as that each of them is afcribed to Mofes, Mal. 4. 4, remember ye ayaw nin, the LAW of Mofes my fervant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Ifrael, with the STATUTES and JUDGMENTS. You fee, that the law equally with the ftatutes and judg ments are ascribed to Mofes. In like manner, Lev. 26. 46, these are the STATUTES, aud JUDGMENTS and LAWS, which Jehovah made between him and the children of Ifrael, in mount Sinai, by the band of Mofes. Mofes therefore was the even mediator of the moral law, and his inftitutions are erroneously restricted to the qeremonies.

the law.

IX. The TIME of the publication of the law is The time fuppofed to be the fiftieth day from the departure of of giving the people out of Egypt, and from the celebration of the paffover. How to find out this number of days fee Rivet on Exod. 19. 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 to it with the greater earnestnefs, the more they were fet at liberty from the bondage of others: as Zachariah also prophefies, Luke. 17475. That being delivered out of the bands of our enemies; we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of aur life. God like wife ordered three days to be fet apart for preparation: becaufe none has accefs to familiar converfe with God, but he who has duely confecrated himself to him.

X. The PLACE was mount Sinai, fomtimes alfo called Horeb, Deut. . 2, Exod. 3: 1, and fometimes the mount of God, 1 Kings 19. 8. The law was given in the mount. Beda on Exod. 24, fays, that, from the height of the place, we may gather, bow fublime, or how different from human inflitutions, the law was, which Mofes received. That mountain was fituated in the

defarts

Theplace

defarts of Arabia, an uncultivated and barren spot, far from Canaan, opposed to mount Sion, which was greatly cultivated and very pleafant, P. 48. 3, and Latuate in the heart of the promifed land, from whence came forth the law of faith, Ifa. 2. 2, 3. For, the law cannot give life to finful man, render him fruitful in the practice of true holinefs, and introduce him into the heavenly country. That is the province of the Gofpel, which is the power of God unto falvation, Rom. 1. 16. We are not to defpife the obfervation of Lud. Cappelus on Gal. 4. 25. That mount Sinai was fo called from the word np, which both in Hebrew and Arabic fignifies a thorn, bufh, briers. For, God fpoke here to Mofes from the bush. 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 anfwer to the things; and the things typified, to their types. The law, confidered in itfef 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 alfo forms a horrid waste and desolation 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 alfo 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. 1. 1, and was demolished along with the tabernacle, when the vail was rent. 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 ftand or fall, as fhall feem moft expedient for the common-weal; was not publifhed fo openly as the one, nor fo privately as the other.

XI. Befides,

mount

bounda

ries.

XI. Befides, tho' the people were, in their manner The externally fanctified, yet they had not free accefs to marked the mountain. God commanded that the mountain out by and the people fhould be kept within bounds, and certain threatned thofe with death, who fhould dare to go up to the mountain, or to touch any part of it. Exod. 19 13. This command appeared fo fevere, that Paul declares, they could not endure it, Heb. 12. 20. And as it is truly delightful and good to draw near to Gad, Pf. 73. 28, fo it is unpleasant and melancholy to be debarred from accefs 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 beast touched the mountain, it should be ftoned or thrust 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. 8. 21.

XII. There were likewife awful figns, fuch as loud Awful peals of thunder, quivering, flashes of lightning fhin- figns, ing along the cloud of thick darknefs which covered the top of the mountain, black vapours of fmoke afcending up to heaven, the earth-quake, the quaking of the very mountain, as if fenfible of the approach of God, and many other circumftances recorded, Exod. 19. 16, 18. Deut. 4. 11. Heb. 12. 18. Now to what purpofe was all this apparatus? It was first to proclaim the tremendous majesty of the law-giver, 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. 20. 20. 2dly. To difplay the nature of the law, which, by demanding perfect obedience, and by the addition of dreadful threatnings,, wonderfully ftrikes finners to the heart, and, without any mixture of Gospel grace, leads to defpair, and is to them the ministry of death and condemnation, 2 Cor. 3. 7, 9. But it is otherwife with the Gospel, which, in this refpect, is oppofed to the

law,

No vifi

ble form of God.

The fub

19

law, Heb. 12. 18, 22. 3dly. To put the faith and conftancy of the Ifraelites to the trial; whether this terror of God would bring them to humility and obedience, or whether thro' forwardnefs they would pour contempt upon him, or out of defpair rebel against him, Exod. 20. 20, that he might prove you,

XIII. But notwithstanding this difplay of majesty, the Ifraelites faw no form or fimilitude of God, Deut. 4. 12, 15. This was on purpofe to prevent them from entertaining grofs conceptions of the God of heaven, or corrupting themfelves and making to themselves a graven image, the fimilitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, v. 16. For to what could they liken him, of whom they faw no fimilitude? Ifa. 40. 25, to whom then will ye liken me, or fhall I be equal? Saith the Holy one.

XIV. The law, which God, in this manner, ject of the published, confifts of ten words or commandmemts, Deca- Exod. 34. 28, Deut. 4. 13. Wherefore the Greeks logue. alfo called it annoy the decalogue. Moreover the

Is the law of love.

contents of thofe 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 threatning of divine vengeance againft the tranfgref fors thereof, as in the fecond and third commandments: and this is the fanction of the covenant of works, from which all threatnings are derived, as we explained at large Book III. Chap. I. Sect. 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 covenant of grace.

XV. All the duties, required by the law, are compreher ded under this one, viz. love, which is therefore called the fulfilling of the law, Rom. 13. 10, and the bond of perfellness. Col. 3. 14. Moreover, feeing love either afcends to God, who, as the chief good, is to be loved above all, and with all our trength; or extends itself to our neighbour, whom

We

we are bound to love as ourselves, fince he belongs to God equally with ourselves; therefore Chrift divides the whole law into thofe two capital precepts, Mat. 22. 37, 38, 39.

XVI. The most high God was not only pleafed to The law publifh his laws to Ifrael with a loud voice, in the why writ prefence of the most auguft affembly of the whole ten. people, but he likewife engraved them with his own finger, on tables of stone, polifhed by himself for that purpose, Exod. 24. 12, Exod. 31. 18. Deut. 9. 10. He chofe 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 mys, the tables of teftimony, Exod. 31. 18. Exod. 34. 29. Both because they contained the declaration or teftimony of the divine will, and because the prefervation 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. 31. 33.

felf.

XVII. Nor is it for nothing, that God himself Why by would be the author of this writing, without making God himufe of any man or angel. For, this is the meaning of the Holy Spirit, when he fays, that the tables were written nyasa with the finger of God, Exod. 31. 18, and that the writing was the writing of God, Exod. 32. 16. The reafons were, 1ft. To let forth the pre-eminence of this law, not only above all human, but also above the other divine laws, which he permitted to be written by Mofes. 2dly. To intimate, that it is the work of God alone, to write the law on the heart, which is what neither man himfelf, nor the minifters of God can do, but the Spirit of God alone. And thus believers are the epistle of Chrift, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, 2 Cor. 3. 3.

XVIII. It