If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
Ver. 19. If ye be willing and obedient.] If ye love God and keep his commandments; Exo 20:6 if ye love to be his servants; Isa 56:6 willing in all things to live honestly. Heb 13:18 Tantum velis et Deus tibi praecurret. a Say thou canst not open the door, yet be lifting at the latch; ever holding that of Augustine, Nolentem praevenit Deus ut velit, volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit. b It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Php 2:13 Augustine, after Paul, stood so much for free grace, that the Papists say he yielded too little to freewill.
Ye shall eat the good things of the land.] Ye shall, and not strangers for you. as Isa 1:7 The Easterlings shall not eat thy fruit, nor drink thy milk. as Eze 25:4 Thine enemies shall not eat thy grain, nor the sons of the stranger drink thy wine; but they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. Isa 62:8-9 Godliness hath a cornucopia; religion is the right palladium c of a nation. The heathen poet could acknowledge that, as long as Rome stood religious, so long she continued victorious and prosperous; as, on the contrary,
“ Dii multa neglect; dederunt
Hesperiae mala luctuosae. ” - Horat.
Italy was undone by irreligion. The Greek empire had not fallen from the Paleologi to the Turks had the Christian verity stood firm in Constantinople. Cicero confesseth that the instruments by which the Romans subdued the world were not strength and policy, but religion and piety. d Wherefore also Maecenas in Dio Cassius adviseth Augustus παντη παντως, by all means and at all times, to advance the worship of God, to cause others to do the same, and not suffer innovations in religion.
a Basil., Conc. de Prodigo.
b Enchir., id., cap. 32.
c transf. and fig. Anything on which the safety of a nation, institution, privilege, etc. is believed to depend; a safeguard, protecting institution.
d Non caliditate et robore, sed pietate et religione omnes gentes superastis. - Orat de Art. Respons., lib. iii.