answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do." They could do no less than accept such an offer, without hesitation, and with one consent: for never had a proposal so wonderful and advantageous been made to any people, from the beginning of the world until that hour.

"And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD," who accordingly gives directions, how the people should prepare themselves to receive this signal display of His glory and grace,-commanding them to sanctify themselves that day, (which, I conceive, is to be taken for the third day of the month, which was then just beginning,as we may suppose the previous transactions to have occupied the time till the evening of the second day,—that is, till almost the beginning of the third,) and the next day, and to be ready against the third day, which (according to this calculation) would be the fifth of the third month. Care also was to be taken to set bounds round about the mountain, that not so much as a hand or foot should touch it, either of man or beast, upon pain of immediate death.

These preparations being made, "It came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly." With all these circumstances of awe and terror, it pleased God to reveal himself to men; and (as if even this were not enough) Moses was commanded to warn the people again solemnly, lest any should be tempted to break through the bounds which had been set, and the Lord should therefore break forth upon them, and destroy them.

After all these preparations, the LORD declares the terms of the Covenant, or what was required on the part of the people of Israel, as the conditions upon which the love and mercy of God, as a covenant God, were to depend,

These are comprised in the Ten Commandments; (Ex. xx. 1-17;) which were proclaimed with an audible and awful voice, calculated to penetrate the very souls of all who heard, with a deep sense of the majesty of the Lawgiver, and of the strictness and purity of the Law. We find accordingly, that the next circumstance mentioned is, the consternation of the people. "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear : but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Neither was this impression any thing more than the appearances presented were calculated and intended to produce: it was a desirable and salutary impression, which ought to have been cherished, and to have influenced the people ever after therefore Moses said unto them, "Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." And the LORD graciously accepted their desire, to hear the word from the lips of Moses, and not directly from Himself. The people accordingly withdrew, and stood afar off, while the Lord continued to deliver His further instructions to Moses. It was enough, that all the people knew, that God indeed had talked with them from Heaven, and thus had a satisfying assurance, that this covenant, in all its particulars, had its origin in the Divine Wisdom and Mercy, and was no contrivance of man.

The passages which follow (Ex. xx. 23-xxiii. 19) might appear needless digressions in this place: but are here introduced for wise purposes. They relate to the conduct and government of the people in the Promised Land, which was secured to them by this Covenant. So Moses himself elsewhere explains it; "The LORD commanded me at the time to teach you statutes and judgements, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it." (Deut. iv. 14.) Accordingly we have some directions concerning the worship of God;―a variety of laws respecting the administration of justice, and the punishment of offenders; and the solemn feasts, and other observances, which were specially intended to keep them in remembrance of the mercies of their Covenant God. All which seems to be here introduced, in order to show, that

all the Commandments of God, to whatever particulars they might relate, were to be considered as included in the terms of the Covenant; and as a warning to the people, not to take the Divine Laws in a contracted sense, according to their own narrow notions and convenience, but in their fullest and spiritual meaning-and to cut off all occasion of representing future explanations and enforcements, as arbitrary and unexpected additions to the strictness and difficulty of the Covenant.

Upon this follow the gracious promises of the Covenant, (Ex. xxiii. 20-33,) or what God engages to do for His people, if they obeyed His laws;-namely, to send His Angel before them, to keep them in the way, and to bring them into the land of Canaan; to drive out all their enemies before them, by little and little, and to bless them abundantly in all the works of their hands.

All this, we may suppose, took place on the fifth day of the month, as there is no note in these four chapters (xx.xxiii.) of a day beginning or ending. We next proceed to the ratification of this Covenant:

"Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgements and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do." (Ex. xxiv. 3.) Thus they again. expressed their willing and unanimous acceptance of the gracious proposals of the Lord. "And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD,"-that is, he solemnly committed to writing the terms of the Covenant. And the next day (being the sixth of the month), he "rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the LORD." For it was a principle already well understood, that no covenant could be ratified without blood, and that there could be no communion between God and man without sacrifices. Accordingly, "Moses took half of the blood and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

"And he took the book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said,

Behold the blood of the Covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words. Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." (Ex. xxiv. 6-11.) This sprinkling of the blood, and this feasting before the Lord, in his immediate presence, constituted the final ratification of the Covenant, —which, from that time forth, was fully established between God and Israel.

It was in remembrance of this Covenant, that the annual feast of Pentecost was observed. It is generally said, more vaguely, that it was in commemoration of the declaration of the Law from mount Sinai; from which mode of expression, it is not easy to discover what connexion there is between the prescribed ceremonies of the Feast, and the events to which it is referred. Neither does the day, on which it was observed, agree to that on which the Law was given but it does to that on which the Covenant was ratified. I have no doubt, therefore, that, speaking correctly, the Feast was observed in memory of this latter event, or to commemorate the establishment of the National Covenant; to which also the observances of the day of Pentecost agree.*

*This requires further proof and illustration

Observe, therefore, that the feast of Pentecost was always kept on the 6th day of the third month.

For the Passover was killed on the fourteenth of the first month at even, and the fifteenth was the first day of unleavened bread, or the Passover Sabbath, as it is called, Lev. xxiii. 11-15, because it was a day of rest, and an holy convocation.

On the day following, or the sixteenth, the wave sheaf, or the first-fruits of the barley harvest, was presented. (Lev. xxiii. 11.) And, from this day, fifty days were to be counted, of which (beginning with the sixteenth of the first month,)

We have in the first month

There would then be in the second
And we shall want

15

29

CHAPTER II.

Universal obedience required by the first Covenant.-The blessings promised hereupon.-The reiterated violations of that Covenant, till it was finally abolished.-The inexcusableness of those violations shewn, from the riches of God's mercy, displayed in the Covenant and its attendant circumstances.The depravity of man's heart, and the blindness of his mind, hence inferred.

ye

FROM the foregoing history, we plainly see the nature of the first, or Sinai Covenant. And here it is principally to be observed, that observance to all the commandments of God was the condition upon which its blessings depended. "If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my Covenant, THEN ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. (Ex. xix. 5.) And this condition is stated again and again. "IF walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; THEN I will give you rain in due season, &c. &c. For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do ALL these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do ALL my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for

Which will bring us precisely to the sixth day of the third month, when the two wave loaves of fine flour, or the first-fruits of the wheat harvest, were presented, as an acknowledgement to the Lord, that He had put them into possession of the land of Canaan,-which was the immediate blessing secured by the National Covenant,-as we have already seen from Ex. xxiii. 23—31. We find also that burnt-offerings and peace-offerings were offered on the day of Pentecost, even as they were on the morning of the day on which the Covenant was confirmed (compare Lev. xxiii. 18, 19, with Ex. xxiv. 5). Moreover, it was particularly commanded, that, on that day, the people should eat and drink, and rejoice before the Lord, as the elders of Israel did in the mount. (Compare Deut. xvi. 11 with Ex. xxiv. 11.)