A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxlv. 24.

He ended, and the sun gave signal high
To the bright minister that watched: He blew
His trumpet, heard on Oreb since perhaps
When God descended, and perhaps once more
To sound the general doom.

Paradise Lost, b. 6. and 11.
a These ten commandments, as contained in the 20th chapter
of Exodus, are so very well known, that there is no occasion here
for the repetition of them: and in what manner they are to be
disposed of in the two tables, whether four are to be placed in
the first, and six in the second table, which is the common dis-
tribution, or an equal number is to be appropriated to each table,
as Philo and his followers among the Jewish rabbins contend, is
not a question of moment enough to be discussed in this place.
6 Exod. xx. 12. That thy days may be long upon the land.' As
disobedience to parents is, by the law of Moses, threatened to be
punished with death, so on the contrary long life is promised to
the obedient; and that in their own country, which God most
peculiarly enriched with abundance of blessings. Heathens also
gave the same encouragement, saying, that such children should

A. M. 2513. A. C. 149!; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 21. a tables of stone, wherein with his own hand, at least by | camp, who by reason of his long absence began now to his own direction, were written the ten great commnand-give him over for lost, assembled themselves in a riotous ments, which were the sum and substance of the moral manner about Aaron's tent, and demanded of him to law.

While Moses was conversing with God on the mount, and Joshua waiting for his return, the people in the

(Ethic. b. viii.) says, that the ancient sacrifices and assemblies were after the gathering in of the fruits, being designed for an oblation of the first-fruits unto God.-ED.

a Who was the first inventor of letters, and what nation had the invention soonest among them, is variously disputed by the learned. The invention seems to be a little too exquisite to have proceeded from man; and therefore we have, not without reason, in a former page, derived its original from God himself, who might teach it Adam, and Adam his posterity. As to particular nations, however, some say that the Phoenicians, others the Ethiopians, and others again that the Assyrians, had the first invention of them; but upon better grounds, it is thought by Eusebius (in his Præpar. Evan. b. 18.) that Moses first taught the use of letters to the Jews, and that the Phoenicians learned them from them, and the Grecians from the Phoenicians. The matter whereon men wrote in ruder times was different; some on the rinds of trees, others on tiles, and others on tables; which last was chiefly in use among the Jews; and probably from this example given them by God. The instrument wherewith they wrote, was not a pen, but a kind of engraver made of iron or steel, called a stylus, which was sharp at one end, for the more convenient indenting, or carving the character, and broad at the other for the purpose of scraping it out. To perpetuate the memory of any thing, the custom of writing on stone or brick was certainly very ancient, and (as Josephus, in the case of Seth's pillars, tells us, Antiquities, b. 11.) older than the time of the flood. The words of the decalogue, spoken by God himself, were such as deserved to be had in everlasting remembrance; and therefore God was willing to have them engraved upon durable matter; but then the question is, whether it was God himself, with his own finger, as we say, or some other person from God's mouth, who wrote them. In Exod. xxxiv. 27, 28. we are told, that the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words; for after the tenor of these words have I made a covenant with thee and with Israel;' and that accordingly he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, even the ten commandments.' Now since it is a common form of speech, that what a superior commands to be done, that he does himself; the meaning can be no more, than that the words of the decalogue were written by the hand of Moses, but by the direction and dictation of God.-Howell's and Universal History. 6 Exod. xxiv. 11. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand.' It is usually said that God laid not his hand' in a way of terror, or anger, on these nobles on account of their intrusion: but in the Monthly Magazine for January, 1804, is the following description of the appearance at court of the Mogul's officers, who partake of his bounty or rewards. "Those officers of the districts, whose time has expired, or who have been recalled from similar appointments, repair to the imperial presence, and receive the reward, good or evil, of their administration. When they are admitted into the presence, and retire from thence, if their rank and merit be eminent, they are called near to his majesty's person, and allowed the honour of placing their heads below his sacred foot. The emperor lays his hand on the back of a person, on whom he means to bestow an extraordinary mark of favour. Others from a distance receive token of kindness, by the motion of the imperial brow or eyes. Now if the nobles of Israel were not admitted to the same nearness of approach to the Deity as Moses and Aaron, perhaps this phrase should be taken directly contrary to what it has been. 'He laid not his hand' in a way of special favour, nevertheless they saw God, and did eat and drink in his presence. This sense of laying on the hand is supported by a passage in Bell's Travels to Persia, p. 103. "The minister received the credentials, and laid them before the Shah, who touched them with his hand, as a mark of respect. This part of the ceremony had been very difficult to adjust; for the ambassador insisted on delivering his letters into the Shah's own hands. The Persian ministers, on the other hand, affirmed that their king never received letters directly from the ambassadors of the greatest emperors on earth." -Theological Magazine, vol. iv. p. 140.-ED.

