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Exod. xxxiv. 27.

58. Abarim

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In the Plains of Moab
Idolatry of Baal Peor.
Midianites punished
The third Muster.
Last exhortation of Moses
Joshua appointed his

successor.

Death of Moses

A Month's Mourning
Joshua sends two Spies
Passage of the river
Jordan

VII. Few passages in the Pentateuch have more exercised the ingenuity of biblical critics, than the Book of the Wars of the Lord mentioned in Num. xxi. 14. Aben-Ezra, Hottinger, and others, are of opinion that it refers to this book of the Pentateuch, because în it are related various battles of the xxxiii. 17. Israelites with the Amorites: Hezelius, and after him Michaelis, think it was an Amoritish writing, containing trixxxiii. 18.|| umphal songs in honour of the victories obtained by Sihon king of the Amorites, from which Moses cited the words that immediately follow. Fonseca and some others refer it to the book of Judges. Le Clerc understands it of the wars of the Israelites, who fought under the direction of Jehovah, and, instead of book, he translates it, with most of the Jewish doctors, narration; and proposes to render the verse thus:"Wherefore, in the narration of the wars of the Lord, there is (or shall be) mention of what he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon."-Lastly, Dr. Lightfoot considers this book to have been some book of remembrances and directions written by Moses for Joshua's private instruction, for the prosecution of the wars after his decease. (See Exod. xvii. 14-16.) This opinion appears to us the most simple, and is, in all probability, the true one.

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xxxiii. 21.
xxxiii. 22.
xxxiii. 23.

xxxiii. 20.

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Num. xx.

Josh. XV.

Deut. x.

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Etebatha, or Elath

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after 38 years

Miriam's Death

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xxxiii. 29.

xxxiii. 30.
xxxiii. 31
xxxiii. 32.

xxxiii. 33.

SECTION VI.

ON THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.

I. Title, date, and chronology,—II. Scope.-III. Predictions of the Messiah.-IV. Synopsis of contents.-V. Observations.-Table or harmony of the Mosaic law.

I. THE Jews call this fifth book of Moses (ALEH HαDEBARIM), that is, "These are the words," because the xxxiii. 34. original commences with these words: by some rabbins it is xxxiii. 35. called in п (MiSNEH TORAH), or the repetition of the law, while others term it (SEPHER TUKHHUTH), or the Book of Reproofs, on account of the numerous reproofs of the Israelites by Moses. The Greeks and Latins respectively

xxxiii. 36.

in the Bible de Vence, tom. iii. pp. 365-405. there is an elaborate Geo- call it AETTEPONOMION, Deuteronomium (whence our graphical Dissertation sur les xlii. Stations des Israelites.

English title Deuteronomy is derived), that is to say, the

ANALYSIS OF SCRIPTURE.

PART V.

ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE PENTATEUCH, OR FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES.

SECTION I.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH.

I. Title.-II. Argument of the Pentateuch.-III. Notice of other Writings ascribed to Moses. I. THE PENTATEUCH, by which title the five books of Moses are collectively designated, is a word of Greek original, which literally signifies five books, or volumes; by the Jews it is frequently termed nn (TOR@H) the Law, or the LAW OF MOSES, because it contains the ecclesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. The Pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into paraschioth and siderim, or larger and smaller sections.2 This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced. As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus, who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have every reason to believe that the appellation of Pentateuch was prefixed to the Septuagint version by the Alexandrian translators.

must be applied also to the nine following psalms, is not sufficient. The greater part of the titles of the psalms is not original, nor, indeed, very ancient; and some of them are evidently misplaced: we find also in these psalms the names of persons, and other marks, which by no means agree with Moses.

