SERMON VII. On BROTHERLY LOVE. ACTS, vii. 26. MOSES, having been adopted in his infancy by the daughter of Pharaoh as her fon, lived until he was forty years of age in the court of the King of Egypt. In the course of this period of his life, but in what precife part of it the Scriptures do not mention, he received a divine intimation that he was ordained to be the perfon, who should deliver the children of Ifrael from that house of bondage. When he was now full forty years old, he appears to have imagined that the time of their deliverance was come. He went forth, and looked on their burdens, in expectation that fome favourable opportunity would speedily arise of convincing his countrymen that, by his means, they were to be rescued from the oppreffion under which they they groaned. Soon did he conclude that the opportunity presented itself. Seeing one of the Ifraelites fuffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppreffed, and fmote the Egyptian. For he fuppofed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. Again going forth among them on the following day, he shewed himself unto them as they ftrove: he interfered between two of them who were engaged in a violent contest each with the other, and would have fet them at one again; would have caused them mutually to cease from offering injury, and would have reconciled them. What was the argument which he employed to lead them to right tempers and right conduct? It was this simple and emphatical truth: Sirs, ye are brethren. In what refpects were the Jews brethren? In the first place, they were all defcended from Adam and Eve, the common parents of the human race. Thus were they all born of one blood, partakers of one nature. In this refpect they were equally brethren to each other and to all mankind. But, in the next place, the general confanguinity of man with man vanished in comparison with the particular relation between Jew and Jew. The Jews had not to trace back their origin to Adam in order to prove themselves to be kindred. They stopped fhort two thousand years from the creation." They refted when they reached the patriarch Abraham. From him they all derived their birth, the common children of the father of the faithful. Nay it was not neceffary to continue the fearch fo high as Abraham. All of them were the pofterity of his grandfon Jacob. Farther; they were accustomed and required to confider themfelves as brethren, in confequence of having already been in fome measure formed into a separate people, and kept apart by their manners and inftitutions, both from the Canaanites while their ancestors were in Canaan, and from the Egyptians fince they had come down into Egypt. And lastly, though they had not as yet been received as a nation into an open covenant with God, amidst the aweful folemnities accompanying the delivery of the law upon Mount Sinai; they were entitled to regard themfelves as joint-heirs of the promifes made unto Abraham, of the privileges and bleffings, prefent or future, which God had graciously pledged Himself to confer on Abraham's pofterity. Thefe, we may prefume, or the most im preffive of these, were the views, which Mofes endeavoured to bring before the two contending Ifraelites, whom he was anxious to reftrain from offering injury the one to the other. Let us obferve with what justice correfponding views may be presented to the confideration of Chriftians. Chriftians are the defcendents of Adam and Eve; and, as fuch, partake of one blood, of one nature. They cannot indeed, like the Jews, trace up their origin to fome common ancestor fhort of Adam: because, through the unbounded mercy of their. Heavenly Father, they are gathered out of many kindreds, and tongues, and peoples, and languages, by Him who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, by Him in whom all the nations of the earth fhould be bleffed. Still, however, Chriftians, no less than the Jews, derive their earthly defcent from the fame stock. As the Jews were to have no communication with idolaters; fo likewise are the fervants of Chrift enjoined to keep themselves apart from an unbelieving world, to have no fellowship with the workers of iniquity. They have heard the express command, Come out from among them, and be ye Separate, faith the Lord (a), and touch not the (a) 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. I 3 unclean unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My fons and daughters, faith the Lord Almighty. And finally, the fervants of Christ are put into poffeffion of the covenanted bleffings of Redemption, of which, in the days of Mofes, the Jews in general had very faint ideas; bleffings which, even after the delivery of the law, were dimly difcerned through the veil of emblematical ordinances. To Chriftians is diftinctly revealed that effectual atonement through the blood of the Lord Jefus, which was obfcurely fhadowed forth by the facrifices of the Temple. To them is clearly disclosed that genuine fanctification by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which was represented under figures by the washings and other purifying rites ordained in the Ceremonial Law. To Christians is unfolded that glorious reft which remaineth in Heaven for the people of God, of which the rest to be enjoyed in the land of Canaan was but a type. May it not well then be faid unto Chrif tians; Sirs, ye are brethren? Is it without reafon that the Lord Jefus Chrift and his Apoftles fo frequently prefs this confideration upon their followers? If the addrefs, Ye are brethren, was calculated to call forth the feelings of a Jew towards a Jew; how affectionate |