A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763 A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. i-xiii.

in the way of Pharaoh, as he was walking out to the a river Nile, and urging again the demand they had made for the departure of their brethren, as a farther sign that God had really sent them, upon Aaron's stretching out his hand, and touching the waters of the river with his rod, all the waters of the land of Egypt were turned into blood, and continued so for seven days; so that the fish died, and the inhabitants had no water to drink, but were forced to dig in new places for some to allay their thirst. But Pharaoh, finding that his magicians did turn

water into blood likewise, and supposing the thing on both sides to be equally performed by magical skill, was not convinced by the miracle, and so refused to let the Israelites depart.

When the seven days were expired, Moses and Aaron came again unto him, requiring the dismission of the people, and withal assuring him, that if he did not grant their request, they should bring a plague of c frogs upon all the land; and when the king seemed to set them at defiance, Moses ordered Aaron to stretch his rod again over the waters; upon doing of which there came up abundance of frogs, so as to cover the whole land of Egypt, and to swarm in their houses, their chambers, their beds, and the very places where their victuals were dressed; but here it also happened, that the magicians likewise performed the same, so that Pharaoh was not much influenced by this miracle. Only, as his magicians could not remove the frogs, he was forced to apply himself to Moses for relief, who, upon his address to God, had them all destroyed the next day, according to the time that he had prefixed; but when they were gathered into heaps, their number was so great, that before they could well be disposed of, they infected the air, and made the whole land stink.

There were several other miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron in the like manner. The swarms of lice which the magicians could not imitate; the murrain, or mortality among their cattle, wherein the Israelites were exempted; e the plague of flies; the boils inflicted upon

a The river Nile has its fountain-head in Upper Ethiopia, and flows through Nubia and Egypt. Below Cairo, where it is 1000 yards wide, it divides into two main branches, which again separate into several arms, the extreme eastern and western of which give to the lower part of Egypt the form of a delta. There were anciently reckoned seven principal mouths by which its waters were poured into the Mediterranean; only those of Damietta and Rosetta are at present navigable; the others have been choked up. The name Nile, according to Spineto (Lectures en Hieroglyphics), is Greek; the Egyptians calling it merely laro, which means river. The true Nile is formed by the confuence of the Bahr-el-Abiad (white river) and the Bahr-el-Azrek (blue river), in lat. 15° 40′ N. The former, rising in Abyssinia, to the south-west of lake Dembea, comes from the south-east, and was considered by Bruce as the Nile. The latter, however, which comes from the south-west, and is supposed to rise in the Mountains of the Moon, brings down the greatest mass of water, and is considered by Cailliaud as the true Nile. This is a mere dispute about words. In lat. 17° 40', it receives the Tacazze from the east, enters Egypt in 24°, following nearly a northern course, and below Cairo (30° 15′ N.) divides into the two main arms above-mentioned, the Damietta, or the eastern, and the Rosetta, or western branch. The distance from the confluence of its two head branches to the sea is about 1500 miles; from its highest sources, probably not far from 2500 miles. The cataracts so much celebrated by the ancients, modern discoveries have shown to be insignificant; they appear to be hardly any thing more than what, in America, are called rapids. In Upper Egypt, it is confined between two ranges of mountains, which leave only a narrow strip each side of the river. Near Cairo, the river valley widens, and the level nature of the country below allows it to spread itself over a wide plain. In Upper and Middle Egypt, there are great numbers of canals on the left bank of the river, which serve to irrigate the country: the principal, called the canal of Joseph, communicates with lake Moris. This is the only river in Egypt, and contains all the water the inhabitants have to drink, which made the turning it into blood an heavy judgment upon the people. The overflowing of the river, which most impute to the great d Some would have the word cinnim, which we render lice, to rains which fall, and melt the snow in the mountains of Ethiopia, signify gnats. The Septuagint calls them Kaviris; but what is the cause of all the plenty and fruitfulness of the whole country; kind of creatures these were, is not so certainly known. Others and therefore Plutarch and several others tell us, that nothing would have them to be a new species of animals, called analogiwas had in so much veneration among the Egyptians; that they cally by an old name; or if they were lice, that they were such adored and invocated it as the greatest of gods, not only under the as had wings, and cruelly stung and ulcerated the Egyptians, name of Osiris, but of Orus and Jupiter likewise, and instituted But upon the supposition that they were no worse than common in its honour the most solemn of their feasts: and therefore their lice, this was plague enough to the Egyptians, who affected neatconjecture, who think that Pharaoh went to pay his morning ness to such a degree, that they bathed themselves every day, devotions to the river Nile, is much more plausible, than that of and some of them frequently shaved their bodies all over, for fear the Chaldee Paraphrast, namely, that he went to observe divin- of such vermin. Those who pretend that these lice were a new ation upon the water as a magician, when in all probability his species, make this a reason why the magicians could not counterbusiness was no more than to bathe himself, as the custom among feit this miracle, because, though they could easily provide the the Egyptians was to do almost every day.-Calmet's Dictionary, serpents, the blood, and the frogs, yet this sort of animal was now Wells' and Moll's Geographies, and Bedford's Scripture Chron-nowhere to be had; and therefore, as the organs of sight are more ology, b. 3. c. 4.

