that God was with them; surely it was also a sign that he would be with us in a like form for the salvation of the world from the bondage of sin that, as the thorn of the desert is the lowest amongst the trees, so should he take upon himself the form of a servant, the lowest condition of humanity; submitting to serve with us, and be afflicted in all our afflictions; that in and with him we might be enabled to sustain and survive the sharpness of death. That, as the children in the furnace of fire felt no harm because the Son of God was with them in the midst of it; so should not we be consumed by the trials of this world or the fire of judgment itself. Herein was it also signified, that the manifestation of God to man should not be that of a consuming fire, but of a benign light and glory instead of it; a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel. It was signified, that wrath was turned away; that God was reconciled, and that there is good will to man from him that dwelt in the bush *.

This appearance of God to Moses is such a testimony to his appearance afterwards in the flesh, that if we lay the whole together as a figure of the poverty of his birth, like that of

0 3

Deuteronomy xxxiii. 16.

a root

a root out of a dry ground; of the servility of his condition; of the thorns he bore at his crucifixion; of the glory and brightness of his transfiguration; of the misery of man; the condescension of God; the necessity of a redeemer in all these things met together in this exhibition of the burning bush, I see a complication of wonders, which cannot worthily be spoken of: we must adore the subject as we can, and leave it to the more adequate contemplation of angels.

The work of Moses in delivering his people was attended with a display of divine power, which shewed how it should be in the other case. He brought them out, saith St. Stephen, after he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. So it may be said of Jesus Christ in the words to the same effect, "he brought them out after he had shewed "wonders and signs; casting out devils, heal'ing the sick, raising the dead, feeding a hun← gry multitude in a wilderness, and giving every possible demonstration of a divine power, exercised for the deliverance and sal"vation of the people of God.".

The power of Moses in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, was as visible

as

as the sun in the heavens; and it was as plain and certain that he acted by the finger of God, as that he acted at all. But now the argument of St. Stephen leads us to observe, as one of the greatest of all wonders, how this man of might and wisdom, so miraculously preserved, and so highly commissioned, was understood and received by the people to whom he was sent? For if the forefathers of the Jews had rejected their lawgiver thus commissioned, and attested by all the evidences of divine power; then was it so far from being any objection against Jesus Christ, that they had misunderstood him, and hated him and crucified him ; that it was requisite to the truth and divinity of his commission, that his brethren should sell him, and cast him out as they had done to Joseph; and that they should refuse him, as they had refused Moses. With this argument St. Stephen pressed the Jews, till they were unable to bear the force of it: and, I declare, I think it so forcible at this day, that a man must either be a Christian upon the strength of it, or fall into a rage, like the Jews, if he has an interest against it. Hear how the case is represented"This Moses whom they refused, saying, who "made thee a ruler and a judge, the same "did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer,

"by the hands of the angel which appeared to " him in the bush"-He supposed that his brethren would have understood, how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not-" This is he- to whom our "fathers would not obey, but thrust him from "them, and in their hearts turned back again " into Egypt."

What the high priest and the people of the Jews, before whom St. Stephen pleaded, must have felt in their minds from such a representation as this, when the fact of rejecting Jesus Christ was fresh upon their memories and consciences, is more easy to be conceived than expressed. There is no occasion on which the mind of man feels more miserable, than when it is convicted without being converted. was the case with St. Stephen's hearers; so they acted like men that were possessed; they gnashed with their teeth, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him in a fury to put him to death: for so doth bigotry dispose of those whom it

cannot answer.

Such

Let us suppose, however, that some one amongst the rest was prevailed upon to apply the cases of Joseph and Moses, as St. Stephen had stated them, to what had lately come to pass in Jerusalem then would he have rea

soned

soned with himself in some such words as

these.

Jesus of Nazareth offered himself to our nation as the true Messiah and the king of the Jews: yet none of our rulers or priests or pharisees believed on him, but hated him and despised him. What then? Was not the holy patriarch Joseph, with all his innocence and virtue, hated of his brethren, and persecuted for envy? One of the disciples of Jesus betrayed and sold him for a sum of money, and he was delivered to the Romans as a slave and a malefactor: but so did Joseph's brethren sell him, and so did that innocent victim go down into Egypt among heathens as a slave, and was imprisoned as a malefactor under a false accusation. Yet did God bring this same Joseph to honour, and made his family who had despised him bow down before him; as, they say, God has now exalted this same Jesus, and that every knee is to bow to him. Many and mighty were the miracles of Jesus, such as we could not disprove, and such as were proper to shew that he was the expected redeemer: but we who were witnesses of them did not accept of them as such. Thus did our lawgiver Moses come forth to avenge our wrongs upon the Egyptians, supposing that his brethren would

understand,