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to come to pass in the days of the Messiah, and he referred to the prediction now under consideration. "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you; and it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people," Acts, 3: 22, 23. In like manner did the martyr Stephen apply it to Jesus Christ, Acts, 7: 37. And there can be no doubt that, in direct reference to this prophecy, the voice from heaven, at the baptism of Jesus, and particularly afterward, at his transfiguration, in the presence of Moses and Elijah, said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Matt. 3 : 17. and 17: 5.

§ 7. 2. This is further evident from the striking similarity between Jesus Christ and Moses. This is a subject which, of itself, would furnish most pleasing, instructive, and edifying material, sufficient to fill several letters. Many eminent divines have treated it in a masterly manner; but perhaps none has succeeded better than Dr. Jortin, to whom I am indebted for the following abridgment: "Moses was preserved in his infancy from the wrath of king Pharaoh, so was Christ from the wrath of Herod; Moses fled from his country, Christ fled into Egypt; Moses returned by the advice of an angel, so did Christ; Moses refused to be an heir to a king, Christ refused to be made a king; Moses was learned in all wisdom, Christ grew in wisdom and stature; Moses contended with magicians and conquered them, Christ contended with devils and overthrew them all. Moses was a lawgiver, a prophet, a worker of miracles, and a king; Christ was all this in a superior degree" (and Priest after the order of Melchizedeck;) "Moses brought dark. ness over all the land, Christ's death on the cross brought darkness over Judea; the darkness on Egypt was followed with the destruction of the first-born, Christ's darkness was

followed by the destruction of the Jews by Titus Vespasian; Moses foretold the calamities of the Jews, Christ foretold the dreadful siege and ruin of Jerusalem; the Spirit in Moses was put on the seventy elders, the Spirit of Christ was poured on the twelve apostles and the seventy disciples; Moses was victorious over kings and nations of the world, Christ has been victorious over kings and nations of the world by his glorious Gospel; Moses conquered Amalek by holding up his hands, Christ conquers Satan and sinners by his intercession in heaven; Moses turned away the wrath of God from the provoking Israelites, Christ turns away the wrath of God from all the millions of his people by his death and his prayers; Moses ratified a covenant between God and the Israelites by blood sprinkled on the people, Christ ratifies the covenant of grace by shedding his own blood, as the blood of God, Acts, 20: 28; Moses instituted the passover, Christ instituted the Lord's supper; Moses lifted up the serpent to cure the stung Israelites, Christ was lifted up on the cross to cure our souls, stung and poisoned with sin; the affection of Moses to the people was repaid with ingratitude, we have all been ungrateful to Jesus Christ; Moses was ill-used by his own family, Christ's own near relations did not believe on him; Moses had a wicked and perverse people to deal with for forty years, Christ had a people of the most perverse and wicked dispositions; Moses was very meek above all men, Christ was infinitely meeker than Moses, and all the meekest men in the world; the people could not go into the land of Canaan till Moses was dead, not a soul could ever be admitted to enter heaven but on the foundation of the death of Christ, who hath opened the kingdom of heaven, by his atoning blood, for all believers; Moses died on account of the people's rebellion, Christ died for the sins of his people; Moses went up to die on Mount Nebo, Christ went up to die on Mount Calvary; Moses died in the vigor of his age, Christ died in the flower and glory of his manhood; Moses

never felt sickness or decay, Christ's body had no seeds of death; Moses was buried and no man saw his body, the unbelieving Jews did not deserve to see the body of Christ after his resurrection; Moses before his death promised another prophet, Christ before his death promised another comforter, even the eternal Spirit, in all the glory of his mission and divine influence in the church to the end of the world."

Who can read this amazing and beautiful resemblance between Moses and Christ, and not be struck with astonishment and delight? A fruitful imagination may find out a likeness where there is none; but as the Doctor concludes, "Is this similitude and correspondence, in so many things, between Moses and Christ, the effect of mere chance? Let us search all the records of universal history, and see if we can find a man who was so like to Moses as Christ was, and so like to Christ as Moses was. If we cannot find such an one, then have we found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, who is over all, blessed for ever. Amen.

