ture. It occurs about two hundred and forty times in the Hebrew Bible, and in a majority of cases refers to the true God. Whether we render it here God or strong, the sense is the same, for the LORD is mighty, nor can any number of persons or nations. resist his omnipotence. Leighton: "El.-Able to right myself upon the mightiest and proudest offender. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? says the apostle. Are we stronger than he? 1 Cor. x. 22; thus joining these two together, as they are here, His strength and his jealousy." He is able to punish any insult that is offered him by any of his creatures. He is strong and jealous, too. The same thing is repeatedly declared in Scripture. "Thou shalt worship no other God; for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Ex. xxxiv. 14. Compare Deut. iv. 24; v. 9; vi. 15. The word rendered jealous could not be better translated. Elsewhere the correspond ing noun is used to express the strongest passion of man towards man: Num. v. 14, 15, 18, 25, 29, 30. It is several times rendered zeal; 2 Kings xix. 31; Ps. lxix. 9; Isa. ix. 7; xxxvii. 32; lix. 17. A like word is used, Numbers xxv. 13, where it is said, that Phinehas was zealous for his God. So here the meaning is, that God has a zeal for his own honour and glory. The special reference here is doubtless to the intense emotions of men respecting their domestic peace. Hopkins: "Jealousy is an affection or passion of the mind, by which we are stirred up and provoked against whatsoever hinders the enjoyment of that which we love and desire. The cause and origin of it is love; the effect of it is revenge." In its very nature it is apprehensive of rivalship. A sovereign is jealous of his authority. Freemen are jealous of their rights. The term always expresses exceedingly strong disapprobation and indignation against the withholding of that which is our due, particularly in the marriage relation. Jealousy is never satisfied except with perfect fidelity. No compliments, no services. however beautiful in themselves, and no rewards, can quiet its imperious demands. "Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land." Zeph. i. 18. No virtuous husband will rest satisfied with less than the love and fidelity of his wife. Nor will a holy God be content with less than the heart, the homage, and the holy living of his people. So he has said: "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and their children for ever." Deut. v. 28, 29. Nor will jealousy ever rest satisfied till its doubts are removed. It is exceedingly eager in its pursuit of what it supposes to be evidence calculated to put an end to all uncertainty. God indeed is never in doubt about the state of our minds; for he searches the heart. "God is light; and in him is no darkness at all." 1 John i. 5. His searching will therefore tear away every disguise, and bring out the whole truth. Men are never more determined to risk every thing "the rage the day of than in securing and guarding the sanctity of their own marriage. Nor does their indignation ever rise higher than against any crime, which destroys their domestic peace. "Jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." Jealousy is indeed of a man; therefore he will not spare in vengeance." Cant. viii. 6; Prov. vi. 34. mighty threatens: "The LORD will not spare him, but 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." Deut. xxix. 20. So the Al III. God declares that, as Governor of the world, he is not indifferent to the sins of men; but that he visits iniquity. The word visits is used in Scripture both in a good and in a bad sense. It is found in a good sense in Gen. xxi. 1, 1. 24; Ex. xiii. 19; Ps. lxxx. 14; Luke i. 68, 78, vii. 16; Acts xv. 14. It is found in a bad sense in the following passages. Ps. lix. 5; Jer. v. 9, 29; Jer. ix. 9; Isa. xxiii. 17. Leighton says God will visit "as judges and magistrates use to visit those places that are under their jurisdiction, to make inquiry after abuses committed in time of their absence, and to punish them." 1 Sam. vii. 16." To visit iniquity, to visit transgression and to visit sins are phrases which always threaten punishment. The meaning, therefore, is, that God will terribly and condignly punish infractions of this command ment. IV. The LORD declares that his jealousy is such that he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil dren unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. This declaration is repeated in so many words in Ex. xxxiv. 7; Num. xiv. 18; Deut. v. 9. Nor is there any doubt respecting the genuineness of the text, or the fairness of the translation. The following passages of Scripture are supposed to be to a considerable extent parallel or explanatory. "I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not." 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3. This command was given to Saul, nearly four hundred years after the Israelites had entered Canaan. So that not a single man who had opposed Israel in the march to Canaan was then living; but only the descendants of such. Again: "Because Ahab humbled himself before God, the LORD brought not the evil upon his house in his days, but in his son's days." 1 Kings xxi. 29. In a time of great public calamity, when the heathen had come into God's inheritance and had defiled the holy temple, Asaph prayed, "O remember not against us former iniquities." Ps. lxxix. 8. When Belshazzar was suddenly cut down, a part of the song sung by the children of Israel was in these awful words: "The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their father; that they do not rise, nor possess the land." Isa. xiv. 20, 21. Again: "Thou shewest loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them." Jer. xxxii. 18. Again: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar." Matt. xxiii. 35. Thus it appears that whatever God intended to teach us by such language, he designed deeply to impress it on our minds, because he repeats it very often. The following additional remarks on the commination contained in the second commandment are here offered. I. Candour requires the admission that it is an exceedingly awful threatening, and well suited to make men stop and think, and fear before the Lord. Al threatenings to visit iniquity are alarming, because they are declarations of the inflexible justice of God. But when God declares that our' moral conduct shall have a bearing on our posterity for generations, surely none but the desperately hardened can be insensible. The 1. It II. Candour no less requires the admission that this threatening is not of easy explication. difficulty arises principally on three accounts. seems to be counter to the sense of justice and equity felt by men generally. But we should not forget that man is not a competent judge of the best rules for conducting a moral government; and that, therefore, any objection arising from his views of things ought to be stated with great modesty. He ought to be willing patiently to wait and carefully consider the whole case. Many things seem harsh or unfair, until the principles, on which they are founded, are well understood. 2. Another source of difficulty arises. from the fact that in organizing the Jewish commonwealth under the theocracy, and in providing for the |