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Light of the world." In like manner, at whatever distance we are placed, and in whatever direction we contemplate the system which redeeming love has framed, from under the shade of the tree of life in Eden, from the summit of Ararat, Moriah, or Pisgah, in the plain of Mamre, or from a pinnacle of the temple; with Abraham, viewing the Saviour and his day afar off, or with Simeon embracing him, the same "Sun of righteousness" shed his glory around us; we see the light, we feel the influence of him who quickeneth and enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.

As we find Moses plainly and unequivocally refering men to Christ, so the Saviour as explicitly refers to Moses for a testimony concerning himself; thereby plainly insinuating, that if the Jewish prophet deserved any credit, possessed any respectability, this credit, this respectability were ministering servants to the dignity of his own person, the sacredness of his character, the divinity of his mission. And this is accompanied with a severe denunciation of judgment against such as admitted the authority of Moses, but rejected that of Christ; to introduce, recommend and confirm which was the end for which Moses was raised up. " Do not think I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?"

This reciprocal testimony, therefore, of the founders of the ancient and new economy, throws light on both, and communicates mutual credibility and importance. Moses satisfies himself with simply delivering the prediction which he had in charge; he forms no plan, enters into no argument to bring it into effect, but leaves to Providence the care of leading forward to the accomplishment, in the proper time and method. Christ simply points to what was written, and was generally

known, received and respected as a revelation from heaven, and requires to be believed and obeyed no farther than he bore the characters under which Moses had announced him; particlarly that of "the great Prophet which should come into the world."

The proper character of a prophet is to communicate the special will of Heaven to men. God, indeed, writes his will on the mind of every man, as he comes into the world; interweaves it with the very constitution and frame of his being, so that, in truth, every man is a law, is a prophet to himself. But the characters are quickly erased, effaced; education, example, superstition, vicious propensities, obliterate the writing of God; habit and the commerce of the world harden the heart, and lull the consience asleep, and "the hearts of men are set in them to do evil.” Hence the necessity of a prophet, of a messenger, of a minister from heaven, to republish the original law, to restore the obliterated characters, to call men back to God, from whom they have revolted.

And such an one was Moses; raised up of God at a period of singular darkness and depravity, divinely commissioned to promulgate the royal law. Not to settle a different, a novel constitution, not to new-model human nature, but to revive and enforce the primitive constitution, to proclaim in the ear what nature. whispered from the beginning, to hang up the conspicuous tablet before the eye, whose contents are the exact counterpart of what the finger of God, in the very formation of man, engraved on "the living tables of the heart." And when Christ came, the Prophet after his similitude, was it not in like manner to rebuild what was broken down, not to rear a totally different edifice? to magnify the law and make it honourable, to clear it from misinterpretation and perversion, to restore it to its native purity and simplicity, and to extract the spirit out of the letter? "Think not," says he, "that I am come to destroy the law, or the pro

phets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled," Matt. v. 17, 18. This confirms the observation we have been all along endeavouring to inculcate respecting the uniformity and perseverance of the divine procedure. Men start from purpose to purpose, from pursuit to pursuit; they lose sight, they tire of their object; they waste their strength, they are discouraged by opposition, they begin to build before they have counted the cost. But "known to God are all his works from the beginning." He forms his plan, and undeviatingly pursues it. "I am the Lord, I change not." He lays his foundation, and it standeth sure, and the building rises; "he willeth and none can let it." "God made man upright;" and to maintain or restore that uprightness is his great aim and end, under every dispensation of his providence, under the law and the gospel, by Moses and by Christ.

-A prophet must have the necessary qualifications for his office, must be instructed in the mind of God, be filled with zeal for his glory, be animated with ardent love to mankind, be fortified against the assaults and opposition of ignorance, and prejudice, and envy. And such an one was Moses, "whom the Lord knew face to face," with whom he conversed as a man with his friend; his zeal was inextinguishable; for the good of Israel he was ready to make the sacrifice of self; his meekness was unruffled, his patience not to be subdued, his perseverance indefatigable, his resolution undaunted. How much more eminently conspicuous were these characters of a prophet, in the great "Author and Finisher of the christian faith?" The only begotten Son who is "in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him;" "the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.' "I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." "The cup which my

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Father giveth me, shall I not drink it?" "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mat. iii. 17. Moses conversed forty days with God, in the mount; but thus saith uncreated Wisdom, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was;" "before Abraham was, I am." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men," John i. 1-4.

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The spirit of Moses was sometimes stirred within him; he dashed the tables of the law to the ground, "he spake unadvisedly with his lips;" he incurred the displeasure of his heavenly Father, he drew down a sentence of just condemnation upon his head; but the spirit of the christian Leader was in no one instance discomposed. "He did no sin, neither was guile found in his lips." He suffered indeed and died, but it was without a crime, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God." Moses expressed a willingness to be blotted out of God's book, to be deprived of his personal right as a son of Israel, provided Israel might receive the remission of sin, have their rights preserved, and the covenant of promise be confirmed. But Christ became "a curse for us," was hanged on a tree," was "cut off from the land of the living," became "a propitiation for sin," "bare our sins in his own body on the tree," "became sin for us, though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

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-A prophet must exhibit the signs of his mission. Men will not believe him on his own report, will suspect him of attention to his own fame, or interest, or authority. To prove therefore that he came from God, that he speaks in his name, that he is vested with his

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authority, he must do the works of God. And thus was Moses commissioned and permitted to prove his mission. By sign upon sign he demonstrated that the Lord had appeared unto him, and spake by him; earth and water and air bore their united testimony to his divine legation; and the most enlightened nation of the globe was made to feel his ascendant, by arguments addressed at once to the senses and the understanding. It is needful to say that the great Prophet, Apostle and High-Priest of our profession," by similar means, by more irresistible evidence, evinced that he was "a teacher sent from God?" I shall say nothing respecting the greater number, variety and notoriety of Christ's miracles; though every one of these circumstances furnishes ample matter of discussion; I satisfy myself at present with mentioning two particulars which strikingly establish Christ's prophetic character, and give it a clear and decided superiority to that of Moses. The latter acted by a delegated authority, according to a prescribed form; he assumed nothing to himself, but was checked, reproved, condemned, the moment he presumed to arrogate independence, to speak or to act for himself. But Jesus Christ wrought miracles in his own name, by his own power, as the Lord of nature, as possessed of independent sovereignty. Again, the signs which Moses exhibited were of a mixed nature, they declared both the mercy and judg ment of God, they poured down hail, and tempest, and pestilence on Egypt, as well as dropped manna on the tents of Israel; whereas the signs which Jesus adduced in support of his mission were all miracles of mercy; the powers of hell alone felt the rod of his anger; and the miracles by which he confirmed his doctrine breathed his meekness and gentleness and charity.

"Of the things which have been spoken this is the sum; We have such an High-Priest, who is set on the 4 right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the hea

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