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SECTION VII.

THE LAW.

WHERE, and under what circumstances, was the law given to the Israelites?

THE Israelites arrived at the foot of Sinai, that celebrated mountain, which was to be the scene of one of the most awful and important events which ever took place on the theatre of the globe. Their law was to be given to them immediately from God. They were commanded to purify themselves, and to remain at a defined distance from the mountain, which they were neither to approach nor touch upon pain of death. "And 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. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder, and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice." After a charge had been given to the people, to preserve the most solemn and reverential deportment, and on no account to transgress the line which had been drawn round the mount; after the priests had been commanded to sanctify themselves that they might not be consumed by the anger of the Lord, Moses received from Jehovah those sacred, moral, civil, and ceremonial institutions which were to be observed and cherished by the Israelites, in every period of their history, until another and a nobler dispensation should be introduced by the Son of God. Upon these institutions it is requisite to make a few observations.

Who was the Author of the institutions of the Mosaic law?

SIVE AUTHOR.

Of the institutions of the law, GoD WAS THE EXCLUThese institutions are not to be contemplated as monuments of the wisdom of Moses, but as the injunctions of the authority of God. God was the Sovereign of the Jews; they were his peculiar people; by covenant they had engaged to be his subjects; and he alone could enact the rites of their worship and the laws which, whether as wanderers in the wilderness, or as permanent residents in Canaan, they were to obey. In consequence of this a uniform reference is made in the Sacred Writings to God as the sole Lord and Legislator of the Israelites ; none of the judges, none of the kings presumed to add to, or to alter, or to abrogate, any of his institutions; and disobedience was equal blasphemy against the character, and treason against the government, of Jehovah.

What was the object of the Mosaic institutions?

The OBJECT of the giving of the law to the Israelites was as important as it was merciful. At the period when it was imparted, and in fact long before, the knowledge of the true God had almost disappeared from among men. The apostacy which commenced after the flood, soon became universally prevalent. Deities cruel, vindictive, obscene, despicable, or senseless, were every where adored; every licentious passion, and every vicious propensity of the human heart were gratified without restraint under the license of idolatry; and fraud, villany, murder, incest, adultery, and unnatural crimes, were not only sanctioned by the example, but even consecrated as parts of the worship, of the heathen gods. In order to prevent this apostacy from becoming irremediable, the Almighty determined to select one nation among whom the principles of the true religion should be preserved. For this purpose the descendants of Abram were multiplied, delivered from slavery, and miraculously preserved; and Moses was raised up to convey to them from God, such institutions, as would restrain them from completely falling into the idolatry of the nations, and would render them instrumental in preparing the

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way for the fulfilment of the promises made to the patriarchs, for the bestowment of the promised BLESSING, the appearance of the great Messiah, who was to abolish for ever the distinctive separation between Jews and Gentiles, to bring all nations into one fold under one Shepherd, and to accomplish the grand design for which Patriarchal, and Levitical, and Christian dispensations were introduced-the salvation of a perishing and fallen world. Thus "the law was a shadow of good things to come,' "a school-master to bring us unto Christ."+ The reference of the Mosaic institutions to the mediation of the Messiah, ought never to be overlooked; for the establishment of ceremonies and sacrifices, which had no inherent moral efficacy in themselves, could alone be worthy of the divine mind, as they were symbolical of some great events which should involve the reconciliation of God with guilty man, the reunion of heaven and earth.

What did the Mosaic law distinctively contain?

The Mosaic law, immediately imparted by God, contained a development of the divine perfections. The self-existence, eternity, unity, holiness, justice, truth, mercy, and providence of God were fully stated to the children of Israel. When the name of the Lord was proclaimed to Moses upon the mount, a mysterious voice declared "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and fourth generation." When Moses was in the first instance sent to the Israelites, the incommunicable name, expressive of self-existence and eternity, was communicated. The recapitulation of the law, commences with the emphatic declaration, "Hear, Ó Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord:" and prior to its close, the great prophet of the Jews gave to his people the solemn injunction, "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock,

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his work is perfect:......a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he." The first commandment of the Decalogue contains a statement of the divine glory, "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." The object of these sublime demonstrations of the attributes of God, is clearly stated, "Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else besides him.......Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath : there is none else." Thus the Mosaic law promulgated the great principles of true religion, the self-existence, the unity, the perfections, and the Providence of the one great Jehovah, reprobating all false gods, all image worship, all the absurdities and profanations of idolatry. And a system of government was framed which had for its basis the reception of, and steady adherence to, this system of true religion, and establishing many relations which would be in the highest degree irrational, and could never be received, except from a general and thorough reliance on the superintendence of divine providence, controuling the course of nature, and directing every event so as to proportion the prosperity of the Hebrew people, according to their obedience to that law which they received as divine.

Although it is impossible within the limits of this volume, to detail all the laws enacted, and all the rites and offices instituted, by Moses under the authority of God, yet a brief summary of them will be essential to the understanding of many of the subsequent narrations.

What was enjoined by the Decalogue?

The Decalogue or Ten Commandments, which formed the subject of the first communication of God to Moses, contains an admirable summary of moral duty. It inculcates the adoration of God, it prohibits every species of idolatry, it forbids the irreverent use of the great Creator's name, it inculcates the necessity of divine worship by declaring the sanctity of the Sabbath, it sanctions the principles of filial obedience and all

the duties which arise from domestic relations, it commands the practice of humanity, purity, honesty, truth, and disinterestedness; and to inforce it upon the obedience of the Jews, and through them upon all the inhabitants of the earth, it was not communicated by the intermediate ministry of Moses, but it was proclaimed to the whole congregation by the voice of God, issuing from the glory on the summit of Sinai.

Did the Mosaic institutions only refer to external worship?

It is not to be supposed that in the Mosaic institutions, God rather required external rites of worship, than the piety of the heart. On the contrary, he repeatedly demanded the consecration of all the affections to himself; "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul?" Love to God, was associated with benevolence to man; "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord."

SECTION VIII.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE MOSAIC
DISPENSATION.

WHAT crimes were visited with capital punishment by the Mosaic law?

THAT the purity of their worship might be maintained, that they might be retained in the service of their God, and preserved in a state of complete separation from the wicked nations around them, the severest punishments were denounced against the Israelites, who might be so infatuated and so ungrateful, as to perpetrate flagrant violations of the law. Individual idolatry was to be punished with death; and the idolatry of a district, or a city, with complete ex

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