DEUTERONOMY 12
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Deuteronomy Chapter 12

Verses 1-16. On the rejection of evil and appropriation of good; the Lord's Divine Humanity is the test of all real good.
Verses 17-19. The genuine good from the Lord is not to be attributed to self.
Verses 20-28. Good may be acquired by self-effort, but must be kept distinct from that flowing from the Lord.
Verses 29-32. A caution against being again enticed by evil loves.

These are the statutes and judgements, which you shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of your fathers gives you to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth.

These are the rules by which you shall regulate your conduct both as to general principles and in particular cases when introduced into those heavenly states which the Lord by His Love and Wisdom (from whom proceeds all that is good in the soul) will cause to become your in every state through which you are conducted during your life in the natural world,

You shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which you shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

You shall utterly destroy every state of affection and thought in the soul, which has been a means for the evils of the unregenerate heart now dispossessed from the government of the soul, to cause the soul to love supremely what is evil and false, states in which self-love and worldly loves and the allurements of the senses predominated.

And you shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and you shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

You shall overthrow the affections of these evil loves, and break down the falses which support them, and the intelligence derived from them which is defiled with self-love shall be consumed by zeal for heaven, and shall be rejected; and you shall extirpate the simulated appearances of good in externals derived from self, which formed the supreme worship of the soul in those states, and completely remove the quality of them from the mind.

You shall not do so to the LORD your God.

You shall be extremely careful lest anything should be rejected from the soul which proceeds from the Divine Love and Wisdom.

But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even to his habitation shall you seek, and thither you shall come:

But you shall cherish those states which you shall perceive to be filled with the influence of the Divine Love and Wisdom operating upon the powers of the soul, namely, those proceeding from the Divine Humanity, which is the temple of the Lord: you shall seek these states, and bring the whole man into conformity with them.

And thither you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:

And to these states proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity shall you ascribe all the goods of love and the truths of faith thence derived within you, and all the remains of the holy states which you have acquired in temptations; and all your efforts which are vivified by the Divine influx, your sacred desires, and your worship from freedom or genuine love, and all the means of regeneration given from the Lord for the internal and external man. [Note.—For the signification of remains, see AC Index.]

And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, wherein the LORD your God has blessed you.

And then shall the Goodness and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity be appropriated to the soul, and all its powers shall be exercised for good with joy, both the interior will and all the faculties with which the soul has been gifted by the Divine Love and Wisdom.

You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes.

You shall not then think and act as heretofore in the external unregenerate state of the mind in which the understanding acted from natural light alone;

For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God gives you.

For the soul has not as yet come to the heavenly state, and to those interior faculties and perceptions with which it will be gifted by the Divine Love and Wisdom.

But when you go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;

But when you enter into this interior state, and the soul is imbued with those heavenly feelings and faculties with which it will be endowed by the Divine Love and Wisdom, and the Lord gives you victory over the evils and falses which have formerly infested you, so that you are relieved from the inroads of evil spirits into the soul,

Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall you bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the LORD:

Then the Goodness and Wisdom of the Lord will plant the qualities that flow from His Divine Humanity in the interiors of the soul, and this shall be the standard to which you shall endeavour to conform the whole soul as you shall receive perception from Him, your affections and the truths thence derived, the remains of good and truth preserved in the internal man after temptations, and all the efforts of the mind vivified by influx from the Lord, and all the sacred desires and aspirations after holiness which you receive from heaven:

And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; for as much as he has no part nor inheritance with you.

And the soul shall be filled with happiness from the influx of the Divine Love and Wisdom, both the interior will and the truths and affections thence derived, and the subservient goods and truths in the natural principle, and the desire after genuine good which is in the external mind, for as much as these are not derived in any way from the man himself.

Take heed to yourself that you offer not your burnt offerings in every place that you see:

Take heed to yourself in your worship that you ascribe not to the Lord the affections derived from any doctrines or principles which you shall perceive to be in the natural mind without discrimination.

