Whilst, therefore, we remove every difficulty attendant on analogy of institutions

cited the fears of the Egyptians, lest he might seek to subvert the government of their country likewise. Others record another expedition headed by him against the Arabs; which is probably the war with the Amalekites. Syncellus declares, that Amosis was king of Egypt when he was born, and that Μισφραγμούθωσις was king, when he and Aaron performed the miracles there before the Exodus. The Paschal Chronicon, however, has recorded a different series of legends, and calls the daughter of Pharaoh Merrhi, Merrhine, and Phalmanothes, affirming that Moses was the builder of Hermopolis, and that after her death he changed its name to Merrhi. It asserts, that when he was in the desert, he applied himself to philosophy. Ibn Batric details a still varying account. According to him

was Pharaoh's سيعون

daughter, and Um the king drowned in the Red Sea, whom Kircher identifies with Thammuz, and others with Cheucheres, Acherres, Tuthmosis, or Themosis. Cedrenus avers that, in consequence of the ten plagues, Pharaoh consulted the oracle at Memphis concerning the expediency of allowing the Israelites to depart. And Syncellus declares that Melchi (Meλxías) was the name which the parents of Moses gave to him, but that Pharaoh exchanged it for that which he afterwards bore. All these statements, however contradictory and absurd, (and many more might be added to them) prove that some knowledge of the Biblical history had existed in the neighbouring countries; and, from their absolute disagreement with the scriptural narrative, enable us to decide that they could not be borrowed from it, and therefore most probably originated in some wild traditions disseminated from Egypt, and extracted from the national account of these events. Eusebius, Præp. Ev. l. ix, c. 16, 17, 18, 19,

and habits, we, at the same time, are furnished with evidences of the divine Legation of Moses; and as the veil of symbols, which was cast over these sacred books, shadowed the brightest æra of religion, so, when they were removed, they afforded proofs to him who investigated the Law and the Prophets, that their object was completed by the introduction of Christianity. This proof was still further increased by the legislator's own contemplation of the cession of his ordinances to a more perfect system.

Yet, by the law, which he had proclaimed, were the Israelites preserved as a people. They were punished for their apostacy-conquered, and carried into captivity: still, however, it was their bulwark and defence. Their history, in its circumstantial details, is no unimportant voucher

has shewn, that the name and deeds of Abraham were well known to the Pagans, which we may readily suppose true, on account of his numerous descendants from the sons of Hagar and Keturah. We, consequently, perceive so many channels by which the subjects of the sacred narrative may have been conveyed to other people, that we cannot, without the greatest improbability, imagine them not to have been in very early circulation.

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of the high purpose for which they were constituted peculiar objects of God's superintending care. We remark Abraham settling himself quietly in Canaan-rapidly increasing in wealth and power—head of many dependents-and founder of a family, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. We observe his descendants, as a petty dynasty, forming alliances with the neighbouring heads of tribesafter various movements from place to place, descending into Egypt, flourishing there, for a time, under Joseph-reduced to servitude, and detained for four hundred and thirty years: but, when their calamities had reached their height, we find God mindful of his promises, raising up to them a legislator, by whom they are emancipated from their bondage. We then read of the law, given amidst thunders and lightnings, and the various convulsions of nature; and observe them, after wandering forty years in the desert, re-occupying Canaan by force; and, from that epoch, presenting a history so fraught with deliverances from their enemies, with punishments of their transgressions, and with proofs of their

connection, as a people, with the operation of the divine plans, that it is impossible for the candid investigator of facts to withhold his conviction of the inspiration of Moses, attested by the national archives, and confirmed by the Author of the new covenant.

Equally extraordinary was the gradation of their most signal punishments. For Judah, who, in the days of her kings, had accommodated the distinguishing services of her sanctuary to the rites of Baal, and in many instances rejected them, was carried into captivity; and, whilst mourning in desolation on the banks of the Euphrates, her conflagrated city and devastated temple was reclaimed by affliction to the law of God, and restored to her native land. But Israel, who had systematically seceded from it, was visited by a severer lot:-torn from the promised land, dispersed in unknown regions of the earth, she still wears out the residue of her judgments; and, though cities yet bear her name in the territories of the Medes, no certain vestiges of her may be traced. So, when Judah, after her restoration, debased the law by oral traditions and superstitious

observances, and completed the long catalogue of her crimes by the death of the Messiah, the glory of Jerusalem was once more laid in the dust, its temple was again destroyed, and she was scattered through distant lands-a monument of divine justice and truth to the different nations.

The fate of those, also, with whom her history was connected, attests the veracity of prophecy. Egypt, with which she continued, notwithstanding the oppressions which she had sustained, to maintain an unhallowed intercourse, escaped not the predicted devastation :-the sword of conquerors exacted full retribution, and finally eradicated, with fearful slaughter, that idolatry, which had induced Israel to sin. And though she now exists, the veil of ignorance has been dropped on her former wisdom, and the bigotted Moslem retaliates Israel's bondage, where once was the court of Pharaoh. In like manner every enemy by whom Judah was encompassed has either ceased to be, or sunk into insignificance. The burdens of Nineveh, of Moab, and of Edom, have been completed; the rage of the Assyrian is hushed, and the