dom in time; cease from the ruinous contention; "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks;" thou art wounding, destroying only thyself. "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him," Psal. ii. 12.

-Christians, be of good courage; "in patience possess ye your souls." God will support and vindicate the cause that is his own. His truth and faithfulness, evinced by the interposition of ages past; are a full security for his care and attention through ages to come. Time, which impairs all things else, gives stability, force and effect to the purposes of Heaven. The dissolution of the frame of nature is the consummation of the work of redemption. As the writings of Moses are an improvement upon the traditional knowledge of the antediluvian world, and as the gospel is an improvement upon the law and the prophets, so, "according to his promise," we look for a new economy, which shall be an improvement upon, and an extension, confirmation and accomplishment of the gospel dispensation.

-Learn to aspire after the honour and happiness of working together with God in forwarding this gracious design. It is the glory of the most exalted of all beings; and therefore, surely, deservedly claims the employment of the noblest powers of man. What heart would not rejoice in putting forth a helping hand towards rearing this blessed fabric, were it but to drive a pin, or fasten a cord. Remember that carelessness here is highly criminal; that to sit still is not only robbing yourself of the most exquisite pleasure, and declining the highest honour of which your nature is capa ble, but is at the same time the highest insult to your Creator, and the most certain means of incurring his displeasure. Look around you, and observe these myriads of your fellow-creatures, less favoured of Heaven than you are, consider them well, and be to them in the place of God. Extend to them that compassion,

which the Father of mercies hath extended toward thee.

See, my brothers, they are deformed, diseased in body; they are distressed in their circumstances; they are grieved in mind; alas, they "are dead in trespasses and sins!" Lost to God, lost to all the valuable purposes of existence, better for them, they had never been born. But yet they are your brethren; they are susceptible of pleasure and pain like you; the same sun enlightens them; the gospel aims at relieving them as well as you; the same God created and sustains and cares for you both. Have pity upon them; strive to restore them to peace with themselves, to peace with the world, to peace with God. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these Tittle ones should perish," Matt. xviii. 14. "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon them." Let the purpose of grace comprehend them, even them also.

Son of God, who didst restore agility to the lame, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the faculty of speech to the dumb, life to the dead, and who givest wisdom to the wise-thou shalt renovate all things,. thou shalt abolish death and point out the path of life! O, I shall bless thee with transports of joy ineffable, in the day when the powers of heaven shall be shaken and the heavens pass away with a great noise, and the carth with all that it contains shall be consumed! Then thy suffering creatures, delivered from all the ills which oppressed them, shall be clothed upon with a glorious and immortal body, fashioned like to thy glorious body; shall be perfectly conformed to thy blessed image-the image of the first-born among many brethren! Then the Saviour of the world shall pronounce, not from the expiring agony of the cross, but from the radiance of a throne above the skies," "It is finished!" Then He who "maketh all things new," shall with complacency contemplate this second glorious creation, and proclaim "all is good, yea, very good!"

HISTORY OF MOSES.

LECTURE II.

And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sanai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst. of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.-EXODUS xxiv. 15-18.

BREAD is not more necessary to the support of human life, than religion is to the happiness of a rational being. Man, in his better, his immortal part, "lives by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." In more than one instance the miracle has been exhibited, of sustaining the body without food, and yet no pain nor inconveniency felt; but for the soul to exist, and to exist in comfort, undirected by the precepts, unenlightened by the discoveries, unsupported by the consolations of religion, is a miracle not to be performed. It is the more to be lamented that the attempt is so often fatally made, of living "without God in the world," of pursuing a happiness that is independent of the great Source of light and joy; of seeking peace, rest and enjoyment in the neglect or violation of his commandments. Happy it is for men, if after having made the fruitless experiment of "seek2 M

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́ing the living among the dead," and after having at length discovered that success is vanity, and that disappointment is vexation of spirit, have been persuaded, before it was too late, to draw their felicity from the pure and never-failing sources of faith and a good conscience; happy they, who reconciled to God through Christ Jesus their Lord, enjoy real tranquillity in life, and well-grounded hope in death.

We tremble as we behold Moses advancing to the summit of the burning mountain to meet God. Who can walk into the midst of a flaming furnace and live? But is it possible to remove from God an instant of time, a hair's breadth of space? No: God is about our path and our bed, is watching our going out and coming in, our lying down and rising up. God is in this place; and, were our eyes opened, we should even now behold his face clothed with the frowns of just displeasure, or beaming with the smiles of paternal love.

As

Was the law given by "the disposition of angels," arrayed in all their majesty and might? Oh how benign their aspect, how affectionate their assiduity, how vigilant their care, could we but behold them, while they aid the preaching of the everlasting gospel, while they attend the assemblies of a christian church, and minister to them who are the heirs of salvation! the awfulness and solemnity of the prophet's condition are not peculiar to him, and to that important occasion, so neither are the privileges which he enjoyed nor the communion to which he was admitted, peculiar and personal. Christian, you have but to retire into your closet and to shut the door after you, and you are immediately on the top of a higher mountain than Moses climbed, and are as near to God as he was in the most precious moments of the most intimate communication. Alone, or in company, we have access at all times to the throne of grace; and we have what gave him safety and confidence in drawing nigh unte

God; an Advocate with the Father, a great High Priest, a Mediator betwixt God and us.

The great Jehovah, having delivered in every circumstance of magnificence that could excite attention, procure respect, and enforce obedience, that law, whose general nature, tendency and design, together with its relation to the evangelical dispensation, were the subject of a former Lecture, proceeded to regulate their civil polity. But not by an audible voice, in the ears of all the people, as he had done the law of the ten commandments, but in private conference with Moses, to be by him delivered to the people, he delivered those institutions of a civil and political nature, which regarded their social and national capacity. In studying these, the lovers of scripture will rejoice to trace the justest and most comprehensive views of human nature, the noblest and most liberal ideas of legislation, the most perfect equity, the profoundest sagacity, and the most unbounded kindness and benevolence. But it exceeds our strength, and it consists not with our plan, to go into the detail of these excellent statutes. We pursue the history.

The voice from Sinai having, in dreadful glory, proclaimed the conditions of this new covenant, directions are given for the solemn and public ratification of it. This was done that the obligation which was originally, invariably and necessarily binding upon the parties, might acquire additional force from voluntary consent, and from the intervention of august and significant ceremonies. I trust it will be neither unentertaining nor uninstructive to attend to the description of these ceremonies as they stand upon the sacred record. They are highly interesting whether we consider the mas the venerable remains of a very remote antiquity, being no less than three thousand three hundred and forty-three years prior to the present time; or, as the original compact, in the constitution of an ancient, important,

*A. D. 1793.

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