Wesley Corpus

Chapter IV An exhortation to obedience, ver. 1 - 13. A warning against idolatry, ver. 14 - 28. A promise upon repentance, ver. 29 - 40. Cities of refuge appointed, ver. 41 - 43. The place where Moses repeated the law, ver. 44 - 49. The statutes - The laws which concern the worship and service of God. The judgments - The laws concerning your duties to men. So these two comprehend both tables, and the whole law of God. In the sight of the nations - For though the generality of Heathens in the latter ages, did through inveterate prejudices condemn the laws of the Hebrews, yet it is certain, the wisest Heathens did highly approve of them, so that they made use of divers of them, and translated them into their own laws and constitutions; and Moses, the giver of these laws, hath been mentioned with great honour for his wisdom and learning by many of them. And particularly the old Heathen oracle expressly said, that the Chaldeans or Hebrews, who worshipped the uncreated God, were the only wise men. So nigh - By glorious miracles, by the pledges of his special presence, by the operations of his grace, and particularly by his readiness to hear our prayers, and to give us those succours which we call upon him for. So righteous - Whereby he implies that the true greatness of a nation doth not consist in pomp or power, or largeness of empire, as commonly men think, but in the righteousness of its laws. Thou stoodest - Some of them stood there in their own persons, though then they were but young, the rest in the loins of their parents. The midst of heaven - Flaming up into the air, which is often called heaven. No similitude - No resemblance or representation of God, whereby either his essence, or properties, or actions were represented, such as were usual among the Heathens. Statutes and judgments - The ceremonial and judicial laws which are here distinguished from the moral, or the ten commandments.