mount was in a smoke and there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, for the Lord descended upon it in fire. Such was the majesty of the scene, that the people trembled and stood afar off, and said unto Moses, "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us lest we die. And Moses went up to God in the mount."

The Ten Commandments were first given. To express their importance and perpetuity, they were written by the finger of God, on tables of stone. These commandments have their foundation in the nature of God and man, and in the relations which men bear to God and to one another. They contain the primary principles of all law. They are obligatory upon all men to the end of time.

Next, God gave to Moses the political and ceremonial law of Israel. He had set apart this nation for himself. Its government was to be a Theocracy. God was to be its King. He therefore gave his statutes for the regulation of the commonwealth.

It was also to form his visible church; and he prescribed such ceremonial observances as would maintain the knowledge of the true Jehovah; keep the Jews separate from the Heathen; and, by lively types and shadows, prefigure the gospel dispensation.

Under this divine constitution, the worship of Israel consisted much in sacrifices and offerings; in presenting to God slain animals and the fruits of the earth.

Sacrifices had been offered by the pious from the promise of a Saviour. They were doubtless of divine origin. They were now reduced to a regular system. God prescribed three kinds for the Jewish nation; the whole burnt offering, the sacrifice, and the thank offering. The first was the most ancient and excellent. It was expiatory. The whole victim, whether a bullock, a lamb, a turtle dove or young pigeon, was burnt; and a libation of wine was poured out upon the altar. The second was a sin offering or trespass offering, made on account of legal pollutions, or sins of ignorance. The third was an expression of gratitude for mercies received. The slain animals were accompanied with unleavened cakes; and most of the animal and the cakes were converted by the person offering, into an entertainment for the poor. All these sacrifices were so many symbols, corresponding with the several branches of piety. In the expiatory sacrifice, the offerer came before

God confessing that he was a sinner, and that he deserved to die, as the animal died. The acceptance of the sacrifice on the part of God, was a confirmation of the divine promises of pardon to the penitent. But this sacrifice was chiefly figurative of our Lord Jesus Christ, our true substitute; the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. If any trusted to a fancied efficacy in the sacrifices themselves, and to the multitude of victims, they drew upon them the divine anger.

That the Israelites might have a fixed place where they should offer their sacrifices, worship, and receive communications from heaven, God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle. Noah and the patriarchs had erected altars. As yet, temples were unknown among the people of God. The tabernacle was a moveable tent, made of the most costly materials. Before it was the court, 150 feet in length, and 75 in breadth, and enclosed by curtains made of linen. In the centre of the court stood the altar for sacrifice, and on one side the laver, with water. The tabernacle was West of the Court. It was thirty cubits from West to East, and ten from North to South, and was divided into two apartments. The outer was called the holy place; the inner, the Holy of Holies. In the former, on the North side, was the table of shew bread. On this were placed twelve loaves of unleavened bread, sprinkled over with frankincense; and wine in bowls. On the South side was the golden candlestick, in which seven lamps burned by night, and three by day. In the middle, was the altar on which incense was offered daily, morning and evening. In the in

ner room, from which was excluded the light of day, was the ark of the covenant-a small box covered with pure gold. In this was deposited the two tables of stone, on which were written the ten commandments. The lid or cover of the ark was called the mercy seat. On the ends of this seat were placed two cherubims, with their faces inclined towards each other, and towards the mercy seat, and their wings stretched out so as to overshadow it. These wings formed the throne of God, while the ark was his footstool. By the side of the ark, in a golden vase, was kept some of the manna, Aaron's rod, and the books of Moses.

'Here," said God to Moses, from between these cherubims, "I will meet with thee and commune with thee." Here was seen a cloud of glory, the visible symbol of Jeho

vah, which became bright and shining, when God there revealed his will by an audible voice. Such an emblem of Jehovah's presence, accompanied with frequent communications from him, caused the Israelites to feel that he was near; gave them a deep sense of the Unity of the Godhead, and kept them from the worship of the heavenly lu

minaries.

