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

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posterity were pilgrims and strangers in the land of promise. (Exod. vi. 4.) During the last part of it, they were under the most cruel oppression in the land of Egypt. At length the period arrived, when, in performance of his holy promise, God was about to deliver his people. While Moses fed the flock of Jethro, near to mount Horeb, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the 'midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was 'not consumed. And Moses said, I will now ' turn aside and see this great sight, why the 'bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw 'that he turned aside to see, God called unto ' him out of the midst of the bush, and said, • Moses! Moses! And he said, Here (am) I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place 'whereon thou standest is holy ground. More

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' over, he said, I am the God of thy fathers—the 'God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the

God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for

'he was afraid to look upon God. And the 'Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of ' my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, by reason of their task-masters: ' for I know their sorrows. And I am come down 'to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land

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'unto a good land, and a large: unto a land

flowing with milk and honey. Come now,

therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, 'that thou mayest bring forth my people, the ⚫ children of Israel, out of Egypt.' (Exod. iii.)

Commissioned from the Most High, Moses, and his brother Aaron, proceeded to the court of Pharaoh, and demanded of him that he would permit the children of Israel to go out of the land of Egypt. And as the Egyptian monarch hardened his heart against giving obedience to the commands of God, the most dreadful plagues were inflicted upon him and his kingdom by the hand of Moses. At length, after the slaying of all the first-born in the land of Egypt, the children of Israel