teronomy, and the direct narrative of the preceding books, which we have before noticed in the history of the common events, and the allusions to them. We shall perceive, that the miracles and common events cannot be separated from each other, that they are all woven into one uniform, natural, and consistent narrative; that they are all mentioned with the same artlessness, the same precision and particularity, the same evident consciousness of truth.

I shall now state a few instances where the undesigned coincidence, the exact suitableness, which we have been noticing in the recital of the natural events of the history, are also observable in the relation of the miraculous facts and the allusions to them.

We may remark then, that in the direct narrative, the miracles are related minutely and circumstantially. The time, the place, the occasion of each being wrought, are exactly specified; and such circumstances are introduced, as, when considered, prove the miraculous nature of the fact, though no argument of that kind is instituted. The miracles also are related in the exact order of time when they happened, and the common and supernatural events are exhibited in one continued, and indeed, inseparable series.

Now, had the recapitulation of events been formed, for the purpose of gaining credit to a doubtful narrative of supernatural facts, we should, I presume, perceive a constant effort to dwell upon and magnify the miracles, to obviate any objections to their reality; we should find their writer accusing his countrymen of obstinate incredulity, asserting his own veracity, and appealing in proof of the facts to that veracity. But it is most evident that nothing of this appears in the book of Deuteronomy. The people are never once reproached with having doubted or disbelieved the miracles, but constantly appealed to as having seen and acknowledged them; though notwithstanding this, ' they did not preserve that confidence and that obedience to God, which such wonderful interpositions ought to have secured. The speaker never produces arguments to prove the miracles, but always considers them as notoriously true and unquestioned, and adduces them as decisive motives to enforce obedience to his laws. This is the only purpose for which they are introduced; and such circumstances in the history as, though not mira

culous, would show the necessity of obedience, are dwelt on as particularly as the miracles themselves.

Thus the object of the three first chapters of Deuteronomy, is to assure the people of the divine assistance in the conquest of Canaan, and to convince them of the guilt of not confiding in that assistance. For this purpose the speaker alludes to the former disobedience of the people, when forty years before they had arrived at the borders of Canaan; and mentions the miracles they had previously to that time witnessed, in general terms, merely as aggravations of their guilt. "I said unto you, dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which "goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that "he did in Egypt before your eyes: And in the wilderness, "where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee,

as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until "ye came to this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe "the Lord your God, who went in the way before you to search "you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show "you by what way ye should go, and in a cloud by day."* He then states the denunciation of God, that all the men of that generation should be cut off, and that their little ones, who they said should be a prey, should go in to possess the promised land. He mentions the defeat of the Jews by the Amorites, when they went up presumptuously; and shows the deep impression these events made upon the minds of their fathers; by their waiting for the divine permission before they changed their march, by their not attempting the territory of the Edomites, the Moabites, or the Amorites, because God had assigned these lands as their possessions. And he here mentions a fact never before noticed, but well fitted to encrease the confidence of the Jews in the divine protection; even that the nations who had inhabited these countries before the children of Esau and of Lot, had been "great and many and tall," but that the Lord "had destroyed them before these nations." He then notices the success of the Jewish arms against the kings of the Amorites and of Bashan, whom they attacked with the divine permission; and concludes with assuring them, that Joshua was appointed by God to cause them to possess the land of their inheritance. Is not this whole exhortation natural? Is not the brief inci*Deut. i. 29-33. Deut. ii. 10, &c.

dental introduction of the miracles, and their being blended with other facts not miraculous, but tending to impress the same condusion, natural? Does not the whole appear totally unlike the imidity and artifice of fiction or imposture?

It might be proved by a minute induction of every instance in which the miracles are referred to in Deuteronomy, that the allusion is naturally suggested by the nature of the topic which the legislator wishes to enforce; and that it is addressed to the people in that manner, which would be clear and forcible if they had been spectators of the miracle alluded to, and on no other supposition. Thus the whole miracle is never related, but that leading circumstance selected which suited the present subject.

