Page images
PDF
EPUB

as their interceffor with an offended God. He feels himself called upon to maintain the interefts of the divine glory with a ftiff-necked and perverfe nation; and to plead the cause of that very nation with Deity, provoked to execute righteous judgment on a race of men who were continually difpofed to infult his authority, and to degrade his perfections, by affociating him with the infamous idols of the Pagan world.

"Mofes had fometimes the felicity of averting the divine displeasure, and of restraining the madnefs of the people. But more frequently he endured the mortification of feeing the inefficacy of all his wellmeant efforts. The violence of the people bore down all oppofition; and offended Heaven turned a deaf ear to the voice of his fupplication. Divine justice vindicated its rights; Ifrael felt its fevereft ftrokes, and twenty-four thousand fall at one stroke.

"The most awful chaftifements have proved equally ineffectual with the tendereft expoftulations, to bring them back to a fenfe of their duty. And as if Mofes had been responsible for the calamities which they had brought upon themfelves, by their reiterated crimes, they talk of ftoning him. They propofe to appoint a commander to conduct them back to Egypt, from whence God had delivered them by a ftrong hand and a ftretched-out arm: they prefer an inglorious fervitude to the miraculous protection afforded them in the wilderness, and to all the profpects of the fair inheritance which God had promifed to bestow upon

them.

"In a state of fuch anxiety and diftrefs Mofes paffed forty complete years, and conducted, at length, the remains of this people to the borders of the promifed land. Was ever life fo fingularly eventful? Was ever hero fignalized by fo many extraordinary exploits ?

"If we go into a more particular detail of his great actions, we meet with a bright difplay of every fhin"What ing virtue.

*Numb. xxv. 9.

A

"What magnanimity! Witnefs the armies he fo fuccessfully commanded; witnefs the crown and kingdom of Egypt defpifed, rejected, when put in competition with the obligations and profpects of religion.

"What firmness! Witness his undaunted addreffes, and his animated replies to Pharaoh. Thus faith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may ferve me.* We will go with our young and with our old, with our fons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our berds will we go; there fhall not be an hoof left behind. Thou haft fpoken well, I will fee thy face again no more. †

"What fervour! Witnefs thefe hands lifted up to heaven, while Ifrael was fighting against Amalek. Witness these ardent prayers in behalf of the rebellious Ifraelites: Lord, why doth thy wrath wax bot against thy people, which thou haft brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty band? Wherefore fhould the Egyptians speak and say, For mifchief did he bring them out, to flay them in the mountains, and to confume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Ifaac, and Ifrael thy Servants, to whom thou fwareft by thine own felf, and faidft unto them, I will multiply your feed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of, will I give unto your feed, and they fhall inherit it forever.

"What charity! Witness these forcible expreffions: Oh, this people have finned a great fin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their fin: and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou haft written.§

"What gentleness! Witness what is faid of him, Numbers xii. 3. Now the man Mofes was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. "What earnest defire to draw fupplies of grace and truth immediately from their fource! Witnefs these ardent

*Exod. viii. 1. Exod. xxxii. 11—13.

+ Exod. x. 9. 26. 29.

Exod. xxxii. 31, 32.

ardent afpirations of foul after God: If thy prefence go not with me, carry us not up hence. I befeech thee, fhew me thy glory.

*

"What zeal for the glory of God! Witness the ta bles of the law broken in pieces at the fight of a peo. ple who had rendered themselves unworthy of receiving marks fo tender of the love of God. Witness that rigorous order iffued to the fons of Levi: Thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael, Put every man his fword by his fide, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and flay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.† Witness his anfwer to Joshua, when he expreffed an apprehenfion left the prophetic gifts bestowed on Eldad and Medad fhould eclipfe the glory of his master: Envieft thou for my fake, would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!‡

"What perseverance! Witness thofe exhortations; and that facred fong, with which he concluded his ministrations and his life.

"But where was perfect virtue ever to be found? Mofes too had his infirmities. In a life fo long, however, and fo peculiarly circumftanced, who is chargeable with faults fo flight and fo few? His very errors feem to partake of the nature of virtue. The darker fhades of his character become perceptible from the contraft they form with a whole life fo bright and luminous. That he should fhrink back, at first, from the propofal of an embaffy to the king of Egypt; that he should neglect, for. a season, from certain domestic confiderations, the circumcifion of a child; that he should be flow of belief respecting the dispofition of a righteous God to extract water miraculoufly from the rock, to fupply the wants of a murmuring generation; that he fhould ftrike the rock a fecond time, rather from indignation against the rebels,

* Exod. xxxiii. 15. 18.
‡ Numb. xi.

+ Exod. xxxii. 27.

29.

els, than from diftruft of the God in whom compaffions flow-Thefe undoubtedly are blemishes, nay, offences which God might punifh with death, were he ftrict to mark iniquity; but, when human infirmity is taken into the account, they are faults that excite pity rather than indignation.

"Should any part of the elogium we have pronounced on Mofes feem exaggerated, we shall add, to all the honourable traits under which we have represented him, one infinitely more glorious ftill, traced by the hand of God himself, who best knows how to appreciate merit and distribute praife, and which exalts our prophet far above all human panegyric: 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.'

This truly great man died in the year of the world two thousand five hundred and fifty-three; and before the birth of Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and fifty-one; eight hundred and ninety-feven years after the flood; and before the building of Solomon's temple four hundred and forty; in the fortieth year from the Exodus, or departure of Ifrael from Egypt; and of his own age the one hundred and twentieth. Before his death, he uttered a clear and diftinct prediction of the Meffiah, which, in " the fulnefs of time," was exactly accomplished; and he appeared in perfon on Mount Tabor to lay all his glory and honour at the feet of the Saviour of the world. We fhall have finished our plan, after we have fuggefted a few reflections on this prediction of Mofes, and on this his appearance, in company with Elias, to do homage to the Son of God," the Author and Finifher of our faith." To Him " be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

History

[blocks in formation]

DEUT. Xviii. 15-18. ACTS iii. 22.

The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye fhall hearken. According to all that thou defiredft of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in the day of the affembly, faying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me fee this great fire any more that I die not. And the Lord faid unto me, They have well Spoken that which they have spoken. I will raife them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I fhall command him. For Mofes truly faid unto the fathers, A prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him fhall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall Say unto you.

IN the frame and courfe of nature, who does not per ceive evident marks of wisdom in defign, order in execution, energy in operation? All is plan, fyftem, harmony. Every thing befpeaks a Being provident, omnipotent, unremittingly attentive: whofe works, indeed, infinitely exceed our comprehenfion; but which by their beauty, fimplicity and usefulness, fill the mind with wonder and delight, while their variety,

luftre,

« PreviousContinue »