make them some gods to go before them. The demand was astonishing, and such was his weakness, and want of courage, that instead of expostulating the matter with them, he tamely submitted to their request; nay, he contributed not a little to their idolatry, by ordering them to bring a sufficient quantity of their golden ornaments. which when he received from them, che tied in a bag, and thereof made them a molten calf. Nor was this all, for seeing them so highly delighted with their new made god, he set it upon a pedestal, in full sight of the camp, built an altar before it, and appointed the next day for a solemn festival, which was begun with offering of sacrifices to it, and concluded with feasting and dancing, and all kinds of noisy mirth.

d

God, in the mean time, who knew what had passed in the camp, acquainted his servant Moses, that the people whom he had brought out of Egypt had so soon forgot their promises and engagements, that at that very time they had made them a molten image, and were worshipping a golden calf; a defection so provoking, that he threatened to extirpate the whole nation of them, but at

c The words in the text are these, All the people brake off the golden ear-rings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron, and he received them at their hands, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it into a molten calf,' Exod. xxxii. 3, 4. But here seems to be a great mistake in most versions as well as our own, and what but few critics and expositors have yet espied. For it may very well be asked, who taught Aaron to engrave, or how could this idol be engraven so soon, since it is said that Aaron presented it to the people on the morrow! If the custom of engraving molten work was then known, how comes it, that we hear nothing of it even in Solomon's time, since it may be presumed, that the furniture of Solomon's temple was wrought with much more art than the figure of Aaron's calf? The whole foundation of this mistake seems to lie in the ambiguity of the Hebrew word Tsour, which sometimes signifies to fashion, and sometimes to bind or tie, and of the word Chereth, which signifies a graving tool, and sometimes a sack or bag, 2 Kings v. 23. And therefore the nature and circumstances of the thing here spoken of might have directed the translators to think of putting the great quantity of ear-rings, which were brought to Aaron, into a bag; which would have prevented the incongruity that the Geneva version has incurred, of engraving the calf before it was molten; for so it runs, he fashioned the ear-rings with a graving tool, and made a molten calf of them.' Essay for a New Translation.

d The words in the text are, (Exod. xxxii. 6.) the people sat down to eat, and to drink, and rose up to play; and from hence some have supposed their sense to be, that after the Israelites had eaten of the sacrifices offered to this new idol, and drunk very plentifully, they committed fornication, after the manner of heathen worshippers, and as in after ages they were induced to do in the case of Baal-peor, Numb. xxv. 1, 2. It cannot he denied, indeed, but that those sacrificial feasts among the heathens were usually attended with drunkenness and lasciviousness, which generally go together; and that the word which we render play, is the same which Potiphar's wife makes use of, when she tells her husband, that his Hebrew slave came in to mock her, that is, violate her chastity; but since there is no intimation of this in the story, but only of their singing and dancing, it is hardly presumable, that they could become so very profligate the very first day of their setting up idol-worship. Much more reasonable it is therefore to suppose, that all this merriment of theirs was in imitation of the Egyptians, who, when they had found out their god Apis, whereof this golden calf was designed as an emblem, were used to bring him in solemn pomp to Memphis, the royal city, with children going before in procession, and all the company singing a song of praise to the Deity.-Patrick's Commentary.

A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24.

the same time promised to make him the father and founder of a nation as numerous, and more powerful than these ungrateful rebels were. But so far was Moses from seeking his own interest in their destruction, that he threw himself at the feet of the Lord, and interceded for their pardon with so much importunity, that having obtained a kind of promise of it, he took the tables and his servant Joshua with him, and so hastened down from the mount.

idolatrous defection, and their adherents; which the Levites accordingly executed; so that at this time there were about three thousand persons slain. Nor did the Levites, in consideration of this their laudable zeal and obedience, go long unrewarded; for, upon the institution of the priesthood, they were appointed to the honour and emoluments of that office, though in subordination to that of Aaron and his posterity.

