LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 OF" 
 
 Mrs. SARAH P. WALSWORTH. 
 
 Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions NoJTfr~/*7. Class No. 
 
SERIES OF SERMONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 XXXIII. CHAPTER OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 BY WM. PARKINSON, A. M. 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW-YORK. 
 
 PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF SAID CHURCH. 
 
 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed ; thou hast guided them 
 in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. Exo. xv. 13. 
 
 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them ;. in his love 
 and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried them, all the days of old. 
 la. Ixiii. 9. 
 
 Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always 
 in remembrance. 2 Pet. i. 15. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 J. M. MORGAN & Co. No. 4 BOWERY. 
 
 G. F. Sunce, Printer. 
 
 1831. 
 
 U1TJ7SRSITF 
 

 ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, 
 
 la the year 1831, by William Parkinson, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court 
 of the Southern District of New-York. 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 WHEREAS the spelling of several words in this work is different 
 from the common orthography, it is thought expedient, by way 
 of defense, to mention a few instances of it, with the authorities 
 for them. They are chiefly the following : 
 
 1. The termination er is preferred to re, as in scepter. Bailey's 
 and Martin's Dictionaries prefer that form which makes a regular 
 derivative as sceptered. So Milton and the best writers generally 
 of the last century. Webster's Great Dictionary also, has all 
 these words in this form. 
 
 2. Or is preferred to our, as in labor, vigor, <fcc. Walker's 
 Principles, 314 his decision on honor, and his Rhyming Dic- 
 tionary. Also Ash's Dictionary, and the best modern practice. 
 
 3. Final e is preferred to two vowels before a consonant, as pro - 
 cede and lothe, rather than proceed and loath, or loathe. Analogy. 
 
 4. When useless, e final is rejected, as in elicit, deposit, &c. 
 Dyche and Webster. 
 
 5. C final is preferred to ck as in sceptic. Thirteen standard 
 Dictionaries and the best practice. 
 
 6. S is preferred to c soft, as in expense, defense, &c. Bai- 
 ley, Johnson in his derivatives, and Webster. 
 
 7. In derivatives, the final consonant, when not under the ac- 
 cent, is not doubled ; as worshiped, from worship; traveler, tra- 
 veling and traveled, from travel. See Perry's Rule, p. 15, 8vp. 
 Dictionary. 
 
 For an illustration of the grounds of these and some other va- 
 riations, from common practice, which will be found in the spel- 
 ling throughout this Series of Sermons, (mistakes excepted,) 
 the reader is referred to "PRACTICAL ORTHOGRAPHY, by WILLIAM 
 BEARCROFT, late Master of the Academy, Kirky Mooreside ;" and 
 especially to the late edition of it "Revised" (by a comparison of 
 twenty-five STANDARD Dictionaries) "and greatly enlarged by 
 DANIEL H. BARNES, one of the Principals of the New- York High 
 School." From the color of its cover, this valuable Work, so 
 deserving of the studious perusal of the rising generation, is now 
 commonly known by the name of THE RED BOOK. 
 
A Note from the learned DR. MITCHILL, (lately deceased,) 
 respecting the first two Sermons of this Series. 
 
 REV. WM. PARKINSON. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have read the two published Sermons on the Ministry of 
 Moses, which you were good enough to send me a few days 
 ago. I am greatly pleased with the classical research and 
 biblical erudition with which they abound. 
 
 That Hebrew lawgiver, was, as you observe, " truly an ex- 
 traordinary character ;" and I scarcely know which to admire 
 most your literal or typical account of him. Though perhaps 
 I should not be greatly mistaken in ascribing to the former 
 more profound learning, and to the latter more ingenious elu- 
 cidation. 
 
 You seem to be fully possessed of your subject ; yet there 
 can be no harm in offering you my wishes for its complete 
 execution, according to your enlarged and instructive plan. 
 
 I am pleased to find you have adopted the orthography of 
 Bearcroft ; and that you have made a respectful reference to 
 Barnes's revised and enlarged edition of his publication, under 
 the name of the Red Book. A short time ago, he gave me an 
 interesting discourse upon the performance ; and in a subse- 
 quent conversation, very lately, the able principal of the High 
 School, made very respectful mention of you. 
 
 Truly and with respectful and friendly feeling yours, 
 
 SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 
 
 New-York, Oct. 19th, 1828. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 UffJVBRSXf] 
 
 IT was not till more than half my Sermons on the Thirty- 
 third chapter of Deuteronomy were delivered, that I had a 
 thought of issuing them from the press. And, when individu- 
 als, whose judgment I respected, expressed a wish that they 
 should be published, I shrunkfrom the undertaking, assured 
 that, to write them out from the short notes I had made, to 
 govern my studies, preparatory to preaching them, must cost me 
 much labor, and that all the time requisite thereto, I should 
 need for making successive preparations for the pulpit, and 
 for discharging my other pastoral duties. 
 
 At that stage of the work, too, I had become more fully 
 convinced than I was at the commencement of it, that the 
 chapter on which I was sermonizing, is a very abstruse portion 
 of sacred Writ, and that a Preacher or Writer, to be qualified 
 to give a just interpretation of it, and to make a judicious and 
 profitable use of it, must have much more knowledge of Jewish 
 antiquities than I possessed ; and therefore, that however ac- 
 ceptable my sermons thereon might be, as delivered viva voce, 
 to render them at all worthy of a place in the library of an 
 intelligent Christian, and especially in that of a biblical stu- 
 dent, I must be at the pains of much additional research ; 
 for which I felt a great deficiency of time of books and of 
 oriental learning. 
 
 Besides, from the progress then made, I perceived that, in 
 regard to several things expressed or alluded to in the chap- 
 ter before me, I must conscientiously differ in opinion, from 
 certain Commentators and Critics, who are generally thought 
 to be almost infallible, and from those Writers on the types, 
 also, who are the most generally received and admired. This, 
 I well knew, would expose me, however unjustly, to the im- 
 putation of arrogance and the affectation of novelty. 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 I was also fully aware, that those types of which I should 
 have occasion to treat, if faithfully traced in accordance 
 with the New Testament, must lead to such views of Christ 
 . of his atonement, righteousness, and intercession and, of 
 x his church, ordinances, and government, as would render the 
 work unpopular, even among the generality of processed 
 Christians, and especially, as being devoid of those embellish- 
 ments of style, by which some authors unhappily eclipse truth, 
 and others wickedly conceal error. 
 
 At length, however, I consented that the question on the ex- 
 pediency of publishing these Sermons, should be submitted to 
 the church I serve ; whose members, after hearing all my ob- 
 jections to engaging in the work, and being distinctly appris- 
 ed, that, should I engage in it, they must relinquish, for a 
 considerable time, their claim to my accustomed visits, proceed- 
 ed, notwithstanding, to pass the following resolution : 
 
 "Having heard; with interest, and, we trust, with some 
 spiritual benefit, the Sermons preached by our pastor, from the 
 Thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, we are of opinion that it 
 would contribute to the diffusion of Evangelical Truth, and 
 to our own edification and that of other Christians, to have 
 them published ; wherefore, Resolved, That brethren Graves, 
 Barnard, Conrey, Skellorn, Lyon, Whitney, and Gould, be a 
 Committee to confer with our Pastor on the Expediency of the 
 measure, and, if it meet his approbation, to solicit him to pre- 
 pare the work for the Press, as soon as convenient. 
 
 "R. GRAVES, Ch. Clerk." 
 
 Supported and encouraged by the above Resolution, and 
 remembering that, with such gifts as the Lord had bestowed 
 upon me, I was the servant of the people who had passed 
 it, 1 commenced writing ; and, by employing in that way, 
 such intervals as, by extra exertion, I could redeem from the 
 time usually appropriated to other studies, or to needful re- 
 pose, I have, by slow degrees, in some manner completed 
 the Fint Volume. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 According to my Proposals, the Work was to be comprised 
 in twenty-six Sermons, averaging 24 pages each ; but, having 
 . had to make two sermons on The Ministry of Moses, and two 
 on The Urim and Thummim and anticipating the like ne- 
 cessity on some other subjects, I am convinced, that if I 
 should stop with the twenty-sixth discourse, several of the 
 best would remain unpublished. Nor (if the sermons ara 
 worth having) can it be any matter of regret to subscribers, 
 to receive a few more of them than expected especially as 
 the expense is too small and gradual to be felt. 
 
 Those subscribers who heard the Sermons of this volume 
 preached, and who thought them valuable then, must readily 
 perceive that they are much more so now ; for, in preparing 
 them for the press, without divesting them of a single idea, 
 which they originally embraced, I have variously illustrated 
 and confirmed many ideas, which then were only suggested. 
 Besides, the NOTES, some of which cost me much research 
 and study, are entirely additional and which, by the most 
 competent judges, among those who have read them, are 
 supposed to contain much important and useful information. 
 
 Neither have my subscribers, like many who have subscrib- 
 ed for new Works, reason to complain of deficiency in the 
 .quantity of matter promised. This volume, consisting of xvii.. 
 Sermons, at the proposed average of 24 pages each, would 
 contain only 408 pages ; whereas it contains (exclusive of the 
 
 Title, the Preface, and the Table of Contents) 554 pages . 
 
 and therefore a surplus of 146 pages, or 6 sermons, at my own 
 expense, 
 
 A critical reader of these Sermons, will probably feel dis- 
 gusted at the frequent recurrence of the same ideas nay, of 
 the same terms and phrases. But, when he considers how 
 many persons and things herein treated of, were types of 
 Christ and that, not only Israel, as a whole, but each tribe 
 thereof also, in certain respects, was a type of the church, he 
 will perceive that to have avoided altogether what he is dis- 
 
Vi PREFACE. 
 
 gusted at, would have been a very difficult and rare attain- 
 ment. 
 
 Some, it is understood, complain of the' Hebrew words and 
 phrases, occasionally employed in this work. But certainly 
 this is a groundless objection. To the Hebrew scholar, it 
 must be grateful and, to the mere English reader, it pre- 
 sents no obstacle ; as the Hebrew is always translated, and 
 generally even the pronunciation of it is given in roman let- 
 ters. 
 
 On reviewing the Sermons contained in this volume, I ob- 
 serve in them many defects, both in arrangement of matter, 
 and in perspicuity of diction and doubt riot, that, in these re- 
 spects as well as others, better judges will discover in them, 
 many more. And though it is due to the Printer, to ac- 
 knowledge that what belongs to his department, is, generally 
 speaking, well executed, I nevertheless, to my great regret, 
 find in the Work some typographical inaccuracies, which, in 
 reading the proofs, escaped his eye, as well as my own. But, 
 as these, whether in Orthography, in Punctuation or in 
 References, are all (so far as noticed) such as any reader, 
 likely to detect them, can easily correct, I think it unnecessary 
 to note them, by giving a list or errata. 
 
 In applying such of the types as I had occasion to treat of, 
 to Christ and his church, I have endeavored, as much as pos- 
 sible, to follow the light of the New Testament ; when this 
 did not (to my observation) furnish the needful clue, I avail- 
 ed myself, whenever I could, of Old-Testament prophecy, 
 regarding the Messiah and his kingdom ; and if, in some 
 instances, I have suggested thoughts without supporting them 
 by any reference to Scripture, they are either such as are 
 obviously true, or such as relate to points not decided by ex- 
 press revelation, and on which, I, like others, have ventured to 
 offer mine opinion. 
 
 The METHOD OP SALVATION, kept in view in these Ser- 
 mons, is that on which my helpless soul has constantly, and, 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 at times, with great satisfaction and delight, exclusively re- 
 lied, for more than thirty-five years and which, for about 
 thirty-three of these years, I have been publishing and ex- 
 plaining to others. And though favored, I trust, during 
 that time, with some growth of knowledge in the Holy 
 Scriptures, I am not conscious of a shade of change in my 
 doctrinal views, since I commenced preaching: Nay, so as- 
 sured am I of the divine authority of the doctrines I have 
 uniformly labored to inculcate, that my primary object in 
 consenting to the publication of this Work, is, that the dearly 
 .beloved church and congregation, whom I have served nearly 
 twenty-seven years, and all others, among whom I have, at 
 any time, gone preaching the kingdom of God, may be able, 
 after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. 
 
 That these Sermons, in the hand of the Holy Spirit, may 
 be instrumental, in comforting believers in awakening sin- 
 ners and in directing inquiring souls to Christ, is the desire 
 and prayer of 
 
 THE PREACHER, 
 
 WM. PARKINSON. 
 
 New-York, Oct. 27, 1831. 
 
- 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF MOSES. 
 
 DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, 
 the servant of God, blessed the children of Israel before his 
 death Page 144 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF MOSES SPIRITUALIZED. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses tht 
 servant of God, blessed the children of Israel before his 
 death. ... . . p. 4596 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 THE DELIVERY AND AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 2. And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and 
 rose up from Seir unto them ; he shined forth from mount Pet- 
 ran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right 
 hand went a fiery law for them. . . . p. 97 138 
 
 SERMON IV. 
 
 THE LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 3. Yea, he loved the people: all his saints are in 
 thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet, every one shall receive 
 of thy words. ...... p. 139 164 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 THE MOSAIC LAW AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 4. Jdoses commanded us a law : even the inherit- 
 ance of the congregation of Jacob. . . p. 165 192 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 MOSES WAS KING IN JESHURUN. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 5. And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads 
 of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered toge- 
 ther p. 193216 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 6. Let Reuben live, amd not die ; and let not his 
 men be few p. 217237 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 7. And this is the blessing ofJudah : and he said, 
 Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah ; and bring him unto his peo- 
 ple : let his hands be sufficient for him : and be thou an help to 
 him from his enemies. .... p. 238 266 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVL HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 8 II. And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummimand 
 thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at 
 Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meri- 
 bah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not 
 seen him ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew 
 his own children ; -for they have observed thy word, and kept thy 
 covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel 
 thy law : they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt 
 sacrifice upon thine altar. Bless, LORD, his substance, and ac- 
 cept the work of his hands : smite through the loins of them that 
 rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not 
 again. - p. 267286 
 
 SERMON X. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVL HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 
 
 CONSIDERED MYSTICALLY. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 8 11. And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim 
 and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, $c. . p. 287334 
 
XI 
 
 SEKMON XL 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVI CONTINUED. 
 
 HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 8 II . P- 335382 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVI CONTINUED. 
 
 HIS SUBSTANCE BLESSED, AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 8 11. ... . p. 383 408 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 12. And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the 
 LORD shall dwell in safely by him ; and the LORD shall cover 
 him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoul- 
 ders. . . . . p. 409 432 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH. 
 
 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 13 17. And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord 
 be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and 
 for the deep that coucheth benealh. And for the precious fruits 
 brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth 
 by the moon. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains^ 
 and for the precious things of the lasting hills. And for the pre- 
 cious things of the earth and fulness thereof; and for the good-, 
 will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon 
 the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that 
 was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling 
 of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with 
 them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earths 
 and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are 
 the thousands of Manasseh. p. 433 484 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON XV. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH CONTINUED. 
 
 JOSEPH'S LAND A TYPE OF CHRIST*S CHURCH. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1317 p. 485512 
 
 SERMON XVf. 
 JOSEPH'S BLESSING CONTINUED. 
 
 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1317 p. 513532 
 
 SERMON XVII. 
 
 JOSEPH'S BLESSING CONTINUED. 
 
 JOSEPH'S . PRE-EMINENCE. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1317. . . . . p. 533554 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF MOSES* 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the 
 man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. 
 
 AMONG the Jews, each book of the Pentateuch was 
 primarily and most commonly called by the first 
 word or two of its original. Accordingly, with 
 them, the primary name of this book was Elleh Ha- 
 debareem, These are the words. In process of time, 
 however, their writers, with more propriety, distin- 
 guished these sacred books by names suggested by 
 their respective contents. Thus, for instance, this 
 book has been called Sepher Tochachoth, The book 
 of Reproofs, because it contains so many reproofs 
 of Israel, for their idolatry and other sins ; and 
 Mishneh Ha-torah, A repetition of the Law, be- 
 cause of this it chiefly consists. This very appro- 
 priate name of it, is found in the book itself: (a) 
 "And it shall be when he (the king of Israel) sit- 
 teth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall 
 write (ft lo) for him, for his own use and direction 
 minn rwD-r\K eth mishneh ha-torah, which we trans- 
 late a copy of the law, but which literally means the 
 or this repetition, duplicate, or doubling of the law ; 
 Mishneh being from nr# shanah, to repeat or double; 
 and which, by the way, shows that the law which 
 the king was required to write out, was this very 
 book. From the same source it has its Greek name, 
 
 (a) Chap. xvii. 18. 
 1 
 
Deuteronomy; for the LXX. or LXXII. Jews, who 
 translated the Old Testament into Greek, having 
 rendered Mishneh Ha-torah by JWt/>fljmov, adopted 
 it, (as their fathers had the corresponding phrase in 
 Hebrew,) as the title of the book, and manifestly 
 for a like reason ; for $tvTtfwtu,i<H Deuteronomy, from 
 2fvT ( pas second and W* law, with the article prefixed, 
 signifies the or this second law. Neither the Jewish 
 translators, however, nor our own, by calling this 
 book Deuteronomy, meant thereby to imply that it 
 is another law revoking the former, but merely that 
 it is a second publication of the same law moral, 
 ceremonial and judicial ; accompanied with explan- 
 ations and exhortations, and indeed with some ad- 
 ditional injunctions to be observed by the Israelites, 
 in the land whither they were going. (5) 
 
 Nor was this recapitulation without obvious and 
 important reasons. The law was not then common 
 in the hands of the Israelites, as the Bible is now 
 in the hands of Christians: the autograph, proba- 
 bly, was the only copy of it in being ; and, with very 
 few exceptions, the generation of the Jews then liv- 
 ing consisted of persons who, at the time the law 
 was delivered on Sinai, were either unborn, or, at 
 least, too young to understand and remember it, to 
 much advantage, (c) Besides, on their literal ob- 
 servance of the law depended their continuance and 
 temporal prosperity in Canaan, the possession of 
 which they were just about to receive ; wherefore, 
 both for their instruction and well-being and to 
 manifest the* equity of his own future procedings in 
 regard to them, it behoved God to cause this expli- 
 cit statement to be made to them of the terms of 
 the charter, by the observance of which they might 
 hold and upon the breach of which they must forfeit 
 
 (1) Ch. i. 1 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 1 ; & Ch. xxvii. (c) Ch. i. 39 & ii. 1416. 
 
3 
 
 the promised inheritance, (d) Happy is it for the 
 heirs of grace and of glory, that their inheritance 
 does not, in like manner, depend on the defective 
 basis of their own obedience, (e) 
 
 That this rehearsal of the law to the Israelites, 
 might make the more awful and lasting impression 
 upon them, Moses, no doubt by divine direction, 
 prefaced it with an account of the calamities which 
 had already befallen their nation for the neglect and 
 transgression of it, and with an assurance that " for 
 their sakes ;" (they having provoked him to the use 
 of unadvised expressions ;) (/) he himself was un- 
 der the divine displeasure, and must be taken from 
 them, without entering the earthly Canaan, (g) 
 And still further to awaken them to a sense of their 
 obligations and to excite them to perseverance in 
 watchfulness and well-doing, he accompanied the 
 rehearsal, as he advanced in it from time to time, 
 with the most pathetic exhortations, the most solemn 
 cautions, and the most fearful threatenings ; and 
 these interspersed with recitals of what God had 
 already done for them, and of his promises which, 
 on condition of their obedience, remained to be ful- 
 filled to them. (Ji) Moreover, all these laws which 
 he thus carefully rehearsed, explained and incul- 
 cated, he committed to writing for their future di- 
 rection and benefit, (i) And, recollecting that all 
 this was performed by him in the last month of his 
 life, we can readily believe the inspired assertion, 
 that though he was a hundred and twenty years old, 
 " his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abat- 
 ed." (K) 
 
 (b) xxviii. 58, &c. Comp. Is. i. 19, 20. (e) Psal. ixxxiv. 11, 
 Rom. x. 4. Col. iii. 3. (/) Num. xx. 1012 and Psal. cvi. 32, 33. 
 (g) Chapters i. ii. and iii. (h) From the iv. to the xxx. Chap, 
 (i) Chap. i. 5 and xxxi. 4, 9, 24. (k) Chap. i. 3 and xxxiv. 7. 
 
That Moses wrote this book and that he wrote it 
 under divine inspiration, is testified both in the Old 
 Testament and the New, by other inspired writers ; 
 who refer to it, not only as the work of Moses, but 
 also as the word of God. (/) From this book our 
 Lord himself took all the passages by which he re- 
 pelled and vanquished the prince of darkness, (m) 
 In short, the numerous and explicit prophecies con- 
 tained in it, and especially their undeniable fulfil- 
 ment, both in the Jewish nation and in its antitype, 
 the Christian church, (w) unanswerably demonstrate 
 that it came from Him who " declares the end from 
 the beginning, and from ancient times the things 
 that are riot yet done." (0) 
 
 Of this inspired book, the chapter before us is an 
 important portion. It is important as it concludes 
 the labors of Moses, so eminent among the ancient 
 servants of God ; but much more so, as it confirms, 
 by his dying testimony, the all-important fact, that 
 the law, in the manner he had before asserted, and 
 recorded, was through him delivered to Israel from 
 Mount Sinai, and as it contains his valedictory bene- 
 diction, both general and special, pronounced upon 
 the beloved people of his charge ; in which we have 
 a prophetical history of national Israel and a typical 
 history of spiritual Israel. 
 
 Between this chapter and the preceding one, there 
 is an obvious contrast. In the preceding chapter, 
 
 (/) 1 Kings ii. 3, 4. 2 Chron. xxv. 4. Dan. ix. 11, 13. John 
 i. 45. Acts iii. 22 and vii. 37. Rom. x. 6, 8. 1 Cor. ix. 9. 
 Gal. iii. 10 43. (m) Matt. iv. 4, 7, 10. compared with Deut. 
 viii. 3. and vi. 16, 13. (n) See chap, xxviii. comp. ver. 32 and 
 41 with Lam. v. 7 13 and Matt, xxiii. 37, 38 ; and ver. 36, 37, 
 49, 50, with 2 Kings xvii. 6 23 and xxiv. 11 16; Psal. xliv. 
 9 14 and Luke xxi. 20 24. Also chap, xviii. 15 with Acts iii. 
 22. and chap. vii. 68 with 1 Pet. ii. 9. (o) Is. xlvi. 10. 
 
Moses, divinely inspired, had thundered out the ter- 
 rors of the Almighty against Israel for their sins ; in 
 this, guided by the same inspiration, he reminded 
 them of the favors which, notwithstanding their 
 ingratitude and rebelion, God had conferred upon 
 them, and foretold blessings which he still had in 
 reserve for them. 
 
 If, therefore, in the former chapter he might seem 
 to upbraid them, yet in this, being permitted to as- 
 sume a milder tone, he let them know that nothing 
 he had said proceded from ill-will that in all things 
 he aimed at their good ; and thus, leaving his peace 
 with them, terminated for ever his labours among 
 them. 
 
 That the subject of this chapter is a blessing, is 
 announced in the title of it, which is our present 
 text; And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the 
 man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his 
 death. This blessing includes both his solemn re- 
 cognition of what the Lord, through him, had done 
 for Israel, and his prophetic enunciation of what the 
 Lord had further revealed to him concerning Israel ; 
 the former of which is recorded in the four verses 
 succeding the text, and the latter from thence to the 
 end of the chapter. The particulars of each will 
 receive attention, in their respective places, as we 
 advance in the proposed Series. In the mean time, 
 however, that the divine inspiration of the Penta- 
 teuch, and therefore of the chapter before us, may 
 be the more evident, I design to give a compendium 
 of the whole Ministry of Moses; by which it will 
 appear that he acted under a divine commission, 
 had special intercourse with God, and wrote as he 
 was " moved by the Holy Ghost."* This compendium 
 
 1 The importance of this compendium, as a foundation for my 
 subsequent labors on this chapter t it is hoped will, in some measure, 
 
6 
 
 will be found amply to support the following propo- 
 sitions : Moses, as the gift of God, was a great bless- 
 ing to Israel, during his public life and, as the man 
 of God, he pronounced upon them, the blessing ex- 
 pressed in this chapter, just before his death. 
 
 1. Moses, as the gift of God, was a great blessing 
 to Israel, during his public life. Of this, the sacred 
 records furnish many and very extraordinary instan- 
 ces. 
 
 Through Moses, as his chosen and qualified in- 
 strument, God redeemed and delivered Israel. I say 
 he redeemed arid delivered them, because their re- 
 demption and their deliverance were two distinct 
 favors : the former from liability to death ; the latter 
 from continuance in bondage. And though both 
 were accomplished through the agency of Moses, 
 yet by different means ; their redemption, by a sacri- 
 fice; their deliverance, by a rod. Each deserves 
 further notice. 
 
 First, Their redemption. " Israel," said the Lord, 
 " is my son, even my first-born ; (p) but this son was 
 found in Egypt, every first-born of which was doom- 
 ed to judicial death; (q) therefore, that God's heir 
 might escape, he must be redeemed. For this pur- 
 pose, through Moses, the paschal sacrifice was ap- 
 pointed ; not to redeem the Israelites and the Egyp- 
 tians in common ; but the Israelites exclusively ; nor 
 yet to redeem Egypt for the sake of Israel, but to 
 redeem Israel from the fate of Egypt. For although, 
 by the residence of Joseph and his brethren among 
 them, the Egyptians had received many mercies; 
 
 serve as my apology for drawing the matter of this and the 
 following sermon from the history of Moses, rather than from the 
 text to which these two Sermons are appended, 
 (p) Exo. iv. 22. (q) Ibid. xi. 5. 
 
yet, in the redemption of Israel, they had no inte- 
 rest. This is evident. The sacrifice was specially 
 appointed and designed for Israel, even for all of 
 them, " according to the number of the souls ;" they 
 all and they only were to concur in slaying it, and 
 to be protected by the blood of it. Thus saith the 
 word of the Lord: "The whole assembly of the 
 congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening," 
 or between the two evenings, as the words [o^^-n pa 
 beyn ha-arbayim] literally mean; that is between 
 noon and sunset ;* " And the blood shall be to you 
 for a token upon the houses where you are : and 
 when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the 
 plague shall not come upon you, to destroy you, when 
 I smite the land of Egypt." (r) 
 
 Secondly, Their deliverance. For being redeem- 
 ed from the fate of Egypt, they were thereupon deli- 
 vered from the yoke of Egypt. In this, too, the in- 
 strumentality of Moses was very apparent and very 
 important. With this he was charged when he re- 
 ceived his commission: "I," said the Lord to him, 
 " will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring 
 forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt ; 
 certainly I will be with thee ; and this shall be a 
 
 * Exo. xii. 6. The Jews divided the day into morning aud even- 
 ing; the former continuing from six o'clock till twelve, and the latter 
 from then till dark. The evening, however, they divided into 
 two ; the first computed from the time the sun began to decline 
 from his meridian altitude ; and the second from the time of his 
 descent below the horizon ; and between these two evenings, (pro- 
 bably at about three o'clock, P. M.) the passover was to be killed 
 and oifered ; and to which the time when Christ, the antitype of 
 the passover, expired upon the cross, exactly answers ; the ninth 
 hour of the day, counting from six in the morning, being three 
 in the afternoon. Matt. xxvi. 46. See Ainsworth, on the place ; 
 and .Lew, Ling. Sacra, under aijr, and Ceremonies of the Jews, 
 p. 45, &c. (r) Exo. xii. 13. 
 
 f 
 
8 
 
 token unto thee, that I have sent thee ; When thou 
 hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall 
 serve God upon this mountain, Horeb, where the 
 Lord was then speaking to him. (s) And having 
 silenced all his objections and fears, the Lord sent 
 him, with no visible armor but a rod in his hand, to 
 conquer Pharaoh and to rescue Israel. This rod, 
 however, though naturally a mere shepherd's staff, 
 was supernaturally more than a scepter, a rod of 
 wonders ; it was the chosen symbol of divine power, 
 and was, therefore, emphatically called The rod of 
 God. (t) By means of this, both Moses and Aaron 
 were enabled to perform such miracles as demon- 
 strated their divine mission : (u) " The people" of 
 Israel " believed," and even the magicians of Egypt, 
 unable any further to imitate or withstand, said to 
 Pharaoh, " This is the finger of God." (w) Never- 
 theless, Pharaoh hardened himself and was harden- 
 ed ; he hardened his own heart wilfully, (x) and God, 
 by leaving him to the influence of his corrupt pas- 
 sions/ and the instigations of Satan, hardened it ju- 
 dicially, (y) Hence, though often under some judg- 
 ment, he consented, yet as often he again "refused to 
 let the people go." (z) 
 
 The privilege which the Israelites entreated Pha- 
 raoh to grant them, was that they might " go three 
 days' journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice to the 
 Lord their God." (a) Three days were mentioned, 
 because in that time, by the direct way and at the or- 
 dinary rate of traveling, they might have gone from 
 
 (s) Exo. iii. 10. 12. (t) Ibid. iv. 2. 17, 20. (u) Ibid. vi. 26, 
 27; vii. 9, 10, 19, 20; viii. 16, 17; ix. 8, 22 ; x. 12, 13,21. 
 (w) Exod. viii. 19; ix. 11. (x) Ibid. v. 2; viii. 15, 32; comp. 
 Acts xxviii. 26, 27. (#) Ibid. vii. 1113 ; viii. 19 ; ix. 12. (z) 
 Ibid. viii. 8, 15, 25, 28, 32 ; ix. 28. 35 ; x, 24, 27. (a) Ibid. v. 3. 
 
9 
 
 the borders of Egypt to Horeb, the mountain on 
 which, according to promise, they were to serve the 
 Lord. By this, however, cannot be ascertained the 
 exact distance of that journey. For although, ac- 
 cording to Herodotus,* a day's journey was a hun- 
 dred and fifty furlongs, making about nineteen miles, 
 and, according to some Jewish writers, ten parsas,\ 
 amounting to forty miles, neither of these estimates 
 can be admitted here ; it being certain, that, in those 
 times, distances were not measured by chains and 
 links, but by the days and hours required to pass 
 over them. (&) And, indeed, to the present period, 
 in the journals of eastern travelers, we rarely find 
 any mention made of miles and furlongs, but fre- 
 quently of so many days or hours journey. 
 
 In making this request, the Israelites, it must be 
 admitted, sought an opportunity of doing more than 
 they expressed ; for while they asked leave merely 
 to go three days journey, they manifestly aimed at 
 making a complete escape. Of this, too, it should 
 seem Pharaoh was apprehensive ; for at one time, 
 having said " I will let you go," he added, by way 
 of stipulation and restraint, " ye shall not go very 
 far away." (c) Nor was there any thing reprehensi- 
 ble in their design ; for, being by divine authority 
 entitled to freedom, they were unrighteously and ty- 
 rannically held in bondage. Moreover, as the man- 
 agement of the case was wholly according to divine 
 direction, it must, in them, have been perfectly just 
 and innocent : and being recorded under the guidance 
 of divine inspiration, it serves to show, that when 
 God's people have to contend with oppressors and 
 
 * Terpsichore, Sive 1. 5. c. 53. f T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 94. 1. 
 (6) Gen. xxxi. 23. Numb. xi. 31. Deut. i. 2. 1 Kings xix. 4. 
 (c) Exo. viii. 28. 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 persecutors, they may lawfully combine the wisdom 
 of the serpent with the innocence of the dove ; by 
 which, however, is not meant the wisdom of " the old 
 serpent, the devil," which consists in lying and pre- 
 varication ; nor that of venomous serpents, which lies 
 in terrifying their adversaries, with their fearful hiss- 
 ings, or in destroying them, with their deadly stings ; 
 but the allusion is simply to that instinctive faculty 
 of self-preservation, by which the Creator made the 
 serpent more " subtil, or prudent [oiy, Prov. xiv. 
 15, 18 ; xv. 5.] than any beast of the field ;" and which 
 may be observed in the adroitness by which many 
 serpents and especially those which are called innox- 
 ious or harmless, elude the weapons of their assail- 
 ants and effect their escape. To this, in some re- 
 spects, may be likened that prudence which God be- 
 stows on his people when they are assailed by ene- 
 mies : this is that wisdom which is profitable to di- 
 rect" that " wisdom that is from above," and by 
 which the saints are often enabled, in a very remark- 
 able manner, to baffle satan and his agents, and to 
 escape the mischief of their designs, (d) 
 
 Directed by this wisdom, the Israelites prudently 
 requested only what Pharaoh and his predecessors 
 had been accustomed to grant to others. For, ac- 
 cording to historians and travelers most conversant 
 in oriental usages, it had been customary with the 
 kings of Egypt, from the very origin of that mon- 
 archy, to permit, annually, a caravan (subsequently 
 imitated by that of Mahomet) to pass through their 
 dominions to the Kaaba, the temple of Ishmael, at 
 Mecca ; also to authorize several different portions 
 
 (d) Exo. iii. 7, 8, 18. Comp. 1 Sam. xvi. 2. Gen. iii. 1. Matt. 
 x 16. Luke xxi. 15. Acts xxiii. 17 24. James iii. 15, 17. 
 
11 
 
 of their own subjects, both statedly and occasional- 
 ly, to go beyond the bounds of the kingdom, to per- 
 form the ceremonies of their respective religions, in 
 places which they deemed peculiarly sacred.* Why, 
 then, should Israel be denied the like privilege] 
 Their request was as plausible as that of any other 
 people; and impartiality toward his subjects, requir- 
 ed Pharaoh to grant it. But, how often, alas ! un- 
 der kingly, papal and ecclesiastical tyranny, have 
 idolaters been protected in their " abominable idola- 
 tries," and antichristians, in the observance of their 
 popish traditions, while the spiritual worshipers of 
 the true God and the obedient disciples of his dear 
 Son, have been denied the rights of conscience, and 
 exposed, not only to the power of lawless mobs, but 
 also to the consequences of legal prosecutions ; such 
 as imprisonment, fines, banishment, nay, death itself. 
 And all this commonly under pretence of great re- 
 gard for religious purity ; an authorized herald pro- 
 claiming, "It is commanded that ye fall down and 
 worship the golden image;" or a thousand voices 
 crying " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ;" or a sanc- 
 timonious priesthood, zealously vociferating, "The 
 temple of the Lord! the temple of the Lord!"(tf) 
 But, to precede. 
 
 Pharaoh, overcome by the judgments of God upon 
 himself and his nation, at length consented that Israel 
 should depart, and that without imposing any stipu- 
 
 * See Calmet's Diet. Vol. iii. Frag. 39. Also, Rees's Cyclop, 
 under Caaba ; and comp. Gen. xxxvii. 27, 28. (e) Instead of citing 
 human authorities to prove this, I refer to the narratives and pre- 
 dictions of sacred writ : See Dan. iii. 15. vii. 7. Acts xviii. and 
 xix. chapters. Heb. x. 32 34. Rev. i. 9. Gen. iii, 15. Is. Ix, 
 15. Matt. xxiv. 9. 2 Thess. ii. 212. Rev. xiiL 18. 
 
12 
 
 lation or reserve ; nay, both he and his people, that 
 they might suffer no further on their account, urged 
 and hastened their departure, (f ) 
 
 Here a transaction took place between the Israelites 
 and the Egyptians, in regard to which, the former 
 have been charged with great injustice toward the 
 latter, in having borrowed of them many valuable ar- 
 ticles without intending to return them ; and which 
 our translation, copying that of Becke, published in 
 1549, unhappily very much countenances ; and by 
 reason of which illiterate Christians have been much 
 perplexed and inveterate infidels greatly imboldened. 
 That the Israelites, at that time, obtained many valu- 
 able articles of the Egyptians, and that they did not 
 intend to return them, is apparent from the face of 
 the history ; but that, properly speaking, they borrow- 
 ed them, is not supported by the original, and that 
 they were guilty of any injustice in the affair, is ren- 
 dered utterly inadmissible by obvious facts. 
 
 That the Israelites, properly speaking, borrowed 
 those articles of the Egyptians, is not supported by the 
 original. Had borrowing and lending, in the ordinary 
 acceptation of these terms, been the nature of the 
 transaction, we have much reason to suppose it would 
 have been noted by the appropriate word rn 1 ? lavah ; 
 (g) whereas the word employed is ^ shaal, which 
 primarily and principally signifies to ask by way of 
 inquiring, examining, requiring or demanding ; (Ji) 
 and though it occurs in the Bible more than eighty 
 times, yet only twice as meaning to borrow, (i) Be- 
 
 (/) Exo. xii. 3133. (g) Neh. v. 4. Deut. xxviii. 12, 44. 
 Psal. xxxvii. 21 and cxii. 5. (h) Gen. xliii. 7 ; xliv. 19. Deut. 
 iv. 22. Josh. xix. 50. 2 Sam. xi. 7. (i) Exo. xxii. 14. (heb. v. 
 13.) and 2 Kings vi. 5. 
 
13 
 
 sides, it is used where, to admit the idea of bor- 
 rowing would be both absurd and impious. What, 
 pray, had Job to lend to God 1 Yet once and again, 
 God said to him, j'wffK eshalcha, / demand of thee, 
 &c. (K) That, in the places which relate the oc- 
 currence in question, (7) this word signifies to ask 
 or demand, is the concurrent testimony of, confess- 
 edly, the best versions, both ancient and modern. 
 The Syriac, Chaldee, Samaritan and Persian, being 
 in this place the same as the Hebrew, yield indeed 
 no assistance on either side.* But the SEPTUAGINT 
 has airyitrsi she shall ask; and the Vulgate has POSTU- 
 LABIT, she shall demand. Luther renders the word 
 by fordern, which also signifies demand; and in 
 the Geneva Bible and in that of Barker, published 
 in 1615, it is translated ask. 
 
 Nor were the Israelites, in this affair, guilty of 
 any injustice. This charge, though often brought, 
 is, as was observed before, rendered utterly inad- 
 missible by obvious facts. God, indeed, said to Is- 
 rael, a 9< re D n nnV^j nitsaltem eth mitzrayim ; which 
 we translate, "Ye shall spoil the Egyptians;" but, 
 as to SPOIL primarily signifies to plunder, to take by 
 rapine or violence, the original word ^ natsal can- 
 not, in this instance, have that meaning ; for it is 
 manifest, that all the Israelites obtained of the 
 Egyptians, the latter, moved by the unknown influ- 
 ence of God upon their consciences, and without 
 any constraint on the part of Israel, readily gave 
 up or delivered to them. In this way only, "they 
 spoiled the Egyptians;" (o) or stripped them, as 
 
 (k) Job xxxviii. 3 and xl. 7. Comp. Rom. xi. 35. (/) Exo. 
 iii. 22 ; xi. 2; xii. 35. * Lond. Polyg. (w) Exo. iii. 22. (o) Exo. 
 xii. 36. 
 
14 
 
 the word also signifies, (p) This word, too, is the 
 more appropriate, as it denotes the equity of the trans- 
 action ; for it is elsewhere used to signify the recove- 
 ry of property that had been unlawfully taken away : 
 " Because they went not with us, we will not give 
 them ought of the SPOIL that we have RECOVERED.*" 
 And to this sense of the word, the case before us 
 exactly corresponds ; for, in this event, the Israelites 
 obtained their wages long withheld, together with 
 their freedom, wrongfully taken away by the Egyp- 
 tians. They had served the Egyptians more than 
 two hundred years, and much of that time under the 
 most rigorous oppression, without receiving any equi- 
 valent ; wherefore, on the eve of their departure, God 
 the righteous Judge, determined that justice should 
 be done to them, constrained their oppressors to 
 compensate them, in "such things as they required." 
 So this transfer of property from the Egyptians to 
 the Israelites, was anciently understood by Epipha- 
 niw,who reckoning the services of the latter to have 
 been 215 years, asks "Was it not just before God 
 and man, that their wages should be paid them be- 
 fore they left the country 1"f And the same judg- 
 ment on the case was given by the author of the 
 Book of Wisdom, who speaks of it as an instance 
 in which Wisdom rendered to the righteous, the re- 
 ward of their labor s.^ On this article, I beg leave 
 to add a story contained in the Gemara, which, 
 true or false, serves happily to illustrate the fact 
 under consideration. It runs thus: In the time 
 of Alexander the Great, the Egyptians brought an 
 
 (p) Exo. xxxiii 6. * l^VD TOK esher hitzalnu. 1 Sam. xxx. 
 
 22. f XK rjv hKaiov KOI vapa 0c KCLI av0/>;rot?, &C. ApCOratUS, Num. Cxii- 
 
 cxiii. | Chap. x. 17. 
 
15 
 
 action against the Israelites, demanding the land of 
 Canaan, in satisfaction for what they had borrowed 
 of them when they went out of Egypt. Gibeah ben 
 Kosam, who was advocate for the Jews, replied, 
 that before they could sustain this demand, they must 
 prove what they alleged, namely, that the Israelites 
 had really borrowed such and such things of the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 The Egyptians thought it sufficient to refer the 
 Jews to the account of the matter in their own books. 
 Well then, said the advocate, look into the same books 
 and you will find that the children of Israel lived four 
 hundred and thirty years in Egypt ;* Pay us for all 
 
 * By thus making an advantage of the opposit party's igno- 
 rance of the law, the Jewish advocate, it is true, rendered his 
 argument the more overwhelming and silencing ; but he was as 
 disingenuous in his retort, as the Egyptians were in their charge ; 
 for he must have well known, that the books referred to, no where 
 state that the children of Israel lived 430 years in Egypt, but 
 only that " the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in 
 Egypt) was 430 years ;" Exo. xii. 40 ; which must necessarily be 
 understood to include the sojourning of their ancestors, (to wit, 
 that of Abram from the time of his calling till he entered Canaan, 
 commonly estimated at five years, and that of him and his posteri- 
 ty in Canaan, Gen. xxxvii. 1, which, though promised to his seed, 
 was not transferred, and which, therefore, was to them a strange 
 land, wherein they were evil treated,) as well as their own so- 
 journing in Egypt, after Jacob's descent thither. Accordingly, 
 both in the Samaritan Version and in the Alexandrian copy of the 
 Septuagint, which many learned men esteem the purest records 
 of the Pentateuch, this chronicle reads thus; "Now the sojourn- 
 ing of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they 
 sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 
 430 years." And that this has been the current opinion among 
 the Jews, is plain from both their Talmuds; one reading " in Egypt 
 and in all lands ;" T. Hieros. Megillah, fol. 71, 4 ; arid the other, " in 
 Egypt and in the rest of the lands." T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 9, 1. 
 
 Thus understood, the chronology is clearly demonstrable. From 
 
16 
 
 the labor and toil of so many thousand people as 
 you employed all that time, and we will restore what, 
 (as you say) we borrowed. To which the Egyptians 
 had not a word to answer. 
 
 But (this story aside,) we leave even the candid 
 infidel to judge whether his brethren are not guilty of 
 great injustice to the sacred history, when they say y 
 " Moses represents the just God as ordering the Is- 
 raelites to borrow the goods of the Egyptians under 
 the pretence of returning them, whereas he intended 
 
 the time of Abram's call to leave Ur of the Chaldees, in Mesopo- 
 tamia, till he entered Canaan, we compute to have been five 
 years ; [Gen. xi. 31 and xii. 1, compared with Acts vii. 2, 3 ;] 
 from his entrance into Canaan, till the birth of Isaac, we know 
 was twenty-five years ; [Gen. xii. 4 and xxi. 5 ;] Isaac was sixty 
 years old when Jacob was born ; [Gen. xxv. 26 ;] and Jacob was 
 a hundred and thirty years old when he went into Egypt. [Gen. 
 xlvii. 9.] These four periods together make 220 years ; and ad- 
 ding to these, the 210 years, which all Jewish writers of note say 
 their nation sojourned in Egypt, we have the exact number of 430 
 years ; at the expiration of which, " even the self-same day all the 
 hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." Exo. xii. 41. 
 In nearly the same manner, the apostle Paul seems to have calcu- 
 lated these years ; that is, from the giving of the promise to Abram, 
 which was at the time of his calling, [Gen. xii. 1 3,] to the de- 
 livery of the law on Sinai ; and which term, though it included a 
 few weeks more, [Exo. xix. 1.] he expresses by the round number 
 of 430 years. Gal. iii. 17. And, as serving at once to confirm 
 the calculation just made, and to reconcile what infidels call a 
 contradiction, let it be recollected, that, in the sense of the pro- 
 mise, Abraham had no seed till Isaac was born, in whom his seed 
 was to be called ; [Gen. xxi. 12.] and that, deducting his own 
 journeying of five years at Haran and twenty-five more in Ca- 
 naan, before Isaac's birth, it will plainly appear, that the sojourn- 
 ing and affliction of his seed in a strange land, alike true of Ca- 
 naan and of Egypt, was exactly 400 years. See Gen. xv. 13 and 
 Acts vii. 6. 
 
17 
 
 i 
 
 that they should march off with the booty." For so 
 far is this from being true, that there was no borrow- 
 ing in the case ; and, as Dr. Clark justly observes, 
 " If accounts were fairly balanced, Egypt would be 
 found still in considerable arrears to Israel" Leav- 
 ing this matter, we advance with the inspired narra- 
 tive. 
 
 God having compelled Pharaoh to release the Is- 
 raelites, and the Egyptians, to pay them, in some 
 measure, for their services, they commenced their ex- 
 odus. "And the children of Israel journeyed from 
 Rameses to Succoth." (n) Rameses, we know, was 
 another name for the land of Goshen ; (o) yet here it 
 seems rather to denote a city, and probably the trea- 
 sure city of this name, which the Israelites had built 
 for Pharaoh ; (p) at or near which, they rendezvous- 
 ed preparatory to their departure; and Sitccoth, which 
 signifies booths, tents, or tabernacles, no doubt, had 
 its name from their encampment there, in such ac- 
 commodations ; it having, till then, been a nameless 
 spot in the desert. Here, supplied with water from 
 the fountain now called the Pilgrim's Pool, and hav- 
 ing convenient pasturage for their flocks and herds, 
 they waited till joined by those of their brethren who, 
 on receiving notice of their design, had to come from 
 distant parts of the land.* For this purpose, they 
 might find it necessary to tarry a week or two, or per- 
 haps a month ; for although, by the direct way, it was 
 but three ordinary days journey from thence to the 
 wilderness of Sinai, yet, by reason of a circuitous 
 route and indispensable delays, (of which this might 
 be the principal one,) they did not arrive there till in 
 
 (w)Exo.xii.37. (o).Gen.xlvii.6,ll,27. p)Exo.i. 11. *Forthe 
 probability of this, see Calinet's Diet. vol. iii. Frag. 39. 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 
 
 the third month of their pilgrimage, (q) During 
 this stay, they also procured the bones of Joseph, 
 without which it would have been perjury in them to 
 leave Egypt. For although Egypt was indebted to 
 Joseph, as the instrument, for its preservation from 
 the ravages of famine, and for most of its subse- 
 quent policy and opulence, it was, nevertheless, a 
 country so undesirable to him, that he sought no per- 
 manent inheritance in it, either for himself or his 
 family ; nay, such was his holy contempt of it, that by 
 the last act of his life, he solemnly adjured his 
 brethren not even to leave his remains there : yes, 
 in the full assurance of faith that God, according to 
 his promise, would visit and deliver them, Joseph, 
 just before he died " Took an oath of the children of 
 Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall 
 carry up my bones from hence." (r) This instance 
 of faith in Joseph, is confirmed by the testimony of 
 an apostle : " By faith Joseph, when he died, made 
 mention of the departing of the children of Israel ; 
 and gave commandment concerning his bones." (s) 
 
 Accordingly, "Moses took the bones of Joseph 
 with him, and they (the Israelites) took their journey 
 from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of 
 the wilderness ;" that is the wilderness of Etham, and 
 which bears the same name, on both sides of the Red 
 sea. (i) A part of it is also called "the wilderness of 
 Shur." (u) According to Bunting's computation, it is 
 eight miles from Rameses to Succoth, and the same 
 distance from thence to Etham.* 
 
 Here it becomes requisite to notice, that the route 
 
 (q) Exo. xix. 1. (r) Gen. 1. 25. (s) Heb. xi. 22. (t) Exo. xiii. 
 19. Numbers xxxiii. 8. (u) Exo. xv. 22. * Travels, Page 81. 
 
19 
 
 of the Israelites depended not on their own choice 
 but the choice of God ; and that the one which he 
 chose for them was the safest, though not the short- 
 est, to the promised land. In favour to them, "God 
 led them not through the land of the Philistines, 
 though that was near;" lest seeing war, in which 
 they were yet inexperienced, they should be tempted 
 to "return to Egypt; but God led them through the 
 way of the wilderness of the Red sea : and the chil- 
 dren of Israel went up harnessed," not with armor, 
 but with girdles and in regular squadrons, "out of 
 the land of Egypt." (w) The manner, too, in which 
 they enjoyed the divine leading, is expressly record- 
 ed : " The Lord went before them by day in a pillar 
 of cloud, and led them in the way ; and by night in a 
 pillar of fire to give them light : to go by day and by 
 night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by 
 day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the 
 people." (x) Thus led, they left Etham, probably 
 expecting in a few days to reach Horeb : but, lo ! 
 the cloud turns another way, and the voice of the 
 Lord, preceding from it, comes to Moses, saying, 
 " Speak unto the children of Israel, that they TURN" 
 short off to the right, " and encamp before Pi-ha-hi- 
 roth,* between Migdol and the sea, over against 
 Baal-zephon." (y) How strange this order! In the 
 way they were taking, there was no garrison to mo- 
 lest them no sea to obstruct their passage. Truly 
 God's thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways 
 our ways. Designing typically to illustrate two im- 
 portant facts, namely, that salvation is of the Lord, 
 
 (w) Exo. xiii. 17, 18. comp. Psal. cvii. 2 7. (x) Exo. xiii. 21, 
 22. * Sixteen miles from Etham. Bunting's Travels, p. 82. (y) 
 Exo. xiv. 1. 
 
20 
 
 and that the destruction of those who perish is of 
 themselves, he brought Israel into straits, from which 
 none but himself could deliver them, and left Pha- 
 raoh to follow the dictates of his carnal reason and 
 the passions of his corrupt nature, to his own con- 
 fusion and ruin. 
 
 Justly to conceive of the straits into which God 
 brought Israel, we must consider the relations of the 
 place in which, by his order, they were encamped. 
 Hiroth (properly Chiroth,rrrn,) was the original name 
 of a valley or gullet, along which the Israelites pass- 
 ed in going from Etham toward the Red sea.* This 
 was the conclusion at which the learned and labori- 
 ous Dr. Shaw arrived, by examining the place itself 
 and the traditions of the Arabs respecting the matter 
 in question.f Consequently, by the compound word 
 Pi-hahiroth, the mouth of the chiroth, must be meant 
 the mouth or opening of that Valley on or near the 
 banks of the sea. A little short of this opening, on 
 their left, stood Migdol, the Tower, no doubt a for- 
 tress strongly garrisoned ; and a little ahead, on their 
 right, appeared Baal-zephon, probably a temple or 
 a fortress, in which stood a conspicuous image of 
 Baal, to signify that he presided over it and over the 
 garrison stationed there ; nay, over all the fortresses 
 and garrisons of Egypt ; the word signifying The 
 Lord or Master of the watch. This is the more pro- 
 bable, as in destroying the Egyptians, the Lord also 
 executed judgment upon their gods ; thus showing 
 them to be lying vanities, and utterly unable to pro- 
 tect their worshipers, (z) 
 
 * This gullet, the Arabs call Tiah beni Israel, the road of the 
 children of Israel; and Baideali, in memory of the" miracle 
 wrought near it. t See his travels, p. 307, 309, 2d ed. (z) Exo. 
 xii. 12. Num. xxxiii. 4. 
 
21 
 
 Informed that the Israelites were thus environed, 
 and ignorant of the divine direction by which they 
 were so situated, Pharaoh seems to have thought they 
 had lost their way: he said "They are entangled 
 in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in ;" and, 
 in the hardness of his heart he pursued them with 
 all his forces, resolved, it should seem, if they utter- 
 ly refused to return to his service, either to cut them 
 off by his arms, or to starve them to death by a block- 
 ade, (a) How exposed and distressing was their 
 condition ! With no means of defence, they had 
 Pharaoh and his armed host in close pursuit of 
 them ; encumbered with children and superannuated 
 men and women, and shut in on each side by an 
 Egyptian fortress, to escape was impracticable ; and 
 having the Red sea immediately before them, with- 
 out a single boat or transport of any kind prepared 
 for their passage, to advance was equally impossible. 
 In this extremity, convinced that nothing but divine 
 power could deliver them, "the children of Israel 
 CRIED OUT unto the LORD." (ft) And Moses, though 
 they, at least many of them, murmured against him, 
 said unto the people, " Fear not, STAND STILL (for 
 what else could they do?) and see THE SALVATION 
 of the LORD the Lord shall fight for you, and ye 
 shall hold your peace. And," the appointed time" 
 having arrived, "the Lord said unto Moses Speak 
 unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. 
 But (that they might go forward) lift thou up thy 
 rod," the same by which such wonders had been 
 wrought before, "and stretch out thine hand over the 
 sea, and divide it." Astonishing command ! But is 
 any thing too hard for the LORD to do ] For their 
 
 (a) Exo. xiv. 59. (b) Ibid. ver. 10. 
 
safety in the meantime, "the Angel of God, which 
 (ordinarily) went before the camp of Israel, removed 
 and went behind them ; and the pillar of the cloud," 
 the visible symbol of the Angel's presence, " came 
 between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of 
 Israel : and it was a cloud of darkness to those, but it 
 gave light by night to these: so that the one came not 
 near the other all the night. And Moses," obedient 
 to the divine command, " stretched out his hand," 
 with the rod in it, " over the sea, and the LORD (not 
 Moses) caused the sea to go back by a strong east 
 wind," a miraculous current of it blowing across that 
 particular part of the sea, " all night ;" by means of 
 which its waters were divided, and its bed dried and 
 rendered passable ; so that, before morning, " the 
 children of Israel went into the midst of the sea," that 
 is, across the very channel of it, " upon dry ground ; 
 the waters" thereof, which had been their obstacle 
 and their dread, becoming " a wall" of defence " unto 
 them, on their right hand and on their left." The in- 
 fatuated Egyptians pursued them, even into the midst 
 of the sea ; where, to their inconceivable perplexity, 
 they soon found that the Lord still fought for Israel, 
 and would have fled ; but while in the attempt, Moses, 
 divinely commanded, stretched out his hand again, 
 and the waters returned and overwhelmed them. Thus 
 "the LORD saved Israel ;" yet by the hand of Moses ; 
 "and the people feared the Lord, and believed the 
 Lord and his servant Moses, (c) Nor should it be 
 forgotten, that the people whom God, in his mercy, led 
 forth and thereby delivered from Egyptian bondage, 
 were identically and numerically the same whom he 
 had redeemed by the paschal sacrifice, (d) 
 
 (c) Exo. xiv. 19-31. (d) Ibid. xv. 13. 
 
23 
 
 Here, for a little, they suspended their journey, 
 while in the use of two inspired songs, one by Moses 
 and the other by Miriam, they celebrated the praises 
 of God for their great deliverance, (e) 
 
 Their respite, however, was very short: "Moses 
 brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out 
 into the wilderness of Shur," the same with the wil- 
 derness of Etham ; (f ) " and they went three days 
 in the wilderness, and found no water." A great trial 
 both to faith and to sense ! And, as if to aggravate 
 their affliction, when they found water, it was such 
 as they could not use; "when they came to Marah, 
 (a place afterward known by this name,) they could 
 not drink of its waters for they were bitter." And 
 bitter indeed they must have been when intolerable to 
 persons suffering for drink! "Wherefore the name 
 of it is called Marah, bitterness." Here again, Moses, 
 though the object of their murmuring, was the instru- 
 ment of their relief: "He cried unto the Lord, and 
 the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast 
 into the waters, the waters were made sweet." (g) 
 
 Thence " they came to Elim, where were twelve 
 wells of water and threescore and ten palm-trees ; and 
 they encamped there by the waters." (A) A pleasant 
 encampment; but of short duration. 
 
 For in the very next chapter, we find them, in "the 
 wilderness of Sin," (the name of a desert between 
 Elim and Sinai,*) destitute of bread, and murmuring, 
 not only against Moses and Aaron but also against the 
 Lord himself; nay, commending their condition in 
 Egypt and regretting that they had left it. " Then 
 
 (e) Exo. xv. from the 1 25 verse. (/) Num. xxiii. 8. (g) Exo. 
 xv. 2225. (h) Ibid. ver. 27. 
 
24 
 
 the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from 
 heaven for you," meaning the manna ; of which, as a 
 trial of their faith and obedience, the people were to 
 gather daily a requisite quantity, and on the sixth day, 
 preparatory to the Sabbath, a double portion. The 
 daily gathering of each was to be an omer, which, ac- 
 cording to Dr. Cumberland, is three quarts ; and 
 which being made into bread, must have been an 
 ample supply for the sustenance of an individual.* 
 The Lord also promised to give them flesh to eat. 
 In both he fulfilled his word ; and the manna was 
 continued " until they came unto the borders of the 
 land of Canaan." Yet, in the duty of gathering it, 
 they discovered much unbelief and disobedience ; (i) 
 and in the privilege of using it, much irreverence and 
 ingratitude, saying, " There is nothing at all, besides 
 this manna, before our eyes," and " our soul loatheth 
 this light bread" (K) 
 
 How rapid was the succession of their troubles ! In 
 Rephidim, though their journey thither was "accord- 
 ing to the commandment of the Lord," we find them 
 a second time in distress for the want of water. And, 
 instead of being suitably humbled on account of their 
 former sins and entreating Moses to use, as he had so 
 often and so successfully done, his interest with the 
 Lord on their behalf, they tempted the Lord, by sug- 
 gesting that he was not (according to his promise) 
 with them, or that he was either unwilling, or, in that 
 
 * What a vast quantity must have fallen every day, to supply so 
 many ! It has been reckoned at 94,460 bushels ; and which, during 
 the 40 years it was continued, amounted to 1,379,203,600 bushels. 
 Scheuchzer, Physic. Sacra, vol. 2. p. 177, 178. (i) Exo. xvi. ch. 
 (k) Num. xi. 6. xxi. 5. 
 
25 
 
 sandy waste, unable, to supply them with water ; and 
 hence, chid with Moses, for bringing them thither. 
 How merciful the Lord ! how meek his servant ! 
 Moses, notwithstanding all their ill treatment of him, 
 " cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto 
 this people '\ They be almost ready to stone me :" 
 And the Lord," whose goodness is sovereign as well 
 as abundant, " said unto Moses, Go on before the 
 people, and take with thee," as witnesses of the in- 
 tended miracle, "the elders of Israel : and thy rod 
 wherewith thou smotest the river,* take in thine hand 
 and go. Behold I will stand before thee," in the 
 cloud, the symbol of his presence, " upon the rock in 
 Horeb," the rock which he had chosen for that pur- 
 pose, " and thou shalt smite the rock," with the rod, 
 " and there shall come water out of it, that the people 
 may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the el- 
 ders of Israel. And he (probably Moses) called the 
 name of the place Massah," temptation, " and Meri- 
 bah," strife or chiding ; the latter, " because of the 
 chiding of the children of Israel," and the former, 
 " because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord 
 among us, or not 1" (Z) This happened early in the 
 first year of their pilgrimage ; and about 39 years 
 later, in the first month of the fortieth year after their 
 exodus from Egypt, another very similar instance oc- 
 curred among them ; in which the then existing gene- 
 ration proved themselves to have inherited all the un- 
 belief, ingratitude and rebelion of their fore-fathers ; 
 and in which, though the power and goodness of the 
 
 * Either that in Egypt ; Exo. vii. 20 ; or the Red sea ; that 
 arm of it which he smote being comparable to a river. (/) Exo. 
 xvii. 1 7. and Psal. Ixxxi. 7. 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 Lord were evinced to be unchanged, the meekness 
 of Moses failed, and the faith, both of him and of Aa- 
 ron, faltered ; and for which they were denied the 
 honor of bringing Israel into Canaan, or of entering 
 that land themselves, (in) That this event was not 
 the same that is recorded in the seventeenth chapter 
 of Exodus, is evident ; Sin and Zin being different 
 wildernesses, and Rephidim and Kadesh, different 
 places, and at considerable distance from each 
 other, (n) But, to return : 
 
 No sooner were the Israelites supplied with water, 
 than they were assailed by a formidable enemy. 
 " Then came Amalek,"* a sort of vagrant ruler com- 
 
 (m) Num. xx. 1 13, and from 24 29, and xxviii. 12 14. 
 Deut. iii. 23 27, and xxxiv. 5. (n) Num. xxxviii. 11, 14, 36. 
 
 * Commonly understood to mean the Amalekites collectively ; but 
 whereas, in ver. 13, mention is made of " Amalek and his people," 
 I understand Amalek to have been a name or title common to the 
 kings of that people, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt. To 
 interpret " Amalek and his people," as many do, of the Amalekites 
 and their confederates, seems to me forced and awkward. 
 
 Nor were these Amalekites (as generally supposed) the de- 
 scendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau, mentioned Gen. 
 xxxvi. 12 ; but of some other AmaJek, who lived much earlier, 
 and whose posterity were a numerous and warlike people in 
 the time of Abram ; Genesis xiv. 7, compare Numbers xxiv. 
 20. Moses does rot, that I can find, give any account of 
 their extraction ; but the Arabian writers, according to Reland, 
 represent them to have descended from Ham, and probably in the 
 line of Cush. If so, though not Canaanites, they were, (accord- 
 ing to the stile of Scripture,) their brethren, and may well be 
 thought to have been confederate with them, for mutual preserva- 
 tion. Hence, on hearing that the Israelites were on their way to 
 take possession of Canaan, they sallied forth against them, and, 
 according to Deut. xxv. 18, cut of the hindmost of them. Pro- 
 bably, too, they had heard of the treasure which the Israelites 
 brought out of Egypt, and intended to take it from them. Their 
 
27 
 
 mantling a numerous host of similar character, " and 
 fought with Israel in Rephidim." Here again, the 
 miraculous agency of Moses was eminently manifest- 
 ed. Having given directions in regard to the battle, 
 he with " the rod of God" in his hand, ascended a 
 chosen hill ; and while, in either of his hands, he held 
 up the rod, Israel prevailed, and when he let it down 
 Amalek prevailed ; and his hands through weariness, 
 becoming heavy, " Aaron and Hur," one on each 
 side of him, " stayed them up," and they were " steady 
 until the going down of the sun." Hence during the 
 day, Joshua, to whom Moses had confided the man- 
 agement of the battle, " discomfited Amalek and his 
 people with the edge of the sword."* The Lord 
 having doomed the name of Amalek to obliteration, 
 and authorized perpetual war against him, for that 
 purpose, commanded Moses to write it for a memori- 
 al and to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, under 
 whom that war, in Canaan, was chiefly to be conduct- 
 ed. Moreover, Moses built an Altar and called the 
 name of it JEHOVAH Nissi, the Lord is my banner, (o) 
 
 unprovoked attack upon Israel, however, was so offensive to God, 
 that he threatened " utterly to put out the remembrance of them 
 from under heaven," and that, for this purpose, he would cause 
 the Israelites to be at " war with them from generation to genera- 
 tion." Exo. xvii. 14 16. Of this the Israelites were reminded, 
 Deut. xxv. 17 19. Successive instances of this war are also 
 upon record. See 1 S-am. xiv. 48 and xv. 2, &c. xxvii. 8 ; xxx. 
 1, J7 20, and 1 Chron. iv. 43. But as they were not Canaanites, 
 and as their land (if indeed they possessed any) was not given to 
 the Israelites, I shall pursue their history no further. 
 
 * Their armor, no doubt, the Israelites procured by stripping 
 the armed Egyptians, whom they found dead on the sea-shore. 
 Exo. xiv. 30. (o) xvii. 816. 
 
28 
 
 Under Moses, too, and amid unquestionable evi- 
 dences of his intercourse with God, the Israelites 
 enjoyed their signal victories over the two kings of 
 the Amorites, Sihon and Og ; and were avenged of 
 the Midianites, for the injuries done them, and of 
 Balaam, a great promoter of those injuries, (p) 
 
 Another and a very remarkable instance of the use- 
 fulness of Moses to Israel, occurred when in compass- 
 ing the land of Edom, " the soul of the people was 
 much discouraged because of the way ;" the rough- 
 ness of the road, their retrograde course, and espe- 
 cially the barrenness of the country through which 
 they had to pass. Then, as on former occasions, the 
 people spake against God and against Moses ;" re- 
 gretted that they had left Egypt, and despised the 
 manna, as light food. " And the Lord," to convince 
 them of their sin and of their entire dependence up- 
 on his favour, " sent serpents among them, which bit 
 them, and much people of Israel died. The end de- 
 signed was answered ; " Therefore the people came 
 to Moses, and said, We have sinned: for we have 
 spoken against the Lord and against thee : Pray un- 
 to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." 
 How sensible were they now, that their life depend- 
 ed on the mere mercy of God ; and that, being rebels 
 against him, they had no ground of hope but in the 
 mediation of Moses. "And Moses," their constant 
 and ever availing friend and intercessor, " prayed for 
 the people." And the Lord, though he did not im* 
 mediately " take away the serpents," as they had re- 
 quested ; yet prescribed, through Moses, an effectu- 
 al remedy against their deadly poison : " The Lord 
 said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent," one si- 
 
 (/>) Num xxi. 21 35 and xxxi. 18. comp. 2 Pet. ii. 15, 16. 
 
 and Jude, ver. 11. 
 
29 
 
 milar in appearance to those sent, but free from their 
 venom, " and set it upon a pole," exposed to public 
 view ; " and it shall come to pass, that every one that 
 is bitten, when he looketh upon it shall live. And 
 Moses," obedient to the divine direction, " made a 
 serpent of brass ;" a suitable material for the purpose ; 
 for being burnished and exposed to the rays of the 
 sun, it acquired the resemblance designed ; " and it 
 came to pass," as the Lord had promised, " that if a 
 serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the ser- 
 pent of brass, he lived," he was healed and happy, (q) 
 
 The instrumentality of Moses, in favour of Israel, 
 was very conspicuous in the delivery of the law to 
 them ; but as this will be embraced in following dis- 
 courses, we only mention it now. 
 
 A circumstance, however, occurred in connexion 
 with the delivery of the law, which claims present and 
 special notice ; and in which Moses was eminently a 
 blessing to Israel. During his first stay of forty days 
 and nights with God in the mount,* the Israelites fell 
 into " a great sin," that of idolatry ; they made and 
 worshiped a calf. Hereupon, the wrath of God broke 
 out against them all were in danger of immediate 
 death ; yet, through the mediation of Moses, who 
 plead the honor, the promise and the oath of God in 
 their favor, and tendered his own life for their ran- 
 som, they were reprieved, and the destroying judg- 
 ment was stayed ; after, by the divine order, three 
 
 (q) Num. xxi. 9. * Moses went into the mount three several 
 times ; and twice certainly, and probably thrice, stayed there forty 
 days and nights. See Exo. xxiv. 18 ; xxxiv. 28. Deut. ix. 9, 18, 
 25; and Dr. Lightfoot's Works, Vol. 1, p. 715, 716. 
 
30 
 
 thousand, as an example and warning to the nation, 
 were cut off by the sword of the Levites. (r) 
 
 To show, however, that it is only through the me- 
 diation of HIM, of whom Moses was but a type, that 
 sin is so forgiven as not to be remembered, (s) there 
 was, in that case, a remembrance of it. " Neverthe- 
 less," said God to Moses, " in the day when I visit, I 
 will visit their sin," their idolatry, " upon them." (t) 
 Hence that metaphorical saying among the Jews ; 
 " No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which 
 (alluding to Exo. xxxii. 20) there was not some par- 
 ticle of the dust of the golden calf." Compare with 
 this the sentence against David. (11) " And," accord- 
 ingly, " the Lord plagued the people," from time to 
 time, with the pestilence and one calamity or another, 
 " because they made the calf which Aaron made." (w) 
 Strange expression ! It is commonly understood to 
 signify merely, that the people furnished the materi- 
 als, and that Aaron, at their instigation, formed the 
 calf. This, indeed, is true ; but it is far from being 
 all that is meant. The people, (probably after much 
 unsuccessful persuasion of Aaron to this act,) became 
 clamorous and peremptory in their demand ; saying, 
 " Up, make us Elohim," gods, or a god, as the word 
 is often translated ; that is, some visible object, as a 
 symbol of the divine presence, "which shall go be- 
 fore us," (x) to supply the place of the cloud, which, 
 it should seem, was taken up when Moses ascended 
 the mount, (y) So this demand of the Israelites has 
 
 (r) Exo. xxxii. 1 33 ; particularly, vcr. 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 11 14, 
 and 2033. (.s) Is. xliii. 25. Jer. 1, 20. Hcb. viii. 12. (t) Exo, 
 xxxii. 34. (u) 2 Sam. xii. 1014. (w) Exo. xxxii. 35. (x) Ibid, 
 ver. 1. (y) Ibid. xxiv. 16; xxxiii. 9. 
 
31 
 
 T>een understood by the best commentators of their 
 own nation ; who have paraphrased it thus : " They 
 (the Israelites) said to Aaron, The Egyptians extol 
 their gods, they sing and chant before them ; for they 
 behold them with their eyes ; Make us such gods as 
 theirs are, that we may see them before us."* Again : 
 " They desired a sensible object of divine worship to 
 be set before them ; not with an intention to deny 
 GOD, who brought them out of Egypt, but that some- 
 thing in the place of GOD might stand before them, 
 when they declared his wonderful works. "f Or, as. 
 Ebcn Ezra interprets it, " Some corporeal image in 
 which God may reside." 
 
 Many have been of opinion, that Aaron in making 
 the golden calf, designed to imitate the Egyptian Apis. 
 To me, however, this opinion seems highly improba- 
 ble, for the following reasons : 1. The ablest sup- 
 porters of it, such as Vossius, Julius Maternus, Ruf- 
 finus and Suidas, have considered the Apis a symbol 
 of the Patriarch Joseph ;{ but if he had been deified in 
 Egypt, is it probable that a king could have arisen 
 there who knew not Joseph ? (z) 2. Aaron having just 
 witnessed the execution of the divine judgment upon 
 all the idols of Egypt and consequently upon Apis, 
 (if then among them) the imitation imputed to him is, 
 on this account, very improbable, (a) He certainly 
 could not have supposed that JEHOVAH, to whom he 
 proclaimed the feast, would be pleased with being re- 
 presented by any of those idols on which he had so 
 recently taken vengeance ; or even, that the Israelites 
 
 * Pirke Eliezer, c. 45. f Jehudah in the book Cosri, P. I. 
 Sect. 97. | Gale's Court of the Gentiles, pp. 92, 93, 94. (z) Ex. 
 L 8. Acts vii. 18. (a) Exo. xii. 12. 
 
32 
 
 themselves, with all their infatuation, could possibly 
 imagine their God to resemble any thing worshiped 
 by the Egyptians, who abhorred the sacrifices which 
 HE required. 
 
 But, (improbabilities aside,) this opinion is incon- 
 sistent with chronology and therefore evidently erro- 
 neous. Dr. Tenison, afterward Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, has very satisfactorily proved, that the wor- 
 ship of Apis in Egypt, was not commenced till long 
 after the times of Moses and Aaron.* And the learn- 
 ed Jablonski, in his Pantheon ^Egyptiorum, fixes the 
 consecration of theirs/ Apis at the year 1171 before 
 Christ ; but, according to our received chronology, 
 the Israelites, led by Moses and Aaron, left Egypt in 
 the year 1491 before Christ, and consequently 320 
 years before the worship of Apis was introduced.! 
 
 * Book of Idolatry, chap. vi. part iv., v., &c. 
 
 f That many authors have so extravagantly antedated the wor- 
 ship of Apis, has been owing to its having become confounded with 
 that of the Sun ; and which occured in this way. The Egyptian 
 astronomers having discovered, that the course of the sun occa- 
 sioned the seasons of the year, and the Academy of Heliopolis 
 having (1325 years B. C.) established the solar year at 365 days, 
 [which before had been computed at 360 days, Gen. vii. 11, 14, 
 and viii. 3, 4.] the priests, who till then had honored the sun under 
 his proper name Phr6, bestowed on him the title of Osiris, which 
 Jablonski says comes from OscA-Iri, he who makes time. In like 
 manner and at the same period, the Egyptian priests having per- 
 ceived that the moon which they had worshiped under its proper 
 name Joh, has a direct influence on the atmosphere, in producing 
 winds and rains, regarded it, like the sun, as one of the sources of 
 the inundation. Hence they sought for it a name expressive of this 
 effect ; and accordingly, honored it with the title of Isis, which, 
 in the Egyptian language, (according to the above learned Ety- 
 mologist) signifies the cause of abundance ; this depending, in that 
 
33 
 
 Rejecting, therefore, as entirely groundless, the 
 opinion that Aaron designed to imitate the Apis, I 
 think it somewhat probable, that he borrowed his 
 idea of the divine resemblance from the cherubim, 
 one face of which is supposed to have been that of 
 an ox. (b) 
 
 But whencesoever he took the resemblance, his 
 motive seems to have been self-preservation. Per- 
 ceiving that the people were set on mischief or in this 
 icickcdmss, (c) and thinking his life in danger if he 
 did not comply ; to pacify them, HE indeed made a 
 calf, or an ox, (d) which being an emblem of strength, 
 might serve as a faint symbol of HIM who is ^K el, 
 strength itself; but THEY made it a god, by acknow- 
 ledging and worshiping it as such : " These," said 
 
 country, on the overflowing of the Nile, which the moon, as 
 well as the sun, is supposed greatly to augment. But whereas the 
 sun seemed to withdraw his favor during the winter, and the moon 
 to desert them at every change, it was thought expedient to have 
 them represented by present and significant symbols. Accordingly, 
 Syncellius, in his chronography, says that during the reign of Aseth, 
 the thirty-second Pharaoh, " a calf [a bult] was placed amongst 
 the gods and called Apis," and according to Eustathius (Commen- 
 tary on Dion. Perigetes) and Lucian (Dialogue of the gods, 
 book I.) at or about the same time a cow was deified, as a sym- 
 bol of the moon and called Joh. But the sun having received 
 the appellation of Osiris, and the moon that of Isis, their repre- 
 sentatives, respectively, were honored with the same titles. Thence- 
 forward, the Sun and the Apis were alike mentioned, by Egyptian 
 writers, under their common name Osiris ; and hence the preva- 
 lence of that erroneous opinion that the worship of the bull Apis 
 was as ancient as that of the sun, and therefore long before the 
 time of Moses. See Savory's Letters on Egypt ; Vol. II. Let. Ixi, 
 Also, Rees's Cyclopaedia, under Osiris and Isis. 
 
 (6) Exo. xxv. 1820. Comp. chap.xxiv. 10, 11, and Ez. I, 10, 
 (c) wnjna berang hu, Exo. xxxii. 22. (d) Paul, cvi. 19, 20. 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 they, " be thy gods" or, as Nehemiah (c) expresses 
 it, " This is thy god, O Israel, which brought thee up 
 from the land of Egypt." (/) That this was all Aaron 
 meant, (and a shocking all too,) is evident ; for al- 
 though he erected an altar before the image, he 
 proclaimed the "feast," the sacrifice, to JEHOVAH. (g) 
 How contemptible then, is the effort which infidels 
 make, to disprove the inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 by asserting that "they represent the just God as 
 having acted most unjustly, in punishing many of the 
 people with death, while he exempted Aaron, the 
 greater sinner in the affair." The charge is false, 
 and only serves, like every other they bring, to prove 
 their ignorance of, and their enmity against, both the 
 BIBLE and its AUTHOR. Aaron, it is true, was high- 
 ly culpable ; yet he was not, like the people, guilty 
 of idolatry at heart. His sin, like that of Abraham 
 and Isaac, in denying their wives, (Ji) and like that of 
 Peter, in denying his Lord, (i) was a sin of infirmity, 
 preceding from weakness of faith and " the fear of 
 man, which bringeth a snare." (k) Nor was it con- 
 nived at, either by Moses or by the Lord. Moses, 
 having expressed his abhorrence of the wickedness of 
 both, by melting the idol in the fire, grinding or filing 
 it to powder and strewing it upon the water, of which 
 he made the Israelites to drink ; (/) preceded to exam- 
 ine and accuse Aaron, before he did the people ; (m) 
 and, in his rehearsal of the unhappy occurrence 
 and of his successful intercession for the people, he 
 expressly says, " The Lord was very angry with Aa- 
 ron, to have destroyed him, and I prayed for Aaron 
 
 (c) Chap. ix. 18. (/) Exo. xxxii. 4. (g) Ibid. ver. 5. (k) Gen. 
 xx. 2. and xxvi. 7. (i) Matt. xxvi. 70. (&) Prov. xxix. 25. (/) Exo. 
 xxxii. 20. (m) Ibid. ver. 21. 30. 
 
35 
 
 also," as well as for the people, " the same time." (n) 
 Aaron, therefore, as well as the people, was in im- 
 minent danger of temporal death, and like them, was 
 exempted from it, not by any connivance at his sin, 
 nor by any act of partiality toward his person, but 
 by an act of mercy common toward him and them* 
 granted upon the intercession of Moses.* 
 
 Passing, for the sake of brevity, many instances in 
 which Moses was evidently a blessing to Israel,! shall 
 conclude this outline of his usefulness among them, 
 by remarking, that he received from God, the pattern 
 of the Tabernacle and of all things relating to it, and 
 faithfully superintended the execution of the whole 
 design. This pattern included the materials, the 
 structure and all the furniture of the sacred building ; 
 also the qualifications and even the apparel of all 
 those who were to officiate in it, and the rules and 
 directions to be observed by them, in their respective 
 stations and services. (0) 
 
 The pattern of all these things, Moses received 
 while he was with God in the mount ; and with a 
 solemn charge most strictly to observe it : " Accord- 
 ing to all that I show thee," said God to him, " after 
 the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of the 
 instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." (p) 
 This important pattern, accompanied with explana- 
 tions, seems to have been given to Moses in a vision ; 
 for, in repeating the charge, the Lord said to him, 
 " Look that thou make them after the pattern which 
 was showed thee," or, as it is in the Heb. " which 
 
 (n) Deut. ix. 20. * Some respect also might be had to Aaron's 
 office. See Num. xii. xvi. and xvii. Chap, (o) Exo. from the 
 xxv. to the xl. chap, inclusive, (p) Ibid. xxv. 9. 
 
36 
 
 thou wast called to see." (q) A question on reminis- 
 cence is, in this case, inadmissible ; for HE who gave 
 the vision could with equal ease renew it, or bring the 
 particulars of it to the recollection of Moses, when- 
 ever required ; the Holy Spirit being the same then 
 as when our Lord said to his disciples, " HE shall 
 bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I 
 have said unto you." (r) 
 
 Moses, too, was faithful in his superintendence of 
 the whole design. For, when Bezaleel, Aholiab and 
 others, chosen and inspired of God for the purpose, (s) 
 had accomplished the work, Moses looked upon it, 
 and "behold." (difficult as was the task,) " they had 
 done it as the Lord had commanded, even so had they 
 done it: and Moses blessed them." (t) "And he rear- 
 ed up the court round about the Tabernacle and the 
 altar, and set up the hanging of the court-gate : So 
 Moses finished the work." (u) And whatever, to the 
 contrary, has been said by profane skeptics, the tes- 
 timony of an inspired apostle to the fidelity of Moses, 
 is full and decisive : "Moses," saith he, "was faith- 
 ful in all his house." (v) 
 
 These things considered, how apparent is it, that 
 Moses, as the gift of God, was a distinguished bless- 
 ing to Israel ; and that constantly, from the time he 
 was called to be their leader and commander, till the 
 time of his death. Moreover, at that awful juncture 
 
 II. As the man of God, he pronounced a blessing 
 
 (q) Exo. xxv. 40 iri3 ntna march bahar. compare Ezek. xl. 2. 
 Heb. viii. 5. and Acts vii. 44. (r) John xiv. 26. (s) Exo. xxxi. 
 26. (t) Ibid, xxxix. 43. (u) Ibid. xl. 33. (v) Heb. iii. 2. 
 
 N. B. The analogy between Christ and Moses, will be found 
 in the next sermon. 
 
37 
 
 upon them : " And this is the blessing" that is, what 
 follows throughout the chapter, is an expression 
 of the blessing, both general and special, " where- 
 with Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of 
 Israel before his death." This was a blessing of 
 blessings ; a blessing full of blessings ; a blessing 
 upon the posterity of Jacob in common, yet one that 
 comprised in it the characters and conditions of his 
 several tribes, in their future generations. The 
 matter of this blessing, both common and special, 
 will come under consideration in subsequent dis- 
 courses of our Series ; at present, therefore, we have 
 to do, only with the manner in which, the title under 
 which, and the time at which, Moses pronounced it. 
 FIRST, the manner in which he pronounced it. 
 This was both by invocation and prediction ; and 
 which gave the utmost assurance, that it would be 
 granted and realized. As prayed for, by one under 
 divine inspiration, the blessing could embrace only 
 what it was the will of God to bestow ; for " HE" 
 (God) " that searcheth the hearts," of prophets as 
 well as of others. " knoweth what is the mind of the 
 Spirit," in them when they pray, " because He (the 
 Spirit) " maketh intercession for the saints accord- 
 ing to the will of God." (w) " And knowing this 
 first, (x) that no prophecy of the Scripture (as are 
 those of human device) " is of" or from any man's 
 own proper* impulse^ or motion, as Fulke trans- 
 
 (w) Rom. viii. 27. (x) 2 Pet. i. 20. * Suus, proprius, one's 
 own, proper. Parkh. under t 3*, No. 1. f ewtWif has two general 
 meanings ; explicatio, explication, interpretation, or declaration ; 
 and liberatio, a deliverance, a making free; or egressio, an egression^ 
 or going out. Hederici et Schrevelii. In the place referred to, the 
 latter sense of this word is required by the context : for, so under- 
 
38 
 
 lates it ; knowing this, I say, it follows, as unques- 
 tionably true, that this prophecy of Moses concern- 
 ing Israel, did not procede from any passionate de- 
 sire in him for their good, nor the diversity which it 
 makes among the tribes and the adversity which it 
 assigns to some of them, from any natural foresight 
 which he possessed, or any partialities which he felt ; 
 but from the sovereign will of God, according to 
 which he was moved to speak and write ; and con- 
 sequently, that all the events included in it, were in- 
 cluded in "the determinate counsel and foreknow- 
 ledge of God," and to be accomplished through his 
 influence or his sufferance : " For the prophecy came 
 not in old time by the will of man," by the volitions 
 and inventions of those who delivered it ; " but holy 
 men of God," (among whom was Moses) " spake as 
 they were moved," or impelled, " by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 SECONDLY, the title under which he pronounced it ; 
 that of the man of God. Under this title, Moses was 
 a prophet, a pastor, and apolitical father, to Israel; 
 and in this threefold relation he blessed them. Hence 
 
 1. As a prophet. That God had sent him to de- 
 liver Israel, was now proved by the success of his 
 embassy ; that he enjoyed special intercourse with 
 God, had been abundantly evinced, by the numerous 
 instances of it, noticed under the former head ; and 
 that he possessed the Spirit of prophecy, could be no 
 
 stood, it assigns a reason why prophecy is called a sure word, v. 19, 
 and proves that it came not by the will of man, v. 21. So far, in- 
 deed, were the prophets from inventing their predictions, that im- 
 pelled by divine influence, they often spake and wrote, what they 
 themselves desired, in vain, to understand. 1 Pet. i. 10 12. 
 Not the interpretation, then, but the delivering out of the Scripture, 
 is intended in the passage in question. 
 
39 
 
 longer questioned ; many things which he had fore- 
 told having already occurred ; as, for instance, the 
 obduracy of Pharaoh and the consequent plagues of 
 Egypt ; (10) the means by which the Egyptians should 
 remunerate the Israelites for their services ; (x) that, 
 in their extremity at the Red sea, God would deliver 
 them, (y) and that, being brought out, they should 
 serve the Lord in Horeb. (z) Thus, in the mission 
 of Moses, as afterward in that of Ezekiel, God 
 caused Israel, though " a rebelious house," to know 
 that he had sent a prophet among them, (a) And 
 being a prophet, Moses had the appropriate title, the 
 man of God ; a title common to the Old Testament 
 seers, such as Samuel, (&) Elijah, (c) Elisha, (cT) and 
 others, (e) As a prophet, Moses, as we have seen 
 already, was a great blessing to Israel, by his success- 
 ful intercessions on their behalf. And truly it is a 
 great blessing for any person or people to have an 
 interest in the prayers of those who have an interest 
 with God : even though they be men of like passions 
 with those for whom they intercede. (/) This is 
 what our Lord had in view, when he said " He that 
 receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall 
 receive a prophet's reward, and he that receiveth a 
 righteous man, (though not a prophet,) shall receive 
 a righteous man's reward," which is an interest in 
 their supplications to God. (g) Chiefly, however, in 
 
 (>) Exo. iii. 19. 29. (x) Ibid. ver. 21, 22. Ch. xi. 2, 3 and 
 xii. 36. (y) Exo. xiv. 1322. (z) Ibid. iii. 12, 18 and xix. 1. 
 () Ezek. ii. 5. comp. Dcut. xviii. 21, 22. (b) 1 Sam. ix. 6, 18, 
 19. ( c ) 2 Kings i. 8, 9. (d) Ibid. ix. 8, 25. (e) I Sam. ii. 27. 
 1 Kings xii. 22; xiii. 1. (/) Acts xiv. 15. Jas. v. 17. (g)Matt. 
 x. 41. 
 
40 
 
 the character of a prophet, Moses blessed Israel, as, by 
 the spirit of prophecy, he foretold blessings that await- 
 ed them, in their future generations. Thus in the text 
 and from the 26th to the 29th verse he blessed them 
 collectively, and from the 6th to the 25th verse,the tribes 
 of them severally. And his former predictions having 
 been so evidently accomplished, he might, by an in- 
 fallible rule, challenge the faith of Israel in those 
 which he now delivered. (K), The same did Isaiah : 
 " Behold," said he, " the former things are come to 
 pass, and new things do I declare : before they spring 
 forth I tell you of them." (i) 
 
 2. As a pastor. For though he was eminently a 
 prophet to Israel, yet he was not, like the other pro- 
 phets, sent to them with occasional messages only ; 
 but like a pastor, a shepherd, a bishop, he lived among 
 them, sojourned and fared with them, and had a con- 
 tinual care over them and concern for them.* As 
 
 (h) Deut. xviiL 22. (i) Isaiah xlii. 9. 
 
 * Under the gospel, there is a similar difference between the 
 labors of stated pastors and those of visiting ministers. The 
 preaching and conversation of a visiting minister, who comes " in 
 the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ," may be to the 
 members of a church and to their pastor also, (like a prophet sent 
 with a special message to Israel, or like the coming of Titus to 
 Paul and other brethren,) the transient means of much comfort 
 and encouragement ; but the presence and labors of a duly quali- 
 fied pastor, are, to a church, like those of Moses to Israel, a more 
 constant and lasting blessing. Jer. iii. 15. Eph. iv. 11, 12. 
 A gospel minister, too, is called a man of God. 1 Tim. iv. 11, 
 and 2 Tim. iii. 17. 
 
 While thus digressing to embrace this subject, it is hoped, that 
 a word of caution, both to pastors and churches, will not be 
 deemed obtrusive or assuming. Pastors, like Moses, compared 
 with visiters, have great advantages. If upright and useful in 
 
41 
 
 such, too, he was a man of God, and a blessing to 
 Israel ; and in this character, as well as in that of a 
 
 their stations, and especially if possessed of distinguishing talents, 
 they gradually obtain a very strong interest in the united affec- 
 tions and confidence of those to whom they minister, and, by 
 consequence, in process of time, they acquire a great influence 
 among them. How careful, then, should pastors be, not to 
 abuse their influence, by making it the means of introducing 
 among their respective flocks, any dogmas of their own, not sup- 
 ported by sacred writ, or by urging or exacting any thing oppres- 
 sive or burdensome ; but to improve it, to promote truth and 
 righteousness ; each endeavoring to be, like Moses, " faithful in 
 all his house," in ail the duties of his charge. But while pastors 
 have advantages, they also labor under disadvantages, of which 
 the churches they serve ought to be apprised. All men have their 
 imperfections and faults. Pastors are at home, where theirs are 
 all known ; visitors are abroad, where theirs are all unknown. The , 
 former having to meet the same people very frequently, must 
 sometimes meet them with little or no preparation, or in a dark 
 and uncomfortable frame of mind ; the latter may never happen to 
 come among them under such circumstances : the former, bound 
 in the course of their ministry, to aim at illustrating all parts of 
 divine truth, must necessarily, at times, dwell on subjects in which 
 many of their hearers take but little interest ; the latter, while on 
 visits, may confine their labors to subjects calculated to excite 
 the most general interest and the most agreeable sensations nay, 
 may enrich a few sermons with the cream of all they know : the 
 former, that they may preserve a profitable variety, must devote 
 much of their time to study, and so may seem barren and churl- 
 ish; the latter, as they can preach discourses which they have 
 often preached, using either the same or similar texts, may 
 seem to be always ready, and therefore much at liberty to gratify 
 the people with visits and conversation. That a pastor has 
 preached many animated and refreshing discourses, is forgotten ; 
 while one or a few preached by a visiter, may be remembered and 
 extolled : the ministry of a pastor being a common privilege, some 
 sit under it, with a slumbering indifference, while the same things 
 are delivered, which, if delivered by a visiter they listen to and 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 prophet, he pronounced this blessing upon them ; the 
 affections of the pastor, however, being herein " sub- 
 ject to the spirit of the prophet." And 
 
 3. As apolitical I father: For although not proper- 
 ty, yet virtually, " he was king in Jeshurun ;" (&) and 
 being so by the special call and appointment of God, 
 he was, as such also, a man of God. Thus David, 
 being in his kingly office "a man after God's own 
 heart," (7) was not only as a prophet and as a pastor, 
 but likewise as a king, stiled a man of God. (m) 
 And, like every good ruler to his subjects, Moses was, 
 in this station, a great blessing to Israel ; and though, 
 in all he foretold of them, he was entirely governed 
 by the Spirit of prophecy, yet in pronouncing this 
 prophetic blessing upon them, he acted in the exalt- 
 
 admire as new and wonderful. Besides, pastors, like Moses, hav- 
 ing occasionally to " reprove, rebuke and exhort," are, like him, 
 less acceptable to some, than transient visiters, from whom duty 
 may not require such addresses. Hence it has often occurred, 
 that while other ministers, in no respect superior, have been fol- 
 lowed and caressed, faithful, watchful and laborious pastors have 
 been, comparatively, neglected and depreciated. " These things 
 ought not so to be." Nor has it ever been found that those persons 
 who either, on the one hand, thus degrade their pastor, or, on the 
 other, idolize him, to the neglect of every other minister, are the 
 more stable and perseveringly useful members of a church. The 
 correct course is this : The members of a church should receive, 
 with affection and gladness, the person and labors of every minis- 
 ter of Christ, who comes among them : yet, in doing so, they 
 should studiously avoid whatever, in conversation or conduct, 
 might tend to discourage the heart, weaken the hands, or lessen 
 the influence and usefulness of their pastor, whose life and labors 
 are devoted to their service, as those of Moses were to the service 
 of Israel. 
 
 (k) Context, ver. 5. (/) 1 Rings xv. 5. Acts xiii. 22. (m) 2 
 Chron. viii. 14, 15. Neh. xii. 24, 36. 
 
43 
 
 ed relation and character of their national father. 
 Nor must we, in conclusion, overlook, 
 
 THIRDLY, the time at which he pronounced this 
 blessing just before his death" In this there was 
 a peculiar jfitness, as well as a peculiar solemnity. 
 Jacob, the natural father of the twelve patriarchs, 
 had, when dying, prophetically and separately bless- 
 ed them ; but whereas it might be apprehended, that 
 the conduct of some of them had cut off the entail 
 from their posterity, Moses, as the political father of 
 the latter, and moved by the same Spirit, renewed 
 the prediction. His enunciation too, of this bless- 
 ing upon the tribes, like that of Jacob upon their 
 progenitors, was at the approach of his dissolution ; 
 it being the last act of his public life ; and therefore 
 when, humanly speaking, it was likely to make the 
 most abiding and profitable impression. For, if the 
 admonitions, instructions and benedictions of a be- 
 loved parent or friend, given on a death-bed ; and if 
 those of a beloved and long useful pastor, given in 
 his last sermon or conversation, are usually remem- 
 bered to lasting advantage, what durable and happy 
 effects might justly ifeve been expected to result to 
 Israel, from the communications and instructions de- 
 livered to them in the last sermon, the valedictory 
 address of the inspired Moses, that eminent man of 
 God 9 whose faithfulness, friendship, and usefulness, 
 they had so long witnessed and so variously enjoyed ! 
 Besides, having informed them, that he was under 
 a divine injunction, as soon as he should end his 
 sermon to ascend mount Nebo and die, (n) it was im- 
 possible for them to attribute to him any sinister mo- 
 tives ; they must have deeply felt, that in a few mo- 
 
 (M) Deut. xxxii. 4852. 
 
44 
 
 ments, their censure or their applause would, to him, 
 be for ever indifferent; and therefore that, in pro- 
 nouncing this blessing upon them, he could be influ- 
 enced by nothing but the Spirit of prophecy, and a 
 heart overflowing with desire and prayer for their 
 greatest good, temporal and eternal. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF MOSES. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the 
 man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. 
 
 HAVING, in the preceding discourse, traced the 
 Ministry of Moses literally, we now procede to con- 
 sider it typically. Moses was truly an extraordina- 
 ry character. 
 
 In some respects, he may be regarded as a symbol 
 of the law, delivered through him ; the moral part of 
 which, however old, remains like him, undiminished 
 in natural vigor ; its " eye is never dim" in detecting 
 sin, nor its "natural force abated" in condemning 
 sinners; "by the law," now as much as ever, "is the 
 knowledge of sin ;" and hence it remains and will for 
 ever remain true, that "by the deeds of the law, no 
 flesh living can be justified in the sight of God ;" yea 
 that, on the contrary, "as many as are of the works 
 of the law," relying on their imperfect obedience to it 
 for justification, " are under the curse." (a) 
 
 In other respects, he seems to have been a sort of 
 vicegerent or representative of God himself. To as- 
 sure him of this, and thereby to silence his fears of 
 appearing before the Egyptian monarch, " The Lord 
 said unto Moses, See I have made thee a god unto 
 
 (a) John v. 4547. Acts xv. 21. Rom. iii. 20. Gal. iii. 10. 
 
46 
 
 Pharaoh:" (#) not, indeed the object of his worship, 
 but of his dread ; Moses being authorized to demand 
 of him the release of Israel, and endued with a mi- 
 raculous power to punish him in the event of his re- 
 fusing to let them go. Hence, all he said and did to 
 Pharaoh, was as if God himself had said and done it. 
 The same mystical relation, Moses also seems to have 
 sustained, with reference to Aaron and to Joshua. In 
 reply to his excuse, that he was " not eloquent but 
 slow of speech," the Lord said " Is not Aaron the le- 
 vite thy brother 1 I know he can speak well and he 
 shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, 
 and thou shalt be to him instead of God ;" and again, 
 " Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet," interpreter 
 or spokesman, as the word then signified, (c) Hence 
 let us learn the distinction originally made between 
 crao roeem, seers, and rzr*r:u nebieem, prophets ; the 
 former had visions of future times and events, and an- 
 nounced them ; the latter only enjoyed extraordinary 
 familiarity and prevalence with God in prayer, as did 
 Abraham, who was the first to whom this title was 
 given ; (d) or a remarkable fluency and gracefulness 
 of utterance, on which account it was given to Aaron, 
 as plainly appears from the places just referred to, in 
 the book of Exodus. Nor was there, originally, any 
 thing more imported in the word WM nabi, which both 
 R. Solomon and David Levi derive from aw nub, to 
 bring forth, as an orator does his speech.* 
 
 My principal object in noticing this distinction, is 
 to expose the fallacy of an argument much relied on 
 by deists in their attempts to prove that the Penta- 
 
 (b) Exo. vii. 1. (c) Ibid iv. 10, 14, 16 and vii. 1. (d) Gen. 
 xx. 7. * Lingua Sacra under K3J. 
 
47 
 
 teuch was not written by Moses ; namely, that the 
 word prophet occurs in it, which, from a wrong un- 
 derstanding of 1 Sam. ix. 9, they say was not in use 
 till after the times of Moses. Samuel indeed said, 
 " nabi, aprophet,w&s before-time called roeh, a Seer :" 
 yet, not as denying that the word prophet had been 
 used at all, but that agreeably to the distinction just 
 noticed, it was not originally used as synonymous 
 with seer, as it then was. Nor can any one, without 
 offering great violence to the words of Samuel, un- 
 derstand him to mean, that the word prophet had 
 never till his day, been applied to one that foretold 
 events ; but merely that, in times then ancient it had 
 not been so applied, and that it had acquired this ap- 
 plication by degrees, until, in his day, it had become 
 common. Accordingly, although Moses, in writing 
 the book of Genesis and that of Exodus, used it only 
 in its primitive meaning, that is, to denote one re- 
 markable either for prevalence in prayer, or for flu- 
 ency of speech: yet in the book of Deuteronomy 
 which he wrote in the last month of his life, he used 
 it to denote persons who, in earlier times, would have 
 have been called seers ; as for instance, himself, who 
 is often mentioned by other inspired writers as hav- 
 ing spoken and written by the Spirit of prophecy, 
 'and as having foretold events; Also to denote the 
 Messiah, that great prophet who was to be raised up 
 like unto Moses, who, like him, predicted many 
 events that have already occurred ; and which is the 
 very sign Moses gave of a true prophet, (e) To return. 
 That Moses, as before remarked, acted with refer- 
 ence both to Aaron and to Joshua, as God's vicege- 
 
 (e) Deut. xviii. 1521. 
 
48 
 
 rent or representative, appears by his divinely au- 
 thorized induction of them into their respective offi- 
 ces, and by the authoritative instructions and charges 
 which he gave them. (/) 
 
 In his ministry, however, Moses is chiefly to be 
 viewed as a type of Christ.* 
 
 First, in his call to the peculiar station which he 
 filled. As Moses, to that station, so Christ, to his me- 
 diatorial office, received his call from God the Father ; 
 who "called him in righteousness," and promised him 
 succor, as man, and success as Mediator, (g) As 
 Moses received his call and commission, while alone 
 with God in mount Horeb ; so Christ, when no crea- 
 ture was present, yea before any existed, received his 
 call and appointment from the Father, in the mount of 
 glory in the council of heaven. (Ji) Hence, in acts of 
 love for his people and in covenant engagements on 
 their behalf, " his goings forth have been from of old, 
 
 (/) Exo. xxviii. and xxix. Deut. xxxi. 7, 8, 14, 23, and xxiv. 9. 
 
 * This obvious and instructive analogy would, indeed, have ap- 
 peared to much greater advantage, could it, in a methodical man- 
 ner, have accompanied the history of Moses under the first head of 
 the former discourse ; but, being desirous there to answer some ob- 
 jections raised by skeptics, against the inspiration of the Penta- 
 teuch, and to show the harmony of some supposed inconsistencies 
 in the Mosaic narrative, I was aware, that the analogy so conducted, 
 would often occasion interruption and obscurity; and therefore, 
 reserved it for separate consideration. Nor must the reader even 
 here, expect to find all the particulars regarding the ministry of 
 Moses applied to Christ : some of them, it might not be proper so 
 to apply, and others are either but slightly touched or entirely omit- 
 ted, that they may receive due attention when required in the future 
 discoures of our Series. 
 
 (g) Is. xlii. 6, 7 ; xlix. 813. (h) Exo. iii. 1, 12. Prov. viii. 
 2231. 
 
40 
 
 .or everlasting." (i) And accordingly, he received 
 for them, the promise of eternal life and the gift of all 
 grace needful to prepare them for it and to bring them 
 to it," before the world began." (k) 
 
 Secondly, in the work he was called to accomplish ; 
 namely, the redemption, the deliverance, and the sub- 
 sequent government of Israel ; also the erection of the 
 tabernacle for their accommodation. 
 
 1. Their redemption. 
 
 Israel, the people whom Moses was called and 
 sent to redeem, were previously in a peculiar relation 
 to God, as his first-born, and therefore as his heir ; (I) 
 to them, in a national sense, "belonged the adoption" 
 to ceremonial privileges and to the inheritance of Ca- 
 naan ; (m) so the elect, whom Christ was called and 
 sent to redeem, though " scattered abroad" among all 
 nations, were, by adoption "the children of God," and 
 consequently his heirs heirs of grace, of spiritual 
 privileges and of eternal life ; (ri) yet being like Israel, 
 in bondage, like them, they must be redeemed, that 
 they might receive their bequeathed inheritance, (o) 
 
 Moses redeemed Israel, not with silver and gold, 
 but by the blood of lambs ; (p) so an apostle ad- 
 dressing those whose redemption was made manifest 
 by their calling, reminds them that they were re- 
 deemed, not by precious metals, but by precious blood ; 
 " ye were not redeemed," saith he, " by corruptible 
 things, as silver and gold but by the precious blood 
 of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without 
 spot ; who verily was fore-ordained before the foun- 
 
 (i) Micah v. 2. (k) Titus i. 2. 1 Tim. i. 9. (/) Exo. hv32 ; 
 xxxiv.20. Deut. xxi. 1517. (m) Rom. ix. 4. 5. (n) Johnxi. 52. 
 Heb. ii. 14. (o) Rom. vi. 23- (p) Exo. xii. 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 dation of the world, but was manifest in these last 
 times for you." (c) 
 
 The lambs slain for Israel, were " according to the 
 number of the souls," the persons to be redeemed and 
 nourished by them. So by covenant arrangement, the 
 atonement made by Christ was correspondent to the 
 number of God's elect, the antitype of national Israel; 
 and who, being redeemed by him, are, in the order of 
 time, all brought to live on him, the true passover. (/) 
 Yet, as the redemption of Israel was by a common price, 
 one costing no more than another, it is thereby strong- 
 ly suggested, that such also is the redemption of the 
 elect, by Christ.* Indeed the contrary supposition, as 
 it implies that his sufferings for them were as various 
 as their personal guilt, is highly improbable. More- 
 over, it naturally occasions such questions as these : 
 Whom does Christ love most] Those for whom he 
 suffered most or those for whom he suffered least 1 
 Nay, does not this hypothesis imply as great a diver- 
 sity in his love to his redeemed, as there was in his 
 sufferings for them 1 And, if so, Will he not, even in 
 the heavenly state, make a correspondent difference 
 in favour of the greater or smaller sinners among 
 them, as he may love the one or the other most I 
 To assert this view, therefore, of the Redeemer's suf- 
 ferings, seems to me, unwarrantable. Nevertheless, 
 as will presently be made to appear, the sacrifice of 
 Christ, like that of the paschal lambs, was to redeem 
 and feed a definite people. 
 
 Here, however, we should carefully distinguish be- 
 
 (e) 1 Pet. i. 1820. comp. Heb. ix. 14. (/) Exo. xii. 1 Cor. v. 
 7 and Gal. ii. 20. * The elect constitute the one mystical body, ef 
 which Christ is the Head and Saviour the one church, which he 
 redeemed, not member by member, but as a whole, by one sacrifice, 
 He "loved the church and gave himself for it" Eph. v. 23 27. 
 
51 
 
 tween the sacrifice itself, and the extent of the atone- 
 ment for which it was designed and accepted. For as 
 a learned divine of this city, has justly observed, " The 
 sacrifice is intrinsically of infinite worth ; but, the 
 atonement produced by it, is defined by previous com- 
 pact."* To deny that a compact between the divine 
 persons previously existed, is, in effect, to deny that the 
 death of Christ, in a way of atonement or satisfaction 
 to divine justice, was of any avail at all ; for, as the 
 acceptance of every typical sacrifice, for its specified 
 end, so the acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ, as an 
 atonement and satisfaction to divine justice for sin, de- 
 pended wholly upon the antecedent stipulation or de- 
 clared will of God, as the lawgiver, to accept it, for 
 that purpose. And admitting such compact, which 
 necessarily implies a specification both of the satisfac- 
 tion required and of the reward promised, it becomes 
 impossible, without denying divine prescience and ad- 
 mitting divine fallibility, to conceive of the atonement 
 made by Christ, as being either indefinite in its extent, 
 or uncertain in its result. 
 
 Those professors of Christianity, who deny the ex- 
 istence of a compact, or covenant agreement between 
 the divine persons respecting the salvation of sinners, 
 reason thus : If, say they, such a covenant was entered 
 into by the sacred Trinity, why was it not more for- 
 mally revealed I We answer No doubt for reasons 
 worthy of infinite wisdom ; and, perhaps, among 
 others, for that which follows : If this sacred and eter- 
 nal compact had been revealed in the Bible, in the for- 
 mal manner in which a covenant between two or more 
 men is produced by a scrivener, infidels would have 
 brought against it their usual imputation : they would 
 
 * Dr. McLeod on True Godliness, Ser. I. p. 22. 
 
52 **. 
 
 have said " It bears evident marks of human contri- 
 vance and therefore of imposture." Wherefore, in the 
 wisdom of God, this incomparable covenant, is re- 
 vealed in a manner not at all liable to that impious 
 charge ; for regardless of forms, such as men devise, 
 the mutual stipulations and confidence of the cove- 
 nantees, and the blessings secured to those covenanted 
 for, are to be found in the Scriptures of truth, merely 
 as the occasions on which they are mentioned, the 
 connexions in which they stand, and the circumstan- 
 ces of believers, required. Yet, in this way, the ex- 
 istence of the compact under consideration is so clear- 
 ly and abundantly revealed, that it is very difficult to 
 conceive how any who believe the inspiration of the 
 Bible, and consequently, the incarnation, death and 
 resurrection of Christ, to redeem sinners, and the 
 grant and operations of the Holy Ghost, to regene- 
 rate and sanctify them, can possibly deny it, or even 
 admit a question upon it. 
 
 Nevertheless, as in this case, the covenantees are 
 such as cannot lie, the object of revealing their secret 
 transactions and causing them to be placed upon the 
 sacred records, could not be, like that of two or more 
 fallible men, in causing the articles of an agreement 
 adjusted between them, to be reduced to writing and 
 entered upon the public records ; which is to bind the 
 parties to each other and thereby to secure their mu- 
 tual performance ; to suppose this would be blasphe- 
 mous ; but, that the existence of this covenant between 
 parties absolutely infallible, and which therefore must 
 be " a covenant ordered in all things and sure," being 
 made known to us, we might have strong consola- 
 tion, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the 
 hope set before us." Heb. vi. 17, 18. 
 
53 
 
 The stipulations and provisions of this EVERLASTING 
 COVENANT of GRACE and REDEMPTION, settled be- 
 tween the ETERNAL THREE in the COUNCIL of PEACE, 
 are found, when collected from the Holy Scriptures, 
 to run summarily thus : Jointly agreed in the sovereign 
 purpose, that a chosen and definite people should in- 
 herit grace and glory, the Son " engaged his heart to 
 approach unto" the Father, the lawgiver, on their 
 behalf; that is, to answer all the demands of his law 
 and justice against them, that so their salvation and 
 glorification might be agreeable to the principles of 
 eternal righteousness ; (K) the Father engaged, there- 
 upon, to remit their sins and justify their persons, by 
 an act, indeed, of his mere grace toward them, yet, 
 with reference to his justice, " through the redemption 
 that is in Christ ;" (i) and the Holy Spirit, in like 
 manner, engaged to regenerate them, to lead them to 
 Christ, by a faith of reliance on him, and to prepare 
 them for the holy and heavenly inheritance, (j) Chief- 
 ly, however, the revelation made on this subject, re- 
 lates to the mutual stipulations and mutual confidence 
 of the Father, the lawgiver, and of the Son, the law- 
 fulfiller ; the Spirit concurring, and freely preceding 
 from both. (&) 
 
 The stipulations of the Son, may be concluded from 
 what the Father relied on him to accomplish : " The 
 Lord, (Jehovah the Father) is well pleased," said 
 an ancient prophet, " for his righteousness' sake," 
 meaning the righteousness of the Son as a divine per- 
 son, which rendered it impossible for him to fail of 
 
 (h) Jer. xxx. 21, 22. Dan. ix. 24. Rom. iii. 25, 26. (i) Is. 
 xlv. 25. Rom. iii. 24. (j) Is. xliv. 36. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 
 2 Thess. ii. 13. 1 Pet. i. 2. (k) John xiv. 26 ; xv, 26. 
 
54 
 
 perfectly accomplishing all he had stipulated to do ; 
 and hence it is added, "he will" though he had not 
 yet done it " he will," at the appointed time, " mag- 
 nify the law and make it honorable." (/) And ac- 
 cordingly, "when the fulness of the time," agreed on 
 in the divine council, " was come, God sent forth his 
 Son, made," as to the flesh in which he was manifest- 
 ed, " of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them 
 that were under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons," that is, the Spirit of adoption, 
 which is given to none but those who, by adoption, 
 are sons before ; for the apostle adds " because ye 
 are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son 
 into your hearts, crying Abba, Father, (in) Christ 
 being both holy and harmless (n) the law found no 
 fault in him ; yet having voluntarily taken the law- 
 place of the elect, and having, by imputation, all their 
 iniquities laid upon him, he was treated accordingly : 
 "It pleased the Lord," Jehovah the Father, " to bruise 
 him; he hath put him to grief;" he "bare our sins," 
 the punishment due to us for them, " in his own body 
 on the tree;" he "suffered for sins, the just for the 
 unjust, that he might bring us to God." (o) Thus it 
 was that he " made reconciliation for iniquity and 
 brought in everlasting righteousness," for all whom he 
 represented in his life, and his death and resurrec- 
 tion ; and hence it is, that we are reconciled to God," 
 that is, to his, justice "by the death of his Son, and 
 " redeemed from the curse of the law," by him who 
 was " made a curse for us." (p) But, to precede 
 
 (?) Is,xlii. 21. (m) Gal. iv. 46. (n) Heb. vii. 26. (o) Is. 
 liii. 610. 1 Pet. ii. 24 and iii. 18. (p) Dan. ix. 24. Rom. v. 
 10. Gal. iii. 13. 
 
55 
 
 Whatever advantages the Egyptians enjoyed, by the 
 long residence of the Israelites among them, they had 
 no interest in the redemption of Israel, by the paschal 
 lambs ; so, although the destruction of the world, like 
 that of Egypt and of Jerusalem, is delayed " for the 
 the elect's sake," till they shall all be born, and born 
 again ; (q) and though the church is " the salt of the 
 earth and the light of the world ;" (r) yet the non-elect 
 have no part nor lot in the vital ransom, the stipulat- 
 ed price, which Christ paid for all the elect, of all na- 
 tions, generations and conditions, "to be testified" 
 to the world in the gospel, and to the elect, by the 
 Spirit, " in due time."* For, as the lambs were not 
 slain for the Israelites and the Egyptians in common, 
 but exclusively for the former ; so Christ, the Lamb 
 of God, laid down his life, not for the sheep and 
 the goats in common, but exclusively "for the 
 sheep ;" (f) and as the lambs were not slain to re- 
 deem Egypt for the sake of Israel, but to redeem 
 Israel from the fate of Egypt; so although in a pro- 
 vidential way, Christ, as Mediator, sustains the pil- 
 
 (q) Matt. xxiv. 22. 2 Pet. iii. 9. (r) Matt. v. 13, 14. 
 
 * The vital ransom, the stipulated price.] AvnXvrpov, from avn in 
 return or correspondency, and Arpov a ransom, certainly signifies 
 something more than simply " a ransom," as in our version. 
 Parkhurst renders it " a correspondent ransom," and Leigh, " a 
 counter-price." According to Hyperius, "it properly signifies a 
 price by which captives are redeemed from the enemy, and that 
 kind of exchange in which the life of one is redeemed by the life 
 of another." So Aristotle (in Scapulu) uses the verb avnXvrpow 
 for redeeming life by life. See Parkhurst, G. & E. Lex. and 
 Leigh's Crit. Sacra. The word occurs no where in the N. T. but 
 in 1 Tim. ii. 6. Comp. Matt. xx. 28. 
 
 (0 John x. 15. Matt. xxv. 31 46. 
 
56 
 
 iars of the earth and preserves mankind upon it, till 
 the mystery of grace shall be accomplished ; (u) and 
 which may be one reason why he is called " the Sa- 
 viour of the world :" yet he died, not to redeem the 
 world for the sake of his people, but to redeem his 
 people from the fate of the world. He " gave him- 
 self for our sins, that," as a matter of consequent 
 right " he might deliver us," in conversion at death 
 and at the resurrection, "from the present evil 
 world, according to the will of God and our Fa- 
 ther." (w) 
 
 To evade the force of evidence, which this type af- 
 fords in favor of particular redemption, it has been 
 said, " The paschal lambs, as they were not offered 
 upon an altar, were not properly a sacrifice ;" but this 
 circumstance served only to render them a more com- 
 plete and appropriate type of Christ ; who also was 
 not offered on a material altar, but who, nevertheless, 
 as testified by an apostle, " hath given himself for us 
 an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling 
 savor ;" (x) besides, the same apostle expressly as- 
 asserts, that " Christ our passover," and therefore as 
 the antitype of the paschal lambs, " is sacrificed for 
 us." (y) It is further objected, " That it was not the 
 death of the lambs but the sprinkling of their blood 
 that secured Israel." Granted : but their blood was 
 sprinkled as well as shed ; and all for whom it was shed 
 were, by the sprinkling of it, secured from temporal 
 death. " How much more shall the" infinitely precious 
 " blood of Christ," by its atoning and purifying effi- 
 cacy, deliver all for whom it was shed " from the 
 wrath to come," and render their persons and servi- 
 
 (u) Psal. Ixxv. 3. (w) Gal. i. 4. (x) Eph. v. 2. (y) 1. Cor. 
 v. 7. 
 
57 
 
 ces acceptable to God ! (z) The sacrifice of Christ 
 was either a complete satisfaction to divine Justice 
 for the sins of those for whom it was offered, or it was 
 not ; if not, it furnishes no security, that even one of 
 them shall be saved ; and if it was, it renders it im- 
 possible that, consistently with divine justice, even one 
 of them can be lost. But, that the sacrifice of Christ 
 was a complete satisfaction to divine justice for all 
 the sins of all for whom it was offered, even God the 
 Father, by whom he " was delivered for our offenses, 
 has openly acknowledged and declared, in raising him 
 from the deadjfor our justification, (a) Indeed, an 
 unsatisfactory atonement, is virtually no atonement ; 
 and how the notion of it ever gained admission among 
 men of science, is really difficult to conceive. Yet 
 " Somehow," as Dr. McLeod observes,* " it has come \ 
 to pass, that very discerning men have made them- 
 selves familiar with ideas of an atonement which they 
 revere as complete, although it neither satisfies jus- 
 tice nor procures reconciliation But," continues he, 
 " sure I am, that no man will, in the common concerns 
 of life, in the courts of law, or in the public transac- 
 tions of nations, consider that atonement complete, 
 which is not satisfactory, nor that satisfactory, which 
 does not set future controversy aside, produce recon- 
 ciliation, and exclude further punishment." 
 
 Nor are the covenant-stipulations of the Father, 
 securing to the Son his promised reward, any less 
 clearly revealed. The evangelical prophet, fore-see- 
 ing that the Messiah would be personally innocent, 
 and " yet that it pleased the Lord," Jehovah the Fa- 
 
 (z) Heb. ix. 14. x. 14. Col. i. 2022. 1 Pet. ii. 5. (a) Rom. 
 iv. 25. * Ser. I. p. 21, 22. 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 ther, " to bruise him," might be tempted to think 
 the act unjust and cruel ; which, without a previous 
 compact, it must have been ; wherefore, to remove his 
 temptation, and to manifest to him, and, through him, 
 to mankind in all future generations, the equity and 
 benevolence of the divine procedure, in regard to this 
 awful transaction, God further revealed to him, that 
 the innocent sufferer, by his own antecedent and vol- 
 untary engagement, stood in the law-place of a guilty 
 people; and that, in bearing their dreadful right, he 
 was animated by the prospect of a certain and satisfac- 
 tory reward : " When his soul, his life, shall make an 
 offering for sin,* he shall see his seed," his spiritual 
 offspring multiplying in all ages and among all na- 
 tions, according to the tenor and provisions of the 
 covenant ; " he shall prolong his days ;" the days of 
 his mediatorial station and procreative influence, 
 
 * This version is substituted instead of the common one, not 
 merely because it has been preferred by many learned commenta- 
 tors and critics, but chiefly because, in my opinion, it refers the 
 words to the true speaker and conveys their true meaning, while 
 the other does not. According to the common version, the speaker 
 is the prophet, addressing God the Father; whereas, on the con- 
 trary, it seems evident from the following context, that here and 
 to the end of the chapter, the speaker is God the Father addressing 
 the prophet ; for who but he could say of the Messiah, as in ver. 
 11. " My servant, &c." and in ver. 12. "Therefore will I divide 
 him a portion," &c. 
 
 " For CTS?r\ shall make, a MS. has Ot?r, which may be taken 
 passively shall be made." Dr. Lowth's Notes on Is. liii. 10. But, 
 to adopt this reading upon the authority of one MS. instead of the 
 standard Hebrew text, supported by many MSS. as well as ancient 
 versions, would be unsafe. Nor does it comport with fact ; for al- 
 though, in his death, Christ was passive, his submission to it was 
 voluntary. John x. 17, 18. and xii. 24. 
 
59 
 
 throughout all generations, " and the pleasure of the 
 Lord," the work which it was the pleasure of the Fa- 
 ther to assign to him, "shall prosper in his hand." 
 " He shall see of the travail of his soul," the issue of 
 his sufferings, " and shall be satisfied," and which he 
 can never be, till all for whom he travailed shall be re- 
 generated, sanctified and glorified. " By his know- 
 ledge," adds the Father " shall my righteous servant," 
 the Messiah, "justify many; for," in order thereto, 
 "he shall bear their iniquities." The knowledge of 
 the Messiah, here intended, is either subjectively, that 
 knowledge of the curse which he received, when, as 
 the substitute of those he represented, "he learned 
 obedience," the bitter effects of it in his human nature, 
 during " the days of his flesh" in common, and espe- 
 cially in the garden and on the cross ; Heb. v. 7 9 ; 
 or objectively, that knowledge of him, which his re- 
 deemed receive, by the Holy Spirit, who, to them, is 
 " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowl- 
 edge of him;" Eph. i. 17. Indeed both seem to be 
 included; the former, as the meritorious cause, the 
 latter, as the believing apprehension of our justifica- 
 tion. In both senses, therefore, the words unequi- 
 vocally assert, that through Christ, all whose iniqui- 
 ties he bare shall be justified. And these are many ; 
 Christ " gave his life a ransom for many ;" (Matt. xx. 
 28. Mark x. 45.) and accordingly many shall be 
 justified in him; even all the millions of God's elect, 
 from the beginning to the end of the world ; and who 
 are " a great multitude which no man can number,- t>f 
 all nations, and kindreds, and people and tongues.':' 
 Rev. v. 9 and vii. 9. But many as they are, they were 
 all in a way of special love, individually and distinctly 
 fore-known to the Father who had chosen thega, jo 
 
60 
 
 the Lamb who has redeemed them, and to the Holy 
 Ghost who regenerates and seals them. Rom. viii; 
 29, 30 and 1 Pet. i. 2. In a civil sense, however, they 
 are, in common with others, subjects of the rulers of 
 their respective nations ; " therefore," saith the Fa- 
 ther concerning the Messiah, " Iwill divide him a por- 
 tion with the great," the kings and other rulers of 
 the earth; a portion of whose respective subjects 
 shall become the subjects of Christ, who is King of 
 kings ; " and he shall divide the spoil with the strong," 
 meaning Satan, " the strong man armed," who made 
 a spoil of all mankind ; but from whom, Christ " a 
 stronger than he," wrests and delivers all who, by 
 the Father's original gift, and by his own redemption 
 of them after they had fallen, belong to him ; Luke 
 xi. 22 ; and that "because he hath poured out his 
 soul," his life, "unto death, and was," though per- 
 sonally innocent, " numbered with the transgressors," 
 with the vilest criminals, of which his crucifixion 
 between two thieves was an emblem ; " and," while 
 thus suffering, " he bare the sins of many, and made 
 intercession for the transgressors," whose sins he 
 bare. (5) 
 
 To all, therefore, who in this case, talk of obsta- 
 cles and contingencies, and of sinners for whom 
 Christ died, going to hell because they will not re- 
 pent and believe ; no more appropriate answer can 
 be furnished than that of Christ to the Sadducees 
 who denied the resurrection : " Ye do err, not know- 
 ing the Scriptures nor the power of Godi" (c) Could 
 not he that created the body, raise it from natural 
 
 (b) Is. liii. 1012. Luke xxiii. 34. John xvii. 6, 20. Rom. 
 viii. 34. Heb. vii. 25. 1 John ii. 1, 12. (c) Matt. xxii. 29. 
 
