wards inferted in the text; having no proper connexion with any thing that goes before, or that follows it. But we every where fee the greatest piety, the strongest affection for the people at the head of whom he was unwillingly placed, and whose perverfenefs was almoft intolerable, and what is more, as fimple an account of his own failings, as of thofe of the people, without any attempt to palliate them.

Of this we have a moft remarkable inftance in his impatience, to fay the least, in ftriking the rock at the second time of producing water in this way, and in his acquiefence in the punishment of his of fence, which was nothing less than his not being permitted to fee his countrymen fettled in the promised land, though it is evident from his earnest prayer afterwards, that it was the first wifh of his heart fo to do.

From what conceivable motive could an impoftor have invented fuch a story as this? Also if the people had been at his disposal, what reafon could he have had for detaining them fo long in the wilderness? With the greatest

greatest ease they had taken poffeffion of all the country to the weft of the river Jordan ; and to all appearance they were as well prepared to pass the river immediately after, while the terror of their arms was fresh in the minds of the people of Canaan, as at any time afterwards; and Mofes, though in years, was in his full vigour. Nay, to all appearance, the people were as well prepared for this important expedition prefently after their departure from Egypt, and efpecially after their paffage of the red fea, as at any time afterwards; and the history of their attempt at Kadefh fhews that they had as much spirit for the enterprize. But their impetuofity was restrained till, according to all natural probability, their fpirits would be broken, they would have acquired the tame life of the wandering Arabs, and have been utterly unable to contend with a people who lived in fenced cities, and who, being apprized of the enterprize, would have had abundant time for taking their measures to repel the invasion. Defirous as the people, and, no doubt, Mofes himself muft

have been, to take poffeffion of the country for the fake of which they had left Egypt, what could have restrained them so long, but the best grounded perfuafion of a divine command for that purpose. Admitting this, the whole history is perfectly natural, and certainly most inftructive; but on any other fuppofition the most unnatural that ever was written.

To an attentive reader there needs no other evidence of the authenticity of the books of Mofes than the manner in which they are written, especially his most earnest and affectionate address to the people before his death, contained in the book of Deuteronomy, in which he constantly appeals to the people with respect to what themselves had feen and heard, and makes the most natural obfervations upon it. I should think it barely poffible for any perfon to read only that book through with attention, and remain an unbeliever in the great events alluded to in it, and related more at length in the preceding books. There is no where extant, fince the art of writing was known, and fince the art

has been most improved, a mode of addrefs more expreffive of genuine and excellent fentiments than what we find in this, the oldest of all writers. With this view, and for the fake of the valuable inftruction which it affords, I fhall fubjoin to this Difcourfe a confiderable part of the fourth Chapter, and alfo fome other paffages relating to the bleffings which would attend their obedience, and the curfes which would follow their difobedience.

Before I close this fubject, it may not be improper to make an observation or two on the conduct of the Divine Being in these tranfactions, in order to give what fatiffaction I may be able to thofe who find a difficulty with refpect to the propriety and justice of fome parts of it.

We are told in our tranflation, that the Ifraelites were directed by God himself to borrow of the Egyptians veffels of filver, veffels of gold, and other valuable things, before their departure, when there was no defign to restore the things borrowed; and therefore that he authorized a fraudu

lent

lent tranfaction. But in the original it is fimply they asked, or perhaps demanded, of the Egyptians the things that they took, which does not imply any intention of returning them; and if the quantity and va lue were very great, as they probably were, the Egyptians could not be easily made to believe that they wanted them all for the purpose of facrificing, which was the ori ginal pretence for afking leave to go out of the country. In the terror the Egyptians were now in, fearing, as we read, left they fhould all be dead men, they feem to have wifhed to get rid of them at any rate, and to have been willing to give them any thing that they demanded as a prefent at their departure, which, it is to be obferved, is agreeable to the oriental customs. And certainly after, at least, a hundred years of hard fervitude, it cannot be fuppofed that they got in this way more than they were fairly entitled to; fo that there was no real injuftice in the cafe, and there is no objection except in the manner in which they took what really belonged to them.