Further, some of the ancient fathers have thought that Moses was the author of the book of Job: Origen, in his commentary on Job, pretends that Moses translated it out of Syriac into Hebrew; but this opinion is rejected both by Jews and Christians. Besides, if this book had really been composed by Moses, is it likely that the Jews would have separated it from the Pentateuch 26

There are likewise ascribed to Moses several apocryphal books; as an Apocalypse, or Little Genesis, the Ascension of Moses, the Assumption of Moses, the Testament of Moses, and the Mysterious Books of Moses. The principal part of the "Little Genesis" was transferred by Cedrenus into his chro

tury of the Christian æra, for we find it cited by Jerome. From the apocalypse just noticed, it has been pretended that Saint Paul copied Gal. v. 6. and vi. 15.; and it has been imagined that what is said in the Epistle of Jude (verse 9.), respecting the archangel Michael's contention with Satan for the body of Moses, was taken from the apocryphal Ascension of Moses. Such was the opinion of Origen, who, though he cites it in another place, alludes to it as not being in the canon.8 All these pretended Mosaic writings, however, are confessedly spurious, and are supposed to have been fabricated in the early ages of Christianity.

II. This division of the sacred volume comprises an ac-nological history: it was extant in Hebrew in the fourth cencount of the creation of the world, and of the fall of man, the outlines of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which happened to the Israelites from their becoming a distinct people to their departure out of Egypt, and their arrival on the confines of the land of Canaan, a period of two thousand five hundred and fifteen years according to the vulgar computation, or of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, according to the computation established by Dr. Hales. "It is a wide description gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterized with the stamp of the same author; they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other. They blend revelation and history in one point of view; furnish laws, and describe their execution; exhibit prophecies, and relate their accomplishment. "5

III. Besides the Pentateuch the Jews ascribe to Moses ten psalms, from psalm xc. to xcix. inclusive. There is, however, no solid evidence to prove that these psalms were composed by him; for the title of the ninetieth psalm ("a prayer of Moses the man of God"), which, they pretend,

1 ПETTEUXOS, from EVTE, five, and TEUxos, a book or volume. Bible de Vence, tom. i. p. 310. 2 For an account of these divisions, see Vol. I. p. 213.

The author of the treatise De Mundo, which is commonly ascribed to Philo Judæus, was of opinion that Moses himself divided his work into five books; but he assigned no authority for such opinion. Jesus Christ and his apostles never cite the five books of Moses under any other name than that of Moses, or the Law of Moses; as the Jews ordinarily do to this day. Calmet conjectures that Ezra divided the Pentateuch into five books. Dissertations, tom. ii. p. 23.

On the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, or, rather, editions of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. p. 204.; for a view of the Genuineness and Credibility of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. pp. 32-38.; and for a List of the principal Commentators on this portion of the Sacred Scriptures, see Volume II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, PART II. CHAP. V. SECT. III. § 4.

SECTION II.

ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS.

I. Title.-II. Author and date.-III. General argument.—
IV. Scope.-V. Types of the Messiah.-VI. Synopsis.-
VII. Literal sense of the first three chapters of Genesis vin-
dicated.

1. THE first book of the Pentateuch, which is called GE-
NESIS (TENEZIZ), derives its appellation from the title it
The book of Job was composed many ages before the time of Moses
See chap. iii. sect. i. infra, of this volume.

In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus terms the Pentateuch the "Holy Books of Moses" (lib. x. c. iv. §2.); and in his Treatise against Apion (lib. i. c. 8.), when enumerating the sacred writings of the Jews, he says that Cedrenus, enumerating the authorities consulted by him, says, that he FIVE of them belong to Moses."-Some critics have imagined that this dis- "collected not a few things from the Little Genesis, &O THE ASTUS tinction of the Pentateuch into five separate books was known to and recog-revers. Historia Compendiaria, tom. i. p. 2. edit. Venet. 1729. Cedrenus nised by St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 19.), by the term five words; but the context frequently cites this apocryphal book in the course of his work. of that passage does not authorize such a conjecture. See the passages of Origen at length in Dr. Lardner's works, vol. ii. pp Bp. Gray's Key to the Old Testament, p. 76. 5th edit. 483-512. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 541-557.410.

