made no such attempt; he bore no arms, but that rod by which he professed Jehovah would enable him to work miracles; and in the name of that God he applied to the Egyptian monarch, to obtain permission for his people to go and hold a feast in the wilderness.

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The haughty tyrant, unacquainted with the name, and despising the majesty of Jehovah, rejected the demand with contempt. And Pharaoh said, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither "will I let Israel go." And he said, "Wherefore do ye, Moses "and Aaron, let the people from their works? get ye unto your "burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the task"masters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no "more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let "them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of "the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon "them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; "therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. "Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may "bour therein; and let them not regard vain words."*

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la

This severe command was proclaimed, and obedience to it peremptorily required: to execute it was found impracticable. But despotism roused to anger, and rejoicing to oppress, would not admit as an apology the impossibility of executing its will. "The "officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's task-masters "had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw? And the officers came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? But "he said, Ye are idle; therefore ye say, Let us go and do sa"crifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work for there "shall ro straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of "bricks. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the "way, as they came forth from Pharaoh, and they said unto “them, The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have "made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and "in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to "slay us."+

On this distressing accusation, Moses, dejected with disap* Exod. v. 2-9. † Ibid. v. 14-21.

pointment, and overpowered with the unexpected sufferings which he appeared to be instrumental in producing, poured forth his complaint before his God: he returned unto the Lord, and said, "Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated this people? Why "is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither "hast thou delivered thy people at all."*

Here then is the first crisis, in which the attempt to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage seems, if we consider human means, utterly desperate. Its author is resisted and scorned by the Egyptian monarch: deserted, and almost execrated by his countrymen, for involving them in new miseries, to which yet they submit without any attempt to shake off the yoke. He stands on one side, without arms, without followers, without resources of any human kind; opposed to a mighty sovereign, surrounded by his wise men and priests, his counsellors, his officers, his armies, invested with despotic power, which he is determined to exercise, in opposition to the authority of that God, whose ambassador the Jewish legislator declares himself, and in contempt of those menaces which he denounces.

Thus the claim of Moses, to a divine mission, is rejected and scorned, and he has no resource but those magical deceptions, which he is supposed to derive from his Egyptian education. But what hope of succeeding in these, when surrounded, watched, and opposed by all the masters of this art, by whom he himself must have been taught, the wise men, and priests, and magicians of Egypt, supported by the majesty of their monarch, and the power of their state; while their opponent is without a single associate but his own brother to support or assist him?

A very short period elapses, and what is the event? No human force is exercised, not a single Israelite lifts the sword or bends the bow; but the Egyptian monarch is humbled, his people terrified, they urge the Israelites to hasten their departure. These are now honoured as the masters of their late oppressors: they demand of the Egyptians, (the idea of borrowing, which our translation expresses, and which implies the humility of a request, and an obligation to return, is wholly foreign to the original:) "The Israelites" (in obedience to the express injunctior of Jehovah) "demand of the Egyptians silver, and

*Exod. v. 22. 23.

gold, and jewels," as the remuneration due to their past unrequited labours, conceded by divine justice, and obtained by divine power; as the homage due to their present acknowledged superiority, and the purchase of their immediate departure. The Egyptians grant every thing; the Israelites begin their emigration: "Six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and "children; and a mixed multitude went with them, as well as "flocks and herds, and much cattle."+

But, notwithstanding his unparalleled success in his main project, the leader of this great body acknowledges himself to have acted in a mode utterly destitute of the slightest human foresight or prudence; for this multitude are so little prepared for their emigration, that they had not time so much as to leaven the bread which they brought out of Egypt; "Because "they were thrust out, and could not tarry, neither had they "prepared for themselves any victual."‡ And as if in the first step to display his total neglect of every precaution which a wise leader would adopt, he is afraid of conducting them "by "the way of the land of the Philistines, though that was near, "lest they should see war, and return to Egypt;"§ yet he takes no care to guide them in such a course as would enable them to escape from pursuit, or contend to advantage with their pursuers. He leads them into a defile, with mountains on either side, and the sea in front. At this moment the Egyptians recover from the panic, under the influence of which they had consented to their departure; and they said, "Why have we "done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And they pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, "and his horsemen, and his army, and soon overtook the fugitives, for they were entangled by the land, the wilderness "had shut them in."||

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Perhaps at this crisis, despair inspired them with courage; No, all is dismay and lamentation; they cried unto the Lord, and said unto Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, "hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore "hast thou thus dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? "Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, "Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? for it had

* Compare Exod. iii. 22, with xii. 35. Exod. xiii. 17.

