that "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." Jesus is called, "the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father." Christ declares of himself, what is said of no other person angelic or human, "the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things which himself doeth."h And he plainly asserts, that he alone hath seen the Father.' There are two events, in the histories of Moses and of Christ, closely connected with the intimate communion which each held with the spiritual world, and exhibiting, very clearly, the correspondence of the historical type with the prefigured antitype. When the Lord delivered to Moses the law upon Mount Sinai, the Prophet was there forty days and forty nights. And when he came down from the mount, the glories of heaven, with which he had been so long conversant, were, in some faint degree, reflected upon his countenance. The very skin of his face shone, and the people were afraid to come nigh him.* No Many ages elapsed, and this wonderful event stood alone in the history of the world. prophet appeared like unto Moses; none who made the least pretensions to such a visible token of heavenly communication. f John iii. 34. i John vi. 46. * John i. 18. h John v. 20. But the event foreshadowed upon Mount Sinai, was completed upon Mount Tabor. Christ went up into the mountain to pray with his three disciples, and was transfigured before them. "His face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." Moses himself, the representative of the law, and Elias, the chief of the prophets, "appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." m 1 All the circumstances attending these two events, corresponded in a remarkable manner. The skin of Moses' face shone. "The " n fashion of Christ's countenance was altered ;" and his face did shine as the sun." When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses coming down from the mountain of Sinai, they were afraid to come nigh him. And when Christ came down from the mountain of Transfiguration, "straightway all the people," says St. Mark, "when they beheld him" with some rays of majesty and glory still remaining upon his countenance, "were greatly amazed;"" the very expression which the same 1 Matt. xvii. 2. n Luke ix. 21. P Mark ix. 15. Comp. Mark xvi. 5. m Luke ix. 31. • Exod. xxxiv. 30. Πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἰδὼν αὐτὸν ἐξεθαμβήθη. καθήμενον ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς, περιβεβλημένον στολὴν λευκήν· καὶ ἐξεθαμβήθησαν. Evangelist uses to represent the astonishment excited by a supernatural vision; when they, who visited the sepulchre of Christ, beheld with surprise the angel sitting. The history of the transfiguration also contains other particulars which point out our Lord as the Prophet predicted and prefigured by Moses. As Moses had received all his oracles out of a cloud, so did a bright cloud, the emblem of the Divine presence, overshadow Christ and his wondering disciples. Moses had declared, that when the Prophet should arise like unto himself, unto him they should hearken. Now Christ's mission was, on two occasions, ratified by the testimony of a voice from heaven. He was sealed as the great Priest at his baptism. He entered upon his ministry at the same age at which the priests commenced the exercise of their office; and a voice from heaven then declared him the beloved Son of God." his transfiguration, Christ was again sealed as the great Prophet, by the same miraculous attestation; and on this occasion there were added the emphatic words "HEAR HIM,” in evident allusion to those in which the prediction of Moses was conceived." At Surely these splendid manifestations were a Matt. iii. 17. r Luke ix. 35. not made and recorded without a designed connection. Astonishing as the events are, when regarded as separate proofs of the divine authority of Moses and Christ, they prefer an additional claim to our attention and reverence, when the one is considered as an historical action, prefigurative and prophetic of the other. II. The second peculiarity in which Moses was unrivalled by all the prophets who succeeded him, but in which he should be equalled or surpassed by that Prophet who should afterwards be raised up, is the power of working miracles. They who argue for the Divine authority imparted to Moses, lay deserved stress upon the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and upon all that mighty hand, and all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.' There cannot, indeed, be conceived a stronger proof of the inspiration of any prophet, than that afforded by a miracle. And the miracles of Moses were notorious and indisputable. The ordinary course of nature was suspended in attestation of his truth. At his word a thick • Deut. xxxiv. 11, 12. darkness shrouded the land of Egypt; while "all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." He turned their waters into blood; and brought noisome reptiles upon their persons, and into the chambers of their kings. "He gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.” “He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land." The Egyptians, and their cattle were, at his command, afflicted with disease; and at the last "He smote all the first-born in their land, the chief of all their strength."" His miraculous power continued as he led the people of Israel forth, from the land of their captivity, into the desert. The sea which made a way for them to pass through the cloud which led them through the wilderness: the stream from the rock of which they drank : the manna which they ate: the clothes and shoes which waxed not old for forty years: the earth which opened her mouth: and the flames which came forth to punish those who rebelled against the prophet-all these, and other wonders of a similar nature, were signs visibly displayed before friends and enemies, attesting him to be, what he declared himself, a deliverer and a lawgiver inspired by God. Other persons, raised up by the Almighty t Exod. x. 23. . u Psalm lxxviii. 43-51. cv. Ι |