State And Ordinances Of The Church Before The Giving Of The Law

1, 2. Ordinances and institutions of the Jewish church referred to and unfolded in the Epistle to the Hebrews—Principal heads of them mentioned therein. 3. The call of Abraham, Heb. 11:8–19. 4. The name Abram; signification of it—Changed into Abraham; its signification—The foundation of the church in his posterity. 5. The time of his birth and death. 6. Ur of the Chaldees, where; and Haran—Extent of Mesopotamia —Moses and Stephen reconciled. 7. Abraham before his call infected with idolatry. 8, 9. Time of his call. 10. Institution of circumcision—End and use of it. 11. Time of the Israelites' sojourning in Egypt—Gen. 15:13; Exod. 12:40, 41; Acts 7:6; Gal. 3:17, reconciled—The beginning and ending of the four hundred and thirty years. 12. The fatal period of changes in the Jewish church. 13. Institution of the passover. 14. The time of its celebration—The month. 15. Time of the day—הָעַרְבָּם בֵּין, "between the two evenings," when. 16. The occasion and nature of this ordinance— The matter of it—The manner of its observance—Sundry things, suited to its first celebration, not afterwards observed—The number required at the eating of the lamb—By whom it was killed—Where—How dressed— Jewish traditions rejected. 17. The feast of unleavened bread—Its rites. 18. Excision, to the neglect of what ordinances annexed. 19. Jews acknowledge the figurative nature of this ordinance. 20. Of frontlets or phylacteries, Exod. 13:9—Signs and memorials—The sections of the law written in the frontlets. 21. The Jews' manner of making their phylacteries—Deceit therein—Their trust in them reproved by our Saviour—Of their fringes, their appointment, making, and use. 22. Dedication of the first-born males to God—Price of the redemption of children. 23. Close of God's first dispensation towards that church. 24. The solemn νομοθεσία. 25. Preparations for it—Remote preparations; occasional, temporary institutions between the Red Sea and Sinai—Of the waters of Marah. 26. The giving of manna—Derivation and signification of the name. 27, 28. Water brought out of the rock—That rock Christ. 29. Immediate preparations for the receiving of the law—The time that the people came to Sinai—The day. 30. The time of the day that the appearances of God's glory began—The same time that Christ rose from the dead. 31. The place—Sinai the name of the mountain, Horeb of the wilderness—Of the monastery there. 32. Moses' first ascent—The ground of it. 33. The people prepared by the remembrance of mercies and promises. 34. What required of the people. 35. Of their washing their clothes—Not a baptism of standing use. 36. Bounds set unto the mount. 37. In what sense it might be touched, Heb. 12:18. 38–40. How the offender was to be punished—יָד בּוֹ לא־תִגַּע, opened. 41–43. The station and order of the people in receiving of the law. 44, 45. The ministry of angels in the preparations for God's glorious presence—How the people met God, and God them. 46. When Moses used these words, "I exceedingly fear and quake," Heb. 12:21.

1. THERE are in the Epistle [of Paul] unto the Hebrews either direct discourses concerning, or occasional mention is made of all, or at least the most important things in the whole Mosaical economy, and state of the church and worship of God therein under the old testament; yea, there is nothing material, from the call of Abraham unto the utmost issue of God's dispensations towards his posterity, that is omitted by him. And if we have not a previous acquaintance with these things, which he supposed in them to whom he wrote, much darkness and many mistakes must needs attend us in the consideration of what he treateth on, and the ends which he proposeth unto himself. Now, because it will no way be expedient, every time the mention of them doth occur, or allusion is made unto them, to insist upon them as first instituted, I thought meet, in the close of these prolegomena, to present the reader with a brief scheme and delineation of the whole Mosaical economy, as also of those other previous concernments of the church, in the posterity of Abraham, which by the apostle in this Epistle we are called and directed unto. And they are these that follow:—1. The call and obedience of Abraham, chap. 11:8– 19. 2. The institution and observation of the passover, chap. 11:28. 3. The giving of the law, chap. 1:1, 2:1, 12:18–21, 25, 26. 4. The sanction of the law in promises and penalties, chap. 2:2, 3, 4, 10:28. 5. The building of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterwards of the temple in answer thereunto, chap. 3:3, 4, 9:1–5, 10:19–22, with its utensils. 6. The calling, succession, and office of the high priest, chap. 7:16, 17, 21, 23, 8:3–5. 7. The sacrifices and services of them both, chap. 8:3–5, 9:6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 10:1–6, 11, 13:11, 12.

It is plain and evident, that under these heads all the principal concernments of the ancient church, with the worship and rule of God therein, are comprised; and they are all of them reflected on, most of them explained and applied unto gospel ends, by our apostle. However, I shall not, in our present consideration of them, engage in the exposition of the particular places in the Epistle where they are treated on, which is to be done elsewhere, but only represent them as they are expressed in their institution and transaction in the Old Testament, so to make way unto a right conception of them as they are mentioned and made use of in the New.

2. Many of these things, I acknowledge, especially those concerning the temple, its fabric and its worship, have been so largely discussed by others, as that I should judge my endeavours in a review of them altogether needless, would the nature of our present design admit of its forbearance; for besides what hath been formerly attempted with excellent success, with reference unto the fabric of divine worship and the ceremonies thereof, from the Scripture, Josephus, and the later Jewish masters, by Abubensci, Arias Montanus, Villalpandus, Cappellus, Ribera, Constantine l'Empereur, Broughton, Ainsworth, Wemyss, Rivet, and all learned expositors on those parts of holy writ where these things are recorded, there are also some of late who amongst ourselves have travailed with much diligence in this subject,—persons worthily skilled in and industriously improving their knowledge of all that learning which is needful unto the due and accurate handling of this subject, and that in large discourses. But as things are fallen out, considering the necessity of this discourse unto my present design, and that most of the things in our proposal from the Epistle above mentioned are such as fell not under the consideration of those learned persons, nor are handled by them, and that I design not an exact examination of the particular concernments of all these things, with a discussion of the reasons and arguments wherewith various apprehensions of them are attested, but only to represent such a scheme of them unto the reader as may enable him to judge aright of the references of the apostle unto them, and of the use that he puts them unto, I shall proceed in my designed way.

3. First, then, The call of Abraham, which was the foundation whereon all the following administrations of God towards his posterity and his whole worship amongst them were built, is excellently and fully described by our apostle, chap. 11:8–19: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." (Gen. 12:1–4.) "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Gen. 12, 13, 14) "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." (Gen. 17:19, 21:2.) "Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable." (Gen. 15:5, 22:17.) "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Gen. 23:4, 47:9; 1 Chron. 29:15.) "For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned." (Gen. 24:5–7.) "But now they desire a better, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and" (or "even") "he that had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called,"—so that he was his onlybegotten with respect unto the promise,—(Gen. 21:12, 22:9): "accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure."

The design of the apostle in this discourse, is to set forth and commend the faith of Abraham, from the fruits and effects of it, in the whole course of his obedience; but he builds it upon and resolves it into his call: "By faith Abraham, when he was CALLED," etc. Neither is it my present purpose to open particularly the discourse of the apostle, which must be referred to its proper place; only, because what we do now is in a subserviency unto the right understanding of this Epistle, I have laid down this account, given us therein, of the call of Abraham, and his faith and obedience, shown as the reason of our insisting on it, and the foundation whereon what we do therein is built. Neither shall I now at large declare the nature of this call of Abraham, with the several occurrences that accompanied it; partly because it is already touched upon in a former Exercitation; and partly because I have elsewhere handled it more largely, and cleared it from the corrupt traditions and opinions of the Jews concerning it. But because this was the root on which the Judaical church did grow, the stock whereinto all Mosaical institutions of worship were inserted and grafted, it is necessary that we give a brief historical account concerning it.