But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

But in that religious state, and from those doctrines which the Lord Himself shall show you to be right amongst the faculties of the mind, and which are derived from Himself as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, by these shall you worship the Lord, and ascribe to Him the affection derived from them, and in this shall you be able to know and carry out His will.

Notwithstanding you may kill and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.

Notwithstanding, you may select, prepare, and appropriate any good thing from the memory and the natural mind, and adjoin it to your character, even whatever is agreeable to the natural desires, according to the abundant stores of natural good which the Divine Love and Wisdom have given you; both the faculties of the mind which are given to the soul by regeneration, and those which are simply natural may appropriate good from this source, according to the natural affection of truth and good.

Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.

Only you shall not confound these things with the truths derived from the Divine Humanity of the Lord, which you shall receive into the soul as coming direct by influx from heaven.
[Note (verses 13-16).—A distinction seems to be made here between the essentials and those things which are not essential in worship. All that proceeds from the one only God as revealed in the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be sacred and inviolate, and all other things are to be considered as comparatively unessential.]

You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your corn, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstlings of your herds or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vowest, nor your freewill offerings, or heave offering of your hand:

You may not appropriate from the memory as belonging to yourself the remains of good and truth stored in the soul by the Lord, either natural, spiritual, or celestial; nor consider that any of the truths of faith or goods thence derived, nor any genuine aspiration after holiness which you have, or worship from genuine affection, or any holy effort after good vivified by influx from heaven, comes from yourself:

But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hands to.

But you shall acknowledge that they come from the Divine Love and Wisdom, and flow into the soul which will receive them into its interiors by influx from the Divine Humanity of the Lord, both into the interior will and into the truths and goods formed by its means, and into the subservient natural goods and truths, and into the desires which you have after genuine good which conjoin the soul to heaven; and thus the whole soul will be filled with joy from the Divine Love and Wisdom in all its efforts and progress.

Take heed to yourself that you forsake not the Levite as long as you livest upon the earth.

Take heed to yourself that you forsake not the desires after genuine good which you have, and which are from heaven, in all your states of life in the world.

When the LORD your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul longs to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your soul lusteth after.

When the Lord shall cause good and truth in the external man to increase, as He has promised you, and you shall think within yourself, I will acquire a new will proprium that is good, because your soul longs to do what is good, as it were from yourself, you may then acquire a proprium (or feeling as if your life came from yourself) in any way that is pleasing to the natural affections.

If the place which the LORD your God has chosen to put his name there be too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you shall eat in your gates whatever your soul lusteth after.

If the holy state in which the Divine Love and Wisdom are manifestly perceived to flow into the soul from the Divine Humanity alone, be far removed from the state of the soul, then you may prepare from the goods and truths of the natural mind which the Lord has given you such things as are in accordance with your perception of His will, and sustain the external life of the soul with such things as are suitable to its state in the natural mind.

Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so you shall eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.

According to the natural affection of good and truth so are these things appropriated; both the regenerate and the purely natural principles of the mind are alike nourished by them.

Only be sure that you eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and you may not eat the life with the flesh.

But it is of the greatest importance that the truth of the Lord should not be confounded with these things; for the truths received from the Lord are the very life of the soul, and you may not confound the holy truths that flow from the Lord with the things that belong to the natural proprium.

You shall not eat it; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.

You shall not think to acquire these holy truths from yourself; you shall receive them into the natural mind as coming direct by influx from heaven.

You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.

You shall not attempt to acquire truth from yourself in spiritual things (which is from the Lord alone); that it may go well with you in your spiritual life, and with all the thoughts and affections begotten in the soul, when you shall follow out the perception that is given you of the Lord's will.

Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which the LORD shall choose:

Only be sure that all the things that are truly Divine within you, and all your aspirations after holiness, you shall take and ascribe to the influx of the Lord's Divine Spirit within you.

And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD your God: and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the flesh.

