in the meanwhile, designing to advance, and promoting to the dignity of the priesthood? Many things have been alleged in extenuation of his fault, though nothing can amount to a full vindication of his conduct. The conciseness of the sacred history, it has been said, may have suppressed some of the more favourable circumstances, and exhibited only a general view of the subject. Some of the Rabbins* pretend that his colleague in office, Hur, had lately been massacred in a popular commotion for daring to resist the prevailing frenzy; and that Aaron complied, through fear of similar treatment, after having thus deprecated the divine displeasure; "O Lord, I look up to thee, who knowest the hearts of men, and who dwellest in the heavens: Thou art witness that I act thus contrary to my own will. Lay it not to my charge.' Others explain away great part of the criminality, both of Aaron and of the people, by alleging that all they demanded, and all he gave them, was an external object, where they might deposit the homage which they wished to render to the Supreme God; and thus they interpret the request of the people, "Make us a sensible object of divine worship, which may always be before our eyes, and supply the place of God, when we shall be told of all the wonders he wrought for us in Egypt." And a learned prelate‡ of our own country labours to prove, that Aaron presented only a hieroglyphic of the strength and power of the Deity, and he produces a few passages from ancient authors to prove, that the ox was an emblem of royal and sovereign authority, and the horns, in particular, a common and well known emblem of strength. A fourth excuse has been pleaded in behalf of Aaron, founded on the letter of the sacred text. He feigned readiness to comply, according to these apologists, in hope that the demand of the golden ornaments for the fabrication of the idol, acting upon their love of finery, or of wealth, might bring them to a stand, and break their resolution. But why set up an elaborate defence for a man who stands condemned by his own brother, who had the best means of information; and for one who himself had nothing, or worse than nothing, to produce in his own behalf, when charged by Moses with his fault? These spoils of the Egyptians had not been obtained in the most honourable manner. Israel "borrowed and paid not again;" and it proves a dreadful snare to them. If they had not carried off the gold, they might perhaps have kept clear of the gods of Egypt. But ill-gotten wealth never was and never can be a blessing; and unwarrantable devices In Schemoth Rabba, Sect. xli. fol. 156. †R. Juda, in Lib. Cozri. Part 1. Sect. xcvii. fol. 47. Į Patrick, Bishop of Ely, on Exod. xxxii. 4, p. 635. August. Tom. IV. Quæst. xli. in Exod. page 118: and Theodoret, Tom. 1. in Exod. Quæst. Ixvi. page 3. sooner or later come to entangle the feet of those who use them. Mark, how one rapacious domineering passion swallows up many others. "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire!" And yet behold the daughters of Israel cheerfully sacrificing the darling embellishments of their persons to a mistaken principle of religion! If there be a passion more violent than another, it is the love of gold in the heart of a Hebrew; but we see one more violent than even that, the delirium of idolatrous superstition. It is dangerous to have the patterns of evil before our eyes. We soon learn to bear with what we see frequently; we are insensibly led to approve what we have learned to suffer without being shocked; and what we heartily approve we are not far from adopting. Israel has sustained greater injuries in Egypt than we are at first aware of, and they have been more deeply hurt in their minds than in their persons. The stripes of an Egyptian taskmaster are healed by the lenient hand of time: but the wounds inflicted by the impure rites of Egyptian idols, are still festering at the heart, and threaten death. Aaron is too eager and intent upon his shameful work, to escape the suspicion of being hearty in it." And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a gravingtool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."* All that industry, all that art could do, is employed to confer lustre and value on this worthless object; and yet he would have it believed, when he is called to account, that the form and fashion of the idol was the effect of accident, not of design: "I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf."t What a pitiful figure does ingenious, industrious wickedness make, when it stands exposed, convicted, self-condemned! But the framing and erecting of this idol is not the whole extent of Aaron's criminality. I am still more shocked at beholding an attempt to blend with its profane worship, the sacred day, the sacred ceremonies and services of the true God. "And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord." What concord hath Christ with Belial? An attempt to form such an union as this, is more grossly insulting than even avowed neglect or opposition. freezes the blood to observe a repetition of the same august ceremonies which were lately employed in the mount, for confirming the grand alliance between the great Jehovah and his people, in the settling of this strange league between Israel and a bauble of their own invention. 