secrecy, vigilance, and circumspection, admonishes us ever to connect the diligent use of all lawful and appointed means, with trust in and dependence upon Heaven, as we wish to arrive safely and certainly at the end proposed. In them, as in a glass, we see confidence without presumption, diligence, zeal, and attention, free from incredulity; we see Providence firmly, undauntedly resorted to, with the consciousness of having done their utmost to help themselves. Without this trust and this consciousness, yielding their joint support, what must the wretched mother have been, compelled at length, by dire necessity, to expose the son of her womb on the face of the Nile, in a basket of rushes? I love to see a perseverance of exertion that leaves nothing undone which is possible to be done; and a faith that holds out as long as hope exists. Why not cast the whole burden on Providence? Is not he who preserved the child floating in an ark of bulrushes, able to save him naked in the stream, or even in the jaws of the hungry crocodile? If an ark must be prepared, is it also necessary to employ all this curious attention in daubing it with slime and with pitch, to prevent the admission of the water? What, leave nothing to him who has marked the infant for his own, and solemnly charged himself with his safety? Yes; after we have done our all, much, every thing depends on the goodness of Heaven. But the careful mother did well when she pitched every seam and chink of the frail vehicle as attentively as if its precious deposit had been to owe its preservation solely to that care and diligence. "Cast all your care upon him; for he careth for you."* Mark it well, it is our care, not our work, which we are encouraged to cast upon that God who careth for us, and who hath said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Mark yet again the diligent use of means, and the interpositions of Providence; how they tally with, unite, strengthen, and support each other. The anxious mother does not yet think she has done enough. Miriam her daughter must go, and, at a distance, watch the event. And here ends the province of human sagacity, foresight, and industry; and here begins the interposition of providential care. The mother has done her part. "The rushes, the slime, and the pitch," were her prudent and necessary preparation. And the great God has at the same time been preparing his materials, and arranging his instruments: the heart of a king's daughter, the power of Egypt, the flux of the current; the concurrence of circumstances too fine for the human eye to discern, too complex for human understanding to unravel, and too mighty for created power to control. We pointed to the interposition of Heaven; but, we beseech you to observe, it interposed 1 Pet. v. 7. not by working a miracle, but by the seasonable, simple, and natural disposition of second causes, operating to one and the same end, without any design, consciousness, or concert of their own. And, be it ever remembered, that the wise, gracious, almighty Ruler of the world, pleases not himself, nor amuses his creatures, by a profuse, ostentatious exhibition of wonders, but by an intelligent, dexterous management of ordinary things. He carries on his righteous government not according to new and surprising laws, but by the surprising, unaccountable, unexpected methods in which he executes the laws which he has established from the beginning. Let us dwell a little on the minuter circumstances of the case before us: as they serve to illustrate a subject of all others the most comfortable and tranquillizing to a race of beings, beyond measure wretched and pitiable, if there be not a God who rules in wisdom and in loving kindness all the affairs of men. We are first led to the humble cottage of Amram, and mingle in the tender solicitudes of an obscure family, in one of the most common situations of human life. From thence, we step immediately to the palace, to attend the humorous caprices and pleasures of a princess. Jochebed, the wife of Amram, and Termuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh ! What can they have in common with one another, excepting those particulars in which all mankind resemble all mankind: and yet Providence brings them together, gives them a mutual concern, a mutual charge, a mutual interest. By how many accidents might this most fortunate coincidence have been prevented? A day, an hour earlier or later, in the active care of the one, and the contingent amusement of the other, and the parties concerned had never met. The slightest alteration in the setting in of the wind or the tide; the particular temperature of the fleeting air, or the more variable temperature of a female mind, apt to be corrupted by unbounded gratification and indulgence, unaccustomed to contradiction, governed by whim, following no guide but inclination, and occupied only with the object of the moment: the operation of all, or any one of these, might have defeated the design. But these and a thousand such like contingencies, unstable as water, and changeable as the wind, subdued by the hand of