side of him, and take hold of his hands, and not permit his weariness to prevent it, but to assist him in the extension of his hands. When this was done, the Hebrews conquered the Amalekites by main force; and indeed they had all perished, unless the approach of the.

people were elevated in their minds, and ready to try their fortune in battle, and hoped to be thereby at length delivered from all their miseries: nay, they desired that Moses would immediately lead them against their enemies without the least delay, that no backwardness might be a hinderance to their pre-night had obliged the Hebrews to desist from sent resolution. So Moses sorted all that killing any more. So our forefathers obtained were fit for war into different troops, and set a most signal and most seasonable victory; Joshua, the son of Nun, of the tribe of Eph- for they not only overcame those that fought raim, over them; one that was of great cou- against them, but terrified also the neighbourrage, and patient to undergo labours; of great ing nations, and got great and splendid advanabilities to understand, and to speak what was tages, which they obtained of their enemies by proper; and very serious in the worship of their hard pains in this battle: for when they had God; and indeed made, like another Moses, taken the enemy's camp, they got ready booty a teacher of piety towards God. He also for the public, and for their own private appointed a small party of the armed men to families, whereas till then they had not any be near the water, and to take care of the sort of plenty, of even necessary food. The children, and the women, and of the entire forementioned battle, when they had once got camp. So that whole night they prepared it, was also the occasion of their prosperity, themselves for the battle; they took their not only for the present, but for the future weapons, if any of them had such as were ages also; for they not only made slaves of well made, and attended to their commanders the bodies of their enemies, but subdued their as ready to rush forth to the battle as soon as minds also, and after this battle, became Moses should give the word of command. terrible to all that dwelt round about them. Moses also kept awake, teaching Joshua after Moreover, they acquired a vast quantity of what manner he should order his camp. But riches; for a great deal of silver and gold was when the day began, Moses called for Joshua left in the enemy's camp; as also brazen again, and exhorted him to approve himself vessels, which they made common use of in in deeds such a one as his reputation made their families; many utensils also that were men expect from him; and to gain glory by embroidered, there were of both sorts, that is the present expedition, in the opinion of those of what were weaved, and what were the orunder him, for his exploits in this battle.naments of their armour, and other things that He also gave a particular exhortation to the principal men of the Hebrews, and encouraged the whole army as it stood armed before him. And when he had thus animated the army, both by his words and works, and prepared every thing, he retired to a mountain, and committed the army to God and to Joshua.

4. So the armies joined battle, and it came to a close fight, hand to hand, both sides showing great alacrity, and encouraging one another. And indeed while Moses stretched out his hands towards heaven,* the Hebrews were too hard for the Amalekites: but Moses not being able to sustain his hands thus stretched out (for as often as he let down his hands, so often were his own people worsted), he had his brother Aaron, and Hur their sister Miriam's husband, to stand on each

This eminent circumstance, that while Moses's hands were lift up towards heaven, the Israelites prerailed, and while they were let down towards the earth, the Amalokites prevailed, seems to me the earliest intimation we Late of the proper posture used of old in solemn prayer, which was the stretching out of the hands [and eyes] towards heaven, as other passages of the Old and New Testament inform us. Nay, by the way, this posare seems to have continued in the Christian church, Il the clergy, instead of learning their prayers by heart, read them out of a book, which is in a great measure inconsistent with such an elevated posture, and which seems to me to have been only a later practice, introced under the corrupt state of the church; though the constant use of divine forms of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, appears to me to have been the practice of God's people, patriarchs, Jews, and Christians, in all the past ages.

served for use in the family, and for the furniture of their rooms; they got also the prey of their cattle, and of whatsoever uses to follow camps, when they remove from one place to another. So the Hebrews now valued themselves upon their courage, and claimed great merit for their valour; and they perpetually inured themselves to take pains, by which they deemed every difliculty might be surmounted. Such were the consequences of this battle.

5. On the next day, Moses stripped the dead bodies of their enemies, and gathered together the armour of those that were fled, and gave rewards to such as had signalized themselves in the action; and highly commended Joshua, their general, who was attested to by all the army, on account of the great actions he had done. Nor was any one of the Hebrews slain; but the slain of the enemy's army were too many to be enumerated. So Moses offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to God, and built an altar, which he named The Lord the Conqueror. He also foretold that the Amalekites should utterly be destroyed; and that hereafter none of them should remain, because they fought against the Hebrews, and this when they were in the wilderness, and in their distress also. Moreover, he refreshed the army with feasting. And thus did they fight this first battle with those that ventured to oppose them, after they

were gone out of Egypt. But when Moses had celebrated this festival for the victory, he permitted the Hebrews to rest for a few days, and then he brought them out after the fight, in order of battle; for they had now many soldiers in light armour. And going gradually on, he came to mount Sinai, in three months' time after they were removed out of Egypt; at which mountain, as we have before related, the vision of the Bush, and the other wonderful appearances, had happened.