The people, in the mean time, having seen this dread

As soon as they were come to the bottom, Joshua hear-ful example on the delinquents, were not in a little fear ing the noise which the people were making, expressed and consternation. But Moses, the next day contented his apprehensions, that possibly there might be some himself with reproving them for their ingratitude and alarm or engagement in the camp; but Moses, who knew extreme folly, and at the same time promised them that what had happened, told him that the noise seemed to he would go up to the mount again, and try how far be an indication of joy, rather than of war; and as they his prayers would prevail with the divine mercy, to avert drew near, and saw the golden calf, and the people sing- the punishment which they justly deserved. To show, ing and dancing about it, Moses, for indignation throw-however, how highly they had offended God by their ing down the tables he had in his hands, brake them in wicked apostasy, he took a tent, and pitching it out of pieces; and then taking the idol calf, he put it in the the camp at a good distance, he called it 'the tabernacle fire, and melted it, and so a reducing it to powder, and of the congregation,' whither the cloudy pillar, (to let mixing the powder in water, to make them more sensible them see that God would no longer dwell among them,) of their folly in worshipping that for a god which was to immediately repaired; and whither Moses, whenever he pass through their bodies, he made them drink it up. wanted to consult the divine oracle, was wont to resort. After this, Aaron was called to give an account how Nor was it long after this, that God, to comfort and he came to indulge the people in this idolatrous humour; encourage him under all the fatigue that he had with an but all the excuse that he could make turned upon their obstinate people, granted his request, and showed him tumultuous, and his timorous temper, which compelled as much of his glory as his nature was able to bear, and him to comply with their demand. But Moses' business gave him fresh orders to prepare two other tables of was, to take vengeance on the idolaters; and therefore stone, and to come up again to him on the mountain all turning from his brother Aaron, he called such to his aid alone. Moses, accordingly, early next morning, repairas had not been guilty in the late rebellion; and seeing ed to the mountain, with the two tables, and having some of the tribe of Levi adjoin themselves to him, he prostrated himself before God, implored of him to parappointed then to take their swords, to go through the don the sins of his people; which God graciously concamp, and without any respect to age or quality, friend-descended to do, and withal to make a farther covenant ship or consanguinity, to kill all the ringleaders of this with them, upon condition that they would keep his

b

a This action of Moses, in melting, grinding, and pounding this golden idol, in order to make the people drink it, is by some

thought contrary to our present philosophy, and the account which alchymists give us of the nature of gold. The goldbeater can reduce gold to the thickness of one fifteen hundredth part of an inch, in the form of leaves, which may be easily beat into powder, thrown into a liquid, and drunk. A strong current of electricity being made to play upon gold, will cause it to burn, and be dissipated in the form of a very fine purple powder, which may also be thrown into water and drunk. Gold may also be dissolved in nitro-muriatic acid and drunk? By the help of a file, Moses might grate it into a dust, as fine as flour that is ground in a mill. But the rabbinical reason for his giving the people this gold powder to drink, namely, that he might distinguish the idolaters from the rest, because as soon as they had drunk, the beards of the former turned red, is a little too whimsical to be regarded.-Universal History, b. 1. c. 7.

commandments; would observe his Sabbaths, his passover, and other appointed festivals; and would not worship the gods of the Canaanites, nor make any alliances with the people of the country.

CHAP. II.-Objections answered and Difficulties explained.

THAT in the deserts of Arabia, and such extended plains (for there were no cities, rivers, or mountains for landmarks,) it was a general custom, before the invention of the compass, to carry fire before armies, in order to direct their march; and that, notwithstanding the present use of the compass, the guidance of fire is practised

6 This may be thought too hazardous an undertaking, and, for a few Levites to kill 3000 of the people impracticable; but as they had God's warrant for what they did, and knew at the same c Moses indeed was by lineage and descent of the tribe of time how timorous guilt is apt to make men, they might be Levi, which though it forfeited the primogeniture and regalia, confident, that none would have courage to oppose them. Before by being concerned in the blood of the Shechemites, was neverthat Moses called any avengers to his assistance, the text tells theless dignified with the priesthood, which gave him a right of us, that he saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had approaching God, as an intercessor for a rebellious and backslidmade them naked to their shame,' (Exod. xxxii. 25.) where, if ing people. Aaron, in strictness, was both the high priest and by nakedness' we are, with some expositors, to understand their his elder brother, but besides that, he, by his imprudent comwant of arms, which they had laid aside, that they might be pliance in the business of the golden calf, had at this time not more light and nimble to dance about the idol, it is plain, that only forfeited the honour of mediation, but stood himself in need the Levites might have less trouble in slaying such a number of of an atonement: there seems to be something in the character people, loaded with liquor perhaps, and, as it usually happens in that is given of Moses' singular meekness, that might entitle the conclusion of a festival, weary with dancing and sports, him to the spirit of intercession, and make the younger, in this and without any weapons about them to make resistance.-office, be preferred before the elder.-Bibliotheca Biblica ApPatrick's and Le Clerc's Commentaries.

pend. of the Occas. Annot.