61 
 
 deathl And cannot he that created the soul quick- 
 en it from a state of moral death 1 IN or do the Scrip- 
 tures any more clearly show, that it is the purpose of 
 God to raise the dead at the last day, than that it is 
 his purpose to regenerate and convert all his elect in 
 the present life: "I," saith he, "will give them an 
 heart to know me, that I am the Lord : and they shall 
 be my people, and I will be their God : for they shall 
 return unto me with their whole heart." (d) Indeed, 
 his bestowment upon them, of the remedy itself, the 
 richest of all his gifts, argues incontrovertible/ his 
 purpose to bestow upon them whatever is requisit to 
 render this remedy effectual to their present and eter- 
 nal salvation, and therefore, the regenerating grace 
 of the Holy Spirit, of which faith and repentance, are 
 never-failing effects. So reasoned an apostle ; who, 
 speaking in the name of the whole redeemed family 
 and for the comfort of those in every age, who, being 
 called, are manifestly of this family, exultingly said, 
 " HE that spared not his own Son, but delivered him 
 up for us all, how shall HE not with 7iim also freely 
 give us all things ;" including not only all blessings 
 spiritual and temporal, requisit for believers during 
 their pilgrimage, and the kingdom of glory at their 
 journey's end, but also quickening and enlightening 
 grace, to those of the redeemed, yet dead and blind, (e) 
 These things considered, it becomes evident, that 
 the sacrifice of Christ, like that of the paschal lambs, 
 was "according to the number of the souls," the per- 
 sons to be redeemed ; that is, it was a complete satis- 
 
 (d) Jer. xxiv. 7. John v. 2529; vi. 37, 39, 45. Eph. ii. 1, 
 4, 5. C^l. i. 13 ; ii. 13. Acts xiii. 48. (e) Rom. viii. 3234. 
 Phil. iv. 19. 
 
62 
 
 faction to divine justice for the sins, and an ample 
 provision for the souls of all whom he covenanted to 
 redeem and save ; and who are defined, both collect- 
 ively and individually ; collectively, they are " the 
 general assembly and church of the first-born," the 
 heirs of God, " which are written in heaven ;" and 
 individually; they are those whom God designed to 
 reserve and pardon, and " whose names" agreeably 
 to that design, " were written" (as those of others 
 were not) "in the book of life of the Lamb slain," 
 in purpose and effect, " from the foundation of the 
 world." (/) Hence it was, that the elect, who lived 
 before the incarnation of Christ, were saved upon 
 his suretiship-engagements, which, for them as well 
 as for the elect under the present dispensation, he 
 fulfilled in due time, (g) Accordingly, the blood 
 which Christ shed is " the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant," the blood which from everlasting, he cov- 
 enanted to shed, and which being shed, avails to 
 everlasting, as the meritorious cause of the pardon 
 and cleansing of all for whom it was shed. (Ji) To 
 procede. 
 
 As Moses was a type of Christ in the redemption 
 of Israel, so also 
 
 2. In their deliverance. 
 
 Did Moses, at first, instead of delivering the Is- 
 raelites, only awaken the apprehensions of Pharaoh 
 concerning them, and thereby bring upon them ad- 
 ditional burdens'? So when Christ, by the Spirit 
 operating in his name, begins a work of grace in the 
 souls of his people, Satan, afraid of losing them, la- 
 
 (/) Heb. xii. 23. Rev. xiii. 8; xx> 12, 15. Jer. L 20. (g) 
 Rom. iii. 25, 26. Heb. ix. 15. (h) Heb. xiii. 20; ix. 14. 
 1 John i. 7, 9. 
 
63 
 
 bors to terrify them, and, by legal teachers, compa- 
 rable to Pharaoh's task-masters, further to burden 
 and discourage them ; by reason of which, like the 
 Israelites, they are tempted to view their condition as 
 rendered worse instead of better, and themselves as 
 injured rather than benefited, (i) 
 
 Besides, even when the Israelites had consented to 
 go, instead of being led immediately into liberty, they 
 were led into greater straits ; for Moses, or rather 
 "God," by him, "led the people about through the 
 wilderness of the Red sea," and, thereby, into further 
 embarrasment, and apparently into greater danger ; 
 for being, by divine order, encamped before Pi-ha-hi- 
 roth, while they had Migdol,an Egyptian fortress, on 
 their left, and JBaal-zephon, a fortified temple, on their 
 right, they had Pharaoh, with his armed host, in 
 close pursuit of them, and the Red sea, without any 
 possible means of crossing it,immediately before them. 
 Their case was desperate indeed : they could neither 
 retreat, nor turn aside, nor advance ; but seemed to be 
 their enemy's certain prey. Here again, they mur- 
 mured and regretted that they had not been let alone 
 in Egypt, (k) How similar is the case of awakened 
 sinners ! For although " made willing in the day of 
 the Redeemer's power," to forsake the Egypt of the 
 world, they are not immediately led into liberty, 
 through faith in him ; but are made to hear and learn 
 of the Father (1) of him as the lawgiver and Judge, 
 requiring of them perfect obedience to his law and 
 satisfaction to his justice for their past transgressions. 
 Satan, too pursues them, as Pharaoh did the Israel- 
 ites, with claims and threatenings ; and, while on one 
 
 (i) Exo. v. 421. Lam, iii. 2. (k) Exo. xiv. 11, 12. (/) 
 John vi. 45. 
 
 S 
 
64 
 
 hand, "the sons of Belial," like the soldiers in Mig- 
 dol, " bend their bows to shoot at them their arrows, 
 even bitter words" of reproach and slander, on the 
 other hand, the priests of antichrist, like those of 
 Baal-Zephon, stand ready to persuade them to em- 
 brace some false ground of hope,* and, on their re- 
 jecting it, to revile them, as heretics or fanatics, while 
 the avenging justice of God, to which they can ren- 
 der no satisfaction, like an impassable sea or gulf, 
 appears immediately before them. How much does 
 their condition resemble that of the Israelites, when 
 they were " entangled in the land and shut in by the 
 wilderness." And, driven like them to despair of 
 deliverance, like them, they wish they had been per- 
 mitted to remain undisturbed in their former state ; 
 then, say they, we had some comfort, but now we 
 have none, and fear we never shall have any again. 
 (n) Like the Israelites, however, they are shut up, 
 not to destruction, but to salvation; they are "shut 
 up unto the faith," the object of faith, "afterwards 
 to be revealed." (0) Here therefore, despairing like 
 the Israelites of all creature-aid, like them, they are 
 constrained to CRY OUT unto the LORD." Nor do 
 
 * If not the hope of pagans nor that of papists, yet some other 
 equally fallacious ; such as reliance on past morality, or on pre- 
 sent or intended repentance and reformation ; or on the general 
 mercy of God, through a mediator admitted to be a mere creature ; 
 or, according to others, one through whom all mankind are going 
 to heaven, irrespective of any meetness for that holy state, to be 
 wrought in them by the Holy Spirit : whereas, " Except a man 
 be born again," or from above, " he cannot see the kingdom of 
 God ;" and so essential is HOLINESS, that we are exhorted to it as 
 that " without which no man shall see," that is, enjoy " the Lord." 
 John iii. 3. Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 (n) Jer. iii. 35. (o) Gal. iii. 23. 
 
65 
 
 they cry in vain. For, as when Moses, by divine order, 
 stretched forth the marvelous rod over the Sea, the 
 Lord caused the waters thereof to separate and even 
 to become a wall of defense to Israel ; so when Christ, 
 in compliance with the Father's will, employs his 
 gospel, "the rod of his strength sent forth out of Zi- 
 on," ( p) in revealing to sensible sinners, how by his 
 obedience and sacrifice, he hath answered, for them, 
 all the demands of law and justice, they see every ob- 
 stacle removed, and, in due time, enter into joy and 
 peacein believing: "by faith we have peace with God, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." (q) Nay more, that 
 very justice, which, guarding the law we had trans- 
 gressed, cried for our blood, becomes to us as believers, 
 like the waters of the Sea to Israel, a wall of defense ; 
 for it would be as inconsistent with divine justice, 
 that a soul found in Christ should be lost, as that 
 one found -out of him, should be saved, (r) 
 
 Nor should it be overlooked, that the same people, 
 identically and numerically, whom the Lord redeem- 
 ed by the lambs, he delivered by the rod. For, ad- 
 dressing him, Moses saith " Thou in thy mercy hast 
 led forth the people, which tliou hast redeemed;" nor 
 was this all; he guided them afterward: "thou hast 
 guided them in thy strength unto," or toward " thy 
 holy habitation," Canaan and the holy mount on 
 which the temple was to be erected, (s) Can it then 
 be reasonable to suppose, that Christ will not deliver 
 by his grace, all whom he redeemed by his blood ? 
 Or, that having delivered them, he will not afterward 
 preserve and guide them? Obstacles are, in this case, 
 
 (p) Psal. ex. 2. (q) Rom. v. 1. (r) Rom. iii. 1926. 1 John 
 i. 9. (s)Exo. xv. 13. 
 
 9 
 
66 
 
 of no consideration. For it is the same " Arm of the 
 Lord," (Christ himself, Is. liii. 1.) that cut Rahab,"* 
 and wounded the dragon,"f that " dried the Sea and 
 made the depths of it a way for the ransomed to pass 
 over," that is to accomplish the conversion and sub- 
 sequent preservation and guidance of all his redeem- 
 ed. "Therefore," indubitably, "the redeemed of 
 the Lord shall return," shall be converted, " and come 
 with singing to Zion ;" and though not, in all instan- 
 ces, to the visible Church on earth, yet, without a 
 single exception, to the Zion of God above ; where 
 "everlasting joy shall be upon their head," and where 
 "they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and 
 mourning shall flee away." (f) Virtually, the ene- 
 mies of the LORD'S redeemed, like those of Israel, 
 are " all dead upon the shore." For the elect, Christ 
 has fulfilled the law and satisfied the .demands of 
 justice ; and thereby deprived sin of its strength and 
 even death of it sting. Believers, therefore, amid 
 all their troubles, may triumphantly sing " The sting 
 of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law ; 
 but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." (u) Let sensible 
 sinners, then, like the Israelites " between Migdol 
 and the Sea," stand waiting for the SALVATION of the 
 LORD, and, like the Israelites on the banks of delive- 
 rance, let believers, remembering " this grace wherein 
 we stand, rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (w) 
 
 The change of mind, too, which was produced in 
 the Israelites by their deliverance, serves justly toil- 
 
 * Egypt ; Psal. Ixxxvii. 4. t Pharaoh; Ezek. xxix. 3. (t) Is. 
 li. 911. and liii. 1. and John v. 25. (u) Col. ii. 15. 1 Cor. xv. 
 56, 57. (w) Exo. xiv. 13. Rom. v. 2. 
 
67 
 
 lustrate that which is produced in the minds of sin- 
 ners by the Holy Spirit in regeneration ; for as, upon 
 their deliverance, "the people" of Israel "feared the 
 Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses ;" 
 (x) so all who are delivered from bondage through 
 faith in Christ, possess, as an effect of regenerating 
 grace, a filial fear of God, and believe both the Fa- 
 ther and the Son. (y) 
 
 But we must not dismiss this article without remark- 
 ing that the destruction of the finally impenitent, like 
 that of the Egyptians, is of themselves ; for as the 
 Egyptians madly rushed into the sea, so impenitent 
 sinners, " strengthen themselves against the Almighty 
 and presumptuously run upon the thick bosses of his 
 bucklers ;" (z) and hence, as the same Sea which, 
 through faith in the word and power of God, proved 
 "a wall" of defense to Israel, overwhelmed the 
 Egyptians ; so the same justice which, to believers in 
 Christ, affords infallible protection, exposes and dooms 
 unbelievers, as such, to inevitable destruction: "He 
 that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life ; and 
 he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but 
 the wrath of God abideth on him." (a) Moses was 
 a type of Christ, 
 
 3. In his subsequent government of Israel. 
 
 In the short time of solace and singing which he af- 
 forded to Israel after their deliverance, we behold a 
 type of that period of repose and rejoicing which Christ 
 affords to young converts ; "We which have believed 
 do enter into rest ;" and " believing we rejoice with 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory." (&) 
 
 (x) Exo. xiv. 31. (y) Jer. xxxii. 40. Matt. xvi. 16. John v. 
 24. (%) Job. xv. 25, 26. (a) John iii. 36. (b) Heb. iv. 3, 
 1 Pet i. 8. 
 
68 
 
 Soon, however, the case of the Israelites was chang- 
 ed. " Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and 
 they went into the wilderness of Shur ;" where they 
 thirsted for water, and found none but what was bitter. 
 The application to young converts is perfectly easy. 
 They, too, must travel ; and in the wilderness of this 
 world, through which they pass, they soon begin to 
 realize a want of spiritual comfort, and many bitter 
 disappointments and trials. But as Moses, by means 
 of a tree, which by the order of God he cast into those 
 waters, sweetened them ; so Christ, by the doctrine of 
 his meritorious death upon the tree of the cross, and 
 to which he submitted in obedience to his heavenly 
 Father's will, renders all the afflictions and sorrows 
 of believers, not only tolerable, but eventually con- 
 ducive to their edification and comfort, (c) 
 
 While we read of Israel, led by Moses to Elim, 
 where were twelve wells of water and seventy palm- 
 trees ; how pleasant is it to think of the primitive 
 Christians, who by the favor of Christ, enjoyed the 
 ministry of the twelve apostles and seventy disciples, 
 and of believers in all ages, led by his Spirit, to the 
 pure fountains of apostolic doctrine, which are the 
 wells of salvation flowing from Christ, and where, 
 under the shadow of his word and ordinances, the in- 
 stituted signs and memorials of his and their victory, 
 they enjoy seasons of great satisfaction and delight, 
 even while in the wilderness, (d) And though, like 
 the Israelites at Elim, "we have here no continuing 
 city," let us recollect and rejoice, that we " have a 
 city not made with hands, eternal and on high" 
 
 (c) 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10. Philip, iii. 711. Gal. vi. 14. 2 Tim. 
 ii. 11, 12. (d) Cant. ii. 3. Psal. Ixxxiv. 57. 
 
69 
 
 that every moment brings us nearer to it, and that 
 when arrived there, " the Lamb which is in the midst 
 of the throne, will lead us to living fountains of wa- 
 ters" and put into our hands " palms of everlasting 
 victory." (e) 
 
 Pursuing the sacred history, we presently find Israel 
 " in the wilderness of Sin," a place between Elim and 
 mount Sinai ; where they were destitute of bread and 
 apprehensive of famishing for the want of it. Let this 
 remind us that, as a chastisement for their neglect 
 of means while afforded, and as a trial of their faith, 
 when these are withdrawn, the churches and indivi- 
 duals of spiritual Israel, are sometimes left to suffer a 
 want of gospel-ministers, and thereby, " a famine of 
 hearing the word of the Lord." (/) Did the Israelites, 
 thus circumstanced, instead of crying to God for bread, 
 murmur against him and his servants, Moses and 
 Aaron 1 How often, alas ! do churches and individu- 
 als, instead of " praying the Lord of the harvest that 
 he would send forth more laborers," indulge in mur- 
 muring and complaining against him, for leaving them 
 destitute; or, having the word but not being benefited 
 by it, overlook all causes of their barrenness, existing 
 in themselves and their lives and, instead of imploring 
 the influence of his Holy Spirit, to mortify their cor- 
 ruptions, and to revive their souls, spend much of their 
 time in listless dejection, or in finding fault with their 
 ministers, as though the application and success of 
 the word depended on them ! To return 
 
 In this case, observe, Moses could afford Israel no 
 relief; and in which, as in many other instances, he 
 was a figure of the law, which can neither give life to 
 
 (e) Heb. xiii. 14. Rev. vii. 9, 17. (/) Amos viii. 11. 
 
70 
 
 the dead, nor food to the living, (g) God, however, of 
 his mere bounty, without their asking it, and even 
 without the intercession of Moses for it, rained bread 
 from heaven for them, to wit, the manna. And ex- 
 actly similar was his original gift of Christ, to his un- 
 deserving and ill-deserving people ; for, unsought by 
 them, and " without the law," and, therefore, accord- 
 ing to his own sovereign grace and electing love, he 
 bestowed upon them Ms unspeakable gift. The same 
 also was asserted by Christ himself: who " in the 
 days of his flesh" informed the Jews, that it was not 
 Moses, as they suggested, but God who had given them 
 the manna ; and that, in bestowing that favor upon na- 
 tional Israel, he had illustrated his eternal design to 
 bestow the true bread, the antitype of the manna, upon 
 the true Israel, the antitype of that chosen nation : 
 " Moses," said he, "gave you not that bread from 
 heaven," meaning the manna, " but my Father," who 
 gave that, now, under the gospel, " giveth you," in com- 
 mon with other nations, " the true bread from heaven. 
 For the Bread of God is he which cometh down from 
 heaven, and giveth life unto the world." (K) In their 
 fallen state, the world of mankind are all morally and 
 legally dead ; (i) and as Christ is the life of all, in every 
 age and nation of the world, that have ever lived or 
 that ever will live a life of grace and of justification, (&) 
 it is obviously true, that he " giveth life to the world,'' 
 though not to all the individuals of it: for some 
 remain in unbelief and " the wrath of God abideth 
 upon them." (Z) And although in Christ, " all 
 
 (g) Rom. viii. 3. Gal. ii. 19, 20. (h) John vi. 32, 33. () Rom. v. 
 12, 18. (k) John v. 25. Rom. i '. 2126. Col. iii. 3, 4. (I) John 
 iii. 36. 
 
71 
 
 the nations of the earth are blessed ;" yet when he 
 shall come in his glory, and all nations shall be gath- 
 ered before him, " he shall separate them," not nation- 
 ally but individually, " as a shepherd divideth his 
 sheep from the goats ; and he shall set the sheep on 
 his right hand but the goats on his left, and shall say 
 to them on his right hand, Come ye blessed, &c. and 
 to them on his left hand, Depart ye cursed, &c. " And 
 these shall go away into kolasin aionion, punishment 
 eternal ; but the righteous into zoen aionion, life eter- 
 nal, (m) Nor does the type admit of any other ap- 
 plication : God, indeed, rained the manna in the open 
 wilderness ; yet for none but his chosen Israel, nor did 
 any but Israelites live by it ; so, although he sent his 
 Son into the world, and gave him power over all flesh : 
 yet none but the elect have grace in him, or live 
 through him. (n) It is only to the sheep that he gives 
 eternal life, (p) Believing the Scriptures, none can 
 believe that all the individuals of national Israel will 
 be saved, and much less that none of other nations 
 will be saved ; yet " in the Lord," the Lord Christ, 
 " shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glo- 
 ry;" (p) by whom, therefore, must be meant the 
 true Israel of all nations, and who are the spiritual off- 
 pring of Christ, the antitype of Jacob, the progeni- 
 tor of national Israel. 
 
 Chiefly, however, the manna was a type of Christ, 
 as he is granted to his people and enjoyed by them, 
 in the use of instituted means. 
 
 The clouds from which the manna was rained, were 
 a fit emblem of the word and ordinances, from which 
 
 (m) OeD. xxii. 18. Matt. xxv. 3134, 41, 46. (n) 2 Tim. i. 
 9. 1 John iv. 9. (o) John x. 28. and xvii. 2. (p) Is. xlv. 25. 
 Rom. iv. 16. 
 
72 
 
 we receive our knowledge of Christ, and by means 
 of which, though mysteriously, he becomes the sus- 
 tenance of our souls, (q) 
 
 The manna seems to have been furnished to the 
 Israelites through the instrumentality of angels ; (r) 
 so, in the gospel and its ordinances, Christ is exhibit- 
 ed to believers through the instrumentality of his 
 ministers, whom he expressly calls angels, or messen- 
 gers, as the word signifies, (s) By them, according 
 to promise, he feeds his people "with knowledge and 
 understanding" of himself and his fulness ; and there- 
 by comforts and edifies them, (f) " We" said Paul, 
 "are helpers of your joy." 2 Cor. i. 24. Apollos 
 "helped them much who had believed through grace." 
 Acts xviii. 27. And, by the record of the injunction 
 delivered to Peter, Christ is still saying to every gos- 
 pel-minister, Feed my sheep feed my lambs, (u) 
 
 The Israelites, though redeemed by the paschal 
 lambs, never lived on manna, till they were brought 
 out of Egyptian bondage. So the elect, though re- 
 deemed by Christ, never live by faith upon him, as he 
 is the Bread of life, till, being regenerated, they are 
 delivered from the tyranny of Satan and the bondage 
 of the law, as a covenant of works : " The life," said 
 Paul, " which I now live" Now, observe, after his 
 conversion " I live by the faith of the Son of God, 
 who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 To exercise the faith of the Israelites, and to teach 
 them their continual dependence upon the favor of 
 God, the manna, though in store, was not all dispen- 
 
 (q) Is. v. 6. Hosea ii. 21, 22. Deut. xxxii. 2. Psal. Ixxii. 6. Eph. 
 iii. 1619. (r) Psal. Ixxviii. 25. (s) Rev. i. 20. (t) Jer. iii. 15. 
 Is. xl. i. 2. Eph. iv. 11, 12. (u) John xxi. 1517. 
 
73 
 
 sed to them at once, nor even by the year, or month, 
 or week, but by the day; and, that spiritual Israelites 
 may learn to walk by faith, and under an abiding sense 
 of their needy and dependent condition, their supplies 
 from Christ are dispensed in a similar manner ; for, 
 although, " It pleased the Father that in him should 
 all fulness dwell ;" (w) it is nevertheless, only day by 
 day, that "our inward man is renewed" from that 
 fulness, (x) If a surplus of the manna bred worms in 
 the vessels of the Israelites, how much more would a 
 super-abundance of gifts and knowledge, or of tem- 
 poral riches, tend to breed and nourish pernicious 
 worms in the vessels of our depraved hearts ! Gifts 
 alone make a man only as sounding brass and a tink- 
 ling cymbal; 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2; knowledge puff eth up ; 
 Chap. viii. 1 ; and the care of this world and the de- 
 ceitfulness of riches choke the word and render the 
 hearer unfruitful. Matt. xiii. 7, 22. From the suc- 
 cess of the Israelites, however, in gathering the man- 
 na, believers are encouraged to hope, that, in the dili- 
 gent use of means, God will bestow upon them such 
 a measure even of temporal blessings, as in their seve- 
 ral stations, will best promote their real comfort and 
 usefulness in the church and in the world : " As it is 
 written, He that gathered much had nothing over ; 
 having to distribute a part to those who were deficient ; 
 and he that gathered little had no lack ;" his deficien- 
 cy being supplied from the abundance of others. 
 2 Cor. viii. 14, 15. Exo. r xvL 1720.* 
 
 To prove their faith and obedience, though the 
 manna was freely given, the Israelites were required 
 daily to go out to gather it ; (z) the doing of which im- 
 
 (w) Col. i. 19. (x) 2 Cor. iv. 16. * Superior gifts and knowledge, 
 too, are bestowed on some, for the benefit of others. 1 Cor. xiv. 
 1 6. Eph. iii. 1 9. and many other places, (z) Exo. xvi. 4. 
 
 10 
 
74 
 
 plied faith in the power and promise of God to furnish 
 it, and was an act of obedience to his revealed will ; 
 so although Christ is freely given, God has appointed 
 means, in the use of which we are to enjoy him ; such 
 as reading the icord, hearing the gospel, attending or- 
 dinances, prayer, &c. ; and if our faith is of the right 
 kind and in proper exercise, it leads us daily to the 
 Bible and to the Throne, seeking spiritual supplies 
 from Christ, and, as opportunities are afforded, to pub- 
 lic means also, believing that God has appointed them, 
 and that he has connected our growth in grace and in 
 the knowledge of Christ, with the diligent and prayer- 
 ful observance of them, (a) Yet, how necessary, alas, 
 are the exhortations " Search the Scriptures Pray 
 without ceasing Not forsaking the assembling of 
 yourselves together, as the manner of some is." (6) 
 And how deplorably languid, must be ihe faith and 
 hope and zeal of those professors who, on slight pre- 
 tenses, can stay at home, time after time, while the 
 sacred manna is dropping within their reach, and es- 
 pecially at their own respective places of worship, 
 where, by church-relation and covenant-obligation, 
 they are solemnly engaged to be found ! It is, in ef- 
 fect, saying of Christ, or, at least of his word and 
 ordinances, as the ungrateful Israelites said of the 
 manna, "our soul lotheth this light bread." (c) 
 
 On the sixth day, preparatory to the Sabbath, there 
 fell a double portion of the manna, and the people 
 gathered accordingly, (d) Did this typically signify, 
 that believers, at the close of life, and the church, in 
 her latter day glory, should have a double portion 
 
 (a) Is. xl. 31, 1 Pet. ii. 2. and 2 Pet. iii. 18. (b) John v. 39. 
 1 Thess. v. 17. Heb. x. 25. (c) Num. xxi. 5. (d) Exo. xvi. 2226. 
 
75 
 
 a very abundant knowledge of Christ and very large 
 communications of grace from him, preparatory to the 
 heavenly, the eternal sabbath '! (e) During the Sabbath, 
 indeed, as well as other days, the Israelites lived on 
 manna, yet without the labor of gathering it ; so 
 " Christ who is our life" on earth, will be our life in 
 heaven, yet there without any use of means, or efforts 
 of faith. To signify this, Christ in heaven, is likened 
 to the golden pot of manna> which, by divine order, 
 was deposited in the holy of holies. (/) 
 
 The Lord also gave the Israelites flesh, and that to 
 satiety, (g) This likewise has been considered by 
 some as a type of Christ, whose " flesh is meat indeed 
 and whose blood is drink indeed ;" but, as the quails 
 were not, like the manna, from above, and as their 
 flesh is never, like that bread, called "spiritual 
 meat," (A) I understand them to have been an emblem 
 of worldly things, such as riches, honors and sensual 
 gratifications, of which God, in his Providence, (and 
 sometimes in a way of chastisement) suffers his peo- 
 ple to partake, according to their carnal appetites ; 
 and which, being so granted, like the quails to Israel, 
 prove, in the end, a plague rather than a comfort a 
 curse rather than a blessing. At best, they can only 
 feed the body and gratify the carnal mind ; and, in 
 many instances, like the residue of the quails, "they 
 take wings and fly away," while, like the Israelites, 
 we are yet in the wilderness, (i) 
 
 No sooner were the Israelites supplied with bread, 
 than we find them again in distress for the want of 
 
 (e) Psal. xxxvii. 37. Is. xxx. 26. (/) Exo. xvi. 33, 34. Heb, 
 ix. 4, 24. Rev. ii. 17. (g) Psal. Ixxviii. 29. (A) 1 Cor. x. 3, 
 (i) Psal. Ixxviii. 30, 31. 
 
76 
 
 water ; and as full, too, as ever of murmuring against 
 God and against Moses. Yet Moses cried unto the 
 Lord on their behalf, and the Lord having specified a 
 certain rock, directed him to smite it with the rod 
 in his hand, assuring him that water should flow 
 from it. (&) And, that the miracle, according to pro- 
 mise, was wrought that water in great abundance 
 flowed from the rock when smitten, is asserted by the 
 inspired Psalmist. (/) In this instance, Moses sus- 
 tained a twofold character: in his intercession, he 
 typified Christ interceding on behalf of his guilty 
 people ; but in smiting the rock, he represented God 
 the Father, smiting with the rod of Justice, the hu- 
 man nature of Christ, in which, as our substitute, " he 
 was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for 
 our iniquities ;" (m) and who, being crucified, became 
 "a fountain open for sinanduncleaness," and thereby, 
 a fountain of life and of all grace and spiritual conso- 
 lation, (n) That such is the mystical signification of 
 this rock, we have the testimony of an apostle ; and 
 who also seems to concur with many Rabbinical wri- 
 ters in asserting, that, as a constant miracle, this rock 
 itself as well as the water flowing from it, followed 
 the Israelites through the wilderness ; "they drank," 
 saith he, " of that spiritual," that mystical " rock, that 
 followed them ; and that rock was Christ ;" not liter- 
 ally, but mystically, as the water flowing from it, was 
 a type of the gospel and of all spiritual blessings, 
 flowing from Christ and accompanying the church 
 during her pilgrimage in the wilderness of the gen- 
 tiles, (o) 
 
 (k) Exo. xvi. 36. (/) Psalm cv. 41. (m) Is. liii. 5, 6, 10. 
 (n) Zech. xiii. 1. John vii. 37 39. (o) 1 Cor. x. 4. comp. Hosea 
 ii. 14, 15. 
 
77 
 
 This transaction took place at Rephidim, soon af- 
 ter Israel left Egypt ; (p) but the water, on account of 
 their unbelief and rebelion, being stayed, in the first 
 month of the fortieth, the last year of their wilder- 
 ness-journey, the same was repeated at Kadesh. (q) 
 But, as Christ was not literally crucified a second 
 time, I understand this as typifying that second, that 
 new opening up of the way of salvation through him, 
 which will be granted to the Jews in the latter day ; 
 when the gospel, which, for their unbelief and con- 
 tempt of the Messiah, has long since been taken from 
 them, will be restored ; and when he shall pour upon 
 them " the spirit of Grace and of supplication and they 
 shall look upon him whom they have pierced and 
 mourn, (r) And, as the Israelites at Kadesh, witness- 
 ed those faults and imperfections in Moses and Aaron, 
 for which God denied them the honor of bringing the 
 people into Canaan, nay, soon removed them by death ; 
 so at the time of their calling, the Jews, regenerated 
 and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, will discover the 
 incompetency of the Mosaic covenant and the Aaronic 
 priesthood to bring them to heaven ; and, abandon- 
 ing both, as being divinely abrogated, will " seek the 
 Lord their God and David their king," their long 
 despised Messiah ; " and shall fear the Lord and 
 his goodness in the latter days." (s) 
 
 Next we find Israel attacked by Amalek, a formi- 
 dable enemy, (t) Amalek, as remarked in the former 
 discourse,* seems to have been a kind of wandering 
 monarch, followed by a large host and committing out- 
 
 (p) Exo. xvii. 1 7. (q) Num. xx. 1 11. comp. chap, xxxiii. 
 14, 36. (r) Matt. xxi. 43. Zech. xii. 1014. (s) Num. xx. 12, 13, 
 24, and xxvii. 1214. Hosea iii. 5. (t) Exo. xvii. 8, &c. * Page 26. 
 
78 
 
 rages wherever he went.* May he not justly be view- 
 ed as an emblem of Satan, who being " the prince of 
 the devils," and " the god of the world," has in his 
 train and under his influence, a large host both of 
 fallen angels and of wicked men, and who as a ra- 
 venous lion, walketh about seeking whom he may de- 
 vour f Hence Amalek, in his attack upon Moses and 
 Israel in the wilderness of Rephidim, might typify 
 Satan assaulting Christ in the days of his flesh, and 
 the church, in the days of her pilgrimage, in the wil- 
 derness of this world. But as Christ, in person, van- 
 quished him, the church, by consequence, is secure 
 of victory over him. (u) This is strongly set forth in 
 the type, in which Moses and Joshua are strange- 
 ly united. Moses having given directions for con- 
 ducting the war, ascended an eminence, with the mi- 
 raculous rod in his hand, leaving Joshua to fight the 
 battle. In this remarkable occurrence, therefore, we 
 have a twofold type of Christ : In Moses we behold 
 him, as making known his will concerning the spiri- 
 tual warfare of the church, and then ascending to 
 heaven, to act as our intercessor there; and though 
 he has withdrawn the rod of miracles, yet, in Joshua 
 we behold him, as by his Spirit and Providence, he 
 is nevertheless, "the leader and commander" of his 
 spiritual Israel upon earth ; and having all gospel- 
 ministers and other saints under his direction all the 
 holy angels, as " ministering spirits," at his command 
 and "all principalities and powers" whether on 
 earth or in hell, under his control he cannot possibly 
 fail of complete and everlasting victory. The suc- 
 
 * The author of Dibre, Hajamin makes the army of Amalek to 
 have consisted of an immense number, all exercising divinations 
 and enchantments. See Bp. Patrick on Exo. xvii. 8. (u) Matt, 
 jv. 1 11. Rom. xvi. 20. 
 
79 
 
 cess of Israel depended on the lifting up of the 
 hands of Moses, on the chosen hill ; and much more 
 does that of spiritual Israel depend on the lifting up 
 of the hands of our divine intercessor, on the hea- 
 venly mount. In Moses, indeed, there was weakness ; 
 and when, through weariness, his hands hung down, 
 Amalek prevailed ; which being discovered, he was 
 placed upon a rock and stayed by Aaron and Hur ; 
 " so that his hands were kept steady until the going 
 down of the sun," when the victory in favor of Is- 
 rael was complete. But Christ, with untiring strength 
 as well as inflexible fidelity, " ever liveth to make 
 intercession for us ;" and hence, till the sun of natu- 
 ral life, in every saint, shall go down in death, and 
 till the whole day of the church in this world shall 
 end, his intercession will avail in heaven, while upon 
 earth, his infinite w r isdom shall conduct the war in 
 which we are involved, and his almighty grace and 
 providence fight every battle, in which we shall be 
 engaged ; for in these he will neither intermit nor 
 relax, till Satan shall be chained in hell, (w) and 
 Zion glorified in heaven. (x) 
 
 Admitting Amalek to have been an emblem of Sa- 
 tan, the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, 
 maybe viewed as emblems of the world and ihefiesh, 
 and the Midianites, a set of mungrel Israelites, (y) 
 with the mercenary Balaam on their side, as prefigu- 
 ring mystical Babylon, consisting of nominal chris- 
 tians and encouraged by a venal priesthood; But as 
 those enemies of national Israel were all conquered 
 by Moses ; (z) so all the correspondent enemies of 
 
 (w) Rev. xx. 110. (x) Eph. v. 27. (y) Gen. xxv. 2. I 
 Chron. i. 32. (z) Exod. xvii. 1013. Numb, xxi, 2127, and 
 Chap. xxxi. 1 & 
 
80 
 
 spiritual Israel shall be conquered, nay, destroyed by 
 our Lord Jesus Christ ; (a) and, as upon the conquest 
 of their enemies, Israel entered into their promised 
 inheritance, so, upon the destruction of their body 
 of sin, "the spirits of the just are made perfect," (b) 
 and, upon the destruction of mystical Babylon, the 
 church shall enter into her millenial, and, eventual- 
 ly, into her heavenly glory, (c) 
 
 As with Amalek and with every other enemy, the 
 Israelites were divinely authorized to maintain per- 
 petual war, (d) so both the saints individually and 
 the church collectively are divinely authorized, yea, re- 
 quired to maintain an unceasing war with Satan 
 sin the world the flesh, and with all antichristian 
 principles and practices, till the contest shall issue in 
 our everlasting victory and triumph, (e) 
 
 What if Satan,like Arad,(jf ) succede in taking some 
 of the camp prisoners 1 They are either hypocrites 
 whom he may devour, (g) or saints whom, for their 
 good, he is permitted to buffet. (Ji) And, what if ? like 
 Amalek, he is suffered to smite and fell some of the 
 lingering 1 (') Let this remind us that we are in an 
 enemy's land and excite us to greater diligence ; (&) 
 or, if some must die by the hand of persecution, they 
 will only, as were the martyrs before them, be taken 
 away from the evil to come, and be brought the 
 sooner to that " rest which remaineth for the people 
 of God." (I) 
 
 (a) Heb. ii. 14. 1 John iii. 8. Rom. vi. 13, and vii. 24/25. 
 John xvi. 33. Rev. xi. 18. and xviii and xviii. chapters, (b) Heb. 
 xii. 23. (c) Is. xxv. 7, 8. and xxiv 1, 2. Rev. xix. 7, and chap. xxi. 
 (d) Exo. xvii. 16. Num. xxi. 33, 35. Deut. vii. 2. (e) James iv. 
 7. Rom. vi. 12, 13. xii. 2. xiii. 14. 1 Tim. iv. 7, 8. Rev. ii. 10. 
 (/) Num. xxi. 1. (#) 1 Pet. v. 8. (h) 1 Cor. v. 5. 2. Cor. xii. 7. 
 (i) Deut. xxv. 18. 2 Pet. iii. 17. {k) 2 Pet. i. 510. (I) Is. Ivii. 
 1. Htib. iv. 9. 
 
81 
 
 Another and a very instructive instance in which 
 Moses was a type of Christ, is recorded in the twen- 
 ty-first chapter of the book of Numbers. Here we 
 find the Israelites, while compassing the land of Edom, 
 becoming greatly discouraged, and outrageous in 
 their murmurings against God and against Moses, for 
 bringing them out of Egypt, to die, as they supposed, 
 in the wilderness. Their course was retrograde and 
 their way rough. "There is," said they, "no water 
 and our soul lotheth this light bread," meaning the 
 manna. How similar, alas, are sometimes the condi- 
 tion and complaints of professors, yea of real saints, 
 under the present dispensation ! We seem, at times, 
 to be going backward rather than forward ; our way 
 is rough full of stumbling stones and unexpected 
 trials ; the water of comfort fails, and, having lost our 
 spiritual relish, our souls almost lothe the gospel 
 itself; yea, like Asaph, we are tempted to think that 
 even the Egyptians of this world are better off than 
 we. (ra) 
 
 To convince the Israelites of their sin and of their 
 dependence upon divine favor, " The Lord sent fiery 
 serpents among the people, and they bit the people, 
 and much people of Israel died." 
 
 In a typical point of view, this historical fact has, 
 in my humble opinion, been constantly misunderstood. 
 As far as my reading and hearing on the subject have 
 extended, it has always been understood as designed 
 to illustrate the moral depravity infused into our first 
 parents by the old serpent, the devil, and which, by 
 ordinary generation, has infected all their posterity 
 with the mortal poison. This, in itself, is indeed an 
 
 (m) Psal. Ixxiii. 3. 
 11 
 
82 
 
 awful and lamentable truth ; (n) yet not what Is herein 
 typically illustrated. It is not supported by analogy. 
 The venom of the old serpent is, in Adam's family, 
 hereditary ; that of the Jury serpents was only in 
 those who were personally bitten of them ; the bite 
 of the old' serpent infused sin ; that of these serpents 
 was a punishment for sin. Wherefore, I understand 
 the fiery serpents to have been an emblem of the curse, 
 including all the evils, temporal and eternal, to which 
 mankind are liable in consequence of sin; (0) and 
 their fiery slings as intended to illustrate the effects 
 of the curse in common, but especially the stings of a 
 guilty conscience; which, in many instances, are ex- 
 ceedingly fiery and distressing ; the law is called a 
 fiery laio, and is said to work wrath ; (j?) the guilt of 
 having transgressed it, lying upon the conscience, is 
 " a burden too heavy" for a poor sinner to bear, and 
 fills him with fearful apprehensions of everlasting 
 burnings, (q) Conviction, therefore, like the sting of 
 the fiery serpents, does not communicate sin, but 
 gives keen distress on account of it. (r) 
 
 Convictions are of two kinds ; those which carnal 
 persons may have, and those which are peculiar to the 
 regenerate. 
 
 The convictions of the carnal may be such as arise 
 entirely from the light of nature : such are those of 
 the heathen, who, though they have not the written 
 law, show the work of the law of nature written in 
 their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness 
 whether their conduct, according to that law, be right 
 
 (n) Gen. vi. 5. Psal. li, 5. Rom. v. 12. Job. xiv. 4. (o) Gen. 
 ii. 16, 17. iii. 1619. Prov. iii. 33. Zech. v. 3, 4. Job. xxi. 17. 
 Prov. xxvi. 2. (p) Context, ver. 2. Rom. iv. 15. (q) Psal. xxxviii. 
 4. Is. xxxiii. 14. (r) Actsii. 37. 
 
83 
 
 or wrong, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing 
 or else excusing, both themselves and one another ; (s) 
 or they may be such as are produced partly by the 
 light of nature and partly by the testimony of the Holy 
 Spirit ; for, as the Spirit strove with [not in] the an- 
 tediluvians, in the ministry of Noah, and with [not 
 in] the Jews, in the messages of Moses and the pro- 
 phets, () so, in the written word and in the labors 
 of all whom He qualifies to preach, He strives with 
 [not in] mankind under the present dispensation. 
 Thus he testifies to them their guilt and condemna- 
 tion as transgressors of the law ; (u) their aggravated 
 criminality in disbelieving the record that God has 
 given of his Son, (to) and that unless born again and 
 brought to experience " repentance toward God and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," they must perish 
 for ever, (x) This external testimony of the Spirit, 
 however, is a very different thing from his internal 
 work of regeneration. The former, when alone, al- 
 ways has been and always will be resisted ; (y) but 
 the latter never has been and never can be rendered 
 ineffectual. It is a work in which he quickens the 
 dead, enlightens the blind, and makes the rebelious 
 willing ; in a word, it is that good work, which having 
 begun, he will perform, (z) 
 
 This will more fully appear while we notice those 
 convictions which are peculiar to the regenerate. 
 These, while they include all that is discovered by 
 the light of nature, and are greatly promoted by the 
 
 (5) Rom. ii. 14, 15. (t) Num. xi. 2529. Neh. ix. 30. Zech. 
 vii. 12. (u) Rom. iii. 19, 23. (w) John iii. 19. 1 John v. 10. 
 (x) John iii. 7. Acts xx. 21. Luke xiii.3, 5. (y) Ger. vi. 3, 5. Acts 
 vii. 5153. (z) Eph. ii. 1, 5. 2 Cor. iv. 6. 1 Thess. i. 5, 6. Psai. 
 ex. 3. Philip, i. 6. 
 
84 
 
 external testimony of the Spirit, arise, nevertheless, 
 chiefly from a knowledge and experience which, in 
 the former case, do not exist. Quickened and en- 
 lightened by the internal operations of the Holy Spi- 
 rit, the regenerate understand and realize spiritual 
 things as others neither do nor can. (a) While the 
 carnal, discovering only the letter of the law, feel con- 
 victed merely of their actual sins ; the regenerate 
 discovering its spirituality, perceive, that it requires 
 purity within as well as without holiness of nature 
 as well as of life ; and that for their want of confor- 
 mity to it, as well as for their transgressions of it, they 
 are under its curse. (&) " By the law" of God, thus 
 understood, "is the knowledge of sin," and of the 
 revealed fact, that " by the deeds of the law there shall 
 no flesh be justified in his sight." (c) Nor does this 
 knowledge of the law lead a sinner to blame it, as 
 being too strict, but to commend it and to take all 
 the blame of his condemnation by it, to himself. 
 Like Paul, he says, "the law is holy, just, good, and 
 spiritual, but I," as to my fallen nature, " am carnal ;" 
 and, being unable to answer the demands of divine 
 justice against me, like an insolvent debtor or a pro- 
 scribed criminal, I am " sold under sin." (d) Most 
 clearly, however, the regenerate discover the excel- 
 lence of the law in the glass of the gospel. Herein 
 they behold the Son of God, in human nature, "made 
 under," and obeying that very law which they have 
 transgressed and dishonored : and while they learn 
 the holiness of its precepts from the perfection of his 
 life, they learn, equally, the righteousness of its pen- 
 alty, together with the inflexibility of divine justice, 
 the infinite evil of sin and the wonders of sovereign 
 
 (a) 1 Cor. ii. 10, 14. (b) Gal. iii. 10. (c) Rom. hi. 20. (d) Rom. 
 vii. 12, 14. 
 
85 
 
 LOVE, from his agonizing prayer in Gethsemane and 
 his dying groans on Calvary, (e) 
 
 " The luster of that holy law, 
 Thus honored, fills our minds with awe ; 
 And Calv'ry's scenes at once reveal, 
 More love and wrath than heaven and hell." 
 
 As the convictions of the carnal and those of there- 
 generate, differ in their causes, so also in their results. 
 Those of the carnal, either prove like the goodness 
 of Ephraim which was " as a morning cloud and the 
 early dew" that " goeth away ;" (/) or they drive their 
 subjects to despair, and in some instances to suicide, 
 as in the case of Judas. Thus, as under the stings 
 of the fiery serpents, "much people of carnal Israel 
 died," and without any knowledge of the typical 
 remedy ; so, it is to be feared, that many under mere 
 natural and legal convictions, and after having felt 
 them more or less, for months or perhaps for years, 
 at length die without any saving knowledge of Christ, 
 and consequently under the curse. " The sorrow of 
 the world worketh death." (g) But the result of those 
 convictions of sin, which the regenerate feel, is not so : 
 these indeed, also produce death, but it is a death 
 which is in order to life ; a death to the law, to all 
 hopes of salvation by their obedience to it ; and which 
 is indispensable to an experimental life of justifica- 
 tion in Christ. (]i) Thus " godly sorrow worketh re- 
 pentance unto salvation not to be repented of. ({) 
 
 The same also further appears in the course taken 
 by the surviving Israelites ; for seeing that many of 
 their nation had died under the bite of the serpents, 
 
 (e) Matt. xxvi. 36 46. Luke xxii. 39 47. John xix. 30 37. 
 Rom. iii. 25, 26. 1 Pet. iii. 18. (/) Hosea vi. 4. (g) 1 Cor. x. 9. 
 2 Cor. vii. 10. (h) Rom. vii. 9. Gal. ii. 1921. (t) 2 Cor. vii. 10. 
 
86 
 
 and sensible, that, as to any thing they could do to 
 prevent it, they must share the same fate, "the peo- 
 ple came to Moses," their national mediator with God, 
 "and said, We have sinned; for we have spoken 
 against the Lord and against thee; pray unto the 
 Lord that he take away the serpents from us." So 
 all truly sensible sinners, informed that Christ is the 
 only Mediator between God and men, go to him with 
 similar language : Lord Jesus, say they, we have sin- 
 ned against the Father, by transgressing his righte- 
 ous law, and against thee, by hitherto trusting in our- 
 selves, to the contempt of thy precious blood and 
 perfect righteousness ; yet now, even now, intercede 
 for us on the ground of what thou hast done and suf- 
 fered for guilty, helpless sinners, such as we. "Lord 
 save we perish 1" 
 
 Nor is the type any less appropriate, in regard to 
 the remedy prescribed. " The Lord said unto Moses, 
 Make thee a fiery serpent and set it on a pole," a ban- 
 ner or ensign, as the word signifies ; or on a high 
 place, as it is rendered in the Targum of Jonathan. 
 " Moses," obedient to the divine order, " made a ser- 
 pent of brass," a suitable material for the purpose ; for 
 being burnished and elevated, when shone upon by the 
 sun and moved by the wind, it acquired a great likeness 
 to the fiery flying serpents ; at least, reminded the 
 Israelites of them and might be seen from all parts 
 of the camp. That, in furnishing this remedy for 
 Israel, Moses was a type of Christ, who for the sake 
 of his people " sanctified," prepared or denoted him- 
 self, (&) that he might be an effectual remedy against 
 the deadly curse due to them for their sins, admits of 
 no doubt ; Christ himself having made the application : 
 "As Moses," saith he, "lifted up the serpent in the 
 (k) John xvii. 19. Eph. v. 2. 
 
87 
 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up," 
 upon the cross, and in the preaching of the gospel ; 
 "that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, 
 but have eternal life." (7) 
 
 Moses, in preparing this remedy, typified Christ, 
 
 1. In his assumption of human nature : for, as the 
 brazen figure which Moses made, had the form, with- 
 out the poison of a serpent ; so Christ, though made 
 in the likeness of sinful flesh, was without sin. (m) 
 
 2. In his vicarious sufferings: for, as the brazen 
 serpent, on the pole, was exposed to the scorching 
 beams of the sun and to all the effects of beating 
 storms and tempests, as the means of saving the Is- 
 raelites from temporal death; so Christ, on the tree 
 of the cross, was exposed to the fiery curse of God's 
 righteous law and to the beating storms and tempests 
 of Satan's last and most rageful assaults, to save his 
 guilty people from death eternal, (n) Nor was the 
 form of a serpent chosen for this purpose, without de- 
 sign : for, being an emblem of the curse, it most fitly 
 typified him, who (strange to tell) was made " a curse 
 for us." (o) And, 
 
 3. In the exhibition of him in the gospel. Was the 
 serpent to be exhibited in the wilderness ? In the wil- 
 derness of this world, Christ was crucified and is to be 
 preached. Was the serpent exhibited in the most 
 public manner ; it being raised on a pole and that on 
 an eminence, where all that had eye-sight might be- 
 hold itl So Christ is to be preached in the most pub- 
 lic and explicit manner possible, that all who have 
 spiritual eye- sight, however weak or small, may see 
 that he and he only is "the end of the law for right- 
 
 (0 John iii. 14, 15. xii. 32, 33. (m) Rom. viii. 3. Heb. iv. 15. 
 (n) Matt, xxvii. 3944. 1 Pet. ii. 24. iii. 18. (o) Gal. iii. 13. 
 
88 
 
 eousness to every one that believeth." (o) Did the ser- 
 pent appear the more briliant and manifest by means 
 of the sun and wind 1 So Christ becomes the more con- 
 spicuous and attractive, when exhibited in the light of 
 the gospel, and presented to the understanding of sin- 
 ners by the ruach, the wind of the Holy Spirit, who 
 is " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the know- 
 ledge of him." (p) Looking to the serpent, implied 
 a sense of danger and faith in the remedy ; so does 
 looking to Christ, (q) Did every bitten Israelite, on 
 looking at the serpent live, that is, receive health and 
 comfort 1 So every sinner, stung by the guilt of hav- 
 ing transgressed the law and conscious of deserving 
 its dreadful penalty, on looking to Christ by faith, re- 
 ceives spiritual health and unutterable consolation, 
 (r) Did the remedy thus prepared and exhibited 
 seem to invite the bitten Israelites to look to it for a 
 cure 1 So Christ is constantly saying to all capable 
 of seeing (and which is true only of the regenerate) 
 " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
 earth" an invitation applicable to sensible sinners 
 of all nations, wherever the Bible is sent or the gos- 
 pel preached, (s) And as there is no evidence in the 
 history, that any of those who confessed their sins 
 and for whom the remedy was exhibited, failed of 
 looking to it and living by it ; so there is no instance 
 upon sacred record of one, even one, in whom the 
 good work of regeneration was wrought, who was 
 not also enabled, by faith, to look to Christ, or who, 
 looking to him, perished. () 
 
 But while such is the general use proper to be made 
 
 (o) Mark xvi. 15, 16. Rom. x. 4. (p) 2 Tim. i. 10. Eph. i. 17. 
 comp. 1 Kings xix. 11. John iii. 8. (q) Matt. viii. 2. Mark v. 25 
 28. John vi. 45. (r) Jer. xxxiii. 6. 1 Pet. 1.8. (s) Is. xlv. 22. Matt, 
 xi. 28. (t) Zech. xii. 10. John vi. 40. 1 Pet. ii. 7. 
 
89 
 
 f 
 
 of this type in public preaching, it has, nevertheless, a 
 primary and most pertinent and important application 
 to the visible church in gospel times, of which national 
 Israel was an illustrious type, (u) 
 
 To the murmurings of national Israel, as noticed at 
 the commencement of this article, the murmurings of 
 New-Testament professors,those of true believers not 
 excepted, lamentably correspond. 
 
 To the bite of the judicial serpents, answer those 
 legal convictions and terrors, as also all other distress- 
 ing visitations which God brings, or suffers to come, 
 upon his professing people,to awaken them to a sense 
 of their evil ways, and that they may feel more deeply 
 their dependence upon his favor in Providence, and, 
 especially, upon his pardoning and sanctifying grace 
 in Christ Jesus, (w) 
 
 And as " much people of Israel died" under the 
 judgment of the serpents, there is great reason to be- 
 lieve, that many of God's own children, though par- 
 doned and saved through Christ, are, nevertheless, for 
 their unworthy conduct their worldly mindedness 
 their ungrateful murmurings and, especially for their 
 distrust of Christ and their neglect or abuse of his or- 
 dinances, taken away, by temporal death, as a token 
 of God's displeasure and as a warning to others. In 
 this way, even Moses and Aaron, those eminent min- 
 isters of God, were removed, (x) And for such rea- 
 sons, many of the Church at Corinth, were "weak 
 and sickly" in their bodies as well as their souls, and 
 many slept, not only as sleep denotes spiritual lethar- 
 gy, but also as it denotes corporal death, (y) 
 
 (u) 1 Pet. ii. 9. (w) Psal. Ixxxviii. 1416. 1 Pet. iv. 1718. 
 Rev. iii. 1420. (x) Numb. xx. 12, 2329, and xxvii. 1214. 
 (y) 1 Cor. xi. 3032. John xi. 1113. 
 
 12 
 
90 
 
 In the awakening which took place among the sur- 
 viving Israelites, we have a striking illustration of what 
 commonly follows in the church, or in any branch of 
 it, when God, in that judicial manner, calls some 
 professors away. " When his judgments are abroad 
 in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn 
 righteousness ;" and by whom are meant his own 
 people, who, though not of the world, yet inhabit it ; 
 and from whom, in the next two verses, the wicked 
 are distinguished, (z) 
 
 As the Israelites considered and confessed their 
 sins against the Lord and against Moses ; so the 
 saints, thus awakened, reflect upon and confess their 
 sins, both against the Father and the Son the law 
 and the gospel ; and remembering from whence they 
 are fallen, " They repent arid do their first works." (a) 
 
 And as, thereupon, the divinely appointed remedy 
 was exhibited under a new type, and the penitent 
 Israelites reprieved and pardoned ; so, to awakened 
 and penitent saints, the same remedy, Christ crucifi- 
 ed, is anew revealed, and, for his sake, they are par- 
 doned and spared for further comfort and usefulness 
 in the church upon earth : " If we confess our sins, 
 God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to 
 cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (#)* 
 
 (z) Is. xxvi. 911. 2 Cor. vii. 11. (a) Rev. ii. 5. (6) 1 John 
 i. 9. Comp. Eph. iv. 3032, and v. 14. 
 
 * In taking leave of this article, let us learn something even from 
 the subsequent conduct of the Israelites in regard to the brazen 
 serpent. That they took it with them, was commendable ; God 
 having rendered it so eminently useful to them ; but, instead of 
 preserving it merely as a memorial, " the children of Israel did 
 burn incense to it." Thus their posterity have not merely pre- 
 served the letter of the ceremonial law with a commendable care, 
 but, alas, have pertinaciously continued in the observance of its 
 
91 
 
 Of the law delivered through Moses to Israel, we 
 take no notice here, as it will be considered in fu- 
 ture discourses. 
 
 In connexion with the delivery of it, however, we 
 
 rites ; and which, (the antitype being come and that law being 
 abolished,) is in God's account no better than idolatry and abomi- 
 nation. Is. Ixvi. 3. Philip, iii. 3 10. Thus also the papists, 
 instead of consistently embracing the doctrine of the cross, super- 
 stitiously idolize the supposed splinters of it; and instead of re- 
 garding the host as an emblem of Christ crucified, worship it as if 
 it were Christ himself. But as Hezekiah called the idolized 
 serpent Nehushtan, apiece of brass, and nothing else ; Paul called 
 the ceremonial law " a shadow ^of good things to come," and 
 nothing else; (2 Kings xviii. 4. Col. ii. 17. Heb. x. 1.) and, 
 in like manner, we affirm of the splinters and of the host idolized 
 by the papists They are, the former wood, and the latter a wafer , 
 and nothing else ; yea, rejecting both transubstantiation and con- 
 substantiation, we hesitate not to say even of the elements divinely 
 appointed to be received by communicants at the Lord's table 
 They are, in their nature, nothing but bread and wine, and, in 
 their use, nothing but commemorative symbols of the sacred body 
 and precious blood of our blessed REDEEMER. Matt. xxvi. 26 29. 
 1 Cor. xi. 2326. 
 
 Ner can the words used by our Lord when instituting the Sup- 
 per, bear any but a similar interpretation. To understand him as 
 literally saying, This (the broken bread) is my body, when his 
 body was not yet broken ; and This (the wine in the cup) is my 
 blood which is shed for many, while it was not yet shed, but was 
 flowing in his veins, is to understand him (shocking to mention) 
 as asserting manifest untruths. But, understood as spoken figu- 
 ratively and by anticipation, his affirmations were just and his 
 meaning was obvious ; the broken bread was a fit emblem of his 
 body broken, and the wine a fit emblem of his blood shed, as they 
 were shortly to be. Compare Ezek. v. 5 ; where God says of the 
 prophet's shaven head, or rather of a lock of his hair, This is 
 Jerusalem ; and Luke xxii. 20 ; where Christ says of a vessel, then 
 in his hand, This cup is the new testament; also Gal. iv. 24 ; where 
 Paul says of Hagar and Sarah, These are the two covenants. Who 
 ever understood these assertions literally 1 
 
 While on this subject, let it be further observed, how our Lord, 
 
92 
 
 find a part of Israel's history, that must not escape 
 present remark I mean their lamentable fall into the 
 idolatry of making and worshiping a calf. Herein 
 they manifested the basest ingratitude to God and the 
 highest rebelion against him ; who had said to them, 
 lam the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out 
 of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage : 
 Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. (jf) And 
 the conduct of Aaron, in particular, in regard to this 
 affair, was such as abundantly demonstrated both his 
 own imperfection and that of his priesthood ; also that 
 whereas the law, the ceremonial law, made men high 
 priests which had infirmity, sinful infirmity, there was 
 a necessity for the true High Priest, " who is holy, 
 harmless and undefiled," and "who needethnot daily, 
 as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his 
 own sins, and then for the people's." (g) Here, to 
 express God's indignation at idolatry, as in the pre- 
 ceding case, to mark his displeasure at murmuring, 
 many were judicially cut off; and in both instances, 
 as a warning to survivors ; yet upon the intercession 
 of Moses, who, in their behalf, plead their peculiar 
 relation to God how much the honor of his name 
 was concerned in their preservation, and especially 
 his promise and oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
 that he would bring their posterity into the land of 
 Canaan ; nay, tendered his own life for theirs upon 
 his thus interceding for them, I say, the wrath was 
 stayed and the residue of the nation spared. (A) How 
 
 under a fore-sight of the popish practice of withholding the euchar- 
 istic wine from the people, solemnly enjoined the contrary : Pre- 
 senting the bread, he simply said, Take eat ; but, presenting the 
 wine, he was more explicit, saying, Drink ye ALL of it. Matt. 
 xxvi. 26, 27. 
 
 (/) Exo. xx. 2. (g) Heb. vii. 27, 28. (A) Exo. xxxu. 
 
93 
 
 much, alas, does Idolatry prevail among spiritual Is- 
 raelites ! And if God had not respect to his own cove- 
 nant and to our relation to him in it; and especial- 
 ly, if we had not "an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous," what must be our fate 1 " If 
 thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O LORD, who 
 shall stand I But there is forgiveness with thee, that 
 thou mayestbe feared." (i) 
 
 But Moses was also a type of Christ in the erection 
 of the tabernacle. This, which of itself might fur- 
 nish matter amply sufficient for a sermon, we must 
 necessarily treat with great brevity ; other subjects, 
 less understood,having already enlarged this discourse 
 to nearly double the length of our prescribed limits, 
 
 That the tabernacle, as well as the temple, besides 
 typifying Christ in his human nature, was a figure of 
 the church, both on earth and in heaven, is so plainly 
 revealed and so generally admitted, as to need no 
 proof. Nor is the analogy here between Christ and 
 Moses, either doubtful or obscure. See Ser. I. p. 35,36. 
 
 As Moses received the pattern of the tabernacle and 
 of all things relating to it, from God in the mount, and 
 made it known on his descent ; so Christ having re- 
 ceived the model of the church in the mount and 
 council of heaven, in person and by his Spirit in the 
 prophets and apostles, has revealed it upon earth, (fc) 
 
 As all the persons chosen of God either to build 
 the tabernacle or to officiate in it, were placed under 
 the direction of Moses ; so all gospel ministers and 
 all private Christians are to perform their various ser- 
 vice under the direction of Christ, who is Lord of 
 all. (I) 
 
 (i) Is. liv.7 10. 1 John ii. 1. Psal. cxxx. 3, 4. (k) Dan. 
 ii. 44. John xviii. 36. Is. Ixii. 12. Matt. v. 14. Gal. vi. 10. 
 (0 Acts x. 36. Eph.i.32,23. 
 
94 
 
 Again ; as Moses was faithful in executing all his 
 charge, so is Christ, (n) Hence, as in regard to the 
 tabernacle, " Moses finished the work," so will Christ 
 in regard to the church. What was said of Zerubba- 
 bel concerning the material temple, may well be said 
 of Christ concerning the spiritual temple ; for having, 
 by his obedience and sacrifice, "laid the foundation of 
 this house" in a complete satisfaction to divine justice, 
 "his hands shall also finish it," in sanctification and 
 glorification, (o) The chosen materials, though dead 
 and rough in the quarry of nature, are, by his grace, 
 all raised and polished and so made " lively stones," 
 fit for the spiritual building ; ( p) and thus, although 
 earth and hell oppose, "he shall bring forth the head- 
 stone," the last of God's elect, "with shoutings, crying 
 Grace, grace unto it." (q) And, as Moses had much 
 honor from his work, Christ shall have much more 
 from his ; (r) He, " even he shall build" this " temple 
 of the Lord and he shall bear the glory;" and "when 
 Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear 
 with him in glory," and that in the view of the whole 
 intelligent universe ; for " he shall come to be glorifi- 
 ed in his saints and to be admired in all them that 
 believe, (s) 
 
 HITHERTO we have considered Moses as a type of 
 Christ only in the history of his usefulness to Israel, 
 give nunder the first head of the former discourse ; but, 
 in conclusion, we must in the same way briefly notice 
 the interesting manner in which he took his final leave 
 of them, namely, by pronouncing upon them, the 
 blessing intended in the text ; it being " the blessing 
 wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the chil- 
 dren of Israel before," just before "his death." 
 
 (n) Numb. xii. 7. Heb. iii. 13. (o) Zech. iv. 9. Eph. v 
 2527. (p) Is. li. 1. 1 Pet. ii. 5. (?) Zech. iv. 7. (r ) Heb. iii. 
 3. (s) Zech. vi. 13. Col. iii. 4. 2 Thess. i. 10. 
 
95 
 
 Did Moses pronounce this blessing upon Israel in a 
 way of prayer 1 Let us remember the mediatory 
 prayer of Christ for his disciples then living, and for 
 all who should believe on him through their word, (i) 
 
 Did Moses pronounce this blessing upon Israel as a 
 prophet 1 We have his own testimony, that, as such, 
 he was but a type of Christ: "The Lord thy God," 
 said he to Israel, " will raise up unto thee a prophet 
 from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me ; 
 unto him ye shall hearken :" (u) and that this Prophet 
 is Christ, was revealed both to Peter and to Stephen. 
 (w) As Moses, in pronouncing this blessing, foretold 
 the various conditions of the chosen tribes, through- 
 out the Jewish dispensation ; so Christ in his own 
 personal ministry, and by his Spirit in the prophets 
 and apostles, foretold the successive changes of the 
 Church, hoth prosperous and adverse, to the end of 
 the world. Of this, any one must be convinced who 
 reads and believes the scriptures ; and, especially, the 
 predictions of Isaiah and Daniel ; the twenty-fourth 
 and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew ; the Epistles 
 of Paul to the Thessalonians, and the Revelations 
 made to John the divine. 
 
 Did Moses pronounce this blessing in the character 
 and with the affection of a pastor ? Let us think of 
 him who is the true pastor of the Church " the great, 
 the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls." (x) 
 
 Was Moses also King in Jeshurun, when he pro- 
 nounced this blessing ? Let Christians never forget, 
 that he who is their Intercessor and Teacher, is also 
 their King ; and that, as God enjoined upon national 
 
 (t) John xvii. 20. (u) Deut. xviii. 15. (w) Acts iii. 22. vii. 37. 
 (z) 1 Pet. ii. 25, v. 4. 
 
96 
 
 Israel, obedience to Moses, so, and much more, he 
 enjoins upon spiritual Israel, obedience to CHRIST; 
 saying, " This is my beloved Son, hear him" that 
 is, hearken to his instructions and obey his precepts. 
 
 Finally; As Moses in pronouncing this blessing, 
 confirmed to Israel what Jacob, by the same Spirit of 
 prayer and prophecy, had uttered concerning them, 
 long before ; so all the glorious things, which, by in- 
 spiration, had been spoken of Zion from the begin- 
 ning, were renewed and confirmed to her, in the pro- 
 mises, predictions and prayers of Christ, arid espe- 
 cially when,like Jacob and like .Moses, he was about to 
 depart by death. The truth of this remark will force 
 itself upon every one who carefully reads the four- 
 teenth and the three following chapters of the Gospel 
 by John. 
 
 Here the parallel ceases. Moses could do no more ; 
 but Christ could and did : he blessed his people in 
 his death ; he " was delivered for our offenses ;" and 
 in his resurrection ; he " was raised again for our jus- 
 tification." Nay, blessing them, " he was parted from 
 them, and carried up into heaven." where, as a con- 
 tinual blessing, " he ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them." His resurrection, too,was a certain pledge 
 of the resurrection of all that fall asleep in him. In 
 this respect he is the first fruits of them that slept. 
 Moreover, his resurrection was the pattern of ours ; 
 he shall change our vile body, that it may be fashion- 
 ed like unto his glorious body. Nor is this all ; for 
 having transformed his redeemed in soul and body 
 into his own likeness, he will introduce them into the 
 kingdom that was prepared for them from thefoun- 
 dation' of the world, and will there be the medium 
 both of their glory and of their blessedness to all 
 
 ETERNITY. 
 
SERMON in. 
 
 THE DELIVERY AXD AUTHORITY OF 
 THE L.AW. 
 
 DEUT. xxxni. 2. And he said. The Lord came from Sinai, 
 and rose up from Seir unto them ; he shined forth from mount 
 Paran y and he came with ten thousands of saints : from his rig Jit 
 hand went a fiery law for them. 
 
 HERE begins the subject of the chapter, the title 
 of which we had in the preceding verse. The sub- 
 ject consists of two parts : a solemn recognition of 
 what the Lord had done for Israel, and a prophetic 
 enunciation of blessings, special and general, which 
 he designed thereafter to confer upon them ; the for- 
 mer extending to the end of the fifth verse, and the 
 latter from thence to the end of the chapter. 
 
 In the text, Moses recognizes the Majesty of the 
 Lawgiver, and asserts three things concerning the 
 law. 
 
 I. He recognizes the Majesty of the Lawgiver. 
 I say he recognizes it, because in this place he mere- 
 ly acknowledges or declares what he had seen and 
 heard of that Majesty on Sinai's awful summit, near 
 forty years before. It was the Majesty of JEHOVAH 
 himself: The LORD came from Sinai ; not by loco- 
 motion, or change of place, for he is omnipresent ; 
 but by a visible manifestation of his presence. This 
 was, 
 
 15 
 
98 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 1. Very dreadful. "It came to pass on the third 
 day in the morning," (as the Lord had said to Mo- 
 ses,) "that there were thunders and lightnings, and 
 a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the 
 trumpet exceding loud ; so that all the people that 
 was in the camp trembled. And mount Sinai was 
 altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descend- 
 ed upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof ascend- 
 ed as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount 
 > quaked greatly." a 
 
 By allusion to this, the psalmist in celebrating the 
 Majesty of God, says "He looketh on the earth 
 and it trembleth ; he toucheth the hills and they 
 smoke." b Then it was, that, as related in the 
 text, The Lord came from Sinai, that is, manifest- 
 ed himself from thence to Israel : for " Moses brought 
 forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, 
 and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And 
 the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top 
 of the mount," and that " in the sight of all the peo- 
 ple." How awful the sight ! One should think the 
 Israelites could never have lost the impression which 
 it must have made upon them ; and that it would 
 for ever have blasted their unbelief suppressed their 
 murmurings and eradicated every vestage of their 
 inclination after other gods. Nay if, for a moment, 
 we could forget the deep depravity of human nature, 
 and the strength of Satan's instigations, we should 
 suppose that even the inspired record of that tre- 
 mendous scene, wherever granted, would have con- 
 founded arid silenced atheists and deists, and " gain- 
 sayers" of every description, to the end of time. 
 
 a Exo. xix. 9, 16, 18. b Psal. civ. 32. c xix. 17, 20. comp. 
 v. 11. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 99 
 
 And this, indeed, is the very reason which God 
 himself assigned for thus manifesting his Majesty to 
 Israel : " The LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come 
 unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear 
 when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. d 
 This thick cloud might be designed as an emblem 
 both of the legal dispensation, which is dark and 
 threatening, and of that awful obscurity which con- 
 ceals the divine essence from human ken, and for- 
 bids our curious pryings into what, of himself or 
 his decrees, God has not seen fit to reveal. " No 
 man hath seen God at any time." " Secret things 
 belong unto the LORD our God ; but those things 
 which are revealed belong unto us and to our chil- 
 dren &c." e In himself, God is light ; f yet, with refer- 
 ence to men, "he holdeth back the face of his 
 throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it ;" and " giv- 
 eth not account of any of his matters."* He came 
 down in the sight of all the people of Israel ; he 
 caused them to see and hear what convinced them, 
 that of a truth his dread Majesty was there : " The 
 LORD spake" to them " out of the midst of the fire ; 1) 
 they " heard the voice of the words, but saw no si- 
 militude." 11 " He made darkness his secret place ; 
 his pavilion round about him was dark waters, aad 
 thick clouds." ' 
 
 Chiefly, however, this vision was designed to estab- 
 lish the oracular authority of Moses ; which, though 
 abundantly evinced in Egypt and at the Red sea, 
 might need this farther confirmation to repress that 
 unbelief which was the besetting sin of Israel. In 
 
 d Ibid. Ver. 9. e John i. 18 and Deut. xxix. 29. 1 John i. o. 
 * Job. xxvi. 9. and xxxiii. 13. h Deut. iv. 12. 'Psal. xviii. 11. 
 
100 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. HI. 
 
 their audience, therefore, and before their eyes, such 
 an intercommunity occurred between God and Mo- 
 ses, as bid defiance to unbelief itself. "When the 
 voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed loud- 
 er and louder, Moses spake ;" and though what he 
 then said, was not recorded by him, it was revealed 
 to an apostle is preserved in the New Testament 
 and well agrees with the circumstances of the case. 
 The people had already trembled at the ordinary 
 sound of the trumpet ; ver. 16. but this waxing loud- 
 er and louder, became at length, together with the 
 vision, so terrible, that Moses himself said, " I ex- 
 cedingly fear and quake." k "And God answered 
 him by a voice" not " a small still voice," as 
 most commentators have supposed, but by a very 
 sonorous and articulate one a voice that might be 
 heard and understood by all the people ; it being not 
 only audible, but also intelligible "the voice of 
 words." 1 None but such a voice could have com- 
 ported with the promise and design of the vision and 
 communication ; the LORD having said unto Moses, 
 Loj I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people 
 may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee 
 for ever. Thus addressing him, " the LORD," in the 
 hearing of all Israel, " called Moses up to the top of 
 the mount," which neither man nor beast might 
 touch on pain of death ; " and Moses," in full view of 
 the people, " went up," which, without such an ex- 
 plicit call, neither he, nor any other man could have 
 presumed to do. m And having had these sensible 
 and indubitable demonstrations of his intercourse 
 with God, well might his nation thencefonvard regard 
 
 k Heb. xii. 21. 'Ibid. ver. 19. m Exo. xix. 19, 20. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 101 
 
 him as God's living oracle to them, and believe him 
 and his writings for ever.* 
 
 To believers, it is highly grateful and confirmato- 
 ry, to find the oracular authority of Moses, and con- 
 sequently of his writings, thus indubitably established 
 
 * The designation too of the seventy elders, who acted in subordi- 
 nation to Moses, was established in a similar, though less magnifi- 
 cent manner: " The LORD," agreeable to his antecedent promise to 
 Moses, " came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of 
 the Spirit that was upon him," that is, a measure of the same Spi- 
 rit which more abundantly rested upon Moses, and gave it unto the 
 seventy elders ; and it came to pass, that when the Spirit rested up- 
 on them, they prophesied," that is, they immediately possessed and 
 manifested such wisdom and eloquence as altogether transcended 
 their natural capacities ; and which was intended as a sign to the na- 
 tion, that they were chosen and qualified of God to act as coadjutors 
 to Moses in matters of government. It is added, " and did not 
 cease," that is, from prophesying. Herein, however, our translation 
 follows the Chaldee paraphrase, (ppD2 ^Sl) and not the original ; for 
 the Hebrew (iSD 11 N 1 ?) literally signifies, they did not add ; and which 
 is favored by the LXX. who render it, OVK en arpooceevTo and they did 
 not add any more. Hence this clause has generally been interpret- 
 ed to mean, that they prophesied that day and never afterward. 
 But as the gift of wisdom, to answer its design; must have re- 
 mained in them to qualify them for their official work ; it is high- 
 ly probable that the gift of prophecy, in its kind, remained in them 
 also, for the purpose of re-confirming the authority by which they 
 acted, whenever that authority was called in question. Wherefore, 
 I understand the clause they did not add, to mean, either, that 
 they did not affect or exaggerate ; but that, in singing, speaking or 
 acting, however much they were transported above themselves, they 
 never exceded, as the word also signifies, (2 Chron. ix. 6.) the 
 impulse of the Holy Spirit upon them ; or, that their prophesying, 
 aside from the record of the fact itself, added nothing to the pro- 
 phetic writings ; it being designed merely to show that their call to 
 the station they were to fill, was of God, and not a pretence of 
 their own, to secure aggrandizement, nor a device of Moses, to 
 lessen his own labor. And, accordingly, what they uttered, was not 
 added to the inspired volume. See Numb. xi. 16, 17, 25. 
 
102 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 by the intercourse which God held with him at Sinai. 
 How much more, then, should our faith and hope 
 be confirmed in the gospel, and therefore in Christ 
 as THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, while we consider 
 the intercourse which he enjoyed with heaven, and 
 the testimony thence given of him, at his baptism 
 and at his transfiguration. Rising from the waters 
 of Jordan, in which he was baptized, he received 
 the most illustrious demonstrations of heavenly ap- 
 probation, in his thus ratifying this ordinance for 
 the observance of believers in all subsequent gene- 
 rations, and of the concurrence of the Father and 
 of the Holy Spirit with him, in all the objects of his 
 Mission, as the Messiah ; yea more the highest 
 possible attestation to his divine Sonship, and conse- 
 quently to his proper divinity : In the sight, not only 
 of John, the administrator,* but also of the thousands 
 then and there assembled,f the Spirit, like a dove, 
 descended upon him,J and in the audience, no doubt, 
 of all present, the Father, from heaven, proclaimed, 
 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 1 " 
 
 * This being the sign by which he was to know him. John. i. 
 3234. 
 
 fFor herein he was made manifest to Israel. John i. 31. Comp. 
 Luke iii. 21, 22. 
 
 J Why, in the interpretation of this passage and its parallels, so 
 many efforts have been made, to exclude the form and retain only 
 the motion of the dove, I am unable to perceive. Luke says, " The 
 Holy Ghost descended w/*amtf ItSei, Vei ntptseptv in a corporeal form, 
 like a dove upon him." That the divine Spirit, on that occasion, 
 assumed some visible form is evident, and why not that of a dove, 
 the well-known emblem of innocence 1 Grotius and Dr. Owen, 
 with much probability, supposed that what was visible was a 
 bright flame in the shape of a dove. 
 
 "Matt. iii. 1517. Mark i. 911. and Luke iii. 21, 22. 
 omp. John xii. 2830. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 103 
 
 The same testimony also was repeated at his trans- 
 figuration ; when, having taken with him Peter and 
 James and John, a competent number of credible 
 witnesses, "into a high mountain apart,* he was" 
 suddenly metamorphosed " before them ;" so that his 
 face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white 
 as the light ; and, behold there appeared unto them, 
 (that is, unto the three disciples,) Moses and Elias 
 talking with him, (Christ,) and who, according to 
 Luke, appeared in glory, in the glory of their heav- 
 enly forms, and spake of his decease, which he should 
 accomplish at Jerusalem. The sight so enraptured 
 Peter, that he seems to have thought it would be 
 heaven enough to remain there : he " said unto Je- 
 sus, Lord it is good for us to be here ; if thou wilt, 
 let us make here three tabernacles : one for thee, and 
 one for Moses, and one for Elias." " For," accord- 
 ing to Mark, " he wist not what to say," and, accord- 
 ing to Luke, he spake, " not knowing what he said," 
 so powerful were his mingling sensations of fear and 
 joy. But, how short the vision ! The glory of heav- 
 en cannot be sustained by the church on earth the 
 glorified saints have no need of tabernacles made 
 with hands nor must the most eminent of them be 
 trusted in or worshiped. Therefore, while he yet 
 spake, behold a bright cloud, denoting the divine 
 presence, overshadowed them, that is, Jesus, Moses, 
 and Elias, the two latter of whom the disciples saw 
 no more ; and behold a voice out of the cloud, the 
 voice of God the Father, which, repeating the testi- 
 
 Matt. xvii. 19. Mark. ix. 210. and Luke ix. 2836. 
 
 * Doubtless one of the mountains of Israel, but whether Tabor 
 or Hermon, or any other of those pitched upon by different wri- 
 ters, is neither certain nor material. 
 
104 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 mony given of Christ at Jordan, said, This is my be- 
 loved Son, in whom lam well pleased, HEAR YE HIM 
 him in whom the dispensation of Moses " is abolish- 
 ed," 1 ' and the predictions of the prophets, repre- 
 sented by that distinguished one, Elias, are ful- 
 filled;" 1 and who was thenceforth to be heard, be- 
 lieved, and obeyed, as the sole oracle and sovereign 
 of the church. r Wherefore, as that thick cloud, 
 which appeared on mount Sinai, might be designed 
 to symbolize the dark and threatening dispensation, 
 through which God spake to national Israel, by Mo- 
 ses, this bright cloud, which appeared on the mount 
 where our Lord was transfigured, might, in like man- 
 ner, be designed as an emblem of the luminous and 
 glorious dispensation of the gospel, through which 
 God speaks to spiritual Israel, by his Son.* 
 
 Upon this incontrovertible and unequivocal testi- 
 mony borne to the divine Sonship of Christ, the 
 apostle Peter, as one of those who heard it deliver- 
 ed, still confidently relied, when, in prospect of his 
 approaching dissolution, he recommended to surviv- 
 ing saints, an unwavering steadfastness in the faith 
 of the gospel : " I will endeavour," said he, " that ye 
 may be able, after my decease, to have these things 
 always in remembrance. For we have not followed 
 cunningly devised fables, when we made known un- 
 to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For 
 he received from God the Father, honor and glory, 
 when there came such a voice to him, from the excellent 
 glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
 pleased. And this voice which came from heaven 
 
 P2Cor. iii. 13. 1 Matt, v. 17. r Psal. ii. 6. xlv. 11. arid 
 Mark ix. 7. 8 Heb. i. 2. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 105 
 
 we heard, when we were with him in the holy 
 mount." l 
 
 From Him, to whose divine Sonship God the Fa- 
 ther bore this unequivocal testimony, all the writers of 
 the New Testament received their call to the apostol- 
 ic office and the instructions and gifts requisit to the 
 performance of their apostolic work. Paul excepted, 
 they were all of the original twelve whom He ordain- 
 ed and sent forth to preach, endued with power to 
 work miracles, in confirmation both of their mission 
 and their doctrine. u With the above exception, it 
 can scarcely be doubted, that they were all among 
 those who were converted under the ministry and 
 baptized by the hands of John the baptist, whom 
 God sent to preach and baptize, w and thereby, in- 
 strumentally, to make ready a peo2}le prepared for 
 the Lord, the Lord Christ, x and whom, as soon as he 
 was made manifest to Israel, they followed. 3 " Nay, 
 comparing Matt. iii. with chap. iv. 18 22, and Luke 
 iii. 21, 22, it must seem highly probable, that (ex- 
 cepting as above) they were all present at the bap- 
 tism of Christ, and of course that they heard the 
 voice of the Father proclaiming Him to be his Son ; 
 and three of them we know heard this proclamation 
 when it was repeated at the time of his transfigura- 
 tion. Are they, then, to be charged with unreason- 
 able credulity for believing that he was THE SON OF 
 GOD ? It is certain, too, that they were of those 
 among whom " The LORD JESUS went in and out," 
 during the whole of his public ministry, and "to 
 whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, 
 
 1 2 Peter i. 1418. u Mark. iii. 1319. Comp. Matt. x. 14. 
 and Luke ix. 1, 2, 10. w John i. 6, 7, 33. * Luke i. 17. 
 y John i. 3549. 
 
 14 
 
106 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty 
 days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God." 55 Now, having had such advan- 
 tages of intimacy with Christ, and having " left all " 
 their worldly interests, and hazarded their lives for 
 his sake and in his cause and service, was not their 
 oral testimony concerning him worthy of credit, 
 wherever they delivered it? And is not their writ- 
 ten testimony concerning him equally credible, 
 wherever it is granted 1 
 
 That they did not understand some things spoken 
 to them by their divine Master while he tabernacled 
 on earth, is indeed manifest from their own books. 
 But this, instead of weakening, greatly strengthens 
 the evidence that they wrote under the infallible 
 guidance of divine inspiration; for, without such 
 guidance, they would have remained under those 
 mistakes, and would have written accordingly ; be- 
 sides, had they been left to the common dictates of 
 proud reason, even when their mistakes were made 
 known unto them, they would not have recorded 
 them. While, therefore, their mistakes serve to 
 show that they had no more natural sagacity than 
 other men, nay, that in some instances they were 
 specially dull of apprehension and " slow of heart 
 to believe," their record subsequently made of these 
 mistakes and of their own and one another's faults, 
 serves equally to prove, that when they wrote their 
 books, and which was not till after Christ was glo- 
 rified, they were under the enlightening, directing, 
 and constraining, as well as sanctifying influence of 
 the Holy Spirit. To this, the history of their illu- 
 
 2 Acts i. 3. 21. 
 

 oER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 107 
 
 mination exactly corresponds. For Christ, in human 
 nature, " being iby the right hand of God exalted" to 
 heaven, and "having," as Mediator, "received of 
 the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost," that is, 
 having received the Holy Ghost according to the 
 Father's promise, a He, agreeably to his own promise 
 made to his apostles, b " shed forth" the same up- 
 on them ; and which was, in .them, the Spirit of 
 truth, to guide them into all the truth* to ena- 
 ble them to understand, as well as to remember all 
 things which he had spoken unto them, 6 to guide 
 them into the true design and reference of Old Tes- 
 tament types and predictions, which, therefore, can 
 only be gathered with certainty from the New Tes- 
 tament ; f and, especially to reveal to them whatever, 
 in regard to doctrine, ordinances, Christian duties or 
 church-discipline, was farther requisit, to complete the 
 sacred canon, the only Rule of our faith and prac- 
 tice ; s also as a Spirit of prophecy, to show them 
 and to foretell by them, things to come, even to the 
 end of the world.* 
 
 a Psal. Ixviii. 18. b John xv. 26, and xvi. 7. c Acts. ii. 33. 
 dJohn xvi. 13. c Ibid xiv. 26. f Luke xxiv. 44 46. Acts iii. 
 21, and the Epistle to the Hebrews. * 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 
 
 * Hence appears the great mistake of those who interpret this 
 promise with reference to all the regenerate under the present dis- 
 pensation. For if they were all guided by the Spirit into all the 
 truth, they would, of course, all understand every part of revealed 
 truth exactly alike ; whereas, not to speak of different denomina- 
 tions of professed Christians, even in any one denomination of 
 them, scarcely can two individuals be found, either among 
 public teachers or private professors, who thus perfectly agree in 
 their understanding of the doctrine and precepts of revelation. 
 But, understood as it was meant, that is, with reference to the 
 writers of the New Testament, this promise was evidently verified : 
 for although, being all men of like passions with others, (Acts xiv, 
 
108 THE DELIVERY AND [SEE III. 
 
 Nor should it be overlooked, that the Holy Ghost 
 thus shed down on the day of Pentecost, and given 
 to the apostles to guide them into all the truth, was 
 also at the same time given to them, and probably to 
 all the rest of the hundred and twenty disciples, (then 
 specially according in faith and hope of the promise,) 
 in his miraculous gifts, by which the donation was 
 rendered visible and mdubitable. As a sign to them- 
 selves and to one another, the Spirit, in the likeness of 
 fire, and in the form of cloven tongues, (an emblem 
 of the divers languages in which they were to preach 
 the gospel) sat visibly on each of them. And they 
 were all jilled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak 
 with other tongues tyc.* And, as a sign to the 
 
 15.) they, as such, differed sometimes in opinion, and in some cases, 
 adopted measures dictated by carnal policy, by which they vainly 
 hoped to serve the cause of Christ, (Acts. xvi. 3.) or, at least, to 
 secure themselves from reproach and persecution ; (Acts. xxi. 22 
 26. and Gal. ii. 11 14 ;) yet, in writing their respective histories 
 and epistles, while, in divine sovereignty, their stile and manner 
 were preserved sufficiently distinct while some recorded facts 
 which others, for this reason, were caused to omit and while, as 
 occasion required, one enlarged more on this doctrine, duty or privi- 
 lege, and another on that, they were all, in regard to matter, so con- 
 stantly under the infallible guidance of the Spirit of truth, that we 
 hazard nothing in affirming, that, rightly interpreted, they never, 
 on any subject, contradict themselves or one another. The 
 judgment which Paul, on a matter of difficulty in the church at 
 Corinth, gave without commandment or revelation from the Lord, 
 only furnishes additional evidence, that he was guided by the 
 spirit of truth ; for though he inserted it in his inspired epistle, he 
 carefully excepted it from what he wrote by inspiration. 1 Cor. 
 vii. 6. 25. 
 
 * Whether this is said of the twelve only, or of the seventy 
 also, or of all the hundred and twenty mentioned, Chap. i. 15, has 
 been a question among commentators and critics. The context 
 
SEC. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 109 
 
 multitude, whom the rumor thereof presently brought 
 together, this miraculous gift of tongues then con- 
 furnishing no clue in favor of the second opinion, we pass it with- 
 out farther remark. For restricting this miraculous afflatus to the 
 twelve, a plausible argument has been raised from the verbal con- 
 nexion between the last verse of the preceding chapter and thejirst 
 verse of this; proceding on the assumption that the apostles, re- 
 stored to their original number of twelve, by the accession of Mat- 
 thias, are exclusively meant by the all, here said to have been with 
 one accord in one place. But the subject of the sacred historian 
 being manifestly the assembly of the disciples, which, including 
 others with the eleven and the seventy, consisted of about a hun- 
 dred and twenty, the account concerning Matthias, is but a part 
 of their continued history ; he being added to them^ by being added 
 to the eleven who were of them. The farther narration, therefore, 
 (Chap. ii. 1 &c.) that " when the day of Pentecost was fully 
 come they were all with one accord in one place," and that the 
 Spirit, assuming a visible appearance, sat on each of them, must 
 be understood, not of the twelve only, nor yet of all the disciples 
 then at Jerusalem, but of the hundred and twenty, specially treated 
 of by the historian. 
 
 Hence, although this number included more than the twelve 
 and the seventy, it does not follow that it included women, 
 as supposed by Dr. Gill, on verse 4, and by Dr. Doddridge, 
 on verse 3, note d. For, although at the place where they 
 abode, from the ascension of Christ, till the day of Pentecost, 
 the apostles, (ver. 14.) " all continued with one accord in prayer 
 and supplication with the women," those godly women who 
 followed Christ from Galilee, and were at his cross and at his 
 grave, among whom was Mary the mother of Jesus.. . and with his 
 brethren, his kinsmen after the flesh, who being converted from 
 their former prejudices, (John vii. 5.) were among his disciples ; 
 yet the hundred and twenty to whom Peter addressed his speech 
 concerning the election of one to supply the place of Judas, were 
 evidently all males ; for in ver. 16, he calls them men and bre- 
 thren ; and indeed the 15th verse itself, on which those of the con- 
 trary opinion chiefly rely, may safely be so interpreted as to con- 
 tribute to the support of our argument ; for, as Dr. Lightfoot ob- 
 serves, the names there mentioned may justly be taken, not only 
 for persons, as all agree, but for men, (as in the Syriac version,) nay, 
 
110 THE DELIVERY AND [SEC. III. 
 
 ferred by the Spirit, was immediately employed in 
 their hearing and to their great amazement : They 
 
 for men of name, or distinction, (as suggested by the Arabic,) and so 
 as denoting, besides the apostles, emphatically the seventy, and other 
 brethren already distinguished by grace and gifts ; probably all min- 
 isters of the word, who had companied with the apostles, all the time 
 the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, ver. 21 ; and of whom, 
 he gave Peter to know, that one must be chosen to the apostleship, 
 and on whom, as on the Apostles, (making in all about a hundred 
 and twenty,) he then, by the Spirit, conferred the gift of tongues, 
 that they might preach the gospel intelligibly to all the nations among 
 whom he designed to send them. For the same purpose, and in 
 like manner, that is, without human instrumentality, he bestowed 
 the gift of tongues, in the first instance, upon gentiles also. Acts 
 x. 46. Afterward, it was given by the laying on of the apostles' 
 hands. Acts. viii. 15 17, and xix. 6. Thus, as by the miracu- 
 lous confusion of tongues, the seed of the Jirst Adam were scat- 
 tered to people the world ; Gen. xi. 7, 8, and Deut. xxxii. 8 ; so, 
 by the doctrine propagated by this miraculous gift of tongues, the 
 seed of the second Adam are gathered to people the church. John 
 xvii. 20. and Eph. i. 1 0. The former, in point of fact, defies in- 
 Jidelity itself; for none can deny that language, originally one, has, 
 according to Gen. xi. 1. 9. become multiplied into many. But the 
 latter, as a miracle, is no greater than the former, and therefore 
 is equally credible. 
 
 Concerning this famous hundred and twenty, let it be farther 
 observed 
 
 1. That they were not, as some have thought, all the disciples of 
 Christ then living; for, of " above five hundred brethren," to 
 whom, after his resurrection, he appeared at once in Galilee, " the 
 greater part remained" even down to the time when Paul wrote 
 his first epistle to the Corinthians ; Chap. xv. 6, compared with 
 Matt, xxviii. 10. 
 
 2. That they (the 120) were not only distinguished among the 
 disciples, by a remarkable steadfastness in the truth and devoted- 
 ness to God, but favored also with an extraordinaiy faith in the 
 promise of the Spirit's descent, and probably, too, with some in- 
 timations that the approaching day of Pentecost was the time ap- 
 pointed for its fulfilment; and hence, on that day they were 
 all in one place, waiting for it, with an accordance in faith 
 
SEC. III.]. AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. Ill 
 
 said one to another, Behold, duly observe this strange 
 fact are not all these which speak Gallileans I all 
 
 and hope and prayer, peculiar to themselves. See Luke xxiv. 49. 
 and Acts i. 4, 5. And, 
 
 3. That to suppose, as some do, that they (the 120) were all the 
 disciples of Christ then- at Jerusalem, is utterly unreasonable ; for 
 the promise of the Holy Ghost being commonly known among 
 them, and the time being the first day of the week, when they 
 were accustomed to meet together, nay the great day of Pente- 
 cost, when specially the expectation of its fulfilment, however faint- 
 ly, might prevail among them, they no doubt, male and female, as 
 generally as possible, repaired to Jerusalem, where the favor was 
 to be granted, and convened with the hundred and twenty, though 
 inferior to them in their faith and hope of the promise, and in the 
 part which they shared in the donation. Probably others also, 
 both citizens and foreigners, from motives of curiosity, attended 
 the meeting : for otherwise, how came the wonder to be poised 
 abroad ? Unless, indeed, " the sound from heaven," that came 
 "like a rushing mighty wind" announced it. 
 
 Nor does the number of the assembly hereby supposed, imply 
 any objection ; for the place in which they met, was not any pri- 
 vate mansion in the city, but the temple, the house of God ; for 
 had they not met there on that day, how could their meeting 
 there on successive days be called, as in verse 46, a continuing 
 daily in the temple ? The suggestion of some, that the Jews would 
 not have permitted it, vanishes at the recollection that HE whose 
 " dominion ruleth over all," could with infinite ease restrain 
 their opposition, that the transactions of that notable day, by their 
 occurring at the temple, might be the more public and the less lia- 
 ble to contradiction. Thereby also, he literally fulfilled his an- 
 cient promise, " My house shall be called a house of prayer for all 
 people ;" Is. Ivi. 7 ; there being at that time some devout persons 
 in it " out of every nation under heaven," or of the then known 
 world. Acts ii. 5. 
 
 To this general view of the case, (and in my opinion to no oth- 
 er,) all the recorded events of that memorable day harmoniously 
 correspond. The apartment of the temple then occupied, was 
 not the upper room, mentioned Acts i. 13 ; for admitting that to 
 have been a room of the temple, (and which, from Luke xxiv. 53, 
 
112 THE DELIVERY AND [SEC. III. 
 
 men of the same province and illiterate men too, 
 knowing, heretofore, no language but their own, and 
 
 is probable,) it was, as the context shows, the place where the apos- 
 tles, and some other disciples of both sexes abode during 
 the interval of ten days between the ascension of Christ 
 and the descent of the Spirit, and not the place of their assem- 
 blage on the day of Pentecost. Indeed, recollecting that in 
 the language of scripture, the temple sometimes denotes any 
 or all of the buildings that were within its surrounding wall ; 
 (see Matt. xxi. 12 14, and John viii. 2, 3 ;) it is not neces- 
 sary to understand that the meeting in question, was held in any 
 room of the temple, properly so called, or that any one of them 
 was large enough for the purpose ; but probably in " the great 
 court," the court of Israel, which included " the court of the 
 priests ;" the two being separated only by a low partition, which 
 although it served for distinction, was no obstruction to sight or 
 hearing ; and which together, according to Joseplms and the Tdl- 
 mudic writers, extended a hundred and eighty-seven cubits, from 
 east to west, and a hundred and thirty-Jive from north to south ; 
 that is, allowing, as is commonly done, 21.889 inches, or about 
 21 f inches to the cubit, it formed a vast oblong of near 400 feet 
 by about 244. See 2 Chron. iv. 9. and Dr. Lightfoot's works, Vol. 
 1. p.p. 1088. 1090. Also " Antiquities of the Jews," by Wm. 
 Brown, D. D. Vol. 1. p. 49. 
 
 This spacious inclosure being under the care of the Levites, the use 
 of it might the more readily be granted to the disciples through the 
 influence of Barnabas, generally believed to have been one of the 
 seventy, and who was a Levite, Acts iv. 36. Moreover, its adjacency 
 to the still larger court, commonly called the outer court, or the 
 court of the Gentiles, easily accounts for the convenient approach 
 of the multitude, where, in divers languages, they heard the mi- 
 raculous gift exemplified, at which those who understood the lan- 
 guages spoken, were amazed, while others, in their ignorance, 
 mocked and subsequently, in their native language, the sermon 
 preached by Peter, under which three thousand of them were con- 
 verted. And the gifts of the Spirit being excedingly various, 
 (1 Cor. xii. 4 11.) while the hundred and twenty, by the mira- 
 culous gift of divers tongues, were enabled intelligibly to address 
 those present of whatever nation, the other disciples, male and fe- 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 113 
 
 that but imperfectly And how hear we every man 
 of us, one or more of them speaking correctly in 
 our own tongue, wherein we were born. Nay, hav- 
 ing admitted that although, by descent, they were all 
 Jews, yet that, by nativity and language, they were 
 of fifteen different countries, they repeat and there- 
 by confirm the matter of their amazement, saying, 
 We, diversified as we are in our languages, do se- 
 verally hear them, with a correspondent diversity, 
 speak in our respective tongues, the wonderful works 
 of God. Astonishing indeed ! But they spake as the 
 Spirit gave them utterance. Others," neverthe- 
 less, "mocking said, These men are full of new 
 wine." What, a fit of drunkenness give them the 
 
 male, were so filled with the consolations and so increased in 
 the ordinary gifts of the Spirit, that in the sense of Joel's predic- 
 tion, these sons and daughters of Israel these servants and hand- 
 maidens of the Lord, all prophesie d. Of the males, some preach- 
 ed and others exhorted, each of which is prophesying ; 1 Cor. xiv. 
 3 ; and of the rest male and female, probably some, like Deborah, 
 (Judges iv. 4.) like Simeon, (Luke ii. 25 35.) like the four virgin 
 daughters of Philip, (Acts xxi. 9.) and, like Agabus, (ver. 10, 11.) 
 foretold events; others, like Miriam, (Exo. xv. 20, 21.) and, like 
 some in the church at Corinth, (1 Cor. xiv. 2, 5.) might have 
 the gift of extemporizing in poetry ; some, like Anna, (Luke ii. 
 36 38.) might in a rapturous manner give thanks, and in an 
 edifying way talk of Jesus ; and others, nay, at intervals, all to- 
 gether, might sing and pray in the Spirit, which, in males or fe- 
 males, is to prophesy. 1 Chron. xxv. 1 3. and 1 Cor. xi. 4, 5. 
 Similar meetings, in regard to the abundant consolations and or- 
 dinary gifts of the Spirit, have occasionallly been enjoyed by the 
 saints in ail successive generations, and such will be more frequent 
 in the latter days. See Joel ii. 28, 29, which only began to be 
 fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Acts. ii. 16 18. 
 
 An honest desire to silence gainsayers to check fanatics and 
 to assist Christians, it is hoped will be considered a sufficient apology 
 for the inconvenient length of this note. 
 
 15 
 
114 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 knowledge of languages ! A short way, to be sure, 
 for a man to become a linguist ! Yet this is but a 
 genuine instance of infidel wisdom ; which often ad- 
 mits the grossest absurdities, rather than the probable, 
 nay, well authenticated facts of divine revelation. 
 In palliation, however, of their offense, let it be re- 
 collected, that these mockers were not of those Jews, 
 convened from the several countries, in the respec- 
 tive languages of which the disciples spake, but oth- 
 ers, natives of Judea, who understood no language 
 but that which was then common among themselves,* 
 and to whom, therefore, the foreign languages mira- 
 culously spoken by the disciples, were wholly unin- 
 telligible, and so might be taken, by them, for the 
 mere cant and gibberish of men intoxicated, perhaps 
 too, they had, at that moment, forgotten the hour, 
 by adverting to which the apostle Peter refuted and 
 silenced the calumny. " These," said he, " are not 
 drunken as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour 
 of the day," that is, nine o'clock in the morning ; 
 whereas, no Jew making any pretensions to religion, 
 or even to common decency, used any inebriating li- 
 quor till after morning prayer, the stated time of 
 which ended at the fourth hour, ten o 'clock. ,f 
 
 Hitherto, (save in notes) we have excepted Paul; 
 he not being converted till after the ascension of 
 Christ to heaven and the descent of the Spirit on 
 the day of Petecost. But although he was not, like 
 the original ticelve, called to the apostleship while 
 Christ was upon earth ; and therefore spake of him- 
 self as, in this respect, "one born out of due time," 
 
 * Which is generally supposed to have been the Syriac OF 
 Chaldee. 
 f Chaldee Paraph, on Eccl. x. 17. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 115 
 
 an abortive ; b he, nevertheless, had all the qualifica- 
 tions of an apostle, nay, in one particular exceded all 
 the rest. They indeed saw Christ after his resurrec- 
 tion, and at the time of his ascension, c but Paul saw 
 him after he was glorified : and who said to him, " I 
 have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make 
 thee a minister and a witness," that is, of his resur- 
 rection ; a minister, a preacher of the word, he might 
 have made him, by bestowing on him grace and 
 gifts, without appearing to him in person ; but not a 
 competent witness of his resurrection, and therefore 
 not an apostle/ To this Paul had respect, when, 
 to silence those who denied his apostolic authority, 
 he said, Am I not an apostle ? Have I not seen 
 Jesus Christ our Lord ? e That in spiritual gifts, he 
 was not inferior to any of the rest, must be evident 
 to every one who attentively reads THE ACTS OF 
 THE APOSTLES, written by Luke. And though, in 
 consideration of his former blasphemy of Christ and 
 persecution of the church, he accounted himself " the 
 least of the apostles," yea, "not meet to be called 
 an apostle;" yet, in commendation of the grace of 
 God bestowed upon him, he said, " I labored more 
 abundantly than they all," that is, more than any 
 one of them all probably he traveled and preached 
 more, and the number and length of his epistles 
 prove that he wrote more. f 
 
 How absurd, then, as well as impious are all the 
 attempts of deistical writers, to reduce the credibility 
 of Moses and the prophets, and of Christ and his 
 apostles, (the latter constantly referring to the for- 
 
 . l Cor. xv. 8. c Matt, xxviii. 16, 17. Luke xxiv. 
 5052; and Acts i. 3. a Acts x. 41. e 1 Cor. ix. 1. f 1 Cor. 
 xr. 9, 10. 
 
116 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. HI. 
 
 mer, as inspired of God,) to a par with that ofNuma, 
 Mahomet, the pope of Rome, and other impostors. 
 Both Numa and Mahomet claimed, indeed, to have 
 intercourse with God, the former by the nymph Ege- 
 ria, and the latter by the angel Gabriel, but neither 
 had or even pretended to have, either an eye or an ear- 
 witness to the fact ; whereas the intercourse which 
 God held with Moses at Sinai the testimony which 
 he bore to the divine Sonship of Christ at Jor- 
 dan and the exemplification of the gift of tongues 
 conferred on the apostles, with others, at the day of 
 Pentecost, were all witnessed and acknowledged by 
 thousands. And though the pope has claimed to be 
 the vicar of Christ, and to possess infallibility, all 
 the pretended miracles by which he and his legates 
 have endeavoured to establish his credibility, have 
 been useless trifles have been performed either in 
 private, or among groups of his credulous devotees, 
 or, at least, only in countries subject to his jurisdic- 
 tion, where, to avow a scruple, or even to examine a 
 case, would have been to hazard life ; wherefore 
 they are justly believed to have been all mere 
 juggles, or " lying wonders" as they are called by 
 an inspired apostle ; 2 Thess. ii. 9. But the mira- 
 cles of Moses in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the 
 wilderness those of Christ in the land of Judea 
 and those of his apostles, performed in his name, 
 both there, and afterwards in the gentile world, were 
 all important and useful and though wrought in 
 public, and, therefore, open to the investigation both 
 of the friends and foes of the Christian cause, the 
 reality of them was never denied by either. On the 
 contrary, even the chief priests and pharisees, those 
 bitterest enemies of Christ, said of him, "This 
 
5ER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 117 
 
 man doeth many miracles ;" John xi. 47 ; and of 
 his apostles, Peter and John, " What shall we do to 
 these men 1 for that a notable miracle (the healing 
 of the impotent man) hath been done by them is man- 
 ifest to all them that dwell at Jerusalem, and we 
 cannot deny it." Acts iv. 16. Nay more, their fool- 
 ish and blasphemous attempt to account for the mir- 
 acles of Christ, by imputing to him a collusion with 
 Satan, was itself admitting the actual occurrence of 
 the miracles, and that they were the effects of super- 
 human power. g But, could Satan himself raise the 
 dead 1 Let modern infidels, then, like ancient magi- 
 cians, confess This is the finger of God. Exo. viii. 19. 
 
 Having thus considered some of the internal evi- 
 dences of the inspiration of the scriptures, without 
 offering any other apology for this long digression, 
 than the importance of the subject which it embra- 
 ces, I return to the text, confirmed in the belief, that 
 it is not only the language of Moses, but of Moses 
 speaking as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The manifestation of the divine Majesty [herein 
 recognized, was not only very dreadful, but 
 
 2. Very glorious : The Lord who came from Si- 
 nai, rose up from Seir, alluding to the rising of the 
 Sun ; he shined forth from mount Par an, like the 
 Sun pursuing his course and shining in his strength. 
 
 For these expressions, The Jerusalem Targum, 
 as noticed by Bp. Patrick, accounts thus : " When 
 God," saith the Targumist, " came down to give the 
 law, he offered it on mount Seir to the Edomites ; 
 but they refused it because they found in it, Thou 
 shalt not kill ; they being much given to war and 
 
 8 Matt. xii. 22 32. 
 
118 THE DELIVERY AND [gER. III. 
 
 blood-shed. Then he offered it on mount Paran to 
 the Ishmaelites, who also refused it because they 
 found in it, Thou sJialt not steal, a vice very com- 
 mon among them. And then he came to mount 
 Sinai and offered it to Israel, and they said, "All 
 that the LORD shall say we will do." Now, although 
 this gloss is merely a strange and unauthorized con- 
 ceit, I have thought proper to mention it, partly for 
 its antiquity, but chiefly because it so aptly serves to 
 illustrate the true reason why such multitudes of 
 mankind, on one pretence or other, reject the Bible; 
 namely, because it forbids vices, to the pursuit of 
 which they are strongly inclined, and enjoins du- 
 ties, to the observance of which they are decidedly 
 opposed. And though many, while filled with dread 
 under alarming sermons, like the Israelites, when 
 they heard the book of the covenant," say, "All 
 that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient ; h 
 yet, like them, they soon relapse into former sins ; 
 and so, like the Scribes and Pharisees in the days of 
 Christ, " they say, and do not." i It is certain how- 
 ever, that these manifestations were made, not to the 
 Edomites, nor to the Ishmaelites, but to the chil- 
 dren of Israel. Of them Moses had spoken in ver. 1 ; 
 and here, continuing their history, he says, " The LORD 
 came from Sinai and rose up from Seir unto them" 
 unto them, observe, and not to some other people. 
 
 The words plainly evince that at each of the pla- 
 ces named, God had appeared to Israel in some mag- 
 nificent manner, or in some marvellous work. The 
 facts, too, are upon record. At Sinai, as noticed 
 already, he gave them very terrible, and yet very 
 
 h Exo. xxiv. 7. 'Matt, xxiii. 3. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 119 
 
 glorious indications of his presence. The thick 
 cloud in which he descended, the fearful thunders 
 and lightnings which proceded from it, and the 
 convulsion of the whole mountain beneath it, all de- 
 clared that God was there. At Seir when they were 
 compassing the land of Edom, his providential pre- 
 sence with them was manifested, both in the judicial 
 death of many and in the miraculous preservation of 
 the residue, equally liable the former by the stings 
 of fiery serpents, sent among them as a scourge for 
 their murmurings, and the latter by a sight of the- 
 brazen serpent prescribed as the sovereign and only 
 remedy. k And at Paran, he granted them repeated 
 manifestations of his presence and tokens of his fa- 
 vor. There the cloud first rested when they had re- 
 moved from Sinai, 1 there the Lord instituted the 
 order of the seventy elders, as helps to Moses, and 
 descending in a cloud, conferred on them their re- 
 quisit qualifications, m and from thence, by his com- 
 mand, the spies were sent to reconnoiter the pro- 
 mised land. n Moreover, between Paran and To- 
 phel, and probably at the foot of the former, Moses, 
 led by divine inspiration, rehearsed the law to them 
 that is, delivered to them what is contained in this 
 book. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is not improbable, that in these 
 figurative expressions, Moses referred to something 
 which, at the giving of the law, was common to all 
 those places ; for, as the rising Sun, to which there 
 is a manifest allusion, instantly illuminates distant 
 hills, so God manifesting his glory on Sinai, might 
 
 k Numb. xxi. 49. See Ser. I. p. 28, 29. and Ser. II. p. 8191. 
 1 Num. x. 11, 12. m Ibid. xi. 16, 17, 25. " Ibid.xiii. 3. Deut. 
 i. 1,3. also chapters iv. and v. 
 
120 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 extend its refulgence to those neighbouring moun- 
 tains, and in their reflection of it, might seem to rise 
 up from Seir and to shine forth from Par an. Comp. 
 Hab. iii. 3, 4. 
 
 Nor must we forget his tributary glory, arising 
 from his retinue on that solemn occasion ; he came 
 with ten thousands of saints, holy ones, by whom 
 are meant the myriads of angels who then attended his 
 presence and subserved his design : for they were 
 not only his attendants, but his ministers also, at the 
 delivery of the law the laic was given by the dispo- 
 sition of angels, and ordained by them,* in the hand of 
 a mediator, namely Moses* p It is worthy of remark, 
 too, that, HE who only descended on mount Sinai, 
 DWELLS in mount ZION, and that here, in token of su- 
 perior favor, he employs twice the former number of 
 his angelic ministers : " This is the hill which God 
 desireth to dwell in ; yea the LORD will dwell in it for 
 ever." And here, as if to signify, that, compared 
 with national Israel, the gospel church is more hon- 
 orable and more secure, " The chariots of God are 
 twenty thousand, even thousands of angels :" nor 
 have they the charge alone : the LORD is among them," 
 to direct their ministrations, " as in Sinai, so in the 
 holy place," the church. q 
 
 Moses having recognized the Majesty of the Law- 
 giver, manifested at the time of his descent on mount 
 Sinai, 
 
 II. Asserts three things concerning the law which 
 heathen delivered. 
 
 * They being employed in preparing and setting in order the ta- 
 bles on which the law was written, as we are assured they were in 
 the articulation of its words. Heb. ii. 2. 
 
 P Acts vii. 53. Gal. iii. 19. 1 Psal. Ixviii. 16, 17. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 
 
 First, whence it preceded, to wit, from the hand, 
 the right hand of God -from his right hand went a... 
 law. It was conceived, indeed, in his mind, and was 
 given as an expression of his moral perfections ; yet, 
 by allusion to a man's writing or engraving with his 
 right hand,, this law is said to precede from the right 
 hand of the Law-giver, because by him it was writ- 
 ten or engraven upon tables of stone ; " the tables 
 were the work of God, and the writing was the writ- 
 ing of God graven upon the tables." r Moreover, as 
 the right hand is the more powerful and honorable, 8 
 the law might be said to emanate from the right hand 
 of God, to denote its supreme authority and moral 
 excellence; for although, to fallen man, it is "the 
 ministration of death and condemnation," yet, in refer- 
 ence to its author and matter, it is emphatically glori- 
 ous.* 
 
 By these remarks, all must perceive that I under- 
 stand the term law in this place, with restriction to what 
 is eommonly called the moral Iaw 9 the law consist- 
 ing exclusively of the decalogue, the ten command- 
 ments ; that being all that was written or engraven 
 on the tables, that were delivered from the hand of 
 the Law-giver. Deut. v. 22. and x. 4.* 
 
 r Exo. xxxii. 16. 8 Ibid. xv. 6. Psal. xliv. 3. * 2 Cor. iii. 7. 9. 
 
 * The Judgments given in the Judicial law, and the rites en- 
 joined in the ceremonial law, were, it is true, also from God, and 
 by his authority were binding upon Israel. Of the former, which 
 are chiefly recorded in the book of Exodus, he said to Moses, 
 These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them ; Exo. 
 xxi. 1 ; and of the latter, most of which are contained in the 
 book of Leviticus, Moses having written them, bears this testimo- 
 ny These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Mo- 
 ses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai ; Levit. xxvii. 34 ; 
 mount Sinai here and in chap. xxv. 1. meaning, however, not 
 
 16 
 
122 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 Secondly, for whom this law, at that time, went 
 forth from the hand of God ; to wit, for the peo- 
 
 strictly the mountain so called, from which the commandments of 
 the moral and the judgments of the judicial law were delivered, 
 but the wilderness in which that mountain stood ; see Numb. i. 1 ; 
 for these ceremonial commandments were not given till after the 
 Tabernacle was erected, out of which they were delivered, and to 
 the service of which they belonged. Levit. i. 1. Nevertheless, 
 these Judgments and Rites were not, like the ten commandments, 
 written by the finger of God, Exo. xxxi. 18 ; nor, like* them, 
 spoken out of the midst of the fire. Deut. v, 22. They were writ- 
 ten by Moses, as he received them from the mouth of God ; Exo. 
 xxiv. 4. xxxiv. 27. and Levit. i. 1 ; and though, in Exo. xxiv. 7. 
 the judgments, (probably with the moral precepts,) and, in 2 Kings 
 xxiii. 2, 21. these arid the ceremonial Rites together, are called 
 the book of the covenant, the obligation of Israel to observe the 
 whole, was, notwithstanding, founded in the moral part, by which 
 they were bound to acknowledge JEHOVAH alone as their God, and 
 consequently to obey him in all he should require of them. 
 
 The moral law was the first that God delivered to Israel at Sinai. 
 It was on their literal (not spiritual) observance of this law, that he 
 suspended his grant of all the temporal blessings, by which he 
 promised to distinguish them as a nation, and to the enunciation 
 of which they replied, " All that the LORD hath spoken we will do." 
 And these mutual declarations considered, (all that has been said 
 to the contrary notwithstanding,) this law is justly called a cove- 
 nant. Exo. xix. 5, 8. and Deut. v. 2. Comp. Is. i. 19, 20. Nay, 
 the very words which God himself wrote upon the tables of stone, 
 are expressly denominated the words of the covenant, the ten com- 
 mandments, (Exo. xxxiv. 28) arid the tables themselves, the tables 
 of the covenant which the LORD made with Israel. Deut. ix. 9. 
 While therefore, by divine appointment, the judicial law, adapt- 
 ed to the civil state of Israel, and the ceremonial law equally 
 adapted to their ecclesiastical state, became appendages to the ori- 
 ginal covenant, the moral law inviolably remained the basis, to 
 which, without the repeal or infraction of any of its injunctions, 
 the judgments certainly, and, by consequence, the ceremonies 
 also, in the tenor of their words, or precepts, harmoniously cor- 
 responded. Exo. xxxiv. 27. And accordingly, thenceforward the 
 whole constituted the book of the covenant which God made with 
 that people, and by which they were to be governed in morals, pol- 
 
SER. 111.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 123 
 
 pie of Israel ; " from his right hand went forth a. . .law 
 for them." To account for this restrictive clause, 
 
 itics, and religion. See 2 Chron. xxxiv. 30, 31. and comp. Mai. 
 i. 6 14. ii. 1 17.iii. 7 14. andiv. 4: also Heb. viii. 9. and ix. 1. 
 Hence it may be inferred with certainty 1. That while this com- 
 plex and temporary covenant remained in force, no Israelite, by right- 
 ly observing any precept of the judicial or of the ceremonial law, 
 violated any command in the moral law, rightly understood. 2. 
 That whereas the moral law, like the perfections of God of which 
 it is a transcript, remains for ever immutable, no covenant-engage- 
 ment which persons may have entered into, nor any human injunc- 
 tion, as that of a parent, master or magistrate, to do what is con- 
 trary to that law, can be binding on the parties so engaged or 
 commanded. See Acts. v. 29. And 3. That an oath itself, taken 
 contrary to the tenor of the moral law, or, either to do or to abet 
 and protect others in doing what that law forbids, can, in God's 
 account, impose no obligation on any person or persons so com- 
 mitted. To take such an oath is indeed horribly wicked ; but de- 
 clining to comply with it, is only forbearing to commit the still 
 greater wickedness of acting in conformity to it. Thus, for in- 
 stance, if the more than forty Jews, who wickedly bound them- 
 themselves by an oath, not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul t 
 had been permitted actually to perpetrate the bloody deed, and 
 thereby to have violated the divine command Thou shalt not kill t 
 they would certainly have added greatly to their wickedness of tak- 
 ing the oath; whereas, if they had repented of their oath and 
 voluntarily abandoned their murderous design, they would, so far, 
 have been in the way of duty. Acts, xxiii. 12, 13. And who will 
 presume to deny, that it would have been a virtue in Herod to have 
 violated his iniquitous oath by which he had bound himself to give 
 to the dancing daughter of Herodias whatsoever she should ask, 
 rather than to have violated the law of Go4, as he did, by com- 
 mitting murder, that he might give her the head of John the Bap- 
 tist? Matt. xiv. 612. and Mark vi. 21-29. 
 
 Let none, however, construe these observations into an apology 
 for the shocking crime of perjury. For whoever understandingly 
 and willingly comes under the obligation of an oath to do or suffer 
 anything which is not inconsistent with the revealed will of God, is 
 most sacredly bound to compliance with the tenor of it ; nay, hav- 
 
124 THE DELIVERY AND [SER III. 
 
 most commentators have understood the law here 
 intended to be the whole Sinaic dispensation ; this 
 being given only to Israel and exclusively for them. 
 But the scriptures referred to in the preceding article, 
 and in the note annexed to it, forbid us to adopt that 
 interpretation, however conveniently it may seem to 
 accord with the clause for them, and compel us to 
 adhere to the interpretation already given ; and by 
 which we include nothing under the term law, as 
 here used, but the decalogue, commonly called the 
 moral law. 
 
 Nor is the term law, taken in this limited sense, at 
 all inconsistent with the restrictive clause under con- 
 sideration. For this law, as delivered to Israel at 
 Sinai, was specially, nay exclusively for them. By 
 their own confession it was only to them, and there- 
 fore, as then spoken, only for them that God uttered the 
 words of it ; " for who is there of all flesh" said they, 
 " that hath heard the voice of the living God speaking 
 out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived ?" u 
 For them, exclusively for their use, God inscribed the 
 commandments of this law on the tables of stone 
 which he delivered to Moses ; who, addressing Israel, 
 said, "the LORD delivered unto me two tables of 
 stone, written with the finger of God ; and on them 
 was written according to all the words which the 
 
 ing taken such oath, even though he should afterward discover 
 that to comply with it must tend to his own hurt, his loss of repu- 
 tation, or property, or both, he cannot violate it, but at the most 
 awful peril that of exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. Psal. 
 xv. 4. Nevertheless, perjury is not the unpardonable sin; for this, 
 as well as for other crimes of high degree, God may subsequently 
 grant to the criminal repentance unto life. Acts. xi. 18, and remit 
 his sin, through the redemption that is in Christ. Matt. xii. 31, 
 32. Luke xxiv. 47. Rom. iii. 24. Comp. 1 Cor. vi. 911. 
 u Deut. v. 26. 
 
 I 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 125 
 
 LORD spake with you in the mount, out of the midst 
 of the fire, in the day of the assembly." w And 
 though, to express his holy indignation at their mak- 
 ing and worshiping the molten calf, and to signify, 
 that thereby they had broken the law, Moses cast 
 those tables, out of his hands, and brake them be- 
 fore their eyes ; x yet God, in like manner, wrote the 
 same commandments upon two other tables, which 
 Moses, by his direction, deposited in the ark, where 
 they were preserved inviolate, and which, as thus 
 engraved and preserved, were, like the former ta- 
 bles, only for them, for their use. y Chiefly, how- 
 ever, this law, as then delivered in the form of a co- 
 venant, was /or them; it being, as such, specially for 
 their observance and for their benefit. See Exo. xix. 
 5 8. and xxxiv. 28. 
 
 Here, however, we must carefully distinguish be- 
 tween this special promulgation of the moral law, and 
 the extent of its obligation. For the obligation which 
 the Israelites were under to observe it, was none 
 other than that which is universal and perpetual. 
 This obligation is founded in the relation necessari- 
 ly subsisting between God as the Creator, and his 
 intelligent creatures ; he possessing an underived au- 
 thority to require of them whatever he thought fit 
 and proper, and which could be nothing but what 
 was agreeable to his holy nature and holy will ; and 
 they being indispensably bound to a perfect compli- 
 ance with all his revealed requirements, on pain of 
 enduring the penalties respectively annexed to them. 
 Under this obligation he brought both the angelic 
 nature and the human, into being. Nor was there 
 
 w Dent. ix. 10. x Ibid. ver. 17. y Ibid. x. 4, 5. 
 
126 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 in either, as they came from the hand of God, any 
 thing incongruous to this obligation. That he cre- 
 ated angels holy, has never, that I know of, been 
 called into question ; and that he so created man, is 
 clearly revealed ; God made man upright. z As 
 such, therefore, both must have been naturally able, 
 yea naturally inclined, to comply with the obligations 
 they were respectively under. Immutability, how- 
 ever, belonged to neither. This would have been 
 inconsistent with' their ^tate of probation, nay, with 
 ,their creaturely existence and continual depend- 
 ence upon their Creator. Wherefore, being left to 
 the freedom of their own respective wills, and with- 
 out any provision or promise of additional strength 
 in case of trial, they both transgressed and fell. 
 
