Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/337

Rh found, withholding just debts, rents, or wages; and it forbids us, what is worst of all, to rob the public in the coin or revenue, or that which is dedicated to the service of religion.

V. The ninth commandment concerns our own and our neighbour's good name; (v. 16.) Thou shalt not bear false witness: this forbids, 1. Speaking falsely on any matter, lying, equivocating, and any way devising and designing to deceive our neighbour. 2. Speaking unjustly against our neighbour, to the prejudice of his reputation; and, 3. (which involves the guilt of both these offences,) Bearing false witness against him, laying to his charge things that he knows not, either judicially, upon oath, by which the third commandment, and the sixth or eighth, as well as this, are broken; or extrajudicially, in common converse, slandering, back biting, tale-bearing, aggravating what is done amiss, and making it worse than it is, and any way endeavouring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of our neighbours.

VI. The tenth commandment strikes at the root; (v. 17.) Thou shalt not covet. The foregoing ..commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids, all inordinate desire of having that which will be a gratification to ourselves. "Oh that such a man's house were mine! Such a man's wife mine! Such a man's estate mine!" This is certainly the language of discontent at our own lot, and envy at our neighbour's; and these are the sins principally forbidden here. St. Paul, when the grace of God caused the scales to fall from his eyes, perceived that this law, Thou shalt not covet, forbids all those irregular appetites and desires which are the first-born of the corrupt nature, the first risings of the sin that dwelleth in us, and the first beginnings of all the sins that is committed by us: this is that lust; which, he says, he had not known the evil of, if this commandment, when it came to his conscience in the power of it, had not showed it him, Rom. 7. 7. God give us all to see our face in the glass of this law, and to lay our hearts under the government of it!

18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise ofthe trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. 21. And the people stood afar off: and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

Observe,

I. The extraordinary terror with which the law was given; never was any thing delivered with such awful pomp; every word was accented, and every sentence paused, with thunder and lightning, much louder and brighter, no doubt, than ordinary. And why was the law given in this dreadful manner, and with all this tremendous ceremony? 1. It was designed (once for all) to give a sensible discovery of the glorious majesty of God, for the assistance of our faith concerning it, that, knowing the terror of the Lord, we may be persuaded to live in his fear. 2. It was a specimen of the terrors of the general judgment, in which sinners will be called to an account for the breach of this law: the archangel's trumpet will then sound an alarm, to give notice of the Judge's coming, and a fire shall devour before him. 3. It was an indication of the terror of those convictions which the law brings into conscience, to prepare the soul for the comforts of the gospel. Thus was the law given by Moses in such a way as might startle, affright, and humble, men, that the grace and truth which come by Jesus Christ might be the more welcome. The apostle largely describes this instance of the terror of that dispensation, as a foil to set off our privileges, as Christians, in the light, liberty, and joy, of the New-Testament dispensation, Heb. 12. 18, &c.

II. The impression which this made, for the present, upon the people; they must have had stupid hearts indeed if this had not affected them. 1. They removed, and stood afar off, v. 18. Before God began to speak, they were thrusting forward to gaze; (ch. 19. 21.) but now they were effectually cured of their presumption, and taught to keep their distance. 2. They entreated that the word should not be so spoken to them any more, (Heb. 12. 19.) but begged that God would speak to them by Moses, v. 19. Hereby they obliged themselves to acquiesce in the mediation of Moses, they themselves nominating him as a fit person to deal between them and God, and promising to hearken to him as to God's messenger; hereby also they teach us to acquiesce in that method which Infinite Wisdom takes of speaking to us by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid, nor their hand be heavy upon us. Once, God tried the expedient of speaking to the children of men immediately, but it was found that they could not bear it, it rather drove men from God than brought them to him, and, as it proved in the issue, though it terrified them, it did not deter them from idolatry, for, soon after this, they worshipped the golden calf; let us therefore rest satisfied with the instructions given us by the scriptures and the ministry; for, if we believe not them, neither should we be persuaded though God should speak to us in thunder and lightning, as he did from mount Sinai; here that matter was determined.

III. The encouragement Moses gave them, explaining the design of God in his terror; (v. 20.) Fear not, that is, "Think not that the thunder and fire are designed to consume you," which was the thing they feared, (v. 19.) lest we die; thunder and lightning constituted one of the plagues of Egypt; but Moses would not have them think it was sent to them on the same errand on which it was sent to the Egyptians: no, it was intended, 1. To prove them, to try how they would like dealing with God immediately, without a mediator, and so to convince them how admirably well God had chosen for them, in putting Moses into that office. Ever since Adam fled, upon hearing God's voice in the garden, sinful man could not bear either to speak to God, or hear from him immediately. 2. To keep them to their duty, and prevent their sinning against God. He encourages them, saying, Fear not, and yet tells them that God thus spake to them, that his fear might be before their face. We must not fear with amazement—with that fear which has torment, which only works upon the fancy for the present, which sets us a trembling, which genders to bondage, which betrays us to Satan, and alienates us from God; but we must always have in our minds a reverence of God's majesty, a dread of his displeasure, and an obedient regard to his sovereign authority over us; this fear will quicken us to our duty, and make us circumspect in our walking; thus stand in awe, and sin not, Ps. 4. 4.

IV. The progress of their communion with God by the mediation of Moses, v. 21. While the people continued to stand afar off, conscious of guilt,