formed by the Hebrews, for the fake of their own credit; and no fooner is it ftamped for currency, with their image and fuperfcription, than they and their abettors are confounded, by feeing the wretched impreffion of their art effaced, abforbed, annihilated; and no image remains vifible, but that of the living and true God. The Power which fwallowed up the magicians' rods, could as eafily have prevented the tranfmutation; but the confutation is much more complete by the one, than it would have been by the other. Impiety has shut her own mouth, and infidelity stands ftripped of her laft and only plea.

An opportunity is here prefented of inftituting an inquiry, which has greatly employed and violently. divided the learned and ingenious; namely, whether the fupernatural effects, here and elsewhere in fcripture afcribed to the agency of demons and malignant fpirits, through the practice of magical arts, were real miracles, that is, alterations of the known and established laws of nature, by the permiffion of GoD; or only dexterous, impositions, practised by subtle artists, on the fimple and credulous, giving the appearance of reality to what had no existence? We fhall not take. upon us to determine, whether of thefe two opinions is moft conformable to reafon, and to the analogy of faith. But the opportunity having offered, we shall take the liberty of fuggesting fome confiderations, tending less to settle the queftion, than to fhew that, perhaps, it is not capable of a folution. But our grand aim fhall be to fhew, that, which ever fide men are pleased to take, the miracles wrought in fupport of truth, through the agency of the Author of all good, preferve all their fuperiority, and the truth itfelf fhines in all its luftre.

And, firft, if we try the caufe by the letter of the narration of Mofes, it will immediately ftrike every reader, that these extraordinary feats were actually produced by the power of the devil. The hiftory relates the change that paffed on the magicians' rods, in

the

the felf-fame terms which decribe the tranfmutation of Aaron's; and the name given to these execrable men, is the fame that belongs to perfons who have devoted themselves to the wicked one. On the other hand

we know, that fcripture, in defcribing natural objects, ufually accommodates itfelf to the prevailing notions of the ages and nations in which the infpired authors lived and wrote; that it condescends even to adopt the language, the ideas, and the prejudices of the vulgar; and, that it employs, not the accurate language and just ideas of philofophy, but those of common life, in treating the greatest and most important fubjects. We thence conclude, that whether the enchantments of the magicians produced real miracles, or were deceptions merely, the Spirit of God would certainly have narrated the fact in the self-fame terms. From the letter of the facred hiftory, therefore, we can draw no conclufive argument for either fide of the question.

We fhall have equal reafon to fufpend our judgment, if we try, fecondly, to decide it by the relations tranfmitted to us, from various ages and regions of the world, concerning real or feeming enchantments. It would, perhaps, be as difficult to perfuade the men of our own age, that fuch a thing as witchcraft ever exifted, as it would have been, to convince our ancestors in fome former ages, that most of the effects afcribed to Satan and his agents, had no foundation but in the cunning, dexterity and knavery of one part of mankind, practising on the ignorance, credulity and fimplicity of another. But, as it would betray a filly and ridiculous eafinefs of belief, on the one hand, to admit as true, the ten thousand ftories, which the times of ignorance devised, related and believed; and with which our own childhood may have been scared and alarmed; fo, it would certainly be an unreafonable and abfurd degree of fcepticifm, on the other, to reject as fabulous every relation of this fort, however well authenticated. Wife and good men have prov

ed,

ed, by arguments amounting almost to demonftration, the abfurdity of admitting the actual interference of a diabolical power in order to deceive mankind. And wife and good men, by evidence apparently as clear and fatisfactory, have endeavoured to establish the certainty of fuch interference in particular instances. And this feems a good reafon againft pronouncing haftily upon the nature of the forceries practised by the magicians of Egypt.

We shall find ourselves equally in the dark, if we attempt to form our judgment, in the third place, on metaphyfical notions. Our minds are exceedingly limited with respect to all objects, and particularly with respect to the nature of fpirits. We know, from experience, that the foul, little as it comprehends its own nature and effence, has a wonderful influence over every particle of that body to which it is united: but we can form no notion of the power and influence, which fpirits of a different order may poffefs over larger portions of matter, and even over our bodies, and, of confequence, over our minds. Much less are we able to conceive what an extent of power the Father of fpirits may, for wife purposes, have permitted to evil spirits, over the whole world of nature, which has fallen into diforder, and is labouring under the curfe of Heaven, on account of man's apoftacy. The limited nature of human understanding, therefore, likewife forbids us to decide too peremptorily on a fubject fo obviously involved in difficulty.

