A. M. 2513. A. C. 149!; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24. 1 mountains, do all agree in this, as the nature of the thing indeed seems to require it, that on their tops they have always an open mouth, which the ancients called crater, through which they belch out their flames; and that after the fire is expended, it will still appear in the form of a monstrous gap, even unto the end of the world. And therefore, since all travellers, both ancient and modern, who have taken an accurate survey of the Mount Sinai, could never discern the least appearance of any such gap, but, on the contrary, a continued surface, whereon there stands at present a little chapel of St Catherine; all this supposed contrivance of Moses, to make a natural volcano pass upon the people for the majestic presence of God upon the sacred mount, can be deemed no other than a crude, nonsensical fiction, wherein the lovers of infidelity are found to show their ignorance, as well as their malice, when they pretend to tax this relation of Moses, representing God's appearance in a flame of fire, in thunder, and lightning, &c., with any incongruity, or invent any groundless stories to account for it; since nothing can be more agreeable to the ancient divinity, or common notions of the heathen world, than that the apparition of their gods, whenever they descend 'Nicholls' Conference, part 2. p. 279. upon the earth, is usually attended with such like harb ingers. Sundry lawgivers, no doubt, have pretended to a familiarity with their respective deities, as well as Moses did with the God of Israel; but, besides the attestation of miracles in his favour, which none of them laid any claim to, we may venture to put his character upon this issue, namely, the excellency of his laws, above what Athens, or Lacedemon, or even Rome itself ever had to produce. For what a complete system of all religious and social virtues do the ten commandments, delivered on the Mount, contain, taking them, as we ought to do, in their positive as well as negative sense. In the second of these, indeed, there is a passage, of God's visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children,' which seems to bear a little hard upon his mercy and justice; but this is entirely owing to the mistake of our translation. For if the preposition lamed, and hal, which we there render upon, may, according to the sense of some critics, be rendered by, or in favour of; then may the words now under consideration be properly translated, “God's punishing the wickedness of the father, By or In FAVOUR of the children." In the former of these senses, * David's murder and adultery was justly punished by his favourite, but wicked son Absalom; and in the latter, the meaning will be, that God frequently inflicts remarkable judgments upon a wicked father, in order to deter his children, even to the third and fourth generations, from the like provocations. 2 a The mountains of Sinai and Horeb are promiscuously used by the sacred historian, by reason of their contiguity; and yet it is certain, that they are two different places. Sinai, which the Arabians at this day call Tor, or the Mountain, by way of eminence, or otherwise, Gibel Mousa, the Mount of Moses, stands What more just, as well as merciful constitution could in a kind of peninsula, formed by two arms of the Red Sea, there be devised, than to ordain cities of refuge for the one of which stretches out towards the north, and is called the innocent manslayer to fly to, thereby to avoid the rage Gulf of Kolsom; the other towards the east, and is called the Gulf of Elan, or the Elanitish Sea, Sinai is at least one-third and ungovernable fury of the dead man's relations, who, part higher than Horeb, and of a much more difficult ascent; according to the custom of those times, were wont immewhose top terminates in an uneven and rugged space, capable of diately to revenge their kindred's death, and thereby to containing about sixty persons. Here, as we said, is built the of gain time to prepare a plea in his own vindication; which, if it was found insufficient, and the man adjudged guilty of wilful murder, could not, according to the tenor of the same law, secure him from being dragged even from the horns of the altar ?' little chapel of St Catherine, where it is thought that the body this saint rested for 330 years, but was afterwards removed to the church which is at the foot of the mountain. Not far from this chapel issues out a fountain of good fresh water, which is looked upon as miraculous, because it is not conceivable how water can rise from the brow of so high a mountain. Horeb is to the west of Sinai, so that at sunrising the shadow of Sinai entirely covers Horeb. At the foot of this mount there is a fountain, which supplies water to the monastery of St Catherine, and about five or six paces from it, they show us a stone, about four or five feet high, and three broad, which, as they tell us, is the very same from whence Moses caused the waters to gush out. It is of a spotted grey colour, stands by itself, as it were, and where no other rock appears, and has twelve holes about a foot wide, from whence it is thought that the water came forth which the Israelites did drink.