.;
142.]
which appear the most probable and most important, it is the object of this discourse to set before you.
The ordinance itself is more fully stated at the beginning of the chapter11: and it was given,
I. To remind them that God was the great Proprietor
of all—
[In the verse following the text, God says to his people, " The land is mine." And it was his: he had dispossessed the former inhabitants, and had given it to his own people, assign- ing to every tribe its precise district, and to every family their proper portion. This they would have been likely to forget in the space of a few years ; and therefore, as the great Proprietor, he specified the terms on which he admitted them to the posses- sion of his land, reserving to himself the tithes and first-fruits, and requiring the whole to be left uncultivated and common every seventh year. Thus the people would be reminded from time to time that they were only tenants, bound to use the land agreeably to the conditions imposed on them.
Instructive as this thought was to them, it is no less so to us. Indeed, we should never for one moment lose the remembrance of it. " The whole world is mine," says God, " and the fulness thereofV Nay more, our very "bodies and spirits are his0:" and consequently, all that we are, and have, should be used for him, and be entirely at his disposal. Of what incalculable benefit would it be to have our minds duly impressed with this truth ! How would it lay the axe to the root of all those evils which arise within us from the diversity of our states and con- ditions hi the world ! Pride in the attainment of earthly things, anxiety in the possession, and sorrow in the loss of them, would
be greatly moderated Instead of being agitated with
the keen sensibilities of an owner, we should feel only a subor- dinate interest, like that of a steward : we should be neither elated with prosperity, nor depressed with adversity, but in every change should be satisfied, if only we were sure that we had done our duty, and that no blame attached to us.]
II. To keep them from earthly-mindedness —
[When our corn and wine are multiplied, we are apt to be thinking how we may treasure them up, rather than how we shall employ them to the honour of God. To counteract this sordid disposition, God provided, that, when he had given his people the richest abundance, they should think only of the temperate and grateful use of it, and not of amassing wealth. By this ordinance he said to them, what he says to us also, " If
a ver. 1 — 7. (Read it.) See also Exod. xxiii. 10, 11. b Ps. xxiv. 1. and 1. 12. " 1 Cor. vi. 20.