66 They rose up It 66 early," as men intent upon their purpose; the altar is reared, the sacrifice is offered up, the peace-offering is provided, the feast of friendship is prepared and eaten. They offered burnt-offerings, and brought peaceofferings and the people sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play." These last words are supposed by some commentators of note to be descriptive of a scene of extreme lewdness and debauchery. And certain it is, that one of the principal instruments of propagating and supporting idolatry, was the attraction of beauty and wantonness, vilely prostituted to decoy strangers into the homage of the impure and worthless deity of the place. That people must be in a dreadful state indeed, among whom religion, the foundation of good morals, the guard of virtue, is employed as a minister to unhallowed pleasure, and a handmaid to vice. The prevalence of evil practices is a lamentable thing, but the establishment of wrong principles is much worse. The wholesomest stream may be accidentally tainted and polluted, and work itself pure again; but if the fountain be poisonous, nothing but death can flow from it. "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." We are now conveyed from this awful scene of pollution in the valley, to a much more awful scene of meditated vengeance on the mount. While Moses was solacing himself in the pleasing prospect of being soon despatched to the people of his charge with messages of love; while he was rejoicing in the important transaction so lately past, confident that all was now settled between God and his people; the joy of this exalted communication is suddenly interrupted by intelligence of a new, unprovoked, and unexpected revolt. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down: for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." An offended God refuses any longer to acknowledge as his, a generation of wretches who had rendered themselves so entirely unworthy of his slightest regard. Justice awakes to a recapitulation of the benefits which they had received and the offences which they had committed, and concludes with a resolution totally to consume them. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." In the dialogue which passed upon this Occasion, some of the most interesting objects + * Exod. xxxii. 6. † James i. 15. Exod. xxxii. 7, 8. that can be contemplated present themselves to our view. The condescension of divine friendship: As God would not "hide from Abraham the thing which he was about to do;" would take no step towards the destruction of Sodom till that friend of God had been fully heard in its behalf; and could do nothing till Lot was departed; so the same God, rich in mercy, will not arise to vengeance against Israel, till Moses has been consulted and has acquiesced in the sentence. O the wonderful power of faith and prayer! Moses is represented as possessing a constraining power over omnipotence, the anger of Jehovah refuses to burn till his permission is obtained. O the wonderful grace and condescension of the most high God! Thus is justice ever tempered with mercy: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not."* A proposal is made to Moses, (and what is too hard for the Lord to perform?) which a selfish heart would eagerly have grasped at; "I will make of thee," says God, "a great nation." But selfishness in this truly great man was controlled by much nobler and more generous principles; zeal for the honour of God, and compassion for a devoted people. The intercessory address of Moses is a masterpiece of eloquence, and discovers a soul superior to all regards, but such as are worthy of a prophet, a hero, a patriot, and what is superior to all, the friend of God. "And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with a mighty hand. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever." The holy man of God is concerned not only that the Judge of all the earth should do right, but that the divine conduct should stand vindicated in the eyes of the heathen. He proposes to himself the same end which Jehovah himself has in view in all that he does-the glory of his great name. He nobly prefers the fulfilling of the ancient covenant with his venerable ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to the establishment of a new covenant with himself and his seed. He is willing to decrease, willing that his family continue obscure, that his head be laid low, provided the Lord be magnified, and Israel saved. This is a greatness † Exodus xxxii. 11-13. *Lam. iii. 22. every imagination of the thoughts of his heart how it is only evil continually." Think not, however, O man, that thou art surveying a distant prospect, or travelling through a foreign land. Think not that these Israelites are sinners above all the men of the earth. When thou hast thoroughly searched and known thyself, no account of human frailty will appear exaggerated. They framed and worshipped a golden image. How many myriads hourly bend the knee to the same idol, changed only a little in form! See the temple of mammon, how it is crowded. His votaries, see how much in earnest they are in their devotions. Early and late the incense ascends. Neither Jewish nor Christian sabbath interrupts their attendance or cools their ardour; while truth, and justice, and mer of mind which religion alone could inspire. | of man, how great it is in the earth; and Like a true son of Israel, he wrestles and makes supplication; and as a prince he too has power with God, and prevails, if not to prevent every expression of displeasure, at least to prevent the execution of the general doom. Having obtained this great point, he descends with haste from the mount, bearing in his hand the most precious work of art that skill ever executed. Who does not shudder at the thought of its having been destroyed? "And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables."* But why should we regret that a piece of curious workmanship, in dumb matter, was destroy-cy, and the love of God are offered a pered? That loss soon might be and soon was repaired. Alas! we behold a more shocking spectacle every day-a race of thoughtless wretches deliberately, presumptuously defacing God's image, destroying his signature, engraved "not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart;" inflicting on themselves a loss never to be repaired, not in a fit of holy zeal, but in a paroxysm of diabolical frenzy. Moses might destroy the tablets, but the spirit of the writing he could not disannul. When all sensible monuments are dissolved, the law maintains its adamantine solidity, its uncontaminated purity, its unpliant steadiness, its unbending dignity. The tablets were written on both sides, within and without. Every fragment therefore had some part of the law and testimony written upon