 What was the teat of angelic obedience is not re- 
 vealed, and therefore we cannot precisely determine 
 wherein their original sin consisted.* All we certainly 
 
 2 Eccl. vii. 29, 
 
 *By several inspired allusions, however, to the fall of angels, it 
 seems highly probablathat their original sin was pride. Thus, for 
 instance, the fall of the haughty, aspiring king of Babylon, is liken- 
 ed to the fall of Lucifer from heaven. Isa. xiv. 4 17. Paul cau- 
 tioned Timothy not to promote a novice to the office of a bishop, a< 
 pastor,, "lest, being lifted up with pride, he should fall into the 
 condemnation of the. devil ;" that is, like him be condemned for 
 pride. \ Tim. iii. 6. And the war in heaven, of which John had a 
 vision, though it respects the war between Christ and Satan, car- 
 ried on through the instrumentality of their respective angels, or 
 ministers, in the church on earth, is, nevertheless, described in 
 terms denoting an evident allusion to the original rebelion in heav- 
 en, and to the fall and ejection of the rebels from their former ho- 
 ly and happy condition. Rev. xii. 7 9. 
 
 The innocent occasion of that rebelion, in those once holy Spir- 
 its, might be God's commanding them to worship his Son ; Heb. 
 i, 6 : and whieh^if^it be provoked by a proclamation in heaven, 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 127 
 
 know of them, is that there were elect-angels, which 
 implie^ the non-election of others ; a and that the lat- 
 ter are called the angels that sinned, and the angels 
 that kept not their first estate, and that, by the au- 
 thority and act of God, they are reserved in chains of 
 darkness unto the judgment of the great day. b The 
 elect-angels we suppose were confirmed in Christ as 
 their Head of conservation, and that they are all 
 ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
 shall be heirs of salvation. c 
 
 The first penal injunction which God delivered to 
 man was only prohibitory forbidding him, on pain 
 
 that the Son, whom they were required to worship, would assumef 
 not their nature, but the human; Heb. ii. 16; and that he would 
 exalt the elect of the human family above them in nearness to God 
 and communion with him. Rev. vii. 9 12. Perhaps, too, it was 
 announced among them, that God had confirmed the standing and 
 secured the happiness of some of them in his Son, while he had 
 left the rest dependent on their own freewill. Hence one of them, 
 it should seem, and probably one who was distinguished above 
 others while in a state of rectitude, felt the origin of pride proposed 
 rebelion against the Son of God and those of theangelic spirits,declar- 
 ed to be confirmed in him ; and, being followed in the rebelion by 
 all the non-elect angels, he is called Beelzebub, the prince of the de- 
 vils, and he and they are called the devil and his angels. Markiii. 22. 
 Matt. xxv. 41 . Now what but the same principle of pride, imbibed 
 from Satan, provokes the rebelion of Arians, Socinians, and Deists, 
 against the revealed requirement, that oilmen should honor the Son 
 even as they honor the Father? John v.23. And whence but from 
 the same source, is all that enmity manifested by self-justiciaries 
 against the sovereign discrimination which God, in election, has 
 made among the human family? Rom. ix. 11 24. 
 
 That pride, had proved fatal to Satan, may be concluded from 
 his care to beget the same principle in our first parents ; Gen. iii. 
 5; nay, from his horrid, but fruitless attempt on Christ himself 
 Matt. iv. 89. 
 
 a 1 Tim. v. 21.' b 2 Pet. ii. 4. and Jude, ver. 6. c Heb. i. 14. 
 
128 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 of death, to eat of the fruit of a specified tree ; " The 
 LORD GOD commanded the man, saying, Of every 
 tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
 not eat of it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou 
 shalt surely die," or dying, die, as it is in the He- 
 brew ; d for, dying a legal death, by transgression, he 
 must, by consequence, die a moral death, that is, 
 become unrighteous and unholy, and, as such, be 
 subject to corporal death, and liable to death eter- 
 nal. c Nor did the effects of his transgression ter- 
 minate in himself; human nature in him became 
 guilty and totally depraved, and as such, with all 
 the consequent liabilities, he transmitted it to all his 
 posterity ; for, by one man sin entered into the world 
 and death] by sin; and so death passed upon all 
 men, for that all have sinned. f 
 
 Man's obligation to obey God, nevertheless remain- 
 ed and must for ever remain undiminished : and the 
 rule of his obedience is the will of God, however 
 made known to him. The will of God, thus under- 
 stood, consists of two parts his moral requirements 
 and his positive injunctions emanating, the former 
 necessarily from his moral perfections, the latter ar- 
 bitrarily from his sovereign authority. His moral 
 requirements, as they necessarily procede from his 
 moral perfections, so they declare him to be a holy 
 and righteous being, as clearly as the rays of light 
 which necessarily procede from the Sun, declare that 
 to be a pure and luminous body; and as the rays of 
 light necessarily preceding from the Sun, can nei- 
 
 d man nin moth tamuth. Gen. ii. 16, 17. e Ibid. iii. 19. and 
 Rom. vi. 23. f lbid. v.12. 18. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 129 
 
 ther cease nor change, but with the cessation or 
 change of the Sun itself; so the moral requirements 
 of God can never cease nor change, unless his own 
 BEING should cease or change ; but as he is the eter- 
 nal God and changeth not, his moral requirements 
 are necessarily eternal and immutable. Not so his 
 positive injunctions. These, emanating arbitrarily 
 from his sovereign authority, he might multiply or 
 diminish, modify, supplant or repeal, at pleasure, 
 without undergoing any change in his perfections, 
 essential or moral, and without intermitting, or in- 
 fringing any of his moral requirements. Hence the 
 successive accumulation of positive institutions under 
 the Old Testament, and the comparative paucity of 
 them under the New. Hence also the cessation of 
 circumcision the change of the Sabbath from the 
 seventh to the first day of the week the supplant- 
 ing of the legal, by the evangelical dispensation 
 and the consequent abrogation of Mosaic ceremonies, 
 and the institution of gospel-ordinances. 
 
 The subject before us, however, claims our atten- 
 tion only to God's moral requirements. These he 
 expressed in the decalogue, the ten commandments ; 
 and though, as delivered to Israel at Sinai, these 
 commandments were emphatically for them, they, 
 nevertheless, (excepting the fourth*) constitute a 
 law, which, in its moral tenor, exactly corresponds 
 to the law of nature, which God originally inscribed 
 
 * " All the laws of the decalogue," saith Eben Ezra, " are accord- 
 ing to the dictates of nature, the law and light of reason, and 
 knowledge of men, excepting this. Wherefore no other has the 
 word remember prefixed to it ; there being somewhat in the light 
 of every man's reason and conscience, to direct and engage him, 
 in some measure, to the observation of them." In Dr. Gill's Expos, 
 on Exo. xx. 8. 
 
 17 
 
130 THE DELIVERY AND [sER. III. 
 
 on the heart of man ; and which, however marred and 
 obscured by the fall and consequent total depravity 
 of our nature, is not thereby entirely obliterated ; but 
 remains so far legible in every rational human being, 
 as to be read by the scrutinizing eye of conscience ; 
 and is the rule by which this faculty of the soul, (if 
 not judicially scared?) always, according to the light 
 of evidence received, necessarily determines what is 
 morally right, and what is morally wrong, and this 
 whether in our own conduct or in that of others.* 
 
 This law, too, like that of the revealed command- 
 ments corresponding to it, has respect both to God 
 and to man 1. To God. By the light of reason, ex- 
 ercised according to this law, mankind without any 
 revelation but that made in the volume of nature, 
 may discover that there is one God, and essentially 
 but one, and that he, as their Creator and the Cre- 
 ator of all the works of nature they behold, justly 
 claims their supreme love, and exclusive worship, 
 adoration and dependence. This is plain from the 
 case of the heathen, who have no law but that of na- 
 ture, and no light of evidence, but what comes through 
 the medium of nature ; and yet are criminal in not 
 acknowledging the Supreme Author of nature ; "be- 
 cause that which may be known of God is manifest 
 in them," in their own existence, or to them, to 
 their rational apprehension, through his visible 
 works ; " for God hath showed it" (that which 
 may be known of him) "unto them. For the in- 
 visible things of him, from the creation of the world 
 are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
 s 1 Tim. iv. 2. 
 
 * That such knowledge may consist with total moral depravity, 
 is evident in fallen angels. See Job i. 6 12. ii. 1 10. and Mark 
 i. 23-26. 
 
SER. III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 131 
 
 are made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; so 
 that they are without excuse ;" and not the less so, 
 on account of the darkness and stupidity to 'which 
 they were subjected for their impiety arid ingrati- 
 tude ; "because that when they knew God," by the 
 light of nature, " they glorified him not as God, nei- 
 ther were thankful; but became vain in their ima- 
 ginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 
 Professing themselves to be wise, they became 
 fools." And hence the abominable idolatries and 
 unnatural sensualities which follow in their history. 
 See Rom. i. 19 32. And, as the law of nature 
 respects the duty of mankind towards God, so also 
 2. Their duty toward each other ; and which, in mat- 
 ters of moral equity and purity, may generally be 
 known by this law. Hence the universal idea of 
 meum et tuum, mine and thine, in regard to hus- 
 bands, wives and children houses, lands and chat- 
 tels of every kind ; and which is clearly perceived 
 and strictly observed by many of the heathen tribes 
 and nations. Thus too, is brought to light the agree- 
 ment between the injunctions of the moral law and 
 the dictates of the law of nature ; " For when the 
 Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the 
 things contained in the law, these, having not the 
 law, are a law unto themselves ;" having within 
 themselves a law correspondent to that which is re- 
 vealed. By thus acting they also " show the work 
 of the law," the inscription of the law of nature, 
 "written in their hearts, their conscience also bear- 
 ing witness," to the moral right and wrong of their 
 lives, " and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing 
 or else excusing one another," as well as themselves, 
 Rom. ii. 14, 15 
 
132 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 The moral law, therefore, whether as delivered to 
 Israel at Sinai, or as contained in the book of the 
 covenant written for the immediate use of that peo- 
 ple, or as it is variously incorporated with the whole 
 of the inspired volume, is, strictly taken, nothing 
 but a verbal copy of the law of nature, which God 
 concreated with man. Wherefore, the standard by 
 which the heathen, as such, shall be judged, is es- 
 sentially the same with that by which the Jews and 
 all others favored with the Scriptures, shall be 
 judged ; "for as many as have sinned without law," 
 that is, without the written law, and dying impeni- 
 tent, " shall also perish without (that) law ; and as 
 many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by 
 the law." Rom. ii. 12. Yet with this difference in 
 the sentence ; the latter, and especially those under 
 the New Testament, having had the standard of trial 
 more clearly revealed to them, and so having sinned 
 against more light and knowledge, will (if not brought 
 to repentance, and pardoned through Christ,) in the 
 strictest justice, as the greater sinners, receive the 
 greater punishment. 11 Not, however, as a necessary 
 consequence of their having these sacred writings, 
 which to have, is, in itself, a great blessing ; but as a 
 merited consequence of their presumptuous trans- 
 gressions of the law thus clearly revealed their stu- 
 pid insensibility to the providential goodness and long 
 forbearance of God manifested toward them their 
 impious disregard of all his threatenings and warn- 
 ings so plainly made known to them and their wil- 
 ful contempt of his Son and disbelief of the record 
 which he has given concerning him. * 
 
 This law, then, either as written or unwritten, is 
 
 h John xix. 11. Matt. x. 15. ' Rom. ii.5 9. John iii. 19. and 
 1 John v. 10. 
 
[SER. III. AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 135 
 
 the universal standard of trial ; and every son and 
 daughter of Adam, tried by it, whether as it is con- 
 tained in their nature, or as it is revealed in the Bible, 
 is found wanting wanting both in holiness of heart 
 and rectitude of life. Upon law ground, therefore, 
 every mouth must be stopped, and all the world be- 
 come guilty before God. Rom. iii. 19. Hence 
 
 Thirdly, the distinguishing characteristic of this law 
 of God " from his right hand went a fiery law." By 
 thus characterizing this law, Moses might only design 
 to commemorate the terrible manner of its delivery* 
 Preparatory thereto, " The LORD descended upon 
 mount Sinai in fire, and in the actual promulgation 
 of it, his voice was heard speaking out of the midst 
 of fire. k But the Holy Ghost in the prophet, by giv- 
 ing the fearful epithet fiery to this law, doubtless 
 designed more namely, to imply some of its dis- 
 tinguishing properties and principal uses. The per- 
 tinence of the epithet to this design, may easily be 
 seen in the following instances. 
 
 Fire is a common emblem of purity, and therefore 
 
 a fit emblem of this law, which is a mere blaze of 
 
 moral purity ; " the commandment of the LORD is 
 
 pure, 1 and in it, God is revealed as a consuming 
 
 fire to impenitent transgressors." 1 
 
 Like fire, this law gives light ; not sight, but light 
 to those who have sight. What is said of its entrance 
 at mount Sinai, m'ay justly be said of its entrance 
 into the conscience of a regenerate sinner : " The law 
 entered that the offence might abound," not that it 
 might become more abundant, but that it might the 
 
 * Deut. iv. 12, 13. ! Psal. xix. 8. comp. Rom. vii. 12. m Deut. 
 iv. 24. 
 
134 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 i 
 
 more abundantly and clearly appear. Thus it is, 
 that by the law is the knowledge of sin. 
 
 Like^/m?, this law gives distress and creates alarm. 
 Such were its effects upon the Israelites, when it 
 was delivered to them from Sinai p ; and its tenden- 
 cy is the same in the conscience of every awakened 
 sinner : the law worketh wrath, that is, threatens wrath, 
 and fills the sinner with apprehensions of it. q 
 
 As fire is useful or hurtful, according as it is right- 
 ly or wrongly employed ; so is this law. The law is 
 good if a man use it lawfully* to show his fallen 
 and helpless condition, and as a rule of moral duty; 
 but, if he rely on it, that is, on his obedience to it, 
 for life, it must inevitably prove his death, his ever- 
 lasting ruin ; for as many as are of the works of the 
 law are under the curse, &/c. s and the command- 
 ment, the law, which, had human nature remain- 
 ed in conformity to it, was ordained to life, such 
 life as Adam enjoyed in paradise, is found, as 
 a violated covenant, to be unto death legal and moral, 
 temporal and eternal. So every regenerate sinner 
 finds it to be, when under conviction by it; 1 and so 
 must every finally impenitent sinner find it, when 
 sinking under its sentence to that death which is 
 the wages of sin, yand which, as it is opposed to eter- 
 nal life, can be none other than eternal death. u 
 
 From our subject, we infer 
 
 1. That fallen mankind are not, as many suppose 
 them to be, in a state of probation, that is, on trial, 
 whether they will secure their salvation or not. If so, 
 it must be with reference either to the law or to the 
 
 nRom. v.20. Ibid. iii. 20. P Exo. xix. 16. xx. 18 and Heb. xii. 
 19,20. 9 Rom. iv. 15. r 1 Tim. i. 8. s Gal. iii. 10. tRom.vii. 10. 
 Ibid. vi. 23. 
 
SER III.] AUUHORITY OF THE LAW. 135 
 
 gospel. Not, surely, with reference to the law ; for 
 by this, whether considered as innate or as revealed, 
 they are all condemned already. And to suppose 
 them in a state of probation with reference to the 
 gospel, is to suppose that salvation by Christ is at 
 their own option, and dependent on their own exer- 
 tions ; whereas, " it is not of him that willeth, nor 
 of him that runneth ; but of God that showeth mer- 
 cy ." x Nay, Christ himself hath said, " No man can 
 come to me, except the Father who hath sent me 
 draw him." y 
 
 2. That none can escape the penalty annexed to 
 the violation of the covenant of works, in the guilt 
 of which all are involved, but by an act of God's 
 mere grace ; and as such act can never pass but 
 in harmony with divine justice, it is impossible it 
 should pass in favor of any, but in consideration of 
 the satisfaction made to divine justice by Christ ; 
 who, for all he represented in his obedience and 
 death, " magnified the law and made it honora- 
 ble," and ' put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 2 
 And accordingly, although all whom God justifies, 
 are justified freely by his grace; yet, with reference 
 to law and justice, they are justified through the re- 
 demption that is in Christ Jesus* 
 
 3. That the unregenerate can have no communion 
 with God, nor render any acceptable worship to 
 him. 
 
 They can have no communion with God. Com- 
 munion implies agreement ; but there can be no 
 agreement between God and unregenerate sinners. 
 
 w John iii. .18, * Rom. ix. 16. y John vi. 44. z Isa. xlii. 21. 
 Heb. ix. 26. a Rom iii. 2426. 
 
136 THE DELIVERY AND [SER. III. 
 
 He is the living God, but they are dead in trespass- 
 es and sins ; b he is LIGHT, but they are darkness ; c 
 he is holy, but they are filthy? he is LOVE, but 
 they are enmity ; e unless, therefore, there can be 
 communion between life and death light and dark- 
 ness holiness and wickedness love and enmity, 
 there can be no communion between God and unre- 
 generate sinners ; there being nothing in either that 
 can hold communion with the other. And as there 
 can be no communion between God and unregene- 
 rate sinners in time, so, by consequence, not in eter- 
 nity. God, we are assured by revelation as well as 
 reason, changeth not : and though death makes a 
 great change in the condition of sinners removing 
 them from time to eternity from the society of men 
 to the society of devils from temporal comforts, to 
 hell-torments, and from the prospects of cheering 
 hope, to the horrors of black despair it, neverthe- 
 less, makes no change in their moral character ; their 
 carnal mind remains, and will for ever remain, enmi- 
 ty against God. Rom. viii. 7. Nay more : While 
 here, the events of Providence and the example and 
 admonition of the godly yea, their own respect for 
 society their desire ^ of " that honor which cometh 
 from men" their regard to worldly interest, and 
 even their vague hopes of divine mercy, all unite 
 so to restrain their corruptions, that the turpitude of 
 their satanic disposition is not fully developed ; John 
 viii. 44. Eph. ii. 2, 3. ; but all these means of restraint 
 ceasing in death, their disembodied souls thereupon 
 become, like fallen angels, utterly hopeless, and 
 
 b Josh, iii. 10. Eph. ii. 1. c 1 John i. 5. Eph.- v. 8. d PsaL 
 xcix. 9. and liii. 3. e 1 John iv. 8. Rom. viii. 7. 
 
SER III.] AUTHORITY OF THE LAW. 137 
 
 therefore infernally rageful. " They that go down 
 to the pit, cannot hope &c." Is. xxxviii. 18. " There 
 their worm" of a guilty conscience " dieth not, and 
 the fire" of divine wrath, preying upon them, " is not 
 quenched." Mark ix. 43 48. 
 
 Nor can the unregenerate render any acceptable 
 worship to God. " God is a Spirit, and they that 
 worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in 
 truth ;" John iv. 24 ; but of such worship the unre- 
 generate are incapable. They may present their 
 bodies in his house and at his throne ; but their souls 
 are dead in sin and their hearts are far from him. Is. 
 xxix. 13. Ezek. xxxiii. 30 32. Again; to worship 
 God acceptably, we must have that faith which re- 
 nounces all self-confidence, and looks alone to Christ 
 for the acceptance of our persons and services. But 
 this faith is not in the unregenerate. It is not a fruit 
 of nature, but of the Spirit ; Gal. v. 22 ; and conse- 
 quently is in none but those who are the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost. 1 Cor. vi. 19. None therefore but the re- 
 generate can say, with John, " Our fellowship is with 
 the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ; 1 John i. 
 3: or, with Paul, "We are the circumcision, who 
 worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ 
 Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Philip, 
 iii. 3. Let none marvel, then, that Christ hath said, 
 "Ye must be born again." John iii. 7. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is nothing in our subject, nor 
 in any part of God's word, that is in the least calcu- 
 lated to discourage any sensible sinner from looking 
 to Christ for salvation, nor any true believer in him, 
 from drawing near to God in acts of worship. To 
 the former, Christ is saying " Come unto me all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 
 18 
 
138 THE DELIVERY, &C. [SER. IIT. 
 
 rest;" Matt. xi. 28; and the latter, however con- 
 scious of their own unworthiness and of the imper- 
 fection of their worship, are divinely assured, that, 
 in the exercise of their graces and in the presenta- 
 tion of their prayers and praises, they " offer up 
 spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ." 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 THE LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED 
 TO ISRAEL. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 3. Yea, he loved the people : all his saints are 
 in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet ; every one shall re- 
 ceive of thy words. 
 
 AWARE of the acceptance which Dr. Kennicott's 
 emendations of the Hebrew text, in the second, 
 third, fourth and fifth verses of this chapter, have 
 obtained with some learned men, I carefully exam- 
 ined them and the arguments by which they are sup- 
 ported ;* but, (persuaded that commentators, and es- 
 pecially preachers, should be sacredly scrupulous 
 about departing, in any instance, from the standard 
 original of the Holy Scriptures,) I have not ventured 
 to follow them ; lest I should thereby give the ark 
 an unhallowed touch. So far, indeed, as the Dr's 
 emendations relate to the verse now before us, I was, 
 at first sight, inclined to adopt them ; but, on ma- 
 ture deliberation, the very reasons which had pro- 
 duced that inclination, produced a contrary decision ; 
 namely, his substituting "pa barach, he blessed, for TT:J 
 beyadecha, in thy hand, and affixing the pronouns 
 of the third person for those of the second, in the 
 
 * See his first Dissertation, jx 422 <fce. 
 
140 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 subsequent clauses thereby making these members 
 of the text to read thus : And he blessed all his saints ; 
 for they fell down at his feet, and they received of 
 his words. 
 
 The object, no doubt, of these emendations, was 
 to remove from the text what, in the standard Hebrew 
 copy, appeared to the learned emendator abrupt and 
 ungramniatical. But might not his apprehension of 
 such faults in this part of that standard, have been 
 occasioned by an oversight of the manner in which 
 the words are introduced, and of one important fact 
 which they were designed to recognize 1 The words, 
 though most happily adapted to the subject treated 
 of, were not uttered in literal construction with the 
 context, but by way of admirative exclamation. 
 Whelmed in admiration of God's marvelous and dis- 
 tinguishing goodness manifested to Israel, the pro- 
 phet exclaimed D^ nr\ *\x aph chobeb ammim, Yea, 
 or rather, Surely he loved the people ; and, specially 
 affected with that evidence of it which God had given 
 in committing them to the never-failing protection 
 and guidance of the iricreated Angel the Angel in 
 whom his name is, in whom his nature and perfec- 
 tions dwell ; a specially affected; I say, with this 
 evidence of God's love to Israel and of the Angel's 
 constant care of them, b and probably enjoying, at the 
 time, much communion with God through this Angel 
 of his presence, Moses gratefully acknowledges all ; 
 for, not by any rudeness of speech or violation of 
 grammar, but, as I understand him, by an elegant 
 apostrophe, and as moved thereto by the Holy Ghost, 
 he directs his address to this divine Angel, say- 
 ing of God's Israel, "All his saints are in THY 
 * Exo. xxiii. 21. Col. ii. 9. b Exo. xiv. 19. xxiii. 20, 21. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 141 
 
 hand they sat down at THY feet, every one of them 
 shall receive of THY words.* 
 
 This change, therefore, of the pronoun from the 
 third to the second person, is not an instance of " ver- 
 bal confusion," but a special evidence of divine in- 
 spiration ; the Holy Ghost thus leading the prophet 
 to recognize the important fact, that God, in order 
 to render the Israelites the more evidently and emi- 
 nently a type of his elect, had committed them to 
 the providential hand of his divine Son. And the 
 passage, so understood, instead of being " obscure 
 and equivocal," is one of the most perspicuous illus- 
 trations of God's favor to his Israel, both national 
 and spiritual. 
 
 In conformity, then, to this view of the disputed 
 address, I shall consider the several members of the 
 text in .their natural succession ; with reference, 
 
 * This interpretation of the address in question, though confes- 
 sedly original, is no vain conceit. It is amply supported by the 
 Mosaic history ; see the places just referred to, and Deut. xxxii. 
 "9 12 ; by the writings of the prophets ; See Psal. Ix. 4. 5. Ixxx. 
 17, 18 ; and Is, Ixiii. 9 ; and by the testimony of " Stephen, a man 
 full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." See Acts vii. 30, 35 and 38. 
 Nor is this the only passage of scripture in which we find a pro- 
 noun of the 2d. or 3rd. person, used without an antecedent. Da- 
 vid, rapt in holy meditation on God's foundation, laid in Zion, 
 with a similar abruptness, begins the Ixxxvii. Psalm " His foun- 
 dation is in the holy mountains." In like manner the church, ar- 
 dently desiring some new manifestations of the love of Christ, 
 without naming him, exclaims, " Let him kiss me with the kisses 
 of his mouth: for" (then directing her address to him) " THY love 
 is better than wine." Cant. i. 2. And Mary, absorpt in thought 
 about her blessed Lord, and intensely solicitous to find his sacred 
 body, said (as she supposed to the gardener,) " Sir, if thou have 
 borne HIM hence, tell me where thou hast laid HIM, and I will 
 take HIM away." John xx. 15. 
 
142 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 I. To national, and 
 
 II. To spiritual Israel. 
 
 I. With reference to national Israel. Admiring 
 the divine favor to that nation, Moses 
 
 1. Declares the moving cause of it, namely God's 
 love set upon them ; Yea, or Surely he loved the 
 people. By this declaration, the prophet manifestly 
 designed to account for the manner in which God 
 by his word and providence had distinguished that 
 people. That the reason of their being so distin- 
 guished was not in themselves, he had assured them 
 before ; d and, that they were no better in nature, and, 
 when left to themselves, no better in practice than 
 other nations, is evident from the whole tenor of 
 their history. Nevertheless, that they so enjoyed the 
 divine protection and patronage as no other nation 
 did, was so obvious that even their enemies confess- 
 ed it. e The reason, therefore, of all God's acts of 
 kindness towards them, must have existed in him- 
 self he must have been self-moved to do them good 
 he must have loved them with a love which, in its 
 kind, was absolute and discriminating ; Surely he 
 loved the people not as an acknowledgement of any 
 -excellence in them or in their doings, but as an ex- 
 pression of his own sovereign good-will ; he loved 
 the people because he would love them and so lov- 
 ing them, he had distinguished and would distin- 
 guish them. 
 
 We must not forget, however, that while God 
 found no reason in the Israelitish nation, why he 
 should favor them above other nations, he, neverthe- 
 less, in all the expressions of his kindness to that 
 
 d Deut. ix. 5, 6. e Ibid, xxxii. 31 and Psal. cxxvi. 2. 
 \ 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 143 
 
 people, had respect to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob, and to his covenant antecedently made 
 with those fathers concerning their posterity/ 
 
 In those eminent patriarchs, God chose the nation 
 that should descend from them, to be a peculiar peo- 
 ple unto himself; " The Lord," said Moses to Israel, 
 " had delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose 
 their seed after them ; even you, above all people, as 
 it is this day." g 
 
 In their fathers also he blessed them : for all his 
 promises respecting their increase and their inher- 
 itance, were originally made to those patriarchs. h 
 
 Accordingly, God's deliverance of them out of 
 Egypt, though an evidence of his love to them, was in 
 compliance with his antecedent asseveration made to 
 their famous ancestors : " Because the Lord loved 
 you," said Moses to them, " and because he would 
 keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers,* 
 hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, 
 and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from 
 the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." k 
 
 Moses, continuing his admiration of the divine 
 favor to Israel, 
 
 2. Recognizes that eminent instance of it, which 
 God had given in committing them to the hand of the 
 divine Angel here addressed : all his saints, all God's 
 Israel, (O Angel of the covenant) are in thy hand. 
 The angel supposed to be here addressed, we call 
 divine, not as Arians and Socinians admit him to be 
 such, that is, merely by virtue of a divine call and 
 
 f Gen. xxii. 16, 17. xxvi. 3, 4. Exo. ii. 24. Lev. xxvi. 42. 
 1 Chron. xvi. 16, 17. g Deut. x. 15. h Gen. xvii. 7, 8. xxvi. 35. 
 and xxviii. 13, 14. * Exo. xxxii. 13. Psal. cv. 810. k Deut. 
 
 vii. 8. 
 
144 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 delegation to office ; but because, upon revealed au- 
 thority, we confidently believe him to be such by 
 nature. " My name," said God the Father, " is in 
 him ;" and by which, as noticed in the introduction, 
 he could mean nothing less than that he possesses 
 the same divine nature and perfections, which are 
 possessed by the Father himself. l Besides, it is 
 manifest that this Angel, who, in Exo. xiv. 19, 
 is called the Angel of God, is the same person who, 
 in the original of Chapter xxiii. 21, is called JEHO- 
 VAH, a name which, from rrn or mn to be, denotes 
 essential Being Being underived, independent and 
 eternal ; and which, therefore, is a name applicable 
 to no nature but the divine. m Moreover, the same 
 person whom the Israelites tempted at Massah and 
 when compassing the land of Edom, and whom Mo- 
 ses, in Num. xxi. 5. calls God, and, in Exo. xvii. 2. 7. 
 JEHOVAH ; and of whom in Deut. vi. 16, he said to 
 Israel, JEHOVAH your God, the apostle Paul,in ICor. 
 x. 9, expressly calls CHRIST. Well, therefore, might 
 Moses rejoice that the people who lay so near his 
 heart, and to whom he himself belonged, w r ere in the 
 hand of this Angel, this Holy One of Israel, who 
 possessed all divine perfections to preserve and di- 
 rect them. 
 
 We must not dismiss this article, however, with- 
 out endeavoring to settle two points. 1. In what 
 sense the Israelites are here called saints. No doubt 
 many of them, including Moses, were saints by in- 
 ternal sanctification. But that all of them were such, 
 their general character forbids us to believe, On the 
 
 lExod. xxiii. 2023. John x. 30, and Col. ii. 9. Psal. 
 Ixxxiii. 18. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 145 
 
 contrary, what Paul said of that nation, long after- 
 wards, Moses, with equal truth, might have said of 
 them in his day : They arc not all Israel, who are 
 of Israel ; that is, they are not all spiritual Israel- 
 ites, who are the natural descendants of Jacob. u 
 Wherefore the appellation of saints, as it is here and 
 elsewhere given to the nation of^ Israel in common, 
 is not to be understood with respect to internal sanc- 
 tification at all ; but merely with respect to their 
 separation, in the counsel and by the providence of 
 God, from all other nations, and to the obligation of 
 that peculiar covenant, which they, as a nation, were 
 brought under, to acknowledge and worship the true 
 God, to the rejection of heathen idols ; and to which 
 they had solemnly assented. And 2. How, as a 
 nation, they were in the hand of Christ. To sup- 
 pose, that as a divine person simply considered, He 
 had them in his hand, would be to suppose of them 
 only what is true of all nations, yea, of all creatures ; 
 for the divine nature, in Christ, as in the Father and 
 in the Holy Ghost, is over all, God blessed for 
 ever. p In his official capacity, therefore, Christ must 
 have had them in his hand. This indeed is implied 
 in the words ; by which it is evident that they were 
 in his hand by an act of God the Father, whose they 
 were : all his saints, said Moses to Christ, are in thy 
 hand. Christ, however, in his official capacity sus- 
 tains a twofold character: He is the Mediator of 
 the covenant of grace, q and the Administrator of 
 divine Providence/ As the Mediator of the cove- 
 nant of grace, He is able to save them to the utter- 
 
 n Rom. ix. 6. Comp. Chap. ii. 28. Exo. xix. 58. xxiv. 3, 7. 
 Deut. v. 27, 28. vii. 6. P Rom. ix. 5. q Heb. viii. 6. r Psal Ixxv. 
 2, 3. Is. ix. 36. Micah iv. 3, 11, 12, 13. 
 
 19 
 
146 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER IV. 
 
 most that come unto God by him ; s and, as the Ad- 
 ministrator of divine Providence, he says, All power 
 is given unto me in heaven and in earth.* Now, 
 that the Jewish nation, as such, was not in his hand 
 as he is the Mediator of the covenant of grace, is 
 manifest; for if so, all the individuals of it must 
 have received that grace from him which would have 
 brought them to God by him ; u whereas, in every gene- 
 ration, multitudes of them have utterly denied and re- 
 jected him, and have sought to come to God " by the 
 works of the law ; w and consequently (dreadful to 
 think) must, according to his threatening, have died 
 in their sins. x Nevertheless, they were in his hand 
 as he is the Administrator of divine Providence ; and 
 that, not merely as the Father hath given him pow- 
 er over all flesh, y but as he confided to him, the ad- 
 ministration of that special Providence which he had 
 purposed to observe, in relation to that peculiar peo- 
 ple. Nor did God's promise of the Angel's presence 
 with them imply any thing more : " Behold," said he, 
 " I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, 
 and to bring thee into the place which I have pre- 
 pared." 2 Being thus in the official hand of Christ, 
 they were required to obey and revere him : " Beware 
 of him," said God to them, " and obey his voice ; 
 provoke him not, for he will not pardon your trans- 
 gressions ;" that is, he would not wink at or excuse 
 their rebelion, any more than the Father who sent 
 him would. Here let it be recollected, that if the 
 person spoken of had been a mere creature, human 
 or angelic, JEHOVAH would not have said he will not, 
 
 8 Heb. vii. 25. l Matt, xxviii. 18. u Psal. ex. 3. John vi. 37 
 39. w Rom. ix. 31 33.x. 3. x John viii. 2124. ylbid. xvii. 
 2. z Exo. xxiii. 20. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 147 
 
 but he cannot pardon your transgressions; and 
 much less, to account for the assertion, would he 
 have added, for my name is in him ; a whose name we 
 are assured consists of his perfections, and is the de- 
 fense of his people. b Accordingly, Moses precedes 
 3. To recognize the subjection of Israel to this 
 Angel : they sat down at thy feet. The word 
 isn tucchu, here rendered they sat down, occurring 
 nowhere else but in Is. i. 5, where it evidently means 
 stricken or smitten, has occasioned some diversity of 
 opinion respecting the reference and meaning of this 
 sentence. Dr. Kennicott, understanding it with ref- 
 erence to the position of the Israelites when they 
 received the law, took the word in its latter mean- 
 ing, and rendered it they fell down, struck pros- 
 trate, as it should seem he supposed they were, at 
 seeing the Majesty and hearing the voice of the di- 
 vine Law-giver. But this makes the recognition to 
 contradict the history; for although Moses, by di- 
 vine order "brought forth the people out of the 
 camp to meet with God" at Sinai, he does not say 
 that they fell down, nor even, as in our text, that 
 they sat down, but, " that they stood at the nether 
 part of the mount." Wherefore, I understand 
 Moses, in the text, as recognizing the position of 
 the Israelites, not at the foot of the mount, but at 
 the foot of the cloud ; by which and from which they 
 received all their journeying directions. And so un- 
 derstood, the recognition exactly corresponds to the 
 history. For, as all their removes and courses were 
 governed by the removes and courses of the cloud ; 
 so where the cloud rested, they sat down, that is, 
 
 *Exo. xxiii. 21. blbid. xxxiv. 6. Pfeal. xx. 1. c Exo. xix. 17. 
 
148 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 pitched their tents and remained stationary, till it 
 again removed ; and as the cloud stood over them, 
 they (figuratively speaking) sat at the feet of the 
 divine Angel, who dwelt in it. d Nor did they merely 
 sit down at his feet ; they also received their orders 
 from him. Hence, 
 
 4. Moses said to him ymais *&* yissa middabbero- 
 theycha, he, or every one shall receive of thy words. 
 But, instead of xir yissa, he or every one shall receive, 
 Dr. Kennicott reads iKtsr .yisseu, they shall receive; 
 and which, as it best agrees with the context, bids 
 fair to be the true reading ; though we cannot admit 
 his change of the pronoun affixed to the following 
 word, from the second to the third person, because 
 it does not agree with the context in the standard 
 copy. 
 
 In the preceding sentence, Moses gratefully ac- 
 knowledged the divine influence which the Israelites, 
 prone as they were to rebel, had been mercifully un- 
 der, during the times to which he referred. Sub- 
 missive to the Angel, they had come out of Egypt 
 and, observant of the cloud in which the Angel resi- 
 ded, they had alternately journeyed and rested, till, 
 thus conducted, they had reached the borders of the 
 promised land : and in this sentence, moved by the 
 Spirit of prophecy, he foretold their subjection to the 
 same infallible Guide for the time to come : they 
 shall receive of thy words. 
 
 Those who understand the preceding sentence to 
 respect the position of the Israelites when they re- 
 ceived the law, understand this prediction to have 
 been fulfilled in them, when they received the words 
 
 d Num. ix. 1523. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 149 
 
 of the law, as recapitulated to them by Joshua, who 
 succeded Moses, as the visible representative and 
 type of CHRIST. e To me, however, it seems much 
 more probable, because much more agreeable to 
 what had preceded, that this prediction respected the 
 directions which the Israelites, under Joshua, should 
 receive from Christ, by means of the ark. f For as 
 the cloud, during the ministry of Moses, so the ark, 
 ever afterward, was the instituted symbol of Christ's 
 presence with national Israel. Thus understood, a 
 typical harmony also is preserved. For, as Moses 
 died and the cloud disappeared, preparatory to the 
 ushering in of Joshua and the directive use of the 
 ark, in which the tables of the law were deposited ; 
 so the Mosaic dispensation, of which the cloud might 
 be an emblem, was abolished in Christ, the antitype 
 of Joshua ; g and the use of the ark, an emblem of 
 Christ, in whom the law is kept inviolate, ceased be- 
 fore the commencement of the gospel dispensation 
 and its ordinances, in which he is more evidently set 
 forth, as the fulfilling end of the law for righteous- 
 ness to everyone thatbelieveth.* And as, not under 
 Moses but under Joshua, Israel was brought into 
 the promised land; so, not through the law but 
 through Christ, the Church is brought into her 
 promised inheritance, both of grace here, and of 
 glory hereafter/ Thus, while types and symbols 
 have been successively varied, the substance under 
 all dispensations has remained the same ; Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.* 
 
 The literal interpretation which I have given of 
 the text, happily coincides with the Targum of On- 
 
 e Josh. viii. 34, 35. f Josh. iii. 3. iv. 11. g 2 Cor. iii. 13. 
 h Rom. x. 4. Gal. iii. 1. * John i. 16. Rom. vi. 23. k Heb. xiii. 8. 
 
150 THE LOVE OP GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 kelos, which the learned, both Jews and Christians, 
 have constantly regarded as the best Chaldee version 
 and paraphrase of the Pentateuch; and which, on 
 our text, runs thus : Surely he loved the tribes, all 
 his holy ones of the house of Israel : in his might he 
 led them out of Egypt: and they were conducted 
 under thy cloud; and went forward at thy com- 
 mand.* I procede to consider the words, 
 
 II. With reference to spiritual Israel. That God, 
 by his favor manifested to national Israel, designed to 
 illustrate his richer favor toward a people of whom that 
 nation was but a type, is, among Christians, univer- 
 sally admitted. And this people, most comprehen- 
 sively taken, I understand to be all the elect of every 
 nation and of every generation, from the beginning 
 to the end of the world. These, consisting partly 
 of Jews and partly of Gentiles, constitute that 
 Israel who shall be saved in the Lord, the Lord 
 Jesus, with an everlasting salvation, and who shall 
 not be ashamed nor confounded, world without 
 end. l 
 
 How aptly the favor by which God distinguished 
 national Israel, serves to illustrate that greater favor 
 by which he has distinguished and will for ever distin- 
 guish the people of whom that nation was a type, may 
 be seen, 
 
 1. In the source of it; and which is here declared 
 to be LOVE : Surely he loved the people, the people 
 of national Israel. In his love of them, and his love 
 of their antitype, there is an obvious resemblance, 
 yet a no less obvious difference. A resemblance in 
 manner, but a difference in kind. For, as he loved 
 
 * Lond. Polyg. i Is. xlv. 17. Rom. xi. 26. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 151 
 
 Israel, as he loved no other nation ; m so he loved his 
 elect, as he loves no other people ; n and as his love 
 for Israel was sovereign, they being in nature no bet- 
 ter than other nations ; so is his love for his elect ; 
 they being by nature dead in sin and children of 
 wrath even as others. p Yet, in kind, the love with 
 which he loves his elect, differs as essentially from 
 that with which he loved national Israel, as the love 
 which a temporal prince feels for his children, dif- 
 fers from that which he feels for his subjects. To 
 national Israel, God stood in the relation of a king ; q 
 but to spiritual Israel, he stands in the relation of a 
 Father. T For, although in some passages of scrip- 
 ture, he is spoken of as acting the part of a Father 
 to national Israelites ; those passages, when exam- 
 ined, will all be found to respect, either merely his 
 providential kindness to them and care over them, or 
 his treatment of those among them, who, being cir- 
 cumcised in heart, were Israelites indeed. 8 
 
 Correspondent to this difference in God's love for 
 national Israel, and his love for the people of whom 
 they were a figure, is the difference in the favors by 
 which he has respectively distinguished them. This 
 appears 1. In election: both were indeed objects 
 of God's choice ; but in different relations and to 
 different conditions ; the former he chose in relation 
 to their natural ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Ja- 
 cob ;* but the latter, in relation to Christ, of whom 
 those patriarchs were only types ; u the former, to 
 civil and temporal -distinction: 17 but the latter, to 
 
 m Deut. vii.6 8. n l John iv. 9, 10. Deut. ix. 6. PEph. ii. 
 13. i 1 Sam. xii. 12. r Matt. vi. 8, 9. 2 Cor. vi. 18. s Is. i. 2. 
 Jer. iii. 4. *Deut. iv. 37. "Num. xxix. 17, 19. Rom. iv. 13. 
 Gal. iii. 16. Heb. xi. 1719. w Deut. xxviii. 114. 
 
152 THE LOVE OP GOD [SEE. IV 
 
 spiritual and eternal distinction. x 2. In the inherit- 
 ances bequeathed to them ; to the former, the earthly 
 Canaan ; y but to the latter, the heavenly, even that 
 inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled, and 
 that fadeth not away, &c. z 3. In sanctification : 
 that of national Israel, as such, was only relative and 
 external ; a but the sanctification of spiritual Israel- 
 ites is personal and internal; 13 though, in the present 
 state, not universal andperfect, c And 4. In adop- 
 tion. To the former, as God's first-born, or national 
 heir, pertained the adoption to a correspondent pro- 
 motion in civil arid ceremonial privileges-/ but the 
 adoption of the elect is to the filial relation and the 
 heavenly patrimony. e All these blessings, by which 
 God has so eminently distinguished the objects of 
 his electing love, the apostle Paul, with thanksgiving, 
 enumerates together, in a few words: "Blessed," 
 saith he, "be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
 ings in heavenly places in Christ ; according as he 
 hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
 world, that we should be holy and without blame be- 
 fore him in love ; having predestinated us unto the 
 adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac- 
 cording to the good pleasure of his will." f 
 
 A like difference, too, is evident in the covenants 
 which God made respecting national Israel, and that 
 which he made respecting his elect. And 1. In the 
 persons with whom he made them. Those which 
 respected national Israel, he made with men as that 
 
 x Rom. viii. 2834. y Gen. xiv. 57. xv. 18. ^Heb. xi. 16. 1 Pet. 
 i. 3__5. a Lev xi 45 D ellt iv 32__35. b Rom ^ 2 8, 29. Philip. 
 
 iii. 3. c Rom. vii. 18, 25. d Exo. iv. 22. Rom. ix. 4. e Gal. iv. 6. 
 Jas. ii. 5. f Eph. i. 35. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 153 
 
 which he made with Abraham,* and renewed to 
 Isaac? and to Jacob ;* and the Sinaic covenant, 
 which, through Moses, he made with the Israelites 
 themselves ; k but the covenant of grace respecting 
 the elect, he made with Christ, their divine Cove- 
 nanteeand Surety. 1 2, In the blessings which they 
 respected. Those which he made with the Israel- 
 itish patriarchs concerning their natural posterity, 
 as such, respected only temporal things ; to wit, their 
 redemption and deliverance from Egyptian bondage, 
 and their possession of Canaan and civil prosperity 
 there ; ra but the covenant of grace, which he made 
 with Christ concerning the elect, respects both grace 
 and glory, and which, as provisions of this covenant, 
 were given to them in him before the world began. a 
 Accordingly, as God's national heir, when liable to 
 judicial death from the. hand of the destroying angel, 
 was redeemed by the sacrifice of the paschal lambs ; 
 so his heirs of grace and glory, when liable to eter- 
 nal death, as the just punishment for their sins, were 
 redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, who appeared 
 in their law-place and suffered the just for the un- 
 just ; p and as the nation of Israel, thus redeemed 
 from the fate of Egypt by sacrifice, were delivered 
 from the yoke of Egypt by power ; q so, the elect be- 
 ing all redeemed from the fate of this world by the 
 sacrifice of Christ, are, in the order of time, all de- 
 livered from the course of this world by the power 
 of divine grace. T These favors, too, in both cases, 
 
 g Gen. xv. 18. xvii. 24. h Gen. xxvi. 3, 4. 'Ibid, xxviii. 
 13, 14. k Exo. xxiv. 27. Deut. v. 24. iPsal. Ixxxix. 19. 
 3437. Luke i. 32, 33. m Deut. vii. 8, 9. Psal. cv. 811. n John 
 vi.39. 2 Tim. i. 9. Comp. Psal. Ixxxiv. li. Exo. xii. 6. 13. 
 p Gal. iv. 4, 5. 1 Pet. iii. 18. i Exo. xv. 13, r Gal. i. 4. 
 
 20 
 
154 THE LOVE OF GOD [SEE. IV. 
 
 depended on covenant-relation. For, as God, in all he 
 did for national Israel, had respect to his covenant in 
 one form or another made with their fathers ; s so, all 
 he has done or will do for his elect, is but the fulfil- 
 ment of his covenant-stipulations with Christ, their di- 
 vine Surety and the antitype of those fathers ; l More- 
 over, as the covenants concerning national Israel, and 
 that concerning the elect, differed in the persons with 
 whom they were made, and in the blessings which 
 they respected ; so also 3. In the tenor of their 
 promises. The promises respecting the entrance of 
 national Israelites into Canaan, and their continuance 
 and prosperity there, were all conditional ; the fulfil- 
 ment of them being suspended upon their obedi- 
 ence ; u and hence many of them, for their disobedi- 
 ence, died in the wilderness ; and though the nation, 
 as such, however reduced, did enter the land, yet, for 
 their idolatries they were suffered to be carried out 
 of it into Babylon, where they remained in a state of 
 captivity seventy years ; and though, by divine favor 
 they were restored to it, yet again, for their rebelion, 
 and especially for their ill-treatment of the Messiah, 
 they were ejected from it, and have ever since been 
 dispersed among other nations. But the promises 
 respecting the elect, were all made to Christ ; and 
 therefore the fulfilment of them depended, not 
 upon their obedience but upon his faithful compli- 
 ance with his covenant-engagements ; and the 
 Father having acknowledged his entire com- 
 pliance with these engagements, by raising him 
 from the dead and receiving him to heaven ; w it 
 follows that the fulfilment of all the promises thus 
 
 el Chron. xvi. 1322. 'Psal. Ixxxix. 2737. Is. xlii. 6. 7. 
 Num. xxxii. 11. Is. i. 19, 20. w Rom. iv. 25. Acts ii. 33. 
 
SER. IV,] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 155 
 
 made to him, concerning the people whom he repre- 
 sented in his obedience and death, must be just as 
 certain as it is that the power and faithfulness of God 
 are infallible. Thus the apostle Paul distinguish- 
 ed the promises made in Christ from those that were 
 made out of him : " For," said he, " all the promises 
 of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the 
 glory of God by us. x Compared, therefore, either 
 with Moses, who was a political mediator for Israel/ 
 or with Aaron, who was their ceremonial mediator, 1 
 " Christ hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by 
 how much also he is the Mediator of a better cove- 
 nant, which was established upon better promises." a * 
 As in its source, so 
 
 II. In the special instances of it here specified, 
 the favor of God to the national Israelites serves to 
 illustrate his greater favor toward the people of whom 
 they were a type. And 
 
 1. In his separation of them, on account of which 
 they are here and elsewhere called saints or holy. 
 He separated them by his purpose of providence, 
 when he chose them in their patriarchs to be a holy 
 and a special people unto himself, above all other na- 
 tions ; b yet, in this, they were only a type of his more 
 beloved people, whom, by his purpose of grace, he 
 separated in Christ, according as he chose them in 
 him before the foundation of the world, that they 
 
 x 2Cor. i. 20. yExo, xxxii. 1114. z Num. xvi. 4648 
 aHeb. viii. 6. 
 
 * That many of the national Israelites received grace on earth 
 and glory in heaven, are facts clearly revealed ; Heb. xi. 13 ; but 
 they received them, not according to the national covenants but 
 according to the covenant of grace, and as they themselves be- 
 longed to the election of grace. Rom. xi. 1 7. 
 b Lev. xx. 24. Dent. xiv. 2. 
 
156 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 should be holy and without blame before him in 
 love. c He separated the Israelites in redemption 
 by the paschal sacrifice ; d but much more the elect 
 in redemption by Christ, who, that he might sanc- 
 tify the people [whom he represented] with his 
 own blood, suffered without the gate. e More visi- 
 bly, however, God separated the Israelites, when he 
 delivered them from the iron yoke of Pharaoh and 
 brought them forth out of the house of bondage/ A 
 great favor indeed ; yet, merely a type of that greater 
 favor which he confers on his elect in their effectual 
 calling ; in which he delivers them from the stronger 
 yoke of Satan, and brings them from under the more 
 absolute bondage of the covenant of works. g Herein 
 also, he gives them a new heart and puts within 
 them a new spirit; whereby he enables them in some 
 good degree, to walk in newness of life. 11 Thus, 
 even in the present state, they are made free from 
 sin; riot, indeed, from its hatefid indwelling, but, 
 from its ruinous dominion^ For, being purified in the 
 eye of divine justice, by the precious blood of Christ, 
 and renewed in their minds, by the regenerating 
 and sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost, they 
 become manifestly a peculiar people, zealous of good 
 works works which God had before ordained that 
 we should walk in them ; that thereby we might show 
 forth the praises of him who hath called us out of 
 darkness into his marvelous light. k 
 
 Farther to promote the visible separation of his 
 national Israel, God gave them laws, which even their 
 enemies confessed were diverse from those of all 
 
 Eph. i. 4. d Exo. xi. 7. e Heb. xiii. 12. f Lev. xxvi. 13. 
 Luke. xi. 21, 22. Rom. vi. 14. h Ez. xxxvi. 26, 27. Rom. vi. 
 i_4. i Ibid. ver. 22. k Titus ii. 14. Eph. ii. 10. 1 Pet. ii. 9. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 157 
 
 other people;* and to which correspond the gospel, 
 the law of faith its ordinances its code of church- 
 discipline, and all its precepts respecting holy and 
 useful living, which he hath specially given to his 
 spiritual Israel, the gospel-church ; and by which he 
 separates and distinguishes her, both from mystical 
 Babylon, and from "the world that lieth in wicked- 
 ness." "The grace of God," the gospel, "which 
 bringeth salvation," that is, the report concerning 
 the way of salvation, " hath" indeed " appeared unto 
 all men," to Gentiles as well as Jews, the preaching 
 of it to all nations being authorized by the commis- 
 sion; yet, to the elect only, whether among Jews 
 or Gentiles, it is rendered the power of God unto 
 saltation; and by which discriminating influence, 
 their election is made manifest, both to themselves 
 and to one another : " Knowing," saith an apostle to 
 believers, " your election of God ; for our gospel 
 came not unto you in word only," as it does to 
 others ; "but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, 
 and in much assurance." p The observance of its 
 ordinances is a duty peculiar to believers, q its code 
 of discipline extends only to the household of faith,* 
 and its precepts constitute specialty the rule for the 
 deportment of Christians ; it being to them, and not 
 to the world, that the apostle is saying, " Only let your 
 conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ." " 
 Spiritual Israelites, moreover, like the national 
 Israelites, are relatively and professedly separated 
 
 Esther iii 8. m Rom. iii. 27. n l John v. 19. Rev. v. 36. 
 Titus ii. 11, 12. Matt, xxviii. 19. Rom. i. 16. Acts xiii. 48. 
 P 1 Thess. i. 4, 5. 1 Matt, xxviii. 19. Mark xvi. 16. Acts ii. 
 3741. 1 Cor. xi. 2329. 'Matt, xviii. 1517. 1 Cor. v. 12. 
 Philip, i. 27. 
 
158 THE LOVE OF GOD [SEE IV. 
 
 from the rest of mankind ; and therefore, like them, 
 though in a higher sense, are required to be holy, 
 that is, to be practically saints. 1 For, as the national 
 Israelites, according to the legal dispensation, to 
 which they voluntarily acceded, avouched God to be 
 their God, to the rejection of idols and of idolatrous 
 worship ; u so all that are in reality spiritual Israelites, 
 in embracing the gospel, have received Christ, to the 
 rejection of every other object of trust, and his in- 
 stitutions, to the rejection of all human traditions; 
 and have acknowledged God in him to be their God, 
 to the rejection of all " the lying vanities" and idola- 
 trous ceremonies, both of heathens and of papists. * 
 Accordingly, my believing hearers, when in our dis- 
 tress under conviction, God revealed himself to us 
 in Christ, we gladly said, " Lo this is our God ; we 
 have waited for him, and he will save us ; this is the 
 Lord ; we have waited for him, we will be glad and 
 rejoice in his salvation. y Lord, thou wilt ordain 
 peace for us : for thou also hast wrought all our 
 works in us. O Lord our God, other lords besides 
 thee have had dominion over us : but by thee only 
 will we make mention of thy name. z For this God 
 is our God for ever and ever : he will be our guide, 
 even unto death." a 
 
 2. In the guardianship to which God committed 
 the national Israelites, who are here called his saints : 
 " all his saints," said Moses to Christ, " are in thy 
 hand." To the same hand, indeed, because it is in- 
 fallible, he committed his elect ; yet under circum- 
 stances infinitely more advantageous. He commit- 
 
 l Lev. xi. 45. 1 Pet. i. 15. "Josh. xxiv. 24. *Col. iii. 11. 
 1 Thess. i. 9. 2 Thess. ii. 717. * Is. xxv. 9. z Ibid. xxvi. 12, 
 13. aPsal. xlviii. 14. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 159 
 
 ted national Israel to the hand of Christ, as his cho- 
 sen Administrator of that peculiar Providence which 
 he designed to observe in regard to that nation ; but 
 his elect, he committed to the hand of Christ, as he 
 had chosen him to be their Representative trusted 
 in him as their Surety b and constituted him the De- 
 pository and Medium of all that grace which he had 
 resolved to employ and display in their spiritual and 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 The preservation of the national Israelites, and 
 their entrance into the promised Canaan, under the 
 providential care of Christ, depended upon their 
 own obedience ; d and hence, in perfect consistency 
 with his official faithfulness, many of them, as noticed 
 before, died by the way, and the nation, though 
 eventually brought into the land, found reason to la- 
 ment their ejection, saying to God, "The people of 
 thy holiness have possessed it but a little while : our 
 adversaries" (the Chaldeans) " have trodden down 
 thy sanctuary." 6 But all who are truly spiritual 
 Israelites are of those who were sanctified, set apart 
 by God the Father, in eternal election, preserved in 
 Jesus Christ ; not from falling in Adam, but from fall- 
 ing into hell ; and called ; { and being called, they are 
 manifestly justified ; and being justified, they shall 
 assuredly be glorified ; g and being glorified, they 
 shall never, like the national Israelites, be disinhe- 
 rited ; they shall go no more out. h The two people 
 then were committed to the hand of Christ, in very 
 different relations to God ; the former, as his adopted 
 
 b Eph. i. 6. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Comp. Is. xlii. 21, Jer. xxx. 21, 
 and Heb. vii. 14. c Col. i. 19. 2 Tim. i. 9. Rom. v. 21, and 
 vi. 23. <*Exo. xxiii. 2023. Num. xxxii. 11. e ls. Ixiii. 18. 
 f Jude, ver. 1. g Rom. viii. 30. h Rev. iii. 12. 
 
160 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 nation ; * the latter as his adopted children ; k the for- 
 mer, as his subjects, the latter, as his heirs ;* the for- 
 mer, as the objects of his temporal favor ; the latter as 
 the objects of his everlasting love. m Christ also re- 
 ceived them with very different regards : the former, 
 merely as his providential charge ; but the latter, as 
 the members of his mystical body and the constitu- 
 ents of his chosen spouse. n His interest, therefore, 
 in the former, was only official; but, his interest in 
 the latter, is sympathetic and conjugal. The for- 
 mer he calls Lo-ammi, not my people ; p but the 
 latter Hephzibah, my delight is in her. q Nor did 
 God the Father resign his interest in the elect, or at 
 all relinquish his care of them, when he committed 
 them to the hand and possession of his Son : " all 
 mine" said Christ to the Father, " are thine, and 
 thine are mine ; and I am glorified in them." The 
 Father and the Son, have a common interest in them 
 and a common care over them/ Hence, Christ not 
 only confidently says, " I give unto them eternal life, 
 and they shall never perish ; neither shall any pluck 
 them out of my hand ;" but triumphantly adds, " My 
 Father which gave them me is greater than all, and 
 none is able to pluck them out of my Father's 
 hand." 8 
 
 3. In the station which God assigned to the na- 
 tional Israelites. They, said Moses to the divine 
 Angel, sat down at thy feet ; and which they did as 
 he was in the cloud that stood over them. See pp. 
 
 1 Rom ix. 4. k Gal. iv. 6. J Rom. viii. 17. m Jer. xxxi. 3. 
 Zeph. iii. 17. n 1 Cor. xii. 12. Eph. v. 25, 26, 27, 32. Ibid, 
 ver. 30. Cant. iv. 8, 9, 10. Rev. xxi. 9. P Hosea i. 9. 1 1s. Ixii. 
 4. r John xvii. 10. s Ibid. x. 28, 29. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 161 
 
 147, 148. This might be designed to imply their de- 
 pendence upon him, as a providential preserver. 1 
 And thus, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, 
 which God hath appointed for the purpose, he brings 
 all his elect to the feet of Christ, acknowledging 
 their dependence upon him, as a spiritual Saviour. 
 Accordingly, It is written in the prophets, (Is. liv, 
 13.) And they shall be all taught of God. Every 
 man, therefore, saith Christ, that hath heard and 
 learned of the Father cometh unto me" Convinced 
 of their lost estate, they come to him for salvation. 
 According to prophecy, they fall down before 
 him, and make supplication unto him, saying, 
 Surely God is in thee; yes, God is in Christ, 
 reconciling the world, the Gentiles, unto him- 
 self, not imputing their trespasses unto ihem.^ 
 Realizing their pollution and nakedness, they come 
 to him for cleansing and clothing. Nor do they 
 come in vain ; for, to such, his precious blood is a 
 fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness ; and by 
 him, all that believe, (in doing which, coming to him 
 consists) are justified from all things* Sensible of 
 spiritual hunger and thirst, they come to him, who, 
 for their encouragement, is saying, / am the Bread 
 of life eat ye that ichich is good and, If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me and drinkJ Thus saved, 
 and cleansed, and justified and nourished, like the 
 man out of whom the legion was cast, they are found 
 sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in their 
 right mind. z 
 
 Still addressing the divine Angel and speaking of 
 the Israelites, Moses adds, 
 
 ' Num. x. 3336. "John vi. 45. * I s . x lv. 14. 2 Cor. v. 19. 
 x Zechxiii. 1. 1 John i. 7. Acts xiii. 39. yJohnri. 48. It. 
 ly. 2. John vii. 37. Mark r. 15. 
 
 21 
 
162 THE LOVE OF GOD [SER. IV. 
 
 4. They shall receive of thy words. From the 
 cloud, they had received of his words, at the time of 
 their exodus from Egypt, a and repeatedly, during 
 their journey in the wilderness ; b but here, Moses 
 foretold that they should enjoy the same favor, in 
 times then future ; though in a somewhat different 
 manner, as noticed and explained before. See pp. 148, 
 149. The same also, is true of spiritual Israelites. 
 They have received of the words of Christ, and ac- 
 cording to promise and prophecy, shall still receive 
 of them. They received of his words, at their con- 
 version. Herein, the elect receive his quickening 
 word, and live, c his enlightening word, and see* 
 his inviting word, and come to ' him, e and, his com- 
 forting word, and rejoice in him ; having no longer 
 any confidence in the flesh.* Thus it is, that he calleth 
 his own sheep l)y name and leadeth them out, that is, 
 out of all the refuges of lies in which they had trust- 
 ed before, into a state of faith and hope in himself/ 
 Hence, though all the elect belong to him by the Fa- 
 ther's gift and by his own redemption of them from 
 under the curse,* 1 yet only the regenerate, are the 
 called of Jesus Christ. 1 And being thus effectually 
 called by him, they receive of his words, when they 
 acknowledge him as their Lord and Master, by sub- 
 mitting to baptism, according to his command and 
 example ; k by uniting with some branch of his 
 Church, in gospel order ; ! by partaking at his table, 
 in commemoration of his death ; m and by maintain- 
 
 Exo. xiii. 21,22. and xiv. 1 4. b Num. ix. 15 23. c John 
 v. 25. d Psal. cxix. 130. Rev. Hi. 18. Matt. xi. 28. John vi. 
 37. f Philip, iii. 3. e John x. 3. h John vi. 39. xvii. 6. Eph. i. 7. 
 Rev. v. 9. 'Rom. i. 6. k Matt. xxviii. 19. Mark i. 9. Acts ii. 
 41 . xviii. 8. ' 2 Cor. viii. 5. m I Cor. xi. 24. 
 
SER. IV.] MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL. 163 
 
 ing a life and conversation correspondent to their ho- 
 ly vocation. Moreover, during the whole course of 
 their pilgrimage on earth, they receive of his words, 
 in a way of instruction and comfort ; and this, not 
 only as they read the Scriptures or hear the gospel 
 preached, but as the Holy Ghost, acting in his name, 
 presents to their faith the things of Christ, such as 
 his righteousness, his atonement, his fulness of grace, 
 and his advocacy with the father on their behalf, 
 and brings to their remembrance and applies to their 
 cases, whatsoever he hath spoken for their edifica- 
 tion and comfort. p Hence, many a time, all the true 
 disciples of Jesus, like the two whom he accompanied, 
 as they were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, 
 have reason to say, Did not our heart burn within 
 us, while he talked with us by the way and while 
 he opened to us the Scriptures. q Favored with 
 his company and converse, every believer may say 
 with Newton, 
 
 " My road is safe and pleasant too;" 
 
 and, reviewing seasons of special interest, under his 
 word or at his table, each may adopt the grateful 
 language of the church, saying, / sat down under 
 his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was 
 sweet to my taste* Happy, indeed, is that people, 
 that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people 
 whose God is the Lord. 3 Yet, in these privileges, 
 we have but a foretaste of those richer enjoyments 
 which our ascended Lord has in store for us in 
 heaven. 
 
 1 Thess. ii. 12. P John xiv. 26. xvi. 14. q Luke xxiv. 32. 
 r Cant. ii. 3. Psal. cxliv. 15. 
 
164 THE LOVE OF GOD, &C. [SER. ir 
 
 " These are the joys he lets us know, 
 In fields and villages below ; 
 Gives us a relish of his love, 
 But keeps his noblest feast above." 
 
 And soon, my believing hearers, he will call us to it ; 
 yes, soon we shall receive his word from heaven, say- 
 ing Come up hither? O welcome message ! O bless- 
 ed hour of sweet release ! Then shall our happy 
 souls, removed from these tenements of clay dis- 
 charged from this war in the members and, de- 
 livered for ever from all sin, temptation and sorrow, 
 be associated with "the spirits of the just made per- 
 fect," and enjoy that "rest which remaineth for 
 the people of God." u Nor shall our bodies, though 
 for a season left behind, be lost or forgotten in the 
 dust ; but, at the appointed time, shall hear his 
 awakening voice and in his glorious image rise. w And 
 thus prepared in soul and body for the heavenly in- 
 heritance, we shall finally receive his word saying 
 to us, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
 kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 the world* EVEN so, LORD JESUS. 
 
 tRev. xi. 12. Heb. xii. 23. and iv. 9. w Philip, iii. 21. 
 x Matt. xxv. 34. 
 

 SERMON V. 
 
 THE MOSAIC LAW AN INHERITANCE TO 
 ISRAEL. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 4. Moses commanded us a law : even the inheri- 
 tance of the Congregation of Jacob. 
 
 THESE words, with those of the next verse, seem 
 to stand unconnected with the context. Hence it 
 is somewhat doubtful by whom they were spoken. 
 Most commentators, both Jewish and Christian, in- 
 terpret them as being the words of the children of 
 Israel ; and two of the Chaldee Paraphrases, to wit, 
 the Jerusalem and that of Jonathan go so far as to 
 preface the text thus : " The children of Israel 
 said, Moses commanded us a law, &c." But, with 
 all this mass of opinion to the contrary, I cannot 
 help believing with Bp. Patrick, that the language 
 of our text is the language of Moses, speaking of 
 himself in the third person, and including himself 
 with the people of Israel. That it was no unusual 
 thing for Moses thus to speak of himself, must be 
 obvious to every one, in reading the Five Books 
 which he wrote. Among the numerous instances 
 thereof which occur in these books, we have one 
 that cannot be disputed, in the first verse of the 
 chapter before us ; This is the blessing wherewith 
 
 22 
 
166 THE MOSAIC LAW [SEE. V. 
 
 Moses, the man of God, [not I] blessed the children 
 of Israel before his death [not my death]. 
 
 By thus speaking of himself, Moses happily com- 
 bined modesty with dignity, and meekness with autho- 
 rity. If he had said, / commanded us a law, it would 
 have sounded harsh and haughty ; and if he had 
 said to Israel, / commanded you a law, he would 
 have seemed to declare himself exempt from obli- 
 gation to that law. But, by speaking of himself in 
 the third person and by name, he modestly accounted 
 for his act referred to, by reminding the people, that 
 it was the act of one whom God had condescended 
 to employ for that purpose ; and, by using us instead 
 of you, he plainly acknowledged himself to be, 
 equally with his brethren, under the law which he 
 officially delivered. Thus he maintained authority 
 and dignity, without arrogance and ostentation. In 
 like manner, the prophets prefaced most of their 
 Visions, and the apostles most of their Letters. 
 
 Justice to our subject requires, that, in the discus- 
 sion of it, we consider 
 
 The concern which Moses had in the giving of the 
 law, 
 
 The people to whom the law, through him, was 
 given, and 
 
 What the law was to the people to whom it was 
 thus given. 
 
 1. The concern which Moses had in the giving of 
 the law. That he was not the author and enactor 
 of it, must be evident to all ; for then the transgres- 
 sion of it would have been merely an offense against 
 him ; whereas the whole tenor of divine revelation 
 shows it to be an offense against God. Of this the 
 record of David's confession, furnishes the clearest 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 167 
 
 possible proof and illustration ; for although he had 
 greatly injured Uriah and disgraced Israel, he con- 
 sidered the sinfulness of his conduct as being only 
 against God; " I have sinned against the LORD," 
 said he ; and addressing him, he said, " Against 
 thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in 
 thy sight : that thou mightest be justified when thou 
 speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." a But 
 the sin which he deplored was an actual transgres- 
 sion of the law, delivered on Sinai ; of which law, 
 therefore, God, and not Moses, must have been the 
 author and enactor. b Besides, that the moral law* 
 did not receive its origin in any thing in which the 
 ministry of Moses was concerned, is manifest ; for, 
 in its nature and obligation, it existed coeval with 
 man, and therefore more than two thousand years 
 before its promulgation, through Moses, on mount 
 Sinai. This appears both from reason and from 
 revelation. 
 
 It appears from reason. For if man when 
 created, had been left, for any given time, without 
 being under moral obligation to his Creator, you 
 must all perceive, that during that time, he must 
 have been, in a moral sense, as independent of his 
 Creator, as his Creator was of him ; that is, man 
 could have been no more accountable to God, for 
 his thoughts, words, and deeds, than (shocking to 
 say) God, for his own thoughts, words, and deeds, 
 would have been accountable to man. Thus cir- 
 
 a 2 Sam. xii. 13. Psal. li. 4. b Exo. xx. 14. 
 
 * We call this law moral, because it takes cognizance of the 
 
 thoughts and intents of the heart, (Heb. iv. 12. Matt. v. 22. 28.) 
 
 which human laws cannot, and because it is, to mankind, the 
 
 standard of their moral duty, both toward God and one another. 
 
168 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 cumstanced, our first parents might have cursed one 
 another, or even their Maker or Adam might have 
 murdered Eve, or Eve him ; or both might have 
 committed suicide, without committing, in either 
 case, any moral evil. In short, it would have been 
 impossible for them, or any of their posterity, while 
 in that lawless state, to have sinned at all ; " for 
 where no law is, there is no transgression." 6 
 
 " But," says one, " our first parents were under 
 a positive injunction not to eat of the fruit of a 
 certain tree." Granted : but who does not per- 
 ceive, that if they were not previously under moral 
 obligation to obey God, that injunction itself, in re- 
 gard to moral obligation, must have been perfectly 
 nugatory a command wholly without force even 
 as much so, as that of one free man saying to an- 
 other equally free, Thou shalt not eat of this or 
 that ; the man commanded being, in such case, 
 under no obligation to obey the man commanding 
 him. That any command may be equitably binding 
 on the person to whom it is delivered, that person 
 must be under prior obligation, natural or relative, 
 to obey the authority from which it comes. Such, 
 for instance, are the obligations of children, to 
 obey their parents, those of Servants, to obey 
 their masters, and those of subjects or citizens, to 
 obey their sovereigns or magistrates. From reason 
 itself, therefore, we are constrained to believe, that 
 the obligation of the moral law was binding on man 
 as soon as he existed that this objigation was in- 
 separable from his relation to God, as his Creator, 
 and that he had the requisit knowledge of it by 
 the light of nature. Hence the obligation which 
 
 c Rom. iv. 15. 
 
SEK. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 169 
 
 Adam was under to obey the positive command not 
 to taste nor even to touch the fruit of a certain tree, 
 on pain of death his great criminality in transgress- 
 ing that command, and the fatal consequences there- 
 of, to himself and to all his posterity. See Ser. iii. 
 pp. 127133. 
 
 The same also appears from revelation. For by 
 this infallible light, we perceive, not only that Adam 
 personally was made under the law, but likewise, that 
 in and with him, all his natural posterity were made 
 under it ; they being all seminally and representative- 
 ly in him. That seminally all Adam's natural poste- 
 rity were under the law in him and became depraved 
 with him, is evident from the condition in which 
 they descend from him. For, " as by one man sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin ; so death 
 passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 
 v. 12. And, that representatively they were all un- 
 der the law in him 9 is equally evident from the re- 
 vealed fact, that with him they were all involved 
 in condemnation by his original offense : by the 
 offense of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
 demnation, Rom. v. 18.* Moreover, that the moral 
 
 * Rightly to understand this chapter, (Rom. v.) it must be 
 noticed, that the apostle herein treats of Adam as " the figure of 
 him that was to come," namely Christ ; ver. 14 ; and that he 
 elsewhere speaks of Adam and Christ, as, in certain respects, 
 the only two men that ever existed, or, that properly, at least 
 immediately received their being from God ; the former, as the 
 first Adam, the latter as the second and last Adam. See 1 Cor. 
 xv. 4549. 
 
 The analogy between the two was founded in the public and 
 relative stations respectively assigned to them. For, as God con- 
 stituted Adam the federal and natural head of all his posterity, as 
 such ; they being all representatively and essentially in him ; so 
 
170 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 laic was in force before its promulgation on Sinai, 
 and that it took cognizance of natural as well as 
 
 he constituted Christ, as Mediator, the federal and spiritual Head 
 of all the elect ; according as he chose them in him, and in him 
 endowed them with grace and glory before the world began. Prov. 
 viii. 2331. Eph. i. 4. 2 Tim. i. 9. Titus i. 2. John xvii. 2. 
 Comp. Eph. i. 22, 23. iv. 15, 16. Col. i. 18, 19. Hence, by 
 obvious consequence, 
 
 1. As all Adam's posterity, being represented in him when he 
 transgressed, were, by his original offense, involved in condemna- 
 tion with him ; so all the elect, being represented in Christ when 
 he obeyed and died as their Surety and Substitute, were, thereby, 
 virtually justified in and with him. For, " as by the offense of 
 one" (Adam) " judgment came upon all men," of every age and 
 nation, " to condemnation ;" " even so, by the righteousness of 
 one," (Christ) " the free gift," the imputation of righteousness, 
 ". came upon all men," that is, upon all of every generation, na- 
 tion and condition, that were represented in him, and that, not 
 conditionally but effectually, it being " unto justification of life." 
 Rom. v. 18. Comp. 1 Pet. iii. 18, and Rom. iv. 25. Many, I 
 am aware, contend that in the latter as well as in the former part 
 of this passage, the phrase all men must necessarily be understood 
 to mean all the individuals of mankind. But if so, " justification 
 unto life," must through Christ, have come upon them all ; and 
 consequently, either some justified persons must be lost, or all the 
 individuals of mankind must be saved; neither of which comports 
 with the tenor of revelation ; not the former, for whom God jus- 
 tifies, he glorifies ; Rom. viii. 30, 33, 34 ; and not the latter, it 
 being contrary to the plainest accounts of the final judgment. 
 Matt. xxv. 34, 41, 46. John v. 28, 29, and Rev. xx. 1115. 
 Besides, that the phrase all men, in the latter part of the text in 
 question, is to be understood as above explained, is evident from 
 the song which the saved will address to Christ, saying, " Thou 
 art worthy," &c. " for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
 God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation." Rev. v. 9, and vii. 9, 10. 
 
 2. As all Adam's posterity receive moral depravity from him 
 their natural head, Rom. v. 12, and, as such, are morally dead ; 
 Eph. ii. 1 1 so all the elect of every generation, receive quickening 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 171 
 
 practical obliquity, the apostle proves by the exist- 
 ence of sin and the consequent reign of death, during 
 
 grace from Christ, their spiritual Head, John i. 16 ; and so be- 
 come spiritually alive. John i. 4. iv. 10, 14, and v. 25. 
 
 Correspondent to this design of the analogy in question, is the 
 whole scope of the apostle's reasoning, in Rom. v. concerning justi- 
 fication. For while he constantly keeps his figure in view, his 
 chief object is to show the speciality and excellence of the life 
 which comes through Christ, compared with that which was lost 
 through Adam. " Not as the offense, so is the free gift ;" ver. 15. 
 
 1. Not in extent. It does not, like Adam's offense, extend to 
 all mankind, but only to all represented in Christ. Nor 
 
 2. In kind. For, it is not (as some think) a mere restoration 
 to the elect, of what they, with the rest of mankind, lost in Adam ; 
 but the free gift of what is infinitely more valuable ; and for which 
 the apostle intimates there is a sufficient reason in the amplitude 
 of the provision made for them in Christ. " For if through the 
 offense of one," that of Adam, " many," even all his natural pos- 
 terity, as such, " be dead," morally and legally, and therefore liable 
 to death eternal, Is it not, as if the apostle had said, equally, yea 
 " much more" evident, that " the grace of God, and the gift by 
 grace," (that is, the gift of justifying righteousness, and this im- 
 puted by an act of grace,) " which is by one man, Jesus Christ, 
 hath abounded unto many," the many whom he covenanted to 
 save the many for whom, according to Matt. xx. 28, he gave his 
 life a ransom and therefore, that, through these aboundings of his 
 grace, God hath granted to them a safer standing and a better life 
 than Adam lost 1 So saith Christ of his sheep : " I am come that 
 they might have life, and that they might have it more abund- 
 antly." John x. 10. Neither, 
 
 3. Is the guilt which is removed from those who are justified in 
 Christ, like that by which mankind were condemned in Adam the 
 guilt of a single offense : " Not as it was by one that sinned, so is 
 the gift ;" ver. 16 ; " for the judgment," the sentence of it, " was" 
 incurred " by one," that is' by Adam's one original offense, " t to con- 
 demnation ; but the free gift," that of justifying righteousness, to 
 all actual sinners on whom it is bestowed, " is of many offenses unto 
 justification." Comp. Acts xiii.39, and 1 Cor. vi. 11. Moreover, 
 
 4. The life which the heirs of grace receive through Christ, 
 is not, like that which they had in Adam, perishable and 
 
172 THE MOSAIC LAW [SEE. V. 
 
 the long range of time between Adam and Moses. 
 " For," saith he, " until the law," that is, constantly 
 
 loscable ; but immortal and secure. " For," verse 18, " if 
 by one man's offense, death reigned by one," by one man 
 and by his one original offense; " much more," when com- 
 pared with Adam's short life in paradise, " they who receive 
 abundance of grace," as all who are saved do, at their conversion 
 and afterward, " and of the gift of righteousness," imputed for 
 their justification, " shall reign in life" life immortal and hea- 
 venly, " by one, Jesus Christ." " For," ver. 21, " as sin," with- 
 out any help, " reigned unto death, even so might grace reign 
 through righteousness," through a righteous medium, " unto 
 eternal life" all the way from eternal election to eternal glorifi- 
 cation, " by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 With the same figure in view, (1 Cor. xv. 47 49.) the apostle 
 reasons in like manner respecting the resurrection. For though 
 (exemptions admitted; Gen. v. 24. Heb. xi. 5. 2 Kings ii. 11. 
 1 Thess. iv. 15 17. 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.) all Adam's descendents, 
 by reason of his guilt imputed and his depravity transmitted to 
 them, became liable to corporal death ; Gen. iii. 19. Heb. 
 ix. 27, and Romans viii. 10 ; yet the Spirit of God, who 
 raised up the natural body of Christ, and, at his ascension, 
 formed it a spiritual body, not only quickens the souls of the elect 
 in this life, but will also, at the appointed time, quicken their mor- 
 tal bodies, and fashion them like unto the spiritual and glorious 
 body of Christ. Rom. viii. 11. Philip, iii. 21. Thus, " as we 
 have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image 
 of the heavenly Adam. 1 Cor. xv. 49. Comp. Rom viii. 29. 
 
 The resurrection of the dead, by the authority and voice of 
 Christ, as the Head of the Church and the Judge of the world, 
 will indeed be universal. " For," 1 Cor. xv. 22, " as in Adam 
 all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," as it regards the 
 body. " But every man in his own order," both as to time and 
 rank; (compare Num. ii. 17, where the LXX. use the word ray^a, 
 in the same sense ;) " Christ the first fruits,'* with reference to all 
 that sleep in him ; ver. 23 ; " afterward they that are Christ's at 
 his coming" his coming to judge the world Yet, not these only, 
 but the wicked also shall be raised : for The multitude (as tzrai rab- 
 beem is rendered, Psal. xcvii. 1.) of them that sleep in the dust of 
 the earth shall awake ; but in very different conditions ; some in 
 
SEK. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 173 
 
 from the beginning, until the law was given on 
 Sinai, as well as afterward, " sin was in the world," 
 brought in by Adam's transgression, and continued 
 in the nature and manifested in the lives of his de- 
 praved posterity: " but," adds he, " sin is not im- 
 puted where there is no law ;" and therefore, could 
 not then have been imputed if there had been no 
 law. " Nevertheless," as a clear proof that the law 
 icas then in force, and that sin, a transgression of it, 
 was imputed, " death," the wages of sin, " reigned 
 from Adam to Moses" and that not only over prac- 
 
 tlieir sins, (John viii. 21,) and others justified in Christ; (Luke 
 xiv. 14 ;) and therefore, to very different destinations ; some to ever* 
 lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Dan. 
 xii. 2. Comp. John v. 28, 29. " Then," continues the apostle, 
 " cometh the end," the end of the world, the end of time, 
 " when he" (Christ) " shall have delivered up the kingdom," the 
 mediatorial kingdom, " to God, even the Father," from whom 
 he received it; " when he shall have put down all rule and 
 authority and power," of every kind that is inimical to him 
 and his church. "For," (according to prophecy, Psal. ex. ],) 
 " he must reign," as Mediator, " till he hath put all enemies 
 under his feet. The last enemy" to his people, and obstacle to 
 their complete happiness, " that shall be destroyed, is death." 
 Herein will be accomplished what is recorded, 1 Cor. xv. 54 57. 
 This entire subjugation of all his and his people's enemies, was 
 secured to Christ, as Mediator, by the Father's purpose and dis- 
 position of things. " For," ver. 27, " He" (the Father) " hath" 
 (by covenant-engagement) " put all things under his feet," the 
 feet of Christ, Psal. viii. 6. " But when He," (the Father) " saith 
 all things are put under him," (Christ) " it is manifest that He" 
 (the Father) " is excepted, who did put all things under him," 
 (Christ.) " And," ver. 28, " when all things," according to pur- 
 pose, " shall be" actually " subdued unto him, then shall the Son 
 also himself," in regard to his official reign, " be subject unto him, 
 that put all things under him, that God," subsisting in the CO- 
 ESSENTIAL, CO-EQUAL, and CO-ETERNAL TRINITY, may be ALL 
 in ALL. 
 
 25 
 
174 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V 
 
 tical sinners, but also over infants, " even over them 
 that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's 
 transgression," that is, practically ; but who, not- 
 withstanding, in consequence of having derived a 
 depraved nature from him, were subject to natural 
 death ; yea, being shapen in iniquity and conceived 
 in sin, and so morally and legally dead, they, in 
 themselves considered, were liable, by the law, to 
 death eternal.** 
 
 d Rom. v. 13, 14. Psal. li. S. 
 
 * For holding this plainly revealed truth, I and many others 
 have been charged with holding, that those of the human family 
 who die in infancy, are necessarily consigned to future misery. 
 But if this consequence is involved in the above doctrine, I am 
 not aware of it ; and certain I am, that the opinion imputed, has 
 never entered my heart, and that I have never heard it avowed by 
 any person of any denomination. Many, indeed, believing that 
 the- Scriptures leave the question undecided, think we ought to be 
 silent on the subject. That the Scriptures are less explicit on this 
 article than on many others, is admitted ; yet, in my humble opi- 
 nion, they say enough in relation to it, to authorize the comfortable 
 conclusion, that all dying in infancy are saved. And, as this is 
 my decided belief, and what I have often avowed, I take this op- 
 portunity of submitting to the public, some of my thoughts in 
 regard to the matter in question. 
 
 1. Then, I am not driven to this belief, by indulging the com- 
 mon idea, that it would be cruel or unmerciful in God, to execute 
 the penalty of his righteous law upon those of Adam's depraved 
 and guilty posterity, whom he is pleased to call hence in a state 
 of infancy. For believing, as I do, that it is agreeable to justice, 
 divine as well as human, that punishment should be proportionate 
 to crime, I believe that the future punishment of those who die in 
 their sins, will be, though in every instance endless, yet, by many 
 degrees, various ; according to the advantages under which they 
 will have lived, and the degrees and aggravations of their iniquity 
 See Ser. iii. p. 132. 
 
 Now, whatever we suppose salvation to depend on whether 
 upon the absolute grace of God, or, in whole or in part, on the 
 will and efforts of creatures;, unless we have the atheism to deny 
 
. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 175 
 
 Now, with these facts in view, it must be evident 
 to all, that Moses had no concern in the origination 
 
 the certain foreknowledge of God, we must necessarily believe, 
 that he foreknew all that would be saved, and, consequently, all 
 that would be lost. In regard to the latter, therefore, so far 
 would it have been from cruelty in Him, to have executed the 
 penalty of his law upon them in all generations, before they had 
 added actual transgression to natural depravity, and, especially, 
 before they had aggravated their condition, by " treasuring up 
 wrath against the day of wrath," (Rom. ii. 5.) that it would have 
 been a great instance of his mercy toward them; as it would 
 have prevented the accumulation of their iniquity, and thereby, the 
 augmentation of their endless misery. 
 
 2. I do not cherish this pleasing hope concerning those who 
 die in a state of infancy, because 1 believe (as many do) that 
 mankind are born sinless; for, from the passages referred to, 
 (Psal. li. 5. and Rom. v. 12.) and many others, the contrary is 
 evident. Besides, if they were born sinless, they could have no 
 interest in salvation by Christ ; seeing he " came into the world 
 to save sinners" lost sinners. 1 Tim. i. 15. Luke xix. 10. Nor 
 -do I believe, 
 
 3. That the salvation of those who die in a state of in-fancy, 
 has any dependence upon the character of their parents : that is., 
 whether they descend from believers or unbelievers ; Matt. iii. 9, 
 10. viii. 11, 12. John i. 13; or upon any parental or ministerial 
 dedication of them or ceremony performed on them ; which would 
 necessarily imply, that these things have in them a cleansing and 
 saving virtue, and that they are essential to salvation ; whereas it 
 is the blood of Jesus Christ alone, that cleanseth from all sin. 
 1 John i. 7. Moreover, to suppose the contrary, is to suppose that 
 millions dying in infancy are excluded from the kingdom of hea- 
 ven, merely because descended from heathen, unbelieving, or 
 negligent parents. But 
 
 4. I believe, that all who in holy Providence are called hence 
 in a state of infancy, are of those whom God blessed with all 
 spiritual blessings in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him 
 before the foundation of the world ; and therefore that they are of 
 those whom Christ redeemed by his precious blood. Eph. i. 
 3 7. That the chosen and redeemed of the Lord, are such while 
 infants, nay before born, is unquestionable; Rom. ix. 11; why 
 
176 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 of the law. Not, surely, in the origination of the 
 moral laic ; for it was in force from the creation of 
 
 then, may not those who die in infancy, be of that number? 
 Nevertheless, 
 
 5. It does not follow, that those who die while infants, any 
 more than those who live to adult age, can go to heaven without 
 regeneration. For " that which is born of the flesh is flesh," that 
 is, carnal ; John iii. 6 ; but " the carnal mind is enmity against 
 God," Rom. viii. 7, and therefore must be changed by regenerating 
 grace, or it never can enjoy God ; yea, unless born again, the 
 creature, whether called hence in infancy or afterward, cannot see 
 the kingdom of God. John iii. 3. Nor is the necessity of the 
 new birth any obstacle to the salvation of those who die in in- 
 fancy; for, as in this gracious change, the creature, infant or 
 adult, is entirely passive, the former may as well be the subject of 
 it as the latter ; the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, like 
 the blowing of the wind, having no dependence upon the will or 
 co-operation of creatures. John iii. 8. It is therefore the de- 
 nial, (not the belief,] of eternal election, particular redemption, 
 and sovereign regeneration, that implies the exclusion, of in- 
 fants and of idiots also (dying such) from the kingdom of hea- 
 ven ; for if an interest in Christ, or a participation in regenerating 
 grace, depend upon some condition to be performed by creatures, 
 it necessarily follows, that, whereas neither infants nor idiots are 
 capable of performing any such condition, they must either be 
 taken to heaven without an interest in Christ, and without regene- 
 ration, or they must inevitably perish. 
 
 The grounds upon which I believe the salvation of those who 
 die in a state of infancy, are chiefly the following. 
 
 1. It is highly probable that pome are made partakers of the 
 Holy Spirit, in his regenerating and sanctifying influence, before 
 they are born. See the case of Jeremiah, chapter i. 5, and that of 
 Jo hn the baptist, Lukei. 15; who were also then sanctified to office. 
 
 2. That some, in their infancy, are taken to heaven, is evident 
 from the words of Christ, spoken on the occasion of infants being 
 brought to him, that he should lay his hands on them and pray; 
 for when the disciples objected to the act, he said, " Suffer little 
 children, and forbid them not, to come unto me : for of such is 
 the kingdom of heaven ;" by which he could not have meant the 
 kingdom of the gospel church ; for none, of right, can be added te 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 177 
 
 man, and so many ages before Moses was born ; nor 
 in that of either the judicial or the ceremonial law ; 
 
 this, but on a profession of faith, (a profession of which infants are 
 incapable,) but the kingdom of glory ; which therefore, in part, 
 must consist of infants. Matt. xix. 13 15. I cannot think with 
 those commentators who interpret this passage as of the same 
 import with Matt, xviii. 2 6, and Mark ix. 36, 37, 42, where a 
 little child is made an emblem of a humble and unoffending be- 
 liever. Here nothing of this kind is suggested. 
 
 3. The saying of David respecting his deceased child, " I 
 shall go to him, but he shall riot return to me," implies his belief 
 of the child's happiness ; for he could not have meant simply, that 
 his body should be associated with the body of the child in the 
 dust, but also that his soul should be associated with the soul of 
 his child in a future state of being ; but having received an infal- 
 lible assurance that God had put away his sin, (2 Sam. xii. 13, 
 23.) David rejoiced in the belief, both that his soul in its separate 
 state, should enjoy the open vision, and that, at the resurrection, 
 his body should awake with the likeness of his blessed Lord. Psal. 
 xvii. 15. Consequently he must have believed the same concern- 
 ing his child to whom he expected to go. 
 
 4. The case of Rachel, who on account of her passionate de- 
 sire and love of children, is introduced as representing the Jewish 
 women, whose children from two years old and under, to include 
 the child Jesus, were put to death under the edict of Herod. In 
 this representative capacity, Rachel is mentioned as mourning 
 and inconsolable ; but the Lord said to her, " Refrain thy voice 
 from weeping and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work," the 
 pains, toil, and solicitude of the mothers she represented, " shall 
 be rewarded," that is, in the future blessedness of those children 
 whom, it might seem to them, they had borne and so far nourished, 
 in vain ; " for they" (the murdered children) " shall come again 
 from the land of the enemy," the empire of death, the last enemy 
 that shall be destroyed. " And," therefore, " there is hope in 
 thine end, saith the Lord," that is, in the end or issue which, in 
 regard to this distressing affair, was embraced in the divine coun- 
 sel ; or there is hope for thy posterity, as the words may be ren- 
 dered, to wit, the posterity of the women of whom she was a 
 figure ; " that thy children shall come again to their own border, 1 ' 
 as they will when raised from the dead in the place where they 
 
178 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 for the statutes of the former and the ceremonies of 
 the latter were all delivered to him from the mouth 
 
 were massacred. But could it at all have assuaged the grief of 
 the mothers thus cruelly bereaved, to be assured merely that their 
 children should participate in the general resurrection ? Or would 
 it be any comfort to them, at the day of Judgment, to see their 
 children raised from the dead, if they must also see them cast into 
 hell 1 The design of the prophecy, therefore, must have been, 
 that, at the requisit time, it might be explained and applied, as 
 it was by the Evangelist Matthew^ to comfort those weeping mo- 
 thers in Israel, with an assurance that their martyred children 
 would be not only raised from the dead, but raised to live and 
 reign with the blessed Jesus, for whose sake they were thus hor- 
 ribly murdered. See Jer. xxxi. 1517. Matt. ii. 17, 18. But, 
 5. And specially, my belief that all who die before they become 
 conscious of moral right and wrong, and that whether in Christian 
 or in heathen lands, will be saved, is founded upon the inspired 
 descriptions of the final condemnation of the wicked, in every 
 instance of which, it is declared or implied that the sentence will 
 pass against them according to their works. Matt. xxv. 44 46. 
 John v. 28, 29. Rom. ii. 1215. Rev. xx. 1113. But in- 
 fants, however depraved in nature, have, properly speaking, no 
 works, no actual transgressions, for which to be judged ; and 
 therefore do not answer the character of those who shall be finally 
 condemned. 
 
 The only argument at all plausible, that I have ever heard 
 raised from Scripture, in favor of the contrary opinion, is that 
 which supposes there were many infants in Sodom when it was 
 destroyed, and who, if saved, must have been righteous ; whereas, 
 it is revealed, that if only ten righteous had been in the place it 
 would have been spared. Gen. xviii. 32. To this I reply 1. 
 That, considering the horrible and unnatural abominations to 
 which the men of Sodom had become abandoned, it is highly 
 probable, that there were, at that time, no infants in that city. 
 See Gen. xix. 4 8, and Rom. i. 27. And 2. Admitting that 
 there were many hundreds or thousands of infants there at that 
 time, and supposing them all to have been regenerated and justi- 
 fied in Christ before their death, and so that they were righteous 
 and saved, they nevertheless did not answer the character of the 
 ten for whose sake G?d would have spared the city; for the sense 
 
. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 179 
 
 of God, as may be seen in the books of Exodus and 
 Leviticus. 
 
 The concern, then, which Moses had in the giving 
 of the law, must be restricted to his instrumentality 
 in the promulgation of it to Israel, and which con- 
 sisted chiefly in the following things. 
 
 1. Moses, through the ministry of angels, received 
 the law from its divine author and enactor the 
 moral part, " on two tables of stone, written with 
 the finger of God ;" f and the judicial and ceremo- 
 nial parts viva voce from the mouth of God, and 
 wrote them in a book/ 
 
 2. He delivered the whole to Israel, though at 
 successive times, and that both verbally and in 
 writing. h The law, therefore, came through Moses, 
 though not from him. 1 
 
 3. He inculcated upon Israel the observance of 
 
 is, that if ten persons practically righteous, were found in -it, 
 he would spare it. It was the practical wickedness of the inhabi- 
 tants of Sodom, already referred to, that brought the shower of 
 fire and brimstone upon them, even as it was " the great wicked- 
 ness of man upon earth" that before had brought the flood of 
 waters upon the inhabitants of the old world. Gen. vi. 5 7. 
 
 To these remarks, no objection can be fairly raised from the 
 case of Nineveh. For although, in suspending the judgment 
 threatened against that city, God considered the infants in it, 
 consisting of more than 120 thousand, yet not in regard to their 
 eternal state, but merely as a reason for his temporal forbearance 
 and mercy toward the Ninevites, in a providential way ; in which 
 he also had respect to the " much cattle" in the place. See Jo- 
 nah iv. 11, and comp. Psal. xxxvi. 6. From the divine proce- 
 dure therefore, in that case, nothing can be inferred /or or against 
 the spiritual and eternal salvation of infants. 
 
 eExo. xxi. 1, xxiv. 3. Lev. i. 1, xxvii. 34. f Exo. xxxi. 18. 
 g See the places referred to by the letters e and /, and Exo. xxiv. 
 4, 7, and xxxiv. 27. h Ibid xix. 7, xxiv. 3, 4, 7. Deut. i. 1, 3. 
 and xxxi. 1, 9, 24. ' John i. 17. 
 
180 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 the law, which God, by him had delivered to them. 
 And this seems to be chiefly what he meant when he 
 said Moses commanded us a law ; for the law which 
 God commanded, Moses, by his authority, com- 
 manded also ; that is, he exhorted and admonished 
 the Israelites to obey it. k 
 
 We precede to consider 
 
 II. The people to whom the law, through Moses, 
 was given. This people are here called the con- 
 gregation of Jacob, after him from whom they de- 
 scended. But, as their progenitor is more frequently 
 called by his new name Israel, 1 they, in correspon- 
 dence therewith, are more commonly styled the con- 
 gregation of Israel. m These names were given them, 
 not only to distinguish them from every other people, 
 but also to signify that God had begun to fulfil his 
 promise of giving to Jacob a numerous seed. n Ja- 
 cob had left his father's house alone, but lo ! he is 
 become a congregation, and a very large one too, a 
 nation. " With my staff," said he, meaning with 
 that only, having neither wife, nor friend, nor pro- 
 perty, " I passed over this Jordan," near to which 
 he might be standing, and which he had in his 
 mind, at least, if not in his sight, " and now I am 
 become two bands ;" referring to the two branches 
 of his family, by his two wives Rachel and Leah. 
 And, as with reference to him, this people are called 
 the congregation of Jacob, and more frequently 
 after his new name, the congregation of Israel, so 
 with reference to his twelve sons, each of whom was 
 
 k Exo. xxxv. 1, 4. Deut. iv. 40. ' Gen. xxxii. 28 r xxxv. 10, 
 xlvii. 27, 31. " Exo. xii. 6, 19, 47. Lev. iv. 13. Num. xvi. 9. 
 2 Chron, v. 6. xxiv, 6. n Gen. xxviii. 14. <? Gen. xxxii. 9 12, 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 181 
 
 a patriarch, the father of a tribe, they are called the 
 twelve tribes of Israel, and simply the twelve tribes. p 
 
 Now, to these tribes, as a nation or people, God, 
 by Moses, gave the law at Sinai. For, although 
 the moral part was the same under which Adam 
 was made, and which, as it has constantly been, 
 must for ever remain, binding upon all his posterity, 
 as such, yet the legal dispensation, (including the 
 judicial and ceremonial laws, with the moral law, 
 and given, through Moses, in the form of a cove- 
 nant^) was delivered exclusively to the congregation 
 of Jacob, the nation of Israel. q 
 
 Our subject requires that we consider 
 
 III. What this law was to the people to whom it 
 was thus given, to wit, an inheritance even the in- 
 heritance of the congregation of Israel. Some, in- 
 deed, understand the inheritance here intended, to be 
 the people of Israel themselves, who are called The 
 Lord's portion, and the lot of his inheritance. 
 Deut. xxxii. 9. Much more commonly, however, 
 and much more naturally, the term inheritance is, 
 in this place, understood to denote the law given to 
 that people. Moses commanded us a law. And 
 what was it to them \ An inheritance ; even the 
 inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. See 
 Psal. cxix. 111. Nor is there any want of fitness 
 in the metaphor. 
 
 " The law," like a rich inheritance, " is good if 
 a man use it lawfully." 1 Tim. i. 8. And, as far 
 as Israel so used it, the law, the whole legal dispen- 
 sation was a rich and valuable inheritance to them. 
 The moral law was, to them in general, an infallible 
 
 p Gen. xlix. 38. Jas. i. 1.. <* Exo. xx. 1, &c. Lev. xxvi. 46. 
 
 24 
 
182 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 rule of moral duty both toward God and one ano- 
 ther ; arid, to the regenerate among them, it served 
 to discover their sinfulness of nature and life, and 
 their need of the righteousness and atonement of 
 the Messiah, the promised Seed ; Is. Ixiv. 6 ; the 
 ceremonial law, in its sacrifices and ablutions, typi- 
 fied Him who, in purpose and effect, was " the Lamb 
 slain from the foundation of the world," and illus- 
 trated, to believers, the manner of their pardon and 
 cleansing through his precious blood ; r and the ju- 
 dicial law, in its statutes and judgments, was to them, 
 as a nation, an appropriate directory in all their ci- 
 vil procedings. 8 
 
 The law, too, like an inheritance in a family, 
 was given to the congregation of Jacob in perpet- 
 uum, for ever, that is, to descend with them from 
 generation to generation, till the coming of the Mes- 
 siah. * In this sense the ceremonies and statutes of 
 it, were to be in force for ever" * 
 
 rPsal. xxxii. 1,2. Rom. iv. 68. Heb. xiii. 20, 21. Rev. 
 xiii. 8. 8 Exo. xxi. 1 , <fcc. Gal. iii. 19, 20. u Exo. xii. 14, 24. 
 xxix. 28. Numb, xviii. 19. 
 
 * ohy or oSij? 61am (which our translators have sometimes 
 rendered of old, of long time, &c. but most frequently for ever 
 or everlasting) is from oSy 3.1am to hide or conceal, and denotes 
 duration hidden or concealed from man, whether past or future, 
 and whether finite, indefinite, or infinite. See Buxtorf, Taylor, 
 and Parkhurst. The word that generally answers to it in the 
 LXX. and in the N. T. is atuv or its derivative atwiov ; the former 
 of which is equivalent to act v always being, and the latter is, in 
 our version, commonly rendered by everlasting or eternal See 
 Trommius, Henry Stephens, and Leigh ; also Hedericus, Schre- 
 vlius, Parkhurst, Eioing and Jones. 
 
 These words, therefore, and their versions for ever and ever- 
 lasting, as they occur in the Holy Scriptures, denote duration as 
 various as the subjects to which they are applied. As I. The 
 
8ER. V.] AIN T INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 183 
 
 Moreover, the law might be called the inheritance 
 of Israel, because to their observance of it, their 
 inheritance was annexed ; that is, their entrance 
 into Canaan and their continuance and prosperity 
 there were promised on condition of their legal 
 obedience. * 
 
 Such I conceive to be the literal meaning of the 
 
 whole, or the remaining duration of a man's natural life. Exo. 
 xxi. 6. 1 Sam. i. 22. Comp. ver. 28 and chap, xxvii. 12 ; also 
 Luke xx. 34. 2. The duration of the Jewish dispensation. 
 Gen. xvii. 13. Exo. xxvii. 21. 3. The duration of what will last 
 to the end of the present world Gen. xlix. 26. Rev. xiv. 6. 
 Hence 4. The duration of the world itself. Eccl. i. 4. Matt, 
 xxviii. 20. 
 
 Nevertheless 5. These words also denote infinite duration. 
 This is placed beyond dispute ; seeing that they are often used 
 to express the duration of the Being and perfections of God him- 
 self. Exo. xv. 18. Deut. xxxii. 40. xxxiii. 27. Is. xl. 28. 
 Matt. vi. 13. Acts xv. 18. Eph. iii. 11. Rom. xvi. 26. 1 Tim. 
 i. xvii. Such, too, must certainly be their meaning when used to 
 denote duration after the Great day of Judgment. For 1. That 
 will be the last day; John vi. 39, 40, 44, 54, xi. 24. With that 
 day, therefore, time, with all its revolutions and measurements, 
 must for ever cease, when no duration can follow, but that of vast 
 eternity. And 2. On that great day will take place, the last 
 Judgment; John xii. 48. Acts xvii. 31, and Jude, ver. 6; and 
 which, on this account, is called eternal Judgment ; Heb. vi. 2. 
 The decisions of that Judgment, therefore, and, by consequence, 
 the respective portions of the righteous and of the wicked, to be 
 thereby determined, will necessarily be final and irrevocable, and 
 therefore eternal. And how any who believe that the happiness 
 of the righteous will be endless, can believe that the misery of 
 the wicked will be limited, I am unable to conceive ; the two being 
 placed in direct opposition both being after the cessation of time 
 and the duration of each being expressed by the same word, 
 both in Hebrew and in Greek. Dan. xii. 2. Matt. xxv. 46. 
 Comp. John v. 28, 29. See the- note, p. 172, and Ser. ii. p. 71, 
 w Num. xxxii. 11. Is. i. 19, 20. 
 
184 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 text. But there is also, in every part of it, a typical 
 meaning, and which we must not overlook. 
 
 First, Moses, as a law-giver, was a type of Christ, 
 of whom believers are taught to say, The Lord is our 
 law-giver. Is. xxxiii. 22. He hath given us a law, not 
 from Sinai but from Zion ; nor is it, like that of 
 Moses, a law of works, but a law of faith ; the rule 
 according to which God justifies sinners by faith in 
 Christ, without the deeds of the laic, Rom. iii. 27, 28. 
 This law is none other than the gospel, the tor ah, 
 the doctrine of Christ, for which it was foretold, the 
 isles of the Gentiles should wait.* 
 
 These two dispensations are clearly contradis- 
 tinguished, by the two eminent persons through 
 whom respectively they came : " The law," the legal 
 dispensation, "was given through (/*) Moses, but 
 grace and truth came through (JW) JESUS CHRIST." 
 John. i. 17. "By grace is meant the absolute favor 
 of God, by which he grants to believers in Christ, 
 the free, and full, and everlasting remission of all 
 their sins of nature and life, which were against 
 the moral law, and for which they were condemn- 
 ed by it; y and by truth is meant the true and 
 satisfactory atonement made by Christ for the sins of 
 the elect, corresponding to all the typical sacrifices 
 of the ceremonial law, offered for national Israel. z 
 The latter, indeed, may also include the verification 
 of all the promises and prophesies respecting the 
 incarnation, life, and death of Christ, and respecting 
 his resurrection and glorification. a 
 
 x Is. xlii. 4. y Rom. iv. 16. Eph. ii. 8. Gal. iii. 22. Jer. xxxi. 
 33. 34. Heb. viii. 12. z Heb. ix. 13, 14. 26. x. 114. a Micah 
 v. 2. Matt. ii. 5, 6. Is. vii. 14. Luke i. 34, 35. Matt. v. 17.x ii. 40- 
 Psal. Ixviii. 18. Luke xxiv. 50, 51. Eph. iv. 812. 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 185 
 
 Both dispensations, it is true, came from the same 
 authority : the law was the law of God; Neh. x. 28 ; 
 and the gospel is the gospel of God, Rom. i. 1. And 
 accordingly, as Moses constantly referred to God 
 for the authority of the law, so did Christ for the 
 authority of the gospel. Hence, when the Jews, 
 taking him to be a mere man, and knowing that he 
 had not been bred a scholar, marveled at his learning, 
 he, to suggest to them, that his knowledge was not ac- 
 quired, and that he had not, like their doctors, learn- 
 ed from men what he delivered, replied, My doctrine 
 is not mine but his that sent me; for though, as a 
 divine person, he was concerned equally with the 
 Father and the Holy Ghost, in devising the plan of 
 salvation which is reported in the gospel ; yet as in 
 his official capacity, he acted under a commission 
 received from the Father, the gospel, which in this 
 capacity he delivered, was emphatically the doctrine 
 of the Father who had sent him. b 
 
 That Moses, in regard to the authority by which he 
 acted, was a type of Christ, will farther appear by 
 the following considerations. Moses, however eleva- 
 ted in his station, was constantly, in his public as 
 well as private capacity, controlled by the will of God. c 
 So Christ ; for though, by nature, he is the Son of 
 God, and therefore, in essense, will and purpose, ONE 
 with the Father-/ yet, in his official capacity, he is 
 the Father's Servant ; e and accordingly, in his advent 
 and in all he did and suffered, as Mediator, he acted 
 in subordination to 'his Father's will; / came down 
 from heaven, said he, not to do mine own will, that 
 
 b Johnvii. 15, 16. c Exo. iii. 1416. xix. 2125. xxxii. 7, 
 11, 33, 34. xxxiv, 1, 27. Lev. i. 1. Num. i. 1. Deut. xxxii. 48 
 52. d Matt. iii. 17. John x. 30, e Is. xlii. 1. Philip, ii. 6 S. 
 
186 THE MOSAIC LAW [SEK. T. 
 
 is, separately and only, but the will of him that sent 
 me; f which, nevertheless, was also his own will; it 
 being what he had voluntarily covenanted to do, and 
 what he greatly delighted in. g Again, as Moses was 
 subject to the ordinances of the law, which he deliver- 
 ed ; so, as man, and to set an example to his disciples, 
 Christ was subject to the ordinances of the gospel, 
 which he delivered. In regard to baptism, he said 
 to John, whom God had sent to baptize, 11 Thus it be- 
 cometh us, you, as a pattern to all authorized adminis- 
 trators of this ordinance, and myself, as a pattern to 
 all the qualified subjects of it, to fulfil all righteous- 
 ness-, not justifying righteousness; for this Christ 
 fulfilled alone; but the righteousness of practical 
 obedience to God's revealed precepts. 1 And as Moses, 
 with his brethren, partook of the paschal Supper, so 
 Christ, with his disciples, partook of the eucharistical 
 Supper. k 
 
 We must, however, not omit to notice also a few 
 of the many instances of disparity between these 
 two law-givers. Moses, as you have heard already, 
 .had no concern in originating the law which he 
 delivered; but Christ, as the wonderful counseller, 
 and as the covenantee of the elect, was, as hinted be- 
 fore, concerned with the Father, in devising as well 
 as in publishing the plan of their salvation ; and hence 
 the gospel, in which this plan is brought to light, is the 
 result and proclamation of "the counsel of peace be- 
 tween them both, Zech. vi. 13 ; and the Holy Spirit, 
 as freely revealing and applying it, is likened to " a 
 pure river of water of life, clear as crystal preceding 
 out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Rev. 
 
 f John vi. 38. John x. 18. * Psal. xl. 710 h John i. 6, 33, 
 34. l Matt. iii. 15. k Matt, xxvi 26, 27. 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL 187 
 
 xxii. 1. John xv. 26 and xvi. 14, 15. Moreover, 
 though Christ and Moses were both under the 
 law, as a covenant of works, yet they were un- 
 der it in very different respects. Moses was un- 
 der it of necessity, but Christ by his voluntary 
 consent. Moses, like every other child of Adam, 
 was under the law merely for himself, and if his obe- 
 dience to it had been perfect, he could thereby have 
 secured none but himself from its penalty ; Psal. xlix. 
 7, 8. but Christ was made under it as the Surety and 
 Substitute of all the elect, they being represented in 
 him ; and whom, therefore, by his obedience and 
 death, he redeemed from its curse. He was made 
 under the law, that he inight redeem them that were 
 under the law. Gal. iv. 4. 5. 
 
 Secondly, the congregation of Jacob, to which 
 Moses delivered the law, was a type of the con- 
 gregation of Christ, to which he delivered the gospel. 
 The analogy, however, between the two, I shall notice 
 at present, only in a few leading particulars. 
 
 The congregation of spiritual Israelites, like that 
 of the national Israelites, constantly consists of 
 those who had a being in their progenitor before 
 their visibility in the world. For, as the congrega- 
 tion of Jacob had a representative and seminal being 
 in him, before their involvment in Egyptian bondage,, 
 the elect had a similar being in Christ, before they 
 fell in Adam and under the bondage of the broken 
 covenant of works. They had a representative being 
 in HIM " according as they were chosen in him ;" and 
 a seminal being in HIM, as all that grace which, in 
 the order of time, gives them their spiritual existence 
 and character, was given to them, in HIM, as their 
 federal and vital HEAD ; and both, before the world 
 
188 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 began. Eph. i. 4, and 2 Tim. i. 9. This grace 
 when communicated, is that seed which remaineth 
 in them, and in consequence of which they cannot 
 live in sin. 1 John. iii. 9, 10. 
 
 The congregation of Jacob consisted of his natu- 
 ral posterity; and the congregation of Christ consists 
 of his spiritual posterity ; with reference to whom 
 he is called The everlasting Father ; they having 
 had a seminal being in him from everlasting, and 
 he sustaining this relation to them, unto everlasting. 
 Seels, ix. 6 and Heb. ii. 13. And, as the congrega- 
 tion of Jacob were his descendants naturally, by his 
 twelve sons, the congregation of Christ under the New 
 Testament, are his descendants, mystically, by his 
 twelve apostles ; they having all received his Spirit, 
 according to the gospel which the apostles preached. 
 This is evident from the mediatorial prayer of Christ ; 
 in which, having prayed for his twelve apostles, he 
 added, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also which shall believe on me through their word." 
 John xvii. 20. Hence, to signify how the doctrine 
 and memory of the apostles should be perpetuated, 
 the church, considered either in her latter-day- 
 prosperity, or in her heavenly glory, and perhaps in 
 both, is said to have twelve foundations, and in them 
 the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Rev. 
 xxi. 14. Comp. Eph. ii. 20. Nor must we forget, 
 that Jacob, having passed over Jordan with his staff, 
 became two bands; for so Christ, having passed 
 over the Jordan of death on the staff of his cross,* 
 thereupon united believing Gentiles with believing 
 Jews, in one common household, the gospel-church. 
 " For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and 
 hath broken down the middle wall of partition be- 
 * McEwen on the types. 
 
SER. V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 189 
 
 tween us," meaning the ceremonial law. See Eph. 
 ii. 1422, and iii. 6. 
 
 Once more. As it was to the congregation of 
 Jacob, who were called out of Egyptian bondage, 
 that Moses delivered the law ; so it was to the con- 
 gregation of the disciples, who were called by grace 
 out of the world and from under the bondage of sin 
 and Satan, that Christ delivered the gospel. Of 
 them it was, that he said to his heavenly Father, 
 " I have given unto them the words which thou gav- 
 est me; and they have received them, and have 
 known surely that I came out from thee, and they 
 have believed that thou didst send me." John xvii. 
 8. And, as the legal dispensation, though the means 
 of some information to the Gentiles, was neverthe- 
 less intrusted with national Israel, to whom the 
 Oracles of God were committed ; Rom. iii. 2 ; so, 
 although the gospel is to be preached in all the 
 world, and to every creature ; yet, as a deposit, a 
 charge, it is committed to spiritual Israel, the gos- 
 pel-church. Accordingly, it is not out of " the world 
 that lieth in wickedness," but "out of Zion, the 
 perfection of beauty," that " God hath shined," in 
 the dispensation of the gospel. Psal. 1. 2. Here, 
 by grace and gifts, he qualifies men for the gospel- 
 ministry ; and who, being recognised and sanctioned 
 by the church, as thus qualified, go forth, riot from 
 the world, but into the world. Out of Zion, said 
 the evangelical prophet, shall go forth the law, and 
 the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Is. ii. 3. 
 Compare Luke xxiv. 47, and Acts i. 4. No man, 
 therefore, without a regular standing in some branch 
 of the gospel-Zion, and an official License therefrom, 
 to preach the gospel, can be duly authorized for this 
 
 25 
 
J90 THE MOSAIC LAW [SER. V. 
 
 sacred work. The same also appears from Eze- 
 kieVs vision ; for the gospel and the Holy Spirit ac- 
 companying it, seem evidently to be designed by 
 the waters which he saw issuing, not from the desert 
 and the sea to the sanctuary, but from the sanctuary 
 to the desert and the sea ; and, as wherever those 
 waters came, every thing that had life was caused 
 to live; so wherever the gospel comes, accompanied 
 by the Spirit's influence, all that have life in Christ, 
 are made partakers of it in their souls, and those 
 who, being subjects of grace before, are fallen into 
 a backslid en and languishing state, are revived and 
 strengthened. For, as at Antioch, under the preach- 
 ing of the apostles, " as many as were ordained un- 
 to eternal life believed ;" Acts xiii. 48 ; so, under the 
 ministry of the same gospel, it has constantly been 
 and will continue to be, till all the elect shall 
 " obtain the salvation which is " in Christ Jesus ;" 
 2 Tim. ii. 10 ; and, according to prophecy, They 
 that dwell under his shadow shall return, that 
 is, from their backslidings, and shall revive as the 
 corn, and grow as the vine. Hosea xiv. 7. But, 
 (dreadful to think !) the non-elect, whether profane 
 sinners, or formal professors, like the miry places 
 and marshes in the prophet's vision, shall not be 
 healed. See Ezk. xlvii.l 11, and compare John 
 x, 26, arid Jer. xvii. 5, 6. 
 
 Nor must we forget, 
 
 Thirdly, That the law itself, as given to the 
 congregation of Jacob, was, as a dispensation, ty- 
 pical of the gospel, which, as a dispensation, was 
 given to the congregation of Christ, the New Testa- 
 ment church. 
 
 If the law, much more the gospel, like a valuable 
 
SER.V.] AN INHERITANCE TO ISRAEL. 191 
 
 inheritance, is vastly enriching ; it comprehends and 
 publishes the unsearchable riches of Christ. Eph. 
 iii. 8. According to it, the Holy Spirit communi- 
 cates the riches of grace, Rom. v. 17, and, in it, re- 
 veals the riches of glory; 2 Cor. iv. 17. As it is 
 extended among the nations, it is the riches of the 
 world; Rom. xi. 12 ; because it is the richest bless- 
 ing that is in the world, the richest and most en- 
 riching blessing granted to any nation. And rich 
 indeed is that person in whom the icord of Christ 
 dwells richly. Col. iii. 16. 
 
 Again ; as the law, like an inheritance, descended 
 with the posterity of Jacob, so does the gospel, with 
 the posterity of Christ. It is emphatically the ever- 
 lasting gospel ; Rev. xiv. 6 ; and in it, the right- 
 eousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, and 
 his salvation published from generation to genera- 
 tion. Rom. i. 17, and Is. li. 8. And 
 
 Finally, as an apostle assured the carnal Jews, 
 who vainly trusted in hearing the law read to them 
 in the Synagogue every sabbath-day, that " not the" 
 mere " hearers of the law, but the" perfect " doers 
 of the law" (if any such there were) should be jus- 
 tified by it " before God;" Rom. ii. 13 ; so, let it be 
 remembered by all, that it is not those who merely 
 hear the gospel, however constant and orderly they 
 may be in their attendance upon it, but those who 
 so hear it as to live so hear it, as to believe in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to the rejection of every other 
 object of dependence yea, so hear it, as to be ef- 
 fectually taught by it to deny themselves of all un- 
 godliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, 
 righteously, and godly, in the present evil world, 
 that are authorized by the Scriptures, to con- 
 
192 THE MOSAIC LAW, &C. [SEE. V. 
 
 elude that they are justified in the sight of God. 
 John iii. 36. Acts xiii. 39. Titus ii. 11, 12. Such are 
 those, to whom the gospel has come, not in word 
 only, but also in power > and in the Holy Ghost, and 
 in much assurance ; and who, in consequence there- 
 of, have turned from dumb idols to serve the living 
 and true God; and, in faith and hope, to wait for 
 his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the 
 dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath 
 to come. 1 Thess. i. 6 10. 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 MOSES WAS KING IX JESHURUff. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 5 And he was king in Jeshuntn, when the heads 
 of the Tribes of Israel were gathered together' 
 
 As in the preceding verse, Moses speaks of himself 
 as a law-giver, so, in this verse, he speaks of himself 
 as a King ; And he was king in Jeshurun, &,c. 
 Under this title, therefore, I am now to treat of him ; 
 and in doing which, accompanied with some spiritual 
 improvement, I shall consider 
 
 The name here given to the people among whom 
 he was king 
 
 The manner of his promotion and reign, as their 
 king and 
 
 When, in particular, he appeared to be their king. 
 
 1. The name, here given to the people among 
 whom Moses was king : " And he was king in Jesh- 
 urun" That Jeshurun is but another name for 
 Israel, is sufficiently evident from the text itself, and 
 which is confirmed by each of the three other places 
 in which only it occurs ; to wit, in verse 26th of this 
 chapter in verse 15th of the preceding chapter 
 and in Is. xliv. 2. It was first given to that people, 
 to denote what they had been, both in privileges and 
 in character, and to imply their abuse of the former 
 
194 MOSES WAS [SER. VI. 
 
 and their declension from the latter : Jcshurun, amid 
 special advantages enjoyed, waxed fat, and kicked 
 .... then he forsook God who made him, and lightly 
 esteemed the rock of his salvation, the MESSIAH. Deut. 
 xxxii. 15. To this design, the signification of the 
 name, whether derived from *w shur or from ISJT ya- 
 shar remarkably corresponds. Coeceius* followed by 
 Bp. Patrick and others, derives it from ^w shur, the 
 principal significations of which, as may be seen in 
 all our Hebrew Lexicons, and by its uses in the Bible, 
 are to behold and to sing.\ So derived, this name, 
 when given to Israel, suggested 
 
 1. That they were a people who had been distin- 
 guished by special visions and indications of the 
 divine presence. Such were the wonders they 
 beheld in Egypt and at the Red sea. Such were 
 the awful manifestations of the divine Majesty which 
 they witnessed at the giving of the law ; when, in a 
 thick cloud " The LORD came down upon mount 
 Sinai, upon the top of the mount," and when they 
 heard his voice speaking to them out of the midst of 
 thejire. And such, too, were those seasonable and 
 marvelous tokens of his presence and kindness, 
 which God favored them with, during their subsequent 
 pilgrimage ; as, for instance, in prescribing a sight 
 of the brazen serpent, prepared by his order, as their 
 sovereign remedy, when liable to judicial death, from 
 the fatal stings of the fiery serpents in giving them 
 manna from the clouds, when suffering with hunger 
 in supplying them with water from a smitten rock, 
 when parched with thirst and in sweetening for 
 
 * Ultima Mosis. Sect. 973. f "W Shur, in the fut. pi. makes 
 msr Jeshuru, which, with j nun paragogic. forms { W Jeshurun. 
 
SER. VI. J KING IN JESLIURUN. 195 
 
 them, by means of a tree, the bitter waters other- 
 wise intolerable. See Ser. 1. p. 23 26. 
 
 How easy and appropriate the reference to spirit- 
 ual Israel ! Has not the church, under the present 
 dispensation, been distinguished by visions and favors, 
 equally, nay much more, remarkable and astonish- 
 ing 1 Which of all the wonders beheld by ancient 
 Israel, can bear a comparison with the manifestation 
 of the Son of God in our nature with the descent 
 and operations of the Holy Ghost on the day of 
 Pentecost or with the progress and victories of the 
 gospel in the gentile world] 
 
 The same also may be said of spiritual Israelites 
 individually. For " the eyes of their understand- 
 ing being enlightened" by the Holy Spirit, they 
 have, through the glass of the word, such views of 
 God of his law of themselves of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and of future glory and happiness, as the 
 unregenerate have not, and in that state, cannot 
 receive. It is written, saith Paul, (alluding to Is. 
 Ixiv. 4.) Eyehath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man, the things which God 
 hath prepared for them that love him. But, adds 
 he, God hath revealed them unto us, to believers in 
 common under the gospel, and eminently to the 
 writers of the New Testament, by his spirit. & 
 
 In regard, however, to the visions and indications 
 of the divine presence with ancient Israel, there are 
 some things which claim our more particular notice 
 and improvement. 
 
