the earth and the ocean present to us but their surface; and the heavens oppose to the eager eye a vault of crystal, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." We feel ourselves hedged in, fettered, confined on every side. And our condition in this respect is that of every created, limited being. Open prospect after prospect; expand system upon system; add faculty to faculty; yet the prospect is bounded at length. Suns and worlds are capable of being numbered, and there is a height and depth still beyond, which the understanding of an angel cannot fathom. quired: and they spoiled the Egyptians." Israel came into Egypt few in number, weak and indigent; but they go out from the land of their oppression greatly increased, mighty and formidable; laden with the spoils of their cruel oppressors, the well earned reward of the labours of many years, and of much sorrow. It is repeatedly remarked, that the prediction relating to the deliverance of God's people was fulfilled to a single day. Of this we have a confirmation in the preceding chapter, and the 41st verse; "And it came to pass, at the end of the four hundred and There is only ONE Being whose duration thirty years, even the self-same day, it came is immeasurable-whose space is unconfined to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went -whose power is uncontrolled-whose un- out of the land of Egypt." Again, at the derstanding is infinite. With JEHOVAH "a 51st verse; "And it came to pass, the selfthousand years are as one day, and one day same day, that the LORD did bring the chil as a thousand years." He alone can "de- dren of Israel out of the land of Egypt by clare the end from the beginning, and from their armies." And yet, on comparing numancient times the things that are not yet bers in the prediction and the history of its done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I accomplishment, we find a difference of thirwill do all my pleasure."* HE is "above all, ty years. The seventy interpreters were and through all, and in all!" An impene- aware of this difficulty, and have obviated it trable veil hides futurity from every created by thus paraphrasing the passage in Exodus, eye; but the Spirit of prophesy is pleased"The sojourning of the children of Israel in sometimes to remove it. Abraham saw the the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, Redeemer's day afar off, and rejoiced. He was four hundred and thirty years." To saw in prophetic vision the servitude, the justify which computation we need but to affliction, and the deliverance of his posterity, observe, that Moses in the four hundred and at the distance of four hundred years. To thirty years, includes all the time that Abramortal man, whose longest span of existence ham had passed in Canaan, previous to the is diminished to much under a century, four birth of Isaac. And a learned prelate of our hundred years have something like the ap-own country, Archbishop Usher, in his valupearance of an eternity; but before God, time and space are contracted to a point, to a moment. With him, that which is to be done is already done. Men shape events according to their fancy, their fears, their wishes, or their hopes. "But the counsel of the Lord it shall stand, and he fulfilleth all his pleasure." What was the word of the Lord to Abraham? "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance." What was the doing of the Lord in conformity to that word? "And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the first-born of cattle." "And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they re† Gen. xv. 13, 14. * Isa. xlvi. 10. Thus able chronology, has proved this calculation In order to preserve to all generations the memory of a period so singular and so important in their history, the ordinance of the passover was to be honoured with an annual Jacob was born to Isaac when he was sixty years old; and at the time he went down to Egypt, according dred and thirty; which, added to the twenty-five years to HIS OWN DECLARATION to Pharaoh, he was one hunof Abraham's pilgrimage, from his leaving Ur of the Chaldees to the birth of Isaac, make two hundred and fifteen. He and his posterity continued in Egypt a like period of two hundred and fifteen years. So that it is plain Moses reckoned in the whole sum of four hundred his posterity, from his first leaving his kindred and father's house in Mesopotamia down to their triumphant exit from Egypt, and their setting out on the conquest of Canaan, whose iniquity though not before, was now full. and thirty years, all the pilgrimages of Abraham and celebration; and, as positive and arbitrary | thence? The whole number which accom institutions derive all their value and use from a right understanding of their meaning, and the design of their author, express words are put into the mouths of parents and heads of families for the instruction of generations to come, in the nature and reason of this solemn service. "And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done, because of that which the LORD did unto me, when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto thee, upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee, in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of beasts: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the first-born of my children I redeem." Hence it appears that, besides this great annual sacrifice, a law was enacted at this time, though it was not to be enforced until they should be put in possession of the promised land, that in grateful remembrance of God's passing over their first-born when he destroyed those of Egypt, the first-born of the human species, and also of the brute creation, through every age, should be dedicated and set apart as a sacred property. The great Legislator was pleased afterwards, by a particular injunction, to appropriate to himself one whole tribe out of the twelve, in room of the first-born out of every tribe, to minister unto him in holy things; and in this ordinance the church of God, at that early period, both exhibited and enjoyed an emblematical representation of the evangelical priesthood; not vested in and exclusively belonging to a particular description of men, but the common character and dignity of all christians; a generation chosen of GoD, in Christ, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people-that they should show forth the praises of Him, who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light." And they are introduced before the throne, with this song of praise in their mouths," Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."