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Sinai, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,' may seem to us, who live under a milder dispensation, a rigid and severe decree; but then we may observe, that it was no more than what was thought reasonable in other nations, and obtained a place among the celebrated Roman laws of the twelve tables. It was in soine measure necessary to restrain quarrelsome and unruly tempers from violence; and in case that death did not ensue, law was always mitigated, and the talio commuted for a pecuniary mulct. the 6 That fire and lightning should attend the presence of God, is a notion so frequent in the most ancient and oriental theology, that it might possibly give occasion to the worship of fire among Several of the Jewish laws, which to us may seem the Chaldeans and Persians; to the Magi, among the Cappado- frivolous, had a valid reason for their institution at first, cians called Purrethi, which Strabo mentions, and to the vestal if it were but to discriminate them from other nations, fires among the Greeks and Romans, as well as ancient Britons. "When you behold the formless sacred flame boundingly gleam- and to guard them against the common infection of idoling from earth's black abysses, then hark to the voice of Fire," atry. The wearing of linsey-woolsey was probably a say the Chaldaic oracles: and as for earthquakes, or shaking of mountains, this is no more than what all nations suppose have ever come to pass, upon God's manifesting himself at any time; for it is not only the Psalmist who tells us, that the earth shook, and the heaven dropped at the presence of God;' but in the description which Virgil gives us of the approach of Phoebus, he does in a manner translate the words of Moses,-"All things seemed on a sudden to quake, even the halls and laurel trees of the god; the whole mountain around was trembling, and the tripos groaned in the inner recesses of the temple."-See Nicholls' Conference, part 2. proud, fantastical fashion of the heathens at that time, which the Jews were forbid to imitate. An ox and an ass were not to be coupled together in the same carriage, 'Le Clerc's Commentary in locum. 2 Sam. xi, and some following chapters. c Aulus Gellius sets down this law of the twelve tables in this manner:-"Whoever breaketh a member of the body, unless he come to terms with the injured, let him suffer the same punish ment." 3 A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii—xxxiv. 24. with this merciful intent, that one beast of greater strength might not strain a poor creature of less beyond its ability; and as sowing the ground with mixed seeds, in some men's opinion, is an effectual way to wear it out, it was therefore a practice prohibited, in commiseration, if I may so say, to our mother earth, as well as to set bounds to the husbandman's covetousness; though, as others imagine, these three injunctions, as they stand altogether in the same place, might perhaps have something emblematical in them, besides the precept, to make men have a greater abhorrence of all venereal mixtures, contrary to nature. It is an injunction which God often inculcates to his people the Jews, After the doing of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, ye shall not do and after the doing of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, ye shall not do: I am the Lord your God, ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments;' which words seem to imply, not only that the idolatrous rites of the Gentiles were forbidden, but that those of God's appointment were made in direct opposition to them; and to this purpose we find the Roman historian representing the Jews as a people whose religious rites were so contrary to all the world besides, that what in others was most sacred, they accounted profane, and allowed as lawful what other nations were wont to abominate. Now, if the Mosaic laws and ceremonies were given to the Jews, as barriers against idolatry, and formally repugnant to the customs of the heathens, we may appeal to any sober and considerate man, whether it be consistent with good sense, or congruous to truth and reason, that God should make laws exactly contrary to the Egyptians and other pagan nations, showing thereby, that he hated the very semblance of their rites, and yet at the same time take the rise of his institutions from the customs and practice of these pagans: nay, whether it gives us not such an idea of God, as reverence to his tremendous majesty will not suffer me to name, represent him making up all the vain, ludicrous, superstitious, impious, impure, idolatrous, magical, and diabolical