 As upon seeing the wonders wrought in Egypt 
 and at the Red sea, the Israelites "believed the 
 
 a 1 Cor. ii. 914. Eph. iii. 5. CoL i. 26, 27. 
 
19(5 MOSES WAS SER. VI.] 
 
 Lord and his servant Moses ;" b So the disciples of 
 Christ, on beholding the miracles which he perform- 
 ed, were convinced, not only of his divine mission, but 
 also of his divine sonship ; We believe and are sure, 
 said Peter, that thou art that Christ, that Messiah 
 of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, the son of 
 the living God. c The miracles of Christ, too, being 
 recorded by those who witnessed them, were inten- 
 ded as a ground of faith in him, to all generations : 
 These things, said John, are written, that ye might 
 believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God ; and 
 that believing ye might have life through his name.^ 
 The manifestations, likewise, which God made of 
 himself to Israel, when he delivered the law to them, 
 are very instructive to us ; and particularly in their 
 effects, which serve very aptly to illustrate those of 
 the manifestations which God makes of himself to 
 sinners at their effectual calling. Like the Israelites, 
 when they saw the Majesty and heard the voice of 
 the divine lawgiver, sinners under conviction, realiz- 
 ing the character of God and understanding his re- 
 quirements in the law, are filled with terror and trem- 
 bling. 6 And as the Israelites, shrinking from what 
 they saw and heard at Sinai, " said to Moses," their 
 national mediator, " Speak thou with us, and we will 
 hear : but let not God speak with us, lest we die; f 
 so awakened sinners, unable to endure the voice of 
 God, or to answer his demands in the law, have re- 
 course to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, 
 desiring him to speak for them, as their advocate 
 with the Father, and to them, as their counsellor in 
 
 b Exo. xiv. 31. c John vi. 69. d Ibid. xx. 31Comp. 
 Exo. xix. 9. c Exo. xix. 16 and Acts xvi. 29. f Exo. xx. 18, 
 19. 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHURUN. 197 
 
 the gospel; he only having the words of eternal life." 8 
 The awful manifestations, moreover, which God in 
 the law, makes of himself to sensible sinners, like 
 those which he made of himself to the Israelites at 
 Sinai, are designed to work, not their destruction, but 
 their conversion; they are to prove them; to exhibit 
 to them in the light of divine purity, their abomina- 
 tions of heart and life, and to show them, by 
 the standard of the divine law, their guilt and 
 condemnation. And, thus instructed, each says, with 
 Job, Behold I am vile, and with Paul, / through the 
 law, that is, through the knowledge of it now re- 
 ceived, am dead to the law, to all hopes of obtaining 
 justification by obedience to it. h 
 
 Thus circumstanced, sinners realize their need, and 
 thereupon, receive the enjoyment, of all those bless- 
 ings, in a way of grace, that were typified by the bless- 
 ings conferred on the Israelites, in a way of miracle. 
 Conscious of their liability to eternal death, the just 
 penalty annexed to the broken covenant of works, their 
 views are directed, not to a brazen serpent raised on a 
 pole, but to the antitype thereof, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 exposed on the cross, as their substitute, and exhibi- 
 ted in the gospel as their remedy ; and believing, feel 
 the healing virtue of his atoning blood, and say, with 
 an apostle, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
 the law, being made a curse for ns. { Realiz- 
 ing, like the prodigal, that they had been living 
 on husks, and hungering for spiritual sustenance, 
 they receive, not manna from the clouds, but the 
 
 g Exo. xx. 18, 19. John vi. 68. Comp. Psal. Ixxx. 17, 18. 
 h Exo. xxl 20. Job xl. 4. Gal. ii. 19. * John iii. 14, 15. xii. 32, 
 33. Gal. iii. 13. 
 
 26 
 
198 MOSES WAS [SER. VI. 
 
 true bread from heaven even Christ himself, who 
 is the bread of life, and on whom, as such, be- 
 lievers live. k Bewailing their vileness and thirsting 
 for comfort, they are led by faith, not to a smitten 
 rock, but to a crucified Jesus, in whom they behold a 
 fountain opened for sin and undcanness, and drink 
 the consolations of pardon, justification, peace with 
 God, and the hope of eternal life, all flowing, as so 
 many streams, from that fountain. 1 And though, in 
 the course of their pilgrimage, they find many bitter 
 waters, bitter trials, arising from indwelling sin the 
 temptations of Satan the perfidy of hypocrites 
 the reproaches of the world, and the cares of life : 
 yet all are sweetened, at least rendered tolerable, by 
 the tree of the cross, that is, by the doctrine of HIM 
 who died upon that tree. " For as the sufferings of 
 Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abound- 
 eth by Christ." In the light, too, of this doctrine, 
 we enjoy a glimpse of our celestial inheritance, in 
 comparison of which the sufferings of our pilgrimage 
 dwindle into nothing. " I reckon," said " Paul, that 
 the sufferings of the present time, are not worthy 
 to be compared with the glory which shall be reveal- 
 ed in us." n Moreover, by the same light, we are en- 
 abled to see, that all our present sufferings, and 
 which, compared with our deserts and the endless mi- 
 series of the wicked, we esteem small and moment- 
 ary, are instrumental in ripening us for future bless- 
 edness : " For our light affliction, which is but fora 
 moment, workcth for us" (as it worketh us for) " a 
 
 k John vi. 32, 33, 48. Gal. ii. 20. ! Zech. xiii. 1. Eph. i. 7. 
 Rom. Hi. 24. v. 1,2, m 2 Cor. i. 5. 2 Thess. ii. 16. n Rom. 
 viii. 18. 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHURUN. 199 
 
 far more excecling and eternal weight of glory : while 
 we look not at the things which are seen, but at things 
 which are not seen : for the things which are seen 
 are temporal : but the things which are not seen are 
 eternal." 11 But to procede. 
 
 The name in question, as derived from w shur, 
 which also signifies to sing, suggested, 
 
 2. That Israel, to whom it was given, were a singing, 
 a rejoicing people, or that they had reason to be such. 
 And what people on earth have sung and rejoiced so 
 much, or have had so much cause and so many occa- 
 sions for singing and rejoicing, as spiritual Israeli 
 
 What a sweet and expressive song of thanksgiving 
 to God, did the Israelites sing when, through the 
 Red sea, they were brought out of Egypt, and saw 
 their enemies dead on the shore ! See it upon record 
 in the xvth chapter of Exodus. Yet much more rap- 
 turous is the song of young converts, when delivered 
 from the bondage of the law, of sin, and of Satan, 
 and enabled to see that all their spiritual enemies 
 are virtually dead through the death of Christ. At 
 every recollection of this great deliverance, each, 
 like David, says, " I waited patiently for the LORD ; 
 and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He 
 brought me up also out of the horrible pit, out of 
 the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and 
 established my goings. And he hath put a new song 
 into my mouth," one that I could never cordially sing 
 before, " even praise unto our God." p 
 
 In that inspired song recorded in Deuteronomy 
 
 a 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. Rom. viii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 3239. Col i. 
 12, 14, ii. 1315. P Psal. xl. 13. 
 
200 MOSES WAS [SER. VI. 
 
 xxxii, the Israelites recounted and celebrated the 
 mercies and blessings they had received from God, 
 and expressed their hopes in him, for those which 
 they might need in time to come. Nor are spiritual 
 Israelites less grateful or less hopeful. The Psalm- 
 ist, speaking of them, says to the LORD, " They shall 
 abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, 
 and shall sing of thy righteousness. They shall 
 speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy 
 power." And, to animate their hope and'confidence 
 in God, he adds, " the LORD shall reign for ever, even 
 thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the 
 LORD."" 
 
 The Israelites indeed had their troubles ; yet even 
 these they turned into a song. See the cxxxviith 
 Psalm. And much more reason have spiritual Is- 
 raelites to do likewise. We, it is true, have many 
 afflictions and much tribulation ; yet also many com- 
 forts and many occasions for singing. Our afflictions, 
 however numerous, amount to no evidence against our 
 gracious state : " Many are the afflictions of the 
 righteous, (mark that :) nor is a righteous man forsa- 
 ken in his afflictions ; "but the LORD delivereth him 
 out of them all." r Blessed ground of hope ! " In the 
 world," said Christ to his disciples, "ye shall have 
 tribulation." Sad truth! But notice what he adds 
 "Be of good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 8 "We 
 must," saith an apostle, " through much tribulation 
 enter into the kingdom of God."* Observe the word 
 musty for though we must pass through much 
 
 * Psal. cxlv. 7, 11 and cxlvi. 10. See also Philip, iv. 19. 
 * Psal. xxxiv. 19. " John xvi. 33. * Acts xiv. 22. 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHURUN. 201 
 
 tribulation by the way, we must enter into the king- 
 dom of God. These things considered, well may 
 we, my believing hearers, like the afflicted Israel- 
 ites, turn our sorrows into songs ; and, like Paul, 
 "take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in ne- 
 cessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's 
 sake."" Better times await us ; therefore, "Rejoicing 
 in hope," let us " be patient in tribulation ;" v and, as 
 the grounds of our hope, and the sources of our com- 
 fort, are always the same, let us "rejoice evermore," 
 and " in every thing give thanks. " w This is to sing 
 of judgment, as well as of mercy.* Nor shall such 
 singers ever be wanting in Zion : Singers shall be 
 there ; y even singing men and singing women* 
 
 Others, however, among whom are Vitringa, 
 Parkhurst, and Dr. Adam Clark, derive Jeshurun 
 from IBT yashar, right, straight, plain, &c.* And if 
 so derived, this name might be given to Israel. 
 
 1. To signify to them, what they ought to be, to 
 answer to their distinction and profession, namely, 
 an upright, a righteous, and a plain people. And 
 such, to comport with their profession and their priv- 
 ileges, ought the members of the gospel-church to 
 be. This church is the household of faith : a and, 
 therefore, none but believers are entitled to a place 
 in it. " False brethren," it is true, have in all ages 
 "crept in unawares :" but when discovered, like the 
 
 uNiim. xxi. 17. 2 Chron. xx. 1722. 2 Cor. xii. 10. T Rom. 
 xii. 12. w 1 thess. v. 16, 18. x Psal. ci. 1. y Psal. Ixxxvii. 7. 
 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. 
 
 * Hence the adjectives 1BT yeshar, upright, Prov. xxix. 27. 
 onir yeshareem, righteous, Num. xxiii. 10, and WD, meeshore, 
 plain, Psal. xxvii. 11. a Gal. vi. 10. 
 
202 MOSES WAS [SER. TI. 
 
 man who intruded himself among the Lord's guests, 
 not having on a wedding-garment, the imputed right- 
 eousness of Christ, received and trusted in by faith, 
 they are to be bound "hand and foot," to be de- 
 prived of all the privileges of the family, " and cast 
 into outer darkness ; there shall be weeping and 
 
 gnashing of teeth."* 
 
 <r 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 12, 13. That " the kingdom of heaven," illustra- 
 ted in the parable referred to, is the gospel dispensation, all com- 
 mentators are agreed. Primarily ^therefore, the coming of the king to 
 inspect the guests, and his order for the binding and ejection of the 
 intruder, fitly represent the notice which God takes of hypocrites in 
 the gospel-church his influence in bringing them to light and 
 the authority which he has given to his churcli, in a way of disci- 
 pline, to put them away. Matt, xviii. 1517. 1 Cor. v. 13. In 
 this event, too, commonly " weeping and gnashing of teeth" occur 
 weeping on the part of the church, at seeing any of her members 
 prove to be of such character, and " gnashing of teeth," on the 
 part of the excluded hypocrites and their ungodly associates. Re- 
 spect also, may be had to God's coming at certain times, to judge 
 his church in a way of Providence ; when, by severe trials, he awa- 
 kens his saints from their slumbers, reclaims them from their wan- 
 derings, and effects a separation between them and graceless pro- 
 fessors, who, under such visitations, become manifest. See 1 Pet. 
 iv. 17, 18. ICor. xi 19, 32. Eph. v. 14. Rev. iii. 1922. Matt, 
 xiii. 21. Ultimately, however, the parable under consideration, no 
 doubt, regards the final separation of all false professors from the 
 kingdom of Christ. Compare Matt. xiii. 36 43. 
 
 Adverting to this parable, some have taken occasion to say, If the 
 doctrine of election, or that of particular redemption were true, a 
 sinner found without a wedding-garment would not need to be 
 speechless, but might justly excuse himself, by saying to God, No 
 such garment was prepared for me. Shocking presumption ! But 
 it should be recollected, that the question the king puts to the man 
 in that condition, is not Why hast thou not on a wedding- gar- 
 ment? But, "Friend," (or companion, as Era^f, the word used, 
 properly signifies,) " how earnest thou in hither" how couldst thou 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHURUN. 203 
 
 None, however, are clothed in the wedding-gar- 
 ment, that is, none have a justifying faith in Christ, 
 but the regenerate ; and such are not only righteous, 
 in his righteousness imputed to them, but upright 
 also, through his grace implanted in them. They are 
 upright in their hearts.* They are the assembly of 
 the upright* They possess an integrity of heart, both 
 toward God and man, which they cannot abandon. 6 
 They are more excellent than their neighbor s, { and 
 therefore, the excellent of the earth. 5 Like Jacob, 
 they are plaint that is, honest and undisguised, 11 and 
 like Nathanael, Israelites indeed, in whom there is no 
 guile, noallowe 1 fraudulence-or dissimulation. 1 
 
 But, admitting the name under consideration to 
 have been thus derived, it must be evident that God 
 gave it to Israel. 
 
 2. To remind them of what they had been in the 
 
 presume to intrude thyself among the guests, " not having on a 
 wedding-garment V 3 See ver. 12. The members of the church 
 are companions of Christ and one another. Cant. viii. 13. Hence 
 hypocrites, being among the members of the Church, are 
 called companions also. Cant. i. 7. Compare Matt. xx. 13. 
 and xxvi. 50, in each of which places the same compella- 
 tion is given to a similar character. The design, therefore, in 
 this part of the parable before us, is not to illustrate the sin of unbe- 
 lief, but that of persons making a hypocritical profession of religion 
 and thereby getting into the visible church, while they are not 
 regenerated, and consequently have no true faith in the justifying 
 righteousness of Christ ; also to remind them, that however they 
 may, for a time at least, deceive the church, they cannot deceive 
 God, who knows their hearts, and who, (if he do not renew them,) 
 will most assuredly, sooner or later, separate them from among 
 his children, and consign them to hell. See Luke xiii. 23 28. 
 
 c Psal. cxxv. 4. d Ibid. cxi. 1. e Job xxvii. 5. t Prov. 
 xii. 26. * Psal. xvi. 3. h Gen. xxv. 27. ' John i. 47. 
 
204 MOSES WAS [SER. VI. 
 
 days of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who 
 were righteous, upright, and faithful men, and 
 through whose example and influence, the profession 
 of faith in the promised seed had been preserved, and 
 the prevalence of iniquity suppressed in the nation. 
 That a great declension had occurred among them, 
 not only in practice but also in doctrine, was, as notic- 
 ed before, plainly intimated when this name was first 
 given to them : Jeshurun had waxed fat, and kicked 
 he had forsaken God who made him, and hence 
 had lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation, the 
 promised MESSiAH. k Let this remind Christians of 
 the sad decline which has occurred in the gospel 
 church. In the days of her fathers, the apostles, she 
 was a city set on a hill Jerusalem, then above and 
 free and like a woman clothed with the sun, having 
 the moon, the world, under her feet, and upon her 
 head a crown of twelve stars. But alas ! how is the 
 fine gold become dim ! How are her doctrines, or- 
 dinances, and discipline, corrupted by the traditions 
 of men ! And, to what a lamentable degree has she 
 acquired the likeness of a worldly sanctuary ! 
 
 In Jeshurun, however, Moses was king, that is, 
 chief ruler under God ; and we precede to consider, 
 
 II. The manner of his promotion and of his reign 
 or administration as their king. 
 
 First, The manner of his promotion. And he 
 was king in Jeshurun not by right of succession, for 
 he had no predecessor in office : nor by popular 
 election, no reference being had, in the case, to the 
 will of the people ; but, in an extraordinary way, by 
 the sovereign choice and appointment of God: 
 
 k Deut. xxxii. 15. i Matt. v. 14. Gal. iv. 26. Rev. xii. 1. 
 
SER. VI.] KliNU L\ JESMITRUN. 205 
 
 from whom, accordingly, he received his commis- 
 sion : This Moses whom they, his national breth- 
 ren, at first, refused saying, Who made thee a 
 ruler and a judge ? the same did God send to be a 
 ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel icho 
 appeared to him in the bush. n He delivered the 
 people whom afterward he ruled. His promotion, 
 too, was the more remarkable, in that he possessed 
 the qualifications, and, as occasion required, exerci- 
 sed the functions both of a prophet and of a priest, as 
 well as those of a ruler. That he was eminently 
 endued with the spirit of prophecy, has been noticed 
 already.* Being " of the house of Levi," and with- 
 out any corporal blemish, he possessed the qualifica- 
 tions afterward required in a priest ; p and in the pub- 
 lic solemnities of the nation, he was, in some sense, 
 a kind of high priest, or, as Eben Ezra calls him, a 
 priest of priests, until this office, by divine direction, 
 was assigned to Aaron and restricted to his descend- 
 ants.* 1 And being no stranger, but a descendant of 
 Jacob, and being chosen of God to rule among 
 his brethren, he answered the character subsequently 
 required in a ruler of Israel, till the royalty came to 
 be limited to the tribe of Judah and the house of Da- 
 vid/ 
 
 In the official promotion of Moses, therefore, we 
 behold a most happy illustration of the official pro- 
 motion of Christ. In his divine nature, indeed, 
 Christ, in common with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost, "is over all, God blessed for ever." 8 But 'our 
 
 n Acts vii. 35. Comp. Exo. iii. 10. * Ser. 1. p. 3840. 
 Exo. ii. 1, 2. pLevit. xxi. 1723. qExo. xxiv. 5, 6, 7. 
 xxviii. 1. Num. iii. 38, xvi. 40. r Deut. xvii. 15. 1 Chron. v. 
 2. xxviii. 4. 8 Rom. ix. 5. 
 
 27 
 
206 MOSES WAS [SER. VI~ 
 
 subject, recollect, respects him only in his official 
 capacity. In this capacity, though typified by many, 
 he had, like Moses, no predecessor. As Mediator 
 he was, of God the Father, chosen and " set up from 
 everlasting ;"' and therefore, his exaltation as king 
 in Zion, which was involved in his exaltation as Me- 
 diator, was, like that of Moses in Jeshurun, without 
 the concurrence of his brethren whom he was to rule, 
 and even without their knowledge of his appoint- 
 ment to that office. He is that Ruler in spiritual 
 Israel, whose goings forth, in love to them and in cov- 
 enant-engagements for them, have been from of old, 
 from everlasting? Like Moses, he unites with the 
 authority and qualifications of a Ruler, those of a 
 Prophet and a Priest. He is that Prophet whom 
 God would raise up like unto Moses, w and that 
 Ruler who is a Priest upon his throne? As Moses, 
 when he came into Egypt, Christ, when he came into 
 the world, found his brethren under subjection to a 
 foreign power, nay, disposed to remain under that 
 subjection ; and hence, as the brethren of Moses at 
 first refused him, saying, Who made thee a prince 
 and a judge over us ? y So the brethren of Christ 
 have refused Him. The carnal Jews, his brethren 
 after the flesh, said of him, We will not have this man 
 to reign over us : and even the elect of all nations, 
 though by adoption, the children of God, and there- 
 fore the brethren of Christ, 25 do, while in their carnal 
 state, like the rest of mankind, refuse him; thatis r 
 they refuse audience to his counsel, as a Prophet 
 
 *Prov. viii. 23. Micah v. 2. w Deut. xviii. 15. Acts iii. 22. 
 vii. 37. x Zech. vi. 13. y Acts vii. 35. z John xi. 52. Heb. ii. 
 14. 17, 
 
ll. VI.l KING IN JKSHURUN. 
 
 dependence upon his atonement, as a Priest, and 
 subjection to his authority, as a king. Like Moses, 
 therefore, Christ, that he might rule his people, must 
 redeem and deliver them. And as Moses having re- 
 deemed the Israelites by the paschal sacrifice, deliv- 
 ered them by the wonder-working rod, so Christ 
 having redeemed the elect by the sacrifice of himself, 
 the true passover, a delivers them by the rod of his 
 strength, the Gospel ; b which coming to them attend- 
 ed by the quickening and enlightening influence of 
 the Holy Ghost, proves the power of God to their 
 experimental salvation their salvation from the do- 
 minion of Satan and of sin. c Thus it is, that they 
 are made willing in the day of his power? to forsake 
 their false hopes and evil ways, and to acknowledge 
 him, not only as their Saviour, but also as their 
 Sovereign, their Leader and Commander* 
 
 How Moses was king in Jeshurun will more fully 
 appear, while we consider, 
 
 Secondly ', the manner of his reign, or rather of his 
 rule or administration.* This, like that of his pro- 
 motion, was extraordinary. The Government of 
 Israel was properly a theocracy: its constitution 
 and its laws being wholly of God. In the adminis- 
 
 a 1 Cor. v. 7. b Psal. ex. 2. c Rom. i. 16. vi. 14. 1 Thess. i. 5. 
 d Psal. ex. 3. e Is. Ix. 4, 
 
 * For Moses, though called "j^D a king, was not so in a 
 proper, but a figurative sense. See Gen. xxxvi. 31. Dr. Kenni- 
 cott, indeed, and after him, % Dr. Clark and others, by rejecting, as 
 spurious, the word Moses^n the preceding verse, make the title of 
 king in our text to belong to JEHOVAH ; but, to me, it seems much 
 safer to leave the standard original, so long received by Jews and 
 Christians, untouched, and to consider this title as here given to Mo- 
 ses, to denote his dignified station, as God's Vicegerent, and which, 
 as explained, well comports with the character of his administration* 
 
208 MOSES WAS [SER. VT. 
 
 tration of it, therefore, Moses acted, not as a civil ruler 
 merely, but as God's Representative; for in all the 
 messages and mandates which, in his public capacity, 
 he delivered to Israel, God, in effect, spake through 
 him, requiring their audience and obedience by him. f 
 Hence their rebelion against him, was rebelion 
 against God ; g just as their subsequent rejection of 
 Samuel, who, for a time, occupied a similar station, 
 was the rejection of God. h 
 
 In his administration, then, as well as in his pro- 
 motion, Moses was a shadow of Him that was to 
 come. Christ was not only, like Moses, God's Repre- 
 sentative on earth, but IMMANUEL, God with us. And 
 though by nature he is the Father's equal, yet by 
 office, he is, like Moses, the Father's servant,* and, 
 as such, is governed by his will : / am come down 
 from heaven, said Christ, not to do mine own will, but 
 the will of him that sent me. k Hence his messages 
 and mandates, delivered to ( spiritual Israel, like 
 those which Moses delivered to national Israel, are 
 from God : " For," saith he, " I have not spoken 
 of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me a 
 commandment what I should say, and what I should 
 speak." 1 Consequently, as we reject or acknowledge 
 him, we reject or acknowledge God the Father ; m 
 who says of him, " I have set my king on my holy 
 hill of Zion ;" D by which is meant the gospel-church, 
 the mystical Zion and Jerusalem. Hence, by an 
 evident allusion to the assemblage of the national 
 
 f Exo. iii. 13 17. Deut. iv. 1, 2, 4. *Deut. ix. 7, 24. xxxi. 
 27. h 1 Sam. viii. 7. * Philip, ii. 6, 7. Comp. Is. xlii. 1. 
 k John vi. 38. i Ibid. xii. 49. m Mark ix. 37. Luke xi. 6. 
 Comp. John xii. 48. " Psal ii. 6. 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHtJRUN. 209 
 
 Israelites at the material places so called, believers, 
 by their accession to the gospel-church, are said to 
 have come to mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
 living God } the heavenly Jerusalem" Here, in the 
 name and by the authority of the Father, Christ, as 
 Mediator reigns ; and though, in Providence, his del- 
 egated dominion is universal : all power in heaven 
 and in the earth being given unto him ; yet, in grace, 
 his administration extends only to spiritual Israel, 
 God's elect people, as the civil administration of Mo- 
 ses extended only to literal Israel, God's chosen na- 
 tion. By the special constitution and appointment of 
 God the Father, Christ is emphatically king in Zion 
 Lord and Law-giver, Judge and Defender there. p 
 
 In some things, it is true, the administration of 
 Moses was deficient in typifying that of Christ. Of 
 this deficiency a few instances follow : 
 
 1. The administration of Moses terminated at his 
 death. Not so that of Christ. He was indeed put 
 to death in the flesh ; but in dying he virtually con- 
 quered his greatest enemies. Through death he 
 destroyed, for his people, him that had the power of 
 death, that is, the devil ; nay, spoiled also principal- 
 ities and powers and made a show of them openly, 
 triumphing over them ( *?) in himself.* Nor was 
 his flesh suffered to see corruption : but was quick- 
 ened by the Spirit* Moreover, by his resurrection he 
 was declared to be the Son of God with power, that 
 is, with regal authority. 8 Him hath God exalted to 
 be a PRINCE, as well as a Saviour, to give repentance 
 to Israel and forgiveness of sins* 
 
 Heb. xii. 22. Gal. iv .26. Comp. Psal. cxxii. 24. P Is. 
 xxxiii.22. Eph.i.82. Rev. xix. 16. iHeb. ii. 14. Col. ii 15. 
 r Acts ii. 27. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Rom. i. 4. 4 Acts v. 31. 
 
MOSES WAS [SER. VI, 
 
 2. The administration of Moses was of short du- 
 ration ; but that of Christ is unceasing. He shall 
 reign over the house of Jacob, the house of God's 
 spiritual Israel for ever ; and of his kingdom there 
 shall be no end. u 
 
 3. The government of Moses was only external ; 
 but that of Christ is both external and internal. He 
 governs his people externally by his word, and inter- 
 nally by his grace. Thus he reigns over a willing 
 people ; they being made willing in the day of his 
 power And, 
 
 4. To the national Israelites, Moses was an object, 
 rather of dread than of love ; but, to spiritual Israel- 
 ites, Christ is an object rather of love than of dread ; 
 " whom having not seen ye love ;" and " in whom, 
 though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice 
 with joy unspeakable and full of glory ."* I hasten 
 to consider, 
 
 III. When, in particular, Moses appeared to be 
 king inJeshurun, namely, when the heads of the peo- 
 ple, and the tribes 'of Israel were gathered together. 
 
 1. When the heads of the people were gathered to- 
 gether. This appellation was, indeed, sometimes 
 given to all the principal officers of Israel, whether 
 civil or military ; y yet, in our text, I understand it to 
 denote jirimarily, the twelve, (one out of each tribe) 
 whom the Lord chose by name, to be in a special 
 mariner with Moses, 2 and secondarily, the seventy 
 whom the Lord also chose, though in a somewhat 
 different manner ; making his choice of them manifest 
 by bestowing upon them a measure of the Spirit which 
 more abundantly rested upon Moses, under whose di- 
 
 u Luke i. 33. Comp. Dan. ix. 6, 7. w Psal.cx. 3. x 1 Pet. i. 8. 
 y Exo, xviii. 25. 1 Chron. xii. 32. z Numb. i. 416. 
 
SER. VI.] KING IN JESHUUUN. 
 
 rection, they were thenceforward employed in the in- 
 struction and government of Israe!. a Now, when 
 these heads of the people, either the twelve or the se- 
 venty, or both together, were convened, Moses was, in 
 effect, king among them ; they being all subordinate 
 to him. The authority, in fact, by which they acted, 
 was originally delegated to Moses, and the Spirit of 
 wisdom which they possessed, was, as just noticed, 
 but a measure of that Spirit, which previously rested 
 on him. Through him, in a word, they received their 
 call and their charged How naturally do these 
 things in the history of Moses, lead our thoughts to 
 correspondent things in the history of Christ ! To 
 the twelve representatives and seventy elders, who, 
 under Moses, were " the heads of the people," answer 
 the twelve apostles and seventy disciples, who, under 
 Christ, were the heads or principal men in the New- 
 Testament Israel. And though He ordained the 
 twelve, (whom he had chosen by name) to be, in a 
 special manner, with him in his public ministry, and 
 employed the seventy only as evangelists ; yet the 
 spiritual qualifications of both were alike from him, 
 and were but so many various measures of the same 
 Spirit, which God gave to him, not by measure, but 
 in all the fulness of his gifts. d Hence, Christ having 
 received gifts for men* has constantly, according to 
 covenant-purpose, bestowed them upon men : He 
 gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, 
 and some pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of 
 the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edify- 
 ing of the body of Christ. 9 Like Moses, therefore, 
 among "the heads" of national Israel, and muchmore 
 
 Numb. xi. 16, 17, 24, 25. b Ibid. i. 117, xi. 1629, and 
 Deut. i. 1517. c Mark iii. 1419. Luke vi. 1216. d John 
 iii. 34. Psal. Ixviii. 18. f Eph, iv. 11, 12. 
 
212 MOSES WAS [SER. VI, 
 
 eminently, Christ was always king among " the 
 heads" of spiritual Israel. He claimed and they 
 acknowledged him, to be their Lord and Master, 
 while he tabernacled among them/ And after his 
 ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the descent of 
 the Spirit in his name proved, and an apostle speak- 
 ing by that Spirit declared, that God had made, that 
 is, manifested HIM to be "both LORD and CHRIST." 11 
 Is his authority any less among ordinary ministers \ 
 Have they, in their conventions, a power which even 
 the apostles had not a power to invent doctrines, or- 
 dinances and codes of discipline, for the church, and 
 to impose them upon her 1 Let this question be duly 
 considered by all who are liable either to the tempta- 
 tion or the imposition. But, 
 
 2. Moses was king in Jeshurun, when the tribes of 
 Israel also, as well as when the heads of the people 
 only, "were gathered together." And being their king, 
 not by their own election, but by God's appointment, 
 neither the heads alone, nor they and the tribes to- 
 gether, had power either to substitute another in his 
 place, or to alter any part of the law which came to 
 them through him, or any of the statutes or ceremo- 
 nies which were delivered to them by him. The 
 same is equally and more evidently true of spiritual 
 Israel, the gospel-church. For whether her heads, 
 her officers only, or, with them, her tribes, her seve- 
 ral branches also are convened, Christ is Lord of all. 
 Nor have they themselves (and much less have other 
 conventions on their behalf,) ever had a right to set 
 over them any ruler in the room of Christ, whom 
 God the Father, without consulting their will, consti- 
 tuted king in Zion ; or to change, in any respect, 
 
 Matt, xxiii. 8, 10. John xiii. 13. h Acts ii. 33. 36. 
 
SEK. vi. J KLM; UN JESHUIIU^. 213 
 
 that gospel of grace and truth, which came through 
 him or those ordinances and rules of discipline, which, 
 either in person, or by his Spirit in the apos- 
 tles, were delivered by him. 1 Let the ministers and 
 churches of Christ remember, that to change his laws 
 is the work of antichrist : k " he," said the prophet, 
 " shall speak great words against the Most High, and 
 shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think 
 to change times and laws: and they shall be given 
 into his hand," so far as to render his changes of 
 them popular, "until a time, and times, and the divid- 
 ing of time.* But the judgment shall sit, and they shall 
 take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it 
 unto the end. And (thereupon) the kingdom and 
 dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under 
 the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
 saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an ever- 
 lasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and 
 obey him." Comp. Rev. xi. 15. Lift up your heads, 
 then, ye saints of the Most High, for your rcdemp- 
 
 1 John i. 17. Gal. i. 76. Acts xv. 28, 29. xvi. 4, 5. k Dan, 
 vii. 25 27. Comp. 2 Thess. ik 3 12, and Rev. xviith, xviiith, 
 and xixth chapters. 
 
 * In this prophecy, a TIME, TIMES, and the DIVIDING OF TIME, 
 or HALF A TIME, as expressed in Rev. xii. 14, mean a year two 
 years and half a year. These three and a half years, therefore, 
 note the same duration which, in Rev. xiii. 5, is noted by 42 months. 
 And whereas in the calculations of the ancient Jews, a month con- 
 sisted of 30 days and a year of 360, either notation amounts ex-^ 
 actly to the 1260 days designed in Rev. xii. 6. In these prophetic 
 notations, however, a farther mystery is involved ; for each day, (as 
 in Ezekiel iv. 6.) is put for a year; God thus showing, that, by his 
 decree, the dominion of antichrist was limited to 1260 years. Who- 
 ever, therefore, can ascertain when it began, may easily ascertain 
 when it will end. Admonished, however, by the mistakes of oth^ 
 ers, I forbear, at present, to oft'er any opinion on the subject. 
 
 28 
 
214 AIOSEP WAS [SEIJ. VI. 
 
 tion from mystical Babylon and the dominion of anti- 
 christ draweth nigh. Luke xxi. 28. 
 
 By way of conclusion, let us briefly review and im- 
 prove the subject. 
 
 Is the true Jeshurun a seeing and an upright peo- 
 ple I* Let each ask, Am I one of that people '! What 
 have I seen of myself of the law of the gospel of 
 Christ, or of God in him, more than the carnal world 
 see'! or that amounts to a scriptural evidence that 
 the eyes of my understanding have been enlightened? 
 And what testimony do I feel what evidence do I 
 give, that I am one of those who, through grace, are 
 upright in their hearts, and hence labor, in worship 
 and in practice, to have always a conscience void of 
 offense toward God and toward men ? Psal. cxxv. 
 4, and Acts xxiv. 16. 
 
 Is Christ king in Zion ? Let all who inhabit this 
 holy hill examine whether they are indeed his loyal 
 subjects. Do we cordially receive his doctrine which 
 is according to godliness? 1 Tim. vi. 3. Do we man- 
 ifest our love to him, by keeping his commandments ? 
 John xiv. 15. And are we, in our transactions, civil 
 and ecclesiastical, governed by his royal injunction 
 delivered to his disciples all things whatsoever yc 
 would that 'men should, do to you, (changing 
 conditions) do ije even so to them. Matt. vii. 12. 
 Let sinners in Zion be of raid \Qlfearfulness sur- 
 prise the hypocrites- Is. xxxiii. 14. Again, 
 
 Is Christ king in Zion, whether the heads only or 
 the tribes also be gathered together ? O that the 
 consideration of this may always have its due influ- 
 ence upon both ! Then neither Conventions of Min- 
 isters, who, in some sense, are heads of the people, 
 being leading men among them nor Associations of 
 
 * See p. 194, dec. 
 
SEK. VI. J KING IN JESHURU1V. 
 
 Churches, however useful as advisory councils, will 
 ever assume a legislative authority in Zion ; but, re- 
 membering their subjection to Christ, as Lord and 
 Law-giver there, will endeavor to maintain, inculcate, 
 and transmit unaltered, the doctrine which he hath 
 delivered, and the ordinances and government which 
 he hath instituted. Again, 
 
 Is Christ king in Zion ? Let all his cordial sub- 
 jects exult in it. No king is like ours. He is KING 
 of kings and LORD of lords. Many are mighty, 
 but he is Almighty. All our enemies, within and 
 without, on earth and in hell, are under his control : 
 and all our friends, human and angelic, are in his 
 keeping and under his direction. With all blessings 
 temporal and spiritual in his gift, he makes this ani- 
 mating proclamation, " They that seek the Lord 
 shall not want any good thing ;" he being judge, 
 however, of what is good for us. In our militant 
 state, indeed, " It is given to us, not only to believe in 
 him, but also to suffer for his sake." Yet even this 
 is more than counterbalanced by the promise and 
 the prospect of future glory ; for " If we suffer with 
 him, we shall also reign with him." Our life, in a 
 word, both spiritual and eternal, is bound up in his 
 life as Mediator : wherefore he saith to his subjects, 
 " Because I live ye shall live also ;" and an apostle 
 speaking in his name, assures us, that "when Christ 
 who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with 
 him in glory." Let the children of Zion, then, be 
 joyful in their king. 
 
 But while the sovereignty of Christ is delightfully 
 interesting to his friends, it is no less fearfully so to 
 his enemies. For though, in the administration of 
 grace, he reigns only in Zion, yet in the administra- 
 tion of Providence and the execution of Judgment, 
 
, 
 
 MOSES WAS, &C. [sER. VI. 
 
 his dominion is universal. By covenant arrangement, 
 ttZ/ power in heaven and in earth, is employed by 
 him, and all judgment, special and general, is commit- 
 ted to him. In his reign, therefore, God the Father 
 reigns, both in heaven and on earth. Consequently, 
 from his righteous decisions, rebels can make no ap- 
 peal, nor from his incensed wrath, find any shelter. 
 Unqualified subjection, or inevitable perdition, is 
 their only alternative. Of those who persevere in 
 their rebelion, God the Father says to Christ, " Thou 
 shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash 
 them in pieces, like a potter's vessel." Nor will he 
 defer judgment or respect persons. " Be wise now, 
 therefore, O ye kings," as well as others ; "be instruc- 
 ted ye judges of the earth," who have hitherto spurn- 
 ed at instruction. Be admonished, O sinners, great 
 and small, to consider now your danger, and, as the 
 last resort, as the only possible means of escape/row 
 the wrath to come, repair to the sceptre of IMMANUEL, 
 who is JESUS, as well as Christ a SAVIOUR, as well 
 as a king ; and who " is able to save them to the 
 uttermost, that come unto God by him." Condemned 
 and helpless, " kiss the'Son," acknowledge him to 
 be the Son of God and trust in him as the only Sa- 
 viour of sinners," lest," for your contempt of him, "he 
 be angry, an<$ ye," like the rebelious Jews, " perish 
 from the way" the way of means," "when his 
 wrath is," comparatively, " kindled but a little," and 
 so be left to die in your sins and sink into hell, where 
 his wrath, thus aggravated, burns in all its dreadful 
 and eternal fury. Blessed are they that put their 
 trust in him. Psal. ii. 9 12. 
 
 >Matt. xxviii. 18. John v. 22. Acts x. 42. n Matt. xxi. 43. 
 Acts xiii 4648, and xxviii. 2328. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN, 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 6. Let Reuben live, and not die ; and let not 
 his men be few. 
 
 THE subject of this chapter, as. asserted, ver. 1, 
 is a blessing. This blessing consists of three parts : 
 a declarative a prophetic and an admirative 
 part. The declarative part, is a recognition of fa- 
 vors which God had already conferred upon Israel, 
 and on account of which Moses pronounced them 
 blessed. It extends from the second to the fifth 
 verse, inclusive ; and has been considered in the 
 last/o^r Sermons; the first two being appropriated 
 to the title of the chapter. The prophetic part be- 
 gins with our present text, and continues to the end 
 of ver. 25th. And the admirative part, beginning 
 with ver. 26th, concludes the chapter. That the 
 second part is wholly prophetic admits of no doubt; 
 for, in it, Moses speaks only of things which were 
 then future, and of which therefore, he could have 
 had no certain knowledge, but by the Spirit of 
 prophecy. Nor is this part of the chapter distin- 
 guished merely by its being prophetic, but also by 
 its being special ; for, whereas in each of the other 
 parts, the people of Israel are treated of collectively, 
 
 29 
 
218 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SER. VII. 
 
 in this part, the several tribes of that people are 
 treated of separately. 
 
 Having thus briefly analized the chapter, and 
 characterized that part of it on which we are about 
 to enter, I beg leave, as farther preparatory to the 
 work before me, to make a few general remarks. 
 These are 1. That the several tribes which are 
 to come under our consideration, were not so many 
 different and distinct people, but so many constituent 
 portions of the same people; who both before and 
 afterward, are treated of en masse, as the congrega- 
 tion and the fountain of Jacob. See verses 4th and 
 28th: 2. That as the whole nation of Israel, which 
 descended from Jacob, was evidently a type of the 
 whole family of Spiritual Israel, descending, in the or- 
 der of time, from Christ, the Antitype of Jacob; so the 
 several tribes, which descended from Jacob, by his 
 twelve sons, may justly be viewed as typical of the nu- 
 merous branches of spiritual Israel, all descending 
 from Christ, by means of the gospel, preached by his 
 twelve eminent sons, the apostles, and from the 
 original apostolic-church, that Jerusalem, which was 
 above and free, and which is the mother of us all ; 
 that is, of all true believers and of all legitimate 
 gospel-churches. See John xvii. 20. Gal. iv. 26. and 
 
 Rev. xii. 1 4. 3. That, as in the blessings which 
 
 Jacob, by the Spirit of prophecy, pronounced on his 
 twelve sons, and those which Moses, by the same 
 Spirit, pronounced upon their respective tribes, there 
 is a manifest and distinguishing variety; so, in the de- 
 grees of grace, and gifts, and knowledge in the civil 
 and religious privileges nay, even in the means of 
 temporal sustenance, bestowed on the particular 
 branches and individual members of spiritual Israel, 
 
SER. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 219 
 
 there is a correspondent and equally obvious variety. 
 See Eph. iv. 7. Rom. xii. 6. 2 Cor. viii. 715, 
 and Rom. xv. 26, 27. And 4. That Moses prayed 
 for, as well as predicted the blessings which he pro- 
 nounced upon the tribes of Israel. Let this remind 
 us, that the richer blessings of grace, which Christ 
 in the gospel, pronounces upon spiritual Israelites, 
 (Matt. v. 3 12.) flow to them through his media- 
 tion, who ever liveth to make intercession for them, 
 as well as according to what he hath spoken by his 
 Spirit in the prophets. 1 Pet. i. 11. and Heb. vii. 
 25. 
 
 With these remarks in constant recollection, let 
 us, by divine permission and relying on divine di- 
 rection, humbly attempt to investigate the blessings 
 thus prophetically and prayerfully pronounced upon 
 the tribes of Israel. t 
 
 At present our attention will be devoted to Reu- 
 ben. For here, among the tribes of Jacob, as in 
 Gen. xlixth, among his sons, Reuben is very naturally 
 first named and first blessed ; he being the first 
 born. Jacob having called his sons together, to 
 bless them before he died, began thiis : " Reuben, 
 thou art my first born, my might and the beginning 
 of my strength ;" that is, a son born to him in the 
 vigor of his days. And in like manner, Moses, in 
 announcing the prophetic blessing wherewith he 
 blessed the children, the tribes of Israel before his 
 death, began with the same branch, saying, Let Reu- 
 ben live, and not die; and let not his men be few. 
 
 This prophetic prayer requires a twofold con- 
 sideration. 
 
 I. Literal. In this sense it respected, at least 
 primarily, the preservation and temporal prosperity 
 
220 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SER. Vlt 
 
 of this tribe, as such ; Let Reuben live, and not die,* 
 &c. Nor was the assurance hereby given them, that 
 they should enjoy the favors intended, any the less, 
 because the blessing was uttered in the form of a 
 prayer, rather than in that of a direct prediction : 
 for as the Holy Ghost in the prophet could not de- 
 ceive, by foretelling a blessing, which it was not the 
 will of God to bestow, so neither, by inditing a peti- 
 tion, which it was not the will of God to answer. 
 He maketh intercession for the saints according to 
 the will of God* Moses, too, might be moved by 
 the Spirit, to predict these blessings by asking them 
 of God, that the tribes should thereby perceive the 
 deep interest which he took in their welfare ; of 
 which his praying for them, was the strongest proof; 
 as also to remind them, that the blessings he pre- 
 dicted were not in his gift, but in the gift of God, 
 and that, to Him therefore, in faith and prayer, they 
 should be looking for them. Thus, as in a subse- 
 quent instance, what God had given assurance of by 
 prophecy, he would, nevertheless, for this be in- 
 quired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. 1 ' 
 Moreover, to encourage them in this duty, he be- 
 sought the Lord to hear them : he said, " Hear, 
 LORD, the voice of Judah/' meaning when the voice 
 of that tribe should be lifted up in prayer on behalf 
 of Israel. In this, as in many other things, Moses 
 was a type of Christ, through whose intercession, 
 
 The Chaldee paraphrasts, indeed, refer the words to the future 
 state, as well as to the present ; and explain them as a prayer, that 
 the Reubenites, besides enjoying temporal prosperity, might in- 
 herit eternal life ; and so not die the second death. Comp, Rev- 
 xx. 6. and xxi. 8. 
 
 a Rom. viii. 27. b Ezek. xxxvi. 37. c Context, ver. 7. 
 
SEE VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 221 
 
 spiritual Israelites have audience with God and re- 
 ceive all their answers to prayer. d 
 
 In the case of the Reubenites, however, there ex- 
 isted special reasons why the prophet was led to 
 pronounce the blessing upon them in the form of a 
 supplication to God, rather than as a mere predic- 
 tion concerning them. 
 
 First, This tribe would be among the most ex- 
 posed, in the wars to be engaged in for the conquest 
 of Canaan. For, as a condition 6f having their por- 
 tion in Gilead, east of Jordan, " the children of Reu- 
 ben ;" with " the children of Gad," and those of 
 " the half tribe of Manasseh," had volunteered to go 
 over the River, ready armed before their brethren, 
 and the Lord, through Moses, had taken them at 
 their word and required them to perform their 
 promise. 6 Of this their engagement, Joshua re- 
 minded them, when marshaling his forces prepara- 
 tory to the war ; " and they," far from shrinking, 
 " answered him, saying, all that thou commandest 
 us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we 
 will go." f O that the soldiers of Christ, both in 
 public and in private stations, were ever thus obedient 
 to him ! Pursuant to promise, when the time for the 
 important adventure arrived, " the children of Reu- 
 ben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of 
 Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of 
 Israel," that is, before the other tribes, " as Moses 
 had spoken unto them." g Of the tribes in common, 
 therefore, these two and a half, and of these, the 
 Reubenites in particular, were the most exposed : 
 
 d John xiv. 16. 17. xvi. 23. c Num. xxxii. 1632. f Josh i. 
 1216. Ibid. iv. 12. 
 
222 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SER. VII. 
 
 for, as they are first named, they seem to have been 
 first ranked in the order of military procession ; and 
 so were the vanguard of all the army, at its entrance 
 upon the shore of the promised, but disputed land. 
 What opposing force they might have to encounter, 
 even at the onset, was unknown to them. In pro- 
 phetic prospect, therefore, of their imminent danger 
 and awful suspense, Moses, to teach and encourage 
 them to hope in God, was moved to intercede with 
 HIM on their behalf. How appropriate his prayer ! 
 Let Reuben live, and not die. Believer, at every 
 time of danger or of conflict, remember Him who 
 hath said I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail 
 not. h 
 
 Secondly, The fate of this tribe might be thought 
 specially doubtful, on account of the enormous crime 
 fallen into by their progenitor ; Reuben having com- 
 mitted incest with Bilhah, his father's concubine; 
 and the more so, because of the severe notice taken 
 thereof by Jacob, in his prediction concerning this 
 son. Addressing him, Jacob said, " Unstable as 
 water, thou shalt not excel, because thou wentest 
 up to thy father's bed," &C. 1 Well therefore, might 
 Moses, who knew that God had threatened to " visit 
 the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto 
 the third and fourth generation" well, I say, might 
 Moses feel great apprehensions for this tribe ; and 
 thus impressed, deliver his prediction concerning it 
 in the form of a prayer to God, saying, Let Reuben 
 live, and not die ; and let not his men be few. The 
 last clause, as it reads in our version, is a prophetic 
 
 h Luke xxii. 32. * Gen. xlix. 4. 
 
SEE. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 223 
 
 petition, that the men of this tribe might be nume- 
 rous ; but, as it stands in the original, it is a prophetic 
 concession of the contrary ; namely, that the men 
 of this tribe would be few. For, in the Hebrew, the 
 word not is wanting, and the prefix i van, which is 
 here rendered and, may as well be rendered though, 
 as it is in some other places ; k and then the whole 
 text runs literally thus : Let Reuben live, and not 
 die, though his men be few. To this reading, I 
 the rather incline, because, it agrees with, and 
 serves to confirm and illustrate, the prophecy of 
 Jacob concerning Reuben, that he should not excel, 
 that is, in numbers. Now, so read, the literal sense 
 of the prayer is, " Let the men of Reuben, though 
 greatly exposed though deeply stained by their 
 father's crime and though comparatively few in 
 number, be nevertheless preserved and prospered : 
 let them not be cut off by the enemy, nor by any 
 judgment; but let them survive every battle escape 
 every calamity, and be returned to their families and 
 possessions in peace." Such, too, was the event: 
 for though this tribe, in the number of its warriors, 
 long waned,* it still lived and sustained a military cha- 
 racter ;* and the men of it, who adventured their lives 
 in Canaan, having, (according to the received opinion 
 of the Jews,) spent seven years in the war and seven 
 more in dividing the land, were dismissed by Joshua, 
 with expressions of kindness and approbation, and 
 returned from the enterprise greatly enriched by 
 
 k Among which are Ezk. xiv. 14, 18. * During Israel's jour- 
 ney in the wilderness, the men of Reuben, able for war, were re- 
 duced from 46500, to 43730 : a decrease of 2770. Compare the 
 muster-roll in Num. i. with that in Num. xxvi. } 1 Chron. xii. 42, 
 xxvi. 32. 
 
224 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SER. VII. 
 
 their share in the spoils of the conquered nations. 111 
 But this prophecy requires 
 
 II. A mystical consideration. To prepare our 
 minds for this, let it be recollected, that as many 
 types were employed to set forth the various proper- 
 ties of Christ, so many were also employed to set 
 forth the correspondently various properties of his 
 mystical body, the church. Considered either as cho- 
 sen in Christ^ or as called by the Spirit, the church is 
 but one; n and, as such, is the antitype of the one 
 national Israel, chosen in Jacob and called out of 
 Egypt; yet, considered with reference to her parti- 
 cular branches, she was also fitly typified by that 
 one Israel, as consisting of particular tribes, all dif- 
 fering in number, location, character, gifts, and other 
 circumstances. 1 * Like the members, therefore, of a 
 natural body, or those of a common family, the 
 several branches of the church, in general, and 
 the several members of each branch, in particular, 
 instead of envying, depreciating, and injuring each 
 other, ought to be mutual helpers and comforters ; 
 and the rather so, because " whether one member 
 suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member be honored, all the members" have occasion 
 to " rejoice with it." q In the history, moreover, of 
 each tribe of Israel, may be traced, some character- 
 istic peculiarities, both good and bad, which serve to 
 set forth, in some respects, the whole church, and, in 
 others, certain of her branches, as also particular 
 descriptions of members, occasionally found in all 
 her branches. At present, however, we are required 
 
 m Josh. xxii. 19. n Col. i. 18. Heb. xii. 23. Cant. vi. 9. 
 Eph. iii. 21. Is. xli. 8. 1 Pet. ii. 19. P Hosea ii. 14, 15. 
 Acts ix. 31. xvi. 4. * 1 Cor. xii. 1227. Eph. ii. 19. 
 
SER. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 225 
 
 to notice only the peculiarities which distinguished 
 the tribe of Reuben. This tribe, then, served to 
 typify the church, 
 
 1. As the household of faith. This may be 
 gathered from the name of its progenitor. For, as 
 the names of the patriarchs are all significant as 
 they were evidently given, to commemorate or to 
 foretell important events and all descended with 
 their respective tribes, we must not overlook them 
 in the mystical consideration of these prophetic 
 blessings. Reuben, from run raah to see and p ben 
 a son, signifies See or Behold a son, or a sight or 
 vision of a son. In giving him this name, Leah, 
 his mother seemed exultingly and thankfully to call 
 upon all around, to behold with admiration, the gift 
 of God to her, who had been long barren; for she 
 said, " Surely the Lord hath looked upon mine afflic- 
 tion."' Thus the church, after her long barrenness 
 during the latter part of the old dispensation," was 
 favored with her famous Son, the Messiah ;* when, 
 for better reasons and with greater emotions of ex- 
 ultation and gratitude, than those of Leah nay, in 
 the very language of inspiration, adapted to the oc- 
 casion, she might have exclaimed, " Unto us a child 
 is born, unto us a Son is given,'' &c. u If, indeed, as 
 is commonly believed, Leah supposed her first-born 
 to be the Messiah, and therefore, that in seeing him, 
 she and others saw that eminent Seed that was to 
 
 r Gen. xxix. 32. Is. liv. 1. Gal. iv. 27. 
 
 * For though literally he was born of the virgin Mary; yet 
 figuratively the church is said to have brought him forth ; his mani- 
 festation in the flesh and his manifestion in the souls of sinners 
 at their conversion, being both in answer to her desires and prayers. 
 See Cant. viii. 5. Rev. xii. 1, 2, 5, 6, u Is ix. 6, 7. 
 
 80 
 
226 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SEE. VII. 
 
 bruise the Serpents head, she was under a great 
 mistake.* But not so the church; for she that tra- 
 vailed, in desire and prayer, crying, " Oh that the 
 Salvation," (the Saviour) "of Israel were come out of 
 Ziori," hath eventually brought Him forth ; w yes, the 
 long promised long expected Son is verily born ; 
 and though the mere national Israelites, the carnal 
 Jews, beholding him only with their bodily eyes, 
 received him not* yea, according to prophecy, re- 
 jected him with abhorrence and disdain ; y yet spi- 
 ritual Israelites, even all that are born of God, 
 whether Jews or Gentiles, having seen him by faith, 
 which is like an eye to the soul, have received him, 
 and therein have received from him power to become 
 the sons of God, that is, they have received, through 
 him, the Spirit of adoption, whereby they have been 
 enabled to realize and enjoy their filial relation.* 
 Thus it is, that believers while on earth, see the Son, 
 though, by his ascension, he is become invisible to 
 the eye of sense : " Yet a little while," said he to 
 his disciples, " and the world seeth me no more ; 
 but ye see me," meaning that they should continue 
 to see him by faith. This is the special excellence 
 and peculiar blessedness of all true believers ; they 
 see the Son as others neither do nor can ; they, in a 
 word, have that sight of him, to which, according to 
 his own testimony, the counsel of God hath annexed 
 the assurance of everlasting life : This, saith he, 
 is the will of him that sent me, that every one who 
 seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have ever- 
 
 * Probably Eve was under a like mistake when she brought 
 forth Cain, and said: I have gotten m'rp-nx ZTK eesh eth yehovah 
 a man, the Lord. Gen. iv. 1. w Psal. xiv. 7. Micahv. 2. x John 
 i. 1 1. y Is. xlix. 57. liii, 27. and Mark iv. 3. z John i. 12. 13. 
 
SER. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 227 
 
 lasting life ; adding, and I will raise him up at the 
 last day* 
 
 2. In her infirmities and imperfections. In these 
 how much, alas, does the church resemble Reuben, 
 whom Jacob pronounced unstable as water ! 
 
 Like water, the members of the church are, in 
 themselves, weak so weak as to be incapable 
 of any thing spiritually good. Without me, said 
 Christ to his disciples, ye can do nothing* Without 
 Christ, as the way, no man cometh to the Father, 
 so as to be justified in his sight. Without a con- 
 tinual " supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,'' d be- 
 lievers can make no effectual resistance against 
 temptation render any acceptable service to God 
 or endure any affliction or trial with becoming resig- 
 nation. Successfully to resist Satan and the course 
 of this world, we must be found stedfast in the faith,* 
 even iha.t faith which is in Christ J To know what 
 we should pray for as we ought, we are dependent 
 on the Spirit, who, as " the Spirit of grace and of 
 supplication," helpeth our infirmities^ . And, that we 
 may run with patience the race that is set before us, 
 we must run looking unto Jesus, the Author and 
 Finisher of our faith. 11 In him is our doing and 
 suffering strength, as well as our justifying righteous- 
 ness. "In the Lord," saith a believer, "have I 
 righteousness and strength." 1 
 
 In ourselves, nevertheless, we are all unstable as 
 water ; we are not only, like that, weak in nature ; 
 but, like that, soon become lukewarm', and moreover, 
 like that, are prone to run the downward, because, 
 
 a John vi. 40. t>Ibid xv. 5. c Ibid. xiv. 6. d Philip, i. 19 
 el Pet. v. 9. 1 John v. 4. ^Acts xxvi. 18. * Rom. viii. 26, 
 *Heb.xii, 1,2. * Is. xlv. 24, 
 
228 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [ER. VII, 
 
 to nature, the easier course. Happy, therefore, is it 
 for us, that grace, dwelling in our souls, is "a well of 
 water springing up into everlasting life." k 
 
 Hence a perpetual warfare between nature and 
 grace, flesh and spirit; 1 and by reason of this war- 
 fare, we are also, like water, inconstant; easily agita- 
 ted exceedingly changeable in our frames and 
 often wavering in our resolutions. If, in the lively 
 exercise of faith, a believer can say, with David, 
 " Lord by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to 
 stand strong;' 5 perhaps darkness ensues, and the 
 next thing the Lord hears from him is David's com- 
 plaint; "thou didst hide thy face and I was troub- 
 led."" 1 What if a believer in the vigor of grace, can 
 say of God, as Job did, "Though he slay me yet 
 will I trust in him ;" n it may not be long till, by rea- 
 son of spiritual languor and outward trouble, he 
 may, like the same saint, feel as if the object of his 
 trust had abandoned him to the will of his enemies, 
 and say, "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, 
 and turned me over into the hands of the wicked." 
 The believer who, at one time, may be so crucified to 
 all the endearments of human society, and so delight- 
 ed in God, as to exclaim, "Whom have I in heaven 
 but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
 besides thee ;" p may, at another time, under affliction 
 and dejection, covet so ardently the society and sym- 
 pathy of kindred ones, as to esteem a providential 
 denial thereof, a bitter privation ; nay, may be tempt^ 
 ed to complain thereof to God himself, saying, 
 " Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and 
 mine acquaintance into darkness." q 
 
 k John iv. 14. 'Gal. v. 17. Rom. vii 1823. n Psal. xxx. T. 
 "Jobxiii. 15. Ibid. xvi. 11. P Psal. Ixxiii. 25. ' Psal. Ixxxviii. 18. 
 Comp. Jobxix, 13, 14, 21, 
 
8ER. VII.J THE BLESSING OP REUBEN. 229 
 
 With flowing tears, Lord, we confess 
 Our folly and unsteadfastness; . 
 When shall these hearts more fixed be! 
 Fix'd by thy grace, and fix'd for thee? 
 
 BEDDOME. 
 
 Imperfections, too, as well as infirmities, attend 
 the saints in the present life, and render them un- 
 stable as water. Though in general, a believer, 
 like HezeMah, may "trust in the Lord God and 
 cleave to him, and so " God may be with him," both 
 graciously and providentially; yet, in some things, 
 God, as to his enlightening, restraining, and direct- 
 ing influence, may leave him, as, in the business of 
 the Ambassadors, he left Hezekiah, "to try him, that 
 he" (not God, but Hezekiah,) " might know all that 
 was in his heart," and particularly that pride which 
 lurked there, unobserved by him before/ Thus 
 "the people that know their God," while sustained 
 by him are strong and do exploits," 8 but when, by 
 way of chastisement, they are for a time forsaken 
 of him, they become tremulous and are readily dis- 
 couraged; "all hands' 5 are then feeble, and all knees 
 are weak as water .' 
 
 3. In her comparative smallness. For, like the 
 tribe of Reuben, the church has never excelled in 
 numbers. On the contrary, compared with mystical 
 bdbylon, and with "the world that lieth in wicked- 
 ness,'' the church of true believers has constant- 
 ly appeared like a little flock? Nevertheless, such are 
 the provisions of the everlasting covenant, that when 
 all the chosen and redeemed of the Lord shall be 
 called by grace, they will be "a multitude which 
 no man can number, of all nations, and kin- 
 
 r 2 Kings xviii. 5 7. and 2 hron. xxxii. 31. "Dan. xi. 32. 
 'Ezek.vii. 17. "Lukexii. 32. 
 
230 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [sER. VII. 
 
 dreds, and people and tongues ;" and, to denote their 
 personal justification and complete victory, "through 
 him that hath loved them and given himself for 
 them," they shall stand "before the throne and be- 
 fore the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms 
 in their hands." w Hence, 
 
 4. In her preservation. According to the pro- 
 phetic prayer of Moses, in the text, the Reuben- 
 ites, though greatly exposed to danger though, 
 as a consequence of their father's sin, they were 
 unstable as water, and though comparatively few 
 in number, yet lived, and did not die did not 
 become extinct, as a tribe. So the church. For, 
 though her members, having to contend with the 
 world, the flesh and the devil, are exposed to many 
 dangers within and without though, by reason of 
 depravity derived from Adam, the common progen- 
 itor of mankind, they are all, like water, weak and 
 inconstant, and though she has never excelled in 
 numbers, and therefore not in worldly influence ; she, 
 nevertheless, according to the word of Christ, ex- 
 pressed in his own preaching, and by his Spirit in 
 the discourses of the prophets and apostles, has 
 lived and must continue to live, and not die; yes, 
 she remains and must for ever remain, a seed to serve 
 him* and an inheritance to reward him/ Christ 
 and his church, in covenant and in vital union, con- 
 stitute one mystical person; he the head and she the 
 body\ z therefore, while Christ, the head lives, the 
 church, which is his body, cannot die ; and, in this 
 case, what is true of his body is true of its constituent 
 members ; to whom, therefore, he is saying, Because 
 
 Rev. vii. 9. *Psal. xxii. 30. and Ixxxix. 36. ^Is. liii. 11. 
 and Heb. xii. 2. * Eph i. 22, 23. ii. 15. v. 30. Col. i. 18. ii. 19. 
 
SER. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 231 
 
 / live ye shall live also.* Ye shall live 1. A life of 
 grace ; which has its source in Christ, and is perpetu- 
 ated by supplies of grace from him : He giveth more 
 grace.* 2. A life of justification; "By him all that 
 believe are justified from all things, and shall not 
 come into condemnation." 3. A life of communion 
 with God: "For through him (Christ) we both 
 (believing Jews and believing Gentiles) have access 
 by the Spirit to the Father ; and truly our fellow- 
 ship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus 
 Christ." d Yet, 4. I understand him chiefly to 
 mean, that the members of his mystical body, in 
 conformity to those of his natural body, shall be 
 raised from the dead, and live, with him, a life of 
 ineffable glory and blessedness in heaven. " This" 
 saith he, " is the Father's will who hath sent me, 
 that of all which he hath given me, I should lose 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." 
 
 We have, therefore, the utmost assurance, that, like 
 the Reubenites literally, all true believers spiritually 
 shall live and not die that however numerous their 
 foes within and without, and however agitated by 
 the winds of temptation and shaded by the clouds 
 of reproach, they shall survive every conflict and 
 every storm ; and that, having finished their course 
 of labor and warfare, their divine Joshua will dis- 
 charge them with honor, and secure to them a safe 
 conveyance over the Jordan of death, and a peace- 
 ful admittance into the heavenly inheritance. 
 
 From the subject let us learn, 
 
 First, Some of the sad effects of sin, especially 
 
 "John xiv. 19. b 2 Tim. i. 9. Jas. iv. 6. c Acts. xiii. 39. and 
 John v. 24. d Eph. ii. 18. and 1 John i. 3. c John vi. 39. Camp,. 
 Philip, iii. 21. and Col. iii, 4. 
 
THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [sEK. Vlf, 
 
 of gross sin, fallen into by professors of religion. 
 Such was the sin of Reuben. By birth and privileg- 
 es, he was one of God's national Israel. His odious 
 crime, therefore, was a reproach both to Israel and 
 to Israel's God : for he that docth aught presump- 
 tiously, reproacheth the Lord.* Whether, according, 
 to the opinion of many, Reuben was a believer in 
 the Messiah, and therefore, through him, received 
 the grace of repentance and the gift of eternal life, 
 I shall, with the Holy Scriptures, leave undecided. 
 But certain it is, that his iniquity was strongly mark- 
 ed in his subsequent condition. For, 
 
 1. He was unstable as water. How striking 
 and how awful the typical design! It is to re- 
 mind spiritual Israelites, that if, in any instance, 
 they should be left so far to themselves and to 
 the power of temptation, as to fall into any gross 
 transgression, the consequences must be fearful. 
 For, though preserved by Jesus Christ? from fall- 
 ing into hell, they must, nevertheless, fall under 
 a sad decline of spiritual vigor ; their faith must 
 waver, their hope must stagger, and their great 
 strength, like that of Sampson when his hair 
 was cut, must depart from them ; and which, like 
 his, may never return till at death. h And though, 
 like the fallen Corinthians, such, in all generations, 
 are made to experience that godly sorrow which 
 worketh repentance unto salvation ;' yet, like them, 
 they "are chastened of the Lord, that they should 
 not be condemned with the world. 3 ' Hence, under a 
 sort of judicial consumption, " many are weak and 
 sickly, and many sleep. 11 These things observed by 
 
 f Num. xv. 30. Comp. Neh. v. 9. *Jude Ver. 1. b Judges 
 xvi. 1930, * 2 Cor. vii. 9. 10. k 1 Cor. xi. 3082. 
 
Vll.j THE BLESSING OP REUBEN. 233 
 
 their brethren, should excite in them, as the divisions 
 of Reuben excited in the other tribes, great thoughts 
 nay, great searchings of heart} 
 
 For his gross sin, Reuben was not only weakened, 
 but, 
 
 2. Degraded: His birthright was given to the 
 sons of Joseph."" 1 Happy is it for the saints, that, 
 being children of God, their spiritual birthright 
 can never be forfeited ; and that, being heirs of God 
 and joint heirs with Christ, their heavenly inherit- 
 ance can never be alienated. 11 Nevertheless, such is 
 God's abhorrence of evil, that while, if any of his 
 children be falsely accused, he will, as exemplified in 
 Joseph, deliver and exalt them; yet when any of 
 them, and especially of those in public stations in 
 his church, fall into gross transgression, he usually 
 suffers them, with regard to reputation and condi- 
 tion, to sink below their brethren, and often below 
 such as, in gifts and knowledge, and perhaps in grace 
 also, are far inferior to them. With such instances 
 in recollection, let believers in common, and espe- 
 cially those distinguished by eminence in the gospel 
 ministry, be apprised that no abilities, however bril- 
 liant, nor any condition, however exalted, in the 
 church militant, can secure them from Satanic snares, 
 or (in case of compliance) from providential re- 
 bukes ; and hence be stimulated to -watchfulness and 
 prayer : Watch and pray, said Christ to his disciples, 
 that ye enter not into temptation. Matt. xxvi. 41. 
 
 Still more. Reuben, for his vile transgression, be- 
 sides being weakened and degraded, was 
 
 3. Placed upon prophetic record, as a notorious 
 
 4 I.Judges, v. 15. 16. Comp. 2 Cor. vii. 11. m l Chron. v. 1. 
 Rom. viii. 17. 1 Pet. i. 35. Gen. xli. 3538. 
 
 31 
 
234 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [SER. Tit, 
 
 offender in Israel . p Hence, let spiritual Israelites 
 remember, that although false reports concerning 
 them, even though confirmed by a pretence to spe- 
 cial revelations, as those which Sanballat and his 
 party invented and caused to be circulated against 
 Nehemiah, were confirmed by the prophetess Noadia 
 and the rest of the false prophets, that would have 
 put him in fear? must all vanish before the force 
 of truth ; yet, that should they indeed be surprised 
 and hurried into any scandalous offenses, they would 
 have reason to expect the reproach thereof to follow 
 them. Such has been the common lot of fallen 
 saints. Thus, the drunkenness of Noah, the equivo- 
 cation of Abraham, the adultry of David, and the 
 idolatry of Solomon, though all forgiven/ are to 
 their shame, all recorded by the pen of inspira- 
 tion. Nor have the New-Testament saints escap- 
 ed. Would the disciples, contrary to the Spirit of 
 their blessed Master, have called for fire from 
 heaven, to destroy their enemies ? Did Peter, through 
 fear, deny his Lord ? And, did Paul and Barnabas, 
 long companions in travel and labor, contend sa 
 sharply about Mark, that they separated? Their 
 offenses, though, like those of the Old-Testament 
 saints, all pardoned through the atonement and 
 mediation of Christ, are nevertheless, like theirs, all 
 " written," not for our imitation, but for " our admoni- 
 tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
 Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take 
 heed lest he fall." 8 
 
 Secondly, Something of the sufficiency and the 
 victories of grace. Did Reuben, in a temporal sense, 
 
 P@O. xlix. 4. iNeh. vi. 214. r Heb. xi. '1 Cor x. 11, 
 
 in. 
 
. VII.] THE BLESSING OP REUBEN. 235 
 
 live through the mediation of Moses'! How much 
 more shall the heirs and subjects of grace, live 
 spiritually and eternally through the mediation of 
 Christ 1 In themselves, it is true, they are like 
 Reuben, unstable as water, that is weak and incon- 
 stant; yet, in regard to their safety, they are, like 
 Timothy, strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus ; 
 and are therefore, like him, exhorted to be so in the 
 exercise of faith and hope in that grace. 1 
 
 Hence, when satan, either by his immediate sug- 
 gestions, or by any instrument he employs for the 
 purpose, is permitted to buffet them, by opposing the 
 truth which they believe or the hope they entertain, 
 or by exciting their indwelling depravity, to the 
 distress of their souls, his effort, though designed for 
 their ruin, is overruled for their good; it serves 
 happily to prevent them from being exalted above 
 measure; and though painful indeed, even like a 
 thorn in thejlesh, Christ, to support and encourage 
 them under it, verifies to each what he affirmed to 
 Paul, when thus assaulted My grace is sufficient for 
 thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness" 
 
 Nor is the Adversary any more successful when 
 he desires to have us so far in his power, that 
 he may sift us as wheat For though his desire is 
 sometimes granted, his design is always frustrated. 
 He may be permitted to shake us by temptation, till, 
 both to ourselves and others, the evidences of our 
 gracious state may become greatly obscured by our 
 rising corruptions, even as the grains of wheat, in 
 the shaken sieve, become covered by their chaff. 
 Thus sifted, a believer, like David, may in his haste, 
 say to the Lord, / am cut off from before thine 
 1 2 Tim. ii. 1. $ Cor. xiL T 9. 
 
236 THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. [sER. VII* 
 
 eyes ; v and his friends, like those of Job, may suspect 
 him to be but a hypocrite ; w nevertheless, an inter- 
 est in the advocacy of Christ, secures his victory ; 
 for what Christ said to Peter when in this condition, 
 is equally true of every tempted saint I have prayed 
 for thee, that thy faith fail not . x 
 
 Nor is victory all: for in this trial of our faith, 
 which is much more precious than that of gold, we 
 are not only conquerors, but much more than con- 
 querors, through hint that hath loved us. y This 
 trial itself, though under it we may be confused and 
 agitated almost to distraction, is among the all things 
 that icork together for good to them that love God. 
 By it, like Peter, we come to know more of our- 
 selves ; and hence, like him, are converted from the 
 pernicious snare of self-confidence, and better pre- 
 pared to strengthen our brethren* 
 
 The grace that is in Christ Jesus, moreover, pro- 
 vides a remedy against the deadly malady of sin 
 itself. With this malady every child of God re- 
 mains infected while in the body ; but the blood of 
 Jesus Christ his Son, with reference to divine Jus- 
 tice, cleanseth us from all sin* Nor must a believer, 
 even though unhappily fallen into actual sin, either 
 yield to a continuance therein or despair of divine 
 mercy ; but, with abhorence of the former, and by 
 faith in the fountain of atonement, the sovereign 
 antidote to the latter, have immediate recourse to 
 the throne of grace; recollecting that if, among 
 believers, any man sin, we have an advocate with 
 the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 
 
 v Psal. xxxi. 22. w Job. xi. 3. xv. 4. x Luke xxii. 31. 32. 
 Comp. John xvii. 9. 15.20. yRom. viii. 37. 2 Luke xxii. 32, 
 and 3 Pet, iii, 17, 18. a l John i. 7, 8. b lbid. h7J. 
 
SEH. VII.] THE BLESSING OF REUBEN. 237 
 
 Such, in a word, is the perfection of God's plan 
 of salvation, that the same grace which laid its foun- 
 dation in purpose, secures its completion in glory ; 
 that, "as sin alone reigned unto death, even so 
 might grace reign through righteousness unto eter- 
 nal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. c " 
 
 Finally, How far the privileges of Spiritual Israel- 
 ites surpass those of mere national Israelites. When 
 Joshua discharged the Reubenites from their literal 
 warfare he sent them from him ; but Jesus, when he 
 discharges his soldiers from their spiritual warfare 
 receives them to be with him : " I will receive you to 
 myself," said he to his disciples, " that where I am 
 there ye may be also." d To the Reubenites, Joshua 
 assigned an inheritance in Gilead; but to believers, 
 Jesus assigns an inheritance in heaven. The in- 
 heritance of the Reubenites was temporal ; but that 
 of the saints is eternal. John xvii. 2. 
 
 c Rom. v. 81. d John. xiv. 3. 
 
SERMON VIIL 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH, 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 7.* And this is the blessing of Judah : and he said, 
 Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah; and bring him unto his people : 
 let his hands be sufficient for him : and be thou an help to him 
 from his enemies. 
 
 IN the record itself of these blessings pronounced 
 by Moses on the tribes of Israel, there are two 
 things remarkable; namely, that no mention is made 
 of the tribe of Simeon, Jacob's second son, and that 
 the tribe of Judah, though he was Jacob's fourth 
 son, occupies the second place. Both may be ac- 
 counted for by adverting to revealed facts. In 
 the division of Canaan, " the second lot," indeed, 
 " came forth to Simeon ;" but, as his children had 
 "their inheritance within the inheritance of the 
 children of Judah," Moses, led by inspiration, bless- 
 ed them together. See Joshua xix. 1. And where- 
 as, in a national sense, the royalty is m'ore honorable 
 than the priesthood) the tribe of Judah, to which 
 God, by the prediction of Jacob, had assigned the 
 former, is here placed before that of Levi, to which, 
 in this prediction of Moses, he assigned the latter. 
 See. Gen. xlix. 10, and Context, ver. 8. 
 
 And this is the blessing of Judah ; which Moses 
 uttered, not only by a Spirit of prophecy, but also, 
 
SEtt. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 239 
 
 as he uttered most of the blessings respecting the 
 other tribes, in a way of prayer: "and he said, 
 Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, &c." Neverthe- 
 less, for the reason given in the preceding Sermon, 
 page 220, the blessings which he prayed for by the 
 Spirit of prophecy, were as certain to be granted 
 as those which he directly foretold by that Spirit. 
 Our text therefore, though uttered in the form of a 
 prayer, is entirely prophetic; and its accomplish- 
 ment may be traced both literally and typically. 
 
 1. LITERALLY. Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah~\ 
 This tribe, by reason of its great eminence among the 
 tribes of Israel, was often exposed to great danger ; a 
 but, as a mark of God's distinguishing favor, it al- 
 ways had, in it, a succession of praying persons ; 
 whose voice, according to this prediction of Moses, 
 the Lord heard and answered. "The Lord was 
 with Judah and he drave out the inhabitants of the 
 mountain." b Nay, at the worst of times, " in Judah 
 things went well." Nor was the praying voice of 
 this tribe lifted up for themselves only, but also for 
 the whole nation. The king himself, who was con- 
 stantly to be of this tribe, d was usually a praying 
 man, and whose cries, with those of his praying 
 subjects, ascended to God, in behalf of Israel when 
 in distress, and were answered by seasonable direc- 
 tions and deliverances. This was eminently true 
 in the times of David* of Asa,* of Jehoshaphatf 
 and of Hezekiah. h 
 
 And bring him unto his people] Judah being a 
 military tribe, the men of it were often abroad and 
 
 * Judges i. 1, 2. b lbid. Ver. 19. C 2 Chron. xii. 12. d 1 Chron. 
 Y. 2. 2 Sam. ii. 1. xxi. 1. f 2 Chron. xiv. 915. elbid xx. 2 
 13. h 2 Kings xix. 14. &e. 
 
THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SEE. Vllfv 
 
 engaged in war, in which it is common for many to 
 be slain; wherefore, in this clause of the text, 
 Moses, influenced by the Spirit of prophecy, prayed 
 for, and so predicted, their safe return from every 
 campaign : Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, when 
 engaged in battle, or otherwise in danger, and bring 
 him unto his people, each to his family, and all to 
 those of the nation, who did not appertain to the 
 army; and which implies the preservation of those 
 at home, as well as of those abroad; or the latter 
 could not have been returned to the former. 1 Hence, 
 let all who have returned from the dangers of war 
 or of the seas, learn to attribute their own preserva- 
 tion and that of their families, friends and possess- 
 ions, to the providential care of God. " Salvation, 
 temporal as well as spiritual, belongeth unto the 
 LORD." 
 
 Let his hands be sufficient for him] This tribe, 
 on account of its great importance to all the rest, 
 would have much to do both internally and relatively, 
 and hence, by this prophetic prayer was assured of 
 sufficient ability : Let his hands, which are the sym- 
 bols of action, be sufficient for him ; sufficient to 
 provide for him, to fight for him, and to defend him. 
 The fulfilment of this prophecy is apparent in sacred- 
 history. See 2 Sam. iii. 1. v. 1 12; 2 Chron, 
 xvii. 12 19. By this, let individuals and commu- 
 nities, whose locations and relations devolve upon 
 them, much care, much labor, and much expense 
 in the cause of Christ, be encouraged to hope that 
 as their day, their strength shall be ; and let those to 
 whom much is given, remember that of them muck 
 is required* 
 
 i 1 Sam xxx. 2325. k Luke xii. 48. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 241 
 
 And be thou an help to him, from his enemies] 
 Policy, as well as power, would be employed against 
 Israel. By this prophecy, therefore, Judah was an- 
 imated with the assurance of divine aid both in 
 counsel and in battle. In counsel, making them 
 wiser, and, in battle, making them stronger, than 
 their enemies, however artful or powerful. Of this, 
 even the mercenary Balaam became convinced, 
 though to his great regret ; and of which, constrain- 
 ed by the Spirit of prophecy, he made proclamation, 
 though to his own loss. "Surely," said he, "there 
 is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there 
 any divination against Israel : according to this time 
 it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath 
 God wrought ! Behold the people shall rise up ?as 
 a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion : he 
 shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink 
 the blood of the slain." 1 That God helped Judah 
 and all who adhered to him, was specially manifest 
 under the reign of David and that of Jehoshaphat. 
 
 But I hasten to trace the accomplishment of this 
 prediction, 
 
 II. TYPICALLY. In this sense, it requires a twofold 
 application. 
 
 1. To Christ ; who, according to the flesh, descen- 
 ded from this tribe. "For Judah prevailed above 
 his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler;" 
 not merely David, Solomon, &c. in succession, but 
 eventually the Messiah himself, who is emphatically 
 the chief Ruler" The same also is expressly assert- 
 ed in the New-Testament : "For it is evident," saith 
 an apostle, "that our Lord sprang out of Judah." 
 
 ! Num. xxiii. 23, 24. m 1 Chron xii. 22. and 2 Chron. xvii. 12 
 19. and xx. 430. "1 Chron. v. 2. Comp. Micah v. 2. Heb. 
 vii. 14. 
 
 32 
 
242 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [sEK. VIII. 
 
 That Judah was eminently a type of Christ, will 
 appear in every part of this prophecy. 
 
 Like Judah, Christ had a prevalent voice in prayer. 
 "I knew," said he to the Father, "that thou nearest 
 me always." p 
 
 The Father heard him, when, in the eternal coun- 
 cil, he, as Mediator, asked for his chosen people 
 for all the blessings they would ever need and for 
 official authority to claim them as his own, and 
 to deliver and defend them from all their enemies. 
 Hence the correspondent grants which Christ, in 
 person and by his spirit in the apostles, acknowledges 
 the Father to have made to him. Speaking of the 
 people, he says, " This is the Father's will who hath 
 sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should 
 lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last 
 day." And again, " Thine they were and thou gavest 
 them me." Yet, that all might know that the Father 
 did not, by this grant, resign his own interest in them, 
 the Son adds, "All mine are thine, and thine are 
 mine; and I am glorified in them." q Would this 
 people need grace, to renew, to sanctify, to strength- 
 en and to comfort them ? This was given to them 
 in Christ, before the world began/ Would they 
 need spiritual gifts, and especially gifts qualifying 
 men for the ministry, who should be employed in 
 their edification? These Christ received, that, in 
 all generations, he might communicate them to men, 
 chosen for this important purpose. 8 Would they 
 need a suitable portion for a future state? Such 
 is that "eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, 
 promised before the world began." 1 And to whom 
 
 PJohn xi. 42. q John vi. 39. and xrii. 6. 10. r 2Timi. 9 
 Peal. Ixriii. 18. and Eph. ir. 11, 13. * Titus i. 2. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 243 
 
 could he then have promised it, but to Christ, 
 as the Covenantee of his people! Would they 
 have many enemies, and so need continual protec- 
 tion! This is made certain to them in Christ, 
 who, in his official capacity and for their safe- 
 ty, received universal dominion: "All power," said 
 he, "is given unto me in heaven and in earth."" 
 Thus qualified, "he shall deliver the needy when he 
 crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper." w 
 "Neither," saith he, "shall any pluck them out of 
 my hand." x 
 
 More properly, however, the voice of Christ was 
 lifted up in prayer while he tabernacled in human 
 nature upon earth. 
 
 As man, he was, poor and needy? a man of sor- 
 rows and acquainted with grief* yea, in temporal 
 accommodations, more destitute than the foxes of the 
 forest, or the birds of the air; a and being, withal, 
 abhorred by his nation b and assailed by the tempter, 
 he greatly needed the protection and succor of his 
 heavenly Father, and which he fervently implored. 
 For this purpose, he often retired to some solitary 
 place, a mountain or desert ; d and, in one instance at 
 least, continued all night in prayer to God. Q Then 
 
 " Cold nights and the midnight air 
 Witnessed the fervor of his prayer ; 
 The desert his temptations knew, 
 His conflict and his victor) 7 too." 
 
 His conflict was severe, but his victory was complete : 
 "The devil," foiled by the sword of the Spirit, 
 which is the word of God, "leaveth him, and, be- 
 hold, angels" sent by his Father, who always heard 
 
 "Matt, xxviii. 18. John xvii. 2. w Psa1. Ixxii. 12. x John x. 
 28. y xl. 17. z Is. liii. 3. * Matt. viii. 20. b ls. xlix. 7. Matt. 
 iv. 110. d Ibid. xiv. 33. Mark i. 35. and vi. 46. Luke vi. 12. 
 
244 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SER. VIII. 
 
 him, " came and ministered to him." f They prob- 
 ably brought him, besides cheering messages, some 
 convenient food, which, by divine order, they had 
 prepared, to nourish his natural body and to revive 
 his animal spirits, in which he had suffered great 
 exhaustion by fasting and temptation. See this 
 strikingly typified in the case of Elijah. 1 Kings 
 xix. 5 8. 
 
 Still more, however, did the human nature of Christ 
 shrink from the ignominious death, and especially 
 from the fearful curse, which, therein, he had coven- 
 anted to endure for his guilty people. Hence his 
 agonizing conflict in the garden, when he fell on his 
 face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possi- 
 ble, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I 
 will, but as thou wilt ; which prayer, in the fervor of his 
 soul, he repeated a second and a third time ; g nay, in 
 the last instance, being in an agony, he prayed more 
 earnestly than before, and his sweat was as it were 
 great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 11 
 
 From the prayer of Christ in the garden, thus 
 fervently and repeatedly offered, we learn 1 . That, 
 as man, he has a will, distinct from his will as a 
 divine person ; and which proves that he has a truly 
 human soul. Hence, though his divine will is always 
 in perfect accordance with the Father's will ;* yet, 
 when his human nature shrunk at approaching suffer- 
 ings, his human will desired exemption from them. 
 As man, therefore, he prayed to the Father, saying, 
 If it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; never- 
 theless, (his holy soul being quiescent in his heaven- 
 ly Father's will,) he added, not as I will but as thou 
 
 ' Matt. iv. 11. e Matt. xxvi. 3944. h Luke xxii. 44. j PsaJ. 
 ad. 7, 8. and John vi, 38. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 245 
 
 wilt. O for a like resignation to the will of God, in 
 all our supplications at his throne! 2. That the 
 mutual stipulations of the Father and the Son, in 
 the covenant of redemption, are unalterable that 
 Christ, as the substitute of his people, was "delivered 
 by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of 
 God" and, that without it the scriptures could not 
 have been fulfilled, nor a single sinner, consistently 
 with law and justice, have been saved. k For these 
 and other reasons, it was not possible that this cup 
 should pass from him. Nevertheless, it is evident 3. 
 That the Father, who heard him always, heard 
 him when in this distressing condition ; for though he 
 did not take away the cup itself, yet he took away 
 that amazing terror, which, in view of it, had fallen 
 upon his human nature ; and, in this nature, strength- 
 ened him to drink it up. Then it was, that, accord- 
 ing to prophecy, the Father said unto him, " In an 
 acceptable time have I heard" thee, and in a day of 
 salvation," that is, while he was suffering to obtain 
 the salvation of sinners, "have I helped thee. 1 Thus 
 it was, that "in the days of his flesh, when he had 
 offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
 crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save 
 him from death," (had it been agreeable to the 
 divine counsel,) "and was heard," and so was 
 delivered (* T ****$) from the fear, that is, 
 of death." 1 For this purpose angelic instrumentality 
 was again employed: There appeared an angel 
 unto him from heaven strengthening him* Perhaps 
 this angel, as supposed of those mentioned, page 243, 
 administered some appropriate nourishment to his 
 
 k Acts ii. 23. Matt. xxvi. 54. 1 Pet. iii. 18. ! Is. xlix. 8. Heb. 
 r. 7. See Parkhurst, under ** < n Luke xxii. 43. 
 
246 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SER. VIII. 
 
 body ; but chiefly, no doubt, he strengthened him in 
 his human soul ; by reminding him of the Father's 
 promises, by which, as man, he was assured of all 
 needful support during the conflict that his body, 
 though it must die, should be raised without seeing 
 corruption and especially, by setting before him 
 the glorious results of his humiliation and death ; 
 namely, that, thereby, the divine perfections would be 
 glorified the prophetic writings be fulfilled the 
 divine law be magnified and made honorable the 
 infinite evil of sin be clearly demonstrated, and 
 innumerable millions of lost sinners be redeemed, 
 to ascribe their salvation to him for ever and ever. 
 Accordingly, " for the joy that was set before him, 
 he endured the cross, despising the shame, &c." 
 Hence, the holy composure with which he left the 
 garden p the intrepid manner in which he treated 
 the officers as well as the mob, when they came to 
 take him q the magnanimity which he displayed in 
 the Judgment-Hall 1 " and the full confidence of 
 victory and glory which he manifested while hang- 
 ing on the cross ; for even then he said to the pen- 
 itent thief, To-day shalt thou be with me in para- 
 dise. 3 And 4. That all dependence which sin- 
 ners place upon their prayers and tears, to satisfy 
 divine Justice for their sins, must necessarily fail ; 
 for, as the prayers and tears of Christ, though all 
 immaculate, could not atone for sin, how much less 
 can ours, which are all morally polluted I In like 
 manner, we may perceive the folly of trusting in 
 our obedience to the law, to procure the pardon of 
 
 oHeb. xii. 2. P Matt. xxvi. 45, 46. qlbid. Ver. 5256. 
 Luke xxii. 52, 53. John xviii. 39. r Ibid. Ver. 3337. and 
 xix. 10. 11. Luke xxiii. 43. 
 
SEE. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 247 
 
 our transgressions of it; for even the obedience of 
 Christ, in life, though perfect, and though indispen- 
 sable to the justification of his people, did not, could 
 not procure the pardon of sin. Can, then, the im- 
 perfect obedience of sinners procure it 1 Christ 
 satisfied divine Justice for sin, not by his obedient 
 life, but by his vicarious death; 1 he "put away sin 
 by the sacrifice of himself ;' ju and, accordingly, it is 
 through his blood, that his people have redemption 
 and forgiveness* Look, therefore, poor legalist 
 look upon Christ in the garden. Consider the 
 manner in which he, though personally innocent, 
 was treated by his righteous Father, when he found 
 him in the law-place of sinners ; and, having duly 
 pondered the awful subject, ask thyself such questions 
 as these : Am I more holy, or more worthy of 
 divine favor than he ? If the demands of divine 
 Justice could not be relinquished to iavor him, even 
 though he sought it with "strong crying and tears," 
 can I expect they will be relinquished to favor me ? 
 If, then, I should be found at last, not under the 
 covert of the righteousness and atonement of Christ, 
 but accountable to God in my own person, for my 
 want of conformity to his law, in nature, and for my 
 transgressions of it, in life, what can I expect but 
 its fearful penalty! Thy reasoning, sinner, is just; 
 and living and dying a legalist, the doom thou ap- 
 prehendest is inevitable : " for as many as are of the 
 works of the law are under the curse." Gal. iii. 10. 
 
 Christ, moreover, as Mediator, prayed for his 
 
 people : / pray, said he to the Father, for them; 
 
 adding, I pray not for the world, hut for them which 
 
 thou hast given me ; for they are thine, by special 
 
 1 1 Pet. iii. 18. u Heb. ix. 26. w Eph. i. 7. 
 
248 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [sER. VIII. 
 
 love and choice ; and which was the strongest plea 
 that could have been used on their behalf/ He 
 prayed both for all who were then believers in him, 
 and for all who, according to covenant-purpose, were 
 thereafter to become such; God having from the 
 beginning chosen them to salvation, through sanctifi- 
 cation of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2 Thes. 
 ii. 13. For those who were then believers in him, 
 he prayed that the Father would keep them from the 
 evil, especially from the evil one, Satan, and that he 
 would sanctify them through the truth. , y Neither, 
 continued he, pray I for these alone, but for them 
 also which shall believe on me through their word ; 
 that is, through the gospel, which the apostles preach- 
 ed. Christ, therefore, prayed for all true believers to 
 the end of the world. 2 Nor did he merely pray that 
 his people might be called and kept, but likewise that 
 ultimately they might be glorified : Father, said he, 
 I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be 
 with me where lam; that they may behold my glory, 
 which thou hast given me; meaning that glory 
 which, by covenant-compact, belonged to him, as 
 Mediator. 3 And that the Father heard and answer- 
 ed the supplications which he, as Mediator, made for 
 his people, must necessarily be concluded from the 
 promise which he had given him, that he should 
 see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied* and 
 from the grant of the Holy Ghost to him, which, after 
 his exaltation, he received and shed forth, for the 
 accomplishment of that promise. 
 
 Hence also it is evident that Christ, though ascend- 
 ed to heaven, still pleads the cause of his militant 
 
 'Johnxvii. 9. y Ibid. Ver. 15 17. z Ibid. Ver. 20. a lbid. 
 Ver. 24. b ls. liii. 11. c Acts ii. 33. Comp. Psal. ex. 3. and 
 Titus iii. 6. 
 
Ell VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAli. 249 
 
 people: He there appears in the presence of God 
 (the Father) for us. d And though to suppose, as 
 some do, that he prays for his people in heaven, as 
 he prayed for them upon earth, is absurd; yet his 
 approved appearance there, is a perpetual and an 
 ever availing plea on their behalf; it demonstrates 
 that he has perfected all that he had covenanted to 
 do and suffer, as the condition of their salvation ; and 
 therefore, that, on principles of inflexible righteous- 
 ness, he is entitled to all that the Father, on that 
 condition, promised to him, for them. Consequent- 
 ly, they must all receive grace here, and eternal life 
 hereafter. 6 But to procede. 
 
 Like Judah, Christ was brought back to his 
 people. He engaged in dreadful conflict with all 
 the powers of darkness ; and though he conquered 
 it was by dying; and while, according to covenant- 
 stipulation, he remained under the dominion of death 
 and the grave, his disciples were in awful suspense. 
 But God raised him from the dead, and so brought 
 him back from the war, and restored him to his 
 people, his family, his friends and that to their 
 exceeding joy. Then were the disciples glad when 
 they saw the Lord! Nay, their very sorrow, accord- 
 ing to promise, icas turned into joy;* that which 
 had occasioned it, namely, their Master's crucifixion, 
 becoming to them, when they were led to under- 
 stand the design of it, matter of joy, such as they 
 had never known before. 11 Nor was that joy intend- 
 ed for them only ; it is the common privilege of all 
 true believers to rejoice in him that was dead and 
 
 d Heb. ix. 24. Comp. Chap. vii. 25. and 1 John ii. 1. 2 
 Tim. i. 9. and T itus i. 2. Uohnxx. 20. *Ibid. xvi. 20. 
 h Luke xxiv. 25, 26. 32. 
 
 33 
 
250 THE BLESSING OF JtfDAH. [sER. Vltt~ 
 
 is alive in him, who was delivered for our offenses, 
 and was raised again for our justification^ And 
 though our believing views and embraces of Christ, 
 are sometimes interrupted by sin, or temptation, or 
 unbelief, in so much, that, for a season, he withdraws 
 himself and is gone* yet, such is his love for us, 
 that he never utterly nor entirely leaves or forsakes 
 us; 1 and, having brought us to understand and bewail 
 those evils in our hearts and lives, which had occasion- 
 ed him to withdraw, he kindly and seasonably re- 
 turns. Thus it is, that, in promises, in meditations, 
 under Sermons, and at ordinances, he manifests 
 himself to us, and not unto the world. m In this 
 way, though ascended to heaven, he still visits his 
 believing ones upon earth : /, said he to his disciples , 
 will come and see you, (which includes their seeing 
 of him by faith,) and your heart shall rejoice, and 
 your joy no man takethfrom you? 
 
 In due time also, he comes in a providential way r 
 to remove them, by death, from the sorrows of earth 
 to the joys of heaven: / will come again, saith he, 
 and receive you unto myself; that where I am there 
 ye may be also. Herein, he visits his Church to 
 gather lilies? And, finally, he will return in person ; 
 in which he will appear a second time ; though in a 
 character and for a purpose very different from those 
 of his first appearance. At his incarnation, he ap- 
 peared as the substitute of his guilty people, and to 
 make satisfaction to divine justice for their sins, 
 which, by covenant-stipulation, were all placed to 
 his account ; but, at his second coming, he will 
 appear as the Judge of quick and dead; and 
 
 'Rom. iv. 25. k Cant. v. 5. ] Heb. xiii 5. m John xiv. 22. 
 Ibid ifi. 23. * Ibid. xiv. P Cant. vi. 2. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 251 
 
 though to decide the fates of all mankind, yet special- 
 ly to claim his people, as his due reward for what 
 he did and suffered on their behalf at his former ad- 
 vent, and to put them into the full possession of 
 their heavenly inheritance ; preparatory to which, by 
 raising the bodies of the dead saints and changing 
 those of the living, he will fashion both like unto 
 his own glorious body, and therein complete their 
 salvation. 9 Accordingly, the different objects of 
 his first and second appearance on earth, are briefly 
 expressed and distinguished thus : " Christ" (at his 
 first coming) "was offered to bear the sins of many,'' 
 even of all the millions of God's elect ; " and unto 
 them that look for him,'' as all true believers do, 
 "shall he appear the second lime, WITHOUT SIN 
 unto SALVATION/ 
 
 The hands of Christ, too, like those of Judah, 
 have always been sufficient for him. 
 
 Hand is put for strength or ability to perform 
 any specified work. Exo. iv. 1. The hands of Judah, 
 therefore, might typify the ability of Christ to accom- 
 plish the salvation of God's elect, which, by cove- 
 nant-engagement, devolved upon him. Is. xlii. 6. 
 
 Being "the Son of man, whom the Father made 
 strong for himself," he had sufficient ability to satis- 
 fy divine Justice for their sins; he "bare our sins," 
 that is suffered for them, "in his own body on the 
 tree ;" and so " redeemed us from the curse of the 
 law, being made a curse for us." s Being, by the 
 right hand of God exalted, and having received 
 of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he 
 has sufficient ability, as well as authority, to regen- 
 
 * Philip, iii. 21. 1 Cor. xv. 5157. and 1 Thes. iv. 1517. 
 r Heb. ix. 28. Comp. Matt. xx. 28. and Rev. v. 9. e Psal. Ixxx. 17. 
 1 Pet. ii. 24. Gal. iii. 13. 
 
252 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [sER. VIII. 
 
 erate and convert them. Hence his people are made 
 willing in the day of his power* As he is " full of 
 grace, 5 ' his hands arc sufficient 'to supply us with all 
 spiritual blessings, with which the Father hath bless- 
 ed us in him. Accordingly, " Of his fulness have 
 we (believers) all received."" Nor can his sufficien- 
 cy ever 'fail. "It pleased the Father that in him 
 should all fulness dwell," commensurate to all our 
 necessities: "wherefore he is able also to save them 
 to the uttermost that come unto God by him." w And 
 having, in his official capacity, as well as in his 
 divine nature, " All power in heaven and in earth," 
 his hands are sufficient to preserve all whom the 
 Father hath committed unto him : " I give unto 
 them," saith he, " eternal life, and they shall never 
 perish; neither shall any pluck them out of my 
 hand." x 
 
 Hand denotes also possession, with a right to 
 govern and employ at will, whatever is possessed. 
 See 1 Kings xi. 12. Thus understood, the hands 
 of Judah might typify all persons and things that 
 Christ, by right of possession and disposition, would 
 employ as instruments to promote the welfare of 
 his Kingdom. And that, in this sense too, his 
 hands are sufficient for him, can admit of no doubt; 
 for the Father hath given to him, as Mediator, pow- 
 er over all flesh, and hath delivered all things unto 
 him. y Hence, 
 
 If, for the benefit of his church, He is pleased 
 to employ the instrumentality of earthly rulers, 
 their hearts, and consequently their means and their 
 
 t Acts ii. 33; and Psal. ex. 3. u John i. 14. 16. Eph. i. 3 
 w Col i. 19. Heb. vii. 25. * Matt, xxviii. 18. and John x. 28 > John 
 xviK 2. Matt xi. 27. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 263 
 
 influence, are under his control. " The king's heart 
 is in the hands of the Lord, as the rivers of water: 
 he turneth it whithersoever, he will." Prov. xxi. 1. 
 To him, therefore, Ezra and Nehemiah justly 
 ascribed the favor shown to Israel, by the success- 
 ive Kings of Persia. See Ezra vii. 27, 28. and 
 Neh. iv. 4 18. And thus, in the latter day, either 
 as renewed by grace or as constrained by Provi- 
 dence, Gentile Kings shall become nursing fathers 
 and their Queens nursing mothers to the gospel 
 church. Is. xlix. 23. 
 
 If, to prostrate monarchs or to revolutionize 
 governments, adverse to the extension of His gos- 
 pel and His visible kingdom, He choose to call 
 into requisition armed hosts and distinguished 
 generals, both are His own and must subserve 
 His design. All, in this sense, are his servants. 
 Psal. cxix. 91. 
 
 Thus, through the instrumentality of Constantine 
 and his armed forces, He accomplished the down- 
 fall of pagan Rome; in doing which He is supposed 
 to have opened the sixth apocalyptic seal. Rev. vi. 
 1217. 
 
 In like manner, He has greatly diminished and 
 will utterly destroy the civil authority of MYSTERY 
 BABYLON, that great city that reigneth [Now per- 
 haps we might rather say that did reign] over the 
 kings of the earth. Rev. xvii. 5 18. 
 
 By similar means, too, He is reducing and will 
 finally exterminate the Turkish empire, probably 
 denoted by the great river EUPHRATES, upon which, 
 in John's vision, the sixth angel poured out his vial. 
 If so, by the waters of that river, which, thereby, 
 were dried up, may be meant the Ottoman armies 
 
254 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [sER. VlH. 
 
 and resources, and perhaps their Mahometan relig- 
 ion also; that, continues the vision, the way of the 
 kings of the east might be prepared; that is, that 
 the way might be opened for the gospel to be sent 
 into the eastern nations. Rev. xvi. 12. Herein, too, 
 the way will be prepared for the Jews to return to 
 their own land; where many promises respecting 
 both their spiritual and their temporal prosperity 
 remain to be fulfilled. 2 In evacuating their land, 
 however, preparatory to their repossessing it, the 
 hand of the Lord will be so evident, that the event 
 is predicted by an allusion to the dividing of the 
 Red sea, called the tongue of^the Egyptian sea, for 
 their safe passage across its channel; and, to the 
 draining of the Euphrates by seven canals, for the 
 entrance of Cyrus into Babylon, that, taking it, he 
 might favor Israel. Is. xi. 15. For, although the 
 latter was a work of art, it was, nevertheless, perform- 
 ed according to prophecy, and therefore, no doubt, 
 by divine direction. 8 
 
 Nor are the angels of heaven any less at his com- 
 mand. "Are they not all ministering Spirits sent 
 forth," under Christ their Head, "to minister for 
 them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" b 
 
 The elect, as such, are all heirs ; wherefore, the 
 words "who shall be heirs of salvation,'' must re- 
 spect their calling and open justification, wherein 
 they are said to be made heirs, that is manifested to 
 be such, according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 
 iii. 7. It would seem, therefore, that the ministry of 
 angels is employed for their preservation while in a 
 carnal state. By this agency probably it is, that 
 
 z Ezek. xxxvi and xxxvii chapters ; and Amos ix. 14, 15. a Is. 
 X!T. 27. Jer. 1. 38. b Heb. i. 14. 
 
JBER. VJI1.J THE BLESSING OF JUDAU. 255 
 
 many of them, in childhood or afterward, and even 
 amid a course of infidelity or immorality, are, as 
 it were, miraculously snatched or unexpectedly rais- 
 ed from threatening death. 
 
 The saints, during their pilgrimage on earth, are 
 constantly liable to innumerable injuries ; but " the 
 angel of the Lord," Christ himself, by the ministry 
 of created angels, "encampeth round about them 
 that fear him, and delivereth them." Psal. xxxiv. 7. 
 Comp. Is. Ixiii 9. By an angel, Peter was deliver- 
 ed out of prison. And probably the earthquake, 
 by means of which Paul and Silas experienced a 
 like deliverance, was produced by angelic agency . d 
 By the ministry of angels, the host sent by the king 
 of Syria to take Elisha, were smitten with blindness; 
 whereupon the prophet led them into the midst of 
 Samaria, where, their eyes being opened, they saw 
 themselves entirely in the power of Israel ; but were 
 spared through the counsel of that very prophet, 
 whose life they had sought. 2 Kings vi. 11 23.* 
 
 By angels, too, the souls of the saints, whom they 
 have attended during life, are conveyed to heaven, at 
 death : " The beggar" (Lazarus) " died, and was 
 carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." Luke 
 xvi. 22. 
 
 It is probable also, that, by the ministry of angels, 
 
 God, in many instances, destroys the lives of those 
 
 who obstinately persevere in their efforts to injure 
 
 his people. Thus when Herod stretched forth his 
 
 8 Acts xii. 711. d Ibib . xvi . 
 
 * What a mercy it is when God opens the eyes of persecutors 
 any where short of hell! And when he does so, let those whom 
 they have persecuted, after the example of the prophet, show 
 them favor. 
 
THii BLESSING OF JUDAH, [sK. VIII* 
 
 hand to vex certain of the church, though permit- 
 ted to kill James, and to imprison Peter, and though 
 afterward idolized by his admirers, yet, thereupon 
 immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, with 
 some foul disease, and he was eaten of worms and 
 gave up the Ghost. Acts xii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 23. 
 Thus also, when the Assyrians were about to be- 
 siege Jerusalem, that night, the very night, it should 
 seem, before the contemplated attack, the angel of 
 the LORD went out and smote in the camp of the 
 Assyrians an hundred, four score and five thousand : 
 and when they (the survivors) arose early in the 
 morning, behold, they (the 185 000) were all dead 
 corpses. 2 Kings xix. 35. Let persecutors tremble. 
 
 Angels, too, are employed, and especially in times 
 of persecution, to influence rulers and deliberative 
 bodies to favor those whom God will favor, and to 
 comfort those whom he loves. Thus the angel 
 Gabriel was employed twenty-one days at the court 
 of Persia to incline the king and his nobles to favor 
 the Jews, and that he might bear a consoling mes- 
 sage to the beloved Daniel. In his labor, and as the 
 occasion of its prolongation, Gabriel was withstood 
 by the prince of the kingdom of Persia, that is, by 
 Satan, the prince of this world ; " but lo," saith the 
 angel, " Michael, one (or the first*) of the prin- 
 ces" Christ himself, who is the Head and Lord 
 of angels, " came and helped me." Hence complete 
 success. Dan. x. 2 21. Compare Chap. viii. 15 19. 
 
 There is also another description of instruments 
 employed by Christ, to wit, gospel-ministers. By 
 these chiefly, he propagates his doctrine gath- 
 ers his redeemed and enlarges his visible em- 
 See Parkhurst, under nrv, No. 2. 
 
SEH. Vlll.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 257 
 
 pire.* Nor can he, in these, ever be deficient ; for, 
 having all grace and all gifts, both natural and 
 spiritual, in his possession, he constantly qualifies as 
 many for this work, as he is pleased to employ in it. 
 Hence, when about to do much in this way, he raises 
 up an adequate number of these workmen. Accord- 
 ingly, under a prophetic view, both of the early and 
 the latter times of the gospel, the psalmist exclaimed, 
 " The Lord gave the word :" great was the compa- 
 ny of those that published it. Psal. Ixviii. 11. Never- 
 theless, for this, as for every other favor, he will 
 be inquired of by the house of Israel, the church, 
 to do it for them : " Pray ye therefore the Lord of 
 the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his 
 harvest." Matt. ix. 38. 
 
 Means too, as well as agents, are all at the com- 
 mand of Zion's King. " The silver is mine and the 
 gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts." Hagg. ii. 8. 
 And by his sovereign Providence, the occasions and 
 means of national intercourse are all rendered sub- 
 servient to his cause. For while the rulers and 
 merchants of all nations are accomplishing their 
 respective objects, their ships serve as transports to 
 convey the missionaries of the cross and the Scrip- 
 tures of truth to destitute millions. Thus, whatever 
 was the object of Hezekiah's embassy to Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, it occasioned an opportunity for the pro- 
 phet Jeremiah to send an inspired letter to the cap- 
 tives in Babylon. See Jer. xxix. 1 3. 
 
 Now all these things taken into view, who can 
 doubt that the hands of Christ, as Mediator, are 
 sufficient for him ? 
 
 Like Judah, moreover, Christ had the Father's 
 
 * These are the angels, or messengers, meant in Matt. xxiv. 31. 
 
 34 
 
258 tHE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SER. 
 
 assurance that he would be a help to him from his 
 enemies ; and which, in his human nature, he receiv- 
 ed and realized, while, " in the days of his flesh," 
 he was subject to innocent infirmities, and was 
 assailed by Satan and wicked men. 6 In a word, he 
 had the Father's concurrence at all times and in all 
 things: "I am not alone," said he, "because the 
 Father is with me." f 
 
 But, as this prophecy, in its typical signification, 
 is applicable to Christ, so also, 
 
 II. To his church. Here/ as well as in regard 
 to the Reubenites, 
 
 1. The name of the progenitor, descending with 
 the tribe, claims a thought. Judah, from nr Yadah, 
 to praise and rv Yah, the Lord, signifies the praise 
 of the Lord. Such is the church. That she is 
 chosen, redeemed and sanctified, is all To the 
 praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath 
 made us accepted in the Beloved.* His design in 
 giving her a visible existence in the world, was the 
 promotion of his own declarative glory: This people, 
 saith he, have I formed for myself; they shall show 
 forth my praise* And hence the reason of that 
 apostolic doxology, "Unto him be glory in the 
 churchy by Jesus Christ, throughout all ages, world 
 without end ;" and to which, with the apostle, all the 
 saints devoutly respond, " AMEN." 1 
 
 The descent of the progenitor's name with his 
 tribe, suggests also another thought ; namely, that 
 so, under the gospel, believers are justly called 
 Christians, after CHRIST, their spiritual progenitor ; 
 and that for a better reason than is common to 
 
 e Is. 1. 79. xlix. S. and Heb. V. 7. f John xvi. 32. Comp. 
 Chap. viii. 16. g Eph. i. 6. h Is xliii. 21. i Eph. iii. 21. 
 
SEE. Vllf.] THE BLESSING OP JUDAH. 259 
 
 nominal Christendom. CHRIST signifies anointed, 
 as ho was with the oil of gladness* the Holy 
 Spirit which He, as Mediator, received in all his 
 fulness of grace and gifts j 1 and "of his fulness have 
 we" (believers) "all received," 1 and, therefore, are 
 anointed also. " Ye," saith an apostle to believers, 
 "have an unction from the Holy One," that is, the 
 Spirit from Christ; and again, "the anointing which 
 ye have received of him abideth in you &c. m * 
 This anointing constitutes persons Christians, and 
 an open profession of the doctrine and a consistent 
 walk in the precepts of Christ, manifests them to be 
 such. The former gives the being, the latter ex- 
 hibits the character of Christians. Without the 
 former, none can be saved ; without the latter, none 
 are entitled to membership in a gospel-church. 8 
 
 k Psal. xlv. 7. i John iii. 34. m 1 John ii. 20 27. 
 
 * CHRIST (Xf IO-TOS) in the N. Test, answers to MESSIAH, (rrtBro) in 
 the Old Test. See Dan. ix. 25, 26. Accordingly, Messias, (Mtr<r/*<) 
 which is evidently the Heb. Messiah, (rp#o) with a greek termina- 
 tion, is interpreted to be The Christ, (o Xgtrroe.) John i. 42. (Eng. 
 Transl. Ver. 41.) The root of each (Heb. n^D mashach, Gr. 
 Xpiu chrio) means to annoint. The word, therefore, in either 
 language, signifies anointed, and, when used as a proper name 
 and with the article, THE ANOINTED, or ONE ANOINTED. As given to 
 the divine MEDIATOR, it imports his being anointed with the 
 reality of the typical oil, even with the Holy Ghost and with 
 power. Acts. x. 38. Comp. Psal. ii. 2. xlv. 7, 8. Is. Ixi 1. Luke 
 iv. 18. and Heb. i. 9. Moreover, as the ceremony of anointing 
 with oil was used in the inauguration of kings, prophets and priests, 
 (1 Sam. xvi. 12, 13. 1 Kings xix. 15, 16. Exo. xl. 1215.) the 
 Father's unction of the Mediator with the Holy Ghost, implies 
 that, by covenant-compact, these three offices are eminently 
 united in him. See Psal. ii. 2. 6. Deut. xviii. 15. Acts iii. 20 
 23. Heb. i. 1, 2 Ibid. iii. 1. iv. 14. 
 
 n John iii. 3, 7. Acts ii. 41. 47. 1 Cor. v. 13. Titus iii. 10. 
 
260 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SER< vm, 
 
 2. Like the tribe of Judah, the church is a praying 
 people. The Holy Spirit, which all her living mem- 
 bers have received from Christ, her Head, is in them 
 the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Taught by 
 this Spirit to know their wants and made to realize 
 their unworthiness and their dependence upon the 
 favor of God in Christ, they live in some good de- 
 gree, a life of thanksgiving, for blessings received, 
 and of prayer, for blessings needed. And though 
 our heavenly Father perfectly knows all our neces- 
 sities and has made a correspondent provision for us 
 in Christ and though his revelation of this provi- 
 sion and his promises assuring us of seasonable sup- 
 plies from it, should relieve us from all distressing 
 anxiety, he, nevertheless, will have us to come to 
 him in prayer, declaring our wants and pleading his 
 promises. Accordingly, an inspired apostle, ad- 
 dressing believers, says, " Be careful for nothing ; 
 but in every thing," temporal as well as spiritual, 
 " by prayer and supplication,"* "with thanksgiv- 
 ing," (for the fulness treasured up in Christ, for 
 access to the throne by him, and for the many 
 great and precious promises encouraging their 
 hope,) "let your requests be made known unto 
 God." p Nor can their prayers and supplications 
 thus offered, be unavailing. Their voice, like 
 that of Judah, finds audience with the LORD. "Ask" 
 said Christ to his disciples, "and it shall be given 
 you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you." q 
 
 Moreover, as the tribe of Judah always had some 
 who were specially praying persons, the same may 
 
 * By prayer may be meant the petitions made, and by suppli- 
 cation, the pleas and entreaties used. 
 
 Zech. xii. 10. P Philip, iv. 6. q Matt, vii< 7. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAIt. 261 
 
 be said of the church. She has always had some, 
 even in the worst of times, who have sighed and 
 cried on account of abominations committed within 
 her enclosures, and for her purification and pros- 
 perity. And such are marked for safety, whatever 
 may become of those who are at ease in ZionJ 
 
 3. Was the tribe of Judah almost constantly en- 
 gaged in war! So is the church. 
 
 She is so by reason of that internal conflict, which 
 she almost incessantly feels between nature and 
 grace, flesh and spirit ; s and hence, though, in 
 relative dignity she is the Shulamite,* yet in herself 
 and in her own esteem she is crjnnn nSriDD chim- 
 
 r Ezek. ix. 4. 2 Tim. ii. 19. Rev. ix. 4. and xiv. 1. Amos vi. 1. 
 . Rona. vii. 23. Gal. v. 17. 
 
 Shulamith, of which shulamite is formed, is derived from 
 Shalem or Salem, an ancient name of Jerusalem. See 
 Gen. xiv. 18. and Psal. Ixxvi. 2. The church, therefore, as being 
 the people of Spiritual Jerusalem, may be called the Shulamite, as 
 the woman of Shunem is called the Shunammite. 2 Kings iv. 12. 
 She is comely as Jerusalem. Cant. vi. 4. Compare Gal. iv. 26. 
 and Heb. xii. 22. Rather, however, I think rva 1 ?^ Shulamith is 
 the feminine of HD 1 ?^ Solomon, and that the church bears this 
 name because she is the spouse of Christ, the antitype of Solo- 
 mon. For like reasons, she is also called by some of his other 
 names. 1 Cor. xii. 12. and Jer. xxxiii. 16. Compared with Chap. 
 xxiii. 6. The same, too, has obtained in civil communities. 
 Among the Romans, for instance, if a man's name was Caius his 
 wife was called Caia. See Durham, on the place, and Calmet, 
 under Shulamite. 
 
 It is worthy of notice also, that as both names, Solomon and 
 Shulamith, are from one root, aSt? Shalom, so "both He 
 (Christ) that sanctifieth, and they (believers) that are sanctified 
 fied are all of one one God and Father, (John xx. 17.) one 
 election, Is. xlii. 1. Eph. i. 3, 4.) one covenant, (Psal. 1. 5.) 
 one family, (Eph. iii. 14, 15.) one Spirit, (1 Cor. vi. 17.) and 
 one inheritance, the elect being heirs of God and joint-heirs with 
 Christ. Rom. viii. 17. See Heb. ii. 11. 
 
262 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [sER. VIII* 
 
 cholath hamahanaim,] as it were the company of 
 two armies engaged in battle. Compare Gen. 
 xxxii. 2. (In Heb. ver. 3.) where the word Mahanaim 
 is used in the same sense, and to which the speaker, 
 in this place, probably had an allusion. 4 
 
 The true church is also continually opposed by 
 hosts of mere nominal professors. These carna- 
 lists, being like Ishmael, born only after the fleshy 
 that is, having no religion but what they have 
 by fleshly descent from members of the visible 
 church, or have acquired by exertion of their own 
 fleshly or natural abilities, constantly persecute 
 those, who, like Isaac, are born after the spirit? 
 
 This evil world, too, is full of enmity and opposi- 
 tion to the saints : " If ye were of the world," said 
 Christ to his disciples, " the world would love his 
 own ; but because ye are not of the world, but I 
 have chosen you," and, accordingly, have called you 
 by grace, " out of the world, therefore the world 
 hateth you." w 
 
 And especially the devil, who is styled the God 
 of this world, and who is the father of lies the 
 patron of hypocrites and the exciter of corrupt 
 nature in believers, is constantly employing his pol- 
 icy and his influence against the church. As a 
 roaring lion he walketh about, in the persons of 
 seducers and persecutors, seeking whom he may 
 devour, and whom, therefore, we are exhorted to 
 resist stedfast in the faith* He is emphatically the 
 accuser, that is of the saints ; and a false one, as the 
 word implies. He charges them with the guilt of 
 those evil thoughts, which he injects into their minds, 
 
 - 'Cant, vi. 13. In the Heb. Chap vii. Ver. 1. "Gal. iv 29. 
 w John xv. 19. * 1 Pet. v. 8, 9. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAU. 263 
 
 but which they abhor ; and burdens their consciences 
 by accusing them of sins, for which they have had 
 the manifestation of pardon. But chiefly he bears 
 this name, because, by means of false witnesses, he 
 accuses the saints of crimes and misdemeanors of 
 which they were never guilty. In this way, he pro- 
 cured the crucifixion of Christ himself/ and the 
 martyrdom of his servant Stephen : z and, persisting 
 in his rage against Christ, has, in the same way, 
 procured the martyrdom of thousands of his disciples 
 under pagan and papal Rome. Nor can it be just- 
 ly ascribed to any thing but the restraints of civil 
 government, providentially prohibiting it, that any of 
 the undisguised advocates of sovereign grace have 
 escaped a similar fate. For that satanic malice 
 which moves the tongue and the pen of slander 
 against us, would, if not restrained, consign us to 
 prison and to death. 
 
 Satan, observe, is the accuser, not of unbelievers > 
 whom God, in his law, accuses and condems, but of 
 believers, whom God, in his Son, justifies freely by 
 his grace.* And as this adversary brings his false 
 accusations against believers, by witnesses who im- 
 piously appeal to God for the truth of their allega- 
 tions, so he is said to accuse them BEFORE GoD. b 
 His accusations, however, though for a time they 
 may answer his purpose, so far as to worry those 
 whom he accuses to furnish infidels and profligates 
 with matter for scoffs and songs c to keep weak- 
 minded professors in painful suspense and, to 
 affright many of the world from attending where the 
 
 xxvi. 5962. z Acts vi. 1115. and vii. 5460. 
 Gal. iii. 10. Rom. iii. 24. b Rev. xii. 10. c 3 Pet iii. 37. Psal. 
 Ixix. 12. 
 
264 THE BLESSING OF JUDA11. [sER. VIII- 
 
 truth is preached yet, eventually, must all be over- 
 ruled for God's glory and Zion's good. " Surely," 
 said the Psalmist to God, "the wrath of man," thus 
 excited by Satan, " shall praise thee : the remain- 
 der of wrath shalt thou restrain." d 
 
 4. Was the tribe of Judah by this prophecy, 
 assured of hands sufficient for them ? In like man- 
 ner, the church is assured of ministerial laborers, 
 and of all needful strength, both numerical and 
 spiritual. By promise and prophecy the Lord has 
 assured her that he will give her pastors according 
 to his own heart, who shall feed her with knowledge 
 and with understanding? that he will increase her 
 with men like aflocR? and that he will abundantly 
 Hess her provision, and satisfy her poor with bread.* 
 Her supplies of grace and strength are all treasured 
 up in Christ, her mystical Head, from which all the 
 body, by joints and bands, having nourishment 
 ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the 
 increase of God. h With him on her side, who has 
 all blessings, temporal and spiritual, in his gift, and 
 all agents, good and bad, under his control, what 
 can she want what need she fear? 
 
 5. Was this tribe encouraged, by the prophecy 
 before as, to expect, that, trusting in God, they should 
 find him a help to them from their enemies ? Much 
 more is the church encouraged to expect the same 
 favor. "Fear thou not," saith her covenant-God 
 to her ; " for I am with thee : be not dismayed, for 
 I am thy God : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I will help 
 thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of 
 my righteousness. Behold, all they that were in- 
 
 rf Psal. Uxvi. 10. e Jer. iii. 15. *" Ezek. xxxvi. 37. *Psal. 
 cxxxii. 15. h Col. ii. 19. 
 
SER. VIII.] THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. 265 
 
 censed against thee, shall be ashamed and confound- 
 ed : they shall be as nothing ; and they that strive 
 with thee shall perish." Is. xli. 10, 11, &c. See also 
 Chap, xliii. 2. and li. 1215. The Lord of hosts 
 is with us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge." Psal. 
 xlvi. 11. And, "If God be for us, who" or what, 
 with success, "can be against us?" Rom. viii. 31. 
 Help from God, however, against our enemies with- 
 in or without, can be justly expected only in the 
 diligent use of appointed means. It is, recollect, 
 " they that wait upon the Lord," in prayer, in read- 
 ing and hearing his word, and in the exercise of faith 
 in his perfections and promises, that " shall renew 
 their strength &c." Is. xl. 31. 
 
