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God, because on it the glory of God was revealed.

Before Moses went up, he gave instructions unto the elders how they should conduct themselves, and the concerns of the people. Then he went up into the mount, i. e. to the top of it, and "a cloud covered the mount, and the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day he called unto Moses, out of the midst of the cloud."

The cloud upon the mount, was a symbol of God's presence; and also of his invisibility, majesty, and the terror which a display of it had caused, and could not but cause, in the minds of beholders.

The glory of the Lord abode upon the mount six days, to prepare Moses to receive what the Lord had further to deliver unto him: and on the seventh day, Moses was admitted into the mount, or rather into the cloud where God was; "And the sight of the glory of the Lord, was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel."

Every time Jehovah spake to Moses, before he entered the cloud, the glory of the Lord brake forth, and shone like a large flake of burning or devouring fire; and this was visble in the eyes, or to the view of the children of Israel. It was not fire, but like devouring fire: though the elders of

Israel saw the God of Israel, the essential Word in human form; yet the people saw no similitude of God, as Moses observes, Deut. iv. 15.

Joshua abode in some lower part of the mount, waiting for Moses's return, as appears from Exod. xxxii. 17. and there Joshua abode forty days, not fasting all the while, but having, as the rest had, manna for his meat, and for his drink water out of the brook, that descended out of the mount, see Deut. ix. 21.

Moses being on the top of the mount, where he waited six days in a state of preparation, entered at the Lord's command, on the seventh day into the cloud, which was like burning and devouring fire in appearance. A wonderful instance of his faith! And being thus admitted into the presence of the Most High, he remained forty days and forty nights, where the Lord delivered out those commands and ordinances, contained in the following chapters, from the 25th to the end of the 31st.

May what has been delivered, cast light upon the scriptures. Amen.

SERMON X.

ON

THE TABERNACLE, WITH ITS COURt, and
THE SACRED UTENSILS IN IT, WITH THE
REARING IT UP WHEN THE CLOUD OF GLORY
FILLED IT; ALL OF WHICH WAS FULL OF
CHRIST, AND VERY

EXPRESSIVE

SYMBOLS

OF HIM.

EXODUS xl. 33, 34.

" And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle, and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate: so Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."

WHILST Moses was in the mount with God, he had a view of a glorious tabernacle, and its furniture, according to the exact form of which he was to form one, with all its vessels and symbolical figures. Moses went up into the mount with God, after the Sinai covenant and

transaction had been ratified and confirmed by the sacrifices, blood, and death of sacrificial beasts, on the seventh day of Sivan, which answers to part of May and June. He remained there forty days and forty nights. When he came down, he saw the golden calf which had been made by Aaron, during his absence, and worshipped by the Israelites. Out of holy detestation of their idolatry, he cast the tables of the law, which he had received from the Lord, out of his hands, and brake them before their eyes. As their intercessor, he went up the following day again into the mount, and fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights, and had a sight of the glory of the Lord. On the thirtieth day of the month Ab, which answers to part of July and August, he went up again with the two tables, which he prepared at the command of God, and fasted again forty days and forty nights, and had a sight of the glory of the Lord, who proclaimed himself, "THE LORD GOD, GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL, PARDONING INIQUITY, TRANSGRESSION, AND SIN," and received some commands from him. On the tenth day of the month Tizri, which answers to our September and October, Moses came down from the mount, with the tables reinscribed by the Lord, and with a commission to set about making the tabernacle.

As the tabernacle, with all its vessels, the high priest and priests, with all their garments, together with the persons who were to be the chief workmen in making the tabernacle, its utensils, and priests garments, had been nominated by the: Lord, Moses gathered all the congregation of Israel together, and made known to them the Lord's will and command: they immediately yield obedience to the good pleasure of the Lord's revealed will and command. The things requisite for building the tabernacle, and making the priests garments, and all other things commanded, are brought; and under the direction of Moses, and inspection of Bezaleel and Ahuliab,› the whole is wrought and finished in about five months and a half.

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The thirty-ninth chapter informs us, that the tabernacle, with all its vessels, the hangings for the court, with all belonging thereunto, the brazen altar and laver, the garments for the high priest and priests, with the vails, and all that the Lord had commanded, being made and brought to Moses, and being surveyed by him clearly and distinctly, apart and separate, and found altoge ther agreeable to the pattern, shewed him in the mount, he blessed the persons who had wrought them.

This chapter informs us, that all being completed, the Lord commanded that the tabernacle

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