where the testimony of GOD is sure, it becomes us to honour it with a dutiful belief, though the cause of his operations be placed beyond the reach of human solution. The declarations, however, of GOD concerning his Son, and the way of salvation, being not only proposed in distinct articles of faith, but interwoven in the relation of circumstances, we may reason upon these circumstances, as upon so many scriptural proofs, diversified and extended through all ages of the world, to lead the thoughts to Him, who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.

If it were necessary to call Abrahain out from his country and kindred so many years before, to secure a holy and believing line, in which the promise should be accomplished, much more was it necessary for the performance of that promise to re-publish the Divine Law, and to separate a peculiar people for the preservation of it, when the corruptions of traditional religion had filled the world with idolatry, and every consequent abomination; when among the most civilized nations, those of Canaan and Egypt, there was a general apostacy from the knowledge and worship of the true GOD, and

his name and honour were to be rescued from the hands of their senseless deities.

The re-publication, therefore, of the antient Law, with the peculiar additions now made to it, and the severe punishments inflicted upon idolatry, seems to have been the only mound that could in wisdom or mercy be opposed to the overflowing of transgressions. And with all their errors and corruptions, let the state of the Jews be compared with that of the greatest and the wisest nations in political estimation; let the degrading and abominable rites of the deities which they left behind them in Egypt, and which were afterwards transplanted to the altars of Greece and Rome, be opposed by the advocates for natural religion to the superstition of the tabernacle, and the ceremonial worship of the temple of Jerusalem.

The Law, also, as a partition-wall between the Jew and Gentile, now deposited in the ark in writing, transcribed from thence with the most accurate diligence for general use, and guarded with the most zealous caution, affords another convincing evidence of one Almighty purpose, and what was in fulness of time to be

produced, as bearing testimony of Christianity, was to be free from every suspicion, to be distinguished for the fidelity of its narrative, to confront the boldness of objection, to endure the severest scrutiny, to stand, as it ever has done, on the immoveable Rock of our salvation, and to bear aloft the features of its heavenly Legislator.

Thus also the question is resolved, why it was promulgated in so public a manner. Ordained to give a rationally incontestible evidence of its divine original, it was to produce an attestation from Heaven too positive to admit a doubt, and too general to suffer contradiction. And to suppose such a prodigious number of people not to know what they saw and heard; or that Moses would repeat to them (as he does in the text) what he knew had not been seen and heard, and then deliver the lie to them in writing, to obtain their future favour and confidence; to suppose, that any voice of man could be articulately heard by six hundred thousand persons at once, and what is more, shake the very earth itself; to suppose, that such a mighty: commotion in the heavens above, and in the

earth beneath, together with the trumpet and voice heard out of the cloud and fire, could be the effect of human policy or contrivance; or that the Almighty should suffer any imposition, where his name was concerned, to be practised by any supernatural means;-is to oppose credetitials properly divine, to believe impossibilities against the sure word of revelation, to make the voice of GOD the herald of a falsehood, and the power of GOD set his seal to an imposture.

The truth of the Law, therefore, and the terror of its publication, go together. Its object was to excite in the people awful sentiments of the power and majesty of the Lawgiver, to declare the purity, truth, and justice of his nature, and the corruption of theirs; to discover every man's heart to himself, and convince him of that corruption; to display the guilt and consequent punishment of sin; to awaken in the soul a fear of GoD, and of judgment to come; and to guide them by these means to repentance, and faith in the great Redeemer. The fear of the Lord was to prove to them the fountain of life. A sense of guilt implies a dread of punishment, and thus fear is justly called the begin

ning of religious wisdom, of which love is the perfection. In the state of innocence Adam ran to meet GOD, and the intercourse with his divine instructor was the most exalted delight of Paradise; but when innocence was gone, he sought the shelter of the deepest cover, and on being called forth out of it, returned for answer, with a dejection never known before, I heard thy voice, and I was afraid. If this be called a figure of speech, every serious heart can furnish a real comment to it. The people of Sinai heard the same voice, and were afraid; a sense of of guilt had magnified the sense of danger, and they beseech the leader whom they had mistrusted and reviled, to interpose in their behalf, and to sustain the part of a mediator between GoD and them. Had we no other proofs to offer of the object and end of the law, the prophetic and affecting reply to this request, would be one of the most convincing: I have heard the voice of the words of this people, says the Almighty, which they have spoken unto thee, they have well said, all that they have spoken. Othat there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my com