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not only Babylon, but even Nineveh, the mother of Babylon, had no existence at that time) notwithstanding their immense armed force, their horfes and their chariots; and notwithstanding their devotedness to their gods, for which they were always celebrated, neither their policy, their arms, or their gods, could avail them against the power of Jehovah, who was their own God, when it was thus wonderfully and feasonably exerted. And we find, in the courfe of the hiftory, that the impreffion which these events made on all the neighbouring nations was very great, and that they ever after retained an idea of the fuperiority of the God of Ifrael to their own deities, though this did not induce them to relinquish their worship; it being the fixed perfuafion of all mankind in those early ages, that there were many gods, or invifible powers, on whom different nations or districts, and different provinces in nature, depended.

The effect which it was apprehended the report of these miracles would have on the neighbouring nations is thus ex• preffed

preffed in the fong of Moses, Exod. xv. 14. The people fhall hear and be afraid, forrow fhall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestine.. Then the dukes of Edom fhall be amazed, the mighty men of Moab, trembling fhall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan fhall melt away. Fear and dread fhall fall upon them. By the greatness of thine arm fhall they be as fill as a fone. The Lord fhall reign for ever and ever.

We fee the impreffion that these miracles made upon the Philiftines remained upon their minds in the time of Samuel. For on the news of the ark being brought into the camp of the Ifraelites, they exprefs the greatest apprehenfions. 1 Sam. iv. 7. And the Philifines were afraid; for they faid, God is come into the camp. And they faid, Wo unto us! who fhall deliver us out of the band of thefe mighty Gods? These are the Gods that fmote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. And in their confultations about fending back the ark, after they had fuffered by detaining it, they fay, 1 Sam. vi. 6, Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and

Pharaoh

Pharaoh hardened their hearts, when he had wrought wonderfully among them? Did they not let the people go, and they departed? We may judge from this how generally these extraordinary facts were at that time known, and what an idea they excited of the power of the God of Ifrael.

DISCOURSE

DISCOURSE IV.

Of the Delivery of the Law from Mount Sinai, and other Miracles in the Wildernefs.

And Ifrael Jaw the great works which the
Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the
people feared the Lord, and his fervant
Mofes.
EXOD. xiv. 31.

IN difcourfing from these words, I have begun to illuftrate the evidence of the divine miffion of Mofes, or the credibility of the miracles on which it is founded. I have already confidered thofe which were exhibited in Egypt, fhewing, from their magnitude, and other circumstances, especially the effects which they produced, that there could not have been any impofition in the cafe. I now proceed to direct your attention to thofe which are recorded as having been exhibited in the wildernefs, and they

are

are of ftill greater magnitude and import

ance.

From the red fea the Ifraelites proceeded, without intermiffion, a journey of three days, through the wilderness of Shur, till they came to a place which was afterwards called Mara, where the people murmured because the waters were bitter, fo that, though they were exhaufted with thirst, they could not drink them. In this dif treffing fituation, of which we, in this climate, can form but an imperfect idea, the people murmured against Mofes, faying, What shall we drink? Exod. xv. 24. They would naturally imagine, that the fame power which had brought them out of Egypt, in fo wonderful a manner, would eafily fupply all their wants, and they would be much chagrined when they found themselves difappointed. This murmuring, however, did not imply any difbelief in the power of their God, or in the divine miffion of Moses; and God was pleased to relieve their wants by directing Mofes to caft a branch of a certain tree into the wa

ter,

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