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stead, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace of 6 ferings of oxen unto the LORD. And Moses took half of the blood, and put [it] in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. The blood was divided between the altar and the people, to denote the mutual stipulation between God and 7 them. And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people, or perhaps the heads of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said, will we do, and be obe8 dient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled [it] on such of the people as were near him, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words: you are obliged by this blood to observe the covenant; or, this blood is a sign and seal of the covenant. There is a plain reference in this to the Messiah, and the blessings of his covenant; see Heb. ix. 18-20.*

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Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 10 seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel, some glimpse of his glory, some illustrious representation of him and [there was] under his feet, below him, as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, a mixture of blue and gold, and as it were the body of heaven in [his] clearness, like a 11 clear sky spangled with stars. And upon the nobles, those elders of the children of Israel, he laid not his hand ;† also they saw God, and did eat and drink of their sacrifices, v. 5. rejoicing in the goodness of God to them, and the honour he had done them. 12 And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. This should have engaged their perpetual 13 reverence for a man who was so highly honoured. And Moses rose up and his minister Joshua, who was to be his successor; and Moses went up into the mount of God.

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And before he went up he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur [are] with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them.

And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered 16 the mount. And the glory of the LORD abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; during which time, Moses, and probably Joshua with him, waited before the cloud, to exercise their humility and devotion, and prepare them for the manifestation: and the seventh day, on the sabbath, he 17 called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the

It was a common form of making a covenant among the heathens, to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on each party; and it contained, as is generally thought, a secret wish, that their blood might be poured out if they were unfaithful.

That is, they did not die; alluding to a common opinion, that if God appeared to any one, he would soon die.

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sight of the glory of the LORD [was] like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel, like light and flame breaking out of the dark cloud.

And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount, while Joshua stood near the bottom of the mount, between Moses and the people: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights, without eating or drinking,, supported by the miraculous power and presence of God. This circumstance gave an air of majesty to the giving of the law, and intimated, that the design of it was something very great and mysterious.

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REFLECTIONS.

ET us receive with thankful submission, all intimations of the divine will: All that the Lord hath said, will we do, and be obedient, v. 7. This is our duty, for God commands nothing but what is reasonable, important, and advantageous. Obedience is highly becoming us. This should be our language, when the book of God is read, or his word preached, All that the Lord hath said, will we do, and be obedient. We should not only form this resolution, but keep it; and be doers of his word, not hearers only, deceiv.ng ourselves.

2. Let us be willing to be as express as possible in renewing our covenant with God; consider the requirements of it; all the words concerning which it was made; study the extent of it; endeavour to understand every particular; that we may know what to do, and what to expect. This will make our vows ra

tional, and more likely to be lasting.

3. Let us remember in how awful a manner our covenant with God is ratified; with blood, even the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus; to which there is an allusion in what Moses did. His blood is the seal of the covenant; confirms it on God's part, and assures us that he will be faithful to the contents of it. Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, as Moses was of this. His blood is called the blood of the everlasting covenant. Let us remember it so as to promote our humility and confirm our faith ;' especially at the Lord's Supper, in the original celebration of which, Christ is thought to allude to this passage, when he says, This cup is the New Testament, or covenant, in my blood; it represents my blood, with which the covenant is sealed. When we remember the death of Christ, let us remember the covenant sealed by it; take encouragement from thence, and be animated by it to obedience.

4. Let us admire the condescension of God, in manifesting. himself in so gracious a manner to sinful creatures; exhibiting his majesty and glory with so much splendour, and yet with so much mildness, that we may not be hurt or terrified, that his VOL. I.

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terrors may not fall on us, nor his excellency make us afraid. We have reason to be thankful, that we are allowed to approach to God, and to enjoy communion with him. Let us esteem this a great privilege, and admire that grace which allows it. But,

5. Let us not lay too great a stress on any external privileges in religion. These elders saw the glory of God: what greater honour could they enjoy! yet their carcasses fell in the wilderness, and Nadab and Abihu were consumed by divine vengeance; their privileges were of no avail. What would it avail us to be thus favoured, or to eat and drink in his presence, if we continue disobedient? It would only aggravate our folly and ingratitude. It will be in vain to say, Lord, we have eaten and drank in thy presence, and been admitted to the nearest approaches to thee; should he reply, I know you not, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

6. We have reason to entertain venerable notions of the Mosaic dispensation, which was established with such pomp, and came directly from God's mouth. It was an excellent dispensation, well suited to the circumstances of the people, and to promote the knowledge and worship of God, and faith in a Messiah to come. Let us not entertain light notions of it, as if it was trifling and ridiculous; if any thing in it appears so, it is owing to our ignorance. Let us reverence the voice of God, that spake on mount Sinai; and be thankful for that purer and plainer revelation, which we have. May we reverence the law which was given by Moses, and endeavour to understand it; but especially reverence, love, understand, and be obedient to, that grace which came by Jesus Christ. Amen.

