flicted for incest, 1. With a mother. 2. A mother-in-law. 3. A daughter-in-law. 4. Adultery with a betrothed virgin. 5. Unnatural uncleanness with men. 6. With beasts by men. 7. With beasts by women. 8. Blasphemy. 9. Idolatry. 10. Offering to Moloch. 11. A familiar spirit of Ob. 12. Of Jiedeoni. 13. On impostors. 14. On seducers. 15. On enchanters or magicians. 16. Profaners of the Sabbath. 17. Cursers of father or mother. 18. The dissolute and stubborn son: concerning all which it is expressly said, that they shall be stoned.

§ 30. To the execution of these penalties there was added two cautionary laws. First, That they who were put to death, for the increase of their ignominy, and terror of others, should be hanged on a tree, Deut, xxi. 21. Secondly, That they should be buried the same day, ver. 23. And this is a brief abstract of the penalties of the law, as it was the rule of the polity of the people in the land of Canaan,

EXERCITATION XXII.

1. The building of the tabernacle. § 2, 3. Moses' writing and reading the book of the covenant. § 4. Considerations of the particulars of the fabric and utensils of the tabernacle. Omitted. § 5. One, instance insisted on. The ark. The same in the tabernacle and temple. The glory of God in what sense. § 6. The principal sacred utensil. §7. The matter whereof it was made. § 8, 9. The form of it. § 10. The end and use of it. § 11. The residence and motions of it. § 12. The mercyseat that was upon it. § 13. The matter thereof. § 14, 15. Of the cherubims. Their form and fashion. § 16, 17. The visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel compared. Difference in them, and reason thereof. § 18. Two other cherubim also in the temple.

§ 1. THE people having received the law in the wilderness,

and the foundation of their future church state and worship, which was to continue until the times of reformation, Heb. ix. 10. being thus laid; there was also assigned to them, by God's direction, a place and building for the seat of that worship. This was the tabernacle erected in the wilderness, in a manner suited to their then changing condition. When they had attained a fixed station in the land of promise, the temple built by Solomon, came in the room of this tabernacle. Our apostle, in treating of the ordinances of that church, as first instituted by Moses, of which the Hebrews boasted as their privilege, and to the observances of which they obstinately adhered, insists only on the tabernacle, from which the temple and its services were derived, and to which they were conformed. And this he doth principally, ch. ix. 1-5." Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made, the first wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shew-bread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all, which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat."

§2. The preparation for the directions which God gave for the building of this tabernacle is declared, Exod. xxiv. The body of the people having heard the law, that is the ten com,

mandments, which were written on two tables of stone, and the people no more than these, Deut. ix. 10. they removed to a greater distance from the mount, Exod. xx. 18, 19. After their removal, Moses continued to receive from the Lord that summary of the whole law, which is expressed, ch. xxi. 22, , 23. And all this, as it should seem, at the first hearing, he wrote in a book from the mouth of God. For it is said, ch. xxiv. 4. that he wrote all the words of the Lord. And, ver. 7. that he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people.

3. The Jewish masters suppose that it was the book of Genesis that is there intended. For, say they, the rest of the law was not yet written; for this took place before God himself had written or engraven the ten words on the two tables of stone. But this is a fond imagination, seeing the book which Moses read contained the form and tenour of the covenant made with that people at Horeb, and is expressly so called, and as such was then solemnly confirmed and ratified by sacrifice. It may therefore be rather supposed, that there is a prolepsis used in the recording of this story, and that indeed the confirmation of the covenant by sacrifice, which was accompanied with the reading of the book, was not until after the third return of Moses from the mount with the renewed tables. But this also may well be doubted, seeing this sacrifice was prepared and offered by the young men of the children of Israel, ver. 5. that is, the first-born, whose office was superseded upon the separation of Aaron and his sons unto the priesthood, which God had designed before that last descent of Moses from the mount. We must then leave things in the order in which they are recorded. It appears therefore that Moses wrote the law as he received it from God. This being done, he came down and read it in the ears of the people. And he proposed it to them, as containing the terms of the covenant that God would have them enter into. This they solemnly engaged to the performance of, and thereby had their admission into a new church state. This being done, the whole was confirmed by sacrifice, and the sprinkling of blood, to prefigure the great confirmation of the new covenant by the blood of Christ, as we shall see afterwards.

