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13. And at the fecond time Jofeph was made known to his brethren and JoTephs kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.

tues of his true Worshippers. And A. D. 33.
finally, if this were true of the
Patriarchs, the Fathers of the
Jewish Church, it could not be o-
therwife intended of God, in rela-
tion to their Pofterity.

14. Then fent Jofeph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threefcore and fifteen fouls.

15. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers.

16. And were carried over into Sichem, and laid in the fepulchre that Abraham bought for a fum of money of the fons of Emmor the father of Sichem.

17. But when the time of the promife drew nigh, which God

had fworn to Abra-
ham, the people grew
and multiplied in E-
gypt,
18. Till another
king arofe, which
knew not Jofeph.
19 The fame dealt
fubtilly with our kin-
dred, and evil intreat
ed our fathers, fo that
they caft out their
young children, to the
20. In which time

Mofes was born, and
was exceeding fair,
and nourished up in
his fathers house three

months.

21. And

17, 18 & 19. As the four hundred Years grew toward a Completion, during their Stay in Egypt, the Ifraelites encreased there to vaft Multitudes, which the Egyptian King endeavoured, for Reasons of State, to fupprefs, by deftroying their Male Children as faft as they were born, as you now by illegal and violent Methods, intend to hinder the Religion of Chrift, by fuppreffing and deftroying his Apoftles and Disciples.

end they might not live.

20, 21 & 22. But as then Mofes was born, and by the special Providence of God was educated, qualified, and preferved to be their Deliverer, against all the Fury

and

Ver. 16. That Abraham bought, &c.Note, It was not Abraham, but Jacob that bought this Sepulchre, Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19. Whether therefore we should fay, That Stephen, in the Warmth of his Speech, might mistake the Name; or rather, that it is an Error of the Copies; let the learned and pious Reader determine: See Capel. Specileg: on this Paffage. Erafmus in II Cap. Math. and Epift. Lib. 2. Epift. 6. Epifcop. Inftit. Lib. 4. Sect. 184. Le Clerc \ Ars Crit. Part. 3. Pag. 208.

A. D. 33.

21. And when he was caft out, Pharaohs daughter took him up, and nourished him for

her own fon.

22. And Mofes was

learned in all the wif-
dom of the Egypti
ans, and was mighty
in words and in deeds.
23. And when he
was full forty years
old, it came into his
heart to vifit his bre-
thren the children of

Ifrael.
24. And feeing one
of them fuffer
wrong,
he defended bim, and
avenged him that was
oppreffed, and fmote
the Egyptian:
25. For he fuppofed
his brethren would
have understood, how

that God by his hand

would deliver them;

but they understood

not.

26. And the next

and Oppofition of the Egyptian Court; fo be you affured, God has in a still more wonderful Manner appointed Jefus to be the Saviour of Mankind, and will miraculously support and defend his DocForce of your Power and Malice. trine and Religion, maugre all the

23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 & 29. Mofes, indeed, before his Divine Commiffion, to be the Inftrument of their Deliverance from Egyptian Bondage, was fully known, did a private Action or two that could only be interpreted a Kind of Earnest of their future general Deliverance; and the Parties concerned in it, haying no Apprehenfions of him as fuch, rejected and abufed him for his Kindness; but you have now no Plea in refpect to your Saviour Jefus. His Commiffion is and your Refufal of him is without confirmed by all poffible Evidence, all Excufe.

day he fhewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have fet them at one again, faying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?

27. But he that did his neighbour wrong, thrust him away, faying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28. Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? 29. Then fied Mofes at this faying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two fons.

30. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wildernefs of mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord in a flame

of fire in a bush.

31. When Mofes

faw

30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 & 36. But when GOD had demonftrated his Commiffion by that wondrous and amazing Appearracle of the burning Bush, and ance at Mount Sinai, by the Miby the Voice of an Angel; and

when

faw it, he wondered at the fight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the bord came unto him, 32. Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Mofes trembled, and durft not behold.

33. Then faid the

when Mofes had by the Power A. D. 33-
of Miracles convinced the Egyp-
tians and them of the Truth of
it; then they found the Perfon
they before overlooked and re-
jected, to be indeed their great
Deliverer and Governor. And
thus God will at last moft terribly
convince you, That the Jefus whom
you have rejected, is the only Sa-
viour, and fpiritual Deliverer of
bis Church and People.

Lord to him, Put off thy fhoes from thy feet: for the place
where thou ftandeft is holy ground.