 Concerning the church, behold, in the light of our 
 subject, 
 
 1. Her unity as the one mystical body of Christ, 
 her mystical Head. For as typical Judah, though 
 but one, had many members, so is mystical Christ. 
 1 Cor. xii. 12. 
 
 2. The excellence of her condition, when com- 
 pared with that of the tribe of Judah. This tribe 
 had, by death, lost its head. Not so the church. 
 Her Head, indeed, was put to death in the flesh; 
 yet He was not, like Judah, left under the power of 
 death ; but was quickened by the Spirit ; and being 
 raised from the dead, he dieth no more; death hath 
 no more dominion over him. Hence the assurance 
 of grace and glory, which he, the Head, gives to 
 believers, his members : Because I live, saith he 
 to them, ye shall live also. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Rom. vi. 9. 
 and John xiv. 19. 
 
 3. Her certain perpetuity, by the accession of 
 converts. She is the household of faith, the family 
 
 35 
 
266 THE BLESSING OF JUDAH. [SER. Vili. 
 
 of believers in Christ ; but Christ is SHILOH, and 
 unto him SHALL the gathering of the people be. 
 Gen. xlix. 10. Comp. Is. xi. 10. and li. 11. 
 
 4. The indubitable defeat of all her enemies ; 
 for all who are the enemies of the church are the 
 enemies of Christ who is the LION of the tribe of 
 Judah. Rev. v. 5. And 
 
 Finally, the animating prospect of all her living 
 members. For, however poor and afflicted, tempted 
 and tried, hated and persecuted, they may be during 
 their warfare, yet, at the end of the war, the end of 
 their militant state, like the men of Judah, they re- 
 tire from the field, crowned with victory, and return 
 to their people, to those of the heaven-born family, 
 gone home before them. Thus encouraged, let us, 
 my beloved brethren and sisters, not be slothful, but 
 followers of them, who through faith and patience 
 inherit the promises. Heb. vi. 12. 
 
SERMON IX. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. HIS URIM AN0 
 THUMMIM. 
 
 DEUT. xxxin. 811. And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim 
 and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at 
 Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meri* 
 bah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not 
 seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew 
 his own children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy 
 covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy Judgments, and Israel 
 thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt 
 sacrifice upon thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and ac 
 cept the work of his hands : smite through the loins of them 
 that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise 
 not again. 
 
 THE tribe of Levi, like that of Judah, made a 
 very conspicuous figure among the thousands of 
 Israel. From Judah preceded their kings; from 
 Levi, their priests. 
 
 The blessing here pronounced upon this tribe, as 
 you must have observed in hearing it read, is rich 
 and various, including many honors and privileges ; 
 and though it implied, that the Levites in common, 
 and the priests in particular, would have much labor 
 to perform and much opposition to encounter, it also 
 assured them, that their services should be divinely 
 accepted and their enemies divinely vanquished, 
 
 At present, however, we can attend only to so 
 much of this blessing as is expressed in the first 
 
 36 
 
268 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. IX. 
 
 verse of the text, which reads thus: And of Levi he 
 said, that is, Moses, in a way of prayer to God, and 
 in a way of prophetic instruction to Israel, said, Let 
 thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, 
 whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom 
 thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah. 
 
 The literal interpretation which I may be enabled 
 to give of this part of the text, will necessarily 
 accompany the investigation proper to be attempted, 
 respecting the THUMMIM and URIM. These are 
 first mentioned in Exo. xxviii. 30. where the words 
 stand in the contrary order URIM and THUMMIM, as 
 they also do in Levit. viii. 8. Ezra ii. 63. and Neh. 
 vii. 65 ; and which, besides our text, are the only 
 places in which the words occur together. Twice, 
 however, we find URIM put for both. See JNum. xxvii. 
 21 and 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. 
 
 Now, concerning the Urim and Thummim, (for in 
 this order I shall consider them,) let us inquire, 
 
 First, What they were. Here it becomes us to 
 procede with great modesty; these sacred articles 
 being confessedly buried in the depths of antiquity 
 and covered with the lumber of talmudic tradition. 
 The Talmudists say that king Josiah (I suppose 
 they mean in prospect of troubles then coming upon 
 the nation) hid the Urim and Thummim under 
 ground, in a cave before prepared by Solomon, and 
 that the Jews on their return from Babylon, could 
 not find them;* and accordingly the same writers 
 mention them as one of Jive things which they affirm 
 to have been wanting in the second temple ;f to wit, 
 
 * See Cunseus, De Republica Hebraorum, 1. 1. c. 14. 
 f Lightfoot's Works, Vol. 1. p. 408. 
 
SKR. IX.] MIS UKIM AND TMUMMIM. 269 
 
 1. The Ark with the Mercy-seat and Cherubim 
 2. The Shecheenah* 3. The fire from heaven which 
 consumed the sacrifices. 4. The Holy Ghost, as the 
 Spirit of Prophecy. And 5. The Urim and Thum- 
 mim- 
 
 What became of the Urim and Thummim, we 
 cannot satisfactorily ascertain ; but whether they 
 were hid by Josiah, or any other person, or burnt or 
 otherwise destroyed or lost, during the invasion of 
 Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the 
 Chaldeans, it is manifest from Ezra ii. 63, that the 
 Jews were without them when they returned from 
 Babylon ; nor does it appear by any inspired record, 
 that they were ever used under the second temple. 
 
 Hence, in process of time, the Jews lost the true 
 idea of them. This is evident from the diversity of 
 opinion respecting them, which has obtained among 
 their learned men. Several of their distinguished 
 Rabbies, among whom are David Kimclii\ and 
 Aben Ezra,\ have candidly confessed, that they did 
 not know what they were ; and their less diffident 
 brethren have been much divided in opinion on the 
 subject. Most of them, it is true, after the Targum 
 of Jonathan, have supposed that the Urim and 
 
 from p# Shakan to dwell, denotes the Divine Presence, 
 or Majesty dvVelling in a luminous cloud in the tabernacle and 
 temple, and which gave to them a peculiar sanctity. Exo. xxix. 
 43. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. This cloud, though it occasionally ap- 
 peared in other places, usually hovered over the Mercy-seat, the 
 lid of the Ark. Hence JEHOVAH, of whose presence it was the 
 symbol, promised to appear between the two cherubims, one of 
 which stood upon each end of the Mercy-seat, upon the Ark. Exo. 
 xxv. 17 22. and Levit. xvi. 2. Thence also Moses heard his 
 directive voice. Num. vii. 89. See Ling. Sacra, under pp. 
 
 fin lib.Shorash. f On Exo. xxviii. 5. 30. 
 
270 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. sER. IX. 
 
 Thummim were nothing other than the awful name 
 JEHOVAH, engraven on a piece of beaten gold and 
 put into the Breast-plate.* And those of them 
 who, on this question, have differed from Jonathan, 
 have differed no less from each other. 
 
 Nor have Christian interpreters, on this subject, 
 been any more harmonious. Those of them, whose 
 opinions respecting these articles, have been most 
 extensively adopted, it may be proper to mention. 
 Calving it would seem, thought the Urim and Thum- 
 mim were two remarkable characters in the breast- 
 plate, of whose properties or uses, these two names 
 were expressive. Cornelius & Lapide supposed 
 them to be simply the two words Urim and Thum- 
 mim engraven on a stone or a plate of Gold, and 
 placed in the pectoral, that is, in the breast-plate. J 
 Christopher de Castro and Spencer \\ imagined 
 they were two little images, such as the Teraphim ; 
 
 * This name of the divine Being, the Jews think could never 
 be lawfully pronounced by any but the high-priest, nor by him, 
 any where but in the holy of holies. Hence, in reading the Bible, 
 they substitute for it, Adonai, Lord, or Elohim, God. And when 
 occasion requires that they be understood to mean the name 
 JE-HOVAH, they call it KH3DH OJ? Shem-hamphorash, that is, the 
 name manifested, or the name distinguished, or the name explana- 
 tory. The Hellenists, those Jews who speak the Greek language, 
 instead of Shem-hamphorash, use the Greek name rrrf <ey^n^aTd 
 Tetragrammaton, the name of four letters; Jehovah, in Hebrew* 
 Consisting only of four letters ; to wit, yod, n he, i vau, n Ae 
 
 f In Exo. xxviii. 4 
 
 $ See in Rivet, in Exo. xxviii. 30. Lapide was a learned Jesuit, 
 Who devoted himself to the critical elucidation of the Scriptures, 
 and whose works amount to 10 Vols. folio. He died at Rome, in 
 1637, aged 71. Moferi's Histor. Diet. 
 
 In ftivet, in Exo. *xviii. 30. II De Urim & Thummim. 
 
X.'J HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 271 
 
 which, being placed in the folds of the breast-plate, 
 gave articulate answers to the questions put to them 
 by the high-priest. Arias Montanus, Willtt, and 
 others, adopted the opinion of Rabbi Menachem* 
 that the IJrim and Thummim, whatever might be 
 their form or matter, were the immediate work of 
 God ; and that Moses received them from his hand, 
 as he did the tables on which the law was written, 
 and put them into the breast-plate. 
 
 Finding both Jews and Christians, thus divided 
 in opinion respecting the Urim and Thummim, 
 Junius\ and Diodati,\ like David Kimchi and Aben 
 Ezra, thought it most safe to leave them as things 
 unknown, without even conjecturing what they 
 were. This, however, is making a sacrifice to the 
 confusion and uncertainty of human opinion, in 
 which I cannot conscientiously concur. 
 
 Leaving, therefore, the mists of tradition and 
 conjecture, both Jewish and Christian, let us resort 
 for information, to the Oracles of God. And in 
 these, although we find indeed no positive assertion 
 of what the Urim and Thurnmim were, we find 
 grounds for a pretty satisfactory conclusion, that 
 
 * See Ainsworth, on Exo. xxviii. 30. 
 
 f Born at Bourges, in 1545. He studied at Geneva. In 1565 
 he became minister of the Walloon church, at Antwerp. He 
 Was afterward chaplain to the prince of Orange, and finally pro- 
 fessor of divinity at Leyden, where he died of the plague in 1602. 
 He is chiefly known by a latin version of the bible with notes, in 
 which he was assisted by Tremellius. Watkins's Biog. Hist, and 
 Chron. Diet. 
 
 | A protestant divine, born at Lucca in 1589. He became 
 professor of divinity at Geneva, where he died in 1652. He 
 translated the bible into Italian, in 1607, and into French in 1644. 
 Moreri's Hist. Diet. 
 
272 THE BLESSING OF LEVJ. [SER. IX, 
 
 they were the twelve stones in the breast-plate, on 
 which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes 
 of Israel. This may be concluded, 
 
 1. From the signification of the words. CD-IIK Urim 
 is the plural of IIN Ur light) and CTDH Thummim 
 is the plural of an tarn, perfect or perfection. The 
 two words, therefore, literally signify lights and per- 
 fections. Now, the twelve precious stones in the 
 breast-plate might be called lights because they 
 were clear, lucid and transparent; and perfections, 
 either because they were perfect in their respective 
 kinds, having no blemish nor defect in them, or be- 
 cause they were full and complete in number one 
 for each of the twelve tribes. 
 
 2. From the evident fact, that the high-priest, 
 when he had on the breast-plate, with the Urim and 
 Thummim in it, represented all the tribes, even all 
 the children of Israel upon his heart, before the 
 Lord ; a but there was nothing attached to him which 
 properly denoted this, save the twelve stones on 
 which their names were engraven. See Exo. xxviii. 
 21. And, 
 
 3. Because Moses mentions the twelve stones and 
 the Urim and Thummim in such manner as seems to 
 identify them, that is, in such manner as supposes 
 them to be the same. Against this suggestion, it is 
 true, a plausible objection has been raised from the 
 face of the record made by Moses of the original 
 instructions which he received respecting the articles 
 in question. According to this record, the Lord 
 having specified the materials, the form, and the 
 dimensions of the breast-plate, said to him, " Thou 
 shalt set in it settings [Heb. fill in it fillings] of stones, 
 
 * Exo. xxviii. 29. 
 
8ER. IX.] HIS CRIM AND THUMMIM. 273 
 
 even four rows of stones,'* eacty row consisting of 
 three, and the whole comprising twelve. See Exo. 
 xxviii. 15 21. Yet, in the thirtieth verse, the Lord 
 farther said unto him, " Thou shalt put in the breast- 
 plate, the Urim and the Thummim ;" which, there- 
 fore, many suppose must have been things different 
 from the twelve stones. But the two injunctions, 
 though understood with reference to the same arti- 
 cles, may be harmonized thus: By thej^rsf, Moses 
 was required (according to ver. 20.) to set the twelve 
 stones in gold in their inclosing* ; that is, in the 
 ouches or sockets made for them in a plate of gold ; 
 and by the second, he was directed to put this plate 
 (thus set with the four rows of stones) into the 
 breast-plate. And, without interfering with the 
 question whether the plate with the four rows of 
 stones upon it, being placed in the pectoral, remain- 
 ed there constantly, or was put there whenever oc- 
 casion required it, the design of its being placed 
 there is obvious, namely, to constitute the pectoral, 
 (according to ver. 15.) the breast-plate of judgment, 
 which, without the sacred articles intended, it could 
 not be. Hence the injunction in ver. 30, continues 
 thus : " And they," the Urim and Thummim, (a new 
 name given to the twelve stones, to denote their na- 
 tural effulgence and oracular purpose,) " shall be 
 upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the 
 Lord ; and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the 
 children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord 
 continually," that is, whenever he approached the 
 divine Majesty, to perform service, or to ask counsel 
 in the name and on the behalf of Israel, he must 
 have the breast-plate of Judgment upon his heart. 
 
274 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. IX. 
 
 That Moses himself so understood the above in- 
 junctions, delivered to him respecting the articles 
 under consideration, seems evident from two subse- 
 quent records which he had occasion to furnish in 
 relation to them. 
 
 In Exo. xxxixth, where he records his compliance 
 with those divine instructions, though he minutely 
 describes the breast-plate and its appendages, even 
 to its rings, chains, and lace, he says not a word about 
 Urim and Thummim. It would seem, therefore, 
 that either the twelve stones which he there speaks 
 of having set in the breast-plate, [see from ver. 10 to 
 ver. 14,] were the Urim and Thummim, or that he 
 did not put them into the breast-plate at all, but 
 wholly neglected the divine injunction, recorded 
 Exo. xxviii. 30. The latter is utterly inadmissible ; 
 and consequently, the former is highly probable. 
 Besides, in Exo. xxxix. 21, Moses particularly men- 
 tions that all things in relation to the breast-plate, 
 were completed and united, as the Lord had com- 
 manded him. 
 
 And, in Levit. viiith, where he speaks of having 
 attired Aaron with all the pontifical vestments, pre- 
 paratory to his consecration, he expressly asserts, 
 (ver. 8.) that " he put the breast-plate upon him ; 
 also, that he put in the breast-plate the Urim and 
 Thummim ;" but makes no mention of the four rows 
 of stones ; yet, without the latter, we know the 
 breast-plate was incomplete. See Exo. xxviii. 15 
 21. The inference, therefore, is almost irresistible, 
 that Urim and Thummim, as noticed before, were 
 only another name given to the twelve stones, to 
 signify, that their luster and perfection, of which this 
 
SER. IX.] HIS UR1M AND THUMMIM. 275 
 
 name is expressive, were emblematic of their myste- 
 rious character and oracular uses. 
 
 Nor is this opinion concerning the Urim and 
 Thummim, either novel or singular. It was the 
 opinion of Josephus* who lived while the second 
 Temple yet stood, and who, " being by sect a phari- 
 see, by office a priest, and by descent, of the blood- 
 royal," had the best means and opportunities of gain- 
 ing information in regard to matters of this kind. It 
 was avowed by Maimonides, a famous Rabbi of the 
 twelfth century ,f and has been adopted by several 
 Christian commentators, distinguished by oriental 
 learning and research. Among these, are Dr. 
 Lightfoot,% Bp. Patrick^ and Dr. Gill.\\ I procede 
 to inquire 
 
 Secondly, What were the uses of the Urim and 
 Thummim. Here \ve have more light. For, 
 
 1. It is evident they served to secure to all the 
 tribes of Israel, a representation in the person of the 
 high-priest. This is plain from the direction which 
 God gave to Moses, saying, " Thou shalt put in the 
 breast-plate of Judgment the Urim and the Thum- 
 mim ; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when 
 he goeth in before the Lord ; and Aaron shall bear 
 the Judgment," (the cause) "of the children of Israel 
 
 * Antiq. 1. 3. c. 8. 
 
 f The Jewish writers commonly call him Rabbi Moses the son 
 of Maimon ; or, by abbreviation, Rambam, the consonants of 
 which, R M B M, being the initials of Rabbi Moses Ben 
 Maimon. Lingua Sacra, under n^D. 
 
 t Works, vol. 2, p. 1067. 
 
 On Exo. xxviii. 30. 
 
 || Levi's Urim and Thummim found with Christ. 
 
 37 
 
276 THE BLESSING OF LEV!. [SEK. IX. 
 
 upon his heart before the Lord continually," meaning 
 whenever he officiated with these on his breast, b 
 
 As the representative, therefore, of all the congre- 
 gation of Israel and of them only, the high-priest, on 
 the great day of atonement, offered the sacrifices for 
 sin, on the brazen altar.* Even in perform ing this work, 
 the priest might be said to go in before the Lord ; be- 
 cause, in order thereto, he went into the outward court, 
 where on the day of atonement, as on the day of his 
 consecration, he might be said to kill the sacrifice 
 before the Lord. Exo. xxix. 11. Nevertheless, by 
 his going in before the Lord, (Exo. xxviii. 30,) seems 
 chiefly to be meant his going in before the Lord to 
 peform his service in the two apartments within the 
 tabernacle, properly so called. 
 
 Accordingly, on the day of atonement, and as the 
 representative of all the congregation of Israel, he 
 entered into the most holy place. And though he is 
 said to have entered there once every year, the sense 
 is not that he entered there only " once every year," 
 but, that the day of atonement on which he entered, 
 occurred only once every year. See Exo. xxx. 10, and 
 Levit. xvi. 34. For the history of the matter plainly 
 
 b Exo. xxviii. 30. 
 
 * Levit. xvi. 11. 15. 24. Comp. Chap.ix. 7,8, 9. 15, 16. 18. This 
 altar is called the brazen (Exo. xxxix. 39.) because the wood of it, ac- 
 cording to Chap, xxxviii. 1, 2, was overlaid with brass. It is also 
 called the altar of burnt offering, (Exo. xl. 6, 29,) because the bodies 
 of the animals offered upon it, (after their blood was drawn and dis- 
 posed of,) were burnt partly upon the altar itself, and partly without 
 the camp. Levit. xvi. 25, 27 Heb. xiii. 11. It stood in the open 
 court, near the door of the tabernacle, that is, the hanging or cur- 
 tain, through which was the door of entrance into the holy place, called 
 also the first tabernacle, Exo. xxvi. 36, 37, xl. 6, 29. Heb. ix. 2. 
 
SEE. IX.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 277 
 
 shows, and the best commentators, Jewish and Chris- 
 tian, are all agreed, that on the day of atonement, 
 annually, the high-priest entered that sacred place 
 three several times. 
 
 The inspired account of his work on that day runs 
 thus. He commenced it by bringing the bullock to 
 the altar of burnt-offering, where he killed and offer- 
 ed it as a sin-offering for himself and his house. 
 This done, 1. He entered into the most holy place, 
 taking with him " a censer* full of burning coals of 
 fire from off the altarf before the Lord, and his hands 
 full'' (either each separately filled, or what we call a 
 double handful) " of sweet incense." According to 
 the Mishna,l he put the incense into a cup, which he 
 carried in his left hand, while he carried the censer 
 full of burning coals in his right hand, till he came 
 within the vail, where he put the incense upon the 
 burning coals, and the smoke of it, like a cloud, 
 covered the mercy-seat, that he might not die by 
 looking upon the symbol of God's presence which there 
 appeared/ Having returned for the blood of the 
 bullock, 2. He entered taking that with him in a 
 bason, out of which, with his finger, he sprinkled 
 some of it upon the mercy-seat eastward. This 
 
 Levit. xvi. 6. 11. 
 
 * That of gold, the use of which, on the day of atonement, be- 
 longed to the holy of holies* Heb. ix. 4. 
 
 f By which is meant the brazen altar of burnt-offering, on which 
 the fire was kept constantly burning. Levit. vi. 9, 12, 13. 
 
 f C. 5. Sect. 1. 
 
 d Levit xvi. 12, 13. Comp. ver, 2. e Ver. 14. 
 
278 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. IX. 
 
 sprinkling, Aben Ezra says, according to their inter- 
 preters, was upwards and not upon the mercy-seat, 
 but over against it. Of the same opinion were Bp. 
 Patrick and Dr. Gill, supposing, with the Jewish 
 interpreters, that it would have been inconsistent with 
 the sacredness of the mercy-seat, for the blood to 
 have fallen upon it. To me, however, (this trivial 
 objection notwithstanding) it seems most safe to 
 abide by the Hebrew text, according to the literal 
 version of which, the blood, though indeed sprinkled 
 upward, as the word dl imports, yet fell upon the 
 face of the mercy-seat,* then covered with a cloud of 
 incense. Hence also the proper distinction between 
 this sprinkling and that which followed : "and before 
 the mercy-seat, shall he sprinkle of the blood with 
 his finger seven times ;" which, according to the same 
 Jewish authorities, was sprinkled downwards.^ And 
 3. Having come out again, and killed the goat, 
 which by lot was the sin-offering for the people, he 
 took the blood of it within the vail, and did with it 
 as he had done with that of the bullock/ 
 
 Thus the high-priest, according to Levit. xvi. 16, 
 was required to "make an atonement for the holy 
 place ;J because of the uncleanness, transgressions, 
 
 f See Bp. Patrick, on the place. 
 f Levit. xvi. 15. 
 
 J By which, as in ver. 2, 3, is meant the most holy place ; the 
 word kodesh, holy, denoting in these instances, the same place 
 which is elsewhere called kodesh hakodasheem, the holy of holies. 
 Exo. xxvi. 34. 1 Kings, vi. 16, and vii. 50. So, in the epistle to 
 the Hebrews, ta hagia (Chap. ix. 25, and xiii. 11.) and ton hagion 
 (Chap. ix. 8, and x. 19) denote the same place, which, in chap. ix 
 
SEE. IX.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 279 
 
 and all the sins of the children of Israel," meaning 
 those which occurred in their civil or common life. 
 Hereby it was signified, that although the Israelites 
 themselves did not enter into that most holy place, 
 yet that, in some sense, their iniquities did that is, 
 that they came before the Lord in heaven, of which 
 that place, in the tabernacle and temple was a figure ; 
 Heb. ix. 24 ; and that they could not be pardoned 
 without an expiatory sacrifice. Compare Rev. xviii. 
 5. But they were likewise often ceremonially un- 
 clean when they entered into the tabernacle for wor- 
 
 3, is called hagia hagion, the Jioly of holies. This most holy place 
 was separated from the holy place, by a vail made of blue, purple, 
 and fine twined linen ; and the holy place was separated from the 
 court of the people, by a hanging, or curtain, made of the same 
 materials ; the two, however, differing in the following respects : 
 the vailhad on it the figures of cherubims, and was of choscheb, "of 
 cunning work," which, according to Maimonides (Kele Hammikda, 
 C. 8.) the Jewish interpreters say means " the work of a weaver," 
 showing the colors on both sides ; while the hanging was without 
 cherubims and of rokem, " of needle- work," which showed the 
 colors, upon the linen, only on one side. See Exo. xxvi. 31 36. 
 Within the vail, in the most holy place, stood the ark, having in it 
 the two tables of the law, and upon it the mercy-seat, with the two 
 cherubims. Here also were the golden pot that had manna and 
 Aaron's rod that budded. Exo. xxvi. 33, 34, 1 Kings viii. 6 9, 
 and Heb. ix. 4, 5. Without the vail, in the holy place, stood the 
 table of shew-bread, the golden candlestick, and the golden altar 
 of incense. Exo. xxvi. 35, xxx. 1 6, and Heb. ix. 2. And 
 without the hanging, in the open court, stood the brazen altar of 
 burnt-offering and the brazen laver. Exo. xl. 6, 8. Here, in 
 view of the people, the priests slew and offered the sacrifices ; 
 Levit. i. iii. iv. v. and vi. chapters ; in the holy place also, they 
 performed a daily service ; Exo. xxvii. 21 ; but into the most holy 
 place, none might enter but the high-priest, nor he save on the day 
 of atonement, and in the manner divinely prescribed. Levit. xvi. 
 2, &c. 
 

 280 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. IX. 
 
 ship, and moreover, were chargeable with many sins 
 while there, both of omission and commission. 
 See Levit. xv. 31. And hence the priest was farther 
 required to "do for the tabernacle of the congrega- 
 tion," as he had done for the most holy place ; that is, 
 to make an atonement for it by the blood of the sin- 
 offering; which probably, as on other occasions, he 
 sprinkled upon and round about the brazen altar of 
 burnt offering, which, as noticed already, stood in the 
 open court, wherein the people assembled, and which 
 was defiled by their uncleanness. See Levit. iv. 18, 
 ix. 18, and xvii. 6. This service, as all must per- 
 ceive, the priest could not perform, till, having come 
 out of the holy of holies and passed through the holy 
 place, he entered into the court of the people, called 
 "the tabernacle of the congregation;' 5 yet, being here 
 enjoined, and the manner of it being noted by the 
 injunction "so shall he do for the tabernacle of the 
 congregation," that is, as he had done for the holy of 
 holies, the particulars of it are not afterwards speci- 
 fied. 
 
 In preceding from the holy of holies to the 
 court of the people, in which he performed the ser- 
 vice last mentioned, the high-priest had also a ser- 
 vice to perform in the holy place, through which he 
 passed. Here stood the golden altar of incense, for 
 which he was required to make an atonement, by 
 putting some of the blood of the bullock and of the 
 goat upon its horns, and by sprinkling thereof seven 
 times upon it generally ; whereby he cleansed and 
 hallowed it " from the uncleanness of the children of 
 Israel." g Upon this altar, he likewise burnt sweet 
 
 ' Levit. xvi. 18, 19. Comp. Exo. xxx. 10. 
 
SER. IX.] HIS URIM AND THUMM1M. 281 
 
 incense daily, both morning and evening, when he 
 dressed and trimmed the lamps. 11 
 
 Here, let it be carefully noticed, that ceremonial 
 atonement involved ceremonial reconciliation ; for it 
 is evident, that whomsoever and whatsoever the high- 
 priest thus atoned for, he thereby reconciled ; J and 
 which, with the holy of holies, the tabernacle of the 
 congregation and the altar, both that of incense and 
 that of burnt- offering, included the priests and all 
 the congregation, that is, of the people or children of 
 Israel ; the atonement being made " for all their 
 sins." k 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that while the high- 
 priest performed this expiatory work, the whole 
 tabernacle was to be evacuated of all other persons : 
 " There shall," said God, " be no man," and there- 
 fore not even a levite or an ordinary priest, " in the 
 tabernacle," in any apartment of it, "when he," the 
 high-priest, " goeth in to make an atonement for the 
 holy place," meaning as before the holy of holies, 
 "until he come out, and have made an atonement for 
 himself, and for his household, and for all the congre- 
 gation of Israel ; ! all which he did on the day of 
 atonement and within the tabernacle. 
 
 2. It is no less manifest, that by means of the 
 Urim and Tlmmmim, the high-priest consulted the 
 Lord, and obtained from him infallible answers to 
 important inquiries, which he had occasion to make 
 respecting the national affairs of Israel. "And he'' 
 (Joshua) " shall stand before Eleazarthe priest, who 
 shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of 
 
 h Exo. xxx. 7, 8. * Levit. xvi. 20. k Ver. 33, 34. Ver. 17. 
 m Ver. 14, 15, 16, 34. 
 
282 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. IX. 
 
 Urim before the LORD : at his word (that of the 
 Lord) shall they go out, and at his word they shall 
 come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with 
 him, even all the congregation." 11 Moreover, to 
 their asking counsel of God in this way, the presence 
 of the high-priest was indispensable ; for, as none 
 but he might have on the Urim and Thummim, so 
 answers thereby, could be obtained by none but him. 
 Nor did he, in this manner, ask counsel of God for 
 private persons or in relation to trivial things, but 
 only for public persons and respecting very impor- 
 tant matters ; as every instance of such consultation, 
 upon record, plainly shows. And, as it was a distin- 
 guished expression of God's favor to Joshua, David, 
 and others, that they were permitted, on emergent 
 occasions, thus to ascertain his will concerning 
 Israel ; so it was a great mark of his displeasure at 
 Saul, when he refused to answer him, by dreams, or 
 by Urim, or by prophets. See 1- Sam. xxviii. 6. I 
 pass to inquire, 
 
 Thirdly, How God was pleased to return answers 
 by Urim and Thummim. Here, instead of detain- 
 ing you with an account of the various opinions which 
 have been offered in reply to this inquiry, I shall 
 mention only that, which to me seems the most pro- 
 bable, to wit, That God gave the answers by a dis- 
 tinct and articulate voice. This seems best to agree 
 with the direction by which Joshua and Israel were 
 to be governed, whenever Eleazar, in this way, should 
 ask counsel of the Lord on their behalf: at his word 
 (the word of the Lord) shall they go out, and at his 
 word they shall come in, both he (Joshua) and all the 
 
 "Num. xxvii. 21. 
 
SER. IX.] HIS URIM AND THTJMMIM. 
 
 children of Israel with him, tyc. Numb, xxvii. 21. 
 And accordingly, in all instances of such consulta- 
 tion, whether implied or expressed, the answers ap- 
 pear to have been given in this way; for it is always 
 observed, that the Lord said, that is, spoke what he 
 gave as his answer. See Judges i. 1, 2. xx. 18. and 
 1 Sam. xxiii. 2, 4, 12. 
 
 Fourthly, It remains requisit, that we inquire into 
 the meaning of what Moses here says of the person 
 with whom he prayed, that the Urim and Thummim 
 might abide. And of Levi he said, (that is, to God,) 
 Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy Holy 
 One, ichom thou didst prove at Massah, and with 
 whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah. 
 
 This prayer was evidently made with an allusion 
 to Aaron, and, indirectly, on behalf of the Aronic 
 priesthood. Every high-priest of that order, if legit- 
 imately descended and legally consecrated, was 
 ceremonially holy ; but Aaron was more; he was 
 not only anointed with the oil of consecration, 
 but also, it would seem, with the oil of grace, 
 and hence is emphatically stiled, The saint of 
 the Lord. Psal. cvi. 16.* He, too, was divinely 
 proved and striven with : whom thou (the Lord) 
 didst prove at Massahfy and with whom thou 
 
 Levit. xxi. 15. 
 
 * See the vindication of Aaron's character, Ser. 1, pp. 30 35. 
 
 t nDDi bamassah, here rendered at Massah, from 3 heth in or 
 with and fiDD Massah temptation, literally means in or with a 
 temptation ; and so, as noticed by Bp. Patrick, it was understood 
 by the ancient interpreters, and not as the name of a place, as our 
 version represents it to be. Their interpretation of this passage is 
 also favored by Psal. xcv.8. It is certain, however, that Massah, 
 temptation, as well as Meribah, strife, is elsewhere used as the 
 name of a place, and to commemorate, by its signification^ what 
 
 38 
 
284 Tin-.: uLLs.si.NG OF LEVI. [SER. ix 
 
 didst strive at the waters of Meribah. The Lord 
 proved, that is, 'tried him at Massah, (where the 
 Israelites were apprehensive of death from the want 
 of water to drink,) and found him faithful and stead- 
 fast ; he stood in the trial ;* for, while the people (his 
 own tribe not excepted) chid with Moses and doubt- 
 ed whether the Lord was among them, Aaron, be- 
 lieving that God according to his promise would 
 supply them, remained silent, and, in that instance, 
 received no reproof; his name not being even mention- 
 ed in the record of the matter. Bee Exo. xvii. 1 7, 
 And at Meribah,^ where also " there was no water 
 for the congregation," the Lord strove with him; and 
 
 there occurred. See Exo. xvii. 7. and Num. xx. 13. It is also 
 certain, from the passages just referred to, that Moses was- accus- 
 tomed to use the words Massah and Meribah, as the names of two 
 places, very memorable both to himself and to Israel, and which 
 renders it highly probable that he so used them in this prayer. So 
 we know Meribah is used in Psal. Ixxxi. 7. "Wherefore, with our 
 translators, I think it best to retain them both as such, in our text. 
 HDJ nissah, the verb here rendered prove, means to prove or try,by 
 experimerit, what a person is, or what, under trying circumstances 
 he will do. Taylor. See Deut. xiii. 3. and 1 Kings x. 1. It is 
 often rendered tempt or try. Thus, for instance, " God did tempt 
 Abraham ;" Gen. xxii. 1 ; and " God left him" (Hezekiah) " to 
 try.lriw." 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. 
 
 * So the Targum of Jerusalem. 
 
 t Not the Meribah mentioned with Massah, Exo. xvii. 7, which, 
 as appears from ver. 1 of the same chap, was in Rcphidim, in the 
 wilderness of Sin ; but a place which, from a like occasion (a strife 
 about water) received the same name ; Num. xx. 13; and which, 
 as it was in Kadcsh, in the wilderness of Zin, is, by way of dis- 
 tinction from the Meribah in Rephidim, called Meribah- Kadesh. 
 Deut. xxxii. 51. And, that this Mcribali lay remote from the 
 other and had its name from a strife which occurred near forty 
 years after that which gave name to the other, may be seen by 
 comparing Num. xx. 22 29, with Chap, xxxiii. 11, 14. 30, 38, 
 
SER. IX.] HIS UK1M AND THUMMIM. 285 
 
 that, not only by suffering the people to strive with 
 him, as well as with Moses, but also by rebuking both 
 him and Moses, for not having duly sanctified, that is, 
 acknowledged and honored him, before the people : 
 nay, so great was his displeasure at their behaviour 
 on that occasion, that he said to them, "Because ye 
 believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the 
 children of Israel, ye shall not bring this congrega- 
 tion into the land which I have given them." Num> 
 xx. 12* 
 
 , With this awful sentence in recollection, and 
 knowing that his brother was already dead, p and that 
 he himself must shortly die, q Moses seems to have 
 apprehended, that the entail of the priesthood was 
 likely to be cut off from the house of Aaron, and even 
 from the tribe of Levi ; yet, hoping that God would 
 have a merciful respect to Aaron's fidelity under his 
 former trial, and to that of the Levites in com- 
 mon, on another occasion, 1 " ventured to offer this hum- 
 ble, though prophetic supplication : And of Levi he 
 said, (that is, to God in prayer,) Let thy Thummim 
 and thy Urim, which none but the high-priest might 
 wear, be with thy Holy One, and which, so far as it 
 respected Aaron who was of that tribe, was a petition 
 
 * Wherein Moses and Aaron thus highly provoked the Lord, has 
 been a question among interpreters. Was it not by saying to the 
 congregation, as in ver. 10, " Must we fetch you water out of this 
 rock ?" Did they not thereby insinuate that the favor depended 
 on themselves, and so tempt the people to trust in them for it, 
 rather than in God 1 And if so, they could scarcely have offered a 
 greater insult to the divine Majesty. Let gospel-ministers hence 
 learn to pray, and preach, and converse, under the recollection of 
 1 Cor. iii. 5 7, and 2 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
 p Num. xx. 28. qDeut, xxxii. 4951, 'Exo. xxxii. 2628. 
 
286 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. IX. 
 
 that the high-priesthood, and so the right of wearing 
 the Thummim and Urim, might remain with him, by 
 remaining with his descendants. 
 
 The mystical signification of the words thus literal- 
 ly explained, will be considered in the next sermon. 
 
SERMON X. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF L.ETT. HIS URIM AN1> 
 THUMMIM. 
 
 DEUT. xxxni. 8 11. And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim 
 and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at 
 MassaJi, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meri~ 
 bah, <$c. 
 
 HAVING in the preceding discourse given what I 
 understand to be the literal import of the Urim and 
 Thummim, and of the prophetic prayer respecting 
 them, I precede, in this discourse, to consider them in 
 their mystical signification. 
 
 And here we shall find CHRIST to be ALL and in 
 ALL. 
 
 To him belong the characteristics here given of the 
 high-priest. 
 
 With him are found the excellencies imported by 
 the words Urim and Thummim and 
 
 In him, believers realize all that was done by the 
 high-priest, while he had these mysterious articles on 
 his breast. 
 
 1. To CHRIST belong the characteristics here 
 given of the high-priest. For, 
 
 First 9 He is eminently the Holy Owe, both of God 
 and of God's Israel. Of him, therefore, Moses ad- 
 
288 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SKtl. X* 
 
 dressing God, might well say, Thy Holy One. Nor 
 should it be concealed, that, by anticipation, the 
 Spirit of prophecy thus early called him a man, 
 thereby intimating his future incarnation ; for the 
 original, literally rendered, is the man thy Holy 
 One* And, that he, by assuming human nature after 
 it was fallen and depraved, should become a man and 
 still be essentially holy, must be miraculous, and 
 therefore might well be a subject of prophecy .f Yet, 
 in him, this was perfectly verified : for his human na- 
 ture, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, is 
 that holy thing mentioned, Luke i. 35 ; nor was 
 there any moral blemish in his human life ; he did 
 no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. 1 
 Pet. ii. 22. And being thus holy in nature and life, 
 he is a most suitable person to wear the Urim and 
 Thummim, and to be the High-priest of spiritual 
 Israel ; for such an High-priest became us, who is holy, 
 harmless, $?c. Heb. vii. 26. Nevertheless, that he 
 existed prior to his incarnation, and that he is natu- 
 rally possessed of supreme divinity, will appear, 
 while we notice, 
 
 Secondly, That he was, and under what name he 
 was proved, that is, tried or tempted, at Massah and 
 striven with at Meribah. For, God permitting it, the 
 Israelites not only tempted and strove with Moses 
 and Aaron, but they also tempted and strove with the 
 LORD himself. " Wherefore," said Moses to them, 
 " do ye tempt the Lord ?" 8 And, to perpetuate the 
 memory thereof, "he called the name of the place 
 Massah, temptation, and Meribah, strife, because of 
 the chiding of the children of Israel, and because 
 
 * ITDH KTS. t A new thing &c. Jer. xxxi. 22* 'Exo. xvii. 2, 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND TtlL'MftHM. 289 
 
 they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among 
 us or not?" 1 Such was their conduct, when in dis- 
 tress for water, in Repkidim; nor did they behave 
 any better when, about forty years after, they were 
 in distress from the same cause at Kadesh ; hence, 
 of the water here procured for them, Moses said, 
 " This is the water of Meribah," strife, " because the 
 children of Israel," as in the former instance, "strove 
 with the LORD." Num. xx. 13.* 
 
 Now, that the Lord whom the Israelites tempted, 
 and with whom they strove, was none other than the 
 LORD JESUS CHRIST, is as certain as it is that the 
 apostle Paul wrote by divine inspiration ; for this 
 apostle having admonished his Jewish brethren not 
 to imitate their fathers in certain other acts of wick- 
 edness, added, " Neither let us tempt Christ, as some 
 of them also tempted" [him] " and were destroyed 
 of serpents."" And, as a farther and more conclu- 
 sive proof of the supreme divinity of Christ, it should 
 be recollected, that, in every instance referred to, of 
 his being tempted and striven with, his name, though 
 rendered LORD, is in the original JEHOVAH ; which 
 name, as it is expressive of the divine essense, 
 is utterly inapplicable to any creature. CHRIST, 
 therefore, was tempted and striven with, not merely 
 as typified in Aaron, but as being personally present. 
 And though the prayer under consideration, was SQ 
 
 'Exo. xvii. 7. 
 
 * How affecting to see that the Israelites were as depraved at the 
 end of their journey in the wilderness, as when they commenced 
 it ! Thus, alas ! depraved nature, in a believer, is no belter at the 
 end of his pilgrimage than it was when he first cried, God be 
 merciful to me a sinner ? See Rom. vii. 18. 
 
 u l Cor. x. 9. Comp, Num. xx. 2. 4. 13. xxi. 5,6. "Psal. 
 Ixxxiii. 18. 
 
290 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 far answered in behalf of Aaron, that the Urim and 
 Thummim, during the literal use of them, (which 
 terminated at the captivity,) 'remained with him, thai 
 is, with a succession of high-priests of his order and 
 lineage ; yet when the Holy Ghost, in Moses, said to 
 God the Father, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim 
 be with thy Holy One, I doubt not that he spoke di- 
 rectly of CHRIST. Hence, 
 
 II. With HIM are found the excellencies imported 
 by the words Urim and Thummim. These words, 
 as already shown, (page 272,) signify lights and per- 
 fections ; and which, of all kinds, and in the richest 
 abundance are in Christ : his understanding is infi- 
 nite* and in him, as Mediator, it pleased the Father 
 that all fulness should dwell? 
 
 First, The Urim, lights, are found with Christ; all 
 kinds of light being in him and from him. Accord- 
 ingly, by a most happy allusion to the luminary of 
 nature, he is called " the sun of righteousness." 2 For, 
 as all material light is in the natural sun, so all in- 
 tellectual light is in Christ ; and as all the light 
 reflected by other bodies, either celestial or terres- 
 trial, is from the sun, so all the true knowledge, natu- 
 ral or supernatural, possessed or exhibited by crea- 
 tures, whether in heaven or on earth, is from Christ ; 
 "in whom (till communicated) are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 3 " From Christ, 
 therefore, comes, 
 
 1. The light of reason. In this respect, He is the 
 true, light, which lighteth every man (generally 
 speaking) that cometh into the world}' For the light 
 of reason (a few idiots notwithstanding) is common 
 
 * Psal. cxlvii. 5. ^Col. i. 19. z Mai. iv. 2. a Col. ii. 3. b John. i. 9. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 291 
 
 to the human family of all nations and of all gene- 
 rations. And this, though it never was sufficient to 
 lead mankind to eternal life, and though it; was 
 greatly diminished by the fall, is nevertheless suffi- 
 cient to leave them "without excuse," in the event 
 of their falling into idolatry or the denial of the 
 Being and perfections of God ; for "the invisible 
 things of him, from the creation of the world are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
 are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." 8 
 By this light, too, mankind may discover the differ- 
 ence between moral right and wrong, and conse- 
 quently, all their mutual obligations in every natural 
 and civil relation. See Rom. ii. 14, 15. 
 
 2. The light of revelation. " Prophecy came not 
 in old time by the will of man : but holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." d But 
 the Holy Ghost by which those men prophesied, 
 was the Spirit of Christ speaking in them. 6 And 
 by the same Spirit came the books of the New 
 Testament; for "the testimony of Jesus," in his 
 apostles, as well as in the writers of the Old Testa- 
 ment, " is the Spirit of prophecy ." f His testimony is 
 the Spirit of Prophecy also, as it contains an infal- 
 lible interpretation and application of the types and 
 predictions of the Old Testament, and is therefore, 
 the very spirit) soul and substance, of the Mosaic 
 and prophetic writings. g Thus it is evident, that 
 " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,' 5 and 
 that it was given by him, through the medium of his 
 Son. h And though under the former dispensation, 
 
 c Rom. i. 20. d 2 Pet. i. 21. e 1 Pet. i. 11. f Rev. xix. 10. 
 * Luke xxiv. 27. 44. Acts iii. 22. xxvi. 22, 23. Gal. iv. 21 31. 
 Col. ii. 16. 17. Heb x. 1. &c. h 2 Tim. iii. J6. Heb. i. 2. 
 
 39 
 
292 THE BLESSING OP LEVI. [SER. X. 
 
 the oracles of God were granted only to the Jews, 
 it is not so now ; for Christ, having " broken down 
 the middle wall of partition" between that nation 
 and others, hath thereby opened the way for those 
 oracles to come to us Gentiles ; and, that we might 
 the better understand them, he hath superadded the 
 writings and ministry of the New Testament. Well, 
 therefore, might he say, as he did, / am the light of 
 the world? for as the rays of light preceding from 
 the one natural sun, to which he alluded, extend to 
 all the world, so the rays of external revelation and 
 of the gospel-ministry, preceding from himself, 
 the one "Sun of righteousness," are destined to 
 beam upon all the nations of the earth. Thus, 
 according to promise, Christ will become the light of 
 the Gentiles, as well as the glory of Israel* 
 
 Nevertheless, as the rays of light preceding from 
 the sun, do not give natural life and eyesight to those 
 who are literally dead and blind, so neither does the 
 external light of revelation and of gospel-preaching, 
 granted to the world, give spiritual life and under- 
 standing to carnal sinners, who are all morally dead 
 and blind. Hence, "the natural man," even with 
 the Bible in his hand and the gospel sounding in his 
 ears, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: 
 for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he 
 know them, because they are spiritually discerned.'' 1 
 In Christ, however, provision is also made to give 
 this requisit discernment. For 
 
 3. In and from him is the light of grace. Thisis the 
 light of life, a light springing from life, and, like that, 
 emanating from Christ : In him was life and the 
 
 * John viii. 12. k Is. xlii. 6. Luke ii. 32. J 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND THUMMIM. 293 
 
 life was the light of men. m It is by the Spirit of 
 life and light, preceding from Christ, that the souls 
 of sinners are quickened, and the eyes of their 
 understanding enlightened." Thus, whereas the 
 first Adam, the natural head of all his posterity, 
 was only made a living soul, that is, a living man, 
 whose life terminated in himself, the last Adam, 
 who is Christ, the Lord from heaven, was, as Medi- 
 ator, made a quickening Spirit ; that is, he was 
 constituted the mystical Head of all the elect, with 
 life in himself to communicate to them ; and as 
 this life, in all to whom it is communicated, is pro- 
 ductive of mental illumination, so Christ from whom 
 it precedes, is also said to open the blind eyes? Now 
 follows the special use of external revelation and of 
 ministerial instruction. For, as persons w r ho had 
 been literally blind, on having their eyes opened, 
 are enabled, by the light of the sun, to behold nat- 
 ural objects, which before they could not; so regen- 
 erate sinners, having the eyes of their understanding 
 opened, are enabled, in reading the Bible and hear- 
 ing the gospel, tp see and understand spiritual 
 things, which, in their carnal state, they could not 
 know nor discern, and which, therefore, they did not 
 receive or realize as true ; at least, not in relation to 
 themselves. The Holy Scriptures now appear to 
 them in their divine authority and majesty ; and the 
 truths of them, attended by the Spirit's influence, 
 reach and search their hearts, and bring to their view 
 the abominations that are there. The entrance of 
 thy words, said David to the Lord, giveth light, the 
 light of information and instruction ; it giveth under- 
 
 m John i. 4. Eph. i. 17, 18. ii. 1. 4, 5. 1 Cor. xv. 45. 47. 
 John v 21. 25, 26. Col ii. 19. Pis. xlii. 7. 
 
294 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X. 
 
 standing to the simple.* For, saith another inspir- 
 ed writer, the icord of God is quick and powerful, 
 and sharper than any two-edged sivord, piercing 
 even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and 
 of the joints and marrow , and is a discerner of the 
 thoughts and intents of the heart.* But to be more 
 particular. 
 
 By the light of revealed truth, thus shining into 
 their understanding, the regenerate behold them- 
 selves in the glass of the divine law, and realize 
 that they are fallen, polluted and guilty creatures, 
 and, as such, justly condemned before God: for by 
 the law is the knowledge of sin. 3 And though, at 
 first, they may hope to gain divine acceptance 
 by a reformation of life and a round of perform- 
 ances; yet eventually, by their very exertions for 
 this purpose, they learn the fallacy of their hope; 
 for they find that they are riot able even to keep the 
 law perfectly for the time being, and much less 
 to satisfy its demands for the time past. Besides, 
 Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure 
 from my sin f Prov. xx. 9. To a sinner thus la- 
 boring, how terrible are these appropriate words : 
 Though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee 
 much soap, that is, though thou employ all the means 
 which, to thee, seem most likely to accomplish thy 
 cleansing, yet is thine iniquity, both of nature and 
 life, marked before me, saith the Lord God. Jer. ii. 
 22. By their own experience, therefore, as well as 
 by Scripture-testimony, the regenerate are made so 
 to realize the holiness and justice of God, as to be- 
 come convinced that "by the deeds of the law there 
 shall no flesh be justified in his sight ;" 8 and hence, 
 * Psal. cxix. 130. r Heb. iv. 12. Rom. iii. 20. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AM) THUMMIM. 295 
 
 through the law become dead to the law, to all 
 hopes of obtaining acceptance with God by their 
 obedience to it." Nevertheless, they are not left to 
 perish in their sins. For, all who receive quickening 
 arid enlightening grace from Christ, have also, in 
 him, justifying righteousness. See Rom. v. 17 
 21. And therefore, 
 
 By the same light, the light of the Holy Scriptures, 
 understood by the internal light of grace, communi- 
 cated to them in regeneration, they are led to be- 
 hold CHRIST in the glass of the gospel. Herein 
 they behold him, as the brightness of his Father's 
 glory and the express image of his person as the 
 one Mediator between God and men x as Jesus Christ 
 who came into the world to save sinner s y as having, 
 in order thereto, been made under the law, that, 
 through his obedience and sacrifice he might redeem 
 them that were under the law, and so become the 
 end of the law for righteousness to every one that 
 believeth. z Herein, consequently, they farther dis- 
 cover, that Christ having magnified the law and 
 made it honorable, and put away sin by the sacri- 
 fice of himself, is able also to save them to the utter- 
 most that come unto God by him ; a likewise, that he 
 is as willing as he is able ; for, addressing such, he 
 says, Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest? and, to silence 
 all their fears, he proclaims Him that cometh to me, 
 however laden with guilt and deserving of wrath, 
 I will in no wise cast out* Thus encouraged, they 
 are enabled to come to him, that is, to believe on 
 
 u Gal. ii. 19. w Heb. i. 3. * 1 Tim. ii. 5. y Ibid. i. 15. z Gal. 
 iv. 5. Rom. x. 4. a ls. xlii. 21. Heb. vii. 25. b Matt. xi. 28. 
 'John. vi. 37. 
 
296 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [flER. X. 
 
 him, by that faith which is the gift of God, and 
 thereby receive, through him, the light of comfort ; 
 for, " by faith we have peace with God, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. i. 
 
 And, as all the light which the regenerate receive at 
 first conversion, comes from Christ, so likewise does 
 all that, which they afterward receive, in the course 
 of their pilgrimage. Light, both of instruction and 
 comfort, is sown for the righteous in the rich fields 
 of promise and prophecy ; d but till Christ, by his 
 Spirit, opens their understandings, as he did those 
 of his disciples, to understand the Scriptures, they 
 cannot receive and enjoy it. e Many consoling truths, 
 too, are wrapped in parables and dark sayings ; but 
 he gives us to know the mysteries of the kingdom? 
 And though his renewed people, as exemplified in 
 the church at Ephesus, are liable not only to get into 
 darkness, but even to fall asleep there, he is, never- 
 theless, mindful of them still: "Wherefore," by the in- 
 spired record of what he said to that church, he is 
 constantly saying to every church and to every be- 
 liever, in the like deplorable condition, "Awake 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 5 ' from 
 conformity to the dead world, " and Christ shall give 
 thee light." Eph. ii. 14.* Moreover, 
 
 d Psal. xcvii. 11. e Luke xxiv. 45. f Mark iv. 11. 
 
 * That the Ephesians were not here addressed as being in the 
 darkness of a carnal state is evident, for they were before called 
 out of that state and made light in the Lord, ver. 8 ; nor, as being 
 dead in trespasses and sins, for they had been quickened, Chap. ii. 
 1, 4, 5. The common application, therefore, of these words to 
 the carnal world is a perversion of them ; but, as addressed to be- 
 lievers, in a slumbering, slothful conformity to a dead world, they 
 are very pertinent ; such conformity being, in them, as inconsistent 
 
SEB. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 297 
 
 4. The light of glory is with and from Christ. 
 Heaven is the inheritance of the saints in light ; g but 
 this inheritance comes to them through Christ: 
 u The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." h And as we receive it through Christ 
 so we shall enjoy it with Christ: "When Christ 
 who is our life shall appear, then," said Paul to 
 believers, " shall ye also appear with him in glory. 1 
 How transporting the prospect ! When arrived at 
 home, dear brethren and sisters, all our darkness of 
 ignorance and reproach, of sadness and unbelief, 
 will instantly vanish, "as if it had never been," and 
 our souls, illuminated with beams of glory emana- 
 ting from Christ, will be filled with pleasing wonder 
 and ineffable delight. There, believer, thou shalt 
 never, as here, need either the luminaries of nature 
 or the privileges of the gospel, sometimes signified 
 by them : the sun shall be no more thy light by day, 
 neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
 thee. Nor shall thy felicity, thus consumated, ever 
 cease or ever wane : but the LORD shall be unto thee 
 an everlasting Light, and thy God thy Glory. 
 Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy 
 moon withdraw itself; for the LORD shall be thine 
 everlasting Light, and the days of thy mourning 
 shall be ended* But to procede. As the URIM, lights, 
 so 
 
 Secondly, the THUMMIM, perfections, are found 
 in CHRIST. In him are, 
 
 1. All the perfections of the divine nature. For 
 
 with propriety and duty, as it would be for living persons to lie 
 down and sleep among dead corpses. Comp. Cant. v. 2. Rom. 
 xiii. 11. and 1 Thess. v. 6. Be not conformed to this world &c. 
 Rom. xii. 2. 
 g Col. i. 12. h Rom. vi. 23. * Col. iii. 4. k Is. Ix. 19, 20. 
 
298 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bod- 
 ily" that is, personally or substantially* Those 
 perfections by which the Godhead, or essential 
 Deity is chiefly revealed, are eternity, omnipotence, 
 omniscience, omnipresence, and immutability; all 
 which are found in Christ. He is 1. Eternal He 
 
 '* Zap* body, denotes literally that part of man which consists of 
 flesh and bones ; Matt. x. 28 ; yet, by a grecism, it also denotes 
 the whole man, and so a person ; Rom. yi. 12. and xii. I ; as, by 
 a hebraism, *y^jj soul (answering to tpsa) does in Chap. xiii. 1. 
 So Josephus (Ant. Lib. 14. Cap. 12, Sect. 5.) uses ru^ala for 
 captives or slaves. Comp. Rev. xviii. 13. In the same sense, too, 
 we use the English word body, when we say some body, any body, 
 every body, no body, by which we mean some person, any person, 
 every person, no person. S<iu*7<*s$, the Adj. from rupee, is the 
 word properly rendered bodily, as denoting what appertains or re- 
 lates to the body, or is done in or by it. See 1 Tim. iv. 8. But 
 the word in question, is <ruu.ttlty.ws, the Adv. formed from the Adj. 
 and which, according to Parkhurst, may be rendered 'in the body ; 
 the apostle thereby signifying, (as that Lexicographer suposed,) 
 that the Godhead, in the person of Christ, dwells in his body, of 
 which the tabernacle and temple, in which the Schecheenah resi- 
 ded, were evidently typical; See Heb. viii. 2. and John ii. 19; 
 meaning, nevertheless, not that the Godhead dwells in Christ, 
 merely by inspiration, as it dwelt in the prophets and apostles; 
 nor by endoivment for official purposes, as supposed by Socinians ; 
 nor only effectively, as in the saints; 2 Cor. vi. 16; but essentially 
 and hypostatically and by an inexplicable union to his humanity, 
 even as the soul dwells in the body. " Grent," therefore indeed, " is 
 the mystery of godliness ; God was manifested (e(pve^a6t)) in the 
 flesh." 1 Tim. iii. 16. Comp. 1 John iii. 5. But, while 1 admit this 
 interpretation of the passage to be agreeable to the analogy of 
 faith, and that which is received by many learned men, I am, not- 
 withstanding, strongly inclined to think, with Leigh, (Crit. Sacra, 
 under c^^*?**^,) that the apostle, in this text, does not speak of 
 the human nature of Christ at all ; but that, as he used C-^.M.* to 
 denote a person (see above) so here he used raftalixaxi as meaning 
 personally 4 or substantially. The word in question being so 
 understood, the pussage, freed from many difficulties, reads thus : 
 In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead personally or sub- 
 stantially. Col. ii. 9, 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 299 
 
 is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the 
 beginning and the end ; which is, and which was, and 
 which is to come.* 2. Omnipotence: "All things 
 were created by him; in a word, He is the Almighty* 
 3. Omniscient: He needed not that any should testify 
 of man for he knew what was in man.* Therefore 
 Peter appealed to him as the searcher of hearts, say- 
 ing, Lord thou knowest all things; thou knowest 
 that I love thee. k 4. Omnipresent. This he as- 
 serted in a way specially calculated to encourage 
 those who believe in him to assemble in his name, 
 for worship : Where two or three, said he, are ga- 
 thered together in my name, and which might be in 
 thousands of places at the same time, there am I in 
 the midst. 1 And 5. Immutability: He is Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for 
 ever Nor can there be any perfection, essential or 
 moral, in the Godhead, which is not in Christ ; for 
 he is the true God and eternal life 
 
 2. A perfection of all spiritual blessings for the 
 chosen of God : Blessed be the God and father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all 
 spiritual blessings in heavenly places (or things) in 
 Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before 
 the foundation of the world, that we should be holy 
 and without blame before him in love. Among 
 these blessings are adoption, redemption, pardon, 
 justification, and a title to eternal life ; all which, in 
 Christ, are perfect and irreversible. 1. All whom 
 God chose in Christ, he also adopted as his children 
 
 * Rev. i. 8. h John i. 3. Col. 1. 16. Psal. xci. 1. * John 
 ii. 25. k Ibid. xxi. 17. ' Matt, xviii. 20. m Heb. xiii. 8, 
 ;1 1 John v. 20. Eph. i. 3, 4. 
 
 40 
 
300 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [gtER. X, 
 
 and heirs. As such they were considered, when 
 Christ, that he might become their near-kinsman, 
 assumed human nature : as the children are parta- 
 kers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took 
 part of the same. As such, too, they were considered 
 when he died to redeem them : for he died, that, 
 consistently with law and justice, he might gather 
 together in one, in himself and in one family, both 
 on earth and in heaven, the children of God that 
 were scattered abroad among all nations and in a 
 lost condition. 11 Consequently, while yet uncalled, 
 yea, unredeemed, they were, in some sense, children, 
 and which must have been by adoption. Hence it 
 is, that all who, by personal, eternal election, are 
 written in heaven, are denominated first-born, that 
 is, heirs.* 1 2. Their redemption by Christ is perfect ; 
 no additional sacrifice being required, nor any fail- 
 ure in the design being possible; for by one offer- 
 ing he perfected for ever them that are sanctified, 
 (set apart in him, Jude ver. 1.) having obtained 
 eternal redemption for us. r 3. In Christ, divine jus- 
 tice finds a perfect satisfaction for all their sins. 
 Hence, as in him we have redemption through his 
 blood, so also the forgiveness of sins. s God, saith 
 Paul to believers, for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
 you* And, as forgiveness precedes on the ground of 
 the complete satisfaction rendered by Christ to di- 
 vine justice for all the sins of all he represented, so 
 it is perfect and irreversible. It is perfect, that is, 
 full and entire; it being the pardon of all their sins 
 of nature and life, both before and after their calling : 
 
 o Heb. ii. 1315. P John xi. 51, 52. Comp. Eph. i. 10. 
 
 q Heb. xii. 22. Rev. xiii. 8. Comp. Exo. iv. 22. Deut. xxi. 1517. 
 r Heb. x. 14. ix. 12. * Eph. i. 7. Ibid. iv. 32. 
 
SER. X.] HIS LRI31 AND THUMMIM. 301 
 
 I will cleanse them, saith God, from all their iniqui- 
 ty whereby they have sinned against me, and I will 
 pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned 
 and whereby they have transgressed against me" 
 Nor is it merely full and entire, but also irreversible. 
 God never renews the charge against them : For 
 saith he, I will forgive their iniquity and remember 
 their sin no more* And, the more abundantly to 
 comfort believers, he assures them that he has cast 
 their sins behind his back, and into the depths of 
 the sea ; T nay, that as far as the east is from the west, 
 so far hath he removed our transgressions from 
 us; thus signifying, that, as what is behind our backs, 
 or in the depths of the sea, is unseen by us, so will 
 He not, with an eye of Justice, behold our sins ; and 
 that, as the eastern point in the heavens can never 
 come to the western, so neither can the sins of those 
 whom He has pardoned ever be charged against 
 them, to their condemnation, in His sight/ 
 
 But while the meritorious cause of their pardon is 
 complete in Christ, the manifestation of it is never 
 given to them, till, by the Holy Spirit, they are made to 
 feel the bitterness of their sins to mourn over them, 
 and to realize that they must be pardoned for Christ's 
 sake, or sink to hell under the sentence of the law. 
 This they realize at conversion ; when, their under- 
 standings being enlightened, they are pricked in their 
 hearts with keen distress for sin ; z and the same they 
 realize in subsequent experience ; their sins always 
 becoming the lothed and lamented diseases of 
 their souls, before they receive that discovery of 
 
 u Jer xxxiii. 8. w Ibid. xxxi. 34. Heb. viii. 1.2. x. 17. * Is. 
 xxxviii. 17. Micah vii. 19. y Psal. ciii. 12. z Acts ii. 37. 
 
302 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X. 
 
 pardon, which is their healing: Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul, and forget not all his benefits ; who for- 
 giveth all thine iniquities, and thereby healeth all thy 
 diseases* 
 
 And though God never precedes against them 
 according to the covenant of works, from the 
 curse of which Christ has redeemed them ; b yet, for 
 their good and as a provision of the covenant of grace, 
 he remembers their sins in a way of fartherly chas- 
 tisement ; /, saith he, will visit their transgressions 
 with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes.* He 
 chasteneth us for our profit, that we might be par- 
 takers of his holiness. The smart, too, must precede 
 the benefit : no chastening for the present seemeth 
 to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless AFTERWARD 
 ityieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto 
 them icho are exercised thereby. d To believers, there- 
 fore, chastisements are medicinal, or, in other words, 
 they are among the all things that work together 
 for their good. 6 Hence, 4. In Christ, the elect are 
 all blessed with a perfection of justifying righteous- 
 ness. Christ, being found holy in nature and harm- 
 less in life, was delivered an acceptable sacrifice for 
 our offenses, and (as the fullest possible evidence of 
 the entire satisfaction which he thereby rendered to 
 divine justice, for all the sins of all he represented) 
 was raised again for our justification* Herein is 
 founded the apostolic challenge on our behalf: 
 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's 
 elect ? It is God that justificth. Who is he that 
 condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea, rather 
 that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of 
 
 a Psal. ciii. 2, 3. xxxviii. 18. b Gal. iii. 13. c Psal. Ixxxix. 
 3133. a Heb. xii. 10, 11. e Rom. viii. 28. f Rom. iv. 25. 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND THUMMlM. 303 
 
 God, who also makelh intercession for us. s In a 
 word, Christ is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ; b 
 and for the comfort of every true believer, it is re- 
 vealed that God is just and the justifier of him 
 that believeth in Jesus* that Christ is the end of 
 the law for righteousness, to every one that believeth^ 
 and that by him all that believe are justified from all 
 things. 1 And 5. The chosen of God are blessed 
 in Christ with an indefeasable title to the heavenly 
 inheritance. This is that eternal life, which God 
 who cannot lie promised before the world began. 
 And to whom could he then have promised it but to 
 Christ, as the Head and Representative of the elect 1 
 Accordingly, Christ is the First-born, that is, the 
 HEIR among many brethren." By their adoption, 
 however, as his brethren, and by their federal union 
 to him and representation in him, their title is involv- 
 ed in his and rendered inseparable from it : For if 
 children then heirs : heirs of God, and joint-heirs 
 with Christ. And, as the title is vested in him, to 
 him belongs the honor of conferring on them the in- 
 heritance; for he, as Mediator, possesseth a delegated 
 power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life 
 to as many, of all nations, as the Father hath given 
 him* 
 
 3. There is a perfection of Spiritual influence in 
 Christ : for God giveth not the Spirit by measure 
 unto him, as he gave it to the prophets and apostles, 
 but in all the fulness thereof stipulated in the ever- 
 lasting covenant. 4 And having thus granted the Holy 
 Spirit to Christ, as the vital Head of the elect, he 
 
 s Rom. viii 33, 34 h Jer. xxiii. 6. J Rom. iii. 26. k Ibid. x. 4. 
 1 Acts xiii. 39. m Tit. i. 2. n Rom. viii. 29. Ibid. ver. 17. 
 p John xvii. 2. q Ibid. iii. 34. Acts ii. 33. 
 
304 THE BLESSING OF LEVI, [SER. X. 
 
 communicates to them, through him, such measures 
 of that Spirit as' are requisit to all the purposes of 
 their experimental salvation. By the Spirit thus 
 given, 1. He regenerates them : Not by works of 
 righteousness which we have done, said Paul, but ac- 
 cording to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of 
 regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; 
 which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ 
 our Saviour.* By the Spirit so communicated. 2. 
 He gives to them arid increases in them, the 
 knowledge of Christ; the Holy Ghost being the 
 Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge 
 of him. 1 Thus, 3. We have all the understand- 
 ing we possess of spiritual things and of covenant- 
 bequests : God hath revealed them unto us by his 
 Spirit ; and we have received the Spirit ichich 
 is of God, that we might know the things that are 
 freely given to us of God." 4. By the Spirit, given 
 to us by the Father, through the Son, we have all 
 our consolation, as new creatures. Thus we receive 
 the knowledge and consequently the* comfort of our 
 adoption. For the Father having predestinated us 
 to the adoption of children, in due time sends the 
 Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying, Abba, 
 Father. Herein, The Spirit itself, beareth witness 
 with our spirit, that we are the children of God ; 
 we being such before, by adoption and regeneration. 
 J3y the Spirit, we are strengthened with might in 
 the inner man; and every refreshing season we en- 
 joy, is given by a supply of the Spirit of Jesus 
 Christ. K The Spirit also receives of whatever there 
 
 r Titus iii. 5, 6. Eph. i. 17. u I Cor. ii. 10. J2. w Eph. i. 
 5. Gal. iv. 6. * Rom. viii. 15, 16. Eph. iii. 16. Phil. i. 19. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 305 
 
 is in Christ, which is designed for our comfort, and 
 shows it unto us ; as for instance, his justifying right- 
 eousness, his pardon-procuring blood and his ever- 
 availing intercession/ He likewise interprets to 
 our understandings and applies to our cases, the 
 great and precious promises of God, and is there- 
 fore stiled that Holy Spirit of promise, whereby 
 believers are sealed unto the day of redemption* 
 In short, every thing in our hearts or lives, from 
 which we are authorized to conclude that we are in a 
 gracious state, is of the Spirit. Are we enabled to 
 look upon him whom ice have pierced and mourn 
 with a godly sorrow for sin ? It is because the 
 Spirit of grace has been poured upon us. a Are we 
 filed icith joy and peace in believing, and hence 
 caused to abound in hope ? It is through the pow- 
 er of the Holy Ghost. b And, if our tribulation work- 
 eth patience, our patience experience, and our expe- 
 rience hope that hope which maketh not ashamed, 
 it is because the love of God is shed abroad in our 
 hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. c 
 Moreover, all those graces, the practical exemplifica- 
 tion of which evinces regeneration and adorns the 
 Christian life, namely, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
 gentleness, faith, (or fidelity,) meekness, and temper- 
 ance, are called the fruit of the Spirit, because the 
 principles whence they spring, were implanted by 
 his operation, and are cherished by his influence. 6 
 Let us then, my Christian hearers, be sacredly care- 
 ful never to grieve the Holy Spirit, who, to us, is 
 emphatically ho PARACLETOS, the COMFORTER. John 
 
 y John xvi. 14. z Eph. i. 13. iv. 30. a Zech. xii. 10. b Rom. 
 xv. 13. Ibid.v. 3 5. c Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
306 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SKR. X. 
 
 xv. 26. Eph. iv. 30. Thus it is evident, that as the 
 title of the elect to eternal life, is vested in Christ, so 
 their meetness for it is produced by the Holy Spirit, 
 given to them through Christ ; they being chosen in 
 him to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit 
 and belief of the truth. 6 And their meetness, as 
 well as their title, is indispensable to their enjoy- 
 ment of the inheritance ; for without holiness no 
 man shall see the LordJ Let believers, therefore, so 
 live as to be habitually Giving thanks unto the 
 Father, who, by the influence of the Spirit, hath 
 made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of 
 the saints in light ; having delivered us from the 
 power of darkness, and translated us into the king- 
 dom of his dear Son. s 
 
 4. In Christ, there is a perfection of all spiritual 
 gifts gifts appropriate to all the members of his 
 mystical body, to qualify them severally for the vari- 
 ous stations they were designed to occupy. Accord- 
 ingly, as, to confirm his mission and dispensation, 
 "He gave some apostles, some prophets and some 
 evangelists, and bestowed upon them, and, in their 
 time, upon some others, extraordinary gifts, by 
 which they were enabled to work miracles foretell 
 events speak with tongues, interpret tongues, 
 and the like ; so, for ordinary purposes, he gave and 
 continues to give pastors and teachers, and exhorters 
 also, h and bestowed and continues to bestow upon 
 all the regenerate, those gifts of the Spirit which 
 are requisit for them ; such as the gift of spiritual 
 discernment, by which to detect false teachers 1 the 
 gift of prayer, by which to make known, that is, to 
 
 e 2 Thess. ii. 13. f Heb. xii. 14. * Col. i. 12, 13. !' Eph. 
 iv. 11. 12. Rom. xii. 8. ' 1 John ii. 1827. ir. 16. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 307 
 
 express (at least in private) their requests unto God k 
 and ,the gifts of mutual admonition and exhortation. 1 
 Truly "there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
 Spirit ;'' and "differences of administrations," minis- 
 tries or services, "but the same Lord." m Thus, as 
 the precious ointment poured on Aaron's head, ran 
 down to the skirts of his garments; so the Holy Spirit, 
 given without measure to Christ, descends from him, 
 the Head, to all the members of his mystical body, 
 from the first of them to the last, and from the most 
 eminent of them to the most obscure. 11 Moreover, 
 
 5. There is in Christ a perfection of new-coven- 
 ant promises. These were all so made to him, 
 that they were to be fulfilled in the elect, on condition 
 of his complying with his covenant-stipulations on 
 their behalf. And that he has done so, the Father 
 has acknowledged, in raising him from the dead 
 and receiving him to heaven : wherefore, all the 
 promises of God, thus made to Christ, are in him 
 yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by 
 us. These promises include all good things for 
 the heirs, and are appropriate to all conditions and 
 cases among the regenerate : My God, saith Paul, 
 shall supply all your need, according to his riches 
 in glory by Christ Jesus. p 
 
 In the light of these revealed facts, it must be 
 evident to us, my believing hearers, that Christ is 
 indeed full of grace and truth, q and that of his ful- 
 ness have all we received; also, that the communication 
 made to us, is not of debt, but of grace ; it being 
 grace for grace ; r that is, favor flowing from 
 
 k Philip, iv. 6. l Rom. xiv. 14. Heb. x. 25. m 1 Cor. xii. 4, 
 5. n Psal. cxxiii. and Rom. xii. 2 Cor. i. 20. p Philip, iv. 19. 
 Comp. Ps. xxxiv. 10. Ixxxiv. 11. John i. 14. r Ibid. ver. 16. 
 
 41 
 
308 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 favor favor for the sake of Christ, who is God's 
 first and greatest gift, and the pledge and me- 
 dium of every other : or, grace upon grace,* Christ 
 the Spirit pardon j ustification consolation, &c. 
 all in succession : or, one communication of grace 
 after another ; for he who gives regenerating grace, 
 giveth more grace; even constantly grace to help 
 in tim,e of need. 6 Well, therefore, might Christ say 
 to Paul, (and the same is applicable to every believ- 
 er,) My grace is sufficient for tfiee my strength is 
 made perfect in weakness ;* and well may all, who 
 through grace have believed, say, with Peter, We 
 believe, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ we shall be saved" 
 
 Thus we perceive, that THUMMIM perfections, as 
 well as URIM lights, are with CHRIST. And, 
 
 III. In him, believers realize all that was done by 
 the high-priest, while he officiated with these sacred 
 articles upon his breast. For, 
 
 First, As the high-priest, when he had on the 
 Urim and Thummin, bore the names of the children 
 of Israel near his heart/ so the persons of all the 
 elect, by name, lie near the heart of Christ. There 
 they lay, when, in the eternal council, He engaged 
 his heart to approach unto God on their T>ehalf ;* 
 and there they lay, while, as their Representative, he 
 obeyed, and died, and rose again/ Nor can sin, or 
 death, or hell remove them thence: He will rest in 
 his love* Truly they are a people near unto him.* 
 
 Secondly, As the high-priest, in his intercourse 
 
 * See this version of %*e i *m %* tros defended by Blackwall, 
 Sac. Class. Vol. 1. p. 126, 127. 
 
 Jas. iv. 6. Heb. ir. 16. * 2 Cor. xii. 9. u Acts xv. 11. 
 w Exo. xxviii. 30. x Jer. xxx. 21. * John xiii. 1. z Zeph. iii. 17. 
 51 Ps. cxlviii. 14. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 309 
 
 with God, represented none but the children of 
 Israel, (their names only being upon his breast- 
 plate ; b ) so Christ, in his mediatorial capacity, rep- 
 resents none but the elect, (they only being chosen 
 in him to this privilege ; c ) and therefore, as the high- 
 priest, on the day of expiation, offered the atoning 
 sacrifices only for national Israel ; d so Christ, the 
 antitype, offered himself only for the elect, the true 
 Israel of God : He loved the church and gave him- 
 self for it* 
 
 Thirdly, As the high-priest, having covered the 
 mercy-seat with a cloud of sweet incense/ entered 
 the most holy place with the blood of the slain sa- 
 crifices; so Christ having given himself for us, an 
 offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling 
 savor, g by his own blood entered once into the holy 
 place, heaven itself, having obtained eternal re- 
 demption for us. h 
 
 The manner, too, in which the high-priest, by di- 
 vine order, disposed of the blood of the sin-offering, 
 when he had brought it within the vail, is full of 
 instruction. 1. He sprinkled of it upward. See p. 
 278. Thus the precious blood of Christ, shed for 
 his people, first had reference to heaven, as a satis- 
 faction to divine justice for their sins : He suffered 
 the just for the unjust to bring us to God. 1 2. The 
 high-priest sprinkled of the same blood downward. 
 See also p. 278. This he did seven times ; k which might 
 typify the successive applications of the cleansing 
 and peace-speaking virtues of the richer blood of 
 Christ, to be made by the Holy Spirit, to the elect 
 
 b Exo. xxviii. 21. 29. c Eph. i. 4. d Levit. xvi. 11. 15. 
 e Epb. v. 25. f Levit. xvi. 12. 13. g Eph. v. 2. h Heb. ix. 
 12. 24. i 1 Pet. iii. 18. k Levit. xvi. 14, 15. 
 
310 THE BLESSING OF LEVI, [SER. X. 
 
 of all nations and of all generations. 1 And accord- 
 ingly, when arrived in heaven, their song will be, 
 Unto him that loved us and washed us from our 
 sins in his own blood ; for, (addressing him,) thou 
 wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy 
 blood out of every kindred and tongue and people 
 and nation. Rev. i. 5. v. 9.* 
 
 The various uses, likewise, which, on the day of 
 expiation, were made of the blood of the sin-offer- 
 ings, are very instructive to us. 
 
 With this blood, the high-priest, having taken it 
 within the vail where resided the Shecheenah, the 
 symbol of the divine presence, made an atone- 
 ment for the holy place, that is, for the holy of ho- 
 lies^ called also the holy sanctuary ; m whereby was 
 signified, that through the expiatory sacrifices offered 
 for the children of Israel, on the day of atonement, 
 they were ceremonially accepted before God. And 
 with the residue of the blood, the high-priest, hav- 
 ing brought it with him out of the holy of holies, 
 made an atonement for the tabernacle of the con- 
 gregation, meaning the court of the people, defiled 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 1922. x. 22. xii. 24. xiii. 20. 1 Pet. i. 2. 1 John i. 7. 
 
 * As seven days complete a week, and as one day is with the 
 Lord as a thousand years; 2 Pet. iii. 8; it is not an improbable 
 conjecture, that seven thousand years will complete the duration of 
 time. If so, the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood of atonement 
 might mystically signify, that the atonement of Christ, who, in 
 God's account, was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world, Rev. xiii. 8, will remain in full virtue to the end of the 
 world. Then will the whole redeemed family be presented a glo- 
 rious church without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. 
 Eph. v. 27. 
 
 t See Note on p. 278, 279. 
 m Levit. xvi. 16.33. 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND THUMMIM. 311 
 
 by their sins for the altar, the golden altar of in- 
 cense, in like manner defiled p and for the sins of 
 the priests, part of whose daily service was perform- 
 ed at that altar q and for all the sins of all the 
 children of Israel.' 
 
 How similar, yet how much more efficacious is the 
 atonement of Christ ! Having suffered the just for 
 the unjust, his entrance into heaven by his own blood, 
 denoted the Father's acceptance of his obedience 
 and sacrifice, as a perfect satisfaction to law and 
 justice for all whom, in his obedience and death, he 
 represented. 8 Hence, in particular, his atonement 
 avails 1. To procure their pardon when, under 
 conviction of their lost estate, they go to God plead- 
 ing what Christ hath done and suffered. Such is 
 the tenor of God's covenant with his Son on their 
 behalf: / will, saith he, be merciful to their unright- 
 eousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I 
 remember no more.* 2. To procure the pardon of 
 the sins and imperfections with which they are 
 chargeable as believers. The visible church is the 
 antitype of the tabernacle of the congregation, and, 
 like that, is variously defiled. Believers, however 
 consciencious and watchful, are guilty, not only of 
 many faults in private, domestic and civil life, but 
 also of much sin even in their solemn assemblies. 
 They severally carry with them a body of sin and 
 death, to the house of God. Hence, what pride of 
 heart ! what swarms of vain and evil thoughts ! 
 what wanderings of mind and affection ! what dull 
 formality and stupid insensibility ! nay, what a want 
 of godly sincerity and true engagedness of soul, 
 
 Levit. xvi. 16. * Ver. 18, 19. <i Exo. xxvii. 21. r Levit. 
 xvi. 33, 34. * Eph. i. 6. * Heb. viii. 12. 
 
312 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 often attend them in their public devotions ! By 
 reason of these effects of their depravity, believers 
 are sometimes tempted to " neglect the assembling 
 of themselves together ;" thinking it impossible that 
 their services, mingled with so many imperfections, 
 can be acceptable to a heart-searching God. But 
 let them remember, that Christ, as typified in Aaron, 
 bears the iniquity of their holy things. u 
 
 Of this all-important fact, a striking illustration 
 was given in the defilement and cleansing of the 
 golden altar of incense. This altar, I understand 
 to have been a figure of the throne of grace. It 
 stood, not in the most holy but in the holy place, to 
 signify, that, not heaven but a state of grace upon 
 earth, is the place of prayer. And, as nothing 
 intervened between it and the shecheenah, the sym- 
 bol of [the divine presence, but the vail, before 
 which it stood, it was said to be before the Lord. 
 Thus, when believers come to the throne of grace, 
 they come before JEHOVAH, and must conceive of 
 nothing as intervening between him and them but 
 Christ, the one Mediator between God and men, 
 whose human nature was the antitype of the vail, 
 and by the sacrifice of which he hath rent the vail, 
 and consecrated for us a new and living way of 
 access to God. x But the golden altar itself, at 
 which the priests officiated, was, by their daily 
 approaches unto it, rendered ceremonially unclean. 
 Therefore the high-priest was required to make an 
 atonement for it annually, with the blood of the sin- 
 offerings, that he might hallow it from the unclean- 
 ness of the children of Israel 7 Did not this typi- 
 
 Exo. xxviii. 38. w Levit. xvi. 18. x Heb. x. 19, 20. 
 it. xvi. 18, 19. Comp. Exo. xxx. 10. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 313 
 
 cally signify, that believers, though made priests 
 unto God,* are chargeable with sin even in their 
 daily approaches to the throne of grace and yet, 
 that through Christ, the true High-Priest, who -hath 
 made an atonement for all their sins, they may come 
 to that throne with safety and success 1 ! We enter 
 into the holiest by the blood of Jesus* Let us there- 
 fore come boldly, that is, with an authorized free- 
 dom, to the throne of grace, that we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. b 
 
 Upon the golden altar, moreover, the high- priest 
 daily, both morning and evening, burnt sweet in- 
 cense, kindled with fire taken from off the brazen 
 altar, on which he offered the sacrifices for sin." 
 And, by a manifest allusion thereto, an Angel y 
 even Christ, the Angel of the covenant, is said to 
 offer much incense with the prayers of the saints 
 upon the golden altar before the throne ; d by which 
 incense is meant nothing less than the rich and 
 fragrant perfume of his own meritorious sacrifice 
 and ever-availing intercession, whereby the devo- 
 tions of believers, though imperfect as preceding 
 from them, obtain a gracious acceptance with their 
 heavenly Father : they offer up spiritual sacrifices, 
 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.* 
 
 And farther, as the high-priest, on the great day 
 of expiation, made an atonement for the priests, 
 and for all the people, even for all the children of 
 Israel, and that for all their sins? so, at the ap- 
 pointed time, Christ, by the offering up of himself, 
 made an atonement satisfactory to divine Justice, 
 for all the sins of all the elect, the mystical Israel 
 
 z Rev. i. 6. a Heb. x. 19. b Chap. iv. 16. c Exo. xxx. 7, 8. 
 d Rev viii. 3, 4. e 1 Pet. ii. 5. ' Levit. xvi. 33, 34. 
 
314 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X* 
 
 of God, both those who were called before his 
 death arid those who remained to be called after- 
 ward, and whether chosen to public or to private 
 stations in the church. s Hence all true believers, 
 however obscure, are built upon the foundation of 
 the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being 
 the chief corner-stone; and receive like precious 
 faith with them. h 
 
 The extent and efficacy of the Redeemer's atone- 
 ment, may also be illustrated by this type, in a some- 
 what different manner; yet without contradicting 
 any thing I have said in relation to it- 
 Did' the high-priest with the blood of the sin offer- 
 ings, make an atonement for the holy of holies, 
 whereby he purified the patterns of things in the 
 heavens ? So Christ, with his own bloody by which 
 he entered into heaven, purified the heavenly things 
 themselves, that is, met the requirements of divine 
 justice and of the holiness of the place, by making 
 an atonement for the sins of those, i who under the 
 former dispensation had been received there upon 
 his suretiship ; they having all died in faith. 1 Here- 
 in God declared his righteousness in requiring a 
 perfect satisfaction to his justice, for the remission, 
 or passing over, of sins that were past, called also 
 the transgressions that were under the first testa- 
 ment. 1 ' 
 
 Did the high-priest, on the same day and by the 
 same blood, make an atonement in the holy place 
 for the sins of the priests, who there officiated at 
 the golden altar ? So Christ, at the same time he 
 
 * Rom. iii. 25, 26. h Eph. ii. 1922. 2 Pet. i. 1. 'Heb. ix. 
 23. xi. 13. k Rom. iii. 25. Heb. ix. 15. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMiHIM. 315 
 
 atoned for the sins of those who were then in heav- 
 en, and by the same sacrifice, atoned also for the 
 sins of believers then on earth, who by him had 
 access to the throne of grace, of which the golden 
 altar was a type : For their sakes, said he of his 
 believing disciples, I sanctify, that is, devote my- 
 self. 1 Thus God declared his righteousness, that 
 then and ever afterward, he might be manifestly 
 just, though the justifier of him that believeth in 
 Jesus But who are they, of every generation, 
 that believe in Jesus ? Even the same that were 
 chosen in him and ordained to eternal life" 
 
 And, as the high-priest, on the day of expiation, 
 made an atonement, not only for the holy of holies, 
 a figure of the heavenly state, and for the holy place, 
 in which the priests officiated, and which was the 
 figure of a believing state, but also for all the people, 
 even for all the children of Israel, and that for all 
 their sins ; so Christ, by the one offering up of him- 
 self, atoned not only for all the sins of those who 
 were then in heaven, and for all the sins of all be- 
 lievers then on earth, but equally for all the sins of 
 all the millions of God's elect, then remaining to be 
 called into being and to be called by grace. Such 
 an atonement God required, That in the dispensa- 
 tion of the fulness of times, according to his good 
 pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, he might 
 gather together in one, that is, in one glorious fam- 
 ily, all things in Christ, meaning the souls and bod- 
 ies of all whom he hath chosen in him before the 
 foundation of the world ; both which are in heaven, 
 
 'John xvii. 19. Rom. iii. 26. n Eph. i. 4. Acts xiii. 48. 
 6 Levit. xvi. 16. 18. 33, 34. 
 
 42 
 
S16 THE BLESSING OP LEVI. [SEE. *. 
 
 (the spirits of the just, already made perfect,) and 
 which are on earth, (whether called or uncalled, 
 born or unborn,) even in him, in whom the whole 
 elect family are alike beheld and loved redeemed 
 and represented and shall be alike sanctified and 
 glorified. , p To precede. 
 
 As whomsoever and whatsoever the high-priest, 
 by the blood of the sin- offer ings, made an atone- 
 ment for, he thereby ceremonially reconciled ; q s& 
 all for whom Christ shed his precious blood, as an 
 atonement for sin, are thereby effectually reconciled 
 to divine Justice : we are reconciled to God by the 
 death of his Son. r This was done at once. But, in 
 consequence thereof, God, through Christ, com- 
 municates his Spirit to the elect, and thereby pro- 
 duces in them a mental reconciliation to himself, 
 You, saith an apostle to believers, that were some- 
 time alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked 
 works, yet now hath he reconciled* In this sense, 
 God was and still is, reconciling the world unto him- 
 self that is, by his Spirit, convincing sinners, Gen- 
 tiles as well as Jews, of their condemned and help- 
 less condition, according to the covenant of works, 
 and leading them by faith to Christ, who is the end 
 of the law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
 eth ; and this he does not imputing their trespasses 
 unto them? for by him (Christ) all that believe are 
 justified from all things" and, as such, blessed with 
 the non-imputation of sin: Bhssed is the man to 
 whom the Lord will not impute sin" 
 
 p Eph. i. 9, 10. Comp. ver. 3, 4, 5. Chap. ii. 4. 5. John xi. 
 52, Heb. xii. 23. Acts xx. 32. Rom. viii. 17, 18. 29, 30. 1 Cor. 
 xv . 4958. q Levit. xvi. 20. Comp. ver. 33, 34. and 2 Chron. 
 xxix. 24. r Rom. v. 10. 8 Col. i. 21. * 2 Cor. v, 19. u Acts 
 xiii. 39. w Rom.iv.8. 
 
ER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 3l? 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that the high-priest 
 performed his piacular work alone that no man, 
 and therefore, not even a Levite or an ordinary 
 priest to help him, was suffered to be in the taberna-* 
 cle, in any of the holy apartments thereof, when he 
 went in to make the various atonements specified ; x 
 for even so Christ had no assistance from any of 
 his people in making satisfaction to divine Justice 
 for their sins. " He" alone " was wounded for our 
 transgressions and bruised for our iniquities" He 
 alone " put away sin" and that " by the sacrifice of 
 himself" yea, " His own self bare our sins in his 
 own body on the tree." y Nor will he employ his 
 saints in destroying their personal enemies, but will 
 do it himself. Speaking of this, by anticipation, 
 he says, " I have trodden the wine-press alone; and 
 of the people," the saints, " there was none with me : 
 for I will tread them," the antichristian enemies of 
 the church, " in mine anger and trample them in my 
 fury ; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my 
 garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the 
 day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of 
 my redeemed is come.' jz 
 
 To the memorable day of annual atonement, be- 
 longed also the singular ordinance of the scape- 
 goat.* For the record of the directions, which the 
 Lord gave to Moses concerning what the high-priest 
 should do on that day, contains the following. "He 
 shall take of the congregation of the children of 
 Israel, two kids of the goats for a sin offering ... he 
 
 Levit. xvi. 17. rls. liii. 5. Heb. ix. 26. 1 Pet. ii. 24. 
 * Is. Ixiii. 3, 4. Comp. Chap. lix. 1416. and i. 2628. 
 
 * This ordinance, however, bears a strong resemblance to that 
 in Chap. xiv. 4953. 
 
318 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER/X. 
 
 shall take the two goats, and present them before the 
 Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of the congre- 
 gation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two 
 goats ; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for 
 the scape-goat. And Aaron shall bring the goat 
 upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a 
 sin-offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to 
 be the sca/pc-goat, shall be presented alive before 
 the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let 
 him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness. 5 '* 
 
 Accordingly, the high-priest having slain the goat, 
 which by lot was devoted to the LORD, as a sin-offer- 
 ing for the people,* and having with the blood there- 
 of completed the work of ceremonial reconciliation, 1 * 
 proceded to comply with this additional injunction : 
 "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of 
 the live goat ; and confess over him all the iniqui- 
 ties of the children of Israel, and all their transgress- 
 ions in all their sins," that is, all their sins of every 
 kind, " putting them," by imputation, "upon the 
 head of the goat, and shall send him away by the 
 hand of a jit man\ into the wilderness. And," as a 
 
 * Levit. xvi. 5. 7, 8, 9, 10. That a goat, in many respects of- 
 fensive, and even a scripture-emblem of a wicked person, was for 
 either of these purposes, chosen as a type of the holy Jesus, may 
 seem strange. But it served mystically to signify 1. That 
 He would be manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh. Rom. viii. 3. 
 And 2. That having the sins of the elect placed to his account, 
 He would be numbered with the transgressors and treated as their 
 substitute. Is. liii. 6. 12. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Besides, as a goat, 
 however offensive, was legally clean ; Deut xiv. 3 ; so Christ, 
 though despised and rejected of men, is chosen of God and precious. 
 Is. liii. 3. 1 Pet. ii. 4. 
 
 a Levit. xvi. 15. b Ibid. ver. 20. 
 
 f T\y t?'X Eesh Itti, literally signifies An opportune man. Levi, 
 under ny Eath, time. Or A man of opportunity ; that is, a suita- 
 ble man Providentially present. 
 
SER. IX.] HIS URIM AND THUMMIM. 319 
 
 special favor to Israel, " the goat shall bear upon 
 him all their iniquities unto a land not inhab- 
 ited ;* and he," the fit man, "shall let go the goat 
 in the wilderness." 
 
 What was typified by the goat that, by lot, ("the 
 whole desposing" of which " is of the Lord," d ) was 
 devoted as a sin-ofiering for Israel, is not disputed 
 among Christians ; all are agreed, that it prefigured 
 Christ, who " being delivered by the determinate 
 counsel and fore-knowledge of God," fell an inno- 
 cent victim to avenging Justice for his guilty people, 8 
 But what was mystically signified by Azazel the 
 scape-goat, is far from being obvious ; and therefore 
 has been the subject of various conjectures.f My 
 
 * mn pK Erets gezerah may justly be rendered A land of cut* 
 ting off, or a land of separation, where their iniquities, by the 
 atonement, should be entirely cut of, or separated from them ; 
 rpTJ gezerah, being from 11-1 gazar, to cut off or separate. See 
 Parkhurst andBate under "in. And comp. Ezek. xli. 12, 13, 14, 15. 
 
 c Levit. xvi. 21, 22. d Pror. xvi. 33. e Acts ii. 23. 
 
 t Among Biblical Criticks, some of high distinction, contend 
 that SlKTy azazel, which we renders or the scape-goat does not 
 mean the goat itself, but either some mountain of that name, to 
 which the goat was sent ; So Le Clerk ; or some demon, to which 
 it was delivered ; So Spencer ; the prefix h lamed signifying to or 
 unto, as well as for. Accordingly, Bp. Patrick and Dr. Gill, per- 
 haps led by Spencer, supposed the live goat to typify Christ, as ex- 
 posed to the temptations of Satan in the wilderness. But, as the 
 live goat was not sent into the wilderness, till after the other was 
 slain, and its blood was carried within the vail, their application of 
 the type implies, that the temptations of Christ did not occur till 
 after his resurrection and ascension, whereas we know, that they 
 occurred before his crucifixion. 
 
 Bochart, not much amiss, affirms that SfKty azazel signifies 
 departure or removal. De animal. Sacr. P. I. lib. 55. The 
 literal signification of the word, however, including its prefix, must 
 be gathered thus : h lamed for, \y az a goat, and STK azal to go 
 away or wander about ; which together, may be rendered for the 
 
320 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X. 
 
 own opinion is, that it was chiefly designed to typ- 
 ify the effect of Christ's vicarious death, and the 
 illustration thereof, which he would give in the doc- 
 trine of the gospel. 1. The effect of Christ's vica- 
 rious death ; for, as all the sins of national Israel, 
 ceremonially expiated by the blood of the slain goat, 
 were, by the other, borne away into a land of cutting 
 off, or ofseperation ; so all the sins of mystical Israel 
 being laid on Christ, and effectually expiated by his 
 precious blood, shed as a satisfactory atonement to 
 divine Justice, are, by consequence, virtually "re- 
 moved from them, as far as the east is from the 
 west." f And 2. The illustration thereof, which he 
 would give in the doctrine of the gospel: for, as 
 the high-priest, having made an atonement for the 
 people by the blood of the slain goat, sent the live 
 goat, ceremonially laden with their sins into the 
 wilderness ; g so Christ, " being delivered for our 
 offenses and raised again for our justification," there- 
 upon sent the report thereof, by the gospel, into the 
 gentile world, called the wilderness of the people* 
 To make this illustration, the preaching of the 
 gospel is eminently adapted ; it is the ministry of 
 reconciliation, the scope of which is to show, that 
 God by imputing the sins of the elect to Christ, 
 " hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; 
 that," by his imputing to us what Christ hath done 
 and suffered, " we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in him ;" that is, that we might be constitu- 
 
 f Is. liii. 6, 10, 11. Psal. ciii. 12. * Levit. xvi. 21. h Ezek. 
 xx. 35. 
 
 goat that goetk, or is sent away and wandereth about. See Tay- 
 lor's Heb. Lex. under \y. Our received version of the word, there- 
 fore, is not exceptionable. 
 
SEE. X.] HI UR1M AND THUMM1M. 321 
 
 ted righteous in God's account, and in a manner 
 agreeable to the righteousness and holiness of his 
 nature and his law. 1 
 
 The scape-goat, however, in bearing away the 
 sins of national Israel, atoned for by the blood of 
 its fellow, typified the effect of Christ's vicarious 
 death, in removing the sins of mystical Israel, not 
 only virtually, but also experimentally. For God 
 having accepted the death of Christ as a satisfac- 
 tion to his Justice for our sins, through him, gives 
 his Holy Spirit unto us, by whose regenerating and 
 enlightening operations we are caused to feel and 
 bewail the evil of sin nay, are enabled by faith, a 
 fruit of the Spirit, to look upon him whom we have 
 pierced and mourn, and then grants to us the mani- 
 festation of pardon, by which the guilt and burden 
 of sin are removed from our troubled consciences, 
 and we have peace with God through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ* 
 
 Nor was it without a typical design, that azazel, 
 the scape-goat, after being conducted by afit man 
 into the wilderness, was there let go. For so the 
 ceremonial law, which required that such animals 
 should be bound and offered, is done away in Christ; 1 
 and the gospel-report thereof, long confined among 
 the Jews, is made free to all nations. 1 " And though, 
 in the mystical sense, &fit man for this purpose, is 
 any one qualified and sent by Christ to preach the 
 gospel, yet, primarily and eminently, such a man 
 was found in Paul, who was specially ordained a 
 preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the gentiles* and 
 
 i 2 Cor. v. 31. k Acts ii. 33. 37. Titus iii. 5, 6, Zech. xii. 
 10. Rom. v. i. 12 Cor. iii. 14. Heb. x. 5. m Matt. x. 5. compared 
 with Matt, xviii. 19. and Mark xvi. 15. n 1 Tim. ii. 7. 
 
322 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X- 
 
 who, understanding Judaism to be abolished? "was 
 determined not to know," that is, to make known 
 among his hearers, " any thing" as a ground of hope 
 for lost sinners, "save Jesus Christ and him cru- 
 cified."' 
 
 But while the above may justly be esteemed, what 
 was chiefly prefigured by the uses made of the two 
 goats respectively, on the day of expiation, we can 
 scarcely read their history, without beholding, as, in 
 the slain goat, a type of Christ put to death in the, 
 flesh, so, in the live goat, a type of him, as quicken- 
 cd by the Spirit ; or rather, as remaining alive in 
 his mediatorial office, even while his body was un*- 
 der the power of death/ Nor is it well possible for us, 
 to contemplate those two animals brought before the 
 Lord, by whose decision one of them must inevita- 
 bly die, without thinking of Christ and his church, 
 the latter as the offender, the former as her Surety, 
 on one of whom, divine Justice, required that the 
 penalty of the law should be executed, nor without 
 perceiving, that the lot, " by the determinate counsel 
 of God," falling upon HIM she thereby escaped. To 
 have required both to suffer, would have been in- 
 consistent with justice, human or divine. " If there- 
 fore ye seek me," said Christ to the officers, sent 
 to take him, "let these," pointing to his disciples, 
 " let these go their way." 8 And accordingly, it is 
 written, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us.' H 
 
 While, however, we thus contemplate Christ as 
 the antitype of the Jewish high-priest, we must 
 
 P 2 Cor. iii. 13. q 1 Cor. ii. 2. r 1 Pet. iii. 18. John iii- 
 13. Luke xxiii. 43. * John xviii. 8. l Gal. iii. 13. 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND THUMMIM. 323 
 
 never forget, that in all things he has the pre-emi- 
 nence" This he has, 
 
 1. Personally. He is not, like the Jewish high- 
 priest, a mere man, but " the Son of God," clothed 
 in human nature. w And though he assumed real 
 humanity, and is therefore truly man, the man 
 Christ Jesus;* yet he is not, like the Jewish high- 
 priest, a man of sinful infirmities ; y but is holy, 
 harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners* 
 Hence, 
 
 2. In the matter and manner of his offering. 
 The Jewish high-priest offered beasts ; but Christ 
 offered himself. And even the beasts were com- 
 paratively favored: they were put to death in the 
 ordinary way ; but Christ, by crucifixion , r and though 
 their " bodies were burned without the camp," yet 
 not till after they were dead and their blood was 
 carried into the sanctuary ; but Christ, at the same 
 time that he was bleeding away his immaculate life, 
 under exquisite torture upon the cross, was also ex- 
 posed to the fire of divine wrath due to his guilty 
 people ; he was made a curse for us.* 
 
 3. In the efficacy of his sacrifice. He needed not, 
 like those high-priests who had infirmity, "daily 
 and yearly" to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, 
 and then for the people's," never for his own sins, for 
 he had none nor repeatedly, to atone for the sins 
 of his people ; " for this he did once, when he offer- 
 ed up himself;" having by this " one offering perfect- 
 ed for ever them that are sanctified" 5 them that 
 
 u Col. i. 16. w Heb. iv. 14. x 1 Tim. ii. 5. r Ibid. vii. 28. 
 z Ibid. ver. 26. a Ibid. xiii. 1 1 , 12. Gal. iii. 13. b Heb. vii. 27. x. 
 1. 14. 
 
 43 
 
324 THE BLESSING OF LEVl. [SEE. X. 
 
 are set apart in eternal election, " by God the Father, 
 preserved by Jesus Christ, and called." 
 
 4. In the sanctuary and tabernacle in which he 
 officiates. The Jewish high-priest "entered only 
 into " a worldly sanctuary," the holy places of which 
 were but " figures of the true," and performed his 
 service in a literal tabernacle, which was only a type; 
 but Christ hath entered into the true Sanctuary, 
 "heaven itself," and there performs his intercessory 
 office, as here he did his sacrificial, in his appro- 
 priate body, "the true tabernacle," which, both in 
 its conception and in its resurrection, "the Lord 
 pitched and not man." d The comparative advan- 
 tages hence arising to the church are obviously 
 great. For, whereas the Levitical high-priest could 
 only represent national Israel before the Shccheenah, 
 the symbol of the divine presence, Christ represents 
 mystical Israel before the real and immediate pre- 
 sence of God :" e thus securing to us acceptance in 
 Ungracious presence on earth/ and admission to his 
 glorious presence in heaven. Christ is already glo- 
 rified, and when he shall appear, his people shall 
 appear with him in glory. , g 
 
 5. In the dispatch and perfection of his work. 
 The Jewish high-priest performed his work by de- 
 grees ; and though, on the day of atonement, he en- 
 tered, at least, three several times into the holy of 
 holies, he was not suffered to abide, nor even 
 to sit down there ; h but had to go out, to make still 
 
 c Jude Ver. 1. d Heb. ix. 1. 24. viii. 2. x. 5. Luke i. 35. Acts 
 xvii. 31. Heb. ix. 24. f Ibid. iv. 16. * Col. iii. 4. h Heb. x. 
 11. 
 
SER. X.] HIS UR1M AND TIIUMMIM. 325 
 
 additional sacrifices. But Christ, having offered up 
 himself as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of his 
 people, "by his own blood entered once into the 
 holy place," heaven itself, "having obtained eternal 
 redemption for us;" 1 and, instead of having to go 
 out to repeat the sacrifice or to offer any additional 
 ones, he "for ever sat down on the right hand of 
 God." k And even on the sacred day of expiation, 
 the high-priest, as an evidence of the imperfection 
 and sin which mingled both with his own services 
 and with those of the people, was required, in con- 
 cluding the solemnities of the occasion, to wash his 
 flesh and change his garments, and then offer his 
 burnt-offering and the burnt offering of the people, 
 to make an atonement for himself and for them." 1 
 But, as there is no imperfection in Christ, so not in 
 his sacrifice; "he offered himself without spot to 
 God ;" m and though believers, in the eye of God's 
 omniscience, are chargeable with much imperfection 
 in worship, and with many sins in life, both of omis- 
 sion and of commission, yet, -in the eye of his aveng- 
 ing justice, " the blood of Jesus Christ his Son," 
 once shed, "eleanseth us from all sin. n Nay more, 
 the types being imputatively charged with sin, and 
 having no virtue really to atone for it, defiled rather 
 than purified those who touched them. Hence, even 
 her that led away the scape-goat, and they that car- 
 ried forth and burnt the bodies of the beasts that 
 were slain as sin-offerings, were thereby rendered 
 ceremonially unclean, and had to wash their clothes 
 and bathe themselves in water, before they might 
 
 i Heb. ix. 12, k Ibid. x. 12. Levit. ,xvi. 24. m Heb. ix. 14. 
 n 1 John i. 7. 
 
326 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 come into the Jewish camp. But, on the contrary, 
 Christ having put away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
 self, all who are enabled to lay the hand of faith on 
 HIM, as crucified, risen, and set forth in the gospel, 
 instead of being defiled thereby, are effectually 
 cleansed; "by him all that believe are justified from 
 all things ;" p for, although " it is not possible that the 
 blood of bulls and of goats should put away sin ;" q 
 yet the precious blood of Christ, vicariously shed for 
 us, and by the Holy Ghost applied to us, can and 
 does " purge our consciences from dead works, to 
 serve the living God." r 
 
 6. In the order of his priesthood. He is that 
 " Priest that should rise after the order of Melchiz- 
 edec, and not be called after the order of Aaron;" 
 he not being of the tribe to which the Aaronic priest- 
 hood appertained ; iC for it is evident that our Lord 
 sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake 
 nothing concerning the priesthood. 8 Like Melchiz- 
 edec, he is both a Priest and a King " a Priest 
 upon his throne." 1 Besides, the Aaronic order was 
 abolished with the Jewish dispensation, to which 
 only it was appropriate ; u but the order of Melchiz- 
 edec is perpetuated in the priesthood of Christ, 
 "who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchiz- 
 
 7. In the duration and excellence of the cove- 
 nant of which he is Mediator. The covenant to 
 Aaron, when confirmed to Phinehas, his descendant 
 by Eleazar, is indeed called "the covenant of an ever- 
 lasting priesthood," yet not an everlasting covenant ; x 
 
 o Levit. xvi. 26. 28. P Heb. ix. 26. Acts xiii. 39. * Heb. x. 4. 
 r Ibid. ix. 14. 8 Ibid. vii. 11. 13, 14. l Zech. vi. 13. u Heb. 
 vii. 12. 18, 19. w Psal. ex. '4. Heb. vii. 21. * Num. xxv. 13. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMMtM. 327 
 
 and the Aaronic priesthood itself, is called everlast- 
 ing merely as it was originally given to Aaron and 
 his house for an inheritance, and afterward, upon the 
 tacit condition of good behaviour, restricted and con- 
 firmed to Phinehas, son of Eleazar, 7 and to his seed, 
 throughout all their generatians, to the end of the Mo- 
 saic economy and,' as it was a shadow of the priest- 
 hood of Christ, which is incessant and interminable. 
 The grant to Aaron suffered no interruption, and 
 though, no doubt for some abuse of the office in the fa- 
 mily of Phinehas, the priesthood was transferred from 
 the house of Eleazar, Aaron's third son, to that of 
 Ithamar, his fourth son, 2 and remained there from Eli 
 to Abiathar, inclusive, a lapse of about 120, some 
 say 150 years yet, in Zadok it was restored to the 
 house of Eleazar, and continued among the de- 
 scendants of Phinehas his son,* until the cap- 
 tivity, and even down to the days of Herod and 
 so to the times of the Messiah.^ But the COVE- 
 NANT OF GRACE, of which CHRIST is the MEDI- 
 ATOR, is absolutely everlasting. As the covenantee 
 of the elect, He was " set up from everlasting"* in 
 his love to their persons, and in his covenant-engage- 
 ments on their behalf, his goings forth have been 
 from of old, from everlasting ; b and accordingly, the 
 blood which, in fulfilment of that ancient compact, he 
 shed for them, is emphatically the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant. 6 Compared, therefore, either with 
 
 * 1 Chron. vi. 4. z Exo. vi. 23. I Sam. ii. 11. 2734. iv. 18. 
 1 Chron. xxiv. 3. 
 
 * Who must not be confounded with Phinehas the son of Eli. 
 1 Sam. ii. 34. 
 
 t 1 Kings ii. 35. 1 Chron. vi. 4 15. Ezra. vii. 1 5. iii. 2. 
 See also Ludovicus Capellus, Chron. Sacra. Tab. xiv. and Selden, 
 de Success, ad Pontiff. L. i. c. 5. 
 
 Prov. viii. 23. b Micah v. 2. e Heb. xiii. 20. 
 
328 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [gER. X. 
 
 Moses or with Aaron, " He obtained a more excellent 
 ministry, by how much also he is the Mediator of a 
 better covenant, which was established upon better 
 promises"* promises of better things than the earth- 
 ly Canaan and temporal prosperity promises full 
 of grace and of glory ; and which, being made to an 
 infallible covenantee, are all infallibly absolute 
 even "yea and Amen, unto the glory of God by 
 us." 6 And, 
 
 Once more, In the peculiarity and perpetuity of 
 his station. In Aaron's order, there was a numerous 
 and rapid succession particularly in the latter part 
 of it. " They truly were many priests," mean- 
 ing high-priests, " because," as a proof of their 
 imperfection, personal and official, and to make room 
 for the Messiah, "they were not suffered to con- 
 tinue by reason of death ;* but this Priest, because 
 
 d Heb. viii. 6. e 2 Cor. i. 20. 
 
 * According to Calmet (Diet, under Priest,) there were eighty- 
 one Jewish high-priests ; and who may be arranged as follows. 
 Under the tabernacle, eleven, beginning with Aaron, Exo. xxviii. 
 1, and ending with Abiathar, 1 Sam. xxii. 20 23. and xxiii. 9. 
 Under the first temple, fifteen, beginning with Zadok, the son of 
 Ahitub and father of Ahimaaz, 1 Chron. vi. 8 ; [a different person 
 from the after-mentioned Zadok, the father of Shallum or Me- 
 shullum; I Chron. vi. 12. ix. 11. and Neh. xi. 11; the former was 
 under Solomon, the latter under Jotham;] and ending with 
 Seraiah, (son of Azariah and father of Jehozadak ; 1 Chron. vi. 
 14 ;) who was taken by Nabuzaz-adan, and, by the authority of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, put to death at Riblah. 2 Kings xxv. 18 21. 
 and Jer. lii. 24 27. [Calmet, Brown, and others say that Zadok 
 was made high-priest by Saul and that he officiated, as such, in 
 the reign of David ; but they cite no text for either, nor have I 
 been able to find one to support 'either. I therefore, with the 
 Chald. Parap. on 1 Chron. xviii, 16, believe that Zadok, as well 
 as Ahimclech or Abimelech, the son of Abiathar, was only a sagan, 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIM AND THUMM1M. 329 
 
 he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 
 Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the 
 uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he 
 ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. 
 vii. 2325.* 
 
 or deputy under Jlbiathar,i\\\ Solomon " put him in his room.*' 
 [1 Kings ii. 27. 35. Comp. 2 Sam. viii. 17. 1 Chron. xviii. 16.] 
 During the captivity, one, namely Jehozadak, son of Seraiah; that 
 is, he was high-priest of right; but whether he ever officiated, as 
 such, is justly doubted. 1 Chron. vi. 14, 15. And, under the 
 second temple fifty-four, beginning with Jeshua, more commonly 
 called Joshua, (son of Jehozadak called also Jozadak,) who 
 returned from the captivity; Ezra ii. 1, 2. iii. 2. and Zech.iii. 1 ; 
 and ending with Phannias, whose character Josephus represents to 
 have been little better than brutal. He became high-priest about 
 A. D. 68, only two years before the temple was destroyed by the 
 Romans, and the Jewish priesthood abolished for ever. See 
 Josephus, de bello, 1. iv. c. 5. and Antiq. 1. xx. c. 8. Of the high- 
 priests under the second temple, CaiapJias, so often mentioned in 
 the New Testament, was the forty-first. Matt. xxvi. 3. 57. John 
 xi. 49 52. xviii. 14. 28. Acts iv. 6. 
 
 * In reference to the work of the high-priest, on the day of 
 atonement, many, no doubt, will think my remarks prolix, and in 
 several things irrelative to my subject. Both may be true. Yet 
 I am persuaded, that whoever carefully reads the sixteenth chapter 
 of Leviticus, will excuse my efforts (even if esteemed unsuccessful) 
 to facilitate the understanding of it ; and, that no lover of Christ 
 will think it a waste of time to read the instances noticed of hia 
 comparative pre-eminence. 
 
 Some too, following Patrick and Gill, will pronounce me wrong, 
 in supposing that the high-priest, on the day of atonement, had 
 on the Ephod, to which appertained the breast-plate with the 
 Urim and Thummim. But, it is evident, that he acted, on that day, 
 as the representative of Israel ; both when he offered their sacri- 
 fice for sin; Levit. xvi. 15. 33, 34; and when, [for them, he 
 entered into the holy and most holy places ; Ver. 2. 12 16 ; yet, 
 that he might represent them, he was required to have the breast- 
 plate, with their names in it upon his heart, when he went in be- 
 fore the Lord continually. SeeExo. xxviii. 21. 29,30. Therefore, 
 highly as I respect the judgment of Commentators and Critics, 
 
330 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. X. 
 
 Having dwelt so long on the sacerdotal services 
 appertaining to the day of atonement, I shall be the 
 more brief in showing, 
 
 Fourthly, That believers realize in Christ, what 
 the high-priest, with Urim and Thummim on his 
 breast, did for the Israelites, in asking divine coun- 
 sel on their behalf. For, 
 
 1. As none but the high-priest might wear the 
 Ephod with the Urim and Thummim, so none but 
 he could ask counsel of God in this way. Even 
 Joshua, as noticed (p. 281) had to stand before 
 Eleazer the priest, that he might ask counsel for him, 
 after the judgment of Urim before the Lord. h Thus 
 none, however dignified either in civil or religious 
 life, can obtain the knowledge of God, or of his 
 will, or have access unto him, through any other 
 medium than Christ : no man knoweth the Son, but 
 the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, 
 save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him* 
 
 who think otherwise, I feel bound to believe, that, on the day of 
 atonement, the high-priest wore the Ephod and its appendages 
 over the linen garments ; Ver. 4 ; as, on other days, he wore them 
 over different garments, while officially employed. The typical 
 design of his work required it. For, the holy linen garments, in 
 which, as the representative of national Israel, he officiated on 
 the day of atonement, and which he left in the tabernacle of the 
 congregation ; Ver. 23 ; fitly typified the holy and innocent human 
 nature of Christ, in which, as the Representative of mystical 
 Israel, he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross ; 
 Philip, ii. 8 ; and which, for a time, he left in Joseph's tomb ; 
 Matt, xxvii. 57 60 ; also his perfect righteousness, as Mediator, 
 which he Jinished in his death ; John xix. 30 ; and which he left 
 for his church, (mystically the congregation of Israel,} to whom, 
 in the eternal council, it was granted, that she should be arrayed in 
 fine linen> clean and white ; for the jine linen is the righteousness of 
 the saints. Rev. xix. 8. 
 
 h Nnm. xxvii. 21. ' Matt. xi. 27. 
 
SER. X.'J HIS URIM AND THUMIVIIM, 331 
 
 No man, saith Christ, cometh unto the Father, but by 
 
 me* 
 
 2. As the high-priest, by means of Urim and 
 Thummim, asked divine counsel only for God's Israel, 
 or, on their behalf, for their kings, or for their 
 house of judgment ; so Christ acts as a Counsel- 
 lor and Intercessor, not for mankind in common, but 
 for those whom the Father hath given him 1 those 
 for whom He laid down his life those whom, as 
 called, He makes kings and priests unto God? and, 
 as baptized, admits into the gospel-church ; which, 
 under the New Testament, is the House of Judg- 
 ment? " I pray for them," said He to the Father ; 
 adding, " I pray not for the world, but for them 
 which thou hast given me." q 
 
 3. The high-priest, by Urim and Thummim, ask- 
 ed divine counsel only in relation to matters of great 
 importance matters in which the glory of God and 
 the welfare of Israel were greatly concerned. And 
 such, pre-eminently, are the matters to which the 
 intercessions of Christ relate. As, for instance, the 
 effectual calling of his redeemed : Ask of me, said 
 the Father to him, and I will give thee the heathen 
 
 for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
 the earth for thy possession.* The comfort and in- 
 struction of believers : / will pray the Father, said 
 Christ to his disciples, and he shall give you another 
 Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even 
 the Spirit of truth, $fc. B That they may be kept from 
 the evil that is in the world, and be sanctified through 
 the truth. 1 That their faith fail not. u And, that 
 ultimately they may be with him in heaven to behold 
 his glory. Moreover, 
 
 , Johnvi. 39. m Ibid. x. 15. n Rev. i. 6. Acts ii. 41. PMatt. 
 
 iviii. 1517. 1 Cor. vi. 15. iJohn xvii. 9. 20. * Psal. ii. 8. 
 
 John xiv. 16, 17. l Ib. xvii. 15. 17. "Lukexxiii. 32. w John xvii. 24. 
 
 44 
 
THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sfiR. X 
 
 4. As the responses which God, by Urim and 
 Thummim, returned to Israel, were never, like those 
 returned to the heathen by the lying oracles of Sa- 
 tan, equivocal and false, but always explicit and true ; 
 so are all the answers which He returns to believers 
 through Christ, who knoweih all things,* and who is 
 the faithful witness. 1 
 
 From our subject, we learn, 
 
 1. The obligations which all the race of Adam 
 are under to Christ, for their various kinds and de- 
 grees of light. The natural sun in the heavens, 
 and the rational soul in man, are both among the 
 all things created by him u From him are all divine 
 communications: patriarchs, prophets, and apos- 
 tles, were only organs of utterance ; the oracle was 
 Christ speaking by his Spirit in them. w Hence, the 
 solar rays and the light of reason, common to man- 
 kind the light of revelation, wherever granted, and 
 the light of grace, to whomsoever given, are alike 
 from HIM, with whom are the URIM, that is, lights. 
 All effectual knowledge of the divine perfections, 
 which the saints on earth enjoy, they receive by the 
 internal light of the Spirit, enabling them, by the 
 external light of revelation, to behold the face of 
 HIM, who is the brightness of the Father's glory, and 
 the express image of his person : x " For God," saith 
 an apostle, " who commanded the light to shine out 
 of darkness, hath shined into our hearts," (riot, as 
 some think, to stir up a latent light supposed to be 
 in all by nature, but) " to GIVE the light of the knowl- 
 edge of the glory of God in the face, the manifes- 
 tation, of Jesus Christ." 7 Let us then, my believ- 
 ing hearers, in all our times of darkness and sad- 
 John xxi. 17. ' Rev. i. 5. John i. 3. Col. i. 16. w 1 Pet. 
 i. 11. x Heb. i. 3. corap. John xiv. 3. y 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
SER. X.] HIS URIJVI AND THUMMIM. 833 
 
 ness, look to Christ for light the light of instruc- 
 tion and the light of comfort ; remembering that he 
 hath said, / am come a light into the world, that 
 whosoever believeth on me, should not abide in dark- 
 ness. 2 Moreover, the light of that ultimate and eter- 
 nal glory, which the saints shall enjoy in heaven, 
 will emanate from Christ ; it will be his glory that 
 shall be revealed in us ; and by which we shall be 
 like him, and so appear with him in glory* What 
 manner of persons, then, ought we to be in all holy 
 conversation and godliness / b 
 
 2. The blessedness of all true believers. They 
 are experimentally as well as federally in Christ, 
 with whom are also the THUMMIM, perfections. United 
 to him, they have all the perfections of the divine na- 
 ture engaged and employed for their safety, temporal 
 and eternal. In him, however destitute in them- 
 selves, they are blessed with all spiritual blessings 9 
 and, therefore, with all requisit grace and gifts 
 with the irreversible pardon of all their sins 
 with a perfect and everlastingly justifying righteous- 
 ness with a perfection of new-covenant promises 
 and, to crown all, with an irrevocable title to eter- 
 nal life. See pp. 299 303. Besides, under his dis- 
 pensation, the church is blessed with a perfection 
 of gospel doctrines, ordinances and discipline ; and, 
 therefore, is neither required nor allowed, either to 
 borrow from abolished ceremonies, or to adopt from 
 human traditions.* In a word, believers, Ye are 
 complete in him. A 
 
 3. To whom we, who through grace have believed, 
 should commit our cause, when disputed by Satan, 
 by legalists, by sensualists, or by unbelief; namely, 
 
 z John xii. 46. a Rom. viii. 17, 18. 29. 1 John iii. 2. Col. iii. 4. 
 *2 Pet. iii. 11. c Col. ii. 1622. d Ibid. ver. 10. 
 
334 THE BLESSING OP LEVI. [sER. X. 
 
 to him, who is our Advocate and Counsellor, even 
 JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS, whose propitiatory 
 sacrifice offered for our sins, is, on our behalf, an 
 ever-availing plea before the throne. In his name, 
 therefore, let us believingly and hopefully present all 
 our petitions with him, let us leave all our cares, 
 knowing that he carethfor us and, to him, let us bring 
 all our hard questions, assured that his understanding 
 is infinite that he has interest enough in heaven to 
 obtain whatever is best for us, and that, to us, as to 
 his disciples of old, he is saying, Whatsoever ye shall 
 ask the Father in my name, he will give it you* 
 
 4. The deplorable darkness and wretchedness of 
 the unbelieving Jews ; the true Urim and Thummim 
 being no longer with Levi, but with CHRIST, whom 
 they reject and blaspheme ! Nor is the condition 
 of unbelieving gentiles, who neglect and despise 
 him, any better. Let both therefore, consider that 
 fearful admonition which the apostle addressed to 
 such at Antioch : Beware lest that come upon you 
 which is spoken of in the prophets, Behold ye des- 
 pisers, and wonder, and perish. { And, 
 
 Finally, The great superiority of the evangelical 
 dispensation compared with the legal. The law made 
 nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope 
 did. g The law had indeed a shadow of good things 
 to come* but, in the gospel, these good things, even 
 life and immortality are brought to light. 1 Under 
 the former, Christ was vailed in ceremonies, but un- 
 der the latter, he is evidently set forth* Therefore, 
 even that ichich was made glorious, had no glory in 
 this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.* 
 
 8 John xvi. 23. 1 Pet. v. 7. Comp. 1 Kings x. 1. &c. f Acts xiii. 
 40, 41. Hab. i. 5. Job xxxvi. 18. Mark xvi. 16. *Heb. vii. 19. 
 hlbid.x.l. ^Tim.i.lO. k 2Cor.iii. 14. Gal.iii. 1. ! 2 Cor.iii.10. 
 