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§ 8. 3. Another proof that Jesus Christ is the prophet predicted by Moses, arises from the execution of the threatening in that prediction: "Whosoever will not hearken words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him," i. e. I will punish him for it; and which the apostle expresses by a "being destroyed from among the people," Acts, 3: 23. And Maimonides in Yesod Hattorah, c. 9. sec. 4. says, "that such a person is guilty of death by the hands of heaven. Surely, my brother, never was there a more remarkable fulfillment of prophecy than this, in the destruction of millions of our dear people, and the dispersion of the whole nation, not so much for their heinous crime of crucifying the Lord of glory, as for their refusing to obey his Gospel, and acknowledging him as the Messiah, the prophet, like unto Moses, after his resurrection. O, that our beloved brethren and kinsmen would

seriously consider this part of the subject. O that they would trace the unparalleled sufferings which they have been called to endure, for so long and unprecedented duration, to the true cause! I cannot but believe that they would soon be convinced that the only and true cause of it is stated by the apostle, viz. "For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: For the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." 1 Thess. 2: 14-16. The Lord Jesus Christ himself expressly foretold, and plainly predicted the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ruin of the commonwealth of our nation, as a punishment for rejecting him. That our people have suffered these national calamities, is attested by one of our own historians, and corroborated by other writers. Josephus has described the commencement, progress, and conclusion of that destructive war, which ended in the final overthrow of that renowned city, wherein God had chosen to put his name and manifest his glory.

Does it not strike you, dear Benjamin, with astonishment, that when Senacherib came with a mighty army against Hezekiah, God declared that he would defend Jerusalem against all the power of the enemy; and to fulfill his promise, an angel slew, in one night, a hundred and four score and five thousand of the Assyrians, and thereby forced the assailants to a precipitate retreat out of the country. Isa. 37:36. But when the Roman general led his legions into Judea, no such protection was afforded. On the contrary, the country was wasted, the city was encompassed by a multitude of armed men, who carried on the siege with the greatest vigor, and drove the besieged to the greatest extremities. The inhabitants, instead of uniting their strength in defence of the place, were unhappily rent into factions,

and opposed one to another. These waged an intestine war within the walls, which were constantly assaulted by the foe without. Thus the city was divided against itself, and every man's sword turned against his fellow. To complete the distress, the famine prevailed to so great a degree that the tender mother killed, roasted, and ate her own infant. See Josephus, B. vii. ch. 8. Deut. 28:57. Multitudes of people were thus consumed by the sword and by hunger; and after all, Jerusalem, God's chosen city, was taken by stormthe holy temple burned with fire; and after a most terrible slaughter, our whole nation was scattered abroad, and condemned, like Cain, to wander as fugitives and vagabonds in the earth. Here let us pause a moment, my dear Benjamin, and ask, wherefore hath the Lord thus done unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? why hath he given up his people to be destroyed by the sword and by the famine? He protected them against the tyranny of Pharaoh, and preserved them in their passage through the Red Sea, where the Egyptian army was drowned. By a glorious cloud he conducted them through the pathless desert, and in that barren land he fed them with angels' food; the nations of Canaan he overthrew before them, and granted them privileges which no other people under heaven enjoyed. But now-O my heart weeps within me— now this very people are banished from the land of promise, exposed to numerous hardships, and live in a degraded state of exile, which has lasted more than seventeen hundred years, and none can tell the end.

This amazing change in the condition of our people cannot fail to strike every attentive mind, for they are fallen from the greatest height of national prosperity to the greatest depth of national adversity. Yet surely God hath not done it without cause. All that he hath done in afflicting our people, when he delivered them into the hand of the Chaldeans, who burned Jerusalem with fire, and carried the people into captivity, a plain and satisfactory reason was

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