And you shall dedicate all the worship of your heart to the Lord, both from the affections and from the understanding, and ascribe it to the celestial principle of love received from the influx of the Divine Love and Wisdom; you shall acknowledge that all the holy truths of your worship come from the Divine Love and Wisdom, and shall then receive in the natural mind a new proprium for good vivified from those truths.

Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you for ever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

Observe and attend to all the perceptions that are given you of the Divine will, that it may go well with your soul, and with all the affections and thoughts begotten in it to eternity, when you do what is good and right according to the perception given you from the Divine Love and Wisdom.
[Note (verses 20-28).—With regard to the proprium, see Proprium in the Index of the AC and the passages referred to. It is there shown how what is of the Lord in the soul must be kept separate from what is of self; but that it is right to endeavour to do good as if from one's self, but acknowledging all the good, nevertheless, to be from the Lord. When this is done the soul is gifted with a new will-principle or life, as it were from itself, but which is vivified from the Divine life.]

When the LORD your God shall cut off the nations from before you, whither you go to possess them, and you succeedest them, and dwell in their land;

When the operations of the Divine Love and Wisdom shall cut off from the soul all the evils of the unregenerate heart, in the new states of life to which you shall be brought to possess them as your own, and the new regenerate will shall succeed them and occupy the mind in their place,

Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by being again enticed by those evil loves, after that they have been driven out from the soul; and that you seek not after the thoughts and doctrines which favour them, endeavouring to find how far those evil loves can be followed and worshiped with the sanction of religion—and in that way to worship the Lord.

You shall not do so to the LORD your God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

This will not lead to the genuine worship of the Divine Love and Wisdom; for every possible violence to what is good and true, and everything that is averse to the true worship of the Lord, has been done in the name of worship to favour the evil loves of the unregenerate heart; for all the good affections and true thoughts begotten in the human soul by influx from heaven have been sacrificed to the filthy fire of self-love in the name of religion.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

Whatsoever you perceive to be the Lord's will, that you shall observe to do; you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

DEUTERONOMY 12 Other translations - previous - next - notes - discussion - Deuteronomy - BM Home - Full Page