CHAPTER III.

THAT MOSES KINDLY RECEIVED HIS FATHER-
IN-LAW, JETHRO, WHEN HE CAME TO HIM

TO MOUNT SINAI.

ward he took him to himself, and when he had him alone, he instructed him in what he ought to do; and advised him to leave the trouble of lesser causes to others, but himself to take care of the greater, and of the people's safety; for that certain others of the Hebrews might be found that were fit to determine causes, but that nobody but a Moses could take care of the safety of so many ten thou-sands. "Be not, therefore," says he, "insensible of thine own virtue, and what thou hast done by ministering under God to the people's preservation. Permit, therefore, the determination of common causes to be done by others, but do thou reserve thyself to the attendance on God only, and look out for methods of preserving the multitude from their present distress. Make use of the method I suggest to you, as to human affairs; and take a review of the army, and appoint chosen Now when Raguel, Moses's father-in-law, rulers over tens of thousands, and then over understood in what a prosperous condition his thousands; then divide them into five hunaffairs were, he willingly came to meet him. dreds, and again into hundreds, and into And Moses took Zipphorah, his wife, and his fifties; and set rulers over each of them, who children, and pleased himself with his com- may distinguish them into thirties, and keep ing. And when he had offered sacrifice, be them in order; and at last number them by made a feast for the multitude, near the Bush twenties and by tens: and let there be one he had formerly seen; which multitude, every commander over each number, to be denomione, according to their families, partook of nated from the number of those over whom the feast. But Aaron and his family took they are rulers, but such as the whole multiRaguel, and sung hymns to God, as to him tude have tried, and do approve of, as being who had been the author and procurer of good and righteous men;* and let these rulers their deliverance, and their freedom. They decide the controversies they have one with also praised their conductor, as him by whose another. But if any great cause arise, let virtue it was that all things had succeeded so them bring the cognisance of it before the well with them. Raguel also, in his eucha-rulers of a higher dignity; but if any great ristical oration to Moses, made great encomiums upon the whole multitude: and he could not but admire Moses for his fortitude, and that humanity he had shown in the delivery of his friends.

CHAPTER IV.

HOW RAGUEL SUGGESTED TO MOSES TO SET
HIS PEOPLE IN ORDER, UNDER THEIR RULERS

OF THOUSANDS, AND RULERS OF HUNDREDS,
WHO LIVED WITHOUT ORDER BEFORE; AND

HOW MOSES COMPLIED IN ALL THINGS WITH
HIS FATHER-IN-LAW'S ADMONITION.

difficulty arise that is too hard for even their determination, let them send it to thee. By these means two advantages will be gained; the Hebrews will have justice done them, and thou wilt be able to attend constantly on God, and procure him to be more favourable to the people."

2. This was the admonition of Raguel; and Moses received his advice very kindly, and acted according to his suggestion. Nor did he conceal the invention of this method, nor pretend to it himself, but informed the multitude who it was that invented it: nay, he has named Raguel in the books he wrote, as the person who invented this ordering of the people, as thinking it right to give a true testimony to worthy persons, although he might have gotten reputation by ascribing to himself the inventions of other men; whence we may learn the virtuous disposition of Moses : but of such his disposition, we shall have proper occasion to speak in other places of these books.

§ 1. THE next day, as Raguel saw Moses in the midst of a crowd of business (for he determined the differences of those that referred them to him, every one still going to him, and supposing that they should then only obtain justice, if he were the arbitrator; and those that lost their causes thought it no harm while they thought they lost them justly, and not by partiality); Raguel, however, said nothing to him at that time, as not desirous to be any hinderance to such as had a mind to make use of the virtue of their conductor. But after- | church.

the Israelites by the testimonies and suffrages of the This manner of electing the judges and officers of people, before they were ordained by God, or by Moses, deserves to be carefully noted, because it was the pat

tern of the like manner of the choice and ordination of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons, in the Christian

CHAPTER V.