* Is it not worth while to compare, seeing the Spirit of God has thought it meet to transmit to us the very numbers, the entire state of Israel, as it were, at the time of its descent into Egypt, and at its departure * Rev. i. 5, 6. panied Jacob from Canaan, when driven thence by the famine, himself included, was sixty-six; which added to the family of Joseph already in Egypt, consisting of himself, Asenath, the daughter of the priest of On, adopted by marriage into the family of Abraham, and their two sons, the amount is seventy, when they left that country. In a period of little more than two hundred years, they are increased to the amazing sum of six hundred thousand men of military age, without reckoning females, children of both sexes under twenty, and old men of sixty and upward: for that was the age of superannuation among this people. Taking therefore the calculation so low as four of all the other descriptions for one of the military age, that is, males from twenty to sixty, the whole number of the descendants of Abraham that left Egypt, must have been at least three millions. So that, dividing the whole time of their sojourning there into periods of twenty years, it appears that their number was multiplied nearly three times every twenty years. Now, if we consider, that the most rapid state of population in the ordinary course of nature, and in circumstances the most favourable to it, is a doubling the number of inhabitants every twenty years; and that only in the earlier ages of a people or colony; what must we think of this amazing increase in circumstances the most unfavourable: in a people cooped up in a narrow district, and that district not their own, but the property of a nation much more powerful than themselves; a people among whom marriage was grievously discouraged by the want of liberty, by hard and oppressive labour, by subjection to the despotism of a foreign prince, by penal edicts which doomed all their male children to death, and by which doubtless, multitudes perished, together with their natural increase? The multiplication of Israel in a proportion so great, in a progress so rapid, in a situation so unfriendly will be in reality found a miracle, though less striking to a superficial observation, being gradually and imperceptibly performed, upon closer attention, a prodigy equal or superior to any that were wrought in immediately effecting their enfranchisement. And this leads us to the grateful acknowledgment of God's wise and gracious providence, in its ordinary operations and effects. What is daily preservation but creation-one omnific "LET THERE BE," daily, every instant repeated? What is the progress of vegetation, of life and reason, but the continual interposition of the great Source of all being, life and intelligence? What is dissolution and death, but the supporting, vivifying pow er of God withdrawn from the body which is just now inhabited ? This vast host was accompanied with what Moses calls a mixed multitude. This is sup- | diffidence of another to be countenanced and posed to have been made up of the produce of marriages between Israelites and Egyptians; of Egyptians, who, from the miracles which they had seen wrought in favour of Israel, had been determined to follow the fortunes of that people; and of neighbours who, in the ordinary intercourse of mankind, might be brought into contact with them, and who, through fear, interest, or curiosity, might be induced to follow their camp. encouraged; care was to be exercised about those who were either unable or unwilling to exercise any about themselves. What a charge then was that of Moses and Aaron! bearing on their shoulders the burden of such an assembly; a vast multitude agitated with the ordinary passions of human nature; unarmed, unaccustomed to discipline, untractable; one moment elated with extravagant hopes, the next depressed with unreasonable fears. The wisdom of a Moses had been unequal to the task, unsupported by the Wisdom which sees all things at one view, and the Power which "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." There is a happy disposition in all the evils to which our nature and condition are subject, to find out and to apply their own remedy. Necessity always sets invention to work. Invention puts the machine in motion; and once in motion, every wheel keeps its place, exerts its power, performs its office. But here the mighty machine, prepared in all its parts according to the plan of infinite wisdom, put together and regulated by the hand of almighty power, and conducted by unchangeable truth and faithfulness, could not vary its motion, could not deviate from its design: and the passage of perhaps four millions of people, with their immense possessions of flocks and herds, and other property, from Egypt to Canaan, will appear one of those singular phenomena in history, which no principles of human conduct, no natural and ordinary concurrence of events, are able to explain: and which must finally be resolved into a wisdom and power preternatural and divine. Accordingly, we find Providence taking immediately the charge of them; but not in the usual way, not by forming a regular discipline, and raising up commanders and magistrates of unusual address and ability, but declaring by sensible tokens, which were seen, read, and understood of all, "I am the Leader and Commander of my people." Man, with his usual ignorance and haste, would have been for conducting this mighty army directly to Canaan. And no doubt the same Almighty arm which had thus asserted them into liberty, could have led them straight forward to conquest. But, in