These are the statutes and judgements, which you shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of your fathers gives you to possess it, all the days that you live upon the earth.	These are the rules by which you shall regulate your conduct both as to general principles and in particular cases when introduced into those heavenly states which the Lord by His Love and Wisdom (from whom proceeds all that is good in the soul) will cause to become your in every state through which you are conducted during your life in the natural world,
You shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which you shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:	You shall utterly destroy every state of affection and thought in the soul, which has been a means for the evils of the unregenerate heart now dispossessed from the government of the soul, to cause the soul to love supremely what is evil and false, states in which self-love and worldly loves and the allurements of the senses predominated.
And you shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and you shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.	You shall overthrow the affections of these evil loves, and break down the falses which support them, and the intelligence derived from them which is defiled with self-love shall be consumed by zeal for heaven, and shall be rejected; and you shall extirpate the simulated appearances of good in externals derived from self, which formed the supreme worship of the soul in those states, and completely remove the quality of them from the mind.
You shall not do so to the LORD your God.	You shall be extremely careful lest anything should be rejected from the soul which proceeds from the Divine Love and Wisdom.
But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even to his habitation shall you seek, and thither you shall come:	But you shall cherish those states which you shall perceive to be filled with the influence of the Divine Love and Wisdom operating upon the powers of the soul, namely, those proceeding from the Divine Humanity, which is the temple of the Lord: you shall seek these states, and bring the whole man into conformity with them.
And thither you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:	And to these states proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity shall you ascribe all the goods of love and the truths of faith thence derived within you, and all the remains of the holy states which you have acquired in temptations; and all your efforts which are vivified by the Divine influx, your sacred desires, and your worship from freedom or genuine love, and all the means of regeneration given from the Lord for the internal and external man. [Note.—For the signification of remains, see AC Index.]
And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, wherein the LORD your God has blessed you.	And then shall the Goodness and Wisdom proceeding from the Lord's Divine Humanity be appropriated to the soul, and all its powers shall be exercised for good with joy, both the interior will and all the faculties with which the soul has been gifted by the Divine Love and Wisdom.
You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes.	You shall not then think and act as heretofore in the external unregenerate state of the mind in which the understanding acted from natural light alone;
For you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God gives you.	For the soul has not as yet come to the heavenly state, and to those interior faculties and perceptions with which it will be gifted by the Divine Love and Wisdom.
But when you go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God gives you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;	But when you enter into this interior state, and the soul is imbued with those heavenly feelings and faculties with which it will be endowed by the Divine Love and Wisdom, and the Lord gives you victory over the evils and falses which have formerly infested you, so that you are relieved from the inroads of evil spirits into the soul,
Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall you bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the LORD:	Then the Goodness and Wisdom of the Lord will plant the qualities that flow from His Divine Humanity in the interiors of the soul, and this shall be the standard to which you shall endeavour to conform the whole soul as you shall receive perception from Him, your affections and the truths thence derived, the remains of good and truth preserved in the internal man after temptations, and all the efforts of the mind vivified by influx from the Lord, and all the sacred desires and aspirations after holiness which you receive from heaven:
And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; for as much as he has no part nor inheritance with you.	And the soul shall be filled with happiness from the influx of the Divine Love and Wisdom, both the interior will and the truths and affections thence derived, and the subservient goods and truths in the natural principle, and the desire after genuine good which is in the external mind, for as much as these are not derived in any way from the man himself.
Take heed to yourself that you offer not your burnt offerings in every place that you see:	Take heed to yourself in your worship that you ascribe not to the Lord the affections derived from any doctrines or principles which you shall perceive to be in the natural mind without discrimination.
But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.	But in that religious state, and from those doctrines which the Lord Himself shall show you to be right amongst the faculties of the mind, and which are derived from Himself as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, by these shall you worship the Lord, and ascribe to Him the affection derived from them, and in this shall you be able to know and carry out His will.
Notwithstanding you may kill and eat flesh in all your gates, whatever your soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart.	Notwithstanding, you may select, prepare, and appropriate any good thing from the memory and the natural mind, and adjoin it to your character, even whatever is agreeable to the natural desires, according to the abundant stores of natural good which the Divine Love and Wisdom have given you; both the faculties of the mind which are given to the soul by regeneration, and those which are simply natural may appropriate good from this source, according to the natural affection of truth and good.
Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.	Only you shall not confound these things with the truths derived from the Divine Humanity of the Lord, which you shall receive into the soul as coming direct by influx from heaven. [Note (verses 13-16).—A distinction seems to be made here between the essentials and those things which are not essential in worship. All that proceeds from the one only God as revealed in the person and character of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be sacred and inviolate, and all other things are to be considered as comparatively unessential.]
