tione Decalogi fays, God fpoke not by himself, but "filling a reasonable mind with a diftinct knowledge, which moulding and attenuating the air, and changing it to a flaming fire, he gave forth an articulate found; as breath does through á třumpet." I know not, whether he intended the fame thing that we do. We mean nothing, but what the apoftle faid, when he calis the law," the word fpoken by angels," Heb. ii. 2. Not that it was any created angel, who faid, "I am Jehovah thy God." Thefe are the words of God; but that the thunder, in which God fpoke, was produced by the means of angels, and articulated into words intelligible to man. They, who underftan by angels, only their prefence and attendance, as 2 Tim.ii. 2. Among many witneffes, too much leffen the force of the apostle's comparison, by which he prefers the gospel to the law on this account, that this laft was promulgated by the ministry of angels, the former published by the miniftry of the Son of God manifefted in the flesh. See Cameron and Meftrefat on the place. Thirdly, It is probable, that the tables of testimony, on which the law was written by the finger of God, were delivered to Mofes by the intervention of angels: and to this I refer Gal. "the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a

iii. 19.

mediator."

VIII. Mofes was the other minifter of God at the giving of the law. "Mofes commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob," Deut. xxxiii. 4. "The law was given by Mofes,” John i. 17. And Mofes is that mediator; in whofe hands, as we have juft learned from Paul, the law was ordained by angels. We can by no means agree with a certain learned author, who denies, that Mofes was the mediator of the moral law, and maintains, that by the law we are to understand the ceremonial only; and he thinks, the hiftory of the promulgation of the ten words or commandments removes Mofes to fuch a distance from the office of a mediator, that it places him in the fame rank and order with the people, Exod. xix. 25. "fo Mofes went down unto the people," &c. and Exod. xx. 1. " and God spake," &c. But if I mistake not, the very learned perfon mistakes the cafe. Mofes indeed went down from the mount, to put the people on their guard, not to break through the boundary, by coming up to Jehovah: and having executed that commiffion, he, together with Aaron his brother, went up again, at the command of God, fome little way at leaft, Exod. xix. 24. and ftood nearer, when God promulgated the laws. Which done, he again spoke with the Ifraelites. Very many confiderations fway with us, thus to range thefe matters, Let us, firft, confider verfe . " and Je

9.

hovah faid unto Mofes, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I fpeak with thee, and believe thee for ever." From this it appears, that from among the whole affembly, God called Mofes by name, and recommended him to the people, as the meffenger of God, when he promulgated this law. And Mofes himself declares this, Deut. v. 4, 5, 6." Jehovah talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, (I ftood between Jehovah and you at that time, to fhew you the word of Jehovah. For ye were afraid by reafon of the fire, and went not up into the mount) faying, I am Jehovah thy God," &c. And what is plainer than that of Stephen: "that Mofes was in the wilderness with the angel, which fpake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received aóya Zarra, the lively oracles, to give unto us," Acts vii. 38. Where Beza fays; "it is not to be doubted, but Luke calls Aéya, oracles, what the Hebrew calls an, the words, and has an eye to God himself, who is faid to have pronounced, and delivered them to Mofes, written with his own finger." And what appearance of truth is there, that by xoy avra, lively oracles, we are only to understand the ceremonial laws, and not those precepts of the moral law, which whoever does, fhall live in them? And this very learned author himself has elsewhere obferved, that the words, op, opn, law, Statutes and judgments are often fynonymous; but whenever they are thus joined together, they are diftinguifhed from each other by a peculiar fignification; and that by n is understood the moral law; by pn, the ceremonial, and by swn the forenfick law. But now these three are so joined, as that each of them is afcribed to Mofes, Mal. iv. 4. " remember ye the law of Mofes my fervant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Ifrael, with the ftatutes and judgments. You see, that the law equally with the ftatutes and judgments are ascribed to Mofes. In like manner, Lev. xxvi. 46. " these are the ftatutes, and judgments, and laws, which Jehovah made between him and the children of Ifrael, in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.” Mofes therefore was the mediator even of the moral law, and his inftitutions are erroneously restricted to the ceremonies.

