proverbial; its works of art and civil institutions had attracted connoisseurs and philosophers from the most enlightened nations of the earth; and its conquests had extended its power over many of the surrounding countries !—yet, while it was in the midst of its glory, the Hebrew prophets did not fear to raise their voice against it, and pronounce, that Egypt should become a base kingdom, and never exalt itself any more above the nations, Ezek. xxix. 14, 15. How far these prophecies have been verified, two scoffers at religion, one of whom wrote from personal inspection, shall testify. "Such," says Volney, "is the state of Egypt. Deprived twenty-three centuries ago of her natural proprietors, she has seen her fertile fields successively a prey to the Persians, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Georgians, and, at length, the race of Tartars distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks. The Mamelukes, purchased as slaves and introduced as soldiers, soon usurped the power, and elected a leader. If their first establishment were a singular event, their continuance is not less extraordinary. They are replaced by slaves, brought from the original country. The system of oppression is methodical. Every thing the traveller sees or hears, reminds him that he is in the country of slavery and tyranny:" -"A more unjust and absurd constitution," observes Gibbon, + "cannot be devised, than that which condemns the natives of a country to perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers and slaves. Yet such has been the state of Egypt above five hundred years. The most illustrious sultans of the Baharite and Borgite dynasties were themselves promoted from the Tartar and Circassian bands; and the fourand-twenty Beys, or military chiefs, have ever been succeeded, not by their sons, but by their servants." * Travels, vol. i. pp. 74, 103, 110, 198. History, vol. xi. c. 59, p. 164. "These," observes Keith,* "are the words of Volney and Gibbon ;-and what did the ancient prophets foretel? I will lay the land waste, and all that is therein, by the hands of strangers. I the Lord have spoken it. And there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt. The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.' The prophecy adds, They shall be a base kingdom; it shall be the basest of kingdoms.' After the lapse of two thousand and four hundred years from the date of this prophecy, a scoffer at religion, but an eye-witness of the facts, thus describes the self-same spot: .' In Egypt there is no middle class, neither nobility, clergy, merchants, landholders. An universal air of misery, manifest in all the traveller meets, points out to him the rapacity of oppression, and the distrust attendant on slavery. The profound ignorance of the inhabitants prevents them from perceiving the causes of their evils, or applying the necessary remedies. Ignorance, diffused through every class, extends its effects to every species of moral and physical knowledge. Nothing is talked of but intestine troubles, and public misery, pecuniary extortions, bastinadoes, and murders. Justice herself puts to death without formality.' Other travellers describe the most execrable vices as common, and represent the moral character of the people as corrupted to the core. As a token of the desolation of the country, mud-walled cottages are now the only habitations, where the ruins of temples and palaces abound. Egypt is surrounded by the dominions of the Turks, and of the Arabs; and the prophecy is literally true which marked it in the midst of desolation :They shall be desolate in the midst of countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of cities that are wasted.'" 6 In the going down to Egypt of the family of Israel, * Evidence of Proph. p. 339. under the direction of the patriarch himself, the hand of God is not less visible than in the coming up again out of Egypt of the nation of the Israelites, under the direction of Moses and Aaron, although the acts of that hand are less imposing in the one case than in the other. Through the influence of envy and jealousy, Joseph is sold into Egypt as a slave, where, by skill in interpreting dreams, he is brought before Pharaoh, and ultimately raised to the second station in the kingdom. In process of time, a famine brings his brethren down to Egypt to purchase corn. Unconsciously to themselves, they are introduced into the presence of Joseph, who recognises them, and, having ascertained that his father is yet living, sends for him and the rest of the family, and settles them in the land of Goshen, a district, it is supposed, that had just become unoccupied by the expulsion of the shepherds, and thus made ready for their reception; and a district, moreover, so fertile, that it is said that grass grew in it to the height of a man, and so thick that an ox might browse a whole day lying on the ground. When the time arrived for their taking possession of the promised land, God raised up, in the persons of Moses and Aaron, men qualified to conduct them thither, and, by mighty signs, involving the ruin of the nation, and the death of the king, delivered them from Egypt, where they had long been in degrading and cruel bondage. LECTURE VIII. COUNTRIES CONNECTED WITH THE POSSESSION OF CANAAN. THE PASSAGE TO CANAAN. WE have taken a view of the country in which the Israelites were nourished, till they had acquired number and strength sufficient to possess and occupy the country which God had promised to them for an inheritance. When they had attained this state, the same Providence which had conducted them thither, and watched over them while there, brought them out with a high hand, and an outstretched arm, to put them in possession of their destined heritage. Previously, however, to their settlement in Canaan, they had to pass through a long and wearisome wilderness. This passage we are about, in the present lecture, to describe. But from the prominent station which, during its whole period and extent, he occupied, the individual who conducted the Israelites on their passage, here demands particular notice. In the personal history of Moses, there were some striking incidents, and in his moral character there were some admirable and impressive qualities. The Israelites had abundantly and rapidly increased in Egypt. In process of time, there arose a king who |