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When, in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, he calls on the people to keep and do the statutes and judgments which he taught them, and to teach them to their sons, and their sons' sons; his argument is derived from the solemn manner in which the people had heard them promulgated by the voice of God himself: "Especially," says he, "in the day when ye stood be"fore the Lord your God in Horeb; when the Lord said unto "me, Gather the people together, and I will make them hear "my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that "they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their "children. And ye came near and stood under the mountain, "and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, "with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice "of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice." We may ask why, of the many awful circumstances attending this dread appearance, is this of their having seen no similitude thus singled out? The next paragraph explains: "Take there"fore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of "similitude on the day when the Lord spake unto you in Horeb "out of the midst of the fire; lest ye corrupt yourselves, and "make you a graven image." Now here let me ask, Would it have been natural to ground this prohibition against making a graven image, not on the absurdity of it, not on the danger of its leading them to forget God, but simply on this circumstance, of their having seen no similitude when God spake to them in fire from mount Horeb? Would this, I ask, have been natural, if any doubt could have been raised on this particular fact, or if

this account had been first published when all the generation who could be supposed to witness this fact had disappeared?

Another circumstance still more remarkable occurs in this exhortation. The Midianites had seduced the Israelites to join in their idolatry to Baal Peor. The original narrative relates: the manner in which this took place ;* and states, that a plague from the Lord destroyed 24,000 Jews, and that it was stayed by the zeal of Phinehas, in putting two of the highest rank amongst the offenders to death. The legislator, in order to deter the Jews from idolatry, alludes to this fact; but he notices no circumstance of it but one, which, though in the original narrative not stated, was infinitely the most important to advert to on this occasion; but which no persons but spectators of the fact, and perfectly acquainted with every individual concerned in it, could possibly feel the truth of. "Your eyes," says he,† "have seen what the Lord did because of Baal Peor; for ‡ all the men that followed Baal Peor, the Lord thy God hath destroy"ed them from amongst you. But ye that did cleave unto the "Lord your God, are alive every one of you this day." It was extremely natural for Moses himself to use this argument; but I confess it seems to me improbable in the extreme, that it should be used when nobody who had been witness of the fact remained alive; or if a compiler had resolved to make this assertion at hazard, and put it in the mouth of Moses it seems very strange, that it is the only circumstance he should forget to notice in the direct narrative, and the only one he should notice in his reference to it.

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I add some few instances of incidental allusions to miracles, to show how naturally they are introduced, and how exactly the manner in which they are spoken of, suits the situation of Moses himself addressing the eye-witnesses of the fact.

The Ten Commandments had been the only precepts of the Law, which God had distinctly proclaimed from mount Horeb to the assembled nation of the Jews; the rest of it had beer. promulgated by Moses himself, as the divine command. No how does he argue with the people, in order to induce them to receive what he announced as the divine will, equally with that

How decidedly does this statement justify the punishment extending to such a multitude; a circumstance so often objected to.

which God himself had directly proclaimed? He might have urged that the miracles which God had wrought by him, established his divine authority; that the Ten Commandments, being of pre-eminent importance, God had himself proclaimed them to impress them the more deeply, and chosen to employ him as the medium of conveying the rest of the Law. He might have urged the severe punishments which God had inflicted on those who had contested against his divine mission (as he does in another passage,) and rested the point on these arguments; but he chooses a quite different ground. He states, that the people had declined hearing the rest of the Law directly from God himself, and had entreated that it should be conveyed to them through him. He recites the Ten Commandments, and adds,

*

"These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the "mount, out of the midst of the fire, and he added no more; "and he wrote them on two tables of stone, and delivered them "unto me. And ye came near unto me, even all the heads of "your tribes, and your elders; and ye said, This great fire will 66 consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more, then we shall die. Go thou near, and hear all that the "Lord our God shall say: and speak thou unto us all that the "Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it, and "do it." Such is the ground on which Moses claims the obedience of the people to the statutes and judgments which he asserts the Lord commanded him to teach them. Now if this argument had never been used by the legislator, if the fact had never occurred, if the Pentateuch had been the invention of fancy, or even the compilation of some historian long subsequent to the events, what could lead him to clog his narrative with such a circumstance as this? In short, what but truth and reality could suggest such an argument, or gain it the slightest credit from the people to whom it was addressed?

Sometimes the allusions to the miracles are so brief, that their application to the topic which it is meant to enforce cannot be made without an intimate knowledge of the facts. Exhorting the people to love and obey God, it is said, "If ye hearken to "these judgments, the Lord will take away from thee all sick"ness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt (which thou 'knowest) upon thee." Commanding the people, that in the

• Deut. xi. 6.

Ibid. v. 22, &c.

Deut. vii. 12 and 15; and Exod. xv. 26