customs, which had been first invented, and afterwards practised by the most barbarous nations, and out of these patching up a great part of the religion which he appointed his own people. to It cannot well otherwise be, but that, in matters of tradition, which have equally descended among all nations perhaps from Noah, a man of some learning and fancy may form a similitade between the religious rites and usages of one people with another; but it would really rack one's invention to find out the great agreement between the Jewish high priest and the Egyptian chief justice; since the Urim and Thummima of the one was a piece of cloth, about a span square, beset with jewels, but the Alathea, as they call it, of the other, was a golden medal, representing the figure of a bird; since 2 Tacitus, b. viii. c. 4. Lev. xviii. 3, 4. 3 Edwards' Survey of Religion, vol. 1. a Exod. xxviii. 30. The Urim and the Thummim.' There was a remarkable imitation of this sacred ornament among the Egyptians; for we learn from Diodorus, (b. 1. p. 68. ed. Rhod.) and from Ælian, (Var. Hist. b. 14. c. 34.) that "their chief priest, who was also their supreme judge in civil matters, wore about his neck, by a golden chain, an ornament of precious stones called truth, and that a cause was not opened till the supreme judge had put on this ornament."-ED. the robe of the one was made of scarlet, blue, and purple woollen cloth, only embroidered with wreaths of fine linen; but the garment of the other was made of linen only, because it was unlawful, as Herodotus tells us, for the Egyptian magistrates to wear any thing else. When the tables of the covenant were delivered to Moses, it seems no more than requisite, that some care should be taken of them; and if so, what could be a more apposite contrivance for that purpose than a chest? Moses, even by his enemies, is reputed a very cunning man; but they certainly mean it as a compliment, and not his due, if they think him not capable of so small a contrivance as this, without copying from the Egyptian cista, wherein the priests were wont to lock up their religious trinkets from the eyes of the vulgar; and as for the cherubim which overshadowed this ark, there certainly seems nothing analogous, but rather a particular opposition in these to the Egyptian idolatry. For, whereas their temples were generally filled with the images of monkeys, calves, and serpents, the representations of real animals, which, according to the natural deism of those times, they fancied to be parts and exhibitions of the Deity; Moses here orders figures to be made, which had little or no resemblance of any thing in the world, and were expressive of the angelical nature only, which every one knew was subordinate to God's. So little congruity is there to be found between the Egyptian and Jewish laws and ceremonies, © less 4 B. 2. c. 37. C What the particular figure of these cherubim was, it is hard have ingeniously conjectured, from the creatures seen by Ezekiel to imagine at this distance. Grotius, indeed, and some others, in his vision, c. i. 5. and x. 15., which he calls cherubim, that they had the face of a man, the wings of an eagle, the mane of a lion, the feet of an ox; and by this they will have the dispensations of divine providence, by the ministry of angels, symbolically represented; the lion exhibiting the severity of his justice; the eagle the celerity of his bounty; the man his goodness and mercy; the ox the slowness of his punishment; which comes, as the Greek proverb says, Bosi rods, with an ox's foot.-Nicholls' Conference, part 2. Indian priests, wear bells about them like the Jewish high priest, e To this purpose, we are informed, that the brahmins, the were alone allowed to go into the inward part of the temple, and were like him obliged to marry virgins. Slaves there have their ears bored through; a perpetual light is kept in their temples, and barbarous Tartars have many things not unlike the Jews; for they cakes are set before their idols like shewbread. Nay, even the celebrate their new moons with songs and computations; they bewail their dead thirty days; they breed no hogs, and punish adultery with death. The like may be said of the people of Mexico keep a perpetual fire in the temples; and the Charibeans the new world. Those of Jucatan are circumcised; those of celebrate the new moon with the sound of a trumpet, and abstain from swine's flesh: and therefore if a similitude in ceremonies is admitted as a valid argument, we may as well say that the Jews had their laws and religious ordinances from any of these, as that they had them from the Egyptians.-Nicholls' Conference, part 2. Exod. xxviii. 