essary, and on occafions becoming his dignity, the Mofaic account of this wonderful event, stands fully justified in point of taste as well as authenticity. The powerful rod is once more stretched out. The east wind blows: the fea retires; and a fafe and easy paffage is opened for Ifrael through the channel of the deep. "This alfo cometh forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." "Speak unto the children of Ifrael that they go forward." The word which commands the progrefs alfo prepares the way. As in latter times, by the effectual working of the fame almighty power, the grace which cured the father's unbelief, at the selffame instant likewise caft the devil out of the fon. It is the sensible language of the common proverb, "The king faid, Sail; but the wind faid, No." The command of the King of kings alone procures prompt obedience from every creature; for all are his fubjects in fact, as well as of right. Thrones, principalities and powers are subject unto him; and "a sparrow falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Father." When we behold our blessed Saviour, in the New Testament, saying to the stormy wind and the foaming billows, "Peace, be still," and a great calm instantly ensuing; and compare it with the work of the great Jehovah under review, we are led directly to the conclufion of the Roman centurion who obferved the wonders attending the crucifixion, "Truly this was the Son of God." In the history of our own country there is a passage, which the event we are confidering suggests to our thoughts, and which does honour to the piety, modefty and good sense of the prince whom it concerns. Canute, one of the early kings of the fouthern divifion of England, justly disgusted at the gross and impious adulation of fome of his courtiers, who afcribed to him the attributes which belong only to God, and called him "lord of the earth and of the fea," that he he might check their folly by fomething more than a simple reproof, commanded his chair of state to be placed on the beach near Southampton, during the flowing of the tide. Arrayed in his royal robes, and attended by all the nobility and great men of his court, he fat down with his face towards the fea, and thus addressed it; "I charge thee upon thy allegiance, O fea, to advance no farther. Here I, thy lord, have thought proper to fix my station. Know thy diftance; respect my authority, nor dare to touch the feet of thy fovereign, under pain of his highest difpleasure." The swelling billows, regardless of his command and threatenings, continued to rush in, advanced impetuously to the steps of his throne, and speedily constrained the monarch and his train to retire. Upon which, turning round to his flatterers, he observed, "that he only deserved to be acknowledged as Lord of the land and the fea, whose will the winds and the waves obeyed." The breadth of the passage opened through the Red Sea must have been very confiderable indeed, to have afforded to fuch a multitude as four millions of people, for less there could not be, space to get over in a fingle night's time. To determine this we must have recourse to calculation. But your time being far fpent, this, together with an attempt to folve some of the difficulties of the dispensation, and to remove fome of the objections which infidelity has raised to the credibility or miraculousness of the history, must make a constituent part of another Lecture. In practically applying this subject, we may confider the Red Sea, by which the armies of Ifrael were stopt short, as an emblematical reprefentation of that great fight of affliction, that fea of trouble, through which every believer must pass in his way to the heavenly Canaan. Through the furnaces of Egypt, through the paths of the Red Sea, through the fwellings of Jordan, God's ancient people at length got poffeffion of the promised land. And it is " through manifold manifold tribulations that we must enter into the kingdom of God." It is of importance not only that we be going forwards, but that we be making progrefs; that growth in grace should keep pace with the uninterrupted flux of human life. The course which Providence leads us, though neither the shortest nor the most defirable, will be found upon the whole the fafest, the surest and the best. The possession of Canaan is not always the next step to our escape from Egypt. Juftification by the grace of God puts us beyond the reach of our enemies, and adoption makes good our title to "the inheritance of the faints in light;" but it is sanctification that makes us meet for the enjoyment of the purchased poffeffion. The Red Sea seemed to put an end to Ifrael's progrefs, but actually shortened the distance. So affliction, while it appears intended to overwhelm, is accelerating the believer's speed to his Father's house above. "All these things are against me," faith frail, faltering, erring man, in his haste. "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God," faith the better informed, the experience-taught christian, on reviewing the mysterious ways of Providence; and on having attained "the end of his faith, even the falvation of his foul." If we look to the creature only, all is dark and comfortless; nothing but cloud. When through the creature we look to an invisible God, all is peace and joy. We cannot remove mountains, nor turn floods into dry ground. It is not meet we should be trusted with such power. Obedience is our proper province; fubmission to the will of God our trueft wisdom; and when we follow the direction of Providence, our way cannot but be profperous. "Lord, we will follow thee whitherfoever thou goeft." Human conduct is a woeful inverfion of this rule. We torment ourselves about the event over which we have no power, and trifle with the commandment with which alone we have to do. We neglect our duty, and then foolishly and impioufly complain that we are unkindly dealt by, when Providence promotes not, or croffes our inclinations. Let us shew cheerful and unreferved compliance; and be the issue what it may, whether our wishes be opposed or fucceed, we shall at least have the consolation of reflecting, that the miscarriage is not chargeable to our own perverfeness or folly. It is a dreadful, it is a two-edged evil, at once to lose our aim, and incur the just displeasure of God by difobedience. "Thy will," O Father, " be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Amen. History Hiftory of Mofes. : Then fang Mofes and the children of Ifrael this song unto the Lord, and spake, faying, I will fing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and fong, and he is become my falvation : he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my Father's God, and I will exalt him. To no one man has the world been so much indebted for rational pleasure and useful knowledge, as to the inspired author of these sacred books. Mofes, as he is the most ancient, fo he is by far the best writer that ever existed. Never in one and the fame character were united talents so various, so rare, and fo valuable. He may without hefitation be pronounced, the most eloquent of historians, the fublimest of poets, the profoundest of sages, the most sagacious of politicians, the most acute of legiflators, the most intrepid of heroes, the clearest fighted of prophets, the most amiable of men. The qualities of his heart feem to strive for the mastery with those of the understanding: fo that it is difficult to determine whether, as the reputed fon of Pharaoh's daughter, as a voluntary exile from the splendour of a court, as the sympathizing friend of his afflicted brethren, as the bold protector of virgin innocence, as the contented shepherd of Jethro's flock, as the magnanimous affertor of Ifraelitish |