tion in ourselves, by the example of the fate of others. But although he so speaks, it is at the present possible for man not to hearken; and many do not. Many refuse to hear him that speaketh some, through negligence, some through wilfulness, some through the imperious slavery of their sinful passions. We may not altogether disbelieve: few comparatively do that: but thousands, who profess the faith, have yet an evil heart of practical unbelief. Their faith restrains them from no evil, leads them into no good word nor work. For a time, a very short time, we may thus delude ourselves. But it is a delusion from which we shall sooner or later be alarmingly awakened. The authority, which Christ claims, is no speculative authority; to be merely reasoned upon and talked about: it is an authority which will hereafter be seen, and known, and felt by every soul of us, before men and angels. "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation."b

These are words of most awful import: let not the frequency with which we hear them,

b John v. 28, 29.
K

diminish their effect upon us. They open a scene, beyond all comparison, more fearful than any that was ever disclosed before the eyes of man. They place before us a blessing and a curse; life and death; the ineffable joys of heaven; the unknown but dreadful torments of those dreary regions, where the worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched.

While it is called to-day, then, "see that ye refuse not him that speaketh: for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from hea

LECTURE VIII.

CHRIST WAS PREDICTED AND TYPIFIED BY MOSES, 1. AS A LAWGIVER: 2. AS A MEDIATOR AND PRIEST: 3. AS A KING: 4. IN OTHER POINTS OF RESEMBLANCE.

JOHN V. 46.

Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me.

WE have already attempted to establish the accuracy of this assertion of our Lord, by comparing some of those points of resemblance, which the Scriptures lead us to expect, between Moses and the Prophet who should be raised up like unto him. We have observed, that Christ was like Moses by being a prophet; by holding intimate communion with God; by his power of working miracles; and by the authority which he displayed. But there still remain some striking peculiarities in which Christ, and no one else, accurately completed the type exhibited in the person of Moses.

Let us for the present, therefore, direct

our attention to this similarity displayed in the character of Christ;

I. As a Lawgiver;

II. As a Mediator and Priest;

III. As a King;

And in some other more minute circumstances of correspondence.

I. The character of a lawgiver is a very obvious feature, which has been shewn to distinguish Moses from every other prophet recorded in the Old Testament. Yet no prophet could be said to be like unto Moses, who was unlike him in this particular: and the prophecies of the holy volume continually taught the people to expect some fuller, more perfect, and more general law to be delivered by a Legislator commissioned from above.

Centuries passed away after the giving of the law of Moses: and still the voice of prophecy warned the people that they were to look to another law, an everlasting covenant. "It shall come to pass in the last days,” says Isaiah, "that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house

Jer. xxxii. 40.

of the God of Jacob: and he' will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Again, the Spirit speaketh expressly: "Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people."

At the very period which other recorded prophecies pointed out for the appearance of such a great Prophet and Lawgiver, Christ came down upon earth, to introduce the new covenant, to put the law into the minds of men, and to write it in their hearts. Christ came, indeed, not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. He came to exhibit the reality which all the ceremonies, and types of the law, had faintly prefigured. He came to be obedient to the whole law, to satisfy its utmost severity. But Christ also came to fulfil the moral law, by the introduction of a new commandment; to explain, to modify, to enlarge, to spiritualize those positive injunctions, which God had before delivered to the world by his servant Moses.

This was the very character which Christ assumed, when he first began to teach the peo

b Isai. ii. 2, 3.

d Jer. xxxi. 33. Heb. viii. 10.

c Isai. li. 4.

e Matt. v. 17.