Here then I close this argument; and contend, that the existence of the Jewish nation in the wilderness for forty years, their submission during that period to the authority of their leader, without attempting either to return to Egypt or to invade Canaan, is a fact which cannot be accounted for, without admitting the uninterrupted and conspicuous interference of the power of Jehovah, miraculously sustaining and governing this his chosen people; and by consequence establishing the divine original of the Mosaic Law.

LECTURE VI.

Admitting the authenticity of the Pentateuch, the miracles recorded in the four last books of it are unquestionably true and clearly supernatural— Leslie's four marks of certainty-Their application to the Mosaic miracles-First character, the facts public-Second, clearly supernatural-Various instances of this- Third and fourth, recorded by public monuments and commemorative rites, commencing at the time of the factsInstanced in the tribe of Levi-The three great feasts-The entire Jewish ritual-The form of government-The distribution of property, &c.RECAPITULATION and Conclusion of the FIRST PART.

DEUTERONOMY, vi. 20, &c.

"When thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes,

"and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then shalt thou say unto

'thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a "mighty hand. And the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, "and upon all his household, before our eyes. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes."

SUCH was the injunction of the Jewish Lawgiver to his people. He addresses them as witnesses of the miracles wrought for their deliverance; and they were to hand down to their children the statutes and judgments of their Law, derived from the command of God, whose interposition these miracles proved. It shall be my object in this Lecture to show, that this appeal of the Jewish Lawgiver to his nation, as eye-witnesses of the miracles he had wrought, is just and conclusive; that the supernatural facts he alludes to, must certainly have taken place; the Law he established being founded on the belief of these facts; and proving their reality.

This has been a topic frequently discussed; and it would but ill suit the importance of the subject, if, in a vain affectation of novelty, I were to decline adopting the clear and decisive mode of reasoning, which Dr. Leslie has employed on this sub

ject, in his "Short Method with the Deists;" which seems to me to comprise the substance of every thing material which can be adduced on this argument. I shall therefore do little more than state his mode of proof, and show the justice of its application to the Mosaic miracles.

This celebrated Author establishes the truth of the Mosaic miracles, by applying to them four rules; which, whenever they can be truly applied to any events, exclude every reasonable doubt of their reality. These rules are, first, That the facts be of such a nature, as that men's senses can clearly and fully judge of them; and in the second place, That they be performed publicly. These two rules make it impossible for any such facts to be imposed upon men at the time they are said to take place, because every man's senses would detect the imposture. The third rule is, That not only public monuments be kept up, but that some outward actions be constantly performed in memory of the facts thus publicly wrought; and the fourth, That these monuments be set up, and these actions and observances be instituted, at the very time when those events took place, and continued without interruption afterwards. These two rules render it impossible that the belief of any facts should be imposed upon the credulity of after ages, when the generation asserted to have witnessed them, has expired: for, whenever such facts come to be recounted, if not only monuments are said to remain of them, but that public actions and observances had been constantly used to commemorate them, by the nation appealed to, ever since they had taken place; the deceit must be immediately detected, by no such monuments appearing, and by the experience of every individual, who could not but know that no such actions or observances had ever been used by them, to commemorate any such events.

The part of this argument which its able author places last, even that the books containing the account of the Mosaic miracles and institutions, were written at the time of the events, and by eye-witnesses, has been, I trust, sufficiently established. We are therefore, fully prepared to examine particularly the detail of the miracles themselves, and to enquire, how far the four marks of truth which have been enumerated, can apply to them.

We may perhaps, in applying these rules to miraculous facts,

vary with propriety, the mode of expression their author has adopted, and state them to be, first, that the facts be performed publicly; and secondly, that they be of such a nature, that men's senses can certainly perceive, both that the events are real, and their origin supernatural. Now, that both these characters belong to the Mosaic miracles, is evident. That the facts were most public is undoubted; the plagues in Egypt were witnessed by the whole nation of the Jews, and felt by all the Egyptians; at the Red Sea, the Jews passed through, and saw the whole host of Pharaoh perish; for forty years were all the Jews sustained in the wilderness with food from heaven; and for "forty years their raiment waxed not old, neither did their foot swell."* Sometimes they were supplied with water from the flinty rock; and always they beheld the + cloud of the Lord upon the tabernacle by day, and the fire by night, throughout all their journeys.

At the promulgation of the Law from Mount Sinai, ‡ all the people perceived the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpets, and the mountain smoking.

On the rebellion of § Korah and his company, the whole congregation were gathered together, and saw the ground cleave asunder, and swallow them up; "And all Israel," says the historian, "fled at the cry of them." And at Jordan, "the "waters stood and rose up upon an heap; and all the Israelites "passed over on dry ground in the midst of Jordan."||

Here then were a series of facts, witnessed certainly by above two millions of souls, who remained collected in one camp, for forty years; an assembly so great probably never before or since remained collected in one body for so long a period.

If then this whole nation had not been entirely without eyes and ears, if they were not bereft of reason and sense, it was impossible that, at the time these facts were said to take place, they could have been persuaded of their existence, had they not been real. The frequent appeals to the whole nation, as eyewitnesses of them, with which the Pentateuch abounds, would have been regarded as the ravings of a lunatic, instead of being received as the solemn dictates of an inspired Lawgiver. But though it must be impossible to have persuaded any na* Deut. viii. 4. + Exod. xl. 38. Ibid, xx, 18. § Numb. xvi. Joshua, iii. 16 and 17.

tion, at the time of the events, that such facts existed, if they did not exist; perhaps it may be said, They were deceived as to their miraculous nature: these supposed miracles, were either artful delusions practised on their senses, or natural, though uncommon appearances, which the superior genius and science of their legislator enabled him to persuade a barbarous multitude, were supernatural and divine.

To judge of this, let us proceed to consider the particular narrative of these facts in the Pentateuch; which we have already proved, discovers in its style* and structure, the utmost artlessness, particularity, and fairness; the most natural + coincidence between the different parts of the narrative; and the most exact suitableness of the different allusions to the facts, with the various circumstances and causes which introduce such allusions.

Now, though some + few of the facts alleged in the Pentateuch as miraculous, have been the subject of objection and dispute; far the greater number are such, that, admitting them to be real, no scepticism can find a plausible pretext to question their supernatural original. In the plagues inflicted upon Egypt, it is true, that visible agents were in most instances employed, and these producing effects correspondent to their natural powers. But their introduction, their degree and their continuance, are plainly subservient to the command of the Jewish Lawgiver; and this, when it was impossible he should have any natural power to hasten, to limit, or to direct their operations. Yet that he exercised such a power, every instance proves. When he denounces to Pharaoh, that swarms of flies should infest his land; and again, that a grievous hail should lay it waste; and afterwards, that the locusts should consume it; he foretels and fixes the precise time when these judgments should take place. "To-morrow shall this sign be in the land." "To-morrow, "about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail "throughout all the land of Egypt." "To-morrow I will bring "locusts into thy coasts, and they shall cover the face of the "earth." §

And as the infliction, so also the removal, of these punish

* Vide supra, Lect. II.

+ Vide Lect. III. and IV. As to the most important of these facts, vide the Appendix. Exod. viii. 10, 23.-ix. 5, 18.-x. 4 and 5.