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looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians. And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, let us flee from thie face of Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians. And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea afterthem; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyp tians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. Aud Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses."

The first thing that strikes us in this chapter is the expression put into the mouth of the Jewish Deity, that he will honour himself with the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. What honor could an omnipotent being derive from such a measure? Again I say the Jewish Deity ranks no higher than one of the Roman Emperors who was deified, and not so high as some of them, such as Trajan for instance, the latter possessed humanity, the former is depicted as void of every merciful or generous feeling. With respect to the passage through the Red Sea, I can only say, that it is a fiction, and that such a circumstance never did occur. Bacchus and Alexander, and others, have been represented as performing similar feats, but to those who do not believe this to be a fable, all I can say is, it is high time that they did. To such an individual I would say, have you ever seen the course of nature' perverted in your life time. The answer must be, no. Neither has any other human being that has existed before you, and all tales of the contrary are fictions intended to delude and render thee unhappy and distracted with fear. Here we have the last death of Pharaoh's horses-we ought to have had their last dying speech too, to complete the farce. They would have had a most lamentable tale to tell, and their com plaint would have been far more grievous than the complaint of Balaam's ass, This last circumstance I presume we must consider a finish to the plagues of Egypt. If any of my readers can believe in them as related here, I would say with Dryden, that he must be

The unlettered Christian who believes in gross,
Plods on to Heaven, and ne'er is at a loss.

And I would entreat him to spare himself the pains of following me any further, as after this I shall have no hopes of him. The Israelites even doubted, after we are told that they had witnessed so many miracles, well might we who take it in such a shape and at such a distance.

I proceed to the fifteenth chapter:

66 1 Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into

the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salva tion he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.

3 The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.

4 Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.

5 The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a

stone.

6 Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were con gealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sca covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.

11 Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

12 Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them.

13 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

14 The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina.

15 Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed: the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

16 Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hust purchased.

17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

19 For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea,

20 ¶ And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

21 And Miriam answered them, sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into.

the sea.

22 So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

23 ¶ And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marab, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink?

25 And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

26 And said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.

27 ¶ And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters."

This chapter again contains one of the Songs of the Jewish Poets, and bears internal testimony that it was written after. they had formed something like an establishment, or government. It is the product of one of their bards, who has versified the fiction of passing the Red Sea. If we take it otherwise, we are presented in the same chapter with the strange anomaly of the Israelites dancing and singing for joy, for this great deliverance, and immediately fall a murmuring for want of water; but anomalies are by no means uncommon in the Bible. In the third verse of this chapter, we find the Jewish. Deity is called a man of war:-to the reflecting Theist, this must certainly be a most impious expression, if intended to be applied to him literally as an omnipotent being. In our days,

we have seen the whole of the Christian mythology invoked as gods of war; and a part of the Christian religion is, that one Christian should pray to his gods to enable him to cut the throat of his brother Christian, and whichever of them conquers, he very religiously ascribes the victory to his gods. On this practice was founded that barbarous and ridiculous custom which has been lately abolished in our Courts of Law, namely, the wager of battle, under the notion, that this god of war, these fighting gods, would protect the innocent, and cause the guilty to be slain: but thanks to the printing-press, such stupid notions are fast wearing away; and our Judges and Crown Lawyers, who are hired and paid to support superstition, are becoming ashamed of it.

In the fourteenth verse, we find the following words:"The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina." Now, at the alleged time of Moses's coming out of Egypt, there was no country known by the name of Palestine, and not until the Israelites were established in Jerusalem and its neighbourhood. Again, in the next verse :- "Then the Dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab; trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away." It is evident that this was written after the tradition was common, of the progress of the Israelites from Egypt to the land of Canaan. In the seventeeth verse, we have the following words: "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." Now, in the order in which this chapter stands in the book of Exodus, it is intended that we should understand this song to have been an extempore effusion, immediately on the Israelites coming out of the Red Sea, and witnessing the destruction of Pharaoh and his army; but from this last quoted verse, it is evident, that it was written after the building of the Tabernacle, or the Temple; for, in the order of time in which the song stands, the Israelites had neither Ark nor Tabernacle. In the twentieth verse, we have a mention of Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron. I would caution the reader, that the words prophet and prophetess, which we shall often find as we proceed through the Bible, have no other meaning, neither were they originally intended to convey any other meaning, than we have in the words poet or poetess. Their effusions were comments in verse on past and passing events, and had no relation whatever to the future, further than we might be in the

habit of drawing an inference from passing events, and the experience of the past, of what would be likely to ensue from them in future. I shall have further occasion to touch upon this subject.

In the twenty-third verse, we find, that the Israelites came to a place called Marah, where there were none but bitter waters, and that they murmured to Moses, who cut down a tree, cast it into the water, and made it sweet. The word Marah itself has no other meaning than bitter waters; and those who have read the allegorical progress of the pilgrim, to the promised land, as written by John Bunyan, will be best able to unriddle this pilgrimage of the Israelites.

I proceed with the sixteenth chapter:

"And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congrega tion of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; And the children of Israel said unto them, would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then said the Lord unto Moses, behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, at even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord; and what are we, that ye murmur against us? And Moses said, this shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, come near before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speal: unto them, saying, at even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the

And

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