33. Bells.' "The bell seems to have been a sacred utensil of very ancient use in Asia. Golden bells formed a part of the ornaments of the pontifical robe of the Jewish high priest, with which he invested himself upon those grand and peculiar festivals, when he entered into the sanctuary. That robe was very magnificent, it was ordained to be of sky blue, and the border of it, at the bottom, was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells intermixed equally, and at equal distances. The use and intent of these bells is evident from these words:- And it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.' The sound of the numerous A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii–xxxiv. 24. perhaps than might be discovered in several other | ideas of God, because these phrases were always undernations, were we disposed to be prolix upon this subject. But let us return to their legislator. stood to be spoken with the feelings of a man; and therefore a Jewish rabbin acquaints us, that whenever they meet with an expression concerning the Deity, of this nature, they are used to interpose a cabiacal, or, if I may so speak. 3 That God, who is a pure spirit, eternal and omnipresent, has neither body nor parts, nor any affections thereunto belonging, is a proposition which our reason cannot but assent to; and yet when we set ourselves to Interpreters indeed are at some variance what we are explain, as we call it, the divine nature and attributes, to understand by the hand, face, and hinder parts of God. we soon find ourselves under a necessity to borrow" The face of God," says an ingenious glossary, "sigexpressions from corporeal beings, the better to accom-nifies his essence, before the beginning of the world, and modate the loftiness of our subject to our reader's com- his hinder parts, his creation and providence in the prehension. For unless we could contrive a perfect set government of the world:" but Maimonides is of opiof new words, there is no speaking at all of the Deity nion, that these words may be interpreted according to without using our old ones in a tralatitious sense. Pro- the Targum, namely, that God made his majesty, that is, vidence and mercy, for instance, are two known attri- an exceedingly bright representation of himself, though butes of God; but if we respect their original use, and not in its full glory, pass before Moses, in so much do not take them in a metaphorical meaning, they are splendour as human nature could bear, which may be altogether as absurd, when applied to God, as are his termed his back parts; but not in his unveiled brighteye, or hand, or back parts, in their grossest sense. ness, which may signify his face, and, as the apostle For how improper is it, literally speaking, to say, that speaks, is inaccessible; and the hand, wherewith God God looks before him, like men when they act cautiously; covered him, while he passed by, may probably denote or that he has that relenting of heart, or yearning of a cloud, which God cast about him, that he might not be bowels, which merciful men feel at the sight of a miser- | struck dead by the inconceivable force and refulgency able object? The truth is, languages were composed to of those rays, which came from the face or full lustre of enable men to maintain an intercourse with one another, the divine Majesty. and not to treat of the nature of that Being who dwelleth in light that is inaccessible. No form of words, be they ever so exquisite and well chosen, can reach those transcendent perfections that are unutterable; and therefore if we consider the low capacity of the people to whom the real poverty of the language, in which, and the vast sublimity of the subject, about which Moses wrote, we shall have less occasion to blame this metaphorical way of expressing the divine nature, which upon experiment he certainly found the best adapted, both to inform the understanding, and animate the affections of the people; while a number of dry, scholastic and abstracted terms, would have lain flat upon their minds, and served only to amuse and confound them. Though therefore it must be acknowledged, that there is indeed an impropriety in language, when corporeal parts or actions are imputed to the Deity; yet since the narrowness of the Hebrew tongue would not furnish Moses with a sufficiency of abstract terms, and the dulness of the people, had he had a sufficiency, would not have permitted him to employ them, he was under a necessity of speaking according to the common usage, which was secured from giving the people any gross bells that covered the hem of his garment, gave notice to the In this sense the ancient Jews could not but understand their legislator, when they found him conveying sublime truths under outward and sensible representations. For, to clear him from all unjust imputation, we need but call to mind the glorious descriptions he gives, almost everywhere, but especially in Deuteronomy, of the Deity, and what pains he takes to deter them from making any representation of it, under any form whatever, by reminding them, that when God was pleased to display his glory upon Mount Sinai, at the delivering of the ten commandments, they saw no shape or likeness, but only heard his dreadful voice. 