othly, God can make others our friends : Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.' Zealous resistance sooner gaineth friends than carnal com- pliance. Who would offend a king to please one of his slaves ? The respects of others are in God's hands, and he can give us favour in the eyes of othei-s, as the captive children found favour in the eyes of the king of Babylon. If God be our friend, we need not fear ; we do not fear the sword if we do not fear him that weareth it. Man is frail, and can do nothing without God ; he is the creator and sovereign cause of all things.
Gthhj, They that please men shall have enough of it : Hos. v. 12, 'Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the com^mandment.' They were as willing to obey as he to command, and therefore they shall have yoke upon yoke. When we study to please men they often prove sad scourges to us.
(3.) In such cases carnal fear doth betray us, and faith carries us through : Isa. viii. 12, 13, ' Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom the people shall say, A confederacy, neither fear ye their fear,
VeR. 24.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XL 427
nor be afraid ; sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be yonr fear, and let him be your dread.' Faith vanquisheth carnal fear, as it setteth the fear of God a-work. The Egyptian midwives' saving the children is made to be an act of the fear of God : Exod. i. 17, ' But the Egyptian midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive.' Faith repre- sents a higher king and greater terrors ; it sets authority against authority, law against law, terror against terror. It fetcheth in invisible supplies : Heb. xi. 27, ' By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king ; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.'
Use. When you are apt to miscarry by carnal fear, set faith a-work. When tyrants set forth unjust edicts, when you fear the loss of parents' favour for God's sake, let faith represent to you the favour of God, and the wrath of God. What is the favour of men to the favour of God ? and the wrath of potentates to the wrath of God ?
SEEMON LYIII.
By faith Moses, ivlien he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. — Heb. xi. 24.
In this chapter you have a short chronicle of the worthies of God ; and in this constellation Moses shines forth as a star of the first magni- tude. The apostle had spoken first of that faith by which he was saved by his parents ; and now he comes to speak of that faith by which he saved himself ; and here is one instance of it — ' By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.' He is commended here for his principle and his carriage.
1. For his principle — By faith.
2. For his carriage — When he 2cas come to years, &c. His carriasre is set forth.
[1-
By the season — Wlien he was come to years.
[2.] By the act of self-denial — He refused to be called.
[3.] By the greatness of the temptation — The son of Pharaoh's daughter.
I shall give you —
(1.) The explication of the words.
(2.) The vindication of the act.
(3.) The commendation of it.
1. For the explication of the words.
[1.] His principle — ' By faith.' His faith was fixed ; partly upon the eternal recompenses : he had never left the delights of the court, if he had not looked for greater blessings. And partly on the particular promises made to God's people, for he believed that the seed of Abraham should be blessed ; though now they were very miserable and oppressed with hard servitude and bondage, yet he knew the promises of God to Abraham, and this faith urged him hereunto.
428 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. [SeR, LVIII,
[2.] Here is liis carriage. Where observe —
(1.) The season of it — ' When he was come to years; ' /xeVa? <yev6fjbevosi' when he was grown great. The same is observed, Exod. ii. 11, ' When Moses was grown, he went ont to his brethren, and he was then forty years old;' and Acts vii. 23, 'When he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.' He had visited his brethren before, for his original was not unknown to him ; but now he comes to visit them — that is, to take share and lot witli them, to visit them as their guide, that he might lead them out of Egypt ; and this he did when he was full forty years of age. Some say, when he was a child, he cast the crown that was put upon his head to the ground. Josephus reports of him that he trampled upon it, which was looked upon by the Egyptians as an ill omen. But if that be fabulous, the Holy Ghost takes no notice of his childish actions, but what he did 'when he came to years.' Now this circumstance is put down to show that Moses was of discretion to judge ; it was not out of childish ignorance, he knew what he did, for he had forty years experience of this coui-se of life. And partly to excuse the errors of his childhood ; those errors are not reckoned upon, if afterwards amended ; as Paul said, ' When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,' 1 Cor. xiii. 11. Partly to show that as soon as he was ripe for business he did delay no longer, when he was of full age and strength. And partly to show that he grew in the gifts and graces of the Spirit, as well as in years ; as Christ ' increased in wisdom and stature,' Luke ii. 42. Moses, when he was come of years, was another manner of person than Moses a child.