the contemplation and discovery of perfection that knows no limit, knows no end.

From this higher elevation, Mofes is informed that he is to receive the fame law in a different form: "I will give thee tables of ftone, and a law, and commandments which I have written: that thou mayest teach them."* As he arifes towards heaven, the dif penfation of which he was the minifter becomes more and more plain and palpable. A matter of fuch deep importance must not be trufted to the vague and vary. ing traditions of fallible and changing men, but collected into a record that can defy the lapfe of time, and preserve unchanging truth and dignity amidst the revolutions of empire and the wreck of nations, This was graciously intended to prevent the neceffity of a frequent interpofition of Deity, which must at length have diminished its impreffion by commonness and familiarity. What God therefore at firft, with his creative finger, curioufly engraved on the heart of man, he audibly pronounced amidst the awful glories of Sinai, and afterwards committed to writing on tables of stone for perpetual prefervation. And happy it is for man, that he has not been left, for moral and religious inftruction, to the traditions of men, who are ever changing and inconfiftent with themselves, or to the flimfy, imperfect, contradictory fyftems of philofophy and fcience, falfely fo called; but that he is brought to the law and to the teftimony, to Mofes and the prophets, to the Saviour himfelf and his apoftles, to a bible and a fabbath. Happy it is that every one is furnished with one and the fame light to his feet and lamp to his paths, and that all are taught of God from the leaft to the greateft. But indeed the care of Providence in preferving this precious record, and tranfmitting it to us unaltered, unimpaired, is a perpetual miracle, a series of revelations, which we are bound to acknowledge with wonder, and to improve with gratitude.

* Verfe 12.

In

In the next ascent into the mount, Mofes is accompanied, a certain length at least, and no doubt by divine appointment, by Joshua his minifter, on whom God began to put honour thus early, in order to exalt him in the eyes of the people whom he was deftined one day to command, and to prepare him betimes for the wife and faithful discharge of his high office, by communion with God. As this abfence of Mofes, from the weighty duties of his charge, was to be of longer continuance than ufual, the management of civil affairs, and the adminiftration of juftice were committed, in the mean time, to Aaron and Hur, his companions and coadjutors on the mount, when by the lifting and holding up of his hands Amalek was fmitten before Ifrael. Was ever spot of this earthly ball fo highly honoured as that barren mountain in the midft of the defert? Perfons, not places, poffefs dignity. The prefence of God confers greatness and importance; He can receive none from created, much lefs from artificial pomp and magnificence. The great God" dwelleth not in temples made with hands." "The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him;" but "Thus faith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whofe name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him alfo that is of a contrite and humble fpirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.'

The curiofity of travellers has been excited to vifit this scene of wonders. But is there not an intentional obfcurity spread over the defcription, to baffle idle curiofity, and to call us to the fpirit and intention of the difpenfation, not the external apparatus of it? Whereever there is this book; whereever there is a principle of conscience; whereever there is common reafon and understanding, there is the law, there is Sinai, there is God. It is not to make a pilgrimage to the holy fepulchre, to ftand on Calvary, to drive infidels

* Ifai. lvii. 15.

infidels by force of arms out of Jewry, that conftitute the faith and piety of the gofpel; but to know Chrift Jefus and him crucified in " the power of his refurrection, and the fellowship of his fufferings, being made conformable unto his death."*

The appearances of God's prefence and providence vary their afpect, according to the distance at which they are contemplated, and the medium through which we view them. What to the nobles in the mount appeared "as it were a paved work of a fapphire-ftone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearnefs," to the multitude in the plain wore a more threatening and terrible appearance. "The fight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire, on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Ifrael." Fire at once confumes and refines, leaves to the pure gold all its folidity and value, and lays hold only of the drofs. Mofes undifmayed, because following the command of God, advances into the midft of confuming fire; and fo far is nature from being overpowered and destroyed by this keen, piercing element, that it is rather cherished and ftrengthened by it. Flame fupplies the place of food; instead of perishing in a moment, at the end of forty days, without any other means of fubfiftence, we fee the prophet defcend in additional glory and renovated vigour; for all creatures are and do that which their Creator wills.

The next feven chapters contain a minute defcription of that facred ftru&ure and its fervice, which God intended fhould be "the fhadow of good things to come;" of which every iota and tittle was of divine contrivance and appointment, and undoubtedly had a meaning and fignificancy which we cannot in every particular find out to perfection. The pattern of it was fhewed unto Mofes in the mount, and particular directions were given for its conftruction; in these were employed the forty days mentioned in the clofe of this chapter; when the history fuddenly breaks

* Phil. iii. 10.

Verse 10.

+ Verse 17.

off

off to exhibit a scene of a very different nature, which, if God permit, will form the fubject of the next Lecture; namely, the unprovoked revolt of Ifrael to idolatry, the fabrication of the golden calf, and the hafty defcent of Mofes, to ftem that dreadful torrent of guilt and wrath which had begun to flow.

In the ratification of the covenant between God and Ifrael, we fee the ftrefs that was laid upon blood. The blood of the innocent victim must be poured out, and the altar must be fprinkled with blood. The elders of the people must be purified with blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remiffion, no friendship, no peace, no accefs: life must be paid to redeem life. Blood in the facrifice is the one thing needful, the one thing fignificant: blood in religious offices is all in all. Blood applied to any other purpofe, is contaminating, unhallowed, unwholefome for food, polluting not purifying to the flefh, is a fource of corruption and death, not of health and life. The idea of blood, in one view or the other, runs through the whole hiftory of redemption. It occurs not more frequently in the Old Teftament than in the New. One great facrifice has indeed put an end for ever to the future effufion of blood; but it is still fymbolically held out as the medium of reconciliation and access to God. "We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of fins according to the riches of his grace." We are redeemed, "not with corruptible things, as filver and gold, but with the precious blood of Chrift, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." "We draw nigh to God through the blood of his Son." When we approach to ratify every one his perfonal covenant with God at the communion table, we commemorate the death of Chrift in the symbols of his body broken, and his blood fhed. "This is the blood of the covenant, faid Mofes, which the Lord hath made with you," and "This is the New Teftament

Teftament in my blood, faith Chrift, fhed for the remiffion of fins." When we look toward eternal rest, the holy city, the Jerufalem that is above, the new and living way which leads thither, which conducts into the holiest of all, is through the rent vail of the Redeemer's flesh. "His blood be upon us and on our children," exclaimed the Jews, while they were crucifying the Lord of glory. Dreadful imprecation!

O Lord, require not our blood of our own hand, nor of every man at the hand of his brother. Ó Lord, let this man's blood be upon us and upon our children, not as an oppreffive load, as it was on those who with wicked hands impiously fhed it, but as an atonement for our fins, as a facrifice of a fweet fmelling favour, acceptable unto God; that "being justified by faith, we may have peace with God, through our Lord Jefus Chrift. By whom also we may have accefs by faith into this grace wherein we ftand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Amen. Amen.

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