nights in mount Sinai, and there he learnt them, Exod. xxiv. 12-18. Deut. ix. 9. 18.

Note, The people of Israel were not all called Jews, till after the return from the captivity of Babylon, the chief part of those who returned being of the tribe of Judah. Yet in all other histories, the Israelites are so univer. sally called Jews, that I have sometimes used this name even in the earlier part of their history. It is plain, that Moses was twice with God on mount Sinai, and that forty days each time; for Moses coming down, and finding the idolatry of the golden calf, broke the tables of the law which God wrote first; and God called him up a second time, and wrote the law on new tables. See Exod. xxxiv. 1-5. 28.

29 Q. What token was there that Moses had been with God?

A. The face of Moses shone so that the people could not converse with him, till he put a veil on his face, Exod. xxxiv. 29–35.

30 Q. What sort of laws were those which Moses gave the Jews?

A. Moral laws, ceremonial laws, and judicial laws, and all by God's appointment, Exod. xxxiv. 12. Isa. xxxiii. 22.

31 Q. What was the religion of the Jews or Israelites?

A. The same with the religion of Adam after his fall, of Noah, and Abraham, in Chap. II. Qu. 50. with these additions given by Moses.

Note, This is called the JEWISH, or MOSAICAL, or LEVITICAL DISPENSATION; and herein God may be considered under three characters;

1. As the universal Creator of all men, and as the Lord God and Ruler of the Souls and consciences of all, and of the Jews, as a part of Mankind. And under this character he required of the Jews all the duties of the Light of Nature, or the Moral Law, which obliged all mankind as well as them, and that under every dispensation.

2. He may be considered as the God of Israel, or the Jews, as a church outward and visible; whom he had separated from the rest of the nations to be a peculiar people to himself; and so he prescribed to them peculiar forms of worship, and special ceremonies and rites of religion, as tokens of their duty and his grace.

3. He may be considered as the proper King of the Israelites, as a nation, and as they were his subjects, and so he gave them judicial or political laws, which relate to their government, and the common affairs of the civil law. But these three sorts of laws are not kept so entirely distinct as not to be intermingled with each other. It is all indeed but one body of laws, and given properly to that one people under different dispensations. And on this account it is sometimes hard to say, under which head some of these commands of God must be reduced. Some command relating to their houses and garments, their plowing and sowing, and the prohibition of particular sorts of food, are naturally ranked under their Political Laws: and yet there is plainly something ceremonial or religious designed or included in them. Again, that which we call the Moral Law, or the Ten Commands, is for the most part the Law of Nature, but it has something of a positive institution, ceremonial or ritual in it. This is very plain in the fourth command of the seventh day sabbath; but in this catechism it was not proper to enter into too nice inquiries on this subject. The three branches of this distinction of the Jewish laws in the main are evident enough, though they happen to be intermingled in some instances.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the Moral Law.

1Q. WHICH was the moral law given to the Jews?

A. All those commands which relate to their behaviour, considered as men, and which lie scattered up and down in the books of Moses: but they are as it were reduced into a small compass in the ten commandments.

2 Q. How were these ten commands first given them?

A. By the voice of God on Mount Sinai, three months after their coming out of Egypt; and it was attended with thunder, and fire, and smoke, and the sound of a trumpet, Exod. xix. 18, 19. and xx. 1-18. 3 Q. Where was this moral law more especially written?

A. In the two tables of stone which God wrote with his own hand, and gave to Moses, Exod. xxiv. 12. xxxii. 15, 16, and xxxiv. 1.

4 Q. What did the first table contain?

A. Their duty towards God in the four first commandments. See Exod. xx. 3—11. Deut. v. 22. 5 Q. What are these four first commandments? A. (1.) Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. (2.) Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

(3.) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

(4.) Remember the sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid

servant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it.

6 Q. Is God's resting from his works of creation the seventh day, the only reason why the Jews were required to keep the sabbath or day of rest?

A. This latter part of the fourth commandment, namely, the reason of the sabbath, taken from the creation, and God's resting on the seventh day, is entirely omitted in the rehearsal of the ten commands in the fifth of Deuteronomy: and instead of it the Jews are required to observe this command of the sabbath or holy rest, for another reason, namely, because they were slaves in Egypt, and God gave them a release and rest from their slavery, Deut. v. 15. Though it is possible both reasons of this command might be pronounced from mount Sinai, and only that mentioned in Exodus be writ on the tables of stone.

7 Q. What did the second table contain?

A. Their duty toward man in the six last commandments, Exod. xx. 12-17. Deut. v. 22.

8 Q. What are these six last commandments? A. (5.) Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

(6.) Thou shalt not kill.

(7.) Thou shalt not commit adultery.

(8.) Thou shalt not steal.

(9.) Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

(10.) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house: thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nọr his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

9 Q. Were these ten commands given to the Jews only, or are they given to all mankind?

A. Almost every thing contained in these commands

is taught by the light of nature, and obliges all mankind; the honour that is done them in the New Testament intimates this also. But there are several expressions in these laws by which it plainly appears, they were peculiarly appropriated and suited to the Jewish nation in their awful proclamation at Mount Sinai.

10 Q. Wherein does it appear so plainly that these laws, as given at Mount Sinai, have a peculiar respect to the Jews?

A. This is evident in the preface, where God engages their attention and obedience, by telling them, that he was the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. This appears also in the fourth command, where the seventh day is the appointed sabbath for the Jews: and in Deut. v. 15. God gives this reason for the sabbath, that He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. It is yet further manifest in the fifth commandment, where the promise of long life in the land, literally refers to the land of Canaan which God gave that people: that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Yet, as it before intimated, the citation of them by the Apostles in the New Testament as rules of our duty, doth plainly enforce the observation of them so far on the consciences of Christians.

CHAPTER V.

Of the Ceremonial Law of the Jews.

1Q. WHAT was the ceremonial law?

A. All those commands which seem to have some religious design in them, especially such as related to their cleansing from any defilement, and their peculiar forms of worship.