34. I have feen, I have feen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will fend thee into Egypt.

35. This Mofes, whom they refufed, faying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the fame did God fend to be a ruler and deliverer by the hands of the angel which appeared to him in the bufh.

36. He brought them out, after that he had fhewed wonders and figns in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

37. This is that Moles, which faid unto the children of Ifrael, A prophet fhall the Lord your God raife up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him fhall ye hear.

37. And even this great Mofes your Lawgiver, has given you fo little Reafon to conclude, That the ceremonial Law fhould be of neceffary and perpetual Obligation, that on the contrary, when he had given you it, he directed you and your Pofterity to expect the MESSIAH as a more excellent Prophet, the Author of more refined and fpiritual Laws: To which therefore his were only an Introduction, and in due Time to give Place. 38. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our

fathers:

38. This Mofes, I say therefore, when he delivered this Law from GOD to our Forefathers, could be underftood to give it for no longer Continuance, than

till

A. D. 33. fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.

39. This is he to whom our fathers would not obey, but thruft him from them,

and in their hearts

turned back again into
Egypt,

40. Saying unto
Aaron, Make us gods
to go before us for
as for this Mofes,
which brought us out
of the land of Egypt,
we wot not what is

become of him.

41. And they made
a calf in thofe day's,
and offered facrifice
unto the idol, and re-
joiced in the works of

their own hands..
42. Then God turn-
ed and gave them up
to worship the host of
heaven; as it is writ-

ten in the book of the

till CHRIST should come to compleat it, and give a more perfect one in the room of it.

39, 40, 41, 42 & 43. And when thefe your Forefathers (who were as much the Church and favourite People of God as you

can now pretend to be) were fo ungrateful under all their Deliverances, and fo ftupid under all the Bleffings of their divine Law, as to affront Mofes by whofe Hand they received it, and from Time to Time to fall into heathen Idolatry and Worship; what did God do to them, but give them up to themfelves, defpife their Temple, and at last give it over to Deftruction, and them into a long and dreadful Captivity? And therefore be ye your own Judges, whether this your malicious Treatment of Chrift the laft and greateft of all Lawgivers, does not call for a more terrible and fatal Punishment?

Amos v. prophets, O ye house of Ifrael, have ye offered to me flain beafts, and facrifices, by the fpace of forty years in the wilderness?

25.

43. Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the ftar of your god Remphan, figures which ye made, to worfhip them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

:

44. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witnefs in the wilderness, as he had appointed, Speaking unto Mofes, according to the fafhi

that he should make it

on that he had feen.
45. Which also our
fathers that came after,
brought in with Jefus

into

44 & 45. Again, the Tabernacle with the Ark in it, was, for a long Space of Time, as folemn a Place for your Worship, and of the Divine Appearance and Refidence, as the Temple can be at this prefent; and yet though it was made and framed by God's fpecial Direction for that Purpofe, he was fo far from confining

his

into the poffeffion of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, nto the days of David. 46. Who found favour before God, and

defired to find a taber

nacle for the God of Jacob.

his Bleffings to it, that it lafted A. D. 33.
no longer than to the Building
of the Temple.

46. Which noble Fabrick was erected, and accepted of God, Gratitude for divine Favours, more as a Teftimony of David's than from any express and pofi

tive Command from Heaven.

47. But Solomon built him an houfe.

47. As it is evident from this, That though God accepted of David's thankful and pious Intention; yet so little did he infift upon it as effentially neceffary to his divine Worship and Prefence, that only becaufe David was engaged in fo many Wars, he ordered the Building of it to be deferred to the more peaceable Reign of his Son Solomon.

48. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as faith the prophet, 49. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footftool: what houfe will ye build me? faith the Lord: or what is the place of my reft?

48, 49 & 50. Nay, and when he had built and confecrated it to this divine Service, what a folemn Profeffion and Declaration did he then make in his Dedica

tion-Prayer? (1 Kings viii. 27.) That the most High God neither could nor would confine his efpecial Prefence, and Bleffings, upon the Worship of Men, to any Temple made with Hands; nor He that fills Heaven and Earth; limit His People's Adorations to one particular Place. Plainly intimating thereby, That this Temple had no peculiar Holiness in itself, nor were its Worship and Sacrifices of any neceffary and perpetual Obligation. And the fame was meant by the Prophet Ifaiah, when he fays, What House will ye build me, &c. [Ifai. lxvi. 1, 2.]

50. Hath not my hand made all these things?

51. Ye ftiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always refift the holy

Ghoft:

51. Stephen having thus fully answered the Charge laid to him, and knowing the incurable Prejudice and Malice of the Coun

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