Diodorus Siculus, in his description of Egypt, (b. 1. p. 32.) informs us, that the river Nile abounded with all manner of fish, though later travellers tell us, that there are not at present many in it, whether this be attributed to the muddiness of its water, or to the havock which the crocodiles and other monsters of this river may be supposed to make in it. But whether ancient or modern geographers are right in this particular, it is certain, that this putrefaction of the water, and slaying the fish, was a heavy judgment upon the Egyptians, who abstained from the eating of most animals, whose liquor was generally water, and whose constant food was the fruits of the earth, and the fish of this river. -Le Clerc's Commentary, and Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 2.

c The river Nile naturally produces frogs; but so great an abundance appearing on a sudden, filling the country, and leaving the rivers and fields, to go into the cities and houses, was really miraculous. How they got into the cities and houses is not so hard a matter to conceive; for if expert generals, according to both ancient and modern history, have sometimes surprised an enemy by entering cities through the common sewers, with much less difficulty might the frogs, these armies of the divine vengeance, find a conveyance into the cities, which stood all upon the banks of the river, by aqueducts and subterraneous communications; and being got into the cities, they might find apertures in the walls of the houses, which the inhabitants never perceived before.-Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

liable to be imposed upon than those of feeling, the magicians might impose upon the king, and the other spectators, with fantastical blood and frogs, but visionary lice could not vex and torment the body; so that now it was time for the enchanters to desist, and to own their inability to mimic Moses any farther. But supposing, that what the magicians did, in the three former miracles, was not illusion and imposition upon the senses, but reality, the true reason why they could proceed no farther was, that God Almighty had laid his restraint and prohibition upon the evil spirits, who had hitherto been subservient to them, that they might not assist them any longer.-Le Clerc's Commentary, and Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

e The word arab, which we render fly in general, is by the Septuagint called Kurouúa, that is, dog-fly, from its biting; for it

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. i-xiii. the magicians themselves; a the terrible thunder and lightning, rain and hail, which destroyed the fruits of

the

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. i-xiii.