4. Abraham, he was first called by his parents אַבְרָם, "Abram,"—that is, "an high father,"—not without a signal presaging providence of God; for as of old they gave significant names unto their children, so therein they had respect unto their present condition, or some prospect they had given them by the Spirit of God of things future, wherein they or theirs should be concerned. So have we the reasons given us of the names of Cain, Gen. 4:1; of Seth, verse 25; of Noah, chap. 5:29; of Peleg, chap. 10:25; and of sundry others. And if we may not suppose that the parents of Abraham were directed to give him this name of "an high father" by the Spirit of prophecy, yet, considering its suitableness unto what God had designed him for, and its readiness to yield unto that change which God made afterwards in it, unto a great strengthening of his faith and significancy in a way of instruction unto future generations, we must grant that it was done by the designing, holy, wise providence of God; for he was "an high father" indeed, as being the father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh. In process of time, upon the solemn establishment of the covenant with him, God changed this name of אַבְרָם into אַבְרָהָם: Gen. 17:5, "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham." And on the like account did God also change the names of some other persons, or superadded new names unto those whereby they were called before; as of Israel unto Jacob, Gen. 32:28, upon his prevalency with God as a prince; Jedidiah unto Solomon, 2 Sam. 12:25, because the Lord loved him. And many, doubtless, had new names given unto them by themselves or others, or some letter or syllable changed in their names, withal altering their signification, upon emergent occasions. Hence have we so many in the Old Testament whom we find in several places expressed by divers names, or varied in one place from another. Now, this change in the name of Abraham was not, as the Jews fancy, to honour him with the addition of a letter out of the Tetragrammaton, but for the addition of a new prophetical significancy unto it, as God himself expressly declares, "Thy name shall be גוֹם אַב־הֲמוֹן כִּי אַבְרָהָם נְתַתִּיךָ,"—"Abraham, for a father of a multitude of nations have I made thee;" according as he said before, Gen. 17:4, "Thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations," הָם in his name denoting הֲמוֹן, "a multitude," that is, of nations, God himself expounding his own intention and design. And herein is a solemn prefiguration of the implanting of believers of all nations into the covenant and faith of Abraham; for this name he received upon the solemn establishment of the covenant with him, as the apostle explains the place, Rom. 4:11–17. All, then, that believe are taken into the covenant of Abraham; and as unto the privileges of it, and inheritance to be obtained by it, they are no less his children and heirs than those who proceeded from his loins according to the flesh; as hath been manifested in our Exercitation concerning the oneness of the church. And herein also God manifested what was his design in his call and separation unto himself, even to make and constitute him and his posterity the means of bringing forth the promised Seed, wherein all nations were to be blessed.

5. Abraham being the tenth generation from Noah, exclusive, was the son of Terah, of whom it is said, Gen. 11:26, that "Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran;" not doubtless in the same year, but then the eldest of them was born, whoever he was. If Abraham was the eldest, as he is first expressed, he was born two hundred and ninety-two years after the flood, in the three hundred and ninety-second year of the life of Shem, who outlived him thirty-five years; and he was the sixth from Eber, born in the two hundred and twenty-fifth year of his age, who, continuing longest of all the postdiluvian patriarchs, outlived Abraham about sixty-four years. But there is a difficulty in this account; for if Abraham was born in the seventieth year of the age of Terah, Terah living in all two hundred and five years, Abraham at the death of Terah must needs be one hundred and thirty-five years of age. But the Scripture saith expressly that at his departure out of Haran, upon the death of his father, he was no more but seventy-five years old. And if he was seventy-five years old at the death of his father, who lived two hundred and five years, he must be born in the one hundred and thirtieth of his father's life, and not before, which carries on his birth and death sixty years beyond the former account. So that he outlived Shem twenty-five years, and died only four years before Eber. Although, therefore, he be mentioned before Haran, Gen. 11:26, yet, indeed, Haran was the eldest son of Terah, and born before Abraham sixty years. And it appears in the story that Lot and Sarah, who were the children of Haran (if Sarah was the Iscah mentioned, as most suppose she was, Gen. 11:29), were not much younger than Abraham himself; for when Abraham was an hundred years old, Sarah was ninety, Gen. 17:17, and Lot may well be supposed to be older than she: so that of necessity Haran must be many years older than Abraham, even no less than sixty, as we have declared.

6. His nativity and education was in Ur of the Chaldees, Gen. 11:28, 31. This place is said to be "on the other side of the flood," הַנָּהָר, or "the river," Josh. 24:2; that is, from the land of Canaan, on the other side of the great river Euphrates eastward. It was so also of Tigris, on the east of Aram Naharaim, or Mesopotamia properly so called (which is not insisted on), because Abraham came over Tigris unto Haran with his father Terah. "He came," saith Stephen, "out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran," Acts 7:4. He says, indeed, that before he came unto Charran he dwelt in Mesopotamia, verse 2; wherein also Haran lay, for the name of Mesopotamia was given of old unto all the adjacent regions, even unto the Persian Sea. So doth Pliny evidently, lib. vi. cap. xxvi., "Mesopotamia tota Assyriorum fuit vicatim dispersa, praeter Babylona et Ninum;"—"All Mesopotamia belonged unto the Assyrians, and consisted of scattered villages, unless it were Babylonia and the country about Nineveh." And again, "Reliqua pars Mesopotamiae Assyriaeque Babylonia appellata est." So that he equals Mesopotamia with Assyria; which how great a tract of those regions it comprehended is manifest from Ptolemy, Strabo, and others. Eupolemus in Eusebius, Praeparat. Evang. lib. ix., placeth Οὐρία, Ura, in Babylonia; and there also Pliny mentioneth Ura upon the banks of Euphrates, lib. v. cap. xxiv., "Fertur Euphrates usque ad Uram." But this seems not to be the Ur where Abraham dwelt; nor was there any reason that in a design for Canaan he should remove from any part of Babylonia upon Euphrates unto Haran. It is more likely to be the place mentioned by Ammianus, lib. xv., where he says that the Romans in six days came from Corduene in Armenia, "ad Ur nomine, Persicum castellum,"—"unto Ur, a Persian castle." And this he placeth between Nisibis and Tigris, and was not far from the place where it is probably supposed that the ark rested after the flood, the family of Eber keeping their first seat, not accompanying the הָאָדָם בְּנֵי, or "sons of men," Gen. 11:2–5, those wicked apostates who went from the east to find a place to fix the seat of their rebellion against God. Broughton contendeth that Ur was in the vale of the Chaldeans,—that is, in Babylonia,—a very little way, or some few miles from Haran, averring that Stephen cannot otherwise be defended, who affirms that he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Haran. But as this defence of Stephen is needless, seeing, as we have manifested, he took Mesopotamia in a large sense, as others did also, giving the same extent unto it with Assyria, the denomination arising from the most eminent and fruitful of these regions; so the removal of a little way or a few miles answereth not that description which the Holy Ghost gives us of this journey: Gen. 11:31, "And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, … and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." Their design was to go unto Canaan. And as the Ura which was in Babylonia was situated on this side of Euphrates, as Pliny testifies,—so that Abraham could not go from thence unto Canaan by Haran but he must twice needlessly pass with all his family over Euphrates,—so the expression of their journeying to Haran will not suit unto any imaginary Ur within a few miles of it. Nor is it of any weight that it is called "Ur of the Chaldees," whose proper seat was in Babylonia, and extended not much farther eastward; seeing if the Chaldees, as is most probable, were called Chasdim, as they are constantly, from כֶּשֶׂד, "Chesed," Gen. 22:22, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham, there must of necessity be allowed an historical prolepsis in the words, and so that is called "Ur of the Chaldees" from whence the Chaldees were afterwards to have their original, who in time possessed Babylonia and the parts adjacent.

7. Whilst Abraham lived with his progenitors in Ur, there is no doubt but he was, with them, infected with much false worship and idolatry; for so Joshua affirms expressly that they served אֲחֵרִים אֱלֹהִים, chap. 24:2, even those whose worship God afterwards prohibited in the first precept of the law, אֲחֵרִים אֱלֹהִים לְךָ הְיֶה לֹא;—"There shall not be unto thee other gods;" those, or such as those, whom they served beyond the flood. "Other gods" are all false gods. The Jews' imagination about the discovery made by Abraham of the true God, his renunciation of all idolatry thereon, with the breaking of his father's images, and his being cast for that cause by Nimrod into the fire, all about the forty-fourth year of his age, I have considered and exploded elsewhere. And all these figments, with that of Haran's being consumed by fire in the sight of his father, they wiredraw from the supposed signification of the name אוֹר, which they would have to signify "fire," Gen. 11:28; but as, where it relates unto the Chaldeans ("Ur of the Chaldees") it is apparently the name of a place, a town, or country, so it rather signifies a valley than fire. 24:15, יְהֹוָה בַּבְּדוּ בָּאֻרִים עַלּ־בֵּן, And these words, Isa. which we translate in the text, "Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires," may be better read, as in the margin, "in the valleys;" which better answers unto the following words, "And the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea." At what year of his age he left Ur with his father is not expressed, but it is apparent that it was towards the latter end of the life of Terah, even after the death of Haran his eldest son, and that Nahor and Abraham were married to Milcah and Iscah his daughters, and Sarah had continued barren some remarkable space of time, Gen. 11:28–32.

8. From Ur, therefore, with his father and the rest of their family, he removed to Haran with a design for Canaan, Gen. 11:31. Where this Haran was situated we before declared. Stephen calls it Χαῤῥάν, "Charran;" and so do the Latin writers.

"Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Charras,"

says Lucan of the overthrow of Crassus' army near that place; and it may be pronounced either way in the original, from the ambiguous force of the Hebrew Cheth, but it seems best expressed by Charran. How long he stayed here is uncertain, as was said before. That it was not very long, appears from his marrying, and the barrenness of Sarah, before he came thither. And yet that they abode there some years is no less evident from chap. 12:5, "Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls" (or "servants") "that they had gotten in Haran, and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan." It is not the work of a few days or months that is here described. This gathering of substance and getting of souls was a business of some years, of how many it is uncertain. What was the design of Terah, in his attempt to go to the land of Canaan, is not absolutely certain. The especial call of Abraham unto that country could not be the bottom of it; for it is most probable, yea, indeed undeniable, that this he had not until after the death of Terah. It was, therefore, an act of theirs in answer to the providence of God, in a subserviency unto that future call, that he might be in more readiness to yield obedience unto it than he could have been in the land of Ur. Whether Terah did merely seek a new habitation, in a country less peopled than that of his nativity, which doubtless then was the most populous part of the world, as being near the place where mankind first planted after the flood; or whether he might be instructed in the ancient promise, that the posterity of Canaan, the son of Ham, who then possessed the country called after his name, should be servants unto the seed of Shem, from whom Terah was a principal descendant, I know not. In answer to the call of Abraham it could not be; for he was called to leave his father's house, chap. 12:1, and not to bring his father his household with him, and that at the seventy-fifth year of his age, when Terah was dead. But whatever was the occasion of it, the providence of God used it in the serving of its designs towards Abraham. And here in Haran, if I may be allowed to conjecture, it is probable that God gave him light into the evil of those superstitions wherein he was educated, revealed himself as the only true God, and so prepared him for his call unto the tedious journeying and long peregrination that ensued thereon.

9. When his father Terah was dead, and himself seventy-five years old, Gen. 12:1–4, God called him to himself, and entered into covenant with him in the promise of the land of Canaan, verse 7. And this call of his was the great foundation whereon God afterwards built the whole structure of his worship under the old testament; for herein he both appropriated the promise of the Messiah unto him,—designing his person as the spring from which he should proceed according to the flesh,—and set him and his posterity apart, to be visibly subservient unto the great design of his grace, in the accomplishment of the promise of a deliverer made unto our first parents. This we have elsewhere at large declared, and showed how that after his call every thing was disposed unto a significancy of that which was for to come, and was suited for a continuance unto that season, and no longer.

10. When Abraham was ninety and nine years old,—that is, after he had been twenty-four years in the land of Canaan,—the Lord confirmed his covenant with him and his seed by the sign and token of circumcision, Gen. 17:7–13: which Paul calls "the seal of the righteousness of faith," Rom. 4:11; because God thereby confirmed and assured unto him an interest in the promised Seed, who is "the LORD our righteousness," Isa. 45:24, 25, Jer. 23:6; and because he had accepted of the righteousness and salvation which in and by him God had prepared for sinners, in believing the promise, Gen. 15:6. And herein did God manifest that he took his seed together with him into the covenant, as those who, no less than himself, were to be made partakers of the righteousness exhibited therein, as also to be used for the channel where the holy seed was to be carried on, until the Word was to take it and to be made flesh, John 1:14; Matt. 1:1; Rom. 9:5. And by this ordinance of circumcision were his posterity separated from the rest of the world and united among themselves; for however Ishmael and Esau carried the outward sign of circumcision out of the pale and limits of the church, communicating it unto the nations that sprang of them unto this day, unto whose observance they also adhere (who, being of another extract, have received the law of Mohammed, who was of the offspring of persecuting Ishmael, as the Turks and Persians, with very many of the Indians), yet their observance of it was never under the law of God, nor accepted with him, but is rather accursed by him. But as it was continued in the posterity of Abraham, according unto the promise, it was the fundamental uniting principle of the church amongst them, though dispersed into innumerable particular families. For as there were as many churches before as there were families, ecclesiastical and economical or paternal rule being the same, now, the covenant being one, and the token of the covenant being one and the same, unto all the families that sprang of Abraham, which in their several generations were as the sand of the seashore, or as the stars for multitude, they were incorporated into one body among themselves, and separated from all the rest of the world. Not that this ordinance alone was sufficient to constitute the whole nation one ecclesiastical body or church, which was done by the following institutions of worship, but that the foundation thereof was first laid herein. Neither without some such general initiation into union could it have been orderly accomplished. And as it was the glory of the people of old, whilst they walked in the steps of the faith of Abraham, so it was the carnal boast of their degenerate posterity. Hence have we so often mention of those who were "uncircumcised," in the way of reproach and contempt; and when they renewed the administration of it among themselves, upon their first entrance into the land of Canaan, after its omission in the wilderness, it is said that "they rolled away the reproach of Egypt," Josh. 5:9, because they were now no more as the Egyptians, uncircumcised. And it was their glory, both because God made it the token of his receiving them to be his peculiar people out of all the nations of the earth, as also because it was the pledge of their obedience unto God; which is the glory of any person or people. But their posterity, being carnal, and degenerating from the faith and obedience of Abraham, having quite lost the grace betokened by it,—which, as Moses often declares unto them, was the circumcision of their hearts to hear and obey the voice of God,—did yet, and do yet to this day, boast of it as a sign of their separation unto God from other people; not considering that these things were mutual, answering one another, and that this latter is nothing when the former is not also attended unto.

11. And these are the chief heads that are looked upon by our apostle in the call of Abraham; which also we have been more brief in the explication of, because its consideration hath elsewhere occurred unto us. Now, from this call of Abraham unto the deliverance of the children of Israel out of Egypt, was, as Moses assures us, four hundred and thirty years, Exod. 12:40, 41; and so saith our apostle, Gal. 3:17. But because the Lord tells Abraham that his posterity should be afflicted in a strange land four hundred years, Gen. 15:13,—which words are repeated by Stephen in his sermon to the Jews, Acts 7:6,—the reason of this different account may be briefly inquired after. Here is a double limitation of time;—(1.) Of four hundred and thirty years, by Moses and Paul; (2.) Of four hundred years, by God himself unto Abraham, repeated by Stephen. The words of Moses are recorded Exod. 12:40, 41, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt." It is evident that there is an ambiguity in the words of Moses; for if מוֹשַׁב, "the sojourning," or dwelling, in the beginning of verse 40, do relate unto בְּמִצְרָים יָשְׁבוּ, "dwelt in Egypt," it can design no longer space of time than they dwelt there after the descent of Jacob; which, by an evident computation of the times, containeth but half the space limited of four hundred and thirty years. If it refer only to the "children of Israel," then it takes in all the sojournings and peregrinations of that people "who dwelt in Egypt," from the first day of their being the people of God. Now, this ambiguity is perfectly removed by our apostle, Gal. 3:16, 17, "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.… And the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul." The giving of the law was, as we shall see, immediately upon their coming out of Egypt; and saith he, the four hundred and thirty years are to be reckoned from the call of Abraham, when God first entered into covenant with him, Gen. 12:1–3. From thence unto the departure out of Egypt and the giving of the law that ensued are four hundred and thirty years. It is evident, then, that by the "sojourning" and peregrination of the children of Israel, not their mere abode in Egypt,—which after their going down, Gen. 46, was only two hundred and fifteen years, or thereabouts,—but the whole course of that people after they were in Abraham called from their own country, and a certain habitation therein, until their leaving of Egypt, in order unto their taking possession of the land of Canaan as a perpetual inheritance (that is, commensurate unto the duration of the especial covenant made with them), is intended. It remains, then, that we consider the other space of time assigned by God in vision unto Abraham, for the affliction of his seed under persecution, namely, four hundred years, Gen. 15:13. Now, herein either the round number of four hundred is put for four hundred and thirty, or thirty years are to be abated out of the latter number, for some special cause and reason. The former seems not probable, because Moses doth so emphatically note that it was in the four hundred and thirtieth year, that very same day, or night; and therefore thirty years must be taken off, either from the beginning or end of the latter number. To detract it from the end there is no reason; nor will Moses his exact observation of that period allow us so to do. It must, therefore, be from the beginning. Now, this prediction of God unto Abraham about the affliction or persecution of his seed for four hundred years was given him before the birth of Isaac, who, being of his seed according to the promise, was to have his share in this affliction, yea, it was to begin with him. He was born, as was proved, twenty-five years after the promise, so that the thirty years to be taken off from the four hundred and thirty fall out in the fifth year of his life, which was the time when the persecution began in the mocking of Ishmael, Gen. 21:9; which the apostle expressly calleth persecution, and that upon the account of Isaac's being the heir of the promise, Gal. 4:29. Then began the four hundred years of their affliction, which ended with the four hundred and thirtieth of their peregrination.

12. In the faith of Abraham, manifested in his obedience to the call of God, resting on the promise of the blessing by Christ, and in the observation of the ordinance of circumcision, whereby they were separated unto God and united among themselves, did this people continue, without the addition of any new ordinance of worship for the supportment of their faith, or enlargement of their light, or outward profession of their separation unto God, to the expiration of four hundred and thirty years. And this period of time proved afterwards fatal unto them, not exactly and absolutely, but in some kind of proportion; for from hence unto the building of the temple by Solomon was four hundred and eighty years. The duration of that temple was four hundred and fifteen years; that of the latter, built in the room thereof, somewhat above five hundred, some peculiar space being given them beyond their former trials, before their utter destruction.

