have leisure to enjoy the good things of it, and when you have
afterward determined to build cities, if you will do what is
pleasing to God, you will have a secure state of happiness. Let
there be then one city of the land of Canaan, and this situate in
the most agreeable place for its goodness, and very eminent in
itself, and let it be that which God shall choose for himself by
prophetic revelation. Let there also be one temple therein, and
one altar, not reared of hewn stones, but of such as you gather
together at random; which stones, when they are whited over with
mortar, will have a handsome appearance, and be beautiful to the
sight. Let the ascent to it be not by steps (16) but by an
acclivity of raised earth. And let there be neither an altar nor
a temple in any other city; for God is but one, and the nation of
the Hebrews is but one.

6. He that blasphemeth God, let him be stoned; and let him hang
upon a tree all that day, and then let him be buried in an
ignominious and obscure manner.

7. Let those that live as remote as the bounds of the land which
the Hebrews shall possess, come to that city where the temple
shall be, and this three times in a year, that they may give
thanks to God for his former benefits, and may entreat him for
those they shall want hereafter; and let them, by this means,
maintain a friendly correspondence with one another by such
meetings and feastings together, for it is a good thing for those
that are of the same stock, and under the same institution of
laws, not to be unacquainted with each other; which acquaintance
will be maintained by thus conversing together, and by seeing and
talking with one another, and so renewing the memorials of this