their barns overflowing with the produce of the earth, and their presses bursting out with new wine, me thinks they would say, This is the hand of God : we will love him ; we will serve him ; we will trust in him : we ivill shew, that we are not insensible of all his love and kindness.
Such sentiments and conduct would tend exceedingly to exalt and honour God; and would conduce very much to the happiness of all. We are apt to think that there is great com- fort annexed to the idea of wealth and plenty : but the comfort which a poor man has in receiving his pittance as from the hand of God, far outweighs all that the rich ever felt in their
unsanc titled abundance The more we enjoy God in the
creature, the more we enjoy the creature itself ]
V. To typify the felicity of heaven —
[Canaan was an acknowledged type of heaven: and this ordinance fully represented the blessedness there enjoyed. All the land was common during the seventh year ; and every per- son in it, whether rich or poor, a native or a foreigner, had an equal right to every thing in it. None were to assert an exclusive claim to any thing : none were to reap or treasure up the fruits of the earth ; but all were to participate with equal freedom the bounties of heaven. What a delightful pic- ture does this give us of that blessed state, in which there will be no distinction of persons, no boast of exclusive rights, no want of any thing to the children of God ; but all will have a fulness of joy at God's right hand, and rivers of pleasure for
evermore ! Even in the Church below there was a
little of this, when the disciples had all things common, and none said that any thing he possessed was his own ; but in the Church above, this will universally prevail, and endure to all eternity.]
This subject, in its different bearings, affords ample matter of instruction to,
1. The doubtful and undetermined Christian —
[The Jews were required to sacrifice their worldly pros- pects for the Lord : and were threatened, that, if they did not obey this ordinance, God would expel them from the land. This threatening too was executed in the Babylonish captivity, according to the number of sabbatical years which they had neglected to observe'1. Shall Christians then be backward to
they could not reap or sow in the seventh year : consequently, they could only sow in the eighth year what they were to reap in the ninth. The language of the 22d verse seems to require this interpretation. Next to this interpretation, I should prefer that of making the words " three years" to signify " one year, and parts of two." h Lev. xxvi. 33—35. with 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20, 21.