with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount: here all the men of Israel, their wives, their sons, and their daughters all stood. Exod. xix. 17.

Now, to make them all fit to hear the voice of the great God of Israel, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon each that stood there, and thus became a whole nation, in one moment, prophets; for who is able to hear the voice of God, if he is not holy? *We find that afterward, when any one of the prophets was inspired, at that very time he lost the use of all his limbs; he lay like dead, and when he recovered he knew his commission. With all the prophets God spoke either in a dream or in a vision, except that with Moses he spoke mouth to mouth.

Now learn from the children of the fathers all the prophets were the children of that generation which came forth out of Egypt; but here, to the fathers and mothers he spoke face to face; for so it is written in the text: "The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount, out of the midst of the fire.” Deut. v. 4. Every one must acknowledge that at that time each of the nation was a prophet; and here the Lord gave his law to a nation of prophets. This was the day for Moses to be established as a prophet of God; every man of Israel, every woman of Israel, knew now that Moses was the man whom God had chosen; and the whole nation cried out, and said, "Behold the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man and he liveth." Deut. v. 24. Observe the term; "We have seen this day that God doth talk with man and he liveth." Here you

may learn, that until now they did not believe that God ever spake to man; but now they believed, and said, " For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, and lived?" v. 26. This was the time when all Israel believed that the miracles which Moses had wrought in Egypt, by the Red Sea, in the wilderness, were all performed by the power of God; thenceforward they believed whatever he told them. On this account the people said unto him, "Go thou near and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it and do it," v. 27.

Thus far I have proved, that a prophet cannot be established by miracles: for miracles can be performed even by bad and wicked men.

* THE AUTHORITY AND POWER OF THE LAW OF MOSES ESTABLISHLD FOR EVER, AS WELL IN HEAVEN, AS ALSO UPON EARTH; AND THERE NEVER WILL BE ANY OTHER LAW EXCEPT THIS. -In the book of Deuteronomy, chap. xxviii, is pronounced the blessing for obedience, and the curses for disobedience. In chapter xxx we read thus : "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee," &c. v. 1-10. Moses, the great prophet, foretold Israel what would befal them; "For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befal you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord," &c. xxxi. 29. In chap. xxviii. xxix. he tells the people that they will be " scattered among all nations;" that they will have no king, no land, no temple; and in that condition they will "abide for many days." -Further, he gave them advice how to proceed, and by what means they might recover their land, their temple, and their king. From the beginning of the first verse to the eleventh, we may learn, 1. that there is a promise that in the latter days Israel will return to the Lord their God: 2. He will restore them to their own land again: 3. The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul that thou mayest live :" 4. " And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies; if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law." Deut. xxx. 10. * Let every one observe these ten verses, and then he will acknowledge that the law of Moses is in full power at this day, just as it was in the time of Moses. Now, if the law of Moses is in full force this day, it will prove that there is no other law; and, if there is no other law, then the boasting of all the gentile world is put away, and it will remain that among Israel only are to be found the oracles of God. * The law of Moses is perfect. The gentiles say, it is imperfect: on this account the law is abolished, and a better one established. But we ought never to speak at random to establish any thing: sufficient proof ought to be given, in particular where it concerns the honour and glory of the great Creator of heaven and earth. If the law is imperfect, then you must say also that God is imperfect; because this law is called the law of God, and who will dare to say that a perfect God established an imperfect law.

This law tells us that God is perfect: "He is the Rock, his work is perfect." Deut. xxxii. 4. "As for God, his way is perfect, the word of the Lord is tried." Psalm xviii. 30. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure." Psalm xix. 7.

What will you say here? * I have produced two witnesses; the one, Moses the man of God; the other, king David the man of God; both of them tell you that the law is perfect, and whatever is perfect is finished and complete: now it is your duty to bring forward two witnesses, of equal character, and let them prove that the above witnesses' testimony is false. But the question will be, who are your two witnesses? Can you produce two men able to stand, and to contend with Moses and David? No you cannot. They both say, a perfect God has given a perfect law; but look here, stand in awe : "And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." Exod. xxxii. 16. * These two tables contained the whole law; for * in the Ten Commandments there are six hundred and thirteen letters, and each letter stands for one command, and in the whole law of Moses there are six hundred and thirteen commandments: and such was the power of these two tables that it contained the complete law of Moses. Thus far it is proved, that a perfect God gave a perfect law:

and, if so, it contains every thing, and sufficient to make happy all the sons of Adam.

But here the gentile world will say that this statement is not true, because this law was given only to Israel, but not to the gentiles; and therefore * this law cannot make happy all the sons of Adam. To this I answer, that it is true, the law was given only to Israel, and that this law is called the inheritance of Israel. Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob." Deut. xxxiii. 4. Why did God give the law for an inheritance to Israel, and not to any other nation, nor to all nations ? forasmuch as all nations are his creatures, * he ought to have given the law to all of them. We find that the sons of Japhet, Ham, and Shem, * were in number seventy: they multiplied greatly, "And they said one to another, Let us build a city and a tower, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth." Gen. xi. 14. The whole proceeding of this second world was to rebel against God. The Lord said, their punishment should be that which they were afraid of; * they said, Lest we be scattered; and God said, They shall be scattered. Then the Lord said to his heavenly Sanhedrin, or the seventy angels that minister unto him, "Let us go down and there confound their language." v. 7. Here lots were cast, and that family which fell in the lot of Gabriel, he became the guardian angel of that family; and in this manner the seventy families were divided among the seventy angels. These seventy families became afterward seventy nations; so every nation had a prince in heaven,