13. At the expiration of the period of time discoursed on, our apostle tells us, Heb. 11:28, that "through faith Moses kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them." This was the second ordinance of common use to the church, and appropriated unto them, which God instituted amongst them. The story of its institution and manner of its celebration are at large insisted on, Exod. 12.

14. The time of its institution and annual celebration is exactly noted in the Scripture. It was the night before the departure of the children of Israel out of Egypt; which is thence called שִׁמֻּרִים הַלַּיְלָה, Exod. 12:42, "a night of observances" unto the LORD; that is, wherein his institutions of this ordinance were to be observed with great care and diligence. And this night fell in directly upon the expiration of the four hundred and thirty years before limited, verses 40, 41. For the time of the year, it was in the month אָבִיב, "Abib," as the Hebrews called the month of the spring which, in those eastern parts, gave blades unto the corn and other fruits of the earth, Exod. 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, Deut. 16:1; which afterwards, by a Chaldee name, was called Nisan, Neh. 2:1, Esth. 3:7; and it answered partly to our March, partly to April, beginning before or at the vernal equinox, according to the distance of any year from the embolismical year. And from hence this month was appointed to be חֳרָשִׁים רֹאשׁ, the head, chief, or principal of the months, Exod. 12:2; and so, consequently, the beginning of the year unto them: for before this, their year began and ended in September, upon the gathering in of the fruits of the earth, chap. 23:16; being the time, as most of the present Jews suppose, wherein the world was created. Neither yet was this change absolute unto all ends and purposes, but only as to ecclesiastical observances and feasts that depended on their distance from this of the passover; for their civil year, as to contracts, debts, and liberties, continued still to begin in September, with their jubilees, Lev. 25:8–10. And from that beginning of the year, most probably, are the months to be reckoned that are mentioned in the continuance and ending of the flood, Gen. 7:11, 8:13. See Josephus, lib. i. cap. iii.

15. For the time of the day wherein the lamb was to be slain, it is designed to be הָעַרְבָּם בֵּין, "between the two evenings," of the fourteenth day of the first month. Some of the Jews, as Kimchi, make these two evenings to be the first declining of the sun, which began the evening or afternoon, and the setting of the sun, which closeth it; answering the ancient division of the day into morning and evening: so that it might be done, by this rule, in any time of the afternoon, though it always followed the evening sacrifice, at the ninth hour, or three of the clock. Others, as Aben Ezra, make the first evening to be the setting of the sun, the other the departure of all light. And the Jews have a distinction of the day, wherein they call this space of it, םָבְּרַעָה ןיֵבּ, "between the two evenings," השמשות בין, "between the two suns." So they express themselves in Talmud. Hierus. Berach. cap i.: לתחתון דומה העליון נעשה השחירו ׃ השמשות בין זהו הכסיפו יום זהו מאדימין מזרח שפני זמן בל זהו לילה; —"All the space of time wherein the face of the east is red is called day; when it begins to wax pale, it is called between the suns," (the same with, "between the evenings"); "and when it waxeth black, the upper firmament being like the lower, it is night."

16. The occasion of the institution of this ordinance is so fully and plainly declared in Exodus and Deuteronomy that we shall not need to enlarge upon it. In brief, God being about to accomplish his great work of delivering the people out of Egypt, he thought meet to conjoin together his greatest mercy towards them and his greatest plague upon their enemies. To this end he gives command unto the destroying angel to pass through the land and to slay all the first-born therein, from his who sat upon the throne unto the meanest person belonging unto the body of that nation. And although he might have preserved the Israelites from this destruction by the least intimation of his will unto the instrument used therein, yet, having respect unto the furtherance of their faith and obedience, as also designing their instruction in the way and means of their eternal salvation, he chose to do it by this ordinance of the passover. The form of this service is given us, Exod. 12:27. It is called פֶּסַח, "pesach;" and the reason of it is subjoined,—for the LORD פָּסַח, "pasach," passed over the houses of Israel. פָּסַח is to pass on by leaping, making as it were a halt in any place, and then leaping over that which is next; whence he that goes halting is called פִּסֵחַ, "pisseach," one that as it were leaps on from one leg unto the other. Some of the ancients call it "phase," Cheth being only not pronounced. The Greeks retain the name, but corrupt it into πάσχα; and are followed by the Latins, who call it "pascha." Hence, after the apostle had applied this feast and sacrifice unto the Lord Christ, 1 Cor. 5:7, and Christians began to celebrate the commemoration of the passion and suffering of Christ at the time of the year when that was observed, many both of the Greeks and Latins began to think that the word was derived from πάσχω, "patior," to suffer; as both Augustine and Gregory Nazianzen, Serm. de Pasch., do declare, who both of them refute that imagination. The general nature of it was זֶבָח, "a sacrifice," Exod. 12:27; and חַג, "a feast," verse 14;—a sacrifice, from the slaying and offering of the lamb, which was done afterwards for the people by the Levites; and a feast, from the joy and remission of labour wherewith the annexed solemnities were to be observed. The matter of it was שֶה, "saeh," verse 3; that is, a young lamb or kid, a male without blemish, for either might be used in this service, verse 5. The manner of the service was,— (1.) In the preparation, the lamb or kid was to be taken into custody on the tenth day of the month, and kept therein four days, verse 6; which, as the Jews say, was partly that they might discern perfectly whether it had any blemish or no, partly that they might by the sight of the lamb be minded of their duty and the mercy of their deliverance. Indeed, it was that it might prefigure the imprisonment of the Lamb of God, Isa. 53:7, 8, who took away the sins of the world. This [part of the] preparation, the Jews say, was temporary, and observed only at the first institution of the ordinance in Egypt; and that partly lest, in their haste, they should not otherwise have been able to prepare their lambs. So also was the sprinkling of the blood on the posts of the doors of their dwelling-houses with hyssop, Exod. 12:7; which could not be afterwards observed, when, by God's institution, the whole congregation were to celebrate it in one place. And it had respect unto their present deliverance from the destroying angel, verses 12, 13. In like manner was their eating it, with their loins girt, their shoes on their feet, and their staves in their hands, verse 11, that they might be in a readiness for their immediate departure; which was not afterwards observed by our Lord Jesus Christ nor any of the church, for these signs ceased with the present occasions of them. (2.) This lamb was to be provided for each household, verses 3, 4; which was the third distribution of that people, the first being into tribes, and the second into families, from the twelve patriarchs and their immediate sons, Josh. 7:16–18. But because there was an allowance to make their company proportionable unto their provision of a lamb, joining or separating households, Exod. 12:4, they ate it afterwards in societies or fraternities, as our Saviour had twelve with him at the eating of it; and the Jews require ten at least in society unto this celebration. Whence the Targum expressly on this place, Exod. 12:4, "If the men of the house be fewer than the number of ten;" for this was a sacred number with them. They circumcise not, marry not, divorce not, unless ten be present. Thence is their saying in Pirke Aboth, "Where ten sit and learn the law, the divine presence resteth on them," as Ps. 82:1. (3.) The lamb being provided was to be killed; and it was directed that the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel should kill it, Exod. 12:6,—that is, every one for himself and family. But after the giving of the law and the erection of a priesthood in the church, this work, as it was a sacrifice, was left unto the priests, 2 Chron. 35:1–6. (4.) The place where it was to be killed was at first in their several houses, or wherever the assembly of the people was; but this afterwards was forbidden, and the sacrifice of the passover confined expressly to the place where the tabernacle and temple were to be, and not elsewhere, Deut. 16:5–7. (5.) The preparation of the whole lamb for eating was by roasting it, Exod. 12:8, 9; and that was done with bread unleavened, and bitterness, or bitter herbs, verse 8. And it was all to be eaten that night. What remained until the morning was to be burned in the fire, as a thing dedicated and not to be polluted. The Jews have many traditions about the manner of eating and drinking at this supper, of the cups they drank and blessed, of the cakes they brake, of their washings, and the like: which as they have all of them been discussed by others at large, so I shall not labour about them, as being satisfied that they are most, if not all of them, inventions of the rabbins since the destruction of the second temple; and many of them taken up from what they observed to be in use among Christians, or were led into by such as from the profession of Christianity apostatized unto them,— which were no small multitude.

17. Unto this observation of the passover was adjoined the feast of unleavened bread, which was to begin the next day after the eating of the lamb,—that is, on the fifteenth day of the first month; for whereas the paschal lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread on the fourteenth, it was a peculiar ceremony of that ordinance, and belonged not unto the ensuing feast, verses 15, 16. And in this feast there are considerable,—(1.) The total exclusion of all leaven out of their houses: (2.) The time of its continuance, which was seven days: (3.) The double extraordinary Sabbath wherewith it was begun and ended; for on the first day and last day of the seven there was to be a solemn and holy convocation unto the Lord, to be observed in a cessation from all labour and in holy duties. And here also it were lost labour to reckon up the cautions, rules, and instructions, which the Jewish doctors give, about the nature, kinds, and sorts of leaven, of the search that was to be made for it, and the like; most of them being vain imaginations of superstitious minds, ignorant of the truth of God.

