VIII.

LECT. and are to this day wandering, restless and hopeless about the world; and every man will find himself in the like condition, till he discovers that the religion he is afraid of is his best friend, and that God has fent a Saviour before us to preferve life, not to deftroy it.

LECTURE IX.

ON THE PERSONAL FIGURES, OR TYPES, OF

THE SCRIPTURE.

(A CONTINUATION OF THE FORMER.)

OFF

IX.

F all the perfonal figures of the Old LECT. Teftament, none are fo proper to answer the purpose of these lectures, as the two characters which St. Stephen propofed to the Jews, as figures and fore-runners of Jefus Chrift; whom they would not have crucified if they had known him, and they could not have failed to know him, if they had looked to those faints of old who had forefhewed him in their lives and actions, more plainly than words could have described him.

Notice had been given of this by Mofes himself; fo that they ought not to have been ignorant. A prophet, faid he, fhall

the

LECT. the Lord your God raise up unto you of your

IX.

.

brethren like unto me:

which words are

cited by St. Stephen and marked out for special observation: This is that Mofes, who Said unto the children of Ifrael, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me: and from the use he has made of the history of Mofes, in the 7th chapter of the Acts, it appears that this likeness extends to his whole character, from his birth to his death: as we fhall fee when we come to examine the particulars. We are likewise taught by St. Paul, that Moses, as a minifter and mediator, was faithful in his office, for a teftimony of those things which were to be spoken after: when the Son himself, the great and final mediator, should take the direction of the house of God, and accomplish the miniftry, which is now witnessed by the miniftry of Moses.

The circumstances fitteft for our purpofe in the history of Mofes, and most remarkable in themselves, are already selected by St. Stephen to thefe, therefore, I shall confine myself; and treat of them in the

order

IX.

order, in which he has laid them down. LECT. But that we may first have a distinct view of the particulars, which will come under confideration, it may be proper to obferve; that the hiftory of Mofes, as here to be applied, comprehends 1. The circumstances of his birth. 2. His qualifications and endowments as the minister of God. 3. His office as the deliverer of his people. 4. The reception he met with from the people he came to deliver.

Our bleffed Saviour's birth in Judæa was rendered very remarkable by the circumstances that attended it, and the character of the time in which it happened.

When the promises of God were about to be fulfilled by the redemption of mankind, and the time foretold by the prophets was drawing near; the nation of the Jews was fallen under bondage to the Roman power, and were subject to Herod, a strange king, jealous of the people he was fet over, and apprehensive of a deliverer to be born among themselves. When the report of Chrift's

Q

IX.

LECT. Chrift's birth was brought by the wife men, Herod determined to cut him off; and with this view cruelly flaughtered all the infants in the neighbourhood of Bethle hem. With all this the birth of Mofes agrees in every circumstance.

For t. The time of the promife drew nigh which God had fworn to Abraham. It had been foretold, that the feed of Abraham fhould continue four hundred years in Egypt, and after that come out with great fubftance. When this time of redemption was approaching, the Hebrews were fallen into great affliction under a new king who knew not fofeph; who being probably an alien, had no refpect to the merits or memory of him who had been a faviour to the land of Egypt; looking with a jealous eye upon all his people, as enemies, and treating them as captives and flaves. He had a suspicion that they would become more powerful, and get them up out of his land. To prevent which, he proceeded with fubtilty, (as Herod did afterwards) and refolved upon a maffacre of all the

male