5 These so frequent inculcations may therefore be looked upon as so many intimations given them, in what sense they were to understand all those other expressions which he had been forced to accommodate to their capacity, that is, not in a literal, but in such a one, as was becoming the Deity, and suitable to the dignity of the subject. Moses, no doubt, was a good governor, and zealously affected for the welfare of his people: but we injure his memory much, if we think him either so ignorant of a future state, or so negligent of his own salvation, as to wish himself damned, in his deprecation of God's judgments, for their salvation. The case is this,-The Israelites, in making a golden calf to worship, had highly offended God: God renounces all relation to them, and in his displeasure, threatens either to abandon or destroy them; whereupon Moses intercedes for their pardon, and among other motives, makes use of this: have made them gods of gold; yet now, if thou wilt, Oh, my God, this people have sinned a great sin, and forgive their sins; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written :' not that God stands in need of a book wherein to register or record 6 1 7 Quoted by Hottinger in his Dissert. Theolog. Philol. 6 A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24. any of his purposes: a but the Scripture makes use of this form of expression, in allusion to the custom of numbering the people, and setting down their names in a scroll or register, as Moses did at their coming out of the land of Egypt. The same method was likewise observed at the return from the Babylonish captivity, as may be seen in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and those who were enrolled in this book, are said to be written for life,' or ' among the living,' because every year they blotted out of this catalogue the names of those that were dead. 2 According to this construction of the phrase, and this is certainly the true construction, Moses can by no means be supposed to wish his own damnation, which would look like an enthusiastic rant, rather than divine inspiration; which would be impious for him to ask, and unrighteous for God to do; but only that, " rather than live to see the calamities which would befall the people in case God should either desert or destroy them, he desires to be discharged from life, that so he may escape the shock of so woeful, so terrible a spectacle.' In a former communion with God, wherein he threatens either to extirpate or disinherit his people, he promises Moses to make him a greater nation, and mightier than they ;' but instead of that, Moses here desires to die with them; and, as a learned father of the church observes, "there is a great deal of pious art and policy in the petition, or proposal, as we may call it, which this great favourite and confident of God offers to him. He does not make it at all adventures, as one less acquainted with the divine mind might do; nor does he make it out of a slight and contempt of life, as one whose circumstances had brought him into despair might do. He knew God's goodness was infinite, as well as his justice; so that, in this alternative, either be thou pleased to slay me and them together, or to spare them and me together,' he was sensible he should engage God's mercy to pardon the criminals, whilst, on their behalf, he devoted himself at the same time to that justice which cannot be supposed capable of hurting the innocent.' One great commendation which we have frequently remarked of the author of the Pentateuch, above any other historian, is, that he consults truth more than plausibility in his narrations, and conceals no material point, even though it tends to the dishonour of the people whose actions he is recording. Josephus wrote the Jewish history of these times as well as Moses; and yet, when a To this purpose the royal Psalmist, in relation to his own formation in the womb, bespeaks God, and says, 'Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect, and in thy book were all my members written,' as if God kept a catalogue of the children that were born, (Ps. cxxxix. 16.) And again, speaking of wicked men, he says, Let them be wiped out of the book of the living, and not be written among the righteous, (Ps. lxix. 28.) Nor is this form of speech to be found only among sacred writers, but even Plautus himself, having occasion, in one of his prologues, to take some notice of the divine Providence, makes use of these words:-"Those who by false witnesses wish to gain unjust pleas, those who in a suit deny by oath money which they owe, have their names inscribed in the rolls of Jupiter; he knoweth every day who here ask for what is unjust. The wicked who wrongfully entreat to gain their suit, who obtain false decisions from the judge, he hath marked in one tablet,-the good are enrolled in another."