bears in the Greek Septuagint Version, BIBAOX TENEZENE; if we consider the state of the world when the Pentateuch which signifies the Book of the Generation or Production, because it commences with the history of the generation or production of all things. The Jews name the books of the Old Testament either from their authors, or the principal subjects treated in them, as the five books of Moses, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or from the first Hebrew word with which they begin : thus, the book of Genesis is in Hebrew called me BERESHITH, that is, in the beginning, from its initial word.1

II. Although nothing is more certain than that this book was written by Moses, yet it is by no means agreed when he composed the history which it contains. Eusebius and some eminent critics after him have conjectured, that it was written while he kept the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, in the wilderness of Midian. But the more probable_opinion is that of Theodoret, which has been adopted by Moldenhawer and most modern critics, viz. that Moses wrote this book after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai; for, previously to his receiving the divine call related in Exodus iii., he was only a private individual, and was not endued with the spirit of prophecy. Without that spirit he could not have recorded, with so much accuracy, the history of the creation, and the subsequent transactions to his own time: neither could he have foretold events then future, as in the predictions concerning the Messiah, and those respecting the descendants of Ishmael and the sons of Jacob; the verification and confirmation of which depended on circumstances, that had neither taken place nor could have happened at the time when the history was written in which they are recorded: but which circumstances, we know, did take place exactly as they were foretold, and which may be said, even now, to have an actual accomplishment before our eyes. A third conjecture has been offered by some Jewish writers, after rabbi Moses Ben Nachman, who suppose that God dictated to Moses all the contents of this book, during the first forty days that he was permitted to hold a communication with the Almighty on Mount Sinai, and that on his descent he committed the whole to writing. This hypothesis they found on Exodus xxiv. 12. where Jehovah says unto Moses, -Come up to me in the mount, and be thou there, and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the precepts, which I have written to teach them-understanding by the tables, the decalogue; by the precepts, all the ceremonial and judicia ordinances; and by the law, all the other writings of Moses, whether historical or doctrinal. " It is, however," as a pious writer has well remarked, "as impossible, as it is of little consequence, to determine which of these opinions is best founded; and it is sufficient for us to know, that Moses was assisted by the spirit of infallible truth in the composition of this sacred work, which he deemed a proper introduction to the laws and judgments delivered in the subsequent books."

III. The book of Genesis comprises the history of about 2369 years according to the vulgar computation of time, or of 3619 years according to the larger computation of Dr. Hales. Besides the history of the creation, it contains an account of the original innocence and fall of man; the propagation of mankind; the rise of religion; the general defection and corruption of the world; the deluge; the restoration of the world; the division and peopling of the earth; the call of Abraham, and the divine covenant with him; together with the first patriarchs, to the death of Joseph. This book also comprises some important prophecies respecting the Messiah. See iii. 15. xii. 3. xviii. 18. xxii. 18. xxvi. 4. xxviii. 14. and xlix. 10.

IV. The SCOPE of the book of Genesis may be considered as twofold:-1. To record the history of the world from the commencement of time; and, 2. To relate the origin of the church, and the events which befell it during many ages. The design of Moses in this book will be better understood,

1 To avoid unnecessary references to the same authorities, it may here be stated, that besides the treatises referred to for particular facts and arguments, in this and the following sections of the present volume, the author has throughout consulted the dissertations of Calmet, Carpzov's Introductio ad Libros Biblicos Veteris Testamenti, Jahn's Introductio in Libros Sacros Veteris Fœderis, and Ackermann's expurgated edition of it; the prefaces of Alber in his Interpretatio Sacræ Scripturæ, Heidegger's Enchiridion Biblicum, on which treatise Van Til's Opus Analyticum is a commentary, and Moldenhawer's Introductio in omnes Libros Canonicos Veteris et Novi Testamenti. Of all these works an account will be found in the Appendix to vol. ii. For the plan of the prefaces to most of the books of the Old and New Testament, the author is indebted to the excellent works of Moldenhawer and Heidegger.

See this fact fully proved, supra, vol. i. pp. 32-38.