studying the history of the divine conduct as ordering and governing the affairs of men, we find it is composed partly of the interpositions of Heaven, and partly of the exertions of men. It is not all miracle; that were to encourage eternal indolence and stupidity in rational beings, formed after the image of God, and to reduce men to mere passive clods of earth; nor is it all, on the other hand, the effect of human skill, industry, and diligence; for that were to resign the government of the world to the frail and the foolish; that were to weaken the power of religion, which is the life, the joy, the guide, the support of the universe. But we discover divine interposition, to a certain degree, so as to inspire a reasonable confidence in and dependence upon God; and we discern the exertions of men crowned with success through the blessing of Heaven upon them, and this enforcing the necessity of bringing out and exercising the powers and faculties of our intellectual nature. Israel is delivered from Egypt at once, but is introduced into Canaan by degrees. The former, an act of sovereign power, unmixed with, independent upon human efforts; the latter, the less perceptible operation of Omnipotence, blending itself with, subduing, directing, and promoting the designs and endeavours of reasonable beings, who had a great object in view, and a clear rule to walk by. Thus, in a case of universal importance, the justification and adoption of the sinner, are acts of free, sovereign grace, whereby sin is forgiven, and the right and privileges of sons conferred; whereas, sanc-moving of the bones of Joseph. That truly tification is the gradual work of the Spirit, supporting us by the way, overcoming our enemies by little and little, and making us "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." A great multitude of people is always an object of serious attention, and of deep anxiety. Many mouths were to be fed, many humours to be studied, many talents to be employed. Some were to be gained by love, others to be governed by fear; the impetuosity of one was to be repressed, the timidity and But before we proceed to the consideration of this wonderful symbol of the divine presence, we must attend our author, and take notice of a tender and touching circumstance in the departure from Egypt, namely, the re great man had been the saviour of his father's house when he was alive, and was now the hope of Israel after he was dead. In all their afflictions, his precious dust had been to them the pledge of deliverance; and now, when that deliverance is come, they bear it with thern to the land promised to their forefathers, for burial. Thus respectable and useful, in life and in death, are the wise and the good; thus anxious ought we to be to promote the best interests of mankind, not only while we are yet with them; but to the eighteenth verse of the thirtieth chapter, armed. But the term in the original is so equivocal, and the learned attempts to determine its meaning are so unsuccessful, that we remain still in the dark about its true meaning. The presumption certainly is, that the Israelites were not armed. What had a nation of shepherds, living by sufferance in a foreign land, to do with arms? Would the policy of Egypt have permitted it? But Moses, the most accurate of historians, takes care to point out a circumstance which furnishes the first idea of putting arms into the hands of Israel. After the waves of the Red Sea had swallowed up the Egyptian army, their dead bodies with their arms were miraculously cast on shore, and provided Israel with armour from their spoils. leave something behind us that may benefit] ters, indeed, render the word harnessed, in and instruct after we are seen and heard no more. Christians, we carry with us, as our hope in this wilderness, not the bones of a departed deliverer, but the memory of a risen Saviour. The sacred pledge of our final redemption is deposited, not in the coffin, but in this precious record-but in the history of facts well known and firmly believed by youbut in many great and precious promises given unto you. "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again; even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." The ashes of the patriarch Joseph could not rest in the tomb till Israel came to the possession of their promised inheritance; so the Spirit and providence of the great Redeemer are in perpetual motion and exercise, till he shall have gathered into one all his redeemed unto himself; till the youngest of his sons, the meanest of his daughters, being glorified, shall take possession of their purchased inheritance, "the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world." Thus then Israel takes his departure; thus joyfully, thus triumphantly, thus increased; and "not one sickly or feeble among them;" a wonder not inferior to any of the rest. But all" is of the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." The plain of Rameses was the first great rendezvous of the Lord's host. They had built, as part of their task work, a city of that name, at the command of Pharaoh. But it was also the name of a region of Egypt elsewhere called Goshen; the same which Joseph chose for the reception of his aged parent; because being situated nearest to Canaan, it diminished the length and fatigue of his journey, and being a grassy country, suited his family's employment, that of shepherds. The nearness to Canaan might accordingly be now again considered as a favourable circumstance to the return of Israel thitherward. If we may credit Philo, the two countries were not above three days' journey distant the one from the other. And certain it is that the patriarchs, encumbered with a convoy laden with corn, easily performed a journey to a more distant part of Egypt, and back again, in the course of not many weeks at most. Moses might therefore have, without much difficulty, conducted the people of his charge to the place of their destination in a very small space of time. But was the distance of place the only difficulty which they had to encounter? How could men inured to slavery, men just escaped