cannot be reconciled, as they continued forty

years.

Luth. You are as far divided as the pope and myself, and I begin to be peckish, and faint and famished.

Boy. David, in the 40th Pfalm, fpeaks in the perfon of the Meffiah. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and beard my calling. He brought me alfo out of the borrible pit, out of the mire and clay; and fet my feet upon the rock, and ordered my goings. And be bath put a new fong in my mouth, even a thanksgiving unto our God. Many fhall fee it and fear, and fhall put their trust in the Lord. Bleffed is the man, that has fet his hope in the Lord; and turned not unto the proud, and to fuch as go about with lies. O Lord, my God, great are the wondrous works which thou hast done, as alfo thy thoughts, which are to us, and yet there is no man that can number them unto thee. If I should speak of them, they are more than I am able to exprefs. Sacrifice and meat-offerings thou wouldst not; but my ears thou baft opened. Burnt-offerings and facrifice for fin baft thou not required: then faid, behold, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, that I fhould fulfil thy will, O my God: I am content to do it, yes, thy law is within my heart. I have declared thy righteoufnefs in the great congregation: lo, I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, and that thou knoweft, &c.

Luther. But, my lad, your quotations are a long way back; my friend, David, fpeaks before the firft temple which his fon Solomon built; but Chrift appeared in the second temple, and

whe

whether my friend fpeaks of himfelfor Chrift, we that are at fo great a distance, and of another ftock, cannot dive into the mystery; we would do wifely to think of what may be most urgent in our perfonal and immediate neceffities; my voice, therefore, is, every spirit praise the Lord. Let me, an old divine of the church of England, of no mean parentage in the annals of history, advife you of three effentials. First, what is paft is not ours; that, that is to come, is not ours; what is prefent let us gripe at; or, like a hag, or night-mare, it will flip through our fingers.

Mofes. Prophecy is the fole goodness and mercy of God, to enlighten and teach man his duty, and correfpondence to the divine will. Your Saviour, from whom all chriftians fhould draw their copy, gives you the example and tells you; as I do, fo do you. But you being a protester cannot act confonant with Jews and chriftians. This Pfalm feems to indicate the Meffiah offering to the Divine Majefty fome other mode of worship different from the old. Sacrifice and meat-offerings thou wouldst not. Here the old is rejected. Burnt-offerings and facrifice for fin, thou wilt not; then, faid I, I come. Without doubt this is the Meffiah, to bring in and confirm the fecond covenant. Here I paufe, I find myself involved and preffed with unfurmountable difficulties; our Meffiah to change the laws and conftitution of our fathers, given by Almighty God Himself, to our great Lawgiver. Can the Great God of Heaven act contrary to Himself, or alter what he has commanded to be complied with, and kept holy.

and

and unviolated? This cannot be; or, are the fcripture prophefies falfe? this cannot be, for the one confirms and depends on the other. My head is distracted and my heart chills, with fo cold and deadly faintnefs that is come upon me. Luther. Our conclave is attended with very alarming symptoms, both in body and spirit: I have been a fhepherd, or, fheep master, near fifty years, but never faw or experienced the working or influence of the fpirit: no, not one converfion until Calvin's, and in all likelihood, according to the prefent face of things, Mofes's. I hope his change will be full and compleat, if he should furvive the prefent catastrophe. I have taken much trouble and pains as a person of my cloth should, to open his understanding and remove his errors; in his cafe it would be not fo much for the novelty of the thing, but the advantages I fhould draw from fo great a captive. ft, I fhall take him over to England. 2dly, As Jews are clever in bargaining, he fhall be fet over my dealings with my parishioners and others, and explain, perfuade, and fhew them the utility of enlarging, by industry, their temporals, that they may be prompt, full, and liberal, in paying the tithes of all to a grain of muftard; for as the fcripture takes notice that a feed of mustard, though the smallest of feeds when grown, becomes a large tree, fo that the fowls make their habitation in it. This parable has been productive of infinite good to me in particular, being, from my youth, or rather childhood, ever before me, knowing man was to earn his bread by the fweat of his

brow;

brow; and that nothing is to be counted small, defpifed, neglected, or over-looked. It with alfo come better from him, having been a Jewifh master, to inculcate the fcripture amongst them, and fhew them that what he teaches is no riddle; but that his father Abraham, who was the friend of God, paid tithes of all he had; and even Levy the father of the Jewish priefthood, in the bofom of old Abraham alfo, and jointly with his grandfather, paid their tithes to Melchifedech, who was type of myfelf; and that if the fhadow was intitled to full tithes, to the third and fourth generations, how much more myfelf, that is the real and identical Melchifedech? fo that this being granted, I fhall bring into my barn not only the tenths, my claim on the fathers, but for four generations, which is other four tenths added, make five tenths, which is one half of the whole productions; this fhall be nett gain, and farther, that it is an act of religion; on all holidays every face of all colours and denominations, bring their free gifts to the church that they may receive a bleffing: him that is nigardly fhall receive little, but him that is abounding fhall receive fevenfold and likewife that all faft-days, ordered by our church, as annexed or placed in our common prayerbook, fhall be duly obferved and attended to, either by rigorous fafting, according to the cuftom of England, Wales, and Berwick upon Tweed, or betimes in the morning repair to the church and make atonement for fin; by making a full offering as a facrifice for their offences. This will be pleafing to Mofes,

re

.

reminding him of his wifhed-for Jewish worship, and nearly bring in the remaining five tenths, or other half of their crops or incomes; taking the whole together, my income, as my family and houfhold at large fhall be fupported by another kind or fecondary gift or offering, which fhall be imposed by inspectors for every misdemeanor, or place them nine fundays fucceffively in the church, during diyine fervice, morning and evening, naked, and a white fheet, for decency, thrown over them, as they do in Scotland, or other prefbyterian conventicles. Mofes fhall also be placed as overfeer to negociate my moneys and play in the stock-jobbing game, which will delight and recreate him, make him a useful fervant and at free-coft to myself, as he well knowing, they tell me, forty thousand pounds in the funds.

Boy. Mofes, with the other prophets, speaks of the two legiflations or covenants. Mofes particularly enjoins obedience to the legislator that Almighty God was to raise you after he was taken away; and this is him that Ifrael long expected before Mofes was born and promised, even from the fall of Adam. Third chapter of Genefis, I will put enmity between thee (Serpent) and the woman (Eve) and between thy feed and ber feed: it shall bruife thy head and thou shalt bruife his beel. The feed here promised to overcome the tempter is in the fingular number and must be of divine original; for the whole race of the buman nature was involved in the fame predicament, the injury, or infult, being against the Creator,

I