SERMON XL 
 
 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. 
 HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE, 
 
 DEUT. xxx. 8 11. And of Levi ht said, Let thy Tkummim 
 and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at 
 Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Mcri- 
 bah ; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not sein 
 him ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own 
 children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. 
 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law : they 
 shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine 
 altar. Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his 
 hands : smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and 
 of them that hate him, that they rise not again. 
 
 IN blessing the tribe of Levi, Moses is ample and 
 diffuse ; not, however, because he was of that tribe, 
 and, as such, ambitious to aggrandize himself; for, 
 of his relation thereto he takes no notice, nor had 
 he any control over the Spirit of prophecy ; but speak- 
 ing as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, he thus dis- 
 tinguished the tribe which God delighted to honor. 
 
 The Urim and Thummim, with the prophetic 
 prayer respecting them, being already considered, 
 your attention is now invited to the next part of Levi 's 
 blessing, and which is expressed in the words fol- 
 lowing : Who said unto his fatJier and to his mo- 
 ther, I have not seen him ; neither did he acknowledge 
 his brethren, nor knew his own children : for they 
 observed thy word> and kept thy covenant. 
 45 
 
 
336 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [gER. XI. 
 
 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel 
 thy law: they shall put incense before thee, and 
 whole burnt- sacrifice upon thine altar. 
 
 These words respect, partly the high-priest, partly 
 the inferior priests, and partly the common Levites ; 
 and describe both 
 
 Their deportment, and 
 
 Their work. 
 
 1. Their deportment. This was strictly impar- 
 tial : who said unto his father and to his mother, I 
 have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his 
 brethren, nor knew his own children, fyc* 
 
 Thus, in effect, the high-priest emphatically said 
 and did, in discharging some of his official duties: 
 yet, not from any want of filial, fraternal, or parental 
 affection, but in obedience to a positive divine in- 
 junction. For the Lord, speaking by Moses, said, 
 " He that is the high-priest among his brethren, up- 
 on whose head the anointing oil was poured, and 
 that is consecrated to put on the garments," those 
 peculiar to his station, " shall not," as might a com- 
 
 * The literal obscurity in the former part of this declaration, is 
 occasioned by a wrong version of the prefix h lamed ; which, 
 thouuh most frequently used as the sign of the dative case, is 
 used here to form the genitive preposition ; and which, therefore! 
 instead of being rendered unto, as before his father, and to, as be- 
 fore his mother, should, in both instances, be rendered of, or con- 
 ccrning,or about. See Ling. Sacra, Vol. 1, p. 142. This parti- 
 cle being so rendered, the words, rid of that obscurity, read thus : 
 " who said 0/his father and of his mother, I have not seen him," 
 or her, as the ease might be ; that is, I have not become defiled by 
 going in to see any dead body, not even that of my father or 
 mother, but have, in this respect, treated parents, brethren and 
 children as if strangers. So this particle is rendered in Gen. xx. 
 13. " say of me, He is my brother ;" and in Chap. xxvi. 7. " the 
 men of the place asked him of his wife. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 337 
 
 mon Israelite, or, in certain cases, an ordinary priest, 
 " uncover his head, nor rend his clothes," that is, in 
 token of mourning at the death or at the funerals of 
 his nearest relations. "Neither" (so strict was the 
 injunction) "shall he go in to any dead body," that 
 is, into an apartment where any dead body lay, 
 " nor defile himself," by so doing, " for his father 
 or his mother," when lying dead ; and therefore 
 much less for one of his brethren, one of his own 
 nation, or tribe, or even one descended from the 
 same parents ; nor might he, in this way, know his 
 own children. Moreover, to complete the divine re- 
 strictions under which, in these respects, the high- 
 priest was laid, and withal to suggest the reasons of 
 them, it was added, " Neither shall he go out of the 
 sanctuary," that is, out of the tabernacle or temple, 
 while bis attendance there was required no, not 
 even to pay his last respects to a dying parent, or to 
 see the corpse, or attend its interment; "nor pro- 
 fane the sanctuary of his God," by returning thither 
 before purified, after having touched a dead body, or 
 even a grave, by which a man was rendered cere- 
 monially unclean, and so unfit to enter the sanctuary, 
 for seven days. See Levit. xxi. 10 12. Comp. Chap. 
 x. 7. and Num. xix. 11 14. 
 
 For an obvious reason, there was a difference 
 made in the law between the high-priest and ordinary 
 ones, in regard to mourning for the dead, &c. To an 
 ordinary priest, it was permitted to attend the funeral 
 of one near of kin to him ; because, though he thereby 
 became defiled, (Levit. xxi. 2, 3.) his place, during his 
 defilement, might be supplied by another priest who 
 was clean, or even by a clean Levite ; 2 Cor. xxix. 
 
 . 
 
 
338 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI* 
 
 34 ; but, to the high-priest, this was not permitted, 
 because in the event of his becoming ceremonially 
 defiled, there was no substitute the service of the 
 sanctuary must be suspended, till he was purified, 
 or till another was consecrated.* 
 
 The ordinary priests, however, were likewise re- 
 quired to observe the strictest impartiality in the dis- 
 charge of their official duties ; as, for instance, in the 
 examination of witnesses ; Deut. xix* 15 21 ; in 
 the trial of a suspected wife, by the waters of jealousy ; 
 Num. v. 11 31; and in all cases of ceremonial 
 uncleanness, in regard to which they were required, 
 without partiality, to separate between the clean 
 and the unclean among the children of Israel. See 
 Levit. xv. 31. 
 
 But the testimony given in the text, concerning the 
 fidelity and impartiality of Levi, seems to respect the 
 tribe in common, and was often very remarkably veri- 
 fied in them ; for in the execution of judgment upon 
 bold offenders, they knew neither parent, brother, nor 
 child. When " there went out a fire from the Lord" 
 and slew Nadab and Abihu, for their unauthorized 
 offering, Aaron their father held his peace, he did not 
 murmur, nor was he allowed to mourn; Levit. x. 
 1 6 ; when Phinehas beheld a brother-Israelite in 
 crime, he thrust him through with a Javelin ; Num. 
 
 * Hence, to provide the more effectually against so unhappy an 
 occurrence, this distinguished officer of the sanctuary, had, within 
 the sacred precincts, a small but commodious house, called Lisck- 
 catli cohen gadol, the parlor of the high-priest. In this he spent 
 the intervals between the times of his official services, and so re- 
 mained all day within the consecrated inclosure. At night he went 
 to his own dwelling-house, and nowhere else, and which, after the 
 erection of the temple, was always in Jerusalem. So Cunseus 
 (out of Mass. Midoth, Lib. ii.) De Repub. Hebr. Cap. iii. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 339 
 
 xxv. 7, 8 ; and the sons of Korah, who were Levites, 
 (Exo. vi. 19 >-21.) refused to join in the gainsaying 
 of their wicked father, and so perished not withfo'ra, 
 Dathan and Abiram, when the earth opened her 
 mouth and swallowed them up," nor when "the fire de- 
 voured" his company of " two hundred and fifty men, 
 and they became a sign," an example, to deter 
 others from a like offense : the children of Korah 
 died not* 
 
 Chiefly, however, the Levites exemplified the 
 character given of them in the text, in the execu- 
 tion of judgment upon the worshipers of the golden 
 calf: " Then Moses stood in the gates of the camp, 
 and said, Who is on the LORD'S side 1 let him come 
 unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered them- 
 selves together unto him." In thus siding with Mo- 
 ses, they sided with the LORD. " And he" (Moses) 
 " said unto them, Thus saith the LORD GOD of Israel, 
 Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and 
 out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay 
 every man his brother, and every man his companion, 
 and every man his neighbor." Nor did they hesi- 
 tate to execute the fearful injunction. For, "the 
 children of Levi did according to the word of Moses," 
 it being according to the word of the Lord : " and 
 there fell of the people that day about three thou- 
 sand men." b 
 
 The Levites, in performing these acts of seeming 
 cruelty, might appear more like ferocious barbarians, 
 than like the ministers of righteousness ; neverthe- 
 less, they herein complied with the revealed will of 
 
 Num. xxvi. 911. Comp. Chap. xvi. 16 40. and Jude, ver. 
 11. b Exo. xxxii. 26 29. 
 
340 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI. 
 
 God ; to whom Moses, in the text, bears this farther 
 testimony concerning them: "They have observed thy 
 word and kept thy covenant ;" they observed his 
 word of command, and kept his covenant delivered 
 to Israel at Sinai ; and especially that part of it 
 which forbad idolatry. Hence, in consideration of 
 these acts, God confirmed to this tribe the covenant, 
 or promise, of the priesthood ; saying of Phinehas, 
 11 Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace, and 
 he shall have it and his seed after him, even the 
 covenant of an everlasting priesthood" d called ever- 
 lasting, because it was to continue as long as the 
 legal dispensation, and was a type of that priesthood 
 which is absolutely everlasting.* 
 
 The Levitcs, in the character given of them in this 
 part of our subject, were variously typical. 
 
 First, they were typical of CHRIST, and particu- 
 larly in the person of the high-priest. 
 
 As the high-priest, according to the obligations 
 he was under, might not leave the service of God, 
 out of affection or respect, even for his father or 
 mother ; so Christ, being bound by covenant-stipu- 
 lation, could not, and did not neglect the work as- 
 signed to him by his heavenly F'ather, even whesi 
 respect to the anxieties and wishes of his nearest 
 fleshly connections seemed to require it. Of this 
 he gave a remarkable instance at the age of twelve 
 years, when his mother Jfar^and his reputed father 
 Joseph, after having anxiously sought him for three 
 days, found him in the temple, sitting in the midst 
 of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them 
 
 e Exo. xix. 5 8. and xx. 5. d Num. xxv. 12, 13. 
 * Heb. vii. 2124. SeeSer. x. p. 327. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT A#D SERVICE. 341 
 
 questions ; for, when his mother said unto him, Son 
 why hast thou thus dealt with us ? behold thy father 
 and I have sought thee sorrowing he, designing to 
 give a thus early intimation of his divine Sonship 
 and mission, merely replied, How is it that ye 
 sought me ? wist ye not that I must be about my 
 Father's business 1 C The same course he also ob- 
 served after he had entered upon his public minis- 
 try ; for when, at a certain time while he was 
 preaching, one said unto him, Behold thy mother 
 and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak 
 with thce, he would not suspend his labor to gratify 
 their request ; but, happily a turning the occurrence in- 
 to a lesson of instruction, took occasion therefrom, to 
 show that fleshy relation to him was comparatively 
 of little account. Who, said he, is my mother ? and 
 who are my brethren? Thus speaking, he might 
 design to intimate, that by nature they were no bet- 
 ter than others, and that, without faith in him as the 
 Messiah, they must perish as well as others. Or he 
 might put these questions merely to excite attention ; 
 intending to show, as he preceded to do, that he es- 
 teemed those as the nearest of kin to him, who had re- 
 ceived of his Spirit had believed in him and, as an 
 evidence of it, were observant of his Father's revealed 
 willthat such, in a word, he regarded as allied to him- 
 self, by every endearing relation : " And he stretched 
 forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold 
 my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall 
 do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same 
 is my br other , and sister, and mother. rf Let be- 
 lievers hence learn, that the church of Christ, and 
 
 Luke ii. 4152. f Matth. xii. 4650. 
 
342 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI. 
 
 his members individually, ought to be dearer to them 
 than even a natural mother, or mere natural brothers 
 and sisters, or fleshly relations in any degree. And, if 
 thus united and interested in Zion, our hearts are de- 
 voutly set upon seeking her good : the resolution of 
 each thus affected, is well expressed in the following 
 lines 
 
 " My soul shall pray for Zion still, 
 
 While life or breath remains ; 
 There my best friends and kindred dwell, 
 
 There God my Saviour reigns." 
 
 Were the levitical priests, without respect of 
 persons, to pronounce individuals clean or un- 
 clean according to law and fact, g to determine causes 
 according to evidence, the witnesses being duly ex- 
 amined, 11 and, to execute judgment upon presumptu- 
 ous offenders without partiality I 1 the same is mani- 
 fest in the procedure of Christ. In his doctrine, he 
 separates between believers and unbelievers, without 
 any respect to national or civil distinction ; pronounc- 
 ing the former clean* and the latter in their 
 sins; 1 the former, saved, and the latter condemned 
 already 11 nay, dying so, lost inevitably and for ever. 
 In his discipline he has provided that causes shall 
 be decided according to evidence ; requiring that 
 every word or charge shall be established by two or 
 three witnesses.* And, in the execution of Judg- 
 ment upon obdurate rebels, he observes justice with- 
 out connivance or partiality. The Jews themselves, 
 for instance, though his own nation, when the day 
 
 ? Levit. xv. 31. h Deut. xix. 15. ifixo. xxxii. 27. k John xv. 3 
 1 Ibid viii. 24. m Luke vii. 50. John v. 34. n Ibid iii. 18, Ver. 36. 
 PMath:xviii;l5 17, 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 343 
 
 of their judicial visitation arrived, received no favor 
 at his hand : for wrath is come upon them to the 
 uttermost.* Can it then be doubted, that pur- 
 suant to the divine decree, he will execute the threat- 
 ened vengeance upon mystery babylon, including 
 the beast and the false prophet?* Or, that at the 
 appointed day, he will say to the finally impeni- 
 tent, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels ? Matt. xxv. 
 46. Comp. John v. 28, 29.* 
 
 Did the levitical priests, moreover, in rightly per- 
 forming their work, observe the word and keep the 
 covenant of God ? How much more perfectly did 
 Christ, as Mediator, observe the word of God the 
 Father, and keep the covenant into which he had 
 entered with him, as the covenaiitee of the elect ! / 
 came down from heaven, said Christ, not to do mine 
 own will separately, but, in concurrence therewith, 
 the will of him that sent me ; K I do always, said he, 
 those ihings that please him 1 and to which the 
 Father himself bare record, saying, This is my be- 
 loved Son in whom I am well pleased. 11 And, as up- 
 on the zeal manifested by Phinehas, God, by Moses, 
 confirmed to him the covenant of the Aaronic priest- 
 hood, so when Christ had manifested his meditator- 
 ial zeal, not by executing vengeance upon trans- 
 gressors, but by magnifying the law and putting 
 away sin by the sacrifice of himself, God, by Paul, 
 renewed and confirmed to him the declaration, Thou 
 
 <U Thess. ii. 16. r Rev. xvii. 1. xviii. 21. xix. 20. 
 * On the word everlasting see Ser. ii. page 71, and Ser. v. p. 182, 
 note. 
 
 John vi. 38.Mbid viii. 29. "Matt. iii. 17. 
 46 
 
344 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI. 
 
 art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchis- 
 idec. 
 
 Secondly, The Levites, in the character here given 
 of them, were in some respects, typical of Christ's 
 ministers. 
 
 These, like the Levites, and in imitation of their 
 blessed Master, must not neglect the work of the 
 ministry out of respect to the persons or wishes of 
 their nearest relations or dearest friends. When 
 one whom Christ had called to this work, begged 
 leave only to go first and bury his father, (i Jesus 
 said unto him, Let the dead lury their dead, 
 but go thou and preach the kingdom of God"* 
 
 w Heb. vii. 21. Comp. Psal. ex. 4. 
 
 * Let the dead bury their dead] This singular injunction, seems 
 to imply, that the father of the man addressed had died in a carnal 
 state that he had relations and friends enough in the same state, 
 to take the charge of his interment and therefore, that this man, 
 whom Christ had called by his grace, and called to preach the gos^ 
 pel, and whom, moreover, at that particular time, and probably on 
 some special occasion, he required to follow him, was, by this in^ 
 junction, excused even from attending his father's funeral; to 
 attend which, under different circumstances, would have been, not 
 only his lawful privilege but his filial and bounden duty. Extra- 
 ordinary commands, however, are not to be plead as general rules* 
 See Gen. xxii. 2. and Matt. xix. 21. Nevertheless, *t may hence 
 be inferred, that the ministers of Christ, having the everlasting gos* 
 pel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, (Rev. xiv< 6.) are jus- 
 tifiable in omitting, not only many civilities, which from other men 
 are due to society, but also some relative duties, the omission of 
 which would in others be reprehensible. 
 
 This strange injunction suggests also another thought. The 
 deceased might have been not only a man of the world but rich ; 
 and, if so, there were many who esteemed it an honor to attend 
 his funeral. The rich man died and was buried, no doubt, with 
 great pomp and followed by a long and splendid procession. Luke 
 
SER. XI.J HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 345 
 
 And when " another" who, it should seem, had already 
 engaged in the work, said " Lord I will follow thee ; 
 but let me first go bid them farewell who are at my 
 house," even this was denied : " Jesus said unto 
 him, No man having put his hand to the plough, 
 and looking back, is jit for the kingdom of God* 
 Truly the king's business requireth haste. 1 Sam. 
 xxi. 8. 
 
 To gospel-ministers, even worldly conveniencies 
 and domestic comforts, however desirable, may 
 prove impediments ; they may occasion interruptions 
 in their studies, and thereby diminish their heavenly 
 mindedness and official usefulness. May not this 
 be the principal reason why it is so ordered in the 
 providence of God, that so many of Christ's minjs- 
 
 xvi. 22. Hence, let Christians in common, and especially gospel- 
 ministers, learn that, however lawful to them, they are under no 
 special obligation to attend the funerals of the rich and great of 
 the world ; there being always enough ready to seek this honor ; 
 and that rather it becomes them to be careful to attend the funerals 
 of the poor, and especially of the poor saints, who, in death as well 
 as during life, are, in many instances, shamefully neglected. The 
 righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart. Is. Ivii. 1. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said, that the assemblage at the funeral of a 
 distinguished worldling, is usually of such character as renders it the 
 more desirable that a gospel minister should be there to preach to 
 them. Granted : but how rarely, on such an occasion, is the oppor* 
 tunity for it given ! How often does it happen, that, at such a fu- 
 neral, though many ministers are collected, not one is asked to open 
 his mouth either to God or to the people ; and, unasked, no one 
 ventures to officiate, lest he should be thought to offend against the 
 yules of fashionable etiquette ! Not so at the funerals of the saints 
 whether rich or poor, and especially the latter. Here no such re- 
 straints are imposed ; on such an occasion, a minister, even linh 
 solicited, feels at liberty to speak a word in season, 
 ? Luke fc. 5962. 
 
346 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI 
 
 ters have fewer attractions and more crosses in their 
 families, than other men ? and why, in so many in- 
 stances, they are called to suffer more than private 
 Christians, from the deception, intrigue and perfidy 
 of professed friends ? Their experience, in these re- 
 spects, though .extremely afflicting, is often over- 
 ruled for their own and Zion's good. A minister 
 thus circumstanced, finds his affections and his 
 confidence the more withdrawn from all creatures, 
 and in regard both to his comforts and his useful- 
 ness, is enabled the more cordially to say, Now, 
 LORD, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. y 
 
 Nor must a minister of Christ, from the love of lucre 
 or of ease, involve himself in secular pursuits, to the 
 neglect of his sanctuary labors or preparatory studies : 
 No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the 
 affairs of this life ; that he may please him who hath 
 chosen him to be a soldier. z How many ministers, 
 alas ! have become entangled in mercantile and civil 
 avocations! Those who have become thus entan- 
 gled to gratify a thirst for wealth or worldly distinc- 
 tion, are verily and highly censurable ; but many, it 
 must be admitted, have been driven to it of necessi- 
 ty ; the churches they have served having been 
 either unable or unwilling to support them. 
 
 How a minister, so far as his health and other cir- 
 cumstances permit, ought to employ his time, in pri- 
 vate as well as in public, may safely be gathered 
 from the following counsel, given by the aged Paul, 
 to Timothy, his son in the gospel : Give attendance 
 to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. By reading 
 
 . xxxix. 7. a 2 Tim. ii. 4. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 347 
 
 and comparing the Holy Scriptures, a minister 
 should become well versed in them ; that so, both 
 his exhortations to duty and his statements and il- 
 lustrations of doctrine, may be agreeable to them, 
 and that he may not (a^ many do) contradict in ex- 
 hortation what he teaches in doctrine. Neglect not, 
 adds the apostle, the gift that is in thee meditate 
 upon these things, the things contained in the sacred 
 books which he had counselled him to read, and the 
 ministerial duties he had enjoined him to perform 
 Give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting 
 may appear unto all. Take heed unto thyself, in 
 principle and practice, and to thy doctrine, that it 
 be scriptural ; continue in them, that is, in the faith- 
 ful discharge of all the duties specified ; for in do- 
 ing this, thou shalt instrumentally both save thyself 
 and them that hear thee. z Study to show thyself 
 approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
 to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 
 And, that Timothy and every gospel-minister might 
 be the more deeply affected with the authority, use- 
 fulness and sufficiency of that word, the apostle 
 adds, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 
 and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
 rection, for instruction in righteousness, that the man 
 of God, both as a Christian and a minister, may be 
 perfect, in the knowledge of what he should teach, 
 being thoroughly furnished with an inspired direc- 
 tory unto all good works, devotional and ministerial, 
 without any addition either from Jewish tradition 
 or from his own invention. 15 And having thus assur- 
 ed Timothy of the divine authority, and perfect ful- 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. 1316. 2 Tim. ii. 15. b 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, 
 
348 THE BLESSING OF LEV]. [SER. Xl 
 
 ness of the icord of truth, the apostle most solemn-* 
 ly enjoined him to publish it : I charge thee there- 
 fore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing 
 and his kingdom Preach the word, that word, 
 and that only, which is given by inspiration of God ; 
 be instant in season, be always ready at every usual 
 and stated time for preaching, also out of season - 
 be so conversant with your Bible and so disentan- 
 gled from the world, as to be prepared and at liberty 
 to embrace all occasions and opportunities for mi- 
 nisterial usefulness, however unexpected and out of 
 the ordinary way; and, in performing this work, re- 
 prove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering, toward 
 the impenitent and refractory and with doctrine 
 also, which must never be forgotten by a minister 
 amid his highest strains of experimental and prac* 
 tical preaching. 
 
 To precede. As the ministers of Christ must 
 not be drawn from their work by the flatteries and 
 allurements of the world, so neither must they be 
 driven from it, by the reproaches and persecutions 
 of the world. These, by divine appointment, fall to 
 their lot: ye shall be hated of all nations for my 
 name's sake, said Christ to his apostles. d And 
 when he would assure Ananias that Paul was a 
 chosen vessel unto him, to bear his name before the 
 gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, he 
 made no mention of any worldly riches, honors or 
 preferments, by which he should be distinguished, 
 but of the great sufferings he should endure ; these, 
 
 * % Tim. iv, 1, 2, &c. d Matt, xxiv. 9, 
 
SKR. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 349 
 
 as it were, should be the evidence of his calling and 
 the badge of his apostleship : For, said his Master, 
 I will show him how great things he must suffer for 
 my name's sake.* Aware of this, Paul expected 
 great sufferings in his Master's cause, and was fear- 
 less and tranquil in the prospect of them : None of 
 these things move me } said he, neither count I my, 
 life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my 
 course with joy, and the ministry which I have re- 
 ceived, not of men, nor at the schools, but of the 
 Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
 God. { In Paul we behold strongly exemplified, the 
 happy effect of a minister's faith in God's personal 
 election of his people to grace and glory : I endure 
 all things, said he, for the elects sake, that they 
 may also, as well as himself, obtain the salvation 
 which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory ; that is, 
 he would at all hazards, preach the gospel to Jews 
 and gentiles, and thereby encourage others to do 
 likewise, that the elect might be called to the know- 
 ledge of their interest in Christ, and that, being 
 called, they might be encouraged and advanced in 
 their heavenly journey/ For strength, however, 
 thus to labor and suffer, the apostle relied not on 
 himself but on his Lord and Master: I can do all 
 things, said he, through Christ who strengthened 
 me. h And accordingly, when he would exhort Ti- 
 mothy to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus 
 Christ, he wisely prefaced the exhortation with this 
 needful and encouraging direction : My son, be 
 strong in the grace that is in Christ JesusS 
 
 e Acts ix. 15, 16. t Ibid. xx. 24. * 2 Tim. ii.10. h Philip. 
 iv. 13. i2Tim.ii. 1.3. 
 
350 THE BLESSING OF LEV1. [SER. XI. 
 
 Again. Gospel-ministers, in declaring and doing 
 the will of God, must, like the levitical priests, be 
 strictly impartial. In faithfulness to the nnregenerate, 
 whether rich or poor, noble or ignoble, and whe- 
 ther, to us, known or unknown, friends or foes, we 
 must show from the Scriptures, that however diver- 
 sified in other respects, they are all dead in tres- 
 passes and sins that, as such, they are under the 
 condemnatory sentence of God's righteous law, and 
 that they must be born of his Spirit and justified in 
 his Son, or perish for ever : for by one man sin en- 
 tered into the world and death by sin ; and so death 
 passed upon all men, for that all have sinned ; nay 
 more, by the offense of one, judgment came upon all 
 men to condemnation^ Except, therefore, a man 
 be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ; 
 and except he be justified in Christ, he cannot be 
 saved ; there being no salvation in any other} And, 
 in addressing delinquent professors, we must not 
 palliate the faults of some, because they are our 
 fleshly relatives or particular friends, or because they 
 are distinguished by wealth, talents or influence ; 
 nor aggravate the faults of others, because they have 
 no such claims or advantages ; but must deal with 
 the consciences of all according to divine direction, 
 without prefer ing one before another ; doing nothing 
 by partiality. m Nor can gospel-ministers, without 
 incurring their Master's displeasure, and forfeiting 
 the promise of his presence and sanction, withhold 
 from their hearers, Jews or gentiles, any thing which 
 He hath commanded them to teach : " Go ye," saith 
 
 k Rom. v. 12. 18. i John iii. 3. 7 and Acts iv. 12. m 1 Tim. 
 F. 21. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 351 
 
 he, " and teach all nations," that is, publish to them, 
 according to the Scriptures, their lost condition arid 
 the only way of salvation; "baptizing them" (not 
 all the individuals of all nations, as such, but 
 them, among all nations, whom they should find giv- 
 ing evidence of having received the truth with faith 
 and love) " in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to ob- 
 serve all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you ; arid lo," (they continuing to do so,) " I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world. " n 
 
 Thirdly, In certain respects, moreover, the sons 
 of Levi were typical of the saints in common, under 
 the gospel-dispensation. 
 
 Like the Levites, all the regenerate are of those 
 whom God hath chosen and taken as his first-born, 
 or heirs ; and being (as believers) justified freely by 
 his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus, they are openly made heirs according to the 
 hope of eternal life. p 
 
 As the Levites, by divine order, were given to 
 Aaron and his sons, q so, by divine influence, the 
 elect, at their conversion, become visibly the proper- 
 ty, and willingly the disciples of the Lord Jesus, 
 the great High-priest of our profession, and cheerful- 
 ly and cordially the adherents and helpers of his sons, 
 his gospel-ministers. So saith the apostle concerning 
 believers in Macedonia : they Jirst gave their own 
 selves to the Lord, the Lord Christ, and [then] to us 
 by the will of God. Hence the riches of their lib- 
 
 "Matt, xxviii. 19. 20. Num. iir. 12. Heb. xit. 23. Comp. 
 Rom. viii. 17. P Rom. iii. 24. Titus iii. 7. i Num. vrii. 19; 
 
 47 
 
THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sKR. Xf, 
 
 erality toward the cause of Christ, and especially 
 in ministering to the relief of his needy members/ 
 
 Were the children of Lem all carefully numbered?' 
 Let this remind us of the care which God takes, that 
 all whose names he wrote in the Lamb's book of life, 
 from the foundation of the world, 1 are, in the order 
 of time, by effectual vocation, written among the 
 living in Jerusalem" that so they may all be reck- 
 oned as such, when he shall make up his jewels at the 
 last day. Nor can one be lost or missing : ior the 
 LORD himself shall count, when he writeth t*p the 
 people that, to the last individual of them, thi; man 
 was born there" 
 
 Did God require that the Levites should bo cere- 
 monially clean?* How much more doth he roquire 
 that all whom he hath called to be saints should be 
 morally clean: Be ye holy, saith he,/or I am holy. 7 
 We are not only Levites, but also priests unto God f 
 and though, as believers under the gospel, whether 
 ministers or private Christians, we are not forbidden 
 to approach dead bodies or to attend funerals, which 
 (with certain exceptions) were unlawful to the leviti- 
 cal priests; 3 yet we are most solemnly cautioned 
 against whatever those deadly things mystically sig- 
 nified; as any unnecessary association with those 
 dead in sin conformity to the world that licth in 
 wickedness, and all moral pollutions, which, as well 
 as abolished ceremonies, are called dead workn. b 
 
 In their administration of justice, too, the Lovites 
 
 r 2 Cor. viii. 1 5. Num. iii. 15. * Rev. xiii. 8. "Is. iv. 3. 
 wpsal. Ixxxvii. 6. *Num. viii.6, &c. y 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. Levit. 
 xi. 44. Rev. i. 6. Levit. xxi. 13. Ezek. xliv. 25. b Heb. 
 ix. 14. Rom. xii. 2. 2 Cor. vi. 1418* 
 
ER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AM) SERVICE. 
 
 fitly typified the members of the gospel-church, in 
 the conduct which they ought to observe in the ad- 
 ministration of ecclesiastical discipline. Herein the 
 saints are judges ; c and all, both ministers and pri- 
 vate members, should seek to be governed by that 
 wisdom which is from above, and which is without 
 partiality toward relatives or friends, rich or poor. d 
 In she rt, we should endeavor, like the Levites, to 
 observe the word of the Lord in all things, as the rule 
 of our procedure, and to keep his covenant, by which 
 we arc bound to him and to one another. This is to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 
 Eph. iv. 3. 
 
 Having considered the deportment of the Levites 
 both literally and typically, I proceed, in like manner, 
 to consider, 
 
 II. Their work. Much of this, indeed, has been 
 necessarily anticipated in exhibiting their deport- 
 ment. What remains consists of two parts teach- 
 ing and offering. 
 
 FIRST, teaching: " They shall teach Jacob thy 
 judgments and Israel thy law. 5 ' The patriarch Ja- 
 cob having received the new name of Israel? his 
 posterity, the more certainly to identify them, are 
 called both Jacob and Israel. This people, the Le- 
 vites were to teach the judgments and the law of 
 God. By his judgments, in this place, are evidently 
 meant those rules which he gave for the civil govern- 
 ment of Israel, and which constitute what we com- 
 monly call the judicial law ; b and by his law, as 
 here distinguished therefrom, I understand his com- 
 mandments, both moral and ceremonial, by which 
 
 c 1 Cor. vi. 13. d Jas.iii. 17. Gen. xxxii. 28. b Exo.xxi.l. 
 
354 THE BLESSING OF LEV*. [SER. XI* 
 
 he expressed and defined his will respecting their 
 moral and religous obligations to him. c These judg- 
 ments and commandments, the levitical priests, by 
 divine authority explained to Israel, arid solemnly 
 urged their observance of them ; they taught all Is- 
 rael? and thereby caused the people to understand 
 the law. 6 
 
 Among the levitical teachers, the high-priest was 
 pre-eminent. Of him especially, it was said from 
 heaven, The priests lips should keep knowledge, and 
 they (the people) should seek the law at his mouth ; 
 for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts J In his 
 work, therefore, as well as in his deportment, the 
 high-priest was manifestly a type of Christ ; in whom 
 are hid all the treasures of ivisdom and knowledge f 
 who, not only as a Saviour but also as a Teacher, is 
 eminently The Messenger of the Lord of hosts, to his 
 people, and who are required to seek and receive the 
 law, the revealed will of God, at his mouth; for 
 more than once was it proclaimed from the excellent 
 glory, " This is my beloved Son ; hear him" h As a 
 preacher, during his public ministry, Jesus went 
 about all Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and 
 preaching the gospel of the kingdom ; nay, was ac- 
 cused by his nation, of doing the same throughout 
 all Jeiory. 1 But he is a teacher in a higher sense 
 than merely as a preacher ; He is the Lord who gave 
 the word* He gave, and still gives all inferior 
 teachers 1 and from him comes the unction of the 
 
 * Exo. xxxiv. 28. Levit. xxvii. 34. Comp. Num. xxxvi. 13. 
 d 3 Chror. xxxv. 3. e Neh. viii. 7. Comp. Levit. x. ii. f Mai. ii. 
 7. Co1. ii. 3. h Matt. hi. Mark ix. 7. ' Matt. iv. 23. Luke 
 xxii : . 5 k Pral. Ixviii. 11. Eph. iv. 11. 
 
M;R. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 355 
 
 Spirit, by which sinners are made wise unto salva- 
 tion. 111 Thus, according to promise, He emphatically 
 teacheth lost sinners to profit, and Icadcth them in 
 the way they should go.* 
 
 The other priests, however, were also teachers ; 
 though as under the keeping and direction of the 
 high-priest. p And as thus employed, they were types 
 of gospel-ministers, who are teachers, by the au- 
 thority and direction of Christ, our great High- 
 priest. Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 As the levitical priests were required to teach, not 
 any inventions or discoveries of their own, but the 
 judgments and the law of God : so gospel-ministers 
 are not authorized to originate any doctrine or or- 
 dinance, or to omit or alter any of those revealed, but 
 to Preach the word ; remembering that all Scrip- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God. q 
 
 The word which gospel-ministers are to preach, 
 consists of two general branches, the legal and the 
 evangelical ; the former called the law of works, the 
 latter, the laic of faith. 1 But, preparatory to their 
 teaching these, they must necessarily have an under- 
 standing of them; for otherwise, like the Jewish doc- 
 tors, they will be found desiring to be teachers of the 
 law, understanding neither what they say, nor 
 whereof they affirm, 3 and, like the false apostles, 
 preaching another gospel, and laboring to pervert 
 the gospel of Christ. 1 Nor is it sufficient for them 
 to have an understanding of law and gospel merely 
 in theory ; this the unregenerate may have ; they 
 
 w Uohn ii. 20. 27. * Is. xlviii. 17. Levit. x. 11. P Num. 
 viii. 19. 12 Tim. iii. 16. 17. iv. 1. 2. r R om . iiit 27 . . j Tim> j 7> 
 ' Gal. 1. 68. 
 
356 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. Xt. 
 
 may collect it from the letter of Scripture and the 
 writings of men ; and so may hold the truth in un- 
 righteousness , <u but they must have an understanding 
 of both law and gospel in experience ; through the 
 law, they must have become dead to the law, to all 
 hopes of obtaining justification by their obedience to 
 it, and must have realized in their own souls, that 
 the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth 
 
 Now, men who have so learned the truth, and who 
 are endued with such gifts of the Spirit as ren- 
 der them apt to teach, (and none but such are di- 
 vinely called to this work,) are qualified to preach 
 the word in both its branches, and should do it as in 
 the sight of God, to whom they must give an account 
 of their stewardship. 
 
 In preaching the legal branch of the word, they 
 should, as occasion offers, show 
 
 1. That the moral duties, which God by the writ- 
 ten laic requires of mankind, both toward himself 
 and one another, are essentially the same that he 
 required by the law of nature, which he originally 
 inscribed on the heart of man* that the written law, 
 nevertheless, by corroborating and enforcing the law 
 of nature, makes these requirements the more man- 
 ifest, and thereby renders transgression and rebelion 
 the more criminal ; also that the final judgment of 
 those who die in their sins, will be in just proportion 
 to the light they shall have had, as having lived un- 
 der the written law, or without it. Rom. ii. 12* 
 
 Rom. 1. 18. w Ibid. ver. 16. * See Ser. iii. p. 129133. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 357 
 
 2. That God's moral requirements, like his per- 
 fections whence they emanate, are necessarily im- 
 mutable and eternal ; and that his positive injunctions, 
 as they procede from his sovereign will, can never, 
 of right, be changed or dispensed with, but by a new 
 revelation of his will. Consider Gen. xxii. 2. 12. and 
 Col. ii. 14. 16. 17*. And hence, 
 
 3. That although the ceremonial law is abolished 
 and done away in Christ? and the judicial law, at 
 least suspended till the return of the Jews to their 
 own land nay, though the whole Jewish economy 
 is supplanted by a new dispensation, yet, that God's 
 moral requirements remain the same ; for, as they 
 were not originated with the Sinaitical dispensation, 
 so they underwent no change by its abrogation ; and, 
 tried by these, as a standard of moral perfection, 
 every mouth, both as to pleas and excuses, must be 
 stopped, and all the world become evidently guilty 
 before God* 
 
 Thus understanding God's moral requirements 
 and the condition of mankind in relation to them, 
 and having felt the condemnatory sentence of his holy 
 and righteous law in their own consciences, minis- 
 ters of the word can never encourage those they 
 address, to trust in their own obedience to that law 
 for justification before God ; but, on the contrary, 
 both according to the word and their own experience, 
 must assure them, that the law entering into the en- 
 lighted understanding, worketh, not peace, and 
 hope, and life, but distress, despair and death yea 
 wrath) that is, alarming apprehensions of the wrath 
 
 * See Ser; Hi. p. 129. * 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14. z Rom. iii. 19. 
 
358 THE BLESSING OF LEV1. [sEU. XI. 
 
 of God ; a and hence, they labor to convince them, that 
 by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified 
 that by the law, rightly understood, is the know- 
 ledge of sin, in heart and life ;*> and that as many as 
 are of the works of the law, that is, are seeking to 
 be justified by their legal performances, are under 
 the curses 
 
 The law of works, thus explained and understood, 
 makes way for the entrance and reception of the law 
 of faith, that is, the gospel ; which is so called be- 
 cause therein is the righteousness of God revealed 
 from faith to faith d from one degree of faith to 
 another ; or rather, from the faithfulness or veracity 
 of Go.d, (sometimes called his faith, Rom. iii. 3.) to 
 the grace of faith wrought in the soul by the Holy 
 Spirit. By the righteousness of God, thus revealed, 
 is meant that righteousness which is the result of 
 Christ's obedience and sacrifice ; e and which is 
 stiled the righteousness of God, not only because 
 Christ, the author of it, is God, but because it is that 
 righteousness which God the Father accepts as sat- 
 isfactory to his law and justice, and which, to all in 
 whom he works faith to receive it, he imputes for jus- 
 tification in his sight. Thus it is, that the righteous- 
 ness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is 
 unto all and upon all them that believe, whether 
 Jews or Gentiles ; for, in this national sense, there 
 is no difference ; all having alike sinned and come 
 short of the glory of God, and all believers being 
 (alike) justified freely by his grace, through the re- 
 demption that is in Christ Jesus. { 
 
 * Rom. iv. 15. vii. 913. b Ibid. iii. 20. c Gal. iii. 10. 
 d Rom. i. 17. Philip, iii. 9. f Rom. iii. 2126. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVffcE. 359 
 
 In preaching the word, however, Gospel-ministers, 
 knowing that God's moral requirements of mankind, 
 as shown above, remain the same under the present 
 dispensation that they were under the former, should 
 faithfully urge them upon the unregenerate, in all 
 their extent and spirituality; showing, nevertheless, 
 that all who are saved, are saved by absolute grace 
 grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal 
 life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.s Some ministers ap- 
 pear to be afraid of doing the former, lest they should 
 thereby seem to eclipse the latter. But this is a 
 groundless apprehension; for, on the contrary, the 
 more clearly God's moral requirements are exhibited, 
 and thereby man's total non-conformity to them de- 
 monstrated, the more absolute and illustrious does 
 that grace appear, by which any are saved. 
 
 Now God's moral requirements of mankind, man- 
 ifestly include the following. 
 
 1. That they should love him with all their heart, 
 and soul, and strength, and mind, and one another 
 as themselves ; which implies that they should 
 honor, adore and worship God with all their powers, 
 and severally desire, and endeavor to promote, the 
 good of each other, even as their own. h On these 
 two commandments, said Christ, hang all the law 
 and the prophets. 1 Nor can it be reasonably doubted, 
 that human nature, as it came from the Maker's 
 hand, was able and disposed to comply with these 
 moral duties ; for God made man upright* In 
 their fallen state, however, mankind, while unregen- 
 erate, are the very reverse of what they are re- 
 
 * Rom. v. 21. h Luke x. 27. l Matth. xxii. 40. * Ecc. viL 
 291 
 
 48 
 
360 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI. 
 
 quired to be ; the carnal mind is enmity against 
 God? and all, as under its dominion, are hateful 
 and hating one another. God, therefore, most 
 justly requires of them, 
 
 2. That they should repent, that is, return to him 
 from whom they have so basely revolted. This he has 
 constantly required of all to whom he has granted 
 his written word, or sent his public servants. Of 
 the Jews, to whom he granted his Oracles and sent 
 his prophets, he required this under the old dispen- 
 sation ; saying to them, Repent, and turn yourselves 
 from your idols ; and turn away your faces from 
 all your abominations ; turn ye, turn ye, from your 
 evil ways ; for why icill ye die, O house of Israel? 
 The Gentiles, it is true, during that dispensation, were 
 not so called ; for though, having abused the light of 
 nature, their foolish heart was darkened, they were 
 left in their stupidity, to debase themselves more and 
 more : the times of this ignorance in them, God 
 winked at, that is, overlooked, as *w*f J, the word 
 used, properly signifies ; and the sense is, that hav- 
 ing giving them no revelation, nor sent any pro- 
 phets among them, he did not thereby call them 
 to repentance, nor exact of them an improvement of 
 such means ; but now, having sent his Son into the 
 world, and having, through him, broken down the 
 partition wall between Jews and Gentiles, and au- 
 thorized the extention of the Scriptures and the 
 preaching of the gospel to all the world, God herein 
 commandeth all men, men of all nations, every where 
 to repent.? Meravoaiv, the word here rendered Repent, 
 
 1 Ram. viii. 7. m Titus iii. 3. n Eze. xiv. 6. xxxiii. 11. Rom. 
 i. 2L 4& P Acts xvii &). 
 
SER. XI. J HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 361 
 
 is the same with which the SAVIOUR, as well as the 
 Baptist, began his public ministry .q It signifies Re- 
 form, that is, change your mind and your practice. 
 That it imports a change of mind, producing a 
 change of conduct, is plain from the use of oru ni- 
 cham, the Hebrew word to which it often corresponds 
 in the Septuagint. See Jer. xxxi. 19, and compare 
 Ezk. xviii. 30. 
 
 Such was the repentance which God required of 
 the Jews : For thus saith the Lord to the men of 
 Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground 
 and sow not among thorns. Circumcise your hearts 
 to the Lord, fyc. lest my fury come forth like fire, 
 and burn that none can quench it, because of the 
 evil of your doings, r Rtpent and turn yourselves 
 from all your transgressions ,* so iniquity shall not 
 be your ruin. Cast away from you all your trans- 
 gressions whereby ye have transgressed; and make 
 you a new heart : for why will ye die, O house of 
 Israel ? 8 Turn ye even to me with all your heart, 
 and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourn- 
 ing : and rend your heart and not your' garments, 
 and turn unto the Lord your God. 1 
 
 Nor could either Christ or John have meant any 
 thing less by the injunction, Repent ye; for the 
 kingom of heaven, the gospel-church, is at hand, 
 into which they could not of right enter, without 
 such repentance ; nor the apostle, when he said, 
 God commandcth all men every where to repent, un- 
 der the awful consideration of a general judgment: 
 Because he hath appointed a day in the which he 
 
 * Matth. iii. 2. iv. 17. r Jer. iv. 3, 4. * Ezels. xviii. 30, 31. 
 * Joel & 12,13. 
 
362 THE BLESSING OF LEV1. [sER. XI. 
 
 will judge the world in righteousness, &$c. Acts xvii. 
 30, 31. Moreover, God requires of mankind, 
 
 3. That they should believe what he has revealed. 
 Like Adam and Em, all their posterity dishonor 
 God, by disbelieving Him who cannot lie," and be- 
 lieving Satan, who has been a liar and a murderer 
 from the beginning ; w nothing therefore could be 
 more right and reasonable, than God's requirement 
 that mankind should believe, according to the de- 
 grees of revelation with which he has favoured them. 
 Nor has he required this, but upon sufficient evi- 
 dence. The heathen may read in the volume of 
 nature, all that, as such, they are required to be- 
 lieve.* And though all who live under the light of 
 revelation are required to believe in this light; yet 
 they are not required to believe in it upon the author- 
 ity of men, but upon the authority of God. The 
 writings of Moses are to be believed, because of the 
 miracles which God wrought by him, in Egypt, at the 
 Red sea, and in the wilderness, and especially on ac- 
 count of the intercommunity which He held with him, 
 before the eyes of the Israelites, on mount Sinai.i 
 The prophetic writings are to be believed, because 
 God spake by his Spirit in the prophets. 2 And much 
 more abundantly is the divine authority of the New 
 Testament-writings established, by the record of 
 miracles wrought by Christ and his apostles : These 
 tire written 9 that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
 Christ, the Son of God.* 
 
 To deny the truth of the Holy Scriptures, 
 therefore, is to deny the veracity of God, and to 
 
 u Heb. vi. 18. w Gen. iii. 46. John viii. 44. * Rom. i. 19, 20. 
 y Exo. xix* 9. 1626. * JNeb. ix.30 Zech. vii. 1& * John x* 31, 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 363 
 
 treat with contempt the only method of Salvation 
 which he has provided and revealed : He that be- 
 lieveth not God, hath made him a liar; because he 
 belicreth not the record that God gave of his Son.* 
 The disbelief of divine revelation, then, must be 
 highly provoking to God and injurious to sinners. 
 Condemned already according to 'the law, mankind 
 increase their guilt and augment their future punish- 
 ment, by their contempt of the gospel : This is the 
 condemnation, that is, the aggravation of it, that 
 light is come into the world and men loved darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds were evil.* To 
 the Jews, under the old dispensation, the consequen- 
 ces of their disbelief of God arid distrust of his pro- 
 mised salvation, were exceedingly calamitous : afire 
 was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up 
 against Israel ; because they believed not in God, 
 and trusted not in his salvation; meaning, either that 
 they trusted "not in God for his providential salvation 
 of them, but leaned on their national allies, the 
 Egyptians and others, or, that they trusted not in the 
 MESSIAH, who is God's salvation, but in the rites 
 and ceremonies which only prefigured him, or in the 
 oral law, consisting of the traditions of their elders. 4 
 How terrible, then, must be the fate of gospel-des- 
 pisers, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
 heaven taking vengeance on them that know not God 
 and obey not the gospel 1 e 
 
 Faithful heralds of the cross, therefore, knowing 
 the terror of the Lord, persuade men, to credit the 
 
 b 1 John v. 10. c John iii. 19. d Psal Ixxviii. 21, 22. Comp. 
 Numb. xi. 13, Nahum. i. 6. Psal. xcv. 8. 11. Heb. iii. 17 
 19. 2Thess.i. 7. 
 
364 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI. 
 
 sentence of condemnation under which they lie, 
 and warn them to flee from the wrath to come;* yes, 
 when duly affected with their deplorable condition, 
 we labor, as opportunities offer, to convince them of 
 their guilt, and danger, and helplessness, and to ex- 
 cite them to abandon every other refuge, and to look 
 for salvation alone by Christ ; whom we preach, warn- 
 ing every man, and teaching every man, in all wis- 
 dom ; that we may present every man we address 
 perfect in Christ Jesus.% For, if a minister had be- 
 fore him some out of every nation under heaven, he 
 must consider them all alike undone and helpless 
 could preach to none of them any other than the com- 
 mon salvation and, relying on the Holy Spirit to 
 apply the word according to covenant design, would 
 endeavor to bring every one to an unreserved de- 
 pendence upon Christ for acceptance with God. 
 See Acts iv. 12. Rom. x. 12. and Jude, Ver. 3. 
 
 Thus Christ himself preached : Repent ye, said he, 
 and believe the gospel ; Mark i. 15. Thus his disci- 
 ples preached : They went out andpreached that men 
 should repent ; Ibid. iv. 12. And the ministerial 
 labors of Paul consisted in testifying both to the Jews 
 and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and 
 faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts xx. 21. 
 
 Gospel-ministers, however, while they should faith- 
 fully proclaim and inculcate repentance toward God 
 and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, should be 
 careful always to do it consistently with the follow- 
 ing revealed facts : viz. 
 
 1. That repenting and believing are not conditions 
 for the performance of which we are to be justified 
 '2 Cor. v. U. Matth, iii 7, a * Col. i. 28. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 365 
 
 before God. So understood, they would occupy the 
 place of Christ, who alone is THE LORD OUR RIGHT- 
 EOUSNESS. h But they are duties which, saved or lost, 
 we owe to God, as being the subjects of his moral 
 government. In his law, as noticed before, he re- 
 quires that we should love him with all the heart, &c. 
 and consequently, that having wickedly revolted from 
 him, and denied his veracity, we should penitently and 
 cordially return to him, and believe as certainly true, 
 whatever he has revealed ; thus casting ourselves 
 upon his mercy in Christ Jesus. See Luke xxiv. 47 
 and Acts xxvi. 20. 
 
 2. That so repenting and believing, though not 
 conditions, are indispensable characteristics of an 
 experimentally saved state. For the stout hearted, 
 the impenitent, are far from righteousness ;i and 
 the unbelieving are among the characters, who, dy- 
 ing such, shall have their part in the lake that burn- 
 eth with fire and brimstone* He that believeth not 
 shall be damned. Mark xvi. 16. And, 
 
 3. That such repentance toward the divine Majesty 
 and faith in the divine record, as God requires of all 
 to whom he grants his word or sends his minis- 
 ters, none are capable of, in their carnal state; for, 
 as the carnal mind is enmity against God, it is im- 
 possible that any, while under its dominion, should 
 cordially return to him, or, with love and approbation, 
 receive his revealed truth, either in the law or in the 
 gospel. See Col. i. 21. and 2 Thess. ii. 10. 
 Nevertheless, 
 
 4. That neither the divine requirement of these 
 duties, not the ministerial inculcation of them, is 
 
 k Jer xxiii. 6. * I* xlvi 12. * Rev. xxi. a 
 
366 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. Xf, 
 
 vain or unprofitable. They serve 1. To apprize 
 mankind of the moral obligations which they are 
 under to their Creator, and to admonish them, that 
 while persisting in their rebellion against him, they 
 are, after the hardness and impenitence of a carnal 
 heart, treasuring up to themselves wrath against the 
 day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judg- 
 ment of God. 1 2. To restrain and moralize the 
 wicked, and thereby to promote their own good and 
 the good of the commonwealth : Righteousness ex- 
 alteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any peo- 
 ple. 3. To assure sinners, that they must be regen- 
 erated in order to be happy ; *for without this gra- 
 cious change, they can never become reconciled to 
 God, and without reconciliation to Him, they must 
 necessarily be miserable both here and hereafter. 
 They must be so here : The wicked are like the 
 troubled sea^ ichen it cannot rest. There is no 
 peace to the wicked? And they must be infinitely 
 more so hereafter : He that believeth not the Son shall 
 not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. 
 And 4. To excite those in whom the good work of 
 grace is begun, to labor after compliance with these 
 requirements; and, in thus laboring, they, being 
 spiritually illuminated, discover more fully their de- 
 pravity and impotency, and thereby their entire de- 
 pendence upon divine influence, to enable them to 
 exercise true repentance toward God, and an appro- 
 priating faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Nor do God's moral requirements of mankind sug- 
 gest any thing inconsistent with his absolute grace in 
 
 l Rom. ii. 5. Prov. xiv. 34. B Is. Ivii. 20, 21. John iii. 36. 
 
SER. XL] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 367 
 
 the effectual calling of his elect. To suppose, as 
 many do, that a divine command, necessarily implies 
 an innate ability in those commanded, to comply is 
 to suppose, that all the miracles of Christ and his 
 apostles were mere tricks or pious frauds, produced 
 by concert with their patients. For instance : when 
 Christ said, Lazarus come forth? if Lazarus had an 
 innate power to comply, he was not dead, though he 
 had lain four days in the grave ; and his coming 
 forth was not miraculous, but natural. Again ; 
 when He said to the man sick of the palsy, Arise 
 take up thy bed and go thy way? if the man had an 
 innate power to do so, he w r as not a paralytic, but 
 a hypocrite, who might as well have risen and walked 
 before as then. But the truth is, that in each case, 
 and in every similar one, nothing depended upon 
 the patient, but all upon the divine energy which ac- 
 companied the word of him who spake. Hence it 
 was that dead Lazarus lived and came forth, and 
 that the helpless paralytic, rose and walked. Happy 
 illustration of what the same Lord Jesus, in a way 
 of grace, accomplishes in the spiritual resurrection 
 of morally dead and helpless sinners ! The dead, 
 said he, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
 they that hear shall live. T 
 
 The same also, may be observed of the miracles 
 wrought in the name of Christ, by his apostles : He 
 commanded them, saying, " Heal ^the sick, cleanse 
 the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." 8 Now, 
 whoever supposed that they possessed a natural 
 ability to do these things 1 Yet, by the command, 
 
 p Johnxi. 43. <iMarkii.il. John v. 25. Matt. x. 8. 
 
 49 
 
368 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI. 
 
 they were assured that divine power would accom- 
 plish them, through their instrumentality. Herein, 
 Christ gave a most pertinent illustration of the use 
 which he makes of his ministers in the calling of 
 his people. Accordingly, having by a parable set 
 forth the vain excuses made by many of the Jews, 
 for not attending his gospel, and the success which, 
 nevertheless, it had among that nation, he said unto 
 the servant (a representative of gospel-ministers,) Go 
 out into the high ways*and hedges, that is, among 
 the Gentiles, and compel them to come in* not 
 by force of arms, but by the power of the Holy 
 Ghost, which gospel-ministers are hereby assured 
 will attend their labors and render them effectual to 
 this end. So the event proved. For the ministers 
 of the word being dispersed abroad, and employed 
 in preaching the Lord Jesus the hand, the Spirit 
 of the Lord was with them, and a great number 
 believed, and turned unto the Lord. Acts xi. 21. 
 
 After all, therefore, the heralds of salvation should 
 labor chiefly to make known and to illustrate the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ, and the absolute grace 
 of God in him, toward the chief of sinners. By 
 God's absolute grace, I mean his pure, unconditional 
 f avor his favor, which has no dependence upon any 
 good thing as prerequisite in the nature or the lives 
 of its objects ; and which, therefore, is favor toward 
 them, considered not only as undeserving, but as 
 ill- deserving yea as hell-deserving." 
 
 As such the elect of God were considered, when 
 Christ paid the ransom price for them : for when we 
 
 Luke xiv. 1624. u Rom. iii. 927. 1 Thss. i. 10. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 369 
 
 were yet without strength, to repent, to believe, to 
 love, or to obey, in due time, the time stipulated in 
 the everlasting covenant, Christ died for the un- 
 godly. v 
 
 As such, too, they are found at the time of their 
 effectual calling : When I passed by thee, saith the 
 Lord, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I 
 said unto thee, ichen thou wast in thy blood, Live* 
 The same, likewise, is acknowledged by an apostle 
 for himself and the called whom he addressed : God, 
 saith he, who is rich in mercy, for his great love 
 wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in 
 sins, hath quickened us, SfcJ This, as observed by 
 the same apostle, God accomplishes by his Spirit, 
 granted through the Mediator: Not by works of 
 righteousness which we have done, but according to 
 his mercy he saved us by the washing of regenera- 
 tion, and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; which he 
 shed upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord.* Him hath God exalted with his right hand, 
 to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give, through 
 him, repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.* 
 For the Holy Spirit, granted through Christ to his 
 redeemed, produces in them that faith by which they 
 look upon him whom they have pierced and mourn 
 with a godly sorrow for their sins ; yet, believing, 
 they receive the manifestation of forgiveness, and 
 rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 
 1 Peter i. 8. * 
 
 Thus, what God requires in the law, he freely be- 
 stows in Christ and reveals in the gospel. In the 
 
 w Rom. v. 6. 8. * Ezek. xvi. 6. 7 Eph. ii. 4,*5. * Titus iii. 5, 6. 
 a Acts v. 31. 
 
370 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI 
 
 law he requires a perfect righteousness : in the 
 gospel, he reveals such a righteousness even the 
 righteousness of Christ ; and his imputation there- 
 of to believers, is called the gift of righteous- 
 ness.* According to the covenant of works, he re- 
 quires of man, a new heart and a new spirit ; c and, 
 according to the covenant of grace, brought to light 
 in the gospel, he graciously bestows these very bless- 
 ings, nay, bestows them upon the very people of 
 whom he demanded them. d According to the law, 
 he requires us to love him ; and according to the 
 gospel, he enables us to love him 4ie sheds abroad 
 his love in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto 
 us.* Hence, We love him because he first loved us.* 
 Nor are we any less dependent on absolute grace 
 after called, than before. In our fallen nature, 
 there still dwelleth no good thing ; and hence when 
 we would do good, evil is present with us.* The 
 world, the flesh, and the devil, are constantly engaged 
 against us ; and though eventually we are conquer- 
 ors and more, yet we are so only through him that 
 hath loved us and given himself for us. h Our per- 
 petual standing before God, is in the finished and 
 everlasting righteousness of Christ. 1 The pardon 
 of our daily faults is for Christ's sake ; whose aton- 
 ing blood, in reference to divine justice, cleansethus 
 from all sin. k Having no resources of our own, we 
 are every moment entirely dependent on the grace 
 that is in Christ Jesus. 1 All we have hitherto re- 
 ceived, has emanated from him: Of his fulness 
 
 *> Rom. v. 17. c Ezek. xviii. 31. d Ibid, xxxvi. 2532. 
 Rom. v. 5. f 1 John iv. 19. e Rom. vii. 1821. h Ibid, viii, 
 37. Epli. v. 2. ' Rom. v. 2. k 1 John i. 7. l 2 Tim. ii. 1. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 371 
 
 have all we (believers) received ; m and, blessed be his 
 name, we are encouraged to hope that from the same 
 fulness we shall continue to receive ; He giveth 
 more grace," even grace to help in every time of 
 need.* Hence we have all our strength for doing 
 and suffering the will of God : Without me, saith 
 Christ to his disciples, ye can do nothing ; p but, 
 strengthened by him, we can do all things.* The 
 church, like ancient Israel, at every stage of her 
 pilgrimage, may raise her Ebenezer and say, Hitherto 
 hath the Lord helped us ; r and every member thereof, 
 with the grateful apostle, may exclaim, By the grace 
 of God I am what I am.* Nor can the provisions 
 of grace in Christ ever fail ; for it pleased the Fa- 
 ther, in a perfect prevision of whatever his people 
 would need, that in Him should all fulness dwell. 1 
 In Him provision was made, not only for our requi- 
 site supplies during our militant state, but also for 
 our safety in death, and our happy and glorious set- 
 tlement in heaven. At death, we fall asleep in 
 Jesu*," and our ransomed souls become associated 
 with the spirits of just men made perfect ?* and at 
 the resurrection, our vile body shall be changed, and 
 fashioned like unto his glorious body? and we shall 
 be settled in the full enjoyment of that eternal life, 
 which has no dependence upon our worthiness, but 
 is t he gift of God, through our Lord Jesuit Christ.* 
 Gospel-ministers, moreover, must teach the obe- 
 dience of faith 1 that obedience, which is the fruit 
 
 m John i. 16. n Jas. iv. 6. Heb. iv. 16. ,PJohn xv. 5. 1 Philip, 
 
 iv. 13. r 1 Sam. vii. 12. 1 Cor. xv. 10. * Col. i. 19. 1 Thess. 
 
 iv. 14. w Hcb. xii. 23. * Philip, iii. 21. 7 Rom. vi. 23. * Ibid, 
 xvi. 26. 
 
372 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI. 
 
 and evidence of a living faith. The faith of God j s 
 elect distinguishes its subjects, by leading them to 
 the acknowledging of the truth which is after godli- 
 ness. 9 - It is that faith, which God, in all to whom he 
 gives it, renders effectual to the purifying of their 
 hearts from evil motives, as well as from legal hopes b 
 that faith, which, in all who possess it, overcometh 
 the world,* and worketh, not by terror, but by love A 
 love to Christ, his truth and his church. Loving 
 Christ, they cheerfully obey him ; the love of Christ 
 constraineth us ; e loving his truth, they abide and 
 walk in it; ! and, loving his church, they desire 
 to dwell in it all the days of their life, to behold the 
 beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.* 
 The obedience of faith is the evidence which Christ 
 requires of our love to him : If ye love me, saith he, 
 keep my commandments ; h by which are meant, not 
 only his gospel-ordinances, but also all his gospel- 
 injunctions, respecting holy and useful living ; even 
 all chrislian duties comprehended under the terms 
 work of faith and labor of love. 1 While, therefore, 
 the ministers of Christ should constantly remind be- 
 lievers of gospel-promises, to promote their com- 
 fort/ they should, with equal constancy, remind 
 them of gospel-precepts, to promote their obe- 
 dience. 1 * But, 
 
 a Titus i. 1. b Acts xv. 9. c 1 John v. 4. d Gal. v. 6. 
 e 2Cor. v. 14. f 2 John, verses 4. 9. ePsal. xxvii. 4. Comp: 
 2 Cor. viii. 5. h John xiv. 15. ' 1 Thess. i. 3. Comp. Gal. vi. 
 10. Heb. xiii. 16. Titus, ii. 11, 12. k Is. xl. 1, 2. Rom. 
 viii. 2839. Eph. i. 3. 2 Cor. i. 20. Philip, iv. 19. i 1 Tim. 
 iv. Titus Hi. 1 Pet. iv. and 2 Pet. i. and iii. chapters. 
 
 * To harmonize God's moral requirements of mankind, with 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 373 
 
 SECONDLY, Offering also belonged to the official 
 work of the Levitical priests. This was of two 
 kinds incense and sacrifice. 
 
 1. Incense: " They shall put incense before thee,'' 
 that is, before the Lord ; for the golden altar, upon 
 which they were to put the incense, though, situated 
 in the holy place, "without the vail," stood imme- 
 diately facing the ark, (situated in the most holy 
 place, "within the vail,") upon the lid of which, 
 called the mercy-seat, appeared the Shecheenah, the 
 symbol of the divine presence : and, standing before 
 that, it was said to be before the Lord. Levit. xvi. 
 18.f 
 
 This altar has commonly been considered as a 
 type of Christ. In this I cannot concur. For the 
 altar itself became defiled by the sins of Israel, and 
 the high-priest was required to make an annual 
 atonement for it, by the blood of the sacrifices 
 offered on the day of expiation ; m but, if Christ 
 
 his sovereign grace in the effectual calling of his elect, and to ex- 
 hibit both in agreement with the general tenor of his word, are 
 difficulties, for the solution of which, many volumes have been 
 written by the most distinguished polemics. To reflecting readers, 
 therefore, it will not seem strange, if, in this humble effort thereat, 
 made in a mere branch of a Sermon, they should discover many 
 deficiencies and some discrepancy. Yet, the importance of any 
 light on a subject, confessedly much embarrassed with knotty ques- 
 tions, it is hoped will plead my excuse for having extended this 
 branch of the discourse, to a length so disproportionate to its other 
 members. 
 
 f See Ser. ix. Note on p. 269, and that on pp. 278, 279. Also 
 Exo. xxvi. 33 35. and Levit. xvi. 2. 
 
 m Levit. xvi. 18, 19. 33. Comp. Exo. xxx. 10. 
 
374 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI* 
 
 himself could become morally defiled, by whom 
 could an atonement be made for him I In the altar 
 of incense therefore, I behold a figure of the throne 
 of grace ; which, like the altar of incense, by the 
 sins of national Israelites, becomes defiled by the 
 sins of spiritual Israelites, and especially, by their 
 irreverence, legality, insincerity, and wanderings of 
 thought and affection, during their attempts to pray; 
 but for which, as well as for all their other sins, 
 Christ made an atonement, when by the one offering 
 up of himself, he perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified* 
 
 That the altar of incense typically implied a Media- 
 tor, is indeed evident ; for, in this relation to Israel, the 
 high-priest officiated before it ; burning incense there- 
 on daily, morning and evening even a perpetual in- 
 cense in all their generations ; and in doing which, 
 he typified Christ, the Mediator of spiritual Israel, 
 in whose name and mediation, believers, in all their 
 generations, being made priests unto God, present 
 to him their supplications at the throne of grace, 
 not only morning and evening, but at all times, and 
 find a gracious audience and acceptance. 1 * No man, 
 perhaps, has ever understood the typical design of 
 the offering of incense upon the golden altar, better 
 than David did ; and it is manifest that he contem- 
 plated it as an emblem of prayer ; for addressing 
 the Lord, he said, Let my prayer be set forth before 
 thee as incense ; and the lifting up of my hands as 
 the evening sacrifice.* And accordingly, while the 
 
 * Heb. x. 14. Exo. xxx. 7, 8. P John xvi. 23; Rev. i. &. 
 
 iPsal. cili. 2. 
 
SKR. XI.J HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 375 
 
 priest was burning incense in the holy place in the 
 temple, "the whole multitude of the people were 
 praying without," in the court Israel/ 
 
 The high-priest, however, burnt incense also in 
 the holy of holies, within the vail ; s in which he was a 
 type of Christ, who entered into heaven itself, of 
 which that most holy place was a figure, there to ap- 
 pear before God for us, and that as our intercessors 
 There, with the much incense of his acknowledged 
 merits, he perfumes and recommends the prayers of 
 the saints, and renders them odors before the 
 throne." 
 
 Moreover, on an extraordinary occasion, when 
 a pestilence had begun to rage in the camp of Israel, 
 the high-priest, by divine order, and in great haste, 
 took jire from the attar, that of burnt-offerings, and 
 kindled incense in the midst of the congregation ; 
 whereby the plague was stayed. w Thus, when the 
 church, on account of the prevalence of heresy, or 
 immorality, or schism, among her members, is in im- 
 minent danger, Christ interposes his mediation, which, 
 in virtue of his vicarious sufferings, typified by the 
 fire taken from the altar, is ever effectual on her be- 
 half. Hence, the threatened judgment is averted, 
 or, if begun, it is stayed. See Dan. xii. 1. Zech. 
 iii. 2. 1 John ii. 12.* 
 
 r Luke i. 9, 10. * Levit. xvi. 12, 13. * Heb. ix. 24; u Rev. v. 
 8. viii. 3, 4. w Num. xvi.46 48. 
 
 * In regard to the offering of incense, it may be useful, by the 
 way, to remark the following particulars : to wit, 
 
 I. That [wherever presented, it was to be burnt; and that the 
 fire for this purpose, though the injunction is not in every instance 
 
 50 
 
376 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [sER. XI. 
 
 But the evangelical instruction, directly to be ga- 
 thered from this type, is 1. That, as the Levitical 
 
 specified, was always required to be taken from off the altar ; 
 [see Exo. xxx. 7, 8. Levit. xvi. 12. Num. xvi. 46. and 2 Chron. 
 xiii. 11 ;] by which altar is meant that whereon the sin-offer- 
 ings were burnt ; hence called the altar of burnt- offerings. See 
 Exo. xxxviii. 1. and xl. 6. 29. Hereby we are taught, that when- 
 ever or wherever we pray, the success of our petitions depends up- 
 on the sacrifice of Christ, who was exposed to the fire of incensed 
 Justice due to us for our sins ; yea, that the intercession of Christ 
 himself in our behalf, derives its efficacy from his vicarious suffer- 
 ings in our law-place : he is our availing Advocate, because he is 
 our propitiatory sacrifice ; 1 John ii. 1,2. By this type we are also 
 taught, that to pray with fervor and hope, we must first, like the 
 priests, go to the altar of burnt-offering; that is, meditate on the 
 sufferings of Christ, as our substitute. Here, having our hearts 
 softened by the fire of the cross our minds humbled under a 
 sense of our sins for which Christ, in that fire, atoned and our 
 faith strengthened by the consideration of the greatness and effi- 
 cacy of his sacrifice our mouths become filled with arguments 
 arguments drawn from his person, his offices, his relations, his obe- 
 dience, and his death and especially, from his resurrection and 
 ascension ; whereby the atonement which he made for the sins of 
 his people, was recognized in heaven, as satisfactory to divine Jus- 
 tice. Thus we come to have boldness and access with confidence, 
 by the faith of him ; knowing that we enter into the holiest by the 
 blood of Jesus. Eph. iii. 12. Heb. x. 19. 
 
 2. That incense was never burnt, either on the golden altar or 
 within the vail, to satisfy the claims of incensed Justice. This 
 could be done only by sacrifice, and that such as God had ap- 
 pointed. Hence, let us learn never to think of our prayers at the 
 throne of grace, nor even of the intercession of Christ for us in 
 heaven, as the meritorious cause of our pardon ; but of our prayers, 
 as the ordinary means, and of the intercession of Christ, as the in- 
 stituted medium, through which we receive forgiveness, as an effect 
 of that peace, which He, as the appointed and accepted sflert- 
 fice, made for us, by the blood of his cross. Col. i. 20. Accord- 
 ingly no burnt-sacrifice was to be offered on the altar of incense ; 
 

 SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 377 
 
 priests were required daily and repeatedly to put in- 
 cense upon the golden altar; so gospel-ministers 
 should be often and with sacred fervor, engaged at 
 the throne of grace. And 2. That, in their preach- 
 ing and exhortations, they should labor to excite 
 
 Exo. xxx. 9. The place appointed for this, was the altar of burnt- 
 offering. Exo. xl. 29. How abhorent to God, then, must be the 
 Romish mass, in which it is pretended, that the " elements of the 
 eucharist, transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, are 
 offered as an expiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead." 
 
 3. No strange incense was allowed to be offered on the golden 
 altar ; Exo. xxx. 9. By such incense, is meant any that was not 
 prepared according to the divine prescription, given in the same 
 chapter ; see ver. 34 38 ; also any that was kindled with strange 
 fire fire not taken from the altar of burnt-offering. Levit. x. 1. 
 Such are prayers not dictated by the Holy Spirit, who maketh in- 
 tercession for the saints according to the will of God ; Rom. viii. 
 26, 27 ; and which, consequently, are not made with fiducial re- 
 liance on the sacrifice of Christ for acceptance. Such prayers ob- 
 tain no audience in heaven ; for it is only through Christ, and by 
 the Spirit, that we have access to the Father. Eph. ii. 18. 
 
 4. Both meat-offerings and drink-offerings, were excluded from 
 the altar of incense ; Exo. xxx. 9. Thus the prayers of those who 
 expect to live by the merit of them, are rejected at the throne of 
 grace. Is. i. 15. Ixv. 5. Luke xviii. 9 14. The priests, recollect, 
 had their living, not from the altar of incense, but from the altar 
 of burnt-offering. Levit. vi. 8 29. vii. 1 9. Comp. 1 Cor. ix. 
 13. x. 18. So believers live, not on their prayers, or by the merit 
 of them ; but on Christ crucified, received and trusted in by faith. 
 Gal. ii. 20. The flesh and blood of Christ, so received, are meat 
 and drink indeed. John vi. 55. Comp. Heb. xiii. 10. And, 
 
 5. That it pertained to none but priests, to offer incense upon 
 the golden altar. This is evident from the case of Korah and his 
 company, and that of Uzziah the king. Num. xvi. 40. and 2 Chron. 
 xxvi. 16 21. So the throne of grace, (be it recollected,) is ac- 
 cessible to none but believers in Christ; by whom they are made 
 priests unto God ; Rev. i. 6. No man, saith Christ, cometh unto 
 the Father, but by me. John xiv. 6. 
 
378 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SER. XI* 
 
 and encourage their believing hearers, to be in like 
 manner engaged at the same throne. Such a min- 
 ister, and most eminently such, was the Great High- 
 Priest of our prof ession. Christ, while he taberna- 
 cled on earth, spent much of his time in prayer. * 
 As man, he prayed for himself ; y and, as Mediator, 
 he prayed for his people. * And, as in these charac- 
 ters, he prayed much, so, in the character of a 
 teacher, he frequently and pathetically excited and en- 
 couraged his disciples thereto, and gave them many 
 directions therein. a Such ministers, too, were his 
 apostles. They, as appears by their History and 
 Epistles, were much employed in offering the in- 
 cense of prayer, both socially, 5 and privately ; c and, 
 like their blessed Master, in faithfully exciting and 
 encouraging believers to pray, and in giving them 
 directions for the acceptable performance of this 
 duty. d In these exhortations and directions given 
 by Christ and his apostles, in relation to prayer, we, 
 my Christian hearers, are all deeply interested. And 
 being thus exhorted, encouraged and directed, Let 
 us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that, offer- 
 ing there our incense of prayer, we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. e 
 
 The priests, however, were to offer to the Lord, 
 not only incense, but likewise, 
 
 * Matth. xiv. 23. Markxiv. 46. Luke vi. 12. 7 Psal. xxii. Matth. 
 xxvi. 3644. Heb. v. 7: z John xvii. a Matth. vii. 7 11. xxvi. 
 41. Luke xviii. 18. Matth. v. 44. vi. 515. b Acts i. 1214. 
 ii. 42. iv. 31. vi. 4. c Acts iii. 1. ix. 11. x. 11. xxii. 17. d Col. Hi. 
 17 Rom.viii. 26, 27. Jas. v.16. 1 Pet. iii. 12. Philip, iv. 6. 1 Thess. 
 v. 17. 2 Thess. iii. 1. Eph. vi. 18. 1 Tim* ii. 1, 2. 1 Pet. iv. 7. Jude, 
 Ver.20. e Heb. iv. 16. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 379 
 
 2. Sacrifice : " And whole burnt-offering upon 
 thine altar." In the order of time, the sacrifice 
 was to precede the incense, and is more commonly 
 mentioned before it. See Levit. xvi. 11 13, and 
 2 Chron. xiii. 11. This order, too, was required, by 
 divine Justice, both in the type and in the antitype ; 
 for, as the acceptance of the incense depended upon 
 the prior acceptance of a sacrifice ; (Psal. Ixvi. 15.) 
 so the success of Christ's intercession for his people, 
 and, of course, the success of their supplications in 
 his name, were, in the economy of grace, made 
 dependent upon the antecedent acceptance of his 
 sacrifice in their behalf, either as stipulated in the 
 covenant, or as actually offered upon the cross. See 
 Is. xlii. 21. liii. 6. 11. Rom. v. 1. 10. Col. 1. 20. 
 Nevertheless, in noticing these articles, as mentioned 
 in the text, I thought proper to follow the natural 
 order of the words. 
 
 Answerably, then, to the whole burnt-sacrifice) 
 
 1. Christ offered his whole human nature, soul and 
 body, as a sacrifice for all the sins of all whom he 
 represented. For, though he was put to death only 
 in the flesh, his holy soul also, under a sense of the 
 curse, the penalty of the law, due to his people, was 
 exceeding sorrowful, it being filled and overwhelmed 
 with the bitterest anguish, and which he knew 
 could only terminate in its seperation from his body. 
 In a word, he gave himself for us, and suffered the 
 just for the unjust. { 
 
 2. His ministers should preach him as such ; to 
 wit, as a whole and sufficient sacrifice for sin ; not 
 
 f Matth. xxvi. 38. 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
380 THE BLESSING OP LEV1. [sER. XI. 
 
 knowing, that is, not making known any thing among 
 sinners, as a ground of their hope, save Jesus Christ 
 and him crucified* They should also preach him 
 in his whole character ; showing from the Scriptures, 
 that, in his divine nature, he thought it not robery to 
 be equal with God, that is, the Father h that, in his 
 human nature, he was holy, harmless, undefiled, 
 that, as the Substitute and Representative of the 
 elect, he was made under the law, and, for them, 
 magnified it, in his perfect life, and made it hon- 
 orable, by enduring its righteous penalty, in his vi- 
 carious death 1 and that, being raised and glorified, 
 he is proclaimed the only Head of the churchf and 
 the final Judge of the world. 1 As such, therefore, 
 
 3. He should be received, trusted in, and acknow- 
 ledged. Without attempting to add any thing to 
 his whole sacrifice, or, to his perfect righteousness, 
 we must, fas guilty and naked, rely exclusively on 
 the former for pardon, and, on the latter for justifi- 
 cation, before God. And, while we trust in him as 
 our complete REDEEMER and SAVIOUR, we should ac- 
 knowledge him as our rightful SOVEREIGN, and fol- 
 low him, as our revealed GUIDE and EXAMPLE ; for 
 he is the LEADER and COMMANDER of the people ; 
 and hath left us an example, that we should follow 
 his steps. Is. Iv. 4. 1 Pet. ii. 21. 
 
 To conclude. By the light of this subject, it must 
 be evident, 
 
 1. That impenitent sinners have no reason to be 
 offended at gospel ministers, when they pronounce 
 
 e 1 Cor. ii. 2. h Philip, ii, 6. * Gal. iv. 4. 5. Is. xlii. 21. Gal. iii. 
 13. k Eph. i. 1923. Col. ii. 19. l John v. 22. 27. Acts x. 42. 
 
SER. XI.] HIS DEPORTMENT AND SERVICE. 381 
 
 them, as tried by the standard of God's perfect law, 
 unclean and unrighteous ; and, as such, condemned 
 already. We only proclaim to them, what God in 
 his word declares them to be. a We cannot altar his 
 law, nor better the case of those who are found un- 
 der its condemnatory sentence. To cry peace, peace 
 to them, in a state wherein there is no peace, but 
 certain destruction, 11 would serve only to deceive 
 their precious souls, and to bring guilt on our own. 
 See Ezek. iii. 18, 19. Besides, our addresses to 
 them, however pointed and alarming our descrip- 
 tions of their guilt and danger, however vivid and 
 fearful, are all accompanied with desires and prayers 
 to God, for their conversion and salvation. There 
 is, we know, a peradventure that God will give them 
 repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;* and 
 therefore we preach to them, hoping and praying 
 that our labors may be the means, in the hand of the 
 Holy Spirit, of turning them from the error of their 
 way, and of exciting them, in view of the wrath to 
 come, to flee for refuge to Christ Jesus, who came in- 
 to the world to save sinners, even the chief; and who 
 is able also, to save them to the uttermost that come 
 unto God by him. 1 Tim. i. 15. Heb. vii. 25. 
 
 2. How mild, compared with the government of 
 national Israel, is the discipline of the gospel-church. 
 Under the former, an offending Israelite was liable 
 to fines and scourging yea, in many cases, to death 
 itself, and that by stoning,* or burning, f or by the 
 
 a Psal.. xiv, 13. John iii. 18. b Jer. vi. 14: 1 Thess. v. 3. 
 
 Rom. x. 1, 2. Cor. v. 11. Col. i. 28. 1 Tim. iv. 16. d 2 Tim. ii. 
 
 25. Num. xv. 35, 36. Deut. xiii: 611. f Josh. vii. 25. Ltvit. 
 xx. 14. xxi. 9. 
 
382 THE BLESSING OF LEVI. [SEE. XI. 
 
 sword of a brother, companion or friend.* But un- 
 der the latter, a delinquent is only to be admon- 
 ished* rebuked^ and, at most, to be put away. k 
 Moreover, a member of the gospel-Israel having been 
 overtaken in a fault nay, even one having grossly 
 fallen, is, upon satisfactory evidence of repentance 
 and reformation, to be restored to the fellowship 
 and communion of the church. 1 These things, how- 
 ever, relate only to church-discipline. Members of 
 churches, if they violate civil law, must, like other 
 men, be accountable at the bar of civil justice; and 
 hypocrites in Zion, dying such, must finally perish 
 with a world that lieth in wickedness.^ And, 
 
 3. Persons standing in church-relation, if they 
 walk disorderly, have no just cause of complaint 
 when gospel-discipline is exercised toward them 
 and especially, when they consider the lenient mea- 
 sures and salutary objects of this discipline, and 
 that the ministers and members of gospel-churches, 
 like the priests and Levites of ancient Israel, are 
 bound to observe the word of the Lord, and to 
 keep his covenant. 
 
 s Exo. xxxii. 27. h Rom. xv. 14. 1 Thess. v. 12. 2 Thess. iii. 
 15. * Luke xvii. 3, 4. 1 Tim. v. 20: Titus i. 13. Rev. iii. 19. 
 M Cor. v. 13. Gal. vi. 1. 2 Cor. ii. 611. m Is. xxxiii. 14. 
 Matth. xxiv. 4851. 1 John v. 19. 
 
 
SERMON XII* 
 
 LEVFS BLESSING CONTINUED. 
 
 DEUT xxxiii. 8 11. And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummitn 
 and thy Urim be with thy Holy One, whom thou didst prove at 
 Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meri- 
 bah ; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen 
 him ; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own 
 children: for they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant. 
 They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy law : they 
 shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine 
 altar. Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his 
 hands : smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and 
 of them that hate him, that they rise not again. 
 
 OF this rich and diversified blessing, all that re- 
 mains to be considered, is expressed in the eleventh 
 verse, which reads thus ; Bless, Lord, his substance, 
 and accept the work of his hands : smite through 
 the loins of them that rise against him, and of them 
 that hate him, that they rise not again. 
 
 In these words, Moses, on behalf of Levi, prayed 
 for three things ; viz. 
 
 For a blessing on his possessions, 
 
 The acceptance of his services, and 
 
 The effectual conquest of his enemies. 
 
 1. For a blessing on his possessions : Bless, Lord, 
 his substance. 
 
 This was peculiar. For, in the division of the 
 land of Canaan among the Israelites, no share was 
 assigned to the tribe of Levi : The Lord spake 
 
 51 
 
384 LEVl'g SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII 
 
 unto Aaron, who stood at the head of this tribe, 
 saying, Thou shall have no inheritance in their land, 
 the land of Israel, neither shalt thou have any part 
 among them, that is, of the land, which was to be 
 divided by lot among the other tribes : It shall be 
 a statute for ever throughout your generations, that 
 among the children of Israel they (the Levites) have 
 no inheritance.* 
 
 For this exclusion of the Levites from any share 
 in the land given to their nation, two reasons are ap- 
 parent on the face of the history. 
 
 1. Their employment ; which did not admit of 
 their cultivating fields and vineyards,* or engaging 
 in secular pursuits of any kind. The Levites, said 
 the Lord, shall do the service of the Tabernacle of 
 the congregation, and, shall bear their iniquity, 
 their guilt and punishment, if they neglected the 
 service, required of them, either stated or occasional. 1 * 
 In this service, the high-priest was to have the in- 
 ferior priests and all the common Levites united 
 with him and under him, to serve him, and, with him, 
 to serve the Lord. So said God to Aaron: Thy 
 brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy 
 father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined 
 unto thee* and minister unto thee : but thou and 
 thy sons (the priests) with thee shall minister be- 
 fore the tabernacle of witness.^ And they (the Le- 
 
 Num. xviii. 20. 23. b Ibid. ver. 23. 
 
 * Joined unto thee] Herein there is a happy allusion to the 
 name of their patriarch ; for 'iS Levi signifies joined. See Gen. 
 zxix. 34. 
 
 t By this tabernacle is meant the holy of holies ; called the 
 tabernacle of witness, or of testimony, because within it stood the 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 385 
 
 vites) shall keep thy charge, whatever he committed 
 to their charge, or charged them to do. And I, be- 
 hold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from 
 among the children of Israel; to you they are given 
 as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the Taber- 
 nacle of the congregation.* 
 
 2. The provision otherwise made for their sup- 
 port and accommodation. This was such as rendered 
 husbandry, and therefore farms and vineyards, un- 
 necessary for them. To the high-priest, for him- 
 self, for his sons in the priest's office, and for all his 
 family, belonged a large portion of all the obla- 
 tions or sacrifices all the heave and wave offerings 
 all the first-fruits of every kind every thing 
 absolutely devoted in Israel and the first-lings of 
 all animals all these were given to him, his sons and 
 his daughters, by a statute for ever ; that is, they 
 were assigned to the high-priest for the use of him- 
 self and his family as long as the Aaronic order 
 should be continued. d And, to the inferior priests 
 and common Levites also, belonged an ample sup- 
 port, even a tenth of all the increase of Canaan : 
 Behold, said the Lord, / have given the children of 
 Levi all the tenth in Israel, for an inheritance, in- 
 stead of a share in the land, for the service, which 
 
 Jlrk which contained the tables of the law. Deut. x. 4, 5. Comp. 
 Exo. xxv. 21. xxxviii. 21. And thougli none but the high-priest, 
 and he only on the day of atonement, might enter that awful apart- 
 ment and officiate immediately at the mercy-seat, yet the other 
 priests also ministered before it, when they officiated at the golden 
 altar, which stood in the holy place, opposite to it, and was sepa- 
 rated from it only by the vail. See Exo. xxvii. 21. xl. 21. 
 
 Num. xviii. 26. d Num. xviii. S 19-. 
 
386 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED [sER. XII. 
 
 they serve, even the service of the Tabernacle of the 
 congregation* 
 
 Besides, although the tribe of Levi were to have 
 no part in the original division of the land ; yet the 
 other tribes were divinely ordered to assign to 
 them by gift, certain portions for cities, that is, 
 villages for them and their families to dwell in, with 
 suburbs for their cattle, &c. f In some instances too, 
 in the course of Providence, fields devoted fell into 
 their possession. Moreover, they might have prop- 
 erty by donation, by legacy, or by purchase, as had 
 Jeremiah and Barnabas, who were both of the tribe 
 of Levi. e 
 
 But what chiefly enriched and distinguished Aaron 
 and all the priests and Levites, was that God himself 
 was in their portion : /, said he to Aaron, as the re- 
 presentative of the rest, / am thy part and thine in- 
 heritance among the children of Israel* 
 
 Now, the prayer of Moses, that the Lord would 
 bless the substance of the Levites, may be under- 
 stood as a prayer, 
 
 1 . That he would make their portion abundant or 
 sufficient ; for it was to come by such means as 
 rendered it wholly and evidently dependent on his 
 will and providence. And, 
 
 2. That he would make this abundance or suffi- 
 ciency a blessing to them ; and so give them a com- 
 fortable as well as a plentiful subsistence ; for other- 
 wise even their blessings might have involved a 
 curse, as did those of the wicked priests in the days 
 of the latter prophets. 1 
 
 e Numb. ver. 7. 21. f Ibid. xxxv. 1 5. Lev. xxvii. 21. s Jer. 
 i. 1. xxxii. 29. Acts iv. 36, 37. b Num. xviii. 20, * Mai. ii. 1, 2 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 387 
 
 The things mentioned concerning the possessions 
 of the priests and Levites, were doubtless generally 
 typical ; but satisfactorily to apply them is consider- 
 ably difficult. In making the attempt, let us notice, 
 
 1. Those respecting the high-priest. 
 
 Had the high-priest himself no inheritance in the 
 earthly Canaan ? How, in this, could he typify Christ, 
 who is heir of all things ? Besides, the difficulty 
 seems increased when we recollect that Canaan is 
 called Immanuel's land. k Neverthelss, this circum- 
 stance in the condition of the high-priest, may re- 
 mind us 1. That Christ, as man, neither owned 
 nor claimed any portion of this earth : The Son 
 of man, said he, hath not where to lay his head.* 
 And 2. That as a king, his subjects are not of an 
 earthly or worldly character : My kingdom, said he, 
 is not of this world. The riches of the glory of 
 his inheritance is in the saints.* 
 
 Was the high-priest charged and privileged to 
 bring all his brethren, that is, all the Levites, (priests 
 and others,) into the sanctuary, to minister to him, 
 and with him to wait upon God 1 Let us be hereby 
 reminded, that the elect are all of the same chpsen 
 family with Christ, and therefore his brethren ; and 
 that, as Mediator, he is officially authorized and 
 charged by his heavenly Father, to bring them all, 
 both into a state of grace here and into a state of 
 glory hereafter. The obstacles, in reference to his 
 Father's law and justice, he has removed through 
 his obedience unto death? Herein he magnified the 
 
 k Is. viii. 8. l Matth. viii. 20. m John xviii. 36. n Eph. i. 18. 
 Heb. ii. 11. P Philip, ii. 8. 
 
388 LEVl'S StTBSTANCE BLESSED [sER. XII, 
 
 law and made it honorable ; and suffered the just for 
 the unjust, that he might bring us to God. q But 
 our calling, as well as our redemption, was, by 
 covenant-arrangement, confided to him. Hence, 
 believers are styled, The called of Jesus Christ.* 
 And having spoken of his called sheep among the 
 Jews, he said, other sheep I have which are not of 
 this fold ; meaning elect Gentiles : them also I must 
 bring; and (in order thereto) they shall hear my 
 voice ; and there shall be onefold, one gospel-church 
 state, including believing Gentiles with believing 
 Jews, and one shepherd, even himself.' Nor may 
 he abandon them after called ; but is charged with 
 the safe-keeping of their souls, and with the glori- 
 ous resurrection of their bodies. At their conver- 
 sion, they are returned to him as the Shepherd and 
 Bishop of their souls; and this, saith he, is the Fa- 
 ther's will who hath sent me, that of all which he 
 hath given me I should lose nothing, but should 
 raise it up again at the last day.* 
 
 The portion, too, which fell to the high-priest, 
 suggests an important thought. Was he to share 
 largely in all the oblations or sacrifices offered to 
 God ? How much more, does the Lord Jesus, our 
 divine and adorable High-priest, share in all the 
 spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving offered 
 by the saints. In offering these, both on earth and 
 in heaven, they were revealed to John, as standing 
 before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with 
 white robes, and palms in their hands, and crying 
 
 1 1s. xlii. 21. 1 Pet. iii. 18. r Rom. i. 6. John x. 16. Com. 
 Eph. ii. 14. 19. iii. 6. 1 Pet. ii. 25. * 1 Pet. ii. 25. John vi. 39. 
 x.28. 
 
8KR. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 389 
 
 with a loud voice, saying, " Salvation to our God 
 who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb"* 
 
 2. Those respecting the ordinary priests. 
 
 Like them, gospel-ministers (of whom they were 
 typical) are required to give themselves wholly to 
 their official work. w Like them, therefore, they can- 
 not, consistently with their sacred ministry, cultivate 
 fields and vineyards for their support ; and accord- 
 ingly, for them, as for the priests, God has made no 
 provision, that by virtue of their office they should 
 be entitled to landed estates. For although, like the 
 priests, they may lawfully have land, by donation or 
 legacy, or by means thus falling into their hands, 
 they may purchase land, as Jeremiah, though a 
 priest as well as a prophet, purchased the field of 
 his uncles's son in Anathoth ; x yet, nowhere in the 
 New-Testament, is it commanded or even suggested 
 that gospel-churches should thus enrich their pastors, 
 as a compensation for their services. Nevertheless, 
 as God expressly enjoined, that all the other tribes, 
 in proportion to their respective possessions, should 
 cede to the Levites cities to dwell in, with suburbs 
 for their cattle, and alloted to them and their house- 
 holds an ample supply of provisions, by tithes, offer- 
 ings and first-fruits ; so He has plainly revealed it 
 to be the duty of gospel-churches, according to their 
 circumstances, to provide for their pastors and their 
 families, if they have any. Toward this, what is 
 commonly called a parsonage, a tenement owned 
 by a church for the use of her pastor, is very con- 
 venient especially one adapted to a country situa- 
 tion, where a minister needs to keep a horse and 
 
 Rev. vii. 10. * Acts vi. 4. 1 Tim. iv. 15. * Jer. xxxii. 9, &c. 
 
390 LEVIES SUBSTANCE* BLESSED [sER, XII. 
 
 some other animals. Country-churches, therefore, 
 especially, would do well, if they can afford it, to 
 provide such accommodations for their pastors, or to 
 enable them to hire such for themselves. It should 
 be recollected, however, that pastors of churches, 
 like the Levitical priests, need not only habitations 
 for themselves and their families, but also, at least, 
 food and raiment convenient for them ; and that 
 gospel-churches, like the tribes of Israel, should, by 
 their liberality, enable those whose lives are devoted 
 to their service, to procure for themselves and fami- 
 lies, these requisites to comfort and decency. This 
 is reducing the expectations of gospel-ministers to 
 the mere necessaries of life. But are they not, from 
 the churches they serve, entitled to more 1 As their 
 ministry is not, like that of the priests, hereditary, 
 and, as usually they have no estates to leave to their 
 children, should they not be enabled to give them 
 the requisite opportunities for acquiring a good 
 education, and the knowledge of such employments, 
 professional, mercantile or mechanical, as they sever- 
 ally choose that so, by industry and economy, they 
 might obtain an honest living and a reputable stand- 
 ing in society 1 
 
 That men called of God to devote their whole 
 time to the work of the ministry, are entitled to 
 a comfortable maintenance from those they serve, 
 is evident from the observations of Paul in relation 
 to this matter. He, it is true, for reasons which he 
 specified, declined such support for himself; yet, by 
 various allusions and appropriate similies, he most 
 clearly and forcibly illustrated the duty of churches 
 to furnish it, and the right of ministers to receive it. 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 391 
 
 Are ministers soldiers 1 Who, asks the apostle, goeth 
 a warfare any time at his own charges ? Are they 
 instrumental in planting or increasing churches, 
 which are comparable to vineyards I Who, inquires 
 he, planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit 
 thereof '? Are they feeders of their respective flocks, 
 over the which the Holy Ghost hath made them over- 
 seers 1 Who, demands he,feedeth a flock, and eateth 
 not of the milk of the flock ? Suggesting that faith- 
 ful ministers, in studying the Scriptures, and in open- 
 ing up and preaching the truths contained in them 
 to their hearers, resemble oxen, employed in plow- 
 ing the ground and treading or threshing out the 
 corn for their owners, the apostle argued their right 
 to a support, even from the law in favor of oxen : It 
 is written in the law of Moses, (Deut. xxv. 4.) Thou 
 shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth 
 out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen ? Or 
 saith he it altogether for our sakes ? for our sakes, 
 no doubt, this is written : that he that ploiceth should 
 plow in hope : and that he that thresheth in hope, 
 should be partaker of his hope. The apostle, too, 
 considered the temporal maintenance due from the 
 churches of Christ to their ministers, as a very small 
 matter compared with the spiritual benefit which 
 they enjoy through their instrumentality : If, saith 
 he, we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a 
 great thing if we shall reap your carnal things 1 He 
 reminded them also, that false teachers were receiv- 
 ing more than they who taught the truth : If others, 
 meaning the false apostles, be partakers of this power 
 over you, (while disseminating error among them,) are 
 not we, (himself and Barnabas,) entitled to it, rather 
 
 52 
 
392 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED [sER. XIK 
 
 than they 1 Nevertheless we have not used this power ; 
 but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel 
 of Christ. Thus, to the present day, and even in 
 lands called Christian, there are places where 
 only to name, and much more to urge, the duty of 
 the people to contribute toward the support of those 
 who preach to them, would hinder the acceptance of 
 the gospel among them ; and where, therefore, gos- 
 pel-ministers, (unless supported by other churches, as 
 Paul was while he preached at Corinth, 2 Cor. xi. 8.) 
 must maintain themselves and families by manual 
 labor. The right, however, of gospel-ministers to a 
 maintenance from those whonf they serve a the apostle 
 precedes to show from the very type before us, that is, 
 the maintenance of the Levitical priests : Do ye not 
 know, saith he, that they who minister about holy 
 things live of the things of the temple 1 and they 
 who wait at the altar are partakers with the al- 
 tar ? Even so, continues he, hath the Lord ordained, 
 that they who preach the gospel should live of the 
 gospel. See 1 Cor. ix. 7 14. and comp. 1 Tim. 
 v. 18.* 
 
 3. Not only the priests, but the other Levites al- 
 so, were to be constantly employed in the service of 
 the sanctuary, and therefore had their portion, not 
 in land but in things sacred. 
 
 Hence, private Christians, of whom these Levites 
 were typical, should remember 1. That they, as 
 well as ministers, ought to be constant in waiting 
 
 * On this subject I always speak the more freely, because it is 
 well known that I am not speaking for myself; the church I serve 
 having constantly and sufficiently provided for me and mine. 
 
[SER. XII. AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 393 
 
 upon God, not only in private and in their families, 
 but also in the sanctuary. 2. That they, as well as 
 their ministers, are required to take a habitual, a spe- 
 cial and always a primary concern in promoting the 
 welfare of Zion. So said Christ to his disciples : 
 Seek first the kingdom of God. And 3. That, 
 although they are not, like the Levites, and, like 
 gospel-ministers, prevented, by their station, from 
 pursuing husbandry or other avocations for a liveli- 
 hood ; yet, that they should not be earthly minded, 
 nor anxious to accumulate earthly things as their 
 portion : Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
 earth, 8fc. As the portion of the Levites consisted 
 not in land, but in things holy ; so the portion of 
 the saints consists, not in earth and earthly things, 
 but in grace and glory. Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. The in- 
 heritance to which they are heirs, is incorruptible, 
 undefiled smdfadeth not away. 1 Pet. i. 4. 
 
 But, my believing hearers, the better to reconcile 
 us to our temporal conditions, let us take another 
 view of the portion of the priests and Levites. 
 
 1. The high-priest, as noticed before, had all the 
 inferior priests and all the Levites, given to him ; 
 see Num. xviii, 6 ; so, for our comfort, let us recol- 
 lect, that, if true Kelievers, whether gospel-ministers 
 or private Christians, we are of those whom God the 
 Father gave to Christ, as his peculiar treasure, and 
 that we are his special and perpetual care. Christ, 
 indeed, is Heir of all things ; yet the riches of the 
 glory of his inheritance is in the saints. Eph. i. 18. 
 Nor can he be deprived of them; I give unto them, 
 eternal life, saith he, and adds, they shall never per- 
 
394 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII. 
 
 ish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. 
 John x. 28. 
 
 2. The priests and Levites in common, had a 
 portion in the sacrifices, both by way of atone- 
 ment and of nourishment; see Levit. xvi. and Num. 
 xviii. So, let ministers and all other believers recol- 
 lect, that they are interested in the great Antitype 
 of all the sacrifices, Christ himself that through 
 him all their sins are atoned for and blotted out, and 
 that, as believers in him, they live upon him; to 
 them, his flesh is meat indeed and his Hood is drink 
 indeed. John vi. 55. What if God, then, see fit 
 to bestow the larger share of temporal things upon 
 the men of the world, that have their portion in this 
 life, he has, nevertheless, bestowed upon his people 
 what is infinitely better, even his dear Son, and has 
 thereby given us the strongest assurance possible, 
 that he will not withhold from us any real good : 
 for He that spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also 
 freely give us all things ? Rom. viii. 32. 
 
 3. The priests had one portion peculiar to them- 
 selves : they had a tythe out of the tythes of the Le- 
 vites ; which being offered to the Lord, fell to the 
 priesthood. Num. xviii. 26 28. Thus gospel-min- 
 isters indirectly share in all that God's people receive 
 under their ministry ; for, both in their calling and in 
 their subsequent edification, we behold that, as instru- 
 ments, our labor is not in vain in the Lord ; we are 
 ministers, brethren, by whom ye believed* we are 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 5. 
 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 395 
 
 comforted in your comfort? and we live, that is, we 
 are animated and joyful, if ye stand fast in the 
 Lords But, 
 
 4. To remove all occasion for murmuring or dis- 
 pondency, in Aaron in the inferior priests, or in the 
 common Levites, God let them know that he himself 
 was in their portion ; for, to Aaron, as personating 
 the whole tribe, he said, I am thy part and thy in- 
 heritance.* The same is true of Christ and the 
 church. The Father having by an everlasting 
 covenant, become the God of Christ, as man and 
 Mediator, says of the elect, as represented in him, 
 / will be their God, and they shall be my people.* 
 The called among them, know and acknowledge 
 him as such : This God, say they, is our God for 
 ever and ever : he will be our Guide, even unto death. 
 And, though they have many enemies to encounter, 
 and, in this life, when compared with other men, 
 may seem to be under some disadvantages ; yet their 
 covenant-interest in God, makes them secure of 
 victory and of infinite gain : God is their shield from 
 every foe, and their exceeding great reward^ To 
 the church, nay to every believer, He is saying, 
 Fear thou not ; for lam with thee ; be not dismayed, 
 for I am thy God : I, even /, am he that comforteth 
 you : who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a 
 man that shall die, and of the son of man that shall 
 be made as grass, and jforgettest the Lord thy 
 Maker, &c. h In this covenant-relation to God, 
 Christ, both for himself and his people, rejoiced; 
 
 b 2 Cor. vii. 13. ' 1 Thess. iii. 8. d Num. xviii. 20. Jer. 
 xxxi. 33. * Psal. xlviii. 14. e Gen. xv. 1. h Is. xli. 10. li. 12, 13. 
 
396 LBVl'a SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII. 
 
 saying to his disciples, I ascend unto my Father and 
 your Father ; and to my God and your God. 1 
 
 It remains to be shown, under this head, how God 
 according to the prophetic prayer of Moses, blesses 
 the substance of Levi, mystically considered. In 
 this view of the subject, as noticed already, the high- 
 priest, the head of the sacerdotal tribe, was a type 
 of Christ, who is the Head of the church, and by 
 whom all true believers are made priests unto God; 
 wherefore, in blessing the church, both ministers 
 and private members, God blesses the substance, the 
 portion of Christ.* 
 
 For this he made ample provision, when he blessed 
 us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, or 
 things, in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in 
 him before the foundation of the world, that, by his 
 gracious influence upon us, ice should be holy and 
 without blame before him in love. k 
 
 1 John xx. 17. 
 
 * As the nation of Israel, in common, so each tribe thereof, in 
 certain respects, was a type of the church. See Ser. vi. p. 224, &c. 
 Thus, for instance, while the chosen nation, as such, was a figure 
 of God's elect, (see Dent. vii. 6. Is. xlv. 25. and Rom. xi. 26.) the 
 tribe of Levi in particular, as separated and consecrated to pecu- 
 liar service, may justly be viewed as a type of the regenerate; who 
 are separated and devoted to God, and of whom, ministers answer 
 to the priests, and private Christians, to the other Levites. See Is. 
 Ixvi. 21. So, in the New Testament, believers are styled the catted 
 of Jesus Christ, in distinction from his redeemed, remaining in a 
 etate of nature, Rom. i. 6. Nor is it any objection to this distinc- 
 tion, that the whole nation, as called out of Egypt, is alluded to as 
 a type of those called out of darkness into marvelous light; 1 Pet. 
 ii. 9; for, in the dispensation of the fulness oj times, this will be 
 realized in all the elect. Eph. i. 10. 
 
 k Eph. i. 3, 4. 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 397 
 
 But he blesses us experimentally, when, by his 
 Spirit, he reveals Christ, with all these blessings in 
 him, as by covenant made over to us. By this mani- 
 festation of Christ to our souls, whether at first con- 
 version or at an after period, we discover, that in 
 having him we have alt things richly to enjoy ; that 
 he is of God made unto us Wisdom, and Righteous- 
 ness, and Sanctification, and Redemption ; l that he 
 is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS"" the sacrifice 
 for our sins" the fountain open for our cleansing 
 the source of our life p and the depository of all 
 our supplies. i Thus God blesses the church, which 
 is the substance or portion of Christ, by making 
 Christ, who is the substance or portion of the church, 
 a blessing unto her ; and which he does indeed, by 
 revealing and applying his fulness to her members. 
 Herein, according to his gracious promise made to 
 the church, He abundantly blesses her provision, and 
 satisfies her poor with bread/ 
 
 To procede. Moses, in behalf of Levi, prays, 
 II. For the acceptance of his services : And ac- 
 cept the work of his hands ; that is, the work of 
 Aaron and of all the priests, in offering sacrifices 
 and presenting incense, and the work of the other 
 Levites also, in all their services pertaining to the 
 
 I Tabernacle and Temple. The priests and Levites, 
 like all other men, were imperfect ; yet Mosey prayed 
 and thereby predicted, that God would accept their 
 work, their various service, performed in an official 
 way, by his appointment. The answer, too, of this 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 30. m Jer. xxiii. 6. n Heb. x. 10. Zech. xiii. 1. 
 P Col. iii. 4. i 1bid. i. 19. ' Psal. cxxxii. 15. 
 
398 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII. 
 
 prophetic prayer is manifest from the sacred records ; 
 which abundantly show, that the work of the priests 
 and Levites in common, though it consisted in car- 
 nal ordinances, was, nevertheless, to the ends for 
 which it was designed, acceptable to God, when 
 performed agreeably to his direction. 8 
 
 Here the typical design is obvious and full of en- 
 couragement. For, 
 
 1 . The work) the offering of our great High-priest, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, was acceptable and grateful 
 to his heavenly Father ; even an offering and a sa- 
 crifice to Gody for a sweet-smelling savor. That 
 the sacrifice of Christ was accepted of the Father, 
 as a satisfactory atonement for the sins of the elect, 
 is manifest in that he raised him from the dead and 
 received him to glory. Him, " who was delivered 
 for our offenses and raised again for our justifica- 
 tion,' ?t hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Sa- 
 viour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgive- 
 ness of sins." The same is also apparent from the 
 intercession of Christ ; which, being made in behalf 
 of those for whom he died and rose again, is ever- 
 availing. Who, then, shall lay any thing to the 
 charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth. 
 Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, 
 yea rather that is risen again, who is ever at the right 
 hand of God, who also maketh intercession for 
 us. w 
 
 2. The work of gospel-ministers is acceptable to 
 God. This appears by the sanction which he has 
 
 Exo. xl. 34. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. Mai. iii. 4. 'Rom. iv. 25. 
 Acts v. 31. w Rom. viii. 33, 34. 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 399 
 
 given to the gospel, as preached by them. The 
 apostles preached it with the power of the Holy 
 Ghost sent down from heaven* And, as then, so 
 ever since, the hand of the Lord being with the 
 faithful preachers of it, many have believed, and 
 turned unto the LordJ Often too, our poor labors 
 are rendered the means of refreshing those who 
 have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Directed 
 and animated by the Holy Spirit, like Paul and 
 others, we are helpers of your joys But whether 
 the messages of truth we deliver, be believed or dis- 
 believed on earth, our work, if faithfully performed, 
 is acceptable in heaven: for we are unto God a 
 sweet savor of Christ, both in them that are saved, 
 and in them that perish* And, 
 
 3. The work of all private Christians, no less than 
 that of gospel-ministers, when rightly done, is ac- 
 cepted. Such their scriptural worship : herein they 
 offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, by 
 Jesus Christ.* Such their various liberality toward 
 the cause and the poor of the Lord : For God, saith 
 the apostle to believers, is not unrighteous to forget 
 your icork and labor of love, which ye have showed 
 toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the 
 saints and do minister ; and, the more to excite and 
 encourage us therein, he adds, to do good and to 
 communicate, forget not ; for with such sacrifices 
 God is well pleased.^ Nay, even our civil avoca- 
 tions, pursued from right motives and in proper de- 
 grees, meet the divine approbation and blessing: 
 
 * 1 Pet. i. 12. y Acts xi. 21. 2 Cor. i. 24. a 2 Cor. ii. 15. 
 * 1 Pet. it 5. c Heb. vt 10. xiii. 16. 
 
 53 
 
400 LEVI'S SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII. 
 
 for we are exhorted not to be slothful in business, 
 that we may provide things honest in the sight of all 
 men; d and are reminded, that it is more blessed to 
 give than to receive.* Nor should it be forgotten, 
 that, as the acceptableness of our worship does not 
 depend on the splendor of our gifts ; so neither does 
 the acceptableness of our contributions depend on 
 the abundance we may have it in our power to com- 
 municate ; but on the disposition with which we 
 give ; for if there be Jlrst a willing mind, it is ac 
 cepted according to that a man hath! 
 
 In behalf of Levi, Moses moreover prays, 
 III. For the effectual conquest of his enemies ; 
 saying to God, Smite through the loins of them that 
 rise against him, and of them that hate him, that 
 they rise not again. The priests and Levites were 
 appointed of God, to officiate in sacred service, for 
 the honor of his name and the welfare of his chosen 
 nation. Nevertheless, this prophetic prayer im- 
 plies, 
 
 1. That they would have opposers them that 
 would rise against them. Such had been the com- 
 panies of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram ; who, 
 though Israelites themselves, and chiefly Levites, 
 were ambitious of undue preferment ambitious of 
 the priesthood ; and therefore rose up against, not 
 only the ordinary priests, but against Aaron, the 
 high-priest, under whom the inferior priests and Le- 
 vites were employed; nay, against Moses also, and 
 thereby against God himself, whom Moses, in some 
 instances, represented. See Num. xvi. And in 
 
 / 
 * Rom. xii. 11, 17. Acts xx. 35, '2 Cor. viii. 12, 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 401 
 
 like manner, at divers times and places under the 
 present dispensation, companies of professors have 
 risen up in contempt of the divine institution of the 
 gospel-ministry, all claiming an equal right with 
 them, to officiate in preaching the word and admi- 
 nistering ordinances, a work which God hath as- 
 signed to men, whom he specially qualifies for it 
 and calls to perform it. Such professors, in effect, 
 say to the Lord's ministers, as Korah and his asso- 
 ciates said to Moses and Aaron, Ye take too much 
 upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every 
 one of them, and the Lord is among them : where- 
 fore then lift ye up yourselves above the congrega- 
 tion of the Lord ?e All the congregation of Israel, 
 it is true, were relatively holy, God having chosen 
 that nation, and by covenant taken it, as such, into 
 a peculiar relation to himself ; h nevertheless, the 
 charge and service of the sanctuary, he had speci- 
 ally assigned to the tribe of Lev?, and of them, 
 had chosen and separated the house of Aaron ex- 
 clusively, to the office of the priesthood. 11 And so, 
 although all the elect were sanctified, or set apart 
 from the rest of mankind, by God the Father^ and 
 preserved by Jesus Christ, and, in due time, are all 
 called and made partakers of true holiness ; l and 
 though all the called are spiritual Israelites, and, as 
 such, are entitled to the privileges and bound to take 
 an interest in the charge and worship of the New^ 
 Testament sanctuary, the gospel-church ; yet, in all 
 generations, comparatively but few of them are ma- 
 nifested to be divinely chosen, qualified and called 
 
 * Num. xvi. 3. h Exo. xix. 5 8 Deut. vii. 6. 9. * Num. xviii* 
 23. k Exo. xxviii. 1. ! Jucle ver. 1, and Eph. iv. 24. 
 
402 Lfctl'S StfcSTANCE BLE&SEb [SER. Xll. 
 
 to officiate in the gospel- ministry. Are all apostles ? 
 are all prophets ? are all teachers ? m Certainly not. 
 2. That they (the priests and Levites of regular 
 deportment) would have enemies as well as oppo- 
 sers them that would hate them. Yet the ill-will 
 which any felt toward their persons, was on account 
 of their work ; and as their work was assigned -to 
 them of God, all opposition made to them, in the 
 performance of it, was rebellion against Him, by 
 whose authority they acted.* Thus all the ill-will 
 that Satan and those influenced by him, have, at any 
 time or in any way, manifested against gospel-min- 
 isters, has not been so much against their persons as 
 against their official work, or rather against the doc- 
 trine which they have professed and preached. This 
 doctrine, however, is not theirs but Christ's, even 
 that doctrine which he, as Mediator, received from 
 the Father who sent him ; John vii. 16. Christ, 
 therefore, regards all the persecutors, both of his min- 
 isters, for preaching his doctrine, and of his other 
 disciples, for believing it, as being influenced by ha- 
 tred against himself and his Father : If they have 
 persecuted me, said he to his followers, they will 
 persecute you but all these things will they do unto 
 you for my name's sake, because they know not him 
 thai sent me. He that hateth me, hateth my Father 
 also. The secret of all is, that the carnal mind, 
 whether in hypocrites or in non-professors, is enmi- 
 ty against God p against God both essential and 
 personal ; and therefore, against Father, Son, and 
 Holy Ghost. q 
 
 01 Cor. xii. 29. a Num. xvii, 10. Q John xv, 2023. P Rona* 
 tii. 7. t Matt. xii. 24. 31, 32. 
 
feER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 403 
 
 Prompted by this enmity against the Son, the gen- 
 eration among whom he tabernacled on earth, spake 
 all manner of evil against him. The rabble, to re- 
 proach him among their equals, said of him, Be- 
 hold, a man gluttonous, and a wine-bibber* the 
 Pharisees, to lesson the fame of his miracles, accu- 
 sed him of being in collusion with Beelzebub, the 
 prince of the devils 5 and the chief priests, to give 
 vent to their satanic rancor, called him, That deceiv- 
 er* 
 
 The same enmity, too, was felt and manifested by 
 many, against the apostles and other ministers of 
 Christ, because they espoused his interest and preach- 
 ed his doctrine. To excite popular prejudice against 
 them, and especially against the gospel itself, many 
 said of them, These men that have turned the world 
 upside down are come hither also as though wher- 
 ever they came, they were the disturbers of the pub- 
 lic peace, and, as such, the pests of the common- 
 wealth. 11 
 
 Nor could even private Christians, because they 
 acknowledged Christ and received his doctrine, es* 
 cape the serpentine tongue of slander : concerning 
 this sect, the Christian community, ice know, said the 
 Jews to Paul, that every where it is spoken against.* 
 And who that has read the subsequent history of the 
 church, and observed the movements of the enemy 
 in our own times, does not know, that the name, the 
 gospel, the ministers, and all the consistent disciples 
 of Christ, have, in like manner, been maligned and 
 
 r Matt. xi. 19. Ibid, xii* 24. Ubid. xxvii. 63. u Acts xvii< 
 6. w Acts xxviii. 22. 
 
404 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED [SER. XII* 
 
 vilified ever since, and especially by false brethren, 
 carnal professors, unawares brought in ?* Nor is this 
 any more than we ought to expect ; Christ and his 
 apostles having foretold it ; Ye shall be hated of all 
 nations, said Christ to his disciples, for my name's 
 sake,y If ye suffer for righteousness 1 sake, said Peter, 
 happy are ye, adding, be not afraid of their terror, 
 neither be troubled* Yea, all that will live godly in 
 Christ Jesus, said Paul, shall suffer persecutions 
 Many, it is true, are excellent moralists, and seem 
 to live godly, who, nevertheless pass under general 
 favor ; but, alas, they are not in Christ Jesus, and 
 therefore not objects of Satan's envy ; but " all that," 
 from a principle of grace wrought in them, will, that 
 is, desire and strive, to live godly, being in Christ 
 Jesus, by vital union to him and a true faith in him, 
 shall suffer persecution, in one way or another. 
 This prayer, however, must be understood, 
 3. As a prediction of the effectual conquest of all 
 Levi's opposers and enemies ; for the Spirit by which 
 Moses prayed was the Spirit of prophecy, by which 
 he could pray for nothing but what God designed to 
 grant. Now, moved by this Spirit, Moses, in behalf 
 Levi, prayed to God, saying, smite through the loins 
 of them that rise against him, and of them that 
 hate him, that they rise not again. Among the suc- 
 cessive instances in which this prophetic prayer was 
 answered, a remarkable one occured in king Saul; 
 for when he rose up as the opposer and enemy of 
 the Lord's priests, he thereby filled the cup of his 
 
 * 2 Cor. xi. 26. Gal. ii. 4. y Matt. xxiv. 9. z I Pet. iii. 14, 
 * 2 Tim. iii. 12. 
 
WBR. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 405 
 
 iniquity and hastened the approach of his own ruin ; 
 he was presently abandoned of God overcome by 
 the Philistines and suffered, at the instigation of 
 Satan, to thrust himself though with his ownsword. b 
 
 Nor did this prophecy any less respect, the oppo- 
 sers and enemies of Christ, his ministers and his 
 church. These also, God would eventually smite 
 through, in such manner, that, as opposers, they 
 should not rise again. 
 
 This God does, in some instances, in a way of 
 grace ; for when he is pleased to regenerate the 
 greatest opposers and persecutors, he thereby so 
 effectually smites them through, that they never 
 again rise up as the enemies, but become the friends 
 of Christ and his people. Witness Saul of Tarsus. 
 
 More generally, however, he smites them through 
 in a way of wrath. In this view of the prophecy, it 
 contains an allusion to the ruin of Korah, Dathan, 
 and Abiram; for as God had awfully destroyed 
 them, so he would destroy the future enemies of Le- 
 vi, and especially the enemies of Christ and his 
 church. Such was the fate of the persecuting Jews, 
 when, at the destruction of Jerusalem, wrath came 
 upon them to the uttermost* Such will be the fate 
 of 'mystical Babylon, when, like the mill-stone which 
 a mighty angel cast into the sea, she shall be thrown 
 down, and shall be found no more at aU. d And such, 
 ultimately, must be the doom of all who live and die 
 enemies to the ministers and church of Christ ; for 
 all such Christ regards as enemies both to himself 
 
 b 1 Sam. xxii. 17. 18. and xxi. 16. c 1 Thess. ii. 16. Re?, 
 xviii. 21. Comp. Jer. li. 63, 64. 
 
406 LEVIES SUBSTANCE BLESSED [sER. XII. 
 
 and his Father. He, saith Christ to his disciples, 
 that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that dcspii- 
 ethmc, despiseth him that sent me. Luke x. 16. 
 From the subject, 
 
 1 . Let us, my believing hearers, learn that, what- 
 ever of a worldly nature may be denied us, we have 
 a goodly heritage : God himself, as heretofore shown, 
 is our inheritance. 
 
 2. Let us, whether ministers or private Christians, 
 be excited cheerfully to engage in the duties and pri- 
 vileges of our respective stations ; recollecting that 
 our persons being made accepted in the Beloved, 
 our various services also are accepted and acceptable 
 through him. 1 Pet. ii. 5. And, 
 
 3. Let us, my ministering brethren, and let all 
 that have obtained like precious faith with us, learn 
 not to be discouraged by the persecutions and revi- 
 lings of enemies. Sufferings for Christ's sake are 
 inseparable from that faith in him which is the gift 
 of God : unto you, saith Paul, to those who possess 
 this faith, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only 
 to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.* 
 And the more to reconcile us thereto, the same apos- 
 tle exhorts us to recollect, that Christ himself was 
 treated in like manner : Consider him that endur- 
 ed such contradiction of sinners against himself, 
 lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds. e 
 
 Nor should we meditate revenge on those who 
 injure us, but leave them at the disposal of him who 
 hath said, vengeance is mine I will repay ; and who, 
 in his own time and way, will smite through their 
 
 Philip, i. 29. * Heb. xii. 3. 
 
 
SER. XII.] AND HIS ENEMIES VANQUISHED. 407 
 
 loins, that they rise not again to annoy us. Thus ac- 
 ting, we shall imitate Christ ; who, when he was revi- 
 led, reviled not again ; and when he suffered, though 
 his enemies were all in his power, he threatened not ; 
 but committed himself to him that judgeth right- 
 eously.* 
 
 Recollecting how much better it is to be persecu- 
 ted than to be persecutors, let us rejoice in our 
 lot. Christians ! think how unhappy your enemies 
 are, and you will not try to make them more so. 
 They are trudging from house to house from post 
 to pillar, and from village to village, burdened with 
 fabricated stories and vilifying pamphlets, and dis- 
 tracted with the ravings of malice, envy, and disap- 
 pointment. Truly the wicked are as the troubled 
 sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire 
 and dirt.z Think, too, how deluded some of them 
 are ! They talk of a fire within, and would have 
 their readers and hearers to suppose it is the fire of 
 a holy jealousy for the Lord of Hosts ; but, alas, there 
 is much reason to fear, it is what an apostle calls the 
 fire of hell. h It is a fire by which they are working, 
 and, if grace prevent not, must accomplish their own 
 ruin, temporal and eternal ; it disturbs their repose, 
 exhausts their strength, impairs their health, sears 
 their conscience, and thus hurries them on toward 
 death and destruction. The fire of thine enemies, 
 saith Isaiah to the Lord, or rather, to the church, 
 shall devour them. 1 It devours their present com- 
 forts. Often, too, it breaks out in such fury as to 
 manifest its true character to all who behold its 
 
 f 1 Pet. ii. 23. B Is. Ivii. 20. h Jas. iii. 6. * Is. xxvi. Ill 1 
 
 54 
 
408 LEVl's SUBSTANCE BLESSED. [SER. Xlt* 
 
 flashes ; and thereby, to their deep regret, it defeats 
 the object both of him who kindles it and of those 
 who emit it. Or if, in other instances or in other 
 persons, it acts with more moderation, it, neverthe- 
 less, prompts them to the adoption of such measures, 
 as, for art and cunning, for intrigue and deception, 
 cannot be distinguished from the wiles of the devils 
 Nay, though it may assume a pretence to prophecy 
 yea, may excite its possessors to be at the expense of 
 hiring prophets far and near, to confirm its oracular 
 authority, or though the prophets, partaking of the 
 same fire, may volunteer their services, for the luxury 
 of doing evil; still, poor creatures, they must fail; for 
 there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is 
 there any divination against Israel, that can pre- 
 vail. 1 Surely they are not to be envied, but pitied. 
 Their labour, however arduous and however zeal- 
 ously pursued, is to them only an evident token of 
 perdition, but to us of salvation, and that of God 
 All our hope concerning them is, that/ in some in- 
 stances, God, with whom we leave them, strikes 
 through the loins of such in a way of grace. O that 
 this, my brethren, may be the happy lot of my ene- 
 mies and yours ! But, if the Judge of all see pro- 
 per to deal with them in a way of penal retribution, 
 it becomes us to acquiesce in his will ; seeing that it 
 is a righteous thing with God, to recompense tribu- 
 lation to them that trouble his people." Just and 
 true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Rev. xv. 3. 
 
 k Eph. vi. 11. * Num. xxiji. 23. Comp. Isa. liv. 1517. PhiL 
 i. 28. n 1 Thess. i. 6. 
 