while the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, was enlightened as usual. All these miracles, performed by the word of Moses, did not a little perplex the king. He found that all the power and learning of the magicians could not equal them. Upon attempting one of them, they themselves confessed that it was done by the finger of God; and in the case of another, they were equally sufferers in the common calamity: so that the king's heart was several times almost overcome. He offered the Israelites leave to perform their religious offices to their God, provided they would do it in Egypt; but their religion, as Moses told him, was so very different from the Egyptian, that were they to do what God required of them in Egypt, the inhabitants would a rise | up against them, and stone them. The king, after this, offered that they might go out of the kingdom, provided adult persons only would go, and leave their children behind, as pledges for their return; but to this Moses peremptorily replied, that none should be left behind, Some learned men are of opinion, that God, in the instiyoung and the old should go together; which enraged tution of the passover, had respect to these impious rites, Pharaoh so, that with some severe menaces, he ordered which either then did prevail, or in a short time were to him to depart from his presence. However, as he found prevail, among the Egyptians, and other nations where the Israelites were to dwell. Thus they tell us, "That God appointthe plagues increase upon him, he came to a farther con-ed a lamb to be slain, and eaten, and the month Nisan or March cession, and was willing that the people should go, but to be the particular time of eating it, in contempt of the Egyponly that their flocks and their herds should be stayed, tians, who at that time, when the sun first entered into Aries, as rightly supposing, that this might be a means to acce- began their solemn worship and adoration of this creature, and that celestial sign; that he forbade the people to eat the flesh of lerate their return: but Moses positively insisted, that the paschal lamb raw, or sodden, to break its bones, or leave any all their substance should be taken with them, and not fragment of it, because, in the profane feasts of Bacchus, it was one hoof be left behind; whereupon Pharaoh grew so a custom to eat the raw flesh of the victims, which they offered exceeding angry, that he charged him to be gone from to that god, and to break all their bones; and in the adoration of the 'nga, whom the Egyptians, and from them the Athenians, his presence, and never attempt to see him more, for reputed goddesses, they boiled all their sacrifices, and carried conthat, if he did, he would certainly put him to death. stantly some part of them home, as a good preservative against Moses, however, by the divine command, went once misfortunes." But there is no need, one would think, for such more to Pharaoh, with the severest message he had ever elaborate explications, when, considering the situation the Israelbrought him; and represented to him, that at midnight be released, and sent away with all speed, the nature and quality ites were in, sorely oppressed by the Egyptians, and shortly to God would strike dead the first-born of every family of the paschal sacrifice, as well as the manner of dressing and throughout all the land of Egypt, and that thereupon manner of eating it, may perfectly be accounted for. Thus, it there should be such a dread, and terror among the was to be a male, because a more excellent species than the Egyptians, that they would come to him in the most submissive manner, and beg of him to lead the people out of the land; and after that, said he, I shall go which put Pharaoh into such a rage, that Moses, having no intention to incense and provoke him farther, turned away, and left him.

the blood of the lamb, which was killed the evening before. And the injunction which Moses gave the people, was to this effect:-That every family of Israel, or if the family was too little, two neighbouring families joining together, should on the tenth day of the month, take a lamb or a kid, and shut it up until the fourteenth day, and then kill it; that the lamb was to be a male, not above a year old, and without any manner of blemish; that when they killed it, they should catch its blood in a vessel, and with a bunch of hyssop dipped in it, sprinkle the lintel and side posts of the outer door, and so not stir out of the house until next morning; that in the mean time, they were to eat the lamb or kid, dressed whole, and without breaking a bone of it, neither raw nor sodden, but roasted with unleavened bread, and bitter herbs; that if there was more than they could dispense with, no stranger was to eat of it, and therefore they

Four days before this, God had instructed Moses and Aaron to direct the people to prepare the passover, which was to be a feast in commemoration of their departure out of Egypt; because the night before they left it, the destroying angel, who slew the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Israelites, without doing them any harm, they being marked with

were to themselves more grievous than darkness.'-Wisdom, xvii. 2, 3, 21; Le Clerc's Commentary, and Philo's Life of Moses.

female; without blemish,' to render it acceptable to God; 'under a year old,' otherwise it could not properly be called 'a lamb;' and set apart from the rest of the flock,' that it might be in readiness when the people came in haste to offer it. 'Roasted it was to be, and not boiled,' because roasting was the speedier way of dressing it; but roasted thoroughly, because the whole was to be eaten; and the whole was to be eaten,' that none might be left for the Egyptians to profane. It was to be eaten standing, and in haste,' and with other circumstances of men every moment expecting to begin their journey; 'with bitter herbs,' to put them in mind of their cruel servitude; and 'unleavened bread,' in memory of their deliverance from it, so suddenly, that they had not even time to leaven their bread for their journey; which is all that the Israelites understood, and all perhaps that God at that time intended they should understand by the directions which he gave them concerning this remarkable

ordinance Spencer de Rit. Heb. Tom. 1. b. 2. c. 4.

