to grow thereupon 3 tho' your Vices check'd, thrive ſtill, your Seed for Harveſt cannot grow up under my Checks. n 'Tis an Expreſſion of greateſt contempt caft upon a Perſon 3 it 15a Token of urmoſt un-
dervalue and ſcorn; ſo I will expoſe you, as you have expoſed my
Name to contempt. o Your moſt ſolemn Days and Feaſts, which are by vou accounted moſt holy, and in which you think you offer the moſt holy and acceprable Sacrifices, ſhall be as loathſom to me as Dung, and ſhall make you, who offer them illegally, as polluted, un- clean and loathſome as if I had thrown the Dung of thoſe Sacrifices into your Faces. p You ſhall be taken away with it, removed as unclean as the Dung it ſelf, as unfit as that tobe in the Temple, as fit to becaſt out to the Dunghilz ſo contemptible ſhall you be, if you lay it not to Heart,
4 And ye 9 ſhall know 7 that T have ſent this com-|
mandment s unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi z, faith the LORD of hoſts z.
4 OPrieſts ! r By ſenſe and feeling, by woful experience; or know ye, -7. e. what I ſpeak now, and will do among you. s Admo» nition, Reproof and Exhortation, ro look more carefully for the future, that you do not diſhonour me, and make mine Alcar and Sa- crifices contemptiblez but repent of what is paſt, and for time to come amend all, this I call for at your hands. 7 That you do not null the Covenant «t Prieſthood made with Levi, and which I would have continued in his Poſterity, in you and yours after you, which 1 would not have your Sins and high -Provocations ſhould abrogate; but if you will not thus confirm, ſettle, and keep Levi's Covenant among you, I will make it firm as to what is on my part to be done herein, to puniſh the Violators of it. #« God Almighty, Lord of Hoſts, hath ſpoken this, and will do it.
wh 25s 2 If, 33s
5 * My covenant x was with him y of life and peace 2, and I gave them « to him, * for the fear 6 wherewith he feared me, and was afraid betore my Name c.
x Here is one Covenant that is more particalar than any; a Co- venant of Prieſthood between God, and a particular Tribe. y Levi !s named ver. 4. and I will reft there, though I know ſome would have it be Aaron or Phineas. x Of long life and proſperous, by Co- venant under the Proviſoes therein contained, afſured to the Lewites in their due Miniſtrations before God. 4a Both Lifes, the Word is dual, or Lite and Proſperiry. bReligious Fear, or that gracious Qua- lification which appeared 1n the Ads of it; for he feared before God. c Behaved himſelf with Reverence and Trembling before God. It is the ſame repeated for Confirmation of the former, or perhaps it may imply the habitual Frame of Reverence from a contrite Heart, which is here pointed av, and commended in this Perſon under the Name of Levi.
6 The law of truth « was in his mouth e, and ini-
in peace þ and equiry z, and did 'turn many away from Iniquity &,
4 The Law of God which is the Truth, the DofArine of the Law according to the true meaning thereof, e He did teachar to the Peo- ple, he reſolved all caſes by this Law 3 Aaron, Eliazor, Phineas, or as we muſt underſtand it, every one of thoſe Godly Prieſts or Le- vites in what Age ſoeyer they lived, who as ver- 5. feared God, and were humble. They taught the People (as was their Duty) firſt to know the Law of God, and then to obey it; this by their Example, the other by their Inſtru&ion. The Law of Truth was in his Mouch,
e pronounced according to the Law truly,pronouncing that unclean Which the Law determin'd unclean, and that clean which was clean. j He judged not with reſpe& to Perſons, nor for Bribes perverted Judgment, nor judged that lawful which was unlawful,or that unlaw- Iul which was lawful. g His whole Life was a continual walking with God, as Enoch's was, and Noah's was, and as God required Abra- ham's fhould be, in holy Fear of his Majeſty, in true Love of his Pre- Cepts, and reyerend Obſerving his Ordinances 3 he lived with Ged and to him. hþ With God and with Men, it was his Aim to live pcaceably towards others, that God might make them peaceable to- ward him, and God gave him much of that he defired. 5 In reQi- ule of Mind, or in Sincerity and Uprightneſs, free from Hypocrifie, T elſe inall Righteouſneſs among Men. k By his Inſtru&ions, and
Js excellent Example he converted many from ways of Sin. |
7 For 1* the prieſts lips ſhould keep knowledge m, _ they 2 ſhould ſeek the law at his mouth o - tor he # the meſſenger p of the LORD of hoſts. | | ! Thoſe foremenrioned excellent Prieſts did ſo teach, and ſo live, Oraſmuch as they did well conſider 'twas their Duty to be well ac- Wanted with,and to have a great isfight into the Law of God. mit is "it their Office binds them x03 it is Duty of all Gcd's People to know - Law, but the Prieſts Duty to knniv It more than others, Lev. 10. aps they were to teach Iſrael, Deut. 33. 10. m The People of Iſrael.
i difficulr Caſes, in Controverſies, 0c. the People were to conſult
ACHI.
| Caſe. p Interpreter, Ambaſſador or Legate of the Lord of Hoſts with the People, Leiger among them, and who therefore ouzht to be adviſed with about his Lord's Mind. ERS . $ But ye 9 are departed » out of the way s ; ye have cauſed many to || ſtumble ar the law 7 : ye have — a the covenant # of Levi, ſaith the LORD of * ** OItsS, ;
q Prieſts that now are in Office, now live, when I Malachi am ſent
| to preach. r Have ſhamefully degenerated and turned away from your Duty, are Apoſtates. s Of God's Law, and of thoſe holy Prieſts your ©
Predeceſſors, out of the way of Truth, Holineſs, Peace and Equity. f Your Expoſitions of che Law, your manner of Worſhipping God, and your manner of Living; all rogether were great Scandals co yery many 3 and too many of theſe that were offended by theſe things, theſe Faults of yours, fell to finning with you. 4 The Covenant of Prieſthood, Neh. 13. 29. chargeth them with this Sin, and therefore they have no reaſon to expe& the Bleſſings of this Coyenant, viz. Life and Peace, fince their making the Covenant void on their part had cut off all Claim and Right to the Bleffings promiſed in that Co- venant, and had expoſed them to the Curſes God threatned- them
with.
9 Therefore x * have I alſo made you contempti- * 7 Sam- ble and baſe y before all the people 2, according as ye f 5 have nor kept my ways «, but || + have been partial 6 in j,
the law. azainſt,