Pareus, Proleg. in Genesin, pp. 9, 10. Francofurti, 1647. Roberts's Clavis Bibliorum, p. 5. folio edit.

was written. Mankind was absorbed in the grossest idolatry, which for the most part had originated in the neglect, the perversion, or the misapprehension of certain truths, that had once been universally known. Moses, therefore, commences his narrative by relating in simple language the truths thus disguised or perverted. In pursuance of this plan, he relates, in the book of Genesis, the true origin and history of all created things, in opposition to the erroneous notions entertained by the heathen nations, especially by the Egyptians: the origin of sin, and of all moral and physical evil; the establishment of the knowledge and worship of the only true God among mankind; their declension into idolatry; the promise of the Messiah; together with the origin of the church, and her progress and condition for many ages. Further, it makes known to the Israelites the providential history of their ancestors, and the divine promises made to them; and shows them the reason why the Almighty chose Abraham and his posterity to be a peculiar people to the exclusion of all other nations, viz. that from them should spring the Messiah. This circumstance must be kept in view throughout the reading of this book, as it will illustrate many otherwise unaccountable circumstances there related. It was this hope that led Eve to exclaim,-I have gotten a man,— the Lord. (Gen. iv. 1. Heb.) The polygamy of Lamech may be accounted for by the hope that the Messiah would be born of some of his posterity, as also the incest of Lot's daughters (Gen. xix. 31-38.), Sarah's impatience of her barrenness (Gen. xvi.), the polygamy of Jacob (Gen. xxix.), the consequent jealousies between Leah and Rachel (Gen. xxx.), the jealousies between Ishmael and Isaac, and especially Rebekah's preference of Jacob to Esau. It was these jealousies, and these pretensions to the promise of the Messiah, that gave rise to the custom of calling God the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and not the God of Lot, Ishmael, and Esau, the promise having been particularly made and repeated to those three patriarchs.4

V. TYPES OF THE MESSIAH are Adam, as being a public person and federal head (compare Rom. v. 14. Gr. and 1 Cor. xv. 45.); Melchizedek (Psal. cx. 4. Heb. vi. 20. and vii.); and Isaac. (Gen. xxii. with Heb. xi. 18, 19.).

VI. The Jews divide the book of Genesis into twelve

paraschioth or larger sections, and forty-three siderim or smaller sections; in our Bibles it consists of fifty chapters, the general contents and leading divisions of which are exhibited in the following SYNOPSIS:PART I. The Origin of the World. (Ch. i. ii.). PART II. The History of the former World. (iii.-vii.)

SECT. 1. The fall of man and his expulsion from Paradise. (iii.)

SECT. 2. The history of Adam and his descendants to Noah. (iv. v.)

SECT. 3. The increase of wickedness in the world, and its destruction by the deluge. (vi. vii.)

PART III. The General History of Mankind after the Deluge. (viii.-xi.)

SECT. 1. The restoration of the world. (viii.)
SECT. 2. The intoxication of Noah. (ix.)

SECT. 3. The peopling of the world by his descendants. (x.) SECT. 4. The confusion of tongues and dispersion of mankind. (xi.)

PART IV. The Particular History of the Patriarchs. (xii.—l.) SECT. 1. History of Abraham and his family (xi.-xx.), the birth of Isaac (xxi.), trial of Abraham (xxii.), the death of Sarah (xxiii.), marriage of Isaac (xxiv.), and death of Abraham. (xxv.)

SECT. 2. The history of the church under the patriarch Isaac. (xxv. xxvi.)

SECT. 3. The history of the church under the patriarch Jacob. (xxvii.-xxxvi.)

SECT. 4. The history of the church under the patriarch Joseph. (xxxvii.-1.)

§i. The afflictions of Jacob and Joseph:-Joseph sold into Egypt (xxxvii.), the incest of Judah (xxxviii.), the imprisonment of Joseph by Potiphar (xxxix. xl.)

$ii. The deliverance and prosperity of Joseph:-his promotion in the court of Pharaoh (xli.), the journeys of his brethren in Egypt to purchase corn (xlii-xlv.), the descent of Jacob into that country, and settlement there with his family (xlvi.-xlviii.), his prophetic benedictions of his children (xlix.), the burial of Jacob, and the death and burial of Joseph. (1.)