CHAP. XXV.

God having delivered the moral and judicial laws, now comes to the ceremonial. In this chapter is an account of the offering of the tabernacle; the form of the ark; the mercy seat; the table, and candlestick.*

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ND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart 3 ye shall take my offering. And this [is] the offering which

In the original manuscript, there is no enlargement or reflections from this chapter to the thirty second, for which the author gives the following reason: I omit the chapters between the twenty fourth and the thirty third, because they relate entirely to building and furnishing the tabernacle; to the dress of the priests, and the like; things in which we have but little concern. Critical niceties may be dispensed with in such a work as this; and the inferences drawn from them, often contain so much of allusion and metaphor, so forced and strained, as hath done great dishonour to the sacred writings.' The few illustrations, which the reader will find in these and other similar chapters, are chiefly taken from Clarks and Doddridge's manuscript notes, &c.

ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet wool, and fine linen, and goats' [hair,] 5 And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim

wood, (thought to be a kind of cedar, whereof Solomon's temple 6 was built, 1 Kings vi. 9, 10.) Oil for the light, spices for 7 anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones 8 to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary, a place of public and solemn worship; it was a kind of moveable temple, which might be carried about with them; that I may dwell among them, by my grace and glorious operations, as well as by this sumbol of my presence. 9 According to all that I show thee, [after] the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make [it ;] according to some model which Moses had seen, or which was given to him.

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And they shall make an ark [of] shittim wood, a little chest or coffer to lay up the tables of the covenant in: two cubits and a half [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.* 11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about; a border or ledge, both for ornament, and for the 12 covering to fall into. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put [them] in the four corners thereof; and two rings [shall be] in the one side of it, and two rings in the other 13 side of it, to carry it by. And thou shalt make staves [of] 14 shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt

put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, at the ends of the ark, (as appears from 1 Kings viii. 8. 2 Chron. v. 9.) 15 that the ark may be borne with them. The staves shall be 16 in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. And

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thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee; the two tables of stone, whereon the law, or ten commandments, were written.

And thou shalt make a mercy seat [of] pure gold: two cubits and a half [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof; this was the covering of the ark. 18 And thou shalt make two cherubims [of] gold, figures of a human shape, but with wings, to represent the angels, who continually attend upon God in heaven ;† [of] beaten work shalt 19 thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end [even] of the mercy seat, or, of the matter of the mercy seat, shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends

* A yard and half long, and two feet nine inches broad, and high.

Grotius and others think they came nearer to the representation of oxen, than any other form; which might be the reason why Jeroboam's idols were in the shape of calves er oxen, 1 Kings xii. 28.

20 thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth [their] wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces [shall look] one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be, that is, toward the middle 21 of the mercy seat, where the Shekinah was to reside. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark, as the covering of it; and in the ark, under the cover, thou shalt put the tes22 timony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which [are] upon the ark of the testimony, of all [things] which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

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Thou shalt also make a table [of] shittim wood: two cubits [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth 24 thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown, or 25 ledge, of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a

border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make 26 a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou

shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the 27 four corners that [are] on the four feet thereof. Over against

the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the 28 table. And thou shalt make the staves [of] shittim wood,

and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with 29 them. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, wherein the bread was set on the table, and spoons thereof, or cups for the incense to be put in, (see Num. vii. 14.) and covers thereof, to cover the bread in the dishes, and the incense in the cups, and bowls thereof, to cover withal, or, to pour out withal: [of] 30 pure gold shalt thou make them. And thou shalt set upon the table shew bread before me alway.*

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And thou shalt make a candlestick [of] pure gold: [of] beaten work shall the candlestick be made his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be 32 of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: 33 Three bowls made like unto almonds, [with] a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, [with] a knop and a flower so in the six 34 branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick, [shall be] four bowls made like unto almonds, [with] 35 their knops and their flowers. And [there shall be] a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same,

*Shew bread, or bread of the presence, was so called, because it was constantly placed in God's presence. It was divided into twelve thin loaves, one for every tribe, as a public acknowledgment that they received all their food from God, and were to use it as under his

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