Omnipotence, acquire the solidity of the rock, and the steadfastness of the poles of heaven. The mother could not part with her child a moment sooner, durst not retain him a moment longer. The princess could betake herself to no other amusement or employment, could pitch upon no other hour of the day, could resort to no other part of the river, could divert her attention to no other object; the tide could not run, nor the wind blow in any other direction, nor with greater or less rapidity. Moses was not safer when king in Jeshurun, encompassed with the thousands of Israel, was not safer in the mount with God, is not safer within the adamantine walls of the New-Jerusalem than Moses in the flags, Moses at the mercy of the waves, of the monsters of the Nile, and of men more merciless than wild beasts. What power threatened the life of Moses? The king of Egypt. What power preserved it? The king of Egypt's daughter. What were the steps which led to his elevation? Those which foreboded his destruction. What circumstances forwarded the accomplishment of the oracle? Those which attempted to defeat it. Could all this have been the work of man? No; it must have proceeded from "the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." "Whoance in his name. It was customary to name doth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?"* the shortest and safest road to the attainment of our just and reasonable desires. What a blessed change! The mother of Moses is permitted to do that for princely hire, and under royal protection, which she would! have purchased with her life the privilege of doing for nothing, could she have done it with safety to her child. Moses finds shelter in the house of Pharaoh, from the wrath of the king; and he who was destined to be the plague of Egypt, and the deliverer of Israel, is trained to power, wisdom, and consequence, by the Egyptian Magi, and the favour of her who was next the throne. But, the Providence which saved him amidst so many perils, is pleased to record and perpetuate the memory of his deliver the child on the day of circumcision, the eighth from its birth. Perhaps the anxiety and distress of their situation might have broken in upon some of the ceremonies practised upon that occasion; or, if a name had been given him by his parents, he has not thought proper to hand it down to pos terity. It being his own design and the will of God, that he should be known to all generations by the appellation which Pharaoh's daughter gave to the babe whom she saved from perishing; Moses, "drawn out," because," said she, "I drew him out of the water." The usual train of common events led Pharaoh's daughter to the river side; the ark in which little Moses was laid happened to catch her eye; curiosity prompted her to examine its contents, and pity at the sight touched her heart. If there be an object in nature more interesting and affecting than another, it was that which now presented itself to this great lady's eye. A beautiful" infant, of three months old, deserted by its own parents, exposed to ten thousand dangers, and expressing by the tender testimony of tears, its sense of that misery of which it had not yet acquired the consciousness. “Behold the babe wept." Pity is a native plant in a noble heart. The story told itself. The situation in which the child was found explained the cruel occasion. The sacrament he carried engraven on his flesh, declared to whom he belonged. Compassion was fortunately connected with power, and Providence wisely balanced one thing with another, the jealousy and severity of the father, with the tenderness and generosity of the daughter. Josephus, with whom Moses is justly a favourite object, has recorded many little particulars relating to this part of his history, And, among others, that when the child was applied to the breasts of several successive Egyptian nurses, he turned from them with signs of much disgust and aversion, and that this encouraged his sister Miriam, who was anxiously attending the event, and observed the eager concern of the princess about her little foundling, to propose a nurse of her own nation, and thereby artfully introduced the mother herself to the tender office of suckling her own child. Whatever be in this, one useful lesson is taught us, on better authority than that of Josephus, namely, that perseverance in difficult and painful duty is Dan. iv. 35. The Jewish writers take delight (and who can blame them?) in expatiating on the extraordinary accomplishments, external and mental, natural and acquired, of their great lawgiver. They ascribe to him the most perfect symmetry of features, uncommon height of stature, a noble, commanding demeanour, the most engaging sweetness of disposition, the most winning address and eloquence, the most undaunted courage, the most profound erudition. Indeed, the singular beauty of his person is hinted in no obscure terms in many places of scripture, and the additional lustre which it afterwards acquired by intercourse with Heaven, lustre which remained unimpaired to the latest old age, convey to us a very high idea of his external