A. M. 2513, A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24.

among the caravans in the east, and by the great number | gregation, and behold the cloud covered it, and the

glory of the Lord appeared, and Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them, as in a moment, and they fell upon their faces; and Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly into the congregation, and make an atonement for them, for there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun.' Now, from a bare recital of these passages, we cannot but observe, that the Israelites' pillar made quite another

of pilgrims, who go every year from Grand Cairo in Egypt, to Mecca in Arabia, cannot, by any one that is acquainted either with ancient or modern history, be denied; and had the sole intent of the cloudy pillar been to guide and conduct the Israelites in their journeys, there might have been more grounds for asserting, that it was a mere machine of human contrivance, and had nothing miraculous or supernatural in it. But when it shall appear, that this pillar of a cloud was of much greater use to the children of Israel than barely to conduct them; that in it resided a superior power, upon whom the name and attributes of God are conferred; that from it pro-appearance than any combustible matter, when set on ceeded oracles, and directions what the people were to do, and plagues and punishments, when they had done amiss; and that to it are ascribed such motions and actions, as cannot, with any propriety of speech, be applied to any natural fire; it will from hence, I hope, be concluded, that this guidance of the cloud was a real miracle; its substance quite different from that of portable fire preceding armies; and its conductor something more than a mere man.

3

The first mention that is made of this phenomenon is in the thirteenth chapter of Exodus, where Moses, describing the route which the Israelites pursued, tells us that 'they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness, and the Lord went before them, by day, in a pillar of a cloud, and, by night, in a pillar of fire :' and what we are to understand by the Lord, that went before them,' we are advertised in another place ; * Behold I send my angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not, for he will not pardon thy transgression, for my name is in him,' that is, my name Jehovah, which is the proper and incommunicable title of God. Another place wherein we find this pillar of a cloud mentioned, is in the 14th chapter; and the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed, and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them, and it came between the camp of the Egyptians, and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light to these.' There is, in the same book, another place where this pillar is taken notice of, and that is in the 33d chapter, where God being highly offended at the people's impiety in making the golden calf, refuses to conduct them any longer himself, and proposes to depute an angel to supply his place: When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned;—and it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the cloudy pillar at the tabernacle door, and they rose up, and worshipped, every man at his tent door. We have occasion to mention but one place more, and that is in the 16th chapter of Numbers, where the people murmured for the loss of Korah and his company: And it came to pass, that when the congregation was gathered against Moses, and against Aaron, they looked towards the tabernacle of the con

56

fire, and carried upon a pole, can be supposed to do; that in this pillar resided a person of divine character and perfections, and therefore called the Lord, the angel, the angel of the Lord, and the angel of his presence,' &c.; that this person was invested with a power of demanding homage and observance, of both punishing and pardoning transgressions, and to whom even Moses and Aaron, as well as the rest of the congregation, might fall down on their faces, and pay obeisance, without the imputation of idolatry. The whole tenor of the narration, in short, seems to denote, that every one in the congregation looked upon the pillar as something awful and tremendous, and the person residing therein above the rank and dignity of any created essence: and therefore, the most general opinion is, that he to whom these divine appellations, divine powers, and divine honours are ascribed, was the eternal Son of God, with a troop of blessed angels attending him in bright and luminous forms; and who, either by the display or contraction of their forms, could make the cloud they inhabited either condense or expand itself, either put on a dark or radiant appearance, according as the great Captain of their host signified his pleasure. For to suppose that mere fire, without any supernatural direction, could appear in different forms at the same time, with darkness to one sort of people, and light to another, is a thing incongruous to its nature.

7

For how many purposes this miraculous pillar might serve the Israelites, it would be presumption to determine; but this we may say with safety,-That besides its guiding them in their journey, it was of use to defend them from their enemies, that they might not assault them; of use to cover them from the heat of the sun in the wilderness, where there were few trees, and no houses to shelter them; and of use to convey the divine will, and to be, as it were, a standing oracle whereunto they might resort upon all occasions. In this cloud, we are told expressly, that the Lord appeared from the tabernacle; from this cloud, that he called Aaron and Miriam to come before him; and out of this cloud again, that he sent forth the expresses his wrath, as well as the tokens of his love, among whole congregation: and therefore this cloud could, at that time, be nothing else but the vehicle of God, as we may call it, or the place of his majestic appearance. Nor is the conjecture improbable, that from this very instance the poets first took the hint of making their gods descend in a cloud, and arrayed with a bright effulgency.

