covenant. — Happy would it be for us, if we availed ourselves of these instructive intimations, to renounce that covenant which consigns us over unto death, and to embrace that better covenant which is revealed to us in the Gospel !]
III. To make them feel their need of a Mediator —
[The people, who but just before had been with difficulty restrained from breaking through the bounds that had been assigned them, were now so alarmed, that they fled from their station, and entreated, that God would no more deliver his commands to them in that way, lest they should die. They desired that Moses might be appointed as a Mediator between God and them, and that all future intimations of God's will should be given them through him. Of the full meaning of their own request they themselves were not aware : for, inas- much as Moses was a type of Christ, it was, in fact, a desire that Christ might be their Mediator, and that all their inter- course with the Deity might be through Him. This was the construction which God himself put upon it ; and in this view
he approved of, and applauded it g To the same effect
also the Apostle speaks. He tells us that the law was not designed to give us life, but to shew us our need of Christ, and to bring us unto him as our only hope h ]
Infer,
1. How thankful should we be for the Christian covenant!
[It is to this that we are come, if we have truly believed in Christ. And oh ! how different is our state from those who
are yet under the law1 ! Instead of being prohibited
from drawing nigh to God, we are permitted and commanded to come unto him. Let us avail ourselves of the blessed pri- vilege, and seek closer fellowship with our God, and brighter views of his glory ]
2. How careful should we be not to revert to the Jewish covenant !
[We do, in fact, revert to it, if we seek justification by the law of works. If we do any thing in order to be justified by it, we instantly become debtors to do the whole law. — Let it not then appear to us a light matter to indulge a self-righteous spirit ; for if we do, we renounce all hope from the grace of the Gospel, and " Christ, with respect to us, is dead in vainV]
3. How studiously should we cultivate the fear of God!
s Compare Deut. v. 27, 28. and xviii. 15 — 18. h Gal. iii. 24.
1 Ileb. xii. 18—24. * Gal. v. 1—4.