You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your corn, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstlings of your herds or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vowest, nor your freewill offerings, or heave offering of your hand:	You may not appropriate from the memory as belonging to yourself the remains of good and truth stored in the soul by the Lord, either natural, spiritual, or celestial; nor consider that any of the truths of faith or goods thence derived, nor any genuine aspiration after holiness which you have, or worship from genuine affection, or any holy effort after good vivified by influx from heaven, comes from yourself:
But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite that is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you put your hands to.	But you shall acknowledge that they come from the Divine Love and Wisdom, and flow into the soul which will receive them into its interiors by influx from the Divine Humanity of the Lord, both into the interior will and into the truths and goods formed by its means, and into the subservient natural goods and truths, and into the desires which you have after genuine good which conjoin the soul to heaven; and thus the whole soul will be filled with joy from the Divine Love and Wisdom in all its efforts and progress.
Take heed to yourself that you forsake not the Levite as long as you livest upon the earth.	Take heed to yourself that you forsake not the desires after genuine good which you have, and which are from heaven, in all your states of life in the world.
When the LORD your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul longs to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, whatever your soul lusteth after.	When the Lord shall cause good and truth in the external man to increase, as He has promised you, and you shall think within yourself, I will acquire a new will proprium that is good, because your soul longs to do what is good, as it were from yourself, you may then acquire a proprium (or feeling as if your life came from yourself) in any way that is pleasing to the natural affections.
If the place which the LORD your God has chosen to put his name there be too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you shall eat in your gates whatever your soul lusteth after.	If the holy state in which the Divine Love and Wisdom are manifestly perceived to flow into the soul from the Divine Humanity alone, be far removed from the state of the soul, then you may prepare from the goods and truths of the natural mind which the Lord has given you such things as are in accordance with your perception of His will, and sustain the external life of the soul with such things as are suitable to its state in the natural mind.
Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so you shall eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike.	According to the natural affection of good and truth so are these things appropriated; both the regenerate and the purely natural principles of the mind are alike nourished by them.
Only be sure that you eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and you may not eat the life with the flesh.	But it is of the greatest importance that the truth of the Lord should not be confounded with these things; for the truths received from the Lord are the very life of the soul, and you may not confound the holy truths that flow from the Lord with the things that belong to the natural proprium.
You shall not eat it; you shall pour it upon the earth as water.	You shall not think to acquire these holy truths from yourself; you shall receive them into the natural mind as coming direct by influx from heaven.
You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the sight of the LORD.	You shall not attempt to acquire truth from yourself in spiritual things (which is from the Lord alone); that it may go well with you in your spiritual life, and with all the thoughts and affections begotten in the soul, when you shall follow out the perception that is given you of the Lord's will.
Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which the LORD shall choose:	Only be sure that all the things that are truly Divine within you, and all your aspirations after holiness, you shall take and ascribe to the influx of the Lord's Divine Spirit within you.
And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD your God: and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD your God, and you shall eat the flesh.	And you shall dedicate all the worship of your heart to the Lord, both from the affections and from the understanding, and ascribe it to the celestial principle of love received from the influx of the Divine Love and Wisdom; you shall acknowledge that all the holy truths of your worship come from the Divine Love and Wisdom, and shall then receive in the natural mind a new proprium for good vivified from those truths.
Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you for ever, when you do that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.	Observe and attend to all the perceptions that are given you of the Divine will, that it may go well with your soul, and with all the affections and thoughts begotten in it to eternity, when you do what is good and right according to the perception given you from the Divine Love and Wisdom. [Note (verses 20-28).—With regard to the proprium, see Proprium in the Index of the AC and the passages referred to. It is there shown how what is of the Lord in the soul must be kept separate from what is of self; but that it is right to endeavour to do good as if from one's self, but acknowledging all the good, nevertheless, to be from the Lord. When this is done the soul is gifted with a new will-principle or life, as it were from itself, but which is vivified from the Divine life.]
When the LORD your God shall cut off the nations from before you, whither you go to possess them, and you succeedest them, and dwell in their land;	When the operations of the Divine Love and Wisdom shall cut off from the soul all the evils of the unregenerate heart, in the new states of life to which you shall be brought to possess them as your own, and the new regenerate will shall succeed them and occupy the mind in their place,
Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before you; and that you enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.	Take heed to yourself that you be not snared by being again enticed by those evil loves, after that they have been driven out from the soul; and that you seek not after the thoughts and doctrines which favour them, endeavouring to find how far those evil loves can be followed and worshiped with the sanction of religion—and in that way to worship the Lord.
You shall not do so to the LORD your God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.	This will not lead to the genuine worship of the Divine Love and Wisdom; for every possible violence to what is good and true, and everything that is averse to the true worship of the Lord, has been done in the name of worship to favour the evil loves of the unregenerate heart; for all the good affections and true thoughts begotten in the human soul by influx from heaven have been sacrificed to the filthy fire of self-love in the name of religion.
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.	Whatsoever you perceive to be the Lord's will, that you shall observe to do; you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.