c Exod. xii. 3. In the tenth day of this month, they shall take to themselves every man a lamb;' ver. 6. and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month.' From hence it appears that the lamb was to be taken from the flock a The words in the text are, Lo, shall we sacrifice the four days before it was killed. For this the rabbis assign the abominations of the Egyptians before their eyes, and shall they following reasons: that the providing of it might not, through a not stone us?' Exod. viii. 26. Where the interrogation, having hurry of business, especially at the time of their departure from in it the full force of an affirmation, makes the sense of the Egypt, be neglected till it was too late: that by having it before words to be this: "If we should offer those creatures which the their eyes so considerable a time, they might be more effectually Egyptians worship for gods, as the ox and the sheep, they doubt-reminded of the mercy of their deliverance out of Egypt; and less will be affronted to see us sacrifice their gods to our God." likewise to prepare them for so great a solemnity as the approachFor that the Egyptians did look upon several animals with a ing feast. On these accounts, some of the rabbis inform us, sacred veneration, is evident from that known passage in the it was customary to have the lamb tied these four days to their bed satirist:-"The fleece-bearing animals are served up on no table; posts: a rite which they make to be necessary and essential to the and it is a crime to butcher their young."-Juven, sat. 15. passover in all ages.-Jennings' Jewish Ant. vol. 2. p. 187.-ED.

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACcording to HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. ¡—xiii.

were to burn it; and, lastly, that the posture in which | Egypt, from the prince who sat upon the throne, to the

they were to eat it, was to be in a hurry, with their clothes on, and their staves in their hands, as if they were just upon the point of going, a

When every thing was thus in readiness for their departure, God, in the middle of the night, by his destroying angel, slew the first-born of every house in

b

a Exod. xii. 15. 'Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread.'

As by the law of Moses, no leaven of any kind was to be kept in the houses of the Israelites for seven or eight days, it might have been productive of great inconvenience, had they not been able by other means to supply the want of it. The MS. Chardin informs us, that they use no kind of leaven whatever in the east, but dough kept till it is grown sour, which they preserve from one day to another. In wine countries, they use the lees of wine as we do yeast. If, therefore, there should be no leaven in all the country for several days, yet in twenty-four hours, some would be produced, and they would return to their preceding state. (Harmer, vol. 1. p. 253.)—The first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses.' Concerning this matter the modern Jews are superstitiously exact and scrupulous. The master of the family makes a diligent search into every hole and crevice throughout the house, lest any crumb of unleavened bread should remain in it; and that not by the light of the sun or moon, but of a candle. And in order that this exactness may not appear altogether superfluous and ridiculous, care is taken to conceal some scraps of unleavened bread in some corner or other, the discovery of which occasions mighty joy. This search, nevertheless, strict as it is, does not give him entire satisfaction. After all, he beseeches God, that all the unleavened bread that is in the house, as well as what he has found, may become like the dust of the earth, and be reduced to nothing. They are also very exact and scrupulous in making their bread for the feast, lest there should be anything like leaven mixed with it. The corn, of which it is made, must not be carried to the mill on the horse's bare back, lest the heat of the sun should make it ferment. The sack in which it is put, must be carefully examined, lest there should be any remainder of old meal in it; the dough must be made in a place not exposed to the sun, and must be put into the oven immediately after it is made, lest it should ferment itself. Jennings' Jewish Ant, vol. 2. p. 211.-Ed.

meanest slave; but among the Israelites none was hurt, because the bloody mark upon the door-posts, was a token for the angel not to strike there. At midnight there was a sudden outcry and confusion among the Egyptians: the dying groans of their children awoke them; and when they perceived that in every family, without exception, the first-born, both of man and beast, were dead, they came immediately to Moses, in a great fright, and terror, and desired him to get the people together, and to take their flocks, and their herds, and all that belonged to them, and be gone, because they could not tell where such dreadful judgments would end. Moses, had beforehand, according to God's order, directed the Israelites to borrow of the Egyptians silver and gold vessels to a great value; and God had, at this time, disposed the hearts of the Egyptians to lend them every thing they asked for. The truth is, they were in a manner frighted out of their wits, and so urgent were they to have the Israelites gone, that they would not let them stay, so much as to bake their bread, but obliged them to take the dough, raw as it was, along with them, and bake it, as well as they could, upon the road. From whence it came to be a law, that during the whole eight days of the passover, no other bread than what was unleavened, was to be eaten, d

CHAP. II.-Difficulties Obviated, and Objections

Answered.

