sciousness : first His infinite mercy and grace, and then, lest
advantage should be taken of His grace. His inexorable puni-
tive justice : "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful a,nd gracious,
long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the chil-
dren's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

The splendour vs^liich shone in the countenance of Moses
when he came down from the mountain was a reflection of his
inner glory, an external attestation to his victory, a preliminary
fulfilment of the saying,' " They that be teachers shall shine as
the brightness of the firmament," and at the same time a testi-
mony to that which had passed between God and him alone ;
finally, a type of the transfiguration of Christ, with which it
has this aim in common, viz. to present the Mediator of the
divine revelations to the community in His true light. The
fact that Moses was obliged to cover his face with a veil be-
cause the people were unable to bear the heavenly splendour
which shone from him, Ex. xxxiv. 30 ff., although this splen-
dour was only a temporary and lower one, not to be compared
with the glory of Christ, was a sign of the low standpoint of
the church of the Old Testament, whose eyes were still so
weak that it could not even look at the weak reflection of
the spiritual Sun without being blinded ; and since the low can
never be the ultimate in the sphere of revelation, was also an
indication of a more complete economy which would have
power to make it possible to see the glory of the Lord with
uncovered face. Moses, with the veil over his face (the cover-
ing which was assumed for the sake of this people, belongs in
reality to them), is the symbol of the old covenant-people in
contrast with the people of the new covenant. The veil is
taken away only in Christ, and still remains for those who do
not recognise Him. The Lord, whose face they cannot look
upon, is concealed from them. His revelation is hidden ; comp.
