1 miffion of their numerous Offences and Breaches of that Law. Thefe Additional Laws are those which the Gofpel has generally freed us from, and no other; the reft being fometimes chang'd a little, and alter'd, and fo fuited to the nature of Chriftianity, but not properly abrogated by our Saviour in the New Teftament. Note (2) that the former fort of Laws, given before the Sin of the Golden Calf, were of three kinds themselves. First, the Ten Words, or Commandments, fpoken by our Lord himself, in the Name of the Supreme God, in Mount Sinai; and the Foundation of the whole Covenant made with that People in the Wilderness: And God added no more, D.5.2 in this manner, but wrote them on two Tables of Stone, the Tables of the Covenant; and order'd them to be all along preferv'd in an Ark, called thence the Ark of the Covenant, in the moft holy Place. Thefe, properly fpeaking, are never in Scripture included under the Laws given by Angels, Meffengers, or by Mofes, that Peoples Mediator with God; but were in a moft amazing manner promulgated by the God of Ifrael himself to the whole Body of the People, Exod. XX. Secondly, The Laws given them by Mofes immediately after the delivery of the Ten Commandments, upon the Ifraelites requeft, that God would rather deliver them by Mofes than by him felf self in the former frightful manner; and the 12. 25.40.26. Num. 8.4. See 2 Eld. 14. 3—6. the Body of the People; but only fo much of it told them by Mofes as concern'd their own Duty and Practice all along, and the Book it felf committed, as a facred Depofitum, to the Governors of the People Ecclefiaftical and Civil. This facred and fecret Book of Jewish Conftitutions, or at least fo much of it as is still preferv'd in the Pentateuch, is contain'd at prefent, Exod. xxv. xxxi. Note (3) That the latter fort of Laws, given after the Apoftacy by the golden Calf, are alfo of three feveral forts. Firft the Ten Commandments, or Tables of the Covenant were the fame, only the Tables themselves were now of Mofes Workmanship and not of Gods, as the former Tables were; and 'tis poffible the form of Words might be so far alter'd as that in DeuExod. 20. teronomy is different from that in Exodus. Deut. 5. However, Secondly, a new and fmaller Book of the Covenant was written, not now by God, but by Mofes, in his fecond Forty Days ftay in the Mount: And this Second Covenant, after the forfeiture of the first by the Apoftacy at the golden Calf, was ratify'd, not, as before, by mutual agreement, and by facrifice, but was made up on God's part rather of Laws given them as the conditions of this Covenant; and their Confent to them was not now fo much ask'd as requir'd; and ftrict obedience exacted under fevere Penalties. This fmaller Book Book of the Covenant is contain'd, Exodus xxxiv. Thirdly, The particular ceremonial or burdenfome Laws of Mofes, of which the New Testament fo often speaks under that notion, and which were bound upon them with great rigor and feverity ever afterwards, were deliver'd by God to Mofes, as the Me diator of that People; partly in his fecond Forty Days stay in the Mount; which are contain❜d, Exod. xxxv. - xl. Ĺev. i. vii. and xxv.- xxvii. partly out of the Tabernacle it felf, when it was rear'd, upon feveral occafions; as is every where to be obferv'd; and partly in the Plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, which are contain'd in the Eleven laft Chapters of the Book of Numbers. Where note, that the rest of the Laws given in the Plains of Moab, those I mean which were efteem'd the Principal, and to which the Bleffings upon obedience, and Curses upon difobedience did peculiarly belong, contain'd, Deut. x. 12.- xxviii. 68. are to be diftinguish'd from those more properly Ceremonial, and were to be written, not only in a Book, but also upon Twelve great Stones or Pillars, plaifler'd over with Dent. 27. Plaifter, in Mount Ebal; and to be written 5. 6. 7. very plainly, for a ftanding Monument and Security to all Pofterity. After which God renew'd his Covenant by Sacrifice with the new Generation at Mount Ebal, and that upon the foot of thofe Two forts of Laws, the the Ten Commandments, and this Book of the Covenant: Which Book, tho' it was larger and more burdenfome than the former, yet did it not include the main Body of the Ceremonial Laws, no more than the former Book of the Covenant included the Laws given in the first Forty Days in Mount Sinai. So that indeed the main Body of the ritual and ceremonial Laws feem never to have been part of the Covenants made with the Jews, but only Laws and Statutes appointed them, by way of Penalty from God, as their abfolute Lord, and Governor, and Redeemer from the Egyptian Bondage, till the coming of the promised Seed for their release from them. Which diftinction between the Covenant, and the Ceremonial Law feems to me favor'd by the 50th Pfalm; and will give light to not a few Places both of the Old and New Teftament befides. Now as to these feveral Laws given fince the Apoftacy by the golden Calf, as well as all thofe given before, they were written in a Book by Mofes; who alfo commanded the Levites, to take this Book of the Law, and put it in the Deut. 31. fide of the Ark of the Covenant, that it might be there for a Witness against them. Their King alfo, when they had one, was order'd to write him a Copy of this Law in a Book, out of that which was before the 17. 18. Priefs, the Levites. Mofes alfo, when he 24.25.26 bad |