conference with Moses, in which the most extraordinary favour, and the most. gracious condescension are shown, for it is said that "the Lord spake unto him as a man speaketh unto his friend," he is so far emboldened as to make this singular request; I beseech thee, show me thy glory. To this the Lord replies, not in displeasure but in increasing favour, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord; but thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live. And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen." This wonderful promise was fulfilled, when Moses, by the command of God, went up again into the mount for forty days and forty nights, as at the beginning, and received anew the tables of the testimony. There' the Lord

1It is usually represented that God made this display of his goodness unto Moses, at the time when

passed by before him, and, as he had said, in all his goodness, proclaiming, "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin."

What are we to understand then by this manifestation, and by the singular distinction here drawn between the face and the back parts of God? It is evident that the words cannot be taken literally, since God is a spiritual essence, and hath no parts, no form visible to mortal eye; for parts and form belong not to spirit. It is intended figuratively to set forth his glorious and gracious attributes; to render them clear to our comprehension by material similitudes, in the same manner as, in other places of Scripture, the arm

he talked with him out of the cloudy pillar at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. (chap. xxxiii. 9-23.) But it is evident that this is only the promise of what he would do; which promise we find afterwards fulfilled, when Moses went up into Mount Sinai to have the tables of the law renewed. (chap. xxxiv. 6.)

represents the justice and omnipotence of the Deity; the eye his omniscience and omnipresence; and the hand his providence and grace. Moses had already seen some portion of the divine glory, when it rested upon Sinai at the first delivery of the law, and it was perfectly suitable to the character of that law. Desiring to behold a still fuller display, the Almighty informs him that this is impossible; that mortality could not endure the vision. At the same time he promises to show him what he had not yet seen what could not be appropriately exhibited together with the rigid justice of the moral law; that is, his goodness; his character as "The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious."

This glory, therefore, this face of God which is invisible, designates the justice, the terror, the severity of God—it is God, as he is a consuming fire, a jealous God, -it is God, as he is extreme to mark what is done amiss-it is God, as he visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children-it is God, in majesty eternal, in purity infinite, in glory unap

proachable. But, after these terrible glories are gone by, then he makes all his goodness pass before him. Here there is no limitation, no keeping back. This display is perfectly suitable to the nature, the state, the wants of man. Now, it is God, in his mercy and his grace -is God, as he is long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and in truth-it is God, as he keepeth mercy for thousands-it is God, as he forgiveth iniquity, and pardoneth transgression and sin. Thus it was, also, in the manifestation which Jehovah made of himself to Elijah, on the very same Mount of Horeb, and after a similar preparation by a fast of forty days and forty nights. First came the fire, the earthquake, and the wind rending the mountain and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord: after these demonstrations of glory followed the still small voice of goodness and of mercy.

But to return to the delivery of the law. The first thing observable in the wonderful narrative before us, is, that the Mosaic law consists not, as often re

presented, of a mere system of external ceremonies, now done away, and therefore neither useful nor interesting; that it is not a mere collection of arbitrary and temporary regulations, burdensome even to the people for whose use they were promulgated, and totally inapplicable to all other nations. It is separated into two grand divisions-the moral law and the ceremonial-each important in itself, and distinguished not more by the difference of character and purpose, than by the mode of delivery, and the degree of solemnity with which that delivery was accompanied. The moral law, the law of the two tables, containing the eternal and unchangeable rules of holiness, was given by the voice of God himself, out of the midst of the fire, issuing from “the excellent glory." "These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice and he added no more." And, as if to mark still farther the important difference between the two, and