To account, in some measure, for the occasion of the sufferings of the Israelites in the land of Egypt, we must

b The word Bekor, signifies sometimes a person of some emi-reached both man and beast, though there was still a reserve for nence or excellence, as well as the first-born: and therefore it life. The hail and locusts extended, in a great measure, even to may not be an unreasonable supposition, that where a family had life itself; the first by an immediate stroke, and both conseno first-born, the principal or most eminent person was smitten quently by destroying the fruits of the earth. That of darkness with death; which is certainly better than to imagine, with added consternation to their minds, and lashes to their consome, both Jewish and Christian interpreters, that the words of sciences; and when all this would not reclaim, at length came Moses are only applicable to an house that had a first-born, or the decisive blow; first the excision of the first-born, and then with St Austin, that Providence did so order it at this time, that the drowning of the incorrigible tyrant and all his host: *Great every house had a first-born. Since this, however, is the con- and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! just and cluding judgment which God sent upon the Egyptians, may true are thy ways, thou King of saints!'-Rev. xv. 3. not be improper here to inquire a little how long Moses was in working all these miracles. According to Archbishop Usher, then, who has included them all within the space of one month, we may suppose, that about the 18th of the sixth month, was sent the plague of the waters turned into blood,' which ended seven days after. On the 25th came the second plague of frogs, which was removed the day following, and on the 27th, that of the lice. About the 28th, Moses threatened the fourth plague of flies, and inflicted them on the 29th. On the 1st of the next month, which was afterwards made the first month of the year, he foretold the plague of the murrain, and inflicted it the next; and on the 3d, the sixth plague of boils, which fell upon the magicians themselves. About the 4th day, he foretold the seventh plague of thunder and hail, and on the 5th inflicted it. On the 7th, he threatened the eighth plague of locusts, and having sent them the day following, removed them on the 9th. On the 10th, he instituted the feast of the passover, and brought upon Egypt the ninth plague of darkness, which lasted for three days; and on the 14th he foretold the tenth, namely, the d Exod. xii. 26, 27. Your children shall say unto you, what destruction of all their first-born, which came to pass the night mean ye by this service?' A custom obtained among the Jews, following. This seems to be a reasonable period of time; and that a child should ask the meaning of the passover, and that the the gradual increase of these judgments are somewhat remarka-person who presided, should then give an account of its intent ble. The four first plagues were loathsome, rather than fatal to the Egyptians; but after that of the flies, came the murrain, which chiefly spent its rage upon the cattle; the boils and blains

e Exod. xii. 34. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.' The vessels which the Arabs make use of for their kneading the unleavened cakes which they prepare are only small wooden bowls. (Shaw's Travels, p. 231.) On these they afterwards serve up their provisions, when cooked. It is not certain that these wooden bowls were the kneadingtroughs of the Israelites; but it is incontestable that they must have been comparatively small and light, to be so easily carried away. The original word may denote a kind of leathern utensil, such as the Arabs still use, when spread out for a tablecloth, and which, when contracted like a bag, serves them to carry the remnants of their victuals, and particularly sometimes their meal made into dough. (See Harmer's Observations, vol. 2. p. 447, &c.) So Niebuhr, speaking of the manner in which the Bedoween Arabs near mount Sinai live, says, a round piece of leather serves them for a tablecloth, and they keep in it the remains of their victuals."-ED.

and origin, that so the remembrance of God's mercy, might be transmitted to their latest posterity. This was called the declara tion, or showing forth.-Ed.

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observe, that in the fifth year of Concharis, (whom Josephus, from Manetho, calls Timeus, and who, according to Syncellus, was the twenty-fifth king of the land of Tanis, or Lower Egypt,) there came a numerous army of unknown people, and invaded Egypt on a sudden. They overran both the Upper and Lower Egypt; burned the cities, killed the inhabitants, and, having in a little time subdued all before them, made one of their leaders, whose name was Salatis, their king; who, as soon as he was settled on a throne, laid the land under tribute, made its ancient inhabitants his slaves; and gave the possession of their estates to his own people. Who this Salatis and his followers, who called themselves pastors or shepherds, were, is not so easy a matter to discover. The most probable conjecture is, that they were some of the Horites, whom the children of Esau drove out of Seir, a country which lay to the east and south of the Dead Sea, because the Horites were a people who lived by pasture, and happened to be expelled their own country much about this time. Egypt indeed was a very flourishing kingdom, but so far from being famous for war, that we read of none of their exploits of this kind from the time of their first establishment to this very day. They consumed their time in ease and wealth, and luxury; and therefore the Horites, if they were the Horites, might easily conquer them, and gain themselves a settlement in their kingdom, even as the Arcadians did in Thrace, and the Pelasgi, and afterwards the Trojans, in Italy.