Allix's Reflections upon Genesis. Bishop Watson's Collection of Tracts vol. i. pp. 247-259.

For a summary of the religious doctrines and moral precepts of the patriarchal times, as exhibited in the book of Genesis, see Volume I. pp. 142, 143.

205

1. Allusions to the creation.-Psal. xxxiii. 9. He SPAKE and it was done; he coMMANDED, and it stood fast. This is (Jehovah) hath founded it (the earth) upon the seas, ana manifestly an allusion to Gen. i. 3. et seq.-Psal. xxiv. 2. He established it upon the floods.-2 Pet. iii. 5. By the word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. In these two passages, the sacred writers allude to Gen. i. 6. 9.-2 Cor. iv. 6. GOD, who coMMANDED LIGHT to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face (rather person) of Jesus Christ. Here St. Paul alludes to Gen. i. 3. in so specific a manner, that it is impossible not to perceive the designed reference. From Eccl. vii. 29. and Eph. iv. 24. compared with Col. iii. 10. and Jam. iii. 9. been created, is the moral image of God, viz. uprightness or we learn, that the divine image, in which man is said to have of our first parents, related as a fact in Gen. i. 27, 28., is explirighteousness, true holiness, and knowledge. And the creation

VII. From an imaginary difficulty in explaining the literal sense of the first three chapters of Genesis, (a difficulty, however, which exists not with the devout reader of the sacred volume), some learned men, who admit the Penta teuch to have been written by Moses, have contended that the narrative of the creation and fall is not a recital of real events, but an ingenious philosophical mythos, or fable, invented by Moses after the example of ancient Greek writers, to give the greater weight to his legislative enactments! and designed to account for the origin of human evil, and also as an introduction to a history, great part of which they consider to be a mere poetic fiction. But the inventors of this fiction (for such only can we term it) have assumed that as proved which never had any existence; for the earliest Grecian cosmogony extant, namely, that of Hesiod, was not composed until at least five hundred and forty-five years after the death of Moses! Further, the style of these chap-citly mentioned as a real fact by our Lord, in Matt. xix. 4. and ters, as, indeed, of the whole book of Genesis, is strictly Mark x. 6., as also by the apostle Paul. Compare 1 Cor. xi. 9. historical, and betrays no vestige whatever of allegorical or 2. Allusions to the temptation and fall of our first parents, figurative description; this is so evident to any one that which are related in Gen. iii.-Job xxxi. 33. If I covered my reads with attention, as to need no proof. And since this transgressions like Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. history was adapted to the comprehension of the commonest -Matt. xxv. 41. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting capacity, Moses speaks according to optical, not physical fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.-John viii. 44. Ye truth: that is, he describes the effects of creation optically, are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye or as they would have appeared to the eye, and without any will [rather, wish to] do. He was a murderer from the beassignment of physical causes. In doing which he has not ginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in merely accommodated his narrative to the apprehension of him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he mankind in an infant state of society, and employed a is a liar, and the father of it.—1 Tim. ii. 13, 14. Adam was first method of recital best suited to a vulgar capacity; but he formed, then Eve: and Adam was not deceived; but the woman thereby also satisfies an important requisition of experimen- having been deceived, was in the transgression.--2 Cor. xi. 3. tal philosophy, viz. to describe effects accurately and faith- The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty.-1 John iii. 8. fully, according to their sensible appearances: by which He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth means the mind is enabled to receive a clear and distinct from the beginning. For this purpose was the Son of God maniimpression of those appearances, and thus to reduce them to fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. their proper causes, and to draw from them such conclusions as they are qualified to yield; for the determination of causes must follow an acquaintance with their effects.2 "Besides, if it be granted that Moses was an inspired lawgiver, it becomes impossible to suppose that he wrote a fabulous account of the creation and fall of man, and delivered it as a divine revelation, because that would have been little, if at all, short of blasphemy; we must, therefore, believe this account to be true, or that it was declared and understood by the people, to whom it was addressed, to be allegorical. No such declaration was ever made; nor is there any mention of such an opinion being generally prevalent among the Jews in any early writing. The rabbis indeed, of later times, built a heap of absurd doctrines upon this history: but this proves, if it proves any thing, that their ancestors ever understood it as a literal and true account; and, in fact, the truth of every part of the narrative contained in the book of Genesis is positively confirmed by the constant testimony of a people, who preserved a certain unmixed genealogy from father to son, through a long succession of ages: and by these people we are assured, that their ancestors ever did believe that this account, as far as it fell within human cognizance, had the authority of uninterrupted tradition from their first parent Adam, till it was written by the inspired pen of Moses."

