92. What is it that has induced this fear in
me, that, instead of supposing me to be needlessly afraid, you may
highly commend my foresight? I hear from Moses himself, when God
spake to him, that, although many were bidden to come to the mount, one
of whom was even Aaron, with his two sons who were priests, and seventy
elders of the senate, the rest were ordered to worship afar off, and
Moses alone to draw near, and the people were not to go up with
him. Exod. xxiv. 1, 2. For it is not everyone who may draw
near to God, but only one who, like Moses, can bear the glory of
God. Moreover, before this, when the law was first given, the
trumpet-blasts, and lightnings, and thunders, and darkness, and the
smoke of the whole mountain, Ib. xix.
16. and the terrible
threats that if even a beast touched the mountain it should be
stoned, Heb. xii. 18. and other like
alarms, kept back the rest of the people, for whom it was a great
privilege, after careful purification, merely to hear the voice of
God. But Moses actually went up and entered into the
cloud, Exod. xxiv. 15, 18. and was charged
with the law, and received the tables, which belong, for the multitude,
to the letter, but, for those who are above the multitude, to the
spirit. 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7.