Julian Pe 25. Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the co- Jerusalem. riod, 4743. venant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Vulgar Æra, 30. ed, and the moon refused to give her light, and the stars fell 19. The face of Moses shone when he descended from the 20. Moses cleansed one leper-Christ many. 21. Moses foretold the calamities which would befall the nation for their disobedience-So did Christ. 22. Moses chose and appointed seventy elders to be over the people-Christ chose such a number of disciples. 23. The Spirit which was in Moses was conferred in some degree on the seventy elders, they prophesied-and Christ conferred miraculous powers on his seventy disciples. 24. Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land which was to be conquered-Christ sent his apostles into the world, to subdue it by a more glorious and miraculous conquest. 25. Moses was victorious over powerful kings and great nations-So was Christ, by the effects of his religion, and by the fall of those who persecuted the Church. 26. Moses conquered Amalek by lifting and holding up both his hands all the day-Christ overcame his and our enemies when his hands were fastened to the cross. This resemblance has been observed by some of the ancient Christians, and ridiculed by some of the moderns, but without sufficient reason, I think. 27. Moses interceded for transgressors, and caused an atonement to be made for them, and stopped the wrath of God-So did Christ. 28. Moses ratified a covenant between God and the people, by sprinkling them with blood-Christ with his own blood. 29. Moses desired to die for the people, and prayed that God would forgive them, or blot him out of his book-Christ did more, he died for sinners. 30. Moses instituted the Passover, when a lamb was sacrificed, none of whose bones were to be broken, and whose blood protected the people from destruction-Christ was that Paschal Lamb. 31. Moses lifted up the serpent, that they who looked upon him might be healed of their mortal wounds-Christ was that serpent. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever be lieveth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The serpent being an emblem of Satan, may not be thought a fit emblem to represent Christ; but the serpents which bit the children of Israel are called fiery serpents, seraphim. Now "sunt boni angeli seraphim, sunt mali angeli seraphim, quos nulla figura melius quam prestare exprimas. Et tali usum primum humani generis seductorem putat Bachai." Grotius. Therefore Christ, as he was the great and good Angel, the Angel of God's presence; the angel kar' ¿oxny, might be represented as a kind of seraph, a beneficent healing serpent, who should abolish the evil introduced by the seducing lying serpent; and who, like the serpent of Moses, should destroy the serpents of the magicians: as one of those gentle serpents who are friends to mankind. Julian Period, 4743. Valgar Æra, 30. Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the Jerusalem. "Nunc quoque nec fugiunt hominem nec vulnere cædunt, Εἰσὶ δὲ περὶ Θήβας ἱροὶ ὄφιες, ἀνθρώπων οὐδαμῶς δμλήμονες. 32. All the affection which Moses shewed towards the people, 33. Moses was ill used by his own family; his brother and sister rebelled against him-There was a time when Christ's own brethren believed not in him. 34. Moses had a very wicked and perverse generation committed to his care and conduct; and, to enable him to rule them, miraculous powers were given to him, and he used his utmost endeavour to make the people obedient to God, and to save them from ruin; but in vain: in the space of forty years they all fell in the wilderness except two-Christ was given to a generation not less wicked and perverse; his instructions and his miracles were lost upon them; and in about the same space of time, after they had rejected him, they were destroyed. 35. Moses was very meck, above all the men that were on the face of the earth-So was Christ. 36. The people could not enter into the land of promise until Moses was dead-By the death of Christ the kingdom of heaven was opened to all believers. 37. In the death of Moses and Christ there is also a resemblance of some circumstances. Moses died, in one sense, for the iniquities of the people; it was their rebellion which was the occasion of it, which drew down the displeasure of God upon them, and upon him, (Deut. i. 37.) Moses therefore went up in the sight of the people, to the top of Mount Nebo, and there he died, when he was in perfect vigour, when his eye was not dim, nor was his natural force abated-Christ suffered for the sins of men, and was led up, in the presence of the people, to Mount Calvary, where he died in the flower of his age, and when be was in his full natural strength.-Neither Moses, nor Christ, as far as we can collect from sacred history, was ever sick, or felt any bodily decay or infirmities, which would have rendered them unfit for the toils they underwent; their sufferings were of another kind. 38. Moses was buried, and no man knew where his body lay→→ Nor could the Jews find the body of Christ. 39. Lastly, as Moses, a little before his death, promised the people that God would raise them up a prophet like unto him' -So Christ, taking leave of his afflicted disciples, told them, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." It is only necessary to add, in the words of an eminent divine (see Clarke's Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion,) that the correspondencies of types and antitypes, though they be not of themselves proper proofs of the truth of a doctrine, yet they may be very reasonable confirmations of the foreknowledge of God; of the uniform view of Providence under different dispensations;_ of the analogy, harmony, and agreement between the Old Testament and the New. The analogies cannot, without the force of strong prejudice, be conceived to have happened by merc chance, without any foresight or design. Julian Pe 26 Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, Jerusalem. riod, 4743. sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you Vulgar Era, 30. 