Some writers have imagined, that there might be no real miracle in this passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea. Moses was a great master of all science and learning, and had lived in Midian, a country near the borders of this sea, forty years. He had had time and abilities, whilst the kept the flocks of Jethro in this country, to observe with great accuracy the ebb and flow of it. The Red Sea at its northern end divides itself into two branches, one of which, namely that over which Moses led the Israelites, from Toro, where the two arms divide, up to the shore upon the wilderness of Etham, is about thirty leagues or ninety miles in length. At Toro this sea is about three leagues or nine miles over, and it continues of much about the same breadth for twenty-six leagues or seventy-eight miles upwards; from thence for about two leagues it is three miles over, and so it continues up to the land's end, for about six miles, three or four miles over all the way. The adjacent places, Migdol, Pihahiroth and Baalzephon, direct us whereabouts the Israelites passed over this sea, namely over this narrow arm, and not above six miles from the land's end; and it may be said, that the flux and reflux of the sea may perhaps cover, and leave dry every tide a tract of land, from the place where Moses passed over the Israelites, up to the wilderness of Etham, as the ebb and flow of the sea does all the wash, on the borders of Lincolnshire in our country; and if so, Moses might easily by his knowlege of the tides, contrive to lead the people round about among the mountains, so as to bring them to the sea, and

pass them over at low water; and the Egyptians, who pursuing them came later, might at first enter the wash safely as they did, but at midway, they might find the waters in their flow, loosening the sands, and prevent their going further. Hereupon they turned back, but it was too late; for the flood came to its height before they could reach the shore. Artapanus in Eusebius informs us, that the inhabitants of Memphis related this transaction in this manner. And it may perhaps be thought that Josephus favoured this account, and therefore compared the passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea, to Alexander's over the sea of Pamphilia." I have given this cavil all the weight and strength of which it can be capable; let us now see how it may be refuted. And I would observe,

I. That the passage of Alexander the Great over the sea of Pamphylia, bears no manner of resemblance to this of the Israelites over the Red Sea. Alexander was to march from Phaselis, a sea port, to Perga, an inland city of Pamphylia. The country near Phaselis, upon the shore of the Pamphylian sea, was mountainous and rocky, and he could not find a passage for his army without taking a great compass round the mountains, or attempting to go over the strand between the rocks and the sea. Arrian observes, that there was no passing here, unless when the wind blew from

Eusch. Præp. Evang. lib. 9. c. 27. Artapanus' words are, Μεμφιτας μεν λεγειν, εμπειρον ovla τον Μωυσον της χώρας την αμπωτιν τηρησαντα δια ξηράς της θαλασσης Josep. Antiq. lib. 2, c. 16.

το πλήθος

περαιώσαι.

the North. A wind from this quarter was so directed as to keep back the tide from flowing so far up the shore as the southern winds would drive it ; and therefore Alexander, perceiving just at this juncture, that there was a violent north wind, laid hold of the opportunity, and sent some of his army over the moun tains, but went himself with the rest of his forces along the shore. It is evident that there was no miracle, unless we suppose the wind's blowing opportunely for Alexander's purpose, a miracle; and Plutarch justly remarks, that Alexander himself thought, there was nothing extraordinary in this his passage; and it was certainly very injudicious in Josephus, to seem to compare this passage to that of the Israelites, when they are not in any one respect like to one another. The Israelites crossed over a sea, where no historian ever mentions any person but they, to have ever found a passage. Alexander only marched upon the shore of the sea of Pamphylia, where the historians, who most magnified the Providence that protected him, do allow that any one may go at any time when the same wind blows, which favoured him. It does not appear from any historian, that the Red Sea ebbs backward as far as where the Israelites passed over, so as to leave a large tract of sand dry in the recess of every tide, six or seven miles in length, and three or four miles over. No one but the Israelites ever travelled over dry land in this place, and there

1

fore, undoubtedly, here is no dry land, unless when Gon, by an extraordinary miracle, was pleased to make it so..

But, II. If the passage of Moses and the Israelites over the Red Sea, was upon the recess of a tide, then all the particulars in Moses' account of this affair are false. 1. There needed no cloud nor pillar of fire, to direct the journey of the Israelites to the Red Sea ; for they were, upon this supposition, conducted thither by the contrivance of Moses, who thought, that by his skill in the flux and reflux of the sea, he could better escape from Pharaoh there, than in any other place. 2. Moses represents, that the waters were divided and stood on heaps on both sides of the Israelites, and were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left; but this could not be true, if here was only an ebb or reflux of the tide. For if the tide was driven back by the strongest wind, the water could stand on heaps on one side only, namely toward sea ; the land side would be entirely drained, the water being driven by the wind down the channel. S. Moses represents, that Gop caused a strong East wind to blow, in order to divide the waters, and this indeed is a proper wind, to have by GoD Almighty's direction such an effect as he ascribes to it; but if a reflux of the tide had been the only thing here caused, an East wind had not been proper to cause it. The Red Sea runs up from the ocean towards the North-west, therefore a North, or North-west wind would have had the only proper direction to have driven back the tide, if that had been what was done in this matter.

An East wind blows across this sea, and the effect of it must be to drive the waters partly up to the land's end, and partly down to the ocean, so as to divide the waters, as Moses relates, and not to cause a great ebb of tide; and the blowing of such a wind as this, with a force sufficient to cause so extraordinary an effect, for the opening the Israelites so unexpected and unheard-of a passage through the midst of a sea, must be looked upon as a miraculous interposition of God's power for their preservation.

III. As to what Artapanus suggests, that the Egyp tians who lived at Memphis related, that Moses conducted the Israelites over the Red sea, by his skill in the tides, there is no regard due to this fiction, especially if we consider, that the wise and learned part of the Egyptians rejected it. For the same author testifies, that the priests of Heliopolis related the affair

• Euseb. Præp. Evang. ubi sup. The words are : Ηλι πολίτας δε λέγειν, επικαταδραμείν τον Βασιλέα μετά πολλής δυνάμεως, αμα και τους καθιερωμένοις ζώοις, δια το την ύπαρξιν της Ικδαίας των Αιγυπλίων χρησαμένες διακομίζειν τῷ δε Μωυσῳθειαν φωνην γενεσθαι, πατάξαι την θαλασσαν τη Ραβδις τον δε Μωυσον ακέσανία, επί λέγειν τη Ραβδῳ τα υδαίος, και στω το μεν ναμα διαστηναι, την δε δυναμιν (some word, perhaps παρασχησαι, seems here to be omitted in the text) δια ξηράς οδες πορεύεσθαι συνεμβαλων δε των Αιγυπτίων και διωκονίων, φησι πυρ αυτοις εκ των εμπροσθεν εκλαμψαι, την δε θάλασσαν πάλιν την οδον επικλύσαι της δε Αιγυπλίας υπο τε τα πυρός, και της πλημμυρίδας πανίας διαφθαρήναι This account of the Memphites is remarkably agreeable to that of Moses. It indeed hints, that there were some lightnings, which