SERMON XIII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 
 
 DEUT. xxxiii. 12. And of Benjamin lie said, The beloved of the 
 Lord shall dwell in safety by him ; and the Lord shall cover him 
 all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders* 
 
 HERE, as in verse seventh, we perceive, that the 
 Spirit of prophecy in Moses, when pronouncing these 
 blessings upon the tribes of Israel, did not always 
 follow the order in which their respective patriarchs 
 descended from their common progenitor. For, 
 as among Jacob's sons by Leah, Judah, though the 
 fourth, is placed next to Reuben, the first ; so here, 
 of his sons by Rachel, Benjamin, the younger, is 
 placed before Joseph, the elder. 
 
 The reasons, however, in the two cases are dif- 
 ferent. In the former, respect was had to compara- 
 tive dignity. And as, in a civil point of view, the 
 honors of royalty, which belonged to Judah, were 
 superior to those of the priesthood, which belonged 
 to Levi, the tribe of Judah, the fourth in descent 
 from Jacob, is mentioned before the tribe of Levi, 
 the third in that descent. But in the latter case, 
 respect is had 1, To the adjacency of posses- 
 sions in the land of Canaan. For, as the land was 
 to be divided among the tribes by lot, the whole dis- 
 posing whereof is of the Lord,* it well became Him 
 whose understanding is infinite, to influence the 
 prophet, to mention the tribes in the same order in 
 
 Rw.zvi.33. 
 
 \ 
 
410 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [sER. XIII. 
 
 which He designed, by the lot, to divide and arrange 
 their portions ; that, by thus coinciding, the prophecy 
 and the lot, though at least fifteen years apart, might 
 serve mutually to confirm and illustrate each other, 
 and that it might thereby be evident, that both were 
 from HIM, who is in one mind, and cannot be 
 turned. b Accordingly, Levi having, as you have 
 lately heard, no landed inheritance in Canaan, Ben- 
 jamin, among the tribes which had such inheri- 
 tances there, is mentioned next to Judah, and im- 
 mediately before Joseph ; because his inheritance lay 
 between the inheritance of Judah and that of Joseph, 
 and contiguous to each. See Josh, xviii. 10, 11. 2. 
 To the site of the temple ; which, if not within the 
 lot of Benjamin, was very near it, in the lot of Judah. 
 The latter is the more probable. See Psal. Ixxviii. 
 68. 69.* Either supposition, however, furnishes an 
 obvious reason why Benjamin is mentioned before 
 Joseph. And 3. To the city of Jerusalem; upon 
 which, as it was the holy city and a type of the 
 church^ God would bestow more honor than upon 
 Samaria, the capital of the ten tribes, fallen into 
 idolatry . d Now Jerusalem stood partly on the por- 
 tion of Judah and partly on that of Benjamin ; and 
 accordingly, was reckoned, sometimes to the for- 
 mer* and sometimes to the latter;* whereas Sa- 
 maria was in the inheritance of Ephraim, a branch 
 of the house of Josephs Hence another and a very 
 
 b Job. xxiii. 13. c Neh. xi. 1. Gal. iv. 26. Heb. xii. 22. Rev. 
 xi. 2. d Is. vii. 9. Hosea viii- 5, 6. e Josh. xv. 8. 63. f Ibid, 
 xviii. 28. Judg. i. 21. Is. ix. 9. Josh. xiv. 4. 
 
 * Dr. Lightfoot, upon the authority of talmudic authors, referred 
 to in his Works, (Vol. I. p. 1050,) says of the sacred buildings, 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 411 
 
 important reason why Benjamin, in this prophetic 
 chapter, is mentioned before his elder brother Jo- 
 seph, and (among the land-holding tribes) next to 
 Judah, with whom he was interested in the chosen 
 city. Besides 4. When the ten tribes followed 
 Jeroboam and his idolatrous worship, Benjamin and 
 Judah, under Rehoboam, cleaved to each other, and 
 to the temple and worship of God. Most fitly, 
 therefore, were these two tribes, in commendation of 
 their loyalty, fraternal affection, and persevering 
 piety, thus honorably associated in their portions 
 and their privileges ; having both the holy city and 
 the temple itself upon their adjoining borders, with 
 none but the landless priests and Levites residing 
 between them, and these adhering to them, and offi- 
 ciating for them. See 2 Chron. xi. 1,11, 12, 13, 14. 
 
 In discoursing on the blessing of Benjamin, I shall, 
 in my usual way, consider it, 
 
 I. LITERALLY. And of Benjamin he said, that 
 is, Moses, speaking by the Spirit of prophecy, said 
 of him, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety 
 by him ; and the Lord shall cover him all the day 
 long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. 
 
 The tribe of Benjamin, is here called The beloved 
 of the Lord, either as The Lord loved the people of 
 
 14 most part of the courts was in the portion of Judah, but the al- 
 tar, porch, temple, T and most holy place, were in the portion of Ben- 
 jamin." And again, referring to authorities of the same class, 
 (Vol. II. p. 21,) he says, " The distinguishing line," (meaning that 
 between Judah and Benjamin) " went through the very court of 
 the temple;" leaving to Judah, " the mountain of the temple, the 
 chambers of them that kept it, [and] the courts ;" and to Benjamin, 
 " the porch of the temple, and the temple; and the holy of holies." 
 
412 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [gER XIII* 
 
 Israel in common, 11 or rather, with reference to the 
 special love wherewith Jacob loved Benjamin his 
 son, the head of this tribe ; Jacob's love for him, 
 being not merely natural and paternal, but also su- 
 pernatural and prophetical ; and therefore an indica- 
 tion that the Lord loved him. 1 
 
 Benjamin, " The beloved of the Lord," or, being 
 beloved of the Lord, as some, after the Septuagintfi 
 choose to render it, " shall dwell in safety by him," 
 that is, by the Lord. The literal meaning seems to 
 be this : the temple, as already noticed, stood if not 
 within the border of Benjamin, yet very near it, upon 
 the adjacent border of Judah, or perhaps on the very 
 line between the two ; and, as the Shecheenah, the 
 special symbol of the Lord's presence, dwelt in the 
 temple, Benjamin, as dwelling by that, dwelt by the 
 Lord. Hence his safety; for all that dwell near the 
 Lord, are safe as well as happy : The Lord of hosts 
 is with them, the God of Jacob is their refuge. 
 Psal. xlvi. 7. 
 
 " And," farther to account for the safe-keeping of 
 Benjamin, " the Lord," (adds the prophet,) " shall 
 cover him all the day long" meaning, either "all the 
 day" literally, or " all the day" figuratively, and this 
 whether a day of prosperity or a day of adversity, each 
 having its appropriate dangers ; or, more generally, 
 all the day long of the Jewish dispensation. 
 
 " And," to complete the clim ax of Benjamin's safe- 
 ty, " he shall dwell between," or upon " his shoul- 
 ders." They who suppose that the temple was erect- 
 
 h Context, ver. 3. ' l Gen. xliv. 20. 30. and xlix. 27. 
 
 * 'HyoMr"/)|xs'vo utfo 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 413 
 
 ed within the lot of Benjamin, explain this clause of 
 the Lord's dwelling between or upon the shoulders 
 of Benjamin. " The temple, the Lord's habitation," 
 say they, " stood upon Benjamin's hills, like a man's 
 head upon his shoulders." Thus, poetically, shoul- 
 ders are ascribed to mount Atlas. The words, how- 
 ever, much more naturally suggest the very contrary ; 
 namely, that Benjamin should dwell between, or 
 upon the Lord's shoulders ; and which, no doubt, is 
 the true sense of the prediction. And, so under- 
 stood, our text serves happily to illustrate and con- 
 firm the prophecy of Jacob, delivered more than two 
 hundred years before, concerning this tribe : Benja- 
 min, said he, shall ravin like a wolf; in the morning 
 he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide 
 the spoil. Gen. xlix. 27. Benjamin, therefore, was 
 to be preserved day and night. And accordingly, 
 Moses in the text, says, The Lord shall cover him, 
 that is, protect him all the day long, meaning the 
 whole natural day of twenty-four hours, and which 
 is to be understood as an emblem of the whole 
 Jewish dispensation. On this subject, then, the 
 Spirit of prophecy in Jacob and in Moses, evidently 
 designed the same thing ; to wit, that the tribe of 
 Benjamin, covered by the Lord, and secured and sup- 
 ported between or upon his shoulders, should, 
 whether engaged in battles or participating in spoils, 
 be preserved, with Judah, through all the changes, 
 and, with him, partake in all the advantages, of the 
 Jewish state. The history, too, of this tribe, mani- 
 festly corresponds to the prophecy respecting it. 
 For, after the defection of the ten tribes, we find 
 Benjamin constantly associated with Judah till the 
 
414 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [sER. XIII. 
 
 time of the captivity ; k and, the ten tribes being first 
 taken captive by Shatmaneser,^ the two tribes, Ju- 
 dah and Benjamin, by the authority of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, were together carried into Babylon" 1 together 
 they suffered the reproaches and sorrows of the 
 seventy years appointed for their continuance there* 
 together they were authorized by the edict of Cy- 
 rus, and stirred up by the Spirit of the Lord, to return 
 to their own landf together they endured the toils 
 of rebuilding the temple and the city of Jeru- 
 salem" and together they shared in the comforts 
 and privileges, as well as in the wars and ca- 
 lamities, which succeeded their restorations Not 
 only Judah, therefore, but Benjamin also, remained 
 a distinct tribe till the coming of Shiloh? for the re- 
 jection of whom, wrath came upon them to the utter- 
 most, through the instrumentality of the Romans. 
 See Luke xxi. 2024. and 1 Thess. ii. 16. 
 
 k 1 Rings xii. 21, 23. 1 Chron. xii. 16. 2 Chron. xi. 12. xv. 2. 
 xxv. 5. xxxiv. 9. * 2 Kings xvii. 3 24. m 2 Kings xxv. 18 21. 
 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1020. Jer. lii. 2830. 
 
 * Which years are to be reckoned as commencing in the fourth 
 year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, which corresponded to the first 
 year of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon ; Jer. xxv. 1 ; though 
 the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar -, the father and prede- 
 cessor of the said Nebuchadrezzar, began a year sooner ; it being 
 in the third year of Jehoiakim. Dan. i. 1. According to Usher, 
 it was the year of the world 3397, and before Christ 607. 
 
 f This was in the first year of Cyrus ; that is, in the first year 
 that he reigned over Babylon ; Ezra i. 1 5 ; for he had then, it 
 is believed, bee,n king of Persia about twenty years. 
 
 n Ezra, vi. 1, to the end of chapter vii. and Neh. i. 1. to vi. 16. 
 Neh. xi. 4. xii. 34. p Gen. xlix. 10. Heb. vii. 14. Rom. xi. 1. 
 Philip, iii. 5. 
 
J5ER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 415 
 
 But I hasten to consider the blessing of Benja- 
 min, 
 
 II. TYP.ICAI.LY. In this view of the subject, our 
 thoughts must be transferred from Benjamin, 
 
 First, To Christ. Of him, this patriarch was a 
 type, 
 
 1. In each of his two names. Rachel, his mother, 
 in her painful hour, nay. " as her soul was in de- 
 parting, (for she died,) called his name Ben-Oni,"* 
 The son of my sorrow. But Jacob, not willing that 
 the anguish of his beloved Rachel, should rc-pierct 
 his heart, at every call of this son, changed his name 
 " his father called him Benjamin,"f Son of the 
 right hand. See Gen. xxxv. 18. The whole, no 
 doubt, involved a mystical design. Thus the Old- 
 Testament Zion travailed in desire and prayer, for 
 the coming of Christ 1 * and, on his manifestation in 
 the flesh, presently expired ; that is, came under the 
 threatened Lo-ammi, Not my people, and conse- 
 quently ceased from being the visible people of 
 God. s And though the Messiah, in the days of his 
 flesh, was indeed a Ben-oni, a son of sorrow, yea, 
 emphatically " a man of sorrows and acquainted 
 with grief,'' his heavenly Father changed his con ? 
 dition, and therewith changed his name ; he hath 
 given him a name that is above every name ;* where- 
 by, like Benjamin, he is become The Son of his Fa- 
 
 * 'Jtorp; compounded of p Ben a son, p&* on pain , sorrow, or 
 affliction, and the postfix ' yod, forming the poss. pron. my. 
 
 t PD'33 ; from p Ben a son, and pD'' yamin, or jamin the right 
 hand. 
 
 r Psal. xiv. 7. liii, 6. Is. lix. 20. Micah v. 3. s Hosea. i. 9. 
 Matt. viii. 11, 12; Rom. ix. 2533. xi. 715. * Philip. ii. 9. 
 
 55 
 
416 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII. 
 
 therms right hand. As such he was announced at 
 his resurrection ; wherein he was declared to be the 
 Son of God with power ^ with right-hand dignity 
 and dominion." And having ascended to heaven, 
 he " is set down at the right hand of the throne of 
 God." w He is the man of God's right hand, and the 
 Son of man, whom, in regard to his official capacity, 
 " he made strong for himself," that is, furnished with 
 all fulness of grace and strength requisite to the ac- 
 complishment of the great work, to which he had 
 chosen and appointed him. To Christ, therefore, 
 both God the Father and his believing children have 
 a fiducial and steadfast respect, in all their federal 
 intercourse. God the Father has a constant respect 
 to Him and to his obedience and sacrifice, while he 
 communicates to the elect, those blessings which, in 
 the COVENANT of GRACE, made with Him in their be- 
 half, he stipulated to confer upon them.* And be- 
 lievers, in like manner, have respect to Him, as their 
 Covenantee and Advocate, in all they hope for, and, 
 therefore, in all they pray for. We hope for all 
 needful grace by the way, and for eternal life at our 
 journey's end, because God, that cannot lie, hath 
 given the former to the elect in Christ, and promised 
 the latter to them, through Christ, before the world 
 began.* And we draw nigh to God in prayer, remem- 
 bering that ice have an Advocate with the Father, 
 Jesus Christ the righteous that he is the Propitia- 
 tion for our sins and that he hath said to his disci- 
 
 u Rom. i. 4. Matt, xxviii. 18. w Heb. xii. 2. 
 * See Sejr. 11. p. 3 <fcc. x % Tim. i. 9. Titus i. 2. 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 417 
 
 pies, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my 
 name, he will give it you. y Hence, conscious of 
 our personal guilt and utter inability to make any 
 atonement to divine justice for it, our cry to God is, 
 Let thy hand (meaning his hand of requirement) 
 be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of 
 man whom thou madest strong for thyself: so will 
 we not go lack from thee we will not shrink, dis- 
 mayed at the consideration of thy holiness and righ- 
 teousness but, in the name and worthiness of the 
 Mediator, the Day's man betwixt us, we will come 
 to thy throne of grace with humble confidence ; and, 
 when sensible of languor and stupidity, and that 
 nothing can revive us, but the animating influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, which God sheds upon his people 
 through Christ, we farther cry, Quicken us, and we 
 will call upon thy name. 1 
 
 This patriarch, however, was a type of Christ, not 
 only in his names, but, 
 
 2. In his distinction, as an object of God's dis- 
 criminating love. Was Benjamin 77^6 beloved of 
 the Lord ? How much more so is Christ ! He is 
 " the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
 Father,"* and is hence called his dear Son, nay, more 
 emphatically, the Son of his love, as it is expressed 
 in the Greek.* As such, too, the Father himself 
 proclaimed him, both at his baptism and at his trans- 
 figuration ; saying, This is my beloved Son adding, 
 
 y 1 John ii. 1, 2. John xvi. 23. z Psal. Ixxx. 17, 18. Job ix. 
 33. Rom viii. 26, 27. a John i. 18. 
 
 . Col. i. 13. 
 
418 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII* 
 
 on the former occasion, in whom I am well pleased, 
 to signify his entire approbation of him in all he 
 said and did ; and, on the latter, It-ear him; thereby 
 enjoining attention to his doctrine and obedience to 
 his precepts. b And, 
 
 3. In the signal instances of God's kindness to- 
 ward him. Of Benjnmin, Moses said, The beloved 
 of the Lord shall dncll in safety by him. And the 
 same, nay, much more, is true of Christ; who, 
 speaking of himself in his filial relation and under 
 the character of Wisdom, says, " The Lord," Jeho- 
 vah the Father, " possessed mo in the beginning of 
 his way, before his works of old." And, in reference 
 to his appointment as? Mediator, he adds, " I was set 
 up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the 
 earth was. When there wore no depths I was 
 brought forth ; when there were no fountains abound- 
 ing with water. Before the mountains were settled, 
 before the hills was I brought forth : while as yet 
 he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the 
 highest part of the dust of the world. When he 
 prepared the heavens, I was there : when he set a 
 compass upon the face of the depth : when lie estab- 
 lished the clouds above : when he strengthened the 
 fountains of the deep : when he gave to the sea his 
 decree, that the waters should not pass his com- 
 mandment : when he appointed the foundations of 
 the earth : Then I ivas by him, as one brought up 
 with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicingal- 
 ways before him; rejoicing" prospective ly, " in the 
 
 h Matt. ft. 17. Mark ix. 7. 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 419 
 
 habitable part of his earth : and my delights were 
 with the sons of men.* 
 
 Nor was lie then with the Father, merely as an 
 admiring Spectator, or as a fore-seeing Prophet; 
 but as " the wonderful COUNSELLOR'' the efficient 
 WORD and the anointed SAVIOUR. As the omni- 
 scient Counsellor, " his understanding is infinite ;" d 
 as the essential Word, " all things were made by 
 him;" 6 and, as the appointed Saviour, "all the na- 
 tions," and therefore, all " the habitable parts of the 
 earth," in the prevision of which he was then " re- 
 joicing, 5 ' were, by covenant-interest, " blessed in 
 him." f As such, his goings forth have been from of 
 old, from everlasting. Micah v. 2. 
 
 Nevertheless, " being in the form of God," that is, 
 existing in the essence and glory of the divine na- 
 ture, and therefore, thinking it not robery not any 
 derogation from that nature, " to be" esteemed and 
 worshipped by angels and men, as " equal with God," 
 even the Father, he voluntarily " made himself of no 
 reputation," or emptied himself '; not of his divine 
 perfections, which are essential to his Being, nor of 
 his mediatorial fulness, which it pleased the Father 
 should dwell in him ; but, of the emanations of his 
 personal glory, which, if they had shone forth upon 
 the world, must have struck mankind, not only with 
 awe and reverence, but, with terror and consterna- 
 tion. Of these, therefore, to human vision, he made 
 himself void or destitute ; he " took upon him the 
 form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
 men;" that is, being, as Mediator, the Father's ser- 
 
 Prov. viii. 2231. a Psal. cxlvii. 5. 'John i. 3. Col. i* 16. 
 f Gen. xxii. 18. 
 
420 THE BLESSING OP BENJAMIN, f SER. xnr, 
 
 vant elect / by his advent into the world, he became so 
 in fact; and, his official service being to redeem 
 men, as a prerequisite thereto, he " was made in the 
 likeness of men," was made a partaker of real hu- 
 man nature ; yet, not by ordinary, but by miraculous 
 generation ; andfhence, even in this nature, is holy ; h 
 and "being in fashion," in manner and condition, 
 (sin excepted,) " as a man, he humbled himseli" ac- 
 cordingly ; " and," as the Surety and Substitute of all 
 chosen and represented in him, " became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the cross." Philip, ii. 
 68.* 
 
 s Is. xlii. 1. h Luke i. 35. Heb. yii. 26. 
 
 * Mo<pij form, in this place, does not (as in Mark xvi. 12.) 
 mean a mere external appearance ; and much less an image., or 
 picture, or pretence, as (joo^wtfjg seems to do, in Rom. ii. 20. and 2 
 Tim. iii. 5 ; but an internal, ESSENTIAL form, or being. Ac- 
 cording to Phavorinus, the word denotes " That which hath a 
 being of itself, and needs not the assistance of another to its being." 
 See Dr. Hammond, on the place. So, in verse 7, f*o<pjv dx\x the 
 form of a servant, means that Christ, as Mediator, was really the 
 Father's Servant, and acted in that capacity. And if, in ver. 8, 
 (f-Xypan svgs&sis &s av^wtfos being found in fashion as a man, do not 
 imply that he was truly a man, it must follow that he did not as- 
 sume real human nature, but a mere show or appearance of it. If, 
 in a wordj his being sv f*o(pj sS in the form of God, do not mean 
 that he was God and, if his being found o^pari w av^w<?ro? in 
 fashion as a man, do not imply that he was man, the apostle must 
 have authorized the conclusion, that he was neither God nor man ; 
 whereas, elsewhere, he affirms him to be both, even God manifest 
 in thejlesh. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 If Christ be not God^ by nature, he must be a mere creature ; 
 and, if so, how could he think it not robery to be equal with God, 
 meaning the Father? If Christ be a mere creature, whether hu- 
 man, angelic or super-angelic, all worship rendered to him must be 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 421 
 
 While, therefore, it is evident that Christ, in his 
 divine nature, is the Father's equal, 1 and that, in per- 
 sonal distinction and covenant-transaction, he was 
 with him from everlasting, or, from the days of eter- 
 nity ;* it is no less evident, that, as Mediator, he is 
 the Father's chosen Servant, and, as man, his depen- 
 dant creature. 
 
 This view of the Redeemer's mysterious person 
 and condition, accounts for the Father's promises to 
 uphold him during his toils and sufferings, and to 
 render him successful in his work, and triumphant in 
 his warfare ; k also, for his own confident reliance on 
 
 idolatry. But we know it to be the divine will, " that all men 
 should honor the Son even as they honor the Father." John v. 
 23. And " when he (God the Father,) bringeth in the First-be- 
 gotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God wor- 
 ship him." Ileb. i. 6. Accordingly, without ever receiving a di- 
 vine rebuke for it, both saints and angels have honoured him with 
 such titles and such worship as are due to none but God. His dis- 
 ciples thus worshipped him " in the days of his flesh;" Matt. xiv. 
 33. Thomas, by no means credulous, honored him with the title 
 of My Lord and my God. John xx. 28. And the angels that 
 never sinned, and the spirits of just men made perfect, worship 
 him in heaven ; " saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the LAMB 
 that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing," Rev. v. 8 12. 
 
 Unless, therefore, we can admit the absurdity, t 1 ^t God himself, 
 contrary to his own express command, (Exo. xx. 2 5.) has sanc- 
 tioned idolatry both on earth and in heaven, Christ must possess 
 that nature, which, in Him, as in the Father and the Spirit, is 
 " over all, God blessed for ever." Rom. ix. 5. 
 
 1 John x. 30. Zech. xiii. 7. * ^fxsgwv awvo . Septuagint; 
 di v. 2. Comp. John i. 18. k Is. xlii. 17. 
 
422 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII. 
 
 these promises,! and his fervent and fiducial plead- 
 ings for their accomplishment.''" 1 
 
 Accordingly, as Christ, in his official capacity, has 
 ever been the object of the Father's highest confi- 
 dence and approbation," so, in his dependent miture, 
 he has ever enjoyed the Father's covenanted protec- 
 tion and sustentation. For, being by filial relation, 
 superlatively The beloved of the Lord, lie constantly 
 dwells in safety by him; the divine perfections 
 being the Shield that covers him, and the shoulders 
 that uphold him, as man and Mediator. 
 
 Thus he was covered and sustained all the day 
 long, even perpetually, while, as the Antitype of Ben- 
 jamin, 1 ' he ravened his prey, to wit, his own and his 
 people's enmies ; and which he did, not by devouring 
 them, but by foiling and despoiling them; and 
 " having spoiled principalities and powers, he made 
 a show of them openly, triumphing over them in 
 himself?* And though, in the conflict, Satan was 
 permitted to " bruise his heel," his inferior nature ; 
 (for through his instigation, Christ was put to death 
 in the flesh;**) yet even this, " by the determinate 
 counsel and foreknowledge of God," was the ap- 
 pointed means of Satan's defeat, and the stipulated 
 condition of phrist's victory and of the church's sal- 
 vation ; for, * through death," Christ (for all he 
 represented) virtually " destroyed him that had the 
 power of death, that is, the devil ;" and was, thereupon, 
 
 1 Is. xlix, 513. 1. 49. ra Psal. xxii. and Ixix. Matt. xxvi. 
 3644. Heb. v. 7. Is. xlii. 31. xlix. 3. Zech. vi. 12, 13. 
 Is. lii. 13-15. p Gen. xlix. 27. * v o*r*. Col. ii. 15. <* 1 Pet. 
 iii. 18. 
 
SfiR. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 423 
 
 " exalted to be a PRINCE and a SAVIOUR, to give re- 
 pentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." r 
 
 In like manner, too, Christ enjoys the Father's 
 protection, support, and concurrence, in his cause and 
 reign ; while, by the word and Spirit, he is dividing the 
 spoil with the strong, that is, with Satan, the strong 
 man armed. 11 For reasons known only to Him who 
 alone could have prevented it, Satan was suffered to 
 procure the fall of Adam and of all his posterity in 
 him ; whereby, in effect, he made a spoil of all man- 
 kind ; having destroyed in the human heart the prin- 
 ciple of obedience to God, and established there his 
 own throne of iniquity. Hence, by usurpation, he is 
 " the god of this world w the spirit that now work- 
 eth in the children of disobedience" 1 and, as such, 
 " keepeth his palace," the deceived and deceit- 
 ful heart, " and his goods,'' the faculties of the cap- 
 tured soul, " are in peace," as to any anxiety or ef- 
 fort to regain its release from his dark dominion ; 
 " but when a stronger than he," namely Christ, 
 " cometh upon him, and overcometh him," by the pow- 
 er of his Spirit, thereby quickening the soul, enlight- 
 ening the understanding, changing the heart, and 
 renewing the will of the hitherto voluntary slave, 
 " he taketh from him (the usurper) all his armor 
 wherein he trusted," consisting of moral death, 
 blindness and stupidity, together with mental enmity 
 and rebellion against God, and wilful ignorance and 
 disbelief of his word the means by which Satan 
 maintains his throne in the unregenerate, and there- 
 
 r Gen. iii. 15. Acts ii. 23. Heb. ii. 14. Acts v. 31. u Is. liii. 12. 
 w 2 Cor, iv. 4. * Eph. ii. 2. 
 
 56 
 
424 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII. 
 
 fore, the armor in which he trusteth for retaining his 
 subjects. These removed, the charm is broken and 
 the captive liberated. Herein, Christ sees of the 
 travail of his soul and is satisfied ; his people being 
 made willing in the day of his power/ Thus " he 
 divideth the spoils," 2 that is, makes a division among 
 the fallen sons and daughters of Adam, the spoils of 
 Satan, calling and claiming, as his own, those of all 
 generations and of all nations, who, by covenant- 
 grant, and redemption-price, belong to him. a These, 
 he purifies unto himself, a peculiar people, zealous 
 of good works? and in the great day of his and 
 their mutual triumph, b will present them to himself, a 
 glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
 any such thing. Eph. v. 27. 
 
 Our thoughts, therefore, being thus transferred 
 from Benjamin to Christ, must be extended, 
 
 Secondly, To the Church, the mystical body of 
 Christ. For, of the body, as well as of the Head, Ben- 
 jamin was variously typical. 
 
 1. Like Benjamin, all the members of Christ's 
 mystical body, whether considered collectively or 
 severally, are The beloved of the Lord. They were 
 such from everlasting and must remain such unto 
 everlasting : for He, the Lord who loves them, will 
 rest in his love. c Nor can any reason be assigned 
 why he thus loves them, but his own sovereign will. 
 Hence the extraordinary manner in which he loves 
 them : " Behold, what manner of love the Father 
 hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the 
 sons of God !" d It is a manner of love, which has 
 
 y Is. liii. 11. Psal. ex. 3. * Luke xi. 2t, 22. a John vi. 3740. 
 Rev. v. 9. b 2 Thess. i. 10. ' Zeph. iii. 17. d 1 John iii. 1. 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 425 
 
 no parallel among creatures ; for, as no creature can 
 love whom he will, so no creature, strictly speaking, 
 can bestow his love upon another. Yet, after this 
 manner God hath loved, and will for ever love his 
 people. 6 And, as his love for them is wonderful in 
 its manner, so atao in its effects. Among these, are 
 his choice of them in Christ* his redemption of 
 them by Christ^ his calling and drawing of them 
 to Christ* his justification, pardon and sanctifica- 
 tion of them through Christ^ and his final glorifica- 
 tion of them with Christ* 
 
 2. As typified in the Israelite under consideration, 
 the beloved of the Lord, in their successive genera- 
 tions, become severally distinguished by a'new name. 
 God, it is true, had, from eternity, chosen and predesti- 
 nated them to the adoption of children to himself; 1 ne- 
 vertheless, in their descent from Adam, they are all by 
 nature children of wrath even as others. m By our 
 natural birth, every one is a Benoni, a child of sor- 
 row. Nay, the world into which we are born is a 
 Bochim,* a place of weeping; and the carnal, as being 
 enemies to God in mind, and manifesting this en- 
 mity by wicked works," are, to the saints, objects of 
 sorrow and mourning, and not of joy and rejoicing. 
 Did Rachel call her son Benoni, on account of the 
 anguish and sorrow which he had occasioned her 1 
 Let it remind us of the anguish and sorrow felt by 
 the church, for those who are born only after the 
 
 e Jer. xxxi. 3. <" Eph. i. 4. ff Psal. cxi. 9. I John iv. 9, 10. 
 h Eph. ii. 4, 5. John vi. 44. J Rom.iii. 24. Acts x. 43. 1 Cor. 
 i. 30. k Rom. viii. 30. Col. iii. 4. * Eph. i. 4, 5. * See Judges 
 ii. 4, 5. m Eph. ii. 3. n Col. i. 21. 
 
426 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII. 
 
 flesh, and of the solicitude and ardor with which she 
 travails, in desire and prayer for the new-birth of 
 God's elect. In this travail, gospel-ministers are 
 deeply exercised : My heart's desire and prayer to 
 God for Israel, said Paul, is that they might be 
 saved.* And having once believed that his minis- 
 terial labor, in answer to his many prayers, had 
 been blessed to the saving conversion of the Gala- 
 tian professors, when he found them, through the 
 influence of judaizing teachers, greatly drawn 
 away from the simplicity of the gospel, the same 
 agonizing pangs, which he had felt for them in their 
 heathenish state, returned upon him; exciting him 
 to pray for them and write to them, hoping to be 
 instrumental in re-forming Christ in them ; that is, 
 in reclaiming them to a cordial embrace of Christ, 
 a consistent profession of his doctrine, and a due 
 observance of his pre.cepts. Thus moved, how pathet- 
 ically did he address them! My little children, said 
 he, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ 
 be formed in you. I desire to be present with you 
 &c. q O for more of this travailing spirit in the 
 church and in her ministers ! Then might we hope, 
 in more instances, to see Christ formed in sinners, 
 and re-formed in professors. 
 
 But, to return. Jacob, the father of Benoni, 
 changed his name into Benjamin ; and, answerably 
 thereto, Jehovah, the adoptive Father of the elect, 
 at their effectual vocation, makes known to them 
 their filial relation to himself. For, having convin- 
 
 Is. Ixvi. 8. Ezek. xxxvi. 37. p Rom. x. 1. < Gal. iv. 19. 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 427 
 
 ced them, that by nature and desert they are chil- 
 dren of wrath, and having made them partakers of 
 a new and holy principle, called the divine nature ; T 
 he, thereupon, sends forth the Spirit of his Son into 
 their hearts, crying Abba, Father. 5 Herein he gives 
 to each a white stone, that is, open acquital, and in 
 the stone a NEW NAME written, to wit, the evidence of 
 adoption, which always accompanies the evidence 
 of pardon ; and which name no mu/t knoweth, saving 
 he thatreceivethit. Rev. ii. 17. Comp. 1 Johniii. 1. 
 And, as Rachel's son, after the change of his name, 
 is never called Benoni, but always Benjamin; so 
 the elect, after their calling and faith in Christ, are 
 never, as before, called children of wrath, but con- 
 stantly the children of God. 1 The reasons are ob- 
 vious : Being children, they are heirs, heirs of God 
 and joint-heirs icith Christ;" God hath sworn, that 
 he will not be wroth with them ; w they are justified 
 from all things,* and shall not come into condemna- 
 tion* They are become visibly God's Benjamins, 
 his right-hand ones heirs to the right-hand bles- 
 sings of his grace on earth, and to a place at his 
 right hand in heaven, where are pleasures for ever- 
 more.* And, 
 
 3. Like Benjamin, the members of Christ's mys- 
 tical body are all the constant and peculiar care of a 
 covenant-keeping God. They dwell safely by him. 
 They dwell in Christ and therefore by, that is, near 
 the Father ; near his heart ; being always interested 
 
 * 2 Pet. i. 4. 8 Gal. iv. 6. Rom. viii. 16. Gal. iii. 26. Rom. 
 viii. 17. w Is. liv. 9, 10. * Acts xiii. 39. y John v. 24. * Psal. 
 xvi. 11. 
 
428 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [SER. XIII. 
 
 in his love, from which nothing can separate them. 
 See Rom. viii. 38, 39. They dwell in Christ, and 
 therefore dwell safely, though so near to God, who 
 is a consuming fire!" They dwell in Christ, and 
 therefore are as secure as He ; their life being hid 
 with Christ in God. b The Lord shall cover them, 
 as he is said to cover Benjamin, all the day long. 
 In point of Justification, Christ himself, who is the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, c is perpetually 
 our covering, as he is unchangeably THE LORD OUR 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS.* As found in him, even the attri- 
 bute of divine Justice pleads our cause ; for God is 
 just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus* 
 And, in point of safe-keeping from enemies, the 
 church, by the provisions of a covenant ordered in 
 all things and sure, is rendered absolutely invulner- 
 able. Her foundation bids defiance to the gates of 
 hell f her bulwarks are salvation itself^ And the 
 very perfections of her Founder, are both her defense 
 and her glory : " For I, saith JEHOVAH, will be unto 
 her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory 
 in the midst of her." Zech. ii. 5. This multiform 
 favor, too, in all its amplitude and efficiency will be 
 continued to the church all the day long during all 
 the course, and amid all the changes of her militant 
 state : for, " as the mountains are round about Jeru- 
 salem, so the LORD is round about his people. ...even 
 for ever." Psal. cxxv. 2. Nay, like Benjamin, they 
 shall dwell between his shoulders; each shall enjoy 
 the protection, the supports, and the supplies, both 
 
 a Heb. xii.29. b Col. iii. 3. c Heb. xiii. 8. d Jer. xxiii. 6. 
 Rom. iii. 26. f Matt. xvi. 13. s Is. xxvi. 1. 
 
SER XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 429 
 
 of his grace and his providence ; He shall dwell on 
 high : his place of defense shall be the munitions of 
 rocks : bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be 
 sure. Is. xxxiii. 16. Happy, of a truth, is that peo- 
 ple that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people, 
 whose God is the Lord. Psal. cxliv. 15. 
 
 But the all-important question, with each of us, 
 my dear hearers, should be, Am lone of that people ? 
 Am I among the beloved of the Lord? 
 
 Now, to excite you to self-examination, and to assist 
 the anxious in pursuing it, I shall, by way of 
 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 briefly advert to some of the scripture-evidences of a 
 gracious state. If in this state, we may know it, 
 and thereby our election, 
 
 1. By the peculiar manner in which the gospel 
 has come to such, and the change thereby produced 
 in their lives ; these being characteristic fruits of 
 effectual calling, and effectual calling being a demon- 
 strative evidence of antecedent election. Accord- 
 ingly, from these facts, the apostle Paul taught be- 
 lievers to infer their election : knowing, brethren be- 
 loved, your election of God How 1 Not by reading 
 the record thereof in the book of life, nor by a voice 
 proclaiming it from heaven ; but, by the influence of 
 the gospel upon their hearts and lives ; -for our gos- 
 pel (that which he and the other apostles preached) 
 came not unto you in word only, but also in power, 
 and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance as- 
 surance of its divine authority, and of their personal 
 interest in the Salvation which it reveals ; where- 
 upon, (having reminded them of apostolic example 
 
430 THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. [sER, XIII, 
 
 among them) he declares their conversion in con- 
 formity to it: ye became followers of us and of the 
 Lord, Sfc. I Thess. i. 410. 
 
 2. By our disposition of mind toward God* The 
 carnal mind is enmity against him; Rom. viii. 7 ; 
 if, therefore, we love him, it is because he, according 
 to his covenant of grace, hath given us a new hearty 
 and put a new Spirit within us. Ezek. xxxvi. 26- 
 " But," says one, " may I not love God, though not 
 interested in his love to his people" ? No. You may 
 love a creature who does not love you ; but none 
 ever loved or ever will love God, but they who are 
 loved of him. For none can love him while unre- 
 generate, and regeneration is of God, and is an 
 effect of his great love wherewith he loves his cho- 
 sen, even while dead in sin. Eph. ii. 4, 5. We love 
 him, therefore, (if at all,) because he first loved us. 
 1 John iv. 19. Among the evidences of love to God, 
 are 1. A desire after communion with him: As the 
 hartpanteth after the water brooks, so panteth my 
 soul after thee, O God, 8$c. Psal. xlii. 1, 2, and Ixiii. 
 18. 2. A preference of his courts and worship, 
 above all other places and employments : Lord, I 
 have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place 
 where thine honor dwelleth. For a day in thy courts 
 is better than a thousand, any where else upon earth. 
 I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, 
 than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psal. xxvi. 
 8. Ixxxiv. 10. 3. A holy delight experienced in 
 meditating on him and his ways : In the multitude 
 of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my 
 soul. Psal. xciv. 19. 4. A habitual association with 
 those devoted to him : lam a companion of all them 
 
SER. XIII.] THE BLESSING OF BENJAMIN. 431 
 
 that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. 
 Psal. cxix. 63. 5. A sadness of soul when deserted of 
 his gracious presence : Thou didst hide thy face, and 
 1 was troubled. Psal. xxx. 7. And 6. A careful ob- 
 servance of his holy precepts : This is the love of God, 
 that is, the effect and evidence of it, that we keep his 
 commandments. 1 John v. 3. If in a gracious state 
 it may be known, 
 
 3. By our love to the saints : We know that we 
 have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
 brethren. Every one that so loveth, is born of God 
 and knoweth God. 1 John iii. 14. iv. 7. 
 
 4. By our choice of teachers. For an apostle, 
 speaking of carnal teachers, says, They are of the 
 world : therefore speak they of the world, and the 
 world heareth them. But, of himself and his minis- 
 tering brethren, he adds, We are of God : he that 
 knoweth God heareth us ; he that is not of God 
 heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth 
 and the spirit of error; both in teachers and in 
 hearers. 1 John iv. 5, 6. 
 
 5. By the esteem we are in with the carnal world : 
 If ye were of the world, said Christ to his disciples, 
 the world would love his own ; but a because ye are 
 not of the world, but I have chosen you, and, pur- 
 suant thereto, called you out of the world, therefore 
 the world hateth you. John xv. 19. 
 
 6. By those very things which most grieve and dis- 
 courage us ; as, for instance, a law in our members 
 warring against the law of our mind ; Rom. vii. 23 ; 
 vain thoughts, which we hate, knowing that the 
 thought of foolishness is sin; Psal. cxix. 113, and 
 
 57 
 
432 THE BLESSING OP BENJAMIN. [sER. XIII. 
 
 Prov. xxiv. 9 ; the imperfection of our best endea- 
 vors to do the will of God ; Rom. vii. 15 21 ; and 
 especially a sense of that body of sin, which we carry 
 about with us : hence, we that are in this tabernacle 
 do groan, being burdened ; 2 Cor. v. 4. For, in a 
 spiritual as well as in a natural sense, even a groan 
 is a sign of life, and in the latter, a sign of indwelling 
 grace ; it being peculiar to those who have received 
 the first fruits of the Spirit, thus to groan within 
 themselves. Rom. viii. 23. 
 
 7. By a persevering trust in God, under all his 
 most afflicting and trying dispensations : Though he 
 slay me, yet will I trust in him. Job xiiL 15. And, 
 
 8. By aspirations, occasionally at least, after the 
 holiness and happiness of the heavenly state : we 
 groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
 house which is from heaven ; having a desire to de- 
 part and to bewith Christ, which is far better. 2 Cor. 
 v. 2. and Philip, i. 23. 
 
 Thus the Holy Spirit, by giving, in the Scriptures, 
 the marks of a gracious state, and the requisite di- 
 rections for a life of faith, hath furnished us, my be- 
 lieving hearers, both with a clew to self-examination 9 
 and a rule for all holy and useful living ; and as many 
 as possess those marks, and walk according to this 
 rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Is- 
 rael of God. h Amen. 
 
 h Gal. vi. 16. 
 
SERMON XIV, 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH, 
 
 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CH&IST. 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 13 17. And of Joseph he, said, Blessed of the 
 LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, 
 and for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the precious 
 fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put 
 forth by the moon. And for the, chief things of the ancient 
 mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills. And 
 for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof; and 
 for the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush ; let the blessing 
 come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of 
 him that was separated from his brethren. His glory is like 
 the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of 
 unicorns ; with them he shall push the people together to the 
 ends of the earth : and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, 
 and they are the thousands of Manasseh. 
 
 " PROPHECY," saith an apostle, " came not in old 
 time by the will of man ;* but holy men of God," of 
 whom Moses was one, " spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost." a Prophecy, therefore, was 
 God's declaring the end from the beginning, and 
 from ancient times the things that are not yet done, 
 saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all 
 my pleasure* Hence the evident agreement be- 
 tween the predictions of Scripture and the history 
 both of the church and of the world. 
 
 But, waiving this general view of the subject, let 
 
 * See Ser. 1. Note on p. 37. 2 Pet. i. 21. b Is. xlvi. 10. 
 
 58 
 
434 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. SEK. XIV. 
 
 us notice the truth of the remark in relation to the 
 case immediately before us. Canaan, as I have 
 .heretofore reminded you, was divided among the 
 tribes of Israel by lot ; the result of which could be 
 nothing less than the developement of the divine 
 purpose in relation thereto ; for the whole disposing 
 of the lot is of the LORD. C 
 
 By this division the portion of Benjamin lay be- 
 tween the portion of Judah and that of Joseph. 
 See Josh, xviii. 11. The portion of Joseph, there- 
 fore, as a matter of course, lay next to that of 
 Benjamin; both commencing at Jordan, and the 
 southern part of the former joining the northern 
 part of the latter near Jericho, which belonged to 
 Benjamin. See Josh. xvi. 1. and xviii. 12. Ac- 
 cordingly, the Holy Spirit, who searcheih all things, 
 yea, the deep things of God, moved Moses, as 
 appears from our text, to assign the same relative 
 situation to this tribe, by prophecy, which God would 
 assign to it by lot. 
 
 In blessing Joseph, as in blessing Levi, Moses is 
 
 unusually diffuse : his heart being filled to over- 
 
 flowing, his lips, which he had complained were 
 
 uncircumcised, became eloquent to admiration. And 
 
 of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, 
 
 for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and 
 
 for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the 
 
 precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for 
 
 the precious things put forth by the moon; fyc. $$c. 
 
 In three subsequent discourses, I design, as the 
 
 Lord may give ability, to explain this blessing, both 
 
 literally and spiritually, according to the terms in 
 
 which it is expressed. At present, my sole object 
 
 c Prov. xvi. 33. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CIIRIST._ 435 
 
 is to show that Joseph was a type of Christ. This, 
 I am aware, some have doubted, because, say they, 
 Christ is no where in the New Testament, likened 
 to Joseph, as he is to Judah, to Benjamin, and to 
 some others among the patriarchs. But, if this 
 omission proves any thing, it is that the resemblance 
 of Joseph to Christ, is so strongly marked in his 
 history, as not to require any such clew to the dis- 
 covery of the fact. 
 
 His very name suggests it: Joseph is from ao* 
 yasaph to add, to increase Sfc. ; which can hardly 
 fail of leading our thoughts to HIM who, in his hu- 
 man nature, increased in wisdom and stature, and 
 in favor with God and man d of whom, as to his 
 fame and followers, the Baptist said, He must in- 
 crease* and of the increase of whose government 
 and peace, as Mediator, not only the prophet Isaiah 
 but the angel Gabriel also, affirms There shall be no 
 end. f 
 
 Who, among those who have received an unction 
 from the Holy One, can read the history of Joseph, 
 and especially the numerous evidences therein re- 
 corded of the special interest which he had in his 
 father's love/ without being reminded of Christ; 
 concerning whom his heavenly Father once and 
 again proclaimed from "the excellent glory, This 
 is my beloved Son, in whom lam well pleased?" 11 
 
 Was Joseph, according to Gen. xxxix. 6, a goodly 
 person, and wellfavoredl and did he, according to 
 Gen. xxxvii. 2, excel all his brethren in filial love and 
 moral virtue? Let us remember, that in all this, he 
 was but a shadow of HIM who is the chiefest among 
 
 d Luke ii. 52. .'John iii. 30. f Is. ix. 7. and Luke i. 32, 33. 
 B Gen. xxxvii. 3. h Matt. iii. 17. Mark ix. 7. 
 
436 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV. 
 
 ten thousand, yea, altogether lovely. 1 Christ, con- 
 sidered only as a man, had no moral blemish ; in 
 nature, he was holy and undefiled, and in life, he 
 did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.* 
 Well, therefore, might the Psalmist, addressing him, 
 say, Thou art fairer than the children of men, of 
 whom all have sinned; 1 yea, he is fairer than any of 
 those upon earth whom he deigns to call his breth- 
 ren; for, If we say we have no sin, we deceive our- 
 selves, and the truth is not in us.* 
 
 Joseph being richly endued with the Spirit of wis- 
 dom and revelation, Pharaoh, whose supernatural 
 dreams he interpreted, called him Taphnath-Paan- 
 eah,* that is, One to whom hidden things are re- 
 vealed, or A revealer of secrets, an expounder of 
 
 1 Cant. v. 10. 16. k Heb. vii. 26. 1 Pet; ii. 22. 1 Psal. xlv. 2. 
 Rom. iii. 23. m Heb. ii. 11. n 1 John i. 8. 
 
 * n^3 r033f Tsapenath-pangneach ; which some consider a 
 mere title of honour and authority, conferred on Joseph, by 
 Pharaoh ; but Moses calls it a name. See Gen. xli. 45. Whether 
 the words of which this name is compounded are Hebrew or Coptic, 
 is uncertain. 
 
 If Hebrew, r033f, from |3 tsephan, to hide or conceal may 
 mean things or persons that arc hidden or secret. See Psal. xvii. 
 14. and Ixxxiii. 4. And my3 from JJ3" yaphang, to shine, to irradiate 
 or enlighten, (Job. iii. 4.) and HJ noach, rest or comfort t (an abbrevia- 
 tion of CDnj necham, to comfort by giving rest and tranquility,) 
 may signify To illuminate with comfort. See Gen. v. 29. Is. lix. 
 13. inter al. Hence the name in question, compounded of the 
 two words thus derived and defined, may import One who gives 
 comfort, quietness and satisfaction, by revealing and explaining 
 things hidden and mysterious. To the same purport this name 
 has been interpreted by many. The Targums of JONATHAN and 
 ONKELOS define it so nearly alike, that the definition of the one 
 implies that of the other: according to JONATHAN, it means A re- 
 vealer of secrets, and according to ONKELOS, 'One to whom hid- 
 den things are revealed ; without which he could not be a revealer 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 437 
 
 mysteries. Herein Joseph was obviously a type of 
 Christ ; in whom (till revealed by him) are hid all 
 the treasures of icisdom and knowledge, and who, 
 as such, was counted worthy to take the book, the 
 roll of the divine decrees, and to open the seals 
 thereof. Rev. v. 9. 
 
 Joseph, though innocent, was accused of very base 
 conduct, and suffered many hard things. Distin- 
 guished by tokens of his father's love, his brethren 
 envied and hated him and could not speak peaceably 
 unto him. p When he visited them in the wilderness, 
 though sent by his father and on an errand of kind- 
 ness, they reviled him, at his approach, and conspired 
 to slay him, on his arrival;* 1 and though prevailed 
 on by Reuben, not to execute the bloody design ; yet, 
 at the instance of Judah, they sold him to a caravan 
 of Arabs, chiefly Midianites and Ishmaelites who, 
 by divine providence, were at that juncture passing 
 by on their way to Egypt, whither they took him and 
 " sold him to Potapher, an officer of Pharaoh's, and 
 
 of them. LEVI renders the words A revealer of hidden things. 
 Linga Sacra under HJya. JEROM, indeed, renders it The Saviour 
 of the world; though without etymon or reason. 
 
 But, as the name under consideration was given by Pharaoh, 
 there is much reason to believe, that he gave it in his own lan- 
 guage, the Coptic or Egyptian. Of this opinion was that great 
 linguist, Atha. Kircher; who asserts that the name is Egyptian 
 and signifies a Prophet or Foreteller of events. See Prodromns 
 Cap. v. p. 124 &c. If so, there must, in some respects, be 
 a remarkable affinity between the Hebrew and the Coptic 
 languages ; which, nevertheless, cannot be general, at least not 
 universal; for while Joseph, to conceal himself from his he- 
 brew brethren, used the Egyptian tongue, he spake unto them 
 by an interpreter, Gen. xlii. 23. Some have thought that Pharaoh 
 gave this name to Joseph out of respect for Baal-Zephon,one of the 
 Egyptian idols. Exo. xiv. 2. Comp. Dan. i. 7. and v. 12. 
 
 Col. ii. 3. P Gen. xxxvii. 4. 11. <J Ibid. ver. 1220. 
 
438 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SEE. XIV. 
 
 captain of the guard. "* And who that reads the 
 New Testament, does not know that when Christ 
 commissioned by his heavenly Father, visited his 
 wretched family in the wilderness of this world, he 
 was treated in like manner? The Jews, though " after 
 the flesh" they were his own brethren, reviled and 
 rejected him: he was 'that HOLY ONE whom his 
 nation abhorred ; s and whom, at his manifesta- 
 tion on earth, they treated accordingly: He came 
 unto his own, and his own received him not; 1 
 nor did they merely reject him and his dominion, 
 saying, We will not have this man to reign over us; u 
 but, abhorring him, they conspired also to take away 
 his life : This is the heir y said they, Come let us kill 
 him. And though it was so ordered in Providence, 
 that the power of doing this directly, had previously 
 been taken from them, x they, nevertheless, accom- 
 plished it indirectly; for, having pronounced him 
 worthy of death, theydelivered him into the hands of 
 the Romans, who, being gentiles, were in a nation- 
 al sense, as much strangers to him as the Arabians 
 were to Joseph ; and who by their accusations of him 
 at a heathen tribunal, procured his condemnation 
 and crucifixion. 
 
 To effect their murderous design, "the chief 
 priests, and elders, and all the council," the assem- 
 bled Sanhedrim, "sought false witness against 
 Jesus, to put him to death." What a council! It 
 consisted of men, who (with the exception of Joseph 
 of Aramathea*} were all filled with jealousy and 
 
 r Gen. xxxvii. 36. s ls. xlix.7. * John i. 11. "Luke xix. 14. 
 w Matt. xxi. 38. x John xviii. 31. Comp. Chap. xix. 15. 
 
 *Nicodemus probably was not present, or he would have ob- 
 jected also. See Luke xxiii. 50 52. and John xix. 38, 39. 
 
SEU. XIV.J JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 439 
 
 rancor against the person they were to try, and, un- 
 der the influence of these demoniac principles, had 
 prejudged his cause;* nay, men who, under the 
 sanctimonious mask of religion, could not only 
 tolerate but even seek after false witness, and receive 
 it with greediness. Such witness they sought ; " but," 
 for a time, "found none; yea, though many false 
 witnesses came, yet found they none ;" either the 
 charges brought were so evidently void of truth, or 
 the witnesses who brought them were so despicable 
 and so discordant, that the Sanhedrim durst not 
 risk their own reputation so far as to pass sentence 
 of condemation on the accused, while they were 
 sustained by no better testimony. "At the last," 
 however, "came two false witnesses" two that 
 were agreed" And said, This fellow said, I am 
 able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it 
 in three days." Well, said Christ, speaking in Da- 
 vid, They wrest my words. Psal. Ivi. 5. His words 
 to which they referred, are Destroy this temple and 
 in three days I will raise it up ; which he spake, not 
 of their famous temple at Jerusalem, but of the tem- 
 ple of his body, John ii. 19. 21. "And the high- 
 priest," elated at receiving the testimony of the two 
 false witnesses against Jesus, " arose and said unto 
 him, Answerest thou nothing 1 what is it which these 
 witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace ;" 
 leaving them to work their own ruin, and to fulfil 
 the counsel of God in the salvation of his people. 
 See Matt, xxvi.^59 63. and Acts ii. 23. 
 
 * This is evident from the history of their conduct ; though 
 some of them perhaps, forbore to express any private opinion on 
 the case, that they might seem to be the more impartial and can- 
 did in their official judgment. 
 
440 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. SER. XIV* 
 
 The high-priest, not satisfied with the silence of 
 the innocent prisoner, whom he and the council 
 were resolved to condemn, presumptuously laid 
 him under the solemnity of an oath; saying, "I 
 adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us, 
 whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God ; x ' that 
 is the true Messiah.* In reply, " Jesus saith unto him, 
 Thou hast said :f nevertheless I say unto you, Here- 
 after shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right 
 hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.'' 
 Mark the effect which this solemn declaration had 
 upon the high-priest! Did it satisfy him and make 
 him cease from his efforts to criminate Christ 1 Not 
 in the least. Nor was that his object in demanding 
 it ; but, on the contrary, that he might accuse him 
 of blasphemy for declaring that he was the Son of 
 God, and, implicitly, with perjury also ; the declara- 
 tion being made under oath. "Then the high-priest 
 rent his clothes," saying, of him who is the Holy 
 One and TRUTH itself, " He hath spoken blasphemy; 
 what further need have we of witnesses'! behold, 
 
 * Hence it appears that the Jews of that degenerate age, hav- 
 ing lost the true idea of the Messiah, which their patriarchs had 
 entertained, regarded him just as Socinians do now, that is, they 
 admitted that he he was the Son of God yet, not by nature but 
 merely by office. 
 
 f Which, in Jewish style, was equivalent to a concession, nay, 
 to an affirmation, that what the speaker replied to, had said, was 
 true ; wherefore the above reply of Jesus to the high-priest, was 
 the same, in meaning, as if he had directly answered, / aw, as it 
 is expressed in Mark xiv. 62. From among the many instances, 
 which Jewish writings furnish of this form of expression, take 
 one from the Jerusalem Talmud, Kilaim, fol. 32. 2: Some having 
 said to one, *' Is Rabbi dead? He replied to them pmn jIDK 
 ye have said; and they rent their clothes;' 1 knowing from the 
 answer received, that the Rabbi was dead. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OP CHRIST. 441 
 
 now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think 
 ye?" said he to the Council; and "They," (pro- 
 bably all present except Joseph) "answered and said 
 He is guilty of death. Then did they," either some 
 of the counsellors themselves, or some of the keep- 
 ers, under their sanction, " spit in his face, and buf- 
 fetted him ; and others smote him with the palms 
 of their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us thou Christ, 
 Who is he that smote theel" for they had covered 
 his face, or blindfolded him, as the other evangelists 
 say. See Matt. xxvi. 63 68. and Luke xxii. 63 
 65. This having occurred at nig^t, " When the 
 morning was corne, all the chief-priests and elders 
 of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him 
 to death. And," not having a civil or legal author- 
 ity to do it themselves, " when they had bound him 
 they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius 
 Pilate the governor." 
 
 Thus "of a truth," O God, "against thy holy 
 child JESUS, whom thou hast anointed, both He- 
 rod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles ; and the 
 people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do 
 whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined 
 before to be done." 7 Astonishing event ! an event, 
 in which the sovereignty of heaven and the malig- 
 nity of hell, were equally displayed an event, in 
 which the kindest design of God was accomplished 
 by the wickedest combination of men a combina- 
 tion of men, both rulers and people, who though 
 they had long been inveterate enemies to each other, 
 on that occasion, became friends ; z and, hence, coad- 
 jutors in fulfilling that divine decree, of which, they 
 
 yActs iv. 27, 28. * Luke xxiii. 12. Is. Ixv. 5. Acts x. 28. 
 
 59 
 
442 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [3ER. 
 
 were totally ignorant,* and in the execution of which 
 they were prompted by the worst of motives : Yes, 
 the innocent Jesus, "being delivered by the deter- 
 minate counsel and foreknowledge of God,'' was 
 taken by Jews and Romans, and by their wicked 
 hands was crucified and slain. b And (more aston- 
 ishing still !) though Jews and gentiles were combined 
 in crucifying the Lord of Glory; yet millions of 
 them were redeemed and shall be saved, by Him 
 they crucified : for thou, blessed Jesus, wast slain) 
 and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, OUT OF 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. 
 Rev. v. 9. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that, as among Joseph's 
 brethren, there was one, namely Reuben, who sought 
 to rescue him ; c so in the Sanhedrim, the council of 
 Christ's national brethren, there was one, to wit, the 
 Aramatheari counsellor, who had not consented to 
 the counsel and deed of them against him. d More- 
 over, as Reuben, who favored Joseph, was Jacob's 
 first-born^ and whose name signifies See the Son ;* 
 so all the favor shown to Christ or his cause among 
 men, is shown by the saints, who are manifestly 
 God's first-born/ and who, being called out of dark- 
 ness into light, See the Son and believe on him. s 
 
 Nor is it any less worthy of remark, that the sale 
 of Joseph, for twenty pieces of silver, was at the 
 importunity of Judah, h whose name, turned into 
 Greek, is Judas, the very name of the traitor, who 
 
 a ICor. ii. 8. b Actsii. 23. c Gen. xxxvii. 21,22. xlii. 22. 
 d Luke xxiii. 51. e Gen. xlix. 3. 
 * Explained, Ser. VII. p. 225. 
 f Heb. xii. 23. John vi. 40. h Gen. xxxvii. 2628. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 443 
 
 sold Christ for thirty ^pieces of the same metal ;* 
 which not only corresponded to the type in Joseph, 
 but fulfilled also a notable prophecy.* 
 
 To procede. As Joseph was a type of Christ in his 
 sufferings, so also in his subsequent promotion. For, 
 as Joseph, after patiently enduring affliction and 
 degradation, even to imprisonment in a dungeon, 
 was providentially delivered, and honorably distin- 
 guished nay, advanced next to the king and made 
 lord of all the land of Egypt ;f so Christ having, as 
 Mediator, finished his sufferings on the tree of the 
 cross, and his humiliation in the dungeon of the grave, 
 was raised with power discharged with honor 
 
 1 Matt, xx vi. 14, 15. 
 
 * Comp. Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. with Zech. xi. 12, 13. The Evan- 
 gelist, indeed, refers to Jeremy ; yet was readily understood in his 
 day ; nor will any learned Jew object to the citation on this account; 
 for he must well know that the reference is agreeable to their own 
 most ancient division of the Hebrew Scriptures into three parts; 
 1. The Laic, containing the five books of Moses : 2. The Pro- 
 phets, containing the former and the latter prophets : the former 
 beginning with Joshua, aud the latter with Jeremy: And 3. The 
 Hagiography, or Holy Writings, beginning with the Psalms, and 
 including with them, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job, 
 Ruth, Hester, fyc. Hence, in citing from any of the books of 
 Moses, they referred to the Law in citing from any of the former 
 prophets they referred to Joshua in citing from any of the latter 
 prophets, they referred to Jeremy, as our Evangelist did when cit- 
 ing from Zechariah ; and in citing from any of the other books, 
 they referred, either to the Hagiography, or to the Psalms, the first 
 book thereof. This ancient division Christ himself observed, say- 
 ing, all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of 
 Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. 
 Luke xxiv. 44. See the Bah. Tal. in Bava Bathra, fol. 14. facie 2. 
 
 f Gen. xli. 41 44. Joseph was thirty years old when he stood 
 before Pharaoh ; Gen. xli. 46 ; the rery age at which Christ en- 
 tered upon his public ministry; Luke iii. 23. How long Joseph 
 was a prisoner before he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's but- 
 ler and baker, we know not ; but it is evident he remained such 
 
444 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 exalted to glory and invested with universal domi- 
 nion. 1 " And as, by the authority of Pharaoh, appointed 
 heralds cried before Joseph, Bow ye the knee; 1 so, 
 by the authority of God the Father, proclamation is 
 made in the Holy Scriptures and by gospel-heralds, 
 That at the NAME of JESUS every knee should bow, 
 of things in heaven, and things in earthy and things 
 under the earth. Philip, ii. 10. Which, however, 
 is not to be understood of a mere literal genuflection, 
 or bending of knees, common among the papists, at 
 hearing that sacred name pronounced; nor, by any 
 means, as implying that, eventually, there will be a 
 universal submission of intelligent creatures to the 
 gracious scepter of Christ, as a Saviour; but of that 
 universal subjection to his authority and decisions, 
 which shall be rendered to him, as a Judge, in that 
 day when all must appear before his judgment- seat. 
 See Rom. xiv. 1012. 
 
 In token of Joseph's high promotion, Pharaoh 
 himself directed to him, every applicant for either 
 counsel or provision : Go, said he, unto Joseph; what 
 he saith to you do. m So, to every sensible sinner 
 to every anxious inquirer, and to every distressed 
 believer, God, in his word and by his ministering 
 servants, is, in effect, saying, Go to Jesus; " This is 
 my beloved Son ; hear him"* To him is given the 
 
 two full years afterward. Gen. xli. 1. It is strange that in the 
 history of his release and subsequent life, no notice is taken of how 
 he came to be imprisoned. If (as commonly believed) the wicked 
 woman, under whose false accusation he suffered, had in the mean 
 time deceased, it is fearfully probable that, to maintain her credit, 
 she died impenitently persisting in the iniquitous charge. If so, 
 she was more hardened than Judas. Matt, xxvii. 3, 4. O that 
 God would bring such accusers to repentance ! 
 
 k Rom. i. 4. Acts ii. 24. 33. v. 31. Matt, xxviii. IS. John xvii. 2. 
 1 Gen. xii. 43. m Ibid. ver. 55. a Mark ix. 7. 
 
SEE. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 445 
 
 tongue of the learned, that he should know how to 
 speak a word in season to him that is weary It 
 pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dicell 9 
 Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the utter- 
 most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever linelh 
 to make intercession for them* Believe, then, in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, O trembling sinner, and thou 
 shall be saved.* 
 
 Nor was Joseph, however highly promoted, for- 
 getful of his brethren, ungrateful and cruel as they 
 had been to him, nor inattentive to their distressing 
 wants. 
 
 Preparatory, indeed, to making himself known to 
 them, he seemed to treat them as strangers, and 
 with awful reserve and appalling austerity ; neverthe- 
 less, he acted from the kindest motive, and with the 
 tenderest compassion ; he turned himself about from 
 them and wept;* and though he gave them much 
 trouble of mind by returning their money, and es- 
 pecially by causing them to be charged with the theft 
 of his cup, yet each was done because he would show 
 them unexpected favor the former, because he would 
 supply them gratis, and the latter, because he would 
 bring them back, that he, who knew them while they 
 knew not him, might reveal himself to them, and 
 introduce them to acceptance with the royal majesty.* 
 How similar the knowledge and the conduct of our 
 divine Joseph, in reference to his chosen but guilty 
 and impoverished brethren ! He who knoweth all 
 things? perfectly knows them and their forlorn estate, 
 while they are yet ignorant of him and of their secret 
 
 Is. 1. 4. P Col. i. 19. qHeb. vii. 25. r Acts. xvi. 31. Gen. 
 xlii.*4. t ibid. Ver. 7, 8. 26, 27, 28. Chap. xliv. 117. xlv. 16 &c. 
 u John xxi. 17. 
 
446 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 relation to him. w Nor is he, though exalted and en- 
 throned in heaven, forgetful of them or of their ne- 
 cessities, degraded, depraved and guilty as they are 
 become, by their fall in Adam and by their own actual 
 transgressions." Indeed, they are so proud and self- 
 sufficient, that they never would come to him, were 
 they not caused, by divine grace, as Joseph's brethren 
 were, by divine providence, to experience a famine 
 in their own land a famine in their souls a sense 
 of want, which all the stores of nature cannot supply 
 a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 
 under which all their former gratifications become 
 husks and not bread; as illustrated in the parable of 
 the returning prodigal. y And even when thus made 
 to feel their wants, they come to Christ, at first, as 
 Joseph's brethren came to him not to beg but to 
 buy ; that is, vainly hoping to obtain from him what 
 they need, in consideration of the penitent hearts, the 
 good desires, the reformed lives, and the sincere pro- 
 mises, with which they come. So coming, however, 
 they receive no more regard from Christ than Naa- 
 man the leper received from Elisha the Seer, when, 
 taking with him, "ten talents of silver, six thousand 
 pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment," he 
 appeared, in his chariot, before the prophet's door. 
 See 2 Kings, chapter v. While they apply to Christ 
 under these legal views, he treats them as Joseph 
 did his brethren; instead of comforting them, he 
 speaks roughly to them, and proves them with search- 
 ing questions nay, puts them in prison, and keeps 
 them, for a time, in ward, under the bondage and 
 menaces of the law. z Yet his design in all is kind 
 
 ^Prov. viii. 31. John xvii. 9, 10. 20. 24. * Rom. v. 12, 18. 
 Eph. ii. 16. y T.uke xv. 1 1 &c. z Gen. xlii.7 30. Matt.xv. 2227. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF C1I1UST. 447 
 
 and gracious it is, that through the law, they may 
 become dead to the law, and in the end, enjoy a 
 good hope through grace* 
 
 Moreover, as Joseph's brethren, when they stop- 
 ped at an inn to take refreshment, were suddenly 
 thrown into a consternation, at finding their money re- 
 turned in their sacks ; so awakened sinners, being yet 
 under the influence of a legal spirit, when they enter a 
 place of public worship, where the oracles of God are 
 faithfully explained, instead of being refreshed and 
 comforted, are unexpectedly overwhelmed in disap- 
 pointment and trouble ; the sacks of their depraved 
 hearts being laid open before the light of divine 
 truth, they find all their self-dependent pleas rejected 
 and all their self-flattering expectations blasted ; 
 their hearts, like those of Joseph's brethren, fail 
 them, and they are afraid God is about to destroy 
 them ; yea, finding that neither their reformation of 
 life, nor their tender feelings, nor their good inten- 
 tions, nor all combined, can be admitted as a condi- 
 tion of their acceptance, they are ready to exclaim, 
 Who then can be saved ? b Perhaps, indeed, on a 
 little reflection, or by means of some false instruc- 
 tion, they conclude their disappointment has arisen, 
 not because the grounds of their reliance were wrong 
 in kind, but because they were defective in extent 
 and sincerity ; and hence, as Joseph's brethren "took 
 a present and double money," they resolve that, 
 with a present of thanks for past mercy, they will 
 double their diligence and faithfulness in repenting 
 and doing. Still, however, coming with opened eyes 
 
 a Matt. xv. 28. Gal. ii. 19. 2 Thess. ii. 16. b Gen. xlii. 27, 
 28.- Matt. xix. 25. c Gen. xliii. 15. Exo. v. 17. Matt xix. 20. 
 Mark x. 21. Luke xviii. 22. 
 
448 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [gER. XfV, 
 
 to the Bible, and, with opened ears under a search- 
 ing ministry, they find all they can do or suffer, while 
 conceived of as a price for what they need, is divinely 
 condemned and rejected as filthy rags." 1 They are 
 told that salvation is not of works, lest any man 
 should boast* that it is not of him that willeth, nor 
 of him that runneth* in short, that it is to be had, 
 if at all, without money and without priced Nay 
 more ; Christ, like Joseph, charges his brethren with 
 the guilt of his cup, the cup of all his sufferings 11 
 they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, 
 saith he ; and, looking upon him, they shall mourn 
 for him, as one mournethfor his only son, and shall 
 be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for 
 his first-born. Nevertheless, eventually, like Joseph 
 also, he makes himself known to his brethren, in his 
 mediatorial and fraternal relations to them ; in doing 
 which, he shows them, that by the very cup where- 
 with he charges them, he has redeemed them from 
 under the curse ; and, giving them the cup of salva- 
 tion, 1 " he causes them to know, that more, infinitely 
 more than they had vainly expected to purchase, 
 He, as their Friend and Brother, freely bestows 
 upon them; the Father having in him blessed us 
 
 with all spiritual blessings according as he hath 
 
 chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
 world, that (when renewed by his grace) we should 
 be holy and without blame before him in love.i 
 
 The coming, however, of Joseph's relations to him, 
 and their becoming dependant upon him, require a 
 more distinct consideration. 
 
 a Is. Ixiv. 6. e Eph. ii. 9. f Rom. ix. 16. Is. Iv. 1. h Matt, 
 xxvi. 39. 42. * Zech. xii. 10. k Psal. cxvi. 13. 'Eph. i. 3, 4. 
 
-SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 449 
 
 FIRST, His prophetic dreams concerning them 
 were herein fulfilled: "The sons of Israel," (in 
 that instance ten of them only, 1 ") "came to buy corn 
 among those that came : for the famine was in the 
 land of Canaan," as well as mother lands. "And 
 Joseph was the governor of the land, and he it was 
 that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph's 
 brethren came, and bowed down themselves before 
 
 him with their faces to the earth And Joseph 
 
 knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And 
 Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed 
 of them ;" the first of which, the obeisance which 
 their sheaves made to his sheaf, being herein evidently 
 fulfilled. See Gen. xlii. 5 9, compared with Chap, 
 xxxvii. 5 7. Hereby, too, he was reminded of his 
 other dream, in which " the sun, and the moon, and 
 the eleven stars, made obeisance to him ;" an emblem 
 of that civil reverence, which, at a future time, his 
 father, and his mother, and all his eleven brethren, 
 should render unto him. So Jacob himself under- 
 stood the dream ; and prudently, to prevent pride 
 in young Joseph, and to moderate the resentment 
 of his elder brethren, gently rebuked him for telling 
 it. See Gen- xxxvii. 9, 10. 
 
 In regard to the sun, Joseph's father, this dream 
 was fulfilled in the profound respect which Jacob 
 showed to the lord of Egypt, by the presents which 
 he sent him, while yet he had no thought that the 
 distinguished person whom he thus honored was 
 his own son, and especially by his subsequent 
 recumbence upon him, in the official station to 
 which Joseph was promoted. With regard to 
 
 m Gen. xlii. 3, 4. Gen, xliii. 11, 14. xlvii. 6. 
 
 60 
 
450 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. 
 
 the moon, however, there is an obvious difficulty; 
 for Joseph's mother, thereby symbolized, was al- 
 ready dead ; Rachel having died at the birth of 
 Benjamin, on the way from Bethel to Ephrath. 
 Wherefore, it must be understood either of Leah, 
 Jacob's surviving wife and Joseph's step-mother, or 
 of Bilhah, Rachel's hand-maid, who, after the death 
 of her mistress, was as a mother to Joseph ; as 
 appears by his being with her sons. p And, admitting 
 that Jacob, at the time to which the dream referred, 
 had no wife; (and which is highly probable;) the 
 mother of Joseph, nevertheless, whether understood 
 of Rachael, of Leah, or of Bilhah, "bowed down 
 to him," in her posterity.* And whereas, at the 
 second time Joseph's brethren came to him, Benja- 
 min, his younger brother, was among them, making 
 the number eleven, the dream, in relation to them, 
 was verified when they all, answering to the eleven 
 stars, "bowed down and made obeisance to him." r 
 
 SECONDLY, The coming of the Jews to Christ 
 was herein specially typified; "they being, after the 
 flesh," his relations. * 
 
 Did Joseph's relations, in their coming to him, 
 fulfil his prophetic dreams respecting them 1 Let 
 it be remembered, that the events of prophecy, 
 though uttered by the prophets, were only such as 
 the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify .* 
 and therefore, that the coming of the Jews to Christ, 
 in the early times of the gospel, was, and that their 
 coming to him, in the latter day, will be, according to 
 his predictions concerning them." 
 
 Gen. xxxv. 1619. Plbid. xxxvii.2. iJbid. xlvi. 15. 25. 
 'Ibid, xliii. 26-28 s Rom. ix. 5. Heb. vii. 14. *1 Pet. i. 11. 
 u Joel ii. 28, 29 and Acts ii. 1618. Jer. xxx. 9. Ezek. xxxiv, 
 %3. xxxvi. 24, $5. Hosea iii. 5. 
 
ER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST, 451 
 
 Joseph's brethren, after they had sold him to 
 strangers, were, it would seem, wholly unconcerned 
 about what they had done, for a long time, at least 
 twenty years.* How much longer, alas! have the 
 Jews, the national brethren of Christ, remained im- 
 penitent, under the guilt of their infinitely more 
 cruel treatment of Him! The generation of them 
 among whom he tabernacled in hun>an nature, sold 
 him and procured his crucifixions-even when Pilate 
 would have released him, they, still relentless, cried 
 Crucify him, crucify him ; yet their posterity, dur- 
 ing a lapse of about eighteen hundred years, have 
 never lamented, but constantly commended, their 
 horrid deeds. Nor can we say how much longer 
 their judicial stupidity will remain. We are certain, 
 however, that the time will come, when Christ will 
 pour upon them, the Spirit of grace and of supplica- 
 tions, and that THEN they shall look upon him whom 
 they have pierced and mourn ; w for, on their becoming 
 convinced that he is the true Messiah, they will 
 deeply bewail their long contempt and * obstinate 
 rejection of him, saying, We hid as it were our 
 faces from him ; he icas despised and we esteemed him 
 not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
 
 * Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into Egypt ; Gen, 
 xxxvii. 2; and 30 years old when promoted in the court of Pha- 
 raoh ; Chap. xli. 46; consequently he had been 13 years in bon- 
 dage; the seven years of plenty, added to these, make 20: and 
 probably one or two of the seven years of scarcity, had also elapsed 
 before the famine became so great in Canaan as to compel the 
 sons of Jacob to go to Egypt for corn. All this time they re- 
 mained insensible of their cruelty to Joseph. By allusion to this, 
 it was said of their sensual and inconsiderate posterity, in after 
 times, " They are not grieved for the affliction nj Joseph:' 1 
 Amos vi. 6. 
 
 . xi. 
 
452 vJOSKPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SEK. X1VV 
 
 sorrows; irct we did esteem him stricken, smitten of 
 God and afflicted," as an impostor. But (How 
 affecting to them will be the discovery!) he was 
 wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for 
 our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace icas 
 upon him; and with his stripes ice are healed * 
 Is. liii. 35. 
 
 Joseph's brethren, the ten at first and afterwards 
 the eleven, came to him, excited thereto by their 
 father Jacob, who believed the report that there was 
 plenty with the lord of Egypt. w Did not this typ- 
 ically signify that the Jews, the national brethren of 
 Christ, would come to him, moved by the conviction 
 of his being the Messiah of whom their prophets 
 spake and wrote, and in whom Jacob and the rest 
 of their patriarchs believed and trusted I Thus it 
 was in the first times of the Gospel : the apostles 
 and other Jews, then called, believed in Christ, as 
 HE of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, x and 
 according to the faith of their patriarchal ancestors.* 
 And the same will be verified again, at the calling 
 of the Jews in the latter day; for, on perceiving 
 that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the apostles and 
 other converted Jews embraced, is indeed the Christy 
 in whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob trusted, they 
 also, being made partakers of like precious faith, 
 and encouraged by patriarchal and apostolic example, 
 will look to him and trust in him. Then Jacob, in 
 his elect posterity, shall return and shall be in rest, 
 and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 7 To 
 the Jews, thus brought to repentance, the times of 
 
 ^ Gen. xlii. 1, 2. xliii. 1, 2. * John i. 41. 45. * See Acts 
 v. 2932. xxvi. 6. 22, 23. xxviii. 23, 24. * Jer. xxx. 9. 
 
SEH. XIV.J JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 453 
 
 refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.* 
 And so all Israel, meaning all the Jews, or the 
 greater part of them, who will then be upon earth, 
 ' shall be saved, &c. Rom. xi. 26, 27. Jer. xxxi. 34. 
 
 Joseph's brethren, in both instances, came to him 
 in consequence of famine ; a and so the Jews, the 
 national brethren of Christ, carne to him at their 
 former calling, and will come to him, at their latter 
 calling, under a famine of the word : Behold the 
 days come saith the Lord God, that I will send a 
 famine in the land, the land of Judea, not a famine 
 of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the 
 words of the Lord, &c. Amos viii. 11, 12. For, 
 whatever application this prophecy may have to 
 certain times and sections of the Christian church, it 
 primarily respects the Jews. During the latter part 
 of the old dispensation, prophecy ceased among 
 them ; for, from the times of Malachi, to those of 
 John the Baptist, a course of about 400 years, they 
 had no vision ; b and the writings of Moses and the 
 prophets, though preserved among them, were almost 
 explained away by the traditions of their elders, 
 especially in what related to the Messiah. Hence, 
 there was a famine of the word throughout their 
 land; for, to them, as lost to the regenerate among^ 
 them, as hungry, what were the law and the prophets, 
 when so interpreted, that the divine Messiah, the 
 Saviour of lost sinners and the Bread of Life, was 
 excluded from them ? And though by the light of 
 the gospel, which began to shine in the ministry of 
 John, many of the Jews perceived and embraced 
 
 1 Acts iii. 19. a Gen. xlii. 5. xliii. 1, 2. b Micah iii. 6, 7. 
 Mai. iv. 5. Matt. xi. 13, 14. 
 
454 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [feER. XIV* 
 
 the Christ of God; yet, their nation generally re- 
 jecting him, HE, pursuant to his threatening, took 
 the kingdom of heaven, the gospel-dispensation, 
 from them, and gave it to another nation, meaning 
 the gentiles; whereupon commenced that famine of 
 gospel-preaching among the Jews, which will con- 
 tinue till the time of their future calling; when, glad 
 to receive the favor they have so long despised, they 
 will again &;ay, Blessed is he (a gospel-minister) that 
 cometh in the name of the Lord. Matt, xxiii. 39. 
 
 Moreover, as Joseph's brethren did not go to him, 
 till after his stores had been opened to other nations ; d 
 so the Jews, the national brethren of Christ, will 
 not go to him, till his unsearchable riches shall have 
 been opened in the gospel, to the nations of the 
 world: blindness in part is happened to Israel, un- 
 til the fulness of the gentiles be come in. Rom. xi. 25. 
 
 Then, too, the prophetic dream of Joseph, in 
 which he beheld the sun, the moon, and the eleven 
 stars, making obeisance to him, will, to the apprehen- 
 sion of the converted Jews, receive a mystical ful- 
 filment in CHRIST ; for they will then see, that His 
 most distinguished progenitors, Abraham, 6 Isaac/ 
 Jacob,g and David h , answering to the sun His mys- 
 tical mother, 1 (the true Israel under the old dispensa- 
 tion,) answering to the moon, and the eleven genu- 
 ine apostles, k answering to the eleven stars, all 
 believed in HIM and bowed down to HIM. Of the 
 patriarchs arid others who, under the Old/Testament, 
 were spiritual Israelites, Paul affirms, These all 
 
 c Matt. xxi. 43. d Gen. xli. 56, 57. * Gen. xxii 18. Rom. iv. 3. 
 'Gen. xxvi/4. Heb. xi. 20. eGen.xxviii. 1017. Heb. xi. 21. 
 *2 Sam. xxiii. 1 5. Psal. xxxii. 1, 2. Rom iv. 6 8. * Cant. iii. 
 11. Comp. Psal. liii. 6. and Heb. vii. 14. k Luke xxiv. 9. 52. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 455 
 
 died in faith ; l and Peter representing all the believ- 
 ing apostles, said to his Lord and Master, We believe 
 and are sure (their faith, observe, rose to assurance) 
 that thou art that Christ, that Christ of whom 
 Moses and the prophets wrote, the Son of the living 
 God. m 
 
 "The sons of Israel," however, were not ALL, but 
 only AMONG those that came to Joseph to obtain 
 corn." "The famine" of bread, to which our sub- 
 ject relates, "was over all the face of the earth: 
 .... And all countries," that is, the inhabitants of 
 them, "came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; 
 because that the famine was sore in all lands. * So 
 the want of spiritual blessings is common to all na- 
 tions ; nor are they to be had by Jew or gentile, from 
 
 1 Heb. xi. 13. m John vi. 69. Gen. xlii. 5. Ibid. xli. 56, 57. 
 
 * Herein was illustrated an important fact in relation to our 
 temporal life and its supplies. By a divine grant, man, in his 
 primeval state, had a right "to eat freely of every tree of the gar- 
 den" in which he was placed, excepting only of "the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil." Gen. ii. 9. iii 16, 17. Conse- 
 quently, he had a right to eat, not only of those trees, whose 
 fruit was intended for his ordinary food, but also, as occasion re- 
 quired, of the fruit of "the tree of life in tho midst of the garden;" 
 which tree, it should seem, was both an emblem of his paradis- 
 iacal life, and the appointed means of rendering that life perpetual, 
 had he abstained from the tree forbidden. 
 
 By his transgression, however, man forfeited this grant. The 
 earth itself, for his sin committed upon it, was subjected to a curse 
 of comparative sterility; Gen. iii. 17 19; his future access to 
 the tree of life, was interdicted and absolutely prevented ; Gen. 
 iii. 22 24 ; and he and all his posterity, nay, the preservation of 
 the execrated earth itself, became dependent on the Mediator, the 
 Antitype of Joseph : " The earth," said Christ, " and all the in- 
 habitants thereof," (with respect to the original constitution of 
 things) " are dissolved : I bear up the pillars of it." Psal. Ixxv. 
 3. Hence as, during the famine, all were dependent on Joseph, 
 
456 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 any stores but those of Christ, in whom it hath 
 pleased the Father that ALL fulness should dwell. 1 ' 
 And, as Joseph withheld supplies from none on ac- 
 count their nation, so neither does Christ ;/or, in this 
 respect, there is no difference between the Jew and 
 the Greek, or gentile ; for the same Lord over all is 
 rich unto all them that call upon him.* 
 
 Nevertheless, the family of Jacob, as being all 
 blessed in Joseph, was a figure of the whole family 
 of God's elect, among all nations, as being all blessed 
 in Christ, the Antitype of Josephs Hence, by a 
 manifest allusion to national Israel, the church is 
 called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a 
 holy nation, a peculiar people nay, emphatically, 
 the Israel of God.* Therefore, 
 
 THIRDLY, Joseph's relations, especially his breth- 
 ren, in their coming to him and becoming dependent 
 upon him, were typical of the mystical relations of 
 Christ, as well among the gentiles as the Jews, in 
 their coming to him, at their effectual calling, and in 
 their subsequent reliance upon him and subjection 
 to him. 
 
 The natural relation of Joseph's brethren to him, 
 recollect, did riot commence at the time of their 
 coming to him for corn ; they were his brethren be- 
 
 and none had a right to expect corn from him, but on condition of 
 paying for it; so, the earth being cursed for Adam's sin, and with- 
 holding her spontaneous productions from his posterity, all are 
 dependent, even for temporal supplies, on the favor of the Medi- 
 ator, who has all power and all nature in his hands; and none have 
 a right to expect them, but on condition of enduring toil, and labor, 
 -and sorrow. Gen. iii. 17 19. 
 
 pCol. i. 19. i Rom. [xii. 10. 'Gen. xxii. 18. Eph. i. 3, 4. 
 * 1 Pet. ii 9.Ga1. vi. 16. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST* 457 
 
 fore. So neither does the mystical relation of the 
 elect to Christ, commence at the time of their calling, 
 when they come to him for the Bread of Life ; for, 
 as early as they were the children of God, they 
 were the brethren of Christ, the Son of God: but 
 they were the children of God by ADOPTION and 
 therefore, MYSTICALLY the brethren of Christ, while 
 yet scattered abroad uncalled nay, unredeemed* 
 See John xi. 52. and Heb. ii. 1317. 
 
 Yet, as Christ was declared to be the Son of God, 
 by the resurrection from the dead? so the elect are 
 made manifest as the adopted children of God, and 
 therefore, as the mystical brethren of Christ, by 
 their resurrection from a death in sin ; for, hereupon 
 God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their 
 hearts, crying, Abba, Father; 11 and Christ, (How 
 amazing his condescension !) is not ashamed to call 
 them brethren 
 
 Having thus particularly considered the coming 
 of Joseph's brethren to him, I precede to consider 
 his knowledge of them his conduct towards them 
 and his making himself known unto them. 
 
 First, His knowledge of them. For, when they, 
 pinched with famine, heard of his abundance, and 
 came to him for supplies, he knew them, though they 
 knew not him; 1 and so, when regenerate sinners, 
 sensible of their spiritual wants, and hearing of 
 Christ in the report of the gospel, apply to him for 
 aid, though they know not him, in his covenant-rela- 
 tion to them, he distinctly knows them, in their 
 covenant-relation to him. He knows them, as being 
 of that all whom the Father hath given unto him in 
 
 'Rom* i. 4. "Gal. iv. 6. *Heb. ii. 11. *Gen. xlii. 7, 8, 
 
 61 
 
458 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV. 
 
 safe-keeping, and for whom he is accountable 7 as 
 being of that peculiar people, whom, according to 
 covenant-stipulation, he redeemed from all iniquity* 
 as being of those to whom all needful grace was 
 given, IN HIM, before the world began* nay, as those 
 who, "of his fulness," have already received the 
 life-giving Spirit, convincing them of their lost estate 
 and exciting them to flee from the wrath to come. 
 
 Secondly, His conduct towards them. For Joseph 
 knowing his brethren, variously distinguished them 
 even before he made himself known to them. 
 
 1. He repeatedly favored them with a sight of his 
 person and magnificence, that they might hence 
 infer the greatness of his authority and the plenitude 
 of his stores.^ So, to regenerate, inquiring souls, 
 Christ, through the medium of the Holy Scriptures 
 and the instrumentality of his ministering servants, 
 gives such discoveries of himself and of his fulness, 
 as he does not give to the unregenerate. c Joseph's 
 brethren, however, while ignorant of his relation to 
 them, conceived of him only as the lord of the land, 
 and expected nothing from him but for money.* 
 Nor are the thoughts which regenerate sinners, un- 
 der their first exercises, entertain of Christ, any 
 more correct ; for, though they may be overwhelmed 
 in contemplating his greatness, his authority, and 
 his glory, they have no just views of his mediatorial 
 character, and especially not of his covenant-rela- 
 tion to them. They know him not as their Brother 
 and Friend. He appears to them only as a HOLY 
 and a MIGHTY SOVEREIGN as having, indeed, all 
 
 y John vi. 39. z Titus ii. 14. Comp. Is. liii. 11. and Heb. xiii, 
 20. a 2 Tim. i. 9. b Gen. xlii. 6, 7. 30. 33. xliii. 26. xliv. 
 1420. c Acts xxii. 9. d Gen. xlii. 5. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 459 
 
 they want at his disposal but, as suspending the 
 grant thereof upon some supposed condition to be 
 performed by them. What the imaginary condition 
 is, they are not agreed one fancying it to be this 
 and another that ; yet, feeling their perishing need 
 of his favor, each cries, with Saul of Tarsus, Lord 
 what wilt thou have me to do ? or, with the trem- 
 bling Jailor, What must I do to be saved ? 
 
 2. Before Joseph made himself known to his breth- 
 ren, he distinguished them, by directing his servants 
 both to restore every man's money into his sack and 
 to give them provision for the way.* He dealt not 
 so with others who came to purchase. And the 
 like difference Christ makes between mere legalists 
 and true penitents ; the former, he leaves depending 
 upon their legal performances ; f but the latter, he 
 instructs and sustains ; for though, by his word and 
 the preaching of his servants, he rejects all they 
 bring as a price for salvation nay, gives them seve- 
 rally the witness thereof in the sacks of their own 
 hearts ; yet, by the same means and instruments, he 
 also gives them some present nourishment enough 
 to keep them from starving or despairing, till he 
 gives them more. He lets them know, that although 
 salvation "is not of him that willeth nor of him 
 that runneth," yet, that it is "of God that showeth 
 mercy'' and that, although "It is not of works, 
 lest any man should boast," yet, that " it is of faith, 
 that it might be by GRACE ; to the end the promise 
 might be sure to all the seed.z Thus they are kept 
 ruminating, hoping, and seeking. 
 
 3. Joseph, while he had not yet made himself 
 
 *Gen. xlii, 25. 'Luke x. 2528. sRom. iv. 16. v "* 
 
460 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SKR. XIV. 
 
 known to his brethren, caused a feast to be prepared 
 for them ; the incidents of which are instructive. 
 
 " He said to the ruler of his house," who is after- 
 wards called his steward, "Bring these men" (his 
 brethren) "home, and slay, and make ready: for 
 these men shall dine with me at noon." Hence, let 
 every steward in the house of Christ, that is, every 
 gospel-minister, learn that, in his studies, he should 
 always labor to make ready a meal for seeking souls. 
 
 "The men," it is true, "were afraid because they 
 were brought into Joseph's house ;" and, apprehen- 
 sive of some evil, said, " Because of the money 
 that was returned in our sacks at the first time are 
 we brought in ; that he may seek occasion against 
 us, and take us for bondmen." In like manner, 
 those in whom a work of grace is begun, though 
 allured to come under the word, yet, finding the 
 tenor of the gospel to contradict and condemn their 
 former views of purchasing the divine favor, they 
 are filled with apprehensions that Christ, instead of 
 saving them, will regard them as mere legalists, and 
 adjudge them to everlasting bondage under the law. 
 
 Joseph's brethren, however, in their distress, 
 communed with his steward ; who, it should seem, 
 was made acquainted with the reasons why Joseph 
 had ordered that their money should be returned and 
 that they should be brought to his house ; and who, 
 after hearing their ingenuous rehearsal of what had 
 befallen them in regard to the money, comforted 
 them, saying, Peace be to you, fear not. What an 
 advantage it is to sensible sinners, that the stewards 
 of Christ, his gospel-ministers, are acquainted with 
 their case ! For, when they commune with them, 
 or sit under their ministry, they learn that Christ's 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 461 
 
 rejection of their legal pleas, and his granting 
 to them the privilege of hearing his pure gospel, 
 however they are thereby stripped and emptied, are 
 signs of his favor and not of his wrath : This manre- 
 ceiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Luke xvii. 2. 
 When dinner time arrived, Joseph said to his 
 servants, Set on bread ; that is, set dinner in order 
 upon the table; bread, by a usual synecdoche, being 
 put for the whole. " And they set on for him by him- 
 self, and for them," his brethren, " by themselves, 
 and for the Egyptians by themselves. And they," 
 Joseph's brethren " sat before him," in his presence ; 
 " and the men," thus honored, marvelled one at 
 another, that they were so distinguished. " And he," 
 Joseph, " took and sent messes unto them from be- 
 fore him ; but," with reference to the ten, "Benjamin's 
 mess was five times as much as any of theirs." 
 All had plenty ; but the fivefold portion sent to Ben- 
 jamin was a token of Joseph's special affection for 
 him.* And they drank" also, no doubt of Joseph's 
 best wine, "and were merry with him," that is, at 
 his house. How similar the conduct of Christ, and 
 the work of his ministers, under the gospel-dispensa- 
 tion ! Here Christ himself, by his Spirit, carves for 
 all the guests ; distributing, of his bounty, to them 
 
 * This served to prepare Benjamin for his more than common 
 share in a then approaching trial : the cup was found in Benjamin's 
 tack. Gen. xliv. 12. Thus, if some of Christ's brethren, equally 
 innocent with the rest, have to drink a more than ordinary portion 
 of the cup of his sufferings, that is, of sufferings for his sake, they 
 are prepared for it and supported under it, by a correspondent 
 share in the tokens of his love : As the sufferings of Christ abound 
 in us ; so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. 2 Cor. i. 5. 
 
 
462 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XlV, 
 
 severally as he will; Matt. xx. 15 and 1 Cor. xii. 11 ; 
 and his ministers, his faithful stewards, acting under 
 his direction, give to every class of their hearers a 
 portion of meat in due season. Luke xii. 42. 
 
 Thus preaching, the servants of Christ, while they 
 assign the first share to HIMSELF, that is, give to him 
 the glory of being the Provider and the Subject of 
 the feast, (Luke xiv. 16, 17.) and feed his church, 
 which is himself mystical ; h they also publish the 
 gospel to the world, 1 answering to the Egyptians, and 
 are specially careful to set before sensible sinners 
 a portion peculiarly appropriate to them.* They 
 describe their exercises and appetites, as evidences 
 of a work of grace begun in their souls exhibit 
 the salvation that is in Christ, as full and free and 
 therefore, as exactly adapted to them, now convinced 
 that they can add nothing to it, nor bring any price 
 for it and, moreover, repeat and illustrate his own 
 gracious invitations and promises, as addressed in a 
 peculiar manner to such. With confidence and 
 affection, they represent him, as saying to them, 
 Look unto me and be ye saved k Ho every one that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters* If any man thirst, 
 let him come unto me and drink Come unto me all 
 ye tha,t labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest* Him that cpmeth to me, I will in no wise 
 cast out Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs 
 is the kingdom of heaven Blessed arc they that 
 
 * 1 Cor. xii. 12. * Mark. xvi. 15. 
 
 * In so doing, gospel-ministers rightly divide the word of truth. 
 2 Tim. ii. 15. 
 
 k ls. xlv. 22. Ubid. IF.' 1. m John vii. 37. "Matt. xi. 28. 
 Jotin vi. 37, 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 463 
 
 mourn : for they shall be comforted Blessed are 
 they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: 
 for they shall befitted.* 
 
 This rich and appropriate portion, true penitents, to 
 whom it belongs, eat by themselves arid, like Joseph's 
 brethren, marvel that they should be so highly favor- 
 ed ; nay more, they also drink wine and milk without 
 money and without price,* and even begin to be mer- 
 ry; they almostforget their poverty and their misery,* 
 while under the proclamations of grace and peace. 
 
 Nor did Joseph merely feast his brethren at his 
 house ; he, moreover, sent them away with as much 
 food in their sacks as they could carry. 8 Thus 
 Christ, by the ministry of his servants, not only com- 
 forts seeking souls at his house, while hearing his 
 gospel, but sends them away with their hearts as full 
 of gracious influence and of scriptural matter for 
 meditation, as, at that stage of experience, they can 
 bear. Nevertheless, like Joseph's brethren, they 
 cannot account for the kind treatment they receive ; 
 being still ignorant of their relation to the bountiful 
 GIVER. They are astonished rather than instructed ; 
 and presently relapse into trouble. Clouds, instead 
 of sun-beams, return after the rain. Eccl. xii. 2. 
 This will more fully appear while we observe, 
 
 4. That Joseph, before he made himself known to 
 his brethren, distinguished them also by farther trials 
 trials which, it is true, were great favors ; yet, fa- 
 vors wrapped in such clouds of mystery, as, at the 
 time, filled them with anguish and consternation. 
 
 Their present, indeed, for aught that appears to 
 the contrary, he kindly accepted; but their pur- 
 
 p Matt. v. 3, 4. 6. * Is. Iv. 1. r Prov. xxxi. 6, 7. Gen. xliv. 1 . 
 
464 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 chase money, though doubled, he refused and re- 
 turned : He said to his steward, " Put every man's 
 money in his sack's mouth," where he could not fail 
 of seeing it, as soon as his sack was opened.* Thus, 
 although Christ condescends to accept a thank- 
 offering from sensible sinners for the favors they 
 have received from him, He, nevertheless, utterly re- 
 jects, both their legal performances, and their evan- 
 gelical exercises, (and so their double money,) while 
 brought as a price for an interest in his stores of 
 grace nay, gives them, as observed before, the evi- 
 dence thereof in the sacks of their own hearts, as 
 these are more fully opened by his Spirit, and the 
 selfish motives of them are more clearly exposed to 
 their view, in the light of his word." 
 
 Joseph, however, brought his brethren under a 
 still severer trial, the charge of having stolen his silver 
 cup. For, strange as it was, he farther said to his 
 steward, " Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's 
 mouth of the youngest, and his corn-money ;'' and 
 which the steward accordingly did. w This stratagem, 
 though seemingly fraught with injustice and cruelty, 
 was both equitable and merciful. 
 
 Joseph's cup, consisting, no doubt, of refined sil- 
 ver, which is an emblem of purity, 1 was a fit symbol 
 of his pure and excellent character ; which was of 
 much higher value than a silver cup, or than any 
 other earthly treasure ; for a good name is to be cho- 
 sen rather than great riches, and loving favor rather 
 than silver and gold. Prov. xxii. 1. Now of this, 
 though not of his cup, Joseph's brethren had shame- 
 fully robbed him ; not, indeed, in his father's 
 
 *Gen. xliv. 1. "Jer. ii. 22. xvii. 10. Eph. ii. 8, 9. 1 John 
 iv. 10. 19. * Gen. xliv. 2. Psal. xii. 6. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 465 
 
 esteem, but in the esteem of strangers, to whom they 
 sold him for a slave ; thereby implying that he was 
 an abandoned miscreant, fit only for the vilest servi- 
 tude.* And in like manner, the Jews, the national 
 brethren of Christ, treated him ; for though unable, 
 in the least, to diminish hirh in the esteem of his 
 heavenly Father, yet, to the utmost of their power, 
 they degraded him in the esteem of men. They 
 riot only denied that he was the Messiah, but even 
 robbed him of his moral character ; they reviled him, 
 as being a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber yea, 
 as one in collusion with satan/ Nor do his mystical 
 brethren, those who are his brethren by election and 
 adoption, treat him any better. In their carnal state, 
 they, like others, regard him as unworthy of their 
 desire ,** and, after quickened by his grace, and made 
 to feel their condemnation as sinners, instead of re- 
 ceiving him as the end of the law for righteousness) 
 which he is to every one that believcth, they go about 
 to establish their own righteousness* Nay, such is our 
 ignorance, as well as our pride, that even when con- 
 vinced that our best obedience is imperfect, and that 
 if it were perfect, it could not answer for past de- 
 fects and transgressions, instead of casting ourselves, 
 as guilty and helpless, on Him who was delivered for 
 our offences and raised again for our justification^ 
 we foolishly delay, thinking to exercise such mortifi- 
 cation, contrition, self-denial &c., as shall render us, 
 in some measure, worthy of divine acceptance, before 
 
 * Gen. xxxvii. 28. 36. Thus individuals, families and nations 
 may suffer under false accusations, for injuries done to others long 
 before. See Is. xxxiii. 1. 
 
 . yJVfatt. xk 19. xii. 24. *I S . liii. 2 a Rom. x. 3, 4. *>Ibid. 
 iv. 25. 
 
 62 
 
466 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. 
 
 we trust in Christ. Thus, as long as possible, we 
 rob HIM of the glory of being ALL and in ALL 
 in our salvation. Nevertheless, being reconciled to 
 God, that is, to his justice, by the death of his Son, c 
 we are not left to perish through our ignorance and 
 self-confidence ; but, eventually are cured of both ; 
 and being, through grace, made to realize that we 
 are without strength, we are constrained and enabled, 
 vile as we are, to rely on Christ who in due time 
 died for the ungodly. d 
 
 Joseph's cup, being that out of which he drank, 6 
 was also a fit symbol of his sufferings. And Christ, 
 speaking of his own sufferings, and seemingly by 
 allusion to those of Joseph, said, The cup which my 
 Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ? John 
 xviii. 11. Indeed, there is, in several respects, a 
 striking resemblance between the sufferings of Jo- 
 seph and those of Christ. 
 
 Were the sufferings of Joseph procured by the ill 
 conduct of his brethren ? Let it never be forgotten 
 that the sufferings of Christ, were procured by the 
 sins of his mystical brethren : He was wounded for 
 our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. 
 Is. liii. 5. 
 
 Was Joseph, though exposed to sufferings by the 
 ill conduct of his brethren, ordained of God to be 
 the instrument of saving their lives by a great de- 
 liverance ? f The same is true of Christ ; for though 
 he suffered as the Substitute of his guilty brethren 
 and by wicked hands was crucified and slain, he was, 
 nevertheless, " delivered by the determinate coun- 
 sel and foreknowledge of God," and died that we 
 
 c Rom. v. 10. d Ibid. ver. 6. e Gen. xliv. 5. f Ibid. xlv. 7. 
 
SBR. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 467 
 
 might live : He was delivered for our offences and 
 raised again for our justification. Rom. iv. 25. 
 As Joseph's sufferings were occasioned by his 
 brethren, it was fit and requisite, that, by some means, 
 he should make their ill treatment of him bitter to 
 them, before he admitted them to his fraternal fel- 
 lowship. This he had done in some measure, when 
 he accused them of being spies, and put them 
 into ward for three days : for then, " They said one 
 to another, We are verily guilty concerning our 
 brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when 
 he besought us, and we would not hear: therefore 
 is this distress come upon us. And Reuben an- 
 swered them, saying, Spake not I unto you, saying, 
 Do not sin against the child ; and ye would not hear ? 
 Therefore behold also his blood is required." This 
 conversation passed between them in the presence 
 of Joseph; but, taking him to be an Egyptian, 
 " they knew not that Joseph understood them ; for 
 he spake unto them by an interpreter.''^ Still 
 more poignantly, however, he brought that great 
 wickedness to their remembrance by laying his cup, 
 the symbol of his sufferings, to their charge. For 
 when the stealth, to all appearance, was undeniably 
 proved upon them, Judah, in the name of the whole, 
 said to Joseph, by whose direction the discovery 
 was made, " What shall we say unto iny lord ? 
 what shall we speak? or how shall we clear our- 
 selves?" To confess the charge would have been 
 a violation of conscience; and to deny it, could 
 have been of no avail, seeing the cup alleged to be 
 stolen, was actually found in Benjamin's sack. Ju- 
 
 e Gen. xlii. 1423. 
 
468 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV. 
 
 dah, therefore, wisely understood and admitted, that 
 the dilemma into which they were brought was a 
 punishment divinely inflicted upon them for their 
 past sins ; and every conscience, no doubt, felt that it 
 was specially for their sin in selling Joseph; 
 " God," said he, "hath found out," that is, disclosed 
 the iniquity of thy servants, &c. Gen. xliv. 16. In 
 like manner Christ deals with his brethren. He 
 brings, indeed, much of their guilt to their remem- 
 brance, while he holds them in ward under the law, 
 and speaks to them by his Interpreter, the Holy Spir- 
 it : here he shows them that they are rebels against 
 God, and that they cannot be justified in his sight, 
 by their obedience to the law ; for by the law is the 
 knowledge, not of justification, but of sin. See 
 Rom. iii. 20. and vii. 8 11. But, it is by charging 
 them with the cup of his sufferings, that he pierces 
 their hearts and makes them, in the bitterness of 
 their souls, to cry, What shall we do ? Acts ii. 36, 37. 
 Joseph, moreover, employed his cup in making 
 trial of his brethren. His steward, it is true, when 
 speaking by his direction, is represented by our 
 Version and several others, as saying of the cup, 
 " Is not this it in which my lord drinketh ? and 
 whereby indeed he divineth?" Gen. xliv. 5. But 
 this cannot be the sense of the original; for, though 
 it is not improbable that the Egyptians really sup- 
 posed that Joseph, like the soothsayers of their 
 own and other nations, practised divination, and that 
 he thereby interpreted dreams and discovered and 
 revealed secrets, that supposition is wholly inconsist- 
 ent with his revealed character; nor is it at all 
 credible, that he designed to make such an impres 
 sion on the mind of his steward, and much less, that 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 469 
 
 he was willing, through him, to make that impres- 
 sion on the minds of his brethren. Wherefore, I 
 understand the word rendered divincth, to be used 
 in this place in a different acceptation. Its root, (PHJ 
 nachash,) signifies not only to divine, but also to ob- 
 serve, to try, to make an experiment. Thus using the 
 word, Laban said to Jacob Ym nichashtee, I have 
 learned by experience. Gen. xxx. 27. Comp. 1 Kings 
 xx. 33. Now, the word in question being so under- 
 stood, the interrogatories which Joseph's steward, 
 by his direction, put to the supposed strangers, im- 
 ported as much as if he had said Is not this evidently 
 the cup which my Master appropriates to his own 
 personal use nay, the cup which you saw him thus 
 appropriate, when lately you were so kindly and 
 so bountifully entertained at his house ? And was it 
 not to make trial of your honesty, of which he was 
 very doubtful, that he left this valuable article within 
 your convenient reach, when he withdrew from his 
 tablel It was: and by the experiment, behold, he 
 has proved you to be filchers ! 
 
 This also well comports with Joseph's real design 
 in the stratagem; which was to make trial of his 
 elder brethren in different respects. As they had 
 envied him, whom his father had distinguished, he 
 thought proper to try whether, in like manner, they 
 would envy his brother Benjamin, whom he had 
 distinguished at his table, by sending him a fivefold 
 mess. And, as envy is sure to manifest itself by a 
 ready concurrence with any charge, true or false, 
 brought against its object, Joseph prudently caused 
 his cup to be put into Benjamin's sack, that his elder 
 brethren, if so disposed, might have a fair pretence for 
 delivering him up as a thief; and which the Jews 
 
470 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV* 
 
 think the rest would have done, but for the opposition 
 and influence of Judah. By the same means, Jo- 
 seph also made trial of their filial affection ; they 
 well knowing how much the life of their father was 
 bound up in the lad, namely Benjamin. Gen. xliv, 30. 
 
 Thus Christ, by the cup of his sufferings, both 
 personal and relative, tries his called brethren, and 
 distinguishes them from others. 
 
 By Christ's personal sufferings, I mean those 
 which he endured in his own human nature. By 
 these he tries 1. Our faith. They who have only 
 an historical faith in him, though they may be elated 
 with a notion of being saved by him, feel no broken- 
 ness of heart nor contrition of spirit, and, there 
 fore, no sympathy with him in his sufferings; but 
 his called brethren, being regenerated and made 
 partakers of \hatfaithwhich is a fruit of the Spirit* 
 come to him filled with self-abasement and godly 
 sorrow on account of their sins ; they look upon him 
 whom they have pierced and mourn.* 2. How we 
 are affected toward the design of his death ; which 
 was not only to redeem, but thereupon, to purify 
 also, those for whom he died : for he gave himself for 
 us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and 
 purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
 good works.* 
 
 Now, many who talk much about redemption by 
 Christ, and warmly dispute whether it is particular, 
 general, or universal, are, nevertheless, strangers to 
 the purifying efficacy of his precious blood, as ap- 
 plied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit nay, 
 live as they list, unconcerned about holiness of 
 
 * Gal. v, 22. * Zech. xii. 10. John xix. 37. k Titus ii. 14, 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 471 
 
 heart or life. But the called brethren of Christ, 
 with the apostles, perceive and realize, that when he 
 died for all, that is, for all he represented among 
 all nations, (all being alike dead,) he died for all, 
 that they who live, being regenerated and justified, 
 should not henceforth live unto themselves, but un- 
 to him who died/or them, and rose again. See 2 
 Cor. v. 14, 13. 
 
 By the relative sufferings of Christ, I mean the 
 sufferings of his mystical body, the church ; that is, 
 the sufferings which his vital members endure, be- 
 cause of their relation and union to him, and the 
 profession of their faith in him. 1 Addressing such, 
 the apostle says, Unto you it is given in the behalf 
 of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suf- 
 fer for his sake. In the present life they are all 
 imperfect ; n and when they depart from the stan- 
 dard of God's revealed will, either by omission or 
 commission, though they come not under the curse ; 
 Christ having redeemed them from it ; they, ne- 
 vertheless, come under the discipline of the cove- 
 nant, as administered by their heavenly Father : 
 Then, saith he, will 1 visit their transgressions with 
 a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. p This rod, 
 however severe its stripes, is applied as the effect of 
 covenant-love and faithfulness : When we are judg- 
 ed, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not 
 be condemned with the world, and that we might be 
 partakers of his holiness.' 1 Believers, however, suf- 
 fer much wrongfully from the tongue of slander ; yet 
 to this also, a blessing is annexed : Blessed are ye, 
 
 1 Col. i. 24. 1 Pet. iv. 13. "* Philip, i. 29. n Ecc. vii. 20. 1 John 
 i. 8. Gal. in. 13. p Psal. Ixxxix. 32. <t 1 Cor. xi. 32. Heb, 
 xii. 911. 
 
472 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV. 
 
 said Christ to his disciples, when men shall revile 
 you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of 
 evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and 
 be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in 
 heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets which 
 were before you.* Nay, even when they are overtaken 
 in faults, the enemies of truth and righteousness 
 reproach them, not because they have sinned, but 
 because they are professed disciples of Christ ; for 
 the same imperfections, which in others pass unno- 
 ticed, if observed in them, are magnified and made 
 the occasion of scandal to the Christian name : This 
 fellow was also with Jems of Nazareth.* Did not I 
 see thee in the garden with him ?* How careful, then, 
 should professors be to give no just occasion to the 
 adversary to blaspheme, or to speak reproachfully / u 
 
 And under these relative sufferings also (both un- 
 der those which they endure from the discipline of 
 the covenant, because they belong to Christ, and 
 under those which they endure from the tongue of 
 slander and the hand of persecution, because they 
 profess his name) Christ variously tries them. 
 Hereby, 
 
 1. He tries and brings to light their reconcilia- 
 tion to the will of his and their heavenly Father. 
 For while others, under afflictive providences, re- 
 bel and murmur, an afflicted saint, under the rod 
 of the covenant, says, with ELI, It is the Lord ; let 
 him do what seemeth him good ; w with DAVID, It is 
 good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might 
 learn thy statutes ;* with JOB, Shall we receive good 
 at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil, 
 
 * Matt. v. 11. 12. s Ibid, xxvi, 71. * John xviii. 26. 1 Tim. 
 vi. 1. Titus ii. 1 11. w 1. Sam. iii. 18. x Psal. cxix. 71. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 473 
 
 meaning the evil of affliction ! y nay, with him also, 
 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him* and, with 
 PAUL, I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time 
 are not worthy to be compared with the glory that 
 shall be revealed in us* Such too, is the tenor of 
 apostolic exhortation, addressed to believers : We 
 pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God b 
 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty 
 hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. c 
 
 2. He tries, and makes manifest, the reality of 
 their attachment to himself and his gospel. Some 
 receive his word under the mere influence of 
 passion, and others under the prospect of worldly 
 gain. The former, when their gust of passion has 
 subsided, and the latter when their hope of world- 
 ly gain is blasted, presently take offence at his doc- 
 trine or his government, and forsake his cause 
 and his kingdom. d Not so his true disciples. They, 
 assured that he is the divine Messiah, and having 
 received his gospel in the love of it, cannot forsake 
 him, nor exchange his doctrine for that of another. 
 When He, observing how hypocrites forsook him, 
 said to the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Peter 
 answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou 
 hast the words of eternal life. 6 
 
 3. He tries their love to each other, and thereby, 
 their love to God. For every one that lovtth him 
 that begat, lovcth him also that is begotten of him.* 
 That the professed disciples of Christ may be tried 
 in this way, it is so ordered in Providence, that while 
 some of them are rich, others are destitute and in 
 
 y Jobii. 10. z Ibid. xiii. 15. a Rom. viii. 18. b 2 Cor. v. 20. 
 c 1 Pet. v. 6. d Matt. xiii. 20. John vi. 26, 27. 66. Ibid. ver. 
 67,68. '1 John v.l. 
 
 63 
 
474 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SEE. XIV. 
 
 need of their liberality : But whoso hath this world's 
 good 9 and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up 
 his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the 
 love of God in him ?s In other instances and to 
 answer the same end, some of God's children are 
 strangely and unaccountably brought under the 
 apparent guilt of some immorality perhaps, like 
 Benjamin, they are charged with theft, or, like Jo- 
 seph, with unchastity and, though innocent as they, 
 circumstances may be such, that, like them, they 
 may be unable, for the time being, to demonstrate 
 their innocence. Here the feelings of their bre- 
 thren toward them, are deeply tested. Those who 
 secretly disliked them before, will readily nay glad- 
 ly, admit and even abet the accusations against them, 
 and so leave them to the power of their accusers. 
 For, however with their lips they may seem to regret 
 it, the language of their heart is, Ah, so would we 
 have it. h But they who have cordially loved and 
 fellowshipped them, as Christians, feel and act very 
 differently toward them. They call upon them 
 inquire into the circumstances of the case, and at- 
 tach that respect to their declarations, which is due 
 from one Christian to another; and, knowing that Satan 
 is the accuser, not of the profane, nor of hypocrites, 
 but of the brethren 1 that he is never at a loss for 
 agents, ready and qualified to serve him in this 
 work of darkness that^alse accusations may be so 
 contrived, in relation to times and circumstances, 
 as to have a great show of plausibility and that 
 Christ, to bring to light the enmity of the devil 
 against the church, and to manifest the strength of 
 
 * 1 John iii. 17. * Psal. xxxv. 25. Rev, xii. 10. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 475 
 
 his own grace in supporting his falsely accused 
 brethren, in some instances, suffers such accusa- 
 tions to be loudly rumored and long sustained ; 
 knowing these things, I say, the cordial friends of 
 those accused, Judge not according to appearance, 
 but judge righteous judgment.* Wherefore, influ- 
 enced by that charity, that Christian love, which 
 envieth not, and which thinketh no evil, 1 they cannot 
 abandon their accused brethren to public odium, 
 but upon unequivocal and undeniable evidence of 
 their guilt ; and even then, so far are they from ex- 
 ulting in the facts thus proved, (as the ungodly do,) 
 that they deeply deplore them, and the case of those 
 found guilty of them. Their hearts bleed with the 
 bleeding cause of their dear REDEEMER. They re- 
 gard the sad affair, as a common wound to the 
 household of faith as a humiliating stroke to the 
 whole church and, in bitterness of soul, say to 
 JESUS, as Judah said to Joseph, God hath found out, 
 that is, exposed the iniquity of thy servants the 
 iniquity that had been committed among them. By 
 such falls among professors, God affects the hearts 
 of survivors with an a' arming sense of their own in- 
 dwelling depravity, and mb t' ers to them the remem- 
 brance of their own past transg essions yea, exem- 
 plifies before them what they afe all still liable to, 
 unless his grace preserve them. Thus he that 
 thinketh he standeth, is admonished to take heed lest 
 he fall* 
 
 Having considered Joseph's knowledge of his 
 brethren and his conduct toward them while they 
 knew not him, let us precede to consider, 
 
 k John vii. 24. 1 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5. m Ibid. x. 12. 
 
476 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 Thirdly, His making himself known unto them. 
 To this he was moved by the admirable speech of 
 Judah ;* which, for artless simplicity, pertinent rea- 
 soning, and humble importunity, we may safely say 
 has never been exceeded. It is so explicit and so 
 beautiful, that any human attempt to explain or to 
 embellish it, must necessarily tend to obscure and 
 deface it. You are, therefore, left to read it, with- 
 out comment, as it is found in Gen. xliv. 18 34. 
 
 The narrative of its influence upon Joseph, be- 
 gins with Chapter xlv. 
 
 Then (ver. 1.) Joseph could not refrain himself 
 before all them that stood by him ; and he cried, 
 probably to his steward, cause every man to go out 
 from me, meaning every man, except the reputed 
 strangers, then under examination : and there stood 
 no man with him, while Joseph made himself known 
 unto his brethren. And (ver. 2) he wept aloud ; and 
 the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard ; the 
 Egyptians, though withdrawn to adjoining apart- 
 ments, heard him weep, and, through them, the re- 
 port thereof soon reached the house of Pharaoh, 
 not far from which, it is presumable, stood the house 
 of Joseph, his Prime-Minister. 
 
 By this precautionary measure, Joseph wisely and 
 kindly prevented any needless exposure of his bre- 
 thren's faults ; which, on that interesting occasion, 
 he must necessarily mention, and they confess. 
 Nor does it appear from the sacred history, that 
 their cruel treatment of him, or any of their former 
 crimes, were ever made known in Egypt. Thus, 
 our divine Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, does not 
 
 * Who had become surety for Benjamin. Gen. xJiii. 9. xliy. 32. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 477 
 
 require that his redeemed, when called and brought 
 under conviction by his word and spirit, should pub- 
 lish their particular sins before men. It is enough 
 that they realize the evil of them in their own souls 
 confess them before God abhor and forsake 
 them and that they rely, for the pardon of them, 
 on the blood of the everlasting covenant, which 
 alone can satisfy divine justice for sin. And as Jo- 
 seph, for the honor of his family, provided for keep- 
 ing the knowledge of their faults between himself 
 and them, that his .brethren might not be exposed to 
 contempt in Egypt; so Christ, for the honor of his 
 name and kingdom, has provided that his brethren, 
 when overtaken in faults, if penitent and reformed, 
 should not be exposed to reproach in the world : If 
 thy brother, says he, trespass against thee, go and 
 tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he 
 shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But 
 if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or 
 two more, that in the mouth of two or three witness- 
 es every word may be established. And if he shall 
 neglect to hear them, tell it to the CHURCH not to 
 the WORLD ; but if he neglect to hear the CHURCH, let 
 him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." 
 Many godly men, indeed, have been of the opinion, 
 that Christ will not make known the sins of his 
 redeemed, even at the last judgment. But if he 
 does, it will only be to magnify the riches of his Fa- 
 ther's grace toward them, and the value of his own 
 sacrifice for them, when he shall come to be glorified 
 in his saints, and to be admired in all them that be- 
 lieve? Nay, when arrived in heaven,* the saved, ih- 
 
 B Matt, xviii. 1517. 2 Thess. i. 10. 
 
478 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 stead of particularizing the kinds and degrees of 
 their guilt, will harmoniously join in the everlasting 
 song, Unto him that hath loved us and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, &c. p Christ, more- 
 over, like Joseph, reveals himself to his brethren 
 alone; for, both at their calling and during their 
 pilgrimage, He manifests himself to them, as he 
 does not unto*the world. See John xiv. 22. 
 
 The progress, too, which Joseph observed in mak- 
 ing himself known to his brethren, is worthy of no- 
 tice and full of instruction. 
 
 1. He merely announced himself to them by his 
 proper name, saying, I AM JOSEPH to which, how- 
 ever, at once to show his filial affection, and to con- 
 vince them that he knew who they were and whence 
 they came, he annexed the inquiry, Doth my father 
 yet live ? We need not marvel at what followed. 
 And his brethren could not answer him : for, as 
 might be expected, they were troubled, yea, terrified, 
 as the word signifies, at his presence.* For now, 
 recognizing in the lord of Egypt their long discard- 
 ed brother, whom, to his own and his father's unut- 
 terable grief, they had sold to strangers, they were 
 so stung with remorse confused with shame and 
 filled with the dread of just retaliation, that, for a 
 while, they could make no reply. How similar is the 
 condition of poor sinners, when first they hear the 
 voice of the Son of God, so as to live, and begin to see 
 his majesty and his glory, in the light of the gospel! 
 He, indeed, says to them, I AM JESUS, that is, the 
 SAVIOUR ; but they, recollecting their long neglect 
 and contempt of him, and their base requital of his 
 
 p Rer. i. 5, 6. * Gen. xlv. 3. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 479 
 
 Father's kindness, in sending him into the world, 
 can scarcely even hope that he will save them. 
 Hence, laden with guilt, and filled with shame and 
 grief, they know not what to say or do. 
 
 2. Joseph, perceiving his brethren to be thus con- 
 founded and dismayed, and, perhaps, receding from 
 him, kindly said to them, Come near to me, I pray you.* 
 What an encouraging invitation ! Yet, much more 
 so is that of Christ, in which he says to sensible 
 sinners, Come unto me all ye that labor and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Did the 
 brethren of Joseph draw near to him, at his call ? 
 How much more, at the call of JESUS, should heavy 
 laden sinners be prevailed on to go to HIM ! 
 