HOW MOSES ASCENDED UP TO MOUNT SINAI,
AND RECEIVED LAWS FROM GOD, AND DE-

LIVERED THEM TO THE HEBREWS.

terrible to those that saw it; and thunder with its thunder-bolts, was sent down, and declared God to be there present in a gracious way to such as Moses desired he should be gracious. Now, as to those matters, every one of my readers may think as he pleases; but I am under a necessity of relating this

This sight, and the amazing sounds that came to their ears, disturbed the Hebrews to a prodigious degree, for they were not such as they were accustomed to; and then the rumour that was spread abroad, how God frequented that mountain, greatly astonished their minds, so they sorrowfully contained themselves within their tents, as both supposing Moses to be destroyed by the divine wrath, and expecting the like destruction for themselves.

§ 1. Now Moses called the multitude to-history as it is described in the sacred books. gether, and told them that he was going from them unto mount Sinai to converse with God; to receive from him, and to bring back with him, a certain oracle; but he enjoined them to pitch their tents near the mountain, and prefer the habitation that was nearest to God, before one more remote. When he had said this, he ascended up to mount Sinai, which is the highest of all the mountains that are in that country, and is not only very difficult to be ascended by men, on account of its vast altitude, but because of the sharpness of its precipices also; nay, indeed, it cannot be looked at without pain of the eyes: and besides this, it was terrible and inaccessible, on account of the rumour that passed about, that God dwelt there. But the Hebrews removed their tents as Moses had bidden them, and took possession of the lowest parts of the mountain; and were elevated in their minds, in expectation that Moses would return from God with promises of the good things he had proposed to them. So they feasted and waited for their conductor, and kept themselves pure as in other respects, and not accompanying with their wives for three days, as he had before ordered them to do. And they prayed to God that he would favourably receive Moses in his conversing with him, and bestow some such gift upon them by which they might live well. They also lived more plentifully as to their diet; and put on their wives and children more ornamental and decent clothing than they usually wore.

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3. When they were under these apprehensions, Moses appeared as joyful and greatly exalted. When they saw him, they were freed from their fear, and admitted of more comfortable hopes as to what was to come. The air also was become clear and pure of its former disorders, upon the appearance of Moses; whereupon he called together the people to a congregation, in order to their hearing what God would say to them: and when they were gathered together, he stood on an eminence whence they might all hear him, and said, God has received me graciously, O Hebrews, as he has formerly done, and has suggested a happy method of living for you, and an order of political government, and is now present in the camp: I therefore charge you, for his sake and the sake of his works, and what we have done by his means, that you do not put a low value on what I am going to say, because the commands have been given by me that now deliver them to you, nor because it is the tongue of a man that delivers them to you; but if you have a due regard to the great importance of the things themselves, you will understand the greatness of him whose institutions they are, and who has not disdained to communicate them to me for our common advantage; for it is not to be supposed that the author of these institutions is barely Moses, the son of Amram and Jochebed, but he who obliged the Nile to run bloody for your sakes, and tamed the haughtiness of the Egyptians by Since this mountain, Sinai, is here said to be the various sorts of judgments; he who prohighest of all the mountains that are in that country, vided a way through the sea for us; he who it must be that now called St. Katherine's, which is one-contrived a method of sending us food from third higher than that within a mile of it, now called Sinai, as Mons. Thevenot informs us, Travels, part i. heaven, when we were distressed for want of chap. xxiii. p. 168. The other name of it, Horeb, is it; he who made the water to issue out of a never used by Josephus, and perhaps was its name among the Egyptians only, whence the Israelites were lately rock, when we had very little of it before; come, as Sinai was its name among the Arabians, Ca- he by whose means Adam was made to parnaanites, and other nations, Accordingly, when (1 take of the fruits both of the land and of the Kings ix. 8) the Scripture says that Elijah came to Horeb, the mount of God, Josephus justly says (Antiq. b. viii chap. xiii. sect. 7), that he came to the mountain called Sinai: and Jerome, here cited by Dr. Hudson, says, that he took this mountain to have two names,

2. So they passed two days in this way of feasting; but on the third day, before the sun was up, a cloud spread itself over the whole camp of the Hebrews, such a one as none had before seen, and encompassed the place where they had pitched their tents; and while all the rest of the air was clear, there came strong winds, that raised up large showers of rain, which became a mighty tempest. There was also such lightning, as was

Sinai and Choreb. De Nomin. Heb. p. 427.

sea; he by whose means Noah escaped the deluge; he by whose means our forefather Abraham, of a wandering pilgrim, was made the heir of the land of Canaan; he by whose

