Sermons upon Deuteronomy

7 If a man be found which hath stolen any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and he hath misused him or sold him: this thief shall die: and thou shalt put evil away from among you. 8 Take heed of the plague of leprosy, that thou mark it diligently, and do according unto all that which the Priests the Levites shall teach you, take heed ye do as I have commanded them. 9 Remember what the Lord thy God did unto Mary by the way, after that ye were come out of Egypt.

7 If a man be found which hath stolen any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and he hath misused him or sold him: this thiefe shall die: and thou shalt put euill away from among you. 8 Take heede of the plague of leprosie, that thou marke it diligently, and doe according vnto all that which the Priestes the Leuites shall teach you, take heed yee doe as I haue commaunded them. 9 Remember what the Lord thy God did vnto Marie by the way, after that ye were come out of Egypt.

The first thing that God declareth in this place is, that if any stole away a man of Israel and sold him, the offence which §50he committed in this behalf, was to be punished by death. And hereby he giveth us to understand how dearly he loved that people which he had chosen unto himself. For we know how God appointeth punishments accordingly as he esteemeth of the greatness of the sin which is committed. So then whereas he punisheth that man by death which had stolen away his brother, thereby we see that the life of the children §60of Israel was precious unto him. And no marvel. For if a father have lost one of his children, especially if he be stolen from him, and he knoweth not what is become of him, we know he would have bin better contented to have lost his goods, than his child. Now seeing that God had adopted the stock of Abraham, he accounted those which descended from it, to be of his own household, and named himself their father, and in very deed circumcision was a mark to separate that people from other nations. Therefore whosoever sold any one of the stock of Abraham, he did wrong and injury not only to the person it self, but also unto God. Again a man being sold unto another people, was in danger of being constrained by force to commit idolatry. In deed he were better suffer death; than do so: but like as many are frail & weak in this case, so might they also be seduced, and turned aside from the law, & from the service of God: & therefore by this means ensued not only the destruction of a mans body, but also of his soul. We see then now that this law was grounded on great reason. And moreover we know likewise, that God had so redeemed this people, that they were called a royal priesthood. And therefore if this honour