18. This sacrifice of the passover, with its attendant feast of unleavened bread, to be annually observed, on the fourteenth day of the month Abib unto the end of the twenty-first, was the second solemn ordinance of that people as the people and church of God; and the Jews observe, that no other positive ordinances, but only circumcision and the passover, had that sanction of the ברת, "excision," or extermination, annexed unto them: "Concerning circumcision the words are plain, Gen. 17:14, 'The uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, הַהִוא הַנֶּפֶשׁ וְנִכְרְתָה,'—'that soul shall be cut off from his people, he hath broken my covenant.' And with reference to the passover, Exod. 12:15, 'Whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.' " Whereas they observe, as Aben Ezra upon this place, that it is annexed to above twenty negative precepts; intimating that there is a greater provocation and sin in doing any thing in the worship of God against his commandment than in omitting what he hath commanded, though both of them be evil. The observation, I acknowledge, in general is true, but the application of it to the passover is not so: for although we should suppose that the words of Exod. 12:15 do relate unto the passover also, although they seem to respect only the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread, yet they do not require the observation of the passover itself under that penalty; but upon a supposition of the observation of the passover, they were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread, which was a negative precept,—namely, that they should have no leaven in their bread,—and so was justly attended in its transgression with this cutting off. And this cutting off the Jews generally interpret, when it is spoken indefinitely, without a prescription of the manner how it should be done, or by whom, to respect השמים יר, "the hand of Heaven," or the vindictive justice of God, which in d time will find out the transgressor; but we know that God long bare with them in the omission of this ordinance of the passover itself.

19. What are the observations of the later Jews, in the imitation of their forefathers' observance of this ordinance of God, the reader may see in Buxtorf's Synagoga Judaica, and in part in the Annotations of Ainsworth, and so they need not here be repeated. This only I shall observe, that all of them, in their expositions of this institution, do make the application of its several parts unto other acts of God in dealing with them; such as, indeed, the text of Moses plainly leads them to. And this perfectly overthrows their pretensions as to their other ceremonies and sacrifices, —namely, that they were instituted for their own sakes, and not as signs of things to come,—the figurative nature of this their greatest ordinance being manifest and acknowledged by themselves.

20. On occasion of this great solemn ordinance, there was given unto the people two additional institutions; the first concerning the writing of the law on their foreheads and hands; the other, of the dedication unto God of all that opened the matrix. The first of these is prescribed, chap. 13:9, "And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in thy mouth." Verse 16, "And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes." Whereunto may be added Deut. 6:6–9, "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." In the observation of sundry things supposed to relate unto these precepts consisteth the principal part of the superstition of the present Jews; for they have mixed the observation of this duty, whatever be intended by it, with many foolish and noisome imaginations. It doth not, indeed, appear to me that any more is intended by these expressions, "A sign upon thy hand," and "A memorial" (or "frontlet") "between thine eyes," but a continual remembrance and careful practice of the institution itself, and their calling to mind thereby the mercy and goodness of God in their deliverance; which they were to celebrate, when they came unto a settlement in their own land, by writing some passages of the law upon the door-posts of their houses. But they are otherwise minded. That which is prescribed unto them is called, Exod. 13:9, אוֹת, "a sign," as it was to be on their hand; and זִכָּרוֹן, "a memorial," as between their eyes; both which are very capable of our interpretation. But, verse 16, they are called טוֹטָפֹת, as also Deut. 6:8; from which word, as they know not what it signifie they draw out all the mysteries of their present observances. The Chaldee renders it תפילין, "thephilin;" which word seems to be taken from the Hebrew תפילה, "prayer," or prayers, and to be so called from the prayers that they used in the consecration and wearing of those frontlets. But because they are rendered in the Greek φυγαχτήρια, "phylacteria," some would derive it from תפל, "to conjoin, keep, and bind;" which hath some allusion, at least, to the sense of the Greek word: and this origination and denotation of the word the learned Fuller contends for, Miscellan. lib. v. cap. vii. The manner of their present observation hereof to this purpose is, they write four sections of the law on parchment. And why four? That they gather from the signification of the word טוֹטָפֹת, "totaphoth." "Tot," saith Rabbi Solomon, "in Pontus, by the Caspian Sea somewhere, signifies 'two;' and poth signifies 'two' in Egypt;" both which make four undoubtedly. Or, as they say in the Talmud, "Tat in Casphe signifies 'two;' and pat in Africa." So that four sections must be written. Scaliger supposeth the word to be Egyptian; which is not unlikely. But that it should signify an amulet or a charm, as Petitus supposeth, is not so probable. For to say that such amulets were in use among the heathen, with inscriptions either ridiculous or obscene, which God would not have his people to make use of, and therefore appointed them other things and inscriptions in their stead, which is the only reason produced for that opinion, doth indeed overthrow it; for it is abundantly evident that God in his laws doth directly, on all occasions, command the contrary to whatever was in practice of this sort among the nations. So that Maimonides well observes, that the reason of many of their institutions cannot be understood without a due consideration of the superstition of the neighbouring nations.

Those four sections must be these that follow. The first is Deut. 6:4–9, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:" and so onwards, as before. The second is Exod. 13:1–10, "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out in the month Abib. And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year." The third is from the 11th verse of that chapter unto the end of the 16th: "And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD'S. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the first-born of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage: and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the first-born of my children I redeem. And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt." The last is Deut. 11:13–21: "And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you. Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."

21. Because in all these places there is mention made of these "frontlets" or "memorials," therefore do they take them out for this use. And these are to be written on parchment, made of the skin of a clean beast, on the side next the flesh, prepared with a pronunciation of a form of words, both in the killing of the beast, and in the delivery of the skin unto the dresser and to the writer. When they are written, they are wrapped up in small rolls, and so worn upon their foreheads and left arms, being so rolled and made up that none of the writing might be seen. And great art is required in the making of these tephilin, which few amongst them attain unto. Hence Fagius tells us a story of a master amongst them in his days, who sold many thousands of these phylacteries unto his countrymen, which had nothing in them but cards; which served their turns well enough. Their masters, also, are curious in describing what part of the head they must be applied unto,—namely, the fore part from ear to ear; and the hand must be the left hand, whereby yet they will have the arm above the elbow to be understood; and when they must be worn, namely, by day, not by night, on the week days, not on the Sabbath, and the like worthy speculations. The benefit also they receive hereby is incredible; for by them are they defended from evil,—as some by the sign of the cross, others by the first words of the Gospel of John worn about them. They are sanctified in the law; and, in a word, the Targum on the Canticles, chap. 8:3, tells us that "God chose them above all people, because they wore the phylacteries"! So just cause had our Lord Jesus Christ to reprove their hypocrisy, superstition, and self-justification, in the use, abuse, and boasting of these things: Matt. 23:5, "All their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments." This about the "borders of their garments" was an after-institution; yet, because of its answerableness unto this, we may add it in this place. To this purpose God gives his command, Num. 15:38–40, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a riband of blue: and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God;" which law is repeated again, Deut. 22:12, "Thou shalt make thee fringes upon the four quarters of thy vesture, wherewith thou coverest thyself." These צִיצִית, "locks," or "fringes," made of thread fastened unto the wings or skirts of their garments with a riband, תְּבֵלֶת, of a blue colour (which how to make at present the Jews confess they know not, but suppose it was made with the blood of a fish called chalazon, mixed with vermilion), had virtue and efficacy from the institution of God, who alone is able to bless and sanctify things in themselves indifferent unto a sacred use, to the keeping of their hearts in a due reverence unto himself, and their eyes from wandering after false worship and superstition; which being now removed and taken away, the things themselves are, among the present Jews, turned into the greatest superstition imaginable. Their principal vanities about these things, having been represented by others out of Maimonides his treatise on that subject, need not here be repeated.

22. The last appointment of God, occasioned by the mercy solemnly remembered in the passover, was the dedication of all the first-born males unto himself. The law of this dedication is recorded Exod. 13:12, 13; and the manner of its performance is further added Num. 18:15–17, "Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the first-born of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the LORD." The whole dedication of the firstborn males is distributed into three parts:—(1.) Children, who were to be redeemed with five shekels, twenty gerahs to one shekel; that is, about twelve shillings of our money. (2.) Clean beasts, such as were appointed to be offered in sacrifice on other occasions, as the kine, the sheep, and the goats. These were to be offered unto God in a sacrifice of burntoffering, without redemption or commutation, after they had been kept a month with the dam. (3.) Unclean beasts, whereof an instance is given in the ass; which were either to be redeemed with money by an agreement with the priest, or to have their necks broken, at the choice of the owner. And all this to call to remembrance the mercy of God in sparing them and theirs when the first-born of man and beast, clean and unclean, in Egypt were destroyed: for hence a peculiar right of especial preservation arose unto God towards all their first-born; and this also not without a prospect towards the redemption of the "church of the first-born" by Jesus Christ, Heb. 12:23.