from the rod of a tyrannical oppressor, have the courage to meet the prowess and discipline of the warlike nations of Canaan; unprovided with arms for the field, and with military engines for the attack of fortified towns, had they been bold enough to attempt to take possession by force. Some interpre It is evident that God intended to form the courage and discipline of his people in the wilderness; before he tried these upon the nations whom they were destined to subdue. Nay, further, it was evidently his design to settle their whole civil and religious polity, while they were yet in an erratic state, that when they came to Canaan there might be nothing to do but to take possession, and to execute the laws which they had already received. And alas, what shall we say? This swarm of people, numerous as the sand upon the sea-shore, with the exception of one or two, and Moses their leader among the rest, thus pompously and powerfully saved, were saved from Egypt, but to die in the wilderness. Men die, but the church lives; and the church is the care of God. "Thy way O God, is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron."* 66 Instead then of marching straight northward, in the direction of Canaan, their course is bent eastward, to the great wilderness which bounds Egypt and Arabia Petræa: God himself leading the way, in a most wonderful display of his glorious presence and power, described in the words which I read at the opening of the Lecture. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them, by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." In this, GoD spake at once to the understanding and to the senses. Could any Israelite doubt that the Lord was there? He had but to open his eyes, whether it were by day or by night, and lo, a thick cloud obscuring the brightness of the one, or a flaming fire dispelling the shades of the other, proclaimed † Exod. xiii. 20-22. Psalm lxxvii. 19. the dread presence of JEHOVAH. Could any one call in question his kindness, when he saw darkness become a guide, and fire a protector? Durst any one presume to approach too nigh, when dimness impenetrable, and light inaccessible, alternately guarded his pavilion? Was it possible for any heart to fear, when the Most Mighty thus declared, in language more emphatical than can be conveyed by words "Lo, I am for you! Who is he that can, that dare to be against you?" be sensible of our own darkness is to be partakers of his marvellous light. All that the brightest noon of human reason can discover is, that it is ignorance and folly, when placed in comparison with the wisdom of GOD. Might not this wonderful pillar prefigure to the ancient church the person and office of the Redeemer of the world? Behold the divine essence wrapped up in, and closely united to a veil of flesh and blood. Behold Deity raising our nature to incorruptibility and glory "in CHRIST, the first-fruits; and afterwards in all that are Christ's at his coming." Do we not perceive in it, humanity bringing down the divine nature to our bearing and perception: "the only begotten. Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, declaring him to us." "The word made flesh" instructing the ignorant, cheering the disconsolate, directing the wanderer, refreshing the weary; guiding our waking, guarding our sleeping moments; "a partaker of our flesh and blood, that he may be a merciful High-Priest :" declared the Son of GOD with power; men adoring and submitting; the powers of hell broken and discomfited: the triumph of heaven complete. "The Lord our God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."* The appearances of God are suited to the circumstances of his people. Cloud by night would have been to increase the horror, and to multiply the unwholesome damps of that season. Fire by day would have been adding fuel to a flame, already intensely hot, in a burning climate and parched soil. But tempered, adapted, distributed, according to wisdom not capable of error, the peculiar inconvenience of each season is relieved; and the ills of nature are remedied by the dispensations of grace. The cloudy fiery pillar is a manifestation of Deity, suited to a wilderness state. In heaven, a God of love is light, without "any darkness at all." In hell a God of implacable wrath is perpetual darkness, without one ray of light. On earth, a God of justice and mercy is darkness and light, in successive order and perfect harmo-"Fear not, O Israel, the Lord is thy keeper: ny. In heaven, he is a flame that irradiates, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. cheers, and quickens; in hell, a fire still con- The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the suming, never to be extinguished; on earth, moon by night. The Lord shall preserve fire in a cloud, mercy flowing in a spacious thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy soul. channel, judgment restrained. Men can The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and only discover that of God which he is pleased thy coming in, from this time forth, and even to reveal to them. Whether he is pleased for evermore."t to turn his dark or bright side to us, we are stationed equally at a distance from him. To, * Psalm lxxxiv. 11. † Psalm cxxi. 5-8. HISTORY OF MOSES. LECTURE XLVI. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.-EXODUS xiv. 21, 22. IN the little benefits which men confer | the matter of that kindness shown me, and upon each other, it generally happens that the affectionate disposition which prompted some untoward circumstance insinuates itself, and occasions, to one of the parties at least, mortification, disappointment, or disgust; for nothing human is perfect. A gracious action is frequently resented as an injury, from the ungracious manner in which it is performed. I am charmed with both it; but alas, it arrived an hour too late! Another prevented my wishes; and I prized not the blessing, because I was not instructed in its value by feeling the want of it. This favour done me is very great; but it is not precisely the thing I looked for; or, it is so clogged with some unpleasant condition, |