ARGUMENT.

MOSES having, in the first book of his history, preserved the records of the church while it existed in private families, comes, in the second book, to give us an account of its growth into a great nation. The beginning of the former book shows us how God formed the world for himself: the beginning of this shows us how he formed Israel for himself. There we have the creation of the world in history: here the redemption of the world in type. The Greek translators called this book EXODUS, εξοδος, which signifies a GOING OUT, because it begins with the story of the GOING OUT of the children of Israel from Egypt. This book gives us, I. The accomplishment of the promises made before to Abraham, to chap. 19.; and then, II. The establishment of the ordinances which were afterward observed by Israel: thence to the end. Moses, in this book, begins, like Cesar, to write his own commentaries; and gives us the history of those things which he was himself an eye and ear witness of. There are more types of Christ in this book than, perhaps, in any other book of the Old Testament. The way of man’s reconciliation to God, and coming into covenant and communion with him by a Mediator, is here variously represented; and it is of great use to us for the illustration of the New Testament.