Exod. xii. 37, 38.
Ibid. xiv. 5 and 9.

Ib. ver. 39. || Ibid. xiv. 3.

"been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should "die in the wilderness."*

Here now is a second crisis, in which no human hope or help appears to sustain their leader: on one side, a regular disciplined army, assured of triumph-on the other, a rabble of women and children, and men as spiritless as they, expecting nothing but certain death, lamenting they had left their servitude, and ready to implore their masters to permit them again to be their slaves.

But if their leader had betrayed unparalleled imprudence in exposing his host to such a danger, the high strain of confidence. he now speaks in, is equally unparalleled; "Fear ye not," (says he to the terrified multitude:) does he add, rouse your courage; there is no way to avoid slavery or death, but by one manly effort; turn then on your pursuers, and your God will aid you? No; his language is, "Stand ye still, and see the salvation of "the Lord, which he will show you to-day; for the Egyptians "whom you have seen to-day, you shall see them again no more for ever; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold

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your peace."+ What would this be in any mere human leader, but the ravings of frenzy? yet, wonderful to relate, the event accords with it. The Israelites escape "by the way of "the sea;" the Egyptians perish in the same sea, we know not how or why, except we admit the miraculous interposition which divided the Red Sea, "the waters being a wall on the right and "left hand," to let his people pass free; and when the infatuated Egyptians pursued, overwhelmed with its waves their proud and impious host.

Let us now pass by the intermediate events of a few months, and observe this people on the confines of that land, to establish themselves in which they had emigrated from Egypt. Their leader, with his usual confidence of success, thus addresses them; "Ye are come unto the mountain of the Amorites, "which the Lord our God doth give unto us. Behold the Lord "thy God hath set the land before thee; go up, and possess it,

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as the Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, "neither be discouraged." But the people propose to adopt some precautions which human prudence would naturally dictate. "We will send men before us (say they) to mark out the land, + Exod. xiv. 13, 14. Deut. i. 20, 21.

Ibid. xiv. 11 and 12.

"and bring us word again, by what way we must go up, and "into what cities we shall come." They are sent they report; The land is a good land, and fruitful; but the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very

great: we be not able to go up against the people, for they are แ stronger than we; all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature; we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.'

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At this discouraging report this timid and unwarlike race were filled with the deepest terrors. "All the congregation "lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that "night. And they murmured against Moses and Aaron; and "the whole congregation said unto them: Would to God we "had died in the land of Egypt, or would to God we had died "in the wilderness. And wherefore hath the Lord brought us "unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our "children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return "to Egypt?" In vain did Moses and Aaron fall on their faces before all the congregation; in vain did two of the chief men, who had searched out the land, and who adhered to them, represent its fertility, and endeavour to inspire the host with a pious confidence in the divine protection. So incurable was their despair, and so violent their rebellion, that they resented, as the grossest crime, the advice of these honest and spirited men: for "all the congregation bade stone them with stones "till they die." They even determine to abandon altogether the enterprise; to depose their leader in contempt of the divine authority which he claimed; to elect another captain, and return to Egypt

At this crisis, what conduct would human prudence have dictated? No other, surely, than to soothe the multitude till this extreme panic might have time to subside; then gradually to revive their confidence, by recalling to their view the miseries of that servitude from which they had escaped, the extraordinary success which had hitherto attended their efforts, and the consequent probability of their overcoming the difficulties by which they were now dispirited; then gradually to lead them from one assault, where circumstances were most likely to ensure victory to another, till their courage was reanimated, and the great object

For this entire transaction vide Numb, xii, and xiv.

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