he hath a sense of the voice of God himself in the law; when he finds God himself speaking to his conscience, he can no longer bear it.

3. That the speaking of the law immediately dis covers the invincible necessity of a mediator between God and sinners. The people quickly found that there was no dealing with God in their own persons, and therefore desired that there might be one to mediate between God and them. And,

4. If the giving of the law was so full of terrors, that the people could not bear it, but apprehended they must die if God continued to speak it to them; what will be the execution of its curse in a way of vengeance at the last day!

VERSES 20, 21,

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.

$1. Introduction. $2. The terror of the law illustrated from the interdict about touching the mountain. §3: Farther illustrated from the consternation of Moses. §4. Observation.

§1. “F。 OR they could not endure that which was commanded," that is, the law itself; they could not endure it; they could not bear it, or stand under it; there was administered with it a spirit of bondage to fear, Rom. viii, 15; which aggravated the terror of it in their consciences,

These are the effects which a due apprehension of the nature, end, and use of the law, which the severity of God therein, will produce in the minds and consciences of sinners. Thus far the law will bring us; and here it leaves us; here are we shut up; there is no avoiding of its power, sentence, and sanction; it is given

by God himself; the sinner could wish that he might never hear more of it; what is past against this law, cannot be answered for; what is to come cannot be complied with; hereon they find themselves utterly lost, and so have no expectation but of fiery indignation to consume them; and accordingly they must eternally perish, if they betake not themselves to the only relief, Christ the Savior.

§2. Of this terror from the giving of the law, and the causes of it, the apostle gives a double illustration; the first whereof is the interdict given against touching the mount; which extended to the very beasts; "And if so much as a beast touch the mountain;" so was the divine constitution; "whether it be beast or man, it shall not live," Exod. xix, 13; I doubt not but that Divine Providence removed from it such brute creatures as were not under the power of men, such as might be wild about those mountainous des erts, or else the fire consumed them to the least creeping thing; but the prohibition respects the cattle of the people, which were under their power, and at their disposal; and this (besides being an illustration of the absolute inaccessibleness of God by the law) seems to intimate the uncleanness of all things which sinners possess, by their relation to them. To the impure all things are impure and defiled; therefore doth the prohibition extend itself to the beasts also.

The punishment of a beast touching the mount, was, that it should die; and it is expressed in the prohibition, that no hand should touch that which had offended; it was to be slain at a distance with stones ór darts; no hand was, ever more to touch it; either, to relieve it, which may be the sense of the word; or to slay it, lest it were defiled thereby; and this also sheweth, at what a distance we ought to keep ourselves from every thing that falls under the curse of the law.

§3. The second evidence which he gives of the dreadful promulgation of the law, and consequently of the miserable state of them that are under its power, is on what befell Moses on this occasion; the effect of this terror extendeth itself to the meanest of beasts, and to the best of men; Moses was a person holy, and abounding in grace above all others of his time; the meekest man on the earth; he was accustomed to divine revelations, and had once before beheld a representation of the Divine presence Exod. iii; he was the internuntius, the mediatory messenger. between God and the people at that time; yet would none of these privileges exempt him from an amazing sense of the terror of the Lord in giving the law; and if on all these advantages he could not bear it, much less can any other man do so; the Mediator himself of the old covenant was not able to sustain the dread and terror of the law; how desperate then are their hopes who would yet be saved by Moses!

This expression was, "I exceedingly fear and quake," or tremble; that he said so, we are assured by the Holy Ghost in this place; they were undoubtedly spoken then and there (though not recorded in the sacred story,) hence it is said, that he spake, but not one word is added of what he did speak; Exod. xix, 19, "And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by a voice;" then no doubt he spoke these words; for it was immediately upon his sight of the dreadful appearance, to which season the apostle assigns them.

It is said, moreover, that God answered him with a voice; but what he said to him is not recorded. Doubtless, God spoke what gave him relief, which

delivered him out of his distress, and reduced him to a frame of mind meet for the ministration committed to him, which in his surprisal and consternation he was not; and therefore immediately afterwards, when the people fell into their great horror and distress, he was, able to relieve and comfort them, no doubt, with that kind of relief which he himself had received from God, Exod. xx, 20. It appears then that,

§4. Obs. All persons concerned were brought to an utter distress by the renovation and giving of the law, from whence no relief is to be obtained but by him alone who is the end of the law for righteousness to all that believe.

VERSES 22--24.

But you are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the liv. ing God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

31. The state of the church under the gospel. A rule of interpretation. $2. (1.) Believers are come to mount Sion. $3, 4. The city of the living God. 5. The company of angels. G. Inferences. $7. The general assembly and church, $8. Of the first-born, written in heaven. $9. To God the Judge of all. 10 To the spirits of just men made perfect 11 To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant $12. The blood of sprinkling, $13. That speaketh better things than Abel's. §14. How we come to these things. $15- 17. (II.) Observations.

$1. THIS is the second part of the comparison. In the former he gave an account of the state of the people and the church under the law, from the giving of it, and the nature of its commands. In this he so declares the state to which they were called by the gospel, as to manifest it to be incomparably more excellent in itself, and beneficial to them.

We have here a blessed, a glorious description of the Catholic church, as the nature and communion of

it is revealed under the gospel; which is distributed into two parts-militant and triumphant. There is in the religion of the papists another part of the church, niether in earth nor in heaven, but under the earth, as they say, in purgatory. But with this, they who come to Christ by the gospel have nothing to do. They come indeed to the "spirits of just men made perfect;" but so are none of those, by their own confession, who are in purgatory. Wherefore believers

have nothing to do with them.

That which we must respect as our rule in the exposition of the whole is, that the apostle intends a description of that state whereunto believers are called by the gospel. For it is that alone which he opposeth to the state of the church under the Old Testament. And to suppose that it is the heavenly future state which he intends, is utterly to destroy the force of his argument and exhortation. For they are built solely on the pre-eminence of the gospel state, above that under the law, and not of heaven itself, which none could question.

§2. (I.) And first we are said to "come to mount Sion." The sum of the whole is, that by the gospel we are called to a participation of all the glory which was ascribed or promised to the church under those names, in opposition to what the people received by the law at mount Sinai.

Sion was a mount in Jerusalem, which had two heads, one whereof was called Moriah, whereon the temple was built, whereby it became the seat of all the solemn worship of God; and on the other was the place and habitation of the kings of the house of David; both of them typical of Christ, the one in his priestly, the other in his kingly office.

And the opposition between these two mountains was eminent. For God came down for a season only