IX. The time of the publication of the law is fupposed to be the fiftieth day from the departure of the people out of Egypt, and from the celebration of the paffover. How to find out this number of days, fee Rivet on Exod. xix. 1. And thus the Ifraelites were taught, that they were not then to be at their own difpofal, when they were delivered from Egyptian bondage by a bountiful hand, fo as for the future to live at their own difcretion; but to enter into the fervice of God, and to apply themselves

themselves to it with the greater earneftnefs, the more they were fet at liberty from the bondage of others: as Zachariah alfo prophefies, Luke i. 74, 75. " That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies; we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” God likewise ordered three days to be fet apart for preparation : because none has accefs to familiar converse with God, but he who has duly confecrated himself to him.

X. The place was mount Sinai, fometimes alfo called Horeb, Deut. v. 2. Exod. iii. 1. and sometimes "the mount of God,” 1 Kings xix. 8. "The law was given in the mount," Beda on Exod. xxiv. " fays, that from the height of the place, we may gather, how fublime, or how different from human inftitutions the law was, which Mofes received." That mountain was fituated in the defarts of Arabia, an uncultivated and barren fpot, far from Canaan, opposed to mount Sion, which was greatly cultivated and very pleasant, Pfal. xlviii. 3. and fituated in the heart of the promised land, from whence came forth the law of faith, Ifa. ii. 2, 3. For, the law cannot give life to finful man, render him fruitful in the practice of true holiness, and introduce him into the heavenly country. That is the province of the gofpel, "which is the power of God unto falvation," Rom. i. 16. We are not to despise the obfervation of Lud. Cappelus on Gal. iv. 25. That mount Sinai was fo called. from the word mo, which both in Hebrew and Arabic fignifies a thorn, bulb, briers. For, God spoke here to Mofes from the buh. Mount Horeb, alfo denotes dryness and defolation: for God made choice of fuch places and names in giving the law, with a particular purpofe, that the names might answer to the things; and the things typified, to their types. The law, confidered in itself alone, is more dry and barren to finful man than any rock or fandy defart, from which not even a drop of true piety can penetrate into the heart of man; it also forms a horrid wafte and defolation by its threats and curfes, with which, as with fo many thorns, it pricks and wounds the confcience of the finner. And what the most excellent Lightfoot has remarked, deferves also to be added, Miscellan. c. 59. The ceremonial law, which only regarded the Jews, was given (at least, as to a great part of it) privately to Mofes in the tabernacle, Lev. i. 1. and was demolished along with the tabernacle, when the vail was The moral law concerns the whole world, and was published in the fight of all; namely, from the top of a mountain: and ought to laft, as long as any mountain fhall ftand. The judicial law, which is more indifferent and may stand or fall, as

rent.

thall

shall seem most expedient for the common-weal; was not publifhed fo openly as the one, nor fo privately as the other.

XI. Befides, though the people were, in their manner externally fanctified, yet they had not free accefs to the mountain. God commanded that the mountain and the people fhould be kept within bounds, and threatened thofe with death, who fhould dare to go up to the mountain, or to touch any part of it, Exod. xix. 13. This command appeared fo fevere, that Paul declares, they could not endure it, Heb. xii. 20. And as it is truly delightful and good to draw near to God, Pfal. lxxiii. 28. fo it is unpleasant and melancholy to be debarred from access to him. That command was a proof that the Ifraelites were impure, and unworthy of the prefence of God. The very animals appointed for their fervice, were reputed impure. And therefore proclamation was made, "If even a beaft touched the mountain, it should be ftoned or thruft through with a dart." To fuch a degree were all things brought into the bondage of corruption by, and on account of finful man, Rom. viii. 21.

