quake. This was a lively emblem of that storin of wrath which fhall " fweep away the refuge "of lies ;" and alfo exhibits the progrefs of the Spirit's operation, when acting as a Spirit of conviction. By means of this law, he raises a ftorm in the confcience; for "the law worketh "wrath "."

They also heard" the found of a trumpet." This was "exceeding loud." It" founded long, "and waxed louder and louder y." This proclaimed the majefty of God as the Lawgiver and Judge of Ifrael. By means of it, they received a folemn fummons to appear before him; and to liften to the precepts and penalties of his law. In like manner, when the law is powerfully brought into the finner's confcience, it hath to him "the "found of a trumpet." Convinced that he is a criminal, and worthy of eternal death; he hears it as his fummons to appear before the tribunal of juftice; as a prefage of that " trump of God," by which he shall be fummoned to his bar at the day of judgment. While under the power of the law, he can expect nothing but a fentence of eternal condemnation. When he hears this trumpet, it is to him "the alarm of war." "Shall the "trumpet be blown, and the people not be a"fraid?" The longer it is blown, it is ftill the louder. The finner, if confcience be not lulled afleep, inftead of difcovering any ground of hope from the law, the longer he confiders it, the more he

Exod. xix. 16. 18.

x Rom. iv. 15. y Exod. xix. 16. 19.

he fees his danger; and is ready to be plunged into despair.

a.

They heard" the voice of words, which voice "they that heard, entreated that the word fhould "not be spoken to them any more." This was the voice of God himfelf, pronouncing the words of the ten commandments, in the hearing of all Ifrael. This is called "a great voice 2," and must have been very awful; for it " fhook the earth a.” The elders came near to Mofes, and faid in the name of the people; "If we hear the voice of "the LORD our God any more, then we shall "die." This fitly reprefented the killing power of the law, when brought home to the confcience by the Spirit of conviction. Such was the experience of Paul: "When the commandment came, "I died ."

"They could not endure that which was com"manded." Thefe words, according to the view of fome interpreters, refpect the whole law. But there is undoubtedly a fpecial connexion ftated with the injunction immediately following,-"And if fo much as a beaft touch the mount, it "shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.” This refpected man as well as beaft. But the apostle particularly mentions it in reference to the latter; because it contained the greatest difplay of divine feverity, and was that which efpecially affected the minds of the Ifraelites. Nor can we well imagine a more ftriking difcovery of this severity, than that even an innocent beast muft

z Deut. v. 22. a Heb. xii. 26.

b Deut. v. 27.

c Rom. vii. g.

must be treated as if morally guilty, if it accidentally trefpaffed within the bounds fet round the mountain. Nor was this all. It was to be viewed as accurfed; and therefore to be ftoned or fhot, that no man might be defiled by touching it d. The strictness of the precept had the fame effect on the Ifraelites, that it has had ever fince. For it has an irritating power on the lufts of men. From the very reftraints that a holy and just God imposes on thefe, fin appears more defireable. Hence the apoftle teftifies; "Sin, taking occafion "by the commandment, wrought in me all man"ner of concupifcence e."

Both what was feen and heard was fo terrible, that even Mofes faid, "I do exceedingly tremble "and quake." When this revelation was fo overwhelming to Mofes, who had formerly heard the voice of God from the burning bufh, and was fo eminently diftinguifhed by his holinefs; how could it be but dreadful to the guilty Ifraelites, who, deftitute of faith in God, could view him only as an enemy?

3. Let us, in the laft place, attend to the punishments actually inflicted, according to the tenor of this law.

These were often fudden. Punishment followed hard after fin, to fhew the neceffary connexion between the one and the other. This was especially the cafe, when the punishment was inflicted by the hand of God. When the Ifraelites lufted for flesh, God gave them their own defire. "But while "their

"their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath "of God came upon them, and flew the fatteft of "them f." When they murmured against Mofes and Aaron, faying, "Ye have killed the people "of the LORD," he threatened to "confume them "as in a moment ;" and although Aaron inftantly took a cenfer with incenfe, to make atonement, and ran into the midft of the congregation," fourteen thousand and feven hundred had already perished s.

66

These punishments were very awful. In both the inftances juft now referred to, God destroyed the people by a plague. On different occafions, fire was the inftrument he employed; a fit inftrument indeed, under the adminiftration of that "fiery law." What could be more alarming to the whole congregation, than that two brothers, whom they had feen but a little before folemnly confecrated to the office of the priesthood, the nephews of Mofes, the eldeft fons of the high-prieft, fhould be confumed by fire from JEHOVAH? The earthquake, at the giving of the law, would almoft feem to exprefs the nature of its judgments. For, afterwards, the earth opened its mouth, and fwallowed up the rebellious company of Korah.

The punishments, which according to the law were inflicted by the hand of man, were in various inftances attended with peculiar folemnity. In the cafe of blafphemy, all who heard it were to lay their hands on the head of the criminal 1. This denoted their folemn atteftation of the truth

f Pfal. lxxviii. 29.---31. g Num. xvi. 41.-49.

of

h Lev. xxiv. 16.

of the charge brought against him. But it implied more. Thofe, who laid their hands on his head, devolved the guilt, that, in confequence of his crime, might attach to them or to the nation at large, wholly on himfelf; demanded the execution of the sentence appointed by God, that this iniquity might not be vifited on the congregation of Ifrael; left the blood of the criminal on his own head, and folemnly acknowledged the justice of the punishment. This rite is evidently of the fame meaning with that appointed for every man who prefented an offering for his fins. As transferring his guilt to the victim, he was to lay his hands on its head. Thus was the highpriest to do on the great day of atonement . This ordinance, then, with respect to a criminal, directly tended to imprefs the Ifraelites with a fense, both of the condemning, and of the defiling nature of fin; and taught them that its influence was fo great, that even the fin of an individual would contaminate a whole fociety, unless it was expiated according to the laws given by the Supreme Judge.

The fame thing appears from another inftitution. The criminal adjudged to death was to fuffer without the camp. As it denoted the exclufion of all the finally impenitent from the prefence of God, it intimated that the very blood of fuch a perfon carried defilement.

In many cafes, the whole people were to take an active hand in the execution of the fentence.

All

i Lev. iv. 24. 29.

k Chap. xvi. 21.