breast-plate. When the High Priest would obtain an answer from God, he appeared before the Holy of holies, and proposing his question, took a stone from the breast-plate. If 'he drew out the one with no inscription, no answer was to be given. Never was this oracle to be consulted for any private person, but only for the king or general of the army.

All the instructions and institutions of Moses had an high moral tendency. They led the children of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves, and trained up many of the greatest ornaments of antiquity. The worship he prescribed was eminently typical of the worship of the New Testament Church; and in the High Priest was beautifully shadowed forth the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, who neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered in once into the holy place-into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. During the abode of the Church in the wilderness, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, comprising Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It was deposited in the tabernacle, and preserved with the greatest vigilance. It was read every Sabbath day in the Synagogue, and through at the feast of Tabernacles, every sabbatical year. The Prince was required to copy it, and the people were commanded to teach it to their children, and to wear it as "signs on their hands, and frontlets between their eyes." It is the only history we have of the creation, the antediluvian nations, the flood, and the re-settlement of the earth. Without it, the first two thousand years of our race would be entirely hidden from us. It was written in Hebrew in one continued work, by inspiration of God, and was divided into books, probably by Ezra, or at the formation of the Septuagint ver sion.*

The generation that came out of Egypt was, as has been remarked, very froward and perverse. They had been corrupted by the idols of Egypt. God was angry with them, and

*Many are the conjectures of the philosophical and the curious, respecting the antiquity of the art of writing. Some suppose that symbolical representations were first used; then hieroglyphics; then alphabetical writing. But perhaps men were never strangers to letters. Books and writings were common in the time of Moses. Written genealogies were kept in the days of the patriarchs. What was known before the flood would be handed down through Noah. The Hebrew is generally sup posed to have been the original language, and the root of all other languages.

swore they should not enter the promised land. Their carcases fell in the wilderness-all but Caleb and Joshua. But on their children he poured out his Holy Spirit. They became eminently devoted to God. "I remember thee," says he, in later ages of the church, "the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness. Israel was holiness to the Lord and the first fruits of his increase." With them' God solemnly renewed his covenant. They stood all of them at Shechem before the Lord their God, the captains of the tribes, their elders, their officers, all the men of Israel, their little ones, their wives, and the stranger that was among them, and entered into covenant with God and into his oath. It was a day of deep and awful solemnity, a day of great glory to the Church.

Moses was born in the 2432d year of the world, and died in the 120th year of his age "His eye was not dim, nor was his natural force abated." The place of his death was mount Pisgah; from whence he had a view of the promised land, which he was not permitted to enter because of transgression. His sepulchre was miraculously concealed to prevent idolatrous veneration.

God had endowed him with wonderful wisdom, prudence and integrity, and placed him in a situation where he was enabled to exhibit unparalleled legislation and government. Almost every action of his life we can love and approve, while many traits in his character command our highest admiration. Whether we look at him leaving the court of Pharaoh, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God; or at the burning bush, sacrificing diffidence to duty; or behold him in the presence of Pharaoh, wielding the most awful engines of terror; or at the Red Sea, dividing the waters; or see him ascending amid the thunders of Sinai, to converse with the Almighty; or trace him through forty years of toil and trial, unmoved by homage, unawed by faction, undaunted by danger. unaltered by distress ;-or contemplate him, the great historian, poet, orator, law-giver, the wonderful deliverer of his nation, the greatest of prophets, who conversed with God face to face, meek and humble beyond all men, we may well believe that he was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people ;—we must pronounce him the most exalted man that ever appeared on this stage of action.

In this period of the history of the Church, we have two remarkable prophecies of Christ. The first was by Balaam, a diviner or magician of great renown; a wicked man, whom God employed for the benefit of his people. "I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him but not nigh; there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy (rule over) all the children of Sheth."* In a subordinate sense, David may have been pointed out in this prediction but it manifestly has its full accomplishment in the exalted kingdom and spiritual victories of Christ, who will destroy the enemies of the Church, and gain dominion from the river to the ends of the earth. From this prophecy, a Star was the known emblem of the Messiah; and it doubtless prepared the wise men in the East to follow the Star which actually appeared at his birth.

The other is a prophecy by Moses; which, in a very particular manner, reveals the prophetic character of Christ. "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst. of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Among all the eminent prophets, who appeared between Moses and Christ, none were like him; none were law-givers to mankind; none conversed with God face to face; none performed such signs and wonders; but in these and other respects, Christ was like Moses, though vastly superior. It is clear therefore, that, if as some suppose, Moses here predicted Joshua, or a succession of prophets, who should speak to the Church in the name of the Lord, yet this prediction had special reference to our blessed Redeemer.