appearance. But he stands in no need of the pen of a Philo or a Josephus to make his panegyric. His own actions and writings are his noblest monument; and will live to instruct, delight, and bless mankind, as long as good sense and good taste, virtue, patriotism, and religion exist, and are held in estimation in the world. The parallel between the Jewish and the Christian legislators is so striking, and sup ported by so many scripture authorities, that he who runs may read it. Previous to the birth of Moses, the Israelitish state was reduced to the lowest ebb of distress and despondency; the birth of Christ found a lost world sunk into the most deplorable corrup tion, guilt, and misery. Of the appearance Heaven, had fallen victims to the jealousy of Moses there was a general expectation and apprehensions of two bloody and ambi over all the land of Egypt. Christ, "the tious princes. Moses escaped the hands of desire of all nations," was earnestly looked Pharaoh by falling into those of his daughfor by "all who waited for the consolation ter. Christ avoided the cruelty of Herod by of Israel," who searched the scriptures, and retiring for a while into Egypt. All history observed the appearances of the times; and agrees in representing Moses as a person of by infallible signs was his approach an- extraordinary grace, wisdom, and comeliness; nounced to mankind. The deliverer of the and of whom is the prophet speaking, when seed of Jacob was no foreign potentate, with he says, "Thou art fairer than the children a strong hand and stretched out arm, but a of men: grace is poured into thy lips; thereIchild of their own nation. And who is the fore God hath blessed thee for ever. "Moses Saviour of perishing sinners? "Verily he was brought up in all the learning of the took not on him the nature of angels: but he Egyptians. Christ was anointed with the took on him the seed of Abraham. Where- Spirit without measure. Moses stands disfore in all things it behoved him to be made tinguished by a name which commemorates like unto his brethren, that he might be a a temporal deliverance. Christ by two merciful and faithful High Priest, in things names, descriptive of his high and important pertaining to God, to make reconciliation office, "Jesus," the Saviour, and of the manfor the sins of the people."* "As the chil- ner in which he was set apart to it, "Christ," dren are partakers of flesh and blood, he the anointed of God. Moses began not to also himself took part of the same, that exist till the day that his mother Jochebed through death he might destroy him that bare him in Egypt, but Christ says of himhad the power of death, that is, the devil." self, "Before Abraham was, I am.” Moses The extraordinary circumstances attending from the beginning was faithful as a servant · the birth of Moses were ascertained to the to Him who appointed him; but "Christ as world, and transmitted to posterity, by means a son over his own house; for in all things of an edict of the king of Egypt. The birth he must have the pre-eminence." Now to of Christ, in like manner, as to time, place, God in Christ be ascribed, by all nations, and and situation was marked out for the know-generations of men upon earth, and by every ledge of mankind by a decree of Caesar, the angel in heaven, kingdom, power, and glory emperor of Rome. Both the one and the for ever. Amen. other, but for the special interposition of Heb. ii. 16, 17. † Heb. ii. 14. Psalm. xlv. 2 INTRODUCTORY LECTURE. LECTURE XXXVIL Then came to him certain of the Sadducees (which deny that there is any resurrection) and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, if any man's brother die, having a wife, and he die without chil dren, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second took her to wife, and he died childless. And the third took her; and in like manner the seven also. And they left no children, and died. Last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife of them is she? for seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering, said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage: but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrec tion. Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.-LUKE XX. 27–38. ONE of the most obvious and natural con- | olations of reason, under the loss of those whom we dearly loved, and one of the most abundant consolations furnished by religion, is the belief that our departed friends are, at their death, disposed of infinitely to their advantage. We weep and mourn while we re flect upon the deprivation of comfort which we have sustained; but we wipe the tears of sorrow from our eyes, when we consider that our loss is their unspeakable gain. "Rachel weeping for her children," refuses to be comforted so long as she thinks "they are not;" but her soul is tranquillized and comforted nions. Heinously offended at the neglect of washing of hands previous to eating, they were wicked enough to establish, by a law of their own, neglect of, unkindness, and disobedience to parents; thus, according to the just censure which our Lord passed upon them, "straining