which fhall made head against him to the utmost: "for he bringeth down them that dwell on high, the lofty city he layeth it low, he layeth it low, even to the ground, he bringeth it even to the duft. The foot fhall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy," Ifa. xxvi. 5, 6. And thus we have carried down the doctrine of falvation in one con tinued feries to the times of Mofes.

I.

TH

CHAP. IV.

Of the Decalogue.

HINGS had a quite different appearance under Mofes, What was spoken here and there, and delivered only by word of mouth, was now enlarged with very many additions digefted into one body, and, at the command of God, configned to lasting records; which neither the rage of ene mies, nor fire, nor fword, nor all-confuming time fhall be able to abolish. But neither the nature of our defign, nor our intended brevity will permit us to profecute every thing at large, that comes under this head. In this chapter we shall treat concerning the giving of the law, and the covenant of God with the Ifraelites, founded on that law.

II. It was the prerogative of the people of Ifrael above other nations, that to them pertained the covenants and the giving of the law, Rom. ix. 4. And there were feveral kinds of laws given them, of which there are principally three mentioned by divines. The moral, or the decalogue, the ceremonial, and the political, or forenfick. The people of Ifrael may doubtess be confidered three ways. 1ft, As rational creatures, depending upon God, as the fupreme reafon or caufe both in a moral and natural fense. And thus the law of the decalogue was given them; which, as to its fubflance, is one and the fame with the law of nature, and binds men as fuch. 2dly, As the church of the Old Teftament, who expected the promifed Meffiah and happier times, when he fhould make every thing perfect. And therefore they received the ceremonial law, which really fhewed, that the Meffiah was not yet come, and had not yet perfected all things; but that he would come, and make all things new, 3dly, As a peculiar people, who had a polity or govern ment, fuited to their genius and difpofition in the land of Canaan. A republic conftituted not fo much according to those

forms

forms which philofophers have delineated, but which was, in a peculiar manner, a theocracy, as Jofephus fignificantly calls it, God himself holding the reins of government therein, Judg. viii.

Under that view God prescribed them political laws. III. We are firft to speak of the decalogue and its promulga tion. Mofes has accurately defcribed it, Exod. xix. and xx. The law-giver, or if you will the legislator, is God himself. "The one law-giver, who is able to fave and to deftroy, James iv. 12. Who has a right of dominion over the confciences of men. As the fumpreme reafon or caufe, he is the rule of all reafonable creatures; and as the fupreme Lord, is the ruler of all, and by taking Ifrael to himfelf for a people, in an efpecial manner fhewed himself to be their God. In the firft words of the law, he afferts his own divinity, proclaiming, I am Jehovah thy God.

IV. But we judge it criminal for any to doubt, that this is to be understood of the whole undivided trinity, whofe equal majesty, in one Deity, we are all bound to acknowledge and worship. Nevertheless, as the Son of God was then, in a certain peculiar refpect, the king of the people of Ifrael and of the church at that time; the giving of the law is alfo, in a fingular manner, afcribed to him. For Stephen, in express words, declares, Acts vii. 38. compared with v. 35. that it was an angel who spoke with Mofes and the fathers on mount Sinai, even that very angel, who appeared to Mofes in the bush, and said, that he was the God of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob. But no Christian will deny, that this was Chrift. And Christ, certainly is, he "who afcended on high," &c. Pf. Ixviii. 18. compared with Eph. iv. 8. But he himself "went forth before his people in the wilderness, when the earth fhook, the heavens alfo dropped at the prefence of God; even Sinai itfelf was moved at the prefence of God, the God of Ifrael," that is, at the giving of the law, Pf. lxviii. 7, 8. Certainly the Apostle Heb. xii. 26. fays, that he who spoke from heaven, and whofe voice then (namely, at the giving of the law) book the earth, was our Lord Jefus Chrift to whom we are now also to hearken; as Zanchius has learnedly obferved T. IV. lib. 1. c. 12. Who profeffedly and at large proves, that he who promulgated the law, was the Son of God, de tribus Elohim, lib. 2. c. 3.

V. What the celebrated Iac. Altingius has obferved on Deut. v. 6. from a catechifm of the ancient Jews very much deferves our notice. The Jews fay, " three fpirits are united in one; the lowest fpirit, which is called the holy Spirit: the middle fpirit which is the intermediate, and called wifdem and intelligence; and this is the fpirit which proceeds from the midst of the moft confummate