Before his death, also, Moses most accurately predicted‡ all the great and terrible judgments which God would, in after ages, bring upon the Jews for their disobedience; their captivity by the Chaldeans, a nation of fierce countenance; their subsequent or present dispersion, when they should become "an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations" and §the calling in of the Gentiles in their stead, "provoking them to jealousy by them which are not a people."

*Numbers xxiv. 17. † Deuteronomy, xviii. 15. ‡ Deuteronomy, xxviii. Deuteronomy, xxxii. 21. compared with Rom. x. 19.

CHAPTER IV.

Entrance of the Church into the promised land. State of the Church from Joshua to Samuel. Schools of the Prophets. Establishment of monarchy in Israel David. Solomon. Erection and dedication of the Temple. Prosperous state of the Church. Additions to the sacred Canon.

THE Church passed into the promised land through the waters of Jordan, divided by Almighty power, A. M. 2554. Its leader was Joshua, the son of Nun, a man of great courage and deep piety; and, in this transaction, an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Captain of our salvation, who conducts the invisible church into the Canaan of endless felicity. But it was composed of very different members from those who came out of Egypt; for God sware in his wrath that none of that rebellious generation, save Caleb and Joshua, should enter the promised land. The millions who now formed the Church were their children, and were "holiness to the Lord."

Having planted his people in that land, which, 430 years before he had promised to Abraham for a possession, God directed every male to be sealed with the seal of circumcision. This sacred rite had been neglected during their wanderings in the wilderness. It was now imposed on the whole nation, and the Passover was solemnly celebrated.

The Canaanites were an exceedingly wicked people. Their abominations cried to heaven for vengeance; and God made his people the rod of his anger. He gave them power over his enemies. By the most simple instruments as well as by fire and sword, they exterminated thousands and millions and took possession of the land.

This was divided among them for an inheritance. Here the Tabernacle was set up in Shiloh; and the Israelites with God for their king, commenced their national existence under the best political and ceremonial institutions. But alas! they were surrounded by enemies who perpetually sought their der struction. They retained among them many of the Canaanites, who were "scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes," and "snares and traps," seducing them to idolatry. They wandered from God; and the first 300 years of their history, was a period of darkness and trouble.

A little before the death of Joshua, the whole Church so

lemnly renewed covenant with God at Shechem; which was a most affecting transaction. But after his decease the Israelites had no regularly appointed governor, and appear to have acted in separate tribes. They soon fell into a state of anarchy and forgetfulness of God, for which they were delivered over, first to eight years bondage to Cushan, king of Mesopotamia and afterwards to the Moabites; the Canaanites; the Midianites; the Ammonites and the Philistines. When they were sufficiently chastened and humbled, "the Lord repented himself for his servants,' and raised up Judges to deliver them and guide them. Illustrious were their exploits. God was with them; and we behold in this conflict between the Church and the world many striking exhibitions of divine jus tice and mercy. But this long period, is one on which the eye dwells with little complacency. The people were ignorant, and vicious. "The highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through bypaths." Few prophets were appointed to guide the people. "Every one did that which was right in his own eyes.' Yet, in the darkest seasons, Christ had a seed to serve him. In the characters of Gideon, Barak, Samson, and Jepthah,* we have illustrious examples of faith. Enlightened by the gospel, we may see in them many imperfections, but theirs was an holy confidence in God; and they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises," and went triumphant to the rewards of heaven.

In the early part of this period the book of Joshua was written by Joshua himself, and subjoined, by him, to the law of God.

It is worthy of remark, that, during this dark period, though idolatry was prevalent, it never extended to the demolition of the Tabernacle; for it was never, as in later ages, commanded by the rulers.

In the 2868th year of the world, Samuel was born; and dedicated by his mother, to the service of God. He became a faithful servant of Jehovah, supreme judge in the land, and

* Infidel writers have considered the story of Jepthah's sacrificing his daughter, as an indelible blot on the Jewish religion, and utterly inconsistent with his being a good man. But for such a sacrifice the Jewish religion is not answerable, for it did not warrant it, but pointedly condemned it. His vow was rash; and if he acted consistently, his conscience was erroneous, through ignorance of the law of God, and too much intimacy with heathen customs. On conviction of sin, he might, like David, have become a true penitent. To this event may be traced the heathen story of Iphigenia sacrificed by her father Agamemnon.