Of the seasons of worship, the first was the Sabbath. This was instituted at the close of the creation, and was doubtless observed by the pious both before the flood and after, according to their knowledge and opportunity. In the books of Moses, such observance is not indeed mentioned, nor was there any special occasion for the notice. But expressions exist, implying such observance, and which cannot well be accounted for without it. Time was divided into weeks of seven days* both before the flood and after. Probably the children of Israel were made incessantly to labor in Egypt; but no sooner were they released than they observed the Sabbath, before the promulgation of the law, as a day they felt to be holy. God, in the fourth commandment, speaks of the Sabbath not in a way which he would if instituted for the first time, but as an old institution, which they were required to remember and keep holy. The Sabbath was now re-instituted with peculiar solemnity, and its observance was placed in the moral code, among the ten commandments. But it is probable that the day of its observance was changed. For the day first marked out for the Jewish Sabbath by the manna's not falling upon it, was the twenty-second of the second month; and counting backward seven days, we find the people performing, by divine direction, a long and wearisome march. The original Sabbath, consecrated by the heathen to the Sun, may have been set aside, and that day made holy on which the Jews came out of Egypt. Of that event, the Sabbath now became a special memorial. He who is Lord of the Sabbath has a right to alter the day of its observance. He did alter it at a subsequent period, to commemorate his own resurrection. And if the Sabbath was then put back one day, as has been computed by some learned men, we have now the original Sabbath, and do commemorate both the creation and redemption of man.

Gen. xxix. 27. her week. Heb. her seven. Gen. iv. 7. + Exodus xvi. 22-30.

As standing memorials of the goodness of Jehovah, and the truth of the Mosaic religion, three great Festivals were instituted; the Feast of the Passover, of Pentecost, and of Tabernacles. The first was a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt. It was celebrated for seven days, from the 15th to the 21st of the month Nisan (April.) The second called Pentecost, because it was celebrated the fiftieth day from the Passover, was the feast of harvest and of the first fruits, and was a solemn acknowledgment of the divine goodness and their dependence and obligations. The third was a solemn thanksgiving for all the bounties of the year; and a memorial of the goodness of God to them when they dwelt in the tabernacles in the wilderness. These festivals were always celebrated at Jerusalem. All who could, attended them. They greatly promoted social affection, and kept the people from intercourse with foreign nations and idol festivals.

Besides the worship of the Sabbath and these festivals, the Hebrew ritual prescribed the daily sacrifice, offered morning and evening for the whole congregation ;—a religious service consisting of animal and vegetable offerings, on the appearance of the new moon, that the Israelites might be kept from the superstitious worship of that heavenly body; an annual service on the commencement of the seventh month, the beginning of the Jewish civil year ;—a Sabbatical year, a rest every seventh year from the cultivation of the earth, which was also a year of unusual attention to religion and the release of poor debtors from their creditors; and the year of Jubilee, which took place every fiftieth year or after every seven sabbaths of years. This was ushered in by the sound of a trumpet, and restored every native Israelite to his original property and freedom. To perfect the Jewish worship, God instituted an order of priests. In the patriarchal ages, the father of a family exercised the priestly office. This descended to the first born. The whole tribe of Levi was now set apart to attend upon the service of the sanctuary. Aaron and the first born of every generation descending from him, were consecrated to the high priesthood; his other sons to be priests. The rest of the Levites performed the inferior services of the temple. All the priests and Levites were solemnly consecrated by purification and atonement, were maintained by the nation, and treated with great respect. The priests had the superintendence of the ceremonies of

The

religion, and presented the victims for sacrifice. High Priest alone appeared before God on the day of atonement in the Holy of holies, and consulted the divine oracle.

The dress of the High Priest was very splendid. In his breast plate was the Urim and Thummim, i. e. light and justice. This is supposed to have been three precious stones, on one of which was written Yes, on the other No. The third was without writing. These stones were carried in the lining of the breast plate. When the High Priest would obtain an answer from God, he appeared before the Holy of holies, and proposing his question, took a stone from the breast plate. If he drew out the one with no inscription, no answer was to be given. Never was this oracle to be consulted for any private person, but only for the king or general of the army.

All the instructions and institutions of Moses had an high moral tendency. They led the children of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves, and trained up many of the greatest ornaments of antiquity. The worship he prescribed was eminently typical of the worship of the New Testament church; and in the High Priest was beautifully shadowed forth the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, who neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered in once into the holy place-into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. During the abode of the Church in the wilderness, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, comprising Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was deposited in the tabernacle, and preserved with the greatest vigilance. It was read every Sabbath day in the Synagogue, and through at the feast of Tabernacles, every Sabbatical year. The Prince was required to copy it, and the people were commanded to teach it to their children, and to wear it as "signs on their hands, and frontlets between their eyes." It is the only history we have of the creation, the antediluvian nations, the flood, and the re-settlement of the earth. Without it the first two thousand years of our race would be entirely hidden from us. It was written in Hebrew in one continued work, by inspiration of God, and was divided into books, probably by Ezra, or at the formation of the Septuagint version.*

Many are the conjectures of the philosophical and the curious, respecting the antiquity of the art of writing. Some suppose that symbolical represent