complete fulfilment of Joseph's dreams. (Gen. And the sons of Israel came to buy

xlii. 5.)

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corn among those that came, for the famine

' was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was 'the governor over all the land; and he it was 'that sold to all the people of the land; and

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Joseph's brethren came and bowed down ' themselves before him, with their faces to the ' earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he

knew them, but made himself strange unto 'them, and spake roughly unto them; and he ' said unto them, Whence came ye? And they

said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.

And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew 'not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams ' which he had dreamed of them.'

The history of Joseph does, therefore, in the fullest manner, confirm the analogy which we have observed, both in the government of the natural world, and in the procedure of God towards the patriarchs; and we hence see new reason to presume, a priori, that in the kingdom of the Messiah a similar procedure was to be

expected; and that the glorious establishment of his kingdom was not to take place for many ages after his first appearance in the world.

*

The history of Moses, the great and chosen leader and legislator of the children of Israel, is another example of the same analogy. It seems evident, from Exod. ii. 11-14, that Moses had some secret hope, or pre-sentiment, that God was, by him, to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage; and, actuated by love for his oppressed brethren, he was impatient to begin the glorious work of their redemption, which he was prepared to expect as being near at hand, from a traditionary knowledge of the promise made to Abraham, that, at the appointed time, God would bring his people out of the land of Egypt. (Gen. xv. 14.) Filled

with these expectations, Moses seems to have resolved upon making an attempt to deliver his countrymen. But the time appointed by the Lord was not yet come; nor was it agreeable to the analogy of his procedure towards his chosen servants, that the noble desires of Moses should be immediately gratified. He therefore saw fit to disappoint these desires; and Moses, fearing the wrath of Pharaoh, who sought to slay him, fled from Egypt, and took refuge with Reuel, the priest or prince of Midian, where he was for forty years in the humble employment of a shepherd. During this long period, the promised redemption of Israel was delayed, and the faith and patience of Moses were severely tried; and thus he was gradually prepared, in the school of adversity, for the important part he was destined to act in the approaching redemption.

It is acknowledged, as I suppose, by David Levi, and other Jewish writers, that the redemption of Israel out of Egypt was a lively type of that greater redemption to be effected

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by the Messiah; and also, that Moses himself was a type of the Messiah. But if so, is it not probable, even a priori, that there should be a near resemblance between the type and antitype? And if Moses, the leader of the first redemption, was tried by a delay of forty years, after he first went forth from the court of Pharaoh to see his brethren, and attempt their deliverance, does it not appear probable that something of the same kind should happen in the economy of the Messiah, the chosen servant of God, the leader of the great and final redemption of Israel?

We see a similar analogy in the history of David, the man after God's own heart; and who was manifestly not only the progenitor, but, in an eminent manner, a type of the Messiah, who is, more than once, called by the name of David in the prophetical writings. Eight years elapsed between David's being anointed as the successor of Saul in the kingdom, and his accession to the throne of Judah ; and seven years more before he was acknow

ledged as king by all the tribes of Israel. During the greatest part of the first of these two periods, he was in trouble and affliction; wandering from one place to another, to avoid falling into the hands of Saul.

Thus I have endeavoured, by a short review of the divine procedure towards the most eminent patriarchs, the great legislator, and the most pious monarch of the Jewish church, to show, that it has been the invariable analogy of that procedure to delay, for a long time, the performances of the promises made to the chosen servants of God. I shall now endeavour to trace the same analogy in the conduct of God towards the children of Israel as a body.

Four hundred and thirty years elapsed between the first giving of the divine promise to Abraham, that his seed should inherit the land of Canaan, and the redemption of Israel out of the land of Egypt; which redemption was only the first act of God towards the accomplishment of his own promise. During the first part of this long period, Abraham and his