it. Thus, in every particle of the human frame, there are self-evident traces of the finger of God-the understanding, the heart, the conscience, the memory; shivers indeed, mutilated, defaced, but capable of being repaired and united. But I find it impossible to collect into one efficient point of view the sequel of this eventful history, within the limits of one discourse. Here therefore we set up another resting place, and from it take a cursory view of the ground over which we have travelled. I. What a melancholy view presents itself, of the corruption, the degeneracy, and degradation of human nature. Behold a people lost to every noble, generous, manly principle: restrained by no law, awed by no threatening, susceptible of no endearment, influenced by neither shame nor gratitude; boldly overleaping the bounds of reason and religion-and in that people behold "the carnal mind, which is enmity against God: which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Behold "the wickedness Exodus xxxii. 15, 16. petual sacrifice to the insatiate demon, who never says, "it is enough." Nor think that gold is the only deity which men adore. On searching into thy own bosom, some lurking imp, of different form, complexion, and texture will be found; hid in close disguise, unknown indeed of men; but to the eye of God and conscience clearly confessed. Down with it; it is thy dishonour, and threatens thy ruin. II. Rejoice with trembling, while you contemplate the affecting prospect which opens of the severity and mercy of the great God the severity, which by the hand of Levi cut off three thousand of the offenders, in the heat of their offence; which threatened to exterminate the whole race, and which, in "the day of visitation, visited their sin upon them"-the mercy which relented, which pitied and spared the guilty, which listened to the voice of intercession, and accepted the atonement. Thou thyself, O sinner, art a monument of both the one and the other. Thy life is forfeited to justice; thou art daily enduring the punishment of thy transgressions; thou standest continually exposed to severer ills than any thou hast yet felt, and far beyond what fear itself can figure. Yet mercy suffers thee to live; there is hope concerning thee: the glad tidings of salvation are in thine ears; "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!" "Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation!" "Wherefore, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor: it may be" more than "a lengthening of thy tranquillity," it may prevent eternal misery. III. Behold a greater than Moses is here -an Intercessor more compassionate, more earnest, more powerful: “A Prince with God" who ever prevails; a propitiation ever meritorious and successful; "blood that cleanseth 22* from all sin." "If any man sin, we have an IV. Let us look forward to "that grea: advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the and notable day of the Lord," when the law righteous; and he is the propitiation for our which was delivered audibly from Sinai, sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins which Moses with a rash inconsiderate hand of the whole world."* "Who in the days of his could break in pieces, but was unable to flesh, when he had offered up prayers and repair, shall be restored in all its purity and supplications, with strong crying and tears, perfection; shall be engraved on every heart, unto him that was able to save him from and become legible to every eye: when the death, and was heard in that he feared. hidden glory of the legal dispensation shall Though he were a Son, yet learned he obe- be unveiled, and the greater glory of the dience by the things which he suffered and GOSPEL displayed: when the divine image being made perfect, he became the author of shall be again impressed on the soul of man, eternal salvation unto all them that obey in all its beauty and exactness-and, we ourhim." "Therefore we ought to give the selves, degraded and lost as we are, shall more earnest heed to the things which we "be raised together, and made to sit together have heard, lest at any time we should let in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"-and them slip. For if the word spoken by angels" beholding with open face as in a glass, the was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?" * 1 John ii. 1. 2. † Heb. v. 7. 9. Heb. ii. 1-3. 66 glory of the Lord, shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 'Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear, what we shall be; but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." HISTORY OF MOSES. LECTURE LVIII. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.-EXODUS xxxiii. 8-11. blessed mankind by transmitting the history of this sacred friendship to the latest genera tions of the world. We see it still expressed in the same manner; on the part of Moses by humble submission, holy zeal and importunity, and childlike freedom and confidence: on the part of God, by the most unreserved communication of his intentions, the most endearing expressions of affection and good will. GUILT is the parent of fear and suspicion; | same distinguished honour, to that illustrious conscious innocence and integrity inspire son of Abraham who has instructed and confidence and tranquillity. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."* "Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden."+ Moses ascends undaunted to meet the Lord, into the midst of tempest and fire. Behold the height of heaven, how great it is! What so distant as the Creator and a fallen creature! But lo, the distance is done away; and what is so intimately near as a God reconciled, and a fallen creature restored! Jehovah descending in mercy and grace; the soul arising, upborne on the wings of faith and love, must meet and unite, whether on the mount or in the tabernacle; in the temple or the closet. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him: and he will show them his covenant." We have heard of Abraham, who was called the friend of God; and we behold a communication of the * Prov. xxviii. 