-Le Clerc's Comment, ad Exod, c. 32. he comes to the proper period, he quite conceals their blind idolatry in worshipping the golden calf; whereas Moses relates it in all its aggravating circumstances, and seems to fix, in a manner, the whole odium of it upon his brother Aaron. And therefore, to inform ourselves how far Aaron was culpable in this particular, we must attend a little to the probable occasion of it. 5 While Moses was gone up into the Mount, he appointed Aaron and Hur to be the rulers of the people in his absence; but as his absence proved longer than was expected, the people began to be uneasy. They saw the glory of the Lord, which was like a devouring fire on the top of the mount,' and thereupon they concluded that Moses, who tarried so long, was certainly destroyed in the flames. They saw too that the 'pillar of the cloud,' which used to conduct them in their marches was gone, and in no likelihood of returning again; and hereupon having lost their guide, and the visible token of God's presence among them, they came unto Aaron, and in a tumultuous manner, demanded of him to make them another representation of the divine presence, in the room of what was departed from them. Up, say they, and make us gods, or (as the Hebrew text will bear ",) make us a god which shall go before us.' 6 Not that they were so stupid as to imagine, that the true God could be made by any man, or that any image could be a means of conducting them, either forward into Canaan, or back again into Egypt; but what they wanted, was some outward object to supply the want of the cloud, by being a type and symbol of the Deity, and where they might depose the homage which they intended to pay to the supreme God; for so some of the Jewish doctors have expounded the text of Moses : They desired a sensible object of divine worship to be set before them, not with an intention to deny God, who brought them out of Egypt, but that something, in the place of God, might stand before them, when they declared his wonderful works.' 76 The commandment against making images had so lately, in so terrible a manner, been enjoined by God himself, that though some reason may be given why the children of Israel were so forward to make the demand, yet none can be imagined, why Aaron should comply with it, without making any remonstrance; and yet we meet with no refusal recorded by Moses. All that we have in extenuation of Aaron's fault, is from the suggestion of the rabbins, who pretend that his compliance proceeded from his fear; that the people had murdered Hur the other deputy, for opposing their desire ; 5 Exod. xxxii, 1. 6 Saurin's Dissertations. b It has been argued by some learned men, that the Israelites intended here to fall entirely into the Egyptian religion, and that the Deity they made the calf to, was some god of the Egyptians: but to me this seems not to be the fact. In this calf the Israelites evidently designed to worship the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and accordingly their feast was proclaimed, not to any Egyptian deity, but to the Lord, to Jehovah, their own God, (Exod. xxxii. 4.) So that their idolatry consisted not, in really worshipping a false deity, but in making an image of the true and living God, which the second commandment expressly did forbid.—Shuckford's Connection, vol. 3. b. 11. e What authority they had for these assertions, I cannot say; but if what they offer be true, this does not at all prove Aaron to be innocent; because no obstinacy of the people could have forced him without his own fault, and he should have been will A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii--xxxiv. 24. 6 8 all for turning back again, and in imitation of the Egyptians, who worshipped their idol Apis, or Serapis, not only in a living ox, but in an image made after the similitude of an ox, bethought themselves of the like representation of a deity to go before them: the only question is, whether the worship of the Egyptian Apis was prior to the formation of this golden calf? which happens to be a point wherein the learned are not so well agreed. that to discourage them from pursuing their design, | figure of an ox or calf, in compliance to the prejudice of Aaron demanded all their golden ear-rings, in hopes the people, and because that creature was worshipped that they would not insist upon having an idol which in Egypt. That the Israelites were sorely infected with would cost them so dear; but that when nothing would the idolatry of the Egyptians, we have many plain proofs avail, he took their gold, and cast it into the fire, and, from Scripture to convince us, that all sorts of animals contrary to his intention, by some magical or diabolical were worshipped by the Egyptians, and among the terart, there immediately came out a calf, which much restrial, more especially the ox, is what the several increased the people's superstition. But this, and abun- authors, who have treated of the affairs of Egypt, do dance more of the like nature, seem