out a gnat, and swallowing a camel." when her eyes, in faith, look within the veil, and behold them softly and securely reposing in the bosom of their Father and God. It is an humbling and a mortifying employment to visit churchyards, to step from grave to grave, to recall the memory, while we trample upon the ashes of the young, the beautiful, the wise, and the good; but we find immediate relief, we rise into joy, we tread The Sadducees, on the other hand, the among the stars, when aided by religion, we strong spirits of the age, disdaining the retransport ourselves in thought to those bless-straints imposed on mankind by a written ed regions where all the faithful live, and reign, and rejoice; where "they that be wise shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."* Distance is then swallowed up and lost, and we mingle in the noble employments and pure delights of the blessed immortals who encircle the throne of God. It is astonishing to think, that there should have been men disposed willingly to deprive themselves of this glorious source of comfort; men ready to resign the high prerogative of their birthright, and by a species of humility strange and unnatural, spontaneously degrading themselves to the level of the brutes that perish. And yet there have been, in truth, such men in every age. But it is no wonder to find those who satisfy themselves with the pursuits and enjoyments of a mere beastly nature while they live, contented to lie down with the beasts in death, to arise no more. They first make it their interest that there should be no hereafter, and then they fondly persuade themselves that there shall be none. Error of every kind, both in faith and morals, prevailed in the extreme at the period when, and in the country where, the Saviour of the world appeared for our redemption.The nation of the Jews was divided, in respect of moral and religious sentiment, into two great sects or parties, who both pretended to found their opinions upon the authority of the inspired books, which were held in universal estimation among them; and particularly the writings of Moses. But they drew conclusions directly opposite, from the same facts and doctrines; and both deviated, in the grossest manner, from the spirit and design of that precious record which they both affected to hold in the highest veneration. The Pharisees, earnestly contending for the strict observance of the law, confined their attention to its minuter and less important objects, and paid "the tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin," but omitted "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith" and, raising oral tradition to the rank and dignity of scripture, found a pretence for dispensing with the plainest and most essential obligations of morality, when these contradicted their interests and opi Dan. xii. 3. law, thought fit to become a law unto themselves. They left the austerities of a strict religion and morality to vulgar minds; and that they might procure peace to themselves in the enjoyment of those sinful pleasures to which they were addicted, they denied the existence of spirit, the immortality of the soul, and a future state of retribution. They alleged that the law was silent on those points, and that this silence was a sufficient reason for rejecting the belief of them. They went farther, and contended, that were such doctrines contained in the law, they ought not to be admitted, because they implied a contradiction, or at least involved such a number of difficulties as it was impossible satisfactorily to solve. The chief of those difficulties they propose to our blessed Saviour, in the passage which I have read; and they do this, not in the spirit of docility and diffidence to have it removed, but in the pride of their hearts, vainly taking for granted that it was insurmountable. My principal intention in leading your thoughts to this subject, at this time, is the occasion which it afforded to the great Teacher who came from God, of discoursing on a theme nearly connected with the design of these Lectures; and of disclosing to us sundry important particulars, respecting the venerable men whose lives we have been studying, and those which we are still to examine; and respecting that world in which we, together with them, have a concern so deeply, because eternally interesting. To these we shall be led by making a few cursory remarks on the preceding conversation which took place between Christ and the Sadducees. And this shall serve as an Introduction to the farther continuation of a Course of Lectures on the history of the memorable persons and events presented to us in the holy scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments. to serve his turn; and the enemy of all good-upon earth, are to subsist in the kingdom of ness will condescend to quote that scripture heaven. But the supposition is founded in which he hates, if it can help him to an ar- ignorance and falsehood; and, the moment it gument for the occasion. With this affected is denied, the mighty argument built upon it deference for Moses, the Sadducees are