Moses conquered Amalek by holding up both his hands; Christ overcame his and our enemies when his hands were fastened to the cross.

Moses interceded for transgressors, and caused an atonement to be made for them, and stopped the wrath of God; so did Christ.

Moses ratified a covenant between God and the people by sprinkling them with blood; Christ with his own blood. Moses desired to die for the people, and prayed that God would forgive them, or blot him out of his book; Christ did more, he died for sinners.

Moses instituted the passover, when a lamb was sacrificed, none of whose bones were to be broken, and whose blood protected the people from destruction; Christ was the paschal lamb.

Moses lifted up the serpent, that they who looked upon him might be healed of their mortal wounds; by proper looking up to Christ all will be healed.

All Moses's affection towards the people, all his cares and toils, on their account, were repaid by them with ingratitude, murmuring, and rebellion; the same returns the Jews made to Christ for all his benefits.

Moses was ill used by his own family, his brother and sister rebelled against him; there was a time when Christ's own brethren believed not in him.

Moses had a very wicked and perverse generation com mitted to his care and conduct, and to enable him to rule them, miraculous powers were given to him, and he used his utmost endeavor to make the people obedient to God, and to save them from ruin; but in vain; in the space of forty years they all fell in the wilderness except two; Christ also was given to a generation not less wicked and perverse, his instructions and his miracles were lost upon them, and in about the same space of time, after they had rejected him, they were destroyed.

Moses was very meek above all men that were on the face of the earth; so was Christ.

The people could not enter into the land of promise till Moses was dead; by the death of Christ the kingdom of heaven was open to believers.

In the death of Moses and Christ there is also a resemblance of some circumstances; Moses died, in one sense, for the iniquities of the people; it was their rebellion which was the occasion of it, which drew down the displeasure of God upon them and upon him; Moses went up, in the sight of the people, to the top of mount Nebo, and there he died, when he was in perfect vigor, when his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated: Christ suffered for the sins of men, and was led up, in the presence of the people, to mount Calvary, where he died in the flower of his age, and when he was in his full natural strength.

Neither Moses, nor Christ, as far as we can collect from sacred history, were ever sick, or felt any bodily decay or infirmity, which would have rendered them unfit for the toils they underwent; their sufferings were of another kind.

Moses was buried, and no man knew where his body lay; nor could the Jews find the body of Christ.

Lastly, as Moses, a little before his death, promised another prophet; so Christ, before his death, promised another comforter."

Such are the comparisons made by Dr Jortin relative to the great resemblance between Moses and Christ; but the greatest similitude consists in their both being law. givers, which no other prophet ever was. They may resemble each other in many other circumstances, and a fruitful imagination may strike upon a likeness, where, in reality, there is not any to be found. But, as the same excellent writer 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."

We come now to consider the last part of the prophecy, in doing of which it will be no very difficult matter to prove, that the people have been, and still are, severely

punished for their infidelity and disobedience to this prophet.

The words in this part of the prophecy are very clear and express. 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. That is, I will severely punish him for it; or, as the Seventy translate it, I will take vengeance of him.

This prophecy, as we have clearly proved, evidently relates to Christ. God himself, in a manner, applies it to him; for when he was transfigured, there came a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him, Matt. xvii. 5. This manifestly alludes to the words of Moses, Unto him ye shall hearken, and clearly points out that Christ alone was the prophet like unto Moses. The apostle St. Peter directly applies it to our Saviour. 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 iii. 22, 23.

And hath not this terrible denunciation been fully executed upon the Jews? Was not the complete destruction of that incredulous nation (soon after Christ had finished his ministry among them, and his apostles had likewise preached in vain) the fulfilling of the threat for not hearkening unto him? We may be the more certain of this application, as our Saviour himself not only denounced the same destruction, but also foretold the signs, the manner, and the circumstances of it with the greatest exactness. Such, indeed, of those Jews who believed in his name, by remembering the caution, and following the advice which he had given them, escaped from the general ruin of their country; but the main body either perished in their infidelity, or were carried captives into other nations, and by persisting in the same infidelity, they have ever since been a vagabond, distressed and miserable people.

The wise dispensations of Providence are in no respect more amply displayed than in the fulfilment of this part of the prophecy. We must be blind not to see it; and seeing, we cannot but admire and adore it. What account can the Jews themselves give of their long captivity, dispersion and misery? Their former captivity, for the punishment of their wickedness and idolatry lasted only seventy years; but they have lived in their present dispersion, even though they have not been idolaters, upwards of seventeen hundred.

But though they have thus long labored under these calamities for the enormity of their crimes, yet, it is to be hoped that, upon a proper faith and repentance, they will, in time, become objects of the Divine mercy. We shall, therefore, conclude with the words of the apostle St. Paul, Our hearts' desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they may be saved, Rom. x. i.

CHAP. VI.

Of the Prophecies of Moses concerning the Jews.

BESIDES the great and amazing prophecy related in the preceding chapter, Moses, a short time before his death, delivered many others to the Jews, in which he predicted the great blessings that would be bestowed upon them, if they paid a proper attention to the laws he had given them, and, on the contrary, the heavy curses that would unavoidably fall upon them if they became refractory and disobedient to the Divine will.

These prophecies are contained in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, and the greater part of them relate to the curses that should fall on the Jews in case of their disobedience, all which have been since most strictly fulfilled, as will appear from the following observations.

The first on the head begins at the 49th verse, in which it is said, The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the

eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand. This was fulfilled in the Chaldeans, who may be justly said to have come from afar, in comparison with the Moabites, Philistines, and others, who frequently invaded Judea, and committed depredations in various parts of the country.

The like description of the Chaldeans is given by the prophet Jeremiah, Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say, Jeremiah v. 15. He likewise compares the enemies of the Jews to eagles, Our persecutors (says he) are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness,* Lam. iv. 9.

In the 50th verse of the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy the people who were to be the persecutors of the Jews are thus farther characterized. And they shall be a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favor to the young. Such were the Chaldeans; and the sacred historian expressly saith, that, for the wickedness of the Jews, God brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword, in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; he gave them all into his hand. 2. Chron. xxxvi. 17.

The Romans were no less the persecutors of the Jews than the Chaldeans, of which Josephus gives us the following instances. He says, that when Vespasian entered the city of Gadara (which was for a long time strongly defended by the Jews) " he slew all, man by man, the Romans not shewing mercy to either age or sex; and that they did this out of hatred to the nation, and remem

* This description, however, cannot be applied to any nation with such propriety as to the Romans, who, from the rapidity of their conquests, and the destruction they made among the Jews, might very justly be compared to eagles, and, perhaps, not without an allusion to the standard of the Roman armies, which was the figure of that bird: their language also was much more unknown to the Jews than that of the Chaldes,