Deuteronomy 5:29; O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me

Deuteronomy 5:29. O that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever.

https://www.grace-ebooks.com/library/John Gill/JG_Cause of God and Truth The.pdf

I. These vehement desires of God for the good of these people, are said to be irreconcilable with his decrees of election and reprobation; and supposing those decrees, they are represented to be hypocritical: to which may be replied;

1. For God passionately to wish good things, even salvation itself, for some, and not for all, is no ways contrary, but perfectly agreeable to the doctrine of election.

If anything is said to the purpose, as militating against that doctrine, it ought to be said and proved, that God has vehemently desired the salvation of all mankind;

of which these words can be no proof since they only regard the people of Israel, who were the fewest of all people.

As for those scriptures which represent God as willing all men to be saved (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9), and not willing that any should perish, they will be considered in their proper places.

2. It might seem repugnant to these decrees, and to imply hypocrisy and guile, could any instance be produced of God’s passionately wishing the salvation of such whom the Scriptures represent as rejected of him, given up to a reprobate mind, and as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, or who are not eventually saved;

but none will say, such were the people whose good and welfare are vehemently desired in this passage of Scripture.

For, 3. These are the most improper instances that could have been pitched upon: since they were a peculiar people to the Lord, whom he had chosen to be a special people to himself, above all people upon the face of the earth (Deut. 7:6).

II. These passionate wishes also, supposing the doctrine of particular redemption, are said to represent as full of guile, deceit, insincerity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy;

to which I answer, 1. The doctrine of Particular Redemption is the Doctrine of the Scriptures.

Christ died not for all men, but for some only; who are called his people, his sheep, unless all men can be thought to be the people, & sheep.

2. The blasphemous charge of guile, deceit, insincerity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy, ought to be removed from God, who cannot lie, deceive, dissemble, or deny himself; who is a God of truth, and without iniquity; just and right is he.

Nor, 3. Does such a passionate wish for the good of these people, whom God had so great a regard for as to redeem from Egyptian bondage, imply anything of this nature, supposing the doctrine of particular redemption for, as has been observed in answer to the former question, it ought to be proved, that God has ever used such expressions of desire for the salvation of all mankind, and particularly of such who are not saved; in which number none will choose to put the people of Israel, especially since it is said (Rom. 11:26), that all Israel shall be saved.

And,

4. After all, these words do not express God’s desire of their eternal salvation, but only of their temporal good and welfare, and that of their posterity; for their eternal salvation was not to be obtained by works of righteousness done by them, by their fear or worship of God, or by their constant universal obedience to his commands.


They were saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even as we.

Their fear of God, and obedience to his will, issued indeed in their temporal prosperity, and on this account were strictly enjoined them; that so they might live, and it be well with them, and they prolong their days in the land they were going to possess, as appears from verse 33;

and with a view to this, God so ardently desired these things in them, and to be done by them.