aim- falls to the ground. "In the resurrection," ing at the total subversion of every moral says Christ," they neither marry, nor are and religious principle, by weakening one given in marriage, but are as the angels of of the strongest motives to virtue, and under- God in heaven." mining the surest foundation of hope and joy to man. They allege, that obedience to the law might eventually lead to much confusion and disorder: and they suppose a situation, for none such ever existed, in which compliance with the revealed will of God in this world would infallibly lead to discord and distress in that which is to come. In this we have an example of a very common case; that of men straining their eyes to contemplate objects at a great distance, or totally out of sight, and wilfully neglecting or overlooking those which are immediately before them: troubling themselves about effects and consequences of which they are ignorant, and over which they have no power, while they are regardless of obvious truth and commanded duty, though these are their immediate business and concern. The Sadducees, in order to cloak their licentiousness and infidelity, affect solicitude about the regularity and peace of a future state, which in words they denied, if they did not from the heart disbelieve. I make but one remark more before I proceed to our Lord's reply. Eagerness and anxiety to bring forward and to establish an opinion, betray an inward doubt or disbelief of it.-Truth is not ever proclaiming itself from the house tops, is not forward to obtrude itself upon every occasion, but is satisfied with maintaining and defending itself when assaulted; but falsehood is eternally striving to conceal or strengthen its conscious weakness by a parade of words, and a show of reason. The zeal of the Sadducees to explode and run down the doctrine of the resurrection, plainly betrays a secret dread and belief of it. Our Lord, in his answer, points out directly the source of all error and infidelity, "ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, and the power of God." Not knowing the scriptures, ye suppose a doctrine is not in them, because ye have not found it there: because ye have wilfully shut your own eyes, ye vainly imagine there is no light in the sun; and take upon you to affirm there is none. Not knowing the power of God, you call that impossible which you cannot do, deem that absurd which you do not comprehend, and pronounce that false which you wish to be so. The whole force of the objection to the truth of the resurrection, goes upon the supposition, that the future world is to be exactly constituted as the present; that the relations and distinctions which subsist among men In these words, the condition of men in the world to come, is described, first, negatively, "they neither marry, nor are given in marriage." The power which created the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, might undoubtedly, had it pleased him, have created the whole human race at once, as easily as he formed the first of men, Adam, and as easily as he rears up one generation of men after another, in the course of his providence. But, thinking it meet to people the earth by multiplying mankind gradually upon it, difference of sex, and the institution of marriage, were the means which he was pleased to employ. In the resurrection, the number of the redeemed being complete at once, that difference, and that institution, being unnecessary, shall be done away. Our Saviour adds, "neither can they die any more." Death, too, enters into the plan of Providence for the government of this world. Men must be removed, to make room for men. But because this sphere is narrow and contracted, and unable to contain and support the increasing multitudes of many generations, is the Lord's hand shortened, that he cannot expand a more spacious firmament, and compact a more spacious globe, to contain, at once, the countless nations of them that are saved? O how greatly do men err; not knowing the power of God! Death is no part of the plan of Providence for the government of that world of bliss. In our Father's house above there are many mansions; there is bread enough, and to spare; there is room for all, provision for all: the father need not to die, to give space to the son, nor the mother to spare, that the child may have enough. For they are "as the angels of God," says our Lord, according to Matthew, "equal to the angels," says our evangelist, "and are the children of God." This describes their happiness positively. Men on earth" see in a glass darkly; know in part, prophesy in part," are encompassed with infirmity; but the "angels in heaven" excel in strength, stand before the throne of God, serve him day and night in his temple, without wearying, see face to face, "know as they are known." Their number is completed, their intercourse is pure and perfect, without the means of increase, and union which exist here below. Having thus reproved their ignorance and presumption, respecting the "power of God,' our Lord proceeds to expose their ignorance respecting "the scriptures," and produces a |