tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off. The fir-tree instead of the thorn denotes good in the place of evil; the myrtle-tree instead of the briar denotes truth in the place of the false; to be to the Lord for a name, denotes the quality of good, as being of divine origin; and to be for an everlasting sign, denotes the quality of truth, as testifying or bearing witness to good; that shall not be cut off, ought to have been rendered—that there may be no cutting off, and thus denotes, that where good and truth from a divine origin are there no destruction or excision can be.
90. The Lord teaches us to pray, Remit to us our debts, as we remit to our debtors, (Matt. vi. 12,) in order to instruct us, that we come into the grateful acknowledgment, consequently into the discharge of the immense debt we owe to Him, in proportion as we come into the grateful acknowledgment and consequent discharge of the immense debt we owe one to another; for the natural man supposes all mankind to be his debtors, and, as he is blind respecting his obligations to his Heavenly Father, so is he equally blind respecting his obligations to his fellow-creatures. But the Lord would remove this blindness, by reminding us how infinitely we are indebted both to Him and to each other; and that we discharge the former debt, so far as we remit the latter, by considering ourselves as indebted to our neighbour, rather than our neighbour as indebted to us.
91. If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle, (Judges xiv. 18,) is an eternal law