'from his iniquities. SECTION IX. St. Peter and St. John are imprisoned by order of the Sanhedrim. ACTS iv. 1-7. 1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and 2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and 4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word be- 5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, 6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, There are no such analogies, much less such series of analogies, Bishop Horsley (c) has proposed a criticism, which may add We read in Numb. xii. 3. "That the man Moses was very meek." With what truth this character might be ascribed to Moses, see Exod. ii. 11-14. v. 22. xi. 8. xxxii. 19–22. Numb. xi. 11-15. xvi. 15. and xx. 10-12. Schultens renders the passage-Now the man Moses gave forth more answers than, &c. &c. i.e. more oracular answers: "erat responsor eximius præ omni homine." If this remark is just, our Lord would be like unto Moses in this point also: Christ being himself the divine oracle by whom Moses had spoken to the people (d.) (a) Hunc locum quidam de Josua, alii de prophetis in genere enarrant. Sed prophetæ non erant Mosi per omnia similes. Nam Moses videbat Deum in speculari lucido; prophetæ, in non lucido. Præterea Moses videbat Deum facie ad faciem, loquebatur cum eo ore ad os: non sic reliqui prophetae. Debet igitur peculiariter accipi de Christo, qui fuit scopus omnium prophetarum, &c.-Drusius in Deut. xviii. 15. Crit. Sacri. vol. ii. p. 131. (b) Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiatical History, vol. i. p. 282, et seq. (c) Horsley's Biblical Criticisms, vol. i, p. 166. He refers to Kennicott's Remarks, p. 57. (d) See the treatise on the passage in the 13th vol. of the Critici Sacri, p. 439, &c. to Fagius's Remarks, vol. ii. p. 123, and to the frequent notices of the same text in Limborch's amica collatio cum erud: Judæo. Julian Pe and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of Jerusalem. riod, 4743. the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem 21. Vulgar Era, 30. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? SECTION X. St. Peter's Address to the assembled Sanhedrim. ACTS iv. 8-22. 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, 9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of 21 The names of the pastors here mentioned shew us the powerful opposition against which the infant church had to contend. The Sanhedrim-the aged Ananus, or Annas, who by his influence secretly directed every public measure, and as many as were of his kindred, were gathered together against them. The John and Alexander here spoken of, appear to have been next to Annas and Caiaphas, the principal and most eminent persons in Jerusalem. John, according to Lightfoot, is probably no other than Rabban Johanan, the son of Zaccai, frequently mentioned in the Talmuds. It is said of him, that he had been the scholar of Hillel, and was presideut of the council after Symeon, the son of Gamaliel, who perished in the destruction of the city, and that he lived to be a hundred and twenty-three years old. A remarkable saying of his, spoken by him not long before his assembling with the rulers and elders, mentioned Acts iv. is related in the Jerusalem Talmud thus: Forty years before the destruction of the city, when the gates of the temple flew open of their own accord, Rabban Johanan, the son of Zaccai, said, "O temple, temple, why dost thou disturb thyself? I know thy end, that thou shall be destroyed; for so the prophet Zechariah has spoken concerning thee, Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.'" He lived to see the truth of what he had foretold (a). The Alexander here mentioned, is supposed by some learned men (b) to be Alexander the alabarch, or governor of the Jews, who dwelt in Egypt: and were he at Jerusalem at the time, as it is very possible he might, nothing would be more probable. For the assembly here spoken of does not seem to be the ordinary council of the seventy-one, but an extraordinary council, composed of all the chief men of the Jewish nation, from every part of the world, who happened then to be at Jerusalem; and several such, it is likely, there might be upon the account of some feast. Josephus says of this Alexander, that he was the noblest and richest of all the Jews in Alexandria of his time, and that he adorned the nine gates of the temple at Jerusalem with plates of gold and silver (c.) (a) Vid. Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 209, and p, 277, 282. vol. ii. p. 652. (6) Baron. Annal. xxxiv. p. 224. Lightfoot, vol. i. p. 277, and 760. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 7. §. 3. fin. 1. 19. c. 5. §. 1. fin. 1. 20. c. 4. §. 2. and de Bell, 1. 5. c. 5. §. 3. See Biscoe on the Acts, and Schoetgen, vol. i. p. 420. Julian Pe- Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Jerusalem. riod, 4743. whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Vulgar Æra, 30. 11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. 13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. 17 But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. 18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye ". 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. 21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people; for all men glorified God for that which was done. 22 For the man was above forty years old on whom this miracle of healing was shewed. SECTION XI. The Prayer of the Church at the Liberation of St. Peter ACTS iv. 23-31. 23 And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their 22 See the dissertation on this text among the tracts bound up in the 13th vol. of the Critici Sacri. De limitibus Obsequii Humani. By Samuel Andreas, or Andre, or Andrews. P. 595 -604. |