§ 4. Things being thus settled, Moses goes up again into the mount to receive directions for that worship of God, which he appointed and enjoined to them in that church state into which they were newly admitted. And here, in the first place, the Lord instructs him respecting the frame and whole fabric of the tabernacle, as that which was an eminent type of the human nature of Christ, and so indispensably necessary to the solemn worship then ordained, that no part of it could be rightly performed but with respect thereunto. This therefore, with all the

parts and utensils of it, should now come under consideration. But there are various reasons for which I shall omit it in this place: as, 1. The most material things belonging to it must necessarily be considered in our exposition of those places of the Epistle, where they are expressly insisted on.. 2. Many things relating to it, as the measures of it, some part of the matter whereof it was made, divers colours used about it, are very dubious, and some of them so absolutely uncertain, that the Jews themselves can come to no agreement about them; and it is not meet to enter into the discussion of such things, without more room and liberty than our present design will afford. 3. Many learned men have already laboured with great diligence and skill in the discovery of all the several concerns of the tabernacle and temple, from whom the reader who hath a mind to inquire into these things may receive much satisfaction. Moreover, this part of these discourses is written in such circumstances as afford me very little encouragement or assistance to enlarge on this subject. Only that the reader may not go away without an instance of what in other circumstances might have been here introduced, I shall select one particular utensil of the ta bernacle, and give an account of it. And this shall be the ark, and the things connected with it.

§ 5. The ark was the only furniture of the most holy place, the most sacred and holy of all the utensils of the tabernacle and temple. And it was the same in them both, as is evident, 1 Kings viii. 4. 6. It was the repository of the covenant; for so the law written by the finger of God in tables of stone is often called metonymically, and being anointed, Exod. xl. 9. it became pp, holiness of holinesses, or most holy, a type of him who was to fulfil the law, and establish the covenant between God and man, being thereunto anointed as the most holy, Dan. ix. 26. It was also the great pledge of the presence of God in the church; whence it is sometimes called his glory, Psal. lxxviii. 61. He gave in, his glory, beauty, majesty, into the hand of the enemy, when the ark was taken; on which occasion, the wife of Phineas cried, 712 *, Where is the glory? 1 Sam. iv. 21. because therein the glory departed with the ark from Israel, ver. 22. Also in the presence of the ark, glory was said to dwell in the land, Psal. Ixxxv. 9. pɔwb 125, because on it the Shechina, or Chabod, or glorious presence of God, dwelt and abode among his people. Yea, it hath the name of God himself attributed to it, by reason of its representation of his majesty, Psal. xxiv. 7. 9, 10.

We call it by the same name with the great vessel wherein Noah, and the seed of all living creatures, were preserved. But their names are very different in the original, both in sound and signification, The Hebrew word for the ark of the covenant

made under the ministry of Moses, is 1, Aaron, a chest, it may be from, a certain wood whereof such chests were made. The word for the other is, nan, Tebah, the name of any vessel in the water, great or small, though made with bulrushes, Exod. ii. 3.

§6. As the ark was the principal, so it was the first utensil of the tabernacle that God appointed to be made, Exod. xxv. 10. It was as the heart from which sacred holiness from the presence of God flowed to enliven and to give spirit to all other things belonging to his worship. Hence, when it was brought into the temple, and not till then, the visible pledges of the presence of God appeared there, 1 Kings viii. 8-12.

6

§ 7. The matter whereof it was made, was

w ry, Exod. xxv. 10. Shittim-wood, or boards of the now tree mentioned, Isa. xli. 18. What wood this was, is altogether uncertain, although it seems sure enough that none of it grew in the wilderness, where the people were at the erection of the tabernacle. For these Shittim boards were reckoned amongst the stores of silver and brass, and such other things as they had brought with them into the wilderness, Exod. xxxv. 25. and that expression, wx x3D) ¬wx bɔ, every one with whom was found Shittim-wood, intimates the rarity of it, and that, it may be, it had been preserved by them for sundry generations. There is indeed a place called Shittim, and Abel Shittim, mentioned Num. xxv. 1. and xxxiii. 49. but it is not probable that this name was derived from these trees. However this place was in the plains of Moab, to which the Israelites came not until forty years after the making of the ark. Indeed, there is nothing now known of the Shittim tree, or of this wood; for all that has been written respecting it, and many have written, is mere conjecture, ending in acknowledged uncertainty. Only it seems to have been notable for firmness and duration, as continuing in the ark apparently 900 years, even from the making of it till the destruction of the temple by the Chaldeans. And perhaps it was restored to the second temple, not perishing absolutely until the covenant with that people expired, 600 years after the captivity. But it had indeed this advantage for preservation from all external causes of decay, that it was inclosed on all parts in a covering of gold.

$8. The ark was in the form of an oblong chest, of small dimensions, being two cubits and a half in length, and one and a half in breadth, and of the same heighth, Exod. xxv. 10. It was thus, according to the most approved estimation of their measures, near four feet long, and two feet and some inches broad and high; and farther exactness or accuracy about these measures is of little certainty, and less use. How the boards of it were joined, is not mentioned. It was overlaid with beaten