SiItDßölV 471 a rod for signal, like an ensign or banner to encourage the sol- diers : It was a rod of faith, for by faith alone it could produce wonders :--wonders of destruction upon Egypt, wonders of division -upon rocks and Red seas, wonders of deliverance for Israel, and all this without any natural force of its own ; for it received all its power from faith, and from the presence of divi- nity with it. It was lifted up constantly from an eminent place where Moses stood, whence the holy army might see it, and obey orders, and renew their courage in battle. Though the hands of Moses seem to have been lifted up alternately, and not together, yet because the lifting up of the hands sometimes in scripture signifies prayer* therefore the constant fervency of intercession may be also implied here; and no doubt but these earnest requests to heaven, which this man of God of- fered upon the mount, while the people were fighting below, had a mighty influence on the labour and success of the day. Blessed be God, we have a Moses in the midst of us on the top of the hill, a queen of a manly soul upon the throne of our British Israel : She has by her royal proclamations given order to fight with Amalek, to oppose and suppress the armies of ini- quity : She still holds up the rod of command; and it may be well called the rod of God, not only because all authority is de- rived from God as the original source of government ; but because here it is-held up in his quarrel too. It shall be called a rod of faith and Of power, for it has wrought wonders at a distance This the fields of Blenheimwitness, and the plains of Ramillies; wonders of rescue for the German empire, and wonders of liberty for mankind. Her hand is still stretched out against the enemies of heaven at home and abroad ; and we have still reason to be- lieve, that it is lifted up in addresses to heaven by faith and prayer, that all the adversarigs of the Lord may be overcome: Omay her life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and guarded by the angel of the covenant, as the life of Moses was ! May her days be many, as the days of Motes ! Deut. xxxiv. 7. May her eye never grow dim to thetrue interest of our Israel, nor her natural force and resolution to fight the battles of the Lord be ever abated ! Aaron is the next person mentioned Isere, Aaron the high- . priest, though, perhaps he was not at this time invested with that office, yet being designed for it, we may takehim nowunder this character ; he was to assist Moses in bearing up his hand on the one side, as Her on the other í We have also the ministers of the gospel in our age attending this holy warfare : Those whom the favour of her majesty hath advanced near to her royal person support her hands in this design, encourage her zeal to lift up b 2
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