Finally, the principles of religion here refufe to lend us their aid. In whatever tends to convey faving light to the foul, or peace to the confcience; in all that relates to the government of the heart, or the wife conduct of the life, religion is ever at hand, and kindly offers her aid, nay, preffes it upon us; but, in queftions of doubtful difputation, in which men rather aim at gratifying a restlefs curiofity, or wild imagination, than at improving the understanding, or mending the heart, revelation rather checks and repreffes inquiry,

inquiry, than promises or lends her affiftance. It is fufficient then, for our purpose, to fay, that of whatever nature were the incantations of the Egyptian magicians, and whatever their effects, the GOD of truth, by the hand of Mofes and Aaron, put his infinite fuperiority beyond a poffibility of doubt; and extorted an acknowledgment of it from the mouths of the magicians themfelves. But, though they are put to filence, and Pharaoh is confounded, by the miracle of Aaron's rod fwallowing up their rods, yet they are not brought to fee the infufficiency of their art, neither is he yet reduced to yield obedience to an authority afferted by fo high a hand. A miracle, therefore, which only threatened, but continued harmlefs; a miracle which proved fatal only to the inftruments of forcery and enchantment, failing to produce compliance, it becomes at length neceflary to follow up the remonftrances of reafon and humanity, and the evidence of figns, powerful indeed, yet innocent, by the operation of figns that fhall be felt: figns, which fhall addrefs themselves, to the understanding, and the fenfes, at once; and fhall force conviction upon the most carelefs and incredulous.

Their river, the Nile, was the chief ground of glorifying to the Egyptians. It was the ornament of their country, and the fource of its fertility. Deriving the moister, neceffary to fructification, from thence, they vainly boafted that they were independent of the heavens ; ftanding in no need, like the reft of the world, of the refreshing drops which fall from thence. Egypt, therefore, is firft fmitten, in the darling fource of its pride; and that which prefumptuously put itself in the place of God, firft feels the power of God; and becomes, not a caufe of vainglorious boafting, but a loathing and an abomination to its worshippers. Smitten with the awful rod, its are inftantly and univerfally turned into blood. Horrid change! An inundation of the river too fcanty, threatened a famine an inundation too copious,

copious, threatened a deluge. But, O dreadful re flection! the river no longer flows with that precious refreshing fluid, which gives drink and renewed vigour to thirsty man, to thirfty cattle, to the parched ground; but a fluid which taints the air; which excites abhorrence, inftead of fatisfying the appetite; and which kills what it contains, inftead of communicating life and fruitfulness whereever it is diffused. And should it rise and fwell, what is it? An abominable deluge of blood. Its ftreams had been often ftained with the blood of Hebrew innocents; and its favage mafter is now punished with feeing its vaft channel filled, from fhore to fhore, with one crimson tide. In this awful glafs we are made to fee, that whatsoever men exalt into the room of God, and worship as God, will fooner or later become a loathing or a curfe to them; and that the inftrument of their fin affuredly will be converted, at length, into the instrument of their punishment.

"And the magicians of Egypt did fo with their enchantments." Foolish, unhappy men; to try to increase an evil which was already intolerable! If their art could have done any thing, it had been more wifely employed in endeavouring to purify and fweeten thofe polluted ftreams. To fucceed in multiplying blood was ruinous. The greater the power of their art, the more pernicious it was to themfelves and to their country. And this is the whole extent of the boafted power of Satan: it is a power to do evil, a power to destroy: but a power deftitute both of capacity and of inclination to do good. Whereas that of Heaven, though it be an ability to do evil, is an ability to this effect, which it exercifes rarely, and with reluctance; whereas the doing of good, and the diffufing of happinefs, is its habitual object, and its conftant employment. Vain man would be independent, and fometimes boafts that he is fo; and yet, what is he? A creature fuftained by bread, and refreshed by water; he lives by refpiring the air which

he