knowing any thing of their Employer; and their private and perfonal character may remain unaffected. by their public conduct. The man according to God's own heart, in the view of fome great object of public utility, has fometimes been found dishonouring God by private vice, and degrading, deftroying himfelf, while he has been materially ferving the world. This moft ferious confideration dictated to the great apostle of the Gentiles that neceffary rule of conduct. "I keep under my body and bring it into fubjection; left that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself fhould be a caft-away." And it is a loud. call to every one who acts in a public capacity, to fupport and adorn it by private virtue and unaffected piety. While the great God was thus putting honour on these seventy-three. perfons in the eyes of all the people, he fees it neceffary to put and to keep them in mind of their distance and dependence; "Worship ye afar off: Mofes alone fhall come near the Lord, but they fhall not come nigh." All This meffage being reported to the people, they exprefs their cheerful and unanimous confent. the people answered with one voice, and faid, All the words which the Lord hath faid will we do."t Mofes upon this reduces into writing the articles of the treaty between God and the people, to be recited aloud in the hearing of all the parties concerned, previous to the folemnities of the enfuing ratification. According to the form obferved upon fuch occafions, rifing up early in the morning, he builds an altar under the hill, the emblem of the divine prefence, on the one fide;" and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Ifrael," or an heap confifting of twelve large ftones, according to the number of the tribes, to reprefent the people, on the oppofite fide; and upon it he offers a burnt-offering, a facrifice made by fire unto the Lord. The application of the blood of the I Cor. ix. 27. + Verse 3. victim victim principally challenges our attention in the celebration of this awful rite. It was divided into two equal parts: one half was put into bafons, and placed by the twelve pillars of ftone; where in all probability were arranged the feventy elders, the reprefentatives of every tribe ftanding by the pillar peculiar to their tribe the other half was fprinkled upon the altar on the other fide. Thus, that which conftituted the life of the facrifice was feparated, and Mofes ftanding between the divided parts, and having fome of the blood now denominated the blood of the covenant, or of the purifying victim, in his hands, rehearfed aloud the words of the covenant in the audience of the people, who were reprefented by their elders, and then folemnly demanded whether they acceded to the conditions of it. * The form of adjuration employed in fuch cafes, as you heard in a former Lecture, now in the hands of many of you, was inexpreffibly awful and tremendous. "As the body of this victim is cleft afunder, as the blood of this animal is poured out, fo let my body be divided and my blood fhed, if I prove unftedfast and perfidious." Under an engagement of this dreadful import, they confent to the conditions of the treaty, faying, "All that the Lord hath faid will we do, and be obedient." Whereupon Mofes takes of the blood, and fprinkles it upon the people, in the perfons of their representatives, as he had before sprinkled it upon the altar, expreffing thereby God's acceptance of their perfons and services, and his engagement to fulfil all that the covenant promised on his part. Matters being thus adjusted, and peace established, the burnt facrifice is fucceeded by a peace-offering, and the parties, as friends, fit down to partake of a common repaft. This is evidently the meaning of the ex. preffion in the end of the eleventh verfe: "Alfo they faw God, and did eat and drink;" that is, as in the prefence of the most high God, at peace with him, + Verfe 7. * Vol. I. Lecture xiii. and and at peace among themselves, they did eat of the fame bread and drank of the fame cup. It would be eafy, were it neceffary, to confirm this interpretation by quoting the practice of other nations in later times, undoubtedly borrowed from rites of God's own inftitution. It would appear from the letter of the narration, that the fcene of this facred feaft was a higher region of the mountain than that where the covenant was ratified. He builded the altar under the hill, and fet up the pillars, as it is ver. 4; and when the folemnities of that inferior station were duly celebrated, the nation whom God had thus chosen is exalted to a fuperior rank, and admitted to a more intimate union with their Maker. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God now fhines, calling to the heavens from above, and to the earth, Gather my faints together unto me; thofe that have made a covenant with me by facrifice."