However this be, the government of Egypt being by this means subverted, the protection and happiness which the Israelites enjoyed perished with it. This new king, as the Scripture calls him, knew nothing of Joseph, nor did he regard any establishment which he had made. He had forced his way into Egypt with his sword, and settled his people by conquest, in such a manner and upon such terms as he thought fit: only as the Hebrews were a great and increasing people, inhabiting those parts which he most suspected, and fearing lest, if any invasion should happen from the east, or any insurrection among the ancient inhabitants, they possibly might join with them, and so endanger his new acquisition, he thought it a point of good policy to use all proper means to keep them effectually under.

degeneracy from the virtue of their ancestors; and so, in the phrase of the prophet, to look unto the rock whence they were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence they were digged; to look unto Abraham their father, and unto Sarah that bore them.'

6

But even putting the case that they had not been thus culpable; yet, since 5 whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth,' who can say, but that God might justly permit such calamities to befall a people whom he had adopted for his own, the more to exercise their virtue and patience, and resignation to the divine will; the more to keep up a distinction between them and the Egyptians, which a friendly usage might have destroyed; the more to prepare and make them willing to leave Egypt, whenever God should send them an order to depart; and the more to heighten the relish of their future deliverance, and to make them more thankful, more obedient to him, and his injunctions, upon every remembrance of that house of bondage, wherein they had suffered so much, and been so long detained?

Of all the writers of the histories of their own times, there is none to be compared to Moses in this regard, that he reveals his own faults and blemishes, which he might have easily concealed, and conceals many things recorded in other authors, which might have redounded to his own immortal honour. He might have concealed the near consanguinity between his father and mother, which, in after ages, made marriages unlawful, though then perhaps it might be dispensed with. He might have concealed his murder of the Egyptian, and, for fear of apprehension, his escape into Midian. He might have concealed his aversion to the office of rescuing his brethren from their bondage; the many frivolous excuses he made, and the flat denial he gave God at last, till God was in a manner forced to obtrude it upon him. He might have concealed his neglect in not circumcising his son, which drew God's angry resentment against him, so that he met him and would have slain him. He might have concealed some peevish remonstrances he made to God when Pharaoh proved obstinate, and refused to comply. Above all, he might have concealed the whole story of the magicians, their working three miracles equally with him, and every other circumstance that One of the great mysteries in the dispensations of pro- seemed to eclipse his glory: but instead of this, we may vidence is, God's making choice of the children of Israel observe, that as he makes a large chasm in his life, from for his peculiar people, when it is so manifest, as Moses his childhood to his being forty years old, and from forty roundly tells them, that they were a stiff-necked nation, to fourscore; so he has left us nothing of the incompaand had been rebellious from the very first day that rable beauty and comeliness of his person; nothing of the he knew them.' 2 God will be gracious to whom he will excellency of his natural parts, and politeness of his be gracious, and will shew mercy to whom he will shew education; nothing of his Ethiopian expedition, the conmercy: but upon supposition that the children of Israel quests he made there, and the posts of honour which he held did not behave so well during their abode in Egypt, that in the Egyptian court; nothing indeed of all his transacthey neglected the worship of the true God, and com- tions of the preceding part of his life, but what the plied too much with the idolatrous customs of the country, author to the Hebrews has taken care to transmit, namely, this will afford us reason enough, why God might suffer that when he came to years, he refused to be called their sorrows to be multiplied, and their enemies to the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer ride over their backs.' 3. He does not,' indeed, afflict affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the willingly, nor grieve the children of men;' and there-pleasures of sin for a season.' So that here we have a fore we may presume, that this severe chastisement of signal evidence of the truth and honesty of our historian, his rod was to make them smart for some great and that in the passages of his own life, he conceals such as national defection; was to remind them of their sad

1

'Deut. ix. 24. 2 Exod. xxxiii. 19.

1 Isa. li. 1, 2. 5 Heb. xii. 6.

Sherlock on Providence.

Lam. iii. 33.

7 Heb. xi. 24, 25.