of obtaining instruction is now at an end: but the prayer of faith will yet prevail, so that God's ministers and people shall not seek his face in vain. If they truly desire his direction, they shall be preserved from any important error, and be guided into all necessary truth: " The meek he will guide in judgment ; the meek he will teach his way."]
From this subject we may clearly learn,
1. The blessedness of the Christian church —
[How happy were the Jews to have such an intercessor as Moses, and such a governor as Joshua ! Follow Joshua in his course, from the moment of his appointment to the moment of his death : what a series of victories, till he had conquered the land, and distributed it according to the divine purpose ! But if we envy the Jews their divinely-appointed head, what objects of envy must we be, who have the Lord Jesus Christ himself for our Head ! He is the true Joshua, to whom " the Spirit is given without measure g." He also is made " Head of the Church," and is " ascended up on high, that he may fill all things ; " and through him the very weakest of his people shall be " more than conquerors." Let us then " be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," and not doubt but that " he will bruise Satan under our feet shortly."]
2. The duty of advancing in every possible way its best interests —
[If we be magistrates or ministers, our duty is proportion- ably difficult, and our responsibility proportionably awful. O that all who have been placed in such offices, felt as they ought the obligations that are upon them! Let ministers in parti- cular, who have a far greater charge than that of magistrates committed to them, give themselves up wholly to the execution of their trust. Let them fear lest the blood of those who die in their sins, be laid to their charge. And let them so fulfil their ministry, that they may give up their account with joy, and not with grief.]
s Isai. xi. 2, 3. John iii. 34.