morning light would advance with glowing splendour unto the perfect day. Moses, not only in what he wrote, but in what he was and acted, illustriously displayed the grace of God in the redemption of the world. Not only did he testify concerning the great Deliverer; but his own person, his character, his offices, were a prefiguration of Him who was to come; to whom all the prophets gave witness. Under the direction of the spirit of prophecy, Moses raised the expectation of mankind to the appearance of a prophet, like unto himself, but far superior, who should communicate unto them the whole counsel of God, whom they were to hear in all things; and it should "come to pass that every soul who would not hear Him, should be destroyed from among the people." Acts iii. 23. The proper character of a prophet, is to communicate the Divine will; for though, under the Gospel dispensation, this is written on the mind of every man, so that in truth every man is a law, is a prophet to himself; yet these characters are liable to be effaced by education, example, and superstition. Vicious propensities obliterate this writing; habit and the commerce of the world harden the heart, and lull the conscience asleep. Hence the continued necessity of a prophet, of a minister, of a message from heaven, to call men back to God, to repablish the original law, and to restore its obliterated characters. There is still wanting the general and leading idea of the history of Moses, which is the resemblance of the type to the person typified; we shall therefore subjoin the following analogy. : But the greatest similitude was in their being law givers, which no prophet was, besides Moses and Christ. Moses had a very perverse and wicked generation committed to his care; he did his utmost to make the people obedient, and to save them from ruin, but in vain in the space of forty years they all fell in the wilderness, except two. Christ also was given to a generation not less wicked and perverse; his instructions were lost upon them, and, in about the same space after they had rejected Him, they were destroyed. Search the records of universal history," says Jortin," and see if we can find a man who is so like to Moses, as Christ was; and so like to Christ, as Moses was. If we cannot find such a one, then we have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph." CHAPTER XXV. ON THE PENTATEUCH. BEFORE we proceed to the predictions of Moses, we shall lay before our readers the confirmation of the authority of the Pentateuch, which has been derived from modern writings. The treasures of oriental learning, which, of late years, have been collected with so much industry, and explained with so much judg. ment, supply abundance of incontrovertible evidence, for the existence of opinions in early ages of the world, which perfectly agree with leading articles of our faith, as well as with the principal events of Moses's history. We find in Maurice's history and antiquities of India, that the names which are assigned by Moses to eastern countries and cities, as derived to them immediately from the patriarchs, their original founders, are, for the most part, the very names by which they were anciently known, over all the east: ma 1 |