to be conceits abundantly testify; and that the idolatry of animals, and invented for the excuse of Aaron, who is plainly enough more especially of the ox, was established in Egypt said to have 1 ́made this molten calf,' which he could during the sojourning of the Israelites in that land, is not have done, without designing it, and running the more than probable from these words of Moses to gold into a mould of that figure. Pharaoh; If we sacrifice the abomination of the The word which we here render calf, 2 does, in other Egyptians before their eyes; that is, if we sacrifice to places of Scripture, signify an ox: and as an ox's head our God, oxen, sheep, and goats, which the Egyptians was, in some countries, an emblem of strength, and the worship and adore, and consequently make an abominahorns a common sign of kingly power; so 3 a learned tion to the Lord, will they not stone us?' So that it prelate, out of a design to apologize for Aaron, is will- seems most rational to suppose, that this image was ing to insinuate, that his design in making an ox the made in compliance to the giddy humour of the people, symbol of the divine presence, was to remind the Israel-who, upon the supposed death of Moses, were probably ites of the power of God, and to express the great tokens which they had seen of it, in their wonderful deliverance. But how ingenious soever this hypothesis may be, it wants this foundation for its support, that this hieroglyphic of the divine power was not in use in the time of Moses; for if it was, we cannot imagine why Aaron, when called to an account by his brother, should forget to plead it in excuse for himself; or why God should be so highly incensed against him, had his design been only to exhibit a symbol of the divine power and authority to a people of too gross sentiments, without such a visible representation, ever to comprehend it. Another learned prelate of our own, equally inclined to excuse this action of Aaron, supposes that he took his pattern from part of what he saw on the holy mount, when the Shechinah of God came down upon it, attended with angels, some of which were cherubim, or angels appearing in the form of oxen: but this opinion is inconsistent with the great care which was taken on Mount Sinai, not to furnish any pretext for idolatry, and the caution which Moses gives the people to that purpose. Take ye therefore good heed to yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude, on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of any male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth; the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air; the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground; the likeness of any fish,' &c. where the Holy Spirit enumerates animals of all kinds, and positively assures us, that none of their forms or figures appeared upon the mount. 4 The most common therefore, and indeed the most probable opinion is, that Aaron made choice of the 1 Exod. xxxii. 35. 2 Ps. cvi. 20. 3 Patrick in his Commentary in locum. Tennison on Idolatry, c. 6. Deut. iv. 15, &c. ing, and adventured to die, rather than, by a timorous compliance, have made himself partaker of their sins. "Neither the instigation of citizens shouting for crime, nor the stern look of the oppressive tyrant, can move from his rooted determination, the man upright and resolute in his purpose," &c.-Hor. Carm. b. 3. ode 3. Thus we have endeavoured to give a full answer to several objections which have been raised against the sacred historian, during the period which is at present under consideration: and for a further confirmation hereof, we might now produce some foreign testimonies and traditions concerning the truth and veracity of his narrations. That the miraculous pillar, for instance, which conducted the Israelites in the wilderness, very probably gave rise to the ancient fables, 10 how Hercules and Bacchus, (who under different shapes, are both supposed to denote Moses,) set up pillars in testimony of their travels and expeditions; that the Israelites' safe passage over the Red Sea, upon its being divided by the rod of Moses, and the tradition which the people of Memphis have thereupon, are related by Antipanus, as he is quoted " by Eusebius; that upon the return and conflux of the waters, the armies which pursued them were swallowed up in the deep, is mentioned 12 by Diodorus, as a current story among the people inhabiting the western coast of the Red Sea; that on this coast there are several lakes and springs of a salt and brackish taste, in the manner that Moses has recorded, and no such thing found on the other side of the sea, is testified, 13 by Orosius, as well as several ancient geographers; that God's sending down manna for bread to the Israelites, and great plenty of quails for meat, is mentioned by Antipanus, as he is cited again 14 by Eusebius; that, from Moses' striking the rock with his rod, the fable of |