1. ↑ Gen. iii. 8. Psalm xxv. 14. The history delivered in the preceding chapter of this book exhibited the blessed communion on the mount, suddenly interrupted, by the dreadful scene of madness and rebellion in the plain beneath. Behold all Israel eating and drinking, dancing and playing, before a dumb idol, the similitude of a brute beast. Behold "a covenant with hell" ratified by the same dread solemnities which had been so recently employed, to join a great nation in alliance with the God of heaven. The law which the plastic hand of Omnipotence had impressed on the soul of man in its very constitution: the law which he lately had condescended distinctly to pronounce in the trembling ears of all Israel; that law he had still farther condescended, with exquisite art and skill, by his own finger, to engrave on two tablets of stone, for perpetual preservation. Moses descending in haste, with this precious record in his hand, perceives at a distance the disorder which raged in the camp, and, in a transport of indignation, dashes the tablets on the ground, and breaks them in pieces. The motive was good and commendable, but the action was rash and presumptuous. We find, however, no expression of anger against that rashness; the frailty is lost and overlooked in approbation of the principle which led to it. But had not Moses punishment sufficient for his hasty conduct, in the irreparable loss occasioned by it, to himself and to the world? There was no occasion to chide him; his own conscience must have smitten him sufficiently, as often as he reflected on what, in the moment of impatience, he had done. Without inflicting a positive chastisement, a righteous God can easily reprove men by making them to feel the native consequences of their own folly, and, of all the infirmities to which our nature is subject, anger most certainly and most severely punishes itself. erected into a deity, valued on its own account, swallowing up every other object, engrossing the whole heart, becomes unprofitable and pernicious, as incapable of gratifying the real appetites of a rational being, as gold in its simple state is incapable of satisfying hunger, or, mingled with water, of allaying thirst. An imagination perpetually on the stretch to discover evangelical ideas in every iota of the sacred history, has perceived the method of gospel salvation, in this passage of Moses; as if the prophet intended to signify that the Messiah, typified by the water which issued from the rock in Horeb, could alone purify from the guilt of idolatry, and from all other sin. Moses having executed just vengeance on the idol itself, turns in holy indignation to his weak and guilty brother, who had so readily fallen into and abetted so gross a deviation from all duty and decency. "And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?"-An anticipated instance of obedience to the apostolic injunction, "Thou shalt not suffer sin upon thy brother, but in any ways reprove him." Justice on the tribunal, knows not a brother in court, but examines the cause.-Justice, with the pen The man who is thus animated with zeal of the historian in his hand, knows not blood for the glory of God, has forgotten what fear in recording facts, but declares the truth. is. Aaron, under the influence of the fear Justice, as the minister of God, must stifle of man, yielded to the popular phrenzy, and the calls of natural affection, and condemn fabricated the golden calf: Moses, inspired the guilty. And here again Moses becomes with the fear of God, defies and despises the a pattern to all judges and magistrates, to multitude, consumes their idol in the fire, every minister of religion, and every relater and grinds it to powder. This is that Moses of events. His own faults, and those of his of whom they talked so contemptuously a nearest relations, are told with the same artlittle while ago. What, not one of the thou-less simplicity, as their good qualities and sands of Israel who worshipped the image of the beast bold enough to protect his Dagon! No; abashed they stand, and feel "how awful goodness is, and see virtue in her own shape how lovely." praiseworthy actions. Praise and censure are distributed, with the same candour and impartiality, to his own family and to strangers. Aaron, formerly an object of condemnaA most remarkable circumstance is added tion, now sinks into an object of pity; as to the history of the destruction of the idol, every man must, in the day when he is which has greatly exercised the ingenuity, called to account, and has no defence to learning, and imagination of critics and com- make. "And Aaron said, Let not the anger mentators. Moses took the dust into which of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the peohe had pounded the calf, and "strewed it ple that they are set on mischief. For they upon the water, and made the children of said unto me, Make us gods which shall go Israel drink of it."* This seems nothing before us: for as for this Moses, the man that more than an expression of sovereign con- brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we tempt, poured upon a most worthless object: wot not what is become of him. And I said and a practical demonstration of the absurdity unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let of idolatry. And it may, perhaps not un- them break it off. So they gave it me: then warrantably, be employed as a reproof of the I cast it into the fire, and there came out inordinate love of money, that root of all evil. this calf." Alas, alas! What a profusion Gold, as an instrument of commerce, as the of words is guilt constrained to employ in means of procuring the things that are need- order to cover what it cannot extenuate or ful for the body, as a natural production pos- excuse. What must it be to behold a guilty sessed of very singular qualities, may be law-world stand self-condemned before the Judge fully sought after and innocently used; but of the quick and the dead! How dreadful * Exodus xxxii. 20. * Exodus xxxii. 21. † Exodus xxxii. 22-24. |