Further, in addition to the collateral testimony already adduced, to the credibility and reality of the facts related in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis, there are numerous incidental references, in the Old and New Testament, to the creation, temptation, and fall of our first parents, which clearly prove that they were considered as acknowledged FACTS, not requiring proof, and handed down from primitive tradition. Of these we select the following instances, out of very many which might have been cited:This notion is current among the divines of Germany, and the modern Socinians in this country: it is particularly enlarged upon by Bauer, (Herm. Sacr. pp. 351-365.), and by Gramberg (Libri Geneseos Adumbratio nova, pp. 16-18. Lipsia, 1828, 8vo.); and it is adopted by Dr. Geddes in his translation of the Bible (vol. i.), and also in his Critical Remarks, of which the reader will find a masterly refutation from the pen of the late eminently learned Bishop Horsley, in the British Critic (O. S.), vol. xix. pp. 6-13. The younger Rosenmüller had adopted this mythical interpretation in the first edition of his Scholia on the Old Testament; but maturer consideration having led him to see its erroneousness, he, greatly to his honour, returned to the proper and literal interpretation in the new edition of his Scholia, lately published. (Dublin Christian Examiner, May, 1827, p. 388.)

2 Penn's Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, vol. i. p. 163. (2d edit.) In pp. 165-268. there is an elaborate examination and vindication of the literal interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis. Bishop Tomline's Elements of Christ. Theol. vol. i. p. 64.

See vol. i. pp 69-78.

The reality of the facts recorded in the first three chapters of the book of Genesis was acknowledged by the Jews who lived previously to the time of Christ. Vestiges of this belief are to be found in the apocryphal books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. of his own eternity. Nevertheless, through envy of the devil, -God created man to be immortal, and made him an image came death into the world, and they that hold of his side do find it. (Wisd. ii. 23, 24.)—Wisdom (that is, the eternal Son of God) preserved the first formed father of the world, who was created alone; and brought him out of his fall (by the promised seed of the woman,) and gave him power to rule all things. (x. 1, 2.)-Of the woman came the beginning of sin; and through her we all die. (Ecclus. xxv. 24.)

If words have any meaning, surely the separate and inde-
Mosaic narrative is a relation of real facts. To consider the
pendent testimonies, here collected together, prove that the
whole of that narrative as an allegory "is not only to throw
whole Pentateuch in doubt and obscurity, but to shake to its
over it the veil of inexplicable confusion, and involve the
very basis Christianity, which commences in the promise,
that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the
serpent. In reality, if we take the history of the fall in
any other sense than the obvious literal sense, we plunge
into greater perplexities than ever. Some well-meaning
all difficulties, by considering some parts of the Mosaic his-
pious commentators have, indeed, endeavoured to reconcile
tory in an allegorical, and other parts in a literal sense; but
this is to act in a manner utterly inconsistent with the tenor
the distinguishing characteristics of whose production are
and spirit of that history, and with the views of a writer,
simplicity, purity, and truth. There is no medium nor pal-
liation; the whole is allegorical, or the whole is literal."
In short, the book of Genesis, understood in its plain, ob-
vious, and literal sense, furnishes a key to many difficulties
in philosophy, which would otherwise be inexplicable. Thus
it has been reckoned a great difficulty to account for the in-
troduction of fossil shells into the bowels of the earth: but
the scriptural account of the deluge explains this fact better
than all the romantic theories of philosophers." It is impos-
sible to account for the origin of such a variety of languages
in a more satisfactory manner than is done in the narrative

Genesis, which we have necessarily given with brevity, are ably and fully
The arguments to prove the literal sense of the first three chapters of
stated in Mr. Holden's elaborate Dissertation on the Fall of Man, London,
1823, 8vo.
• Maurice's History of Hindostan, vol. i. p. 869.
1 See vol. i. pp. 71, 72.