 3. Joseph's brethren having approached him, he 
 explicitly declared his relation to them, saying, I AM 
 JOSEPH YOUR BROTHER ; s and though he added, 
 whom ye sold into Egypt, it was not to reproach 
 them, but, at once to identify and to endear him- 
 self to them. Thus when sensible sinners, encou- 
 raged by the gospel invitation, are enabled to come 
 to Christ by faith, He graciously reveals himself in 
 his covenant- relation to them. He, in effect, says, 
 I AM JESUS YOUR BROTHER ; and though he now 
 again causes them to look upon him whom they 
 have pierced and mourn, the affecting sight only 
 serves to confirm their faith and to increase their 
 love. Nay, the very imputation of his death proves 
 that it was for them, and tends to enhance his va- 
 lue to them : Unto you, therefore, that believe he is 
 precious. 1 Pet. ii. 7. 
 
 4. Joseph, to alleviate his brethren, under the self- 
 reproach which they still felt at the remembrance of 
 r Gen. x lv. 4. Ibid. 
 
480 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SEK. XIV. 
 
 how they had treated him, instructively adverted to 
 the concern which God had in the matter. Address- 
 ing them, he said, Be not grieved nor angry with 
 yourselves, that ye sold me hither : for God did send 
 me before you to preserve life. So now it was not 
 you that sent me hither, but God ; and He, strange 
 as it is, hath made me . . . . ruler throughout all the 
 land of Egypt* So Christ, to instruct the minds 
 and to assuage the sorrows of his penitent diciples, 
 lets them know that he was delivered by the determi- 
 nate counsel and fore-knowledge of God that he 
 suffered for them by covenant-stipulation (which 
 Joseph did not for his brethren) that the things 
 which he suffered, being those predicted and typi- 
 fied of the true Messiah, proved him to be the PERSON 
 and, that such was the tenor of the covenant, that 
 his mediatorial sufferings were all prerequisite to 
 his mediatorial exaltation : Ought not THE CHRIST 
 (rov %ps"ov) to have suffered these things, and to enter 
 into his glory ? u that glory which, by covenant- grant, 
 he had with the Father before the world was. w Jo- 
 seph's brethren had, indeed, been ill-affected toward 
 him : As for you, said he to them, ye thought evil 
 against me ; but God meant it unto good, to bring 
 to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.* 
 And so, though Jews and Gentiles were exceeding- 
 ly ill-affected toward Christ, and took and crucified 
 him with wicked hands, yet God meant it unto the 
 highest conceivable good, namely, to save from eter- 
 nal death, a multitude which no man can number, 
 of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
 tongues. Rev. vii. 9. 
 
 * Gen. xlv. 8. u Luke xxiv. 26. w John xvii. 5. * Gen. 1. 20. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 481 
 
 5. The coming of Joseph's brethren to him in 
 Egypt, excited much interest at court: The fame 
 thereof was heard in Pharaohs house, messengers 
 and courtiers, saying, Josephs brethren are corner 
 Let this remind us of the exultation in Zion, the 
 earthly palace of God, when lost sinners, found and 
 called by grace, come to Christ and to his church, 
 THEN ministers and other Christians joyfully con- 
 gratulate each other, saying, The ransomed of the 
 Lord are come. Thus, at the return of the prodigal 
 to his father's house, they (the members of the 
 household) began to be merry ; z and when many in 
 Samaria believed, There was great joy in that city? 
 Nay, the tidings, borne with angelic flight, reach the 
 courts of Heaven, and gladden all the inhabitants 
 there : There is joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth. Luke xv. 10. 
 
 6. Joseph, having made himself known to his bre- 
 thren, and having thus instructively addressed them, 
 sealed his love to each with a kiss b made them 
 all acceptable at court, (Pharaoh himself and all his 
 servants being well pleased, ) and, hiding all their 
 faults from the king, procured his royal concurrence 
 on their behalf. d How similar is the manner in 
 which our divine Joseph, the Lord Jesus, treats his 
 redeemed ! On making himself known to them, 
 he not only kindly instructs them, but also sweetly 
 discovers his love to them ; and having, by his atone- 
 ment, covered all their sins from the eye of aveng- 
 ing justice, he brings them into open acceptance 
 with the King eternal, immortal and invisible; who, 
 
 y Gen. xlv. 16. z Luke xv. 24. a Acts viii. 8. b Gen. xlv. 15, 
 
 c Ibid. ver. 1C. d Ib. ver. 1734. 
 
 I 
 
 64 
 
482 JOSKP1I A TYPE OF CHRIST. [sER. XIV 
 
 thereupon, shows them his covenant" lets them know 
 their interest in his great and precious promises, by 
 which they are assured of all needful good, for time 
 and eternity f and favors them with his gracious 
 presence, arid the tokens of his loving-kindness : If 
 any man love me, saith Christ, he will keep my words ; 
 and my Father will love him, and we will come un- 
 to him and make our abode with him. John xiv. 
 23. Truly, brethren, our fellowship is with the 
 Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John i. 3. 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 1. Were all the family of Joseph gathered to him 
 in Egypt ? So all the family of Christ shall be gather- 
 ed to him in this world. "It is written in the pro- 
 phets," saith he, And they shall be all taught of God ; 
 that is, to know their lost condition and the only 
 way of salvation. Every man therefore, adds he, 
 that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father ^ 
 cometh unto me. John vi. 45. 
 
 2. By the favor and influence of Joseph, his fami- 
 ly, though in Egypt, were distinguished there. 
 They dwelt in the land of Goshen, and near to Jo- 
 sephs Now Goshen, as it abounded with water and 
 pasture, was the best of the land ; h and therefore a 
 fit emblem of a state of grace, in which believers 
 have access to the rills and fountains of living water, 
 and feed in the green pastures of divine promises 
 and ordinances. But the best of all is their privilege 
 of being near to JESUS, their spiritual Joseph: for 
 they are a people near unto him. 1 The lines, of a 
 truth, are fallen unto us in pleasant places ; yea, we 
 have a goodly heritage. Psal. xvi. 6. 
 
 Psal. xxv. 14. f 2 Pet. i. 4. 2. Cor. i. 20. Rom. viii. 32. 
 e Gen. xlv. 10. L Ibid, xlvii. 6. l Psal. cxlviii. 14. 
 
SER. XIV.] JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. 483 
 
 3. the family of Joseph, though they dwelt in 
 Egypt, were not Egyptians, but strangers there. 
 So the saints, though in the world, are not of the 
 world, but strangers and pilgrims here. Heb. xi. 
 13. Hence, 
 
 4. As Joseph, before his death, assured his bre- 
 thren (meaning all Israel) that God would certainly 
 visit them, and bring them out of that land into the 
 land of promise, k so Christ, before his crucifixion, 
 let his disciples know, that God had provided for 
 them a better home than this world, and a richer in- 
 heritance than the earthly Canaan : Fear not, said 
 he, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure 
 to give you the kingdom. Luke xii. 32. 
 
 5. Joseph, in the most solemn manner, charged his 
 brethren to carry up his bones with them. 1 These 
 were to accompany them, through all their journey 
 toward the holy land. And so the everlasting gos- 
 pel, the doctrine of Him who is raised from the 
 dead, will accompany the church in all her genera- 
 tions, and during every stage of her heaven-ward 
 journey : My words which I have put in thy 
 mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of 
 the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of 
 thy seed's seed, saith the LoRD,/rom henceforth and 
 for ever. Is. lix. 21. And, as the Israelites, with 
 
 the bones of Joseph, entered Canaan, the saints, 
 with the risen Jesus, shall enter the " better coun- 
 try." For the Lord himself shall descend from 
 Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch- 
 angel, and with the trump of God: and the dead 
 in Christ shall rise first, that is, before the living 
 
 k Gen. 1.24. > Ibid. ver. 25. 
 
484 JOSEPH A TYPE OF CHRIST. [SER. XIV. 
 
 saints shall be changed : Then ice ichich are alive 
 and remain, (being suddenly changed,) shall be 
 caught up together icith them in the clouds, to meet 
 the Lord in the air : and so, (having entered hea- 
 ven with him,) shall we ever le with the Lord 
 Amen. Even so, come, LORD JESUS. 
 
 w 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17- Comp. ICor. xv. 5157 
 
SERMON XV. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH, CONTINUED, 
 
 JOSEPH'S LAND A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH.* 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 13 17. And of Joseph he said. Blessed of the Lord 
 be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and 
 for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the precious fruits 
 brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth 
 by the moon. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains^ 
 and for the precious things of the lasting hills. And for the pre- 
 cious things of the earth and fulness thereof' and for the good- 
 will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon 
 the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that 
 was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling 
 of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns ; with 
 them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: 
 and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are 
 the thousands of Manasseh. 
 
 DAVID, addressing the Lord, said, Open thoumine 
 eyes that I may behold wonderous things out of thy 
 law!" With such things our text abounds. And, O 
 that the Lord would open the eyes of our under- 
 standing that we might understand them ! 
 
 That Joseph, in many respects, was a personal 
 type of Christ, you have heard in the preceding dis- 
 course ; and if so, it must follow, by consequence, 
 that his portion was mystically designed to set forth 
 
 a Psal. cxix. 18. 
 
 65 
 
486 JOSEPH'S LAND [SKR. xv. 
 
 the portion of his great antitype. This will appear, 
 when, concerning Joseph's land, we consider, 
 
 FIRST, The manner of its assignment. Joseph re- 
 ceived his land by lot? and therefore by divine ap- 
 propriation; for the whole disposing of the lot is of 
 the Lord. c And in like manner, Christ received his 
 portion, the church : The Lord's portion is his peo- 
 ple ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance* For, 
 though the words just referred to, literally under- 
 stood, respect national Israel, yet that Israel as be- 
 ing an object of God's providential love and choice, 
 and as being by him committed to the safe-keeping 
 and guidance of the Angel of the covenant, in whom 
 his "name,' 7 his nature dwells,* was eminently a type 
 of spiritual Israel, whom he loves with an everlast- 
 ing love, and whom he gave to Christ, not only as 
 the people of his charge, but as the lot of his in- 
 heritance. Accordingly, Christ, when speaking to 
 the Father concerning them, says, Thine they were 
 and thou gavest them me. Yet, that none might sup- 
 pose that the Father had thereby relinquished his 
 own interest in them, Christ farther says to him, 
 all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am 
 glorified in them ; f that is, in the equity of their re- 
 demption and the perfection of their salvation ; he 
 having redeemed them from all iniquity f arid they 
 being saved in him with an everlasting salvation* 
 
 SECONDLY, The succession of its inhabitants. Jo- 
 eph's land was inhabited by his natural descerid- 
 mts, in their successive generations ;' and the church, 
 he land of Christ, was manifestly designed for the 
 
 b Josh. xvi. 1. c Prov. xvi. 33. d Deut. xxxii. 9. e Ibid. vii. 
 ), 7. *Exo. xxiii. 2023. See Ser. iv. p. 143, &c. f John xvii. 
 J. 10. & Titus ii. 14. Ms. xlv. 17. * Josh. xvi. 4. 
 
SER. xv.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. ' 487 
 
 earthly residence of his spiritual posterity, from ge- 
 neration to generation. And it is only as sinners 
 receive regenerating grace from Christ and become 
 believers in him, that they are qualified to profess 
 his name, and to unite with his visible family, which 
 is the household of faith* "This is the heritage 
 of the servants of the LORD, and their righteous- 
 ness is of me saith the LORD." Is. liv. 17. Thus 
 Christ, by communicating grace to his redeemed, 
 perpetuates a seed to serve him ; and it shall be ac- 
 counted to the Lord for a generation. Psal. xxii. 30. 
 
 THIRDLY, The progress and means of its actual 
 possession. The inheritance which God, in his 
 purpose, had assigned to Joseph and his posterity 
 was very large, as appears from the inspired pre- 
 diction of Jacob ; see Gen. xlix. 22 26. Yet the 
 children of Joseph, for a time, possessed but a small 
 share of the assignment only one lot. So, although 
 God, in his eternal counsel and by covenant- grant, 
 had assigned to Christ and his church, an interest 
 in all nations, their visible interest, nevertheless, for 
 a time, was only in one nation, the Jewish, and in- 
 cluded but a few of them a little flock. 
 
 The children of Joseph, thus limited in their pos- 
 sessions, and encouraged by the predictions of Ja- 
 cob and Moses, and especially by the divine favor 
 already experienced, desired enlargement and 
 sought for it. They spake unto Joshua, saying, 
 "Why hast thpu given me but one lot and one por- 
 tion to inherit, seeing I am a great people, forasmuch 
 as the Lord hath blessed me hitherto." 1 Thus the 
 
 kGal. vi.10. Acts ii. 3741. viii. 12. 37, 38. xvi. 31 40. 
 1 Josh. xvii. 14. 
 
488 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 chureh, though small for a while, became " a great 
 people," even among the Jews ; three thousand at 
 once, were added to her, on the day of pentecost, 111 
 and soon after, perhaps jive thousand more, or, at 
 least, two thousand, augmenting the number of them 
 that believed to about Jive thousand ; n nay, u The 
 word of God increased, and the number of the dis- 
 ciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly." At this, 
 the carnal Jews were filled with envy, contradiction 
 and blasphemy ; wherefore the apostles, seeing that 
 the church in Judea was straitened for room, oppress- 
 ed with persecution, and sighing for enlargement 
 and understanding by prophecy, that the time was 
 come for her extension among the nations, said, Lo, 
 we turn to the gentiles; for so hath the Lord com- 
 manded us, p * saying, I have set thee (Christ) to be a 
 light of the gentiles, that thou shouldst be for salva- 
 tion unto the ends of the earth. q 
 
 The children of Joseph, though not denied their 
 request, were informed that the actual possession of 
 territory was only to be acquired by labor and war- 
 fare. Joshua answered them, " If thou be," or where- 
 as thou art "a great people, get thee up to the 
 wood-country, and cut down for thyself there, in the 
 land of the Perizzites, and of the giants" also, " if 
 mount Ephraim be too narrow for thee." r Fn like 
 manner, though the request of the church for the 
 calling of the nations is not, denied, her divine 
 Joshua, by his spirit in the word, hath abundantly 
 informed her, that she must do more than merely to 
 desire it or even formally to pray for it that it is 
 to be obtained through the instrumentality of her 
 
 m Acts ii. 41. n Ibid. iv. 4. Ibid. vi. 7. P Is. xlix. 6. 9 Acts 
 xiii. 46, 47. r Josh. xvii. 15. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 489 
 
 members and ministers, who must "spend and be 
 spent" in the achievement. 8 She must, at her ex- 
 pense, send out missionaries, such as the Lord shall 
 qualify and dispose for the work, and that, not only 
 among the destitute in civilized countries, but also 
 into the heathen world, comparable to the wood- 
 country of the Perizzites and giants. Thus she 
 must cut down and clear for herself. And as an ex- 
 ample for the imitation and encouragement of 
 preachers in all generations, the apostles and other 
 ministers of Christ, commissioned and encouraged 
 by him, extended their labors among the gentiles, 
 and "the hand of the Lord being with them, a great 
 number believed and turned unto the Lord." 1 Such 
 a missionary, in an eminent degree, was the apostle 
 Paul, who could say, " So have I strived to preach 
 the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I 
 should build upon another man's foundation."" 
 Thus acting, the church obeys the divine injunc- 
 tion, " Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them, 
 (her ministers) stretch forth the curtains of thine 
 habitations ; spare riot, lengthen thy cords, and 
 strengthen thy stakes," and enjoys the fulfilment of 
 the promise annexed to so doing : " For thou shalt 
 break forth on the right hand and on the left ; and 
 thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the 
 desolate cities to be inhabited." Is. liv. 2, 3. 
 
 Nor were the children of Joseph satisfied with 
 permission to range and subdue the wood-country 
 only; but had an eye to the valleys also; though 
 they doubted the practicability of conquering their 
 
 Psal. Ixxii. 1519. Is. ii. 2, 3. Ixii. 17. 2 Cor. xii. 15 
 * Acts xi. 21. u Rom. xv. 20. 
 
490 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 inhabitants. They said, "The hill," (not mount 
 Ephraim merely, but all the mountainous region 
 signified by the wood-country) " is not sufficient 
 for us; and all the Canaanites that dwell in the 
 land of the valley," (alas for us!) "have chariots 
 of iron,* both they who are of Beth-.shean and her 
 towns, and they who are of the valley of Jazreel.'' w 
 Beth-shean (compounded of mbeth a house, and 
 either \w sheen a tooth, or pty shanan, to whet, to 
 sharpen, as teeth are sharpened, to bite, or edged 
 tools, to cut) was a fit type of the house, or genera- 
 tion of persecutors "a generation whose teeth are 
 as swords, and their jaw- teeth as knives to devour," 
 &c.-*-yea, "whose teeth," to imply the variety of 
 their destructive measures and instruments, " are 
 spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword;" 
 and " who," that they may lie and slander the more 
 effectually, "whet their tongue like a sword, and 
 bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter 
 words," &c. x And whereas, in gospel-times, the 
 greatest persecutors of the church have been found 
 under the Christian name, it is no wild conceit, to 
 consider papal Rome and her dependencies, as the 
 Beth-shean and her towns, of the present dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 * Not chariots made of iron, but chariots armed with it ; that is, 
 S^tfavTjtpo^a, drepanephora, bearing hooks, sickles or scythes, pro- 
 jecting from their axles on each side ; see 2 Mace. xiii. 2 ; and 
 which, being furiously driven through an enemy's battalions, 
 produced general confusion, and mowed down the infantry like 
 grass. Such, it is presumed, were the war-chariots of Pharaoh, 
 Exo. xiv. 7 of the Philistines; 1 Sam. xiii. 5. and of the Syrians ; 
 2 Sam. viii. 4 : and such, no doubt, were those of the Canaan- 
 ites. See Josh, xi. 4. and Judg. i. 19 and iv. 3. 
 
 w Josh. xvii. 16. * Prov. xxx. 14. Psal. Ivii. 4, and Ixiv. 3. &c. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 491 
 
 Jezrecl, from yni zeruang, seed or sowing, and Sx 
 El, God, signifies the seed or sowing of God: or, 
 otherwise, the dispersed of God. And, in either 
 sense, the appellation is appropriate to the Jews 
 nay, like Jeskurun* JEZREEL is but another name for 
 Israel ; z who, by national adoption and federal privi- 
 leges, were a peculiar seed unto God ; a and whom, 
 nevertheless, for their disbelief and rejection of the 
 Messiah, he has expelled from Canaan, and dispers- 
 ed among all nations, according to prophecy. See 
 Is. vi. 11, 12; and Jer. xxiv. 9. 
 
 Now, both the papists and the Jews have their 
 chariots of iron their confidences and prejudices, 
 strong as chariots of war, and, like them, both of- 
 fensive and defensive serving at once to animate 
 their unhallowed zeal, and to confirm their unautho- 
 rized hope. The papists, trusting in popish infalli- 
 bility, and the Jews, relying on carnal descent from 
 Abraham, feel alike secure of divine favor, and are 
 alike unmoved by evangelical attack. Judging, then, 
 according to carnal reason, we are tempted to say, 
 " How little encouragement have the church and 
 her ministers, to take any .jnpasures for their healing 
 and conversion !" 
 
 But, let us hear the animating words of Joshua, 
 who, addressing the house of Joseph, said, " Thou 
 art a great people and hast great power; thou 
 shalt not have one lot only : but the mountain shall 
 be thine ; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it 
 down: and the outgoings of it," meaning its pro- 
 ductions and the ways of access to it, " shall be 
 
 t. xxxii. 16. z Hosea i. 4. ii. 22. a Exo. iv. 22, Deut. 
 xiv. i. 2. 
 
492 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 thine," the former as a revenue and the latter as an 
 accommodation ; " for thou shah dri\ 7 e out the Ca- 
 naanites, though they have iron chariots and though 
 they be strong." 5 
 
 Thus the gospel church, though small at her be- 
 ginning, is already, by the conquests of grace be- 
 come " a great people," and, having the Lord of 
 hosts on her side, and the God of Jacob for her 
 refuge, she has " great power ;". and as Joshua en- 
 couraged the exertions of the house of Joseph, much 
 more does JESUS encourage those of HIS OWN HOUSE 
 with assurances of additional victories and succes- 
 sive acquisitions. For him, as for Joshua, "There 
 remains yet very much land to be possessed ; c and 
 by his Spirit in the prophets, he is, in effect, saying 
 to his church, The mountain, the gentile world, 
 shall be thine ; for, addressing her, he saith, " The 
 gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
 brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round 
 about, and see ; all they gather themselves together, 
 they come to thee ; thy sons shall come from far, 
 and thy daughters shall be nursed by thy side the 
 abundance of the seas shall be converted unto thee, 
 the forces of the gentiles shall come unto thee." d 
 
 Nevertheless, the church, like the house of Jo- 
 seph, must obtain her promised inheritance among 
 the heathen through the use of appointed means; 
 "for it is a wood," and she must send laborers, 
 prepared of the Lord, to " cat it down." Regenera- 
 tion, indeed, is exclusively the work of the Holy 
 Spirit ; e yet ordinarily, at least, He opens the eyes 
 
 * Josh. xvii. 17, 18. c Ibid. xiii. 1, d Is. Ix. 3, 4. 8. e Rom. 
 ii. 29. Eph. i. 17 20. ii. 1. 4, 5, 10. Comp. John vi. 63. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 493 
 
 of sinners, and turns them from darkness to light, 
 and from the power of Satan unto God, by the in- 
 strumentality of gospel-ministers. See Acts xi. 
 21. xxvi. 18. And it is only as moved by the same 
 Spirit, that the church obeys the injunction of Christ, 
 Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send 
 forth laborers? and complies with the request of 
 her missionaries, who, from heathen as well as civil- 
 ized lands, and in apostolic language, are saying 
 to her, pray for us, that the word of the Lord 
 may have free course, and be glorified, in the con- 
 version of sinners, even as it is with you. g " Thus 
 saith the Lord God : I will yet for this be inquired of 
 by the house, of Israel, to do it for them ; I will in- 
 crease them with men like a flock." h 
 
 Herein the church of Christ, like the house of 
 Joseph, shall "have the outgoings of the mountain,'' 
 accessions of converts from the heathen world, and 
 freedom of intercourse with all the nations of the 
 earth. With her increase of numbers, her means 
 also shall be still increased, preparatory to further 
 expenditures in the Redeemer's cause : " The kings 
 of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents, 
 the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." 1 
 " Thy gates," saith Christ to her, " shall be open 
 continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; 
 that men may bring unto thee the forces of the gen- 
 tiles," their wealth, as the word implies, as well as 
 converts from among them, " and that their kings," 
 subdued .and drawn by grace, "may be brought,' 7 * 
 And hence it is added, " Thou shalt also suck the 
 
 f Matt. ix. 38. Luke x. 2. e^Thess, iii. 1. h Ezek. xxxvf 
 37. * Psal. Ixxii. 10. 
 
 66 
 
494 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 milk of the gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of 
 kings ; and thou shalt know that I the Lord am 
 thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of 
 Jacob." Is. Ix. 11. 16. 
 
 Nor is even papal Rome, the same with mystical 
 Babylon, to be regarded as utterly invincible. As an 
 enemy to the church, not all her iron chariots of 
 popish superstition and satanic warfare, nor all her 
 confederates, ecclesiastical and secular, can preserve 
 her for a moment beyond the hour of her decreed 
 and predicted ruin ; " for strong is the Lord God 
 that judgeth her.'' Rev. xviii. 8. Neither is she, 
 to us, altogether a hopeless object ; for though, as 
 typified in literal Babylon, k she is doomed to utter 
 destruction; 1 the sentence, nevertheless, cannot be 
 executed, till the elect of God, remaining within her 
 walls, shall hear his voice, saying, " Come out of her 
 my people," &c. Rev. xviii. 4. For this, let Zion 
 hope arid pray. 
 
 And as for Jczrccl, or national Israel, though for her 
 breach of the sinaic covenant and rejection of the 
 true Messiah, God hath long forsaken her and widely 
 dispersed her ; yet, according to his covenant of 
 grace, before confirmed in Christ, and made known 
 to her fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he re- 
 members her for good, and will gather her in 
 mercy : " I will take you," saith he to the scattered 
 Jews, "from among the heathen, and gather you 
 out of all countries, and will bring you into your own 
 land. THEN" (and not till THEN) "will I sprinkle 
 clean water upon you," meaning his pure gospel, 
 especially the doctrine of pardon and justification 
 
 k Jer. li. 63, 64. Rev. xviii. 21. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST^ CHURCH. 495 
 
 through the atoning blood and perfect righteousness 
 of Christ, explained and applied to them by his 
 Spirit's influence ; "And ye shall be clean : from all 
 your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse 
 you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new 
 spirit will! put within you; and I will take away 
 the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you 
 an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within 
 you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye 
 shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye 
 shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; 
 and," (the lo-ami being removed,) "ye shall be 
 my people and I will be your God." See Ezek. 
 xxxvi. 24 28. and Hosea i. 9. 
 
 The Jews, therefore, though blindly trusting in 
 privileges and ceremonies, long abolished, and 
 though wickedly armed with traditions and preju- 
 dices, strong as iron, against Jesus of Nazareth, are 
 decidedly objects of Christian hope and ministerial 
 address, and authorized subjects of our fiducial and 
 persevering supplications to God. The valley of 
 Jezreel, it is true, has long been " a valley full of 
 bones" yea, of bones very dry ; yet even these 
 are not beyond the power of Him who quickeneth 
 the dead. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? 
 See Ezek. xxxvii. 1 14.* 
 
 * That the gathering of the Jews, promised in Ezek. xxxvitb, 
 does not simply denote their gathering from the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, but ultimately from their present dispersion also, is evi- 
 dent by some things said of their land and of them, which were 
 not verified at their return from Babylon. See ver. 14, 15. 29, 
 30. And much less can their resurrection, described in Chap, 
 xxxviith, be restricted to their recovery from captivity, but re- 
 mains to be realized in their conversion in the latter day ; when 
 
496 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 Chiefly, however, the land of Joseph was a type of 
 the church of Christ, 
 
 FOURTHLY, In the natural and providential bless- 
 ings by which it was distinguished : Of Joseph, 
 Moses said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, &c. 
 
 Compared with the lands round about it, the land 
 of Joseph was remarkable for its richness. It in- 
 cluded Gilead and Bashan, inherited by Manas- 
 seh ; m and the rich country of Samaria, which, with 
 her mountains, 11 her fields and her metropolis, 15 fell 
 to the lot of Ephraim.* Thus the church of Christ, 
 consisting of those called out of the world that lieth 
 in wickedness, is distinguished from all other por- 
 tions of mankind, by the riches of divine grace. 
 Hence the diversity of soil, noticed by our Lord in 
 the parable of the sower. Of the unregerierate, he 
 likened some to the way-side, some to stony places, 
 and some to land covered with thorns; but the rege- 
 nerate he likened to good ground, that is, to ground 
 duly ploughed and manured ; for, as such ground 
 is in a good state of preparation to receive the seed 
 of the sower, and to bring forth a crop for the own- 
 er ; so the regenerate, having the fallow ground of 
 their hearts broken up, and the fertilizing princi- 
 ple of grace imparted, are prepared to receive the 
 seed of the word and to bring forth fruit, more or 
 less, unto God. r 
 
 The land of Joseph was distinguished by its 
 
 'the ten tribes and the two shall be re-united, and David, the true 
 Messiah, shall be king over them. See ver. 15 28. Comp. 
 Hosea iii. 5. and Rom. xi. 25, 26. 
 
 m Josh. xvii. 1. n Amos iii. 9. Obad. ver. 19. P Is. vii. 9. 
 "1 Ibid. ix. 9. r Matt. xiii. 58. and from 1823. Comp. 1 Cor. 
 
 Y.7. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 497 
 
 advantages in water: Blessed of the Lord be his 
 land, for the precious things of heaven, by which 
 are meant plentiful and -seasonable rains and dews ; 
 for although "the dew" only is mentioned, rain 
 is unquestionably implied : and which are both 
 precious things, so precious, so valuable, and so 
 needful, that, without them, no land can be fertile, 
 no crop can flourish and they are not only precious 
 things but the precious things of heaven, because 
 they come from above, and are the gifts of God, by 
 whom they are generated and caused to descend." 
 Mystically and typically, however, we are hereby 
 led to contemplate the spiritual blessings which 
 come upon the church, the land of our spiritual Jo- 
 seph. Of these, and especially of the gospel and 
 the attendant influences of the Holy Spirit, rains 
 and dews are scriptural emblems ; My doctrine, 
 said Christ, (speaking by his Spirit in Moses,) 
 shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil 
 as the dew ; as the small rain upon the tender herb, 
 and as the showers upon the grass.* Like the 
 rain, and snow, and dew, both the gospel and the 
 Holy Spirit are the free gifts of God, and come by 
 his appointment, as to time, and place, and degree ; 
 and, like them, the word of his grace, whenever and 
 wherever sent, attended by the influence of his Spi- 
 rit, must^accomplish the end he designs, whether it 
 be to call, to comfort, to edify or to reprove. " For," 
 saith he, " as the rain cometh down, and the snow 
 from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth 
 the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it 
 may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater ; so 
 
 8 Job. xxxviii. 28. * Deut. xxxii. 2. 
 
493 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : 
 it shall not return unto me void ; but it shall accom- 
 plish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the 
 thing whereto I sent it.'' Is. Iv. 10, 11. 
 
 Nor was "the land of Joseph" favored merely 
 with rains and dews, but also with springs and 
 fountains. Wherefore it is added, and for the deep 
 that coucheth beneath ; from which springs and foun- 
 tains break out and flow, and which, as welfas rain 
 and dew, are the precious things of heaven, being the 
 gifts of God, " who rnaketh the fountains of waters. 
 Rev. xiv. 7. Neither are these without their mysti- 
 cal signification. They are fit emblems of the ema- 
 nations, the breakings forth of divine goodness, 
 in grace and in providence, all preceding from 
 the unseen deep of God's everlasting love to his 
 people; and which spring up and flow according to 
 the arrangements of his eternal counsel, and the 
 provisions of his " covenant ordered in all things 
 and sure." See Eph. i. 11. and 2. Sam. xxiii. 5. 
 They are also appropriate emblems of the doctrines 
 of grace, and of the " great and gracious promises" 
 of God, which, like the former, all rise from the in- 
 explorable deep of that favor, that unchanging love 
 and good-will, which he bears to his people. See 
 Psal. cvi. 4. 
 
 Now, according to these covenanted provisions, 
 CHRIST, " in whom it hath pleased the Father they 
 should all dwell," becomes to the numerous branch- 
 es of his church, and to the souls of all believers in- 
 dividually, as " a Fountain of gardens, a Well of 
 waters, and streams from Lebanon. Cant. iv. 15. 
 Comp. Is. Iviii. 11. 
 
 The preaching of the gospel, the administration 
 
SEU. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 499 
 
 of its ordinances, and the special influences of the 
 Holy Spirit, are, like rain and dew, but occasionally 
 granted ; and like them, are, in many instances, 
 long suspended: but the doctrines of grace, exhibit- 
 ing the method of salvation, and the promises of 
 God, giving assurance of its completion in all the 
 heirs, as they are contained in the written word, are, 
 like springs and fountains, stationary blessings. 
 To these we may come, even when we have no pub- 
 lic teachers, nor public ordinances, and, if favored 
 with the bucket of faith, we may with joy draw 
 water out of these wells of salvation. Is. xii. 3. 
 To procede. 
 
 As the land of Joseph was distinguished by the 
 richness of its soil, and the abundance of its waters, 
 so, as a matter of course, by its great fertility. JAR- 
 CHI, a Jewish Commentator, who, on this subjecf, 
 had access to the best means of information, says, 
 " There was not in the inheritance of the tribes, a 
 land so full of all good things as 4he land of Jo- 
 seph." Let this remind us, that there is not, upon 
 earth, a land so full of all good things as the land of 
 our spiritual Joseph, the church of Christ, which, be- 
 ing stored with the blessings of grace, and caused to 
 abound in practical godliness, is declared to be full 
 of goodness. Rom. xv. 14. Inj its fertility, the 
 land of Joseph was remarkable, 
 
 Fir st 9 For the precious things or ought forth by 
 the sun; which lias a wonderful influence in pro- 
 ducing and perfecting most of the fruits of the earth, 
 for the good of mankind, and in which fruits the 
 land of Joseph in particular abounded. Much 
 more precious, however, are the fruits brought forth 
 by Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, for his favored 
 
500 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 land, his church and people ; I mean the blessed 
 results of his incarnation, obedience, and death 
 his resurrection, ascension and intercession, all 
 which, with the benefits thereby accruing to all repre- 
 sented in Him, are in accordance with his mediatorial 
 stipulations in the everlasting covenant. Among 
 these benefits, are, 
 
 1. Our reconciliation to the offended justice of 
 God : We were reconciled to God by the death of his 
 Son. Rom. v. 10. 
 
 2. Our redemption from the legal penalty incur- 
 red by sin*: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse 
 of the law, being made a curse for us. Gal. iii. 10* 
 
 3. The regenerating and enlightening grace of 
 the Holy Spirit, which the Father sheds abundantly, 
 upon his elect, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
 Titus iii. 5, 6. Comp. Heb. ii. 11. and 1 John ii. 
 20. 27. 
 
 4. The knowledge of our redemption by Christ^ 
 through the remission of our sins, granted, by the 
 Father, for his sake : In whom we have redemption 
 through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. CoL 
 i. 14. Eph. i. 7. and iv. 32. Comp. Luke i. 77. 
 
 5. Personal and irreversible justification in the 
 sight of God; being justified freely by his grace^ 
 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 
 Rom. iii. 24; yea, justified from all things ; Acts 
 xiii. 39 ; and justified by Him, from whose decision 
 there can be no appeal. See Rom. viii, 23, 24. 
 Hence the church, as found in Christ, is clothed 
 with the sun. Rev. xii. 1, 
 
 6. Peace with God peace procured by the blood 
 of the cross, and enjoyed by the grace of faith. Col. 
 i. 20. and Rom. v. 1. Besides, 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 501 
 
 7. All our supplies come,, in like manner, by this 
 new and living way : My God shall supply all your 
 need, according to his riches in glory, BY CHRIST 
 JESUS. Philip iv. 19. Nay, 
 
 8. Even the heavenly inheritance, though not 
 purchased by Christ, is bestowed upon us through 
 him : The gift of God is eternal life, THROUGH JE- 
 SUS CHRIST OUR LORD. Rom. vi. 23. Moreover, 
 
 As Christ, the Sun of righteousness, has brought 
 forth " precious fruits for his people, so He also 
 brings forth " precious fruits in them. Through 
 Him, as Mediator, the Holy Spirit, which He hath 
 received without measure? is given to his redeemed 
 in measure, implanting graces in them, correspond- 
 ent to those which adorn his own human soul : Of 
 his fulness have all we received, (who have passed 
 from death unto life,) and grace for grace. John i. 16. 
 Hence are all the precious fruits of the Spirit, such 
 as faith, love, patience, meekness, &c., which spring 
 from their respective seeds, or principles, implanted 
 in the souls of the regenerated And as the fruits of 
 the earth, moistened by seasonable rains and dews, 
 are brought forth and caused to flourish by the 
 kindly and vegetative influence of the natural sun ; 
 so the fruits of the Spirit in believers, being nourish- 
 ed by appropriate supplies of grace, are brought 
 forth and made to abound, by the benign and ex- 
 hilarating rays of the Sun of righteousness. It is 
 worthy of remark, too, that, as the " land of Joseph," 
 according to the observation of a Jewish commen- 
 tator before named, " lay open to the sun ;" so the 
 church of Christ, the land of our spiritual Joseph, 
 
 u John iii. 34. w Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
 67 
 
502 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 lies specially open to all the beamings of divine fa- 
 vor, shining through Him, the Sun of righteousness ; 
 for Christ having meritoriously put away sin, the sin 
 of all he represented, by the sacrifice of himself? as 
 they are regenerated arid enabled to believe in him, 
 God the Father blots out, as a thick cloudy their 
 transgressions, and, as a cloud, their sins, y arid gives 
 them the light of the knowledge of his glory in the 
 face of Jesus Christ. 2 Thus it is, that believers be- 
 come filled with the fruits of righteousness, which 
 are by Jesus Christ, unto the praise of God. Philip, 
 i. 11. 
 
 As the land of Joseph was remarkable for the pre- 
 cious fruits brought forth by the sun, so also, 
 
 SECONDLY, For the precious things put forth by the 
 moon ; by which, according to this version, must be 
 meant those fruits which, being digested by the sun,, 
 during the day, are advanced andj dilated by the 
 cooling and moistening influence of the moon, du- 
 ring the night. 
 
 Thus understood, this clause of the text, very na- 
 turally reminds us of the church, as likened to the 
 moon,* and whose members, having received the 
 principles of grace from Christ, the Sun, are instru- 
 mental in bringing forth correspondent fruits, by a 
 holy and useful life and conversation. These fruits 
 constitute their work of faith and labor of love, b and 
 are, on many accounts, precious things. See Cant, 
 iv. 13, &c. They are precious, because those who 
 exhibit them are the excellent of the earth, c and 
 comparatively scarce among meri j also because they 
 are variously useful in the church and in the world ; e 
 
 * Heb. ix. 26. y Is. xliv. 22. z 2 Cor. iv. 6. a Cant. vi. 10. 
 *> 1 Thess. i. 3. c Psal xvi. 3. d Ibid. xii. 1. e Gal/ yi. 10. 
 Heb. vi. 10. xiii. 16, 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 503 
 
 but chiefly they are so, because they serve to promote 
 the declarative glory of God : Herein, said Christ 
 to his disciples, is my Father glorified, that ye bear 
 much fruit. John xv. 8. 
 
 This improvement, however, of the clause in ques- 
 tion, though naturally suggested by our version 
 though perfectly agreeable to the analogy of faith 
 though, in itself, useful, and though abundantly sup- 
 ported by the tenor of scripture, is, nevertheless, in 
 my opinion, not the true one. For, 
 
 1. It does not correspond to the scope of the text, 
 which is to show, literally, the abundance of tempo- 
 ral blessings which God would bestow on the pos- 
 terity of Joseph, and typically, the richer abundance 
 of spiritual blessings, by which he would distinguish 
 the posterity of Christ. And, 
 
 2. It is supported by a translation and interpreta- 
 tion of the passage, which assigns to the moon such 
 an influence on the fruits of the earth as is very 
 doubtful. Pliny, indeed,* says, that at the increase 
 of the moon all sorts of corn grow fuller and larger. 
 Dclechamps\ restricts the moon's influence, in this 
 way, to melons and onions. And the learned Scheuch- 
 zer% rejects the opinion altogether. For though 
 he admits, that many things, as the ebbing and flow- 
 ing of tides, and the recurrence of epileptic and 
 convulsive paroxisms, depend on the moon's pressure 
 upon the globe, yet he denies that the influence of 
 this pressure extends to plants and fruits; and 
 therefore, adverting to this text, which might seem 
 to stand in his way, he considered it as having re- 
 spect only to monthly fruits. 
 
 * Nat. Hist. 1. 18. c. 30. t In his Notes on Pliny, Nat. Hist. 
 1. 2. c. 41. J Physic. Sacr. vol. 3. p. 437. 
 
504 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 The question regarding the moon's influence, I 
 leave with naturalists ; but as to the literal meaning of 
 the clause under consideration, I perfectly agree 
 with the writer last named, and that for obvious rea- 
 sons. With the Jews, whose months were lunar, 
 a moon and a month were exactly of the same dura- 
 tion ; and were commonly noted by the same word, 
 to wit, HT yarach. In our text, this word is used in 
 its plural form, DTIY yeracheem ; and therefore, 
 whether it mean moons or months, it doubtless de- 
 signs a succession of them. Consequently, by the 
 " precious things put forth by the moon," must be 
 meant things put forth moon by moon, or month by 
 month, that is, monthly, or every month. This opin- 
 ion is supported by Onkelos, whose Chaldee Para- 
 phrase on the Pentateuch, is in high esteem among 
 the Jews, and who, on the clause in question, says 
 of the land of Joseph, "It produced precious fruits 
 at the beginning of every month,' 7 also by the Tar- 
 gum of Jonathan and that of Jerusalem, which say 
 of the same land, " It yieldeth ripe fruit at the be- 
 ginning of every month." LEVI, too, understood 
 this passage in the same way.* 
 
 Hence, among the Jews, the " beginning of their 
 months," were also called their new moons, and by 
 divine appointment, were successively solemnized 
 by the offering of sacrifices and the blowing of trum- 
 pets/ 
 
 These, their monthly solemnities, however, as well 
 as their annual feasts and their weekly sabbaths, 
 God, displeased with their abuse of them, and to 
 introduce their respective antitypes, has, according to 
 
 * Ling. Sac. under JIT. 
 
 x. 10. 1 Chron. xxiii, 31. 2 Chron. ii. 4. Ezra. iii. 5. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 505 
 
 his word, caused, of right, to cease. g Nevertheless, 
 in an evangelical sense, they have their appropriate 
 correspondents under the present dispensation-; and, 
 to denote this fact, God was pleased, when speak- 
 ing by the evangelical prophet, concerning the 
 New-Testament church, to mention her officers and 
 her solemnities by the same names which he had 
 given to those of national Israel. Thus, for instance, 
 in Isa. Ixvith, a chapter which all must admit treats 
 of the gospel-church, after having promised (ver. 18.) 
 to " gather all nations and tongues to see his glory," 
 he adds, (ver. 21.) " I will also take of them," (that 
 is either of all nations, or of the converts gathered 
 out of them,) "for priests, and for Levites ;" and 
 which cannot be understood literally, or in the Mo- 
 saic sense of priests and Levites; for, in this sense, 
 none could be Levites unless of the tribe of Levi, h nor 
 could any, of right, be priests unless of a specified 
 branch of that tribe, namely, of " the house of 
 Aaron," 1 Priests and Levites, therefore, in the 
 prophecy under consideration, must necessarily 
 mean those who are such in a mystical sense. Still, 
 however, it is a question among commentators, 
 whether by priests and Levites be meant the con- 
 verts in common, from all nations and tongues, who 
 should be brought for an offering unto the Lord, 
 (Ver. 20,) or only those of them, who should be taken 
 to occupy official stations. If the former, (and which 
 was Bp. Louth's opinion) the allusion must be to 
 national Israel, denominated a kingdom of priests f . 
 and in correspondence to which, mystical Israel, 
 
 e Is. i. 13, 14. Hosea ii. 11. * Num. iii. 6. * Exo. xxviii. 1. 
 xxix. 9. 1 Kings xii. 31. k Exo. xix. 6. 
 
506 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 the gospel-church, is styled, a royal priesthood* 
 And if the latter, (of which opinion were Dr. Gill 
 and Mr. Henry?) it is no less evident, that the allu- 
 sion must be to the priests and Levites, properly so 
 called, who were the officers of the Jewish Sanctua- 
 ry, and to whom correspond the bishops (that is pas- 
 tors,) and deacons of the New-Testament sanctuary ; 
 Philip, i. 1 ; the deacons being, like the Levites, the 
 more numerous, and being helpers of pastors, as 
 the Levites were of the priests. See Acts vi. 1 6, 
 compared with Num. iii. 5 9. and 1 Chon. xxiii. 
 27 32. Nevertheless, it should not be fogotr- 
 ten, that, as the blowing of the trumpets made 
 no part of the arduous service of the Levites; so, 
 the public preaching of the gospel makes no part 
 of the useful and various service of deacons, as such : 
 The sons of Aaron, the priests, said the Lord, shall 
 "blow with the trumpets ; Num. x. $ ; and it was 
 only to his ministers that Christ said, Go ye into all 
 the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 
 Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 Moreover, as the officers of the gospel-church, so 
 also her solemnities were spoken of in prophecy, by 
 the names of those observed at the tabernacle and 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. 9. Even upon this supposition, however, a dis- 
 tinction may be supposed between these mystical priests and Le- 
 vites. By the priests may be meant gospel-ministers, and by the 
 Levites, all other true believers, who concur with them, in the cause 
 and service of God, as the Levites did with the priests. For as all 
 the priests were Levites, and yet all the Levites were not priests, so, 
 though all genuine gospel-ministers are Christians, yet all genuine 
 Christians are not gospel ministers. Are all apostles ? Are all 
 prophets 1 Are all teachers ? No. See 1 Cor. xii. 29. and Ser. xi. 
 
 p. 357,<fcc. 
 
 1 Pet. ii. 9. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 507 
 
 temple : It shall come to pass, that from OTIC new 
 moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, 
 shall all flesh, that is, believers of all nations, come 
 and worship before, me, saith the Lord. Is. Ixvi. 23. 
 Now, that the new -moon festivals of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, are abolished, all Christians are agreed ; 
 and if so, the sabbaths, (both the weekly and the 
 annual) associated with them, must be abolished 
 likewise ; m yet, according to the remarkable prophe- 
 cy before us, the gospel-church, has her new moons 
 and her sabbaths in constant succession ; and which 
 I understood to be happily realized in our monthly 
 solemnity of the Lord's supper, and our iceekly pri- 
 vileges of evangelical worship on the Lord's day; 
 By the latter we are joyfully reminded of the rest 
 that remaineth for the people of God, and at the 
 former, precious things indeed, even the broken body 
 and flowing blood of the dear Redeemer, are put 
 forth, that is emblematically exhibited to the eye of 
 our faith,* for the nourishment of our souls and 
 which are thus put forth by the moon, to wit, moon 
 by moon or every month. Herein the church also, 
 which, like the moon, undergoes many changes, puts 
 forth her graces in lively actings upon Christ ; who 
 is THE TREE OF LIFE, which, to denote the rich va- 
 riety of his grace, appropriate to all cases and con- 
 ditions among his people, is said to bear twelve 
 manner of fruits, and to yield her fruit every 
 month. Rev. xxii. 2. 
 
 Thirdly, "The land of Joseph" was remarkable 
 for the chief things of the ancient mountains and 
 the precious things of the lasting hills. Mountains 
 and hills are alike natural and durable. They are 
 
 m Hoseaii. 11. 
 
508 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 called ancient, because as old as the earth, and 
 lasting, bacause they shall endure to the end of the 
 world. For these, the land possessed by "the 
 children of Joseph," Manasseh and Ephraim, was 
 pre-eminently famous; for, to the former belonged 
 the mountains of Gilcad and Bashan, and to the lat- 
 ter mount Ephraim and the mountains of Samaria. 
 These, too, were very fruitful, abounding not only in 
 grass, but also in vines, figs, olives, &c. 
 
 Might not these mountains and hills, which, in 
 Gen. xlix. 26, are called everlasting, be emblematic 
 of the perfections of God, which are absolutely 
 everlasting, and which, in Christ, are all harmoni- 
 ously and incessantly employed for the safety and 
 happiness of his chosen and redeemed people 1 n 
 Might not the springs, and rills, and fruits of these 
 mountains and hills, be designed as emblems 
 of that abundance and variety of spiritual bless- 
 ings, with which God blessed his chosen in Christ 
 before the foundation of the world and the rather 
 so, because all these blessings emanate from the lov- 
 ing kindness and covenant-stipulations of the ETER- 
 NAL THREE, whose kindness and covenant are more 
 stable and durable than " the mountains that shall 
 depart, and the hills that shall be removed ?" p Might 
 not the same also be emblematical of those elevated 
 frames of soul, which we sometimes enjoy, in read- 
 ing the Scriptures, in meditation or in prayer, or un- 
 der gospel-sermons and at gospel-ordinances, when 
 from " the shepherd's tents," as Bunyan observes, 
 " we behold the delectable mountains, and have a 
 taste of the celestial fruits 1" q Nay, might they not 
 
 n Psal. xc. 1, 2. andcxxv. 1,2. Eph. i. 3. Pis. liv. 10 
 i Jer. xv. 16. Psal. xciv. 19. Dan. ix. 23. Cant. i. 8. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST^ CHURCH. 509 
 
 adumbrate the heavenly state itself, which, with all 
 its blessedness, is the antitype of the good land, yea, 
 of that goodly mountain, and Lebanon, which Mo- 
 ses so much desired to see. Deut. iii. 25. Thus 
 Paul had a desire to depart and to be with Christ. 
 Philip, i. 23. 
 
 Fourthly, " The land of Joseph" was admirable 
 and famous for the precious things of the earth 
 and fulness thereof. By the earth, in distinction 
 from the mountains and hills, must be meant the 
 lower lands in the portion of Joseph, and by its pre- 
 cious things and the fulness thereof, are designed 
 the excellent and plentiful productions of those lands ; 
 the arable fields yielding grain, the meadows hay, 
 and the forests timber ; and all in the richest variety, 
 of the best quality, and in the greatest abundance. 
 Hence the fame, not only of their wheat and of their 
 sheep and cattle, with all other means of comfortable 
 and -even of sumptuous living/ but also of their 
 oaks for building. 8 
 
 These precious things, however, my Christian 
 hearers, should remind us of the infinitely more- pre- 
 cious things, which we enjoy in these low lands of 
 our spiritual Joseph, that is, in his church upon 
 earth. Here he furnishes to us the best and most 
 sumptuous fare for our souls even himself sacrificed 
 for us, and set forth to our believing apprehensions, 
 in his word and ordinances: My flesh, saith he, is 
 meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. To 
 these he also gives us a hearty welcome, saying, 
 Eat, O friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O 
 beloved? Nay 'more, he renders the feast, which he 
 
 r Deut. xxxii. 13, 14. s Ezek. xxvii. 6. * Cant. v. I. 
 68 
 
510 JOSEPH'S LAND [SER. xv. 
 
 has prepared for his church, effectual to the satisfy- 
 ing of all her vital members, however impoverished 
 in themselves : 7, saith he, will abundantly bless her 
 provision : I will satisfy her poor with bread" 
 Here, too, he furnishes the best timber, or materials 
 for building, to wit, those whom, pursuant to electing 
 love, he redeemed by his blood, and whom he calls 
 by his grace out of the forests of the world round 
 about us ; for the earth is the Lord's with the ful- 
 ness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein." 
 Speaking of himself, Christ says to the Father, Thou 
 hast given him power over all flesh, (all nations,) 
 that he should give eternal life to as many as 
 thou hast given him* Thus he visits the Gentiles, 
 to take out of them a people for his name/ and adds 
 to the church daily such as shall be saved. Acts 
 ii. 47. 
 
 I shall conclude this discourse, by taking some no- 
 tice of the word IJD megged, which occurs five times 
 in our text, and is each time rendered precious. 
 
 This word signifies what is most excellent; and 
 being used to denote the several sorts of blessings 
 which distinguished the land of Joseph, it suggests 
 that, in their respective kinds, they were all superla- 
 tively good. Such, too, and pre-eminently such, are 
 the blessings which distinguish the land, the church 
 of Christ, our spiritual Joseph. The temporal bless- 
 ings of the saints, it is true, are the same in kind, 
 with those bestowed on others, and, in degree, often 
 much less yet, even these come to them with a 
 blessing, while those of the wicked come to them 
 
 u Psal. cxxxii. 15. w Psal. xxiv. 1. x John xvii. 2. 
 xv. 14. 
 
SER. XV.] A TYPE OF CHRIST'S CHURCH. 511 
 
 with a curse : "In blessing," said God to Abraham, 
 I will bless thee ;'' z but " the curse of the Lord is in 
 the house of the wicked." 8 Those blessings, how- 
 ever, which are peculiar to the people of God, and 
 by which, therefore, they are chiefly distinguished, 
 are all in their kinds, emphatically the best. They 
 are loved with the best love, the love of God, nay, 
 the love of God, which is in Christ Jcsus. b They 
 are redeemed by an incomparable price, the precious 
 blood of Christ.* By their new arid heavenly birth, 
 they are most nobly descended, being the sons and 
 daughters of the Lord Almighty. d As such, they 
 are clothed in the best robe* the Redeemer's righte- 
 ousness, and adorned with the best jewels, the grac- 
 es of the Holy Spirit/ They constitute the best so- 
 ciety among men ; the saints being the excellent of 
 the earth ; e hence, when the Lord calls sinners by his 
 grace from the world that lieth in wickedness, he is 
 said to take them from the dust and the dunghill, and 
 to set them with princes, even with the princes of his 
 people.^ But, to crown all, they are heirs apparent 
 to the best inheritance, an inheritance incorruptible 
 and undefilcd, and thatfadeth not away* 
 
 The word under consideration, however, not only 
 denotes what is most excellent, but also what is most 
 freely given. Accordingly, in its plural form, it is 
 used to express gifts or presents. 1 Such were the 
 blessings by which God distinguished the land of Jo- 
 seph, and such, more especially, are all the blessings 
 of grace and glory, by which he has distinguished, and 
 
 1 Gen. xxii. 17. a Prov. iii. 33. b Rom. viii. 39. c 1 Pet. i. 
 
 19 . d 2 Cor. vi. 18. e Luke xv. 22. f Cant. i. 10. Gal. v. 22, 
 
 23. * Psal. xvi. 3. Ibid, cxiii. 7, 8. k 1 Pet. i. 4. '2 Chroi). 
 xxxii. 23. 
 
512 JOSEPH'S LAND A TYPE, &c. [SER. xv. 
 
 by which he will for ever distinguish the church 
 of Christ. He hath saved us and called us with 
 an holy calling, not according to our works, but 
 according to his own purpose and grace, which 
 was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world be- 
 gan And as, according to that provision, we receive 
 the Spirit, by gift, as the earnest of the inheritance, 
 so, by gift, we shall receive the inheritance itself; 
 for the Lord will give, to his heirs, grace and glory. n 
 In heaven, therefore, for ever, as well as upon earth, 
 during the time of our pilgrimage, we shall have rea- 
 son to sing, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but 
 unto thy name, give glory, for thy mercy, and for 
 thy truth's sake. Amen. 
 
 m 2 Tim. i. 9. "Psal. Ixxxiv. 11. Ibid. cxv. 1, 
 
SERMON XVI. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH, CONTINUED. 
 
 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 13 17. And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord 
 be his lan^ for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and 
 for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the precious fruits 
 brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth 
 by the moon. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, 
 and for the precious things of the lasting hills. And for the pre- 
 cious things of the earth and fulness thereof; and for the good- 
 will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon 
 the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that 
 was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling 
 of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with 
 them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth : 
 and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are 
 the thousands of Manasseh. 
 
 FROM this text, you have already heard of Joseph 
 as a type of CHRIST, and of his land, with its dis- 
 tinguishing blessings, as a type of the church, fa- 
 voured with spiritual blessings peculiar to her ; but 
 now we are to contemplate that which is the source 
 of all this distinction and kindness, namely, THE 
 
 GOOD-WILL OF HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 
 
 The history of the fact here referred to, is con- 
 tained in Exodus iii. 1 6 ; and which, to refresh 
 your memories with it, I will read in your hearing : 
 " Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in- 
 law, the priest of Midian : and he led the flock to 
 
514 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM [SER. XVI. 
 
 the back-side of the desert and came to the moun- 
 tain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the 
 Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the 
 midst of the bush : and he looked, and behold, the 
 bush burned with fire, and the bush was not con- 
 sumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and 
 see this great sight why the bush is not burnt. And 
 when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God 
 called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and 
 said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And 
 he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes 
 from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou stand- 
 est is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God 
 of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
 and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his' face : 
 for he was afraid to look upon God." 
 
 That these appearances and addresses to Moses 
 were not illusions of his imagination, but divine re- 
 alities, is evident, not only from his inspired record 
 of them, just read, and from his recognition of them 
 in the language of our text, but also from the New 
 Testament, wherein they are appealed to by CHRIST 
 himself, to prove the resurrection, 51 and by Stephen, 
 to prove the divine mission of Moses to bring Israel 
 out of Egypt. b 
 
 In justice, therefore, to this part of our text, we 
 must view it in the light of the vision to which it has 
 respect, and treat it agreeably to the mystical design 
 of that vision. What this design was, we are not 
 left to conjecture ; it was revealed to Moses, and 
 recorded by him for our instruction. 
 
 It was primarily to illustrate to Moses the deplor- 
 able condition of Israel, at that time, in Egypt. In 
 
 Mark xii. 26, 27. Luke xx. $7, 38. b Acts vii. 2935. 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 515 
 
 their civil state, as under the dominion of Pharaoh, 
 they resembled a bush, starving under the shadow of 
 a great tree, and, in their suffering state, they were 
 comparable to that bush as all onfire* The object of 
 Pharaoh was to diminish them.* To accomplish this, 
 he adopted various means. 1. He subjected them 
 to excessive toil. e 2. By his task-masters, he en- 
 forced their compliance with extreme rlgor.f "But" 
 (strange as it seemed) " the more they afflicted them, 
 the more they multiplied and grew." g Therefore, 3. 
 He enjoined two successive methods to murder all 
 their male infants. h And, these likewise not an- 
 swering his expectations, 4. He required of them 
 what he knew must very soon, at least, become im- 
 possible that is, to make their accustomed tale or 
 number of bricks daily, without furnishing them, as 
 he had done, with the requisite article of straw an 
 article which, in the Egyptian mode of brick-making, 
 was in some way indispensable :* " Pharaoh com- 
 manded the task-masters," who were Egyptians. 1 
 " and their officers," a kind of overseers under them, 
 and who were Hebrews,* saying, "Ye shall no 
 more give the people straw to make brick, as here- 
 tofore : let them go and gather straw for themselves. 
 And the tale of the bricks which they did make here- 
 tofore, you shall lay upon them ; you shall not di- 
 
 e Exo. iii.7. d Ibid. i. 8 10. e Ibid. ver. 11. f Ibid. ver. 13, 14. 
 elbid. ver. 12. h Exo. i. 15, 16. 22. 'Ibid, i. 11. * Ibid. v. 14. 
 
 * According to the researches and conclusions of PHILO (Life 
 of Moses) and of POCOCKE (Observations on Egypt) the bricks in 
 question were not burnt, but were merely dried in the sun, and 
 therefore the clay or mortar of which they were made, was required 
 to be mixed with chopped straw, as a means of binding it together* 
 
516 THE GOOD-WILL OP HIM [sER. XVI* 
 
 minish ought thereof." 1 The task-masters promptly 
 delivered the mandate to the people, and vehement- 
 ly urged their compliance with it. m " So the peo- 
 ple were scattered abroad throughout all the land of 
 Egypt," that is, all parts of it adjacent to their lo- 
 cation, " to gather stubble instead of straw." n Pha- 
 raoh's aim in making this cruel and unreasonable 
 demand of the Israelites, probably was to bring them 
 under the charge of wilful disobedience to his royal 
 edict, that, under pretence of their disloyalty, he 
 might authorize his armed forces to cut them off 
 with the sword ; and of which, it would seem, they 
 were apprehensive. See Exo. v. 21. Now, these 
 things considered, well might Israel be symbolized 
 by a burning bush. 
 
 National Israel, however, was a figure of the true 
 church of God in all ages, and especially a type of 
 her in gospel-times ; and which, no less obviously, 
 corresponds to this similitude. More commonly, 
 indeed, the church is set forth by something valua- 
 ble in itself, as a house, a temple, a city, &c.; yet here 
 she is likened to a thing of naught, a bush, a mere 
 bramble. 
 
 Amid tall cedars and stately oaks, how low, and 
 mean, and worthless, must, a bush appear ! Such the 
 appearance of the humble church of Christ, amid 
 the pompous kingdoms of this world especially 
 kingdoms including establishments of religion, as ex- 
 emplified, not only in the ancient kingdoms of Baby- 
 on, Assyria, and Egypt, but also in the several king- 
 doms of modern Europe. Compared with them, 
 
 *Exod. v. 6, 7, 8. m Ver, 10, II, 13." Ver. 12, 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 517 
 
 or with any of the splendid branches of mystical 
 Babylon, the true church, to the eye of sense and 
 to that of carnal reason, has always appeared like a 
 shrub, a mere under-growth. See Ezek. xxxi. Zeph. 
 iii. and Rev. xvii. 
 
 Fine and flourishing trees are in great request; 
 but who cares for a bush? So, while worldly king- 
 doms and anti-christian societies are highly respect- 
 ed and admired, it may still be said of the true 
 church, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. 
 Nor is it any matter of wonder, that such is the fact. 
 For, if Christ himself, though, in the eyes of his 
 church, He is "the chiefest among ten thousand, and 
 altogether lovely," is regarded, by the carnal, as " a 
 root out of dry ground, having no form or comeli- 
 ness wherefore they should desire him," why should 
 it be thought strange, that the church, though in the 
 eyes of Christ, she is, through his comeliness, put 
 upon her, " the perfection of beauty," nay, " all fair 
 and without spot" why, I say, should it be thought 
 strange, that she, in the view of the carnal world, 
 appears as a mere bush, a thing of nought ? It is 
 abundantly accounted for, by the world's ignorance 
 both of her and of her Lord : The world knoweth us 
 not, because it knew him not. p Accordingly, in all 
 generations, the choicest members of the church, 
 (the apostles themselves not excepted,) have been 
 considered and treated, "as the filth of the world, and 
 the off-scouring of all things unto this day." See 1 
 Cor. iv. 13. 
 
 Hence we are prepared to contemplate the church 
 in the farther light of this emblem, which is not only 
 
 Jer. xxx. 17. P 1 John iii. 1. 
 
 69 
 
6l8 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM [sER. XVfi 
 
 &bush, but a bush on fire. So just and appropriate 
 was this emblem, that many of Ziori's most illustri- 
 ous members, in different ages and nations, have li~ 
 terally corresponded to it ; having, upon their open 
 avowal of the Truth and their persevering adherence 
 to it, been actually exposed to the flames of martyr- 
 dom ; in which they have, as it were, offered up their 
 souls, yea, their whole selves, a willing sacrifice to 
 God. But, without adverting to such times and such 
 extremes, a burning bush is no more than a lively 
 and instructive emblem of the church, amid the 
 trials and sufferings which more commonly attend 
 her in the militant state. For, however national and 
 worldly societies, called churches, have fattened and 
 flourished under "that honor which cometh from 
 tnen," the church of Christ has usually consisted of 
 * 4 an afflicted and poor people, trusting in the name 
 of the Lord," q because they have realized that no 
 other object of trust is competent to protect their 
 persons, or to supply their wants. 
 
 The sufferings of the saints from persecution, are 
 not confined to martyrdom, nor even to fines and 
 imprisonments by law, but include all those slander- 
 ous reports, suggestions, and insinuations, by which 
 our characters, our peace, and our usefulness are 
 assailed. Fires, very injurious to us, may be kindled 
 by the tongue as well as by the hand: An ungodly 
 man diggeth up eml ; and in his lips there is a 
 burning fire. T This fire, too, is extremely commu- 
 nicative and spreading ; which made an apostle ex- 
 claim, Behold how great a matter a little fire kin- 
 tfleth! Jas. iii. 5. A little yes, a word, a hint 
 against a person, given to one of the right make, and 
 
 ^Zeph, iii. l& r Prov. xvi. 2?. 
 
 ' 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 519 
 
 who already feels unfriendly toward the object of 
 the calumny, is like a spark blown into a bale of cot- 
 ton it kindles instantly and spreads rapidly. Thug 
 it is, that a froward man soweth strife ; and a whis^ 
 perer, more frequently than an open railer, sepa* 
 rateth chief friends.* 
 
 This course, however, is not invariably taken by 
 the promoters of slander; for, as incendiaries, in 
 some instances, deposit fire in such materials as will 
 not communicate it till in the night, these sons and 
 daughters of wickedness more commonly confide 
 their slanderof%- hints nay, their downright and 
 ruinous falsehoods, to those only, whom they con- 
 sider artful enough to conceal them, until the 
 party accused shall be assailed by others, hoping 
 that then, in the night of his tribulation, when the 
 darkness of suspicion has covered his character,, 
 these, among the host of evil reports concerning 
 him, will obtain a welcome reception. 
 
 Those fires are the most alarming which are 
 nearest home ; and those, especially, are distressing 
 and injurious to mankind, which break out in their 
 own houses. So, to the saints, are those fires of 
 persecution which are kindled in the churches or 
 families to which they respectively belong. And 
 where is the church of Christ, that for any con- 
 siderable length of time together, has been entirely 
 exempt from this kind of fire? Neither churches 
 nor ministers can search the hearts of candidates 
 for membership ; and " false brethren unawares 
 brought in," 1 as they do not love the doctrine of 
 
 Christ, nor the discipline of his house, are sure, 
 
 \ 
 
 Prdv. xvi. 28. * Gal. ii. 4. 
 
520 THE GOOD- WILL OF HIM [sER. XVI. 
 
 sooner or later, to become restless and troublesome. 
 Besides, even among real Christians it often hap- 
 pens, that some, through weakness or jealousies, 
 conceive evil imaginations of others, and thereupon 
 hint or whisper correspondent impressions, till, per- 
 haps far beyond their own intentions at the time* 
 the mischief spreads and the bush burns. How 
 needful, then, to the members of every church, nay, to 
 Christians in common, is that apostolic caution, which 
 saith, " If ye bite and devour one another , take 
 heed that ye be not consumed one of another"* It 
 is also a remarkable fact, that such fires kindled in 
 churches, almost in every instance, directly or indi- 
 rectly, extend to their pastors, and often to other 
 gospel-m nisters. Even the apostles were not ex- 
 empt : Who is offended, said Paul, and I burn not?* 
 The same also, in kind, takes place in families. 
 For it rarely happens in a family, that there is an 
 Isaac without an Ishmael to mock him a Jacob 
 without an Esau to hate him or a Joseph without 
 brethren to envy him. Hence, many a godly wife or 
 husband, parent or child, brother or sister, or even 
 domestic or other inmate, is or has been like a burn- 
 ing bush, by reason of the persecuting disposition 
 of their ungodly correlatives, or others in the same 
 household. Probably some now hearing me know 
 this by sad experience ; for, though you may not be 
 openly mocked and ridiculed, you may, nevertheless, 
 see, and mourn while you see, that those about you 
 hate the God you worship the Christ you love the 
 Truth you believe and the people with whom you 
 
 * As voracious animals are. Gal. v. 15. 
 u 2 Cor. xi. 29. 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 521 
 
 are happily and affectionately associated in church- 
 relation. To account for it, duly consider the words 
 of our Lord; Luke xii. 49 53; and those of the 
 apostle; Gal. iv. 28 31. 
 
 Persecutions, however, are not the only fires,, 
 which cause the bush, the church of Christ, to burn. 
 Real saints are daily annoyed by the corruptions of 
 their fallen nature, which war against their renewed 
 souls." Hence those flashes of anger, those risings 
 of pride, and those heats of discontent, by reason of 
 which they sometimes burn within, and, on account 
 of which, they are afterwards caused to mourn in 
 secret places. They, too, are specially assailed by 
 the temptations of Satan ; which are justly called 
 fiery darts* because, like darts, they come sudden- 
 ly and unexpectedly, and, like fire, occasion pain and 
 anguish. Besides, it has commonly fallen to the 
 lot of the saints, to share largely in personal and 
 domestic afflictions such as sickness, bereavement 
 and disappointment and, many of them, also, in 
 poverty, perplexity and oppression ; all which are 
 likened to fires yet fires in which we are exhorted 
 to glorify the Lord. See Is. xxiv. 15. How fit an 
 emblem of the church, then, was that burning bush! 
 
 But let us hasten to consider the wonder which the 
 vision involved. The object exhibited, though a 
 bush, a thing in itself combustible, and though all 
 on fire, yet was not consumed. This, as was di- 
 vinely intended, attracted and fixed the attention of 
 Moses: "And Moses said," (within himself,) "I will 
 now turn aside," (for the bush, it seems, stood a 
 
 * Gal. v. 17. 1 Pet. ii. 11. * Eph. vi. 16. 
 
52? THE GOOD- WILL OF HIM [sER. XV*. 
 
 little off from the course he was taking,) " and see" 
 (that is, observe and consider) this great sight why 
 the bush is not burnt. 7 The result of his thoughts on 
 the vision, and of the instruction he received in re- 
 lation thereto, may be concluded from his allusion to 
 it in our text, naniely, that he was enabled to under- 
 stand that the bush was preserved by the Angel 
 that dwelt in it ; who in the original of Exo. hi. 2 7, 
 is called the Angel of Jehovah, nay, expressly JE- 
 HOVAH, as well as GOD, and who is none other 
 than the increated Angel, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, 
 who possesses all the perfections of the divine NA- 
 TURE or BEING, which, in the SON, as well as in the 
 Father, and in the HOLY SPIRIT, is over all, God 
 blessed for ever. Rom. ix. 5. 
 
 Now, as the burning bush, of which Moses had a 
 vision, was primarily an emblem of suffering Israel, 
 the residence of the divine Angel in it, and his mira- 
 culous preservation of it, denoted his presence with 
 that suffering people, and his more wonderful pre- 
 servation of them, while involved in afflictions, com- 
 parable to the flames which involved the bush. Even 
 in Egypt, " he saved them from the hand of him that 
 hated them," that is, from his destroying power, 
 " and," at the appointed time, moreover, "redeemed 
 them from the hand of that enemy,' 5 namely, Pha- 
 raoh. 2 Moses was but the instrument, by whom 
 the hand qf this Almighty Angel brought them out. a 
 In his manifold mercies, he forsook them not in the 
 wilderness : " the pillar of the cloud departed not 
 from them by day to lead them in the way ; neither 
 
 y Exo. iii. 3. z Fsal. cvi, 10. a Acts vii. 35, 36. Comp. Is. 
 Ixiii. 9. 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 523 
 
 the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the 
 way wherein they should go." b Before this symbol 
 of the Angel's presence, every obstacle to the march 
 of Israel instantly yielded : The sea saw it, and fled : 
 Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped 
 like rams, and the little hills like lambs. c Nor did 
 he merely bring them out of bondage and remove 
 the obstacles to their progress; but he supplied 
 their wants also during their journey : "He gave 
 them bread from heaven, and brought forth water 
 for them out of the rock;" nay, "forty years he 
 'sustained them in the wilderness ; so that they lacked 
 nothing ; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet 
 swelled not ;" d and when they were about to take 
 possession of the promised land, the same Angel, to 
 assure Joshua of victory over the Canaanites, ap- 
 peared to Mm, by Jericho, with his drawn sword in 
 his hand, and announced himself to be The cap* 
 tain of the host of the Lord, and therefore, as ready 
 to fight their battles, and subdue all that might 
 withstand them. See Josh. v. 13 15. 
 
 Another design of this Angel's residence in the 
 burning bush, might be to prefigure his future incar- 
 nation; for, while he tabernacled in human nature up- 
 on earth, he was, in the eyes of the carnal, like a mere 
 bush, low and mean, compared with the sovereigns 
 of the world ; yea, like a bush on fire, being exposed 
 to reproaches from men to fiery temptations frorti 
 Satan, and even to the flames of incensed justice, 
 which kindled upon him as the substitute of his 
 
 b Nehe, ix. 19. PsaK cxiv. 3, 4. * Neh, ix. 15. 21 . 
 Deut. ii. 7, 
 
524 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM [sER. XVI. 
 
 guilty people. Truly he was " a man of sorrows and 
 acquainted with grief," and "suffered the just for the 
 unjust ;'' yet, like the burning bush that Moses saw, 
 he was not consumed, his divinity sustained his 
 humanity; and though, according to covenant- 
 stipulation, he was " put to death in the flesh," even 
 in this he saw no corruption, being, on the third 
 day, " quickened by the Spirit." 1 Pet. iii. 18. 
 
 Ultimately and principally, however, this vision, as 
 noticed before, respected the whole family of God's 
 elect, of all nations and generations, from the begin- 
 ning to the end of the world. These constitute 
 God's one mystical Israel, of which his one national 
 Israel was a type e and Christ's one mystical body, 
 of which his one natural body was a symbol/ Ac- 
 cordingly, Christ, speaking of his Church, says, My 
 dove, my undefiled, is but one, &c. She is so, as 
 -the 'object of electing love, and she is so also in 
 regard to all who, at any given time, are in a called 
 state, and therefore vitally united to him. h As such 
 she is that kingdom of his, which is not of this world f 
 and into which his redeemed are translated at their 
 effectual calling, wherein they are delivered from 
 the power of darkness* In other words, as nation- 
 al Israel were the chosen people of God, and under 
 the providential care and conduct of the divine 
 Angel, as well before as after their calling out of 
 Egypt ; so, all appertaining to mystical Israel were 
 sanctified by God the Father, that is, set apart by 
 him in eternal election, and, hence, even in their car- 
 
 Gal. vi. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 9. f Eph. i. 22, 23. iv. 16. Col. i. 18. 
 s Cant. vi. 9. h 1 Cor. x. 16, 17. * John xviii. 36. k Col. i. 13. 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 525 
 
 nal state, are preserved by Jesus Christ, in whom 
 they were chosen before the foundation of the world, 
 and, in due 'time, are called, that is, to be saints. 
 See Jude i. 1. Eph. i. 3, 4. and Rom. i. 6, 7. 
 
 Nor has the non-consumption of the symbolic 
 bush been any less realized in mystical Israel, than 
 it was in literal Israel. For, though the church of 
 true believers, has always been like a mere bush, in 
 the esteem of the world, and though, by reason of 
 persecutions, temptations, and afflictions, she has 
 always resembled a bush on fire; still, to the praise 
 of victorious grace, she has not been, and she never 
 can be consumed. Her keeper is JEHOVAH, whose 
 power and vigilance bid defiance to all the influence 
 and all the exertions of Satan and all his agents. 
 He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor 
 sleep. 1 Of his vineyard, the church, he says, I the 
 LORD do keep it ; I will water it every moment : lest 
 any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. m 
 
 Hence, even the allegorical smith, Satan himself, 
 though, by divine sufferance, he blows the coals of 
 mischief with the breath of his own infernal malice, 
 and works by thejire that never shall be quenched, is 
 unable to forge an instrument sharp enough to sever 
 the church from Christ, or from the love of God which 
 is in him. For the prophet, addressing her, says, No 
 weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, 
 and every tongue that shall rise against thee in 
 judgment, thou shalt condemn. To confirm which, 
 he adds, This is the heritage of the servants of the 
 
 1 Psal. cxxi. 4. m Is. xxvii. 3. 
 70 
 
526 THE GOOD-WILL OF HIM [SER. Xfl 
 
 LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the 
 LORD. 
 
 Moreover, that his church might expect tribula- 
 tion and persecution, and not despair of safety in the 
 midst of them, he elsewhere says to her, When thou 
 passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and 
 through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee : 
 when thou walkest through the fir 'e, thou shall not be 
 burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 
 For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Is- 
 -racl, thy Saviour. The immediate cause, too, of the 
 church's safety, is happily illustrated by the symbol 
 before us : for, as the bush was preserved by its 
 dwelling in the fire and the fire in it ; so the church 
 is preserved by the mutual indwelling of Christ and 
 believers : we dwell in him and he in us ; p we dwell 
 in him, as THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,* and he 
 dwells in us, as THE HOPE OF GLORY/ And as, 
 by reason of the former, we cannot come into con- 
 demnation; so, by reason of the latter, we cannot 
 relapse into a state of unregeneracy. For seeing that 
 He who was " delivered for our offences, and was 
 raised again for our justification," ever liveth to 
 make intercession for us, we cannot die : Because I 
 live, saith He to his members, ye shall live also. 9 
 CHRIST, in a word, is our LIFE : and when Christ 
 who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also, said 
 Paul to believers, appear with him in glory.* 
 
 The import, nevertheless, of this prophetic prayer 
 for the children of Joseph, requires a more appro- 
 
 Is, liv. 16, 17. Comp. Rom. viii. 17. 3539. Is. xliii. 2, 3. 
 p 1 John iv. 13. 1 Jer. xxiii. 6. r Col. i. 27. ' John xiv. 19. 
 ' Col. iii. 4. 
 
Ea . xvi.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 527 
 
 priate consideration, both critically and theologically. 
 It was a prayer, as you must perceive, that, besides 
 all the temporal blessings assigned to them, they 
 might especially be distinguished by the good icill 
 of Mm that dwelt in the bush. Now, whereas the 
 posterity of Joseph, as noticed in the preceding dis- 
 course, were typical of the spiritual posterity of 
 his great Antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ, this 
 prayer, dictated by the Spirit of prophecy, plainly 
 shows that all the spiritual blessings by which the 
 church is distinguished, come through Him, and 
 precede from his good-will* 
 
 The word p*" ratzori, here rendered good-will, is 
 from njn ratzah, to like, to accept, to favour, &c, 
 Hence, 
 
 1. It denotes a voluntary or free-will offering. 
 Levit. i. 3. Such is the good-will of Christ toward 
 his people. Freely he engaged his heart to ap- 
 proach unto God the Father, to espouse their cause 
 and become their surety/ Most voluntary was his 
 advent into the world, when, pursuant to covenant- 
 stipulation, He, as the antitype and the substance of 
 all the sacrifices which prefigured him, appeared to 
 put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. See Psal. 
 xl. 6 8. and Heb. ix. 26. For being, with his own 
 consent, made under the law that law which was in 
 his heart, he voluntarily magnified it, by yielding a 
 cordial obedience to it in his human life, and made it 
 honorable, by enduring its righteous penalty in his 
 vicarious death: He suffered for sins, the just for 
 the unjust 9 that he might bring us to God. w Nor 
 
 * Jer, zxx. .21. Micah v. 2. w Gal. iv. 4, 5. 1 Pet, iiu 1& 
 
528 THE GOOD -WILL OF HIM [SER. XVI. 
 
 can either his suretyship-engagements, or his con- 
 sequent incarnation, obedience and sufferings, be 
 attributed to any thing but his pme good-tcill toward, 
 the people for whom be became accountable. See 
 John x. 1518. and Eph. v. 2. 
 
 2. This word denotes the acceptdbleness to the 
 Lord, of sacrifices offered to him, and of persons 
 presented before him, according to his revealed will. 
 Such, for the end designed, was any authorized 
 and unblemished sacrifice under the law : " It shall 
 be perfect, to be p^n ratzon, ACCEPTED ; there shall 
 be no blemish therein." Levit. xxli. 21. How 
 much more so, then, the sacrifice of Christ, who 
 hath given HIMSELF, an offering and a sacrifice to 
 God, for a sweet-smelling savor. K And when 
 Aaron had made an atonement for the sins of na- 
 tional Israel, by the appointed sacrifices which he 
 offered upon the brazen altar, his appearance in the 
 holy of holies, with the golden plate, on which was 
 inscribed HOLINESS TO THE LORD, placed upon his 
 forehead, denoted that ceremonially they were pn 
 ratzon ACCEPTED before the LORD/ Herein Aaron 
 was eminently a type of Christ; who, when he had, 
 by the sacrifice of himself, made a satisfactory 
 atonement to divine Justice for the sins of mystical 
 Israel, entered, not into the holy places, made with 
 hands, those of the tabernacle and temple, which 
 were figures of the true, but into heaven itself, 
 now to appear in the presence of God for us. Heb. 
 ix. 24. He, as our Representative, is, for us, HOLI- 
 NESS TO THE LORD. He, as typified in Aaron, 
 
 * Eph. v, 2. y Exo. xxviii, 3638, 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 529 
 
 bears the iniquity of our holy things ; that is, he 
 answers for the imperfection which mingles evrn 
 with our sanctuary-services ; and hence it is, that 
 we offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God 
 by Jesus Christ; our persons being. first made AC- 
 CEPTED in Him, THE BELOVED. See Exo. xviii. 38. 
 1 Pet. ii. 5. and Eph. i. 6. And, 
 
 3. The word under consideration denotes favor, 
 even that peculiar FAVOR or LOVE by which God 
 disting ii; hes his chosen : Remember me, O LORD, 
 said David, pro birtzon with or in the FAVOR that 
 thou bearest unto thy people. Psal cvi. 4. 
 
 This is covenanted Favor, the FAVOR of Father, 
 Son, and Spirit, expressed in their respective and 
 voluntary stipulations in the EVERLASTING COVE- 
 NANT OF GRACE, that covenant which is ordered in 
 all things and sure* 
 
 In relation, however, to the subject before us, this 
 Favor requires notice only as it resides in the Son, 
 and is manifested by him toward the people of his 
 charge. According to this Favor, he redeemed 
 them : Christ hath loved us, and hath given him- 
 self for us, whereby he hath redeemed us from all 
 iniquity. Eph. v. 2. Titus ii. 14. Comp. 2 Cor. 
 viii. 9. As an instance of this Favor, his redeemed, 
 by nature dead in trespasses and sins, are made to 
 hear his voice and live. John v. .25. Hence the 
 regenerate are denominated, the called of Jesus 
 Christ. Rom. i. 6. This Favor is variously appa- 
 rent in his care over them, and his sympathy with 
 them, after called : He shall feed his flock like a 
 
 1 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. 
 
530 THE GOOD-WILL. OF HIM [sER. XVI. 
 
 Shepherd : He shall gather the lambs with his arm, 
 and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead 
 those that are with young, (those in whom Christ is 
 formed by the Spirit) until the time of their deliver- 
 ance, at the open manifestation of their acceptance 
 in Him. Is. xl. 11. From this Favor, come all the 
 under shepherds, or gospel-ministers ; for, with all 
 their qualifications, they are the gifts of Christ, the 
 chief Shepherd. See Jer. iii. 15. and Eph. iv. 11, 
 12. To his Favor, we are indebted for all " the 
 great and precious promises" of grace and glory ; 
 for they were all originally made to him, as our 
 covenantee, and are fulfilled in our experience, upon 
 his faithful compliance with his covenant-stipula- 
 tions on our behalf. In him, therefore, they are 
 all YEA, and in him AMEN, unto the glory of God 
 by us. 2 Cor. i. 20. Nay more, through his Favor, 
 we receive the COMFORTER: I will pray the Father, 
 said Christ to his disciples, and he shall give you 
 another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
 for ever ; even the Spirit of truth, &c. John xiv. 
 16, 17. He is our Comforter, as he is the Spirit of 
 wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ* 
 as he bears witness with our spirits, that we are 
 the children of God b as he maketh inter cession for 
 the saints, that is, indites petitions in them, accord- 
 ing to the will of God c and, as he renders the 
 word and ordinances edifying, refreshing and en- 
 couraging to our souls. d In the Favor of Christ, in 
 a word, is life e a life of justification 1 " a life of 
 
 a Eph. i. 17. * Rom. viii. 16. c Ibid. ver. 27. d 1 Thess. i. 
 4, 5. 2 Cor. ii. 10. 12. Gal. v. 5. e Psal. xxx. 5. f Acts xiii. 39. 
 
SER. XVI.] THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. 531 
 
 communion with God* and a life of glory ; h for he 
 has eternal life to give to as many as the Father 
 hath given him. John xvii. 2. 
 
 Thus understood, our subject plainly suggests, 
 
 1. That the great REDEEMER, in accomplishing 
 the salvation of his people, is moved by pure Favor, 
 by mere good-will. Let us, then, my believing 
 hearers, endeavor to know, that is, duly to consider 
 and acknowledge the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 See 2 Cor. Yin. 9. 
 
 2. That, recollecting the emblem alluded to in the 
 text, none have any reasoji to think it strange, that 
 the Church of Christ is commonly in little esteem, 
 and often under much affliction, in this world. She 
 is like a bush for obscurity, and, by reason of her 
 sufferings, like a bush on fire. One design, indeed, of 
 her sufferings, (as of the flame in the bush) may have 
 been to attract attention, and to excite inquiry. Moses 
 would not have noticed the bush, if it had not been 
 on fire ; nor would the Jews residing at Rome, have 
 been excited to hear Paul, if he had not been sent 
 thither as a prisoner. 1 The prophet, mystically per- 
 sonating Christ, said, Behold 7, and the Children 
 whom the Lord hath given me, are for signs and for 
 wonders;* and those with mystical Joshua, are men 
 wondered at. 1 But whatever else the Lord may de- 
 sign, in causing his church to pass through so many 
 trials and sufferings, we are certain that her needful 
 purification and his own declarative glory, are among 
 
 g Eph. ii. 18. h Rom. v. 17. Acts xxiii. k Is. viii. 18. 
 Comp. Heb.ii. 13. ^Zech. iii. 8. 
 
532 THE GOOD-WILL, &C. [SER. XVI. 
 
 his specified ends : for, addressing her, he saith, 
 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver, 
 which requires a furnace of material fire; / have 
 chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine 
 own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it : for 
 how should my name be polluted ? and I will not 
 give my glory unto another. Is. xlviii. 10, 11. 
 And, 
 
 3. That, however creaturs may forsake the 
 church when she is passing through fiery trials, 
 Christ will not : /, saith he, will never leave thee, nor 
 forsake thee. m He is with her, not merely as a visit- 
 or, but as a resident: This, saith he, is my rest for 
 ever: here will I dwell ; for I have desired it. To 
 an eye of faith, his feet like unto fine brass, as if they 
 burned in a furnace, are seen in the midst of her 
 during her severest sufferings. ALLELUIA. Amen. 
 
 m Heb. xiii. 5. n Psal. cxxxii. 14. Rev. i. 1315- 
 
SERMON XVII. 
 
 THE BLESSING OF JOSEPH CONTINUED. 
 
 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 
 
 Deut. xxxiii. 13 17. And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord 
 be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and 
 for the deep that coucheth beneath. And for the precious fruits 
 brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth 
 by the moon. And for the chief things of the ancient mountains^ 
 and for the precious things of the lasting hills, .And for the pre<- 
 cious things of the earth and fulness thereof; and for the good- 
 will of him that dwelt in the bush. Let the blessing come upon 
 the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that 
 was separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling 
 of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns; with 
 them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth : 
 and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are 
 the thousands of Manasseh. 
 
 "WHATSOEVER things were written aforetime," 
 that is, by the inspired writers of the Old Testa- 
 ment, "were written," saith an apostle, "for our 
 learning," 8 who live under the gospel-dispensation. 
 For our learning, then, my Christian hearers, must 
 the things which are now before us, have been 
 written. From these things we have already learn- 
 ed, that Joseph was an eminent type of Christ 
 -that his land, with its distinguishing blessings, 
 
 a Rom. xv. 4 
 71 
 
534 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 was an instructive emblem of the church of Christ 
 and, that this church, though comparable to a 
 bush, nay, to a bush on fire, cannot be consumed, by 
 reason of the GOOD-WILL of Him who dwells in it. 
 Nor can I doubt, that, rightly understood, the things 
 contained in that part of the text which remains 
 to be considered, are adapted and designed to 
 afford us lessons equally interesting and edifying. 
 
 This part of the text, that you may the more distinct- 
 ly recollect it, I will now repeat. It begins at about 
 the middle of the 16th verse, and reads thus: Let 
 the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon 
 the top of the head of him that was separated from 
 his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his 
 bullock, and his horns are like the horns of uni- 
 corns ; icith them he shall push the people together 
 to the ends of the earth : and they are the ten thou- 
 sands of Ephraim^ and they are the thousands of 
 Manas seh. 
 
 Moses, led by the Spirit of prophecy, here recalls 
 the name of Joseph, and speaks of him and his fami- 
 ly, for purposes and under metaphors which, being 
 mystically considered, are full of instruction concern- 
 ing Christ and his kingdom. Joseph is here brought 
 to view, 
 
 1 . To identify the person spoken of, that so he might 
 never be confounded with any other of the same 
 name. This, Moses effectually did, by adverting to 
 a fact in the history of Joseph, which has no paral- 
 lel in the Old Testament, and which is unequivocal- 
 ly recognized in these words him that was sepa- 
 rated from his brethren. He was that Joseph who> 
 in early life, was separated from his vicious bre- 
 
SER. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 535 
 
 thren, to a course of strict morality, and was made to 
 differ from them, by the gift of superior wisdom, and 
 the privilege of extraordinary intercourse with God. 
 See Gen. xxxvii. 2 11. He was that Joseph who 
 was separated from his brethren, by their wickedly 
 selling him into Egypt, and he Was that Joseph 
 whom God separated from his brethren, by promot- 
 ing him above them. They, hating him, separated 
 him from them, by making him a slave ; but God, 
 loving him, separated him from them, by making 
 him a prince. 
 
 But, if it was important that the person here called 
 Joseph, should be thus identified, how much more im- 
 portant is it that the person called JESUS should be so 
 revealed, that he might be known and distinguished 
 from every other. Hence the great care which the 
 Father took in the manifestation of him. By his 
 Spirit, in Moses and the prophets, he gave such une- 
 quivocal characteristics of him, and caused these to 
 be so conspicuously verified in him, that none, upon 
 a due comparison of indubitable facts with inspired 
 predictions and promises, can innocently mistake 
 the person. b 
 
 Upon this authority Jesus himself rested his 
 claims to Messiahship : Search the Scriptures, said he 
 to the Jews ; for in them, (meaning in their posses- 
 sion and synagogue-use of them,) ye think ye have 
 eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, 
 in whom alone that life is to be found. 6 And, to 
 prove the same points to the same people, PAUL, 
 
 * Matt. xvi. 13. John xv. 2224. c Ibid. v. 39. and 1 John 
 v. 11, 12. 
 
 
536 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 as his manner was, went in unto them, and three 
 sabbath-days reasoned with them out of the Scrip- 
 tures; opening and alleging that Christ must 
 needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead : 
 and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is 
 Christ^ To prove that SHILOH, whom the ancient 
 Jews acknowledged to be the MESSIAH,* was come, 
 the apostle, no doubt, reminded them that, accord- 
 ing to Genesis xlix. 10, the scepter, the power of 
 civil government, had departed from Judah, that is, 
 had ceased among the Jews. To prove, both that the 
 true MESSIAH was come, and that he had suffered, 
 the apostle unquestionably showed, as he might 
 easily do, that ihe seventy weeks, or 490 years, 
 within which MESSIAH was to come, and to be cut 
 off, were obviously expired. 6 And, to prove that 
 Jesus, whom he had preached to them, was Christ, 
 the distinguished person under consideration, he 
 probably argued from his being born of a virgin, 
 according to Isaiah vii. 14, from his being born in 
 Bethlehem Ephrata, according to Micah v. 2. from 
 his residence at Nazareth, that in fulfilment of Isa- 
 iah xi. 1, he might be called -nu Netzer, a Nazarene 
 and especially, from the contempt in which he 
 was held by his own nation ; for even their abhor- 
 rence of him, and all his sufferings endured among 
 them, proved him to be the promised and predicted 
 MESSIAH. See Is. xlix. 7. and Luke xxiv. 26. 
 
 Christ, therefore, like Joseph, may be distinguish- 
 ed and known, by his being separated from his 
 
 * As admitted in each of the three Targums, and in the Tal- 
 mud. Sanhedrim, Cap. xi. 
 
 d Acts xvii. 2, 3. e Dan, ix. 2427. 
 
SER. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 537 
 
 brethren after the flesh. But the word -vn nezeer, 
 which is here rendered separated, signifies also a 
 Nazarite, one separated from other men and special- 
 ly devoted to God/ Such in a good degree was Jo- 
 seph ; but such pre-eminently was his Antitype, the 
 man Christ Jesus; who was one chosen from 
 among thepeople% separate from sinners 1 " and, as 
 noticed before, was expressly called a JVazarene 1 . 
 Like Joseph, too, He was distinguished by his pre- 
 mature wisdom. At the age of twelve years, he was 
 found in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them 
 and asking them questions ; and all that heard him, 
 were astonished at his understanding and answers* 
 
 Nor was He separated and distinguished merely 
 in these respects. His fleshly brethren, moreover, 
 separated him from them, when they sold him (as 
 the elder sons of Jacob had sold their brother Jo- 
 seph,) for a few pieces of silver, and delivered Him 
 to strangers ; yet God the Father separated Him 
 from them, as he did Joseph from his brethren, by 
 raising and exalting Him infinitely above them.* 
 
 The duration and events, too, of their respective 
 separations deserve notice. For, as Joseph was 
 long separated from his brethren, so Christ, in his 
 gospel and in his gospel-church state, and accord- 
 ing both to prediction and threatening," 1 has long 
 been separated from his national brethren, the Jews ; 
 and, as Joseph, while separated from his brethren, 
 was doing wonders and becoming great in Egypt, 
 so Christ, while separated from the Jews, has 
 
 f Judges xiii. 5. 7. e Psal. Ixxxix. 19. b Heb.^ vii. 26. 
 * Matt. ii. 23. * Luke ii. 46, 47. > Philip, ii. 9. m Hosea iii. 4. 
 Matt. xxi. 43. 
 
538 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 been performing wonders of grace, and receiv- 
 ing accessions of mediatorial fame, in the gentile 
 world. Besides, as Joseph's brethren, when pinch- 
 ed with famine and informed of his abundance, 
 went to him in the land of Egypt for relief; so the 
 time is coming when the Jews, realizing their 
 spiritual wants, shall come to Joseph's Antitype, in 
 the Egypt of the gentiles." Yes, like old Jacob, in 
 regard to Joseph, the Jews, in regard to Christ, af- 
 ter much anxiety and many doubts, will be constrain- 
 ed to say, It is enough the evidence is irresistible, 
 JESUS, whom our nation sold and crucified, is indeed 
 alive, and we will go and see him* 
 
 That it was all-important, that the Christ of God 
 should be so revealed as to be clearly distinguishable 
 from every pretender to this character, who had ap- 
 peared before him, or might appear after him, is 
 evident from his own declarations and cautions on 
 the subject : All, said he, that ever came before me, 
 that is, pretending to be the MESSIAH, are thieves 
 and robbers; and, cautioning his disciples against 
 future impostors, He said to them, Take heed that no 
 man deceive you :for many shall come in my name, 
 saying, I am Christ ; and shall deceive many.\ 
 
 The same also may be concluded from the 
 method which God has ever taken, to satisfy his 
 heirs, both that Jesus is the Christ, and that they 
 have a saving interest in him. To them, he gives 
 not only the external evidence of revelation, as con- 
 firmed by miracles, but likewise the internal evi- 
 
 n Hosea iii. 5. * See Ser. xiv. p. 449. &c. John x. 8. 
 p Matt. xxiv. 4, 5. 2326. 
 
SER. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 539 
 
 dence of a record made in their hearts by the Holy 
 Spirit, of what he has revealed in his word. Hence 
 the gospel, whether as written or preached, comes 
 not to them in ^cord only, as it does to others, but also 
 in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much as- 
 surance^ This accounts for the holy confidence 
 with which the regenerate receive the record and 
 report of the gospel ; for he that believeth in the Son 
 of God, with that faith which is of divine operation, 
 hath the witness in himself? both of the DIVINE SON- 
 SHIP of Christ, and of his own sonship by adoption 
 and regeneration. Nor can either be known with- 
 out the internal operation and revelation of the 
 Spirit; for, as no man can say, experimentally, that 
 Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost, s so no 
 man can be assured that he is a child of God, but by 
 the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Fa- 
 ther. 1 Wherefore, that "the heirs of promise might 
 have strong consolation," the Spirit itself, by excit- 
 ing holy desires in our hearts" by inditing approv- 
 ed petitions in our souls w by opening the fulness 
 of Christ to our minds x by bringing what he has 
 spoken to our remembrance 7 by showing that our 
 experience, both of sorrow and of joy, accords with 
 his testimony in the word 2 by enabling us to mor- 
 tify the deeds of the body, and by acting in us as the 
 Spirit of adoption, 3 beareth witness with our spirit, 
 that we are the children of God : and if children, then 
 heirs ; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. 
 Rom.viii. 16, 17. 
 
 1 1 Thess. i. 5. r 1 John v. 10. 1 Cor. xii. 3. Rom. viii. 
 15, Psal. cxlv. 19. w Rom. v iii. 27. * John xvi. 14, 15, 
 y Ibid. xiv. 26 z 2 Cor. i. 37. a Rom. viii. 1315 
 
540 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 Chiefly, however, the importance of Christ's being 
 clearly revealed and truly distinguished, must ap- 
 pear from the fact, that to mistake another for 
 him, is inevitably fatal : No man, saith he, com- 
 eth unto the Father, but by me ; John xiv. 6 ; nei- 
 ther, saith an apostle, is there salvation in any 
 other. Acts iv. 12. How fearful, then, must be the 
 state of the Arian, whose object of trust is a crea- 
 ted angel, and that of the Socinian, whose Christ is 
 a mere man ! See Job iv. 18. and Jer. xvii. 5. Well, 
 therefore, may every true convert and every true 
 gospel-church, under an anxious dread of imposition, 
 say to Christ, Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, 
 where thou, the true shepherd, feedesi thy sheep and 
 lambs, through a true ministry, and where thou mak- 
 est THY flock to rest at noon, during the heat of 
 affliction and persecution : for why should I, who by 
 thy grace am caused to love thee, merely for the 
 want of additional teaching, be as one that (being 
 a hypocrite,) turneth aside (of choice) by the flocks 
 of thy companions, the flocks of imaginary Christs 
 Christs exhibited by anti-christian teachers, through 
 the medium of another gospel, ichich, in reality, is 
 not another, but a flexible accommodating system 
 falsely called gospel. See Cant. i. 7. Matt. xxiv. 
 24. and Gal. i. 6 9. 
 
 2. The special notice here taken of Joseph was 
 to designate him as the person on whom the bless- 
 ing was pronounced, and through whom, in all its 
 variety, it came to his posterity. Let the blessing, 
 that which is so diffusively expressed in the pre- 
 ceding parts of the text, come upon the head of Jo- 
 seph, and (or even) upon the top (or crown) of the 
 
SER. XVII.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 541 
 
 head of him that was separated from his brethren. 
 Hereby we are mystically taught the infinitely more 
 interesting truth, that all the blessings of grace and 
 of glory were originally conferred upon the great 
 Antitype of Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that, 
 through him, they come to his mystical posterity; to 
 whom grace was givi,n in him, and for whom eternal 
 lifewsis promised to him, and both before the world 
 began. 2 Tim. i. 9. and Titus i. 2. Herein, too, 
 we may discover why, in relation to them, Christ is 
 called the everlasting Father ; b which can have no 
 respect to any relation he sustains in the Godhead, 
 (wherein the idea of two Fathers would be absurd,) 
 but simply denotes his relation to the elect, who from 
 everlasting were representatively and seminally in 
 him, and who, in the succession of ages, receive of 
 his fulness that grace through which they are spiritu- 
 ally generated by him; c and whereas neither He, as 
 the source of life to them, nor They, as the partak- 
 ers of life from him, can ever die/ the said rela- 
 tion between him and them must necessarily be 
 everlasting in its duration. Besides, He might be 
 styled Father in relation to them, on account of the 
 manner of their heirship ; for whereas, by the DI- 
 VINE COMPACT, their title to eternal life is involved in 
 his title thereto, as Mediator, 6 and the inheritance 
 itself is placed in his gift/ they come into the pos- 
 session of it by his TESTAMENT and through his 
 DITATH the death of the TESTATOR ; see Heb. ix. 16, 
 17; a passage which, at least according to our ver- 
 
 b Is. ix. 6. c John i. 16. Eph. i. 5. 10. ii. 7. <* John xiv. 19. 
 e Rom. vii. 17 f John xviii. 2. 
 
 72 
 
542 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvir, 
 
 sion, cannot be consistently interpreted without ad- 
 mitting the above relation. 
 
 Having noticed the purposes of Joseph's special 
 identification, I precede to consider the metaphorical 
 description of him, which follows it. This assigns 
 to him, 
 
 First, Great magnificence : his glory is like the 
 firstling of his bullock, or bull, as *w shor, the word 
 used, also signifies. This similitude, however ob- 
 scure and uncouth it may seem to us, was, in those 
 early times, and especially among the Jews and the 
 Egyptians, not only perfectly intelligible, but even 
 highly elegant. Among the Jews the bulls of Ba- 
 shan acquired so much fame as to become the com- 
 mon representatives of great men men most distin- 
 guished for authority and influence/ And with the 
 Egyptians, a bull was reckoned so comely and ma- 
 jectic, that MENES, their first king, as ^ELIANUS 
 CLAUDUS relates,* preferred it above all animals as 
 an object of worship. Nay, even the Syrian goddess 
 ASTARTE, (the same with the Grecian VENUS,) is 
 said by SANCHRONIATHON,! to have placed a bull's 
 head upon her own, as a sign of royalty.} 
 
 Now, as Bashan was a country possessed by the 
 posterity of Joseph, the famous cattle bred there are 
 called his ; and the metaphor was designed to signi- 
 fy that, in certain respects, Joseph and his posterity 
 
 s Psal. xxii. 12. Amos iv. 1. 
 
 * Hist. Animal. 1. ii. c. 10. f A Phoenician historian, who 
 flourished a few years before the Trojan war, which commenced 
 1193 years before Christ, f See in Eusebius Evangelical Pre- 
 paration. B. i. p. 38. 
 
. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 545 
 
 resembled the most excellent and most highly privi- 
 ledged of those animals, even a firstling, a first-born 
 among them. Thus employed, the simile carries 
 in it, 
 
 1. A recognition of Joseph's extraordinary jmw0- 
 geniture, with all its appendant honors and privi- 
 leges. These, originally belonged to Reuben, Ja- 
 cob's first-born ; but through his forfeiture of them, 
 they devolved, by divine appointment, upon Joseph: 
 The birth-right was Joseph's.* 1 A much greater 
 mystery, too, was herein designed and illustrated-. 
 In the order of nature, Adam, who, by the plastic 
 hand of the Creator, preceded from the virgin earth, 
 was (of men) God's first born, and is called his son? 
 nay, according to primogeniture, he was his heir, and, 
 by delegation, his representative : God said to him, 
 Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over 
 the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that 
 moveth upon the earth* But when, as illustrated in 
 Reuben, he forfeited all by transgression, the pri- 
 mogeniture, and therewith all its prerogatives and 
 honors, devolved openly (as before they did secretly) 
 upon our spiritual Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 See Psal. viii. 5 9. Him, therefore, God the Fa- 
 ther styles his first-born; 1 and Him hath he reveal- 
 ed as his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all 
 things. Heb. i. 2. 
 
 That none, however, may misapprehend the 
 above suggestion respecting Adam and Christ, let it 
 be distinctly understood, that I do not thereby mean 
 
 h 1 Chron. v. 2. * Luke iii. 3a k Gen i 27, 28, J Psal. 
 Ixxxix. 27. 
 
544 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvu. 
 
 that Adam forfeited, either for himself or his posteri- 
 ty, any blessing provided in the COVENANT OF GRACE. 
 This was impossible; ior, as the covenant of grace 
 was not made with him, but with Christ, the bless- 
 ings provided in it were not entrusted to him, but to 
 Christ ; in whom the Father blessed his elect with 
 all spiritual blessings .... according as he hath 
 chosen us in him before the foundation of the world ; m 
 and hence, our salvation and calling of God are, not 
 according to our works, (the covenant of which was 
 made with Adam,) but according to his own purpose 
 and grace, which was given us (not in Adam, but) 
 in C/irist Jesus, and that, not after Adam fell, but 
 before the world began. 2 Tim. i. 9. Even Adam 
 himself, by his natural constitution, was neither a 
 subject of grace, nor an heir of glory. He was 
 created a sinless man, but not a gracious man 
 an heir to the earthly paradise, but not to the heaven- 
 ly ; and consequently he had neither grace to lose 
 or to communicate, nor glory to confer or to forfeit. 
 Not the first Adam, but the LAST was made, that 
 is, constituted, by covenant-prerogative, A QUICKEN- 
 ING SPIRIT; 1 Cor. xv. 45; and glory is that eter- 
 nal life, which God that cannot lie, promised 
 before the world began, and therefore, not to Adam, 
 for his natural posterity, but to Christ, for his mys- 
 tical posterity. See Titus i. 2. and Rom. vi. 23. 
 To these provisions in the everlasting covenant, 
 Christ had respect, when he said to his disciples, 
 / am come, that ye may have life, and that (com- 
 pared with all that Adam had and lost) ye might 
 ham " more abundantly. John x. 10. Thus it is 
 
 Epb. i. 3, 4. 
 
SER. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 545 
 
 that Christ, for all he represented, hath virtually 
 abolished death, and prospectively brought life and 
 immortality to light through the gospel. 2. Tim. 
 i. 10. 
 
 2. The simile before us imports the freedom of 
 Joseph's posterity; for although Joseph himself had 
 been a slave and a prisoner in Egypt, yet, being 
 honorably released from prison, and being mar- 
 ried to a free woman, given to him by the king,* 
 his posterity were free ; in which they resembled 
 the firstling of his bullock, which, by divine in- 
 junction, was exempt from the yoke of labor. See 
 Deut. xv. 19 The freedom of Joseph's posteri- 
 ty, however, was but a type of the more illustrious 
 freedom enjoyed by the mystical posterity of 
 Christ. For though He was made under the law 
 and became obedient unto death, nay, was imprison- 
 ed in the tomb yet, being raised and released, all 
 his redeemed were representatively raised and re- 
 
 * The father of the woman whom Pharaoh gave Joseph to 
 wife, was not, as some have thought, the same with Pharaoh's 
 officer to whom Joseph had been sold. For 1. Their names, 
 especially in the original, widely differ. The name of Joseph's 
 master was "la'Dia Potapher, and that of his father-in-law ;na '013 
 Poti-pherah, or, more properly, Poti-pherang. And 2. Their 
 offices were wholly dissimilar ; the former was an officer of Pha- 
 raoh's, probably his chamberlain, and captain of the guard, a kind 
 of chief marshal about Pharaoh's court; Gen. xxxvii. 36; where- 
 as the latter was a priest, the priest of On, a place which in the 
 Septuagint is called 'HXi*iroXew Heliopolis, the city of the sun. 
 Gen. xli. 45. Nor is it at all probable, that Joseph would have 
 married the daughter of a woman so scandalously wicked as his 
 mistress, and who had occasioned his degradation and imprison- 
 ment. 
 
546 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 leased with him ; Rom. iv. 25 ; whereby they were 
 virtually made free and, on believing in him, they 
 become experimentally so : for whom the Son makes 
 free, are free indeed See John viii. 36. Besides, 
 Christ being openly married to the church, given to 
 him by the King immortal, eternal and invisible, 
 and she being the allegorical Sarah, the free woman, 
 all his posterity by her, are legally and eminently 
 free. See Rom. vii. 4. and Gal. iv. 31. And, 
 
 3. This simile suggests the equal and indefeasi- 
 ble heirship of Joseph's posterity, to all that apper- 
 tained to his portion ; for, their being "like ihejfirst- 
 ling of his bullock," denotes that they were in the 
 rank of a first-born, whose title to the paternal in- 
 heritance was unequivocal. Deut. xxi. 17. Where- 
 fore, in their heirship also, as well as in their free- 
 dom, they manifestly typified the mystical posterity 
 of Christ, who are all first-born, that is, heirs; Heb. 
 xii. 23 ; and whereas both their title and their in- 
 heritance (as noticed before) are in Christ, who is 
 emphatically the FIRST-BORN or Heir among many 
 brethren, 1 " they are, by consequence, joint-heirs with 
 Him. Rom. viii. 1 7. 
 
 To procede. This metaphorical description of 
 Joseph, 
 
 Secondly, Assigns to him great power, signified 
 by the horns attributed to him ; a horn being a 
 scripture-symbol of power, strength, &c. Such 
 horns, too, were attributed to Joseph as are the 
 most powerful : His horns are like the horns of 
 
 n Rom. viii. 29. Col. i. 18. Psal. Ixxv. 10. Jer. xlviii. 25. 
 
SER. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 547 
 
 Unicorns.* Whatever was the beast alluded to, by 
 its horns Moses evidently meant Joseph's two sons, 
 Ephraim and Manasseh, the force of each tribe, 
 when brought into the field, being like a large horn, 
 
 * QiO re-earn, the appellative here rendered unicorns, is in the 
 singular number the plural of which is O'm rem-eem ; Psal. 
 xxii. 21 ; or O^OfcO re-eameem; Is. xxxiv. 7. But whereas pp 
 keren horn, both in its construct state, (^p karne horns of,} and 
 with 1 postfixed (vjlp karnav, his horns,} is in the plural form, our 
 translators, to avoid the incongruity of attributing a plurality of 
 horns to a unicorn, a one horned animal, employed the plural 
 form of the appellative, unicorns. No such accommodation, 
 however, is requisite. Most probably the animal alluded to, is 
 the rhinoceros, whose name, from f ^v the nose and xs a horn, 
 denotes it to be nose-horned. Of this genus there are two spe- 
 cies the fjt,ovox?W unicornis one horned, and the dwsgog bicor- 
 nis two horned; the former having one large horn, and the 
 latter two. The former is very accurately described by Dr. 
 Parsons; see Philosoph. Transac. No. 470, p. 523, &c. or 
 Abridg. Vol. ix. p. 94, &c.; and the latter, by Mr. Bruce, in the 
 History of his Travels, Vol. v. p. 91, &c. See also Shaw's Travels 
 p. 430, Note 1 ; and Buffon, Tom. ix. p. 334. According to 
 Bruce, the two horns of this animal grow, not like those of other 
 horned animals, side by side, on the forehead, but one on the nose, 
 and the other at some distance above it, on the face ; and though 
 each is long and strong, the lower one, in these respects, greatly 
 excels the upper one. Well, therefore, might Moses say of Jo- 
 seph, His horns, his two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, are like 
 the horns of a rhinoceros, both powerful, but Ephraim greatly ex- 
 celling. 
 
 To this solution of the difficulty, (a difficulty which all commen- 
 tators have felt,) it is not a sufficient objection to say, as some do, 
 That " the two horned rhinoceros is found only in the southern 
 parts ofJlsia and Africa." It may be so now, yet might not be so 
 in the days of Moses. 
 
 The unicorn whose figure is exhibited in heraldry, is now ge- 
 nerally supposed to be merely fabulous. 
 
548 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SEE. xvn. 
 
 very powerful and terrific. See Judges viii. 1. and 
 xii. 1. This interpretation of Joseph's horns, is 
 confirmed by the text itself; at the close of which, 
 Moses says, They are the ten thousands of 
 Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh. Horn- 
 ed animals are also symbols of distinguished com- 
 manders. Thus Darius and Alexander are repre- 
 sented as running violently at each other with their 
 horns. Dan. viii. 3 6. Hence it is probable that, 
 in our text, this symbol designed certain eminent 
 leaders and warriors that were to be raised up 
 among the posterity of Joseph ; as, for instance, 
 Joshua, the illustrious successor of Moses, and 
 Gideon, a famous deliverer of Israel, and who de- 
 scended, the former from Ephraim? and the latter 
 from Manasseh.q 
 
 But let us not forget, that, in a national point of 
 view, the posterity of our divine Joseph, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, consists also of two branches, to wit, 
 Jews and Gentiles; and that, nevertheless, in an eccle- 
 siastical sense, He hath 'made both one, having bro- 
 ken down the middle wall of partition between us. 
 Eph. ii. 14. And as, among the posterity of Jo- 
 seph, certain leading and principal men were rais- 
 ed up for warfare in national Israel, so, among 
 the posterity of Christ, there have been men distin- 
 guished by grace and gifts, by fortitude and zeal, to 
 take the lead in fighting the battles of spiritual Is- 
 rael, by contending earnestly for the faith once de- 
 livered to the saints. Such, pre-eminently such, 
 
 p Num. xiii. 8. 16. Judges vi. 11. 15. 
 
SER. xvn.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 549 
 
 were the apostles and such, in a good degree, 
 have been many whom Christ has raised up since 
 their times. 
 
 Nor must we omit to notice the pre-eminence 
 which Moses, by the Spirit of prophecy, here gave 
 to Joseph's younger son. It was a confirmation of 
 what Jacob, moved by the same Spirit, had mysti- 
 cally signified long before; for, when about to pro- 
 nounce the prophetic blessing on Joseph's two sons y 
 " guiding his hands wittingly," he laid his right hand 
 (the more honorable) upon the head of Ephraim, 
 the younger, and his left hand (the less honorable) 
 upon the head of Manasseh, the elder. See Gen. 
 xlviii. 14 19. Accordingly, Ephraim excelled, 
 
 1. In numbers. He had his ten thousands, while 
 Manasseh had but his thousands. And as it was 
 in the type, so also has it been in the Antitype ; for, 
 though Christ has indeed had his thousands among 
 the Jews, answering to Manasseh, the elder brother, 
 he has had, comparatively, his ten thousands among 
 the gentiles, corresponding to Ephraim, the young- 
 er brother : Unto him have the gentiles sought, arid, 
 to them, his rest has been glorious. Is. xi. 10. 
 Herein are verified the words of Christ, The last 
 shall be first, and the first last. Matt. xx. 16. And, 
 2. In dignity. To EPHRAIM, as a mark of ho- 
 norable distinction, belonged Samaria, the royal 
 city of the ten tribes/ And thus, under the present 
 dispensation, to provoke the Jews to jealousy, " The 
 city of the great king," the visible church, apper- 
 tains to another people ; Christ having, agreeably to 
 
 r 2 Kings xv. 27. 
 
 73 
 
550 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER,XVH, 
 
 his premonition,* taken " the kingdom of God" from 
 them, and given it to us. Hence, among us He con- 
 descends to keep his palace, to hold his courts, to 
 deliver his laws, and to dispense his favors. What 
 an honor is this conferred upon us poor gentiles 1 
 Let us not be high-minded, but fear. Horn. xi. 20. 
 This metaphorical description of Joseph^ more- 
 over, 
 
 Thirdly, Assigns to him great victories. It was 
 not in vain that he had horns like the horns of a 
 rhinoceros ; for with them, said Moses, he shall 
 push the people together* to the ends of the earth, or 
 of the land, meaning the land of Canaan, which an 
 apostle calls the earth. Rom. ix. 28. Literally, 
 this was fulfilled in Joshua, a descendant of Joseph, 
 when he conquered thirty-one kings of that coun- 
 try ;* but mystically it has been, and more abun- 
 dantly will be fulfilled in Christ, the Antitype both of 
 Joseph and of Joshua. And though the victories of 
 Joseph, achieved by his illustrious descendant, 
 Joshua, were all in Canaan, (here intended by the 
 earth,) yet, as Canaan was IMMANUEL'S land," those 
 literal victories which extended to the ends of it, 
 were typical of the spiritual victories of Christ, 
 which must extend to the ends of the earth, under- 
 stood in the ordinary acceptation of the words ^ for, 
 to Him shall be given the heathen for his inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for his pos- 
 session. See Psal. ii. 8. 
 
 Nor should it be overlooked, that correspondent 
 to Joseph's two horns, Ephraim and Manasseh, both 
 
 Matt. xxi. 43. * Josh. xii. 724. Is. viii. 8. 
 
SEE. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 551 
 
 branches of Christ's militant kingdom, believing 
 Jews nd believing gentiles, have been employed? 
 by Him, in extending his spiritual conquests and en 
 larging his visible empire. By his apostles, raised 
 up among the former, He not only published his gos- 
 pel throughout Judea, but ushered it also into the 
 gentile world and, by his ordinary ministers, suc- 
 cessively granted to the latter, He has ever since 
 been extending the same gospel, with various suc- 
 cess, among the nations ; moreover, we are assured, 
 by prophecy, that he will continue to do so, till, by 
 the overwhelming light of the latter day, " the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as 
 the waters cover the sea." Is. xi. 9. 
 
 To confirm the church and ministers of Christ 
 in the hope of all the promised and predicted glory 
 of his kingdom, they are informed, 
 
 1. That, to Him,'ihe Father hath given power over 
 all flesh, all nations, that He should give eternal 
 life to as many (among them all) as He (the Father) 
 hath given Him, whenever and wherever they 
 should be found on the earth. See John xvii. 2, 
 And, that his ministers might not be appalled at the 
 pretensions and menaces of any adverse power, 
 whether official or popular, Christ prefaced the 
 commission under which they act, with an assertion 
 of his universal dominion ; saying to them, ALL 
 
 POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH : 
 
 Go ye therefore^ and teach all nations, &c. Go ye 
 into all the world, and preach the gospel to evfry 
 creature. What, then, are earthly sovereigns when 
 opposed to Him'! Ail kings shall fall down be- 
 fore him, either penitent, or slain ; and all nations 
 
552 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvn. 
 
 shall serve him. Psal Ixxii. 11. By Him, even 
 Satan, the prince of this world is judged. John xvi. 
 11. Nor can there, in a word, be any possible ob- 
 struction to his march. At his approach, Every val- 
 ley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill 
 shall be made low; The crooked shall be made 
 straight, and the rough places plain : and the glory 
 of the Lord shall be revealed, and all jlesh, all na- 
 tions, shall see it together : for the mouth of the 
 Lord hath spoken it. Is. xl. 5. Neither can there 
 be any deficiency of instruments or of means. For, 
 2. With Christ are all the gifts of the Spirit, and 
 all the treasures of nature ; and which, at pleasure, 
 He employs in the accomplishment of his great de- 
 sign. He, who gave apostles and prophets, and 
 evangelists, gave also, and still gives pastors and 
 teachers pastors to feed churches, and teachers, to 
 preach to the destitute : and of .the latter, He will 
 continue to give, till, coextensively with the com- 
 mission He delivered, they shahteach all nations. 
 Besides, upon his saints in common, He will be- 
 stow such gifts as shall render them, like well disci- 
 plined soldiers, expert in handling the sword " the 
 sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 
 Eph. iv. 1 1. and vi. 17. Nor can He be deficient in 
 means : The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, 
 saith the LORD of hosts. w And though these pre- 
 cious metals may be chiefly claimed (as they have 
 hitherto been) by men of the world, the hearts of 
 their claimants (those of kings not excepted) are in 
 his hand, 1 and he can, at pleasure, either by his 
 
 w Hag. ii. 8. * Prov. xxi. 1. 
 
SEE. xvii.] JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. 553 
 
 grace turn them to himself, or by his providence 
 transfer their treasures to his friends, who shall 
 willingly consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and 
 their substance unto the LORD of the whole earth.^ y 
 Then, as renewed by His grace, or controlled by His 
 providence, " the kings of Tarshish and of the isles 
 shall bring presents ; the kings of Sheba and Seba 
 shall offer gifts nay, to HIM shall be given of the 
 gold of Sheba ; prayer also shall be made for him 
 continually," that is, for the prosperity of his cause ; 
 " and daily shall he be praised." 2 And, 
 
 3. To crown all, He will pour out of his Spirit 
 upon all flesh? that is, upon all nations, and his peo- 
 ple among them all, even all the incalculable millions 
 that are His, by covenant and by ransom, shall be 
 made willing in the day of his power willing to 
 forsake their refuges of lies, to trust in His perfect 
 righteousness, and their evil ways, to be devoted to 
 His delightful service. See Psal. ex. 3. and Rev. v. 
 9. and vii. 9. 
 
 Having now to take leave of this important sub- 
 ject, let us not do it without a few pertinent 
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 1. Has God been pleased thus carefully and 
 explicitly to distinguish His Christ from all false 
 ones 1 Let us remember the kindness of the design : 
 it was that we might not make the fatal mistake of 
 receiving another for him ; there being SALVATION 
 in none other. Acts iv. 12. 
 
 y Micah iv. 13. Comp. Josh. vi. 19. 2 Sam. viii. 10, 11. and 
 Rev. xxi. 24. * Psal. Ixxii. 10. 15. Joel ii. 28. Acts ii. 16. 
 
554 JOSEPH'S PRE-EMINENCE. [SER. xvir. 
 
 2. Is Christ the revealed Depository of all spiritu- 
 al blessings 1 Let us never expect to receive such 
 blessings from any other source, or through any 
 other medium ; remembering that it hath pleased 
 the Father that in him should all fulness dwell ; 
 and that no man comethunto the Father but by HIM. 
 Col. i. 19. and John xiv. 6. 
 
 3. Must the victories of Christ, according to pro- 
 mise and prophecy, be numerous and extensive ? Let 
 us rejoice in hope, and pray without ceasing. Rom. 
 v. 2. and 1 Thess. v. 17. * 
 
 4. Will Christ, like Joshua, show no mercy to the 
 finally rebellious ? O sinners ! tremble and bow : 
 he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but 
 the wrath of God abideth upon him. John iii. 36. 
 And, 
 
 Finally, As Christ, like Joshua, receives all 
 submissive suppliants let penitent, broken-heart- 
 ed sinners, be encouraged to seek his favor. Let 
 not the consciousness of your guilt, however accu- 
 mulated or aggravated, prevent your approach. 
 The grounds of your hesitancy are all removed, by 
 his own gracious declaration ; him that cometh to 
 me, I will in no wise, on no account whatever, cast 
 out. b EVEN so, LORD JESUS. AMEN. 
 
 * John vi. 37. 
 
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