* Purified by blood, the blood of the covenant, they are encouraged to mount higher and higher, to approach nearer and nearer; they are enabled, with enlightened eyes, to difcern more clearly, and to look more ftedfaftly. Being sprinkled with blood, "then went up Mofes and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and feventy of the elders of Ifrael; and they faw the God of Ifrael: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a fapphire-ftone, and as it were the body of heaven in. his clearnefs. And upon the nobles of the children of Ifrael he laid not his hand: alfo they faw God, and did eat and drink." What a ftream of fplendid ideas here rushes in upon us! "They faw the GOD of Ifrael." They faw Him whofe prefence is the glory of heaven, the light of whofe countenance is the joy of angels and archangels; they faw Him defcended to earth, to be the light, glory and joy of his people, to dwell among them, and to be their friend, their father and their God; they faw Him engaging himself by every thing that could affect the fenfes, kindle the imagination, imagination, or melt the heart, to guide and protect them, to provide for them, to blefs them and to do them good. They faw the God of Ifrael," their fathers' God, their own covenant God, and the God of their feed to the lateft generations. They faw GOD! but, what did they fee? That face whofe luftre constrains the cherubim to cover their faces with their wings-thofe eyes, which "as a flame of fire go up and down through the earth," which difcern impurity in the heavens and folly in angels-that mouth which fpake the universe into existence, and whofe lightest word shakes the foundations of the everlafting hills-the hand that wields the thunder, or the feet that walk upon the swift wings of the wind? No: the nobles of Ifrael had shrunk into nothing before fuch an awful difplay of Deity. He needed not to have laid his hand upon them; one glance of thofe piercing eyes which guard 'the law, had been fufficient to confume them in a moment. What then did they fee? What was under his feet; and even that, fomething which could not be reprefented, expreffed or defcribed; "as it were the body of heaven in his clearnefs."* Like Paul caught up into the third heaven, but incapable to tell whether in the body or out of the body; caught up into paradise, and listening to the converfation of its bleft inhabitants, but what he heard were words unspeakable," which it is not lawful for a man to utter." Was it needful to caution fuch men and fuch a people against idolatry? What fimilitude could they employ, who, though they enjoyed the fullest and most fatisfying demonstration of Jehovah's prefence, felt their understanding confined, their imagination checked, their fenfes confounded. They are loft in a splendour which at once attracted and repelled; which was only the foundation and external vail where glory refided, the pavement not the ceiling, the habitation not the inhabitant; a fplendour refembling the tranfparency of the gem, which feems feems to tranfmit the light, and the folidity of the gem, which no force can penetrate. Is it too fanciful to fuppofe, that there is fingular beauty in the colour of the jewel here fpecified by the facred penman, who was an eye-witnefs of this glorious appearance, and who attempts to convey an idea of what he faw?" Paved work of a fapphire-ftone," the happy medium between the fair and dazzling luftre of the diamond, and the dim familiar complexion of the emerald: not the fiery glare of the empyrean; nor the fober verdure of the earth; but the pellucid azure of the crystal sky, which equally corrects and tempers the dazzling power of the noontide fun, and the oppreffive gloom of the midnight hour; which poffeffes light enough to difcover the object without diftreffing the organ, and fhade fufficient to relieve without finking into obfcurity? Not overwhelmed, but cheered and elevated by this moderated difplay of the divine glory; having feen God and yet living; feeling his hand upon them, yet uncrushed by its weight; the nobles of the children of Ifrael conclude the fervices of this eventful day by the banquet of peace and love. They must now return to fecular employments, and defcend from the mountain; but Mofes has yet farther manifestations of the will of God to receive, and is commanded to afcend ftill higher. "And the Lord faid unto Mofes, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of ftone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, that thou mayest teach them.”* Be our attainments what they will, who is he that "hath attained, or is already perfect ?" Our arrival at one eminence is only to fee from its fummit another, and thence another fill rifing above us but in moral and intellectual purfuits, this is a difappointment that mortifies not, an exercife that fatigues not the joy of heaven is to make progrefs in * Verse 12. the |