23. And this gave a period to the first dispensation of God towards the church in the posterity of Abraham, [which had lasted] for the space of four hundred and thirty years. With the provision and furniture of these ordinances of worship they left Egypt, and, passing through the Red Sea, came into the wilderness of Sinai, where they received the law, and were made perfect in the beauty of typical holiness and worship.

24. Unto these ordinances succeeded the solemn νομοθεσία, or giving of the law on Mount Sinai, with the precepts and sanctions thereof, mentioned in several places by our apostle; as chap. 2:2, "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward." Chap. 10:28, "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses." Chap. 12:18–21, "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: for they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." Verse 25, "They escaped not who refused him that spake on earth." And in other places.

25. Three things must be explained in reference unto this great and solemn foundation of that Judaical church-state, which our apostle treateth about in this whole epistle;—first, The preparations for it; secondly, The manner of the giving of it; thirdly, The law itself. For the preparations for it, they are either more remote or immediately preceding it. The former were those temporary, occasional, instructive ordinances, which God gave them at their entrance into the wilderness, before they came to receive the law on Sinai.

The first mentioned of this nature is Exod. 15:23–26, "And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee." The whole course of God's proceeding with his people, whereof we have here the first pledge in the wilderness, was by a constant series of temporal providential straits, sinful murmurings, and typical mercies.

The waters being so bitter that they could not drink of them, God showed to Moses a tree; that is, say some of the Jewish doctors, he showed him the virtue of a tree to cure and make wholesome bitter waters. And they say it was a tree whose flowers and fruit were bitter; for no other reason but because Elisha afterwards cured salt waters by casting into them a cruse of salt. The Targum of Jonathan and that of Jerusalem say, God showed him דאררפני מריר אילן, "the bitter tree Ardiphne;" which is nothing but Δάφνη, "Daphne," the laurel. And on this tree the author of that fabulous paraphrase would have the glorious name of God to be written, according to the incantations in use amongst them in his days. But that which is designed in the whole is, that God, preparing them for the bitter, consuming law that was to be given them, and discovering unto them their disability to drink of the waters of it for their refreshment, gave them an intimation of the cure of that curse and bitterness, by Him who "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. 2:24; who is "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth," Rom. 10:4.

26. Their second preparation for the receiving of the law, was the giving of manna unto them from heaven. Being come into the wilderness of Sin, between Elim and Sinai (called so from a city in Egypt that it extended unto), in the midst of the second month after their departure from Egypt, the stores they brought with them from thence being spent and exhausted, the whole congregation murmured for food; as still their wants and murmurings lay at the bottom, and were the occasion of those reliefs whereby the spiritual mercies of the church by Christ were typed out. In this condition God sends them manna: Exod. 16:13–15, "In the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat." Verse 31, "And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey."

"When the children of Israel saw it, they said הוּא מָן,"—"Man hu;" and, verse 31, "The house of Israel called the name thereof מָן,"—"Man." The reason of this name is very uncertain. The calling of it manna in the New Testament, gives countenance to the derivation of the word from מָנָה, "manah," to "prepare and distribute." For what some have thought, that it should be an abbreviation of מַתָּנָה, "a gift," and spoken by them in their precipitate haste, is destitute of all probability. If it be from מָנָה, "manah," it signifies a "prepared meat" or "portion." So upon the sight of it they said, one to another, "Here is a portion prepared." But the truth is, the following words, wherein there is a reason given why they said, upon the sight of it, הוּא מָן, "Man hu," inclines strongly to another signification: מַה־הוּא יָדְעוּ לֹא בִּי;—"For they knew not ma hu," "what it was." "They said one to another, Man hu, because they knew not ma hu,"—that is, "what it was." So that "Man hu" is as much as, "What is it?" and so the words are rendered by the LXX., Τί ἐστι τοῦτο;—"What is this?" and by the Vulgar Latin, "Quid est hoc?" But this difficulty remains, that מָן, "man," is not in the Hebrew tongue an interrogative of the thing, no, nor yet of the person, nor doth signify "what." Aben Ezra says it is an Arabic word; Chiskuni, an Egyptian; and it is evidently an interrogative of the person in the Chaldee, and sometimes of the thing; as Judges 13:17, שְׁמֶךָ מִי, —"What is thy name?" Yea, it seems to be used towards this sense in the Hebrew, Ps. 61:8, נְצְרֻהוּ מַן וֶאֱמֶת חֶמֶד; where, though most take מַן, "man," to be the imperative in Pihel from מָנָה, "manah," which nowhere else occurs, yet the LXX. took it to be an interrogation from the Chaldee, rendering the words, Τὶς ἐχζητήσει;—"Who shall find out?" Being, therefore, the language of the common people, in their admiration of a thing new unto them, that is expressed, it is no wonder that they made use of a word that had obtained amongst them from some of the nations with whom they had been conversant, differing little in sound from that of their own of the same signification, and afterwards admitted into common use amongst them. From this occasional interrogation did the food provided for them take its name of "man," called in the New Testament "manna:" such occasional imposition of names to persons and things being at all times frequent and usual; as in the chapter foregoing, the place was called Marah, from the bitterness of the water, that they cried out of upon their first tasting it; and in the next, Massah and Meribah, from their temptations and provocations. That which alone we have to observe concerning this dispensation of God towards them is, that they had this eminent renewed pledge of the bread of life, the food of their souls, the Lord Christ, given unto them before they were intrusted with the law; which by making their only glory, and betaking themselves unto, without the healing tree and heavenly manna, is become their snare and ruin. See John 6:31, 32, 48, 49, 51; Rev. 2:17.

27. A third signal preparation for the law, on the like occasion, and to the same purpose with the former, is repeated Exod. 17:1–7: "And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?" Marching up farther into the wilderness, and coming to Rephidim, their fourth station from the Red Sea, meeting with no waters to their satisfaction, they fell into a high murmuring against the Lord, and mutiny against Moses their leader. And this iniquity, the Jewish doctors suppose, was aggravated, because they were in no absolute necessity for water, the dew which fell from the manna running in some streams. Hereon God leads Moses to the rock of Horeb, where himself appeared in the cloud which he had prepared for the place of giving the law, commanding him to take his rod in his hand to smite the rock; whereon waters flowed out for the relief of this sinful, murmuring people. And the Holy Ghost hath put sundry marks upon this dispensation of God towards them:—

First upon the sin of the people, whence he gave a double name to the place where they sinned, for a memorial to all generations. He called it Massah and Meribah; which words our apostle renders by πειρασμός and παραπιχρασμός, Heb. 3:8,—"temptation" and "provoking contention." And it is often mentioned again, both on the part of the people, either to reproach and burden them with their sin, as Deut. 9:22, "And at Massah ye provoked the LORD to wrath;" or to warn them of the like miscarriage, chap. 6:16, "Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah;" as also Ps. 95:8;—and on the part of Moses, as to the signal trial that God had there of his faith and obedience, in that great difficulty which he conflicted withal; as also of those of the tribe of Levi, who, in a preparation unto their ensuing dedication unto God, clave unto him in his straits, Deut. 33:8, "And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy One, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah." The mercy likewise that ensued, in giving them water from the rock, is most frequently celebrated, Deut. 8:15; Ps. 78:15, 16, 105:41; Neh. 9:15.

Now, all this was done to bring them to attend and inquire diligently into the kernel, the pearl of this mercy, whose outward shell was so undeservedly free and so deservedly precious: for in this rock of Horeb lay hid a "spiritual Rock," as our apostle tells us, 1 Cor. 10:4, even Christ, the Son of God; who, being smitten with the rod of Moses, or the stroke and curse of the law administered by him, gave out waters of life freely unto all that thirst and come unto him.

28. Thus did God prepare this people for the receiving of the law, by a triple intimation of him who is the Redeemer from the law, and by whom alone the law that was to be given could be made useful and profitable unto them. And all these intimations were still given them on their great and signal provocations; to declare that neither did their goodness deserve them, nor could their sins hinder the progress of the counsel of God's will and the work of his grace. Hereby, also, did God revive unto them the grace of the promise; which being given, as our apostle observes, four hundred and thirty years before the giving of the law, could not be disannulled or impeached thereby.

And these I call the remote preparations of the people for the receiving of the law, consisting in three revelations of the grace of God in Christ, happening and granted unto them in the three months' space which they spent between the Red Sea and their coming unto the wilderness of Sinai, or to the mountain where they received the law.

29. The immediate preparations for giving of the law are all of them expressed Exod. 19; and these we shall briefly pass through, the most of them being insisted on or referred unto by our apostle in the places before mentioned.

