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and determined them to investigate the affair with the utmost accuracy. They accordingly traced their goats, and were led by them through rugged and rocky places to a little vale, where, upon examination, they discovered a kind of cave, out of which proceeded a very agreeable fmell, resembling that which the goats conveyed on their fleeces, and had firft fuggefted the inquiry. In the middle of the cave they found a tomb of stone, on which certain characters were engraven, which, being illiterate, they could not decypher; but they foon perceived that the fweet fmell was communicated to their perfons and garments. Upon this they went immediately to Mataxat, patriarch of the Maronites, who refided at the monastery of St. Mary, on Mount Lebanon, and related to him the particulars of their discovery. The fragrance that ftill adhered to their clothes confirming their teftimony, he fent two of his monks with them; one of them, a man of profound erudition, named Aben-Ufeph, who found, in the place pointed out to them, a monument infcribed with thefe words in Hebrew, MOSES THE SERVANT OF THE LORD. The patriarch, tranfported with joy at a discovery fo marvellous, befought Morat, Pacha of Damafcus, to constitute him fole guardian of the fepulchre. But the Greeks and Arminians, as well as the Francifcan friars, and after them the Jews, violently opposed it, and, unable to agree, tried by dint of intereft at court, by prefents to the Mufti and Grand Vifier, to appropriate each to themselves the fuperintendence of this tomb, which they equally believed to be that of Mofes, and which the Jews, with peculiar earnestness, infifted muft belong to them. They reprefented that, among all the poffeffions of the Grand Signor, none could be more valuable and illuftrious than the property of three fepulchres fo renowned as that of Mahomet at Mecca, of Jesus Christ at Jerufalem, and of Mofes in Mount Nebo. But the Jefuits had the address, by presents happily applied, to defeat the claims

of

of all these pretenders, and to obtain an order for fhutting up the fepulchre, and obftructing the road that led to it; nay, for prohibiting all accefs to it, under pain of death. They were meanwhile forming a defign of fecretly conveying off the body of Mofes, which they flattered themfelves would prove a confiderable acceffion of refpectability, and a new fource of wealth to their order. Having, however, with much difficulty and danger, penetrated into the fepulchre, it was found entirely empty; no body, no relics appeared." Thefe pleafing chimeras vanished almost as foon as formed; for a learned Rabbin proved that the perfon interred in this tomb, was not the ancient legiflator of the Hebrews, but a modern Jew of the fame name.

The facred history fays, that Mofes died the fortieth year after the deliverance from Egypt, and the most part of the Jewish writers fix the day of his death to the feventh day of the last month of that year, or the month Adar; and our learned and pious countryman, archbishop Ufher, calculates it to have happened on the first day of the fame month.

There is a paffage in the New Teftament which refers to this event, and which has greatly exercised the labour and ingenuity of critics and commentators: it is in the general epiftle of Jude, where that disciple, in reproving the rafhnefs and licentioufnefs of certain heretics," who defpife dominion, and speak evil of dignities," quotes an example of very high authority, as condemning the practice: "Yet," fays he, "Michael the arch-angel, when, contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Mofes, durft not bring against him a railing accufation, but faid, The Lord rebuke thee."+

Now, as many questions almost as words have been started on this fubject: what is an arch-angel; and who is Michael? How came the body of Mofes to be a ground

* Hornius, Secul. XVII. Art. XXXII. p. 536.

+ Lude 9.

a ground of controverfy between him and the devil, what were they severally aiming at, and what was the iffue of their quarrel? What authority reftrained Michael from preferring a railing accufation against him, how his conduct comes to be adduced as a pattern of felf-government, and a reproof of the vices of the tongue? And from what fource did Jude derive his knowledge of this tranfaction? The very mention of fo many, fome of them, on the first glance, unimportant queftions, will, I doubt not, check curiofity altogether, instead of exciting it. It is evident, that the death and burial of Mofes interested heaven and earth and hell; that many hiftorical facts of great moment are purposely left unrecorded; that many discoveries are reserved for that great and notable day of the Lord, when God fhall bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, whether it be good or evil; that it becomes not us to be wife above what is written, but to reft in hope, that "what we know not now, we shall know hereafter." This much we know, that, about fifteen hundred years after, Mofes appeared in glory ("whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth") to do homage to his Saviour on the mount of tranffiguration, and to lay his glory at the feet of him in whofe light he fhone; and we know "the hour is coming when all who are in the graves fhall hear his voice, and fhall come forth, they that have done good, unto the refurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the refurrection of damnation."* Such was the latter end of, "take him for all in all," "the greatest mere man that ever exifted. But I check myself. It is impoffible to do any thing like juftice to fuch a character in a few moments difcourse: you will indulge me with another hearing on this fubject; I mean, to preach a funeral fermon: the only one I ever undertook without pain, over a character and a memory to which no eloquence can rife, no detail

John v. 28, 29.

do

do justice; in celebrating which, praise cannot degenerate into panegyric, nor the preacher be fufpected of adulation.

Mofes died in the year of the world two thoufand five hundred and fifty-three,-before Chrift one thoufand four hundred and fifty,-after the flood eight hundred and ninety-feven. The most ancient and authentic of historians, the moft penetrating, dignified, and illuminated of prophets, the profoundeft, fageft of legiflators, the prince of orators and poets, the moft excellent and amiable of men, the firmest and faithfulleft of believers. "Whether we live, let us live unto the Lord," that when we die we may " die in the Lord;" that "living and dying we may be the Lord's."

History

History of Mofes.

LECTURE XII,

DEUTERONOMY XXXIV, 10-12.

And there arofe not a prophet fince in Ifrael like unto Mofes, whom the Lord knew face to face: in all the Signs and the wonders which the Lord fent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his fervants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Mofes fhewed in the fight of all Ifrael,

THERE is in mankind a good-natured difpofition to fpare the dead. Without very high provocation indeed, who could think of disturbing the peace and filence of the grave, and of dragging again before the tribunal of man those who have already undergone the more awful judgment of a righteous God?

But this generofity does not always proceed from pure benevolence. The dead no longer stand in our way; they are no longer our rivals in the purfuits of fame or of fortune. We can here earn the praise of magnanimity, without any danger of fuffering in the interefts of our reputation, our confequence, our selflove. From whatever fource this lenity and forbearance proceed, we would not be thought altogether to condemn them; but good-nature in this, as in a few other cafes, is apt fometimes to be carried too far. Through fear of being thought severe to those who

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