Page images
PDF
EPUB

pure primeval innocence, the glories of paradife, the unlimited bounty of indulgent Heaven. It was then and there, that good Spirit put the pen into his hand, to trace that facred record, which has defcended to us for our delight and inftruction, and which fhall remain, till time expire, the wonder, the monitor, the guide of mankind unto all manner of truth.

What a happy period for the human race! how happy for himself. Were the will of man to prevail, who would exchange fuch a retirement as this, for the noise and glare which captivates fools? But men, fuch as Mofes, are not made for themfelves alone; and ill would he have improved the bleffings of foli tude, had he not learned in it, cheerfully to facrifice his own humour and his own ease to the work and glory of God.

The time to favour Ifrael was now come, and Mofes must think of privacy and felf-enjoyment no longer. By a vifion, fuch as might appal the boldeft, and encourage the moft fearful, he is remanded to Egypt with a commiffion, under the feal of Heaven, to haughty Pharaoh, and he fears no more the wrath of a king.

But we have infenfibly deviated into the hiftory of Mofes, instead of delineating his character. Are they not, however, one and the fame thing? To know what he was, we have but to confider what he faid, and how he acted. But how is it poffible to comprise, within the bounds of one difcourfe, a detail of forty ac tive, bufy years, from the day that God appeared to him in a flame of fire in the bufh, to the day of his afcending to the top of Mount Nebo to die? In gen eral, they contain a difplay of almost every human fhining virtue, brought forward to the eye, and impreffed on the heart, by their most lovely foil, modefty, meeknefs and humility. What magnanimity! unite to what coolnefs and felf-government! what firmn fs and intrepidity! what patience and gentlenefs! what confummate wifdom! what amiable fim

plicity!

plicity in youth, in maturity, in old age; in public and in private life; in every relation and condition, who is like him, who deferves to be compared with him? In forming an idea of human excellence, Mofes prefents himself immediately to my view; it is no longer an idea, it is a delightful reality.

The more attentive part of my hearers will obferve that, to complete the propofed plan of this difcourse, there is ftill wanting the general leading idea of all thefe difcourfes, the refemblance between the type and the perfon typified-the analogy of Mofes and Chrift, This I refer to another Lecture; and beg leave to fubjoin, as a proper fequel to this, the following elogium of Mofes, tranflated from the works of an eloquent critic of his writings.*

[merged small][ocr errors]

"This most extraordinary perfonage was prefented to the world in very fingular circumftances. He appeared at a period of peculiar affliction to his kindred and nation; and Divine Providence feems to have raised him up exprefsly for the purpose of exemplifying virtues, which diftrefs and perfecution alone are calculated to place in the faireft point of light. By a feries of miraculous events he escaped, in infancy, the fatal effects of a fanguinary decree, which doomed to death all the male children of the Hebrews, from the womb. And, what highly merits confideration, and ferves ftrikingly to difplay the influence which Sovereign. Wisdom exercises over all the affairs of men, he owed his prefervation, in a great measure, to perfons whose interest it was to have deftroyed him. Thefe very perfons affifted in forming that fuperior genius, and in cultivating those wonderful talents, which, in time, qualified him to be the deliverer of a nation which it was their intention utterly to extirpate.

L 2

[ocr errors]

Scarcely *Difcours Hift. Critiques, &c. fur les Evenemens memorables du vieux Teftament. par JAQUES SAURIN, Tome I. Difcours LXX.

[merged small][ocr errors]

"Scarcely arrived at that stage of life when men begin to form plans for the remainder of their exiftence, he feels himself called to determine between two objects, so incompatible in their nature, that the matureft judgment can with difficulty hold the balance even; religion and worldly intereft. Under the neceffity of making a choice fo difficult, he rifes above his age, above his paffions, nay, in fome fenfe, above humanity, and nobly facrifices every worldly profpect to religion. He refolves to partake in the mileries of an oppreffed people, in order to fecure an intereft in the favour of that God who is continually watching over his children, even when he feems to have abandoned them to their perfecutors; he values nothing in comparison with that favour; he prizes it infinitely more than that of a great king, nay, more than the prospect itself of being heir to a throne and kingdom; and, according to the expreffion of St. Paul, Ef teemed the reproach of Chrift greater riches than the treafures of Egypt."