First, The time of the people's coming unto the place where they were to receive the law is related verse 1. It was הַשְּלִישִי בַּחֹדֶשׁ, "novilunio tertio," in the third month after their coming up out of Egypt; that is, on the first day of the month, the month Sivan, on the day of the new moon. And therefore it is added, הַזֶּה בַּוֹם, "on the same day." On which Aben Ezra observes, "Moses went up first into the mountain to receive the commands of God, and returning on that day to the people, he went up again on the third day, that is, the third day of the month, to give in their answer unto the Lord," verses 11, 16. And this fell out, if not on the day, yet about the time of Pentecost, whereon afterwards the Holy Ghost descended on the apostles, enabling them to preach the gospel, and therein our deliverance from the curse of the law given at that time.

30. For the special time of the day when God began to give out the appearances of his glory, it is said, verse 16, הַבֹּקֶר בִּהְיֹת, "Whilst it was yet morning." And Jarchi observes that all Moses' ascents into the mountain were בהשכמה, "early in the morning;" which he proves from chap. 24:4, "And Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai." And בֹּקֶר, "boker," properly signifies "the first appearance of the morning," the light that must be inquired and sought after before the rising of the sun. So David, Ps. 130:6, compares the earnest expectation of his soul for mercy unto the diligent watching of men for the morning; that is, the first appearance of light. And this was the season wherein our blessed Saviour rose from the grave and from under the curse of the law, bringing with him the tidings of peace with God and deliverance. He rose between the first dawning of light and the rising of the sun, Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:2; unto that latitude of time doth the Scripture assign it, and the first evidence of it. For whereas John says that Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre very early, "when it was yet dark," chap. 20:1; Matthew, "when it began to dawn toward day," chap. 28:1; Mark, "very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun," chap. 16:2, who compriseth the utmost abode of the women at the sepulchre; Luke expresses it indefinitely, ὄρθρου βαθέος, "profundo mane," chap. 24:1, that is, בַבּקֶר, "in the first appearance and dawning of light;"—at which time the preparation for the promulgation of the law began.

31. The place they came unto is called "The wilderness of Sinai," Exod. 19:2; and so was the mountain also itself whereon the glorious majesty of God appeared, verse 20. It was also called "Horeb:" chap. 3:1, "He came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb," where they were to "serve God," verse 12; and it was on this account afterwards called "Horeb the mount of God," 1 Kings 19:8. And the whole wilderness was termed "The wilderness of Horeb," Deut. 1. It is therefore generally supposed that they were several names of the same places, the mountain and wilderness wherein it was being both called Sinai and Horeb. And they were both occasional names, taken from the nature of the place, סִינַי, "Sinai," from סְנֶה, "Seneh," "A bush," such as the angel appeared unto Moses in, Exod. 3: such whereof a multitude were in that place; and "Horeb" from its drought and barrenness, which is the signification of the word. But the opinion of Moses Gerundensis is far more probable, that Horeb was the name of the wilderness, and Sinai of the mountain. That Sinai was the name of the hill is expressly affirmed, chap. 19:18, 20, "And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount." So Ps. 68:17. And whereas mention is made of the "wilderness of Sinai," it is no more but the wilderness wherein mount Sinai was. And for those places before referred to, where Horeb seems to be called "The mount of God," the words in them all will bear to be read, "To the mount of God in Horeb." Strabo calls this very mount Σιννᾶν, lib. xvi.; and Justin says of Moses, "Montem Sinan occupat." The people, therefore, abode in Horeb, at the foot of the mountain, or about it; and the law was promulgated on the top of Sinai, in the most desert solitude of that wilderness. And in this place hath the superstition of some Christians in later ages built a monastery, for the celebration of their devotion by an order of monks, whose archimandrite was not many years since in England. But as the place, materially considered, is as evident an object of God's displeasure against the lower part of the creation, upon the account of sin, as almost any place in the world, a waste and howling wilderness, a place left to solitude and barrenness, so in its allusion or relation to the worship of God, it is cast by our apostle under "bondage," and placed in an opposition to the worship and church-state of the gospel, Gal. 4:24, 25.

32. Being come unto this place, it is said, "Moses went up into the mount unto God." It doth not appear that he had any new immediate express command so to do; probably he both came to that place, and so soon as he came thither went up into the mountain, in obedience to the command and in faith on the promise of God which he received upon his first call, Exod. 3:12; wherein it was given him for a token and pledge of their deliverance, that thereon they should worship God, and receive the law in that mountain: which is also the judgment of Aben Ezra upon the place. And it is not unlikely but that God at that time fixed the cloud which went before them, as the token of his presence, on the top of Sinai, as a new direction unto Moses for his going up thither.

33. Being ascended, God calls unto him ("The Word of the Lord," saith Jonathan), and teacheth him to prepare the people for the receiving of the law, chap. 19:3–6. Two things he proposeth to their consideration;— first, The benefits that they had already been made partakers of, hinted out unto them by the mighty and wonderful works of his power; and, secondly, New privileges to be granted unto them.

In the first he reminds them that he had "borne them on eagles' wings." This Jarchi interprets of their sudden gathering out of all the coasts of Goshen unto Rameses, to go away together the same night, chap. 12:37. But although it may be allowed that they had, in that wonderful collection of themselves, some especial assistance of Providence besides the preparation which they had been making for sundry days before, yet this expression evidently extends itself unto the whole dispensation of God towards them, from the first of their deliverance unto that day. Generally, they all of them explain this allegorical expression from the manner the eagles, as they say, carry their young; which is on their backs or wings, because they fear nothing above them, as soaring over all, whereas other fowls carry their young between their feet, as fearing other birds of prey above them. But there is no need to wring the expression, to force out of it such uncertain niceties. There is no more intended but that God carried them speedily and safely, as an eagle is borne by its wings in its course.

To this remembrance of former mercies God adds, secondly, a treble promise;—first, That they should be סְגֻלָּה, "segullah;" a word that hath none to declare it by. We render it here and elsewhere "A peculiar treasure," Eccles. 2:8. It is rendered by our apostle, Tit. 2:14, Λαὸς περιούσιος, "A peculiar people;" and by another, Λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν, 1 Pet. 2:9, which we translate in like manner. Secondly, That they should be םיִנֲהֹכּ תֶכֶלְמַמ, "A kingdom of priests;" that is, שרים, "of princes," saith Jarchi, as David's sons, who were princes, are said to be בהנים. And it is not denied but that the word is sometimes so used; but whereas here it intendeth the special separation and dedication of the people unto God after the manner of priests, thence the allusion is taken, the dignity of princes being included in that of "a kingdom." And this Peter renders Βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα, "A kingly priesthood." And in the translation of this privilege over unto believers under the gospel, it is said that by Christ they are made "kings and priests unto God," Rev. 1:6. It is added, that they should be "an holy nation," as expressly 1 Pet. 2:9.

34. That which God, on the other hand, requires of them is, that they keep his covenant, Exod. 19:5. Now, this covenant of God with them had a double expression,—first, In the giving of it unto Abraham, and its confirmation by the sign of circumcision. But this is not that which is here especially intended; for it was the administration of the covenant, wherein the whole people became the peculiar treasure and inheritance of God upon a new account, which is respected. Now, this covenant was not yet made, nor was it ratified until the dedication of the altar by the sprinkling of it with the blood of the covenant; as Aben Ezra well observes, and as our apostle manifests at large, Heb. 9:19–21. Wherefore the people, taking upon themselves the performance of it, and all the statutes and laws thereof, of which yet they knew not what they were, did give up themselves unto the sovereignty and wisdom of God; which is the indispensable duty of all that will enter into covenant with him.

35. For the further preparation of the people, God appoints that they should be "sanctified," and should "wash their clothes," Exod. 19:10, which was done accordingly, verse 14. The first contained their moral, the latter their ceremonial significative preparation, for converse with God. The former consisted in the due disposal of their minds unto that godly fear and holy reverence that becomes poor worms of the earth, unto whom the glorious God makes such approaches as he did unto them. The latter denoted that purity and holiness which was required in their inward man. From this latter temporary, occasional institution, such as they had many granted to them whilst they were in the wilderness before the giving of the law, the rabbins have framed a baptism for those that enter into their synagogue;—a fancy too greedily embraced by some Christian writers, who would have the holy ordinance of the church's baptism to be derived from thence. But this washing of their clothes (not of their bodies) was temporary, never repeated, neither is there any thing of any such baptism or washing required in any proselytes, either men or women, where the laws of their admission are strictly set down; nor are there the least footsteps of any such usage amongst the Jews until after the days of John Baptist; in imitation of whom it was first taken up by some ante-Mishnical rabbins.

36. The next thing which Moses did, by the command of God, after he returned from the mount, was to set bounds unto it and the people, that none of them might press to go up until the trumpet had done its long and last sounding,—a sign of the departure of the presence of God: Verses 12, 13, "And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: there shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount." The law, the sanction, and the duration of the obedience required, are here represented. The law expresseth an evil prohibited, both in itself and in the end of it. The evil itself, was going up into, or so much as touching by any means, the mountain or the border of it. The end wherefore this was prohibited was, that they might not gaze: Verse 21, "Charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze." The sanction is death, enjoined from the hand of men in these verses; and threatened from the hand of Heaven, verses 21, 24. The continuance of the observance was until the trumpet sounded long, or had done sounding; the sign of the departure of God's special presence, which made the place holy only during its continuance.