7. When matters were brought to this state, Moses went up again to Mount Sinai, of which he had told them beforehand. He made his ascent in their sight; and while he staid there so long a time (for he was absent from them forty days), fear seized upon the Hebrews, lest Moses should have come to any harm; nor was there any thing else so. sad, and that so much troubled them, as this supposal that Moses was perished. Now there was a variety in their sentiments about it; some say

means Isaac was born of parents that were very old; he by whose means Jacob was adorned with twelve virtuous sons; he by whose means Joseph became a potent lord over the Egyptians: he it is who conveys these instructions to you by me as his interpreter. And let them be to you venerable, and contended for more earnestly by you than your own children and your own wives; for if you will follow them, you will lead a happy life; you will enjoy the land fruitful, the sea calm, and the fruit of the womb born complete, as na-ing that he was fallen among wild beasts; ture requires; you will be also terrible to your enemies: for I have been admitted into the presence of God, and been made a hearer of his incorruptible voice; so great is his concern for your nation, and its duration."

4. When he had said this, he brought the people, with their wives and children, so near the mountain, that they might hear God himself speaking to them about the precepts which they were to practise; that the energy of what should be spoken might not be hurt by its utterance by the tongue of a man, which could but imperfectly deliver it to their understanding. And they all heard a voice that came to all of them from above, insomuch that no one of these words escaped them, which Moses wrote on two tables; which it is not lawful for us to set down directly, but their import we will declare.*

and those that were of this opinion were chiefly such as were ill-disposed to him; but others saying that he was departed, and gone to God; but the wiser sort were led by their reason to embrace neither of those opinions with any satisfaction, thinking, that as it was a thing that sometimes happens to men to fall among wild beasts, and perish that way, so it was probable enough that he might depart and go to God, on account of his virtue; they therefore were quiet, and expected the event: yet were they exceeding sorry upon the supposal that they were deprived of a governor and a protector, such a one indeed as they could never recover again; nor would this suspicion give them leave to expect any comfortable event about this man, nor could they prevent their trouble and melancholy upon this occasion. However, the camp 5. The first commandment teaches us, That durst not remove all this while, because Mothere is but one God, and that we ought to ses had bidden them afore to stay there. worship him only; -the second commands 8. But when the forty days, and as many us not to make the image of any living crea-nights, were over, Moses came down, having ture to worship it; the third, That we must tasted nothing of food usually appointed for not swear by God in a false matter; -the the nourishment of men. His appearance fourth, That we must keep the seventh day, filled the army with gladness, and he declared by resting from all sorts of work;-the fifth, to them what care God had of them, and by That we must honour our parents; the what manner of conduct of their lives they sixth, That we must abstain from murder;-might live happily; telling them, that during the seventh, That we must not commit adul- these days of his absence he had suggested to tery; the eighth, That we must not be guil-him also that he would have a tabernacle built ty of theft;-the ninth, That we must not bear false witness;-the tenth, That we must not admit of the desire of any thing that is another's.

for him, into which he would descend when he came to them; and how we should carry it about with us when we remove from this place; and that there would be no longer any 6. Now when the multitude had heard God occasion for going up to mount Sinai, but himself giving those precepts which Moses that he would himself come and pitch his tahad discoursed of, they rejoiced at what was bernacle amongst us, and be present at our said; and the congregation was dissolved: prayers; as also, that the tabernacle should be but on the following days they came to his of such measures and construction as he had tent, and desired him to bring them, besides, shown him; and that you are to fall to the other laws from God. Accordingly he ap-work, and prosecute it diligently. When he pointed such laws, and afterwards informed had said this, he showed them the two tables, them in what manner they should act in all with the ten commandments engraven upon cases; which laws I shall make mention of them, five upon each table; and the writing in their proper time; but I shall reserve most was by the hand of God. of those laws for another work,† and make there a distinct explication of them.

* Of this and another like superstitions notion of the Pharisees, which Josephus complied with, see the note on Antiq. b. ii. chap. xii. sect. iv.

This other work of Josephus, here referred to, seem to be that which does not appear to have been ever published, which yet he intended to publish, about

the reasons of many of the laws of Moses: of which see the note on the Preface, sect. 4.

fifty cubits broad and a hundred long, he set up brazen pillars, five cubits high, twenty on each of the longer sides, and ten pillars for the breadth behind; every one of the pillars CONCERNING THE TABERNACLE WHICH MOSES also had a ring. Their chapiters were of silBUILT IN THE WILDERNESS FOR THE HO-ver, but their bases were of brass: they reNOUR OF GOD, AND WHICH SEEMED TO BE