V. TYPES OF THE MESSIAH are Aaron (Heb. iv. 14-16. v. 4, 5.);-the Paschal Lamb (Exod. xii. 46. with John xix. 36. and 1 Cor. v. 7, 8.);-the Manna (Exod. xvi. 15. with 1 Cor. x. 3.);-the Rock in Horeb (Exod. xvii. 6. with 1 Cor. x. 4.);-the Mercy Seat (Exod. xxxvii. 6. with Rom. iii. 25. Heb. iv. 16.)

of the confusion of tongues which took place at Babel. (Gen. xi. 1-9.) And although some futile objections have been made against the chronology of this book, because it makes the world less ancient than is necessary to support the theories of some modern self-styled philosophers; yet even here, as we have already shown by an induction of particulars, the more rigorously it is examined and compared with the extravagant and improbable accounts of the Chal-eleven paraschioth or chapters, and twenty-nine siderim or dæan, Egyptian, Chinese, and Hindoo chronology, the more firmly are its veracity and authenticity established. "In fine, without this history, the world would be in comparative darkness, not knowing whence it came, or whither it goeth. In the first page of this sacred book, a child may learn more in an hour, than all the philosophers in the world learned without it in a thousand years."2

SECTION III.

ON THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

I. Title.-II. Author and date.-III. Occasion and subjectmatter.-IV. Scope.-V. Types of the Messiah.-VI. Synopsis of its contents.-VII. Remarks on the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians.

I. THE title of this book is derived from the Septuagint Version, and is significant of the principal transaction which it records, namely, the EZOAOX, Exodus, or departure of the Israelites from Egypt. By the Jews, and in the Hebrew copies, it is termed as Ve-ALEH SHEMOTH, "these are the words," from the initial words of the book, or sometimes merely Shemoth. It comprises a history of the events that took place during the period of 145 years, from the year of the world 2369 to 2514 inclusive, from the death of Joseph to the erection of the tabernacle. Twenty-five passages, according to Rivet, are quoted from Exodus by our Saviour and his apostles, in express words; and nineteen allusions to the sense are made in the New Testament.

II. That Moses was the author of this book we have already shown, though the time when it was written cannot be precisely determined. As, however, it is a history of matters of fact, it was doubtless written after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai and the erecting of the tabernacle; for things cannot be historically related until they have actually taken place, and the author of this book was evidently an eye and ear-witness of the events he has narrated.

III. The book of Exodus records the cruel persecution of the Israelites in Egypt under Pharaoh-Rameses II.; the birth, exposure, and preservation of Moses; his subsequent flight into Midian, his call and mission to Pharaoh-Amenophis II.; the miracles performed by him and by his brother Aaron the ten plagues also miraculously inflicted on the Egyptians; the institution of the passover, and the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt; their passage across the Red Sea, and the destruction of the Egyptian army: the subsequent journeyings of the Israelites in the desert, their idolatry, and frequent murmurings against God; the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai, and the erection of the fabernacle.

VI. By the Jews the book of Exodus is divided into sections: in our Bibles it is divided into forty chapters, the contents of which are exhibited in the annexed SYNOPSIS :PART I. Account of the Transactions previously to the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt.

SECT. 1. The oppression of the children of Israel. (ch. i.)
SECT. 2. The youth and transactions of Moses. (ch. ii.-vi.)
SECT. 3. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, and the inflic-
tion of the ten plagues. (ch. vii.-xi.)

PART II. The Narrative of the Departure of the Israelites.
(ch. xii.-xiv.)

PART III. Transactions subsequent to their Exodus. (ch. xiv. -xviii.)

