29 Q. What Token was there that Mofes had been with God? A. The Face of Mofes fhone fo that the People could not converse with him till he put a Vail on his Face, Ex. xxxiv. 29-35.

30 Q. What Sort of Laws were thofe which Mofes gave the Jews? A. Moral Laws, Ceremonial Laws. and Judicial Laws, and all by God's own Appointment, Ex. xxiɣ. 12. Ifa. xxxiii. 22:

31 Q. What was the Religion of the Jews or Ifraelites? A. The fame with the Religion of Adam after his Fall, of Noah, and Abraham, in Chap. II. Q. 50. with thefe Additions given by Moses.

Note, This is called the JEWISH, or MOSAICAL, or LEVITICAL DISPENSATION. And herein God may be comfidered under three Characters.

1. As the Universal Creator of all Men, and as the Lord God and Ruler of the Souls and Confciences 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 Difpenfation.

2. He may be confidered as the God of Ifrael, or the Jes, as a Church outward and visible, whom he had feparated from the reft of the Nations to be a peculiar People to himself, and fo he prefcribed to them peculiar Forms of Worship, and fpecial Ceremonies and Rites of Religion, as Tokens of their Duty and his Grace.

3. He may be confidered as the proper King of the Iraelites as a Nation, and as they were his Subjects, and fo 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 fo ent tirely diftinct, as not to be intermingled with each other. 'Tis all indeed but one Body of Laws, and given properly to that one People under different Confidera

C 3

tions

tions and on this account 'tis fometimes hard to fay under which Head fome of these Commands of God. must be reduced. Some Commands 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 fomething Ceremonial or Religious defigned or included in them. Again, That which we call the Moral Law, or the Ten Commands, is for the moft part the Law of Nature, but it has fomething of a pofitive Inftitutión, Ceremonial or Ritual in it. This is very plain in the fourth Command of the seventhday Sabbath but in this Catechifm it was not proper to enter into too nice Inquiries on this Subject. The three Branches of this Diftinction of the Jewish Laws in the main are evident enough, though they happen to be intermingled in fome Inftances.

CHA P. IV.

Of the Moral Law.

HICH was the moral Law given to the Jews? A. All thofe Commands which relate to their Behaviour confidered as Men, and which lie fcattered up and down in the Books of Mofes; but they are as it were reduced into a fmall Compafs in the ten Commandments.

2Q. 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. I-- 18.

3D 3Q. 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 Mofes, Ex. xxiv. 12. xxxii. 15, 16. and xxxiv. 1.

4Q. What did the firft Table contain? A. Their Duty towards God in the four firft Commandments. See Ex. xx! 3-11. Deut. v. 22.

5Q. What are thefe four firft Commandments? A. (1.) Thou fhalt have no other Gods before

me.

(2.) Thou fhalt not make to thyfelf any graven Image, or any Likenefs 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 fhalt not bow down thyfelf to them, nor ferve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, vifiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Chidren unto the third and fourth Generation of them that hate me, and fhewing Mercy unto thoufands 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 fhalt thou labour and do all thy Work, but the feventh 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-fervant, nor thy Maid fervant, nor thy Cattle, nor thy Stranger that is within thy Gates; for in fix Days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, the Sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh Day: wherefore the Lord bleffed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it.

6Q. Is God's refting from his Works of Creation the feventh Day the only Reafon why the Jews were required to keep the Sabbath or Day of Reft? A. This latter Part of the fourth Commandment (viz.) The Reason of the Sabbath, taken from the Creation, and God's refting on the feventh Day, is entirely omitted in the Rehearsal of the ten Commands in the fifth of Deuteronomy: and inftead of it, the Jews are required to obferve this Com mand of the Sabbath or holy Rest for another Reafon, (viz.) because they were Slaves in Egypt, and God gave them a Release and Reft from their Slavery, Deut. v. 15. Though 'tis poffible both Reafons of this Command might be pronounced from Mount Sinai, and only that mentioned in Exodus be writ on the Tables of Stone.

7Q. What did the fecond Table contain? A. Their Duty toward Man in the fix laft Commandments, Ex. xx. 12-17. Deut. v. 22.

8Q. What are these fix laft 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.rs.ba

(7.) Thou shalt not commit Adultery. (8.) Thou fhalt not fteal.

(9) Thou shalt not bear falfe Witness against thy Neighbour.

(10.) Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's House, thou shalt not covet thy Neighbour's Wife, nor his Man-fervant, nor his Maid-servant, nor his Ox, nor his Afs, nor any thing that is thy Neighbour's.

9 Q: Were thefe ten Commands given to the Jews only, or are they given to all Mankind? 4. Almost every thing contained in these Com

mands

mands is taught by the Light of Nature, and obliges all Mankind; the Honour that is done them in the New Teftament intimates this alfo. But there are feveral Expreffions in these Laws by which it plainly appears they were peculiarly appropriated and fuited to the Jewish Nation in their awful Proclamation at Mount Sinai.

10 Q. Wherein does it appear fe plainly that thefe Laws as given at Mount Sinai bave a peculiar Refpect to the Jews? A. This 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 alfo in the fourth Command, where the feventh Day is the appointed Sabbath for the Jews: And in Deut. v. 15. God gives this Reafon for the Sabbath, that He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty Hand. 'Tis yet further manifeft in the fifth Commandment, where the Promife of long Life in the Land literally refers to the Land of Canaan which God gave to that People. That thy Days may be long in the. Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Yet, as is before intimated, the Citation of them by the Apostles in the New Teftament as Rules of our Duty, doth plainly enforce the Obfervation of them fo far on the Confciences of Chriftians.