sight to human infirmity, that Moses said, "I exceedingly fear and quake* :" and therefore they made this request and promise to Moses: "Speak "thou with us and we will hear; but let not God "speak with us lest we diet." Afterwards, in delivering to Moses some other laws, which he expected they should also obey, God enjoins him. to remind them of their request and promise, and to signify his approbation: "they have spoken well that which they have spoken‡." And therefore tell them I will no more speak to them with my own voice, but "I will raise them up a "prophet from among their brethren like unto thee; "and I will put my words in his mouth, and he "shall speak unto them all that I shall command "him: and it shall come to pass, that whosoever "will not hearken unto my words, that he shall "speak in my name, I will require it of him." Now, who can this prophet like unto Moses be, save Jesus Christ? His birth, his office, and his character, and those of no other prophet or person ever yet heard of, in all circumstances, strictly fulfil the prophetic description. He, like Moses, was born and raised up from among their brethren" the Israelites. He was a prophet, and prophecied many great events which we know have since come to pass, and was a law-giver as well as Moses; for he was the first who revealed and declared the holy will and word of God to mankind in the Gospel; and there has been no prophet, a lawgiver too, since Moses unto this

*Heb. xii. 21.

+ Exod. xx. 19.

Deut. xviii. 17. 19.

day, save Christ. Like Moses he was faithful in speaking all that God commanded him; for he himself says, "I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things*." As Moses also brought his people of Israel from under Egyptian bondage, so Christ has brought his church out of pagan idolatry and slavery. And the tenor of the gospel is, that whosoever shall not hearken to the word of God, delivered by Jesus Christ, it shall be "required of him," when Christ shall "judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdomt." In short, there is no truth and the Gospel more firmly established, than that Christ was the real prototype of " a prophet like unto Moses," not only by the apostles, but by God himself, who, at the transfiguration of Christ, declared, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased, hear ye him§." Hearken to "him," as I commanded you through my servant Moses, as you promised "to do if I would no more speak to you with my own voice."

Isaiah, whose language is the most elegant and sublime of all the prophets, in many parts of his prophecies dwells with rapture on this great subject. I will cite only a few instances: After having reprehended the Jews for their obstinacy and infidelity; after having perceived a desire in the house of David to repent and return to God, yet restless and almost desponding, he gives them a hope of future salvation through Christ; and by

fohn, vii. 28. See also xii. 49, 50. xvii. 8. † 2 Tim. iv. 1. Acts iii. 22, 23.

S Matt, xvii. 5.

the express command of God, tells them, "The "Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold a

virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall "call his name Immanuel; that is, God with us*.” And again,†"For unto us a child is born; unto "us a son is given; and the government shall be "upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful-Counsellor-The MIGHTY GOD— "The EVERLASTING FATHER-The PRINCE "OF PEACE. Of the increase of HIS Govern"ment and Peace there shall be no END, upon the "‡throne of David, to establish it with JUDGMENT "and with JUSTICE, from henceforth even FOR "EVER." And again, the same prophet, S" Therefore thus saith the LORD GOD, Behold "I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried "stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation: judg"ment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness "to the plummet, and the bail shall sweep away "the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow "the hiding place; and your covenant with death "shall be disannuiled, and your covenant with "bell** shall not stand; when the overflowing

St. Matthew cites this prophecy as descriptive of Chrisť. chap. i. 21, 22, 23. 24.-Isaiah, vii. 14. † Chap. ix. 6.

Throne of David. David is repeatedly used in the prophecies as a type of Christ. Jerem. xxx. 9. Hos. iii. 5

§ Chap. xxviii. 16, 17.

A stone. So the kingdom of Christ is described by Daniel, by "a stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain." Dan. ii. 34, 35.

St. John gives us the same idea of the justice and righteousness of the kingdom of Christ by another figure; He is to "rule all nations with a rod of iron." Rev. xii. 5.

** What can these two covenants be? but the covenants of the atheists with Satan "that death shall be only an eternal sleep," and that there shall be no future punishment for the ungodly blasphemers, no second death.

Scourge shall pass through, then ye (the ungod"ly) *shall be trodden down by it."

Jeremiah foretels the same event: "Behold "the days come, saith THE LORD, that I will "raise up unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment in the earth. In his days Judah shall "be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this "is the name whereby he shall be called-The "Lord our righteousness."

To the same effect is Ezekiel in divers places. I need not cite but one: " And I will set up "one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, "even my servant David: he shall feed them, "and he shall be their shepherd; and I, the Lord, "will be their God, and my servant David a "PRINCE among them. I the Lord have spoken "it, &c.; and I will make a new covenant of ( "peace with them, &c."

Nor are the lesser prophets silent, in respect to this great event. To quote the words of all of them would extend the proof to an unnecessary length. I shall therefore content myself at present with a reference to many of them, and take the liberty of earnestly recommending them to the serious and solemn contemplation, not only of the pious Christian, but

Trodden down by it. St. Paul, speaking of the state of the wicked when Christ shall come to reign, expresses the same idea: "For, when they (the wicked) shall say, Peace and safety, then "sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail on a woinan "with child, and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. v. 3.

Chap. xxiii. 5, 6.
Chap. xxxiv. 23, 24, 25.
VOL. ii.

See also chap. xxxiii 14, 15, 16:

N

to the unbelievers, under a firm persuasion that the former will find great cause of joy and comfort, and the other of repentance and amendment; inasmuch as the great purpose of the coming and reign of Christ is to pun. ish the wicked, and to save the righteous for ever. But, at the same time, I shall extract from the works of two of these prophets such parts of them as shall be amply sufficient to prove, that the coming of the kingdom, and power, and dominion of Christ, is more frequently, more explicitly foretold, than any other event whatever*.

The mind of the prophet Zechariah is so full, so deeply impressed with the idea of this dreadful and yet blessed event, that he employs his whole book of fourteen chapters upon the subject. He represents the church of Christ under the figure of Jerusalem, once the holy city of God's chosen people. He reminds it of its manifold transgressions; exhorts it to repent and to return to God: foretels the judgments of God upon it, and its final purification through those judgments; and gives general hints of its restoration and peace through Jesus Christ, in his first eight chapters. In the ninth chapter, verse 9, 10, &c. upon receiving the revelation of the first coming of Christ to teach fallen man his duty and obedience to God, to

*See Hosea, ii. 14, to the end of the Chapter; "xiv. per. totum. Joel, iii. 18, &c. Amos, ix. per totum. Obadiah, ver. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Micah, iv. per totum. Zephaniah, iii. 14, to the end. Haggai, ii. 22, 23. Zechariah, per totum.