X 2

confummate beauty, with fire and water: the fupreme spirit, which is abfolutely in filence, in whom all the holy spirits, and and all the bright perfons confift," Rahanat. fol. 132. col. 3. They alfo fay, that and n and m, I and THOU and HE, are names of God, denoting three perfons, and, at the feast of tabernacles, they all profefs it in their prayers: I and HE, fave I pray. Moreover, they fay, that when the law was promulgated, there were two perfons. For, quite to the end of the fecond commandment, the difcourfe runs in the 'first perfon, " I the Lord thy God, &c. For I the Lord God, &c. of those that hate me, &c. of thofe that love me, &c." In the third and following comandments, God is mentioned in the third person. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God, &e. The fabbath of the Lord thy God." Which having obferved, they proceed thus: " that the two firft words" or commandments, "were spoke by the supreme fpirit; but the other words, by his glory, called EL SCHADDAI, known to the fathers, by whom the prophets prophefied, who is called JAH, in whom is the name of God, the beloved of God, who dwelt in the temple, and the mouth of God, and face of God, and the rock, and that goodnefs which Mofes faw, when he could not fee God," Bechai fol. 88. col. 3, 4. Elfewhere they call him the "Schekinah, by whom there is accefs to God, by whom prayers are poured out to God: who is that angel, who has the name of God in him, who also himself is called God and Jehovah." I enquire not now, how folid thefe reafonings of the Jews are. It is fufficient to have mentioned thefe remarkable records of an ancient catchifm concerning the plurality of the divine perfons; of which there are alfo indications in the Decalogue itself.

VI. Angels were prefent, as minifters, at the giving of the law by the Lord Chrift. Whence Stephen fays, Acts vii. 53. that the " Ifraelites received the law by the difpofition of angels," is dialayas ayyinar. Grotius obferves, that is here fignifies amidft, and that dialayas denotes troops, ranged in military order: that the meaning is, the law was given in a magnificent manner, amidst many troops of angels, and that there was a reference to Deut. xxxiii. 2. thefe things are not improper. But others would rather take diaray for a command, ordinance, and fanction: as* Rom. xiii. 2. And they render is at; in which fente the Son is faid to act at the pleasure of the Father. Ludovicus de Dieu has learnedly expreffed that meaning; and as his words tend to explain several paffages, we fhall not fcruple to infert them as follows. Stephen had faid, v. 38. that

the

Whofoever therefore refifteth the power, refifteth rñ diarmyñ the ordinance of God.

the angel spoke with Mofes in mount Sinai, even the fame, who had appeared to him in the bush, v. 35. who, though he ' was in himself God, yet is here economically confidered as the angel of God, and the captain of the other angels. He gave the law to Mofes, from the midst of the angels, who ⚫ furrounded him on all hands. Of which there was a figurative representation in the fanctuary, where God fitting be⚫tween the cherubims delivered his oracles-Hence Pf. lxviii. 17. when he had faid, the chariots of God are twenty thou fand, even thousands of angels, the Lord is among them; he adds, Sinai is in the fanctuary: to teach us, that as God, when formerly furrounded on Sinai with myriads of angels, and riding on them, as on chariots, gave forth the law, fo ⚫ the fanctuary resembles mount Sinai, where God rides on a 'chariot of cherubims. Seeing therefore the law came forth ⚫ from an affembly of angels, whofe prefident was the supreme angel Jehovah, the Apostle juftly faid, that it was pronounced ⚫ and ordained by angels. Stephen, that it was received by the people by the difpofition of angels. Daraynaya is here the fame thing, as the decree of the watchers, and the word of the holy ones, Dan. iv. 17. The decree and mandate of the angelic fenate is understood, over whom the Son of God prefided as fupreme: in regard of whom the fame decree is called, v. 24. the decree of the most high." Thus far de Dieu.·

VII. But what kind of ministry did the angels perform to God at giving the law? First, It is certain, that, with their heavenly choirs they furrounded the mount, and added to the majestic pomp of the Lawgiver, and were witnesses of all that was tranfacted. The confideration of this was capable of striking not only terror into the Ifraelites, but should also have infpired their minds with reverence, that the angels, in whofe affembly the law was given, might not be witneffes of their perfidy. To this purpofe is Deut. xxxiii. 2. "Jehovah came from Sinai, he came with ten thousands of faints; from his right hand went a fiery law for them." Secondly, It is not improbable, that the found of thofe words, in which the law was conceived, was formed in the air by the means of angels. For, God properly ufes not a voice: this is a degree of imperfection: but yet it is called the voice of God, formed in the air in fome extraordinary manner, to exprefs the mind of God, for which purpose he ufes the ministry of angels: namely, the law was given in thunder and lightning; the thunder indeed, which formed the matter of the voice, which proclaimed the words of the law, muft certainly have had an articulation, fuperadded, which was framed by the means of angels. Philo, in ennarra

tione Decalogi fays, God fpoke not by himself, but "filling a reafonable 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 a trumpet." I know not, whether he intended the fame thing that we do. We mean nothing, but what the apostle said, when he calls the law," the word spoken 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 underftand 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 gofpel 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. iii. 19. "the law was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator."

VIII. Mofes was the other minister 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 just 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 history 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 fpake," &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 least, Exod. xix. 24. and stood nearer, when God promulgated the laws. Which done, he again fpoke with the Ifraelites. Very many confiderations fway with us, thus to range thefe matters. Let us, firft, confider verfe 9. " and Je