, the LORD vouchsafed to renew it with them, and Moses was the mediator as in the beginning. All those were included, who were

under the necessity of being absent.

On the same day that the covenant was made, Moses charged the people to build an altar to the LORD, and write upon the stones that composed it, the words of the law, and directed, that as soon as they had passed over Jordan, the twelve tribes should divide themselves into two parties, one to stand on mount Gerazim, the other on mount Ebal (which were so near to each other,` that nothing but a valley, about 200 paces wide, parted them) and there to pronounce a particular form of blessing on those that kept the covenant, and of cursing on those that broke it: and we have in our Church a ceremony answerable to this, a commination or denouncing of GOD's vengeance against sinners, pronounced every year, on the first day of Lent, commonly called Ash-Wednesday, when suitable prayers are read, and as in the original appointment at mount Gerazim, all the people answer AMEN, by which they acknowledge the Divine justice of the denunciation (which is collected from the Scriptures), and the necessity of avoiding those vices, to which the curse of GoD is due.

We find that the LORD encouraged the Israelites to be obedient, by promises of great blessings; and deterred them from disobedience by severe threatenings; and gave great hopes of mercy to the penitent; so that no motive was wanting to incline them to keep the covenant.

How comfortable was the solemn assurance they received, that they were become the people of the LORD their Gop! How awful the thought, that they had bound themselves to keep all His commandments! This

obligation