his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and be evil dealt with and afflicted four hundred years, yet that nation whom they shall serve will I judge," saith God," and afterwards shall they come out with great substance," Gen. xv. 13, 14. And the Lord being about to fulfil these promises, which he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to their posterity, is said to remember his covenant with them; it is added, "God looked on the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them;" this was a time of sore trial and persecution, sorrow and suffering to the church of Christ. It led real saints to some solemn views of the state and sufferings of the Messiah, previous to his glorious discharge and victory out of the sorrows which would invade his soul, when he should pay the debts of all his people. Dr. Lightfoot says the 88th and 89th psalms were written at this time, and affirms them to be the most ancient writings in the world. The one expressing the soul-sorrows of the Lord Jesus, when all the sins of his people met on him, and he was surrounded with the whole storm of divine wrath: and the other is a solemn record of the covenant between the Father and the Son. Heman, the Ezrahite, wrote the 88th, and Ethan, the Ezrahite, wrote the 89th; they were both of them the sons of Zerah, the son of Judah. See 1 Chron. ii. 4, 6..

If Moses wrote the book of Genesis in the land of Midian, whilst he kept the sheep which belonged to his father-in-law, he must have had a most clear and full understanding of the revelation which the Lord God had been pleased to make from the fall, down all through the patriarchal age, and must have been well and thoroughly acquainted with all the appearances, visions, promises, and declarations made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is generally conceived that he wrote the book of Job in Midian; and if he did not begin the pentateuch there, yet he could not fail of being well acquainted with the most important events and promises recorded therein, which doubtless were handed down to him, and kept up in the minds of the truly godly in that age, by oral tradition, seeing their lives were then long enough to preserve the memory of every remarkable vision and promise, which had been made and given.

This chapter before us, out of which I have read my text, contains an account of Moses's keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, who was prince, or priest, of Midian. And at Horeb he was favored with an appearance of the Angel Jehovah, who spake to him out of the midst of a burning bush, and proposeth to send him to Egypt, to deliver the people of Israel, and to bring them into the land promised to their

fathers. Moses is reluctant to go on this errand, and asks the name of God, by which he shall deliver his message to the people; to which God replies, “I AM THAT I AM," and sends him to declare to the children of Israel, saying, "I AM hath sent me uuto you;" to this the message to the king of Egypt is added, with an account that he would refuse to comply with it, and also how Jehovah would make bare his glorious arm and crush the Egyptians, and deliver his people. This is the subject and substance of it; and I will begin with the preliminary verses to my text, that may properly introduce it, and then conclude with my text, opening and explaining the subject of which it treats.

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Verse 1. "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb." Jethro seeins to have been a real believer in the covenant engagements of the eternal Three; one who worshipped God by offering sacrifices according to the divine revelations, institution, and command for so doing; and though he lived out of the land of Canaan, yet he rejoiced in the goodness which the Lord bestowed on Israel. See Exod. xviii. 10, 11. Moses was a shepherd, a type of Christ, and of his office. Jacob and Joseph were shepherds, and both types of Christ.

The whole history of the sufferings, deliverance, and advancement of Joseph, seems calculated not only to be symbolical and figurative of Christ Jesus, but also suited to represent the state of the church and people of God in Egypt, and also their deliverance therefrom. Midian bordered on the land of Canaan, and was near mount Horeb, which is here called the mountain of God by anticipation. It was a hill with two tops, one of which was called Horeb, from its being dry and without water, and the other top was called Sinai, because of the bramble bushes which grew thereon; it was but three days journey from Egypt. Jethro seems to have been the son and successor of Reul, whose daughter Moses. married. Moses had been now forty years in Midian, where he was exceedingly changed in his state and studies: in Egypt he was a courtier and philosopher; here he is a student of divinity, and of God himself, says Dr. Lightfoot, who adds, that this country had first been planted by Cush, the son of Ham; therefore Aaron and Miriam call Moses's wife a Cushite. Numb. xii. 1. And Zerah, the Arabian, is so called, 2 Chron. xiv. But Abraham, by the conquest of Chederlaomer, and the other kings with him, had obtained it for his own, and thither he sent the concubines sons, so that these were the sons of Keturah, and received the true know

ledge of God from their father Abraham, which seems to have been carefully preserved by Reul, Jethro, and Hobab.

Verse 2. "And the angel of the Lord ap peared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed." This was a vision of Christ, the Angel Jehovah, in a bush appearing in fire, as he had done when he made the promise to Abraham. Gen. xv. 17, 18. When Jehovah confirmed the covenant to him, a fire like that of a furnace, passed through the divided pieces of the sacrifice, and consumed them. And thus, when the Lord is about to fulfil his covenant, by delivering his people from Egypt, his appearance to Moses in the bush was fire. The bramble bush may be considered as a figure of the church in its afflicted state in Egypt; yet Christ was with it, dwelt in it, so that it was not consumed: its af flictions were great, but the Lord's mercies were greater; and the Son of God appearing in the bush, in a flame of fire, was expressive of his incomprehensible deity, majesty, and glory.

Verse 3. "And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." Moses was filled with wonder at this visionary appearance, and was disposed to consider it, and drew near it with that intent.

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