37. For the law, it is said expressly that the mount was not to be touched; it might not be touched by man or beast. Yet our apostle, treating concerning it, calls it "The mount that might be touched," Heb. 12:18. For although de jure, whilst that temporary command continued in force, it might not be touched,—which seemed to render it glorious,—yet, saith the apostle, it was but a carnal thing, that might de facto be touched by man or beast, had they not been severely prohibited; and so is no way to be compared with that heavenly "mount Sion" which we are called unto in the worship of God under the gospel.

38. The contexture of the words in our translation seems to have some difficulty: Exod. 19:12, "Whosoever toucheth the mount." Verse 13, "There shall not an hand touch it,"—יָד בּוֹ לֹא־תִגַּע. It should seem that by "it," בּוֹ, the mount itself is intended, and that the law is reenforced in a particular caution, that so much as an hand should not touch the mount. But it is far more probable that by "it," "touch it," the person, man or beast, that touched the mountain is intended; and that the words declare the manner how the offender should be destroyed. Being made anathema, devoted, accursed, by his presumptuous sin, no man was to touch him, or to lay hand on him to deliver him, lest he also contracted of his guilt. And this sense the ensuing words, with the series יָּרֶה אוֹ־יָרֹה יסָּקֵל סָקֹול of them, evinceth: יּחְיֶה לֹא אִס־אִישׁ אִס־בְּהֵמָה; that is, "No hand shall touch it," either to save it or to punish it, "but stoning it shall be stoned, or thrusting through it shall be thrust through; whether man or beast, it shall not live;"—'Let none think, by laying hand on it, to deliver יָּרֶה יָרֹה by ῥοιζήσει: 'He shall be slain or it.' Whence Aquila renders destroyed cum impetu et horrore, with force and terror; all being to cast stones at him, or to shoot him through with arrows, or thrust him through with darts." So Aben Ezra: יורוהו רחיק ואם מעמדם ממקום הרואי יסקלוהו רק לתפשו אדם יכנם לא הטעם בחצים;—"The meaning is, 'Men shall not gather about him to take him; but those that see him shall stone him from the place of their station. And if he be afar off, they shall shoot him through with arrows.' "

39. Touching the mountain, or the border, limit, or bound set unto it by God's appointment, was the sin forbidden. And the end of it, as was said, was, that they should not break through לִרְאוֹת, "to see;" "to gaze," say we, properly; to look with curiosity on the appearances of God's glory,—for which cause he smote the men of Beth-shemesh upon their looking into the ark, 1 Sam. 6:19: God intending by this prohibition to beget in the people an awe and reverence of his holy majesty, as the great Lawgiver; and by the terror thereof to bring them and their posterity into that bondage frame of spirit, that servile awe, that was to abide upon them until such time as He came who was to give liberty and boldness to his church, by dispensing unto believers the Spirit of adoption, enabling them to cry, "Abba, Father," and to enter with boldness into the holy place, even to the throne of grace.

40. In case the punishment appointed were neglected by the people, God threatens to see to the execution of it himself: Exod. 19:21, "Lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish." Verse 24, "But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the LORD, lest he break forth upon them." For to make them watchful in their duty, he lets them know that their miscarriage in this matter, devolving the punishment of the transgressor by their neglect upon him, should be imputed by him unto the whole people; so that he would in such a case break forth upon them with his judgments, and many of them should be consumed, to the terror and warning of the remnant.

The continuance of this prescription was from the day before the appearance of the glory of God on the mount, until by the long sounding of the trumpet they perceived the presence of God had left the place: Verse 13, "When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount;" that is, they had liberty so to do.

41. Things thus prepared, the people were brought forth unto their station, to attend unto the law: Verse 17, "And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount." This station of the people in mount Sinai is, amongst the Jews, the most celebrious thing that ever befell them, and many disputes they have about their order therein. Some few things we may observe from it.

Moses brought forth the people הַאֱלֹהִים לִקְרַאת, "in occursum ipsius Dei," to meet with God himself. דיי למימרא לקמוה,—"To meet with" (or "before") "the Word of God," saith Onkelos. דיי שבינתא, saith Ben Uzziel, —"The glorious presence of God." Ὁ Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ, and ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ·—"The essential Word of God, the brightness of his glory," the Son of God, the head and lawgiver of the church in all ages.

42. "And they stood at the nether part of the mount." Verse 2, it is said, הָהָר נֶגֶד שׂרָאֵל וָחַן־שָׁם;—"And Israel encamped there before the mount," in the singular number; that is, "in such order," saith Jarchi, "that they were all as one man." And saith he, "They were on the east side of the mountain, where also they kept their station at the giving of the law;" for so he would have the word נֶגֶד to denote, though he gives no instance to confirm his opinion. But Aben Ezra expressly rejects this fancy, and that by a notable instance, where it is said, "The people pitched their tents נֶגֶד," "before the tabernacle of the congregation round about." So that although they were round about the tabernacle, they are said to be before it, because of the special regard which they had unto it. And at this station in the wilderness command was given to "set bounds unto the people סָבִיב," "round about," verse 12; which there had been no need of had not the people been gathered round about the mountain.

43. Now, they generally agree that this was the order wherein they stood: —First stood the priests, mentioned expressly verse 22, and said there to "come near to the LORD;" that is, nearer than the rest of the people, though they also are expressly forbidden to come so nigh as to touch the mount, verse 24. These priests were as yet the first-born, before a commutation was made, and the tribe of Levi accepted in their room. Next to the priests stood the princes or heads of the tribes, attended with the elders and officers of the people. The body of the people, or the "men of Israel," as they speak, stood next to them, and behind them the women and children; the remotest of all in this order being, as they suppose, the proselytes that adhered unto them. Thus Aben Ezra expressly: בתחלה כי יי אל הנגשים בכורי היו;—"First were the first-born, who drew nigh to God;" הנשיאים הם שבטים ראשי ואחריהם,—"and after them were the heads of the tribes," that is, the princes; חזקנים ואחריהם,—"after them the elders;" השוטרים ואחריהם,—"after them the officers;" ישראל איש כל ואחריהם,—"after them all the men of Israel;" הטף ואחריהם,—"after them the children," that is, males; הנשים ואחריהם,—"after them the women;" הגרים ואחריהם,—"after them the proselytes" or "strangers."

44. All things being thus disposed, in the morning of the third day the appearances of God's glorious presence began to be manifested: Verse 16, "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." Verse 18, "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." That all these things were the effects of the ministry of angels, preparing the place of God's glorious presence, and attending upon him in their work, the Scripture elsewhere testifies, and we have before manifested; so that there is no need here further to insist upon it.

45. Upon this preparation for the descent of the glory of God, upon the sight of his harbingers and evidence of his coming, Moses brought forth the people הַאֱלֹהִים לִקְרָאת,—"to meet with God." He brought them out of the camp, which was at some farther distance, unto the bounds that by God's prescription he had set unto mount Sinai. And Rashi on the place observes, not unfitly, that this going of the people to meet with God argues that the glory of God came also to meet with them, as the bridegroom goeth out to meet the bride; for it was a marriage covenant that God then took the people into, whence it is said that "the LORD came from Sinai," namely, to meet the people, Deut. 33:2.

46. The utmost of the approach of the people was to "the nether part of the mount." The Targum of Jerusalem hath a foolish imagination from this expression, which they have also in the Talmud,—namely, that mount Sinai was plucked up by the roots, and lifted up into the air, so that the people stood under it: which Jarchi calls a "midrash;" that is, though not in the signification of the word, yet in the usual application of it, an allegorical fable.

In this posture the people trembled, and were not able to keep their station, but removed from their place, Exod. 20:18. "And the whole mount quaked greatly," chap. 19:18; so terrible was the appearance of the majesty of God in giving out his "fiery law."

In this general consternation of all, it is added that Moses himself spake, verse 19, "and God answered him by a voice." What he spake is not declared, nor was there any occasion for his speaking, nor can any account be given why he should speak to God, when God was solemnly preparing to speak to him and the people; nor is it said that he spake to God, but only that he spake. And it is signally added that God answered him בְקֹול, "in" (or "by") "a voice." For my part, I doubt not but that in this general consternation that befell all the people, Moses himself, being surprised with fear, spake the words recorded by our apostle, Heb. 12:21, "I exceedingly fear and quake;" which condition he was relieved from by the comforting voice of God, and so confirmed unto the remainder of his ministry.

These brief remarks being given upon the preparation for and the manner of the giving of the law, we shall summarily consider the general nature of the law and its sanctions in our next Exercitations.

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