of

the

8 Num. xii. 5.

A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24. However this be, it is certain, that the Jews were his sending down manna upon them, and giving them persuaded of the divinity of their guide; otherwise they food from heaven :' nothing of his 'raining flesh, as thick would not have expressed such undissembled sorrow and as dust, and feathered fowls, like as the sand of the sea ;' concern upon hearing the news of his intention to leave nothing of his amazing descent upon Mount Sinai, wheu, them: nor could Moses, with all his authority, have in the lofty words of the Psalmist, he bowed the ever prevailed with them to wander so long in the wil- heavens and came down, and it was dark under his feet; derness, exposed to so many dangers and hardships, he rode upon the cherubim, and did fly; he came flying had they been satisfied that it was no more than a man, upon the wings of the wind; he made darkness his secret with some fire, elevated upon a pole, that was their con- place, his pavilion round about him with dark water, and ductor. It may be allowed, indeed, that a multitude of thick clouds to cover him; there went a smoke out of his such fiery machines might be of service to an army in a presence, hail-stones, and coals of fire, so that the earth march; but the thing is utterly inconceivable, how a trembled and quaked, the very foundations also of the company of six hundred thousand men, besides women hills shook, and were removed.' The wilderness, in and children, and no small number of associates, short, was the scene which God had made choice of for together with all their cattle, could receive any great the display of his almighty power and goodness: there benefit from only one of these, which, at a moderate it was, that he laid bare his arm,' as he calls it, to the distance, would diminish into a small light, and at a Israelites; that every day he took care of their meat larger be quite lost; or every moment was in danger of and drink, and indeficiency of their clothing; and had being blown aside by the wind, or extinguished by the he not detained them there so long, he had not been so rain. kind. It may be considered farther, that before this people were to be admitted into the possession of the inheritance which God had promised them, all matters were to be adjusted between him and them; and to this purpose laws were to be given, ordinances instituted, and covenants sealed; but a work of this importance could nowhere be so commodiously transacted as in the retirement of the wilderness. Here it was that God, in the bush, talking with Moses, gave it as a token of his promise, that the people after their deliverance should come to Mount Horeb, and there worship him; and fit it was, that such an engagement on God's part should now receive its accomplishment. And since it was no more than requisite, that a nation designed for such peculiar favours from God, should be held some time in a state of probation, before they were admitted to it, and until the people, whom they were appointed to reject, had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and were ripe for extirpation; therefore it is, that Moses calls upon them to remember all the way, which the Lord their God led them, for these forty years, in the wilderness, to humble them, and to prove them, and to know what was in their hearts, whether they would keep his commandments or no.'

The Scriptures everywhere represent the Israelites going out of Egypt with a high hand, marching in a regular order, and covered by God, in the day, with a cloud, and led, all the night through, with a light of fire;' but a sufficient company of link boys, placed in a regular order to illuminate each column as they moved, would have certainly been of more use, and made a much better appearance, than this pretended mixture of smoke and flame, smothering from an iron pot, at the end of a long pole. For from my heart I cannot conceive what manner of comparison there can be between the dark, fuliginous smoke arising from a culinary fire, and the glorious, heavenly, and bright appearance of that burning pillar of fire, which,' as the author of the book of Wisdom expresses it, was both a guide of their unknown journey, and an harmless sun to entertain them honourably.'

The Scripture indeed assigns but one reason for God's conducting the Israelites by the way of the wilderness, which was so much about, to the land of Canaan, and that is,—An apprehension that the Philistines, through whose country they were to go, being a bold and warlike people, would, in all probability, have disputed the passage with them, which the others, destitute of arms as they were, and having their spirits broken with a long servitude, were in no condition to make good: but as the almighty power of their conductor was sufficient to make them superior to all such obstacles, we may well suppose, that a farther end which the divine Providence might have herein, was to manifest his glory and good-them to go up into the mountain, after the Lord had ness by his constant attendance upon them in this luminous appearance, and by the many wonderful works which he did to oblige them to his service.

These commandments, it must be owned, were delivered to the Israelites with all the ensigns of horror, which the Psalmist, so lately quoted, has described; but that there is no ground to suspect any deceit in this wonderful occurrence, is manifest from Moses' dealing so openly with the people in this matter, and suffering

departed from it. 7 When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.' This is the signal which God himself gives them; whereas, had there been any fallacy in the phenomenon, Moses would have debarred them from going up for ever. And therefore, as we need not doubt but that several upon this signal went up, we cannot but think, that the cheat would have soon been discovered, had there been any marks of a natural eruption of fire discernible upon the top of the mountain.

Those who give us an account of volcanos, or burning Ps. lxxviii. 24, &c. * Ps. xviii. 9, &c. 5 Exod. iii. 12. 6 Deut. viii. 2. Exod. xix. 13.