XII. There were likewise awful figns, fuch as loud peals of thunder, quivering, flashes of lightning fhining along the cloud of thick darkness which covered the top of the mountain, black vapours of smoke afcending up to heaven, the earthquake, the quaking of the very mountain, as if fenfible of the approach of God, and many other circumstances recorded, Exod. xix. 16, 18. Deut. iv. 11. Heb. xii. 18. Now to what purpose was all this apparatus? It was first to proclaim the tremendous majesty of the lawgiver, and to beget in the fouls of men a reverence for his law; "God himself is come,-that his fear may be before your faces, that ye fin not," Exod. xx. 20. 2dly, To difplay the nature of the law, which, by demanding perfect obedience, and by the addition of dreadful threatenings, wonderfully strikes finners to the heart, and without any mixture of gofpel grace, leads to defpair, and is to them the ministry of death and condemnation, 2 Cor. iii. 7, 9. But it is otherwife with the gofpel, which, in this refpect, is opposed to the law, Heb. xii. 18, 22. 3dly, To put the faith and constancy of the Ifraelites to the trial; whether this terror of God would bring them to humility and obedience, or whether through forwardnefs they would pour contempt upon him, or out of despair rcbel against him, Exod. xx. 20. that he might prove you.

XIII. But notwithstanding this display of majesty, the Ifraelites faw no form or fimilitude of God, Deut. iv. 12, 15. This was on purpose to prevent them from entertaining grofs conceptions of the God of heaven, or "corrupting themselves and VOL. II making

Y

making to themselves a graven image, the fimilitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female," ver. 16. For to what could they liken him, of whom they faw no fimilitude? Ifa. xl. 25. "to whom then will ye liken me, or fhall I be equal? faith the holy One."

XIV. The law, which God, in this manner published, consists of ten words or commandments, Exod. xxxiv. 28. Deut. iv. 13. Wherefore the Greeks alfo called it dexaλoyos the decalogue, Moreover the contents of those ten words are various. Ift, There is the prescription of certain duties; and in this the nature of a law as fuch, properly confifts. 2dly, The threatening of divine vengeance against the tranfgreffors thereof, as in the fecond and third commandments: and this is the fanction of the covenant of works, from which all threatenings are derived, as we explained at large, Book III. chap. 1. fect. 22. 3dly, The propofal of divine grace and favour; and as this is made to finners, and that under a condition, not of perfect, but of fincere obedience; fo far it flows from the covenarit of grace.

XV. All the duties required by the law, are comprehended under this one, viz. love, which is therefore called the fulfilling of the law, Rom. xiii. 10. and the bond of perfectness, Col. iii. 14. Moreover, feeing love either afcends to God, who as the chief good, is to be loved above all, and with all our strength; or extends itself to our neighbour whom we are bound to love as ourfelves, fince he belongs to God equally with ourselves; therefore Chrift divides the whole law into thefe two capital precepts, Mat. xxii. 37-39.

XVI. The Moft High God was not only pleafed to publish his laws to Ifrael with a loud voice, in the prefence of the most auguft affembly of the whole people, but he likewise engraved them with his own finger, on tables of ftone, polished by himfelf for that purpose, Exod. xxiv. 12. Exod. xxxi. 18. Deut. ix. 10. He chose to write his law, in order to prevent the oblivion of it, and to perpetuate the memory of the giving and receiving it in Ifrael. And hence thefe tables are called nyn nimis, the tables of teftimony, Exod. xxxi. 18. Exod. xxxiv. 29. Both because they contained the declaration or teftimony of the divine will, and because the preservation of them by the Ifraelites, was a teftimony of the law given to, and received by them at Sinai. This writing alfo fignified the purpose of God, to write the law on the hearts of his elect, according to the promise of the covenant of grace, Jer. xxxi. 33.

XVII. Nor is it for nothing that God himself would be the author of this writing, without making ufe of any man or angel. For this is the meaning of the Holy Spirit, when he fays,

that