"Not fatisfied with being a fpectator and a partak er of the mifery of his wretched brethren, he refolves to meet the torrent; and, of a witnefs, haftens to become the avenger of the tyranny under which they groaned. Obferving one of the mercilefs tools of oppreffion abufing an Ifraelite, he braves the rigour of all the laws of Egypt, kills the oppreffor, delivers the fufferer, and, as we have faid in another place, performs an anticipated act of the deliverer of his country.

"Prudence conftrains him to withdraw from the danger which threatened the ftranger who dared to fhed the blood of an Egyptian. He retires into the land of Midian, and there experiences repeated proofs of the care of that miraculous Providence which accompanied him through the whole course of a long life. Cut off from every opportunity of displaying the qualities of the hero, he exhibits thofe of the philofopher.

*Heb. xi. 26.

philofopher. He employs the calmnefs of that retreat in contemplating the divine perfections; or rather, in this delicious retirement it was, that he enjoyed the intimate communications of the Almighty, who infpired him, and appointed him to the high def tination of laying the first foundations of revealed religion, which was to fupply the defects of that of nature, already clouded and disfigured by the prejudices and the paffions of mankind. He compofed the book of Genefis; and thereby furnished the world with irrefiftible arms to combat idolatry. He attacks the two molt extravagant errors into which the human race had fallen, the plurality of gods, and that which admits imperfection in the Deity. To the one, and the other, he opposes the doctrine of the unity of an all-perfect Being.

"That GOD, whofe existence and attributes he thus publifhed, was pleased to manifeft himself to him in Mount Horeb, in a manner altogether fingular and miraculous. He confers on this chofen fervant, the glorious but formidable commiffion, to take the field against Pharaoh, to ftem the current of oppreffion, to attempt to mollify the tyrant; and, if perfuafion failed, to employ force, to fupport arguments by prodigies, to exact from all Egypt the expiation of those barbarities which she had dared to exercise upon a people diftinguished as the object of his tendereft love, and of his moft illuftrious miracles.

"This appointment Mofes prefumes to decline; but from a spirit of humility rather than of disobedience. He could not conceive it poffible that, at the age of fourfcore, and labouring under a defect of speech, he could be the perfon qualified to addrefs a mighty prince, and overturn a whole kingdom. The appointment is a fecond time preffed upon him; a fecond time he refufes it. At length, however, his reluctance is overcome; and filled with that Spirit which animated him to the conflict, he enters on the career of glory which was presented to him, and his

first victory is a victory over himself. He tears himfelf from the delights of the land of Midian; he quits the house of a father-in-law, by whom he was most tenderly beloved, to encounter a host of enemies and executioners.

"He arrives in Egypt. He prefents himself before Pharaoh he entreats; he threatens; he draws down upon the Egyptians plagues the most tremendous. He departs from that kingdom, at the head of a people which had endured in it cruelties the most unexampled. The tyrant pursues him, gains ground, preffes hard upon him. Behold him encompassed on every fide, by a vast and invincible army, by a ridge of inacceffible mountains, and by the waters of the Red Sea. He rebukes the roaring billows; they inftantly become obedient to the man whom the DEITY has made, (if the expreffion be lawful) the depofitary of his power. The waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left, as the facred hiftorian expreffes himfelf. Mofes advances into the wilderness, and, by a continuation of miraculous interpofition, he beholds thofe very waters which had divided, to favour the paffage of Ifrael, clofing again, and fwallowing up Pharaoh, his court, and his hoft.

**

"Delivered, in appearance, from his moft formidable enemies, he foon finds he has to maintain a lasting conflict with foes ftill more formidable, the very people whom he conducted. He difcovers in these degenerate fons of Ifrael, every mean and grovelling fentiment which a fervile ftate has a tendency to inspire; all the abfurdity of weak and capricious minds; all the cowardice, perfidy, and ingratitude of corrupted hearts. With fuch a race Mofes found himself under the neceffity of living in a waste and parched defert, and of ftruggling there with all the horrors of hunger and thirst, and a total want of every neceffary. Expofed to all the infults of an enraged, ungovernable multitude, he is at the fame time constrained to act

Exod. xiv. 29.

as

« PreviousContinue »