SECT. 1. The miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the thanksgiving of Moses and the people of Israel, on their deliverance from Pharaoh and his host. (ch. xiv. xv. 1-22.) SECT. 2. Relation of various miracles wrought in behalf of the Israelites. (ch. xv. 23-27. xvi. xvii.)

SECT. 3. The arrival of Moses's wife and children with Je-
thro. (ch. xviii.)

PART IV. The Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai.
SECT. 1. The preparation of the people of Israel by Moses, for
the renewing of the covenant with God. (ch. xix.)
SECT. 2. The promulgation of the moral law. (ch. xx.)
SECT. 3. The judicial law. (ch. xxi.-xxiii.)
SECT. 4. The ceremonial law, including the construction
and erection of the tabernacle. (ch. xxiv.-xxxi. xxxv.-
xl.) In ch. xxxii.-xxxiv. are related the idolatry of the
Israelites, the breaking of the two tables of the law, the
divine chastisement of the Hebrews, and the renewal of
the tables of the covenant.

VII. The circumstances attending the plagues inflicted upon the Egyptians are fully considered by Mr. Bryant in his learned treatise on this subject (8vo. London, 1810), from which the following particulars are abridged. As many of the Israelites were followers of the idolatry that surrounded them, these miracles were admirably adapted to display the vanity of the idols and false gods, adored by their oppressors, the proud and learned Egyptians.

1. By the first plague-Water turned into blood (Exod. vii. 14-25.)-was demonstrated the superiority of Jehovah over their imaginary river-gods, and the baseness of the elements which they reverenced. The Nile was religiously honoured by the Egyptians, who valued themselves much upon the excellency of its waters, and esteemed all the natives of the river as in some degree sacred. The Nile was turned into blood, which was an object of peculiar abhorrence to the Egyptians.

2. In the plague of frogs (Exod. viii. 1-15.) the object of their idolatrous worship, the Nile, was made an instruIV. The SCOPE of Exodus is to preserve the memorial of ment of their punishment. Frogs were deemed sacred by the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and to represent the Egyptians; but whether from reverence or abhorrence is the church of God, afflicted and preserved; together with the uncertain. By this plague, the waters of the Nile became providential care of God towards her, and the judgments a second time polluted, and the land was equally defiled. inflicted on her enemies. It plainly points out the accom3. The plague of lice (Exod. viii. 16-19.) reproved the plishment of the divine promises and prophecies delivered to absurd superstition of the Egpytians, who thought it would Abraham, that his posterity would be very numerous (com- be a great profanation of the temple into which they were pare Gen. xv. 5. xvii. 4-6. and xlvi. 27. with Num. i. 1-going, if they entered it with any animalcula of this sort 3. 46.); and that they would be afflicted in a land not their own, whence they should depart in the fourth generation with great substance. (Gen. xv. 13-16. with Exod. xii. 35. 40, 41.) Further," in Israel passing from Egypt, through the Red Sea, the Wilderness, and Jordan, to the promised land, this book adumbrates the state of the church in the wilderness of this world, until her arrival at the heavenly Canaan, an eternal rest."3 St. Paul, in 1 Cor. x. 1, &c. and in various parts of his Epistle to the Hebrews, has shown that these things prefigured, and were applicable to, the Christian church. A careful study of the mediation of Moses will greatly facilitate our understanding the mediation of Jesus Christ.

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upon them. The people, and particularly the priests, never wore woollen garments, but only linen, because linen is least apt to produce lice. The judgment, inflicted by Moses in this plague, was so proper, that the priests and magicians immediately perceived from what hand it came, and confessed that this was the finger of God.

4. The plague of flies (Exod. viii. 20-32.) which was inflicted in the midst of winter, and not in the midst of summer, when Egypt swarms with flies, would show the Egyptians the folly of the god, whom they worshipped, that he might drive away the gad-fly, whose sting is extremely painful.

5. The fifth plague the murrain among cattle (Exod. ix. 1-7.) destroyed the living objects of their stupid worship. The sacred bull, the cow, or heifer, the ram, and the he-goat, fell dead before their worshippers. When the distemper

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