View Deuteronomy 22 in the note window.
f humanity towards brethren. (1-4) Various precepts. (5-12)
Against impurity. (13-30)
Verses 1-4: If we duly regard the golden rule of "doing to others as we
would they should do unto us," many particular precepts might be
omitted. We can have no property in any thing that we find.
Religion teaches us to be neighbourly, and to be ready to do all
good offices to all men. We know not how soon we may have
occasion for help.
Verses 5-12: God's providence extends itself to the smallest affairs,
and his precepts do so, that even in them we may be in the fear
of the Lord, as we are under his eye and care. Yet the tendency
of these laws, which seem little, is such, that being found
among the things of God's law, they are to be accounted great
things. If we would prove ourselves to be God's people, we must
have respect to his will and to his glory, and not to the vain
fashions of the world. Even in putting on our garments, as in
eating or in drinking, all must be done with a serious regard to
preserve our own and others' purity in heart and actions. Our
eye should be single, our heart simple, and our behaviour all of
a piece.
Verses 13-30: These and the like regulations might be needful then, and
yet it is not necessary that we should curiously examine
respecting them. The laws relate to the seventh commandment,
laying a restraint upon fleshly lusts which war against the
soul.
